Orruk Warclans

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Grand Alliance Destruction Orruk Warclans

Waaaaaaaaaagh!!

Lore Tactics General Tactics

The Greenies are back! Sure, they might've been given a new and copyright-friendly name, but the Boyz are back as a complete army nonetheless. The Orruks are still the endless green tide they were from the old world, and still have their football-hooligan voices.

While there are still “standard Greenskinz” around (in much fewer quantities), the main bulk of the Orruk mobs are a combination of the Ironjawz (Black Orcs) and Bonesplitterz (Savage Orcs) cultures, and a new, very skinny swamp-dwelling group in third edition called the Kruleboyz.

History

“Da Age uv Miff”

Orruks have always been a part of the Mortal Realms, long before Sigmar arrived on his twin-tailed comet. Gorkamorka roamed the lands, familiarizing himself with a vast array of monsters which he promptly crushed under his club. At first, there were only the feral Bonesplitterz warclans, regularly hunting the primeval beasts of the realms and warring with the beastmen. Over time, the first Ironjawz began to emerge, having grown large thanks the constant fighting of Beastmen and early human empires. The Ironjawz were considerably rarer at this point though, with only small pockets of them existsing around areas of wanton violence. The Kruleboyz, the most cunning and elusive of Orruk kind also began to stake their claims of the feral realms of this time, settling in swamps and bogs as their favourite hunting grounds. When Kragnos began exploring and trouncing through the Realm of Beasts, Orruks of all sorts flocked to him to marvel at his bestial might. Bonesplitterz saw him as the spirit of Ghur made manifest, while Ironjawz were enamored by just how damn destructive he was. Their offerings and worship fed Kragnos’ ego and eventual rise to godhood, though it didn’t stop of a coalition of Dracothian and Lord Kroak from trapping the last Drogrukh underneath a mountain, much to the dismay of his Greenskin followers. Similar, Gorkamorka became ensnared too, stuck inside the living amber avalanche Drakatoa. He didn’t have to wait long to be released however as the newly arrived Sigmar freed the twin-headed god. Enraged and itching for a fight, Gorkamorka wrestled with Sigmar and fought against him for twelve days.

Eventually both combatants had finally had enough and even had a good laugh at the truly destructive outcome of their struggle. Sigmar eventually convinced Gorkamorka to join his new pantheon as the council of gods personal champion, charged with defeating the visous monsters and eldrich horrors that still threatened the burgeoning civilizaitons Sigmar was trying to create. He and his many followers had a grand old time in this endevour, but it was not to last.

Gorkamorka's growing impatience with the trappings of society, not to mention the slowly creeping in whispers of the chaos gods (Tzeench inparticular) led him to rally all the races of destruction and call a mighty Waaagh across all the realms. The Orruks of all cultures and breeds were more than happy to join in, as it simply meant more fighting and looting for them. This officially marked the end of Gorkamorkas and the Orruks involvement with the greater pantheon for the remainder of the age. Though this would eventually change with the coming of chaos.

“Da Age uv Kaos”

As opposed to other races that collectively pissed the bed once the Chaos Gods arrived in the Mortal Realms, the Orruks responded to their arrival with a hardy Waaagh! and swing of their choppas. The Orruks thrived in the war torn Age of Chaos, relishing the endless violence and becoming even larger because of this. The most overt example is of course in Ghur; Archaon the Everchosen tasked one of his trusted generals, Darkorn the Devourer, with purging the orruk race from Ghur. This proved to be easier said than done, as the Chaos Lord’s constant slaughter of the Warclans only spurred more Orruks to war, hoping to join in on the scrap. This conflict was (uncreatively) dubbed the Greenskin Wars. Ironjawz mettle, Bonesplitterz savagery, and Kruleboyz tricks were all tried against hordes of the Everchosen, and they won out. Archaon eventually called the whole campaign off once he realized that it was impossible to wrest control of the Realm of Beasts away from the Orruks. So he pulled his forces back and placed the decapitated head of Darkorn the Devourer on a pike as a testament to his failure. These conflicts against Chaos saw many Ironjawz Warclans rise to prominence, having grown large and powerful thanks to the steady diet of chaos plate, daemon flesh, and ceaseless fighting.

