Some of the orc lifepaths have things that my friends and I are unable to follow. The path for Follower requires “He Who Walks in the Named’s Shadow requires The Rites or Astrid the Beast”. Is the HWWitNS simply the name that orcs would give to the follower lifepath?
Thanks.
Yes. And a story/narration seed. “He Who Walks in the Named’s Shadow” is not a requeriment. (The Rites and Astrid the Beast are.) He is a follower, an orc who walks under the shadow of he who is mighty and earned the ancient right to be named.
All of the orc lifepaths have long and short names. Usually the long name contains the short name (for instance, your buddy Edge Grinder is formally known as He Who Grinds The Edges Of Our Blades To Glinting Sharpness) but in a few cases it doesn’t. He Who Walks In The Named’s Shadow is more often called Follower.
Thanks much. It was very different from the paths that I was used to looking at, so I thought I was missing something.
The long names are usually in the required trait for the LP.
A thought just occurred to me. I remember that Luke said the reason all dwarves have the “Bearded” trait is that dwarven culture is a patriarchal one - hence, the only characters of consequence are men.
All of the Orc lifepaths are “He Who…” does something. Is that intended to be the same sort of thing? The subtext is that orc culture is a violent, brutal, oppressive regime where women are essentially cattle? Or are there actually no orc women?
Orcs are cousins to Elves in Burning Wheel, so they should have active women. The “He Who” is just poor translation from Black Speech.
On that note, I’m scanning the acknowledgments, but see nothing about your extensive and dedicated team of Black Speech translators. I refuse to believe that the Black Speech translation in BWG was done by your sole effort. That just isn’t possible. 
Dro’s a native speaker.
Dro’s also extremely sexist, so that’s why every orc is translated as a he.
The things you learn. BWHQ has a fascinating team from the sounds of it.
No… what Dro isn’t telling is why all the female orcs are old women…
but they all Used to be Men.
Hell, you’d be angry, too, if you knew the family jewels were gonna fall off…
You are paying out big-time on Dro, but, hey…
Haters gonna hate.