After double checking to see if I could find out the details of the conflict, I think I messed up.
So, the population was 25k, rather than 250k
Second, every single resident died, but it wasn't from the Orcs, instead being because a Dwarven high priest summoned Aurgloroasa, a shadow wyrm, in the middle of the city who proceeded to turn every dwarven resident into undead. It was then taken control of by 3000 human troops before it was captured by the orcs until the Dwarves recaptured it from them.
I know next to nothing about Forgotten Realms, but the events within evidently abide by D&D 5e lore if it's mentioned in official material, and the wiki for it had this to say on their relationship:
the entire (Dwarven) race had more or less declared war on goblins and orcs as a whole
Given the racial enmity between dwarves and orcs and the importance dwarves placed on lineage, it was easy to understand their temptation to hold distrust and resent half-orcs. Half-orcs meanwhile thought dwarves would be funny if not so dangerous, for despite their capacity for drinking and raucousness they were serious, judgmental, task-oriented, and strict. However, half-orcs held respect for the strength and martial prowess, and further admired dwarven skill with stone and honesty while sharing an appreciation for simple pleasures. Dwarves were predisposed to letting those so inclined prove themselves, and the two could be surprisingly staunch companions, to the point that less traditional clans would adopt particularly worthy half-orcs, demonstrating the possibility for even the oldest grudges to be wiped clean.
It's an optimistic spin on their relationship, though I'm not surprised it ends at the first sentence of this quote for the barmaid kicker IC.
....And a "BURNING HATRED" for Goblins & Orcs......
True, I kind of glossed over that since it didn't explain how or why beyond the obvious.
Citadel Felbarr had a population of a quarter million Dwarves so even if it was just that, being able to point to a Dwarven equivalent of 9/11 or something felt more explanatory.
since when is racism supposed to be a natural thing lol
I was actually curious about this too, since I've never heard of Dwarves and Half-Orcs being opposed to each other in 5e, though the PHB makes it clear from the onset that Half-Orc discrimination is commonplace since they are typically associated with Orcs and have some of their predispositions. (explicitly stating that they "tend to be short-tempered" along with some interesting stuff about how they "feel emotions powerfully")
Orcs themselves are chaotic evil. D&D Lore (Page 123 of the PhB) states that evil dieties (Gruumsh in this case, the chaotic-evil creator of Orcs) will make creatures with inborn tendencies matching those of their creator, and that even half-orcs feel "the lingering pull of the orc god's influence." So it's not really a big mystery why there's prejudice, but why it's Dwarves in particular.
Alignment in the Multiverse For many thinking creatures, alignment is a moral choice. Humans, dwarves, elves, and other humanoid races can choose whether to follow the paths of good or evil, law or chaos. According to myth, the good-aligned gods who created these races gave them free will to choose their moral paths, knowing that good without free will is slavery.
The evil deities who created other races, though, made those races to serve them. Those races have strong inborn tendencies that match the nature of their gods. Most orcs share the violent, savage nature of the orc gods, and are thus inclined toward evil. Even if an orc chooses a good alignment, it struggles against its innate tendencies for its entire life. (Even half-orcs feel the lingering pull of the orc god's influence.)
Alignment is an essential part of the nature of celestials and fiends. A devil does not choose to be lawful evil, and it doesn't tend toward lawful evil, but rather it is lawful evil in its essence. If it somehow ceased to be lawful evil, it would cease to be a devil.
Dwarves are already characterized as "distrustful" and "slow to forget wrongs they have suffered", so the many paragraphs of how Orcs pillage and slaughter from the monster manual aren't necessary to put 2 and 2 together, but was there a specific event that caused it?
The best I could find in official 5e material was an excerpt from the monster manual referencing "King Obould Many-Arrows", which took up residence in a mountain range called "The Spine of the World" and attacked nearby dwarven, elven and human settlements. After looking into it a bit more, apparently they settled in "Citadel Felbarr", which was a Dwarven Citadel before the Orcs attacked it, renaming it "The Citadel of Many Arrows" until the Orcs were later defeated and the Citadel reclaimed.
Heavy Metal is, as I understand it, more familiar with older editions of D&D, so there might be more about it in older editions. Carrying over legacy lore at the DM's whim is nothing new.
I was more irked by the seemingly arbitrary restrictions to word choice, and I maintain my opinion that, where they're accurate, they shouldn't be restricted, but I also understand wanting to get away from the negativity seen so often on social media and other places. If someone joined a game I was running and wanted to offhandedly mention a band of Druids wild shaped into foxes running disinformation campaigns to trick people into avoiding healers when they're afflicted with poison for financial gain, I wouldn't like it either, even though I fucking hate the real-life equivalent. I don't want to dwell on it in a D&D game; it doesn't matter if my players are in agreement of the real life matter or not. I may have made a smaller deal about it, but I'd ask them to drop it going forward.
