Talisman

Sha-men
The Talisman are the remnants of an old shamanistic class of orcs dating back long before the rise of humanity. Once the orcs split into several tribes, the shamans chose to remain together, thus forming the Talisman tribe. The most conservative of all the orcs, the Talisman devote their lives to pleasing The Slaughter through sacrificial offerings and ritualistic worship.

Physical Characteristics
Of the three major tribes, Talisman orcs are tall and strong, short and weak, fragile and contorted. Unlike their cousins, the Talisman are made up of both perfect specimens and the disfigured. The strongest of the Talisman are typically converts from the Bloodfist, thus they are tall and strong, carrying heavy muscle mass in the upper body. The weakest are physiologically deformed, with useless appendages (arms or legs or both) and in a number of cases facial deformities. More than 60% of the Talisman tribe consists of disfigured or anatomically deformed orcs, and this is primarily a result of inbreeding within the tribe (see below). For the most part their skin color is muddy gray or brown, but a dull green hue is seen more often, perhaps as a result of inbreeding.

Society
Since its conception and up to recently, the Talisman have maintained tribal purity in so much that a significant amount of inbreeding has occurred throughout the millennia. Conservative Talisman orcs believe shamanistic power flows through the blood, therefore they believe breeding with close relatives prevents the power from being deluded. In some cases, the orcs believe breeding with close relatives amplifies the shamanistic power in an offspring. This practice of inbreeding has resulted in a number of physical deformities in children. Faced with extinction due to high infant mortality, over the last few centuries the Talisman have begun converting orcs from other tribes, bringing fresh blood into their flock.

Even though orcs from other tribes are frequently converted (mostly from the Bloodfist), only pure-blood Talisman orcs may hold leadership positions regardless of their deformities. Still practicing shamanistic magic, the Talisman social hierarchy is contingent on magical strength and divination capabilities. They do not employ a chief per se but a Great Seer, a shaman capable of communicating with The Slaughter, and most of the time strong Bloodfist orcs act as guardians of the Great Seer (see below).

Religion
The Talisman are the most conservative of the Orcish tribes—they still maintain the oldest form of animism practiced by orcs. As opposed to the new practices of animism by other tribes, wherein a certain appreciation and mutual respect for nature exists, the Talisman believe the World is a slaughter and only the finest of peoples survive. Appropriately, they maintain a respect and fear of the World and name it The Slaughter. The Slaughter is the all-encompassing world, including plants, animals, weather, climate, etc. As far as they are concerned, The Slaughter is bent on destroying all life all the time. Only those with the means to communicate with and feed The Slaughter are permitted to survive.

The Bloodfist believe Vera'Tyr overcame The Slaughter and ascended to divinity, whereas the Talisman believe Vera'Tyr was a prophet and martyr. (See the entry on Vera'Tyr for more information.)

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.