[OOC] Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi - Orcish Mercenary Company RP [Fantasy]

[HeySeuss]

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TL;DR Summary:

- Fantasy/Medieval
- Characters are members of an Orcish mercenary company called "Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi" (Orcish - "Do Not Die In Bed") formed by a variety of orcish outcasts that served as the dregs of the mercenary community and decided that enough was enough.
- Company has a nefarious and unique reputation -- it's the only Orcish free company out there, and will fight for whomever hires them, except that until just now, they've been hired for campaigns that amounted to nothing -- sent to forage, but never depended on to fight a battle. The company is eager to prove themselves as reliable, if brutal, mercenaries that can hold their own in a real battle.
- The RP is about an outsider's point of view of humanity and dealing with the way their employers constantly try to get them killed, assuming them stupid or totally brutish or otherwise regarding them as total louts.
- How much of that reputation the characters live up to is the decision of the players.
- The idea is to have some fun with this RP and be creative with the tactics; inevitably, the company is expected to fail and is often working for real scumbags. The fun is proving them wrong and chasing them down for payment.
- Players will have a hand in developing and creating the culture of the company.
- Company colors are blood red -- because Red Goes Faster.
- Sheets are to be posted in the Sheets thread. No other posts get put in there, however.

In Character Info:

The lot of an orcish outcast in the human world is often rough -- orcish life in general, even as an accepted member of a tribe is nasty, brutish and short. The politics are cutthroat -- literally. It happens that intra-tribal politics have their winners and losers, and the change of a regime often means an outcasting for family and supporters of the deposed (inevitably killed) warlords. These orcs have a stark choice -- make it on their own somehow, isolated from everything or find their way in the outside world filled with enemies -- humans, elves, dwarves, and just about every other race there is.

Regarded as brutes and scum, often with some reason, the orcs find that their employment options are highly limited. The trade most find, and welcome, is that of violence -- tavern bouncers, criminal muscle, pirate crewmen, and, of course, sellswords. But even in these jobs, orckind are not appreciated for anything more than their violent tendencies and brute strength. They are often abused, maltreated and used for fodder by other races that deride them.

About six years ago, a group of orcish veterans decided to change that -- they decided to put aside the eminimities of tribes that exiled them and started to recruit other outcasts into a frighteningly organized mercenary company patterned along human lines -- a blend of their brute strength and high endurance for hardship with military discipline that was unknown in the tribal warrior structure of tribal orc life. They figured that if they were going to make it in this world where all hands were turned against them, they might as well at least watch each other's backs.

Of course, displaying a degree of gallows humor and self awareness that other races would be shocked to find among orcs, they named the company "Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi" -- Do not die in bed.

They're a small army. Now they need a battle.

Out of Character Info:

As above, the RP is about orcs operating in the human world -- the founders of the company, having learned their trade in human mercenary companies (to the shocked surprise of their 'teachers') decided to form an orcish company of mercenaries, but taking the elements of human warfare that they deem effective. They know, for example, that orcish tribal warfare is ferocious, but not particularly well suited to fighting an organized force in the field. As veterans of warfare against humans, the high officers and veterans of the Company know that discipline counts, and bank on the idea of harnessing orcish ferocity and love of warfare while teaching their recruits the lessons of discipline that seemingly come easier to Humans and other races.

The employers, however, think they're hiring a violent rabble, and the other human mercenaries do not like the Company. Hell, even orcish warlords, if they were to hear of the Company, would consider it heretical and set their hands against it. Alone in this world, all this fraternity of outcasts has is each other. Everyone else is against them and it's their lot to survive. On the other hand, it's a virtual certainty that they won't die in bed.

I'd prefer to cap non-orcish (not counting half-orcs; those are totally allowed) members of the company to a handful - two characters at best, and they should be individuals and specialists. There will be Warg (wolf-ish beasts that the orcs ride) cavalry and that all recruits of the company will start out in the pike formations of the company, learning the hard lesson of discipline under stern drillmasters that exhort them to all work together.

Characters will be part of an elite group of orcish soldiers chosen for prowess (over rank) that are deployed into the most desperate situations. Specialists, skilled warriors and so forth. Of course, these characters are chosen for their skill as well as their ability to follow orders (they all served in the pikes) but they are an elite within the Company. That way, we have the characters all together.

Unit Organization

Unit Organization

Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi
CO: Radush "Eye-Drinker" born an outcast
Favorite Color: Red, it goes faster. (Everyone has at least a sleeve of their armor painted red. You can tell who is higher up in the organization by how much red they've got.)
- The Chosen (First Company - Elite warriors, scouts and specialist fighters as well as a reserve for when things get rough in a fight)
- Pikes (~200-300 orcs broken down into smaller units as necessary for manuever)
- Spikes (~160 orcs - Longbows)
- Wargs (~100 orcs and their warg mounts, cavalry)
- Blades (~100-200 orcs wielding bladed weaponry for close-combat and assaults)
- Campers (~450 or so orcs - Camp, Supply Train and other logistic specialties, including families.)

