[1] Morven Ashwing is a Breton historian, Fellow of the Imperial University, and General Editor of The Journal of Tamrielic Studies. He specialises in Orcish Studies, specifically in the study of Orcish theology, history and linguistics; The reader should note that ‘Malacath’ appears in its alternative form ‘Mauloch’, and ‘Orcs’ as ‘Orsimer’. These words are completely interchangeable.
[2] The idea of the racial inferiority of the Orcs, up until the metaphysical phenomenon of ‘The Warp in the West’ in Frostfall, 3E 417, is well-documented and near-universal, especially in High Rock and Hammerfell where the public popular memory of the Siege of Orsinium (1E 950 – 980) was still very strong. Reading on the phenomenon is best sought from Ulvius Tero, The Warp in the West. For examples of prejudice of the ‘civilised races’ to the Orcs, ranging from the explicitly vulgar in Tyston Bane, The Pig Children, to the subtler prejudice displayed by the noble and magistrate in Menyna Gsost, How Orsinium Passed to the Orcs.
[3] The exclusion of the province of High Rock from this list is since it is, as it was before the Warp, a less rigidly homogenous cultural unit than the provinces thus stated.
[4] ‘city Orcs’ are Orcs that have left their ancient traditional violent tribal lifestyle for the ‘soft’ life of the local provincial settlements, having been imperialised. While Amanda Alleia, The Code of Malacath: A Sellsword’s Guide to the Orc Strongholds considers the only difference between the city-Orcs and their tribal counterparts to be that the latter “don't hesitate to draw weapons and settle matters openly”, such a distinction is greatly important when analysing the methods of history and state of public memory of the Orcs separately and in general.
[5] Orcs are the only race to not have its own ancestral homeland: The Nord revere the land of Atmora, the Dunmer, Morrowind and the migration lands of their Chimer ancestors under Veloth. The Redguards have the long-lost island of Yoku, and the other races their respective provinces.
[6] Thus, the published collection of Orsimer proverbs, Sayings of the Wise, would be considered an oral tradition, as opposed to a primary written source. However, it would be considered a secondary written source. See ‘Definition of Written Sources’ section.
[7] The Code of Malacath, being a set of unwritten and implicit rules for tribal Orcs to live by, is taught and reinforced by the tribal lifestyle from youth. For an example of the oral tradition of reverence to Malacath, in the case of the creation of Orcish War Paint, see The Red Paint. For the recorded oral tradition of Orcish curses, see Alleia, The Code of Malacath.
[8] For examples of Nord oral tradition, see Tredayn Dren, The Legend of Red Eagle, and of the Skaal tribe of Solstheim, see Lucius Gallus, The Guardian and the Traitor.
[9] The Code of Malacath spurns the weak, especially among his followers, and the failure to adhere to the code of one’s ancestors cause great disgrace to those cannot uphold it. Furthermore, the code serves to reinforce the structure of the stronghold and the roles of the chief’s daughters to marry other chieftains, and of the chief’s mother to become wise woman to the tribe. See the dialogue of Atub, <
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Atub> [accessed 26 June 2018] and Borgakh the Steel Heart, <
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Borgakh_the_Steel_Heart> [accessed 26 June 2018].
[10] The structure of an orcish stronghold is a simplistic hierarchy of a polygamous chieftain, ruling over his direct kin and being the only male being allowed to father children. The traditions of the strongest orc must be the chief and that a for a new chief to be chosen, they must challenge and best the old chief for his place, breeds a community in the Darwinian mindset, in which the hegemony of oral tradition associated with the strength of the chief, and thus of Malacath himself.
[11] Bane, The Pig Children. Despite the pamphleteer Tyston Bane falsely and ignorantly proclaiming orcs as “intellectually moronic” in his book, he held the orthodox view of the Orcs during the time, allowing us to understand how the Orcish struggle for a homeland amongst the ‘civilised races’ – and the prejudice and discrimination from this action – reflects the isolation and of orcish dominance of oral tradition over ‘civilised races’ written sources.
[12] For examples, see the dialogue of Borgakh the Steel Heart, <
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Borgakh_the_Steel_Heart> [accessed 26 June 2018], Gat gro-Shargakh, <http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Gat_gro-Shargakh> [accessed 26 June 2018], and Ghorza gra-Bagol, <http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ghorza_gra-Bagol> [accessed 26 June 2018].
