Derric Paterson - Half-Orc Wizard

[boatmurdered]

What is to be said for a race that is treated with no civility, but with which no civility is ever shown? Civility is not in the blood. It must be taught. Even the highest nobility, if raised among wolves, would act as a wolf.

Reject the notions that half-orcs are born uncivil. This is an obvious falsehood, and relies on an arguement from silence, as half-orcs are never given the chance to rule their own lives beyond the smallest of factors. Half-orcs do not choose to be born half-orcs, so holding them guilty for their own birth is the height of cruelty. The burden of proof for the so called incivility of half-orcs is on the accuser, not the accused.

Why do we assume that half-orcs are brutish and violent. The race is born from orcish blood, yes, but if the blood tells, as it supposedly does, how do you explain the large amounts of half-orcs even now living quietly, doing work no one wants to do?

Some would argue that the human side is the only thing keeping the half-orcs in check, but consider t he crimes of which orcs are so often accused. Can you indicate with any truth any period in the history of mankind that those same crimes have not been comitted, often on a large scale and often with a greater societal condonement?

While civilization does move forward and we move from such things, the orcs do not. This is true. But they also do not give any excuse for their behavior. They don’t act like it’s because ‘the enemy’ is less then they are. It’s simply what they want to do. I do not condone or excuse this behavior, but I explain it and try to understand it.

So what does this mean. It suggest that how we treat half-orcs and others does matter. How can you expect a race that gets no civility to show civility? If you show a half-orc civility, he can begin to learn civility. Will it take? I don’t know. Some people, including many humans, are naturally brutish and uncivil. There are men walking aroud Cormyr who suggest that rape and pillaging is a natural state of being and that men should do it rather then being, as they put it, ‘wimps’. And yet half-orcs are the ones who are accused of this very behavior, even if they are not participants. - Extract from 'On Half-Orcs', author unknown

I write this journal now in order to preserve some of my ideas, should I fall in battle or even if this is read long after my death by old age, though I doubt that condition will come to pass.

To whomever reads this, I beg you to spread the knowledge within. Knowledge should not be hoarded and kept, it should be given and shared so that it can grow.

First, it has never been my intention to covet power. I had and have no desire to rule. What I had a desire is simply a peaceful spot for my race, a port in the storm of the world. Where half-orcs go, we are hated, mistreated, mistrusted, and looked down upon. One port in the storm is all I ever wanted.

What I am and was willing to do for this, however, is another story.

[boatmurdered]

There is no evil any orc has ever committed that you cannot find in the history of the various races of the world, but most strikingly the elves. But whereas the orcs are a brutal race of savages, the elves are graceful, beautiful, and cultured. And at the end of the day, it is the elves who write elven history, and no deprivation they have ever enacted has not been done, in their words, from a moral highpoint. How much elven history has been lost by their own devices, never to reach the ears of humanity or the other races, in order to protect their image as a race?

I make no excuse for the behavior of Orcs. What they do is terrible and when they commit these crimes they must pay for it, in blood, as necessary. But I would explain it, and put it into perspective. The orcs have become a bogeyman for the other races. No matter what they do, well, they still aren't orcs. After all, the ones who have written the history of the orcs have largely been dwarves, elves, and humans. - Extract from On Half-Orcs, author unknown

I am willing to sacrifice myself, and my people, to secure that point. I will not hesitate to spend the lives of my people in order to secure a home for them. That is the duty of soldiers.

Some may think me cruel for this, but I am not, for while I will not hesitate to spend them, I will not spend them cheaply. I fought in the Goblin War, and know what sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.

I hope, that at the end of this all, they can say they knew fully well what they were going into. That I was good enough at speaking, good enough at convincing, and honest enough to tell them what we would be facing. That they still would follow me despite this.

But if I don't use every ounce of my knowledge, every dirty trick I know to save them and secure our home, then I would be failing them, even if it means doing things like lying, though I loathe it.

[boatmurdered]

The orc, as is well known, is a bestial thing, who corrupts that which is innocent and pure, kills the righteous, and crushes the weak. Therefore, what should we think of the half-orc, the offspring off this abominable race? They are, of course, an abomination.

The half-orc goes through the world, knowing not love, only lust. He goes through the world knowing not peace, only war. To kill the half-orc is, at the worst, a mercy, as you free a torn spirit from a twisted body. Pity the half-orc for he is an abomination, even as you seek to free him from his existence. - Scrolls Posted by a Knightly Order

As you are reading this, you may ask, 'what have you given up for it, Derric'. It may be that I have given my life, as you read. But before that, I gave up my chance at love.

