Orc lifepath questions

Burning Wheel Character Burner
1

Even though I’ve been playing for years, I’ve never really gotten to deep into Orc lifepaths. Playing around with them now and had a couple questions (possibly more later).

The lifepath Edge Grinder (many lifepaths have similar requirements) has the requirements: “He Who Grinds the Edges of Our Axes to Glinting Sharpness requires Forger”.

  1. Does that mean the first part of that is just what the name of the Orc has to be and that Forger is the only lifepath requirement?

  2. I’m assuming that naming requirement is only if you stop at that lifepath? So, if I took another lifepath after that with no naming requirement I could just go with whatever name I wanted since I’d no longer be an Edge Grinder?

The requirements for Whipmaster are “Pitwright, Forger, four slave lifepaths or any Great and Black or Legion lifepath”.

  1. What constitutes a slave lifepath? Only chattel lifepaths with “slave” in the name? Or any of the lower-tier chattel lifepaths? Some of the others seem like they could be considered slave lifepaths because of their traits.
2

  1. He Who Grinds the Edges of Our Axes is the full “name” (descriptor?) of the Edge Grinder. Forger is the requirement for Edge Grinder.

  2. Your “name” is your last lifepath, unless your earn the right to an actual name with the Named lifepath.

  3. In my opinion: Cutter Slave, Forge Slave or Cattle Slave count (and possibly Slave to the Dark…). But I think it’s a fair argument that Scavenger, Hauler and Tunneler would also be acceptable.

3

  1. Orcs have short LP names (Astride the Beast, Named, Black Destroyer) and then their long name (He Who Sits Astride the Howling Black Beast, He Who is Mighty and Earned the Ancient Right to Be Named, He Whose Skin Is like Winter Night, Whose Mere Presence Causes Those Beneath Him to Shiver in Terror and Cower Beneath His Wicked Blade). “He Who Grinds the Edges of Our Axes to Glinting Sharpness” is the long name for Edge Grinder, that’s all.

  2. Pretty much, though most Orcs will probably just bark out the short name: “you, Edge Grinder, get over here!” Regardless though, unless you take the “Named” lifepath, your name is your last lifepath. For an LP that doesn’t come with a long name, feel free to come up with something equally suitable for all members of that lifepath (so Forge Slave could be “He Who Tends the Bellows of His Master’s Forge” for example).

  3. Standard BW prerequisite rules implies any lifepath with slave in the name, though I’d make a special exception if someone wanted to argue that any Lifepath that requires you take “Tasting the Lash” counts as a slave LP.

EDIT: Ninja’ed by Thor.

4

Awesome, thanks. That’s what my gut told me. Thanks for the confirmation!

Also: wow, I thought dwarven lifepaths were restrictive and super-structured. I think Orcs may have them beat.

5

On my second note, I would insist that anyone playing an Orc who didn’t pick the Named Lifepath and whose last Lifepath didn’t have a in-built long name come up with one… Mostly because it’s cooler that way.

6

In our last big orcs campaign, earning a Name was a major Belief goal for a couple of my players.

7

I just ran a con scenario about Orcs earning a name. One thing I found amusing was that the character with the Name Ritual skill gets to choose the name he grants.