Orc Ravagers

Blood and gore, blood and gore make our enemies into blood and gore. - Ravager War Cry

Orc Ravagers are brutal shock infantry formations used by orc tribes and war-hosts to overwhelm enemy lines through savagery, speed, and relentless pressure. Unlike disciplined spear walls or cavalry charges, Ravagers rely on ferocity and controlled chaos, tearing open breaches that more organized units can exploit. They are often the first warriors to strike and the last to withdraw, thriving in close combat where fear, noise, and blood decide the outcome more than tactics alone. To face Ravagers is to endure an assault designed to break morale as much as flesh.

Composition

Manpower

Thirty to a hundred warriors

Equipment

Minimal armor is worn to preserve mobility in the battlefield as Ravagers favor intimidation over protection.
Reinforced Leather: Thick layers of leader hide from animals to remain light yet have protection from most average weapons.
Hide Armor: Armor made from animal hide give some protection from its thick skin.
Scavenged Plate: Armor that is taken from fallen foes that used as makeshift armor to add some protection to to the wearer.
War Masks: Some Orcs wear masks to sow fear into their enemies often depicting Dark Spirits and monsters of their culture.
Bone Helms: Helms made from animal and
Trophy Adornments: Ravagers have been known take trophies of the enemies they slay from items to finger and ears and display them on their person as a sign of their many victories and sow fear into their foes.

Weaponry

Heavy Axes: An much heavier version of an axe that is as twice as heavy as well as devastating to anything that makes contact with it.
Orc Cleaver: Far larger than an average meat cleaver, Orc cleaver can be used for cooking as much as for battle since it doesn't matter if the meat is still alive or not when its getting chopped.
Hooked Blade: An unusual blade with a hook at the end used for slashing and hooking into the flesh of an enemy to pull them closer or drag them.
Spiked Mauls: A form of hammer with spikes on both sides to puncture as much as crush anything that it hits.
Chain Weapons: Difficult to control and unpredictable in where they move they are mostly used to cause panic and make those around them scatter to avoid getting hit by them.
Dual Wielded Axes: When one axe isn't enough two are need to for relentless strikes against an opponent that simply need to be cut to ribbons.

Structure

Blood Bound: Ravagers that are often the most experienced and vicious that keep their warriors in line through brutality.

Tactics

Blood Path: Narrow, aggressive thrust to pierce defenses with discipline is enforced through fear, honor, and ritual law as they maintain pressure until the enemy flees.
Rending Line: Loose formation maximizing individual combat striking with maximum aggression against all in their path.
Murder Swarm: Small packs overwhelming isolated targets often advancing under covering fire or distraction.

Training

The Breaking

Training begins with a series of brutal trials known collectively as The Breaking with these tests are meant to destroy the warrior’s former identity. This includes prolonged marches without food and rest while fighting blinded, wounded, or outnumbered. For mental fortitude they are Confined in smoke-filled pits to condition breath and fear control and mock executions to sever attachment to life. Those who fail are cast out or used as examples as mercy is a rare thing amongst them. Once they pass they become completly different from normal Orcs that should not be crossed or things will get bloody.

Conditioning & Discipline

Contrary to outsider belief, Ravagers are not mindless berserkers, they are drilled relentlessly to channel fury rather than be consumed by it. They are mainly taught to fight in pack-based combat drills to help them be more effective in battle with their numbers on their side. To ensure they do not lose control they go through obedience training through pain-response conditioning to keep them in line. Horn and drum signals drilled until they became instinct and ensure they go into battle when they are needed and not before. Their Sparring drills are also designed to force cooperation amid rage amongst themselves and their forces, however, should a Ravager who loses control and attacks allies is executed without ceremony.

War Frenzy Induction

Once physical training is complete, initiates undergo ritual preparation to awaken their battle fury. Sacred war draughts brewed by spirit-speakers to drink to awake their fury. Ash and blood anointments are placed upon their skin to embody the power of anger and destruction. Chanting rites are sung to invoking ancestral wrath of previous Ravagers to embody living ones to join them in battle. The goal is not permanent madness, but the ability to enter and exit a controlled killing state on instinct. Allowing them to change their state on command when the need for bloodshed for overall victory.

The First Slaughter

The last trial is participation in a live battle or sanctioned raid with the new initiates sent out to prove themselves and their new power. Only kills witnessed and acknowledged by elder Ravagers count. Survivors are scarred, branded, and armed with their war-gear, formally joining the formation. Trophies from fallen foes are often done as a right of passage and is encouraged to do. Those who survive the First Slaughter are no longer considered merely orcs, they are Ravagers, and the tribe will never expect peace from them again.

