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Genestealer

2022-08-05T07:00:09Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Gallery */

[[Image:GenestealerBroodlord.jpg|thumb|right|They're not just called Genestealers for nothing!]]
{{Topquote|Iä! Iä! Tyrannicus fhtagn!|One of many unholy Genestealer Cult prayers}}

{{Topquote|Praise be! The star children deliver us!|White Dwarf October 2016}}

{{Topquote|Mankind has always looked to the stars for salvation...and finally, THE STARS HAVE ANSWERED!|Unnamed Magus}}

'''Genestealers''' (''Corporaptor hominis'') are [[xenos|alien]] creatures in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe. They have undergone many [[fluff]] revisions since their inception, but they have always been lethal in melee (so deadly that [[Space Marine]] [[power armor]] is like tissue paper to them, no exaggeration), preternaturally fast, pseudo-insectoid in form, protected by a thick shell of [[Carapace]] and reliant on other species for reproduction.

Basically what would happen if the Xenomorphs decided to run a Lovecraftian doomsday [[Genestealer Cult|cult]]... IN SPAAAAACE!

== Rogue Trader ==
[[Image:Oldschool genestealers.png|thumb|right|The 2nd edition pic that has defined the identity of Genestealer Cults for decades.]]
In [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader]] (the first edition of Warhammer 40,000), Genestealers were simply one of many creatures encountered in space, spreading from the moon of Ymgarl. They could be extremely dangerous in close quarters, as each of their six strong limbs ended in [[Tyranid_Bio-Weapons#Rending Claws|sharp claws]], and they had a gruesome lifecycle reminiscent of the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, but otherwise had little to distinguish themselves. Most notably, they were not connected with the [[Tyranids]] at all. Indeed, the core rulebook noted that Genestealers with [[human]] ancestry could be intelligent, and even friendly! Their natural form had an almost leech-like head, and they were specifically described as "vampirish." They also ignored armour saves until 4th ed. That was annoying.

== Space Hulk ==
When the [[Space Hulk]] board game was released a few years after 40k: Rogue Trader, Genestealers received a significant bump in their threat level. The game made it clear that the Genestealers were a much more virulent and widespread menace than their initial description, and their head was changed to have a much toothier mouth. In keeping with GW's ripping off the Xenomorphs, Genestealers would use stealth to approach the Marine player's [[Terminators]] as "blips" of some unknown number of Genestealers, and then come out of hiding once they had a good ambush prepared. They achieved a super-human level of coordination via a [[Hive Mind|hive mind]], represented by the Genestealer player having unlimited time to move his pieces.

== Later Editions ==
In later editions of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the Genestealers were revealed to be (or [[retcon]]ned into, depending on your point of view) vanguard organisms for the [[Tyranid]] Hive Fleets. They are capable of thinking for themselves and operating without the Hive Mind's leadership, a rare trait among Tyranids, although they are not synapse creatures. [[Space Hulk]]-era Genestealers were re-designated "Purestrain Genestealers," created by the Hive Fleets themselves.

Genestealers are sent to infest Space Hulks and spread among the stars. Their long tongues contain a barbed ovipositor; when they encounter sentient anthropoid, they [[Rape|use this ovipositor to inject a "seed" into the host's body]], combining the host species' genome with the greater Tyranid genome (hence the name Gene-stealer.) This is a method called the "Genestealer's Kiss," which is either a face-biting parody of a kiss or an injection under the ribcage. Fun fact, this biological process exists in real life under the name of "horizontal gene transfer", and is mostly used by bacteria to help other bacteria develop resistances to antibiotics, and more importantly is the main process involved in genetic engineering! More recently, the Genestealer Cult of the Twisted Helix has discovered how to extract this "seed" for use in contaminating food and medicine, allowing the Genestealer curse to spread to locations far removed from any actual Genestealer.

Regardless of the vector, the seed greatly alters the host's body on both physical and psychological levels over the course of a few hours, causing them to forget all about the infection and become subservient to the Purestrain's brood. The host is also driven to have children, even if they didn't want any before becoming infected; their partner does not have to be likewise infected, but it doesn't hurt. After a pregnant host (or whoever they impregnated) gives birth, their viciously malformed offspring creates a hive mind connection between itself, its parents, and the Genestealers (though this raises the question of how anyone else in the room during the birth, such as midwives, would react.) This connection and the mutations brought on by the Genestealer's seed proceed to subliminally twist the minds of both parents so that they unconditionally love their child and revere the Genestealers either as gods or as creatures sent by gods (the exact interpretation varies, you understand), usually fleeing into darkened tunnels, catacombs or sewers to avoid discovery. It is not even uncommon for a [[Genestealer Cult]] to present, at least outwardly, as Emperor-worshipers, although inevitably they have some funky iconography like the whole four arms thing. Some of them, at least the rank and file, may even ''believe'' they're worshiping the Emperor instead of spacebugs. And, when not doing dastardly Genestealer things, they may really be about the overall work of the Imperium on a day-to-day basis, which is of course part and parcel with their infiltrationist aspects.

Eventually these infected individuals and their growing brood of offspring will come together with kindred spirits (that is, other Genestealer hybrids and their infected parents) to form a community/family dedicated to the Genestealers in both body and soul. As the family grows, they will continue to isolate themselves, eventually forming a Genestealer Cult. What follows is an ongoing process of hybrids breeding with captured and infected humans, with their human parents kept around both as breeding stock and for nursing and child-rearing. The second generation hybrids aren't as ugly as their parents, appearing more "normal"-looking but still obviously alien. However, that becomes a moot point once the third and fourth generation roll around, the fourth actually being virtually indistinguishable from actual full-members of their parent species. The uglier members and Purestrain Genestealers typically lurk in the shadows far away from civilisation, while the intelligent and "human" members infiltrate and spy in almost every sector of society. Their psychic network lets them communicate with one another, even though some of the less-human hybrids (and the Purestrains) are incapable of speech, and when the brood mind becomes powerful enough, it will act as a beacon to [[Tyranid]] Hive Fleets. These fleets travel at various different speeds according to various different authors although generally always slower than Imperial warp drives, which means it is impractical for them to travel blindly, so they home in on the signal created by a large Genestealer Cult. When their arrival is imminent, they will directly contact the Cult, which will then engage in a full rebellion, sabotaging their planet's defenses in preparation for the fleet. This scenario is usually a win-win for the Tyranids, as even if the insurrection is crushed, they still probably went down swinging and cost the defenders valuable manpower and resources they needed to fight what's coming.

The exact manner in which a Cult reacts to the arrival of the Tyranids varies. According to the backstory for [[Hive Fleet Kraken]], a planet called Larnarno was infiltrated by a Cult calling themselves the Celebrants of Nihilism. When the Tyranids showed up to consume the planet, 75% of the population ''calmly marched towards and aboard the bio-ships where they gladly accepted being brought to the digestion pits''. However, a Cult generally has no idea what is about to happen to them, fully believing that the Tyranids are wonderful, enlightened beings and when they show up they'll all become one big happy space family. And for a bit, [[troll|the Hive Mind actually leads them on and doesn't target the cult]]. For a brief moment the cultists get to live their dream of fighting alongside their beloved star gods, but as soon as the planet's defenses are basically done for, they are on the menu just like everybody else. Even worse, the Hive Mind overrides the independence of the Patriarch and Purestrains, at which point the glamour surrounding the Tyranid horrors fades, the cultists get a good look at what their angels ''really'' look like and they have just enough time to [[Call of Cthulhu|fail their SAN checks and scream]]. Any cultists that try to flee are [[grimdark|consumed by the very father they worshiped and the very children they raised]].

Some may ask, why would GW do this? Does GW ''hate'' the idea that anyone who is not of an Imperial faction might be allowed to have a happy ending? If you have to ask these questions, you probably don't understand the situation. The Genestealer Cults are literally nothing more than convenient tools that the Tyranids use to prepare worlds for consumption. The very genetic fabric of each Cult member, right down to the most lowly cultist, has been hijacked to achieve this end. If they fail, they will be destroyed by the civilizations they are attempting to infiltrate. If they succeed, they will be assimilated by the Hive Mind. Therefore for the Genestealer Cults, one way or the other, there can be no happy ending.

Way back in the days of Rogue Trader, Genestealer Cults also used to be able to be devoted to Chaos. That disappeared from the tabletop along with the old incarnation of the army, but in the fluff, this can apparently still happen, in certain very rare circumstances. One account describes a truly hilarious case of turnabout when a Cult's ship is sucked into a Warp storm and dumped on the edges of Nurgle's Garden, where the Genestealers and their minions get taught a thing or two about ''real'' corruption and parasitism by the Chaos God who wrote the book on it. Nurgle does eventually let the Cult go, because he's a nice guy, ''after'' he's thoroughly had his way with them of course, and they come back into realspace as basically a Plaguestealer Cult. What might've happened if the Cult had fallen into Slaanesh's domain, officially, we'll never know, because family-friendly GW doesn't have the balls to go there. Unofficially, [[Hivestrain Azure|we can make a pretty good guess]]. As a contrariwise example, there's a genestealer cult in a Inquisitor Czevak story who, marooned on a daemon world in the [[Eye of Terror|Eye]] after their [[space hulk]] was unfortunate enough to crash there, nonetheless hate and resist chaos and maintain a lot of Imperial iconography and so on (although they ''do'' consort with xenos and mutants, which, while heretical, is probably still well above par for the course given their living situation).

Interestingly, it appears that the rare Genestealer Cults that fall to Chaos worship may become decidedly unappetizing to the Tyranids, to the point where a hive fleet will ''ignore'' the cult's call and merrily skip past them to go chow down on some forest-moon instead of the world the cult had been desperately calling them towards. This ends up pushing a cult even further into Chaos worship, unaware that they are not in fact following the Hivemind but instead possibly a demented purple whore or a bloated pus-covered maggot man.

=== Genestealer Variants ===
The first Genestealer to infect a host (or hosts) grows larger and more intelligent with each mind added to the cult/family/whatever, eventually far surpassing its kin in strength, size and cunning, even becoming a powerful psyker. This Genestealer is known as the [[Genestealer Patriarch|Patriarch]], and acts as both the cult's leader and the object of its devotion. The Patriarch's psychic connection to the Hive Mind allows it to maintain iron control over his brood as well as other lesser Tyranid organisms.

After the Purestrain infects a host, a Genestealer Cult will end up with members with various levels of Genestealer ancestry. In general, Genestealer Hybrids will breed with their non-Genestealer parent species, and their descendants will resemble that species, until the fourth hybrid generation, whose children will be Purestrain Genestealers capable of "founding" new Genestealer Cults.

The [[Rogue Trader]]-era Genestealers also get a special mention, in the form of "Ymgarl Genestealers," a strain that supposedly comes from a population of Genestealers that got isolated on the moons of Ymgarl. They have tentacled, lamprey-like mouths and the ability to partially transform themselves depending on the circumstances, at the cost of being genetically unstable and only being able to feed on blood. In fact, they're so unstable that the Hive Mind deliberately abandoned them for fear that they would contaminate the Tyranid gene pool. Because of this, they compulsively seek to reach planets that have recently been visited by the Tyranids in a futile attempt to be reabsorbed into the Hive Fleets. If they weren't horrible monstrosities, their predicament would almost be sad. However, at some point between 5th and 6th Edition, the Ymgarl Genestealers lucked out and got absorbed into a Hive Fleet by some very desperate/caring Norn Queen. The result of this is that 6E Tyranids now have a Bio-Artefact (If you feel unclean about the name, that's natural) called the ''Ymgarl Factor'' that gives any Tyranid unit the same unstable properties rule, but now lack the assaulting from Outflanking.

=== Non-human Hybrids ===

As a final note, [[Warhammer 40,000]] fiction is very [[human]]-centric, and so most Genestealer infestations depicted have occurred among human populations, but the [[Ciaphas Cain]] novels have suggested that [[Tau]] and [[Orks]] are also susceptible to Genestealer infection. The novel ''Death of Integrity'' also confirms that Genestealers will attack and assimilate other xenos, though this plot point lasts about one paragraph. <s>What, exactly, a Tau Genestealer Hybrid would look like is the subject of much speculation.</s> The short story ''The Greater Evil'' depicts one, and the answer is: Horrifying, and obviously blue. As shown in the later short story ''The Voice of Experience'', the Tau are also well-aware of Genestealers by this point and the threat they pose. There is old canon art of Ork Genestealer hybrids, but given the vast amount of retcons since then its canon status is questionable...

==== Orks ====

It should be noted that Orks reproduce asexually by way of fungal spores they secrete both at a perpetual slow trickle from their skin while alive and ''en masse'' while a decaying corpse (and also that "Ork" is but one of many many different Orkoid phenotypes that a given spore might develop into depending on environmental conditions, so one has to wonder how the genestealer mutations might interact with a spore that grew into, say, a mushroom), so it's pretty hard to envision an Orkified Genestealer Cult actually working, or lasting beyond the first generation or two, since they have no ways of mixing genes to produce purestrains in time. Even if they could, the Orks have an inherent ability to determine if one of their own isn't proppa Orky and will inevitably krump the gits. Some old, old fluff portrayed Purestrain genestealers descended from Ork hybrids as having denser musculature (and most likely greater physical strength). In another of these dusty accounts, an incident on the fringe of the Octarius system had a massive, purple, six-limbed Gargant attacking a Guard regiment. When it was melta'd open, purestrain genestealers emerged to eat the Guardsmen. You are encouraged to take these older bits of fluff with a generous pinch of salt. In any event, ancient and likely non-canonical fluff aside, the unique quirks of Ork biology boil down to the fact any attempt to infest an Ork warband would almost certainly fail and not be worth the effort in the first place. Commissar Cain encountered a genestealer infested space hulk in which genestealers were using infested orks to guard their hibernation chambers.

As of 2021, [[GW|GeeDubs]] has recently reaffirmed their existence in a White Dwarf. According to the article, they generally show up in Ork [[Kommando]]s, as they tend to live away from the main force of Orks, making it easier to slip in. Also in the article, they showed you [[Awesome|how to make your own out of Acolyte Hybrids, Abberants, and the new Kommandos.]] That's right, [[Wat|GW is encouraging you to kitbash.]] Did we slip into an alternate dimension?

==== Tau ====

Tau, similarly, have certain complications which may prevent Genestealer infestation. Firstly, their Kroot allies can tell if a person is infected or not simply by tasting some of their blood, and secondly, Tau-tech is certainly advanced enough to scan for this threat once they know about it. Furthermore, Tau explicitly practice caste-restricted bureaucratically arranged breeding processes; Tau don't have kids until their higher ups decide they should, and they don't even get to pick their own partners. Two Tau get paired up by the decision of a committee, spend a couple of days off work having sex, then separate and go their separate ways. This means the genestealer taint is seriously difficult to spread amongst the race. The caste-based structure of Tau society also poses problems to any potential Tauified Genestealers, and that's without presuming the caste-system is now so inherent that different castes can't even physically breed with each other anymore. Tau Genestealers are confirmed in the novel Deathwatch: Shadowbreaker as they're being deliberately engineered by a rogue Inquisitor to use a planet contested by the Tau and Imperium as a bioweapon delivery system. The narration makes it clear that the Tau are doing it without the permission of the Ethereals and that the Inquisitor is conning the Tau commander into letting it happen. However, all the Taustealers get blown up (It is a novel about the Deathwatch, after all) so they don't get a chance to spread beyond the planet. On top of all of that, according to the new Genestealer Cults Codex, not only can Tau-Genestealer hybrids happen, but one time they were ''deliberately'' created by a team of Earth Caste researchers who wanted to see what would happen. The infection got out of control and actually ended in violence. It's even implied that they may have produced a hybrid Ethereal, which would be a disaster for the Tau given how obedience to the Ethereal caste is basically hard coded into their DNA.

==== Eldar ====

While it is possible for Genestealers to infect the [[Eldar]], it's extremely hard for them to get anywhere with any of the four varieties due to their highly advanced medical technology (all four, yes even the Exodites), universal emphatic abilities, very regimented lifestyles (Craftworld), slow breeding rate and the fact that irregular psychic activity amongst them gets located and dealt with very quickly (all four, heck mind bulletry is pretty much the only thing the [[Dark Eldar]] ban). Even when they are infected, the taint spreads much more slowly due to the Eldar's prolonged gestation period, which makes infecting them more trouble than it is worth in most situations.

So far the only examples among Eldar are those who knowingly and openly embraced their pants-thieving overlords. In the novel "Ghost Warrior", we have Genestealer Eldar on a lost [[Craftworld]] named [[Yvraine#Craftworld_Zaisuthra|Zaisuthra]]. Needless to say, the other [[Ynnari]] who contacted them were ''pissed.'' This was done in their misguided attempt to avoid getting consumed by Slaanesh because this Craftworld had left before the Infinity Circuit was invented and thus didn't have one; their logic was that if they gave themselves over to the Broodmind, their souls would be assimilated before Slaanesh could consume them. There is also something of a Genestealer cult growing among the Dark Eldar in Commorragh. After a raid with lots of captives taken to Commorragh, the Haemonculi found out some of them were Genestealer cultists. The hybrids were singled out and experimented on so their mutations would emerge. When some bored Dark Eldar among the social elite found out about this, they paid the Haemonculi to graft these Genestealer body parts on them for kicks (given how Genestealer reproduction involve a genetic re-write of infected hosts using the Stealer's own DNA, you can see what a stupid idea this is). It looks like the Hive Mind might find a way into Commorragh given how these Dark Eldar, who collectively call themselves the Vorgani, started forming tight-knit groups and share a singular obsession over a Tyranid-infested planet trapped in the Webway.

And of course, the haemonculi know this and think this is just a jolly and amusing thing because of course the sickest fucks in all the galaxy would look at this and think, "what an interesting turn of events!".

==== Others ====

If a Genestealer Cult somehow got somewhere near a [[Stryxis]] convoy and for some reason decided they wanted to interbreed with them they would quickly run into two main problems; the first being that Stryxis are extremely untrustworthy little shits so they don't exactly operate in large enough groups to be really worth the effort, the second problem also being that the Stryxis are untrustworthy little shits and would probably scam the Genestealer cult of all its possessions before enslaving the bastards (assuming they don't "trade" a few hundred bullets in exchange for the Tyranids [[Teef| teeth]] to sell to some orks or somthing)

As for the [[Necrons]], they're goddamn undead robots. If you even consider this possibility you're the biggest idiot since [[Magnus the Red]].

In earlier editions, Ymgarl Genestealers were said to be hybrids with a native, leechlike sapient race to Ymgarl, the Csith. The Salamanders wiped out the Csith, but were unable to wipe out the Ymgarl Genestealers.

Finally, and perhaps most troubling, is the mention that Tyranids have been targeting [[Hrud]] warrens. Hrud lack the defenses of the above races and are naturally predisposed towards infesting a planet and migrating en mass to a new one. The Genestealer hybrids, likewise, gain enhanced stealth and reaction speed (such as those 5++ saves the 'stealers now enjoy.)

== Dawn of War 2 ==
[[Image:Jeanstealers.jpg|250px|thumb|right|An Assault Terminator trying to protect his power pants from Jeanstealers]]
Genestealers are pretty lore accurate in Dawn of War 2. They eat whatever they face. They act as the ultimate melee troops for Tyranids '''in tier 2.''' Let's run some numbers: A regular Tactical Marine starts with 60 melee skill, a standard melee squad starts with 70. These motherfuckers are starting with 80 by default! And this even gets worse if they have any synapse support. If they are under Improved Synapse of the Hive Tyrant, their health increases by 25%. If they ever get into the melee synapse of Warrior Brood, their health increases by '''75%''', and melee skill by 10, and you can combine these 2 synapses together! Yeah, they can basically murderfuck anything in melee combat. And this gets even worse if they use their Adrenal Rush ability. Gains increased speed and damage, gains small amount of health in each hit they make, and decreases incoming ranged damage.

Everything aside, the most simple solution to deal with them is to get a walker out. Genestealers can't purchase their anti vehicle klaws until tier 3. That makes them balanced right? I hope so. But when they get them, they can solo a Dreadnought! Thankfully, they have light infantry armour, which means that they can be killed easily with most ranged weaponry and struggle against melee fighters that are able to survive long enough to get a few hits in themselves. AoE melee attacks are your friend against them.

== On the Tabletop ==
[[Image:Genestealers-in-the-grass.jpg|250px|thumb|right|[[Fist of the North Star|You're already dead]].]]Both Ymgarl and Purestrain Genestealers are ridiculously deadly in melee, both in fluff and crunch. On the tabletop, when a brood of Genestealers charges something, it's very unlikely to survive to the next turn unless it's a [[Land Raider]] due to their massive number of good strength attacks, rending, and high weapon skill that means they hit most things on 3s (seriously, these guys have higher weapons skill than a lot things made out to be close-combat experts), not to mention that they are fast little fuckers. A Zerg rush has ''nothing'' on these guys. In the fluff, their [[Tyranid_Bio-Weapons#Rending Claws|claws]] are so damned sharp that they might as well be power weapons (back in 2nd Edition and pre-codex 3rd Edition they WERE power weapons), slicing through armor and walls like a chainsaw going through rice paper. Their hypnotic eye powers show up irregularly in the fluff, showing up in the Dark Disciples Novel but not Ciaphas Cain; Hero of the Imperium for example. The fact they are '''[[derp|faster than Eldar]]''' lets them laugh at any unit they charge/charging them, and they are usually deployed a-la Kroot Carnivores (parking them behind a windowless wall 12-18" from the enemy). Unlike Kroots though, they are not there to slow the enemy, they provide a hazardous area for the first turns and then, when the main force has reached their position, they jump out to help OMNOMMing.

In some editions Genestealer broods could upgrade one of the members to a [[Broodlord]], which formerly had a major role due to the biomorphs it could use and psyker powers, but being reduced to a sergeant basically made it just add an extra punch, though it still had a better statline than any non Special-Character Space Marine HQs (except the CSM's daemon prince). Sixth Edition turned Broodlords into rape machines in challenges, as they are able to bring down almost any independent character in the game without eternal warrior, while costing much, MUCH less.

In 8th Edition, Genestealers are still great, but other armies have some melee options that are pretty on-par with them. A horde of Ork Boyz, for example, can pump out 30 more melee attacks in a turn, and cost 110 points less. Granted, they don't have the 5++ invuln, but they still will wreck a horde of Genestealers' shit if they get the first attack. On the other hand, the Genestealers are also very speedy and can rocket to the other side of the board with the right Stratagems. They can also charge after advancing (or lose that ability in exchange for a better armor save that can go up to MEQ-tier if in cover or under the benefits of Jormungandr's Hive Fleet Attribute) and can take [[Tyranid_Bio-Weapons#Acid Maw|Acid Maws]] for a few extra MEQ-killing attacks. Oh, and they also get a Deep Strike similar to a Terminator's teleport homers. They're especially potent with Hive Fleet Kraken since they'll have better advances as well as the ability to charge after falling back, which not only saves them from running the risk of being trapped in melee with something too tough for them to deal with but also improves their already impressive maneuverability and ensures that they'll always get the first swing in.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Genestealer_orks.jpg| ORKY NIDS!!!!!!!!!!!
File:Warhammer 40k the tyranid outcast by randize-d4jl7lq.jpg|
File:Ymgarl.jpg| Fanart of a Ymgarl Genestealer Hybrid.
File: Genestealer_Variants.jpg| Fanart of Genestealer Hybrids of most WH40K races, along with some other Xenos from Popular Culture.
</gallery>

== See Also ==

*[[Genestealer Cult]]
*[[Jeanstealer]] - One of /tg/'s creations. A rather confused Tyranid genestealer that is only driven to steal denim trousers.
*[[Hivestrain Azure]]- A fapfic about a particularly unusual strain of genestealer, likely part of a cult tainted by [[Slaanesh]].
*[[Zoats]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Dawn of War]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tyranid]]

[[Category: Genestealer Cults]]

{{Template:Tyranids-Creatures}}

{{Template:Genestealer-Cult}}

{{WH40k-Factions}}

Genestealer

2022-08-05T06:58:15Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Gallery */

[[Image:GenestealerBroodlord.jpg|thumb|right|They're not just called Genestealers for nothing!]]
{{Topquote|Iä! Iä! Tyrannicus fhtagn!|One of many unholy Genestealer Cult prayers}}

{{Topquote|Praise be! The star children deliver us!|White Dwarf October 2016}}

{{Topquote|Mankind has always looked to the stars for salvation...and finally, THE STARS HAVE ANSWERED!|Unnamed Magus}}

'''Genestealers''' (''Corporaptor hominis'') are [[xenos|alien]] creatures in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe. They have undergone many [[fluff]] revisions since their inception, but they have always been lethal in melee (so deadly that [[Space Marine]] [[power armor]] is like tissue paper to them, no exaggeration), preternaturally fast, pseudo-insectoid in form, protected by a thick shell of [[Carapace]] and reliant on other species for reproduction.

Basically what would happen if the Xenomorphs decided to run a Lovecraftian doomsday [[Genestealer Cult|cult]]... IN SPAAAAACE!

== Rogue Trader ==
[[Image:Oldschool genestealers.png|thumb|right|The 2nd edition pic that has defined the identity of Genestealer Cults for decades.]]
In [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader]] (the first edition of Warhammer 40,000), Genestealers were simply one of many creatures encountered in space, spreading from the moon of Ymgarl. They could be extremely dangerous in close quarters, as each of their six strong limbs ended in [[Tyranid_Bio-Weapons#Rending Claws|sharp claws]], and they had a gruesome lifecycle reminiscent of the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, but otherwise had little to distinguish themselves. Most notably, they were not connected with the [[Tyranids]] at all. Indeed, the core rulebook noted that Genestealers with [[human]] ancestry could be intelligent, and even friendly! Their natural form had an almost leech-like head, and they were specifically described as "vampirish." They also ignored armour saves until 4th ed. That was annoying.

== Space Hulk ==
When the [[Space Hulk]] board game was released a few years after 40k: Rogue Trader, Genestealers received a significant bump in their threat level. The game made it clear that the Genestealers were a much more virulent and widespread menace than their initial description, and their head was changed to have a much toothier mouth. In keeping with GW's ripping off the Xenomorphs, Genestealers would use stealth to approach the Marine player's [[Terminators]] as "blips" of some unknown number of Genestealers, and then come out of hiding once they had a good ambush prepared. They achieved a super-human level of coordination via a [[Hive Mind|hive mind]], represented by the Genestealer player having unlimited time to move his pieces.

== Later Editions ==
In later editions of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the Genestealers were revealed to be (or [[retcon]]ned into, depending on your point of view) vanguard organisms for the [[Tyranid]] Hive Fleets. They are capable of thinking for themselves and operating without the Hive Mind's leadership, a rare trait among Tyranids, although they are not synapse creatures. [[Space Hulk]]-era Genestealers were re-designated "Purestrain Genestealers," created by the Hive Fleets themselves.

Genestealers are sent to infest Space Hulks and spread among the stars. Their long tongues contain a barbed ovipositor; when they encounter sentient anthropoid, they [[Rape|use this ovipositor to inject a "seed" into the host's body]], combining the host species' genome with the greater Tyranid genome (hence the name Gene-stealer.) This is a method called the "Genestealer's Kiss," which is either a face-biting parody of a kiss or an injection under the ribcage. Fun fact, this biological process exists in real life under the name of "horizontal gene transfer", and is mostly used by bacteria to help other bacteria develop resistances to antibiotics, and more importantly is the main process involved in genetic engineering! More recently, the Genestealer Cult of the Twisted Helix has discovered how to extract this "seed" for use in contaminating food and medicine, allowing the Genestealer curse to spread to locations far removed from any actual Genestealer.

Regardless of the vector, the seed greatly alters the host's body on both physical and psychological levels over the course of a few hours, causing them to forget all about the infection and become subservient to the Purestrain's brood. The host is also driven to have children, even if they didn't want any before becoming infected; their partner does not have to be likewise infected, but it doesn't hurt. After a pregnant host (or whoever they impregnated) gives birth, their viciously malformed offspring creates a hive mind connection between itself, its parents, and the Genestealers (though this raises the question of how anyone else in the room during the birth, such as midwives, would react.) This connection and the mutations brought on by the Genestealer's seed proceed to subliminally twist the minds of both parents so that they unconditionally love their child and revere the Genestealers either as gods or as creatures sent by gods (the exact interpretation varies, you understand), usually fleeing into darkened tunnels, catacombs or sewers to avoid discovery. It is not even uncommon for a [[Genestealer Cult]] to present, at least outwardly, as Emperor-worshipers, although inevitably they have some funky iconography like the whole four arms thing. Some of them, at least the rank and file, may even ''believe'' they're worshiping the Emperor instead of spacebugs. And, when not doing dastardly Genestealer things, they may really be about the overall work of the Imperium on a day-to-day basis, which is of course part and parcel with their infiltrationist aspects.

Eventually these infected individuals and their growing brood of offspring will come together with kindred spirits (that is, other Genestealer hybrids and their infected parents) to form a community/family dedicated to the Genestealers in both body and soul. As the family grows, they will continue to isolate themselves, eventually forming a Genestealer Cult. What follows is an ongoing process of hybrids breeding with captured and infected humans, with their human parents kept around both as breeding stock and for nursing and child-rearing. The second generation hybrids aren't as ugly as their parents, appearing more "normal"-looking but still obviously alien. However, that becomes a moot point once the third and fourth generation roll around, the fourth actually being virtually indistinguishable from actual full-members of their parent species. The uglier members and Purestrain Genestealers typically lurk in the shadows far away from civilisation, while the intelligent and "human" members infiltrate and spy in almost every sector of society. Their psychic network lets them communicate with one another, even though some of the less-human hybrids (and the Purestrains) are incapable of speech, and when the brood mind becomes powerful enough, it will act as a beacon to [[Tyranid]] Hive Fleets. These fleets travel at various different speeds according to various different authors although generally always slower than Imperial warp drives, which means it is impractical for them to travel blindly, so they home in on the signal created by a large Genestealer Cult. When their arrival is imminent, they will directly contact the Cult, which will then engage in a full rebellion, sabotaging their planet's defenses in preparation for the fleet. This scenario is usually a win-win for the Tyranids, as even if the insurrection is crushed, they still probably went down swinging and cost the defenders valuable manpower and resources they needed to fight what's coming.

The exact manner in which a Cult reacts to the arrival of the Tyranids varies. According to the backstory for [[Hive Fleet Kraken]], a planet called Larnarno was infiltrated by a Cult calling themselves the Celebrants of Nihilism. When the Tyranids showed up to consume the planet, 75% of the population ''calmly marched towards and aboard the bio-ships where they gladly accepted being brought to the digestion pits''. However, a Cult generally has no idea what is about to happen to them, fully believing that the Tyranids are wonderful, enlightened beings and when they show up they'll all become one big happy space family. And for a bit, [[troll|the Hive Mind actually leads them on and doesn't target the cult]]. For a brief moment the cultists get to live their dream of fighting alongside their beloved star gods, but as soon as the planet's defenses are basically done for, they are on the menu just like everybody else. Even worse, the Hive Mind overrides the independence of the Patriarch and Purestrains, at which point the glamour surrounding the Tyranid horrors fades, the cultists get a good look at what their angels ''really'' look like and they have just enough time to [[Call of Cthulhu|fail their SAN checks and scream]]. Any cultists that try to flee are [[grimdark|consumed by the very father they worshiped and the very children they raised]].

Some may ask, why would GW do this? Does GW ''hate'' the idea that anyone who is not of an Imperial faction might be allowed to have a happy ending? If you have to ask these questions, you probably don't understand the situation. The Genestealer Cults are literally nothing more than convenient tools that the Tyranids use to prepare worlds for consumption. The very genetic fabric of each Cult member, right down to the most lowly cultist, has been hijacked to achieve this end. If they fail, they will be destroyed by the civilizations they are attempting to infiltrate. If they succeed, they will be assimilated by the Hive Mind. Therefore for the Genestealer Cults, one way or the other, there can be no happy ending.

