Does my idea for Orcish teeth work?

[Patrick-Leigh]

So, I was developing some ideas for the way Orcish teeth work in my story setting & put this together:

I was hoping to get some feedback on it. What do you guys think?

 

[S J Lee]

orcs should have whatever teeth you want them to have. Me, I never understood exactly what orcs were meant to do with "tusks" - do they dig up roots with them? If not, what? Spend too long on one small detail and people will get bored.
BUT ...
Vampires at least have two fangs for a reason. If orcs are carnivores and don't eat bread / veg/roots, then their teeth will be more like a cat's / wolf's...?

How does it make a difference to the story? You wouldn't waste a page explaining why stereotypical elves have pointy ears / less body hair / no beards?
To ME, one way it makes a difference is how you want your orcs to be perceived - horrible disgusting perversions/mockeries of the creator's intended races (a la Tolkien?) - the movies were not perfect, BUT the orcs usually had TERRIBLE yellow/grey half-rotten teeth, which probably was close to what Tolkien wanted -- check out 2.00 --> "Inspection!"

The difference it MIGHT make is if you want orcs to be less "Tolkien style" and more "noble savage / green skinned klingon beserkers" - better teeth will make them seem less "evil" and more heroic

In my DnD game, this is more what I want ... orcs are not so much "evil" BUT physically mature faster than humans - tend to be young kids with a sex drive and less developed empathy in big bodies ... like kids set loose with AK47s ... tend to hurt people faster...?

good teeth will help with that? SHARP teeth make them "alien / less human" AND a life of brawling violence tends to be hard on your teeth - kncocked out easily in fights etc - MY ORCS have multiple sets of teeth over their lives, not just two like humans - they are less scared of losing them, too!

 

[Patrick-Leigh]

In the case of my Orcs, the tusks are a sign of physical maturity. Only an adult Orc has tusks. Pre-pubescent Orcs do not. The tip of the cano-molar does not protrude from their mouths and it will not do so even in the early stages of puberty. Once the tusks begin to protrude, it means they're in the later stages of puberty, so they're reaching full physical and sexual maturity. The tip of the tusks never stop growing, so the longer the tusks, the older the Orc. Elven ears work the same way - the longer the tip, the older the Elf. My Orcs are fairly civilized (I've based them primarily off the Roman Empire) but they have an intimidating appearance which makes some other races think less of them. Essentially, I'm keeping the parts about Orcs being warriors, having certain militant qualities, & being formidable opponents, but I'm putting my own spin on those aspects. They're militant warriors, but rather than being savage barbarians, they're highly disciplined legionaries. They're formidable opponents but they have a strong code of honor and respect those who prove their worth. Historically, Orcish occupations were hard for the ruling class but great for the commoners because the Orcs would reward those who worked hard and demonstrated that they deserved to be elevated to a higher position. Meanwhile, those of noble birth who proved themselves to be unreliable were stripped of their titles and made to live like commoners. That isn't to say there were no problems with Orcish occupations - there were - but if the choice came down to being occupied by Orcs or being occupied by Elves, most people (outside of the nobility) would rather be occupied by Orcs.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

Sounds like orcs' tusks might just be one of those evolutionary things: it doesn't necessarily have a specific purpose now, but it wasn't maladaptive enough to die out. Believable enough.

But if their tusks never stop growing, does that make it hard for them to eat? Can their tusks get knocked out in a fight, or in an accident? If so, do they regrow?

And you've mentioned Orc/human intermarriage. If Orcs and humans can marry and live in the same household, they must be able to eat the same foods, but the way you've described it, it sounds like Orcish food might be too tough for a human to chew. And... how does the tusk affect kissing? Between Orcs, or an Orc and a human?

 

[Patrick-Leigh]

Sounds like orcs' tusks might just be one of those evolutionary things: it doesn't necessarily have a specific purpose now, but it wasn't maladaptive enough to die out. Believable enough.

But if their tusks never stop growing, does that make it hard for them to eat? Can their tusks get knocked out in a fight, or in an accident? If so, do they regrow?

And you've mentioned Orc/human intermarriage. If Orcs and humans can marry and live in the same household, they must be able to eat the same foods, but the way you've described it, it sounds like Orcish food might be too tough for a human to chew. And... how does the tusk affect kissing? Between Orcs, or an Orc and a human?

Orc tusks never reach the size where they would impede the ability to eat. They mostly get longer, not thicker, so they don't interfere with getting food into the mouth. Orcish teeth have very strong roots, so it's difficult to knock them out, though not impossible. The tip of the tusks, on the other hand, can be broken, but as long as the base of the tusk isn't damaged, they will regrow. Some Orcs will actually trim down their tusks if they start to give them any issues, though there are some Orc cultures that severely frown on this practice. There are foods, mainly plants, on the Orc Homeworld that are difficult for a Human to bite into but that an Orc can handle and I'm thinking that their tusks are actually part of what enables them to do so. I've seen videos of people using their teeth to tear away the coir of a coconut, which is a pretty tough material. Apply that same principle to certain Orcish plants and you can see how the tusks would actually be beneficial to have. That said, Orcish cuisine (at least the kind prepared in a kitchen, not at a camp fire) generally involves cutting meat and vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Orcs have to eat a lot, so having to cut your meat and spend a while chewing it means there's more time for the rest of your food to cool. To reduce this issue, they minimize how much cutting you have to do at the table and try to keep things soft so that you don't have to chew as much before swallowing. (They also believe this makes the food easier to digest and thus more nourishing.)

Now, regarding the big question: Can Orcs kiss? The short answer is: Yes, they can kiss. What they cannot do is snog. Kissing is done very gently to make sure that tusks don't poke or scrape each other or the cheekbones of the recipient. I'm also thinking that the tusks of male and female Orcs are spaced differently (males have somewhat wider mouths than females so their tusks usually end up on either side of the woman's) so kissing with the opposite sex rarely involves the tusks getting in the way. Kissing with the same sex, on the other hand, usually does, as the tusks line up more closely. I'm also thinking that gently rubbing tusks together is another way Orcs kiss and that this is actually quite stimulating for them.

One thing I should mention is that it was actually the Orcs who invented kissing. In the creation story of my setting, when the gods made the nine Core Races, they initially only made the males. After having the men meet some of the animals of their Homeworlds, they had them use Portals to reach the Human Homeworld so they could meet each other. The Human observed that the animals of his world always had "another one," that is, two sexes, and asked if the other men had met their "other one." None of them had, so they all returned to their Homeworlds to search for them. When they couldn't find their "other one" they went to sleep, during which the gods took something from them (maybe a rib, maybe their pinky fingers, I'm still figuring out the details) and used it to make their female counterparts. When each man awoke, he met his "other one" for the first time and reacted to her in a way that reflects the defining characteristics of his race. In the case of the Orcs, the Orc man and Orc woman reacted to each other by competing at various things to see how they measured up to each other. Thus culminated in them wrestling until the man had the woman pinned. The Orc woman observed that, as he'd won, the Orc man should get something, but neither of them could figure out what, exactly, so they just lay there staring into each other's eyes (and liking what they saw.) Eventually, the Orc man just leaned in and touched his lips to hers - the first kiss. The Orc woman really, really liked it, so they spent a good while kissing and perfecting the new art they'd invented together. When the first men brought their "other ones" to meet each other, the Orcs shared the art of kissing with the other races, who thought it was marvelous, even if they couldn't do the whole tusk rubbing thing.

And that is the story of how Orcs invented kissing.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Works for me, but I’m easy sell