The favored weapon of the orcs is a falchion, a curved sword, though in the case of the orcs, it's larger than most humans would like, wickedly barbed and often two-handed. Axes are also favored, as are, surprisingly, halberds, which give a certain degree of flexibility to orcish warriors in a fight. Veterans brought this weapon into the ranks of the company -- tribal orcs would sneer at something more complicated than an axe, but smart warriors understand the versatility of the weapon, and the importance of mastering it.

The armor is generally so thick that they don't worry about shields so much -- it isn't pretty stuff like elven and human armor, and it isn't expertly forged like the dwarven stuff, but orcs are big, and they can carry more weight. It means their armor is more dense, and the Company's smiths use that extra weight tolerance to slope and angle the plates to deflect arrows and bolts, where a human or elf would crumple under the sheer weight. Anyway, even disciplined orcs aren't big on hiding behind shields. The typical suit of 'company steel' tends to be a suit of chain and plate, though the legs are chainmail alone and the forearms are often exposed, at least in the Pikes n' Spikes. The Blades tend to wear full suits, because they've scrounged or purchased the additional armoring on forearms and legs and because their fighting is closer in and less maneuverability based.

The pikes are counterbalanced with a weight on the end to make them more easily handled, barbed with a crosspiece behind the head and long-bladed. Orcs aren't naturally inclined to form pike squares, but Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi's drillmasters use methods designed to appeal to the Orcish mentality -- it's beaten into headstrong (all of them) recruits. The Pikes are the training ground of the Company, it's where recruits learn the fundamental lessons of fighting in the world outside the tribes of the orcs. It doesn't matter how high one was in a tribe, how experienced a warrior outside the Company, all recruits go through the Pikes as a rite of passage.

Longbows in the company are much larger than a human or Elven equivalent. What the orcs lack in the subtle sophistication of the elves, they make up for in being able to draw far more weight. Their arrows are almost javelin-like, well heavier than human cloth-yard arrows, and carry a variety of points. Orcish archery isn't pinpoint, but some tribes have a long history of hunting with bows for survival, which makes them surprisingly good in addition to these other advantages. Bow companies tend to wear heavy enough armor that makes them pretty decent in a close in fight, and they carry blade weapons...and heavy hammers used to pound spikes into the ground, which gives them a defense against cavalry that comes too close or infantry that tries to charge them. They're also good for pounding a head in.

Warg riders are the only Company forces that really use the shield much, but they avoid lances -- warg cavalry work differently than horse-based cavalry -- because they do not frontally charge, but turn faster, and fight on the flanks and the rear, as a wolf pack might. The Company's warg cavalry are designed to kill other cavalry, as a wolf might take a horse, by nipping at the flanks, hamstringing and otherwise crippling the enemy's maneuverability in order to finish it at leisure. They go in for slashing attacks, nets, bolos and javelins as a typical tactic. Warg cavalry sits lower than horse cavalry, because wargs are lower-slung to the ground, and a favorite tactic of the wargs is to get in close and strike at the underbellies. It is a surprisingly close-combat oriented group. The wargs themselves are armored to protect from strikes hitting from above while engaged in this sort of fierce combat of gutting and crippling.

The Camp, Supply Train and Specialists is a concept unknown to orcish tribal warfare, but a neccessity -- Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi is often on its own to feed itself, and humans and others won't always do business with them. It is a collection of orcish and half-orcish (a chunk of the company are halfies) ex-merchants, cart drivers, blacksmiths, fletchers, herbalists and other sorts, skilled but exiled from orckind and humanity alike, that help build the camps, raise the siege engines and keep the company in food and equipment. A lot of them are orcish women. Tribal orcs often have a disdain for those that do not fight, particularly women, but Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi has strong orders and punishments to prevent this -- the Campers is protected from hazing out of recognition that these people are vital to the functioning of the Company. A new recruit disdains them, but the veterans of the company recognize that some campaigns, they survive only because the Campers found food and keep the recruits well in line. It is also a place where maimed veterans go when they can no longer serve, and serves to tell recruits that they will always have a place in the company, rather than being discarded to die when too old to fight.

Company discipline is harsh; the new recruits are sent to the pikes because the typical orc is a headstrong know-it-all and the only real way to teach them is to establish dominance first -- inevitably, a Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi drillmaster is a tough son of a warg that spends a lot of time punching down recruits that act up and talk back, not out of mindless brutality, but because the warrior spirit needs to be harnessed. Orcs are fierce, and establishing the disciplines of the ranks can be hard to do with such headstrong specimens. It may seem unbelievably brutal to humans and particularly to elves, but it's an approach tailored to how an orc thinks -- occasionally a leader has to smack his subordinates into line. The natural orcish instinct is not to stand in a line of pikes, shoulder to shoulder, and work together to defeat a charging foe through superior defense, and that's precisely why every tusker in the company has to serve there to learn that peculiar form of discipline. Even after the pikes, the discipline continues, if it is necessary, but it's not as brutal or arbitrary as tribal orc society, and the warriors of Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi are compensated -- the rest of the world, as they know, is much worse for a tusker on their own.

