How do orcs multiply so fast?

#short 1 minute explanation of how Orcs multiply so quickly, and whether or not there are Orc women.
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[@seekingabsolution1907]

In fact they are so alike in voice and appearance that many people think there are no orc women and the orcs are manufactured in alchemical pits in the ground which is of course completely preposterous.

[@lachlanhawkes-law3396]

Wwwooooaaahhhh

[@paulraines9635]

It's the tusks.

[@ScottieDo]

Love the gimly reference lol

[@ryancamacho3129]

I read this in Gimli's voice lol

[@BlueGoblin1]

Kind of looked that way with the Uruk-hai. And does explain how he raised such a large army so quickly.

[@justinian-the-great]

"Meat is back on the menu, BOYS!" "No Johnny, for the 5th and last time: WE ARE GIRLS!"

[@yeomenim]

Male or female dey all be part of DA BOYZ!!

[@VivoYs-mg4uj]

"Meats back on the menu.."...actually

[@harrellt1405]

Thats not the correct pronounce

[@Bt-hl4cu]

I saw an article saying there would be no possible way they knew what a menu was

[@ZarisWhiteFoot]

IT'S MA'AM

[@bridgecross]

They memorized the tables. That's how they multiply so fast.

[@balls2jawls]

Ha

[@clementb6963]

3/10

[@SyahidanIbnMokhtar]

😂 Ahh the times tables. What a good childhood.

[@wastrelperv]

Nice.

[@ginger_jeezus]

Turns out orcs are actually just autistic

[@ravenmoon5111]

Well mommy and daddy orc give each other a very special hug…

[@automaticwriting4220]

With the kissin and da huggin and da ribbon

[@nicka7432]

Mouth hugz

[@timesthree5757]

Without consent I wager.

[@ravenmoon5111]

@@timesthree5757 You are probably right

[@cardboardbox191]

Dad Ork: When a mummy ork and a baby work have a special hug.... Ork Son:They make a baby ork Dad Ork: A baby ork? If we only produced one little runt like you when we hugged we'd be hugged as a race son.

[@milkinanime7047]

I saw "orc" and went "cause they're mushrooms" not realizing it wasn't "ork"

[@comteraffayn8351]

WAAAAGH !!!

[@milkinanime7047]

@@comteraffayn8351 WAAAAAGH

[@chaptermastergutza9718]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

[@milkinanime7047]

@@chaptermastergutza9718 WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHH!!

[@twilightparanormalresearch186]

I love 40k orks

[@SammytheStampede]

“Evil doesn’t create: it corrupts and destroys.” J. R. R. Tolkien.

[@Eric-gb9ty]

Christian theology.

[@user-knhgvg454g]

Truth

[@cornixdemetrius7883]

So it's not evil to kill a human to use their rotting flesh as compost for soil and bones for bonemeal to make a forest.

[@rafjas9850]

​@@cornixdemetrius7883Wow, its twisted and don't apply to quote

[@worldtraveler930]

You can find in Tolkien's writings that orks were created from Pukel Men men thereby explaining Pukel Men's Hatred their Deep-seated Hatred of orks!!! 🤠👍

[@MosaidDeath]

Imagine all those little orcs running around. Saruman’s Daycare.

[@ManicPandaz]

Orc children seem wrong. I always assumed the pooped out freshly grown like a mushroom in 40K or they were just pod people.

[@SiiriCressey]

@@ManicPandaz Orclets. Orclings. Orkids. Baborcs.

[@rainmanslim4611]

My headcanon was that female orcs lived in the fortresses and caverns the orcs live in, working in manufacturing, food production and home defence and the male orcs went out to fight, the orcs who secured kills and came back alive had their pick of females to breed with, after a short gestation period the orc females would birth more of a litter than a single orc who'd live in the fortress, the weakest would be killed by their fellow young orcs and the strongest would reach adulthood and either join the armies and raiding parties or join the manufacturing base.

[@vincentlinsin6549]

That sounds a lot like how orcs in Dungeons and Dragons work, I can get behind this.

[@k.d.8924]

sounds plausible

[@ap2811]

I doubt that as infants or little toddlers, they'd go around knifing each other; perhaps the weakest die out of neglect, or their war-chief tell them to "put it out for the wolves and wargs to eat". As they grew into adolescence, though, I don't see why some particularly cunning orc-children might not take up their dad's blade and put it in the back of their enemy.

