Wild Elf Scouts Evaluating an Orc Village for a Raid by Orc Killers
Orc Killers is a colloquial term for irregular Wild elf warriors on the Plains of Antor. Particularly those devoted especially to the role of raiding orc villages by choice or for being outcasts from regular elven societies.
Description[]
Who They Were[]
Orc Killers came from most of the tribes of Wild elves in Antor, even in the same group. Quite often, these tribes might have settled down in Nortolon or Thilien. Their leaders and scouts were often better trained and disciplined in a High elven way, or sometimes may have been High elves.
Orc Killers could be a very diverse lot. About all that they had in common was that they were predominantly Wild elfs, and that they hated Orcs and wanted to raid them and kill populations of them. Their motivations could be quite individualized.
Outcasts[]
A large number of the orc killers were criminals in the societies from which they came from. As a result, they were outcasts with very little option but to become irregular troops at best, or bandits so as to raid and steal and kill in a manner that was acceptable. Being murderers, bandits and general thieves was a common reason for why wild elves would become outcasts in the first place. Others were exiled for violence or unruly conduct, particularly when some might have been psychopaths.
Vengeance Seekers[]
Other Orc Killers were vengeance seekers who came to kill orcs out of anger for past wrongs done to them by orc raids. Hastur the Lame was a Wild Elf who fought the Orc Killers even though at one time he would have fit well in the general profile: he was an angry young elf who was bent on vengeance for wrongs an orc raid had done to him. Others may have wanted to contribute to the ongoing war against the enemies of the elves, particularly the Antorian Orcs.
Mercenaries[]
The Orc Killers essentially were low rent mercenaries who often needed this work to support themselves as they were outcasts from their tribes, or even outlaws within the lands of Nortolon and Thilien. More skilled warriors from the scattered tribes or the more professionally trained Nortolon Rangers may have briefly joined such bands of orc killers essentially to act as soldiers of fortune seeking some extra coin, experience at commanding troops--be they ever so undisciplined--and perhaps glory.
Albeit, one of the benefits of the Orc Killers for their masters was that they happily did outrageous actions while putting themselves in danger for little pay or acknowledgement, all to kill orcs. It was a poor group to join for anyone being a cold, calculating, professional mercenary looking for profit.
Leadership, Guidance and Disorder[]
Some elves in the Orc Killer bands were indeed irregular but were trained scouts and warriors, with the function in the group to act as scouts, archers and leaders. Some good leadership was needed as the Orc Killers sometimes 'got into' their work in butchering, torturing or raping orcs when sacking and destroying their villages. Many orc killers got ritualistically drunk or otherwise intoxicated before fighting. Many enjoyed the violence and danger, they were often liable to disobey orders and to straggle behind in 'last minute' looting, killing or torturing with the risk of being caught or killed by orc reinforcements for their disorder.
Deadly Capabilities[]
Even so, Orc Killers represented individuals who were bent on killing, and so that was what they were set to do, as they were good at it, even if not the best soldiers. As wild elves, they were usually well acquainted with tracking, sneaking up on prey and using bows, bolas, spears and knives in dispatching game, they could therefore be rather efficient in their chosen profession.
Purpose[]
Hit Teams[]
Simply put, the orc killers were meant to kill orcs. They would also be used against other races that may have been at odds against elves, particularly if the High elves who were effectively the puppet masters of the orc killers, wanted to use violence as intimidation. Many of the Orc Killers didn't much care who they killed as long as it was someone that they could raid and sack, or to kill terribly, based on individual inclination. Certainly though, orcs in particular, especially the fearsome and giant Antorian Orcs, were foes that Wild Elves had a great deal of fear, loathing and a sharp hate for.
Dirty Warriors[]
The Orc Killers were ultimately usually funded, led or otherwise sponsored by the High elves of Vanilion or Nortolon. Often they were joined in the fighting and led by the Nortolon Rangers themselves. But the Orc Killers were useful if brutal raids were to be done and the warriors used were meant to be expendable, or to fight in a 'dirty war' that their leaders would rather not closely define or acknowledge that they had undertaken.
History[]
Origins?[]
It's currently unknown how long bands of Orc Killers operated. But antagonism between orcs and elves had gone on for a long, long time. Certainly, with the collapse of most of the elf kingdoms of Zarhuy at the Age of Invasions might have resulted in such a need for the elven refugees to fight back to preserve whatever homes that they could find. Wild elf outcasts being doubly cursed, with no home to go to but what they constructed themselves with an even greater problem with orcs.
Speculation: Fighting orcs and destroying their villages which might have threatened their own home might have been an avenue to forgiveness for an elven outcast in exile?
Recent[]
Certainly the ongoing raids of orcs against other races and certainly elves is a powerful compulsion to fight back, but that has been true for many centuries. However, the organized, inter-tribal orc raids of 2398 a.a.H. was something different, a raiding campaign that could sweep several villages off the map. The rise of the Orc Queen a few years later would be something much worse, destroying more villages and threatening the High elves themselves. With this context, it's not at all surprising that both many Wild elfs would have good personal reasons to fight and kill orcs regardless of their warrior status, and that the High elf kingdoms would support them as an irregular arm of the Nortolon Rangers.
Elves can live--and remember--for a very long time. Some elves might indeed strike back for events that happened decades or even centuries earlier.
Story Appearance[]
The Orc Killers were seen in action when the stories of "Fluffy the Pet Elf, and the "Drow Trio" intersected at the village run by Mataelfo. They were the story means of separating Fluffy from the Drow Trio for a time, and also to reunite Fluffy with her 'uncle', Hastur the Lame. In the story, the Orc Killers were sent to deal with a supposed new 'Orc Queen' and her three Drow, they had sufficient force to destroy the village completely. They withdrew for fear of orc reinforcements and may have found that they lost several more members than they expected.
Efforts to send scouts to confirm the status of the devastated orc village and the supposed 'Orc Queen' were stopped by Hastur, and were tied and imprisoned for a time. This might lead to problems between Hastur and the Orc Killers in the future? Or even with the Nortolon Rangers?