Glossary and Sayings

Glossary/Sayings

- Everyone Starts in the Pikes -- anyone joining the company does time in the pike line, learning discipline, and likely having some bad attitude and stubbornness beaten out of them by the orcish drillmasters. The company believes that all the advantages an orc has are for naught without actual discipline. It's also one of the Company's biggest surprises for their enemies. Also, it imparts a new sense of rank structure to the orcs in the Company -- they learn the new hierarchy and to put aside old tribal rivalries, because the Company is their new tribe.
- Red Unz Go Faster - It's a classic orc rule, the Company likes the color red. Those serving in the Pikes get their arm painted red...but veterans paint more to symbolize the blood they've seen.
- Fresh off the Warg - An orc that just left the tribes and isn't very aware of the outside world.
- Smack the green off you - Common threat employed by drillmasters dealing with recruits fresh off the warg.
- Tusker - Slang for Orc. Used ironically by the Company among themselves and as self-reference, ie 'The Tuskers" because some people can't even pronounce the Company's orcish name.
- Halfie - Like their half-elven counterparts, half-orcs tend to take a lot of social abuse and have a chip on their shoulder from it. The difference is that knife-ears do a lot of passive aggressive little word games and giggling behind their hands, the orcish version tends to be more direct. Because there are so many halfies in the Company, this sort of thing just doesn't last long.
- Knife-ear - Elf
- Stumpy - Dwarf
- Bunny - Human
- Ugly - Approving "Ugly work, Tusker," is the equivalent of 'good job, buddy." Also means, 'fun.' So when a Section Leader says, "Looks like we got some ugly work ahead" and sounds gleeful, it means something enjoyable, like torching a glade of thousand year-old trees that a bunch of knife-ears sculpted as art.

[GreivousKhan]

Awesome, I think I caught this just in time. Maybe I can do that half-breed I thought up the first time this came around before school got in the way. :K

Which do you prefer, Master-at-arms. (the equivalent of a Doctore like those seen in sparctucs)

Or a black smith?

[HeySeuss]

Well, nothing's been submitted, so I would say 'go for broke.'

[Lotrix Molick]

I'm gonna get something up for you. I want to see this play

[GreivousKhan]

Quick question, what's the average size of your orcs?

[HeySeuss]

Six feet in height at least, 220lbs on average. Big 'uns.

[TTwoThumbsUp]

Hope that'll do for a CS.

[Lotrix Molick]

Gaelel might pair well with Armauk as a friend.

[HeySeuss]

Thank you, the sheets look good, accepted.

[Frankieba]

I would be very interested in having a Orc- I have RPed Orcs at least a dozen times before.

[knighthawk]

Hoping to not be too far off but half ogres and half dryads makes me feel fairly safe. He's based off one of my fave character concepts from a thought exercise on making a character based off of one skill from 3.5. In this case, jump. He's based off a 3rd level paladin/ 4th level character. The niche of the character was casting levitate on himself for something like a zero-gravity effect then taking 10 on his jump check to launch himself at full force into the sky or else use levitate to enhance his jump check and come crashing down from anywhere of 20-120 feet up to deal extra falling damage to the opponent.

[Diabolicalrhapsody]

Is this still open for more submissions?

If yes, then do we post the sheet here and then you move it to the other section after acceptance or we do so directly and you decide whether it fits your setting or not?

[knighthawk]

Directly and decide.

[TTwoThumbsUp]

I like to imagine, what with all these giant people around, someone has to have thrown Galeal into battle at least once

If not then I know what I'm doing at the first sign of conflict

[Diabolicalrhapsody]

TTwoThumbsUp said
I like to imagine, what with all these giant people around, someone has to have thrown Galeal into battle at least onceIf not then I know what I'm doing at the first sign of conflict

On the topic of giant people, i was hoping to sketch up a relation with your character once I get the thumbs up from the GM. Will you be game for it.

[TTwoThumbsUp]

I'm down :

[HeySeuss]

Alright, I'm capping off the halfies at this point, except for half-human -- one more of those.

From here on out, they gotta be full-blooded.

[GreivousKhan]

Had I known there was going to be so many damn Half ogres I might have done something else. >.>

Still, I had this idea from the last Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi and this trend was not around then. :K

[HeySeuss]

No problem. Like I said; from here on out.

[TTwoThumbsUp]

Calling it now, all the half ogres have the same dad