Orcs

The Orcs of the Weald are the only race that could claim to be as diverse as humans. Each individual clan has its own unique culture and social mores, and two orc tribes are as likely to be different as they are similar. Orcs as a whole have little passion for permanent buildings, preferring a semi-nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering to the farms and mills of Humans and halflings.

Each orc tribe should be approached entirely differently, with some, like the Broken Bow Kin, being friendly forest wardens, while others, like the Darktooth children, are as likely to eat you as speak to you. Some, like the Scorchclaw Clan practice slash-and-burn farming, others, such as the Ear Takers subsist entirely on what they steal from other groups. To further confuse things a tribe's culture can shift substantially as it gains and loses members to the allmoot.

The Allmoot

Once per year, on the solstice, every orcish tribe in the Weald meets in a single spot for the Allmoot. Part feast, part festival, and part competition, the Allmoot provides orcs with an opportunity to assess other tribes strengths and weaknesses, as well as a chance to move tribes completely if they wish. There is no judgment assigned to the individual when changing tribes, but a clan losing a large number of members is seen as a source of shame for the group. Once a tribe starts losing a lot of its members the whole group will disband, joining other groups or coalescing into an entirely new clan.

The Allmoot is the one occasion when open violence is frowned upon by even the most dangerous of orc clans, though a challenge of any sort is seen as a test of honour. These challenges can be anything from duels, to hunting contests, to public debates, viewed by spectators as adverts for the participants' tribes.