Rukhar - The Orc

Role in Its Society:

Rukhar is the kind of orc who thrives where order thins: border roads, lonely ferries, harvest routes, and the last mile before a village gate. He isn’t a warlord and he doesn’t fly a banner. He’s a predatory specialist—a raider who treats supply lines like veins and sees every traveler as a walking inventory list. When things go well, locals call him a “bandit.” When things go poorly, they call him a “curse.” Either way, he’s the reason caravans start hiring extra guards, and why farmers stop bringing their grain to market after dark.

Appearance Description:

Rukhar is tall for an orc but built wiry rather than bulky—corded muscle over long limbs, made for running and striking, not brawling. His skin is dark olive with ash-gray scars that ladder his forearms and neck. One ear is missing in a ragged bite-shaped tear, leaving a puckered crescent of cartilage—his namesake. His tusks are short and filed, his eyes narrowed and intelligent, and his scalp is shaved except for a tight topknot bound in leather. He wears layered leathers patched with canvas and ringmail scraps, and his gear is kept clean in a way that feels deliberate—like a hunter who respects his tools more than his prey.

Backstory:

Rukhar learned early that the quickest way to win a fight is to make sure the other side is tired, hungry, and afraid before blades even come out. He spent years as muscle for rough crews—escort “work,” protection rackets, ugly jobs where someone had to be willing to do the cruel thing first.

Then he discovered the truth he lives by now: you don’t need a gang if you can make the road do the work for you. He mapped the blind bends, the shallow ditches, the places where wagons must slow and where screams don’t carry. He started taking supplies instead of trophies, because supplies can be sold, traded, eaten, and used to control people. He doesn’t raid for glory. He raids for leverage.