I haven’t had any blog ideas for a while so here… have an idea for a D&D character I made.
Hercula
Female Half-Orc Fighter or Barbarian
Hercula simply didn’t die.
An orc female is already a pariah. A half-orc, doubly so. Rumor had it her father was a wandering human bard. Did her mother die in childbirth? Killed for mating with a pinkskin and producing a half-breed? No one seems to know. The first time anyone remembers seeing her entering the village was as a young juvenile, covered in her blood and her own filth. But healthy. And smiling.
Of course, no one took her in. But even orcs were not so infused with evil as to kill a baby. She crawled into barrels to sleep, begged for food with her big brown eyes. She played with other orc children (when no parents were watching). The tribe considered her more worthless than dirt. Yet, she continued. And thrived. And grew.
An elder orc, Brugagh, gave her the most attention and support. Of course, he denies this. But the astute noticed certain turns of phrase of Brugagh’s repeated by the younger.
He was the chief’s fool. Having seen no wars, he had grown fat and content. Most of his job was to let the tribal chieftains sling feces at him.
When the fool died, Hercula was fourteen. She was already living separate from the tribe, in an ancient temple deep in the mountain woods. Others treated her in much the same way as the town hag, providing advice and natural remedies, possessing a singular intelligence and wit no orc had. She survived on hunted rodents, scavenged fruit, and the gifts of those who came to see her, either for advice or company. But where a town hag would be wise beyond her years, Hercula had the insight of the innocent. Thus she became a favorite of the tribe’s youth.
She was courageous, loyal, and warm-hearted (for an orc). But life with no proper home had made her somewhat… unstable. Though she never raised a finger to her kin she could devolve into fits of aggression and insanity, no two the same. Was she communicating with spirits? Mourning her situation? Simply crazy?
The orcs would never accept her, never let her take the ritual of adulthood or recognize her as a person, let alone maturity. She spun around, picked a direction, and headed off. This direction led her to Baldur’s Gate, where she found the best occupation for a woman of her size and strength — an adventurer.
It’s not like she had anything to lose.
