Project: Ashlands
Manamorphosis
Aelves harnessed true power of the arcane, but the mortal bodies and minds of man could not persevere. They were warped into feral husks, the deepest layers of their minds rotten into mere instinct. Driven into madness by insomnia and an insatiable hunger, those who survive the ashlands give only one name for their savagery:
Orcs.
Vicious predators that know nothing of mercy. Their senses enhanced - strength and durability unnatural. In losing their humanity, they became the new apex predator of the Ashlands.
Their packs groan and snarl in an eternal hunt. Orcs care not for silence, for those who hear their deathrattle have their fate sealed with tooth and claw by those who used to walk among them.
Although they retain a fraction of the intelligence of their previous life, memories were repurposed as a way to navigate the landscape. To remember your face. To remember where you hide.
Orcish Morphology
Their polymorphic nature depends on the degree to which they have become warped. Some may walk upright, whereas others are reduced to a quadrupedal stance. This more human-like stance often comes with a similar intellectual likeness.
With no form of sophisticated verbal communication due to the contorting of their throats, their guttural breathing, known as their "deathrattle", provides a basic array of tones to convey immediate temperament - such as alertness or aggression.
They are a sterile species, however the arcane which corrupts grants a boon to their lifespan. Some rare examples are known to drag wounded survivors to arcane sources in order to induce manamorphosis.