Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi - Orcish Mercenaries

[HeySeuss]

"It ain't easy being green."

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.
- All characters must have orcish blood to get into the company; they don't trust others.

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 including 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 swindled, mistreated 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 wild warrior society of the tribal orcs. 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.

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
Warlord: Radush "Eye-Drinker" born an outcast
Drillmaster: Koloch "the Butcher", a ferocious human-trained half-orc that oversees the training and discipline of the Company.

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.)

Structure:

Companies:
Each company has a chief (equivalent of a captain), and and is composed of a number of smaller warbands.

- 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; commanded by Jagath Eye-Drinker, son of Radush.)
- Campers (~450 or so orcs - Camp, Supply Train and other logistic specialties, including families.)

Warbands:
- Within each company, there are a number of warbands of 15-30 tuskers per unit under the command of the fellow that calls the shots for that small unit, which is the company's equivalent of a sergeant.

The favored weapon of the orcs is a large, curved sword akin to a falcata or kilij with a forward curvature and a cleaver-like cutting surface, akin to a falcata. Large and heavy, the Company's swords are a little too much for a human to handle one-handed, but the orcs manage just fine. It can block a blow because it's built thick and it can cleave more than a typical human sword, but wasn't designed for deft parrying. Surprisingly, halberds are also favored weapons with the company, as they provide a degree of flexibility to orcish warriors in a fight for engaging a variety of targets. 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. No one bothers with engraving and enameling the armor, because the Orcish 'aesthetic' is to paint it red and stick a skull on a spike and fringe with fur. The company doesn't bother with much in the way of heraldry like a human army. Red, fur, skulls. Got it?

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. Orcish archery isn't typically 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 necessity -- 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 are 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.

As a result, the Tuskers of the Company tend to start embracing ranks and titles because they often are outcasts without any right to tribe; a typical name might go "Drillmaster Koloch the Butcher" which is a position of high regard within the company. Titles come with deeds, and are bestowed by comrades or, better, a Chief or a Warleader, if not the old Eyedrinker himself. Some recruits come with titles already, if they were (in)famous with even non-orc society for a deed before joining the company. Rank is often important as well, with Warleaders often squabbling over little things like whose band gets which piece of ground, something that a good chief has to contend with in leading headstrong and competitive orcs; the typical solution is decidedly novel for orcs and disputes between members of similar rank are decided by seniority unless there is a clear right and wrong involved.

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.

[RomanAria]

Hmm... I'll keep my eyes on this. With school starting up in force, I won't have time to participate, but it looks fascinating.

[Sparkwell]

First of all, I appreciate the "red goes faster" references - one of my favourite pieces of individual lore from any universe ever.

I would absolutely be interested in this - wasn't sure at first when I saw it, but having read through the entire post it speaks to me a lot more. I have a couple of questions though:

1. How does the company handle siege? In our own history pre-medieval and even medieval armies rarely travelled with explicit siege weaponry for the purposes of taking entrenched targets, and where it existed it was never really sophisticated tech until much later in history. But, seeing as this is fantasy, there's always some overlap, and Orcs to me seemed to be exactly the type of race that could utilize their brute strength to bring larger weaponry to bear - ala a portable ballista or two could be managed by a smaller team than humans would require. This isn't so much a character idea rather than a point of interest. =)

2. Is there magic? I find that the excessive presence of magic in large-scale fantasy mercenary stories (at least in the literature) tends to make those magic-users the most important component of the army, both in defense and offense. I love me some good magic, but was just interested to know how it's going to be handled.

Other than those points of interest, would love to be a part of your setting if you'll have me.

[Hank]

Hey, glad to see you're running this again. Damn shame it never got off the ground the first time. I'm interested (if you'll still have me).

[HeySeuss]

Sounds good. I want to work on the format somewhat, including the timeline. In a sense, I want to have a strong idea of who their opponent is. My thought is to start with the Orcs storming the fortress of a former employer that screwed them over and what follows will be at least a strong element of the plot.

As to the questions RE: Siege Engines - the logistics train exists to assist in the construction of siege weaponry, but yeah, orcs being orcs, they might be able to do something using their brute strength.

I have not decided on the extent of magic, but I don't want it to run the RP.

[Meth Quokka]

I think I might try and launch another one of your rps off the ground, we've had terrible luck last few times unfortunately.

[Hank]

I think I might try and launch another one of your rps off the ground, we've had terrible luck last few times unfortunately.

@Kangaroo

Yeah, no kidding. I think Guardians of Dara's start was a little too free-form. It's nice to let players decide what to do, but without a strong sense of direction, things ground to a halt.

