What Kind of Environment Would Give Rise to Orcs?

When you imagine orcs, you no doubt picture the ferocious hordes emerging from Mordor in Lord of the Rings, or their variants from any other blasted location which would not appear to be able to support life of any kind. Is there a connection between these environments and orcish nature? Could we begin to understand orc nature as dictated by these circumstances, could we stop thinking of them as inherently evil by nature, and instead simply martial due to their homelands?

If we look to other martial societies that have occurred in our own worlds, we can turn to the Mongolians and the Apache for similar outlooks. These were tribes or bands of people who were forced to subsist on lands that made living hard. These environments were such that they were not able to settle down in great numbers and form large cities, but rather were forced to move constantly in order to keep up with the herds from which they derived their nutrition and wealth. Forced to always move, living precariously between starvation and war, they became warlike so as to be able to raid each other for wealth, to be able to protect themselves from the raiding of others.

If you think about it, there are few warlike societies that come from verdant, rich lands, where the food is easily collected and wealth is abundant. People who grow in these lands turn their minds instead to culture and family, to amassing wealth through work and industry, to trade and civilization. They don't need to risk their lives at war if they can simply work hard and live a good life. It is these societies that the other more warlike ones target.

Thus, when looking at orcs, it makes complete sense to stipulate that their traditional homeland would be mountains or steppes, places where they could not amass great numbers, could not easily acquire wealth, where they would have to be fractious and violent, until, finally united by a leader, they would be able to turn all their violence and energy outward, and destroy the civilized world before them in one great battle.

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What Would Mountain Orcs Ride?

All great savage and martial tribes from our past have ridden horses to war. Whether we are considering the Mongols or the Apache, they have attained speed and lethality through the concerted use of horses, such that they are able to hit and then disappear before their enemies have a chance to react. However, horses seem to prosaic for orcs to ride into battle, so what other kind of mount could we give them?

The Lord of the Rings exemplified the great creation of Tolkien when it came to goblin mounts: wargs. These giant wolves were intelligent, powerful, lethal and strong enough to carry a fully armed goblin on its back, but any new attempt to create a mount would be better off with a novel creation. What kind of mount then would suit the temperament of a mountain orc?

One immediate possibility culled from the real world would be mountain goats, which can reach truly impressive sizes and are nimble enough to navigate the crags. However, there are a couple of limitations there. They lack the fearsome reputation of wargs or the nobility of horses, being, come on, goats, and they don't seem suited for long range combat. Clearly we have to look further afield.

What about giant scorpions? In a fantasy setting we could posit that they are rare but terrible predators, and that the orcs breed them as mounts, given their ability to navigate the rocks and crags of the peaks they live in. However, could scorpions be trained to act as cavalry? Could they be used to range across the world, doing the kind of long range damage that horses could?

What about mountain ponies? Too cute, the kind of mount more suited to a hobbit. We could also postulate boars, huge and bristling and fearsome, but these would be rare to find in mountains, more likely the low lands. Though, it must be said, that the mounts would not necessarily be used in the mountains proper, and could thus be cultivated in the low lands, an innovation of a particularly smart leader who would thus snatch the initiative and surprise his opponents...

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