Dunekin

Vagabonds
The Dunekin is the youngest tribe of orcs and considered a minor tribe. Roughly a century ago human pressure from the West began taking its toll on the three tribes. The Bloodfist responded to this pressure by aggressively pushing back against the humans, leading to violent outbreaks between the two factions, primarily in Tardesche. After several decades of turmoil, a Talisman chief named Gurag'Nor managed to assembled the tribes into one massive army intent on pushing the humans out of Orcish lands once and for all. This decision was not multilaterally supported and a number of orcs from each tribe left, migrating north and forming the Dunekin tribe.

Physical Characteristics
The orcs making up the Dunekin have origins in every tribe, ergo their physical features are assorted. Nevertheless, those of the Dunekin live on the fringes of habitable environments, mostly within arid steppe regions, thus sun exposure and a lean diet contribute to an overall physique and skin tone for the tribe. Dunekin orcs are dark-skinned and quite lean and tend to brandish long, dark, unkempt beards.

Society
Dunekin society is simple and nomadic. The tribe follows the grazing patterns of wild game, specifically antelope, mule deer, sheep, and elk. The Dunekin orcs are not herders, so they do not keep livestock; however, on occasion they may keep some sheep handy when traveling long distances. Politically the Dunekin act as a collective, with every adult having a say in tribal decisions. Because they simply follow game, and because the tribal population is low, seldom are there conflicts among tribal members. In the event a conflict arises, the eldest members of the tribe act as arbiters.

Religion
More akin to lifestyle rather than faith-based worship, the tribe maintains a close connection with its roots in animism. Same as the other Orcish tribes (with the exception of the Bloodfist), the Dunekin believe the world and its inhabitants are spiritually connected—people, plants, animals, and even rocks, all have souls.

Native Tongue: Orcish

Origins: Central Danic Steppes

Usage: The Orcish tongue is divided into three dialects based on tribal use: Antler dialect, Bloodfist dialect, Talisman dialect. All three dialects only differ in lexicon, so mutual communication between the tribes is possible. Since the Bloodfist dialect appears to be the oldest and most prolific, it is the dialect taught to outsiders. It is believed that the orcs once had an ideographic system of writing, a system that predates anything made by either human or elf. Supporters of this theory assert the orcs once recorded their language on clay and sandstone tablets before a catastrophic event nearly caused their extinction. Tablet fragments have been found, yet the majority of scholars claim the ideographs are unrelated to Orcish. There is currently no written form of Orcish language.

Kinship: No known intelligence language from Doa'Dane exists similar to Orcish. Until such a discovery, the language is considered unique and only shared among the orc tribes.

Restrictions: The orc tribes reside in parts of Amenta and along the borders of Thyris Nod. For the most part they are isolated and do not welcome visitors. For that reason Orcish may only be learned as a Ranger or if one attends Her Holy University at Milorvagr, where extensive studies of the language have been conducted in partnership with deciphering the tablets.