[hider=The Black Orc]
[b]Name:[/b] Morgan, the Black Orc
[b]Age:[/b] 21
[b]Sex:[/b] Male
[b]Breed:[/b] Full-blood

[b]Appearance:[/b] Homely even by Orcish standards, Morgan's face is a mess of dark scar tissue, various features pushed out of place by his bones mending crookedly. His golden eyes are beady and deep-set in his face, his black hair is kept cropped closely to his head, and his skin is a pallid grey, rather than the healthy green hue of a common Orc. He can barely breathe through his nose from being broken and scarred-over so many times, and his wide ears are torn and ragged like a feral cat's. Morgan's terrifying appearance is only exaggerated by his size, as he stands a head taller than most of his Orcish comrades, and his build is as thick and sturdy as a cast-iron cannon.

[b]Skills/Abilities:[/b][indent]- Hideously strong, even for an Orc.
- Wields a greatsword with tremendous skill.
- Expert warg rider.
- Experienced in ambushes, hit and run tactics, and other forms of guerilla warfare.
- An utterly tenacious bastard.[/indent]

[b]Equipment:[/b][indent]- Dokarish (Dragon's Death): Morgan's "greatsword," which in reality is more like a massive hunk of iron beaten into the general shape of a sword. Gained its name after Morgan heroically saved his company by slaying a dragon in single combat (read: killed an alligator while he was drunk).
- Armor: Morgan is one of the few among his company to wear a full suit of plate armor, patchwork though it may be. The entire suit is painted matte black (save for his right gauntlet, painted the company's signature red) with no further adornment, and is the origin of Morgan's epitet.
-  Tomahawks: Somewhere between utility and weapons, Morgan carries about a half-dozen small, light axes balanced for throwing. When the quarters are too close for him to swing his sword, he'll take one in each hand, or they can be chucked at enemies as last-ditch weapons.
- Garikka: Morgan's warg mount, a massive beast with black fur and yellow eyes. Her name means "frequent biter," and is also an Orcish vulgarity meaning "an unpleasant woman."
[/indent]
 
[b]History:[/b][indent]Like many in the Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi, Morgan has no rightful claim to any Orcish tribe or clan. Like fewer, though, he was not raised by Orcs, and never knew his true-blooded parents. A human mercenary company, known as the Black Raiders, had come across the aftermath of a forest ambush in their travels. A small band of refugee Orcs had seemingly been tracked down and slaughtered by bandits for what little wealth they had. Mostly women and children, there had been no survivors, and there was practically nothing left by the bandits to pick over. Just as they started to leave the scene, the wailing of an infant could be heard. Nestled under the corpse of a Orc woman that had died protecting him, a baby Orc was found; cold, malnourished, and caked in mud and his mother's blood. The Raiders' leader, Darian Black, thought nothing of it, but his favorite girl took a liking to the small, grey creature, as her own baby had been stillborn a month prior. Darian allowed her to keep the baby for herself, thinking that it would be dead before long and would cause him no further trouble.

Darian was unfortunately proven wrong, as the young Orc repeatedly proved to be utterly unwilling to die. Named Morgan by his adoptive mother, he clung to life voraciously throughout his first few years. His human mother died of dysentery when he was five years old, but Morgan still survived, and his care was left to Darian, who was embittered by the loss of his most treasured woman. Darian Black was not a man of restraint or great emotional temperament, and so frequently took out his frustrations on Morgan, usually in the form of vicious beatings. The Orc boy endured this silently; he knew that Darian thought he was worthless, but refused to prove him right by showing weakness. Even so, Darian refused to be burdened by the little monster that had been left to him. Morgan was given a sword, and Darian trained the boy himself. The training was harsh and brutal, leaving Morgan with many scars and bruises, but he continued to endure. This was his chance to prove his worth to his "father."

For years, Morgan served Black's Raiders as both an attendant to the soldiers, and as their whipping boy, serving Darian foremost in both. On some occasions, a soldier would offer up a few coins to Darian, and Morgan would be "theirs" for the night. When he was much younger, Morgan had a certain idea of what a warrior was like, mostly from stories his mother told him. As he grew up, it was clear to him that the Raiders were far from the shining knights of these childhood tales. A savage pack of criminals and scoundrels, the Raiders were scarcely better than a band of thieves or bandits. There was no job too dirty for them, and only the most desperate or unscrupulous of benefactors hired them. Before long, Morgan had joined his father and the other Raiders on the battlefield, one of Black's Raiders in his own right. A young Orc grows faster than a human, and is stronger as well. At first Morgan was given a short sword to fight with, but this was too light and flimsy for him. He eventually scavenged a claymore as long as he was tall, and swung it around with speed that unnerved the other Raiders.

Strong in body and trained by a veteran mercenary, Morgan was surprisingly mighty in battle, but he was still young and inexperienced. In a moment of laxity in combat, Morgan allowed an enemy soldier to strike from behind him. Darian, watching, leaped forward at took the blade meant for Morgan, perhaps merely out of reflex, perhaps out of a deep-buried protective instinct toward his adopted "son." Morgan carried Darian off the battlefield, alive, but at the cost of his sword arm. Resentment grew toward Morgan in the Raiders, seeing him as a bad omen that had killed his mother and crippled his father. This resentment spread to Darian, who in a drunken rage attacked Morgan in the dead of night. He swung wildly and furiously at Morgan, yelling about his secret desire for Morgan to have died in infancy, or died with his mother, or died on the battlefield, and his deep disappointment that he had lived through all of that. A rage overtook Morgan, who had previously been only defending against his father's blows, and he struck the man down.