For their was a woman who loved me, and I loved her in return, but she knew that she could not be a part of the world I was trying to build, that she just couldn't survive in it. And I knew this to be true as well, for she was fair and beautiful and would've wilted in the Stonelands.

And so we agreed that despite our love for each other we could not be together, because of the pain of that fact would be to much for her. And it broke my heart in ways I cannot describe. And my heart is still broken as I write this because it was not long ago, though for such a hurt long ago could be never.

The gods have demanded sacrifices of me in my quest for my people, and I will pay them. Even if I have to give up my own chances of happiness and love and being held and holding another, I will not falter, and I will pay those prices so that other Half-orcs never have to.

[boatmurdered]

We discovered a few human slaves being kept in the orc camp. Most of them were alright, but one of them had a hold of a swaddle of cloth, a human-orc child. We attempted to take it so we could end its existence, but the human nearly attacked us when we tried.

Other then that the raid went off successfully. All the orcs, besides the human-orc child, were eliminated. - Elf Warband Report, Recorded by Record Keeper Naren

I was lucky. I was raised by my father, who loved me, though I can't say why. He is or was a good man, a chef to nobility, hired when they needed that extra something at a feast or a dinner, and so we lived comfortably on the promenade.

When I was very young, still an infancy, I became very sick. The sickness probably would've killed me, had I been human, but my half-orc constitution managed to save me. But it did leave me in a weakened state, which may explain why I am not as strong as many other half-orcs, of body anyway.

And so I grew. My older brother at first hated me, which I suppose makes sense. In time we have grown close and he is my brother, but the details of that are long and span years. Sufficed to say I was lucky in that I was loved and sheltered, after awhile. When I was six winters old I had snuck outside to play with the other children in the area, and one of their mothers had panicked and from that point on I was no longer allowed outside.

Before that I had wanted to be a knight, and I will admit, dreamed of saving the princesses of the royal house. It was then that I learned, or got the inklings of learning, that to most people, I was a monster.

[boatmurdered]

I have worked and questioned and gathered information, and it is my estimation then well over half, perhaps even has high as three quarters, of half-orcs born into the world are killed before they are five years old.

By rate, the elves are by far the most often to kill the a half-orc child born to an elven woman, either through a means of magical abortion, or by simply killing or abandoning the child to the wilds to die naturally. The tragic nature of these individuals is explained in further chapter

Orcs follow in a close second, from what I have gathered, though children are likely survive until about six year old. If they have survived to that point, they often live to adulthood. However, a half-orc within an orc tribe can expect, if they are not the claimed son of a chieftain or shaman, to be beaten to death, often accidentally, before they grow very old. It is simply part of orc culture, and perhaps nature, to beat the weak, both out of contempt and in an effort to see what they perceive as weak can survive.

The human born half-orcs do tend to do slightly better then either orcs or elves, as their are systems to support abandoned children. An unfortunate number are still killed near birth, whether by knife or drowning or abandonment. However, a large number of half-orcs find themselves left to be raised by the temples of Faerun, and others learn to survive on their own in the streets, which rarely cares for race but respects strength, at least in the early years of life.

Surprisingly, the lowest rate of death among half-orcs seems to lie with the rare, though slightly less so then half-elf half-orcs, dwarfborn. Discussed in another chapter, the natural tendency towards stoic good of the Dwarves means that they will rarely leave a babe to death, or commit the act of murder on one. The rumors that dwarven berserkers, in the lust of battle, are the fathers, may add to this tendency to keep the child alive. - Extract from 'On Half-Orcs', author unknown

That moment came when I was six. My father, being a busy chef and having not yet hired a tutor for me, often bought me with him to help in the kitchen, since half-orcs grow slightly faster then our human brethen. However, one day he was busy preparing a proper feast in a proper kitchen, with many workers, and had me wait in a quiet spot.

Being a child, waiting in a quiet spot wasn't something I was interested in, and so I explored, and found within the estate a group of children, also playing. They were curious rather then scared, poking at my tusk and asking what I was. I couldn't really tell them. My father, being a gentle man, had never gotten around to informing me of what I was. I just knew I was taller then they were, and stronger.