Way back in the days of Rogue Trader, Genestealer Cults also used to be able to be devoted to Chaos. That disappeared from the tabletop along with the old incarnation of the army, but in the fluff, this can apparently still happen, in certain very rare circumstances. One account describes a truly hilarious case of turnabout when a Cult's ship is sucked into a Warp storm and dumped on the edges of Nurgle's Garden, where the Genestealers and their minions get taught a thing or two about ''real'' corruption and parasitism by the Chaos God who wrote the book on it. Nurgle does eventually let the Cult go, because he's a nice guy, ''after'' he's thoroughly had his way with them of course, and they come back into realspace as basically a Plaguestealer Cult. What might've happened if the Cult had fallen into Slaanesh's domain, officially, we'll never know, because family-friendly GW doesn't have the balls to go there. Unofficially, [[Hivestrain Azure|we can make a pretty good guess]]. As a contrariwise example, there's a genestealer cult in a Inquisitor Czevak story who, marooned on a daemon world in the [[Eye of Terror|Eye]] after their [[space hulk]] was unfortunate enough to crash there, nonetheless hate and resist chaos and maintain a lot of Imperial iconography and so on (although they ''do'' consort with xenos and mutants, which, while heretical, is probably still well above par for the course given their living situation).

Interestingly, it appears that the rare Genestealer Cults that fall to Chaos worship may become decidedly unappetizing to the Tyranids, to the point where a hive fleet will ''ignore'' the cult's call and merrily skip past them to go chow down on some forest-moon instead of the world the cult had been desperately calling them towards. This ends up pushing a cult even further into Chaos worship, unaware that they are not in fact following the Hivemind but instead possibly a demented purple whore or a bloated pus-covered maggot man.

=== Genestealer Variants ===
The first Genestealer to infect a host (or hosts) grows larger and more intelligent with each mind added to the cult/family/whatever, eventually far surpassing its kin in strength, size and cunning, even becoming a powerful psyker. This Genestealer is known as the [[Genestealer Patriarch|Patriarch]], and acts as both the cult's leader and the object of its devotion. The Patriarch's psychic connection to the Hive Mind allows it to maintain iron control over his brood as well as other lesser Tyranid organisms.

After the Purestrain infects a host, a Genestealer Cult will end up with members with various levels of Genestealer ancestry. In general, Genestealer Hybrids will breed with their non-Genestealer parent species, and their descendants will resemble that species, until the fourth hybrid generation, whose children will be Purestrain Genestealers capable of "founding" new Genestealer Cults.

The [[Rogue Trader]]-era Genestealers also get a special mention, in the form of "Ymgarl Genestealers," a strain that supposedly comes from a population of Genestealers that got isolated on the moons of Ymgarl. They have tentacled, lamprey-like mouths and the ability to partially transform themselves depending on the circumstances, at the cost of being genetically unstable and only being able to feed on blood. In fact, they're so unstable that the Hive Mind deliberately abandoned them for fear that they would contaminate the Tyranid gene pool. Because of this, they compulsively seek to reach planets that have recently been visited by the Tyranids in a futile attempt to be reabsorbed into the Hive Fleets. If they weren't horrible monstrosities, their predicament would almost be sad. However, at some point between 5th and 6th Edition, the Ymgarl Genestealers lucked out and got absorbed into a Hive Fleet by some very desperate/caring Norn Queen. The result of this is that 6E Tyranids now have a Bio-Artefact (If you feel unclean about the name, that's natural) called the ''Ymgarl Factor'' that gives any Tyranid unit the same unstable properties rule, but now lack the assaulting from Outflanking.

=== Non-human Hybrids ===

As a final note, [[Warhammer 40,000]] fiction is very [[human]]-centric, and so most Genestealer infestations depicted have occurred among human populations, but the [[Ciaphas Cain]] novels have suggested that [[Tau]] and [[Orks]] are also susceptible to Genestealer infection. The novel ''Death of Integrity'' also confirms that Genestealers will attack and assimilate other xenos, though this plot point lasts about one paragraph. <s>What, exactly, a Tau Genestealer Hybrid would look like is the subject of much speculation.</s> The short story ''The Greater Evil'' depicts one, and the answer is: Horrifying, and obviously blue. As shown in the later short story ''The Voice of Experience'', the Tau are also well-aware of Genestealers by this point and the threat they pose. There is old canon art of Ork Genestealer hybrids, but given the vast amount of retcons since then its canon status is questionable...

==== Orks ====

It should be noted that Orks reproduce asexually by way of fungal spores they secrete both at a perpetual slow trickle from their skin while alive and ''en masse'' while a decaying corpse (and also that "Ork" is but one of many many different Orkoid phenotypes that a given spore might develop into depending on environmental conditions, so one has to wonder how the genestealer mutations might interact with a spore that grew into, say, a mushroom), so it's pretty hard to envision an Orkified Genestealer Cult actually working, or lasting beyond the first generation or two, since they have no ways of mixing genes to produce purestrains in time. Even if they could, the Orks have an inherent ability to determine if one of their own isn't proppa Orky and will inevitably krump the gits. Some old, old fluff portrayed Purestrain genestealers descended from Ork hybrids as having denser musculature (and most likely greater physical strength). In another of these dusty accounts, an incident on the fringe of the Octarius system had a massive, purple, six-limbed Gargant attacking a Guard regiment. When it was melta'd open, purestrain genestealers emerged to eat the Guardsmen. You are encouraged to take these older bits of fluff with a generous pinch of salt. In any event, ancient and likely non-canonical fluff aside, the unique quirks of Ork biology boil down to the fact any attempt to infest an Ork warband would almost certainly fail and not be worth the effort in the first place. Commissar Cain encountered a genestealer infested space hulk in which genestealers were using infested orks to guard their hibernation chambers.

As of 2021, [[GW|GeeDubs]] has recently reaffirmed their existence in a White Dwarf. According to the article, they generally show up in Ork [[Kommando]]s, as they tend to live away from the main force of Orks, making it easier to slip in. Also in the article, they showed you [[Awesome|how to make your own out of Acolyte Hybrids, Abberants, and the new Kommandos.]] That's right, [[Wat|GW is encouraging you to kitbash.]] Did we slip into an alternate dimension?

==== Tau ====

Tau, similarly, have certain complications which may prevent Genestealer infestation. Firstly, their Kroot allies can tell if a person is infected or not simply by tasting some of their blood, and secondly, Tau-tech is certainly advanced enough to scan for this threat once they know about it. Furthermore, Tau explicitly practice caste-restricted bureaucratically arranged breeding processes; Tau don't have kids until their higher ups decide they should, and they don't even get to pick their own partners. Two Tau get paired up by the decision of a committee, spend a couple of days off work having sex, then separate and go their separate ways. This means the genestealer taint is seriously difficult to spread amongst the race. The caste-based structure of Tau society also poses problems to any potential Tauified Genestealers, and that's without presuming the caste-system is now so inherent that different castes can't even physically breed with each other anymore. Tau Genestealers are confirmed in the novel Deathwatch: Shadowbreaker as they're being deliberately engineered by a rogue Inquisitor to use a planet contested by the Tau and Imperium as a bioweapon delivery system. The narration makes it clear that the Tau are doing it without the permission of the Ethereals and that the Inquisitor is conning the Tau commander into letting it happen. However, all the Taustealers get blown up (It is a novel about the Deathwatch, after all) so they don't get a chance to spread beyond the planet. On top of all of that, according to the new Genestealer Cults Codex, not only can Tau-Genestealer hybrids happen, but one time they were ''deliberately'' created by a team of Earth Caste researchers who wanted to see what would happen. The infection got out of control and actually ended in violence. It's even implied that they may have produced a hybrid Ethereal, which would be a disaster for the Tau given how obedience to the Ethereal caste is basically hard coded into their DNA.

==== Eldar ====

While it is possible for Genestealers to infect the [[Eldar]], it's extremely hard for them to get anywhere with any of the four varieties due to their highly advanced medical technology (all four, yes even the Exodites), universal emphatic abilities, very regimented lifestyles (Craftworld), slow breeding rate and the fact that irregular psychic activity amongst them gets located and dealt with very quickly (all four, heck mind bulletry is pretty much the only thing the [[Dark Eldar]] ban). Even when they are infected, the taint spreads much more slowly due to the Eldar's prolonged gestation period, which makes infecting them more trouble than it is worth in most situations.

So far the only examples among Eldar are those who knowingly and openly embraced their pants-thieving overlords. In the novel "Ghost Warrior", we have Genestealer Eldar on a lost [[Craftworld]] named [[Yvraine#Craftworld_Zaisuthra|Zaisuthra]]. Needless to say, the other [[Ynnari]] who contacted them were ''pissed.'' This was done in their misguided attempt to avoid getting consumed by Slaanesh because this Craftworld had left before the Infinity Circuit was invented and thus didn't have one; their logic was that if they gave themselves over to the Broodmind, their souls would be assimilated before Slaanesh could consume them. There is also something of a Genestealer cult growing among the Dark Eldar in Commorragh. After a raid with lots of captives taken to Commorragh, the Haemonculi found out some of them were Genestealer cultists. The hybrids were singled out and experimented on so their mutations would emerge. When some bored Dark Eldar among the social elite found out about this, they paid the Haemonculi to graft these Genestealer body parts on them for kicks (given how Genestealer reproduction involve a genetic re-write of infected hosts using the Stealer's own DNA, you can see what a stupid idea this is). It looks like the Hive Mind might find a way into Commorragh given how these Dark Eldar, who collectively call themselves the Vorgani, started forming tight-knit groups and share a singular obsession over a Tyranid-infested planet trapped in the Webway.

And of course, the haemonculi know this and think this is just a jolly and amusing thing because of course the sickest fucks in all the galaxy would look at this and think, "what an interesting turn of events!".

==== Others ====

If a Genestealer Cult somehow got somewhere near a [[Stryxis]] convoy and for some reason decided they wanted to interbreed with them they would quickly run into two main problems; the first being that Stryxis are extremely untrustworthy little shits so they don't exactly operate in large enough groups to be really worth the effort, the second problem also being that the Stryxis are untrustworthy little shits and would probably scam the Genestealer cult of all its possessions before enslaving the bastards (assuming they don't "trade" a few hundred bullets in exchange for the Tyranids [[Teef| teeth]] to sell to some orks or somthing)

As for the [[Necrons]], they're goddamn undead robots. If you even consider this possibility you're the biggest idiot since [[Magnus the Red]].

In earlier editions, Ymgarl Genestealers were said to be hybrids with a native, leechlike sapient race to Ymgarl, the Csith. The Salamanders wiped out the Csith, but were unable to wipe out the Ymgarl Genestealers.

Finally, and perhaps most troubling, is the mention that Tyranids have been targeting [[Hrud]] warrens. Hrud lack the defenses of the above races and are naturally predisposed towards infesting a planet and migrating en mass to a new one. The Genestealer hybrids, likewise, gain enhanced stealth and reaction speed (such as those 5++ saves the 'stealers now enjoy.)

== Dawn of War 2 ==
[[Image:Jeanstealers.jpg|250px|thumb|right|An Assault Terminator trying to protect his power pants from Jeanstealers]]
Genestealers are pretty lore accurate in Dawn of War 2. They eat whatever they face. They act as the ultimate melee troops for Tyranids '''in tier 2.''' Let's run some numbers: A regular Tactical Marine starts with 60 melee skill, a standard melee squad starts with 70. These motherfuckers are starting with 80 by default! And this even gets worse if they have any synapse support. If they are under Improved Synapse of the Hive Tyrant, their health increases by 25%. If they ever get into the melee synapse of Warrior Brood, their health increases by '''75%''', and melee skill by 10, and you can combine these 2 synapses together! Yeah, they can basically murderfuck anything in melee combat. And this gets even worse if they use their Adrenal Rush ability. Gains increased speed and damage, gains small amount of health in each hit they make, and decreases incoming ranged damage.

Everything aside, the most simple solution to deal with them is to get a walker out. Genestealers can't purchase their anti vehicle klaws until tier 3. That makes them balanced right? I hope so. But when they get them, they can solo a Dreadnought! Thankfully, they have light infantry armour, which means that they can be killed easily with most ranged weaponry and struggle against melee fighters that are able to survive long enough to get a few hits in themselves. AoE melee attacks are your friend against them.

== On the Tabletop ==
[[Image:Genestealers-in-the-grass.jpg|250px|thumb|right|[[Fist of the North Star|You're already dead]].]]Both Ymgarl and Purestrain Genestealers are ridiculously deadly in melee, both in fluff and crunch. On the tabletop, when a brood of Genestealers charges something, it's very unlikely to survive to the next turn unless it's a [[Land Raider]] due to their massive number of good strength attacks, rending, and high weapon skill that means they hit most things on 3s (seriously, these guys have higher weapons skill than a lot things made out to be close-combat experts), not to mention that they are fast little fuckers. A Zerg rush has ''nothing'' on these guys. In the fluff, their [[Tyranid_Bio-Weapons#Rending Claws|claws]] are so damned sharp that they might as well be power weapons (back in 2nd Edition and pre-codex 3rd Edition they WERE power weapons), slicing through armor and walls like a chainsaw going through rice paper. Their hypnotic eye powers show up irregularly in the fluff, showing up in the Dark Disciples Novel but not Ciaphas Cain; Hero of the Imperium for example. The fact they are '''[[derp|faster than Eldar]]''' lets them laugh at any unit they charge/charging them, and they are usually deployed a-la Kroot Carnivores (parking them behind a windowless wall 12-18" from the enemy). Unlike Kroots though, they are not there to slow the enemy, they provide a hazardous area for the first turns and then, when the main force has reached their position, they jump out to help OMNOMMing.

In some editions Genestealer broods could upgrade one of the members to a [[Broodlord]], which formerly had a major role due to the biomorphs it could use and psyker powers, but being reduced to a sergeant basically made it just add an extra punch, though it still had a better statline than any non Special-Character Space Marine HQs (except the CSM's daemon prince). Sixth Edition turned Broodlords into rape machines in challenges, as they are able to bring down almost any independent character in the game without eternal warrior, while costing much, MUCH less.

In 8th Edition, Genestealers are still great, but other armies have some melee options that are pretty on-par with them. A horde of Ork Boyz, for example, can pump out 30 more melee attacks in a turn, and cost 110 points less. Granted, they don't have the 5++ invuln, but they still will wreck a horde of Genestealers' shit if they get the first attack. On the other hand, the Genestealers are also very speedy and can rocket to the other side of the board with the right Stratagems. They can also charge after advancing (or lose that ability in exchange for a better armor save that can go up to MEQ-tier if in cover or under the benefits of Jormungandr's Hive Fleet Attribute) and can take [[Tyranid_Bio-Weapons#Acid Maw|Acid Maws]] for a few extra MEQ-killing attacks. Oh, and they also get a Deep Strike similar to a Terminator's teleport homers. They're especially potent with Hive Fleet Kraken since they'll have better advances as well as the ability to charge after falling back, which not only saves them from running the risk of being trapped in melee with something too tough for them to deal with but also improves their already impressive maneuverability and ensures that they'll always get the first swing in.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Genestealer_orks.jpg| ORKY NIDS!!!!!!!!!!!
File:Warhammer 40k the tyranid outcast by randize-d4jl7lq.jpg|
File:Ymgarl.jpg| The original Genestealer Hybrid
</gallery>

== See Also ==

*[[Genestealer Cult]]
*[[Jeanstealer]] - One of /tg/'s creations. A rather confused Tyranid genestealer that is only driven to steal denim trousers.
*[[Hivestrain Azure]]- A fapfic about a particularly unusual strain of genestealer, likely part of a cult tainted by [[Slaanesh]].
*[[Zoats]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Dawn of War]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tyranid]]

[[Category: Genestealer Cults]]

{{Template:Tyranids-Creatures}}

{{Template:Genestealer-Cult}}

{{WH40k-Factions}}

Thyrrus

2022-08-05T06:57:25Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Gallery */

[[File:Thyrrus.jpg|thumb|A Thyrrus with an Thyrrian plasma weapon.]]

{{Topquote|GIVE THE SQUIDDIES NO QUARTER.|General Kojhmar on the war against the Thyrrus, propaganda poster}}
{{Topquote|What the fuck is that thing doing?|Anonymous Imperial Guardsman, after watching a Thyrrus warrior dance around a fire while making mating noises}}
{{Topquote|All the world's a stage, and all the <s>men and women</s> Thyrrus merely players.| Jaques, ''As You Like It''}}

The '''Thyrrus''' (or ''Histrio Tragoedus'', according to [[Xenology|Magos Biologis Sharle Darvus]]) are a [[xenos]] species of cephalophod-like beings, first discovered in the Segmentum Pacificus in around 784.M41, where they fought the [[Imperial Guard]]. This species is remarkable due to being one of the weirdest aliens Mankind has ever made contact with, and considering [[Rak'gol|the]] [[Umbra|amount]] [[Kroot|of]] [[Jokaero|weirdoes]] [[hrud|that]] [[Enslavers|populate]] [[Fra'al|the]] [[Medusae|galaxy]], that says something.

==Physiology==
A Thyrrus specimen is heavily described in ''Xenology'' by Magos Biologis Darvus. According to the researcher, Thyrrus have a cartilagenous body, with a lot of tentacles both on the upper and lower parts, which are probably used as means of locomotion. They have two pairs of proper arms, each one having multiple joints, ending with three or four-fingered hands. They have four eyes, suggesting that they have 230º peripheral vision. They don't have any form of endoskeleton or exoskeleton, as the weight of their bodies are supported by a cartilagenous spine. This means Thyrrus are quite squishy, although this doesn't mean they're fragile creatures. They eat through a process of osmosis done by a series of organs located on their... ''mouths?''... They also breathe by the same means, like the system used by jellyfish, although much more complex.

They seem to be adapted to live in extreme locations and climates, adapting quite easily to adverse conditions. They are able to adapt their bodies according to atmospheric, gravitational, and geographical conditions on the planet they're on. They also can change the colours of their body at will, probably with a social purpose in mind rather than camouflage. They are basically the result of a squid and a jellyfish smashed together and then put in the microwave to melt.

==Society and Behaviour==
The Thyrrus' way of life centers entirely around show and spectacle. They seem to think that life is just a big performance, either as a big elaborate play or some game being played by [[neckbeards]] in their spare time, so they've just decided to have fun while they're at it. They have no concept of victory or defeat, and every single aspect of their lives, from the battlefield to cooking, is interpreted as a show. Thus, it is pretty common for the Thyrrus to just [[Orks|try to make as many flashes of light and noises at every opportunity]], regardless of the sense (or lack thereof) that they make in the context they're in. For instance, they can blow up a building trying to cook dinner, ''but the place looked so pretty while burning''~

In warfare it seems like they don't care about who actually ''wins'', so long as the battle is really freakin' cool. During their fights against the Imperial Guard in the Segmentum Pacificus, the Thyrrus were a quite imposing opponent, with their threatening looks and their plasma weaponry... only for them to start doing weird shit that worked to their detriment (probably their equivalent of drinking and dancing during battle), which left the Guardsmen wondering [[what|what the hell was going on]]. Due to this, and because of their weird shape, humans have given the Thyrrus the nickname of "''Squiddies''", which is absolutely fucking adorable.

== Gallery ==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Thyrrus_soliloqun.jpg|They really look like they are constantly melting...
File:Squiddow1.jpg| A propaganda poster warning about the "Squiddies". So cute!
File: Thyrrus_Detailed.jpg| More detailed fanart so one can see what they look like accurately.
</gallery>
</center>

{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Xenos]][[Category:Minor Xenos Species]]

Thyrrus

2022-08-05T06:57:12Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Gallery */

[[File:Thyrrus.jpg|thumb|A Thyrrus with an Thyrrian plasma weapon.]]

{{Topquote|GIVE THE SQUIDDIES NO QUARTER.|General Kojhmar on the war against the Thyrrus, propaganda poster}}
{{Topquote|What the fuck is that thing doing?|Anonymous Imperial Guardsman, after watching a Thyrrus warrior dance around a fire while making mating noises}}
{{Topquote|All the world's a stage, and all the <s>men and women</s> Thyrrus merely players.| Jaques, ''As You Like It''}}

The '''Thyrrus''' (or ''Histrio Tragoedus'', according to [[Xenology|Magos Biologis Sharle Darvus]]) are a [[xenos]] species of cephalophod-like beings, first discovered in the Segmentum Pacificus in around 784.M41, where they fought the [[Imperial Guard]]. This species is remarkable due to being one of the weirdest aliens Mankind has ever made contact with, and considering [[Rak'gol|the]] [[Umbra|amount]] [[Kroot|of]] [[Jokaero|weirdoes]] [[hrud|that]] [[Enslavers|populate]] [[Fra'al|the]] [[Medusae|galaxy]], that says something.

==Physiology==
A Thyrrus specimen is heavily described in ''Xenology'' by Magos Biologis Darvus. According to the researcher, Thyrrus have a cartilagenous body, with a lot of tentacles both on the upper and lower parts, which are probably used as means of locomotion. They have two pairs of proper arms, each one having multiple joints, ending with three or four-fingered hands. They have four eyes, suggesting that they have 230º peripheral vision. They don't have any form of endoskeleton or exoskeleton, as the weight of their bodies are supported by a cartilagenous spine. This means Thyrrus are quite squishy, although this doesn't mean they're fragile creatures. They eat through a process of osmosis done by a series of organs located on their... ''mouths?''... They also breathe by the same means, like the system used by jellyfish, although much more complex.

They seem to be adapted to live in extreme locations and climates, adapting quite easily to adverse conditions. They are able to adapt their bodies according to atmospheric, gravitational, and geographical conditions on the planet they're on. They also can change the colours of their body at will, probably with a social purpose in mind rather than camouflage. They are basically the result of a squid and a jellyfish smashed together and then put in the microwave to melt.

==Society and Behaviour==
The Thyrrus' way of life centers entirely around show and spectacle. They seem to think that life is just a big performance, either as a big elaborate play or some game being played by [[neckbeards]] in their spare time, so they've just decided to have fun while they're at it. They have no concept of victory or defeat, and every single aspect of their lives, from the battlefield to cooking, is interpreted as a show. Thus, it is pretty common for the Thyrrus to just [[Orks|try to make as many flashes of light and noises at every opportunity]], regardless of the sense (or lack thereof) that they make in the context they're in. For instance, they can blow up a building trying to cook dinner, ''but the place looked so pretty while burning''~

In warfare it seems like they don't care about who actually ''wins'', so long as the battle is really freakin' cool. During their fights against the Imperial Guard in the Segmentum Pacificus, the Thyrrus were a quite imposing opponent, with their threatening looks and their plasma weaponry... only for them to start doing weird shit that worked to their detriment (probably their equivalent of drinking and dancing during battle), which left the Guardsmen wondering [[what|what the hell was going on]]. Due to this, and because of their weird shape, humans have given the Thyrrus the nickname of "''Squiddies''", which is absolutely fucking adorable.

== Gallery ==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Thyrrus_soliloqun.jpg|They really look like they are constantly melting...
File:Squiddow1.jpg| A propaganda poster warning about the "Squiddies". So cute!
File: Thyrrus_Detailed.jpg| MorebDetailed fanart so one can see what they look like accurately.
</gallery>
</center>

{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Xenos]][[Category:Minor Xenos Species]]

Gargoyle

2022-08-05T04:47:01Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Fantasy Gaming */

[[File:Xenomorph gargoyle.jpg|right|300px]]

''If you were looking for the Warhammer 40k creature, see [[Gargoyle (Tyranids)]]''

'''Gargoyles''' and their cousins grotesques were statues of ugly humanoid monsters, sculpted demons that were popular decorations for churches and, to a lesser extent, the homes of the rich and powerful. The idea was that with their sheer ugliness, they would frighten away actual evil spirits, so they were very popular. Gargoyles are considered an epitome of the Gothic style, and tend to show up all over the place in settings with a Gothic aspiration, especially in "gothick-punk" settings like the old [[World of Darkness]] or Gothic Fantasy settings like [[Ravenloft]].

Technically speaking, a gargoyle is a specific kind of grotesque, having been sculpted around and incorporating a waterspout (their very name, in fact, has the same root word as "gargle"). Few people remember this who aren't history buffs.

=Fantasy Gaming=
Gargoyles are a staple in fantasy games, where they are usually depicted more as grotesques. They are often creatures of living stone, similar to [[golem]]s in many ways, but intelligent, often mimicking living creatures in traits like needing to feed and reproduce, and usually evil - ironically, given the actual gargoyles were supposed to be protectors. [[Clark Ashton Smith]]'s [[Averoigne]] story may have a hand in that . . .

They're typically good at pretending to be statues until they're ready to ambush unsuspecting prey. In [[D&D]] for lower-level parties, if the PCs haven't found a magic weapon yet ... yeah, they're immune to non-magic. The gargs in [[B4: The Lost City]] ''will'' fuck you up unless your DM has planned some way to direct you to where the magic sword is at.

As for other old-school adventures, gargoyles were one of those encounter-table wanderers in [[Drow Trilogy|D1]] (like the [[ghouls]]) whose lair isn't detailed in the setpieces but (unlike the ghouls) we're not told which hex they're from. Just where they're not from.

A stronger version called a marlgoyle appeared in [[S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth]] and then in 1e's Monster Manual II (where it is misspelled "margoyle"). (The marlgoyle - correctly spelled - roams [[GDQ1-7: Queen of the Spiders]]' encounter tables, if you're using those, which you shouldn't.) Their name may or may not be a pun based off [[wikipedia:Marl|a type of sedimentary rock]].

2e ([[Lorraine Williams|You Know Who]]) devoted a module to these guys. [[Skip Williams]], [[WG9: Gargoyles]]. It wasn't good.

In [[Pathfinder]], they are a breed of lesser Earth [[Element]]al, originally hailing from the elemental planes before migrating to the easier, more prey-rich environment of the Material Plane.

In 5th edition D&D, the fact that gargoyles are earth elementals who can ''fly'' is explained as their being the spawn of [[Ogremoch]], the Evil [[Archomental]] of Earth, who created them in mockery of the Air creatures he so hates.

In Warhammer Fantasy, Gargoyles are magically animated stone figures. Most, but not all, have Daemonic features such as bat-like wings and bestial features. They may be found guarding ancient ruins, seeming to be part of their decoration. They may also be created by means of certain forbidden rituals. Some may be commanded by their creators, while other follow simple instructions that were given to them long ago – usually to destroy all who trespass on their territory. Mention is also made in the backstory of Aranessa Saltspite of how the previous captain of the pirate ship "The Swordfysh" she joined was eventually eaten by a Sea Gargoyle.

<gallery>
Gargoyle ODD3.png|Original D&D
Gargoyle 1e.jpg|1e
Gargoyle MCV2.jpg|2e
Gargoyle MM 2e.png
Gargoyle 3e.jpg|3e
Gargoyle 4e.jpg|4e
Gargoyle 5e.png|5e
Gargoyle B1.png|Pathfinder
Gargoyle ARG.png
</gallery>
'''Marlgoyle'''
<gallery>
Marlgoyle S4.png|S4
Margoyle 1e.png|1e
Marlgoyle Polyhedron 22.jpg|Now with wings
</gallery>

==Accordlands==
The ''[[Warlords of the Accordlands]]'' setting, first a card game and then a d20 adaptation, had gargoyles as constructs by the [[Dwarves]].

Dorfs are K-selected (they live long, breed less) in that setting as in most settings, and are harried by eeevil from the [[Underdark]] also as in most settings. Oh right, and they're not exactly welcoming of non-dwarf immigrants. As to how these dorfs are still alive, the Accordlands floats a solution: same way as the Japanese are still alive, they build robots.

Accordlands gargoyles run the gamut according to how much it costs to build them, and to what the specific need is. Some are sentient; all are dwarf-loyal. With one important exception.

If a sentient gargoyle falls in battle, the dwarves might cut some corners and raise its rubble ''back'' up as a quick-'n-dirty gargoyle. ''These'' tend evil, because they're - face it - undead. They might still be dwarf-loyal(ish), but they're not reliable, and they're abominations.

=Disney's Gargoyles=

So, in the early-to-mid 90s, Disney's TV animation division was white hot. So were superhero-action cartoons. Disney hired a comic book writer, Greg Weisman (the guy who would later later make the animated ''Young Justice'' for DC/WB), to develop a new superhero action series for them. ''Gargoyles'' was the result, a 2 season, 65 episode cartoon that was met with wide approval. There was a third season, a 13 episode sequel series the next year, ''Gargoyles, The Goliath Chronicles'', that wasn't met with such approval.

Regardless, Disney's version is worth mentioning here, because they're still well loved. The rules of these Gargoyles are fairly simple:

# They look like winged monsters, with a wide variety of colors (blue, red, yellow, brown, etc.) when not stone.
# They tend to be stronger and tougher than humans.
# Their claws are tough enough, and they themselves are strong enough, to allow them to climb buildings, leaving claw marks embedded in the concrete along the way.
# They turn to stone during the day, and have limited healing during this stone sleep.
# Most of them can glide (not fly, but glide) on those wings.
# They lay eggs, and practice communal child-rearing as a partial result.
# They have a tendency to attach themselves to a location, appointing themselves guardians of the region.
# They also have a tendency to leave themselves unnamed, although allowing others to give them names, particularly of their leaders.

As the series begins, an all male pack of Gargoyles from just-barely-post William the Conqueror Scotland finds themselves in modern Manhattan, thinking themselves the last Gargoyles on Earth. Things develop from there, but that's not the subject of this article, the rules something based on (or ripping off) the show are.

=Monstergirls=
[[File:MGE Gargoyle.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Even the statue of a [[succubus]] can be a horny devil.]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Ironically, although gargoyle [[monstergirls]] rarely get much attention, they actually make a lot of sense. After all, a gargoyle is either a predatory earth elemental that pretends to be a statue, or just an [[Animated Object]] made from a statue, and statues of attractive (often naked) girls have always been popular decorations for people wealthy enough to afford statuary. It makes sense that gargoyles would evolve to resemble (or be created in the image of) statues of beautiful women, because that's a ''lot'' better way to camouflage themselves - after all, realistically, how many people would actually have sculptures of demons or hideous monstrous humanoids around the place? Everybody gets tense when you mention the presence of [[fiend]]ish-looking statues; nobody bats an eye at all the naked women statues. Until they grab you and eat you, anyway.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], gargoyles are believed to be [[demon]]s who were sealed in stone statues before the current [[Succubus]] Lord took over. Inspired by the gargoyles of the 90s Disney cartoon "Gargoyles", they become living flesh and blood during the night, but transform into inanimate stone during the day. So, they try to get people to break the magical shackles binding them so they can use the night as a chance to go husband-hunting. And if you're still locked in coitus when the sun-rises, ''you'' turn to stone too until sundown.

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]]
[[Category: Monsters]]
[[Category: Pathfinder]]

Gargoyle

2022-08-05T04:45:15Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Fantasy Gaming */

[[File:Xenomorph gargoyle.jpg|right|300px]]

''If you were looking for the Warhammer 40k creature, see [[Gargoyle (Tyranids)]]''

'''Gargoyles''' and their cousins grotesques were statues of ugly humanoid monsters, sculpted demons that were popular decorations for churches and, to a lesser extent, the homes of the rich and powerful. The idea was that with their sheer ugliness, they would frighten away actual evil spirits, so they were very popular. Gargoyles are considered an epitome of the Gothic style, and tend to show up all over the place in settings with a Gothic aspiration, especially in "gothick-punk" settings like the old [[World of Darkness]] or Gothic Fantasy settings like [[Ravenloft]].

Technically speaking, a gargoyle is a specific kind of grotesque, having been sculpted around and incorporating a waterspout (their very name, in fact, has the same root word as "gargle"). Few people remember this who aren't history buffs.

=Fantasy Gaming=
Gargoyles are a staple in fantasy games, where they are usually depicted more as grotesques. They are often creatures of living stone, similar to [[golem]]s in many ways, but intelligent, often mimicking living creatures in traits like needing to feed and reproduce, and usually evil - ironically, given the actual gargoyles were supposed to be protectors. [[Clark Ashton Smith]]'s [[Averoigne]] story may have a hand in that . . .

They're typically good at pretending to be statues until they're ready to ambush unsuspecting prey. In [[D&D]] for lower-level parties, if the PCs haven't found a magic weapon yet ... yeah, they're immune to non-magic. The gargs in [[B4: The Lost City]] ''will'' fuck you up unless your DM has planned some way to direct you to where the magic sword is at.

