Tolkien orcs vary is size from Hobbit sized to giant. With most being slightly shorter than humans. They come in shades of Sallow, Green, Brown, Grey, Olive, Blue, and Yellow. They are very likely bred from Elves by Melcor into their perverse form. What little art, religion, craft, and culture they have is based on cruelty and perversion of the crafts of there races. They marched into battle for Melcor as a powerful army but lived in fear of Sauron whom they hated. Yet have invented gods of war to worship (these may in fact be based on notable Orcs that lived and died in the past). They hate everything, including themselves. After being left to their own devices by Sauron in the first age, two independent settlements were founded by Orcs. Other settlements arose by invading and taking over the settlements of other races (but these were eventually retaken or taken by another race). After being draw into war for Sauron in the second age, they became much more independant and were never as useful to Sauron as they had once been. In the third age, many Orcs chose loyalties to the Witch-king of Angmar, Sauromon, Sauron, or (a minority) remained independent.