[@keithkahler1327]

it would also be the orcs who survived, as many were felled, by the free peoples many of whom were superior in skill with both the Bow and the Blade

[@Aureliano_Babilonia]

Just remember the Spartans and you‘ll get the picture. Ancient Greeks were pretty shitty towards each other and other folks throughout their entire existence.

[@CountKibblesNBits]

Sam: Hey boys! Look what I got here. *pulls out Frodo* Frodo: Where the orc women at?

[@maxthepaladin2147]

*orcs chase them behind a rock*

[@dragonfell5078]

I understood that reference

[@scp-2348]

​@@dragonfell5078Our Dark Lord is a Nearer!

[@samboyd1828]

ah, the only cut of LOTR that's 7 minutes long for modern syndication

[@michaelkrull3331]

​@@scp-2348 Ro dog dang it! The Dark Lord is a n..(bell rings)

[@ScrapperTBP]

I love the implication that outside of war and raiding the orcs are just constantly fucking

[@mikekeltner4291]

Cool

[@barrymchugh5612]

Straight orgy sesh na? Lol

[@totallynotthebio-lizard7631]

Just like real life I’ll give you a hint at who the elves are…

[@Human_81]

Just like people 😭😂

[@Patriot-Eaglehead]

​@@totallynotthebio-lizard7631White people?

[@NebMunb]

I wonder how long an orc-gasam lasts

[@Fyrdman]

with pigs it lasts 30mins

[@thedemogorgon1375]

@@Fyrdman that is not an orc

[@NebMunb]

@@thedemogorgon1375 Looks like pork's back on the menu, boys!

[@NebMunb]

@@Fyrdman Damn do I want to be a pig

[@arthurduana9093]

I see what you did there 😂.

[@sugarjumper45]

i imagine an Orcs standard of beauty would be "differnet" to ours.

[@user-co3uc8vt7e]

Tolkien's orcs have no standards of beauty, in fact, whenever they see something beautiful, they want to destroy or desecrate it. And as they hate themselves as well as every other orc, the concept of love or affection is similarly alien to them. If anything, they would mate out of pure malice, out of desire to inflict pain.

[@marthvader14]

Our real life orcs, africans, also find their own women the least attractive and whites the most, as does every other race, so no, they probably have similar beauty standards

[@sugarjumper45]

@@marthvader14 plus (aside from the flagrant racism) that ain’t even accurate. If I remember correctly my Tolkien’s admission, the Orcs were more styled after Mongolic people’s, not Africans.

[@sugarjumper45]

@@marthvader14 also you’re talking of Africans as though they’re this monolithic block. Which on a continent the size Africa…. Well it betrays your ignorance.

[@marthvader14]

@@sugarjumper45 You know you can ask a significant amount of people, compare their answers and recognize patterns 😱

[@Likexner]

Q: Where are the orc women? A: Many of the orcs in the Jackson trilogy were _played_ by women. Thats not an answer. WHERE ARE THE ORC WOMEN???

[@jgt2598]

Personally, I like the implication that they're *right there with the rest of the orcs* , they're just not sexually dimorphic enough to even be distinguishable. My head canon is that, as a magically engineered warrior race, they don't even have gender the way the others do since that just gets in the way of their primary purpose of fighting wars. 50% or so of the species just have different "bits" than the other 50% and they have extremely short gestation periods, birth litters of very independent young, and grow fast. I mean, if I were engineering what are basically organic combat droids I'd go as far as making them hermaphroditic and capable of parthenogenesis to maximize replacement potential.

[@apollomars1678]

Orcs come from orcus (latin). they are demons. They were created by taking the creation of the good gods and twisting and corrupting the true creation of the good gods, because Melkor wont create stuff, only corrupt, like Rings of Power. Orcs exist to destroy by their creation/breeding and live the natural order around them. (s. the transformation of Isengard by the production of an ork army) They are an industrial creation to destroy nature around them. As a twisted unnatural creation by pure evil to destroy nature....they dont have women....they are not male....they dont work in any natural way of a normal natural race like humans, elves, dwarfs, even ents.

[@conorgillespie7832]

​@@jgt2598 My head Canon is they are Hermaphrodites... which I'm sorry but makes them even more creepy and twisted to me... Also they probably have every STI going. It's like having an Army of roided up Frank-N-Furters chasing after you.

