The Orz are a fictional race of beings featured in the sci-fi Star Control computer game series.

Physiology

The Orz are fish-like creatures that live in what used to be Androsynth space. They are green and roughly spherical, with a stub too small to be a tail, two eyes on stalks, a large set of gills, four tentacles and a beak. Their ships are filled with liquid ethanol, and they appear to be somewhat similar to parrotfish. Their language presents problems for the translation computer, resulting in a translation of unknown accuracy.

In Star Control II, Arilou implied that the Orz are manifestations (*fingers*) of a single extra-dimensional being (it was later confirmed by the game's developers, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III, in a chat on Efnet in 1998 ).

Language

The Orz language is excessively unorthodox, to the point that even the translation computers used in the game are not particularly good at deciphering it, having to resort to best-fits denoted by asterisks a good deal of the time. However, the language is internally consistent and with effort from the player at least some degree of understanding can be gained.

There appear to be a few terms in the Orz-language with non-obvious contexts which the player will however understand quickly.

• Camper is a term for beings from Truespace.
• Happy camper is a friend or an ally, beings the Orz are friendly with. Also appears to mean anybody who inhabits the region permanently, or someone who may be inhabited by an Orz *finger* after the *party*.
• Silly cow is someone the Orz do not like (i.e. the Androsynth and the VUX)
• Dancing means fighting.
• Party- unknown translation, referring to Orz involvement with Androsynth's mysterious disappearance, and probably related to the word *dancing*. The Orz state they had a *party* with the Androsynth, and couldn't *finger* them.
• Fingers appear to be the term for the single Orz-entities that the player sees, but are in fact just "fingers" of a single multi-dimentional entity .
• Smelling refers to the Orz detecting *campers*, *bubbles*, or other parts of TrueSpace. Curiously, the Arilou make reference to hostile pan-dimensional beings not being able to "smell" humans because of the changes made by the Arilou to humanity's "scent". This relation of terms lends credit to the idea that the Orz are more nefarious than meets the eye, and to the fate of the Androsynth.
• Frumple, the exact meaning is not clear but appears to mean to get angry, as the Orz *frumple* just before they attack. It is also thought to express a quality of unpleasantness, as applied to their home dimension in the above quote.
• Many Bubbles is used to describe the native races of TrueSpace. The Orz point out that the other races are "*Many Bubbles*", and that the Orz not, but are just "Orz". This seems to confirm that the other races are made of many beings (hence, Many Bubbles), whereas Orz is only Orz, a single entity.
• Heavy space or in the middle both appear to refer to TrueSpace, itself. (They refers the Quasi-space where the Arilou live as "above", and where they live as "below")
• Slipping or slippery seem to indicate interdimensional travel, or otherwise indicative of some function between such dimensions; the Orz say that they *slipped* into TrueSpace from their native realm, and the Androsynth are frequently said to have formed *slippery places* before the Orz took substantial notice of their interdimensional experimentation.

This is by no means a complete list of terms, as there are others which are a bit more obscure to refer, such as the listed picture's caption's use of "*bright*" and "*smooth*", as well as terms such as "*enjoy the sauce*". However, listening closely to the Orz, as well as discussing them with the Arilou (who understand them the best of any race), provides a key insight into the Orz's nature and how they view the dimension of TrueSpace (what humans and other races perceive as reality, as opposed to HyperSpace or QuasiSpace).

History

In Star Control II, the Orz seemed to have displaced the Androsynth, who were apparently conducting experiments with other dimensions. This made them visible to the Orz. As a result, the Androsynth disappeared, leaving only their cities behind in ruins. The Orz are very sensitive about the Androsynth, and will fight when pressured to tell about their fate. According to the Arilou, even knowing too much about other dimensions makes one vulnerable to extra-dimensional dangers, such as the Orz, and the Arilou suggest that this is what happened to the Androsynth.

The relationship between the Orz and the Arilou is never fully explained, although the Orz often expressed anger at the Arilou for "*jumping in front*". The Orz are from a "*below*" dimension disparate from the "*above*" dimension, QuasiSpace, where the Arilou live.

Star Control 3, made without the original designers, provided many answers and additional data - in particular, revealing the Orz to be the thralls of the Eternal Ones - which were promptly rejected by Star Control fans.

Orz Nemesis

In combat, the Orz use a vaguely manta-like craft design called the Nemesis which is armed with a rotating turret and can launch armored space marines. It is highly regarded by Starbase Commander Hayes in Star Control II.

Discussing the Androsynth with the Orz often leads to combat, or "*dancing*" as the Orz refer to it.

Because of its wide range of combat abilities there are many schools of thought on how to properly use an Orz Nemesis in combat. Against slower ships without point-defense weapons or similar countermeasures, the Nemesis can simply launch enough space marines to overwhelm the enemy's crew (a fully-crewed Nemesis can launch enough marines to destroy any ship in the game, provided they are not killed before they board). Against faster or better-defended ships, it is not unknown for an Orz captain to orient his turret directly behind and try to entice the enemy ship to chase them.

The main questions an Orz commander should ask himself are:

1. Can the opponent shoot down my marines before they get to him?
2. Does the enemy's gun have a greater range than mine?
3. Is the enemy ship faster than mine?

The answers to these questions will determine in large part the tactics used.

A 180 degree rotation of the main gun combined with hit and run tactics is often quite effective.

External links

• A chat log in which a designer confirms the race's nature (search for "Androsynth").
• Ultronomicon article about (the) Orz

References

This excerpt is a reply of one of the game's developers from a chat log: "<Fwiffo> In regards to the Androsynth: They were snagged by the entity who/which projected its fingers into our dimension (which looked to us as the Orz.)"