Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24264910-20140218194152/@comment-3539474-20140218212620

In LOTR they are not good or evil, the Orcs serve the evil lord Melkor, the orcs were not made by Illuvatar, orcs have no free will. Sauron just used them for his own plans. Orcs had to obey him and to had to do his own evil plans.

In Tamriel, before they were corrupted by Boethiah, they were the Aldmeri followers if Trinimac, the strongest Aedra than any others in their pantheons. I can't truly say that the Aldmeri elves were all pure "good", but the orcs became what they are now after Trinimac transformed into Malacath.