[@willatwood]

They all became men, it’s 2024. Jackson was just way ahead of the times

[@PutItAway101]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the reason they used women is that if you're going to use heavy prosthetics, it's best to start off with a smaller head, so the end result doesn't look too big. That would allow them to create the ordinary orcs whose heads are approximately human sized, compared to the Uruk Hai who are obviously played by men, and their heads look big due to the size of the prosthetics on top of a man's head.

[@michaelthomas1916]

I read somewhere that there are areas to the east of Mordor which are not quite as barren but are occupied by orcs, and that is where their actual cities and settlements (and families) reside.

[@Matt_History]

The areas east of mordor are settled by the Easterlings. A race of men. Orcs inhabit many places of Middle Earth a town or village typically wouldn't be their first choice

[@tid06]

​@@Matt_HistoryHe is talking about nurn, with the sea of Nurn which was a very fertile land inside Mordor. Sauron had to feed his armies somehow

[@ombrepourpre7562]

​@@tid06 yep, Also, the orcs live short life, with almost as great life force as the elves : which mean it as to become something... Like growing adult fast, and easily have many children's (opposed to the elves who struggle to have babies) You take some, you lose other. It's balance. And Morogt wanted a big army, fast.

[@Gromkiii]

​@@ombrepourpre7562You are on mushrooms or never read single Tolkien work

[@JordanTheMann]

Looks like the breeding pool was kinda limited based on all the birth defects. Guessing they were all cousins.

[@No1gamer]

I actually wouldn't doubt if that's a factor here but they are corrupted and twisted elves in the first place. They were basically turned ugly in the first place then the population likely had to start inbreeding at some point, so yes Pretty fugly beings lol

[@prone_to_drift7166]

Sweet Home Alabama

[@weary867]

Like that one fake story, one man and one woman, there's gotta be incest going at some point

[@Human_81]

@@prone_to_drift7166I was gonna say thaaat 😭

[@mckdgz4994]

I always thought Orcs were made out of cooked Mud like a cookie ..heated by fire and cooled with water and added some dark magic .thus they're given life .and the reason they can multiply fast bcoz of that way .like we've seen Saruman witnessed pulling out from the mud ..his first UrukHai race. 🤔😅

[@dudemanbroguy3464]

Uruk hai are made through sorcery, orcs are pretty much believed to be made through sexual reproduction.

[@MerkhVision]

Funny u say that because that’s similar to an idea that Tolkien was playing with, that Orcs might’ve made out of clay/mud/dirt and animated by Melkor. Because Tolkien was never quite satisfied with his ideas on orc origins and never settled on one definitive version of their origin story.

[@Randomdudefromtheinternet]

@@MerkhVisionI like the idea that it’s a combination of both. In Shadow of Mordor/War some orcs would mention getting sent to the vats to be brought back to life (if with your memories intact or a clean slate is up for debate even to them), so perhaps the vats could be used to keep a steady source of meat shields (live, fight, die, repeat) but to improve the orcs themselves, some “family planning” might be needed.

[@tid06]

​@@MerkhVision Yeah but he went back on that since only Eru could grant life to things. The same reason Aules dwarves were not alive until Eru granted them life.

[@juliandacosta6841]

​@@tid06did he ever consider going further than that and making orcs fancy golems of sorts? Ogres might be twisted ents but they're basically moving rocks that stop moving in the sun. And dragons strike me as kind of made from inanimate stuff in regards to their origins.

[@ryanfairfoot263]

I imagined Orcs had an exceptionally fast pregnancy and maturation cycle in order for them to be so plentiful at all times. Similar to many animals. It wouldn't make sense to send these breeding Orcs into battle, being the limiting factor in propagation. Or they could have litters. Similar to the Skaven (rat men) of Warhammer fantasy. This would also match the corruption and mockery that Melkor aimed for. The latter makes more sense

[@justanicemelon9963]

How about both? It seems that Saruman could just whip up and army of hundreds of thousands of Orcs in a few hundred years, so it seems to be quite possible

[@dr.anaB777]

I imagine it like they breed together and the women don't produce babies, but birth half formed fetuses (kinda like kangaroos) who then crawl into the mud and grow there using the nutrition from the soil. And this is why we have that scene where the adult uruk hai is uncovered from the mud. That way we don't need to think about innocent baby uruk hai roaming about. And because they're birthing an entire litter of these and the gestation period is short, they multiply very quickly.

