For the Marauder tribe, battles are just a prelude to the real action: plunder and feasting. This tribe utterly sacks whatever they conquer, leaving only splinters and bones behind. Other Orc tribes gripe that the Marauders are more greedy than they are fearsome, even as they envy the riches the Marauders have earned by plundering others.
"We welcome you to this fortress! Your bodies will litter its approach; your valuables will fill its halls! And we will toast the Dark Lord's terrible power with grog sweetened by your blood!"
The Terror tribe is obsessed with pain -- inflicting it and sometimes even receiving it. Master torturers, the Tribe evokes fear among the other Orc tribes, who know that capture by the Terror tribe is truly a fate worse than death. Every Orc in Mordor is capable of reveling in another's pain, but the Terror tribe elevate that pain into a bloody art, measured in screams and moans.
"We are the ones who break the enemies of Sauron! We are the ones who make them shriek and wail and beg! We are the ones who teach you that until this day, you did not know pain!"
Mordor is a place of dark magic, and the Mystic tribe knows rituals and incantations that date back thousands of years -- rites of blood and death that grant power and pain in equal measure. While the Mystic tribe's warriors are as capable as Orcs of other tribes, all of Mordor fears the curses and spells that the Mystic tribe can invoke. Battling against the Mystic tribe is a matter of overwhelming them before they can call upon their black magic of the Dark Lord -- and rumored connection to nameless evils far more ancient -- for aid.
"I've been reading the signs! I've been interpreting the omens! But now I put all that aside so I can spill the blood, sever the limbs, rend the flesh!"
The Machine tribe believes that Mordor is on the cusp of a new age, one of industry and mechanization. Fueled by the mines of Tamon Angren, their smithies and forges turn out much of the Dark Lord's war materiel, and black plumes in the sky are a sign that the Machine tribe's factories are near. The Machine tribe takes a mechanical approach to warfare as well, their soldiers moving in lockstep. Every member of the tribe sees himself as just a cog in the larger apparatus -- one that someday will encompass all of Mordor.
"Our forges make the Dark Lord's spears and axes and arrowheads! And with these mighty weapons of war, we will lay waste to all his enemies!"
The Dark Tribe favors stealth and subterfuge as their preferred means of dominating Mordor on behalf of the Dark Lord, whom they have a fanatical reverence for. Adept at ambushes, double-crosses, and battlefield trickery, they wield power beyond what their numbers would suggest. Other tribes prefer not to deal with the Dark Tribe if they can help it, because they believe betrayal is inevitable. But when a troublesome Warchief can't be removed through other means, a word to the Dark Tribe can often suffice to get the job done.
"You need not fear the dark, brothers. But what you will fear is what lies within it, waiting for you!"
Even among the Orcs of Mordor, the Warmonger tribe takes reverence for warfare to new levels. For a Warmonger Orc, every moment not spent in battle is a moment wasted. Marching to war and guarding fortresses are tasks they take on only with reluctance -- and better left to other Orcs. The greatest Warchiefs among them are those who've carved a bloody swath across Mordor, slaying everything in their path. Other tribes see Warmongers as brutally straightforward, but they are no less feared for it.
"In the Dark Lord's name, we master war! We seek it, we relish it! We will honor Sauron's name with every riven shield and severed head!"
Mordor has denizens more fearsome than any Orc, and the Feral tribe takes those beasts as inspiration for their acts of savagery. They live among beasts such as caragors and graugs when they can, and they adorn their clothing and armor with fetishes and trophies from the beasts they've hunted. The Feral tribe's reverence for Mordor's beasts extends beyond clothing, though. In battle they roar, snarl, and rend flesh with a ferocity that rivals any caragor.
"Sauron will be pleased to see the beasts of Mordor feed upon your despicable corpse!"
The Slaughter tribe are the most bloodthirsty of the orcs. Their bloodlust goes beyond any interest in war, conquest, or even torture. They are obsessed with viscera, with blood and guts, with the splatter of warm gore on their ecstatic faces. For Slaughter orcs, killing is messy and usually precedes further acts of savagery and cannibalism. They show an almost complete disregard for their appearance, often wearing ragged aprons or uncured animal skins still dripping with blood. Slaughter Orcs typically take small trophies from their enemies, such as fingers, hands, and feet, assuming said items haven’t been eaten. Likewise, their forts are draped with the skins of their victims, to remind them of the thrill of battle and the pleasure of the feast that follows. They revel in their reputation for being bloodthirsty, but the bloodthirstiness of the Slaughter Tribe can turn the stomach of even the toughest Uruk.
"Hooks and racks! Blood gutters and grates! Cleavers' blades and saws' teeth! Picture them in your mind, maggots, for they'll be the final resting place for your remains!"
The Outlaw tribe is home to the most rebellious members of the Orc population. They have a deep contempt of all those who would rule them, be they foreign invaders or Lords of Mordor (whether Dark or Bright). They are intensely proud and consider themselves members of the ultimate race. The Outlaw tribe envisions Mordor as a sovereign land belonging only to orcs, though their aspirations extend far beyond Mordor and they hunger for the day when they can take their war to greater Middle-earth. Other Orcs see them as a rebellious, scrappy, and dangerous tribe who are just as likely to attack invading armies as they are to turn on Sauron and claim Mordor for themselves. They adorn their forts with their insignia – the bloody fist – and they take every opportunity to espouse their message of defiance against foreign races and lesser Orcs
"Too long have the warmongering kingdoms of Men threatened Orc-folk. To them, we are mindless hordes, low vermin, and they thirst for our blood, our lands. But a reckoning is coming brothers, for we rise."
