Demonic Hindu Orcs
Welcome to the first monster deep dive! Today we're going to talk about asuras (Hindu demons), orcs, and how I'm choosing to represent typical fantasy monsters in my mythic Indian setting.
Part 1 - Hiravadesh
To start, a brief setting primer.
Shivanasamudra Falls, Karnataka, India/Bharat
Hiravadesh is a verdant and hilly region of a larger subcontinent, bordered on the west by the ocean, to the north by a great arid desert, and to the east and south by thick, jungle-filled lowlands. Over the centuries petty dynasties rose and fell, marking the land with temples, forts, and ruins. Small farming and fishing villages dot the countryside, living off the land and the mercy of the gods. Despite Hiravadesh's long history of inhabitance, the land is older still, and remains wild and chaotic, ever-working to break the villages and kingdoms down into the jungles from whence they came.
Hiravadesh is pretty directly inspired by the Deccan region of India, specifically Western Maharashtra with the Sahyadri (Western Ghats), Konkan strip, and hilly canyons of the Deccan Plateau. Similarly, the cosmology of the setting is strongly influenced by Hinduism, specifically Shaiva and Shakta traditions.
Part 2 - Monsters and Evil
In a previous post I've talked about how I want to run a combat-heavy OSR game, and as I imagine it, that would require a lot of monsters and a lot of monster killing. However, I don't want the monster killing to be a moral stain on the characters. They aren't killing innocent goblins who have children back home, no, they're killing machines built for war.
Essentially, I want remorseless violence. The monsters must be irredeemably and ultimately evil to the core. There is no saving the little orc baby (possibly because there are no orc babies). It's ok to have fun killing orcs en masse because they're entirely evil creatures. They're not even creatures, they're monsters.
There's another distinction to make with monsters too. Monsters are not just inherently evil, they're also very visibly so. No one feels remorse killing a skeleton (did you even kill it, or was it already dead?) or a demon. But killing a goblin? That's grey territory now. That goblin could've had a family, a dream, an artistic ambition cut short by the demands of capitalism. And you, brave adventurer, just ended it all.
So, taking that into consideration, we have the following:
- Monsters are inherently and irrevocably evil
- Monsters are not human-like
Now not every battle is going to be up against monsters. There are other types of morally valid creatures to fight too, they're just less relevant for this post. Either way, I'll list the ones I can think of here, in decreasing orders of moral validity to kill:
- Evil by inherent quality (monsters, as we discussed above)
- Evil by willful choice (necromancers and greedy imperialists)
- Evil by unfortunate circumstance (hungry wild animals, bandits and ruffians, and enemy soldiers)
Part 3 - Cosmological Backing
As you could probably guess by the title, I've made the executive decision that orcs are monsters. This isn't something I'm deciding about every monster. Goblins for instance, I want to be more personable, with hopes and dreams and cultures, and who talk to the heroes, though often in antagonistic terms by circumstance. Orcs however, are truly evil.
For this reason, I chose to make orcs a creation of the evil asuras, of which there are two (canonical) types:
- Danavas - the children of Danu, almost entirely evil and filled with greed, lust, and malice
- Daityas - the children of Diti, not as entirely evil, but generally assumed to be evil
There are also rakshasas, which aren't asuras (they were created by the breath of Lord Brahma, rather than being born of Sri Kashyap and the daughters of Daksh, and are sort of inherently evil? It's a complicated topic).
That was a bit of a side tangent, but the point is that in my game, orcs are created by the Danavas, whose powers of Maya allow them to create fake life. Similar to how the goddess Parvati created Lord Ganapati, but this time, without the whole breathing life and soul into the sculpture part.
Note that the line between canonical Hinduism (if such a thing really exists, moreso I mean the general understanding of Hindus and Hindu scriptures on what is and isn't part of the mythology and theology) and fantasy-land cosmology are gonna get blurred. No specific deities will be carried over (so no Indra, Daksh, etc.) but general groups may be.
So there will still be danavas, daityas, rakshasas, marutas, yakshas, etc. but no Danu, Diti, Brahma, and Rudra. That might not make sense to anyone but me, but ah well, the line has been drawn for myself at the least.
Part 4 - What are Orcs?
Now for the fun part! What are orcs?
Orcs are what happened when a danav* with incredible wizardly power decided to make an army. Rather than building her army from alliances with other asur clans, she built them from clay, sculpting arms and legs and baking them with magical fires.
Through her first orc kiln came plain ceramic soldiers, who, through her magic, were transformed into the orcs we know now. The first few were strange and weak in battle, but after many rounds of testing, a new version was invented, a set of orcs who were strong, quick, and dutiful. Commanded by lesser members of her clan, orcs became a primary instrument of battle in the wars between the asuras and the devas.
Although the original creator of the orcs has long since been defeated by the devas, her orc armies continued to operate both in the overworld (Bhu Lok) and underworld (Patal Lok). They continuously operated the kilns, baking new orcs into existence, and trampled over the hills of Hiravadesh, conquering and burning along the way. At times, an rakshas wizard will find a kiln and impose their magic on it, subjugating the orcs of that kiln to follow their commands. Thusly, rakshasas and orcs are often working in tandem.