As for other old-school adventures, gargoyles were one of those encounter-table wanderers in [[Drow Trilogy|D1]] (like the [[ghouls]]) whose lair isn't detailed in the setpieces but (unlike the ghouls) we're not told which hex they're from. Just where they're not from.

A stronger version called a marlgoyle appeared in [[S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth]] and then in 1e's Monster Manual II (where it is misspelled "margoyle"). (The marlgoyle - correctly spelled - roams [[GDQ1-7: Queen of the Spiders]]' encounter tables, if you're using those, which you shouldn't.) Their name may or may not be a pun based off [[wikipedia:Marl|a type of sedimentary rock]].

2e ([[Lorraine Williams|You Know Who]]) devoted a module to these guys. [[Skip Williams]], [[WG9: Gargoyles]]. It wasn't good.

In [[Pathfinder]], they are a breed of lesser Earth [[Element]]al, originally hailing from the elemental planes before migrating to the easier, more prey-rich environment of the Material Plane.

In 5th edition D&D, the fact that gargoyles are earth elementals who can ''fly'' is explained as their being the spawn of [[Ogremoch]], the Evil [[Archomental]] of Earth, who created them in mockery of the Air creatures he so hates.

In Warhammer Fantasy, Gargoyles are magically animated stone figures. Most, but not all, have Daemonic features such as bat-like wings and bestial features. They may be found guarding ancient ruins, seeming to be part of their decoration. They may also be created by means of certain forbidden rituals. Some may be commanded by their creators, while other follow simple instructions that were given to them long ago – usually to destroy all who trespass on their territory. Mention is also made in the backstory of Aranessa Saltspite of how the captain of the pirate ship she joined was eventually eaten by Sea Gargoyles.

<gallery>
Gargoyle ODD3.png|Original D&D
Gargoyle 1e.jpg|1e
Gargoyle MCV2.jpg|2e
Gargoyle MM 2e.png
Gargoyle 3e.jpg|3e
Gargoyle 4e.jpg|4e
Gargoyle 5e.png|5e
Gargoyle B1.png|Pathfinder
Gargoyle ARG.png
</gallery>
'''Marlgoyle'''
<gallery>
Marlgoyle S4.png|S4
Margoyle 1e.png|1e
Marlgoyle Polyhedron 22.jpg|Now with wings
</gallery>

==Accordlands==
The ''[[Warlords of the Accordlands]]'' setting, first a card game and then a d20 adaptation, had gargoyles as constructs by the [[Dwarves]].

Dorfs are K-selected (they live long, breed less) in that setting as in most settings, and are harried by eeevil from the [[Underdark]] also as in most settings. Oh right, and they're not exactly welcoming of non-dwarf immigrants. As to how these dorfs are still alive, the Accordlands floats a solution: same way as the Japanese are still alive, they build robots.

Accordlands gargoyles run the gamut according to how much it costs to build them, and to what the specific need is. Some are sentient; all are dwarf-loyal. With one important exception.

If a sentient gargoyle falls in battle, the dwarves might cut some corners and raise its rubble ''back'' up as a quick-'n-dirty gargoyle. ''These'' tend evil, because they're - face it - undead. They might still be dwarf-loyal(ish), but they're not reliable, and they're abominations.

=Disney's Gargoyles=

So, in the early-to-mid 90s, Disney's TV animation division was white hot. So were superhero-action cartoons. Disney hired a comic book writer, Greg Weisman (the guy who would later later make the animated ''Young Justice'' for DC/WB), to develop a new superhero action series for them. ''Gargoyles'' was the result, a 2 season, 65 episode cartoon that was met with wide approval. There was a third season, a 13 episode sequel series the next year, ''Gargoyles, The Goliath Chronicles'', that wasn't met with such approval.

Regardless, Disney's version is worth mentioning here, because they're still well loved. The rules of these Gargoyles are fairly simple:

# They look like winged monsters, with a wide variety of colors (blue, red, yellow, brown, etc.) when not stone.
# They tend to be stronger and tougher than humans.
# Their claws are tough enough, and they themselves are strong enough, to allow them to climb buildings, leaving claw marks embedded in the concrete along the way.
# They turn to stone during the day, and have limited healing during this stone sleep.
# Most of them can glide (not fly, but glide) on those wings.
# They lay eggs, and practice communal child-rearing as a partial result.
# They have a tendency to attach themselves to a location, appointing themselves guardians of the region.
# They also have a tendency to leave themselves unnamed, although allowing others to give them names, particularly of their leaders.

As the series begins, an all male pack of Gargoyles from just-barely-post William the Conqueror Scotland finds themselves in modern Manhattan, thinking themselves the last Gargoyles on Earth. Things develop from there, but that's not the subject of this article, the rules something based on (or ripping off) the show are.

=Monstergirls=
[[File:MGE Gargoyle.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Even the statue of a [[succubus]] can be a horny devil.]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Ironically, although gargoyle [[monstergirls]] rarely get much attention, they actually make a lot of sense. After all, a gargoyle is either a predatory earth elemental that pretends to be a statue, or just an [[Animated Object]] made from a statue, and statues of attractive (often naked) girls have always been popular decorations for people wealthy enough to afford statuary. It makes sense that gargoyles would evolve to resemble (or be created in the image of) statues of beautiful women, because that's a ''lot'' better way to camouflage themselves - after all, realistically, how many people would actually have sculptures of demons or hideous monstrous humanoids around the place? Everybody gets tense when you mention the presence of [[fiend]]ish-looking statues; nobody bats an eye at all the naked women statues. Until they grab you and eat you, anyway.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], gargoyles are believed to be [[demon]]s who were sealed in stone statues before the current [[Succubus]] Lord took over. Inspired by the gargoyles of the 90s Disney cartoon "Gargoyles", they become living flesh and blood during the night, but transform into inanimate stone during the day. So, they try to get people to break the magical shackles binding them so they can use the night as a chance to go husband-hunting. And if you're still locked in coitus when the sun-rises, ''you'' turn to stone too until sundown.

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]]
[[Category: Monsters]]
[[Category: Pathfinder]]

Gargoyle

2022-08-05T04:44:20Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Fantasy Gaming */

[[File:Xenomorph gargoyle.jpg|right|300px]]

''If you were looking for the Warhammer 40k creature, see [[Gargoyle (Tyranids)]]''

'''Gargoyles''' and their cousins grotesques were statues of ugly humanoid monsters, sculpted demons that were popular decorations for churches and, to a lesser extent, the homes of the rich and powerful. The idea was that with their sheer ugliness, they would frighten away actual evil spirits, so they were very popular. Gargoyles are considered an epitome of the Gothic style, and tend to show up all over the place in settings with a Gothic aspiration, especially in "gothick-punk" settings like the old [[World of Darkness]] or Gothic Fantasy settings like [[Ravenloft]].

Technically speaking, a gargoyle is a specific kind of grotesque, having been sculpted around and incorporating a waterspout (their very name, in fact, has the same root word as "gargle"). Few people remember this who aren't history buffs.

=Fantasy Gaming=
Gargoyles are a staple in fantasy games, where they are usually depicted more as grotesques. They are often creatures of living stone, similar to [[golem]]s in many ways, but intelligent, often mimicking living creatures in traits like needing to feed and reproduce, and usually evil - ironically, given the actual gargoyles were supposed to be protectors. [[Clark Ashton Smith]]'s [[Averoigne]] story may have a hand in that . . .

They're typically good at pretending to be statues until they're ready to ambush unsuspecting prey. In [[D&D]] for lower-level parties, if the PCs haven't found a magic weapon yet ... yeah, they're immune to non-magic. The gargs in [[B4: The Lost City]] ''will'' fuck you up unless your DM has planned some way to direct you to where the magic sword is at.

As for other old-school adventures, gargoyles were one of those encounter-table wanderers in [[Drow Trilogy|D1]] (like the [[ghouls]]) whose lair isn't detailed in the setpieces but (unlike the ghouls) we're not told which hex they're from. Just where they're not from.

A stronger version called a marlgoyle appeared in [[S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth]] and then in 1e's Monster Manual II (where it is misspelled "margoyle"). (The marlgoyle - correctly spelled - roams [[GDQ1-7: Queen of the Spiders]]' encounter tables, if you're using those, which you shouldn't.) Their name may or may not be a pun based off [[wikipedia:Marl|a type of sedimentary rock]].

2e ([[Lorraine Williams|You Know Who]]) devoted a module to these guys. [[Skip Williams]], [[WG9: Gargoyles]]. It wasn't good.

In [[Pathfinder]], they are a breed of lesser Earth [[Element]]al, originally hailing from the elemental planes before migrating to the easier, more prey-rich environment of the Material Plane.

In 5th edition D&D, the fact that gargoyles are earth elementals who can ''fly'' is explained as their being the spawn of [[Ogremoch]], the Evil [[Archomental]] of Earth, who created them in mockery of the Air creatures he so hates.

In Warhammer Fantasy, Gargoyles are magically animated stone figures. Most, but not all, have Daemonic features such as bat-like wings and bestial features. They may be found guarding ancient ruins, seeming to be part of their decoration. They may also be created by means of certain forbidden rituals. Some may be commanded by their creators, while other follow simple instructions that were given to them long ago – usually to destroy all who trespass on their territory.

<gallery>
Gargoyle ODD3.png|Original D&D
Gargoyle 1e.jpg|1e
Gargoyle MCV2.jpg|2e
Gargoyle MM 2e.png
Gargoyle 3e.jpg|3e
Gargoyle 4e.jpg|4e
Gargoyle 5e.png|5e
Gargoyle B1.png|Pathfinder
Gargoyle ARG.png
</gallery>
'''Marlgoyle'''
<gallery>
Marlgoyle S4.png|S4
Margoyle 1e.png|1e
Marlgoyle Polyhedron 22.jpg|Now with wings
</gallery>

==Accordlands==
The ''[[Warlords of the Accordlands]]'' setting, first a card game and then a d20 adaptation, had gargoyles as constructs by the [[Dwarves]].

Dorfs are K-selected (they live long, breed less) in that setting as in most settings, and are harried by eeevil from the [[Underdark]] also as in most settings. Oh right, and they're not exactly welcoming of non-dwarf immigrants. As to how these dorfs are still alive, the Accordlands floats a solution: same way as the Japanese are still alive, they build robots.

Accordlands gargoyles run the gamut according to how much it costs to build them, and to what the specific need is. Some are sentient; all are dwarf-loyal. With one important exception.

If a sentient gargoyle falls in battle, the dwarves might cut some corners and raise its rubble ''back'' up as a quick-'n-dirty gargoyle. ''These'' tend evil, because they're - face it - undead. They might still be dwarf-loyal(ish), but they're not reliable, and they're abominations.

=Disney's Gargoyles=

So, in the early-to-mid 90s, Disney's TV animation division was white hot. So were superhero-action cartoons. Disney hired a comic book writer, Greg Weisman (the guy who would later later make the animated ''Young Justice'' for DC/WB), to develop a new superhero action series for them. ''Gargoyles'' was the result, a 2 season, 65 episode cartoon that was met with wide approval. There was a third season, a 13 episode sequel series the next year, ''Gargoyles, The Goliath Chronicles'', that wasn't met with such approval.

Regardless, Disney's version is worth mentioning here, because they're still well loved. The rules of these Gargoyles are fairly simple:

# They look like winged monsters, with a wide variety of colors (blue, red, yellow, brown, etc.) when not stone.
# They tend to be stronger and tougher than humans.
# Their claws are tough enough, and they themselves are strong enough, to allow them to climb buildings, leaving claw marks embedded in the concrete along the way.
# They turn to stone during the day, and have limited healing during this stone sleep.
# Most of them can glide (not fly, but glide) on those wings.
# They lay eggs, and practice communal child-rearing as a partial result.
# They have a tendency to attach themselves to a location, appointing themselves guardians of the region.
# They also have a tendency to leave themselves unnamed, although allowing others to give them names, particularly of their leaders.

As the series begins, an all male pack of Gargoyles from just-barely-post William the Conqueror Scotland finds themselves in modern Manhattan, thinking themselves the last Gargoyles on Earth. Things develop from there, but that's not the subject of this article, the rules something based on (or ripping off) the show are.

=Monstergirls=
[[File:MGE Gargoyle.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Even the statue of a [[succubus]] can be a horny devil.]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Ironically, although gargoyle [[monstergirls]] rarely get much attention, they actually make a lot of sense. After all, a gargoyle is either a predatory earth elemental that pretends to be a statue, or just an [[Animated Object]] made from a statue, and statues of attractive (often naked) girls have always been popular decorations for people wealthy enough to afford statuary. It makes sense that gargoyles would evolve to resemble (or be created in the image of) statues of beautiful women, because that's a ''lot'' better way to camouflage themselves - after all, realistically, how many people would actually have sculptures of demons or hideous monstrous humanoids around the place? Everybody gets tense when you mention the presence of [[fiend]]ish-looking statues; nobody bats an eye at all the naked women statues. Until they grab you and eat you, anyway.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], gargoyles are believed to be [[demon]]s who were sealed in stone statues before the current [[Succubus]] Lord took over. Inspired by the gargoyles of the 90s Disney cartoon "Gargoyles", they become living flesh and blood during the night, but transform into inanimate stone during the day. So, they try to get people to break the magical shackles binding them so they can use the night as a chance to go husband-hunting. And if you're still locked in coitus when the sun-rises, ''you'' turn to stone too until sundown.

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]]
[[Category: Monsters]]
[[Category: Pathfinder]]

Manticore

2022-08-05T04:40:41Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Warhammer */

{{dnd-stub}}
''Not to be confused with the Imperial Guard artillery piece, the [[Manticore Launcher Tank]]. ''
[[File:manticore topsell.png|thumb|How could you say no to that Cheshire Cat smile?]]

The '''Manticore''' is a monster originating from Clasical Mythology. Said to originate in Persia, it is a [[Sphinx]]-like monster consisting of a lion with a fang-toothed human's head and a tail covered in myriad spikes, which it can launch to impale victims from a great distance. Some variants instead just give it a simpler [[scorpion]]-like stinging tail instead. In fantasy games, the manticore is occasionally depicted with bat-like wings, allowing it to fly.

The creature is generally considered a fierce, malevolent and ravenous brute, seeking only to gorge itself on as much raw meat as it can find and attacking anything that moves in pursuit of food and/or the pleasure of the kill.

==Dungeons & Dragons==
The manticore has been around in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] pretty much since the beginning. Just like the [[Chimera]], they decided to put wings on it for seemingly no reason. The standard depiction is as a brutish but roughly sapient flying predator with vicious melee attacks and the ability to hurl spikes from its tail as ranged attacks.
<gallery>
Manticore MM 1e.jpg|1e
Manticore MCV1.jpg|2e
Manticore MM 2e.png
Manticore 3e.jpg|3e
Manticore 4e.jpg|4e
Manticore 5e.jpg|5e
Manticore B1.png|Pathfinder
</gallery>

==Warhammer==
In the [[Warhammer Fantasy]] setting, manticores are flying, leonic beasts associated with [[Chaos]]. They are sometimes used as steeds both by [[Chaos Champion]]s and by [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Druchii]] leaders - indeed, the Druchii revere the manticore as an animal sacred to [[Khaine]], such is the beast's love of slaughter. Mention is also made of Mer-Manticores in Aranessa Saltspite's backstory.

==Star Wars==
An Imperial Star Destroyer named Manticore shows up in the ''Jedi Academy'' trilogy (which sucks) aping the earlier established ISD [[Chimera|Chimaera]]'s name. What's interesting about this is the trilogy also stated the Manticore was a supposedly extinct beast that was since proven to be an archeological hoax/mistake that people still thought was cool enough to name things after anyways. While the trilogy is bad enough to dismiss this as more of Anderson's bad writing [[Wikipedia:Archaeoraptor|this kind of thing happens]] [[Wikipedia:Hadrosaurus#Classification|more than you think]] [[Wikipedia:Apatosaurus#Discovery_and_species|in real world palaeontology]], especially if you count young and adult dinosaurs being mistaken for separate species, and plenty of [[Dinosaur]]s known to be fake still show up in fiction.

==Monstergirls==
[[File:MGE Manticore.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The legendarily infamous MGE Manticore.]]
{{Monstergirls}}
Manticore monstergirls are rare, but quite distinct from your standard [[catgirl]], what with the flying and the stinger tail. They are often especially aggressive in temperament.

The [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]] version of the manticore is particularly infamous, as not only does it have a tail covered in spikes that secrete aphrodisiac venom, but the bulbous tip of the tail actually opens up into a tentacle-filled secondary vagina that secretes the same venom as part of its lubricating fluids. The ability of this monstrous sexual organ to extract semen from men is almost memetically infamous.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Monsters]]

Chaos Gods

2022-08-05T01:45:51Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020:

{{heresy}}
{{Topquote|The creatures of the Warp are just "aliens" too, but they are not life forms as we understand the term. They are not organic. They are extra-dimensional, and they influence our reality in ways that seem sorcerous to us. Supernatural, if you will. So let's use all those lost words for them... daemons, spirits, possessors, changelings. All we need to remember is that there are no gods out there, in the darkness, no great daemons and ministers of evil. There is no fundamental, immutable evil in the cosmos. It is too large and sterile for such melodrama. There are simply inhuman things that oppose us, things we were created to battle and destroy.
|Horus Lupercal, about to realize that he was wrong and that he could get great power, and then dearly regret his casual arrogance.}}

The '''Chaos Gods''' are the gods which rule over the Realm of [[Chaos]] in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]] and the [[Warp]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. They love nothing so much as dicking with each other, except perhaps with their mortal followers, and literally each other (especially Slaanesh). Before they were gods, they were generally benevolent beings, when the Warp was a calm sea. Each one is formed by the emotions of living souls clumped together in the Warp/Realm of Chaos. Contrary to standard thought, they personify good attributes as well, and are powered as much by good as by bad. Even if said god started out entirely bad, in their eventual evolution as part of their natures, they will kill gods who represented entirely good things, and will gain not only their values, but their power by said value.

Be aware many of the gods' values will and do intersect. This is as much due to the chaotic nature of the gods as it is to the multitude of emotions that make up the living. For example: let's say you're literally obsessed with brutally murdering people and you get a real nice kick out of it. The act of spilling blood is gonna feed [[Khorne]], while the ecstasy and obsessive sensation you get out of it will feed [[Slaanesh]]. So yeah, there's some overlap, in that an individual doing a certain thing, under specific circumstances, can simultaneously feed multiple Chaos Gods, but the God who was invoked (whether intentionally or no) upon when commuting the action will get the most power out of it (I.E: You killed someone for Khorne. While your ecstasy from the murder will feed Slaanesh a bit, your simple act of ending a life will feed Nurgle, your continued ambition to please the Blood God to earn his favor will also feed Tzeentch a bit, but Khorne gets the most since you offered that kill to him foremost).

==Overview==
According to the wikifans over at the Official Warhammer 40k Wiki, the Chaos gods were created and are sustained by the collective emotions of 'every sentient being of the material universe'; so not just the Milky Way, but every alien, both heretical and loyal, in the whole universe. This however probably isn't true, or rather it's just very bad wording, because if the Milky Way alone has all of these sentient races in it, then there's a safe bet that most other galaxies in the rest of the universe also have a multitude of sentient races too. And there are like, at least billions upon billions of galaxies in the observable universe, let alone the true universe which is likely many magnitudes larger. Based on what we've seen in the fluff, ''That'' many galaxies, filled with ''that'' many sentient lifeforms, ''all'' feeding only ''four'' Chaos Gods, would give said Chaos Gods so much power that they would probably have the capability to turn the entire galaxy (and many others) into massive Eyes of Terror at a simple scheming click of their heretical fingers. But of course, that hasn't happened (thank the fucking Emperor). Which probably means those wikijerks are talking complete [[Bullshit|unadulterated bullshit]] (or are making the common and infuriating mistake of conflating "universe" with "galaxy"). In actuality, the full range of influence the Ruinous Powers have only extends to the area of the Milky Way and not much further. After all, a specific location in the Warp corresponds with a specific location in the Materium; your thoughts and emotions will have an effect (albeit very minor) on the Warp in your specific corresponding location, and the collective thoughts and emotions of a galaxy's population will only have an effect on that specific galactic area of the overall Warp. This essentially means the four Chaos Gods are completely confined to the Milky Way galaxy, because that's where the emotions that created and feed them are currently being felt.

So what does that really mean? Well, it means the Warp in the vast, cold, empty space between galaxies is calm as fuck, absolutely nothing like the infested shitty plughole it is right now in our home galaxy, because there's no sentient life and hence no chaotic emotions there to stir it up. However, this also means that if other galaxies out there have their own interstellar sentient species with a presence in the Warp, then those galaxies will have their own Chaos Gods [likely just analogous versions of the four ([[Malal|point five]]) we have, although it's also possible that the different emotions might be allocated differently for each galactic pantheon; Andromeda might have gods based on the seven deadly sins, for example] that reside there and are also confined to the area of their own galaxy. But who knows? Maybe each warp god is a reflection of the galaxy that birthed it, and the aliens that live in other galaxies there have actually got their shit together and all get along like best buddies in a setting that just oozes [[Noblebright|noblebright]] from every pore, and the Chaos Gods there aren't even called that because they're all so friendly and cushy to everyone and like to play vidyagames with each other and cracking open cold ones on a warm Friday night while watching The Batchelor. Maybe the Warp gods in most galaxies actually maintain contact with those in neighbouring ones, and everyone just stays the fuck out of the Milky Way for the same reason most 21st century tourists stay out of Somalia. How sweet... I wonder what would happen if two galaxies, both with their own analogous Chaos Gods, collided. Would they just absorb each other into a new pantheon of four even-more-powerful Gods? Would they fight each other until one reigned supreme? Or would they get along like good ol' chums since they understand each other perfectly? Anyway, tangents. This fallacy is explained further in detail just right below.

Now that I say all of this, why the actual '''FUCK''' has no one decided to just up and leave the galaxy already?! It's a complete shithole! It's filled to the absolute brim with nothing but copious amounts of [[Grimdark]] and a whole host of things that want to murder, rape and eat you, not necessarily in that order. And it's ''still'' being filled up with that shit, both [[Necron|crawling out from under the ground]] and [[Tyranid|flying in from outer space to OMNOMNOMNOM the faces of everyone you both despise and adore]]. Even if you're lucky enough to escape the immediate crossfire, you're still likely to be part of [[Imperium|a civilisation that completely smashes any feeling of worth or individuality out of you and treats you like just another cog in the machine of trillions of cogs]]. Just leave already, god dammit. What about Andromeda? I hear it's rather pleasant this time of year. At least compared to this literal hellhole. But it's probably not possible for the same reason why [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]] and [[Lion El'Johnson|Lion-O]] couldn't simply fly over the Ruinstorm to get to Terra; if the space between galaxies is calm because there are no souls, that probably means there's no warp either, making intergalactic travel impossible. But this is just baseless speculation that contradicts the nature of the Warp's existence, specifically that the Warp is influenced by life, not created by life, and existed before even the first lifeforms did. Plus, you need to be Necron-tier to get pass the nids off galaxy. Or it could be things like the Void Dragon possibly eating a million galaxies before returning to ours where he then met the Emperor, the Tyranids consuming a thousand galaxies, and generally such things indiciate that outside of the Milky Way is worse than in the Milky Way.

But then again, It is officially stated that Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy are completely different franchises which just so happen to have the same Warp with the same Chaos Gods.

Now, where were we? Oh yes, Chaos Gods. Ahem.

===On the Question of Omnipotence===

One of the most [[Skub|talked about and hotly debated topics]], especially amongst Chaos players is the question of Omnipotence. [[Matt Ward|Other than massive fanwanking and colossal jerk-offs,]] it must be stated and stressed that the Chaos Gods for all their strength are not omnipotent, for to be omnipotent means to be all-powerful and the idea of the Great Game greatly debunks this claim. Part of the problem may lie in the fact that folks like to give examples of the power of the Chaos Gods from codexes from the Rogue Trader era and Second Edition, eras which are of ''dubious'' canonicity. You see, what they don't seem to understand is that GW, especially ''early'' GW, had a habit of making use of flowery language and hyperbole to exaggerate the grandeur of something or someone. This by itself is not a problem, as 40k runs on exaggeration. The problem is that [[Powergamer|''some folks'']] seems to lack any ability to discern nuances or critical thinking skills and proceed to extrapolate these hyperboles as true, completely ignoring the fact that the majority of these flowery examples came from either a) the viewpoint of a Chaos Cultist b) in-universe propaganda and/or c) extremely old sources where [[Ian Watson|all sorts of wacky hijinks were birthed.]] As such, the credibility is highly suspect and should be taken with a mountain of salt.

So when sources 'claim' that the Chaos Gods could destroy 'universes' or Greater Daemons were [[Exterminatus|destroying entire planets wholesale]] within the [[Warp]], the validity should be scrutinized in the same way fa/tg/uys scrutinize [[Furries]]. What the Chaos Gods or their followers claim to be true (remember that they are notorious [[Bullshit|liars]]) does not match up with their actual abilities both in Warpspace and in Realspace. If they were truly multiversal as they claim, then, first of all, the [[Hive Mind|Shadow of the Warp]] should not be an existential threat to them. After all, a true universal - let alone multiversal - entity should not even notice a few intergalactic bugs on the windshield. Moreover, the Necron Pylons should also not be considered a threat to the big four, for if they possess such levels of reality-warping power, they should not be dependent in letting their [[Failbaddon|errand boy]] do all their dirty work for them in realspace. Even in the Warp, their so-called 'omnipotence' did not stop a certain [[Kaldor Draigo|Mary Sue]] from trashing their backyard from time to time.

The reality is the Chaos Gods, as far as deities go in Science Fiction, are pretty weak sauce. For example:
*They are utterly dependent on the emotions of a single galaxy (if they really did not care about emotions as some may claim, then they shouldn't be ''that'' invested in the Imperium now would they?).
*Certain [[Tyranids|critters with enough mindless psychic connections can close entire Warp-rifts and there is nothing the Chaos Gods can do about it;.]]
*Tzeentch's self-proclaimed omniscience is put into doubt seeing as how he and his [[Kairos Fateweaver|underlings]] failed to predict the rise of [[Roboute Guilliman|Robo Guillitan]] [[Gathering Storm|and the following]] [[Indomitus Crusade|mechinations of it]].
*Their self-proclaimed reality-warping powers are self-contained in the Warp, and even then it is restricted to their own realms. Much like how a child could create and manipulate anything in a sandpit does not automatically equate to the child turning sand into gold, the same analogy applies here - seriously it is telling that the Gods of Chaos couldn't do jackshit about the Necron Pylons for ''60 million years'' since the War in Heaven.
*Their dreaded Chaos corruption such as Scrapcode could literally be stopped by an AdMech Priest cutting off the connections fast enough during the Fall of Mars, knowing how abysmal 40k's A.I. are, that shit ain't touching the likes of a [[The Culture|Culture Mind,]] [[Halo|a Contendor-class A.I.,]] and the [[Xeelee Sequence|Anti-Xeelee]]. To state otherwise would be a No Limit Fallacy and a False Equivalency since the idea of scrapcode would be overpowered against the likes of the Necrons, Tau and the AdMech, yet this shit has seldomly been used which suggests limitations on the behalf of Chaos.

In retrospect, the contradictions of what the Chaos Gods/followers ''claim'' and what they are actually shown to do is no different than the problems the [[Hive Mind]] has found itself in as [[Tyranid#'Masters of Evolution'?|can be read here.]] They are all bound by GeeDubs' status quo and the balance of power, as such their powers are restricted insofar in one galaxy to preserve the status quo. With the bombshell of '''Godblight''', the argument of omnipotence has finally been shot down after Chaos got hit with a ''massive'' [[nerf]] bat. From the [[Emprah]] suggesting that the Daemon Primarchs can be redeemed, thereby making the threat of Chaos corruption impotent to Big-E literally shoving his Power Sword up [[Nurgle|Nurgle's]] ass and his garden, '''''permanently''''' wounding him grievously, to the outright confirmation that a Chaos God without sufficient faith would degenerate into Warp-soup and become perma-K.O. as faith is what gives Warp entities sentience. Godblight has single-handily trashed any presumption of Chaos omnipotence in but a few chapters, and let's not even get into a single [[Primaris Lieutenant]] kicking one of the strongest Nurglite Greater Daemons in the ass...[[Bullshit|''somehow'']].

So are the Chaos Gods powerful? In the universe of [[Star Wars]], [[Star Trek]] and [[Bioware|Mass Effect]], sure, of course they are. Are they omnipotent multiversal destroyers? Hell the fuck no. If you're honestly thinking that these ''guys'' are in the same ballpark as [[/co/|the Abstract Entities of Marvel and DC]], [[Doctor Who|the Time Lords]] or the motherfucking Downstreamers, then you should probably go see a doctor for a prostate exam; constant wanking is bad for ya health you know.

[[Tl;dr]], 40k is prone to not applying the concept of <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>, which is ironic given the reputation of 40k in general, but it happens again and again and again. A good narrative showcases its targets' capabilities and feats, a bad narrative just tells them to the viewers. If the Chaos Gods can actually pop universes like grapes, ''then we better fucking see them popping an actual universe''. No wishy-washy flowery language, no offhand statements in the codex, no shenanigans inside the Warp which is unreliable ''at best''. <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>. It isn't just the Chaos Gods that are guilty of this mind you, the [[Men of Iron]] and even the [[War in Heaven]] [[Necron]]s are guilty of this as well. Sun-snuffing machines the size of Saturn's rings and Breath of the Gods asshattery means jack shit if we don't actually see them in action. <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>.

Or maybe they are merely aspects of the the warp itself, immutable, unstoppable and actually multiversal, creating monsters for it's amusement.

==Khorne==
{{Main|Khorne}}
[[File:Khorne First.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Lord of RAEG, War, Butthurt, Steroids and Testosterone. Really just a grouchy puppy.]]

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! MILK FOR THE KHORNE FLAKES! BUTTER FOR THE POP KHORNE! Oh, sorry. In case it wasn't obvious, Khorne is the god of battle, martial honor, and oh yeah, BLOOD! Although primarily formed from hate and rage, bravery and honor are also thrown in the mix. Also in the mix are mercy (in particular, mercy for those too weak to put up a fight and be a challenge to kill. This is almost never shown in the fluff though, annoyingly), courage, regret, fear, athleticism, determination, daring, impulsiveness, and struggling onward in the face of any odds.
* Gender - DEFINITELY A MAN, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!! <strike> I thought he was female? </strike> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!* *BLAM!* THAT'S DOUBLE HERESY!!'''}}
* Main Enemy - Slaanesh, as he considers him/her/them to be too frilly and really doesn't care about sensations, especially when they prolong the spilling of blood, to the point fluff wise it is distinctly pointed out he hates the priss even more than tzeench, going so far as to have slaaneshi and khornates have the hatred special rule against eachother.
* Bro god - Nurgle, although he doesn't seem to mind Khaela Mensha Khaine (they're probably the same thing, though), and he is rumored to be in a polyamorous relationship with Mork and Gork.
* Love Interest - Gork and Mork (see above). [[Valkia the Bloody]] (Canonically - yes, your brain is now broken).
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - The [[World Eaters]], other various chapters and bands of warriors dedicated themselves to him since. Also has IG-equivalent armies like the [[Blood Pact]].
*[[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: Arbaal the Undefeated (ANGRY VIKINGS!! FUCK YEAH!!), Valkia the Bloody, Scylla Afingrimm (former warlord turned [[Chaos Spawn]] and still kicks ass), Hrafn Untam, Haargroth the Blooded, Skarr Bloodwrath. Khorne also has an entire Norse confederation especially devoted to him known as the Aeslingr.
* Sacred Number - 8 ("The eightfold path")
* Adjective - Khornate

<center><gallery>
File:WE Heretic Astartes 2.png|A Khornate Berzerker Heretic Astartes of the [[World Eaters]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Nurgle==
{{Main|Nurgle}}
[[File:Nurgle Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Despite his and his minion's appearances, they're actually pretty nice (for debatably self-aware boogers).]]

