An average orc does two things in his life: murder or plunder. However, many mages of questionable education and provenance believed that the orcs penchant for violence was a purely cultural matter of their race. Time and again, such a sorcerer whether out of boredom or intellectual deficiency, would decide to snatch an orc child from the steppes of Ervani and raise it, aiming to confirm theories initiated by Ribtik of Burtharb.
He postulated that an orc raised and educated in a proper environment would not significantly differ in behavior from a similarly raised human, elf, or halfling. Usually, however, such experiments ended with the spectacular death of the wizard and several days of uproar among mages determined to avenge their comrade.
An orc is as everyone sees him, but once in a while, an orc appears so stupid that he can be considered intelligent. Usually, such an individual doesn't live among orcs for too long, because no one likes a smart aleck, especially when it would be like a chess enthusiast joining the district Bloody Horns team. A quick and painless death is not a given. But just as someone occasionally wins the lottery, so too, once in a never, a smart-aleck orc gets caught by a not-particularly-bright mage.
And so began the story of Grumgh, called 'The Orc in Spectacles' by humans. Not because he actually wore glasses, but because the mage who raised him stubbornly claimed that possessing such attributes would add to his gravitas and wisdom. In practice, this meant Grumgh spent his entire childhood with a wire frame tied to his nose with a string, which not only made him a laughingstock but also left a permanent mark on his psyche.
The mage, called Sirvelon, was not among the sharpest minds in the Neruram Mages Guild. He was just an average low-circle sorcerer, whose greatest achievement was successfully boiling water with a spell and burning only half his robe while attempting to master a fireball. Yet his ambitions ran deeper. He wanted to prove that an orc could be educated, preferably educated enough to be presented at a guild forum as 'proof' of Ribtik's theory.
Sirvelon was one of Ribtik's descendants, not from the main bloodline but rather a distant, diluted offshoot. However, his ambitions and fondness for his ancestor's legacy were first-league, underpinned by a bitter awareness that his own magic would never be bright enough to shine.
Frustration and a hunger for recognition drove him toward his ancestor's theory. Proving Ribtik right became an obsession for Sirvelon, his only chance to etch his name into the annals of magical history. He wasn't concerned with a deeper understanding of orc ontology or breaking social barriers. No, it was pure, unhealthy ambition. He already saw himself presenting a well-spoken orc at the guild forum, while the elder mages, the same ones who called him 'Sirvelon, the one who… ah, well, you know', would begin to hail him as Sirvelon the Wise, the Great, or the Educator.
Grumgh grew up in the shadow of shelves that groaned under the weight of books, though he was never sure whether it was their burden or the dust that made Sirvelon's entire tower creak with every gust of wind. His 'educational' methods were as haphazard and ill-conceived as his spellcasting. Grumgh's upbringing rested on four pillars. The first was the mentioned wire frame on his nose, which, in Sirvelon's opinion, was meant to 'stimulate the brain centers responsible for intellect through constant, subtle discomfort.' Second was a stale academic treatise, 'Ethics, Logic, and Good Manners for Young Minds,' which he read aloud to the orc every evening, completely ignoring the fact that most examples concerned courtly etiquette at a venison dinner rather than basic human reflexes. The third pillar consisted of regular, rather random tests, for instance, Sirvelon would throw a charred roll at Grumgh, shouting, 'You see! A primitive individual would reflexively catch and eat it! Control yourself! Think!' The final pillar was the systematic cramming of every available scrap of knowledge, from 'Anthropology of Magical Beings of the Bronze Age' to 'The Application of Chaos Theory Principles and Advanced Trivialistics in Forecasting Military Movements Using the Goblin Wars as an Example.'
"Grumgh, tell me, what distinguishes a civilized individual from a barbarian?" Sirvelon would ask, sipping wine that tasted like moldy grapes diluted with rainwater.
"Shoes?" the young orc would guess, glancing at his own torn and perpetually damp footwear.
"No, no, no!" The mage would wave his hand so energetically that wine would spill on the floor. "It's knowledge! Knowledge, my boy!"
Grumgh would nod, though to him, knowledge mainly meant that when Sirvelon started his tirades, one had to pretend to be listening.