Orc

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Orcs
Other Names	Orcs of Isengard
Dominions	Isengard

"We shall drive the machine of war with the sword and the spear and the iron fist of the Orc." - Saruman, to Sauron, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Orcs, were a race organized in disparate tribes that made up the core of the immeasurable armies of the two Dark Powers. The Orcs were conceived as base mockeries of the Elves, becoming in time the most populous and cowed minions of Morgoth and, in particular, Sauron.

Bidden forth by the Dark Lord Sauron's grim agent; the Witch-king of Angmar, the chieftain Azog and the corrupted Wizard Saruman, Orcs fought in all the major wars throughout the Ages to enslave the Free Peoples and conquer Middle-earth for their Master.

History

First Age

"Do you know how the Orcs first came into being? They were Elves once. Taken by the Dark Powers, tortured and mutilated, a ruined and terrible form of life." - Saruman, to Lurtz, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Since the First Age, stories abounded of primeval Elves having been taken by the Dark Lord Morgoth and Orcs being created as abominations to mock the Elven race. The original Orcs were said to originate from the dungeons of Angband during the First Age. Commanded by trusted servants of the rebel Vala Morgoth such as the great subversive Maia Sauron or the Dragon Glaurung, Orcs clashed with the Ñoldor in numerous confrontations, including the Siege of Angband and most notably in the Fall of Gondolin.

During the Fall of Gondolin, Orcs, backed by Balrogs, Dragons and innumerable Trolls, made up the bulk of Morgoth's hordes that sacked the city of Gondolin and slew Turgon.

Once again during the War of Wrath, Orcs were the contingent of Morgoth's army as it battled with the Host of Valinor. Fate willed it so that that Morgoth was defeated that day and banished, and so much of the minions in his immediate service were vanquished. However, this was not the end of Orc-kind, for they had spread to all corners of Middle-earth, multiplying ever more under the government of Morgoth's seemingly-devoted vassal, Sauron. The subversive Maia obtained even greater control over the Orcs than the rebel Vala, turning the yelling din-horde into a coherent feared fighting force that would trouble the Free Peoples for centuries to come and remain ever true in their allegiance to him.

Second Age

Recouping legions

In the Second Age, Sauron arose as the successor of Morgoth and all Orc-kind was in his following,

After the forging of the Rings of Power, the Dark Lord began his assault on Middle-earth: his forces, consisting mostly of thousands of Orc-ranks swept the Free-lands beneath their feet, their raiding parties burning, slaughtering and pillaging as they descended upon Elves and Men alike. Much was lost in those days to Sauron's armies, for the Orcs sacked many cities.

During the War of the Last Alliance, a league of Elves and Men stood up in defiance of the Red Eye's tyranny and did battle with its foul pawns. The final skirmish took place on the slopes of Orodruin, where immeasurable Orc-legions fought fiercely with the brave warriors of the Ñoldor and Númenóreans until they were joined by their Lord Sauron, who confronted his main adversaries - the High-Kings Gil-galad and Elendil - and was defeated by Isildur. With their Master's corporeal form undone and his spirit weakened, the Orcs were bereft of any leadership and could not withstand the might and valor of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

Third Age

Renewed arms for the Dark Lord

"Armies of Orcs are on the move. These are fighters! They have been bred for war. Our Enemy has summoned his full strength." - Gandalf, to Thranduil, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

In the early Third Age, Orcs waylaid and slew the High-King Isildur to avenge the apparent "downfall" of their Lord Sauron, resulting in the loss of the One Ring in the River Anduin. However, for a time their numbers were depleted and their hidden Master's will not potent enough yet to direct their course.

As their old Master regained his spent strength and began to re-emerge, the chieftain-led Orc-tribes raised up arms for his cause once more, guided by his harbingers. The Gundabad Orcs and their Wargs rallied to the Witch-king's banner, banding together with fearsome hill-men against the Dúnedain. The union between Rhudaur and Angmar brought about the downfall of the kingdom of Arnor, only for the Men of Gondor and their Elven allies to attack and disband the Witch-realm. Still, the Orcs of Gundabad continued to thrive, and their stronghold became one of their race's most important seats of power in the North.

Sometime later, Golfimbul led a host out in an invasion of the Shire, only to be slain in the Battle of Greenfields by Bandobras Took; the Orcs would remember this humiliation and would later seek to avenge the death of their old chieftain.

Replenishing their forces, the Orcs began to harass the Beornings, Woodmen and Dwarves whenever possible. Bidden by the Dark Lord Sauron, the Orc-king Azog led legions of Orcs in taking Erebor and slaying the exiled Dwarf-king Thrór in what became known as the War of Dwarves and Orcs. The conflict ended with the defeat of the Azog the Defiler at the hands of Thorin Oakenshield; the Pale Orc was since rumored to have "died of his wounds" long ago, but in truth he survived and crept back, awaiting his Master's summons.

Commanded by the Orc-king Azog, the Orc-army of Dol Guldur marched to assail and claim Erebor.

