Much like the Githyanki, the Scro arose out of the ashes of violence and ruin to become
a formidable threat.
They were also the brainchild of a charismatic leader who clearly saw the innate problems
orcs would always face in trying to defeat elves unless those problems could be removed
from their race, by any means, the orcs simply would never gain a true upper hand in their
ageless conflict.
The violence and ruin that saw the birth of the Scro is now commonly known as the Unhuman
War, this was when a very formidable Elven Imperial Fleet set out to wipe out the races
of the Goblinoids, the Orcs, the Kobolds and the Ogres, an extermination, multiple attempted
genocides really, that they called The Great Hunt.
For a decade the elves embarked on wholesale slaughter, taking vengeance for centuries
of their populations being attacked by wave after wave of unhuman raiders and invaders.
For the shorter lived races these conflicts took place generations ago most of the time
so from their perspective the elves just went super violent and it was all they could do
to stop the elven fleets from wiping out their populations entirely.
For the orcs, they have been exploring the multiverse in spelljammer types ships powered
by their shamans for thousands of years, they are very widespread, as were the other unhuman
races, but they were not organised, they never really had been, fighting among themselves
even more than they fought the elves, dwarves and humans.
The elven fleet was highly organised and absolutely devastating, to the point that the elves developed
biological weapons that could wipe out all life on a planet, potentially.
The history of the first Unhuman war is well documented in the Forgotten Realms wiki pages,
so I will just paraphrase what is written there.
The Great Hunt began with the Battle of Kule, a large battle fought in Greyspace starting
in 965 using the Forgotten Realms Dale Reckoning calendar, as I do in all my D&D videos to
save on confusion.
Kule set the tone for the entire war, as a massive fleet of elven vessels attacked suddenly
and left their enemies scattered and broken.
These types of aggressive actions lasted for nealy a decade and wiped out about half of
the orcish fleet.
The elven fleet managed to wipe out all production of the kobold angelship; the goblin porcupine,
which once numbered in the thousands; the orc scorpion; and the massive ogre mammoth
ships.
Few ships of those classes survived the war.
The elven forces chased down all fleeing enemies as they sought to hide from the elves among
their surface dwelling relatives, but the elven fleet adopted the practice of bombarding
the surface from orbit, something that Wizards and high level clerics got very pissed off
about, so the Elven fleet suddenly had to answer directly to some divine avatars who
appeared out of nowhere and they retreated, becoming much more restrained and limiting
their attacks to only ground based offensives.
The only noteworthy goblinoid victory in the war was achieved by the Combined Goblin Fleet,
under the command of the half-orc Gralnakh Longtooth.
In an unprecedented display of organization and actual unification of the goblinoid forces,
the Goblin Fleet dealt the first and only truly damaging blow to the Elven Fleet.
By employing guerrilla tactics in a wildspace system filled with small moonlets that could
be used to hide ships and prepare ambushes, the Combined Goblin Fleet managed to continue
fighting for years, despite the elves' constant escalation as they kept marshalling forces
to crush Gralnakh's remaining beleaguered ships.
Realizing that Gralnakh's fleet was diverting too many elven forces from the larger war
effort and that a proper strategy to defeat them would take too long, Aldyn Leafblower,
the commander of the Elven Fleet at the time, met with Gralnakh and offered an armistice.
The half-orc, knowing that his fleet's defeat was only a matter of time, agreed to cease
the hostilities with the condition that his followers were given a world where they could
thrive undistubed by elven interference.
The elven Council of Admirals then reluctantly agreed to concede the world of Armistice in
Winterspace―the most inhospitable planet they could find―to Gralnakh's people.
In the late stages of the war, around 981 DR, the elven forces developed a method to
destroy entire planets.
The only known instance in which this power was used was on the small world of Borka in
Greyspace, then a stronghold of orcs, goblinoids, and other races, it was completely destroyed
by the elves.
The exact method was unknown, but it combined exceptional amounts of arcane magic and the
direct assistance of the Seldarine Pantheon of the Elves.
As far as anyone has documented, this was the only instance this power was fully unleashed
as that elven fleet located in Greyspace was completely wiped out by a series of catastrophic
accidents and furious reprisal attacks by many other surviving fleets, this was the
era that the Elves were creating arcane and divine mechanoid power suits, there was the
breeding of hulking super monsters that spawned nightmare eating machine offspring and so
on, it was a very anime time in the multiverse.
Those massive abomination beasts were known as Witchlight Marauders and although most
were destroyed before they could be employed by their orc shaman creators, there are still
a few hidden away, dormant for centuries.
The creation and weaponization of mutated lifeforms was practiced by both sides of the
conflict.
On the elven side, voluntary elves and humans were mutated into bionoids, shapeshifting
creatures that could turn into powerful insect-like warriors.
Other creatures created by the elves included the voltron-like spirit warriors.
On the unhuman side, orcish shamans created the yitsan, while mutated hobgoblin shamans
gave rise to the chakchak, let me know in the comments down below if you want to hear
more about those ancient war machines and mutant horrors.
