From Introduction: Orcs fight. That’s what they do. Fighting is their job. At least that’s what they’ll tell you. More realistically orcs bully. They like to boss others around. But bullying requires a kind of power that individuals typically lack. Thus, orcs gang up. But, and any orc will tell you this, when you’re a gang you need a cool name, one that strikes fear in the hearts of the timid, one that represents power and strength, a name to make people tremble. Unfortunately, orcs also tend to lack much in imagination. To get into the mindset go back a bit, perhaps to your junior high school days and think about the representation of power. What were its symbols? Weapons are good but there are lots of weapons; perhaps a bigger weapon then but when used as a symbol all weapons look about the same size. Perhaps an exotic weapon then; well, it’d be pretty messed up to have your symbol be a weapon that no one in your gang could pronounce. Armor simply won’t do at all since that implies people will be hitting you and not the other way around. What’s left then? The fist. The fist represents the most simple raw form of power; through the fist one exerts one’s strength. The fist wields the sword and the axe. The fist is all you have left when stripped naked. A plain old fist won’t do; perhaps its wielding some lightning, or wearing a gauntlet (Iron Fist tends to be popular) but, if you’re an orc you’re going to be asking someone distinctly lacking in artistic talent to paint this on your shield or tattoo it on your chest. That leaves you with a simple color. And, like everything else in orc life, colors occupy their own hierarchy with black clearly at the top (red comes close but you know it simply doesn’t strike dread the way black does). All this has led to a brutal social Darwinism over nothing more than the fight over gang names. If you want to be in the Black Fist gang you need to make sure no one else uses the symbol. Think of it as a very personal form of trademark protection. And once you’ve established yourself as the Black Fist orcs you’ve got to make sure you only recruit the best, the meanest, and the toughest orcs out there. They’ve got to chew iron and spit nails. They’ve got to have a ruthless streak a league wide and they’ve got to be the kind of orc that won’t let anyone else call themselves a Black Fist without spilling some blood.