半獸人
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Orc/Ork(半獸人)此字是由拉丁文Orcus，一位神祇的稱號「陰間之王」(Pluto)轉變而來；Pluto在之後被直接用以稱呼陰間。後來，在德文中此字以去掉原本拉丁文字尾的形態出現，成為較接近Orc的字型。
Orc曾經在托爾金(J. R. R. Tolkien)所創造的架空世界“中土世界 (Middle-Earth)”中發生的故事 - 魔戒裡頭被使用，用來稱呼某常被邪惡勢力支配，用以組成士兵的種族。
中文的半獸人(Orc/Ork)有時也被稱為獸人，這是由於他們的外型會讓人聯想到野獸、野蠻的性格。
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[编辑] “半獸人”(Orc)這個名字的起源
In Beowulf, ll: 112, the undead Grendel's race is described as Orc-néas, which seems to mean "corpses of Orcus." Orcus, in Roman mythology, was an alternative name for Pluto, Hades, or Dis Pater, god of the land of the dead. The name "Orcus" seems to have been given to his evil and punishing side, as the god who tormented evildoers in the afterlife. Like the name Hades (or the Norse Hel, for that matter), "Orcus" could also mean the land of the dead. Tolkien derived his 'Orcs' from a passage in Beowulf. (See "Tolkien's Orcs" below.) Grendel and his kin were described as being half man and half monster, hunting by night, and having an underwater lair (and therefore being amphibious by nature).
Notably, the word "orc" had long existed in English as the name of a type of sea monster. This derives ultimately from Pliny the Elder's description of the orca, modulated through the long tradition of Medieval Bestiaries. In his Natural History, Pliny described a creature that was "so monstrous and aggressive a whale, that no words are adequate to describe it, except as a huge mass of flesh armed with menacing teeth." Historia Naturalis 9.v.12
According to one medieval source, Charlemagne encountered and destroyed an orc that attacked his ship in the Mediterranean. In Orlando Furioso, an epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto, the name of "orc" was given to a sea monster that captured the damsel Angelica, and was fought by the hero Rogero riding a hippogriff. This orc was huge, scaly, tusked, pig-nosed, and bristled.
A land-dwelling orc also appears in Orlando Furioso, XVII: 29. This "land orc" is a blind giant with a long nose and tusks jutting out like a savage swine. The land orc is a cannibal who holds king Norandino and his men captive in a cave. The story is reminiscent of the tale of Polyphemus. It should be noted that, in Italian, "orca" means a killer whale while "orco" means an ogre, a humanoid creature.
From this usage, the word "orc" was popularized in English through Michael Drayton's Polyolbion, an epic poem about Brutus the Trojan, the mythical founder of Britain. It later appears in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost.
[编辑] Blake筆下的半獸人
See main article Orc (William Blake)
Orc (a proper name) is also one of the characters in the complex mythology of William Blake. Unlike the medieval sea beast, or Tolkien's humanoid monster, his Orc is a positive figure, the embodiment of creative passion and energy, Orc being an anagram of Cor, heart.
[编辑] 托爾金筆下的半獸人
The humanoid, non-maritime race of Orcs are Tolkien's invention. The term "Orc" is usually capitalised in Tolkien's writing, but not necessarily in other sources. In Tolkien's writing, Orcs are described as humanoid, but smaller than Men, ugly, and filthy. Although not dim-witted, they are portrayed as dull and miserable beings, who are only able to destroy, not to create. Tolkien also describes them as bow-legged and very clumsy. They do not move well in combat but fight with ferocity. In some works of Tolkien, Orcs are mainly described as battle fodder, as seen in The Battles of the Fords of Isen. Orcs are used as soldiers by both the greater and lesser villains of The Lord of the Rings — Sauron and Saruman.
In The Hobbit, Tolkien used the word "goblin" for Orcs, because he had not yet identified the world of The Hobbit with Middle-earth (which he first created several decades before The Hobbit, in early writings which later became The Silmarillion). Though Tolkien uses the term orcs in The Hobbit as Gandalf describes the Grey Mountains as being “simply stiff with goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs of the worst description”. Fortunately, Tolkien included some references to his mythology in The Hobbit, which later let him identify the lands of The Hobbit with his Middle-earth. In The Lord of the Rings, "Orc" is used predominantly, and "goblin" mostly in the Hobbits' speech.
Before Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, he seems to have decided that Middle-earth history ended at the end of the Second Age, and that the fall of Númenor changed the world into the prehistoric real world.
