I was catching up on some reading when I stumbled across a rather troubling snippet of lore, a single line that has completely altered how I am going to interact with orcs and possibly make me a social pariah. However it is my right and duty to share this cursed knowledge with the greatest minds of Horde Roleplay; the Wyrmrest Accord server forum.
When flustered, green skinned orcs blush purple. Not a more vibrant shade of green to match their altered skin tone, not ruddy brown as their natural skin tone shines through.
Purple.
This isnāt even old lore from when Warcraft was at the peak of itās strangeness, or in a ānoncanonical Supplementā like the TTRPG book or the canceled Lord of Clans game but in a modern novella A Good War. It was a BfA book and during a time where the lore was rather shaky due to the Unreliable Narrator angle that was being attempted, but can we truly blame this breaking of color law on the narrator not knowing what color green+red makes?
How will I go on knowing that every time I see a post about a valiant orcish blademaster cleaving through foes, sheās purple. When two young orcs confess their love for the first time, theyāre purple. As a Orc declares Mokāgora for the honor of his kin and clan, his face is purple with rage.
This doesnāt make sense, considering orc blood is red-black. Red + green = brown.
I feel like this is just an author being silly, like when they put hot chocolate in one of the Thrawn books as a lark.
Depends on their color tbh. You can get shades of purple from certain greens and red combos. I think assuming they meant bright night elf purple is the problem lol.
More dark purple, like Iām about to pass out purple, could be a thing iunno. OP leaves out a lot of context and descriptors other than getting hung up on purple.
Orcs have always been quite sentimental. They give you quests to get them presents to give to their significant others. They get really upset when their wife is killed by quilboar. And I donāt know if this quest is still in, but there used to be one where you ferried love notes between a butcher and an innkeeper and she spoke hotly of his cuts of meat.
They are the thirstiest race. This is why they show up at Kaldorei territory so often.
It is dumb, but Orc blood is depicted as almost black in the novels and cinematics, but in-game, it is the same red as every other race but the Draenei (who splash blue) and the Forsaken (who splash green).
Troll blood is described as ājellifiedā, so thick that you can hold it in your hands, and was, in lore, one of the primary ingredients of very strong healing potions due to the regenerative powers within a Troll.
Draenei blood being blue means that unlike red blood, which relies upon iron to bind to oxygen to fuel the body, they are likely using copper, much like certain crustaceans do.
Forsaken donāt have blood, they have a type of ichor used to help slow down and even reverse decay within their bodies, as they do not ānaturallyā heal without the use of their cannibalize racial, or the use of the necrotic mushrooms of the plaguelands. And even then, its a patch job, not a fix.
The worst part is that Iām not missing all that much context.
It was in A Good War page 36
Saurfang loomed above him disapprovingly. āWould you care to join the Horde in battle? Or is the weather too nice back here?ā
The officerās green skin flushed to a satisfying shade of purpleā¦
Itās just a passing phrase that completely throws everything we understand into chaos. Part of me wonders if that was originally meant to be a troll in an earlier draft and the author & editor didnāt catch this bit when they changed it to orc. Sort of like when Before the Storm referenced to Worgen tails and one of the mentions was missed.
Renādorei blood is canonically confirmed as purple due to Void corruption, so blushing purple is definitely possible for them.
For orcs, looking purple makes senseā¦ ish? Most typical orcs have red blood and a green complexion would make their blush appearā¦ well, technically brown. But I dunno, maybe their green skin has more blue/cool undertones than we think, hence the purple. Or maybe Robert Brooks was full of crap, itās hard to say.
