Orc

"Let 'em tell da King. Da east belongs to da Orcs. Da east belongs to Morglum. Da east is green."

- Morglum Necksnapper

Orc's are the domiant sub-species of the Greenskin race. In the Warhammer World, these Greenskins inhabit an extremely large portion of the Old World, and indeed much of the Eastern Hemisphere, for such was their numbers and war-like tendency that few nations have never ever faced the wrath of these blood-thirsty beast. When in the war-march these primitives can transform even the most common object into a lethal killing instrument either by strapping it with other bits of metal to form a make-shift weapon or a strapped togather armor. The race is extremely warlike, with a society geared towards constant and an every escalating warfare, living within numerous small tribal groups with a strong chain of command. They are known for large, brutal armies of difficult-to-kill troops, usually supported by a variety of units and war machines.

The constant need to fight keeps the orcs from forming anything but temporary alliances with one other. This is described in-game as "animosity"; orc armies must take a test every turn to see if the orcs will fight as the player desires, or squabble amongst themselves. Orcs are also the strongest of the Greenskin race, an exception would be the much stronger and disicplined Black Orc Sub-Species. They are also naturally un-intelligent, having one of the smallest brain to body ratio than any other creature in the Old World. However, they are naturally brawny, strong, and atleast capable of a bit of cunning.

Overview


"The only good stunty is a dead stunty, and the only thing better than a dead stunty is a dyin' stunty who tells yer where to find 'is mates."

- Morglum Necksnapper

Orcs are taller and broader than humans, with short legs and long arms much like a non-human ape. They have massive heads which come directly forward on their necks, giving them a stooping appearance. Their jaws are lined with vicious fangs that jut out from their underbite. They have beady red eyes, a generally foul demeanor, and are naturally hairless. An average orc stands somewhere around six feet tall, though more like seven feet tall when stretched out of his characteristic stoop.

Orcs have tough, thick, green skin which is highly resistant to pain. They can survive even the most horrific of injuries, which is reflected in-game by an above-average Toughness value. Orcs have an "adrenaline-fuelled metabolism," which means that they grow in size, strength, endurance, and belligerence as they fight and defeat opponents. An Orc will only stop growing when he finds an opponent that he can't beat. Orcs in Warhammer reproduce asexually, though individuals are always referred to in the background material with the masculine pronoun "he" rather than the neuter "it". The nonexistence of genders among the Orcs of Warhammer is almost never clarified, but can be inferred that the spores from which Orcs grow first arrived in the Warhammer World either attached to the ships of the star-traveling Old Ones or having floated through space on their own.

Orc "Culture"
Orc "culture" is dominated by the concept of strength. There is no law, and therefore no crime. If an orc feels wronged, he can challenge the source of his grievance to a pit fight. Once the fight is over, the matter is considered settled. Orcs have no concept of pity; to an orc, the weak are simply weak, and are beneath them in society. An orc attains a higher social rank by fighting and defeating members of that rank. Because of their bizarre physiology, orcs receive a steady supply of adrenaline when preparing to challenge a superior, causing him to physically increase in size and muscle-mass. An alert superior will spot this occurring and promptly beat the challenger down before he becomes a threat. If the superior fails to notice this development, then a battle inevitably results.

Once such a leadership battle is won, the winning orc undergoes an extreme boost in power, gaining up to a dozen pounds of muscle in the wake of the fight. Orc veterans are known as "big'uns", because they are literally bigger and stronger than ordinary orcs.Grimgor Ironhide, a Black Orc Warlord, is over 15 feet in height. As orcs grow older and beat more powerful foes, they can become "bosses," "big bosses," and eventually "warbosses". A warboss leading several tribes in a Waaagh! is known as a "warlord". Killing a warlord does not stop a Waaagh, it merely causes the warlord's lieutenants to fight each other to decide who the new warlord will be. Orcs communicate through their own language which has been described as a variety of guttural sounds, but they are often shown as capable of speaking humans languages, mostly broken and fragmented Reikspiel.

There is one tribe of savage orcs that is said to have a vocabulary consisting entirely of the word "Waaagh!," with variants in volume, pitch, and accents making up for individual words. Their written language works in a similar way to Egyptian hieroglyphics, only louder and cruder. Orcs worship a pair of gods known as Gork and Mork. Apparently, one is brutally cunning, and the other is cunningly brutal. Orcs can never quite agree which god is which, and many battles have been fought as a result. Not all Orks are convinced of this, however, and fights do break out over such theological distinctions. Orcs tend to ally with Goblins and Snotlings, but their alliance is more of a matter of the orcs bullying their smaller Goblinoid cousins into being everything from servants, to human (goblin) shields, to an emergency food source. Their warbands also often include wyverns, giants, trolls, ogres and other monsters in the same vein.

Waaagh!
Orcs seem to have a racially-linked mind, from which some Orcs can draw power; this is known as the Great Green or WAAAGH! (always spelled with capital letters, 3 A's and at least one exclamation mark). Orc and goblin shamans can draw on this power to fuel their magic, which can take a variety of forms, with the most notorious being the ability to summon a giant foot of one of their gods to crush an enemy unit. In the current edition, goblin shamans draw upon the "little WAAAGH!" for their magic, which focuses on mobility, avoiding panic tests, and doing damage to very strong troops. Orcs, however, draw upon the "Big WAAAGH!", which focuses on killing as many enemies as possible. Off the battlefield, these shamans provide healing, fortune telling and other such services to the tribe. Shamans who draw too deeply from this energy risk their heads exploding.

For more warrior-like orcs, the WAAAGH! acts more as a communal group mind, inspiring them to battle. Orcs have a tendency to simply steamroller towards and over their foes, until the impetus runs out and they go off their separate ways again. The innate popularity of the orcs and orks amongst gamers, due to their humour and their being an entertaining army to play both with and against, has led to WAAAGH! becoming almost a rallying cry for the Games Workshop hobby, and it is frequently heard at gaming conventions and during battles.