Nurgle is the god of filth, pestilence, decay, and generally being a cool dude (which are [[Neckbeard|obviously related]]). Formed from despair and fear of death, his portfolio also includes acceptance and stoicism. Other values include inevitability, empathy, kinship, struggle, (familial) love, tradition, mercy, and memory. Nurgle is also notable for being the only Chaos god that cares for his followers whatsoever, bordering on love (in fact in 40k, he loves the [[Eldar]] goddess [[Isha]] so much that he [[grimdark|chained her up and force feeds her his new diseases]], because that's the only way he knows how to express love... yeah, love sucks <s>sometimes</s> <s>all the time</S> most of the time). Also note that one aspect of him that is played up in the End Times is that he is in fact the god of life, only for him it means unrestrained, infinite life such as with pathogens and tumors.
* Gender - A (slob of a) man. A VERY fat, old one.
* Main Enemy - Tzeentch, the paragon of hope and change, in opposition to Nurgle's representation of decay and inevitability.
* Bro god - Khorne, mostly because Nurgle is the only Chaos god Khorne doesn't entirely hate.
* Love Interest - His joy and wife, [[Isha]]. Now pins for Alarielle, since he [[Everqueen#Isha.2FAriel_Alarielle_Fusion_Dance.21|lost Isha to her]].
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - The [[Death Guard]]. Has tons of other followers like the [[The Purge]] (omnicidal wackos who have no problem using chemical and virus weapons on helpless populations), [[Apostles of Contagion]] ([[Zombie Plague]] aficionados), the [[Lords of Decay]] (utterly loyal Marines sent to die in the Eye, holy fuck these guys made a direct assault on the Solar System and won Pluto), and human IG armies like the rebellion on [[Vraks]].
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: [[Valnir|Valnir the Reaper]], old school champion of Nurgle; [[Festus the Leechlord]] (this guy used to be a doctor in the Empire; he's not even a Northman). The Crow Brothers of the Björnlings are especially devoted to him also (Festus leads these guys), the [[Glottkin]], [[Gutrot Spume]] (a Nurglite pirate barbarian), the [[Maggoth Lords]] of Icehorn Peak. It could also be possibly argued (especially considering [[Age of Sigmar|Age of Skubmar]]) that the Skaven Clan Pestilens is some sort of splinter cult built on worshipping Nurgle while thinking that they're worshiping an aspect of the Horned Rat.
* Sacred Number - 7 (though 3 is also a popular number)
* Adjective - Nurglite
* Please note that the above lore mixes both Warhammer fantasy lore and Warhammer 40k lore which, although the character is virtually indistinguishable, are not the same thing. [[Skub|Maybe]].

<center><gallery>
File:Plague Marine 8th Ed.png|A [[Plague Marine]] of the [[Death Guard]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Slaanesh==
{{Main|Slaanesh}}
[[File:Slaanesh Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The embodiment of all things PR0N.]]

Slaanesh is the god/dess of pain, pleasure, and perfection... or, in other words, a god of [[1d4chan|emotions formed from emotions]], not all of which are bad. In 40k (WHFB didn't elaborate how Slaanesh was born, so we can only assume he/she/they manifested normally like the other Gods), the an inherently psychic race called the [[Eldar]] created him/her/them by having so many damn orgies they tore space-time a new asshole (The Eye of Terror). Formed mainly from hedonism and excess, love and creativity are also attributes of Slaanesh. Other facets include perfectionism, obsessiveness, attention-whoring, jealousy, sensuality, [[Doomrider|DRUGS]], empathy, self-expression, individuality, art, music, joy, and admiration (so quite literally the god of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll!).
* Gender - Whatever you want it to be, sugar! In WH Fantasy you'll see illustrations of a lecherous old hag / old man / old bits-of-both; in WH40k depictions are of a young flamboyant hermaphrodite.
* Main enemy - The brutish Khorne, obviously. H-he never calls...
* Bro god - Tzeentch, although that's mostly because he's the least icky of the Chaos gods. His/her/their friendship with Nurgle is a bit questionable since he stole [[Isha]] during Slaanesh's proverbial and... literal raping of the former Eldar Empire, though it isn't shown anywhere that Slaanesh still openly detests Nurgle for that (Hell, their daemons temporarily joined forces once or twice). Generally the most open to working with the others.
* Love Interest - All of them. Still pines for Isha, and is depressed no one ever seems to love him/her/them back. Tries to tempt Khorne into raping him/her/them. Gave up on Nurgle after he got married. For a long time has been pining for Tzeentch of all people, but she can never seem to make him think she likes him as more than just a friend. Basically, she's the hot chick who got friendzoned by the nerd. But he/she/they won't give up!
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - [[Emperor's Children]]. Also has others to call on like The [[Flawless Host]] (their drugs make Emperor's Children's look like baking powder), [[Violators]] (these guys body sculpt themselves enough to make a [[VtM|Tzimisce]] well up with pride), as well as, again, various IG-equivalent armies.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: Sigvald the Magnificent (he really is quite magnificent...), [[Dechala|Dechala the Denied one]], former high elf maiden turned into near greater daemon level, Azazel, former bro of [[Sigmar]], Styrkaar of Sortsvinear. <s>The Varg tribes serve him.</s> NO WE DON'T. Likely that the Hung worship him/her/them, purely judging from their nomenclature. Also, [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark Elves]], pre-retcon.
*Sacred Number - <s>sex</s> 6. Probably 69 and 420 as well, due to what they’re associated with.
* Adjective - Slaaneshi

<center><gallery>
File:Mandraykh Blyss EC.png|A Slaaneshi-Heretic Astartes of the [[Emperor's Children]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Tzeentch==
{{Main|Tzeentch}}
[[File:Tzeentch Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Change we can all believe in...]]

Tzeentch is the god of [[Just as planned]], being a wishy washy nerd, and magic, arguably the coolest and most potentially powerful of the four due to being nerfed from his actual true power in the height of his age of coming from both respective canons of Warhammer and generally being the most victorious when fighting against humanity and other races as a scheming jerkass. Tzeentch is formed from paranoia and plotting, but also, amazingly enough, hope and ambition. Other values include trust, curiosity, dissatisfaction, aspiration, progress, knowledge, learning, protection, will, anarchy, and change.
* Gender - Always changing, but usually male or genderless.
* Main Enemy - Nurgle, because he symbolizes stagnation, a.k.a. refusal towards change. Khorne as well, as the jock bullies him for his nerdiness, which is what Tzeentch wants you to believe, in truth he bullies and torments Khorne.
* Bro god(dess) - Slaanesh, who isn't as brutal/dumb as Khorne and not as much of a lazy bastard as Nurgle. Plus, he/she/they're nice to little Tzeentch! [[Cegorach]] might have a Shonen Rival Bro Bond with him when they dont fight on different teams.
* Love Interest - Kind of wishes that the Deceiver, Cegorach, and the Emperor were chicks. For female gods hes got an Eye for [[Arianka]] since she's a rival to his whole all play to her all work dynamic and wants her to be the [[Isha]] to his Nurgle.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - [[Thousand Sons]], and basically no other Space Marine groups; only [[The Scourged]] are canonical non-TS-descendants who are dedicated to Tzeentch. Tzeentch also apparently doesn't have any IG-equivalent armies dedicated to him in particular (besides the [[Prospero Spireguard]] who are more like the Thousand Sons auxilia than anything else). In-universe this is most likely because if a Guardsman is going to turn to a specific Chaos god, the prospect of [[Khorne|power and unending glorious conquest]], [[Nurgle|freedom from all pain and suffering]], or [[Slaanesh|all the booze, drugs and whores you can handle and then some]] are more attractive options than being a scheming nerd. Or else Tzeentch's non-marine cultists are rarely warriors or soldiers, more often power-hungry bureaucrats, nobles, Imperial Governors, and even Inquisitors. Out of universe it's hard to make Tzeentch-focused units other than TS when their signature units are sorcerers, who only come in small quantities on the tabletop, and the Sons-specific Rubric Marines. He also offers limited knowledge of the future, represented in game with a boosted Ward save from the Mark of Tzeentch.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero": <s>Vilitch the Curseling</s> [[Egrimm van Horstmann|Egrimm van Horstmann]]. No Chaos Tribe seems to revere him to any exceptional extent (well there was this Sarl tribe and it was ruled by a Tzeentch chieftian, but [[Wulfrik the Wanderer|Wulfrik]] killed him as well as his son) but he pulled out some nasty tricks such as becoming the grand magister of the Order of Light and fucking said order up before flying away on top of a dragon. Also, got [[Cathay]] in a bag.
* Sacred Number - 9
* Adjective - Tzeentchian

<center><gallery>
File:TS Sorc Divination.png|A Tzeentchian Chaos Sorcerer of the [[Thousand Sons]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Malal==
{{Main|Malal}}
[[File:Malal.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Then we have this motherfucking out of place/odd one out weirdo here....]]

Though not as relevant as the other big four, Malal is still more notable than the other minor Gods mentioned below. He's sort of the borderline between major and minor chaos gods.

Malal is a renegade Chaos god that only appeared in one comic for Fantasy before his creators divorced and took their character with them, resulting in GW shitcanning most of the original sculptors and artists. Then he was replaced with two entirely different characters with the same basic domain before being quietly swept under the rug and forgotten, barring the odd reference that slips out here and there. He is fittingly the god of fractiousness and dissent, which means his power is parasitic: any time the four other major Milky Way Warp gods do their thing, which is to say strive to gain power at the expense of the materium and eachother, Malal grows in power as well. Because of his nature as a common enemy to the big four and thus a Warp Entity that fights the Warp, he is also sometimes a god of atheism, contradictions, and paradoxes, when he exists at all. That being said, he did have awesome champions who lived solely to hunt down the greatest champions of the other gods, which is pretty [[Awesome]]. Sadly (or not, depending on your opinion), [[Games Workshop]] idiotically lost the rights to his name, so he's been more or less retconned. Except now he <i>might</i> be back in 40k, with a [[Chaos Space Marine]] warband called the [[Sons of Malice]] who worship a god called Malice...who just happen to wear a color scheme of black and white, and just happen to have a symbol of a bisected skull, and whose premier Chaos weapon specializes in killing Daemons. There's also [[Beastmen]] of Malal in one of the card games. But nope, don't you dare say they worship Malal. Like Khorne, Malal has an aspect of hate, however it's more along the lines of loathing (including towards self), [[derp|malice]] and cold contempt compared to Khorne's ragey hot-blooded variety. While a worshipper of either might shoot up a school, a malal worshipper would probably think of it like exterminating pests rather than a pleasant rampage. Beyond all that, his portfolio includes paradoxes, justice, revenge, nihilism, and the inevitability of Chaos turning upon itself. Every time the others fight or power shifts between them, he grows stronger. Just like Chaos will eventually win and consume all worlds, Malal will eventually win and consume all Chaos resulting in oblivion for all things...then if GW took the full bite off Moorcock's work and not just the parts they wanted, the whole thing starts all over again from the beginning.
* Gender - Maleal
* Main Enemy - EVERYONE. Because Malal's an edgy loner who doesn't play by the rules (also because he represents one of the few things GW didn't steal from [[Moorcock]], that Chaos eventually destroys itself), although the forces of [[Chaos Undivided]] might logically be prioritized over other folk.
* Bro God(ess) - Probably any character that has been retconned away, that [[Squats|is angry about not being a part of the canon anymore]]. A story where he temporarily joins forces with someone like Emps or the [[C'tan]] might also work.
* Love Interest(s) - As per his nature as an edgelord, he has a tsundere love-hate relationship with chaos itself.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Chapters - [[Sons of Malice]]. And that just about sums it up. No Imperial Guard equivalent, no daemon spawn, nothing (that we know of). So yeah, that pretty much makes him a god of hipsters too. /tg/ has made a fan-codex for [[Malal Daemonkin]], though, so go help yourself :)
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: A fellow named Kaleb Daark was Malal's first revealed servant, who swung around a pterodactyl head on a stick. The Ogre Skrag the Slaughterer fucked up dwarves in his name before pussying out to follow some shitty Ogre god thanks to retcons. There's a small tribe of Beastmen named the Claws of Malal as well.
* Sacred Number - 11
* Adjective - Malalic

<center><gallery>
Image:Maxresdefault.jpg|220px|A Malalic Space Marine
</gallery></center>

==Great Horned Rat==
{{Main|Horned Rat}}
[[File:Betterskaven.jpg|220px|right|thumb|Thinks he's better than sliced Jesus.]]

This otherwise-unnamed deity is patron of the [[Skaven]], and god of... well, rats. He also infringes copyright on both Nurgle's and Tzeentch's portfolios, but it's mostly rats. The Horned Rat once appeared in material form; he's the only Chaos god to do so. Of course, in Skaven fashion, he just ate a ton of the Skaven present, gave some orders and left; the Skaven only serve him out of fear, even though their belief in him only makes him stronger. He left them with a warpstone monolith containing the Skaven equivalent of the Ten Commandments.

In Age of Sigmar he was promoted to Chaos God following the demotion of Slaanesh out of the Great Game.
* Gender - Referred to as male.
* Main Enemy - Everyone, backstabbing is his primary creed and portfolio. Being cowardly, he will also work with any Chaos God, mostly Nurgle. Archaon shows him the least respect, however.
* Bro God(ess) - Nurgle, as far as his followers are concerned. They have very similar hobbies.
* Love Interest(s) - As Skaven themselves are incapable of feeling love, it is unlikely GHR can either.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Chapters - None. Great Horned Rat does not exist in 40k. Although there are [[Death Guard]] miniatures with [[Skaven]] heads.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero" - [[Clanrats]]. All of them. ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also apparently [[Thanquol]], because the Great Horned Rat thinks his fuckups are hilarious.
* Sacred Number - 13

==The Other Ones==
Older editions of Warhammer Fantasy and 40k mention several lesser Chaos gods. Nowadays, they only appear(ed) in WFB (and even then, only sparingly), with some (the Horned Rat and Hashut in particular) generally considered to be separate from the "main" Chaos pantheon.

Until the Horned Rat replaced Slaanesh as the Fourth Chaos god after the End Times. This change did not affect 40k (or presumably any other universe Slaanesh exists in), and Slaanesh is slowly breaking the prison walls.

===Warhammer Fantasy===
====Ashedte'gash====
A Minor Chaos God who was once an orphan on the streets of the Empire, who grew up learning that strength and cleverness are what allows one to survive, and that those who are weaker and stupider should be climbed over and killed to serve their betters. As such, he is served by only a few Greater Daemons, as the Lesser Daemons that followed him were all killed off for realsies in the Warp by their betters in an Ayn Randian survival-of-the-fittest natural selection murderfest.

Ash has only a handful of Greater Daemons serving him. All of the lesser daemons were destroyed in the ever present struggles to prove oneself to Ash. The remaining daemonic servants of Ashedte'gash are heavily armored Greater Daemons, wearing plate armor, carrying giant two handed swords. Little is known of these foul servants of Ashedte'gash. They lack wings to fly, but except from this nothing is known, but of their great strenght at arms.

====Atagro====
Lord of Beasts, was once mortal but was risen to Minor Chaos God status by Shagraunt, another Minor Chaos God, deeds included slaying a Sandworm in Araby. Atagro is a huge vicious creature clad in glistening black armor and crowned with a fierce, horned helm atop his blackened, skeletal head. Atagro's eyes burn with a fiery luminance, and he wears a huge shroud-like cloak. Tormented, vaguely human wretches struggle and writhe to peer out from under its folds. Atagro's armor is decorated with all the symbols of chaos, as he was once their most powerful champion. His hands are filthy and rotted; capped with grim steel talons and dark metal studs. Atagro's weapon, Kagorr, is a huge tooth edged sword with a second blade extending from the handle. The mighty god wields the blade with whirling grace and deadly precision. Kagorr is the most powerful weapon of chaos ever created and less powerful blades of similar appearance are often granted to Atagro's followers.
*'''Storm Lasher''' (also known as ''Serpent-Giants'', ''Twisting Punishers'', or ''Lashing Gargantuans''): These disgusting creatures appear as bloated gray skinned giants with long flailing tentacles for heads. The creatures have thick, two fingered hands with each finger ending in huge dark tentacles. Their short opposable thumbs are their only true fingers. The storm lashers are so named due to their affinity for lightning. Lashers whip their enemies with tentacles and make a sound like thunder when they run.
*'''Gull Grinder''' (also known as ''Raging Slug Men'', ''Screaming Beasts of Frenzy',' or ''Atagro's Habitations''): These creatures are among the more deadly of Atagro's demons. They appear as huge brown skinned strongmen with slug bodies for legs. Their enormous muscled arms end in the heads of lions and their own flat, bald heads are featureless save for beady black eyes and huge mottled beaks. The Gull Grinders attack by biting or spewing fireballs with their lion heads.
*'''Corpse Render''' (also known as ''Butchers of Atagro'', ''Beast-Lords'', or ''The Dark Titans''): The horrifying Corpse Renders are absolutely Atagro's most powerful greater demons. They look like massive 20' humanoids with black skin and the heads of rhinos. The Corpse Renders arms end in spherical masses of dark, twisted blades which spin and rotate at the will of the demons. The Renders awesome muscular legs end in flattened black hooves which they may scrape across the ground as they snort in anticipation of a coming fray.

====Be'lakor====
{{main|Be'lakor}}
The first [[Daemon Prince]] and ostensibly the only Daemon Prince of [[Chaos Undivided]], Be'lakor commands a great amount of power over the Realms. While still under the thumb of his four parents, he has been able to control a sizeable army of followers and has claimed to have even influenced [[Archaon]].

====Chaos Gods of Law====
Alluminas, Arianka, and Solkan the Avenger. These old-school dudes have their own page!

====Hashut====
{{main|Hashut}}
Hashut apparently means "Father of Darkness" in Dwarfen, which naturally means he's the god of the [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. And if his followers are any indication, he's also god of penis-compensating hats.

====Khakkek====
[[File:KhakkekkFollowers.jpg|200px|right]]
From old-school Warhammer, was the god of the Chaos Goblins. Was only mentioned once or twice, but was described as a red skinned, 8 limbed spidery-goblin who was a god of bloodletting but unlike Khorne, allowed for magic. Described as seen as halfway between Khorne and Khaine. The picture above shows a cult of his worshippers. If you look closely, you can see the Symbol of Chaos on the Shaman's Loincloth.

*'''Greater Daemon:''' The Great Demons of Khakkek feature an almost Goblinoid physiognomy, so they can be easily mistaken, from afar or in poor light, for an Orc (albeit very large). On closer inspection, however, we discover glowing red eyes, Chaos armor, and an impressive number of sharp teeth and claws (including a nice pair of fangs). His face can mirror Khakkekk's, and he wields a fiery giant sword with immense skill. Its characteristics are the same as those of a standard Minor Demon.
*'''Lesser Daemon:''' Just as the Big Demon looks like an Orc, Orc, the Little Demon looks like some kind of Goblin. He too, from afar or in poor light, can easily be mistaken for a Goblin (albeit tall), with red eyes. His face and impressive array of dangerous teeth and talons (no fangs) are also reminiscent of Khakkekk. Its characteristics are similar to those of a Minor Demon.
*'''Daemonic Beast:''' These creatures, sociable in the manner of the Nurglings, appear as Brats (would be Snotlings in more modern editions, since Greenskins now reproduce by spores) with glowing red eyes (this is the common characteristic of the demons of Khakkekk, with sharp teeth and talons) and sport 1d4 Chaos mutations. Like other demons, each has a face that strangely recalls its master. The profile of a Demonic Creature is the same as a standard Servant Demon, or, alternatively, that of a Nurgling (if you have Realm of Chaos: the Lost and the Damned).
*'''Daemonic Steed:''' Khakkekk's Demonic Mount appears virtually identical, at least physically, to a Large Wolf, and it may actually be. Whether or not this is the case, it is virtually identical. You can therefore use the description of the Big Wolf from the bestiary of WFRP1 or that of present in this project.

====Kweethul====
Kweethul Gristlegut was a Skaven who managed to become an extremely minor Chaos God in the older Warhammer editions. He was later mentioned as being a HERETIC against the Horned Rat in a later Skaven army book. The Horned Rat will suffer no challenger to its dominion over Skaven-kind! Could create his own Daemons, too.

*'''The Six Eyed Slayer:''' Greater Daemon. He stands about 10ft in height with a pair of three eyed goats heads. It carries a Chaos Weapon with the power of mutation.
*'''Floating Horror:''' Lesser Daemon. Appearing much as a Harpy but with the clawed feet of a Bear.
*'''Fire Runner:''' Daemonic Steed. A partially feathered beast with burning clawed feet.
*'''The Thing:''' Daemonic Beast.

====Meneloth====
An androgynous god of pleasure among the Elves, may have been a sort of proto-Slaanesh before being absorbed into the greater whole of Slaanesh upon Slaanesh's birth, either that or a toned-down aspect of Slaanesh used to lure Elves into worship of Slaanesh, like a dealer giving a watered-down needle of heroin to a kid to get them addicted before giving them the hard stuff.

====Necoho====
[[File:Necoho_Revealed.png|500px|thumb|right|[[/tg/]] has recently deduced Necoho's true identity.]]
Necoho is the god of atheism and one of the other minor gods invented as a replacement for Malal. Stupid as it sounds, it actually works, as Chaos is a reflection of all human beliefs and emotions, including, paradoxically, disbelief. He generally works to make religious movements disappear and wears a permanent expression of comic amusement, as he fucking knows he's a walking, talking paradox.

Note that Necoho was introduced in an adventure for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st Edition, so his current canonicity is doubtful, to say the least. That being said, he has been mentioned sporadically since then, such as the [[Gotrek & Felix]] novel ''Road of Skulls'', which is more than can be said for Zuvassin. Has been mentioned by name in the Age of Sigmar novel ''Auction of Blood'', along with a mention to his cult and an antitheist tract called "The Revelations of Necoho, or the Light of Doubt".

In the popular series [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device]], [[Magnus the Red]] made the point that the Emperor was, perhaps unknowingly, feeding a Chaos god of unbelief by promoting his Imperial Truth.

====Obscuras====
Brother of Alluminas, Chaos God of Law. Was originally one of the Gods of Law but got jealous of his brother and turned to Chaos proper.

Shadowphytes (also known as Shadow Daemons) are daemons of Obscuras, standing around the height of an average man. The most dedicated of Obscuras' cultists hope to join the ranks of the Shadowphytes upon their deaths. Shadowphytes appear as black shadowy humanoids whose features are only barely visible through the inner darkness they radiate. They cannot fly but possess the ability to melt into the shadows in one place and reappear in the shadows somewhere else within their line of sight. They fear the light and it is know to cause them actually damage when not standing in full or demi-darkness.

Shadowphytes can't cause physical wounding upon their victims, but cause damage through their touch, which robs the victim of his or her strength, and they are skilled users of the magical art of their master. It's said that anyone slain by a Shadowphyte is condemned to eternal torment in Obscuras' realm of shadow.

====Oubelgyr====
Oubelgyr is a Daemon-Prince who sits at the cusp of just-about-to-be-but-not-quite a Minor Chaos God, who is known to be a Peddler of Knowledge, like some sort of Daemonic Informant. Whereas Tzeentch is all about learning and then coveting secrets, Oubelgyr is always trying to find secret knowledge then sell it to the highest bidder, a trait useful for Chaos Sorcerers with sacrifices to spare who wish to skip the chanciness of Tzeentch's blessings. Was inprisoned at one point, but was able to scheme a way to unlock the door to his prison, only to then decide his prison was a nice lair and pretended to still be locked in. Rather than having daemons of his own, he has multiple Daemons and Mortal slaves who he has bound with contracts, who have to do as he says and guard him.

====Quorn====
[[File:QuornArtwork.jpg|200px|right]]

Not to be confused with Khorne, Quorn was the Minor Chaos God of carnivorous plants, whose schtick basically was "Radical Anti-Veganism" with carnivorous plant life devouring all flesh-creatures. His name was a double-pun, meant to sound like Khorne's and the same as a vegetable-based fake-meat substitute from before Impossible Meats were a thing. (Note: Pictured above is fan artwork produced by putting Quorn's name and description into Nightcafe, an Artificial Intelligence Art Program that makes art based on text description)

====Rhasneth====
The Chaos God of Insanity. Must be pretty batshit insane if his brand of nutters stands out amongst the general mental sickness of the rest of the Pantheon of Chaos.

The daemons of Rhasneth are to varied to make a single name for them, the most horrible nightmares of the most twisted madmen made real, pushing their way from the realm of nightmares into the world of the living to do their master's wish. The daemons of Rhasneth are special in that not all can see them, only those who have already lost their sanity can see them while all others fail to even notice them. The madman can scream in terror when his nightmares comes for him, not only to haunt him in his dreams but to feast upon his soul, while the rest of the world remains ignorant of the creature and tells him there is nothing there. Even as the daemon slowly approch, a mad twisted snarl upon its face...

====Screaming God-Child====
[[File:Screaming God-Child.png|200px|right|]]
Appearing only in the [[Malus Darkblade]] novel ''Lord of Ruin'', and more completely in the Malus chapters in Warhammer Monthly, the God-Child is the ruler of a little corner of the Realm of Chaos known as ''Alterity'', a massive chunk of rock on top of which lies walls in the shape of an eight-pointed star, guarded by ancient daemons who keep the locals and guests who enter from leaving Alterity. The God-Child himself takes the appearance of a young humanoid being with a near featureless face, only having a mouth, wearing robes and an amulet in the shape of the star of Chaos.

====Shagraunt====
A Minor Chaos God of whom even less is known of than Atagro, it was Shagraunt who ascended Atagro into the ranks of the Minor Chaos Gods.

====Stromfels/Mermedus====
Whilst often speculated to be [[Manann]]'s edgy dark half, Stromfels' mutant cults and rumored links to Khorne in earlier editions point towards his status as a minor Chaos god. Further proof of this is his patronage of sea mutant pirate Aranessa Saltspite, and his Chaos cult in the Gotrek and Felix story "Slayer of the Storm God", featuring his avatar, the "Harbinger of Stromfels".

Another variation of Manann but Chaos exists in the form of '''Mermedus''', the Norscan god of the sea, that's considered by some to be an even more edgy version of Stromfels. Notable that most Norscans don't even like him, because all who die at sea are claimed by him and denied entry to their patrons realm, except for the Skaelings who drown prisoners of war and animals for him after battles and raids. He's described as a ghoulish and bulbous figure that walks on the sea floor, covered in eyes and bloated like a drowned person. This is odd, as Stromfels' Avatar, Harbinger of Stromfels, looked like a Giant with a Tentacle where each of the Arms would be and the Head of a Shark.

In [[Total War: Warhammer II]], he is also [[Cylostra Direfin]]'s patron deity, having resurrected her as a vengeful ghost to wreak havoc against the High Elves and Bretonnians who rejected her singing.

In Age of Sigmar, he apparently is still worshipped by pirates in one area of Ghyran, and was worshipped by a tribe of Gargants in Azyr before Sigmar cleansed the realm of Chaos.

====Tristaris====
A Chaos Goddess of Misery, with a minor interest in knowledge. Represents the misery brought about by knowledge of Chaos' ultimate victory. Sounds like Tzeentch's perfect girl, a big tiddy goth nerd GF.

*'''Blissbane:''' (also known as ''Wailing Woman of Misery'',''Mistress of Destress'', or ''Gaunt Spirits of Lamentation'') This infernal creatures look like haggard, ghostly women with wild hair and gaunt, wrinkled bodies. They wear white shroud like clothes and are translucent to the eye. The Blissbanes emit occasional shrieks of pure misery as well as sudden bursts of maniacal laughter. They can pass through any obstacle as though they were ethereal, but are also incapable of manipulating any material objects. Often Blissbanes appear in groups of four, the number of Tristaris.
*'''Sloathe:''' (also known as ''Mounts of Misery'', ''Hunching Beasts of Suffering'', or ''Steeds of Tristaris'') The sloathes are bear sized creatures with four legs and short curved claws. The creatures have no heads and appear to be made almost entirely of layer upon layer of dark rags and shrouds. They make low grunting and grumbling sounds as they walk. The sloathes lash out with their claws in combat, and they have the ability to collapse into a pile of useless rags. The rags may be scattered by the wind or even burnt up; but unless every single one of them is destroyed the creature can return to its normal shape from any one of the pieces.
*'''Humanwood Tree:''' (also known as ''Oaks of Despair'', ''Petrified Eyes of Torment'', or ''Roots of Evil'') The humanwood trees are powerful demons that largely inhabit the groaning forests of misery in the pocket dimension that is Tristaris's realm in the chaos warp. The trees look like stubby, twisted oak trees with thick trunks and anguished human faces and bodies seemingly squirming about beneath their flexible bark. The trees speak a language that is their own and to hear it is to surely lose one's mind. All who hear the trees speaking will feel suffer from it as blood pours from their ears. The trees lash out with their branches and should the victom be caught the trees nine limbs will easily rip a held person to shreds. Strangly enough they are also immune to fire, somehting that would otherwise have been their main weakness.
*'''Sade:''' (also known as ''Screaming Devils of Sorrow'', ''Sobbing Lords of Tribulation'', or ''Jeering Lords of Languishing'') The Sades are Tristaris's greater demons. They look like gaunt red skinned men with long black beards, tiny horns from their foreheads and pointed chins. The Sades dress like nobles and their eyes are white and constantly streaming with bloody tears. Each of them carries a large, gleaming sickle. They also each carry a Lash of Lament and have long claws which they can use in close quarters. The Sades must consume twice their weight in living hearts each day that they exist in the material world if they are summoned.

====Urlfdaemonkin====
Urlf isn't a name. It's the last fucking death cry a guy makes when you gut him. That should tell you all you need to know. Anyway, this guy used to be a Norscan (like most of the daemon princes on this list) and was elevated to princehood by Khorne for exceptional badassery. Before his ascension, he was a massive, tall, bearded, Clint Eastwood-type Chaos Champion and was a chieftain of the Snaegr clan of Aeslingr. He's so fucking powerful that he was able to create his own lesser daemons and can bless warriors with the Mark and mutations of Khorne. Urlf has his own summoning days like most powerful daemon princes, and is usually worshiped as a lesser deity of Chaos by those who serve his master, Khorne. He has a short story in the 6th edition Chaos army book, where he muses on the fuck-you nature of time in the Warp and remarks on how the new Chieftain of the Snaegr resembles one of the sons he fathered in his mortal life. He also blesses the new chief with Khorne's mark and turns him into a monstrous cross [[Awesome|between a Bloodletter and a Chaos Champion]].

====Vymnn====
A Minor Chaos god who was only known as the master of the Daemon Prince Hakrii, who Atagro slayed (Hakrii, not Vymnn) in his quest for Daemon Princehood himself.

====Zhedun====
A Chaos God of gnawing, eternal hunger, who represents how Chaos would destroy itself if it ever won in the end, being dependent on sapient mortal thought for sustenance.

Daemons of Zhedun are known as Devouring Fiends (a.k.a. Mawed Ones, or Devourers) creatures ruled entirely by their own voracious appetite. They stands well over six feet tall, stooped, with atrophied arms but strong legs, and their heads are comprised mostly of a giant gaping jaw filled with massive teeth. Often they will stop at fallen foes, devouring their bodies in their Chaos-spawned hunger.

====Zuvassin====
Zuvassin is one of the two minor gods invented as a replacement for Malal. He just likes to see shit fall apart, specifically nonphysical stuff like schemes and lives - in other words, he's the god of [[not as planned]]. He's the guy who makes all the bad shit happen in infomercials. Generally, he makes sure that Murphy's Law is always enforced in the most spectacular possible ways. He doesn't have many worshippers, as he makes sure to fuck up whatever they're planning too.

Note that Zuvassin was only introduced in an adventure for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st Edition, so his current canonicity is doubtful, to say the least.

Actually, he is still canon, at least in Warhammer Fantasy. The 2nd Edition "Tome of Salvation" lists both him and Necoho as Chaos Gods.

And the motherfucker is STILL canon in Age of Sigmar, where a short story features a Chaos Champion named "Zuvass". Hmm.. I wonder who he might be worshipping.

Makes an appearance in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: WARHAMMER III]], where [[God-Slayer|Daniel]] can get an event where you can communicate with him and get his blessing, as he considers you important in disrupting the balance of Chaos.