“Da Age uv Da Hamma-Git”

The Orruks of all kinds took the return of Sigmar and his forces surprisingly well. With the Stormcast Eternals pushing back the chaos forces and the newly returned civilizations of old begining to rebuild in their old homelands, the Orruks saw great opportunities in new opponents to smash. The Ironjawz especially saw the Stormcast as the worthy opponents they had been craving for so long, as besides the occasional clash with chaos, most people left in the realms weren't really much of a challenge anymore (nor did they have any good loot), or were simply too dug in to really attack (such as the Fyreslayers and remaining human kingdoms).

By this point Gordrakk had risen to be the most dominant leader among the various tribes of Orruks and made his presence known to Sigmar when he intervened in the Stormcasts assault on the Mawgate. The Mawgate was a realmgate inside the mouth of the colossal wormlike Godbeast Fangathrak that connected Ghur to the Eightpoints. The forces of chaos had captured it and was using its gate to send reinforcements to Ghur. Gordrakk lead a Waaagh!! into the battle as the stormcast and chaos forces were fighting. The battle became so insane from this three way battle that Fangathrak actually managed to escape from the chaos dreadhold and thus all three forces lost control of it.

While Gordrakk was thrilled by the fighting prowess of the Stormcast he was less than pleased when he found out Sigmar wanted to build and bring peace. Gordrakk had assumed as the God who once fought with Gorkamorka he would be all about having a good scrap. Needless to say he wasn't going to just ignore this.

The rest of the Orruks however had a grand old time at the beginning of the age. The Ironjaws and Bonesplitterz had new foes to fight and hunt. And the Kruleboyz now had whole new settlements and border colonies to raid and terrorize. So really after the forces of Order themselves, the children of Gorkamorka probably benefitted the most from Sigmars return.

The Orruks didn't particularly enjoy the coming of the Necroquake, finding fighting the undead to be both tedious and boring (not to mention they left no meat or loot behind). Gorkamorka growing tired of the Soulwars in general sends visions to his followers to fight back against the dead. With the Drakkfoot Bonesplitterz tribe spearheading the endeavor, as the are very proficient at killing the undead.

Broken Realms

Gordrakk now wanting to have a scrap with Sigmar himself knew that to do that he needed to get the gods attention. After the uncovering of the various Stormvaults Gordrakk gathers up many Orruk, Ogor, Gargant and Grots tribes and begins breaking open the vaults. Among them he finds the Skull of the Godbeast Hammergord. Using this he planned to create a massive battering ram to smash open Sigmars cities before heading too Azyr himself. He also at this point teamed up with Skragrott, the Loon King who acts as an advisor in his army. With all that done his first target will be Excelsis.

This massive Waaagh!! gathers followers from all the forces of Destruction, from Troggoths to Grot and snowballs into a near unstoppable force. This only gets worse as right around this time Teclis manages to undue the Necroquake and Allarielle's recent rite of Life to bring back the Oak of Ages causes another wave of magic to hit the realms. This one was the final straw that freed the Earthquake god Kragnos from his confinement. This being was a destruction god from ages ago and was not happy with the state of Ghur when he awoke. Seeing his ancestral homeland in ruins he subjugates a group of Mega-Gargaunts and heads to destroy Excelcis himself for daring to build on his peoples former lands.

This force subsequently smashes into Gordrakk's Waaagh!!! that leads to a short battle before the Bad Moon itself calls the fight a draw before Kragnos and Gordrakk tore their armies apart. Fortunately Kragnos didn't really care and offered the Orruks to join him in besieging the city.