[@richmondlandersenfells2238]

that does make sense after all.

[@herpderp3916]

That's actually an interesting idea. Dropping the half-formed fetuses into nutrient-rich mud where they gestate and grow rapidly into physical maturity. Completely gross, but a cool concept.

[@hurin_thalion11]

if you think about it, the orcs who created from the elves and therefore they are immortal too

[@user-sf6gr9qw8x]

Only their souls if they still have one

[@hurin_thalion11]

"they're animals anyway, let them lose their souls"

[@paulraines9635]

@@hurin_thalion11 Damn, we weren't even talking about selling them dope.

[@18Krieger]

Orcs can become very old. Quite likely thousands of years but violence will end their life faster.

[@michaelcollier3893]

If you read carefully, when Shagrat & Gorbag are talking after Frodo's capture, both of them seem to remember the War of the Last Alliance.

[@johndelacruz1422]

"First comes marriage" Reality: Young, dumb, and bold.

[@wastrelperv]

With the elves, it's marriage first. Tolkien's elves had elvish (idealized Catholic-like) mindsets, thinking of them as just like humans isn't true to Tolkien. These are not DnD's chaotic good genderfluid elves with open relationships. Nor are they the Witcher's elves who think themselves so much better than humans despite partaking in the same depravity (looting, burning, killing, r*ping).

[@arcticwulf5796]

​@@wastrelpervElrond was half elven and married and elf. So it's not like its all set in stone.

[@wastrelperv]

@@arcticwulf5796 That doesn't contradict anything I said.

[@etazeta674]

Brings a whole new meaning to "where there's a whip, there's a way"

[@A_l_f_a_1]

🤨Is that what I think it is

[@denimadept]

They're really good at arithmetic.

[@_Fr49f13nd]

I think Saruman bred humans with orcs to make the Uruk-hai and I don't think any human would breed with an orc willingly hahaha. Pure evil.

[@zacktheartist609]

The orcs have a face not even a mother could love lol

[@7Elvenpath]

So he forced marriage a Human mating with an orc. Same thing, what we do when we created Pitbull puppy that forcing A terrier breed with a bulldog. And trained them to fight and made them agresif dogbreed breed. Yes, Pure Evil.

[@_Fr49f13nd]

@@7Elvenpath nah man. You got them all wrong. Pitbulls are good boys. Some of the best people I know are pittbulls. And I don't think Saruman staged elaborate wedding ceremonies for them...

[@MegaBarnacle]

@@_Fr49f13nd for real

[@rev.jonathanwint6038]

you obviously don't know humans very well... I just saw a KZbin video about a millionaire that got out on bail after raping a pig...

[@malekithsilverheart2357]

Tolkien stated there were in fact orc women, but they were not soldiers.

[@AubergineMan.]

You also can't forget their naturally incredible singing voice

[@MrDibara]

_"Where there's a whip, theeeere's a way~."_

[@Manlikepegasus]

It’s likely very much akin to the beastmen in Warhammer fantasy. They are originally “created” from a specific situation/corruption of another living species, but then became a “natural” species so to speak. Now they repopulate in varying ways, and some ways are more obvious than others. We also need to remember that Sauron and Saruman were breeding orcs during a time when elves were not as abundant, and also likely a lot harder to capture/obtain(due to their lack of presence at that time). So we know that Saruman and Sauron were breeding orcs, but in a more “scientific”/“natural” way. So you could then infer that morgoth likely bred them in a similar way, but it’s more likely that he had to create them first by corrupting the elves with dark magic. Morgoth is a lot more powerful a being than Sauron or Saruman, and it’s very much within his capabilities to have powerful enough magic to create a completely new race from corrupting elves. I personally think it’s likely that they originally were created by twisting elves with magic, but that it was no longer necessary once they were “manifested” into the world. They essentially became a new part of the ecosystem, adapted, multiplied, evolved, etc. Now they repopulate/multiply in natural ways, and also can be bred through more “scientific” means(akin to like how humans mass breed livestock).

[@duukn]

Daddy how did orks multiply so fast? Well son, did you know Peter Jackson made a film

[@gasfrommyanusi0i594]

Rings of power ain't canon. Hell it's not even fan fiction.

