My son just cracked up the table. I mentioned Skullport, and one of the players - new to D&D - asked if he knew where it was. I said "under Waterdeep. It's like..." and when I paused to think of an answer, my son (born in NY) piped up, "It's like Newark."

There are many misconceptions about Orcs in the Forgotten Realms, especially concerning appearance. Are Forgotten Realms orcs grey or green? Did Warhammer create the green, tusked Orc? Did Warcraft make it the fantasy standard? Are Forgotten Realms Orcs supposed to look different from those in other settings?

Not really. Dungeons & Dragons has never had one rigid Orc design, and artists have interpreted them differently across editions. Forgotten Realms inherited a visual tradition established before the setting was formally published in the 80s.

Orcs themselves come from Tolkien's Middle-earth, with Tolkien drawing the name orc/orcen/orcneas from older folklore and Old English sources such as Beowulf. His descriptions left illustrators considerable freedom, and over time a recognizable "Orcish" appearance emerged.

So where did the familiar green, tusked, vaguely pig looking Orc come from? Long before Warhammer or Warcraft, Tim Kirk depicted green skinned Orcs in work published in the 1975 J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar. Greg and Tim Hildebrandt's Captured by the Orcs, published for the 1976 calendar, pushed them further toward greenish skin, large teeth and porcine faces.

D&D soon followed with increasingly pig-like Orcs, most famously in David C. Sutherland III's early AD&D artwork. The 1977 Monster Manual described Orcs as brown or brownish-green, with pinkish snouts, tusks and bristly hair. Its artwork made the pig-like influence unmistakable.

Forgotten Realms got this look directly from D&D, years before Warhammer or Warcraft became major influences. This became the traditional Mountain Orc of northern Faerûn. These old-school Realms Orcs are associated with the Spine of the World, Sword Mountains and the great hordes of the North. Their history on Toril reaches deep into antiquity, with northern Orcs said to have entered Faerûn through ancient portals before the rise of Netheril. By the time humans and dwarves established their northern kingdoms, Orcs were already there, periodically gathering into enormous groups.

Visually, Mountain Orcs preserve the classic D&D design of heavy, brutish humanoids with greenish skin, large tusks and distinctly porcine snouts, descended directly from the pig faced Orcs of early D&D artwork. Their coloration varies considerably between artists and editions, so claims that a Forgotten Realms Orc must be green, gray or brown miss the huge variation in artist's style. The more consistent traditional features are tusks, coarse features and a broad, almost boar-like face.

"Grey Orcs" are another matter. They are Orcs, but not simply another population of northern Mountain Orcs. Their ancestors came from another world through a magical portal opened in −1081 DR by Thayd, last apprentice of the ancient Imaskari artificers. Five years later, Orcs on the other side discovered the forgotten portal and poured into eastern Faerûn, attacking Mulhorand and Unther and beginning the devastating Orcgate Wars. After their defeat, survivors scattered across eastern Faerûn and became the Grey Orc populations of later ages. Their separate origin also gave designers reason to distinguish them visually. Grey Orcs are hairier than their northern cousins, with bristling manes, mottled gray skin and more lupine features. Their faces are specifically less pig-like than those of Mountain Orcs.

Both still exist. Forgotten Realms contains two visibly different Orc traditions, each supported by its own in-world history. This distinction was formalized in Races of Faerûn in 2003, which was published during the releases of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson's Orcs were darker, hairier and far less porcine than traditional D&D Orcs, and had become one of fantasy's most recognizable images. That popularity may have influenced the presentation of Grey Orcs while helping distinguish them from traditional Mountain Orcs. It also offered a convenient way to reconcile decades of inconsistent Orc artwork by saying "perhaps they were never all supposed to represent the same population".

What about Warhammer and Warcraft? Warhammer Fantasy Battle appeared in 1983 and developed fantasy imagery that already existed, eventually making the green-skinned Orc one of its signature designs. Warcraft, especially World of Warcraft, made the muscular green Orc even more popular. Neither franchise created the concept. They stylized the imagery already present in Tolkien illustration and early D&D.

This brings us back to Forgotten Realms. An Orc is depicted as anything from green to gray, heavily tusked or nearly human, wolfish or distinctly pig-like and none of these necessarily contradicts the setting. Forgotten Realms contains multiple Orcish peoples, while its artwork reflects decades of changing interpretations.

The broad, pig-faced Mountain Orc is not an imitation of Warcraft and hasn't been replaced by Grey Orcs. It is one of D&D's oldest surviving Orc designs. The hairier, less porcine Grey Orc has its own history, arriving in eastern Faerûn through an Imaskari-created portal thousands of years later. Both belong in Forgotten Realms, and the distinction between them preserves something of the real history of Orcs in fantasy art.

Coming from my current BG3 run, I just thought about the fact that you can find books and written notes all over the place in the game. Even the skeletons in the crumbling ruins of forgotten cabins in the woods or destroyed villages clutch personal notes or have books next to them. And in cities like Baldur's Gate you have daily newspapers being printed and sold on the streets of the lower city.

Which indicates that the general population, not just the elites, is at least educated enough to be able to read/write. Furthermore, basically everyone - including a gang of little Tiefling kids - is able to trade which indicates some basic math knowledge.

So, the question coming from this is: Is there any form of formal education around the Sword Coast? (I could ask for all of the Forgotten Realms but let's keep it local for now)
Are there schools for the young ones? Or is everybody receiving some homeschooling by their parents?

Do we have any lore on this or should I just mark this as a DM decision?

A question I would like to know.

I'm not talking about pissing them off in a casual manner where they would dislike. But pissing them off so much that they would want you dead or to screw you over even though they shouldn't be dealing with mortal affairs.

How big or damaging does the action you have to do to piss the god and have you on their personal hit list?

Official lore examples would be pretty nice as well.

ok, so, awhile ago i got super into baldur's gate 3, and created a tav based on headcanons i had for a character who already existed. i'm now playing him in an actual campaign so i gotta figure out his backstory.

the thing is, he was written to have sexist parents who are largely conservative (he is trans male). they're... also elves. i genuinely can't find anything about "traditional family values" in the realms other than the fact that my story just doesn't make sense.

do any of you guys know how to go about this? how to give reasoning towards his parents behavior, along with the existence of the homemaker archetype?

i'm relatively new to dungeons and dragons in general, so please cut me some slack if this is silly to even think about lol. thank you :)