Concretely, orcs are barbarian monsters with beast-like looks created by Tolkien, who has them be elves abducted, tortured to the point of being repulsive and disformed and corrupted by Morgoth. However, unlike hobbits and ents, they are not copyrighted because the word "orc" and its derivates appear several times in ancient European texts where they are often interchangeable with or translated by "ogre" : Grendel and his mother are orcneas in Beowulf, the orco is a monster in Orlando Furioso etc. Orcs are thus ancient and modern at once. Since then, they are part of the unmissable species of heroic fantasy and roleplay games. Generally they are often represented nowadays as as a barbarian society rather close to nature with a warrior code of honor, often represented as tall, buff with tusks, pointy ears and a green or brown skin, at times hostile other times neutral

Orcs © J.R.R Tolkien and European texts
Les Chevaliers du Prisme, Rabalam and drawing © me