Gray orc

Gray orcs were more civilized orcs than others who lived in the Moonsea and Hordelands.

Description
Gray orc males were typically in height and  in weight, while females were typically  in height and  in weight.

They were rather hairy, with long "manes" of black bristles on their head, shoulders, and back. They had wolfish ears, and their faces were somewhat less porcine than those of mountain orcs, though they retained the tusks and were still obviously orcish.

In coloring, gray orcs typically had red, orange, or yellow eyes, black hair, and gray skin with mottled patches of darker or lighter shades on the chest and flanks. Unlike mountain orcs, they typically wore more "civilized" clothing, normally in shades of black, brown, blue, and other dark colors.

Personality
Gray orcs were just as savage and barbaric as mountain orcs, but lacked drive to conquer and enslave of their northern kin. They preferred to trust their hearts and instincts over logic, and were likely to react suddenly and irrationally to events. Given the opportunity to attack a hated rival, a gray orc would not hesitate even if that same rival had defeated them countless times before. Even so, gray orcs were noted to be calmer and more collected than mountain orcs.

Abilities
Gray orcs were strong and fast. Due to their long strides they were capable of rapidly covering significant distances on foot.

Like other orcs, gray orcs possessed darkvision, but were also sensitive to bright light. And they had a keen sense of smell.

Combat
Gray orcs preferred to wear light armor in combat, as it allowed them to fight relatively unencumbered and to use their speed in battle. Their warriors typically trained as fighters, barbarians, and occasionally rangers.

Gray orcs were skilled with the longbow and greataxe, as they began training with these weapons in childhood. Gray orcs considered the axe a holy weapon, and a gray orc spent considerable time maintaining his axe, constantly repairing even minor fractures and dents. Their axes were often garishly adorned with tokens of beads, feathers, gems and even small body parts taken from their fallen enemies. Most gray orcs kept a tally of enemies killed with their axe, either by making a notch in the handle or inscribing their target's name on the axe head.

Society
As nomads, gray orcs established migratory routes that took them across the remote and desolate parts of northeast Faerûn, traveling between their favorite campsites and caves. Their nomadic travels were seasonal, though they also moved whenever resources in an area ran out. Gray orc tribes were found throughout Damara, the Moonsea, Rashemen, Thesk, Vaasa, the Vast, and the nearby Hordelands.

Gray orcs lived in small tribes of normally at least thirty and up to fifty individuals, led by a single individual, the chieftain, whose main duty was determining when the tribe attacked a target. The position of chieftain was, in reality, a temporary title, as chieftains were often killed before long.

The clerics of a gray orc tribe were the true source of power. The high priest, often a female, was the true leader of the tribe and often retained this title for many years. Gray orcs were zealous and the words of the clerics were tribal law. Some clerics were known to train as divine champions or divine disciples if they lived long enough.

Gray orcs were suspicious and untrusting of anyone outside of their tribe, including orcs of other tribes. They often assumed that another tribe was better off and would attack it to steal resources; moreover, their clerics typically viewed any cleric from another tribe as a heretic (despite the fact that both tribes usually worshiped the same deities in the same manner). Gray orcs had no specific hatred for any other species, instead hating all other equally; with the exception of kobolds and goblins, who they sometimes enslaved, and ogres, whose strength they admired.

Tribes were known to keep small families of beasts such as dire weasel, dire wolverine, dire boar, owlbear, and various sorts of vermin a guardians. Taking care of these animals was held as a responsibility of the tribe as a whole. They did not keep anything overly dangerous, since they had learned that keeping an overly dangerous pet was a good way to get their tribe eaten.

Language
Gray orcs spoke a more verbally complex variation of Orcish, similar enough to the common form that anyone who spoke Orcish could understand it. However, many words, inflections, and pronunciations varied wildly between tribes and learning the idiosyncrasies of each tribe normally took a few days to learn. Grey orcs were not, however, literate, nor were they fond of learning new languages. The clerics would at least speak Common in order to interrogate captives, and potentially Giant and Goblin in order to converse with potential allies.

Magic
Most spellcasters among gray orcs were divine spellcasters. Arcane spellcasters were rare, and gray orc druids even rarer. During the Orcgate Wars, gray orc clerics had access to many powerful and unique spells; the most potent of these magics being their ability to directly call down avatars of their deities. Knowledge of this magic was lost with their defeat, as a result gray orc clerics used more common clerical spells.

Gray orc spellcasters crafted potions and scrolls for themselves or for the benefit of their tribe. Most magical items found in the possession of gray orcs were most likely stolen or looted.

Religion
Gray orcs acknowledged Gruumsh as the most powerful and leader of their deities, but unlike other orcs, gray orcs didn't feel the need to focus their worship solely on Gruumsh. They instead worshiped all the orc deities equally. They often worshiped whichever deity suited their interests and personality, although most gray orcs of a given tribe would worship the same deity.

History
Gray orcs first came to Toril in the year -1081 DR, when the Theurgist Adept Thayd opened a portal to another world, a savage one dominated by fanatically religious orcish empires. Thayd was executed soon after he opened the portal, before he told anyone else on Toril of its location, and it thus lay dormant for five years until the orcs discovered it in -1076 DR and began to migrate through. They promptly attacked both Mulhorand and Unther, beginning a six-year conflict that was later named the Orcgate Wars.

The initial attack rapidly escalated into a devastating war, as orcish warriors slew thousands and the orcish clerics wielded new and powerful spells.

Two years after the Battle of the Gods (in -1069 DR), the remaining Mulhorandi and Untheric forces and deities banded together to defeat the orcish hordes so thoroughly that the gray orcs had yet to recover hundreds of years later. Instead they fragmented into hundreds of small tribes, whose constant infighting barred them from regaining their lost power.