'...the word is as far as I am concerned actually derived from Old English orc "demon", but only because of its phonetic suitability...' The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien No 144, dated 1953
It is also rumoured that Tolkien labelled them in an attack against his least favourite team- the Oxford Rugby Club.
For more information on Tolkien's Orcs see: Orc (Middle-earth).
[编辑] 半獸人在其它奇幻文學的作品
當托爾金所寫的魔戒出版之後，半獸人成了奇幻文學和角色扮演遊戲中必然會出現的種族。在這些小說以及遊戲當下，半獸人和高扁常常被想像成是distinct races of goblinoids.他們常常會被描述成有著豬鼻子外表的生物，即使在托爾金的作品裡並沒有這樣子的描述。而這可能是因為在愛爾蘭，Orc這個字有著「豬」的意思的關係。
An alternative theory is that they were often depicted as pig-like due to the "pig-nosed" descriptions of both the water and land based "orcs" in Orlando Furioso, an epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto (see "Sources of the name Orc" above).
[编辑] 龍與地下城
In Dungeons & Dragons, orcs are almost always villainous, cast as a brutal, bestial, and tribal parody of humans and human society. They usually have gray or brown skin, and are sometimes shown with green skin, in contradiction to Tolkien's Orcs, which had many different skin colours ranging from palish yellow to deep black. Because common fantasy orcs are inherently violent and evil, game players who wish to play the role of an orc are instead usually encouraged to play a half-orc, the offspring of an orc and a human. They worship the god Gruumsh.
However, earlier versions of the game depicted orcs slightly differently. They were lawful in alignment, and were described as having porcine snouts. Orcs were also seen as widespread, prolific, short-lived, and closely related to both humans and ogres, capable of interbreeding with either. An insightful passage from the Monstrous Manual reads, "Orcs have a reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs".
The half-orc in the original AD&D game was a standard PC race, typically assuming the assassin class, where he was a brooding and tragic figure, and not a brutish caricature. Unfortunately, half-orcs were removed in the later edition of the game but were revived, albeit altered, in D&D 3rd edition.
Older illustrations of orcs (such as in the 1977 Monster Manual) depicts them with pig-like faces.
[编辑] Forgotten Realms
In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons, orcs are divided into the orcs of the north (Mountain Orcs) and the orcs of the east (Gray Orcs). The gray orcs came to Faerûn through a portal opened in Mulhorand by an Imaskari wizard. The orcs' invasion caused the Orcgate Wars in which the pious gray orcs called avatars of their deities down to help them, and the Mulhorandi and Untheric people did the same. Led by Re these pantheons and their soldiers eventually broke the gray orcs' armies.
In the north, orcs are known for overbreeding and then spilling out in hordes upon the nations thereabouts, including the Silver Marches, Icewind Dale and, in times past, the old elven empires around Cormanthyr. Foremost amongst the orcs of this area is the Broken Arrow tribe headed by King Obould Many-Arrows, enemy of Drizzt Do'Urden.
[编辑] Eberron
In the Eberron campaign setting, orcs are portrayed in a more positive light. Given to spirituality and nature-worship, they established successful societies, learning druidic secrets from the green dragon Vvaraak while the goblinoid races built a mighty empire, some 16,000 years ago. The orc societies took a massive blow during the daelkyr invasion 9,000 ago, though it was the orcs now known as the Gatekeepers who were able to stop the invasion by sealing the daelkyr beneath Eberron and severing the link between Eberron and the daelkyr home plane of Xoriat. The Gatekeeper druidic sect remains a presence in Eberron, albeit one largely concerned with defending the world from outsiders, aberrations and other unnatural foes rather than politics.
[编辑] d20 System
Following the precedents set in the earliest Dungeons & Dragons materials, a great many d20 System publishers have retained Orcs in their own works. While many of these publishers have examined orcs in greater depth than was the norm in earlier works, most of those have not reinvented this race as such, and it still tends to be identified with coarseness and brutality. Such products include Bad Axe's Heroes of High Favor: Half Orcs and Skirmisher Publishing's Orcs of the Triple Death line of miniatures [1].
[编辑] Earthdawn and Shadowrun
In the fantasy role-playing games Earthdawn and Shadowrun, orks are, in contrast to the common fantasy Orc, neither inherently good nor evil. In Earthdawn they have their place among the other name-giving races: Humans, dwarfs, elves, obsidimen, t'skrang, trolls, and windlings. In Shadowrun, orks are just one race among others on Earth in the years past 2050. They emerged during the Unexplained Genetic Expression in the year 2021 as either young humans changed to orks or ones born as orks from human parents. They are categorized as homo sapiens robustus, and are considered metahumans, like trolls, elves, and dwarfs.
