I went to bed, worked an early shift, and came back to this thread to see... actual answers. Nice.
@Ral I think I’m seeing your point now (after having gotten some rest and mulled over your criticisms), and now I gotta review my stance on orcs.
So how about this: the orcs are fairly good at foraging, and are adept at creating herbal remedies and poisons. This constant light exposure to said poisons has built up a strong resistance prior to the blessing.
Nowadays, they use this knowledge mostly to create poisons to coat their weaponry (mostly thrown weapons such as basic javelins made by sharpening bones), or to make sleeping or numbing powders to spread in the air prior to pillaging (yes there would be people with resistance/immunity or tools to prevent the powders from affecting the populace one way or another, but they would be rare enough that villages and most towns would be without them). There would also be the use of slaves for injuries, so they have a slightly better chance, probably.
Addressing the orc’s birth. I’ll have to change it so that orcs are a bit smaller than human infants on birth but very rapidly grow post-birth. The females being unable to birth afterwards could be attributed to the new generation of orc babies acting so violently, attempting to claw their way out during birth, which destroys the female’s reproductive system. It’s something to think on a bit more.
Lastly I really want to address the splitting up being not viable; my thoughts about splitting up being viable is based more around the side of the major races, not the orcs. Originally, the major races worked together because the orcs were a massive threat, with plenty of land to conquer being part of the incentive for them to ‘remove the obstacle’, so to speak. This meant that it was a full blown war, with all the major races sending proper armies and hiring mercenaries to annihilate the orcs. This effort was supported by the country itself. However, it changed when the orcs started to dwindle. The major races didn’t need to send proper armies, opting for mercenaries to ‘clean up’ while they keep each other in check since they believed that letting down their guard would mean that they become the next target of conquest. In other words, orcs became a minor threat, and practically forgotten by the populace as a major power. Splitting into tribes meant that they were no longer such a threat. (Details could be debated as I’m not exactly well versed in politics as a whole)
I said that because you compared the lore for your orcs to a heroine in an otome game choosing to study hard to get into the council for a capture target - implying that other capture targets don't need the council - thus, you ended up pragmatically suggesting the lore for orcs was optional.
'-'
Well, I mean, the goal that MC is striving towards IS optional (at least the one that requires him to deal with the orcs), but if he wants to accomplish that goal then he needs to deal with the orcs.
I was trying to imply that an Otome heroine doesn’t need to go for the target that is part of the student council, but if they want to romance that target then they need to become part of the student council.
But neither the US Law nor Ad Sense care if your 10 years old orc is equivalent to a 75 years old human.
Solution: make a non-sexual version of the story for SH, and put a sexual version up in Patreon (gotta actually finish making my Patreon page then). Edit: or leave it as implied within SH and have explicit chapters behind Patreon.
Also, what about the reverse logic? Elves typically mature slowly, so a 20 y/o elf would still be a child- maybe even an infant in some stories- but I can’t imagine that it would be legal- by US standards- to let them engage in sexual acts even with consent.
