Incomplete ideas relating to orcs
#3 of Incomplete ideas relating to orcs
Very unfinished and unrefined. Stuff I just needed to write down and decided to share
Historically,orc cannibalism was assumed. The tribes fought each other (and human settlements) constantly, and agriculture seemed to elude their intellect. Nomadic lifestyles and a reliance on enemy flesh was the norm. These views, apocryphal or realised, resulted in several differing customs for the humans' chattel.
Executions were common, as a way to enforce discipline among working orcs. Usually, this was bloody. Although, occasionally a lord would prefer humiliation and exhibition to be the core. A way to show that orcs were better used as entertainment if they failed to work. After the death, meat was often carved from the executed and fed to the workers. Those areas that served their orc slaves raw flesh tended to have higher levels of revolt (and abnormality) in future generations of their beasts of burden. Cooked flesh produced less complications.
In areas with a higher elf concentrations, more refined uses of the deceased were common. A young unruly orc might find himself skinned alive, and their thick hide made into more leather restraints for their kin. An old orc past their point of viable labour might be killed and their bones used for broth. This type of consomme was well-loved by many of the lower-ranking fey aristocracy. Records state that roasted bones, usually produced by controlled pyres containing several orcs at once, produced a much richer and earthier broth.
Almost no accounts of orc-flesh consumption by human- or elf- kind exist. Most records appear to be propaganda against the outer-areas, those furthest from the great elven establishments. The kind of places where abominable part-orc humans were rumoured to exist.