Are orcs actually evil? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Animalmother · 04-26-2008, 06:42 PM

As Morgoth could only ruin, but could not independently create, orcs must be a sort of unnaturally selected type of genus Homo. The gestation periods of elves and dwarves were too long for those species to be suitable as the founding stock of orcs. Perhaps pointy ears were a dominant trait; so if orcs had pointy ears they might have had a small amount of elf blood. If orcs had great longevity -- another point of controversy -- they might have had more than a small amount of elf blood.

Darwin teaches that species can emerge from isolated races, so it's plausible that Morgoth could have selectively bred captive men for various nasty human characteristics, and could also have bred them for shorter gestation periods, shorter periods of sexual maturation, and greater frequency of twins and triplets. Morgoth then ultimately could make them into a new species, Homo orcis, or whatever the Latin might be. The new orc species would be inter-fertile to a high degree with Homo sapiens. In nature there are distinct species which are fully inter-fertile but which do not normally interbreed due to psychological inhibitions. In other cases, species are partially inter-fertile, so that a hybrid must be bred back to a specimen of pure species to produce viable offspring. Probably humans and elves were only partially inter-fertile, while humans and orcs were more inter-fertile, with human-orc crosses prevented by human revulsion.

If this surmise is correct, orcs are not doomed by nature to do evil, but simply have a much harder time avoiding evil.

Has anyone solved the riddle of orc longevity? Were they like elves, immortal unless killed, or were they mortal, and if so, what was their life expectancy?

04-26-2008, 06:42 PM	#26
Animalmother Pile O'Bones Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 14	Orc Genealogy As Morgoth could only ruin, but could not independently create, orcs must be a sort of unnaturally selected type of genus Homo. The gestation periods of elves and dwarves were too long for those species to be suitable as the founding stock of orcs. Perhaps pointy ears were a dominant trait; so if orcs had pointy ears they might have had a small amount of elf blood. If orcs had great longevity -- another point of controversy -- they might have had more than a small amount of elf blood. Darwin teaches that species can emerge from isolated races, so it's plausible that Morgoth could have selectively bred captive men for various nasty human characteristics, and could also have bred them for shorter gestation periods, shorter periods of sexual maturation, and greater frequency of twins and triplets. Morgoth then ultimately could make them into a new species, Homo orcis, or whatever the Latin might be. The new orc species would be inter-fertile to a high degree with Homo sapiens. In nature there are distinct species which are fully inter-fertile but which do not normally interbreed due to psychological inhibitions. In other cases, species are partially inter-fertile, so that a hybrid must be bred back to a specimen of pure species to produce viable offspring. Probably humans and elves were only partially inter-fertile, while humans and orcs were more inter-fertile, with human-orc crosses prevented by human revulsion. If this surmise is correct, orcs are not doomed by nature to do evil, but simply have a much harder time avoiding evil. Has anyone solved the riddle of orc longevity? Were they like elves, immortal unless killed, or were they mortal, and if so, what was their life expectancy?