All great savage and martial tribes from our past have ridden horses to war. Whether we are considering the Mongols or the Apache, they have attained speed and lethality through the concerted use of horses, such that they are able to hit and then disappear before their enemies have a chance to react. However, horses seem to prosaic for orcs to ride into battle, so what other kind of mount could we give them?
The Lord of the Rings exemplified the great creation of Tolkien when it came to goblin mounts: wargs. These giant wolves were intelligent, powerful, lethal and strong enough to carry a fully armed goblin on its back, but any new attempt to create a mount would be better off with a novel creation. What kind of mount then would suit the temperament of a mountain orc?
One immediate possibility culled from the real world would be mountain goats, which can reach truly impressive sizes and are nimble enough to navigate the crags. However, there are a couple of limitations there. They lack the fearsome reputation of wargs or the nobility of horses, being, come on, goats, and they don’t seem suited for long range combat. Clearly we have to look further afield.
What about giant scorpions? In a fantasy setting we could posit that they are rare but terrible predators, and that the orcs breed them as mounts, given their ability to navigate the rocks and crags of the peaks they live in. However, could scorpions be trained to act as cavalry? Could they be used to range across the world, doing the kind of long range damage that horses could?
What about mountain ponies? Too cute, the kind of mount more suited to a hobbit. We could also postulate boars, huge and bristling and fearsome, but these would be rare to find in mountains, more likely the low lands. Though, it must be said, that the mounts would not necessarily be used in the mountains proper, and could thus be cultivated in the low lands, an innovation of a particularly smart leader who would thus snatch the initiative and surprise his opponents…