The siege was intense, with the ram of Hammergord destroyed thanks to the magic of Lord Kroak who had arrived to reinforce the city. However Kragnos kindly lended his hand in breaching the cities walls and allowing Gordrakks forces to get in. With Gordrakk and his forces managing to breach the outer gates and Skragrotts infiltrators having weakened the city previously it looked like the city would fall. However, the timely arrival of Morathi and reinforcements managed to halt the destruction army. With Kroak and Morathi managing to trick Kragnos into entering a portal they created to get him out of the battle before he killed everyone.

Following this the destruction army retreated, with the main army dispersing and Skragrott abandoning the venture and Gordrakk retreating into the surrponding lands to regroup his Waaagh!!! . The city the was saved though at great cost. As for Kragnos he was telaported to the other side of Ghur where he took out his rage on a local Chaos Dreadhold. Subsequently making contact with a local tribe of Kruleboyz.

Era of the Beast

The aforementioned Kruleboyz Warclan that made contact with Kragnos was led by the shaman Gobsprakk, who foretold of Da Boss Trampla’s coming and is able to speak his ancient dead language. Using Gobsprakk as his interpreter and advisor, Kragnos began leading hid new army of followers in a ceaseless stampede of destruction.

Although, not everyone was keen on following the End of Empires. Gordrakk, still pissed about how the Siege of Excelsis turned out, looked to home of Archaon as his next Waaagh! target. The Fist of Gork personally captured and chained up the massive sand worm holding the Ghur all-gate and is now leading a massive assault on the Eightpoints.

Warclans

Ironjawz

The Ironjawz are essentially the Black Orcs of old - extremely brutish and superb warriors without as much of a reliance on mob mentality to keep their cohesion. The main difference is that these guys are even more heavily armored and armed, making them easier to converting into Orks.

• Ironsunz: The biggest and most recognized of Ironjawz Warclans, infamous for their garish yellow armor and surprising level of cunning. While this clan has existed since the Age of Myth, they really didn’t gain their current notoriety until the arrival of Grand Overboss Dakkbad Grotkicker. Now Dakkbad had a revelation early in his life; by actively avoiding getting shot and stabbed, he can smash and crush back even harder. Expectedly, this was a controversial opinion among his fellow Orruks. Such qualms were silenced after the ambitious Brute used this intellect to survive the ear-drum shattering roar of a Maw-Crusha that previously offed his former boss. Now Dakkbad leads the Ironsunz as a cult of personality, where every Orruk in it aspires to be just as cunnin’ as he is. Interestingly, he loathes Gordrakk (likely due to Gordrakk’s god-given rise to power contrasting with Dakkbad’s long and arduous climb to leadership) and aspires to reign control the Big Waaagh! from the Fist of Gork.
• Bloodtoofs: It’s the Wacky Races in the Mortal Realms! These red rough riders have an obsession for throwing themselves into realmgates at high speeds, and then repeating the process over and over. They barrel through cities and fortresses without a care in the world other than where’s the next realmgate. This initially started as a means of trying to find and meet up with thr Fist of Gork, but the Bloodtoofs quickly grew addicted to the this new high speed lifestyle. They also have a fierce rivalry with the Ironsunz, after Dakkbad Grotkicker killed their reigning Warboss.
• Da Choppas: The blue boys of Da Choppas focus on desecration rather than destruction. Like a rowdy gang of delinquents, they leave enemy strongholds standing, but completely graffitied and defiled with greenskin “art.” Their most infamous raid saw them defile an Everchosen Dreadhold and replace the head of an Archaon statue with a grot’s head. A subsequent raid of the fort completely destroyed it as they were supported by the Boulderhead Mawtribe. They’re led by an enterprising Weirdnob Shaman who carries the skull of the previous Megaboss on his staff, claiming to speak to his boss from “da great beyond”.
• Fang-krushas: Swaggering blowhards who follow the Fist of Gork, claiming to be his favorite mob of Orruks.
• Kryptboyz: A Warclan native to Shyish, this horde of Greenskins takes particular pleasure in tearing down the necropoli of the Ossiarch Bonereapers and wearing their looted bones as trophies. Their color scheme is identical to the Black Orcs of Fantasy Battle.