* someone remind me to talk about transliterating Devanagari monster names into English because this is something I want to talk about
Part 5 - Four Arms of the Orc Armies
The four arms, or sections, of any organized army in ancient Hiravadesh are the infantry, cavalry, chariots, and elephants. The orcish armies make no exception.
Orcish infantry is made up of a legion of rank and file, identical foot-soldiers. Most wield slashing and chopping weapons like axes, swords, and dandapattas (gauntlet swords) which they use to chop through the jungle and slay their foes. Orcish ranged units utilize the bow and arrow, though many now are taking to matchlock muskets, so long as they can be bought off pirates and merchants off the western shores (or for much cheaper, traders of the Valukhand Empire of the north, though they tend not to sell to orcs). For the purposes of affording gunpowder for muskets and cannons, the orcs take any gold, silver, or gems they can find, though they will not see the value in magic scrolls or beautiful paintings, and burn them if they're noticed at all.
Orcish leaders are like other orcs, but larger and with four or six arms (and therefore two or three attacks per turn). They are not particularly more intelligent, and will stick to the formation based military tactics they know rather than make night raids or ambushes. Remember, the orcs were created in an ancient time. Comparatively, the modern (relatively so, this is more similar to late medieval in time period) armies of Tekdirajya and similar small kingdoms are more segmented, and guerilla tactics are the norm.
Orcish cavalry and chariotry is a strange thing. Horses and elephants fear orcs (rightfully so) and are difficult to train. Thusly, orcs have taken to riding rhinoceros as cavalry mounts instead. Orcs mounted on such creatures typically wield lances, spears, bows, and muskets.
Orcs substitute their elephants with ogres (there's going to be a whole separate post about ogres and trolls). From the backs of ogres they shoot bows and muskets, and herald commands to the larger hordes of orc infantry. Orc commanders almost always ride ogres or on rhino-driven chariots.
Part 6 - Build A Bear Orc
Now let's take to our orc kilns and make some orcs!
I want to make some orcs for a wilderness encounter in the hills, a sort of sample orc encounter. When I want to plop orcs into my game, I can just introduce one of these sample encounters, and if the players start pulling threads, then I'll work on building an orc kiln (more details on that in part 7).
For my orc encounter, I want to really give the vibe that the players have stumbled into an army marching off into war. So they might initially encounter some orc scouts, or some other creatures aligned with the orcs being used as scouts, and then later encounter the marching orc armies trampling through the region.
In terms of combat strategy, I want the orcs to mimic the Mughals in the Deccan pretty closely. They'll make use of heavy artillary and elephants unsuited for the hilly terrain, while the local kingdoms use guerilla warfare, light cavalry, and night raids to gain the upper hand. Like the Mughal armies, the orcs should be overwhelming in number and raw firepower. But like the Marathas, the players and the "good guys" should have plenty of opportunities to use tactics and quick maneuvers to defeat them.
So, now that we've got some more tactics out of the way, let's get to encounter building.
The first encounter should be suited to some low level adventuerers, and it'll just be a couple of orc scouts. The players might think this is all it is, but 1d4 days later, they'll encounter the orc armies marching in a perfectly straight line and slashing through the jungle.
Note that all stats are written out for my work-in-progress RPG Jangli. Stats should convert easily to Cairn, Maze Rats, and Into the Odd with ease, since my game is 90% an Into the Odd hack. Grit is fairly equivalent to Hit Protection, just boosted a little.
[Encounter] Orc Scouts - 1d4 orc scouts roving the area and searching for complications. They travel with 1d4 shadow dogs. They attack on sight if they judge themselves stronger and in a more advantageous position than the party. If not, they relay a message back to the main force with a dog.
Part 7 - The Forts and Their Kilns
Don't worry! We're nearing the end. This isn't going to be a major section, just a brief description of orc forts.
Orc forts are their bases of operations, and where orc factions operate out of. Each fort contains:
- A kiln, which is often in use, creating more and more orcs
- A rakshas, asur, or evil mage, who has taken control of the kiln and commands the orcs that pore out of it
- Orc commanders, with four or six arms and half as many attacks per turn
- Guard turrets, upon which are mounted catapults, or, if the fort has been renovated by its new leader, bombards
- Thick stone walls, with orc archers mounted on top
- Shadow dogs and similar creatures of shadow
- An entryway into the underworld realms of Patal Lok, deep into the earth
When under attack, orc forts halt production of new orcs and send all forces to the walls and turrets. If the fort had been renovated by its new patron, it may boast bombards and muskets, but if not, the countless orc archers make light work of the invaders regardless.
If the situation goes sour, the rakshas, asur, or other evil patron may either come out and fight on the front lines, or scurry back into Patal Lok using (sometimes secret) exits. This depends on that orc master's particular disposition.
Part 8 - Conclusion and Further Thoughts
That's about it for the orcs post! Feel free to take whatever lore or stat blocks you want, it's all fair game. If I ever expand on orcs again I'll probably make a dungeon map or short adventure around a fort/kiln, which would be cool in my opinion.
If you are a long-time reader of the blog, you should know that nothing I say I'm going to write ever gets written (and instead I just write about other random things). However, I would like to keep writing these for other monsters, and probably will sometime!
Mostly I want to do the humanoids and low-level creatures like goblins, kobolds, lizardfolk, trolls, etc. before moving onto things like dragons, giants, or rakshasas.
Anyways, those are all the thoughts!
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