[@aaronjackson4965]

That burn is as deep as the fiery casim of Mt Doom

[@VLFBERHTwolf]

Amen to that.

[@guyofminimalimportance7]

A lot of extras in the Movies were actually women made to look like men. In Specific there weren't a lot of available male horseback-riders available in New-Zealand to act as the Rohan cavalry, so most of them were female riders with fake beards.

[@XBOWTOTHEFACE]

because riding a horse is gay

[@jacobelgan5196]

Orc women before "the deed": "looks like meat's back on the menu!"

[@femoman]

I think even Tolkien himself said that, due to orcs reproducing sexually, it just stands to reason and logic that femalenorcs exist, there just weren't any named in the books.

[@ColinPaddock]

I always just figured orcs reproduced like Minecraft villagers. Two orcs come together with enough food in their bellies, and a little monster goes scurrying into the darkness.

[@jankutac9753]

I always thought the original story was written for children, so it can be just discarded if you are actually trying to create a fully functional LOTR world

[@Human_81]

Well… you got something right. Something is being put in someone’s belly.😭😳

[@thetrs1949]

"Meat's back on the menu boys" has a whole new meaning now.

[@ericstaples7220]

They hired women to play male orcs in the movies, because with their smaller faces they have more room to build upon with prosthetics. They were indeed playing male orcs.

[@herpderp3916]

Being an orc extra in LOTR was probably tons of fun, aside from having to sit still for hours to get the makeup and prosthetics applied.

[@AtaMarKat]

Tolkien wrote that Orcs, like all other mammals, are sexually dimorphic, but that because he only wrote of Orcs going to war and never Orcs at home, we never met any Orc women, because Orcs don’t send their women to war.

[@elliothough7238]

the subtle jab to Amazon got you a like from me

[@Doenerwerfer]

"it's MA'AM!!!"

[@richmondlandersenfells2238]

-orc 2023

[@kevinkandra3862]

Orc voice - “ I identify as a woman grrrrrrrr”

[@Navesblue]

Art imitating life at this point.

[@Petey0707]

TERF

[@Mike01029]

I can already imagine the orc waifus if there’s an anime version of the series

[@lukenel29]

Anime or no there already orc waifus.

[@joshwarrey3728]

Rule 34

[@user-co3uc8vt7e]

How about Gears of War franchise and female locusts?

[@Evamme534]

Orcs 🤝 Dwarves People cant tell the difference between the men and the women

[@kyle360123]

They were dug up from under trees in one of the movies (I think 2 towers) leading me to believe they're fungle growths like in warhammer

[@chrisdam4027]

How do Orks multiply so fast? Simple, when an Ork dies, they release numerous spores like mushrooms... Wait... what do you mean 'Wrong Orcs'?

[@theiviachine]

That first picture of the orc is out of pocket 😂

[@pittland44]

As Tolkien himself said "they multiplied in the manner of the children of Illuvatar," that means that orcs get their freak on just as men and elves do.

[@leemastro9904]

They didn’t have tv, video games, smartphones, computers, or the internet. What else are they going to do after a long day of rampaging, murdering, or torturing everyone else?

[@deonking2648]

I died when he said they where dumb as bricks yo😂😂😂😂

[@codyspegel6317]

Witch King of Angmar was probably scared as hell surrounded by Orc womenfolk

[@Abegilr_Dragonrider]

No man could kill him, so basically every orc, male or female, could.

[@mrrodriguezHLP]

Scared? Or inspiration for new fanfic?

[@Weather-more]

​@@mrrodriguezHLPIf you have one send the link.

[@MerkhVision]

@@Weather-more shame on you Lmfao

[@Weather-more]

@@MerkhVision Not everyone can resist the shadows. I am sorry.

[@ismellthecheeze6436]

The women who played those orcs actually had the head and face structure for some good deformation and making the orcs look ragged and hidious

[@user-zs9bg6in1l]

Orc: "I'm starvin" "There ain't enough maggot'y bread for 3 stinkin days!"

[@Mike-lc2tq]

“And this in turn has given rise to the belief that there are no orc women, and that orcs just spring out of holes in the ground!”