In the following centuries a group of orc survivors The Great Hunt settled in a distant
crystal sphere and, under the leadership of Dukagsh, developed into the highly advanced
culture and civilization known as the scro.
They were disciplined and organized, and all united in their burning hatred of elves.
Scro are called Space Orcs by many, but let me stop you there, this is a distinct sub
species, quite different from any Orcs you will find in the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.
First they are larger averaging six feet with some reaching eight feet tall.
They have the facial structure of what someone from the Forgotten Realms would call a Northern
Orc, those native to the Spine of the World Mountains and often called Many Arrows orcs
lately.
The Scro have a distinctly porcine snout, but also less jutting and higher set foreheads
with a strong jawline, they also tend not to hunch over like other Orcs, and their eyes
tend to glow with a faint green light in the darkness, combined with the style of armor
and gear they wear, plus their long, polished and decorated tusks make them look very intmidating,
which is exactly what they are really.
Scro skin color varies, ranging from dark orange to jet black, with the occasional green
or even stark white, they almost always wear black leather armor encrusted with multicolored
metal spikes.
They are so fond of metal spikes that they also keep their tusks sharp by filing them
to points and they decorate their body with small totems related to their tribes and vessels.
They also keep a tooth necklace called a toregkh, featuring the pulled teeth from defeated enemies.
Toregkh form the bulk of Scro cultural artifacts, along with legendary weapons used by revered
ancestors.The practice of going about fully armored most of the time and the fact that
the Scro often coat their colorful spikes with poison is another reason you literally
don't want to bump shoulders with one of them.
Their armor, be it light leather and spike studs or even chain or splint mail, is always
meticulously well cared for, their weapons are well made and kept in top condition.
The first sight of a squad of Scro departing a ship at a spelljamming port is an impressive
one, they walk upright and proud, they often wear billowing blue cloaks and their super
heroic level of muscle conditioning from a lifetime of daily training is very obvious
even under layers of expertly crafted and decorated glossy black leather armor with
their own array of different size, style and color of metal spikes, as distinct as a fingerprint,
yet together, they seem very much like the highly disciplined and yet brutal warriors
that they are.
Scro are the deliberate result of some pretty serious cultural and physical manipulation
by one of their most famous charismatic leaders, they differ from other orcs much like the
Uruk-hai differed from the regular mordor orcs in the Lord of the Rings, they are larger
and scro less than six feet in hight are unlikely to ever get to mate with another scro, they
would have to seek a family outside of their own culture, which sounds harsh, but they
also agree with this and would probably not mate with a smaller partner outside of their
culture either, Scro have nothing but scorn for smaller, weaker humanoids, its drummed
into them from birth that they must be the strongest and smartest race to survive and
dominate as Gruumsh commands of them.
To the scro, they think of themselves as humans in warhammer 40K see the Astartes, the genetically
and surgically modified super human space marines and fanatics in the cult of the immortal
god emperor, the Scro also believe that they exist to fight for the Orcish species, to
exterminate the elves and take control of the multiverse, restricting other races to
only living on the planets where they exist now and stopping all exploration and expansion
of other species while establishing orc enclaves and transforming new worlds for the orcs to
thrive on.
The original homeworld of the Scro is called Dukagsh, or that star system is called Dukagsh,
they have a god of the same name which may or may not be an aspect of Gruumsh, most of
the Spine of the World orcs from the Forgotten Realms came from a world called Adzadar however,
so Dukagsh is just one of many star systems which are home to abundant orc populations.
In truth, Dukagsh is the name of the charismatic war leader that rescued their population from
extermination and established a new, comprehensive doctrine of behaviour, even renaming their
race as the Scro.
He led his fleet to a remote world.
On that world, the Scro were divided up into 24 tribes and scattered in well-planned cities
with numbers ranging between ten and one hundred thousand Scro per population center.
These cities are entirely practical, more like military bases, run to service training
facilities, shipyards, command towers and supply fortresses, everything is stark, there
are no gardens, but its very clean and well signposted.
This is one of the few planets a Scro really feels comfortable walking around on the surface,
most Scro prefer life onboard a spelljammer, off planet somewhere, snuggly operating in
the rigid hierarchy of their culture, handed down to them by their Almighty Leader and
Dukagsh, the Scro father god.
There is a pretty clear template for depicting Scro culture and mannerisms, and that is the
Klingons from Star Trek, except they prefer to just close in, slam their ship into the
target, board as many highly trained warriors as they can and overwhelm any resistance with
brutal hand to hand combat, hand axes, clubs and muzzle loading firearms.
Scro warriors are trained martial artists who can punch, kick, trip, throw and even
make best use of their natural bite attack, their martial art style is most similar to
that of Combat pistol shooting, except it works with either a long, muzzle loader with
a blade attachment, or a hand axe also good for throwing at short range with a lot of
force behind it, the Scro are strong believers of stopping power and love nothing more than
marching over the blown back bodies of their shredded enemies, if you gave a Scro a minigun,
I think they would actually happy cry, but then, they feel the same way about flamethrowers
and warlocks who are on their team.