====Ziraad, Thain, Blazzach and Javate====
4 Minor Chaos Gods known among the people of Araby, mentioned in Atagro's backstory as the gods worshipped by 4/6 members of his BATTLE-HAREM, the last 2 being a one of Tzeentch and one of Slaanesh.

===Warhammer 40,000===
====Balphomael====
[[File:Balphomael.png|200px|right]]
A minor Chaos God skirting on the edge of independent Greater Daemon, ruler of the Daemon World of Woe. Has a Christian Devil, "Let's Make a Deal" sort of vibe about him, complete with looking like classical illustrations of Demons and his name being a portmanteau of Baal, Baphomet and Samael. The art above is from a Dark Heresy book.

====King in Rags and Tatters====
Quite possibly a Chaos God version of Hastur from the Cthulhu Mythos, may or may not be a guise of Tzeentch. Leader of the "Menagerie" a Chaos Cult that seeks to unravel reality itself. Has unique demonic minions in the form of Warp Spectres, roiling, constantly changing masses of hideous-energy-being Daemons (like a Chaos Spawn made of gas and energy instead of fluid flesh?).

====Lord of Misrule====
Another minor Chaos God skirting on the edge of being an independent Greater Daemon from Dark Heresy. Also seeks to undo the veil between reality and the Warp.

====Melkirth====
Mentioned in older background material for Warhammer 40,000. Melkirth was a minor chaos god described as "The god of evil, malice, and wanton cruelty and suffering." While Melkirth remains a minor god, it is said that the actions of the mortal races, particularly the Dark Eldar, are causing Melkirth to grow in power until he ultimately becomes the fifth major Chaos God. The daemons of Melkirth are described as being the colour of shadow and able to take on the appearance of any daemon, be it a daemon of Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch. These shadow daemons could be inspiration for the shadow daemons Morathi encounters in Ulgu in Age of Sigmar, as they are also having to do with Dark Aelfs.

====Mo'rcck, Phraz-Etar, and Ans'l====
Puns on the last names of sci-fi and fantasy author Michael Moorcock (from whom the idea of [[Chaos]] as a fundamental force in the world was blatantly stolen/took inspiration from, and don't anyone ever say "borrow for a while" since even the author and Games Workshop have admitted it), artist Frank Frazetta (who drew a lot of movie and comic book posters, especially in sci-fi and fantasy), and Citadel Miniatures founder Bryan Ansell (who wrote several of the [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|First Edition]] rulebooks). These guys helped set the tone of the early [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe (purposefully or not), including the propensity of putting spikes on [[Chaos]] things. Games Workshop decided to pay homage in the (initial) Third Edition [[Codex]]: [[Chaos Space Marines]], which mentioned that Chaos Space Marines often put "spiky bits" on their armour in praise of these three gods. They were never mentioned anywhere else, and probably shouldn't be considered "canonical"... not that canonicity counts for much in 40k anyway.

====Raptor God====
The minor god worshipped by the [[Chaos Raptor]]s, responsible for turning them from standard [[Assault Squad|Assault Marines]] to the mercenaries they currently are, and maybe also the one that turns them into [[Warp Talons]].

====Ysarille the Daemon-King====
According to an Eisenhorn book, Ysarille was a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch from a time before the Eldar first went to space, before Slaanesh was born, and who gained enough power that he became capable of creating his own Daemons. He went to battle with his former master, and after a billion-year battle, Tzeentch finally killed Ysarille. His surviving Daemons took his body and fled, setting up a Tomb world for him on the planet Ghúl, and their own Daemon Empire of 600 worlds surrounding planet Ghúl, in exile from the Warp. Cherubael, Gregor Eisenhorn's minion who takes the form of a Daemonhost by pissessing the corpse of Gregor's former colleague Godwyn Fischig, was one of Ysarille's servants.

===Age of Sigmar===

All Warhammer Fantasy Gods, presumably. Zuvassin and Necoho are explicitly active.

====Archaon====
{{main|Archaon}}
Upon completing a new set of challenges by the Chaos Gods in AoS, he was empowered to demigod level and given free reign to do whatever he desired.

====Devourer of Existence====
A primitive aspect of Chaos as an apex predator, that wishes to devour all else and despises any sign of civilization, worshipped by the Untamed Beasts. Maybe a modern take on Zhedun?

====Eightfold Watcher====
Some sort of Chaos-Spider-Godbeast worshipped by the Tarantulos Brood. From Warcry Red Harvest.

====Ever-Raging Flame====
A massive fire of Chaos, said to be the Chaos personification of Aqshy itself, worshipped by the Scions of the Flame in the Realm of Fire.

====The Great Gatherer====
A (presumably) giant crow worshipped by tribesmen from Ulgu in the [[Age of Sigmar]]. Not much is known about him, since [[Warcry|the only game his followers appear in]] isn't out yet, but we do know that the [[Corvus Corax|Corvus]] Cabal (the aforementioned tribesmen) consider [[Archaon]] to be his avatar in the Mortal Realms. Theories range from it being an aspect of [[Tzeentch]] (notable avian features, Tzeentch is known to be interested in the Realm of Shadow, maybe gathering secrets?) or [[Nurgle]] (the Crow was Nurgle's totem animal among the Norscans, maybe gathering bodies?) to being a minor, but ascending, Chaos God not so far removed from the Great Horned Rat's path to the pantheon. He even has the weird connection to both Nurgle and Tzeentch the GHR does. It has been confirmed that the Warbands from Warcry will be usable in the main game, possibly as normal units, and will have the keyword SLAVES TO DARKNESS, which means he'll have some representation in a mainline game. Not too bad for the newest kid on the block.

====Morghur====
{{main|Morghur The Shadowgave}}
Originally one of the most notable Beastmen, he's worshipped as a minor Chaos God of mutation and devolution in Age of Sigmar. Wait what the fuck is this??

====Nagendra====
Originally a Godbeast, was splintered and the remains corrupted into Daemons called Coiling Ones, worshipped by the Splintered Fang.

===Blood Bowl===
====Nuffle====
{{Main|Nuffle}}
A joke Chaos God for [[Bloodbowl]], Nuffle is a mispronunciation of NFL (as in "National Football League", the American gridiron football pro league in real life), which would be pronounced "Noofle" as in "book" if you tried pronouncing it. Nuffle explains why the Blood Bowl universe is so wacky and gridiron football obsessed. Technically the superior to the rest of Chaos, although apparently only in the Blood Bowl universe.

===When Tzeentch was the best===
According to recent Tzeentch Codex/Battletome Tzeentch was at one point the sole major chaos god. A rebellion against him fractured him into many pieces, which because of warp time fuckery, technically counts as a different god. When chaos was first forming (just after War in Heaven for 40k) there were many chaos gods and entities competing (rather than the total domination that exists now). Tzeentch somehow became number one, and was a super god of sorts, although he was possibly less powerful than the current Tzeentch due to the lesser size and influence of chaos. A rebellion by all the other chaos gods fractured him, creating the Tzeentch we know today. In the same way that Slaanesh has always existed in 40k, the new Tzeentch has always existed the way he is. While the old Tzeentch is permanently destroyed (across all time), while still doing the things he did, what really matters is the influence in the material realm: Tzeentch's new self and Slaanesh started doing that when they were created relative to the materium, while the Warp is such a mess that a contradiction like old Tzeentch being completely destroyed while still having done the things he did is basically nothing. They are implied to be two seperate entites.

This is a variant of the backstory of The Blue Scribes.

{{ChaosGods}}

[[Category:Heresy]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Chaos Gods

2022-08-05T01:45:21Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Ysarille the Daemon-King */

{{heresy}}
{{Topquote|The creatures of the Warp are just "aliens" too, but they are not life forms as we understand the term. They are not organic. They are extra-dimensional, and they influence our reality in ways that seem sorcerous to us. Supernatural, if you will. So let's use all those lost words for them... daemons, spirits, possessors, changelings. All we need to remember is that there are no gods out there, in the darkness, no great daemons and ministers of evil. There is no fundamental, immutable evil in the cosmos. It is too large and sterile for such melodrama. There are simply inhuman things that oppose us, things we were created to battle and destroy.
|Horus Lupercal, about to realize that he was wrong and that he could get great power, and then dearly regret his casual arrogance.}}

The '''Chaos Gods''' are the gods which rule over the Realm of [[Chaos]] in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]] and the [[Warp]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. They love nothing so much as dicking with each other, except perhaps with their mortal followers, and literally each other (especially Slaanesh). Before they were gods, they were generally benevolent beings, when the Warp was a calm sea. Each one is formed by the emotions of living souls clumped together in the Warp/Realm of Chaos. Contrary to standard thought, they personify good attributes as well, and are powered as much by good as by bad. Even if said god started out entirely bad, in their eventual evolution as part of their natures, they will kill gods who represented entirely good things, and will gain not only their values, but their power by said value.

Be aware many of the gods' values will and do intersect. This is as much due to the chaotic nature of the gods as it is to the multitude of emotions that make up the living. For example: let's say you're literally obsessed with brutally murdering people and you get a real nice kick out of it. The act of spilling blood is gonna feed [[Khorne]], while the ecstasy and obsessive sensation you get out of it will feed [[Slaanesh]]. So yeah, there's some overlap, in that an individual doing a certain thing, under specific circumstances, can simultaneously feed multiple Chaos Gods, but the God who was invoked (whether intentionally or no) upon when commuting the action will get the most power out of it (I.E: You killed someone for Khorne. While your ecstasy from the murder will feed Slaanesh a bit, your simple act of ending a life will feed Nurgle, your continued ambition to please the Blood God to earn his favor will also feed Tzeentch a bit, but Khorne gets the most since you offered that kill to him foremost).

==Overview==
According to the wikifans over at the Official Warhammer 40k Wiki, the Chaos gods were created and are sustained by the collective emotions of 'every sentient being of the material universe'; so not just the Milky Way, but every alien, both heretical and loyal, in the whole universe. This however probably isn't true, or rather it's just very bad wording, because if the Milky Way alone has all of these sentient races in it, then there's a safe bet that most other galaxies in the rest of the universe also have a multitude of sentient races too. And there are like, at least billions upon billions of galaxies in the observable universe, let alone the true universe which is likely many magnitudes larger. Based on what we've seen in the fluff, ''That'' many galaxies, filled with ''that'' many sentient lifeforms, ''all'' feeding only ''four'' Chaos Gods, would give said Chaos Gods so much power that they would probably have the capability to turn the entire galaxy (and many others) into massive Eyes of Terror at a simple scheming click of their heretical fingers. But of course, that hasn't happened (thank the fucking Emperor). Which probably means those wikijerks are talking complete [[Bullshit|unadulterated bullshit]] (or are making the common and infuriating mistake of conflating "universe" with "galaxy"). In actuality, the full range of influence the Ruinous Powers have only extends to the area of the Milky Way and not much further. After all, a specific location in the Warp corresponds with a specific location in the Materium; your thoughts and emotions will have an effect (albeit very minor) on the Warp in your specific corresponding location, and the collective thoughts and emotions of a galaxy's population will only have an effect on that specific galactic area of the overall Warp. This essentially means the four Chaos Gods are completely confined to the Milky Way galaxy, because that's where the emotions that created and feed them are currently being felt.

So what does that really mean? Well, it means the Warp in the vast, cold, empty space between galaxies is calm as fuck, absolutely nothing like the infested shitty plughole it is right now in our home galaxy, because there's no sentient life and hence no chaotic emotions there to stir it up. However, this also means that if other galaxies out there have their own interstellar sentient species with a presence in the Warp, then those galaxies will have their own Chaos Gods [likely just analogous versions of the four ([[Malal|point five]]) we have, although it's also possible that the different emotions might be allocated differently for each galactic pantheon; Andromeda might have gods based on the seven deadly sins, for example] that reside there and are also confined to the area of their own galaxy. But who knows? Maybe each warp god is a reflection of the galaxy that birthed it, and the aliens that live in other galaxies there have actually got their shit together and all get along like best buddies in a setting that just oozes [[Noblebright|noblebright]] from every pore, and the Chaos Gods there aren't even called that because they're all so friendly and cushy to everyone and like to play vidyagames with each other and cracking open cold ones on a warm Friday night while watching The Batchelor. Maybe the Warp gods in most galaxies actually maintain contact with those in neighbouring ones, and everyone just stays the fuck out of the Milky Way for the same reason most 21st century tourists stay out of Somalia. How sweet... I wonder what would happen if two galaxies, both with their own analogous Chaos Gods, collided. Would they just absorb each other into a new pantheon of four even-more-powerful Gods? Would they fight each other until one reigned supreme? Or would they get along like good ol' chums since they understand each other perfectly? Anyway, tangents. This fallacy is explained further in detail just right below.

Now that I say all of this, why the actual '''FUCK''' has no one decided to just up and leave the galaxy already?! It's a complete shithole! It's filled to the absolute brim with nothing but copious amounts of [[Grimdark]] and a whole host of things that want to murder, rape and eat you, not necessarily in that order. And it's ''still'' being filled up with that shit, both [[Necron|crawling out from under the ground]] and [[Tyranid|flying in from outer space to OMNOMNOMNOM the faces of everyone you both despise and adore]]. Even if you're lucky enough to escape the immediate crossfire, you're still likely to be part of [[Imperium|a civilisation that completely smashes any feeling of worth or individuality out of you and treats you like just another cog in the machine of trillions of cogs]]. Just leave already, god dammit. What about Andromeda? I hear it's rather pleasant this time of year. At least compared to this literal hellhole. But it's probably not possible for the same reason why [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]] and [[Lion El'Johnson|Lion-O]] couldn't simply fly over the Ruinstorm to get to Terra; if the space between galaxies is calm because there are no souls, that probably means there's no warp either, making intergalactic travel impossible. But this is just baseless speculation that contradicts the nature of the Warp's existence, specifically that the Warp is influenced by life, not created by life, and existed before even the first lifeforms did. Plus, you need to be Necron-tier to get pass the nids off galaxy. Or it could be things like the Void Dragon possibly eating a million galaxies before returning to ours where he then met the Emperor, the Tyranids consuming a thousand galaxies, and generally such things indiciate that outside of the Milky Way is worse than in the Milky Way.

But then again, It is officially stated that Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy are completely different franchises which just so happen to have the same Warp with the same Chaos Gods.

Now, where were we? Oh yes, Chaos Gods. Ahem.

===On the Question of Omnipotence===

One of the most [[Skub|talked about and hotly debated topics]], especially amongst Chaos players is the question of Omnipotence. [[Matt Ward|Other than massive fanwanking and colossal jerk-offs,]] it must be stated and stressed that the Chaos Gods for all their strength are not omnipotent, for to be omnipotent means to be all-powerful and the idea of the Great Game greatly debunks this claim. Part of the problem may lie in the fact that folks like to give examples of the power of the Chaos Gods from codexes from the Rogue Trader era and Second Edition, eras which are of ''dubious'' canonicity. You see, what they don't seem to understand is that GW, especially ''early'' GW, had a habit of making use of flowery language and hyperbole to exaggerate the grandeur of something or someone. This by itself is not a problem, as 40k runs on exaggeration. The problem is that [[Powergamer|''some folks'']] seems to lack any ability to discern nuances or critical thinking skills and proceed to extrapolate these hyperboles as true, completely ignoring the fact that the majority of these flowery examples came from either a) the viewpoint of a Chaos Cultist b) in-universe propaganda and/or c) extremely old sources where [[Ian Watson|all sorts of wacky hijinks were birthed.]] As such, the credibility is highly suspect and should be taken with a mountain of salt.

So when sources 'claim' that the Chaos Gods could destroy 'universes' or Greater Daemons were [[Exterminatus|destroying entire planets wholesale]] within the [[Warp]], the validity should be scrutinized in the same way fa/tg/uys scrutinize [[Furries]]. What the Chaos Gods or their followers claim to be true (remember that they are notorious [[Bullshit|liars]]) does not match up with their actual abilities both in Warpspace and in Realspace. If they were truly multiversal as they claim, then, first of all, the [[Hive Mind|Shadow of the Warp]] should not be an existential threat to them. After all, a true universal - let alone multiversal - entity should not even notice a few intergalactic bugs on the windshield. Moreover, the Necron Pylons should also not be considered a threat to the big four, for if they possess such levels of reality-warping power, they should not be dependent in letting their [[Failbaddon|errand boy]] do all their dirty work for them in realspace. Even in the Warp, their so-called 'omnipotence' did not stop a certain [[Kaldor Draigo|Mary Sue]] from trashing their backyard from time to time.

The reality is the Chaos Gods, as far as deities go in Science Fiction, are pretty weak sauce. For example:
*They are utterly dependent on the emotions of a single galaxy (if they really did not care about emotions as some may claim, then they shouldn't be ''that'' invested in the Imperium now would they?).
*Certain [[Tyranids|critters with enough mindless psychic connections can close entire Warp-rifts and there is nothing the Chaos Gods can do about it;.]]
*Tzeentch's self-proclaimed omniscience is put into doubt seeing as how he and his [[Kairos Fateweaver|underlings]] failed to predict the rise of [[Roboute Guilliman|Robo Guillitan]] [[Gathering Storm|and the following]] [[Indomitus Crusade|mechinations of it]].
*Their self-proclaimed reality-warping powers are self-contained in the Warp, and even then it is restricted to their own realms. Much like how a child could create and manipulate anything in a sandpit does not automatically equate to the child turning sand into gold, the same analogy applies here - seriously it is telling that the Gods of Chaos couldn't do jackshit about the Necron Pylons for ''60 million years'' since the War in Heaven.
*Their dreaded Chaos corruption such as Scrapcode could literally be stopped by an AdMech Priest cutting off the connections fast enough during the Fall of Mars, knowing how abysmal 40k's A.I. are, that shit ain't touching the likes of a [[The Culture|Culture Mind,]] [[Halo|a Contendor-class A.I.,]] and the [[Xeelee Sequence|Anti-Xeelee]]. To state otherwise would be a No Limit Fallacy and a False Equivalency since the idea of scrapcode would be overpowered against the likes of the Necrons, Tau and the AdMech, yet this shit has seldomly been used which suggests limitations on the behalf of Chaos.

In retrospect, the contradictions of what the Chaos Gods/followers ''claim'' and what they are actually shown to do is no different than the problems the [[Hive Mind]] has found itself in as [[Tyranid#'Masters of Evolution'?|can be read here.]] They are all bound by GeeDubs' status quo and the balance of power, as such their powers are restricted insofar in one galaxy to preserve the status quo. With the bombshell of '''Godblight''', the argument of omnipotence has finally been shot down after Chaos got hit with a ''massive'' [[nerf]] bat. From the [[Emprah]] suggesting that the Daemon Primarchs can be redeemed, thereby making the threat of Chaos corruption impotent to Big-E literally shoving his Power Sword up [[Nurgle|Nurgle's]] ass and his garden, '''''permanently''''' wounding him grievously, to the outright confirmation that a Chaos God without sufficient faith would degenerate into Warp-soup and become perma-K.O. as faith is what gives Warp entities sentience. Godblight has single-handily trashed any presumption of Chaos omnipotence in but a few chapters, and let's not even get into a single [[Primaris Lieutenant]] kicking one of the strongest Nurglite Greater Daemons in the ass...[[Bullshit|''somehow'']].

So are the Chaos Gods powerful? In the universe of [[Star Wars]], [[Star Trek]] and [[Bioware|Mass Effect]], sure, of course they are. Are they omnipotent multiversal destroyers? Hell the fuck no. If you're honestly thinking that these ''guys'' are in the same ballpark as [[/co/|the Abstract Entities of Marvel and DC]], [[Doctor Who|the Time Lords]] or the motherfucking Downstreamers, then you should probably go see a doctor for a prostate exam; constant wanking is bad for ya health you know.

[[Tl;dr]], 40k is prone to not applying the concept of <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>, which is ironic given the reputation of 40k in general, but it happens again and again and again. A good narrative showcases its targets' capabilities and feats, a bad narrative just tells them to the viewers. If the Chaos Gods can actually pop universes like grapes, ''then we better fucking see them popping an actual universe''. No wishy-washy flowery language, no offhand statements in the codex, no shenanigans inside the Warp which is unreliable ''at best''. <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>. It isn't just the Chaos Gods that are guilty of this mind you, the [[Men of Iron]] and even the [[War in Heaven]] [[Necron]]s are guilty of this as well. Sun-snuffing machines the size of Saturn's rings and Breath of the Gods asshattery means jack shit if we don't actually see them in action. <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>.

Or maybe they are merely aspects of the the warp itself, immutable, unstoppable and actually multiversal, creating monsters for it's amusement.

==Khorne==
{{Main|Khorne}}
[[File:Khorne First.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Lord of RAEG, War, Butthurt, Steroids and Testosterone. Really just a grouchy puppy.]]

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! MILK FOR THE KHORNE FLAKES! BUTTER FOR THE POP KHORNE! Oh, sorry. In case it wasn't obvious, Khorne is the god of battle, martial honor, and oh yeah, BLOOD! Although primarily formed from hate and rage, bravery and honor are also thrown in the mix. Also in the mix are mercy (in particular, mercy for those too weak to put up a fight and be a challenge to kill. This is almost never shown in the fluff though, annoyingly), courage, regret, fear, athleticism, determination, daring, impulsiveness, and struggling onward in the face of any odds.
* Gender - DEFINITELY A MAN, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!! <strike> I thought he was female? </strike> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!* *BLAM!* THAT'S DOUBLE HERESY!!'''}}
* Main Enemy - Slaanesh, as he considers him/her/them to be too frilly and really doesn't care about sensations, especially when they prolong the spilling of blood, to the point fluff wise it is distinctly pointed out he hates the priss even more than tzeench, going so far as to have slaaneshi and khornates have the hatred special rule against eachother.
* Bro god - Nurgle, although he doesn't seem to mind Khaela Mensha Khaine (they're probably the same thing, though), and he is rumored to be in a polyamorous relationship with Mork and Gork.
* Love Interest - Gork and Mork (see above). [[Valkia the Bloody]] (Canonically - yes, your brain is now broken).
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - The [[World Eaters]], other various chapters and bands of warriors dedicated themselves to him since. Also has IG-equivalent armies like the [[Blood Pact]].
*[[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: Arbaal the Undefeated (ANGRY VIKINGS!! FUCK YEAH!!), Valkia the Bloody, Scylla Afingrimm (former warlord turned [[Chaos Spawn]] and still kicks ass), Hrafn Untam, Haargroth the Blooded, Skarr Bloodwrath. Khorne also has an entire Norse confederation especially devoted to him known as the Aeslingr.
* Sacred Number - 8 ("The eightfold path")
* Adjective - Khornate

<center><gallery>
File:WE Heretic Astartes 2.png|A Khornate Berzerker Heretic Astartes of the [[World Eaters]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Nurgle==
{{Main|Nurgle}}
[[File:Nurgle Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Despite his and his minion's appearances, they're actually pretty nice (for debatably self-aware boogers).]]

Nurgle is the god of filth, pestilence, decay, and generally being a cool dude (which are [[Neckbeard|obviously related]]). Formed from despair and fear of death, his portfolio also includes acceptance and stoicism. Other values include inevitability, empathy, kinship, struggle, (familial) love, tradition, mercy, and memory. Nurgle is also notable for being the only Chaos god that cares for his followers whatsoever, bordering on love (in fact in 40k, he loves the [[Eldar]] goddess [[Isha]] so much that he [[grimdark|chained her up and force feeds her his new diseases]], because that's the only way he knows how to express love... yeah, love sucks <s>sometimes</s> <s>all the time</S> most of the time). Also note that one aspect of him that is played up in the End Times is that he is in fact the god of life, only for him it means unrestrained, infinite life such as with pathogens and tumors.
* Gender - A (slob of a) man. A VERY fat, old one.
* Main Enemy - Tzeentch, the paragon of hope and change, in opposition to Nurgle's representation of decay and inevitability.
* Bro god - Khorne, mostly because Nurgle is the only Chaos god Khorne doesn't entirely hate.
* Love Interest - His joy and wife, [[Isha]]. Now pins for Alarielle, since he [[Everqueen#Isha.2FAriel_Alarielle_Fusion_Dance.21|lost Isha to her]].
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - The [[Death Guard]]. Has tons of other followers like the [[The Purge]] (omnicidal wackos who have no problem using chemical and virus weapons on helpless populations), [[Apostles of Contagion]] ([[Zombie Plague]] aficionados), the [[Lords of Decay]] (utterly loyal Marines sent to die in the Eye, holy fuck these guys made a direct assault on the Solar System and won Pluto), and human IG armies like the rebellion on [[Vraks]].
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: [[Valnir|Valnir the Reaper]], old school champion of Nurgle; [[Festus the Leechlord]] (this guy used to be a doctor in the Empire; he's not even a Northman). The Crow Brothers of the Björnlings are especially devoted to him also (Festus leads these guys), the [[Glottkin]], [[Gutrot Spume]] (a Nurglite pirate barbarian), the [[Maggoth Lords]] of Icehorn Peak. It could also be possibly argued (especially considering [[Age of Sigmar|Age of Skubmar]]) that the Skaven Clan Pestilens is some sort of splinter cult built on worshipping Nurgle while thinking that they're worshiping an aspect of the Horned Rat.
* Sacred Number - 7 (though 3 is also a popular number)
* Adjective - Nurglite
* Please note that the above lore mixes both Warhammer fantasy lore and Warhammer 40k lore which, although the character is virtually indistinguishable, are not the same thing. [[Skub|Maybe]].

<center><gallery>
File:Plague Marine 8th Ed.png|A [[Plague Marine]] of the [[Death Guard]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Slaanesh==
{{Main|Slaanesh}}
[[File:Slaanesh Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The embodiment of all things PR0N.]]

Slaanesh is the god/dess of pain, pleasure, and perfection... or, in other words, a god of [[1d4chan|emotions formed from emotions]], not all of which are bad. In 40k (WHFB didn't elaborate how Slaanesh was born, so we can only assume he/she/they manifested normally like the other Gods), the an inherently psychic race called the [[Eldar]] created him/her/them by having so many damn orgies they tore space-time a new asshole (The Eye of Terror). Formed mainly from hedonism and excess, love and creativity are also attributes of Slaanesh. Other facets include perfectionism, obsessiveness, attention-whoring, jealousy, sensuality, [[Doomrider|DRUGS]], empathy, self-expression, individuality, art, music, joy, and admiration (so quite literally the god of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll!).
* Gender - Whatever you want it to be, sugar! In WH Fantasy you'll see illustrations of a lecherous old hag / old man / old bits-of-both; in WH40k depictions are of a young flamboyant hermaphrodite.
* Main enemy - The brutish Khorne, obviously. H-he never calls...
* Bro god - Tzeentch, although that's mostly because he's the least icky of the Chaos gods. His/her/their friendship with Nurgle is a bit questionable since he stole [[Isha]] during Slaanesh's proverbial and... literal raping of the former Eldar Empire, though it isn't shown anywhere that Slaanesh still openly detests Nurgle for that (Hell, their daemons temporarily joined forces once or twice). Generally the most open to working with the others.
* Love Interest - All of them. Still pines for Isha, and is depressed no one ever seems to love him/her/them back. Tries to tempt Khorne into raping him/her/them. Gave up on Nurgle after he got married. For a long time has been pining for Tzeentch of all people, but she can never seem to make him think she likes him as more than just a friend. Basically, she's the hot chick who got friendzoned by the nerd. But he/she/they won't give up!
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - [[Emperor's Children]]. Also has others to call on like The [[Flawless Host]] (their drugs make Emperor's Children's look like baking powder), [[Violators]] (these guys body sculpt themselves enough to make a [[VtM|Tzimisce]] well up with pride), as well as, again, various IG-equivalent armies.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: Sigvald the Magnificent (he really is quite magnificent...), [[Dechala|Dechala the Denied one]], former high elf maiden turned into near greater daemon level, Azazel, former bro of [[Sigmar]], Styrkaar of Sortsvinear. <s>The Varg tribes serve him.</s> NO WE DON'T. Likely that the Hung worship him/her/them, purely judging from their nomenclature. Also, [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark Elves]], pre-retcon.
*Sacred Number - <s>sex</s> 6. Probably 69 and 420 as well, due to what they’re associated with.
* Adjective - Slaaneshi

<center><gallery>
File:Mandraykh Blyss EC.png|A Slaaneshi-Heretic Astartes of the [[Emperor's Children]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Tzeentch==
{{Main|Tzeentch}}
[[File:Tzeentch Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Change we can all believe in...]]

Tzeentch is the god of [[Just as planned]], being a wishy washy nerd, and magic, arguably the coolest and most potentially powerful of the four due to being nerfed from his actual true power in the height of his age of coming from both respective canons of Warhammer and generally being the most victorious when fighting against humanity and other races as a scheming jerkass. Tzeentch is formed from paranoia and plotting, but also, amazingly enough, hope and ambition. Other values include trust, curiosity, dissatisfaction, aspiration, progress, knowledge, learning, protection, will, anarchy, and change.
* Gender - Always changing, but usually male or genderless.
* Main Enemy - Nurgle, because he symbolizes stagnation, a.k.a. refusal towards change. Khorne as well, as the jock bullies him for his nerdiness, which is what Tzeentch wants you to believe, in truth he bullies and torments Khorne.
* Bro god(dess) - Slaanesh, who isn't as brutal/dumb as Khorne and not as much of a lazy bastard as Nurgle. Plus, he/she/they're nice to little Tzeentch! [[Cegorach]] might have a Shonen Rival Bro Bond with him when they dont fight on different teams.
* Love Interest - Kind of wishes that the Deceiver, Cegorach, and the Emperor were chicks. For female gods hes got an Eye for [[Arianka]] since she's a rival to his whole all play to her all work dynamic and wants her to be the [[Isha]] to his Nurgle.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - [[Thousand Sons]], and basically no other Space Marine groups; only [[The Scourged]] are canonical non-TS-descendants who are dedicated to Tzeentch. Tzeentch also apparently doesn't have any IG-equivalent armies dedicated to him in particular (besides the [[Prospero Spireguard]] who are more like the Thousand Sons auxilia than anything else). In-universe this is most likely because if a Guardsman is going to turn to a specific Chaos god, the prospect of [[Khorne|power and unending glorious conquest]], [[Nurgle|freedom from all pain and suffering]], or [[Slaanesh|all the booze, drugs and whores you can handle and then some]] are more attractive options than being a scheming nerd. Or else Tzeentch's non-marine cultists are rarely warriors or soldiers, more often power-hungry bureaucrats, nobles, Imperial Governors, and even Inquisitors. Out of universe it's hard to make Tzeentch-focused units other than TS when their signature units are sorcerers, who only come in small quantities on the tabletop, and the Sons-specific Rubric Marines. He also offers limited knowledge of the future, represented in game with a boosted Ward save from the Mark of Tzeentch.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero": <s>Vilitch the Curseling</s> [[Egrimm van Horstmann|Egrimm van Horstmann]]. No Chaos Tribe seems to revere him to any exceptional extent (well there was this Sarl tribe and it was ruled by a Tzeentch chieftian, but [[Wulfrik the Wanderer|Wulfrik]] killed him as well as his son) but he pulled out some nasty tricks such as becoming the grand magister of the Order of Light and fucking said order up before flying away on top of a dragon. Also, got [[Cathay]] in a bag.
* Sacred Number - 9
* Adjective - Tzeentchian

<center><gallery>
File:TS Sorc Divination.png|A Tzeentchian Chaos Sorcerer of the [[Thousand Sons]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Malal==
{{Main|Malal}}
[[File:Malal.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Then we have this motherfucking out of place/odd one out weirdo here....]]

Though not as relevant as the other big four, Malal is still more notable than the other minor Gods mentioned below. He's sort of the borderline between major and minor chaos gods.