[13] An example being Ghorza gra-Bagol, <http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ghorza_gra-Bagol> [accessed 26 June 2018]. Also see Morven Ashwing (2018) ‘Menace to Master-at-Arms: The Orcish Integration into the Late Third-Era Imperial Legion’, The Journal of Tamrielic Studies, 1:1, p.4.
[14] See Ghorza gra Bagol’s disdain and confusion at books, “Don’t know why the Imperials like these so much […] Here, let me show you how an Orc learns to smith.” Ghorza gra-Bagol, <http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ghorza_gra-Bagol> [accessed 26 June 2018].
[15] For the fall of the Tribunal Temple, see Thara of Rihad, The Reclamations: The Fall of the Tribunal and the Rise of the New Temple. Before the fall of the Tribunal, after the Red Year of 4E 5, the Dunmer of the Ashlander tribes in the Ashlands of the Isle of Vvardenfell who worshiped the Reclamations were considered heretics by the orthodox Tribunal-worshipping Dunmer and persecuted savagely.
[16] Ghorza gra-Bagol, <http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ghorza_gra-Bagol> [accessed 26 June 2018],
“Malacath willing.”; “Grew up in a stronghold. Every Orc girl tended the forge at some point […] so I joined the Legion. Mastered my trade there.”; Gat gro-Shargakh, <http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Gat_gro-Shargakh> [accessed 26 June 2018], “Thank Malacath we got out of Kolskeggr alive.”; “I would need to challenge the chief, and take his head, to return home.”; Borgakh the Steel Heart, <
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Borgakh_the_Steel_Heart> [accessed 26 June 2018], “Malacath teaches us to meet our fate. Perhaps this is mine.”; “Healing magic? An Orc lets her wounds heal naturally…”
[17] One may try to counter this argument by pointing the situation of the Skaal to the Nords, or the Ashlanders to the Dunmer. However, it must be considered that these examples sit in the tiny minority and are not representative of their respective general populations and, unlike the Orcs, have a permanently habituated homeland and ancestral province.
[18] Bane, The Pig Children.
[19] For account of the orc’s historical homelessness, see The True Nature of Orcs, and Imperial Geographical Society, Pocket Guide to the Empire, 3rd Edition.
[20] Due to what has previously been told, it may not be startling to learn that the large majority of written sources of the orcish historical memory and method come from non-orcs, and that the majority of these are secondary sources.
[21] While the original Old Orcish Torug ag Krazak is considered a primary source, its Cyrodiilic translation, Torug at the Summit, Complete Translation is considered a secondary source.
[22] For more information on Torug, see Torug ag Krazak, its Cyrodiilic translation, Torug at the Summit, Complete Translation, and for information on his armlet, see Armlet of Torug. For more information on Old Orcish, see Old Orcish, <
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Old_Orcish> [accessed 27 June 2018].
[23] While the date of his death is unknown, he died before the start of the First Siege of Orsinium (1E 950-80). For a Golkarr was king of the Orcs at that time. See the poem, The Great Siege of Orsinium.
[24] Old Orcish, <
http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Old_Orcish> [accessed 27 June 2018].
[25] See The True Nature of Orcs.
[26] The raiding of the Orcs by the ‘civilised races’, and vice-visa, was the first response by both sides, for the latter thought the former like beasts and incapably of meaningful and honest diplomacy. See Bane, The Pig Children.
[27] See Torug ag Krazak and Torug at the Summit, Complete Translation.
[28] See, for example of the secondary recording of oral tradition being transmitted to external written sources, Roald Kenway, Old Orc Sayings: Shields; For examples of oral tradition being transferred to written sources by the orcs themselves at a later date, see Sayings of the Wise.
[29] Sayings of the Wise “The past is a wolf. The clever hunter keeps his eye fixed on it, while the foolish hunter looks away and is devoured.”; The ordained meaning of this saying is that, due to the history of the Orcs being so bloodied and harried, the historical memory of the race is key to its survival in the face of adversity.
[30] Morven Ashwing (2018) ‘Menace to Master-at-Arms: The Orcish Integration into the Late Third-Era Imperial Legion’, The Journal of Tamrielic Studies, 1:1, p.5.
[31] See Kenway, Old Orc Sayings: Shields, being “a compliation of the oral wisdom of the Orcs, collected here and recorded by Roald Kenway, who did live among the Orcs for six-and-thirty years at the start of the second era.” Even this amount of time amongst the Orcs could allow one the penetrate fully into their mindset and historical memory and the psychology behind it.