Scro arcane and divine arts are almost one and the same, their shamanic traditions have
been so focused on powering and piloting spelljammer warships, creating super weapons and massive
engineering projects on a military scale that they are no longer druid based, but rather
war priests and mystic theurges; able to cast both divine and arcane magic, at a very high
level and at great personal risk, much like the warcasters of the Hobgoblin armies.
There really is not much by way of tourist attractions on the planet Dukagsh, the shipyards
are impressive, I guess, oh and the Tomb of the Almighty Leader.
At the end of his life, Dukagsh declared his new people to be called the Scro and commanded
that all Scro should learn the Elven language so that one day, they could explain to the
elves in their own tongue exactly who their conquerors are.
Dukagsh was placed in a tomb magically set to hover directly over the scro planet's north
pole so that Dukagsh could watch over his people in his death.
The planet was named after their Almighty Leader, and he gained enough worshipers to
attain godhood over them, though nowhere near as powerful as Gruumsh of course.
Activity on the planet became fever pitched as the entire populace began preparing for
the Second Unhuman War in earnest, well, they called it The War of Revenge, but it is mostly
called the second Unhuman war these days.
The Scro introduced new types of warships, such as the Battlewagons, they also worked
with other species as long as the shared objective was to annihilate all elven ships and colonies,
with a secondary goal of gaining military control of all star systems.
The war first entered Realmspace in 1360 DR, (shortly after the Grand Army of the Tuigan
invaded Faerûn.)
It took over twelve battles in wildpsace for the Elven Imperial Navy, reinforced by spelljammers
from Evermeet, to drive the scro out of realmspace and back into the Astral sea, leaving behind
a victorious but crippled elven fleet.
After the end of the war, some of the surviving scro in Realmspace were captured by the illithids
of the planet Glyth or the beholders of planet H'Catha.
Other survivors were attacked by the human fleets from Wa and Shou Lung in the lands
of Kara-tur.
Still other scro avoided capture and took to hiding in the moons of Garden, using them
as temporary bases which have become more and more a population and military base in
their own right.
Despite the fact that the elves continuously searched for the remaining scro in Realmspace,
at least one small scro fleet still existed as late as 1368 DR.
This fleet did not attack the elves but instead tried to profit through trade on Toril by
selling firearms to contacts in Waterdeep and other cities.
The fleet withdrew from Toril after a short time, however, and its whereabouts thereafter
are currently unknown, it has been quite a while though.
Meeting an individual Scro who has grown up living on Toril, they are not your garden
variety Orc, more like Orog's in stature but tall and athletic, like a Goliath.
The Scro takes pride in their appearance, their hair is tied back in braids, shaved
down the sides, they have a natural penchant for wearing leather armor like a motorbike
hooligan and displaying their wealth in flashy gem studded embellishments.
Scro can read and write, they speak orcish, elvish and the common tongue, Scro orcish
is more complex than common orcish, so orcs from the many arrows tribes would have trouble
following everything a Scro says.
Scro live communally not just because they are very insular and don't trust other races,
they are also very fertile, like most kinds of orcs, female Scro give birth to litters
of two to five infants at a time, most of them survive to adulthood, being raised in
community creches, scro are usually named after famous heroes of their people, most
of these heroes are males, so scro females often have male names that are turned into
female versions.
Scro live longer than most other kinds of orcs, most live to 80 years if they don't
die in combat, some are known to live for up to 94 years.
One of the most infamous Scro on the planet toril was Thergod, leader of the Blood Axe
Smashers, aka The Smashers, a Zhentilar band of murderers who operated out of Darkhold
during the reign of King Azoun Obarskyr the fourth of Cormyr around 1369 DR.
There was a 2000 gold coin bounty for any who could destroy Thergod's band of three
hill giants and sixteen ogres.
Thergod was known to be rather ill-mannered, though he inspired great confidence in his
troops and had a good sense of tactics.
He was prone to planning ambushes against his opponents.
He originally crash-landed his spelljammer vessel on Toril near Darkhold in 1355 DR and
can be encountered in the campaign book for the Ruins of Zhentil Keep, published originally
by TSR.
Thergod was a classic lawful evil villain, the scro lean heavily towards that alignment
in their own culture, they probably fall into the worship of Bane pretty comfortably and
would have no issues dealing with the fiends of the Nine Hells.
They won't deal with the drow, though, or any elf for that matter, unless raised outside
Scro culture, this prejudice is deeply ingrained into them in all aspects of their own culture.
I'm not sure if they exist in 5th edition, or any edition for that matter, but somewhere
out there, there just has to be a gang of space bikers with spined leather armor, some
sort of space rocket bike and grapplehooks on chains wrapped around their limbs that
they can use to grapple, bind and shred their victims at close range...
Orc Lobo baby!
Of course, as intelligent, widely travelled and highly capable orcs, Scro can be of any
alignment or personality type you choose if you happen to be playing one as your character,
they sound like a lot of fun to me, except perhaps for the tendency to murder elves whenever
they can get away with it.
Oh well, I am sure that is just those Scro with traditional family values.
Thanks for listening, my name is AJ Pickett and I make videos about Roleplaying game lore;
that's all I have for you right now but I will be back with more for you very soon.