electronicalifornia

I was browsing a video game site for an upcoming Lord of the Rings video game and came across this post on the forums:

They need to be organised in some way for their raids and wars. In the battle of the five armies, the Orcs were quite organised. Therefore must have some kind of command structure.They also need places where they can sleep, raise their offspring, and forge their weapons and equipment. I guess they live in hidden mountain fortresses or big cave systems, with residential ares, storage rooms, warg pens, forging and mining halls, and prisoner cells. Everything very crude, and not comparable with the subterranian halls of the Elves or Dwarves, but quite practical.

Their society is most likely organised into tribes. Each tribe is a patriachalic society, with some kind of “great Orc” as the chieftain. Below him a severals lesser war chiefs and captains. The leaders are probably choosen by charisma, cunning, and fighting skills, I doubt that the position of chieftain is inherited by the numberous offspring (the chieftain might have some kind of harem).

The women are below the male orcs in the social system, nut still should be an important part of society. They are most likely responsible for collectiong food in the area, raising the younger children (I doubt the Orcs simply let the newborn fend for themselves), and being responsible for the storages. In case of an attack from the outside, I think Orc females would be called to arms as well.

There might also be some class of specialists, miners, metal workers, and such. They have a special position in society, due to their important skills, but are not really as accepted as the warriors are.

Live in an Orc society is hard. While there are probably some basic rules, a wrong step or a loud noise could result in a quick slash with a scimitar. Many Orcs probably die young, due to accidents and Arbitrariness in the Orcish society. A life there is not worth much.*

Now before I give my whitty and near genius commentary, here is some follow up comments:

Its probably a decent guess at orc society. They would be highly militarized and only organized to the extent that one leader could intimidate everyone else enough to act together.

While there is little doubt that female Orcs were around, I doubt their social status was very high. At all.

and another:

And if the female orcs raise the baby orcs they would have to be able to fight. Combat training probably starts with a young orc battling parents.

Now I have to admit that I myself get into fantastical stories. The term used for this would be “letting your imagination run wild”. These guys need to slow it down to swift walk.

*Emphasis added for effect.**
**Effect added to show the most laughable thing I’ve read in quite a while.