[@apolloknight9521]

I thought they breed through spores…

[@QixTheDS]

This ain’t warhammer

[@kathev9050]

This is isekai. Orc here comes from female elven knight. 😭

[@wastrelperv]

​@@kathev9050I hate that trope so much.. Producing through r*pe alone is just so inefficient and unlikely to succeed. I've always preferred female monsters (who look just as monstrous as the males) as being part of the equation. It makes much more sense and it's so much less cruel and disgusting. I also like how Warhammer handles most their monstrous races. Lizardmen have spawning pools, orcs and goblins are fungi (spores), skaven have females (typically turned into broodmothers through science/magic), and beastmen have females but also can reproduce through r*pe including with livestock (gross but I really like that, makes sense in a world of chaos shenanigans).

[@A_l_f_a_1]

Bro

[@bdrew1111]

There were no female orcs in the source material. It's literally written in the books. It's cool that they had actresses playing as orcs, but it doesn't change the fact that there were no female orcs in the canonised Tolkein universe. This is just another example of Amazon's Rings of Power breaking established Canon.

[@DrTolis]

“For the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar…” -The Silmarillion, Chapter: Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor

[@IAmProdAG]

Love the part where he explains how Orcs multiply so fast

[@theomnipotent9402]

When a daddy orc and a mommy orc love each other a whole lot….

[@therealnickynurotic8930]

They torture an elf until it is broken to be bred by an orc

[@Human_81]

Orcussy 😋😏

[@enigmazero3082]

Dis oomie ain't know da first fing about Da Boyz.

[@duyhungle9375]

Wrong bio weapon

[@luciorodriguez1370]

Mushroom

[@Omega403]

I love that the Orks whole shtick is they are descended from weapons the old ones forgot to make an off switch for😅

[@herrbear3049]

You can’t tell me they’re not just goblin-elf halfbreeds

[@monkeydust100]

If they hold hands and kiss at the same time, boom baby.

[@Human_81]

Uhmm… it’s a bit more complicated than that… heh.. 😭😏

[@poopiedoopie2210]

Tolkien discarded the idea that Orcs are descendants of elves or men later. He also did not describe how they reproduce, so we basically know nothing about the matter.

[@venkelos6996]

I tend to support the idea that the Orcs were tortured, and mutilated from Elves, to become what they now are, and that it's mostly Morgoth's fault, but one thing I don't understand is how he changed them spiritually so much? I don't believe that Orcs are immortal, and only die via violence, even though that would probably be what kills then either way, but Elves ARE ageless, so what happened? How did Morgoth rip their immortality from them? Why don't their souls still travel to the Halls of Mandos? Morgoth didnt create their souls; he couldn't, so why are they so different? Did he strip their agelessness from them, just to tack it onto the dragons he was forging?

[@michaelcollier3893]

It's never stated openly, but if you notice when Shagrat & Gorbag are talking after Frodo's capture, they seem to be reminiscing about the War of the Last Alliance. 3000 yrs+, & both are still in prime fighting shape, so the implication is that they remain immortal. Also explains their numbers, since without a limited reproductive window like humans, they can be steadily pumping out new recruits for centuries at a time.

[@zachj2379]

Tolkien adresse this in the nature of middle earth. He says that when melkor tortured the elves, their fea, spirits, left their bodies and fled to the halls of Mandos. However, their bodies remained alive and resulted in what we now call orcs

[@richmondlandersenfells2238]

​@@zachj2379that is really depressing to think off.

[@argaveus101]

@@michaelcollier3893 Tolkien said that the orcs are not immortal, and if not killed by violence or illness will age and die. He also said that they have shorter life spans than humans.

[@michaelcollier3893]

@@argaveus101 I've never heard that. If it comes from Tolkien's later writings, remember that Christopher Tolkien said much of those were philosophical musings (basically Tolkien asking himself 'what if') and they directly contradicted his earlier work. It also makes no sense within the story. See above post about them being soulless. That would make them essentially zombies. Yet they reproduced naturally, had emotions, ambitions, creativity, needed food, rest & medicine for injuries. They also could not have been so short-lived. Bolg was the son of Azog, killed at Moria. Bolg was killed at Erebor 142 years later, & was still fit to fight. That puts them on par with dwarves at minimum, but there are other points aside from my earlier example where orcs seem to be referencing long expanses of time.

[@RobertWF42]

Next question: What did all these Orcs eat? They weren't growing crops in the dungeons of Utumno. My guess is, like Elves, they didn't have to eat a whole lot.

