Monday Open Thread – Welcome to the WAAAAAAGHHHHH

Per Usual: Images and links are from Lexicanum or the Warhammer 40k wiki 

Tonight we are going to start looking at the faction that is one of the most fun to play and whose lore is as fascinating as it can be hilarious.  Ork, orks live for battle, literally.  As it is only through battle that orks can grow in size and ability, even causing their evolution to greater status.  Plus their are no female orks.

First, a little background about the Orks, it is believed the Orks were a race created by the Old Ones during the War in Heaven, which was waged against the C’thon and their puppets the Necron.  It appears they were created to be a sort of guerilla force as well as heavy assault troops.  The guerilla aspect is due to how the Orks reproduce.  As stated, there are no female orks, the Orks, being a type of fungoid animal.  Orks and their cousins, the gretchen and the snotlings, are considered the Orkoid race.  Orks of course are the dominant members with the snotlings who are lead by the Runtherds – basically one who shepherds and controls the runty animals.  The snotlings have basically an animal intelligence and are seen as pets, but do a lot of work as ammunition for some weapons, heard the squigs, used as hats, tend the fungus yards, or are an occasional light snack for a peckish Ork.  The gretchen (or grots) are blessed with “low cunnin’) which they use to try and stay alive by ingratiating themselves with with powerful orks and act as their servants – from Lexicanum:

They have short runty legs and grasping fingers to employ their greatest skill, low cunning. They are far more numerous than Orks and have large bulbous heads with tattered ears which flatten when they are scared. They have sharp fanged jaws which are their best physical weapon. They have an excellent sense of smell, hearing and they have effective sight in the dark. These traits aid their self-preservation allowing them to survive in the dangerous Ork society. Some Gretchin have even developed a sixth sense of sorts, or a natural ability to be far more fortunate than they have right to be.^[1]

Most Grots are owned by Orks as personal servants, though some gather together into loose tribes that may even own functional weapons and equipment. The Gretchin have created an entire enterprise culture of their own within their Ork-dominated society. Many Gretchin operate their own black-market businesses on the side, such as selling fungus-beer, roasting squigs on sticks, coordinating the bets when a fight breaks out or looting corpses for fun and profit.^[1]

The other notable orkoid is the squig – basically a huge meatball like animal with two feet, a huge mouth filled with extremely sharp teeth, and a hunger for fungus, snotlings, and anything that cannot get out of their way.  They are both food and mounts, with both the snotlings and grots sometimes riding them into battle.  They can also be used as medicine, explosives, and a lot of other uses.  I will be going into these as they can be a lot of fun, especially the mission or use specific squigs.  Squigs live on Ork refuse and are used to clean the latrines by eating whatever they find in these pits.

Now for the Orks themselves.  Orks live for battle, when in battle their body secrets hormones that cause them to grow larger over time (if they survive the battle that is).  Their bones lengthen and thicken, their muscles swell, and they can even get a little bit smarter.  They more they fight and win, the bigger and stronger they become, maybe even powerful enough to challenge the current warboss and take his place.  All Orks start as boyz (with many sub-types depending on their armor and allegiance – more on these later) which encompasses everything from Lootaz which carry the heaviest weapons and scavenge the battle ground to Kommandoz who fight behind the enemy lines to sow confusion and chaos amongst the enemy.

Next you have the Nobz – who are the ruling class and have the the best of weapons and armor – Meganobz which use the heaviest armor, Flashgitz with the best and sometimes oddest ranged weaponry, Cyborks who have due to choice or injury become part Ork and part machine, and Nob Bikerz who ride on armored Warbikz (there are few other types as well).

Then we get to some specialist Orks – the Oddboyz (again from Lexicanum):

The Oddboyz are Orks who are born with specific information programmed into their DNA. They specialise in doing things that most other Orks can’t. The notable types of Oddboy are^{[Needs Citation}

• Mekboyz: Ork mechanics and inventors (also known as ‘Mekaniaks’ or ‘Meks’)
• Painboyz: Ork surgeons and doctors (also known as ‘Mad Doks’ or ‘Doks’)
• Weirdboys: Highly psychic Orks
• Runtherds: Slave-masters and breeders of Gretchin and snotlings (also known as ‘Slavers’)

And above all we have the strongest, largest, and most cunnin’ of the orks, the Warboss who leads his warband.

Warbands can join together and form a WAAAAAAGHHHHH which is under the command of a very powerful Warboss and are a terror to any planet they happen to attack.

As this got rather long, will continue next week.