Bonesplitterz

The Savage Orcs of yore. Everything about them is largely the same, from the sorta-magical warpaint to the vague and primitive knowledge of archery when no other orcs could do so.

As one of the holdovers from the old world, these orruks have somewhat suffered by utilizing some aging models that, to an extent, do not match with the rest of the army.

• Bonegrinz: The largest of the Bonesplitterz Warclans, this rambunctious horde of beast hunters was started by Gurkak Weirdteef, a Wurrgog Prophet whose teeth “speak” to him, telling him all sorts of secrets and knowledge about the things he eats. This unique insight he possesses allowed his Warclan to become surprisingly innovative in how they conduct their hunts. Orruks of the Bonegrinz warclan will use arrow heads and choppas carved from the amber realmstone of Ghur, which drives any stabbed by it to fly into a feral charge...perfect for the Orruk hunters to run them down. Additionally, each Rukk in the Warclan devotes themselves to a particular type of beast and seek to emulate its strengths by donning it’s bones and hide and using tattoos in tribal depictions of said beast.
• Drakkfoot: These guys are called weird by the other Bonesplitterz, so that alone makes them unique. These Orruks are defined by pure vitriolic RAGE, a hate for all that does not venerate Gorkamorka in the same dogmatic fashion that they do. Their most hated enemies though are daemons and Nighthaunt: 1) because neither entity produces bones for the Drakkfoot to collect and 2) their original home of the Ashland Gorelakes in Aqshy was devastated by both parties. Their loathing has turned the Drakkfoot into hateful specialists of fighting daemonic and ethereal forces, from performing ritualistic dances to destabilize a daemon’s connection to the physical plain to bloody tattoos to deflect spiritual magic.
• Icebone: Originating from the glaciers of the Skyblind Tundras in Ghur, these icy Orruks have a religious obsession with boars, seeing them as the ultimate symbol of Gorkamorka’s power. This stems from their belief in a god beast called Shattatusk, a snow white boar that Gorkamorka ‘supposedly’ fought in the Age of Myth. The fragments of its tusks fell down into the Realm of Beasts and became the glaciers that the Icebone Orruks call home. They chip away at the glaciers to create enchanted ice weapons that can never melt and freeze the insides of those they cut. The Icebone has spread surprisingly far across the Mortal Realms by following the equally frigid paths of the Beastclaw Raiders and their Everwinter.

Kruleboyz

The new Orruks introduced as of AoS third edition. Unlike the orcs/orks we've been used to for close to forty years, these guys are practically alien; they're fairly skinny rather than being musclebound brutes, they prefer subterfuge and cunning over brute strength and they're very much at home in boggy swamps. Even more notable is that these orruks are actually capable of marksmanship, rather than the Bonesplitterz who just shoot arrows blindly.

• Grinnin’ Blades: Posterboys who favor attacking under a shroud of swampy mist provided by their copious shamans. Said shamans like to mix in hallucinogens with their mist to maximize “skare taktiks”. Currently lead by the Mouth of Mork, Gobsprakk (after he intimidated the previous Killaboss in charge), which turned the Grinnin’ Blades into Kragnos’ most fervent supporters.
• Big Yellers: Loudmouth braggarts who prefer to sit back and lazily mow down enemies with their startlingly efficient ranged weapons. They live in Chamon, being very close to Skrappa Spill and the Gloomspite hordes of Skragrott. This lazy attitude and being so close to mountains of junk mean the Big Yellas are actually quite inventive, capable of crafting the best weapons and even mobile fortresses, all in the name of doing less work. Their name is also a delightful pun since not only do they yell a lot, but their skareshields are also a bright yellow.
• Skulbugz: Creepy and vile Shyish Orruks with an obsession with all manner of bugs. This stems from their homeland being a strange underworld themed around insects and other creepy crawlies. They prefer the company of monsters and their beloved bugs as opposed to the other Orruks. The Grots of the Spiderfang tribes see a kindred spirit with the Warclan, and though the Skulbugz don’t mind their help, they humorously maintain that “spidas ain’t propa bugz”.