So we played, as children do, with large amounts of giggling involved. It wasn't until we were playing tag and I was chasing a girl about my age that someone noticed, and started screaming. By the time my father had arrived I was being held between two guards.

He took me home and sat me down, as I was distraught. I wanted to know why they had screamed. What had I done wrong that had made them so angry at me? I knew I was different, certainly, but I didn't know why.

He explained to me about what I was. And how people were afraid of me. I had heard of orcs, of course, but it had never quite connected that I was part orc.

I begged him to make me human, to take away the orc so I could go outside and play. Looking back on it, it must've broken his heart to hear me begging like that, and I know it certainly pained me greatly, as he explained that I'd have to stay inside the house now, and only be allowed on special trips to help him cook.

[boatmurdered]

Half-orcs, despite the common conception, are by no means stupid. Most have human level intelligence. The misconception most likely comes from two sources.

The first is simply good old fashioned prejudice. Orcs are stupid, therefore there offspring must be as well. Since orcs are far from stupid, this has its root even further back.

The second is simply a lack of education. A majority of half-orcs grow up either as cast outs or street urchins. The ones raised within the temples of the world tend to have a razor sharp if albeit narrow education, and it shows.

The fact that this is rampant among humans as well as half-orcs never seems to be acknowledged - On Half-Orcs, author unknown

I was stuck inside. My room wasn't large, but I had my own room, more then most children have. I will never pretend that I grew up 'rough'. I was loved, and cared for, and fed.

I was also utterly alone. My brother still resented me, and besides, he was almost ten. He was often outside playing when he wasn't working.

My father got me a book. And that was about the beginning of the end for me. I plunged myself into reading, using the lessons he had given me. My appetite for knowledge was insatiable. It was simple at first, geography,f or example. Things with lots of pictures.

Geography quickly led to an interest in history and politics, then philosophy. By my tenth winter my room was filled with books, most of which I read and reread and crossread. Some of them were quite rare, one of the benefits of being a friend to nobility.

One thing I could never wrap my head around however, was math. I simply can't seem to do it all that well. I can do it given enough time, but I labor to do so.

Eventually though my father realized that I was quite gifted intellectually, and began to put out word for the need of a tutor, preferably one with an open mind. Eventually we found one in master Minzel.

[boatmurdered]

In my life, I have had the chance to teach a variety of students, largely human, but I think one of the ones that stands out is Derric, son of Peter, or as he took to calling himself later in life, Paterson.

He proved a surprisingly apt student, with both intelligence and drive, and most of all, a certain common sense one rarely finds in students of the arcane.

His thirst for knowledge was tempered by a realization of the power of knowledge, again something I find rare among the arcanist of this generation. He devoted himself utterly to the dogma of mystra, that magic was a tool to be used sparingly and with care, even in his early stages.

For a short while it was a serious thought between the family and myself that he might even become a cleric of Mystra, a half-orc clergyman of the goddess of magic.

What he would go on to do would shock and surprise us all, though, and make that seem like a quaint every day occurrence! - Memories of a War Wizard by Minzel Merrigold

My studies under master Minzel took up several years of my life. From the time I was eight winters to the time of the Goblin War, I studied underneath him.

But my father had taken him on as more then simply a tutor of magic. He hired him as a tutor of the higher class. Under his wing I learned with guidance about the world of politics, art, literature, nature, alchemy (which I was never good at), mathematics (again, not very good at), music, the list goes on and on.

For I devoted my life to the art of being a student, as he had devoted the majority of his life to teaching. In the morning we would both take some sort of exercise, since neither of us had much of an active lifestyle. We'd have breakfast with my father if he wasn't working. Mid morning was devoted to theoretical sciences and magic, a break for lunch over which we discussed the lessons of the morning, a short period of exercise after lunch, and then onto more practical uses of both magic and various things.

Dinner would be had by all, and then in the later part of the evening, usually until ninth bell, we would discuss the more esoteric parts of our education, he, I, my father, and my brother. History, philosophy, art, music, literature, politics, both theory and real.

Though I did not know it at the time, my father had done his best to give me a nobles education, and I took to it like something that swims takes to water.

In this time I began to grow closer to my brother, one of the happier periods in my life. For though he was older then I we shared a loved of learning and philosophy that bound us together. He wasn't as quick as me mentally but he was by no means slow, and probably would've made a decent wizard with time.

I can indicate these years as some of the happiest of my life.

Then the devil dragon came.