Before the commotion could spread further in their camp, Morgan took off in the dead of night with only his sword and armor, and a stolen horse. In the years that followed, Morgan did all he could to survive. His only skill was to swing his greatsword around, and so he took work as a mercenary in the few companies that would hire an Orc. He was frequently cheated out of money, put into suicidal missions, or left for dead, but Morgan still refused to lay down and die. When work was scarce, he stole to live, usually holding up travelers and other bandits. To disguise the color of his skin at a distance, and keep him better hidden at night, Morgan painted his armor black. There may have been another, deeper reason, but Morgan did not like to think about it. Morgan's martial prowess grew as he matured, and he found that even a greatsword was too light a blade to make sufficient use of his strength. He found a smith to forge together several blades into a single, ugly mass, and then carried around this misshapen "sword" as equal parts blade, shield and bludgeon.

In a battle against the defending forces of Castle Loren, Morgan was thrust into single combat against a great warrior, the famous Red Knight of Loren. The living ideal of the shining knights Morgan dreamed of as a child, the Red Knight saw that he was just a boy, and gave him the chance to flee. Morgan was far past the point of fleeing, and drew his sword. Their duel lasted five strokes, as Morgan shattered the Red Knight's blade with his own. The final blow ripped Morgan's helmet off his head, but he caved in the Red Knight's skull. Warriors around this duel stopped fighting for a brief moment in awe, amazed that a young Orc in black armor had killed the great Red Knight. Such began the reputation of the Black Orc.

Fame alone did not keep Morgan's belly full. He was eventually driven to steal again, this time from what he thought to be a band of Orcish refugees. As he fled into the night after raiding one of their tents, he found that he was being pursued by what sounded like giant dogs. These had been no refugees; they were outriders of the Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi. Morgan could not outrun warg riders for long, and was eventually encircled. Determined to go down fighting, Morgan killed four mounted Orcs and took the arm off another one before being felled by a poisoned arrow. Removing his helmet to claim the head of a such a worthy foe, the outriders were shocked to find that he the Black Orc. They took him back to their camp to see if he would survive the poison, watching him curiously. After three days of agony, Morgan proved yet again that he was unwilling to die. Claiming that he owed them a debt in blood and food, Morgan was inducted into the Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi by the chief of the Warg Company.

Morgan did not spend long in the pikes, as he had been already trained to fight by humans, and the Warg Chief thought his skills were wasted among the recruits. Morgan earned a great deal of resentment from the other Orcs, partly from this blatant favoritism, partly for killing their comrades, but mostly because he was like a human among their ranks. He had never lived among Orcs, and he did not speak a lick of Orcish. When he joined the Warg Company, he was given the meanest bitch in the pack to be his mount, claiming that she was the only warg big enough to hold him and his heavy armor. Morgan steeled himself to prove his worth to his new comrades the only way he knew how: with blood and sweat. Morgan drilled with his warg for hours on end every day, determined to break the beast if it killed him. Hours not spent training with his warg or his blade were spent among his comrades, trying desperately to learn the language and heritage of his people. In time, his efforts paid off. He could speak Orcish reasonably (though with a hideous human accent), and after giving each other a dozen new scars, he had finally bonded with his warg (though she now answered to the vulgar "Garikka" instead of her normal name).

More used to fighting from horseback, Morgan took some time to adjust to fighting atop a warg, but he was already well-used to the ambush tactics used by the Warg Company. Despite their initial distrust and resentment of him, his fellow riders came to respect Morgan after several battles fought together. Even so, he remained something of a distant and unapproachable figure, his humanlike temperment unsettling to most of the tuskers. Even so, after only two years among the warg riders, Morgan was given leadership of his own warband. Morgan's own determination and mad courage kept them on the front lines, and volunteered them for the most dangerous tasks possible. This warband became known as "Morgan's Raiders," and was seen as a band of doomed riders by the rest of the Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi. They painted their armor black to emulate their leader, and took on roles other Orcs saw as being suicidal. It was not uncommon for Morgan to be the last survivor of these Raiders after a successful mission. Rumors continued to swirl around Morgan, thinking that perhaps some curse followed him, killing those around him but leaving him unable to die. Despite these rumors, Morgan's skill was unquestionable, leading to the disbandment of Morgan's Raiders and his induction into the Chosen.[/indent]

[b]Personality and Psychological profile:[/b][indent] Morgan seems to carry a sort of inferiority complex, which drives many of his feeling and decisions. Having known nothing but the scorn and derision of those around him for most of his life, he feels a constant, pressing need to prove his worth to those around him. This fuels both his rash, aggressive nature, and his unshakable tenacity. If presented with a challenge, he will complete it no matter the difficulty or personal cost. He lives for the acceptance of others, but at the same time is withdrawn and unused to close or affectionate relationships. To an observer he seems stoic and humorless, but he is just clueless as to how to appropriately react to most social scenarios. This difficulty is exacerbated further by having been raised by humans, and now living among Orcs. Most distressing to Morgan is his difficulty in forming bonds; he can recognize others as being his comrades, but still cannot bring himself to open up to them, fearing the same betrayal he suffered from his father.[/indent]

[b]Relationships  and Acquaintances:[/b][indent]I'll work on this when there are more characters if that's okay.[/indent][/hider]