Malal is a renegade Chaos god that only appeared in one comic for Fantasy before his creators divorced and took their character with them, resulting in GW shitcanning most of the original sculptors and artists. Then he was replaced with two entirely different characters with the same basic domain before being quietly swept under the rug and forgotten, barring the odd reference that slips out here and there. He is fittingly the god of fractiousness and dissent, which means his power is parasitic: any time the four other major Milky Way Warp gods do their thing, which is to say strive to gain power at the expense of the materium and eachother, Malal grows in power as well. Because of his nature as a common enemy to the big four and thus a Warp Entity that fights the Warp, he is also sometimes a god of atheism, contradictions, and paradoxes, when he exists at all. That being said, he did have awesome champions who lived solely to hunt down the greatest champions of the other gods, which is pretty [[Awesome]]. Sadly (or not, depending on your opinion), [[Games Workshop]] idiotically lost the rights to his name, so he's been more or less retconned. Except now he <i>might</i> be back in 40k, with a [[Chaos Space Marine]] warband called the [[Sons of Malice]] who worship a god called Malice...who just happen to wear a color scheme of black and white, and just happen to have a symbol of a bisected skull, and whose premier Chaos weapon specializes in killing Daemons. There's also [[Beastmen]] of Malal in one of the card games. But nope, don't you dare say they worship Malal. Like Khorne, Malal has an aspect of hate, however it's more along the lines of loathing (including towards self), [[derp|malice]] and cold contempt compared to Khorne's ragey hot-blooded variety. While a worshipper of either might shoot up a school, a malal worshipper would probably think of it like exterminating pests rather than a pleasant rampage. Beyond all that, his portfolio includes paradoxes, justice, revenge, nihilism, and the inevitability of Chaos turning upon itself. Every time the others fight or power shifts between them, he grows stronger. Just like Chaos will eventually win and consume all worlds, Malal will eventually win and consume all Chaos resulting in oblivion for all things...then if GW took the full bite off Moorcock's work and not just the parts they wanted, the whole thing starts all over again from the beginning.
* Gender - Maleal
* Main Enemy - EVERYONE. Because Malal's an edgy loner who doesn't play by the rules (also because he represents one of the few things GW didn't steal from [[Moorcock]], that Chaos eventually destroys itself), although the forces of [[Chaos Undivided]] might logically be prioritized over other folk.
* Bro God(ess) - Probably any character that has been retconned away, that [[Squats|is angry about not being a part of the canon anymore]]. A story where he temporarily joins forces with someone like Emps or the [[C'tan]] might also work.
* Love Interest(s) - As per his nature as an edgelord, he has a tsundere love-hate relationship with chaos itself.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Chapters - [[Sons of Malice]]. And that just about sums it up. No Imperial Guard equivalent, no daemon spawn, nothing (that we know of). So yeah, that pretty much makes him a god of hipsters too. /tg/ has made a fan-codex for [[Malal Daemonkin]], though, so go help yourself :)
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: A fellow named Kaleb Daark was Malal's first revealed servant, who swung around a pterodactyl head on a stick. The Ogre Skrag the Slaughterer fucked up dwarves in his name before pussying out to follow some shitty Ogre god thanks to retcons. There's a small tribe of Beastmen named the Claws of Malal as well.
* Sacred Number - 11
* Adjective - Malalic

<center><gallery>
Image:Maxresdefault.jpg|220px|A Malalic Space Marine
</gallery></center>

==Great Horned Rat==
{{Main|Horned Rat}}
[[File:Betterskaven.jpg|220px|right|thumb|Thinks he's better than sliced Jesus.]]

This otherwise-unnamed deity is patron of the [[Skaven]], and god of... well, rats. He also infringes copyright on both Nurgle's and Tzeentch's portfolios, but it's mostly rats. The Horned Rat once appeared in material form; he's the only Chaos god to do so. Of course, in Skaven fashion, he just ate a ton of the Skaven present, gave some orders and left; the Skaven only serve him out of fear, even though their belief in him only makes him stronger. He left them with a warpstone monolith containing the Skaven equivalent of the Ten Commandments.

In Age of Sigmar he was promoted to Chaos God following the demotion of Slaanesh out of the Great Game.
* Gender - Referred to as male.
* Main Enemy - Everyone, backstabbing is his primary creed and portfolio. Being cowardly, he will also work with any Chaos God, mostly Nurgle. Archaon shows him the least respect, however.
* Bro God(ess) - Nurgle, as far as his followers are concerned. They have very similar hobbies.
* Love Interest(s) - As Skaven themselves are incapable of feeling love, it is unlikely GHR can either.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Chapters - None. Great Horned Rat does not exist in 40k. Although there are [[Death Guard]] miniatures with [[Skaven]] heads.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero" - [[Clanrats]]. All of them. ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also apparently [[Thanquol]], because the Great Horned Rat thinks his fuckups are hilarious.
* Sacred Number - 13

==The Other Ones==
Older editions of Warhammer Fantasy and 40k mention several lesser Chaos gods. Nowadays, they only appear(ed) in WFB (and even then, only sparingly), with some (the Horned Rat and Hashut in particular) generally considered to be separate from the "main" Chaos pantheon.

Until the Horned Rat replaced Slaanesh as the Fourth Chaos god after the End Times. This change did not affect 40k (or presumably any other universe Slaanesh exists in), and Slaanesh is slowly breaking the prison walls.

===Warhammer Fantasy===
====Ashedte'gash====
A Minor Chaos God who was once an orphan on the streets of the Empire, who grew up learning that strength and cleverness are what allows one to survive, and that those who are weaker and stupider should be climbed over and killed to serve their betters. As such, he is served by only a few Greater Daemons, as the Lesser Daemons that followed him were all killed off for realsies in the Warp by their betters in an Ayn Randian survival-of-the-fittest natural selection murderfest.

Ash has only a handful of Greater Daemons serving him. All of the lesser daemons were destroyed in the ever present struggles to prove oneself to Ash. The remaining daemonic servants of Ashedte'gash are heavily armored Greater Daemons, wearing plate armor, carrying giant two handed swords. Little is known of these foul servants of Ashedte'gash. They lack wings to fly, but except from this nothing is known, but of their great strenght at arms.

====Atagro====
Lord of Beasts, was once mortal but was risen to Minor Chaos God status by Shagraunt, another Minor Chaos God, deeds included slaying a Sandworm in Araby. Atagro is a huge vicious creature clad in glistening black armor and crowned with a fierce, horned helm atop his blackened, skeletal head. Atagro's eyes burn with a fiery luminance, and he wears a huge shroud-like cloak. Tormented, vaguely human wretches struggle and writhe to peer out from under its folds. Atagro's armor is decorated with all the symbols of chaos, as he was once their most powerful champion. His hands are filthy and rotted; capped with grim steel talons and dark metal studs. Atagro's weapon, Kagorr, is a huge tooth edged sword with a second blade extending from the handle. The mighty god wields the blade with whirling grace and deadly precision. Kagorr is the most powerful weapon of chaos ever created and less powerful blades of similar appearance are often granted to Atagro's followers.
*'''Storm Lasher''' (also known as ''Serpent-Giants'', ''Twisting Punishers'', or ''Lashing Gargantuans''): These disgusting creatures appear as bloated gray skinned giants with long flailing tentacles for heads. The creatures have thick, two fingered hands with each finger ending in huge dark tentacles. Their short opposable thumbs are their only true fingers. The storm lashers are so named due to their affinity for lightning. Lashers whip their enemies with tentacles and make a sound like thunder when they run.
*'''Gull Grinder''' (also known as ''Raging Slug Men'', ''Screaming Beasts of Frenzy',' or ''Atagro's Habitations''): These creatures are among the more deadly of Atagro's demons. They appear as huge brown skinned strongmen with slug bodies for legs. Their enormous muscled arms end in the heads of lions and their own flat, bald heads are featureless save for beady black eyes and huge mottled beaks. The Gull Grinders attack by biting or spewing fireballs with their lion heads.
*'''Corpse Render''' (also known as ''Butchers of Atagro'', ''Beast-Lords'', or ''The Dark Titans''): The horrifying Corpse Renders are absolutely Atagro's most powerful greater demons. They look like massive 20' humanoids with black skin and the heads of rhinos. The Corpse Renders arms end in spherical masses of dark, twisted blades which spin and rotate at the will of the demons. The Renders awesome muscular legs end in flattened black hooves which they may scrape across the ground as they snort in anticipation of a coming fray.

====Be'lakor====
{{main|Be'lakor}}
The first [[Daemon Prince]] and ostensibly the only Daemon Prince of [[Chaos Undivided]], Be'lakor commands a great amount of power over the Realms. While still under the thumb of his four parents, he has been able to control a sizeable army of followers and has claimed to have even influenced [[Archaon]].

====Chaos Gods of Law====
Alluminas, Arianka, and Solkan the Avenger. These old-school dudes have their own page!

====Hashut====
{{main|Hashut}}
Hashut apparently means "Father of Darkness" in Dwarfen, which naturally means he's the god of the [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. And if his followers are any indication, he's also god of penis-compensating hats.

====Khakkek====
[[File:KhakkekkFollowers.jpg|200px|right]]
From old-school Warhammer, was the god of the Chaos Goblins. Was only mentioned once or twice, but was described as a red skinned, 8 limbed spidery-goblin who was a god of bloodletting but unlike Khorne, allowed for magic. Described as seen as halfway between Khorne and Khaine. The picture above shows a cult of his worshippers. If you look closely, you can see the Symbol of Chaos on the Shaman's Loincloth.

*'''Greater Daemon:''' The Great Demons of Khakkek feature an almost Goblinoid physiognomy, so they can be easily mistaken, from afar or in poor light, for an Orc (albeit very large). On closer inspection, however, we discover glowing red eyes, Chaos armor, and an impressive number of sharp teeth and claws (including a nice pair of fangs). His face can mirror Khakkekk's, and he wields a fiery giant sword with immense skill. Its characteristics are the same as those of a standard Minor Demon.
*'''Lesser Daemon:''' Just as the Big Demon looks like an Orc, Orc, the Little Demon looks like some kind of Goblin. He too, from afar or in poor light, can easily be mistaken for a Goblin (albeit tall), with red eyes. His face and impressive array of dangerous teeth and talons (no fangs) are also reminiscent of Khakkekk. Its characteristics are similar to those of a Minor Demon.
*'''Daemonic Beast:''' These creatures, sociable in the manner of the Nurglings, appear as Brats (would be Snotlings in more modern editions, since Greenskins now reproduce by spores) with glowing red eyes (this is the common characteristic of the demons of Khakkekk, with sharp teeth and talons) and sport 1d4 Chaos mutations. Like other demons, each has a face that strangely recalls its master. The profile of a Demonic Creature is the same as a standard Servant Demon, or, alternatively, that of a Nurgling (if you have Realm of Chaos: the Lost and the Damned).
*'''Daemonic Steed:''' Khakkekk's Demonic Mount appears virtually identical, at least physically, to a Large Wolf, and it may actually be. Whether or not this is the case, it is virtually identical. You can therefore use the description of the Big Wolf from the bestiary of WFRP1 or that of present in this project.

====Kweethul====
Kweethul Gristlegut was a Skaven who managed to become an extremely minor Chaos God in the older Warhammer editions. He was later mentioned as being a HERETIC against the Horned Rat in a later Skaven army book. The Horned Rat will suffer no challenger to its dominion over Skaven-kind! Could create his own Daemons, too.

*'''The Six Eyed Slayer:''' Greater Daemon. He stands about 10ft in height with a pair of three eyed goats heads. It carries a Chaos Weapon with the power of mutation.
*'''Floating Horror:''' Lesser Daemon. Appearing much as a Harpy but with the clawed feet of a Bear.
*'''Fire Runner:''' Daemonic Steed. A partially feathered beast with burning clawed feet.
*'''The Thing:''' Daemonic Beast.

====Meneloth====
An androgynous god of pleasure among the Elves, may have been a sort of proto-Slaanesh before being absorbed into the greater whole of Slaanesh upon Slaanesh's birth, either that or a toned-down aspect of Slaanesh used to lure Elves into worship of Slaanesh, like a dealer giving a watered-down needle of heroin to a kid to get them addicted before giving them the hard stuff.

====Necoho====
[[File:Necoho_Revealed.png|500px|thumb|right|[[/tg/]] has recently deduced Necoho's true identity.]]
Necoho is the god of atheism and one of the other minor gods invented as a replacement for Malal. Stupid as it sounds, it actually works, as Chaos is a reflection of all human beliefs and emotions, including, paradoxically, disbelief. He generally works to make religious movements disappear and wears a permanent expression of comic amusement, as he fucking knows he's a walking, talking paradox.

Note that Necoho was introduced in an adventure for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st Edition, so his current canonicity is doubtful, to say the least. That being said, he has been mentioned sporadically since then, such as the [[Gotrek & Felix]] novel ''Road of Skulls'', which is more than can be said for Zuvassin. Has been mentioned by name in the Age of Sigmar novel ''Auction of Blood'', along with a mention to his cult and an antitheist tract called "The Revelations of Necoho, or the Light of Doubt".

In the popular series [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device]], [[Magnus the Red]] made the point that the Emperor was, perhaps unknowingly, feeding a Chaos god of unbelief by promoting his Imperial Truth.

====Obscuras====
Brother of Alluminas, Chaos God of Law. Was originally one of the Gods of Law but got jealous of his brother and turned to Chaos proper.

Shadowphytes (also known as Shadow Daemons) are daemons of Obscuras, standing around the height of an average man. The most dedicated of Obscuras' cultists hope to join the ranks of the Shadowphytes upon their deaths. Shadowphytes appear as black shadowy humanoids whose features are only barely visible through the inner darkness they radiate. They cannot fly but possess the ability to melt into the shadows in one place and reappear in the shadows somewhere else within their line of sight. They fear the light and it is know to cause them actually damage when not standing in full or demi-darkness.

Shadowphytes can't cause physical wounding upon their victims, but cause damage through their touch, which robs the victim of his or her strength, and they are skilled users of the magical art of their master. It's said that anyone slain by a Shadowphyte is condemned to eternal torment in Obscuras' realm of shadow.

====Oubelgyr====
Oubelgyr is a Daemon-Prince who sits at the cusp of just-about-to-be-but-not-quite a Minor Chaos God, who is known to be a Peddler of Knowledge, like some sort of Daemonic Informant. Whereas Tzeentch is all about learning and then coveting secrets, Oubelgyr is always trying to find secret knowledge then sell it to the highest bidder, a trait useful for Chaos Sorcerers with sacrifices to spare who wish to skip the chanciness of Tzeentch's blessings. Was inprisoned at one point, but was able to scheme a way to unlock the door to his prison, only to then decide his prison was a nice lair and pretended to still be locked in. Rather than having daemons of his own, he has multiple Daemons and Mortal slaves who he has bound with contracts, who have to do as he says and guard him.

====Quorn====
[[File:QuornArtwork.jpg|200px|right]]

Not to be confused with Khorne, Quorn was the Minor Chaos God of carnivorous plants, whose schtick basically was "Radical Anti-Veganism" with carnivorous plant life devouring all flesh-creatures. His name was a double-pun, meant to sound like Khorne's and the same as a vegetable-based fake-meat substitute from before Impossible Meats were a thing. (Note: Pictured above is fan artwork produced by putting Quorn's name and description into Nightcafe, an Artificial Intelligence Art Program that makes art based on text description)

====Rhasneth====
The Chaos God of Insanity. Must be pretty batshit insane if his brand of nutters stands out amongst the general mental sickness of the rest of the Pantheon of Chaos.

The daemons of Rhasneth are to varied to make a single name for them, the most horrible nightmares of the most twisted madmen made real, pushing their way from the realm of nightmares into the world of the living to do their master's wish. The daemons of Rhasneth are special in that not all can see them, only those who have already lost their sanity can see them while all others fail to even notice them. The madman can scream in terror when his nightmares comes for him, not only to haunt him in his dreams but to feast upon his soul, while the rest of the world remains ignorant of the creature and tells him there is nothing there. Even as the daemon slowly approch, a mad twisted snarl upon its face...

====Screaming God-Child====
[[File:Screaming God-Child.png|200px|right|]]
Appearing only in the [[Malus Darkblade]] novel ''Lord of Ruin'', and more completely in the Malus chapters in Warhammer Monthly, the God-Child is the ruler of a little corner of the Realm of Chaos known as ''Alterity'', a massive chunk of rock on top of which lies walls in the shape of an eight-pointed star, guarded by ancient daemons who keep the locals and guests who enter from leaving Alterity. The God-Child himself takes the appearance of a young humanoid being with a near featureless face, only having a mouth, wearing robes and an amulet in the shape of the star of Chaos.

====Shagraunt====
A Minor Chaos God of whom even less is known of than Atagro, it was Shagraunt who ascended Atagro into the ranks of the Minor Chaos Gods.

====Stromfels/Mermedus====
Whilst often speculated to be [[Manann]]'s edgy dark half, Stromfels' mutant cults and rumored links to Khorne in earlier editions point towards his status as a minor Chaos god. Further proof of this is his patronage of sea mutant pirate Aranessa Saltspite, and his Chaos cult in the Gotrek and Felix story "Slayer of the Storm God", featuring his avatar, the "Harbinger of Stromfels".

Another variation of Manann but Chaos exists in the form of '''Mermedus''', the Norscan god of the sea, that's considered by some to be an even more edgy version of Stromfels. Notable that most Norscans don't even like him, because all who die at sea are claimed by him and denied entry to their patrons realm, except for the Skaelings who drown prisoners of war and animals for him after battles and raids. He's described as a ghoulish and bulbous figure that walks on the sea floor, covered in eyes and bloated like a drowned person. This is odd, as Stromfels' Avatar, Harbinger of Stromfels, looked like a Giant with a Tentacle where each of the Arms would be and the Head of a Shark.

In [[Total War: Warhammer II]], he is also [[Cylostra Direfin]]'s patron deity, having resurrected her as a vengeful ghost to wreak havoc against the High Elves and Bretonnians who rejected her singing.

In Age of Sigmar, he apparently is still worshipped by pirates in one area of Ghyran, and was worshipped by a tribe of Gargants in Azyr before Sigmar cleansed the realm of Chaos.

====Tristaris====
A Chaos Goddess of Misery, with a minor interest in knowledge. Represents the misery brought about by knowledge of Chaos' ultimate victory. Sounds like Tzeentch's perfect girl, a big tiddy goth nerd GF.

*'''Blissbane:''' (also known as ''Wailing Woman of Misery'',''Mistress of Destress'', or ''Gaunt Spirits of Lamentation'') This infernal creatures look like haggard, ghostly women with wild hair and gaunt, wrinkled bodies. They wear white shroud like clothes and are translucent to the eye. The Blissbanes emit occasional shrieks of pure misery as well as sudden bursts of maniacal laughter. They can pass through any obstacle as though they were ethereal, but are also incapable of manipulating any material objects. Often Blissbanes appear in groups of four, the number of Tristaris.
*'''Sloathe:''' (also known as ''Mounts of Misery'', ''Hunching Beasts of Suffering'', or ''Steeds of Tristaris'') The sloathes are bear sized creatures with four legs and short curved claws. The creatures have no heads and appear to be made almost entirely of layer upon layer of dark rags and shrouds. They make low grunting and grumbling sounds as they walk. The sloathes lash out with their claws in combat, and they have the ability to collapse into a pile of useless rags. The rags may be scattered by the wind or even burnt up; but unless every single one of them is destroyed the creature can return to its normal shape from any one of the pieces.
*'''Humanwood Tree:''' (also known as ''Oaks of Despair'', ''Petrified Eyes of Torment'', or ''Roots of Evil'') The humanwood trees are powerful demons that largely inhabit the groaning forests of misery in the pocket dimension that is Tristaris's realm in the chaos warp. The trees look like stubby, twisted oak trees with thick trunks and anguished human faces and bodies seemingly squirming about beneath their flexible bark. The trees speak a language that is their own and to hear it is to surely lose one's mind. All who hear the trees speaking will feel suffer from it as blood pours from their ears. The trees lash out with their branches and should the victom be caught the trees nine limbs will easily rip a held person to shreds. Strangly enough they are also immune to fire, somehting that would otherwise have been their main weakness.
*'''Sade:''' (also known as ''Screaming Devils of Sorrow'', ''Sobbing Lords of Tribulation'', or ''Jeering Lords of Languishing'') The Sades are Tristaris's greater demons. They look like gaunt red skinned men with long black beards, tiny horns from their foreheads and pointed chins. The Sades dress like nobles and their eyes are white and constantly streaming with bloody tears. Each of them carries a large, gleaming sickle. They also each carry a Lash of Lament and have long claws which they can use in close quarters. The Sades must consume twice their weight in living hearts each day that they exist in the material world if they are summoned.

====Urlfdaemonkin====
Urlf isn't a name. It's the last fucking death cry a guy makes when you gut him. That should tell you all you need to know. Anyway, this guy used to be a Norscan (like most of the daemon princes on this list) and was elevated to princehood by Khorne for exceptional badassery. Before his ascension, he was a massive, tall, bearded, Clint Eastwood-type Chaos Champion and was a chieftain of the Snaegr clan of Aeslingr. He's so fucking powerful that he was able to create his own lesser daemons and can bless warriors with the Mark and mutations of Khorne. Urlf has his own summoning days like most powerful daemon princes, and is usually worshiped as a lesser deity of Chaos by those who serve his master, Khorne. He has a short story in the 6th edition Chaos army book, where he muses on the fuck-you nature of time in the Warp and remarks on how the new Chieftain of the Snaegr resembles one of the sons he fathered in his mortal life. He also blesses the new chief with Khorne's mark and turns him into a monstrous cross [[Awesome|between a Bloodletter and a Chaos Champion]].

====Vymnn====
A Minor Chaos god who was only known as the master of the Daemon Prince Hakrii, who Atagro slayed (Hakrii, not Vymnn) in his quest for Daemon Princehood himself.

====Zhedun====
A Chaos God of gnawing, eternal hunger, who represents how Chaos would destroy itself if it ever won in the end, being dependent on sapient mortal thought for sustenance.

Daemons of Zhedun are known as Devouring Fiends (a.k.a. Mawed Ones, or Devourers) creatures ruled entirely by their own voracious appetite. They stands well over six feet tall, stooped, with atrophied arms but strong legs, and their heads are comprised mostly of a giant gaping jaw filled with massive teeth. Often they will stop at fallen foes, devouring their bodies in their Chaos-spawned hunger.

====Zuvassin====
Zuvassin is one of the two minor gods invented as a replacement for Malal. He just likes to see shit fall apart, specifically nonphysical stuff like schemes and lives - in other words, he's the god of [[not as planned]]. He's the guy who makes all the bad shit happen in infomercials. Generally, he makes sure that Murphy's Law is always enforced in the most spectacular possible ways. He doesn't have many worshippers, as he makes sure to fuck up whatever they're planning too.

Note that Zuvassin was only introduced in an adventure for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st Edition, so his current canonicity is doubtful, to say the least.

Actually, he is still canon, at least in Warhammer Fantasy. The 2nd Edition "Tome of Salvation" lists both him and Necoho as Chaos Gods.

And the motherfucker is STILL canon in Age of Sigmar, where a short story features a Chaos Champion named "Zuvass". Hmm.. I wonder who he might be worshipping.

Makes an appearance in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: WARHAMMER III]], where [[God-Slayer|Daniel]] can get an event where you can communicate with him and get his blessing, as he considers you important in disrupting the balance of Chaos.

====Ziraad, Thain, Blazzach and Javate====
4 Minor Chaos Gods known among the people of Araby, mentioned in Atagro's backstory as the gods worshipped by 4/6 members of his BATTLE-HAREM, the last 2 being a one of Tzeentch and one of Slaanesh.

===Warhammer 40,000===
====Balphomael====
[[File:Balphomael.png|200px|right]]
A minor Chaos God skirting on the edge of independent Greater Daemon, ruler of the Daemon World of Woe. Has a Christian Devil, "Let's Make a Deal" sort of vibe about him, complete with looking like classical illustrations of Demons and his name being a portmanteau of Baal, Baphomet and Samael. The art above is from a Dark Heresy book.

====King in Rags and Tatters====
Quite possibly a Chaos God version of Hastur from the Cthulhu Mythos, may or may not be a guise of Tzeentch. Leader of the "Menagerie" a Chaos Cult that seeks to unravel reality itself. Has unique demonic minions in the form of Warp Spectres, roiling, constantly changing masses of hideous-energy-being Daemons (like a Chaos Spawn made of gas and energy instead of fluid flesh?).

====Lord of Misrule====
Another minor Chaos God skirting on the edge of being an independent Greater Daemon from Dark Heresy. Also seeks to undo the veil between reality and the Warp.

====Melkirth====
Mentioned in older background material for Warhammer 40,000. Melkirth was a minor chaos god described as "The god of evil, malice, and wanton cruelty and suffering." While Melkirth remains a minor god, it is said that the actions of the mortal races, particularly the Dark Eldar, are causing Melkirth to grow in power until he ultimately becomes the fifth major Chaos God. The daemons of Melkirth are described as being the colour of shadow and able to take on the appearance of any daemon, be it a daemon of Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch. These shadow daemons could be inspiration for the shadow daemons Morathi encounters in Ulgu in Age of Sigmar, as they are also having to do with Dark Aelfs.

====Mo'rcck, Phraz-Etar, and Ans'l====
Puns on the last names of sci-fi and fantasy author Michael Moorcock (from whom the idea of [[Chaos]] as a fundamental force in the world was blatantly stolen/took inspiration from, and don't anyone ever say "borrow for a while" since even the author and Games Workshop have admitted it), artist Frank Frazetta (who drew a lot of movie and comic book posters, especially in sci-fi and fantasy), and Citadel Miniatures founder Bryan Ansell (who wrote several of the [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|First Edition]] rulebooks). These guys helped set the tone of the early [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe (purposefully or not), including the propensity of putting spikes on [[Chaos]] things. Games Workshop decided to pay homage in the (initial) Third Edition [[Codex]]: [[Chaos Space Marines]], which mentioned that Chaos Space Marines often put "spiky bits" on their armour in praise of these three gods. They were never mentioned anywhere else, and probably shouldn't be considered "canonical"... not that canonicity counts for much in 40k anyway.

====Raptor God====
The minor god worshipped by the [[Chaos Raptor]]s, responsible for turning them from standard [[Assault Squad|Assault Marines]] to the mercenaries they currently are, and maybe also the one that turns them into [[Warp Talons]].

====Ysarille the Daemon-King====
According to an Eisenhorn book, Ysarille was a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch from a time before the Eldar first went to space, before Slaanesh was born, and who gained enough power that he became capable of creating his own Daemons. He went to battle with his former master, and after a billion-year battle, Tzeentch finally killed Ysarille. His surviving Daemons took his body and fled, setting up a Tomb world for him on the planet Ghúl, and their own Daemon Empire of 600 worlds surrounding planet Ghúl, in exile from the Warp. Cherubael, Gregor Eisenhorn's minion who takes the form of a Daemonhost by pissessing the corpse of Gregor's former colleague Fischig, was one of Ysarille's servants.

===Age of Sigmar===

All Warhammer Fantasy Gods, presumably. Zuvassin and Necoho are explicitly active.

====Archaon====
{{main|Archaon}}
Upon completing a new set of challenges by the Chaos Gods in AoS, he was empowered to demigod level and given free reign to do whatever he desired.

====Devourer of Existence====
A primitive aspect of Chaos as an apex predator, that wishes to devour all else and despises any sign of civilization, worshipped by the Untamed Beasts. Maybe a modern take on Zhedun?

====Eightfold Watcher====
Some sort of Chaos-Spider-Godbeast worshipped by the Tarantulos Brood. From Warcry Red Harvest.

====Ever-Raging Flame====
A massive fire of Chaos, said to be the Chaos personification of Aqshy itself, worshipped by the Scions of the Flame in the Realm of Fire.

====The Great Gatherer====
A (presumably) giant crow worshipped by tribesmen from Ulgu in the [[Age of Sigmar]]. Not much is known about him, since [[Warcry|the only game his followers appear in]] isn't out yet, but we do know that the [[Corvus Corax|Corvus]] Cabal (the aforementioned tribesmen) consider [[Archaon]] to be his avatar in the Mortal Realms. Theories range from it being an aspect of [[Tzeentch]] (notable avian features, Tzeentch is known to be interested in the Realm of Shadow, maybe gathering secrets?) or [[Nurgle]] (the Crow was Nurgle's totem animal among the Norscans, maybe gathering bodies?) to being a minor, but ascending, Chaos God not so far removed from the Great Horned Rat's path to the pantheon. He even has the weird connection to both Nurgle and Tzeentch the GHR does. It has been confirmed that the Warbands from Warcry will be usable in the main game, possibly as normal units, and will have the keyword SLAVES TO DARKNESS, which means he'll have some representation in a mainline game. Not too bad for the newest kid on the block.

====Morghur====
{{main|Morghur The Shadowgave}}
Originally one of the most notable Beastmen, he's worshipped as a minor Chaos God of mutation and devolution in Age of Sigmar. Wait what the fuck is this??

====Nagendra====
Originally a Godbeast, was splintered and the remains corrupted into Daemons called Coiling Ones, worshipped by the Splintered Fang.

===Blood Bowl===
====Nuffle====
{{Main|Nuffle}}
A joke Chaos God for [[Bloodbowl]], Nuffle is a mispronunciation of NFL (as in "National Football League", the American gridiron football pro league in real life), which would be pronounced "Noofle" as in "book" if you tried pronouncing it. Nuffle explains why the Blood Bowl universe is so wacky and gridiron football obsessed. Technically the superior to the rest of Chaos, although apparently only in the Blood Bowl universe.

===When Tzeentch was the best===
According to recent Tzeentch Codex/Battletome Tzeentch was at one point the sole major chaos god. A rebellion against him fractured him into many pieces, which because of warp time fuckery, technically counts as a different god. When chaos was first forming (just after War in Heaven for 40k) there were many chaos gods and entities competing (rather than the total domination that exists now). Tzeentch somehow became number one, and was a super god of sorts, although he was possibly less powerful than the current Tzeentch due to the lesser size and influence of chaos. A rebellion by all the other chaos gods fractured him, creating the Tzeentch we know today. In the same way that Slaanesh has always existed in 40k, the new Tzeentch has always existed the way he is. While the old Tzeentch is permanently destroyed (across all time), while still doing the things he did, what really matters is the influence in the material realm: Tzeentch's new self and Slaanesh started doing that when they were created relative to the materium, while the Warp is such a mess that a contradiction like old Tzeentch being completely destroyed while still having done the things he did is basically nothing. They are implied to be two seperate entites.

This is a variant of the backstory of The Blue Scribes.

{{ChaosGods}}

[[Category:Heresy]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Chaos Gods

2022-08-05T01:40:39Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Ysarille the Daemon-King */

{{heresy}}
{{Topquote|The creatures of the Warp are just "aliens" too, but they are not life forms as we understand the term. They are not organic. They are extra-dimensional, and they influence our reality in ways that seem sorcerous to us. Supernatural, if you will. So let's use all those lost words for them... daemons, spirits, possessors, changelings. All we need to remember is that there are no gods out there, in the darkness, no great daemons and ministers of evil. There is no fundamental, immutable evil in the cosmos. It is too large and sterile for such melodrama. There are simply inhuman things that oppose us, things we were created to battle and destroy.
|Horus Lupercal, about to realize that he was wrong and that he could get great power, and then dearly regret his casual arrogance.}}

The '''Chaos Gods''' are the gods which rule over the Realm of [[Chaos]] in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]] and the [[Warp]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. They love nothing so much as dicking with each other, except perhaps with their mortal followers, and literally each other (especially Slaanesh). Before they were gods, they were generally benevolent beings, when the Warp was a calm sea. Each one is formed by the emotions of living souls clumped together in the Warp/Realm of Chaos. Contrary to standard thought, they personify good attributes as well, and are powered as much by good as by bad. Even if said god started out entirely bad, in their eventual evolution as part of their natures, they will kill gods who represented entirely good things, and will gain not only their values, but their power by said value.

Be aware many of the gods' values will and do intersect. This is as much due to the chaotic nature of the gods as it is to the multitude of emotions that make up the living. For example: let's say you're literally obsessed with brutally murdering people and you get a real nice kick out of it. The act of spilling blood is gonna feed [[Khorne]], while the ecstasy and obsessive sensation you get out of it will feed [[Slaanesh]]. So yeah, there's some overlap, in that an individual doing a certain thing, under specific circumstances, can simultaneously feed multiple Chaos Gods, but the God who was invoked (whether intentionally or no) upon when commuting the action will get the most power out of it (I.E: You killed someone for Khorne. While your ecstasy from the murder will feed Slaanesh a bit, your simple act of ending a life will feed Nurgle, your continued ambition to please the Blood God to earn his favor will also feed Tzeentch a bit, but Khorne gets the most since you offered that kill to him foremost).