As such, I like the idea of starting this RP with a siege and a clear-cut objective.

[MelonHead]

I'm a big fan of Orcs and I like the detail in terms of the units, I'm just wondering how our characters will fit in? You mentioned we'd all be together so I assume we're a warband by your definition, but are we going to be a warband from one company? I'm unsure how well a wide range of different soldiers would mesh is what I'm saying, which is a shame, because Warg Riders are awesome but they probably wouldn't fit into what's likely to be an infantry warband.

Anyway, still very interested.

[Meth Quokka]

<Snipped quote by Kangaroo>

Yeah, no kidding. I think Guardians of Dara's start was a little too free-form. It's nice to let players decide what to do, but without a strong sense of direction, things ground to a halt.

As such, I like the idea of starting this RP with a siege and a clear-cut objective.

@Hank

Yeah there was good writers, some good characters and a good lore but the start was perhaps a touch slow.

Ah the wonder of 20/20 hindsight.

[shaitarn]

My female half-orc would love this! Interested.

[Peik]

I remember being a part of this once and having to leave. If you'd have me, I'd like to say I'm interested.

[GreivousKhan]

Ohh, this is back, I'd like to join again if I can. Last time it kind of died with only me and another person posting..

[Flagg]

Sounds good. I want to work on the format somewhat, including the timeline. In a sense, I want to have a strong idea of who their opponent is. My thought is to start with the Orcs storming the fortress of a former employer that screwed them over and what follows will be at least a strong element of the plot.

@HeySeuss

Interested. I would be very interested in RPing as an antagonist and/or employer of some kind. If that doesn't work, still would love to play an Orc.

[HeySeuss]

@Flagg It might work out as a representative of the employer, like a half-orc.

Before starting the RP, I want to get a sense of factions, and that might be something where the lore-builders among you might want to pitch in. I think what we have here is a royal family that died out and a couple factions with claims by marriage as well as an unruly religious establishment and perhaps a confederacy of powerful nobles saying, "Fuck that."

And, for giggles, we'll throw in a manipulative mage somewhere, or maybe even a group of them conspiring to create a magocracy.

At least a couple of these factions would be pawns of the elves (because burning elf gladess is on the menu) and maybe even some dwarvish kingdom supporting the consortium of noble types in the interests of trade.

Thoughts?

I'm a big fan of Orcs and I like the detail in terms of the units, I'm just wondering how our characters will fit in? You mentioned we'd all be together so I assume we're a warband by your definition, but are we going to be a warband from one company? I'm unsure how well a wide range of different soldiers would mesh is what I'm saying, which is a shame, because Warg Riders are awesome but they probably wouldn't fit into what's likely to be an infantry warband.

Anyway, still very interested.

@MelonHead

They'll be members of the Chosen, so not a homogenous unit by any stretch.

[Sparkwell]

They'll be members of the Chosen, so not a homogenous unit by any stretch.

@HeySeuss

So, just to clarify, sort of like a special honour guard unit that gets deployed as need be on the battlefield in a mobile/responsive sense?

EDIT: in response to your lore ideas, I think succession crises allow all sorts of opportunities for chaos and back-handed deals, and would create plenty of hooks for the PCs to care more or less about the fate of some factions.

[Peik]

There's a huge battle and the King dies, away from the Throne. All the sons race to the capital. The party picks a side.

[HeySeuss]

There's a huge battle and the King dies, away from the Throne. All the sons race to the capital. The party picks a side.

@Peik

Or, in the process of being killed by rebels, the Company was sent to secure a stronghold and it was the only part of the King's plan that worked.

It will start with a successful siege, because then the Company has something the other factions want.

[GreivousKhan]

<Snipped quote by Peik>

Or, in the process of being killed by rebels, the Company was sent to secure a stronghold and it was the only part of the King's plan that worked.

It will start with a successful siege, because then the Company has something the other factions want.

@HeySeuss

Perhaps the siege is to rescue one of the few legitimate rulers to the throne?

This is in reference to our first battle. Thus will give it an interesting added story progression possibility as well. Might even turn into a Golden Company situation with the person we rescue using the company as the core of his force to take what is rightfully his? He'd be desperate enough that he'd (or she) have no choice, but to use orc's.

As for faction idea's I'd have to sleep on it.

[HeySeuss]

Ruler could be a female claimant, since traditionally feudal arostocracy lowball those. The company's job might well be to convince various factions to align with her while crushing others.

[Peik]

Why not just make the claimant unrelated blood-wise, like a vizier, or influential count? It's always nice to have grey and grey.