[@PurpleArkStudio]

Ahh yes the middle earth version of the birds and the bees.

[@adamaraneta8709]

“With orcs, it’s like the jerry springer show” fuckin killed me

[@randallsmerna384]

Played by females and being female are two different things.

[@DarkArachnid666]

Orcs, being skilled and formidable warriors, are required to know the exact number of warriors from both sides on the battlefield at all times. Because of this fact, orcs are incredibly skilled at multiplication.

[@lenardbordo9838]

I just want to point out that the theory of Melkor creating the Orcs out of corrupted Elves isn't 100% canon. Treebeard for example said that Orcs were created in the mockery of the Elves. While it is possible that corrupted Elves helped Melkor create the Orcs, from what I read Tolkien died before he really figured out the Orcs origins.

[@bloodoftheunicorns2621]

Created in the mockery of elves, doesn’t mean they weren’t created out of corrupted elves.

[@lenardbordo9838]

@@bloodoftheunicorns2621 No, but Tolkien never explicitly confirmed it either, wich is why I prefer thinking of the Orcs as: A) a generic term for most beings corrupted by Melkor, or B) a "natural" race that ended up corrupted by the first dark lord.

[@bloodoftheunicorns2621]

@@lenardbordo9838 Probably a bit of both.

[@ACEnBEAKY]

I've heard 3 things: 1. Corrupted elves 2. alchemy involving slime and dirt with the spirits of dead wicked men transferred into that body. Would explain that scene in Fellowship pulling uruks out of the ground. After seeing the Hobbit movies and the Shadow of War/dor games, Perhaps some necromancy went into the mix. 3. There were some female goblins or orcs that may not have been so totally gone, no so totally corrupt (although maybe inclined in that direction) that they could still reproduce naturally.... Although if impregnated by an orc or uruk born of darkness, I don't know who the offspring would take after more. I'm inclined to believe that it's mostly the first 2. They started as Corrupted elves and then when they died their bodies were used in something akin to necromancy and alchemical equivalent of cloning. The 2nd option would perpetuate the first. It would like if Star Wars Fett Clones, upon death, would be recycled into cheaper flash clones, resulting in clone degradation. If it was split up into multiples and stretched thin, you would have some problems with the final product. I wonder if that principal applied to the creation of orcs.

[@hollandia86]

Tolkien disliked the idea that a demon/devil like creature could create life so Orcs are more manufactured than born

[@Baribrotzer]

I had figured that most of the orc women worked on the huge farms around the Sea of Rhun, and raised their children - who are born in litters of four to six, and are mature by the age of eight. Those farms are also where the Orcs' rations come from.

[@DirtCobaine]

Then there’s the uruk hai. Who are tall, built, smart and don’t fear the sun. As well as the Olog-hai which were even more fearsome than the Uruk-hai because they’re basically the troll equivalent of Uruk-hai

[@capncake8837]

There aren’t really that many female warriors seen in LOTR. There are a few notable ones, but that’s it. So it stands to reason that all the orc women, much like the dwarf women and Hobbit women, are back home. Additionally, long periods of time passed between each war that the orcs had to participate in, giving them a lot of time to multiply.

[@emperor002002]

I like the reproduction cycle of the Orcs from Warhammer 40K best.

[@mrrodriguezHLP]

Thas ORKS! Yah git! DA KAY IZ SILENT!!!

[@684avatar]

I don’t. The biology of it makes no sense but it’s warhammer after all lol

[@emperor002002]

@@684avatar Well if they set foot on a planet it's only a matter of time until game over. Kill them and spores galore.

[@tzerpa9446]

They learn their multiplication facts at school, from 0 to 10. They're good at algebra.

[@alwinw64]

he did say they were dumb 🍻

[@roslolian11]

Bro dont you know according to Rings of Power Orcs are a family loving race who just wants to raise their children in peace 😂

[@dionshaewishum4179]

You would think considering the origin of orcs, they would be more powerful and maybe use some archaic type magic. Tolkien may have underutilized the orcs. Their society would have been fascinating if he had more grey areas in his work. With Tolkien was usually “good or evil” and little in between.

[@user-co3uc8vt7e]

Tolkien wrote his orcs as antithesis of everything good or respectable. Even giving them skills with machinery was an act of evil in his eyes, probably because of WWI trauma.

