Orcs and healing

[Erestor]

Originally Posted by Bard the Bowman

but wernt the hobbits a special case?

He was healing Merry in orc-fashion; and his treatment worked swiftly.

Emphasis in mine, but it certainly shows that Orcs do take care of their wounded. And that they are quite skilled at it, as Zigur stated.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

They didn't drag that medicine all the way with them just in case some hobbits got hurt, though. I think it's safe to assume that such medicine was common practice among the orcs. I doubt many of them really tried to save each others' lives, being orcs and all, but I could see them healing the more minor wounds with ease.

I'm always wondering: are Orcs so individually devided as many people think they are? The way I see it, they live in smaller communities and do have a certain bond. After all, you don't see Orcs of the same kind fight each other very often. Every example I remember is about Orcs who are not from the same small society.

To name a few examples of Orcs fighting each other: Ugluk decapivating some Orcs to keep order, but those weren't Isengarders. The companies from Shagrat and Gorbag served in other places - Cirith Ungol stood under direct command of Sauron, and Minas Morgul I view as being ruled by the Witch-King, seeing how it has its own emblem. And in Mordor, we see two Orcs fight each other, and two companies. In both cases, those are fights between different kinds of Orcs - Uruks and lesser breeds.

Of course, Orcs take joy in fighting, but I'm wondering if the fights within one community aren't actually a rougher example of barfights, resulting in more casualties than fights between humans, but I don't think it would be worse and primally for their own joy. Like hobbits dance and drink, Orcs drink and fight (unarmed). Also, they tend to multiply faster than other races, and if they constantly kill each other the birth rates would have to be extremely high.

A counter argument for this view could be that the Orcs multiplied very slowly until the Nazgul and Sauron began to rebuild the former strength of Mordor, but this could be due to wars between those smaller, uncontrolled groups of Orcs. When the Nazgul and Sauron came along, they installed order between those smaller communities. Of course the twists still remained, but weren't as bad as before. And the order that was installed could lead to a population growth supported by greater economic possiblities (the slave fields of Nurn for example).

In this view, they certainly could take good care of each other, helping their own wounded. But maybe there is some evidence against it that I forgot.