Ondonti [Orc]

To a casual eye an ondonti is simply an orc. These close cousins share the orcish build and features, but nothing of the orcish temperament.

Most ondontis would rather die than kill a thinking being, and they slay animals only for food or to end the misery of a mad or hopelessly diseased beast. Each ondonti has innate magic: three daily uses each of sanctuary (self only) and purify food and drink, one daily barkskin, and tree once per week. Ondontis are immune to charm effects of all kinds and add +1 when saving vs. poison.

Adults of both sexes have Strength 17-19 and Constitution 16-18. Their captors now raise some young ondontis among orcs as trained killers (LN to LE), wielding bastard or two-handed swords, readily paired with a shield, and wearing only leather or studded leather when barkskin is down. Still gentler than orcs, these first warriors are too new for anyone to judge their potential, but generations of brutal schooling could forge a deadly soldier race.

The wisest may serve as clerics, rising as high as 7th level and needing Wisdom 16 or more. Harmful magic is taboo, so their spells are nearly always healing or protective.

Ondonti culture lives out the pacifism of a goddess of peace and still waters. Legend says 'the Founders' long ago led 30 young ondontis to a hidden corner of a blighted wilderness north of a windswept plain and taught them the Way of Peace, a cycle of tales. One sage guesses they were orphaned orc infants raised by reclusive priests of the goddess. They are the opposite of orcs: kind, dependable, devoted to family and harmony with the land, and guided by revered priests.

Then scouts from a fortress-city (since ruined) found them. Unready for treachery, the ondontis were betrayed by the city's wizard cabal, whose soldiers value them as strong, docile laborers needing little oversight. Fourteen of fifteen tribes now toil in a cabal stronghold as slaves and breeding stock for superior troops. The last free tribe hides behind its clerics' spells, guarded, rumor says, by an extraplanar servant of the goddess while another seeks to free the captives.

They breed like orcs but live about 60 years thanks to harmony and healing magic, and with priests watching over mothers and babies, infant deaths are nearly unknown.