Orks are able to interbreed with humans and fellow metahumans. Despite this, their offspring will be of the race of only one of their parents. No half-breeds exist. They grow much faster than humans, reach maturity at the age of 12, and give birth to a litter of about four children, though six to eight are not uncommon. Their average life-expectancy is about 35 to 40 years. They are physically larger and stronger than humans. Their mental capacities are considered slightly inferior on average to humans, though they are still not as dull as the average troll.
[编辑] 戰鎚 (WarHammer)
Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 games feature Orcs as well (spelled Orks in Warhammer 40,000). Physiologically, Warhammer Orcs are taller and broader than humans, with short legs and long arms much like an ape. They have massive heads which come directly forward on their necks, giving them a stooping appearance. They have tough thick green skin which is highly resistant to pain.
Warhammer Orcs aren't very smart, but can be cunning at times. They are extremely warlike and the whole society is geared towards constant warfare. This constant need to fight is the expression of Orc culture, a fact that keeps the Orcs from forming anything but temporary alliances with each other. In combat they can transform even the most common object into a lethal killing instrument. Orcs tend to ally with Goblins (called Gretchin in Warhammer 40,000) and Snotlings, but their alliance is more of a matter of the Orcs bullying their smaller Goblinoid (Orkoid in Warhammer 40,000) cousins into being everything from servants, to Human (Goblin) shields, to an emergency food source. They worship a pair of gods known as Gork and Mork.
For more information on Warhammer Orcs, see: Orc (Warhammer).
[编辑] 魔獸爭霸 (：en:Warcraft)
在電腦遊戲 魔獸爭霸系列中，半獸人是一種兇猛但高尚的種族，它們來自於德拉諾星球，但後來受到一群稱作燃燒軍團(Burning Legion)的惡魔勢力給腐化。在惡魔軍團的影響下，半獸人部落開始屠殺同樣居住在德拉諾星球的另一族群德萊尼人。在那之後，半獸人就被帶往魔獸爭霸故事發生的世界，艾澤拉斯(Azeroth)大陸。
經過了兩場毀滅性的人獸大戰後，半獸人們終於在艾澤拉斯被打敗了，並被集中關在拘留營中，在這之後，一名被人類扶養長大的年輕半獸人萨尔(Thrall)，重新集結他們，最後終於將那些半獸人們從惡魔的腐敗感染之中獲得了解放，并且帮助他们找回了对古代萨满教的信仰.
魔兽争霸中的半兽人看上去就像长者健硕的绿色肌肉，有着宽大的鼻子的人类，而且明显地露出他们口中的獠牙。男性半兽人比男性人类要高大，这是显而易见的，他们直立时一般约有6英尺半那么高（将近2米）。 女性半兽人比一般的女性人类要稍大，而且她们比起男性兽人要苗条得多，但尽管如此，她们却一样有着兽人标志性的强壮肌肉。 女性兽人们的獠牙很小，几近看不见,比起獠牙来，实质上它们更像是大号的尖牙。男女兽人们被设定成拿着斧子，穿着简易的盔甲，戴着有角头盔的样子。在极少数的游戏设定中的半兽人才不是一出生注定邪恶的种族，魔兽争霸也是采用这种设定游戏（故事）之一，事实上，在魔兽争霸里他们甚至能够成为英雄，至少在魔兽最近的版本中如此（兽人先知萨尔）。
想更進一步了解魔獸爭霸的故事，請至
[编辑] Hârn
In the Hârn universal fantasy role-playing setting (and the distinct subsequently developed game system) created by N. Robin Crossby and published by Columbia Games, orcs are called Gargûn. While loosely derived from the Tolkien mythos, they have a distinct morphology and life-cycle similar to the naked mole rat. There are five distinct species of Gargun, none of whom can interbreed. They are squat, hairy, nasty, brutish, and short creatures. Some species are subterranean, while others can be found above ground in roving bands. One of the larger species is the Gargu-Khanu. Gargu-Khanu are often found in mixed-species colonies where they are overlords of the smaller vassal species, controlling access to the singular breeding queen of the other species as well as their own.
