All @Orc are born into bondage beneath the dominion of the Elves. There exists no recorded account—no whispered legend, no forbidden text—of an Orc ever slipping free from the chains of their masters. Freedom, to an Orc, is not a lost right but an idea never known, a concept erased before birth.
Beneath the gleaming spires of Elvish cities—structures of white stone that catch the sun like frozen light—sprawls a second world unseen by those who walk above. These are the Underholds: vast networks of tunnels, chambers, and breeding warrens carved deep into the earth. While the surface hums with music, art, and refinement, below there is only the echo of iron, the scrape of stone, and the dull rhythm of survival.
The Orcs are kept there, generation after generation, in conditions that are neither overtly cruel nor merciful—engineered instead for efficiency. They are fed and watered with calculated precision, their diets measured to sustain strength but deny excess. Every aspect of their existence is regulated, from labor rotations to breeding cycles, all dictated by Elvish overseers who rarely descend in person. Instead, masked wardens and enchanted constructs enforce order in their place.
Their bodies are treated as tools, their lives as resources.
From birth, every Orcs head is shaved smooth, not a strand of hair is permitted. The Elves claim it is for cleanliness, to prevent disease from spreading within the enclosed tunnels.