Assuming the guise of the "Necromancer", the Dark Lord Sauron willed packs of Orcs from the Misty Mountains to the grounds of the fortress of Dol Guldur, while his vassal, the Orc-king Azog, secretly paid him homage; the appearance of burgeoning hordes within the stronghold was witnessed by the skin-changer Beorn, who became concerned that the enigmatic sorcerer who exerted such power over foul things was the ancient evil reborn.

Rightfully fearing a union between the returned Dark Lord Sauron and the Dragon Smaug, the Wizard Gandalf the Grey urged exiled Dwarf-king Thorin Oakenshield to plan an expedition and reclaim Erebor, in an effort to simultaneously deprive the Enemy of the fire-drake's services. The Company faced many perils in the quest for Erebor, Orcs being on several occasions among them: a band of Orcs chased them until they fled through a hidden passage to the safe refuge of Rivendell, the Orcs captured them and attempted to kill them, the Dwarves and the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins being saved only by the daring intervention of the Wizard Gandalf, their old pursuers led this time by the Orc-king Azog himself pursued them to a pine forest and later to Mirkwood, and an attack by the Orcs led by Bolg spawn of Azog.

While investigating the fortress of Dol Guldur and attempting to force the Enemy to show his cards too early, the Wizard Gandalf was confronted by the Orc-king Azog and imprisoned after a short resistance to the latter's Master, the Dark Lord Sauron - revealed as the "Necromancer". With the board set, the Dol Guldur Orc legions were let loose upon the world, in an effort to secure Erebor for the strategic value of its north-eastern position once and for all and then, with the aid of the allied Dragon Smaug, reclaim the lost territories of Angmar.

The Orc-host of Dol Guldur fought against the allied armies of Men, Elves and Dwarves in the Battle of Five Armies.

Fortunately for the Free Peoples, the Dragon Smaug was slain during his attack on Lake-town by Bard the Bowman, but the armies of the Dark Lord Sauron led by his general, the Orc-king Azog, pressed on; to ensure the success of his Master's plot, the Pale Orc sent his spawn to call fresh hordes to join him from the North, in addition to enlisting the aid of Orc mercenaries. Thus, the Mirkwood Elves, Lake-Men and Dwarves assembled before the gates of Erebor found themselves under heavy assault by the massive Orc-host of Dol Guldur commanded by Azog, ignorant to the fact that another Orc-host led by his son Bolg out of Gundabad was on its way reinforce him. The Battle of Five Armies ensued, the first waves of Orcs and war-beasts battling the Elves and Dwarves on the plains outside the Lonely Mountain, while the following hordes besieged the Lake-Men in the ruined city of Dale. Even with the Dwarf-king Thorin Oakenshield valiant stand the courage of the Free Peoples might have been in vain, had the Great Eagles, the Wizard Radagast the Brown and the skin-changer Beorn not intervened to sow chaos among the Gundabad Orc soldiers' ranks; the Battle of Five Armies ended in victory for Men, Elves and Dwarves and cost the Dark Lord Sauron two of his most zealous commanders, the Orc-chieftains Azog and Bolg.

Iron first of the Orc reforged

"Build me an army worthy of Mordor." - Sauron, to Saruman, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

For his war on the realm of Rohan, the Wizard Saruman gathered a following of Orcs at Isengard.

Having fled from the White Council at Dol Guldur into the East, the Enemy soon returned to the Land of Shadow, remaking it his main domain and amassing armies both within and outside its borders. The ranks of the Mordor-Orc hosts were swelled by a a fiercer and better breed of Orc, known as Uruks. Abetted by the Dark Lord Sauron, the Orcs ambushed the Dwarves led by Lord Balin, killing him and overrunning the colonists, thus taking control of Erebor.

Swearing fealty to the Dark Lord Sauron to share in his power, the corrupted Wizard Saruman began to gather a following from Orcs of the Misty Mountains, Mordor Orcs and his own-made Orcs within the ringed walls of his fortress at Isengard; deeming them unfit for true warriors, relegating them to short raiding expeditions and hard labour, the fallen Maia instead started to replicate the breeding of Uruks, intent on building both an army for his Master and a fighting force for his own purposes. The veteran Warg-rider captain Sharku also threw in his lot with the Wizard Saruman, who offered him a haven for his warband and beasts in the muddy tunnels beneath and around the Tower of Orthanc in exchange for his services.

Raiding parties of Orcs of Isengard and wildmen of Dunland were let loose by the Wizard Saruman upon Rohan.

Years later, the Dark Lord Sauron bid his principal vassal, the corrupted Wizard Saruman, to raise him an army to assault King Théoden of Rohan on his behalf. The Orc warriors of Isengard, banded together with Uruk-hai scouts and savage wildmen from Dunland, moved against the Rohirrim, slaughtering, pillaging and burning as they swept the Westfold beneath their boot. To answer the threat, Prince Théodred marched forth to halt their advance in the Battle of the Fords of Isen, only to be slain by one such Isengard Orc raiding party.