[@waltonsmith7210]

Theres plenty of grey areas in Tolkiens work...just not orcs.

[@aminmian7291]

Here I was thinking they come from spores when another dies in battle or when they are in a "WAARG!" state, they passive spew out spores. Oh wait, that's warhammer 40k.

[@YuuSHiiiN]

Lok'tar Ogar! For the Horde!

[@braxton7753]

I'd say it is because of the low poverty level they live at, poor sexual education and a lack of male role models, also known as fathers. I have never seen the statistics but I would wager there is a fair amount of orc on orc crime as well. Sauron and Saruman should both be held accountable in my opinion.

[@lordhelmet9066]

Goblins came first then orcs and it was goblins that were allergic to the sun. Elves were bread with goblins and magic to make orcs....

[@argaveus101]

orcs and goblins are the same thing in the setting, just different words

[@HeadbutKneecap]

Imagine walking into a cave and just seeing an orc pile drive another orc

[@Eckskalibur]

‘Cuz they’re part mush- Whoops, wrong IP.

[@Mulletmanalive]

In the third age, I honestly assumed orcs were basically just the goblins from Goblinslayer as that’s what the Isengard breeding pits seemed like to my 13 year old brain. In the other hand, if they had litters, their udders would mostly retract outside of flush, so female orcs would be indistinguishable in armour. If you want a bit of default savagery, perhaps female orcs only enter oestrus when they eat the heart of a sentient being.

[@ryan-pp6bg]

Morgoth had the orcs doing the Amish thing called "soaking" if any of you know what I'm talking about 😂

[@afrikasmith1049]

Goblins from Goblin Slayer: We take females from most races and make them into playthings. Orcs from LOTR: We kidnap Elves and corrupt them until they are like us.

[@ffarkasm]

you know, bees and flowers

[@whiteknightcat]

One would presume they had access to calculators in order to multiply quickly.

[@secdup2510]

Did you seriously just accuse me of assuming the gender of orcs in the lord of the rings movies.

[@LordHypnos4]

Calculators, their technology is ahead of their time

[@24Pudders]

If you listen closely when the orcs are chanting "GROND!" you can hear female voices amongst them

[@wildbill9490]

According to the non-canon MERP game, orcs are fully mature by age nine. That would certainly explain their “productivity”.

[@alexstraz]

Why was uruk kai? Pulled out of a flesh sack in the second movie of LoTR? I thought this was their birth

[@josericardomartinezramirez4113]

peter jackson took many creative liberties creating the movies. that method was used as an allegory in the writtings that jackson used in a literal way so to not imply orc sex.

[@R2D2xC24]

Yeah... Because of that scene I thought Sauron used dark magic to resurrect the dead men and elf to uruk kai...

[@josericardomartinezramirez4113]

@@R2D2xC24 tolkien used the phrase "born in mud and slime" in a literary way to call the orcs "dirty beings", similar of lets say you would call someone "pig" or "scum", but jackson did it in a literal way. tolkien said orcs are elves so they reproduce the same way, and urukai are a combination of orc and human, so orcs basically r*pe human women to create hybrids.

[@Comrade_Marius]

@@josericardomartinezramirez4113 Uruk hai are not bred with human, they’re just a better breed. Orcs bred with humans already exist separately as Orc-men/half orcs, never seen in the movies tho

[@maxmillan5195]

now I know why they call Adar father. OMG.

[@phatec]

Everything in anime about orcs and goblins is that they breed the old fashioned way with every race, their offspring takes just days to birth. Re:Monster it’s a good anime about it.

[@SuperChristian808]

Maybe they have brood mother like dark spawn

[@user-py2nw8bp1i]

“Ah shit we’re outnumbered and need troops fast” “Alright get the girls over here”

[@vilyar122]

I really thought you were going to say "first come marriage, wait one thousand years, then come the baby" lol

[@richmondlandersenfells2238]

It's like looking at dwarf women. except they're more numerous than dwarf women.

[@aarondavis8652]

All them welfare checks.

[@leftifornian2066]

Bankrupting da country

[@shirtlessviking9225]

no, they lay eggs. (jk)

[@sigma2.093]

Back in the Third Age, the orcs were the first to download the calculator app on their smartphones.

[@eminum7777]

When putin announces a new mobilization.