I decided to go back to orcs; these will be underground orcs (but they will still wear skins as clothing). In principle, cave orcs could live in Ashan, for example. Dark elves could repeat the mages' experiment of creating orcs, or even the Faceless could do it.
For example, a Faceless priest could fill the space around his temple with orcs to protect it.
I haven't decided on the skin color yet, but one of the upgrades will probably be purple.