Üneküm combine the features of a human and an orc. Originally considered the half-breed outcome of interbreeding between those two, üneküm were given the ability to parent their own children by Morabis making them their own ancestry. Üneküm are sometimes called half-orcs. They are most common in Ealia where their kind originates, but they also hold dominion over Islingar along with elfkin.

Characteristics

Üneküm share many qualities with their orc heritage, but their blend of human traits make them unmistakable for either. Their skin tones range from dark to light grey and their hair is black, brown, or dark shades of purple. Their faces often combine the rounded facial features of a human with the broad and flattened features of an orc, with their ears notably having orc-shaped upward-pointed tips. Üneküm also have the distinctive lower tusks of an orc although they are not as large, typically extending just beyond the upper lip.

Üneküm are slightly taller than humans on average, standing between five and a half and six and a half feet tall. They're naturally more muscular and broad than a human. An üneküm will mature faster than a human and reach physical maturity by 12-14 years old. They can live up to 80 years before dying of natural causes. An üneküm will show no signs of aging until the last few months of their life at which point their health rapidly deteriorates. Üneküm are often sought after as bodyguards, physical labourers, and soldiers for their innate strength and endurance, and they've integrated well into primarily human societies because of this.

Names and Language

They are responsible for bringing the orcish language to many cultures in Ealia, and most üneküm continue to speak it and teach it to their children. Usually, üneküm have given names and family names much like humans, and have adopted family or clan names of the human societies they've integrated into. However, üneküm prefer using orcish given names, rather than human ones. Though often called half-orcs by other ancestries, they prefer the endonym üneküm, which means free people.

Origins

Üneküm were originally the rare, infertile half-breed offspring of humans and orcs. The orcs that occupy the Deep Fields in central Ealia frequently raid the surrounding regions of Torwick, Westmark, the Northern Lowlands, and the Witchwood for valuable resources as well as slaves. While raiding, both male and female orcs forcefully breed with the humans and elves in these regions. While mating with elves and other ancestries does not produce offspring, mating with humans would produce half-orcs.

Half-orcs became highly sought after by orcs as prized possessions. They made superior slaves, and their company was preferred to that of humans and elves. Half-orcs also had the same evil in their hearts that orcs did, and would serve orcs in battle willingly. However, because they were infertile, orcs had to continue producing them with interbreeding. Nearing 600 BDC, half-orcs in servitude to orcs numbered in the tens of thousands. As part of a long-standing dispute with his brother, Morabis used a piece of his shard to grace half-orcs with the capability of goodness and granted them the ability to have children of their own. At the turn of the century 600 BDC, half-orcs all across the Deep Fields rose up against their orc masters. While not all half-orcs embraced their newly gifted sense of good, the majority distanced themselves from orc-kind, initially forming their own horde in the Deep Fields and calling themselves the üneküm, or free people in the orcish language.

Many wars over the next hundred years forced üneküm to abandon the Deep Fields and seek life among the human societies that bordered, namely Westmark, Torwick, and the Northern Lowlands. They would continue to live alongside humans for a thousand years until the Great Migration in 422 DC, which would see üneküm migrate south to Islingar by the hundreds of thousands. In Aedelor today, üneküm are a minority in most places of the world except in the Commonweal of Islingar, which they share dominion over with elfkin.

Üneküm Characters