Logistics

Recruitment

To become a Ravager they must be proven warriors with multiple battle honors with fighters who demonstrate fearlessness or controlled bloodlust. Many tribes of often chose them should they survive special ritual trials or are often criminals that prove themselves capable execution pits they are throw in with wild beast or other criminals. Once chose they go through induction rites various tribes follow certain practices such as scarification or ritual branding to prove their strength and blood-oaths sworn before ancestors to live and die with honor to join them when they fall in battle. Certain tribes take a different approach in the consumption of intoxicants, sacred ash, or war draughts as spiritual trials to gain conquer their anger from consuming them. Anyone that fail to complete their rites are either cast out or slain.

History

A Tide of Blood

The when the Orcs arrived on Dageth from their ships on the sea some of the first forces they sent where the Ravagers to clear a beach head for their ships to land. When making contact with High Elves on the Golden Plains their aggressive tactics and desire for bloodshed took the Elves by surprise. Many of the coastal forces were unprepared to face them as they began to slaughter everything in their path and forcing them to flee from their rampage. This allowed the Orcs to gain ground quickly along the coastline and gain their bearing after their long journey at sea to their new home.
By the time the Kingdom of Elvasha retaliated the Orcs had began to expand inland with the Ravagers leading the Charge into their conquest. Tales from Elven chroniclers state that the very sight of a Orc Ravager could bring fear and doubt to even the bravest of warriors that faced them. While being effective during the early days of the First Black Blood War, their numbers quickly began to dwindle from over use and going up against greater numbers than their own despite the heavy casualties they caused on the Elves. This lead to be used in a more reserved role soon enough as the First Black Blood Horde began to face better trained forces that crossed them. But they would still be used and help bring about the destruction of Elvasha and cement the creation of the Black Plains as the new homeland of the Orcs and other Black Blood Races.
But as the war continued in the decades that followed, the Ravagers grew in numbers once more as new generations rose up to embody the rage that one them victory after victory. The Ravagers would be honed and better trained as they charged forth into battle against their Elves and Dwarves as they pushed further into their territories. It did not matter how many were killed they made sure to take as many enemies as they could before joining their ancestors as honored warriors. It was until the tides changed in the war and the Black Bloods began to be pushed back did hordes unity begin to fracture and not even the might of the Ravagers could change that outcome. When the war finally ended the remaining Ravagers returned to their tribes on their new lands till the day they died in glorious battle did rage that changed an era came to an end for a time.

Centuries of Rage

Ravagers have been continually used in conflicts involving orcs for their brutal and aggressive methods in battle against other tribes and nations alike in the centuries that followed. Ravager have been mainly used as shock troops to deal heavy damage and spread fear among enemy forces in and battle and conduct raids being the first sent in to disorient and scatter enemy formations or to sow destruction on unsuspecting settlements. Of course they are used sparingly as their numbers are limited due to how large a tribe is and the time and effort is made to train their number, being used strategically. This doesn't change the fact that they are still feared beyond imagining when they appear often being depicted as wild beasts in their focused rage and bloodlust. Its only when a Black Blood Horde is formed that they become far more dangerous in battle when they are organized in greater numbers.
Ravagers within a Black Blood Horde as often seen apart of conducting raids and breaching the defenses of fortifications as their rage induced trance makes them withstand pain and injuries that would stop most from continuing to fight. This has allowed the hordes to take capture areas that would take longer through normal means and spare them time to remain mobile. They have also been used to take on more experienced and elite units or take out enemy leadership when given the chase to ensure they do not take too many losses in battle. Losses among them are expected to be higher as most Ravagers die of their wounds being to severe to tend to as they suffer from multiple blows in their assaults. Making them ideal in get results done fast as soon as possible when time is not on an armies side.

Historical loyalties

Ravagers are often loyal to the clan they are born into, but some have been know to stand with warbands they are apart of, with many fighting to the death with whoever gains their loyalty.

Type

Shock

Overall training Level

Trained

Assumed Veterancy

Veteran

Used by

• Tribes of the Black Plains

Battle Rage

by Jester%

We can't hold them back anymore we need to fall back. - Elf Soldier

An Orc Ravager in the heat of battle is the embodiment of a warrior that is consumed by the thrill of battle and the rage that come with it. While not showing any form of discipline when in their trance it awakens are far more primal instinct that is only enhanced by an Orc's wild nature and strength to make them all the more fearsome to face. It often takes many warriors to take one down, unless a highly trained on or projectile weaponry is used to take them down faster, but not before many fall to their onslaught of death and destruction.

Breaking Limits

by Jester%

Let the rage be you strength, let it carry you to crush all that stand in your way, till you bath in the blood of all that stand against you - Orc Ravager

While Orcs are already strong with their current physiology they are already, it is only doubled with the power of a Ravagers rage trance, as it allows them to dampen their normal limits. This makes them stronger and faster when in it, along with increasing their stamina tremendously being able to fight far longer than normal. While this is beneficial for a time once the trance finally ends a Ravager become exhausted and unable to continue fighting till they are able to rest to regain their strength and tend to any injuries they might have gained in their battle.