#nirnposting

I was watching a documentary on queerness in the animal kingdom the other day, and they briefly mentioned how, in animal species who live in groups where only one dominant male is permitted to breed, ie; rams, lions, baboons, etc, it is standard for young males to leave their birth-group and form their own, male-only social groups (where homosexual contact is extremely common).

being currently in the throes of another Elder Scrolls hyperfixation, my immediate thought was (and this was a headcanon I've had for a while, from previous playthroughs as Orc characters) of course how this would probably be a common thing in Orsimer society; for young men to form their own "Bachelor-Tribes" where they live until they think they're ready to return home to try to kill their dads.

but then I remembered: this isn't just a headcanon. this is explicitly shown in-game. there are at least two "bandit camps" in Skyrim that are functionally identical to every other bandit camp in the game, occupied by enemy NPCs called only "bandits", save for the fact that every single bandit enemy is a male Orc. I'm sure we've all known this already; there's really no other way to interpret these forts of raiders comprised exclusively of orcish men, given what we see of their strongholds in the game, but I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate whatever devs at Bethesda made sure to include these homosocial Orcish camps in the game.