==Overview==
According to the wikifans over at the Official Warhammer 40k Wiki, the Chaos gods were created and are sustained by the collective emotions of 'every sentient being of the material universe'; so not just the Milky Way, but every alien, both heretical and loyal, in the whole universe. This however probably isn't true, or rather it's just very bad wording, because if the Milky Way alone has all of these sentient races in it, then there's a safe bet that most other galaxies in the rest of the universe also have a multitude of sentient races too. And there are like, at least billions upon billions of galaxies in the observable universe, let alone the true universe which is likely many magnitudes larger. Based on what we've seen in the fluff, ''That'' many galaxies, filled with ''that'' many sentient lifeforms, ''all'' feeding only ''four'' Chaos Gods, would give said Chaos Gods so much power that they would probably have the capability to turn the entire galaxy (and many others) into massive Eyes of Terror at a simple scheming click of their heretical fingers. But of course, that hasn't happened (thank the fucking Emperor). Which probably means those wikijerks are talking complete [[Bullshit|unadulterated bullshit]] (or are making the common and infuriating mistake of conflating "universe" with "galaxy"). In actuality, the full range of influence the Ruinous Powers have only extends to the area of the Milky Way and not much further. After all, a specific location in the Warp corresponds with a specific location in the Materium; your thoughts and emotions will have an effect (albeit very minor) on the Warp in your specific corresponding location, and the collective thoughts and emotions of a galaxy's population will only have an effect on that specific galactic area of the overall Warp. This essentially means the four Chaos Gods are completely confined to the Milky Way galaxy, because that's where the emotions that created and feed them are currently being felt.

So what does that really mean? Well, it means the Warp in the vast, cold, empty space between galaxies is calm as fuck, absolutely nothing like the infested shitty plughole it is right now in our home galaxy, because there's no sentient life and hence no chaotic emotions there to stir it up. However, this also means that if other galaxies out there have their own interstellar sentient species with a presence in the Warp, then those galaxies will have their own Chaos Gods [likely just analogous versions of the four ([[Malal|point five]]) we have, although it's also possible that the different emotions might be allocated differently for each galactic pantheon; Andromeda might have gods based on the seven deadly sins, for example] that reside there and are also confined to the area of their own galaxy. But who knows? Maybe each warp god is a reflection of the galaxy that birthed it, and the aliens that live in other galaxies there have actually got their shit together and all get along like best buddies in a setting that just oozes [[Noblebright|noblebright]] from every pore, and the Chaos Gods there aren't even called that because they're all so friendly and cushy to everyone and like to play vidyagames with each other and cracking open cold ones on a warm Friday night while watching The Batchelor. Maybe the Warp gods in most galaxies actually maintain contact with those in neighbouring ones, and everyone just stays the fuck out of the Milky Way for the same reason most 21st century tourists stay out of Somalia. How sweet... I wonder what would happen if two galaxies, both with their own analogous Chaos Gods, collided. Would they just absorb each other into a new pantheon of four even-more-powerful Gods? Would they fight each other until one reigned supreme? Or would they get along like good ol' chums since they understand each other perfectly? Anyway, tangents. This fallacy is explained further in detail just right below.

Now that I say all of this, why the actual '''FUCK''' has no one decided to just up and leave the galaxy already?! It's a complete shithole! It's filled to the absolute brim with nothing but copious amounts of [[Grimdark]] and a whole host of things that want to murder, rape and eat you, not necessarily in that order. And it's ''still'' being filled up with that shit, both [[Necron|crawling out from under the ground]] and [[Tyranid|flying in from outer space to OMNOMNOMNOM the faces of everyone you both despise and adore]]. Even if you're lucky enough to escape the immediate crossfire, you're still likely to be part of [[Imperium|a civilisation that completely smashes any feeling of worth or individuality out of you and treats you like just another cog in the machine of trillions of cogs]]. Just leave already, god dammit. What about Andromeda? I hear it's rather pleasant this time of year. At least compared to this literal hellhole. But it's probably not possible for the same reason why [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]] and [[Lion El'Johnson|Lion-O]] couldn't simply fly over the Ruinstorm to get to Terra; if the space between galaxies is calm because there are no souls, that probably means there's no warp either, making intergalactic travel impossible. But this is just baseless speculation that contradicts the nature of the Warp's existence, specifically that the Warp is influenced by life, not created by life, and existed before even the first lifeforms did. Plus, you need to be Necron-tier to get pass the nids off galaxy. Or it could be things like the Void Dragon possibly eating a million galaxies before returning to ours where he then met the Emperor, the Tyranids consuming a thousand galaxies, and generally such things indiciate that outside of the Milky Way is worse than in the Milky Way.

But then again, It is officially stated that Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy are completely different franchises which just so happen to have the same Warp with the same Chaos Gods.

Now, where were we? Oh yes, Chaos Gods. Ahem.

===On the Question of Omnipotence===

One of the most [[Skub|talked about and hotly debated topics]], especially amongst Chaos players is the question of Omnipotence. [[Matt Ward|Other than massive fanwanking and colossal jerk-offs,]] it must be stated and stressed that the Chaos Gods for all their strength are not omnipotent, for to be omnipotent means to be all-powerful and the idea of the Great Game greatly debunks this claim. Part of the problem may lie in the fact that folks like to give examples of the power of the Chaos Gods from codexes from the Rogue Trader era and Second Edition, eras which are of ''dubious'' canonicity. You see, what they don't seem to understand is that GW, especially ''early'' GW, had a habit of making use of flowery language and hyperbole to exaggerate the grandeur of something or someone. This by itself is not a problem, as 40k runs on exaggeration. The problem is that [[Powergamer|''some folks'']] seems to lack any ability to discern nuances or critical thinking skills and proceed to extrapolate these hyperboles as true, completely ignoring the fact that the majority of these flowery examples came from either a) the viewpoint of a Chaos Cultist b) in-universe propaganda and/or c) extremely old sources where [[Ian Watson|all sorts of wacky hijinks were birthed.]] As such, the credibility is highly suspect and should be taken with a mountain of salt.

So when sources 'claim' that the Chaos Gods could destroy 'universes' or Greater Daemons were [[Exterminatus|destroying entire planets wholesale]] within the [[Warp]], the validity should be scrutinized in the same way fa/tg/uys scrutinize [[Furries]]. What the Chaos Gods or their followers claim to be true (remember that they are notorious [[Bullshit|liars]]) does not match up with their actual abilities both in Warpspace and in Realspace. If they were truly multiversal as they claim, then, first of all, the [[Hive Mind|Shadow of the Warp]] should not be an existential threat to them. After all, a true universal - let alone multiversal - entity should not even notice a few intergalactic bugs on the windshield. Moreover, the Necron Pylons should also not be considered a threat to the big four, for if they possess such levels of reality-warping power, they should not be dependent in letting their [[Failbaddon|errand boy]] do all their dirty work for them in realspace. Even in the Warp, their so-called 'omnipotence' did not stop a certain [[Kaldor Draigo|Mary Sue]] from trashing their backyard from time to time.

The reality is the Chaos Gods, as far as deities go in Science Fiction, are pretty weak sauce. For example:
*They are utterly dependent on the emotions of a single galaxy (if they really did not care about emotions as some may claim, then they shouldn't be ''that'' invested in the Imperium now would they?).
*Certain [[Tyranids|critters with enough mindless psychic connections can close entire Warp-rifts and there is nothing the Chaos Gods can do about it;.]]
*Tzeentch's self-proclaimed omniscience is put into doubt seeing as how he and his [[Kairos Fateweaver|underlings]] failed to predict the rise of [[Roboute Guilliman|Robo Guillitan]] [[Gathering Storm|and the following]] [[Indomitus Crusade|mechinations of it]].
*Their self-proclaimed reality-warping powers are self-contained in the Warp, and even then it is restricted to their own realms. Much like how a child could create and manipulate anything in a sandpit does not automatically equate to the child turning sand into gold, the same analogy applies here - seriously it is telling that the Gods of Chaos couldn't do jackshit about the Necron Pylons for ''60 million years'' since the War in Heaven.
*Their dreaded Chaos corruption such as Scrapcode could literally be stopped by an AdMech Priest cutting off the connections fast enough during the Fall of Mars, knowing how abysmal 40k's A.I. are, that shit ain't touching the likes of a [[The Culture|Culture Mind,]] [[Halo|a Contendor-class A.I.,]] and the [[Xeelee Sequence|Anti-Xeelee]]. To state otherwise would be a No Limit Fallacy and a False Equivalency since the idea of scrapcode would be overpowered against the likes of the Necrons, Tau and the AdMech, yet this shit has seldomly been used which suggests limitations on the behalf of Chaos.

In retrospect, the contradictions of what the Chaos Gods/followers ''claim'' and what they are actually shown to do is no different than the problems the [[Hive Mind]] has found itself in as [[Tyranid#'Masters of Evolution'?|can be read here.]] They are all bound by GeeDubs' status quo and the balance of power, as such their powers are restricted insofar in one galaxy to preserve the status quo. With the bombshell of '''Godblight''', the argument of omnipotence has finally been shot down after Chaos got hit with a ''massive'' [[nerf]] bat. From the [[Emprah]] suggesting that the Daemon Primarchs can be redeemed, thereby making the threat of Chaos corruption impotent to Big-E literally shoving his Power Sword up [[Nurgle|Nurgle's]] ass and his garden, '''''permanently''''' wounding him grievously, to the outright confirmation that a Chaos God without sufficient faith would degenerate into Warp-soup and become perma-K.O. as faith is what gives Warp entities sentience. Godblight has single-handily trashed any presumption of Chaos omnipotence in but a few chapters, and let's not even get into a single [[Primaris Lieutenant]] kicking one of the strongest Nurglite Greater Daemons in the ass...[[Bullshit|''somehow'']].

So are the Chaos Gods powerful? In the universe of [[Star Wars]], [[Star Trek]] and [[Bioware|Mass Effect]], sure, of course they are. Are they omnipotent multiversal destroyers? Hell the fuck no. If you're honestly thinking that these ''guys'' are in the same ballpark as [[/co/|the Abstract Entities of Marvel and DC]], [[Doctor Who|the Time Lords]] or the motherfucking Downstreamers, then you should probably go see a doctor for a prostate exam; constant wanking is bad for ya health you know.

[[Tl;dr]], 40k is prone to not applying the concept of <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>, which is ironic given the reputation of 40k in general, but it happens again and again and again. A good narrative showcases its targets' capabilities and feats, a bad narrative just tells them to the viewers. If the Chaos Gods can actually pop universes like grapes, ''then we better fucking see them popping an actual universe''. No wishy-washy flowery language, no offhand statements in the codex, no shenanigans inside the Warp which is unreliable ''at best''. <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>. It isn't just the Chaos Gods that are guilty of this mind you, the [[Men of Iron]] and even the [[War in Heaven]] [[Necron]]s are guilty of this as well. Sun-snuffing machines the size of Saturn's rings and Breath of the Gods asshattery means jack shit if we don't actually see them in action. <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>.

Or maybe they are merely aspects of the the warp itself, immutable, unstoppable and actually multiversal, creating monsters for it's amusement.

==Khorne==
{{Main|Khorne}}
[[File:Khorne First.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Lord of RAEG, War, Butthurt, Steroids and Testosterone. Really just a grouchy puppy.]]

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! MILK FOR THE KHORNE FLAKES! BUTTER FOR THE POP KHORNE! Oh, sorry. In case it wasn't obvious, Khorne is the god of battle, martial honor, and oh yeah, BLOOD! Although primarily formed from hate and rage, bravery and honor are also thrown in the mix. Also in the mix are mercy (in particular, mercy for those too weak to put up a fight and be a challenge to kill. This is almost never shown in the fluff though, annoyingly), courage, regret, fear, athleticism, determination, daring, impulsiveness, and struggling onward in the face of any odds.
* Gender - DEFINITELY A MAN, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!! <strike> I thought he was female? </strike> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!* *BLAM!* THAT'S DOUBLE HERESY!!'''}}
* Main Enemy - Slaanesh, as he considers him/her/them to be too frilly and really doesn't care about sensations, especially when they prolong the spilling of blood, to the point fluff wise it is distinctly pointed out he hates the priss even more than tzeench, going so far as to have slaaneshi and khornates have the hatred special rule against eachother.
* Bro god - Nurgle, although he doesn't seem to mind Khaela Mensha Khaine (they're probably the same thing, though), and he is rumored to be in a polyamorous relationship with Mork and Gork.
* Love Interest - Gork and Mork (see above). [[Valkia the Bloody]] (Canonically - yes, your brain is now broken).
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - The [[World Eaters]], other various chapters and bands of warriors dedicated themselves to him since. Also has IG-equivalent armies like the [[Blood Pact]].
*[[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: Arbaal the Undefeated (ANGRY VIKINGS!! FUCK YEAH!!), Valkia the Bloody, Scylla Afingrimm (former warlord turned [[Chaos Spawn]] and still kicks ass), Hrafn Untam, Haargroth the Blooded, Skarr Bloodwrath. Khorne also has an entire Norse confederation especially devoted to him known as the Aeslingr.
* Sacred Number - 8 ("The eightfold path")
* Adjective - Khornate

<center><gallery>
File:WE Heretic Astartes 2.png|A Khornate Berzerker Heretic Astartes of the [[World Eaters]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Nurgle==
{{Main|Nurgle}}
[[File:Nurgle Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Despite his and his minion's appearances, they're actually pretty nice (for debatably self-aware boogers).]]

Nurgle is the god of filth, pestilence, decay, and generally being a cool dude (which are [[Neckbeard|obviously related]]). Formed from despair and fear of death, his portfolio also includes acceptance and stoicism. Other values include inevitability, empathy, kinship, struggle, (familial) love, tradition, mercy, and memory. Nurgle is also notable for being the only Chaos god that cares for his followers whatsoever, bordering on love (in fact in 40k, he loves the [[Eldar]] goddess [[Isha]] so much that he [[grimdark|chained her up and force feeds her his new diseases]], because that's the only way he knows how to express love... yeah, love sucks <s>sometimes</s> <s>all the time</S> most of the time). Also note that one aspect of him that is played up in the End Times is that he is in fact the god of life, only for him it means unrestrained, infinite life such as with pathogens and tumors.
* Gender - A (slob of a) man. A VERY fat, old one.
* Main Enemy - Tzeentch, the paragon of hope and change, in opposition to Nurgle's representation of decay and inevitability.
* Bro god - Khorne, mostly because Nurgle is the only Chaos god Khorne doesn't entirely hate.
* Love Interest - His joy and wife, [[Isha]]. Now pins for Alarielle, since he [[Everqueen#Isha.2FAriel_Alarielle_Fusion_Dance.21|lost Isha to her]].
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - The [[Death Guard]]. Has tons of other followers like the [[The Purge]] (omnicidal wackos who have no problem using chemical and virus weapons on helpless populations), [[Apostles of Contagion]] ([[Zombie Plague]] aficionados), the [[Lords of Decay]] (utterly loyal Marines sent to die in the Eye, holy fuck these guys made a direct assault on the Solar System and won Pluto), and human IG armies like the rebellion on [[Vraks]].
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: [[Valnir|Valnir the Reaper]], old school champion of Nurgle; [[Festus the Leechlord]] (this guy used to be a doctor in the Empire; he's not even a Northman). The Crow Brothers of the Björnlings are especially devoted to him also (Festus leads these guys), the [[Glottkin]], [[Gutrot Spume]] (a Nurglite pirate barbarian), the [[Maggoth Lords]] of Icehorn Peak. It could also be possibly argued (especially considering [[Age of Sigmar|Age of Skubmar]]) that the Skaven Clan Pestilens is some sort of splinter cult built on worshipping Nurgle while thinking that they're worshiping an aspect of the Horned Rat.
* Sacred Number - 7 (though 3 is also a popular number)
* Adjective - Nurglite
* Please note that the above lore mixes both Warhammer fantasy lore and Warhammer 40k lore which, although the character is virtually indistinguishable, are not the same thing. [[Skub|Maybe]].

<center><gallery>
File:Plague Marine 8th Ed.png|A [[Plague Marine]] of the [[Death Guard]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Slaanesh==
{{Main|Slaanesh}}
[[File:Slaanesh Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The embodiment of all things PR0N.]]

Slaanesh is the god/dess of pain, pleasure, and perfection... or, in other words, a god of [[1d4chan|emotions formed from emotions]], not all of which are bad. In 40k (WHFB didn't elaborate how Slaanesh was born, so we can only assume he/she/they manifested normally like the other Gods), the an inherently psychic race called the [[Eldar]] created him/her/them by having so many damn orgies they tore space-time a new asshole (The Eye of Terror). Formed mainly from hedonism and excess, love and creativity are also attributes of Slaanesh. Other facets include perfectionism, obsessiveness, attention-whoring, jealousy, sensuality, [[Doomrider|DRUGS]], empathy, self-expression, individuality, art, music, joy, and admiration (so quite literally the god of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll!).
* Gender - Whatever you want it to be, sugar! In WH Fantasy you'll see illustrations of a lecherous old hag / old man / old bits-of-both; in WH40k depictions are of a young flamboyant hermaphrodite.
* Main enemy - The brutish Khorne, obviously. H-he never calls...
* Bro god - Tzeentch, although that's mostly because he's the least icky of the Chaos gods. His/her/their friendship with Nurgle is a bit questionable since he stole [[Isha]] during Slaanesh's proverbial and... literal raping of the former Eldar Empire, though it isn't shown anywhere that Slaanesh still openly detests Nurgle for that (Hell, their daemons temporarily joined forces once or twice). Generally the most open to working with the others.
* Love Interest - All of them. Still pines for Isha, and is depressed no one ever seems to love him/her/them back. Tries to tempt Khorne into raping him/her/them. Gave up on Nurgle after he got married. For a long time has been pining for Tzeentch of all people, but she can never seem to make him think she likes him as more than just a friend. Basically, she's the hot chick who got friendzoned by the nerd. But he/she/they won't give up!
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - [[Emperor's Children]]. Also has others to call on like The [[Flawless Host]] (their drugs make Emperor's Children's look like baking powder), [[Violators]] (these guys body sculpt themselves enough to make a [[VtM|Tzimisce]] well up with pride), as well as, again, various IG-equivalent armies.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: Sigvald the Magnificent (he really is quite magnificent...), [[Dechala|Dechala the Denied one]], former high elf maiden turned into near greater daemon level, Azazel, former bro of [[Sigmar]], Styrkaar of Sortsvinear. <s>The Varg tribes serve him.</s> NO WE DON'T. Likely that the Hung worship him/her/them, purely judging from their nomenclature. Also, [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark Elves]], pre-retcon.
*Sacred Number - <s>sex</s> 6. Probably 69 and 420 as well, due to what they’re associated with.
* Adjective - Slaaneshi

<center><gallery>
File:Mandraykh Blyss EC.png|A Slaaneshi-Heretic Astartes of the [[Emperor's Children]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Tzeentch==
{{Main|Tzeentch}}
[[File:Tzeentch Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Change we can all believe in...]]

Tzeentch is the god of [[Just as planned]], being a wishy washy nerd, and magic, arguably the coolest and most potentially powerful of the four due to being nerfed from his actual true power in the height of his age of coming from both respective canons of Warhammer and generally being the most victorious when fighting against humanity and other races as a scheming jerkass. Tzeentch is formed from paranoia and plotting, but also, amazingly enough, hope and ambition. Other values include trust, curiosity, dissatisfaction, aspiration, progress, knowledge, learning, protection, will, anarchy, and change.
* Gender - Always changing, but usually male or genderless.
* Main Enemy - Nurgle, because he symbolizes stagnation, a.k.a. refusal towards change. Khorne as well, as the jock bullies him for his nerdiness, which is what Tzeentch wants you to believe, in truth he bullies and torments Khorne.
* Bro god(dess) - Slaanesh, who isn't as brutal/dumb as Khorne and not as much of a lazy bastard as Nurgle. Plus, he/she/they're nice to little Tzeentch! [[Cegorach]] might have a Shonen Rival Bro Bond with him when they dont fight on different teams.
* Love Interest - Kind of wishes that the Deceiver, Cegorach, and the Emperor were chicks. For female gods hes got an Eye for [[Arianka]] since she's a rival to his whole all play to her all work dynamic and wants her to be the [[Isha]] to his Nurgle.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - [[Thousand Sons]], and basically no other Space Marine groups; only [[The Scourged]] are canonical non-TS-descendants who are dedicated to Tzeentch. Tzeentch also apparently doesn't have any IG-equivalent armies dedicated to him in particular (besides the [[Prospero Spireguard]] who are more like the Thousand Sons auxilia than anything else). In-universe this is most likely because if a Guardsman is going to turn to a specific Chaos god, the prospect of [[Khorne|power and unending glorious conquest]], [[Nurgle|freedom from all pain and suffering]], or [[Slaanesh|all the booze, drugs and whores you can handle and then some]] are more attractive options than being a scheming nerd. Or else Tzeentch's non-marine cultists are rarely warriors or soldiers, more often power-hungry bureaucrats, nobles, Imperial Governors, and even Inquisitors. Out of universe it's hard to make Tzeentch-focused units other than TS when their signature units are sorcerers, who only come in small quantities on the tabletop, and the Sons-specific Rubric Marines. He also offers limited knowledge of the future, represented in game with a boosted Ward save from the Mark of Tzeentch.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero": <s>Vilitch the Curseling</s> [[Egrimm van Horstmann|Egrimm van Horstmann]]. No Chaos Tribe seems to revere him to any exceptional extent (well there was this Sarl tribe and it was ruled by a Tzeentch chieftian, but [[Wulfrik the Wanderer|Wulfrik]] killed him as well as his son) but he pulled out some nasty tricks such as becoming the grand magister of the Order of Light and fucking said order up before flying away on top of a dragon. Also, got [[Cathay]] in a bag.
* Sacred Number - 9
* Adjective - Tzeentchian

<center><gallery>
File:TS Sorc Divination.png|A Tzeentchian Chaos Sorcerer of the [[Thousand Sons]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Malal==
{{Main|Malal}}
[[File:Malal.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Then we have this motherfucking out of place/odd one out weirdo here....]]

Though not as relevant as the other big four, Malal is still more notable than the other minor Gods mentioned below. He's sort of the borderline between major and minor chaos gods.

Malal is a renegade Chaos god that only appeared in one comic for Fantasy before his creators divorced and took their character with them, resulting in GW shitcanning most of the original sculptors and artists. Then he was replaced with two entirely different characters with the same basic domain before being quietly swept under the rug and forgotten, barring the odd reference that slips out here and there. He is fittingly the god of fractiousness and dissent, which means his power is parasitic: any time the four other major Milky Way Warp gods do their thing, which is to say strive to gain power at the expense of the materium and eachother, Malal grows in power as well. Because of his nature as a common enemy to the big four and thus a Warp Entity that fights the Warp, he is also sometimes a god of atheism, contradictions, and paradoxes, when he exists at all. That being said, he did have awesome champions who lived solely to hunt down the greatest champions of the other gods, which is pretty [[Awesome]]. Sadly (or not, depending on your opinion), [[Games Workshop]] idiotically lost the rights to his name, so he's been more or less retconned. Except now he <i>might</i> be back in 40k, with a [[Chaos Space Marine]] warband called the [[Sons of Malice]] who worship a god called Malice...who just happen to wear a color scheme of black and white, and just happen to have a symbol of a bisected skull, and whose premier Chaos weapon specializes in killing Daemons. There's also [[Beastmen]] of Malal in one of the card games. But nope, don't you dare say they worship Malal. Like Khorne, Malal has an aspect of hate, however it's more along the lines of loathing (including towards self), [[derp|malice]] and cold contempt compared to Khorne's ragey hot-blooded variety. While a worshipper of either might shoot up a school, a malal worshipper would probably think of it like exterminating pests rather than a pleasant rampage. Beyond all that, his portfolio includes paradoxes, justice, revenge, nihilism, and the inevitability of Chaos turning upon itself. Every time the others fight or power shifts between them, he grows stronger. Just like Chaos will eventually win and consume all worlds, Malal will eventually win and consume all Chaos resulting in oblivion for all things...then if GW took the full bite off Moorcock's work and not just the parts they wanted, the whole thing starts all over again from the beginning.
* Gender - Maleal
* Main Enemy - EVERYONE. Because Malal's an edgy loner who doesn't play by the rules (also because he represents one of the few things GW didn't steal from [[Moorcock]], that Chaos eventually destroys itself), although the forces of [[Chaos Undivided]] might logically be prioritized over other folk.
* Bro God(ess) - Probably any character that has been retconned away, that [[Squats|is angry about not being a part of the canon anymore]]. A story where he temporarily joins forces with someone like Emps or the [[C'tan]] might also work.
* Love Interest(s) - As per his nature as an edgelord, he has a tsundere love-hate relationship with chaos itself.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Chapters - [[Sons of Malice]]. And that just about sums it up. No Imperial Guard equivalent, no daemon spawn, nothing (that we know of). So yeah, that pretty much makes him a god of hipsters too. /tg/ has made a fan-codex for [[Malal Daemonkin]], though, so go help yourself :)
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: A fellow named Kaleb Daark was Malal's first revealed servant, who swung around a pterodactyl head on a stick. The Ogre Skrag the Slaughterer fucked up dwarves in his name before pussying out to follow some shitty Ogre god thanks to retcons. There's a small tribe of Beastmen named the Claws of Malal as well.
* Sacred Number - 11
* Adjective - Malalic

<center><gallery>
Image:Maxresdefault.jpg|220px|A Malalic Space Marine
</gallery></center>

==Great Horned Rat==
{{Main|Horned Rat}}
[[File:Betterskaven.jpg|220px|right|thumb|Thinks he's better than sliced Jesus.]]

This otherwise-unnamed deity is patron of the [[Skaven]], and god of... well, rats. He also infringes copyright on both Nurgle's and Tzeentch's portfolios, but it's mostly rats. The Horned Rat once appeared in material form; he's the only Chaos god to do so. Of course, in Skaven fashion, he just ate a ton of the Skaven present, gave some orders and left; the Skaven only serve him out of fear, even though their belief in him only makes him stronger. He left them with a warpstone monolith containing the Skaven equivalent of the Ten Commandments.

In Age of Sigmar he was promoted to Chaos God following the demotion of Slaanesh out of the Great Game.
* Gender - Referred to as male.
* Main Enemy - Everyone, backstabbing is his primary creed and portfolio. Being cowardly, he will also work with any Chaos God, mostly Nurgle. Archaon shows him the least respect, however.
* Bro God(ess) - Nurgle, as far as his followers are concerned. They have very similar hobbies.
* Love Interest(s) - As Skaven themselves are incapable of feeling love, it is unlikely GHR can either.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Chapters - None. Great Horned Rat does not exist in 40k. Although there are [[Death Guard]] miniatures with [[Skaven]] heads.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero" - [[Clanrats]]. All of them. ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also apparently [[Thanquol]], because the Great Horned Rat thinks his fuckups are hilarious.
* Sacred Number - 13

==The Other Ones==
Older editions of Warhammer Fantasy and 40k mention several lesser Chaos gods. Nowadays, they only appear(ed) in WFB (and even then, only sparingly), with some (the Horned Rat and Hashut in particular) generally considered to be separate from the "main" Chaos pantheon.

Until the Horned Rat replaced Slaanesh as the Fourth Chaos god after the End Times. This change did not affect 40k (or presumably any other universe Slaanesh exists in), and Slaanesh is slowly breaking the prison walls.

===Warhammer Fantasy===
====Ashedte'gash====
A Minor Chaos God who was once an orphan on the streets of the Empire, who grew up learning that strength and cleverness are what allows one to survive, and that those who are weaker and stupider should be climbed over and killed to serve their betters. As such, he is served by only a few Greater Daemons, as the Lesser Daemons that followed him were all killed off for realsies in the Warp by their betters in an Ayn Randian survival-of-the-fittest natural selection murderfest.

Ash has only a handful of Greater Daemons serving him. All of the lesser daemons were destroyed in the ever present struggles to prove oneself to Ash. The remaining daemonic servants of Ashedte'gash are heavily armored Greater Daemons, wearing plate armor, carrying giant two handed swords. Little is known of these foul servants of Ashedte'gash. They lack wings to fly, but except from this nothing is known, but of their great strenght at arms.

====Atagro====
Lord of Beasts, was once mortal but was risen to Minor Chaos God status by Shagraunt, another Minor Chaos God, deeds included slaying a Sandworm in Araby. Atagro is a huge vicious creature clad in glistening black armor and crowned with a fierce, horned helm atop his blackened, skeletal head. Atagro's eyes burn with a fiery luminance, and he wears a huge shroud-like cloak. Tormented, vaguely human wretches struggle and writhe to peer out from under its folds. Atagro's armor is decorated with all the symbols of chaos, as he was once their most powerful champion. His hands are filthy and rotted; capped with grim steel talons and dark metal studs. Atagro's weapon, Kagorr, is a huge tooth edged sword with a second blade extending from the handle. The mighty god wields the blade with whirling grace and deadly precision. Kagorr is the most powerful weapon of chaos ever created and less powerful blades of similar appearance are often granted to Atagro's followers.
*'''Storm Lasher''' (also known as ''Serpent-Giants'', ''Twisting Punishers'', or ''Lashing Gargantuans''): These disgusting creatures appear as bloated gray skinned giants with long flailing tentacles for heads. The creatures have thick, two fingered hands with each finger ending in huge dark tentacles. Their short opposable thumbs are their only true fingers. The storm lashers are so named due to their affinity for lightning. Lashers whip their enemies with tentacles and make a sound like thunder when they run.
*'''Gull Grinder''' (also known as ''Raging Slug Men'', ''Screaming Beasts of Frenzy',' or ''Atagro's Habitations''): These creatures are among the more deadly of Atagro's demons. They appear as huge brown skinned strongmen with slug bodies for legs. Their enormous muscled arms end in the heads of lions and their own flat, bald heads are featureless save for beady black eyes and huge mottled beaks. The Gull Grinders attack by biting or spewing fireballs with their lion heads.
*'''Corpse Render''' (also known as ''Butchers of Atagro'', ''Beast-Lords'', or ''The Dark Titans''): The horrifying Corpse Renders are absolutely Atagro's most powerful greater demons. They look like massive 20' humanoids with black skin and the heads of rhinos. The Corpse Renders arms end in spherical masses of dark, twisted blades which spin and rotate at the will of the demons. The Renders awesome muscular legs end in flattened black hooves which they may scrape across the ground as they snort in anticipation of a coming fray.

====Be'lakor====
{{main|Be'lakor}}
The first [[Daemon Prince]] and ostensibly the only Daemon Prince of [[Chaos Undivided]], Be'lakor commands a great amount of power over the Realms. While still under the thumb of his four parents, he has been able to control a sizeable army of followers and has claimed to have even influenced [[Archaon]].

====Chaos Gods of Law====
Alluminas, Arianka, and Solkan the Avenger. These old-school dudes have their own page!

====Hashut====
{{main|Hashut}}
Hashut apparently means "Father of Darkness" in Dwarfen, which naturally means he's the god of the [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. And if his followers are any indication, he's also god of penis-compensating hats.

====Khakkek====
[[File:KhakkekkFollowers.jpg|200px|right]]
From old-school Warhammer, was the god of the Chaos Goblins. Was only mentioned once or twice, but was described as a red skinned, 8 limbed spidery-goblin who was a god of bloodletting but unlike Khorne, allowed for magic. Described as seen as halfway between Khorne and Khaine. The picture above shows a cult of his worshippers. If you look closely, you can see the Symbol of Chaos on the Shaman's Loincloth.

