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Old 07-08-2020, 08:27 AM   #11
Anders
 
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

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Question 2 [BIO] - Size
2a: Are the orcs generally smaller, the same size as, or larger than humans?
2b: Are male and female orcs generally the same size, slightly different, or do they display a great deal of dimorphism?
[BIO] 2a & b. Orc Size - These orcs are a bio-weapon engineered by the Ancients, who were very advanced but not necessarily wise. They decided to go for a hive system, where the "Goblin King" is actually a Queen, kept perpetually pregnant by the largest and strongest males. A normal Orc is between 6' and 6'6" of muscle, with not a lot in the way of brain. The worker females are between 5' and 5'6" and have a lot more in the way of brain. The Goblin Queen is about twelve feet tall and gives birth to new litters every six weeks or so. A special corps of worker females nurse them, allowing the Queen to concentrate on giving birth. When the Goblin Queen dies, there is a contest between the worker females. The winning female is then fed a special diet which causes her to transform into a Queen.

New Tag - CUL for Culture
Question 3 [CUL] What are the contests about?
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Old 07-09-2020, 05:02 AM   #12
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

I did not intend to kill the thread. If my Orcs are too avant-garde for this forum, maybe some else can answer question 2?
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Old 07-09-2020, 08:42 AM   #13
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

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I did not intend to kill the thread. If my Orcs are too avant-garde for this forum, maybe some else can answer question 2?
I think it's okay, I'd say people have just been busy. The hive idea does bring up a slew of questions though, so it could take a while to sort through them, and probably with lots of effects on (E)'s model.

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Question 1.1 [VOTE]
What's the geographic relation between Kjanikatu and Knurlkyth?
Answer with your first preference and second preference.
Voting will close in 24 hours, and it's open to anyone, not just the fine posters we've heard from so far.
No votes? Ok, based on people's comments, I think we were leaning toward C.
Answer 1.1
C: Kjanikatu is on a different island or continent to Knurlkyth, though whether that's Logris, another of the Stardrop Archipelago, Oyashima or somewhere else altogether can be addressed later.

----
I slipped in a question in an edit, so this should be Qn 4.
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New Tag - CUL for Culture
Question 3 4 [CUL]
What are the contests about?
Answer 4 [CUL]
The contest is a cutthroat, no-holds barred foot and swimming race, using cudgels and whips, from the outskirts of the village, through stretches of swamp and marsh, across the lagoon to a small island and up to the top of a sacred cairn.

----
Question 5 [CUL]
If there's no nuclear family-based social structure, what internal social divisions are there instead?

Question 6 [BIO]
How many babies are born in each brood?
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Old 07-09-2020, 09:29 AM   #14
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

Yeah, I forgot to vote for C.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro View Post
Question 5 [CUL]
If there's no nuclear family-based social structure, what internal social divisions are there instead?
Answer 5 [CUL]
Shortly after an Orc is born, a spirit binds itself to the Orc. Each spirit has a psychic link to a small number of Orcs, which they can use to provide advice and use their powers to aid their Orcs. Each spirit forms the center of the basic societal unit of Orc Culture.

Question 7 [SET]
Why do spirits bind themselves to Orcs?

Question 8 [SET]
Who are the Ancients? Are they related to the Immortal God-Kings from the Far East?

Question 9 [CUL/VIL]
How are Orcish governments organized in general? How about this village? Is it part of a larger nation, or is it independent?
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Old 07-09-2020, 09:30 AM   #15
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

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Question 5 [CUL]
If there's no nuclear family-based social structure, what internal social divisions are there instead?
Answer 5 [CUL]

The obvious one is between workers, soldiers, fathers, and the Queen. The workers work, the soldiers defend the Hive and send out raiding parties for resources, and fathers *ahem* service the Queen and the Queen gives birth to new children. Since a hive structure allows for extensive biological specialization, there may be sub-castes in the worker and soldier caste. Examples of specialist soldiers may include heavy infantry, skirmishes, and archers.


Edit: Didn't see TGLS answer, but the two are not incompatible.

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Question 6 [BIO]
How many babies are born in each brood?
These orcs are vaguely based on Naked Mole Rats, which have an average litter size of 11. So 3d orcs per litter.
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Old 07-10-2020, 09:06 AM   #16
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

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Answer 5 [CUL]
These orcs are vaguely based on Naked Mole Rats, which have an average litter size of 11. So 3d orcs per litter.
With broods every 6 weeks, that's about 100 births a year, which seems a bit excessive for a village of 500. Even the naked mole rats can only manage a brood every 11 weeks. Maybe at least increase the gestation rate somewhat? (E) might have some numbers on what an average birth rate would be.

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Originally Posted by TGLS View Post
Question 7 [SET]
Why do spirits bind themselves to Orcs?
Answer 7 [SET] - Warder Spirits
The warder spirits are the ghosts of a former enemy army of the Ancients. When the Ancients created the orcs, they gave them a psychic command "back-channel", which allowed them to control their minions over great distances and coordinate them more precisely in battle.

On the eve of a great, decisive battle between the Ancients' conquering host of orcs and the army of the warders defending their homeland, the leaders of the warders realised that they were hopelessly outnumbered and that defeat was certain. The warder shamans, therefore, enacted a plan to bind the spirits of their army to the mortal plane upon their death, in such a way that they were able to take over the psychic back-channels into the minds of their orcish foes. The warder army was then soundly defeated on the battlefield, but their sacrifice enabled them to turn the orcs against the Ancients, protect their homelands, and free the orcs from their bondage.

Thus, to this day, the spirits of the warder warriors who sacrificed themselves have been guardians to the generations of orcs descended from their would-be conquerors.
----

Question 10 [CUL]- Spirit Circles
10a) How many spirits are associated with the village? That is, how many orcs are there in each spirit circle?
10b) Do spirit circles live together under one roof, as one family, or have some other arrangement?
10c) Do spirit circles identify themselves with some sort of insignia, heraldry or fetish?
10d) Are the spirit circles directly associated with the castes, or are they orthogonal relationships?

Question 11 [BIO]- Sires
11a) How are the sires who mate with the queen selected? Are they born into that caste or do they graduate to it from another caste?
11b) Are the sires from inside the tribe, outside, or a mixture? (c.f. The disperser role for the naked mole rats.)

Question 12 [SET]- Warder Spirits
12a) What race(s) were the army that sacrificed themselves to become warder spirits?
12b) What were they and their homeland called?
(I'm calling this a SET question instead of HIST, so we know what to call the spirits and what their powers might be.)
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Old 07-10-2020, 09:12 AM   #17
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

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With broods every 6 weeks, that's about 100 births a year, which seems a bit excessive for a village of 500. Even the naked mole rats can only manage a brood every 11 weeks. Maybe at least increase the gestation rate somewhat? (E) might have some numbers on what an average birth rate would be.
True, true. We'll have to do some calculations about gestation and number in a litter.

[QUOTE=Daigoro;2332695]Question 11 [BIO]- Sires
11a) How are the sires who mate with the queen selected? Are they born into that caste or do they graduate to it from another caste?
11b) Are the sires from inside the tribe, outside, or a mixture? (c.f. The disperser role for the naked mole rats.)[/bio]

Question 11 - [BIO] Answer

11 a/b. Each year there is a great wrestling-running-hunting competition. The winner is given a special kind of food which transforms him into a sire. Sires are traded between orc villages - it is taboo for a sire to mate with his mother.
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Old 07-10-2020, 09:18 AM   #18
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

Don't forget to feed in your own questions :).
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Old 07-10-2020, 12:10 PM   #19
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro View Post
With broods every 6 weeks, that's about 100 births a year, which seems a bit excessive for a village of 500. Even the naked mole rats can only manage a brood every 11 weeks. Maybe at least increase the gestation rate somewhat? (E) might have some numbers on what an average birth rate would be.
Well, I suppose with a high level of infant mortality, it could work...

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Question 10 [CUL]- Spirit Circles
10a) How many spirits are associated with the village? That is, how many orcs are there in each spirit circle?
10b) Do spirit circles live together under one roof, as one family, or have some other arrangement?
10c) Do spirit circles identify themselves with some sort of insignia, heraldry or fetish?
10d) Are the spirit circles directly associated with the castes, or are they orthogonal relationships?
A) There's an average of about 23 Orcs/Spirit Circle. In the village, it is slightly lower.
B) It's fairly common for spirit circles to live under one roof, though campaigning and other duties can interfere with this.
C) Spirit circles generally have some insignia to represent themselves, and the better known the circle is, the more elaborate the insignia is (usually because they add more and more as they become more prominent.)
D) Spirit circles cut clear across caste lines. However, Sires and Queens tend to stay within a smaller number of circles.

Question 11 [BIO] - Lifespan
When do Orcs reach maturity? When do they reach old age? When do they die?
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Old 07-10-2020, 04:32 PM   #20
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Default Re: [GAME] Orcish Ag Bash!

School holidays here, so I've been a little slack getting to a keyboard.

Assumptions used in the calculations.
- Each Adult orc consumes 750lbs of meat rich food per annum. This includes a percentage of wastage and likely lowballs the energy concentration of their diet.
- Each "Family" has 2 adults and 3 dependants.
- Each "Family" consumes 4 adults worth of food.
- 1/5 of the population is working in a profession.
- 1/5 of the population is occupied in miscellaneous tasks.
- 2/5 of the population is children.
- 1/5 of the population is elderly.

The ratio of adults to children is the important factor, assuming it's stable.

As this relates to what's been created so far.
- Having higher physical sexual dimorphism doesn't effect food consumption assuming the gender ratio is relatively balanced.
- Having a lower average IQ might reduce the number of individuals available to work professions.
- Having stronger individuals increases the efficiency of flax production and to some extent transport.

I would lean towards a lowering of the birth rate if there was one Queen per village.
But there are other ways to balance a sufficent number of skilled individual to run a village with a high juvenile population. Question 11's answer might help too.

[Edit] Very roughly an orc Queen's reproduction rate might be equivalent to that of a human population of 1000 - 2000 people.
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Last edited by (E); 07-10-2020 at 04:59 PM.
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