#sheorc

Varga doodle

When all you want to do is practice wrangling wargs but mom says you have to peel potatoes.

Small ipad doodle. Felt weird to draw on ipad again lol. Took me almost 2 hours to just get the feel of it right. But! I bought it so I can bring work with me when I travel so i just gotta learn lol.

Varga reference/Guide sheet(2022) Finally, after 3 years or so I finally made a guide for Varga haha. I included 4 stages of her life, of which I want to make stories. From early childhood to adulthood. I also have a 5th stage of her old age, but im not quiiite there yet.  Varga is a Nordic orc, heavily influenced by Nordic iron age history. Orcs are born without their tusks, and they keep growing until the age of 25. Small orclings are not given very nice clothes as they grow out of them fast and child mortality is high(such is the time). However if you do survive the dangerous first year a big celebration is held where you are given an official name and welcomed into the tribe. In orc society, genders dont matter and its skill based what you end up doing, if you are good at sowing you probably will work with sowing, and if you are strong and good with an axe you are probably going to go into training to be a warrior.  they dress in a way that signalizes who they are and identify with. There are no official uniform for any gender and since everyone makes their own clothing. As small children they are trained in survival skills, and most know how to fish and set traps by the age of 9. As a soon to be teenager Varga is usually dressed in a natural linen dress with and blue dual strap overdress made out of wool. Her shoes are made out of leather all through the years. As a child she is expected to follow along and observe the adults at work. During the day they help out around the farms and housework and the evenings are for socialization and story telling around the fire.  A coming of age ritual is done in their teens/late teens before they can be classified as an adult. A young orc can choose when they feel ready to for the challenge between the ages of 18-21. Many spend years training for this task.   As the tradition goes the young orc is sent out into the wilderness to scratch a rune with their knife in to a cave wall along the runes of their ancestors. After a mark has been made they have to hunt down and animal that corresponds with their animal twin soul. Vargas family is said to have the spirit of the wolf. Some have the spirit of the bear, boar, Lynx, Moose etc. This inner animal spirit is brought out to help them in after a short ritual before a battle. This is simply a mental state they enter. After an animal of their clan has been killed, a hide is to be brought back and to made into a piece of clothing such as a belt of cape. Varga kills a wolf and carries the fur on her shoulders as a cape. They also sew in small pieces of the fur into their everyday clothing. A meal is to be prepared of the animal and eaten. The road to the cave is long and dangerous. The nature in the north is cold and hostile, with jagged mountains and deep valleys. The forests are dense and dark, and many host many predators. They spend all this time alone and for many the silence of the deep forests can be enough scare them.  Its usual for a young to use a month to complete the challenge. When they return they are greeted with a big celebration where they are given carefully crafted beads and amber on a chain that attaches to the brooches on the chest. After this ceremony they officially step into the ranks of the adults. As children they get one chain of beads after the first year and as teens they have two and as adults they have usually minimum of 3 rows of beads. (some have more to be fancy) Varga sets out on her journey at the age of 19 and returns to the village after a month and 3 days with new scars across her face. The scars are a symbol of victory and survival and most of the orcs carry scars from their life.  None has yet not completed the challenge and the longest it has been recorded taking is about 2 months.  As she grows up she chooses to go into training for battle. Orc society can be tough and weakness is not something looked nicely upon. She grows hard over the years and she ends up on a journey to revenge a fallen friend. Friendship, family and oats are highly valued and if a friend is killed unfairly (outside of a battle or by a cowards way)  Its almost mandatory to go after the killer to get justice. Oats are sacred and should not be broken if sealed.  ----- I still haven't decided if I want her to find a partner and settle more in the future, but we will see lol. Marriage is an important step in many orcs life and most dont marry until the age of 25. They have a lot of things that needs to be learned and mastered before they can settle.  My orcs also celebrate a couple different holidays and traditions but I dont think i can write it all out in just one post. There are so many things I want to talk about ! Thank you for reading my wall of text

Varga I really want to explore her story more. I have an idea to draw snippits and “scenes” through her life. She started out as a dnd character, and then I brought her into wow and now I use her her in every single game I can(lol). I want to explore the Nordic inspired culture ive created for her. She is an orc, but she is not from the wow universe. Its a fantasy universe made by me.  

Varga (2018) and Varga (2022) Before she gets her scars. 

I always draw her angry, miserable, or in action. Since I am, after all, a sucker for misery. She deserves to be happy too sometimes. So I drew a happy summer memory from her youth.

My more sneaky and fun orc oc "Rakka". She lives closer to the sea than Varga who lives in the cold mountain areas. She occasionally hitchhikes with pirates and loves to see and explore the world.