Good orc stronghold names are short and blunt, or plain descriptions of something ugly: Skargash, Fangfell, Bannerditch. Every orc warband needs somewhere to bang its drums. This orc stronghold name generator gives you orc city, fortress and camp names: war camps, mountain holds, swampy goblin warrens, ruined cities the orcs have moved into and great horde capitals, with a short description if you want one.
Eight good orc stronghold names
All eight came from the generator, across its five kinds of stronghold:
- The Nine Banners: a war camp named after how many warbands answered the call.
- Split Axe Stockade: a camp with a wooden wall and a broken weapon on its sign.
- Hobspire, that has never been taken by siege: a mountain hold that boasts in its description.
- Toadwallow, where stolen chickens are kept in the throne room: a goblin warren that's funny and grim at once.
- The Stolen Lighthouse: a ruin the orcs have moved into.
- The Hollow Opera House: a grand old building with new and noisy tenants.
- Zharmur of the Thousand Tents: a horde capital that's mostly camp.
- Uzkar, where the war chief rules from a throne of boar tusks: a capital with a throne to describe.
How orcs name their strongholds
Orc strongholds in games tend to be named in one of two ways: a hard name in the orcs' own tongue, or a plain description in the common one. Warcraft's orc capital, Orgrimmar, is named after the warchief Orgrim Doomhammer. Skyrim's orc strongholds, like Dushnikh Yal and Largashbur, each have a chief and a code of their own.
The generator has five kinds:
- War camps are temporary and named for banners and boots: Snarling Boot War Camp.
- Mountain holds are crags and keeps: The Horns of Kraguth, Crackfell.
- Goblin warrens are damp and crowded: Grubbog, Mouldmire.
- Ruin squats are captured towns the orcs have renamed: Scrapgate, Chimneystack.
- Horde capitals are the big ones: Ghornarr, The Throne of Kragnakh.
Choose With a description for a line that tells you what makes the place memorable.
Using an orc stronghold
- Ruin squats make good adventures: the old kingdom still claims the place on its maps.
- A war camp moves, so the players might have to track it.
- Give the capital one custom: a feast, a wrestling challenge, a drum. It makes the orcs a people, not just enemies.
For the orcs who live there, try the Orc, Skyrim Orc and WoW Orc name generators. For the walls they're attacking, there's the Fortress and Castle name generators, and for the dwarves under the next mountain, the Dwarf City Name Generator.
For more, see all the world-building name generators.