History Main / RaisedByOrcs

** Similarly, Aboriginal Australian children would often be kidnapped by the Aussies to raise them as "white", often times they were snatched out from the hospitals and their mothers told they didn't survive childbirth. This still happens in some places, even though it was technically made illegal...in the 1990s.

* As a 12 year old, the Norwegian king Eirik I was given the command of 5 longships and sent on a 4 year viking expedition. When he came home, people started calling him by his more famous nickname: ''[[NamesToRunFromReallyFast Bloodaxe]]''.

** Subverted in the episode "Suddenly Human", in which the ''Enterprise'' discovers, and attempts to "rescue", a human teenager who was adopted as a small child by a military officer of an alien species, after his human parents were killed by them during a past war between them and the Federation. Signs of old injuries that were interpreted as abuse turn out to be due to the usual hazards of an adventurous boyhood as part of a ProudWarriorRace, and Picard and the crew finally accept the genuine love between the boy and his adoptive father, and his desire to return to the culture he was brought up in.
* In ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'', a young Ryan Mitchell is taken by the demon Diabolico, and raised to hate his human father.

* Connor from ''Series/{{Angel}}'' was kidnapped by KnightTemplar villain Holtz. Who is actually human, and he would otherwise have been raised by a (good) vampire. Still, being raised by a fanatical vampire hunter in a demon dimension had a pretty clear negative effect on his stability.

* As a child, while fleeing Norway with his mother after his father was killed during a war for the throne, Olaf Trygvasson was taken captive by Estonian pirates. His foster-father was killed, and he was raised by the pirates as a slave and sold or traded several times. Six years later, his uncle finds him there while collecting taxes, buys him, and takes him to Gardriki (that is Kievan Rus), where he was originally fleeing to, where he serves in the court of King Valdemar (that is Saint Vladimir the Great). Despite (or perhaps because of) his unusual upbringing, he becomes a competent and well-liked military commander, and avenges his foster father by killing his murderer, eventually becoming King of Norway before dying fighting his rival to the throne.

The child isn't so much [[RaisedByWolves raised by a pack of wolves]] or even [[RaisedByNatives natives]] (who while foreign or wild, genuinely love the child), but by their AlwaysChaoticEvil equivalents. Usually the orphan is from an orc raid, and his or her adopted parent(s) took them in out of either [[PetTheDog a rare display of paternal/maternal instinct]], or to spite their human foes by [[RevengeThroughCorruption twisting their children into cruel mockeries of themselves]]. Their life will probably consist of TrainingFromHell coupled with nihilistic life lessons, and [[SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining focus on combat over social interaction]]. They will be taught MightMakesRight, that AsskickingEqualsAuthority, and to worship their GodOfEvil if they have one.

[[folder: Fairy Tales]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

** Native Americans [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jemison sometimes]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Ann_Parker captured]] white European settlers' children during raids on early colonial settlements, raising them as their own; their birth parents, who viewed the natives as enemies of civilization in general as well as their own settlements (and who feared for their children's souls, since the settlers were typically staunch Protestants while the natives were mostly pagan or Roman Catholic), were eager to rescue them. However, many children did not take their birth parents up on that offer, as the Native Americans had raised them as their own children and they now felt closer to their "adopted" culture. This topic is the subject of many examples of TheCaptivityNarrative.

* This was done, in a manner of speaking, by both sides of the European conquest of North America. Native Americans sometimes captured white European settlers' children during raids on early colonial settlements, raising them as their own; their birth parents, who viewed the natives as enemies of civilization in general as well as their own settlements (and who feared for their children's souls, since the settlers were typically staunch Protestants while the natives were mostly pagan or Roman Catholic), were eager to rescue them. However, many children did not take their birth parents up on that offer, as the Native Americans had raised them as their own children and they now felt closer to their "adopted" culture. Women/girls tended to experience far more freedom in Native societies than they would have under 17th-18th century colonial America's strict gender roles. Later in the 1800s, in Canada and especially the USA, governments and social reformers set up special [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_boarding_schools boarding schools]] in an effort to "civilize" and thereby assimilate the natives' children into their own culture. The schools were little to no better than open warfare, as they were often extremely abusive, using harsh physical and psychological punishments on Native American or First Nations children who refused to give up traditional dress/grooming, abandon their native religious beliefs, or stop speaking their native languages. It didn't serve to "increase goodwill" between the cultures, as some of the "social reformers" may have hoped, so much as forcibly erase many Native American cultural practices altogether. Though the boarding schools have since ceased to exist, the damage was done.

