I was just watching a video from Shadiversity about what real-life medieval weapons orcs should use.
I love your videos, Shadiversity, by the way. Especially the ones about the real Middle Ages, though I love a lot of your videos about fantasy as well.
And he said that orcs should use bows because of their enormous strength.
Orcs do not have super strength.
Most fantasies are quite vague on the physical characteristics of orcs.
So when you decide what those physical characteristics are, you should take into consideration their role in the story.
Orcs, storywise, are an alternate form of humanity. A fallen form of Man.
The alternate forms of humanity are not supposed to differ that much from man in strength and other brute physical characteristics.
It is okay for them to be a bit smaller. But not that much bigger.
And usually, if they live out in the open and do not have powerful magic, the little people are not that much smaller than man. Hobbits and halflings are not that small. And pixies have great magic powers to defend themselves with! (And are certainly not an alternate form of Man but rather are tiny demigods!) (The borrowers, in their stories, don't live out in the open but hide in hiding places. And the Borrowers stories are specifically about people of this size. If you want your story to be specifically about humanity living with fallen men with super strength, that's fine.)
This is not a story about humans living with a civilization of men with super strength.
Giants can have enormous size and strength because they are too stupid to build a civilization.
The civilized creatures are not supposed to be that much stronger or faster or bigger than men.
This is not a story about humans living with a society of supermen with super strength.
Elves are supposed to have much greater skill and magical ability than ordinary men, because they are divinities- elves in mythology were originally minor gods. But even elves don't have significantly greater size or strength compared with men.
Your Elves don't have to be minor gods like Tolkien's Elves, of course. The point is that even in Tolkien where the Elves are minor gods like they are in older mythology, since they exist in civilized societies alongside man in significant numbers, even they only exceed humans in skill and magic, not in size and strength.
Having wild beasts in the woods or lone gods with super strength is one thing, although lone gods like Sauron are usually characterized especially by their magic.
Civilized men present in significant numbers is quite another thing.
This is not a story about puny men struggling to live with supermen.
Maybe orcs have 15% or 20% higher strength compared with humans, but orcs do not have super strength.
High fantasy is not about men struggling to live alongside fallen men with super strength.
If you want your story to be about the social problems of coexisting with a race of warlike men with super strength, that's fine.
That's not what traditional fantasy is about.
Orcs don't have super strength.
Sorry.
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson