Half-Orcs

Core concept

You are who raised you, not who bore you.

The kept

Orc belief already holds that all Children are the responsibility of the Whole Community, whoever bore them, and that a lost child, once fed, is simply kept. Many Half-Orcs come up through exactly this: claimed without a second thought by an Orc community, or else raised in Core society bearing marks that set them apart.

Either way, a Half-Orc learns early that family is made, not inherited, and tends to take the lesson harder than almost anyone.

Between two creeds

Raised among Orcs, a Half-Orc carries the belief that the Soul grows through unasked Challenge into Core towns that would rather just help them, and often goes looking for hardship anyway, to Grow. Raised among the Core Races, they bring a blunt, communal warmth into places that find it strange.

Friction

Claimed by both worlds and fully at home in neither, Half-Orcs are forever being told they’re “really” one thing or the other. Most have decided the question is nonsense: they are who fed them.