This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Seven Seals: I'm curious if we can find out who came up with "Blizzardian" Orcs. It clearly wasn't Blizzard, and I don't think it was Bethesda either (though I could be mistaken). I have no objection against calling them "Blizzard" Orcs, BTW, since they are probably the most well-known instance, but Blizzard didn't start the tradition.
Etrangere: Coudl be Tabletop Games Warhammer? It's not that weird a concept in itself, I know when I was a teen I had a very similar envisionnement for "orcs" at a time when I had read only about Tolkien and D&D orcs. I think subverting an Always Chaotic Evil people into a Proud Warrior Race Guy people is in itself a trope. Isn't that what happened to the Klingon in the first place?
SAMAS: The two camps of Orc, thematically, are the Tolkien/D&D "Generic evil Subhuman", usually depicted with a pig's snout, and the Warhammer/Warcraft "Greenskin", with the pronounced tusks and jaw and huge size. Wikipedia's article on Orcs has a lot about that.
arromdee: I suspect that Grunts! may actually be the source of the greenskin version.
KiTA: Well, Warhammer created the green-skinned, "WAAAGH"ing Orcs years and years before Warcraft added them (Warhammer was started in 1983, Warcraft 1 came out in 1994), although in Warcraft 3 they finally came into their own as a race. In fact, Warcraft was originally a Warhammer video game before Games-Workshop pulled the plug, deciding this "video game" business wouldn't be profitable (or would take too much business away from their tabletop game). Blizzard decided not to let the work go to waste, and the rest is history.
- Mbessgettios: The evidence for the "Failed warhammer game" theory of the origin of Warcraft is pretty sketchy in my eyes. I've never seen anything but circumstantial evidence supporting it. In fact, I dont think this dubious idea should even be mentioned on this page at all, unless someone can provide some more solid evidence.
MrGorilla: I don't think 'The way of Thorn and Thunder' trilogy under literature belongs here. The original troper said the Kyn are more or less Blizzard Orcs, but if you go to the author's site and look under creative works there are sketches of the Kyn. They look for the most part like gnomes, and a few could pass for human.
Daibhid C: I've got an example I really want to add, but just alluding to it would qualify as a spoiler for the book...
