Earthdawn Orks and Humans are real easy to map onto D&D races. We already have Humans and Half-Orcs have a long history in the game, so really this is just a case of ensuring that the flavor is right.
For Humans, 4e already riffs on Earthdawn's Human versatility, though I would like to add feats to take it up a notch. Versatile Talent, Dilettante and Journeyman's Viewpoint run with this giving Human characters access to extra multiclass feats, as well as to that other aspects of 4e versatility: Half elven dilettante, as well as related feats that enhance half elven versatility.
Versatile Talent
Prerequisite: Human
Benefit: You gain the multiclass versatility bard class feature.
Dilettante
Prerequisite: Human
Benefit: You gain the Dilettante half-elf race feature. Chose a level 1 at will attack power from a class different from yours. You can use that power as an encounter power.
Journeyman's Viewpoint
Prerequisite: Human
Benefit: You can take feats that have half-elf as a prerequisite, and gain a +2 feat bonus to Insight.
For Orks, Half Orc is a great fit. In Earthdawn Orks have Strength and Toughness bonuses, whereas that D&D 4e Half Orc has Strength and Dexterity, but on the whole they are fairly similar. I have added a Gahad racial trait, and associated feats. One final feat for Orks included here, is Ork Weapon Training, which is similar in power and scope to the the other weapon training feats, and grants bonuses to weapons that fit the Ork Scorcher theme. Other than this feat, I will delay exploring the Ork affinity for the Cavalryman discipline and the cultural expectation that Orks ride, and ride well until I get to the Cavalryman discipline.
Gahad: Your ork gahad is triggered by a stimulus of your choice. Once gahad is triggered, until the source of your gahad is removed, if you are not acting to remove the source of your gahad, or you take an action that targets creatures or objects without targeting the source of your gahad you immediatly become dazed (save ends), aftereffect: you grant combat advantage until you reach your next milestone. While your gahad is triggered and the source of your gahad remains present you gain a +1 racial bonus to all attack rolls and ability checks and skill checks for actions that target the source of your gahad. You and your dungeon master must agree on the specific stimulus for your gahad.
Additional Gahad
Prerequisite: Ork
Benefit: You gain an additional gahad stimulus.
Special: You may take this feat any number of times.
Vicious Gahad
Prerequisite: Ork
Benefit: The bonus granted by your gahad increases to +2, and also applies to damage rolls. The effect of ignoring your gahad is to become stunned (save ends), aftereffect: you grand combat advantage until you reach two milestones..
Ork Weapon Training
Prerequisite: Ork
Benefit: You gain proiciency and a +2 feat bonus to damage rolls with simple and military spears as well as scimitars and double scimitars. This bonus increases to +3 at 11th level and +4 at 21st level.