I think what I edited it to arguably calls more attention to the fact that it's racially motivated, since a hate crime is a verb that can be mentioned casually rather than spelling it out. (i.e. "ATTACK THEIR HEALER BASED ON HIS RACE") I was just trying to say my character interprets the situation as beyond practical resolution through amiable conversation so he'd have a excuse to prepare for combat before it actually started.
Fantasy racism need not correlate to real racism and I don't really care where Heavy Metal's perception on what reminds him of current events lies so long as it doesn't get in the way of the writing and characterization. Despite invoking the Streisand effect and his rude response, jumping to a soft ad hominem by implying he's, in your own words, a "2010s /pol/ anti-sjw" based on his attempts to keep up his own immersion is disingenuous.
He had a habit of taking drastic measures, consequences be damned, but those decisions were never made out of passion. He wasn't about to stop the manure harvester and his hairy goblin companion from walking out of the tavern without a fight. This had been part of his original plan, after all, before their sorcerer had managed to embarrass herself enough to end the whole conflict early. That being said, the man's words - "no harm no foul" couldn't be further from the truth. Harming the barmaid is what started the conflict. Very convenient of him to forget that, and they hadn't actually apologized either.
Akio extended a hand to Fay wordlessly, offering to help her up. He didn't ask her if she was okay; she had proclaimed herself a Spellsword. It'd just add to her embarrassment by indirectly calling her competency as one into question, or at least that's what Akio thought. Once she was up, he left, moving over to the barmaid to help her, picking up the pieces of the shattered mugs.
Quietly, he extended the barmaid his offer. "As the aggrieved party, I feel I should ask you, first." He examined the barmaid's expression, though she obviously didn't know what he was talking about. He was just taking a dramatic pause to make sure he had her attention anyway. "Do you feel the Dwarf's coins make up for his actions?" He held out the Dwarf's two silver coins, wet from the spilled ale, within one open palm, offering it to her like a devil's bargain. "Or, would you prefer hiring my adventuring party to teach that Dwarf a lesson?"
She shook her head, reaching for the silver coins with a self-deprecating smile. "Thank you for the offer, but I must decline."
Akio couldn't help but let his concern show on his face. "If it's about the money, I don't actually-"
"It's not."
"..."
He had missed his chance to help her when she needed it and now it was too late. The situation was nostalgic in all the wrong ways. He went back to picking up the rest of the glass shards before returning to his party, bidding them farewell for the night.
Akio It was rather shocking to see someone so ill-mannered as to kick an apparently defenseless barmaid in front of so many. He thought he wasn't so sheltered after spending so much time on the road, away from his family, but maybe he's still a bit lacking in that regard. In any case, while he was addled by the possibility that this wasn't particularly abnormal for a patron of a raucous tavern, it didn't occur to him to step up in the good lady's defense. He'd left behind the stifling calculus of honor and was used to having to look the other way so as to avoid a diplomatic incident. His first thought was that the ornery Dwarf would simply be banned from the tavern and that would be that, but then their cleric walked up to the man to ask him what he was doing, and Akio couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't the one doing that.
To put it less charitably, he sat there like an idiot while the cleric and the hunter both beat him to the punch. Still, he wasn't prepared to start a bar fight for fear of troubling the tavern more until the Dwarf and his thuggish compatriot both openly announced their intention to attack their healer based on his race. So, an irreconcilable conflict, then.
Well, so much for sparing the tavern keeper the trouble. Akio quietly casts Mage Armor on himself as he readies his dagger.
Akio "Hmmm. A hunter, a cleric, and a sorcerer. I guess that would make me the vanguard."
He took another drink. There was plenty of it to go around with Fay part of the group, it seemed. There was a comfortable atmosphere as the low-quality, low-potency alcohol tried its best to make him feel something.
He wasn't exactly a prototypical warrior, so, with Fay's prompting, he figured it made sense to more thoroughly define his role in the group. "I may not look it, but I know a bit about Druidry. I'm a bit more inclined towards fists than fireballs, but the cleric here isn't the only one with healing magic. You guys familiar with the Goodberry spell? I'll prepare a bunch of them tonight."
He spared a sheepish smile towards Edgar. "Greater Restoration is a bit beyond me, though."
I think there's still a misunderstanding here. Fay just said she didn't need up-front pay, and would agree to help the man without it, so the 200 gold the man paid up-front would be split between the other three instead of all four of them. (66 each instead of 50 each)
After the job is done, since the three of them got paid 2/3rds of their final 100 gold share, they would only get the remaining 1/3rd, while Fay would get the whole 100 gold share at the end of the job. She would not be paid more.
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