Alternate Versions
Size
Hero Forge: 7 ft.
Lore: Medium
Suggested: Medium
Other Monikers
None
Appearance
Abilities
- Attacks with weapons and teeth
- Aggressively fast movement
- Berserk retaliation to being attacked
- Magic resistance
Tanarukks appear as short, stocky orcs with bristly hair, horns, or ridges along the sides of their heads. Their skin tones range from grayish green and dub brown. They display razor-sharp teeth and tusks that jut out prominently from their lower jaws. They also have the distinctive smell of brimstone about them.
Description
From Volo's Guide to Monsters (2016):
When demonic corruption taints a tribe’s leadership, orcs might turn to abyssal magic to make tanarukks. Evil humans who control orcs also use such power to bolster their followers’ strength.
The demon lord Baphomet gladly shares the secret of creating tanarukks with those who entreat him for power. The process corrupts an unborn orc of the tribe, transforming it at birth into a creature much more savage than an orc.
Although tanarukks are fearsome fighters, they are a threat to their allies off the battlefield. Within the tribe’s lair, a tanarukk is destructive and volatile, and best kept imprisoned. Sooner or later, a free tanarukk rampages through the tribe, attempting to take over by force. Most such coups fail, but at great cost to the tribe. If a tanarukk does seize the leadership of a tribe, reckless war is the course it inevitably chooses.
If a tanarukk manages to breed, its blood taints numerous subsequent generations, so its female descendants randomly produce tanarukks. Rather than risk raising a natural-born tanarukk, most tribes slay such abominations.
Sources