Meanwhile, a contingent of Uruk-hai commanded by the ruthless captain Lurtz ambushed the Fellowship of the Ring at Amon Hen, mortally-wounding the Gondorian warrior Boromir and taking the Hobbits Merry and Pippin captive - the corrupted Wizard Saruman had instructed his scouts to bring him the halflings, certain that one of them carried the One Ring which he could try to claim first, behind his Lord Sauron's back. Fleeing with their prisoners, captain Uglúk's Uruk-hai were joined by a Mordor Orc warband led by captain Grishnakh,beginning a small argument on whose orders had primacy and eventually a scuffle over food at the eaves of Fangorn Forest - there, the Orcs were slain to the last by Third Marshal Éomer's Rohirrim riders.

Fearing losing the Dark Lord Sauron's favor after this failed upstart endeavor, the corrupted Wizard Saruman unleashed the ten-thousand strong Uruk-hai army of Isengard upon King Théoden's people at the fortress of the Hornburg, to bring the kingdom of Rohan on its knees before his Master. Though the Uruk-hai held the upper hand for most of the Battle of Helm's Deep, the bloody skirmish ended in victory for the Rohirrim through the intervention of the Wizard Gandalf - the Uruk-hai legions were utterly destroyed. Further, in his arrogance, the Wizard Saruman had paid no heed to the Ents of Fangorn - the shepherds, enraged by the Orcs' cutting of their forest, sacked the now unguarded Isengard and flooded it.

To the North, the Dark Lord Sauron waged war as well: his lieutenant Agandaûr in Carn Dûm and Gorkil in the Ettenmoors acted as his puppets in stirring the Orcs of the Misty Mountains against the Free Peoples of Rivendell, Nordinbad and other northern territories.

To the south, the Dark Lord Sauron had his foremost lieutenant, the Witch-king of Angmar, move with his army out of Minas Morgul against the city of Minas Tirith, in retribution for the humiliation at Helm's Deep. For much of the ensuing long skirmish, the Morannon and Morgul Orc-hosts, backed by their Haradrim and Easterling allies, held the upper hand against the Gondorians and their Rohirrim reinforcements, but they could not prevail against the Army of the Dead and their Morgul-lord himself was undone. But the hordes of Mordor were far from banished: within the land, the Dark Lord Sauron mustered fresh legions in war camps for another clash, which would be at the Black Gate, after a challenge from yet-to-be-crowned-King Aragorn. Though the foul creatures held the advantage, they could not withstand the unexpected downfall of their Master, caused by the destruction of the One Ring in Mount Doom. In a single heartbeat, the Dark Lord Sauron's spirit was taken by the Void and much of the territory of Mordor collapsed, taking a significant part of his Orc-host with it; those that survived flew westwards and northwards.

The armies of Angmar and Dol Guldur were also beaten by the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, for bereft of their Lord Sauron the Orcs that made up the core of these hosts were bereft of any coherence or boldness and crept to the holes from whence they crawled. The Orcs, however, continued to infest the ancestral halls of Durin's Folk for a while, only for a final Dwarven expedition to succeed in purging their filth and restoring Erebor to it’s former glory.

Culture

Orcs, being created as a mockery of Elves, were the hatred of all things good. A hatred, especially for the Elves was implanted in them from the beginning. Orcs have only one delight, the pain and suffering of others.

Orcs preferred to attack in the night, as sunlight weakened them greatly, however they would occasionally fight by day if their master Sauron willed it.

Orc weaponry, clothing, armor and tools, tend to have had a crude look, as if not much care was taken fashioning them. Orcs often use beasts to fashion their clothes and scavenge tools from victims on the battlefield.

Types of Orcs

There were many sub-breeds and sub-groups of Orc that developed throughout the ages of Middle-earth.

Mordor Orc

Mordor Orcs were the main breed of Orc, bred throughout Mordor, they took part in the War of the Last Alliance as well as battles throughout the Third Age, including the War of the Ring. Some of them were sent to Isengard to assist Saruman in the building of his army during that war. Many Mordor Orcs participated in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and the Battle of the Black Gate at the end of the war and most of them were destroyed.

Morgul Orc

The term Morgul Orc, refers to Orcs bred in the pits of Minas Morgul. It is unknown whether there are actually any genetic differences, or if it is just a term to refer to the sub-culture in Minas Morgul. Many of the Orcs from Minas Morgul do appear more formidable in nature.

Dol Guldur Orc

The initial Guldur Orcs pledged their allegiance to the Necromancer of Dol Guldur. Azog the Defiler oversaw the creation of the army in the abandoned fortress in Mirkwood, before they saw action in the Battle of Five Armies.

Gundabad Orc

Gundabad Orcs were a breed of Orc that found their way into Gundabad. They played a large role in the Hunt for Thorin Oakenshield as well as the War of the Ring.

Appearances

Note: This list is incomplete

• The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Non-canon

• The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
• LEGO The Lord of the Rings: The Video Game
• LEGO The Hobbit: The Video Game

References