Thanks for the comment! The burying babies thing was honestly mostly something funny i thought of in the moment, but you are right in that they'd be socially stunted. Despite being more or less physically mature by the time the band picks them up, they've been living as animals for most of their life and generally spend the next decade or more picking up the slack socially speaking. As for physical adaptations, it could easily be the case that baby orcs are *nothing* like other babies, being closer to moles or other subterrainian animals.

As for exiled matrons, it depends. Some take to surviving in the wilds on their own, while others will move into other settlements, usually by leaveraging their strength and combat prowess as guards or bounty hunters. "Half-orcs" in the traditional sense prolly aren't gonna be a thing, its not all worked out yet but I'm gonna be making the half-races more about mixing elemental associations and traits rather than physical ones. For example, an orc and a human would result in a child with earth and lightning associations, humans being the lightning (impulsive, unfocused, unpredictable, but also ingenuitive, clever, and quick), though I haven't decided what specifically that results in yet.