Let's talk about THE METAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!
Race.
The Metal Race.
Let's make orcs. Everyone needs a race of lovable ugly bastards, right? And they'd totally fit the whole harshness thing metal has going on. If you're on the IN IRC (i.e 3/4ths of my readership, apparently), you know that the argument has been over whether the orcs should be Vikings or Mongols. I've decided to go with Mongols, as I originally envisioned, with some Norse influences and a splash of Russia.
Metal is rigid, strong, brave, and individualistic. The metal orcs are thus organized into nomadic tribes that occasionally will settle and form kingdoms. They war with each other constantly for survival in an inhospitable enviroment. In this furnace, the weak die and the strong are forged. I see the orc lands as harsh terrain, but rich in mineral wealth. This allows the orcs a one up on the other races and gives them the opportunity to hone their metalworking.
The harsh existance also makes the orcs hardy warriors. Being like the Mongols, I suppose they are accomplished mounted archers, the more powerful metal sorcerers being able to summon whole swarms of arrows while on the back of an iron horse. The greatest of the warriors are able to tame and ride the most dangerous beast of orcland, THE IRON BEAR. They're bears, made of IRON that run around killing and eating things. Riding one is an ultimate status symbol, cementing one as a leader among orcs.
Despite being living in semi-anarchy, the orcs have a strong sense of tradition and honor, one that is as strong as steel. This sense unites them and binds them together. They might slaughter each other, but at the end of the day they are brothers and sisters. This sense of tradition has united the orcs previously during attempts by the Selkies to invade and this, combined with orcland's terrain is what keeps the Selkies from ever truly conquering them.
Speaking of the selkies, I see their relations as being... fairly good. The selkies see the orcs as these great barbaric brutes and the orcs see the selkies as decadent weaklings, but both agree that the other is better than dealing with elves. Some settlements on the border contain ample amounts of both and along these areas there is agreat deal of intermingling. While some orc raiders will attack selkie settlements and the Selkies have made periodic attempts to expand their territory into orcland, they do have peaceful relations and trade quite often. Gold and silver are metal too, after all.
In fact, metal has associations with materialism. So, the orcs have something similar to the Germanic weregild, in which every person and piece of property has a value. Those who steal or damage property must repay in accordance with this value. The same goes for murder. Value of an orc is largely based on status.
While riding an IRON BEAR is the ultimate status symbol for orcs, this is out of reach for almost all of them. Most orcs opt to wear metal armor, carry big metal weapons, wear metal jewelry. The more metal on you, the higher status. Big expensive impractical ceremonial armor is common among the upper class, although they rarely wear it outside of ceremony.
While the warring tribes and kingdoms are the norm for the orcs, this may change. I see that at the time of the campaign there is a youngish, charismatic, clever, and commanding orc leader that wants to unite the orcs into a single fighting force. If the orcs are Mongols, then this fellow may become Genghis Khan. I see him as being one of the few who has been able to tame an iron bear, the others being slightly less powerful warlords. If Orcis Khan is able to unite the orcs, they could take advantage of the Selkie civil war and take everything.
Perhaps they burn down those blood tree forests of the elves. We can only hope.
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