The BERSERKER is an orc. An ORC is a berserker. Specializing in raw brute force, this creature carves a path of obliteration and devastation across the land. All orcs belong to the GRINNING SKULL village. On one hand, you automatically have a cohort of other orcs with significant common interests and enemies. On the other hand, it's a motley heap of backstabbing goons with pea-like brains, led by the orc whose only qualification for governance is that he killed the last sap who became Chieftain.

(This paragraph is still a little weak, even with Valg's stuff at the end.)

# Successful orcs know that if you hit people repeatedly with large, heavy objects enough, they will stop hitting you back, thus obviating the need for such trivialities as defense. That second arm isn't for some sissy shield. It's for holding a second large, heavy object. Berserkers are first and foremost about striking powerful physical blows.

# Other professions lack an orc's pragmatic approach to life. They lack an appreciation of the finer points of biting people in the face (SAVAGE FEEDING), among other things. While the fine art of BASHing an opponent to the ground, PINing them there with your weapon, and then taking a CHEAP SHOT into some of their more tender bits might escape other more refined fighters, there is no such oversight in the orc. These abilities to keep an adversary from executing their “more finely tuned” or “finesse” strategy is key to the orc's success and they possess greater ability to incite "command denial" (THIS NEEDS A HELPFILE) than any other adventurer.

# Be it by hiding non-pointy objects by ingesting them and later regurgitating them, drawing the blood out of corpses for later consumption, or the proper use of swamp leeches an orc's TOUGHNESS helps to make them the most durable and fastest recovering creature alive. Hungry? SCAVAGE from the dead, no need to worry if it has been in the sun too long, or isn't fit to eat according to some lesser creature. Nothing takes a beating and keeps on going like an orc.

# The orc village provides you the type of lovely real estate that an orc thrives in, namely caves and swamps. Concealing yourself is not only handy for self-preservation, but it often lets you clock people in the back, which is a very good angle from which to clock people. Especially if they just walked into one of the traps you set. Also, there will be plenty of weaker orcs lazing about, just waiting to be enslaved so they can volunteer their neck to save yours.

# While less enlightened races may interpret (incorrectly) an orc's priority toward self-preservation as cowardice the orc knows that hiding behind others in combat isn't just smart, it's the best kind of smart.

# Orcs have few, if any, reliable allies outside of their village. The most unsavory of villains will occasionally permit them to stand nearby, but at a safe distance. A laundry list of other groups views orcs as somewhere between "an abomination to be purged from the lands" to "an abomination to be avoided". They will be hunted relentlessly by the FORTRESS OF LIGHT OUTLANDERS OF THAR-ERIS, and even fellow orcs in the fierce competition to become CHIEFTAN of GRINNING SKULL.

# What of the Orc who has risen above the rabble? They may join one of the factions within the Village:

Mamlauk: This is about as close as close as the Village has to a standing army. Mamlauks gain an array of skills dealing in the fine arts of hitting people with especially heavy weapons. Four-pound swords are cute for children, but no self-respecting Mamlauk would clean his ear with one. Well, maybe sometimes.

- Mundunugu: While Tremblefist isn't about to teach the rest of you knuckleheads how to be a true shaman (he knows how chief-dom works), his Mundunugus learn a number of rituals, mostly dealing with setting things on fire, making handy stuff out of dead people, and consuming blood in large quantities.

- Shig-Ru: While all orcs are berserkers, Shig-Ru are berserkers. Hitting a Shig-Ru sounds like a good idea, but it mostly just makes them angrier. (You wouldn't like them when they're angry.) If you disarm their weapon, you should make sure there isn't a nearby corpse, lest you suffer the ignominy of getting clubbed to death with a leg. Shig-ru hobbies also include kicking or charging smaller opponents clear out of the fight.

- Skrugga: Skruggas are mostly known for standing behind the three categories of orcs listed above. No one can cower, whine, and duck quite like a Skrugga. This is not to say that they are harmless, but rather that they are more about kicking you while you're on the ground. They also have multiple abilities which are handy in running for their lives, which is handy given their reputation.