* The UrExample of this trope comes from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave-making_ant slave-making ants]]. These ant species raid other ant colonies and kidnap their brood, imprinting their colony's scent on them. These brood grow into adult ants believing their kidnappers are their home colony and unwittingly work for them as sleves their whole life.

* This was done, in a manner of speaking, by both sides of the European conquest of North America. Native Americans sometimes captured white European settlers' children during raids on early colonial settlements, raising them as their own; their birth parents, who viewed the natives as enemies of civilization in general as well as their own settlements (and who feared for their children's souls, since the settlers were typically staunch Protestants while the natives were mostly pagan or Roman Catholic), were eager to rescue them. However, many children did not take their birth parents up on that offer, as the Native Americans had raised them as their own children and they now felt closer to their "adopted" culture. women/girls in particular tended to experience far more freedom in Native societies than they would have under 17th-18th century colonial America's strict gender roles. Later in the 1800s, in Canada and especially the USA, governments and social reformers set up special [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_boarding_schools boarding schools]] in an effort to "civilize" and thereby assimilate the natives' children into their own culture. The schools were little to no better than open warfare, as they were often extremely abusive, using harsh physical and psychological punishments on Native American or First Nations children who refused to give up traditional dress/grooming, abandon their native religious beliefs, or stop speaking their native languages. It didn't serve to "increase goodwill" between the cultures, as some of the "social reformers" may have hoped, so much as forcibly erase many Native American cultural practices altogether. Though the boarding schools have since ceased to exist, the damage was done.

* Much like the Franchise/{{Superman}} example below, [[Franchise/DragonBall Goku]] is viewed as this trope by his fellow Saiyans, especially his brother Raditz, who is horrified to find that his baby brother is living happily among the very beings he was supposed to murder. Vegeta also shows some shades of this with Goku early on, constantly disgusted whenever Goku display human values such as mercy and honor. Both tried to make Goku recover his true nature. Raditz [[IHaveYourWife kidnapped his son to blackmail him into killing people]], which outright failed. Vegeta did instill some of the pride of being a Saiyan, although he could never make Goku act as brutal or as cold-hearted as a typical Saiyan.

* Several surviving Kryptonian influences and SufficientlyAdvancedAliens floating around the DCU seem to think {{Superman}} is this trope, and that they should help him [[VillainousLineage recover his "true nature"]] rather than abandon him among the unworthy, inferior, savage human race. Clark Kent has a few issues with this interpretation.

** Similarly, in Australia Aboriginal children would often be kidnapped by the Aussies to raise them as "white", often times they were snatched out from the hospitals and their mothers told they didn't survive childbirth. This still happens in some places, even though it was technically made illegal...in the 1990s.

* Princess Aldrif Odinsdottir of Asgard was raised by the Angels of the Tenth Realm, who aren't always chaotic evil per see ''just'' think "Lawful", "Neutral" and "Evil" in any possible combination (their culture is very materialistic and deeply trenched in deals and bartering, so they don't tend to see worth in anything that cannot be assigned a price tag) -- oh yeah, you might know her better as ComicBook/{{Angela|AsgardsAsassin}}.

* Princess Aldrif Odinsdottir of Asgard was raised by the Angels of the Tenth Realm, who aren't always chaotic evil per see ''just'' think "Lawful", "Neutral" and "Evil" in any possible combination (their culture is very materialistic and deeply trenched in deals and bartering, so they don't tend to see worth in anything that cannot be assigned a price tag) -- oh yeah, you might know her better as Comicbook/{{Angela|MarvelComics}}.

