Skyrim - Why the Orcs Always Lose - Elder Scrolls Lore

In our latest Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim video we go deep into the lore to explain why the orcs always lose.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011.

The game's main story revolves around the player character and their quest to defeat Alduin the World-Eater, a dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world. The videogame is set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion, and takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim. Over the course of the game, the player completes quests and develops the character by improving skills. The game continues the open world tradition of its predecessors by allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time, and to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely.

If you enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe for more Elder Scrolls & Fallout content!

Twitter:

Snapchat:
Scott: newberrycrunch
Michael: oldberrychew

Instagram:

Facebook:

[adumlarp]

One of my favorite characters I made in Skyrim was an old orc named Mar-Dagg. My headcanon for him was he had come to Skyrim to die since he had heard it was a dangerous place. I fought everyone who started anything, and went into every cave looking for monsters to fight and kill me. Did rather well for a while, but eventually fell to a Master Vampire in some murky cave. I felt it was a good death for Mar-Dagg, and I never played him again, as he had earned his good death.

[bigblue]

"No one defeats an Orc", along with "You dare fight a Dunmer", are signs you are about to win the fight.

[sinaruden]

thanks, now i know more about tamriel history than my own country

[AryanWarriorBogpill]

Excuse me? I know an orc at the bards college and he isn’t raiding, killing, or engaging in tribal wars of succession. #notallorcs

[DeNorali]

They have a severe issue with their culture: it is self-limiting. In Strongholds, only the strongest male get to have wives and have children. But what about establishing new Strongholds, etc? Not exactly easy with the severely limited amount of orcish women outside strongholds. Compare that to a normal culture, where say the eldest son inherits the farm, gets a wife and children, while the other sons and daughters seek their fortune elsewhere through marriage and settling new lands, etc. Such a culture spreads. Orcish civilisation is stagnant.

[altus]

Orcs: *Builds a city*

Bretons and Redguards: Allow us to introduce ourselves

[josefmilly]

Everytime I watch Skyrim videos like these, I can't help but imagine what the NPCs see when the camera passes them by.
Like a T-pose Dragonborn just floating across the heavens looking down at them, passing through walls like a ghost, and slowly approaching them with a blank face, all in pure silence.

[DarthMatusHolocron]

The Orcs always lose for a couple of reasons.

The first are real, physical reasons. The Orcs have always been persecuted. Have you been to the Dragontails in ESO? Good luck farmer there. Or harvesting a lot of other resources. Mining sure, but that takes time to set up and Orsininium almost always immediately comes under attack or pressure from outside.

The second real reason: magic. The Orcs fear magic, kind of like the Nords but maybe not as much. They would almost surely have far less mages or sorcerers to send to battle, a decided disadvantage in the Elder Scrolls universe.

The other reason they always fail is metaphysical. The Orcs are tied to Trinimac, and thus Malacath. Malacath is a cursed god. The god of outcasts. The god of the broken. The Orcs are his people.

If Orsininium was successful, would the Orcs still be outcast, broken, children of Malacath?

Malacath is also a warrior god. And the attempt to FOUND Orsininium also fits his personality. So the cycle of rise and fall for Orsininium is a mirror of Malacath in the world. He is drawn to acts of valor and bravery; Malacath WANTS a challenge. But he is also cursed, broken, outcast. Cursed to forever strive to climb a mountain, and fail in the end.

Malacath and the Orcs are the Elder Scrolls version of Sisyphus.

[ravioli]

Orc: 'my people look like this because we were cursed by Boethiah'
Me, an intellectual: 'no, pretty sure its the years of incest that did it'

[jacobhewitt]

I always liked how they showed that organisation and discipline can be more important than strength

[bigboss]

I knew a Orc that was the greatest Chef to ever live.

[zack]

Another thing to remember -
The orcs were never a large race, just a cult of elves who worshipped trinimac - not even all of the elves who worshipped trinimac, but the sect mobilized against veloth.

So, that's sort of like asking why the Liechtenstein populace never conquered our europe - were talking about tribes from a single source in comparison to legit nation-states

[bangoskank]

"Because the chieftain ends up with all the wives, all of the challengers tend to be his sons. So the chieftain gets all the wives and all the children, and his sons will grow up to become-"

Motherfuckers

[funkygizmo]

“Anyways, back to Orsinium being sacked again...”

[lovablepsychopaths]

I think there's a pretty simple explanation: the Orcs' inability to form a nation permanently is a blessing/curse from Malacath to remind them of their connection to him. He's the prince of the rejected and spurned, so his children are rejected and spurned. If the Orcs permanently establish a nation they would earn respect and recognition over time, which Malacath's sphere doesn't represent. He probably thinks it benefits them (sort of how Sheogorath thinks of madness as merciful).

[Jace]

I think it's interesting to note that Malacath likely prefers his chosen people to have no respect or consistent province of their own. He values strength through adversity and hardship. If the orcs had their own consistent province, somewhere comfortable and safe, it probably wouldn't sit well with Malacath.

Look at the Cursed Tribe quest in Skyrim. Malacath harshly punished Yamarz because he had become soft and comfortable. It's highly possible that he'd do the same to any orcs who become too comfortable in the same kind of province the other races have. No, they're Malacath's children. They do not grow weak, trusting only in the strength of walls and borders over their own personal power. They are strong because they struggle, because they are outcast.

To me, it's possible Malacath has a hand in ensuring there is no stability or major victory for the orcs. Stability and victory, anything which leads to comfort or complacency... these things are not for the children of Malacath.

[MrTilbin]

Probably already said but; "It's not easy being green."

[YourFather]

Orcs: Building a city
Redguards and Bretons: *Its Free Real Estate*

[Survivor-cpgc]

Because they don't use the atronach stone

[perciejackson]

FudgeMuppet: Why the Orcs Always Lose?
Snow elves: Am I a Joke to You?