Orcus from Anglo-Saxon, a word meaning demon, usually supposed to be derived from the Latin Orcus—Hell. But I doubt this, though the matter is too involved to set out here. From this use, countless other fantasy games and works of fiction have borrowed the concept of the orc. The name "Orcus" appears in the "Dungeons & Dragons" role-playing game as Orcus, Prince of the Undead. Orcus appears as a character in Christopher Moore's "A Dirty Job". The Kuiper belt object 90482 Orcus is named after Orcus. This was because Orcus was sometimes considered to be another name for Pluto, and also
Orcus Orcus Orcus () was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths in Italic and Roman mythology. As with Hades, the name of the god was also used for the underworld itself. In the later tradition, he was conflated with Dis Pater. Orcus was portrayed in paintings in Etruscan tombs as a hairy, bearded giant. A temple to Orcus may have existed on the Palatine Hill in Rome. It is likely that he was transliterated from the Greek daemon Horkos, the personification of Oaths and a son of Eris. The origins of Orcus may have lain in Etruscan religion.