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| Topic | Why do so many fantasy games use Orcs? |
| Blighboy 09/16/18 11:40:49 AM #13: | Tolkien didn't invent the word orc but it wasn't really used previously in the way he used it. I believe historically it was more used to refer to sea monsters. But as others have already mentioned, there's surprisingly few similarities between modern fantasy and Tolkien orcs. The closest analogue to Tolkien orcs I can think of in modern high fantasy are the Skaven from Warhammer (who are much more similar to Tolkien orcs than Warhammer orcs are). I think Tolkien's frequent use of the word goblin to refer to his orcs is what allowed people to borrow the concept from him so easily. Terms like Uruk (which IIRC is just the orcish word for orc) don't get thrown around so much, except by Shadow of Mordor where they're deliberately trying to distinguish Tolkien high fantasy from modern high fantasy. Interestingly there was a big thing a few years ago where Games Workshop tried to ungenericize a lot of the Warhammer fantasy terms they used so other companies couldn't rip them off so much. I can't remember if they changed orc or not. --- ... Copied to Clipboard! |
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