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Description of orcs: Adult healthy male looks like a wild boar walking on two legs towering at 4m tall and weights almost a metric tonne, average lifespan 150-175 years.

Diet: Similar to a pig.

Hobby: Chasing down a herd of biped and occasionally dive at great depth to stab colossal squid in the eye.

Question: Despite being an apex predator across both the land and sea, why does it have a period of immaturity of 50 years? Human beings on the other hand is 15 years on average as the brain is consolidating useful skill set during the golden period of its plasticity. Clearly orcs shouldn't have trouble finding food or shelter so why do orcs have such a long period of immaturity that is 3 times longer than us?

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  • $\begingroup$ I suggest you adjust your estimated weight. E.g. the largest know polar bear was about 3.4 m high when standing on his hindlegs and weighted almost exactly one ton (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear#Physical_characteristics). Your orcs are only slightly larger, and though they most likely are a bit stockier, this wont account for another two tons, most likely not even one additional (unless they're morbidly obese). $\endgroup$
    – Erik
    Jun 23, 2020 at 11:05
  • $\begingroup$ @Erik: I see, I modelled my orc after African Bush Elephant then only to realised only Indian Elephant can do tricks ;D $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Jun 23, 2020 at 11:12
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    $\begingroup$ I thought so. But size for most quadrupeds is measured at the shoulder when they're standing normally and not on their hindlegs. Since you want a biped, the height is measured at the top of its head - so if it got down on all four legs/arms, it'd be about half as tall. $\endgroup$
    – Erik
    Jun 23, 2020 at 11:22
  • $\begingroup$ For clarification, by "immature" do you mean "prepubescent" ? $\endgroup$
    – ThePainfull
    Jun 23, 2020 at 12:19
  • $\begingroup$ generally from what i gather from google regarding long period to reach maturity, its because they can afford it, since they have longer life to help them develop or learning more before reaching maturity and relatively safe from predator, or due to low metabolism. $\endgroup$
    – Li Jun
    Jun 23, 2020 at 13:10

7 Answers 7

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Neoteny: They were too big for their own good.

It takes a lot of fuel to keep a 1 tonne orc going. That was fine in the old days when they ruled the frozen tundra and hunted mammoths. Being big also made them cold resistant.

Then the ice caps melted and humans emerged from their holds. With the ice gone they thrived, eliminated the mammoths and most of the other megafauna, and turned most of the planet into farms.

Now there is not much space left for a 12 foot orc. They are of course extremely dangerous, but mammoth hunting tactics still apply. So dig a shallow pit trap and lure the orc to run over it. A 2 foot drop easily breaks the orc's legs and cripples it.

The natural adaptation was for orcs to evolve to become smaller. And that is on average happening. But that takes a long time, and it turns out there was already a biological loophole to keep them small. Namely they stay in a prepubescent state for longer.

Same principle as the Olm.

enter image description here

This salamander essentially evolved into an weiner eel through a loophole where it just stays in its tadpole form for its whole life.

Orcs do a less dramatic version of this where they stay small for longer. Since it's a loophole they also get the secondary side effects of being small i.e neuroplasticity. This is actually a benefit since it helps make up for their natural stupidity.

Nowadays most orc tribes are made of teenagers who don't usually live into adulthood.

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They are social, and the big juveniles do not compete with the adults or each other.

Your giant male orcs are lunker males - large, long lived and solitary. They are few and scattered. They sire most orcs. Like elephant bulls they live separately from the juveniles and females. They eat a lot and by staying away from their kind, do not compete with (and out-eat) the society of juveniles and females for food.

The females are smaller. The juveniles get big too but usually later in life, and they are not very aggressive, taking cues from the adult females in their group. They are social and eat smaller things and plant material. They have slower metabolisms than humans and long periods of torpor / hibernation, which decreases their burden on the environment.

When they do finally mature the young males leave the group. It takes a long time for a juvenile to accumulate the body mass to successfully take on an adult male. Usually young males are not successful and are summarily killed by the local bull. Putting off maturity as long as possible while you slowly grow is a good idea. Also, the pheromones of a local mature male might suppress maturation in the males, which is a good strategy for them. Wait until the local big man dies or leaves before you mature. Then all you have to fight is the other juvenile males who also all matured at the same time when the old bull died.

If this is a world where orcs are used as soldiers / slaves by other sentient races, those boss races might use male pheromone to keep the juvenile males immature and more tractable. Maybe they keep an old bull orc captive for that purpose. A D&D type scenario might have a young mature male who is more intelligent than the rest but not that big, and knows his only chance for survival is to not play the game and to steer clear of his kind. Maybe he is a gelding by choice, because otherwise his pheromones would give him way.

The other consequence of this system is that adult female orcs are smaller but probably considerably more intelligent than males - like female elephants they must navigate a society of their kind, plan ahead and strategize for the group. Intelligence helps with these things, and is less helpful for solo acts like the old bull males.

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Pedomorphism.

Pedomorphism is when animals evolve to look younger than they actually are, like cats.

There are various reasons why animals evolve pedomorphism, but usually the most common one is being "cute".

It is sexually advantageous for a human to not look old, it is a survival advantage for a cat to look like a sized-up kitten because humans take care of them... Sometimes even dogs or monkeys and chickens take care of kittens.

The brain, the mind is also part of the body, therefore a body which stays in a state of childhood will retain the brain plasticity of a child.

This is not really a fact but it is common for people who look younger than they actually are to act the age they look like and not the age they really are... like 14-year-old girls acting like adults because they look like grown up women, or on the contrary, 30-year-olds acting like they are still 18 because they look really young.

This is Japanese singer Hideto Takarai, he's 52 and barely looks or acts like he finished puberty, excellent example of pedomorphism.

enter image description here

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Because they're a bit stupid.

However to survive in a world of competitive, intelligent, invasive bipeds like humans, they ultimately need a similar skillset to humans. Rather than evolving to get smarter faster, which is expensive in resource terms, they evolved to be able to learn for longer at their own pace, suiting their rather crude diet.

A mature orc is still a cunning and dangerous opponent.

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Puberty

Humans hit puberty at around 12 and become mature at around 15.

The same concept can be applied to the orcs, Their brain requires a certain mix of hormones to develop higher intelligence (maybe to create more neurons) to have better decision-making skills, similarly, their bodies also require certain hormones to become mature. These certain hormones are created during puberty only.

The orcs hit puberty at around 45 and take around 5 years to become mature, both physically and mentally.

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    $\begingroup$ But the question is why - what's the reason that orcs take an additional 30 years to reach maturity? There is natural selective pressure to reproduce as early and often as possible, so why did they evolve to delay it? $\endgroup$
    – Nuclear Hoagie
    Jun 23, 2020 at 15:58
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They are cursed Elves.

Elves are known to live hundreds of years and an Elf is not considered an adult until their 50s. This is because, while they physically mature at the same rate as humans, they continue to mature in terms of grace and eloquence and magical ability for a few decades longer.

Unfortunately following the War in the Stars 6,000 years ago, all elves were cursed by the Demon God ScaryBad and corrupted into monstrocities called orcs.

Demon God ScaryBad made the curse to turn all of the elves grace and mental abilities into savagery and physical might. He think this is very funny and ironic.

They retain the long-livedness but it is also gets corrupted. So now instead of taking 50 years to develop mentally they take that long to develop physically.

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They only grow in size during prepubescent years

Being taller is an advantage for Orcs, pushing back the age they hit puberty. But reproducing early also an advantage, thus reducing the age of puberty. Turns out the equilibrium between the 2 phenomena is around 50 years of age.

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