* ''Literature/OliverTwist'' -- Oliver, a member of the gentry, is orphaned and left at the mercy of cruel, greedy caretakers and ultimately London's criminal class. He manages to remain [[IncorruptiblePurePureness uncorrupted]] by their influence

* The alien ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' is raised by convicts in a prison and taught right from wrong (more specifically, that right ''is'' wrong). He seems to have had a happy and emotionally healthy childhood, despite having a very limited understanding of social skills. His education is also lacking, as reflected by occasional mispronunciations of English words, the most common one being "school" (which he pronounces as "shool").

* As a 12 year old, the Norwegian king Eirik I was given the command of 5 longships and sent on a 4 year viking expedition. When he came home, people started calling him by his more famous nickname: ''[[NamesToRunFromRealFast Bloodaxe]]''.

* As a child, while fleeing Norway with his mother after his father was killed during a war for the throne, Olaf Trygvasson was taken captive by Estonian pirates. His foster-father was killed, and he was raised by the pirates as a slave and sold or traded several times. Six years later, his uncle finds him there while collecting taxes, buys him, and takes him to Gardriki, where he was originally fleeing to, where he serves in the court of King Valdemar. Despite (or perhaps because of) his unusual upbringing, he becomes a competent and well-liked military commander, and avenges his foster father by killing his murderer, eventually becoming King of Norway before dying fighting his rival to the throne.

* Several surviving Kryptonian influences and SufficientlyAdvancedAliens floating around the DCU seem to think {{Superman}} is this trope, and that they should help him [[InTheBlood recover his "true nature"]] rather than abandon him among the unworthy, inferior, savage human race. Clark Kent has a few issues with this interpretation.

Of course, having not come from the Always Chaotic Evil stock, evil is not InTheBlood for them and is "[[UpbringingMakesTheHero all nurture]]", so they're prime HeelFaceTurn material. This can actually escalate if [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes their foster parent(s) do love them]], and the Orc Raised adult manages a community wide turn.

* An inversion is Serena the Pious, an [[SquareRaceRoundClass Orc Paladin]] introduced in the third expansion to ''TabletopGame/RedDragonInn''. Her backstory, essentially a ShoutOut to the iconic D&D moral dilemma of "ThePaladin wipes out a tribe of orcs -- but what does s/he do with the innocent orc babies left after the AlwaysChaoticEvil adults are dead?", is that human paladins of Korash wiped out her tribe, found her amidst the wreckage, and decided to adopt her and raise her to be a paladin of Korash in turn. She does believe in Korash's teachings, but has problems balancing them against her [[InTheBlood inherently chaotic Orc instincts]], meaning her personal mechanic situation is KarmaMeter to gauge just how close she's managing to stick to her faith.

* ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan: Oracle for Hire'' has the character Kharnak, who fits the ''letter'' of the trope, but since in this strip orcs are a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Native Americans he's closer to RaisedByNatives in practice. He still fits under this trope as well, however, as a key part of his character is feeling out of place no matter where he goes. Though the orcs took him in, he was never really fully accepted by them because of his physical differences (humans can't eat Orc vegetables which are as tough as bark).
* Unusually inverted in the webcomic ''[[Webcomic/{{Goblins}} Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes]]'', which briefly shows a group of various monsters, which includes an orc that had been part of a raid on a dwarf settlement the previous winter. During the raid he encounters the very young son of a dwarf he killed, and because he couldn't leave the child to die the orc has been taking care of him ever since. Obviously the orc isn't exactly the normal ChaoticEvil brute orcs are generally presented as. However, the hideout gets raided by a dwarf paladin named Kore, who wipes out all the monsters, including the orc as the orc begs for Kore to spare the child. Because Kore is a crazed KnightTemplar, he believes that because of this trope the child will be tainted by evil and likely to sympathize with monsters, so in a major KickTheDog moment, he kills the kid too.
* Inverted in Webcomic/TwoKinds: Flora is [[BeastMan an anthropomorphic tigress]] who was raised by humans. Same goes for the fox Evals who was born in slavery. And the [[NonhumanHumanoidHybrid canine/feline hybrid]] Catlyn was the result of a breeding program for slaves, ''sex'' slaves [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the humans are the orcs in this verse]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Glorianna}}'', Hope is raised from infancy by the fanatical priestesses of Ojhal, only to be "rescued" by their rivals, the equally fanatical cult of Syons.
* In the ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' tie-in book ''StartOfDarkness,'' [[DragonWithAnAgenda Redcloak]]'s brother, Right-Eye, gives his daughter up to humans to raise after their whole village is forced into [[TheCaligula Xykon]]'s army. This is after his two sons have already fallen in battle, and given the brothers' [[FantasticRacism hatred]] [[FreudianExcuse of humans]] he was clearly desperate.