[编辑] The Killing Spirit
The Killing Spirit, a fantasy novel written by Sean-Michael Argo, engages the race of orcs from their own perspective. The orcs are presented as being the creations of a race of gods, called the Sheul. While similar to the Tolkien mythos, the orcs are divided into two groups. One being swarthy and stooped, living in clans on the coasts and mainland. The other orcs being tall and proud tribal warriors of dark forests and frozen mountains. The orcish women live in communal huts and choose mates based on perceived 'supremacy'. Unlike other fantasy settings, the orcs of this setting are portrayed as being highly intelligent and able to use magic, though have a brutish language that combines with their violent tendencies to create the illusion of simplicity. A unique element is that they are able to use magic to transform themselves into eldritch berzerkers, which they call the Gor-Angir, or 'the killing spirit'.
、===太空戰士 XI(Final Fantasy XI)===
大型多人在线角色扮演游戏 Final Fantasy XI中, 半兽人是一个被称作Beastmen的部落. During the Age of Darkness, the Orcs were constructed by the god Promathia to constantly battle with the human(oid)s of Vana'diel. The Orcs have two large strongholds near the city of San d'Oria; the strongholds are Davoi Monastery and Fort Ghelsba. The Orcs frequently launch small missions out of their strongholds, and they practically control Jugner Forest and Ronfaure. Personality wise, they follow the same pattern as many fantasy Orcs: brutish and savage yet slow witted. Their entire culture is centred on violence. The Orcs formerly occupied a sacred garden in Ronfaure which was destroyed as the San d’Orian Empire expanded during the Age of Power, adding to their already fierce hatred of the peoples of Vana'diel.
[编辑] The Elder Scrolls series
Orsimer, these sophisticated barbarian beast peoples of the Wrothgarian and Dragontail Mountains are noted for their unshakeable courage in war and their unflinching endurance of hardships. In the past, Orcs have been widely feared and hated by the other nations and races of Tamriel, but they have slowly won acceptance in the Empire, in particular for their distinguished service in the Emperor's Legions. Orcish armorers are prized for their craftsmanship, and Orc warriors in heavy armor are among the finest front-line troops in the Empire. Most Imperial citizens regard Orc society as rough and cruel, but there is much to admire in their fierce tribal loyalties and generous equality of rank and respect among the sexes. According to ancient legend, they were once elves before the Daedric Prince Boethiah corrupted their god and stole their heritage.
The Orcs of the Elder Scrolls are generally depicted as of similar stature and build as large humans. Their culture produces proud, but often dull-witted, warriors. They have bestial faces, often with tusks. The female Orcs appear slightly more human, but also have a trace of the bestiality in their features. Until Daggerfall, Orcs were rampaging monsters hunted by the other races. Their leader, Gortwog, tired of their nomadic lives and outlaw nature, used the Numidium to create the city Nova Orsinium, gaining his race respect and recognition as citizens of the Empire. Though many have turned to this new life, many are still outlaws.
[编辑] Utopia
In Utopia, the web-based tactic game, Orcs are one of the 8 races. In Utopia, Orcs are known for good offensive abilities and weak capabilities in the art of magic and thievery. They are a destructive and evil race by description. In the real game, there are no good or evil races. There is no visual description of Orcs in Utopia because of the non-visual, text based nature of the game.
[编辑] Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
In Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, orcs are descended from early humans, although they were popularly considered a monstrous race before the Industrial Revolution. They generally look like savage parodies of humans. Orcs are strong and hearty but live short life spans. Before the Industrial Revolution, they were nomads who lived off the land and occasionally off of people unlucky enough to travel near them. As time passes, more orcs move to cities, where their strength and stamina make them ideal factory workers. Although they are considered intellectually inferior, their lack of brain power may be the result of their poor upbringing and educational opportunities; people of orcish descent who receive the opportunity to reach their full potential prove to be as able-minded as humans.
[编辑] Orkworld
Orkworld is a role-playing game which attempts to develop orcs as a complete and viable culture. The Orkworld version operates in a matriarchal society with very strong communal ties. They are attempting to hold off genocidal humans, elves, and dwarves.
[编辑] Palladium Fantasy
In the Palladium Fantasy Role-play Game, orcs are a race of stupid-but-strong humanoids who may be descended from faeries. They are frequently the pawns of more powerful creatures, as they tend to respect strength (be it physical or magical). They have very strong family ties, however.
[编辑] 相關資料
- 高扁-(Goblin)
- 食人魔-(Ogre)
- 巨魔-(Troll)
[编辑] 外部連結
页面分类: 翻譯請求 | 龍與地下城 | Fictional species | 虛構生物 | Villain races
