The Torcos are a nomadic, cannibal warrior people of Antiterra, “a mixture of orcs with long scimitars”, who range from the lands of the Great Khan as far as Vienna. Most of them have embraced Islam.
| Type | People / faction |
| Faith | Islam (majority) |
| Spanish entry | Torcos |
Way of life
Hooded, with a dragging gait, they wear recognizable “Torco clothes” (a dozen once came to a court dressed so). They live in portable tent camps with horses and driven livestock, and that livestock is human: captives are taken to the tents, hung up and cut “in slices” to eat. The campaign feeds the tribe.
Range and conquests
- From “the territories of the Great Khan” they sometimes push “as far as Vienna”, the limit of their tide.
- Torcos camp east of the Jordan and on the Black Sea, press the Byzantine frontiers, and have conquered Constantinople “at least on ordinary Earth”.
- They threaten the Holy Land and watch Kumal, which is fortified against them.
- In Kosovo a Prince considered opening the gates to them on grounds of faith.
- They have prevailed on almost every frontier except the west.
Rule
Rural folk fear them as much as the Russians. They advance by vanguard and razing; Slavic and Bulgarian peoples seek to free themselves from “the yoke of the Tatars or of the Torcos”. They can be governed, with difficulty.
Faith
“Most, not all” embraced Islam; they make the pilgrimage to Mecca, using a word almost identical to the Arabic. The northern Torcos had Arab alliances with the “Elebusids” (name as heard) and other caliphates.
Lineage
They are called “a mixture of orcs” yet explicitly distinguished from orcs (“some orcs, not Torcos”). A tribe of giants and Torcos was once seen mobilized in the distance.
Notable individuals
A Templar of the Templars found himself housed “in a strange Torco body”. Alexio is of this race. The hooded Torcos stayed in the memory of Juan Sears.
Open questions
- Whether Torcos, turcos and tártaros name one people is not stated.
- Who the “Elebusids” are is unknown.
- Whether they form free tribes, a khanate or caliphal vassals is not recorded.
- How human livestock squares with the pilgrimage to Mecca is not explained.
- Their link to orcs, and who mobilized the giant-and-Torco tribe, are unknown.
- Their features and weapons beyond the long scimitar are not recorded.