* Adora from ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'' was kidnapped by Hordak as a baby and raised by the Horde, though it doesn't take much for her to do a HeelFaceTurn since for some bizarre reason Hordak didn't try to instill his AlwaysChaoticEvil values on his de-facto daughter, instead raising her to believe in crazy stuff like justice and honor, and lying to her that he was a just ruler and that the rebels were misguided troublemakers. Though he threw in some MindControl courtesy of Shadow Weaver for good measure.
** [[WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower The remake is mostly the same]]; the Horde ''regularly'' raises orphaned young children of invaded territories to be soldiers, with Shadow Weaver raising Adora and Catra... [[AbusiveParents badly]]. Adora is the just odd defector, as she had long remained oblivious to how destructive the Horde was in "bringing order" to Etheria.
* [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Lincoln Loud]] thought this was the case with Ronnie Anne, admitting he assumed she was raised by trolls. This isn't the case, as shown in later episodes, and this comment [[ItMakesSenseInContext got him a dozen CD's thrown at him by his eldest sister]].
* Karai from ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' was [[spoiler:born the daughter of Hamato Yoshi (later named Splinter after his mutation)]], but she was raised by the Shredder as a member of the Foot Clan, being involved in all of the illegal and dishonorable activity that entails.

* In ''Mutant Football League'', the Orcs of Hazzard are all orcs except for superstar RB Iron Jaw Macgilicutti, a human. The team's bio states he was abandoned in the bayou as a child, raised by orcs, and still thinks he's an orc.

** Similarly, in Australia Aboriginal children would often be kidnapped by the Aussies to raise them as "white", often times they were snatched out from the hospitals and their mothers told they didn't survive childbirth. This still happens in some places, even though it was technically made illegal... in the 1990s.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Much like the Franchise/{{Superman}} example below, [[Franchise/DragonBall Goku]] is viewed as this trope by his fellow Saiyans, especially his brother Raditz, who is horrified to find that his baby brother is living happily among the very beings he was suppose to murder. Vegeta also shows some shades of this with Goku early on, constantly disgusted whenever Goku display human values such as mercy and honor. Both tried to make Goku recover his true nature. Raditz [[IHaveYourWife kidnapped his son to blackmail him into killing people]], which outright failed. Vegeta did instill some of the pride of being a Saiyan, although he could never make Goku act as brutal or as cold-hearted as a typical Saiyan.

* Played with in many ways with the character Tahiri Veila, a Jedi Apprentice (and later Jedi Knight) from the ''Franchise/StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], particularly the Literature/NewJediOrder. She actually ''was'' raised by Tusken Raiders, but this was closer to Raised by Natives since the Tuskens, their outings in the movies notwithstanding, aren't all bad. ''Then'' the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] show up, kidnap Tahiri, and attempt to brainwash her into believing she's one of them (in order to create a Force-using Vong warrior)- so she ends up with two sets of memories, in one of which she was raised by, essentially, space orcs crossed with space dark elves, as one of their own. Further complicating matters, the Vong [[MadScientist Shapers]] tell her that she was one of them captured and raised ''by humans'' before beginning said brainwashing, which considering the Vong see themselves as the good guys and their enemies as AlwaysChaoticEvil, is basically this trope from the opposite perspective.