*'''Greater Daemon:''' The Great Demons of Khakkek feature an almost Goblinoid physiognomy, so they can be easily mistaken, from afar or in poor light, for an Orc (albeit very large). On closer inspection, however, we discover glowing red eyes, Chaos armor, and an impressive number of sharp teeth and claws (including a nice pair of fangs). His face can mirror Khakkekk's, and he wields a fiery giant sword with immense skill. Its characteristics are the same as those of a standard Minor Demon.
*'''Lesser Daemon:''' Just as the Big Demon looks like an Orc, Orc, the Little Demon looks like some kind of Goblin. He too, from afar or in poor light, can easily be mistaken for a Goblin (albeit tall), with red eyes. His face and impressive array of dangerous teeth and talons (no fangs) are also reminiscent of Khakkekk. Its characteristics are similar to those of a Minor Demon.
*'''Daemonic Beast:''' These creatures, sociable in the manner of the Nurglings, appear as Brats (would be Snotlings in more modern editions, since Greenskins now reproduce by spores) with glowing red eyes (this is the common characteristic of the demons of Khakkekk, with sharp teeth and talons) and sport 1d4 Chaos mutations. Like other demons, each has a face that strangely recalls its master. The profile of a Demonic Creature is the same as a standard Servant Demon, or, alternatively, that of a Nurgling (if you have Realm of Chaos: the Lost and the Damned).
*'''Daemonic Steed:''' Khakkekk's Demonic Mount appears virtually identical, at least physically, to a Large Wolf, and it may actually be. Whether or not this is the case, it is virtually identical. You can therefore use the description of the Big Wolf from the bestiary of WFRP1 or that of present in this project.

====Kweethul====
Kweethul Gristlegut was a Skaven who managed to become an extremely minor Chaos God in the older Warhammer editions. He was later mentioned as being a HERETIC against the Horned Rat in a later Skaven army book. The Horned Rat will suffer no challenger to its dominion over Skaven-kind! Could create his own Daemons, too.

*'''The Six Eyed Slayer:''' Greater Daemon. He stands about 10ft in height with a pair of three eyed goats heads. It carries a Chaos Weapon with the power of mutation.
*'''Floating Horror:''' Lesser Daemon. Appearing much as a Harpy but with the clawed feet of a Bear.
*'''Fire Runner:''' Daemonic Steed. A partially feathered beast with burning clawed feet.
*'''The Thing:''' Daemonic Beast.

====Meneloth====
An androgynous god of pleasure among the Elves, may have been a sort of proto-Slaanesh before being absorbed into the greater whole of Slaanesh upon Slaanesh's birth, either that or a toned-down aspect of Slaanesh used to lure Elves into worship of Slaanesh, like a dealer giving a watered-down needle of heroin to a kid to get them addicted before giving them the hard stuff.

====Necoho====
[[File:Necoho_Revealed.png|500px|thumb|right|[[/tg/]] has recently deduced Necoho's true identity.]]
Necoho is the god of atheism and one of the other minor gods invented as a replacement for Malal. Stupid as it sounds, it actually works, as Chaos is a reflection of all human beliefs and emotions, including, paradoxically, disbelief. He generally works to make religious movements disappear and wears a permanent expression of comic amusement, as he fucking knows he's a walking, talking paradox.

Note that Necoho was introduced in an adventure for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st Edition, so his current canonicity is doubtful, to say the least. That being said, he has been mentioned sporadically since then, such as the [[Gotrek & Felix]] novel ''Road of Skulls'', which is more than can be said for Zuvassin. Has been mentioned by name in the Age of Sigmar novel ''Auction of Blood'', along with a mention to his cult and an antitheist tract called "The Revelations of Necoho, or the Light of Doubt".

In the popular series [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device]], [[Magnus the Red]] made the point that the Emperor was, perhaps unknowingly, feeding a Chaos god of unbelief by promoting his Imperial Truth.

====Obscuras====
Brother of Alluminas, Chaos God of Law. Was originally one of the Gods of Law but got jealous of his brother and turned to Chaos proper.

Shadowphytes (also known as Shadow Daemons) are daemons of Obscuras, standing around the height of an average man. The most dedicated of Obscuras' cultists hope to join the ranks of the Shadowphytes upon their deaths. Shadowphytes appear as black shadowy humanoids whose features are only barely visible through the inner darkness they radiate. They cannot fly but possess the ability to melt into the shadows in one place and reappear in the shadows somewhere else within their line of sight. They fear the light and it is know to cause them actually damage when not standing in full or demi-darkness.

Shadowphytes can't cause physical wounding upon their victims, but cause damage through their touch, which robs the victim of his or her strength, and they are skilled users of the magical art of their master. It's said that anyone slain by a Shadowphyte is condemned to eternal torment in Obscuras' realm of shadow.

====Oubelgyr====
Oubelgyr is a Daemon-Prince who sits at the cusp of just-about-to-be-but-not-quite a Minor Chaos God, who is known to be a Peddler of Knowledge, like some sort of Daemonic Informant. Whereas Tzeentch is all about learning and then coveting secrets, Oubelgyr is always trying to find secret knowledge then sell it to the highest bidder, a trait useful for Chaos Sorcerers with sacrifices to spare who wish to skip the chanciness of Tzeentch's blessings. Was inprisoned at one point, but was able to scheme a way to unlock the door to his prison, only to then decide his prison was a nice lair and pretended to still be locked in. Rather than having daemons of his own, he has multiple Daemons and Mortal slaves who he has bound with contracts, who have to do as he says and guard him.

====Quorn====
[[File:QuornArtwork.jpg|200px|right]]

Not to be confused with Khorne, Quorn was the Minor Chaos God of carnivorous plants, whose schtick basically was "Radical Anti-Veganism" with carnivorous plant life devouring all flesh-creatures. His name was a double-pun, meant to sound like Khorne's and the same as a vegetable-based fake-meat substitute from before Impossible Meats were a thing. (Note: Pictured above is fan artwork produced by putting Quorn's name and description into Nightcafe, an Artificial Intelligence Art Program that makes art based on text description)

====Rhasneth====
The Chaos God of Insanity. Must be pretty batshit insane if his brand of nutters stands out amongst the general mental sickness of the rest of the Pantheon of Chaos.

The daemons of Rhasneth are to varied to make a single name for them, the most horrible nightmares of the most twisted madmen made real, pushing their way from the realm of nightmares into the world of the living to do their master's wish. The daemons of Rhasneth are special in that not all can see them, only those who have already lost their sanity can see them while all others fail to even notice them. The madman can scream in terror when his nightmares comes for him, not only to haunt him in his dreams but to feast upon his soul, while the rest of the world remains ignorant of the creature and tells him there is nothing there. Even as the daemon slowly approch, a mad twisted snarl upon its face...

====Screaming God-Child====
[[File:Screaming God-Child.png|200px|right|]]
Appearing only in the [[Malus Darkblade]] novel ''Lord of Ruin'', and more completely in the Malus chapters in Warhammer Monthly, the God-Child is the ruler of a little corner of the Realm of Chaos known as ''Alterity'', a massive chunk of rock on top of which lies walls in the shape of an eight-pointed star, guarded by ancient daemons who keep the locals and guests who enter from leaving Alterity. The God-Child himself takes the appearance of a young humanoid being with a near featureless face, only having a mouth, wearing robes and an amulet in the shape of the star of Chaos.

====Shagraunt====
A Minor Chaos God of whom even less is known of than Atagro, it was Shagraunt who ascended Atagro into the ranks of the Minor Chaos Gods.

====Stromfels/Mermedus====
Whilst often speculated to be [[Manann]]'s edgy dark half, Stromfels' mutant cults and rumored links to Khorne in earlier editions point towards his status as a minor Chaos god. Further proof of this is his patronage of sea mutant pirate Aranessa Saltspite, and his Chaos cult in the Gotrek and Felix story "Slayer of the Storm God", featuring his avatar, the "Harbinger of Stromfels".

Another variation of Manann but Chaos exists in the form of '''Mermedus''', the Norscan god of the sea, that's considered by some to be an even more edgy version of Stromfels. Notable that most Norscans don't even like him, because all who die at sea are claimed by him and denied entry to their patrons realm, except for the Skaelings who drown prisoners of war and animals for him after battles and raids. He's described as a ghoulish and bulbous figure that walks on the sea floor, covered in eyes and bloated like a drowned person. This is odd, as Stromfels' Avatar, Harbinger of Stromfels, looked like a Giant with a Tentacle where each of the Arms would be and the Head of a Shark.

In [[Total War: Warhammer II]], he is also [[Cylostra Direfin]]'s patron deity, having resurrected her as a vengeful ghost to wreak havoc against the High Elves and Bretonnians who rejected her singing.

In Age of Sigmar, he apparently is still worshipped by pirates in one area of Ghyran, and was worshipped by a tribe of Gargants in Azyr before Sigmar cleansed the realm of Chaos.

====Tristaris====
A Chaos Goddess of Misery, with a minor interest in knowledge. Represents the misery brought about by knowledge of Chaos' ultimate victory. Sounds like Tzeentch's perfect girl, a big tiddy goth nerd GF.

*'''Blissbane:''' (also known as ''Wailing Woman of Misery'',''Mistress of Destress'', or ''Gaunt Spirits of Lamentation'') This infernal creatures look like haggard, ghostly women with wild hair and gaunt, wrinkled bodies. They wear white shroud like clothes and are translucent to the eye. The Blissbanes emit occasional shrieks of pure misery as well as sudden bursts of maniacal laughter. They can pass through any obstacle as though they were ethereal, but are also incapable of manipulating any material objects. Often Blissbanes appear in groups of four, the number of Tristaris.
*'''Sloathe:''' (also known as ''Mounts of Misery'', ''Hunching Beasts of Suffering'', or ''Steeds of Tristaris'') The sloathes are bear sized creatures with four legs and short curved claws. The creatures have no heads and appear to be made almost entirely of layer upon layer of dark rags and shrouds. They make low grunting and grumbling sounds as they walk. The sloathes lash out with their claws in combat, and they have the ability to collapse into a pile of useless rags. The rags may be scattered by the wind or even burnt up; but unless every single one of them is destroyed the creature can return to its normal shape from any one of the pieces.
*'''Humanwood Tree:''' (also known as ''Oaks of Despair'', ''Petrified Eyes of Torment'', or ''Roots of Evil'') The humanwood trees are powerful demons that largely inhabit the groaning forests of misery in the pocket dimension that is Tristaris's realm in the chaos warp. The trees look like stubby, twisted oak trees with thick trunks and anguished human faces and bodies seemingly squirming about beneath their flexible bark. The trees speak a language that is their own and to hear it is to surely lose one's mind. All who hear the trees speaking will feel suffer from it as blood pours from their ears. The trees lash out with their branches and should the victom be caught the trees nine limbs will easily rip a held person to shreds. Strangly enough they are also immune to fire, somehting that would otherwise have been their main weakness.
*'''Sade:''' (also known as ''Screaming Devils of Sorrow'', ''Sobbing Lords of Tribulation'', or ''Jeering Lords of Languishing'') The Sades are Tristaris's greater demons. They look like gaunt red skinned men with long black beards, tiny horns from their foreheads and pointed chins. The Sades dress like nobles and their eyes are white and constantly streaming with bloody tears. Each of them carries a large, gleaming sickle. They also each carry a Lash of Lament and have long claws which they can use in close quarters. The Sades must consume twice their weight in living hearts each day that they exist in the material world if they are summoned.

====Urlfdaemonkin====
Urlf isn't a name. It's the last fucking death cry a guy makes when you gut him. That should tell you all you need to know. Anyway, this guy used to be a Norscan (like most of the daemon princes on this list) and was elevated to princehood by Khorne for exceptional badassery. Before his ascension, he was a massive, tall, bearded, Clint Eastwood-type Chaos Champion and was a chieftain of the Snaegr clan of Aeslingr. He's so fucking powerful that he was able to create his own lesser daemons and can bless warriors with the Mark and mutations of Khorne. Urlf has his own summoning days like most powerful daemon princes, and is usually worshiped as a lesser deity of Chaos by those who serve his master, Khorne. He has a short story in the 6th edition Chaos army book, where he muses on the fuck-you nature of time in the Warp and remarks on how the new Chieftain of the Snaegr resembles one of the sons he fathered in his mortal life. He also blesses the new chief with Khorne's mark and turns him into a monstrous cross [[Awesome|between a Bloodletter and a Chaos Champion]].

====Vymnn====
A Minor Chaos god who was only known as the master of the Daemon Prince Hakrii, who Atagro slayed (Hakrii, not Vymnn) in his quest for Daemon Princehood himself.

====Zhedun====
A Chaos God of gnawing, eternal hunger, who represents how Chaos would destroy itself if it ever won in the end, being dependent on sapient mortal thought for sustenance.

Daemons of Zhedun are known as Devouring Fiends (a.k.a. Mawed Ones, or Devourers) creatures ruled entirely by their own voracious appetite. They stands well over six feet tall, stooped, with atrophied arms but strong legs, and their heads are comprised mostly of a giant gaping jaw filled with massive teeth. Often they will stop at fallen foes, devouring their bodies in their Chaos-spawned hunger.

====Zuvassin====
Zuvassin is one of the two minor gods invented as a replacement for Malal. He just likes to see shit fall apart, specifically nonphysical stuff like schemes and lives - in other words, he's the god of [[not as planned]]. He's the guy who makes all the bad shit happen in infomercials. Generally, he makes sure that Murphy's Law is always enforced in the most spectacular possible ways. He doesn't have many worshippers, as he makes sure to fuck up whatever they're planning too.

Note that Zuvassin was only introduced in an adventure for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st Edition, so his current canonicity is doubtful, to say the least.

Actually, he is still canon, at least in Warhammer Fantasy. The 2nd Edition "Tome of Salvation" lists both him and Necoho as Chaos Gods.

And the motherfucker is STILL canon in Age of Sigmar, where a short story features a Chaos Champion named "Zuvass". Hmm.. I wonder who he might be worshipping.

Makes an appearance in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: WARHAMMER III]], where [[God-Slayer|Daniel]] can get an event where you can communicate with him and get his blessing, as he considers you important in disrupting the balance of Chaos.

====Ziraad, Thain, Blazzach and Javate====
4 Minor Chaos Gods known among the people of Araby, mentioned in Atagro's backstory as the gods worshipped by 4/6 members of his BATTLE-HAREM, the last 2 being a one of Tzeentch and one of Slaanesh.

===Warhammer 40,000===
====Balphomael====
[[File:Balphomael.png|200px|right]]
A minor Chaos God skirting on the edge of independent Greater Daemon, ruler of the Daemon World of Woe. Has a Christian Devil, "Let's Make a Deal" sort of vibe about him, complete with looking like classical illustrations of Demons and his name being a portmanteau of Baal, Baphomet and Samael. The art above is from a Dark Heresy book.

====King in Rags and Tatters====
Quite possibly a Chaos God version of Hastur from the Cthulhu Mythos, may or may not be a guise of Tzeentch. Leader of the "Menagerie" a Chaos Cult that seeks to unravel reality itself. Has unique demonic minions in the form of Warp Spectres, roiling, constantly changing masses of hideous-energy-being Daemons (like a Chaos Spawn made of gas and energy instead of fluid flesh?).

====Lord of Misrule====
Another minor Chaos God skirting on the edge of being an independent Greater Daemon from Dark Heresy. Also seeks to undo the veil between reality and the Warp.

====Melkirth====
Mentioned in older background material for Warhammer 40,000. Melkirth was a minor chaos god described as "The god of evil, malice, and wanton cruelty and suffering." While Melkirth remains a minor god, it is said that the actions of the mortal races, particularly the Dark Eldar, are causing Melkirth to grow in power until he ultimately becomes the fifth major Chaos God. The daemons of Melkirth are described as being the colour of shadow and able to take on the appearance of any daemon, be it a daemon of Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch. These shadow daemons could be inspiration for the shadow daemons Morathi encounters in Ulgu in Age of Sigmar, as they are also having to do with Dark Aelfs.

====Mo'rcck, Phraz-Etar, and Ans'l====
Puns on the last names of sci-fi and fantasy author Michael Moorcock (from whom the idea of [[Chaos]] as a fundamental force in the world was blatantly stolen/took inspiration from, and don't anyone ever say "borrow for a while" since even the author and Games Workshop have admitted it), artist Frank Frazetta (who drew a lot of movie and comic book posters, especially in sci-fi and fantasy), and Citadel Miniatures founder Bryan Ansell (who wrote several of the [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|First Edition]] rulebooks). These guys helped set the tone of the early [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe (purposefully or not), including the propensity of putting spikes on [[Chaos]] things. Games Workshop decided to pay homage in the (initial) Third Edition [[Codex]]: [[Chaos Space Marines]], which mentioned that Chaos Space Marines often put "spiky bits" on their armour in praise of these three gods. They were never mentioned anywhere else, and probably shouldn't be considered "canonical"... not that canonicity counts for much in 40k anyway.

====Raptor God====
The minor god worshipped by the [[Chaos Raptor]]s, responsible for turning them from standard [[Assault Squad|Assault Marines]] to the mercenaries they currently are, and maybe also the one that turns them into [[Warp Talons]].

====Ysarille the Daemon-King====
According to an Eisenhorn book, Ysarille was a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch from a time before the Eldar first went to space, before Slaanesh was born, and who gained enough power that he became capable of creating his own Daemons. He went to battle with his former master, and after a billion-year battle, Tzeentch finally killed Ysarille. His surviving Daemons took his body and fled, setting up a Tomb world for him on the planet Ghúl, and their own Daemon Empire of 600 worlds surrounding planet Ghúl, in exile from the Warp. Cherubael, Gregor Eisenhorn's minion who takes the form of a Daemonhost, was one of Ysarille's servants.

===Age of Sigmar===

All Warhammer Fantasy Gods, presumably. Zuvassin and Necoho are explicitly active.

====Archaon====
{{main|Archaon}}
Upon completing a new set of challenges by the Chaos Gods in AoS, he was empowered to demigod level and given free reign to do whatever he desired.

====Devourer of Existence====
A primitive aspect of Chaos as an apex predator, that wishes to devour all else and despises any sign of civilization, worshipped by the Untamed Beasts. Maybe a modern take on Zhedun?

====Eightfold Watcher====
Some sort of Chaos-Spider-Godbeast worshipped by the Tarantulos Brood. From Warcry Red Harvest.

====Ever-Raging Flame====
A massive fire of Chaos, said to be the Chaos personification of Aqshy itself, worshipped by the Scions of the Flame in the Realm of Fire.

====The Great Gatherer====
A (presumably) giant crow worshipped by tribesmen from Ulgu in the [[Age of Sigmar]]. Not much is known about him, since [[Warcry|the only game his followers appear in]] isn't out yet, but we do know that the [[Corvus Corax|Corvus]] Cabal (the aforementioned tribesmen) consider [[Archaon]] to be his avatar in the Mortal Realms. Theories range from it being an aspect of [[Tzeentch]] (notable avian features, Tzeentch is known to be interested in the Realm of Shadow, maybe gathering secrets?) or [[Nurgle]] (the Crow was Nurgle's totem animal among the Norscans, maybe gathering bodies?) to being a minor, but ascending, Chaos God not so far removed from the Great Horned Rat's path to the pantheon. He even has the weird connection to both Nurgle and Tzeentch the GHR does. It has been confirmed that the Warbands from Warcry will be usable in the main game, possibly as normal units, and will have the keyword SLAVES TO DARKNESS, which means he'll have some representation in a mainline game. Not too bad for the newest kid on the block.

====Morghur====
{{main|Morghur The Shadowgave}}
Originally one of the most notable Beastmen, he's worshipped as a minor Chaos God of mutation and devolution in Age of Sigmar. Wait what the fuck is this??

====Nagendra====
Originally a Godbeast, was splintered and the remains corrupted into Daemons called Coiling Ones, worshipped by the Splintered Fang.

===Blood Bowl===
====Nuffle====
{{Main|Nuffle}}
A joke Chaos God for [[Bloodbowl]], Nuffle is a mispronunciation of NFL (as in "National Football League", the American gridiron football pro league in real life), which would be pronounced "Noofle" as in "book" if you tried pronouncing it. Nuffle explains why the Blood Bowl universe is so wacky and gridiron football obsessed. Technically the superior to the rest of Chaos, although apparently only in the Blood Bowl universe.

===When Tzeentch was the best===
According to recent Tzeentch Codex/Battletome Tzeentch was at one point the sole major chaos god. A rebellion against him fractured him into many pieces, which because of warp time fuckery, technically counts as a different god. When chaos was first forming (just after War in Heaven for 40k) there were many chaos gods and entities competing (rather than the total domination that exists now). Tzeentch somehow became number one, and was a super god of sorts, although he was possibly less powerful than the current Tzeentch due to the lesser size and influence of chaos. A rebellion by all the other chaos gods fractured him, creating the Tzeentch we know today. In the same way that Slaanesh has always existed in 40k, the new Tzeentch has always existed the way he is. While the old Tzeentch is permanently destroyed (across all time), while still doing the things he did, what really matters is the influence in the material realm: Tzeentch's new self and Slaanesh started doing that when they were created relative to the materium, while the Warp is such a mess that a contradiction like old Tzeentch being completely destroyed while still having done the things he did is basically nothing. They are implied to be two seperate entites.

This is a variant of the backstory of The Blue Scribes.

{{ChaosGods}}

[[Category:Heresy]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Chaos Gods

2022-08-05T01:31:30Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Raptor God */

{{heresy}}
{{Topquote|The creatures of the Warp are just "aliens" too, but they are not life forms as we understand the term. They are not organic. They are extra-dimensional, and they influence our reality in ways that seem sorcerous to us. Supernatural, if you will. So let's use all those lost words for them... daemons, spirits, possessors, changelings. All we need to remember is that there are no gods out there, in the darkness, no great daemons and ministers of evil. There is no fundamental, immutable evil in the cosmos. It is too large and sterile for such melodrama. There are simply inhuman things that oppose us, things we were created to battle and destroy.
|Horus Lupercal, about to realize that he was wrong and that he could get great power, and then dearly regret his casual arrogance.}}

The '''Chaos Gods''' are the gods which rule over the Realm of [[Chaos]] in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]] and the [[Warp]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. They love nothing so much as dicking with each other, except perhaps with their mortal followers, and literally each other (especially Slaanesh). Before they were gods, they were generally benevolent beings, when the Warp was a calm sea. Each one is formed by the emotions of living souls clumped together in the Warp/Realm of Chaos. Contrary to standard thought, they personify good attributes as well, and are powered as much by good as by bad. Even if said god started out entirely bad, in their eventual evolution as part of their natures, they will kill gods who represented entirely good things, and will gain not only their values, but their power by said value.

Be aware many of the gods' values will and do intersect. This is as much due to the chaotic nature of the gods as it is to the multitude of emotions that make up the living. For example: let's say you're literally obsessed with brutally murdering people and you get a real nice kick out of it. The act of spilling blood is gonna feed [[Khorne]], while the ecstasy and obsessive sensation you get out of it will feed [[Slaanesh]]. So yeah, there's some overlap, in that an individual doing a certain thing, under specific circumstances, can simultaneously feed multiple Chaos Gods, but the God who was invoked (whether intentionally or no) upon when commuting the action will get the most power out of it (I.E: You killed someone for Khorne. While your ecstasy from the murder will feed Slaanesh a bit, your simple act of ending a life will feed Nurgle, your continued ambition to please the Blood God to earn his favor will also feed Tzeentch a bit, but Khorne gets the most since you offered that kill to him foremost).

==Overview==
According to the wikifans over at the Official Warhammer 40k Wiki, the Chaos gods were created and are sustained by the collective emotions of 'every sentient being of the material universe'; so not just the Milky Way, but every alien, both heretical and loyal, in the whole universe. This however probably isn't true, or rather it's just very bad wording, because if the Milky Way alone has all of these sentient races in it, then there's a safe bet that most other galaxies in the rest of the universe also have a multitude of sentient races too. And there are like, at least billions upon billions of galaxies in the observable universe, let alone the true universe which is likely many magnitudes larger. Based on what we've seen in the fluff, ''That'' many galaxies, filled with ''that'' many sentient lifeforms, ''all'' feeding only ''four'' Chaos Gods, would give said Chaos Gods so much power that they would probably have the capability to turn the entire galaxy (and many others) into massive Eyes of Terror at a simple scheming click of their heretical fingers. But of course, that hasn't happened (thank the fucking Emperor). Which probably means those wikijerks are talking complete [[Bullshit|unadulterated bullshit]] (or are making the common and infuriating mistake of conflating "universe" with "galaxy"). In actuality, the full range of influence the Ruinous Powers have only extends to the area of the Milky Way and not much further. After all, a specific location in the Warp corresponds with a specific location in the Materium; your thoughts and emotions will have an effect (albeit very minor) on the Warp in your specific corresponding location, and the collective thoughts and emotions of a galaxy's population will only have an effect on that specific galactic area of the overall Warp. This essentially means the four Chaos Gods are completely confined to the Milky Way galaxy, because that's where the emotions that created and feed them are currently being felt.

So what does that really mean? Well, it means the Warp in the vast, cold, empty space between galaxies is calm as fuck, absolutely nothing like the infested shitty plughole it is right now in our home galaxy, because there's no sentient life and hence no chaotic emotions there to stir it up. However, this also means that if other galaxies out there have their own interstellar sentient species with a presence in the Warp, then those galaxies will have their own Chaos Gods [likely just analogous versions of the four ([[Malal|point five]]) we have, although it's also possible that the different emotions might be allocated differently for each galactic pantheon; Andromeda might have gods based on the seven deadly sins, for example] that reside there and are also confined to the area of their own galaxy. But who knows? Maybe each warp god is a reflection of the galaxy that birthed it, and the aliens that live in other galaxies there have actually got their shit together and all get along like best buddies in a setting that just oozes [[Noblebright|noblebright]] from every pore, and the Chaos Gods there aren't even called that because they're all so friendly and cushy to everyone and like to play vidyagames with each other and cracking open cold ones on a warm Friday night while watching The Batchelor. Maybe the Warp gods in most galaxies actually maintain contact with those in neighbouring ones, and everyone just stays the fuck out of the Milky Way for the same reason most 21st century tourists stay out of Somalia. How sweet... I wonder what would happen if two galaxies, both with their own analogous Chaos Gods, collided. Would they just absorb each other into a new pantheon of four even-more-powerful Gods? Would they fight each other until one reigned supreme? Or would they get along like good ol' chums since they understand each other perfectly? Anyway, tangents. This fallacy is explained further in detail just right below.

Now that I say all of this, why the actual '''FUCK''' has no one decided to just up and leave the galaxy already?! It's a complete shithole! It's filled to the absolute brim with nothing but copious amounts of [[Grimdark]] and a whole host of things that want to murder, rape and eat you, not necessarily in that order. And it's ''still'' being filled up with that shit, both [[Necron|crawling out from under the ground]] and [[Tyranid|flying in from outer space to OMNOMNOMNOM the faces of everyone you both despise and adore]]. Even if you're lucky enough to escape the immediate crossfire, you're still likely to be part of [[Imperium|a civilisation that completely smashes any feeling of worth or individuality out of you and treats you like just another cog in the machine of trillions of cogs]]. Just leave already, god dammit. What about Andromeda? I hear it's rather pleasant this time of year. At least compared to this literal hellhole. But it's probably not possible for the same reason why [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]] and [[Lion El'Johnson|Lion-O]] couldn't simply fly over the Ruinstorm to get to Terra; if the space between galaxies is calm because there are no souls, that probably means there's no warp either, making intergalactic travel impossible. But this is just baseless speculation that contradicts the nature of the Warp's existence, specifically that the Warp is influenced by life, not created by life, and existed before even the first lifeforms did. Plus, you need to be Necron-tier to get pass the nids off galaxy. Or it could be things like the Void Dragon possibly eating a million galaxies before returning to ours where he then met the Emperor, the Tyranids consuming a thousand galaxies, and generally such things indiciate that outside of the Milky Way is worse than in the Milky Way.

But then again, It is officially stated that Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy are completely different franchises which just so happen to have the same Warp with the same Chaos Gods.

Now, where were we? Oh yes, Chaos Gods. Ahem.

===On the Question of Omnipotence===

One of the most [[Skub|talked about and hotly debated topics]], especially amongst Chaos players is the question of Omnipotence. [[Matt Ward|Other than massive fanwanking and colossal jerk-offs,]] it must be stated and stressed that the Chaos Gods for all their strength are not omnipotent, for to be omnipotent means to be all-powerful and the idea of the Great Game greatly debunks this claim. Part of the problem may lie in the fact that folks like to give examples of the power of the Chaos Gods from codexes from the Rogue Trader era and Second Edition, eras which are of ''dubious'' canonicity. You see, what they don't seem to understand is that GW, especially ''early'' GW, had a habit of making use of flowery language and hyperbole to exaggerate the grandeur of something or someone. This by itself is not a problem, as 40k runs on exaggeration. The problem is that [[Powergamer|''some folks'']] seems to lack any ability to discern nuances or critical thinking skills and proceed to extrapolate these hyperboles as true, completely ignoring the fact that the majority of these flowery examples came from either a) the viewpoint of a Chaos Cultist b) in-universe propaganda and/or c) extremely old sources where [[Ian Watson|all sorts of wacky hijinks were birthed.]] As such, the credibility is highly suspect and should be taken with a mountain of salt.

So when sources 'claim' that the Chaos Gods could destroy 'universes' or Greater Daemons were [[Exterminatus|destroying entire planets wholesale]] within the [[Warp]], the validity should be scrutinized in the same way fa/tg/uys scrutinize [[Furries]]. What the Chaos Gods or their followers claim to be true (remember that they are notorious [[Bullshit|liars]]) does not match up with their actual abilities both in Warpspace and in Realspace. If they were truly multiversal as they claim, then, first of all, the [[Hive Mind|Shadow of the Warp]] should not be an existential threat to them. After all, a true universal - let alone multiversal - entity should not even notice a few intergalactic bugs on the windshield. Moreover, the Necron Pylons should also not be considered a threat to the big four, for if they possess such levels of reality-warping power, they should not be dependent in letting their [[Failbaddon|errand boy]] do all their dirty work for them in realspace. Even in the Warp, their so-called 'omnipotence' did not stop a certain [[Kaldor Draigo|Mary Sue]] from trashing their backyard from time to time.

The reality is the Chaos Gods, as far as deities go in Science Fiction, are pretty weak sauce. For example:
*They are utterly dependent on the emotions of a single galaxy (if they really did not care about emotions as some may claim, then they shouldn't be ''that'' invested in the Imperium now would they?).
*Certain [[Tyranids|critters with enough mindless psychic connections can close entire Warp-rifts and there is nothing the Chaos Gods can do about it;.]]
*Tzeentch's self-proclaimed omniscience is put into doubt seeing as how he and his [[Kairos Fateweaver|underlings]] failed to predict the rise of [[Roboute Guilliman|Robo Guillitan]] [[Gathering Storm|and the following]] [[Indomitus Crusade|mechinations of it]].
*Their self-proclaimed reality-warping powers are self-contained in the Warp, and even then it is restricted to their own realms. Much like how a child could create and manipulate anything in a sandpit does not automatically equate to the child turning sand into gold, the same analogy applies here - seriously it is telling that the Gods of Chaos couldn't do jackshit about the Necron Pylons for ''60 million years'' since the War in Heaven.
*Their dreaded Chaos corruption such as Scrapcode could literally be stopped by an AdMech Priest cutting off the connections fast enough during the Fall of Mars, knowing how abysmal 40k's A.I. are, that shit ain't touching the likes of a [[The Culture|Culture Mind,]] [[Halo|a Contendor-class A.I.,]] and the [[Xeelee Sequence|Anti-Xeelee]]. To state otherwise would be a No Limit Fallacy and a False Equivalency since the idea of scrapcode would be overpowered against the likes of the Necrons, Tau and the AdMech, yet this shit has seldomly been used which suggests limitations on the behalf of Chaos.

In retrospect, the contradictions of what the Chaos Gods/followers ''claim'' and what they are actually shown to do is no different than the problems the [[Hive Mind]] has found itself in as [[Tyranid#'Masters of Evolution'?|can be read here.]] They are all bound by GeeDubs' status quo and the balance of power, as such their powers are restricted insofar in one galaxy to preserve the status quo. With the bombshell of '''Godblight''', the argument of omnipotence has finally been shot down after Chaos got hit with a ''massive'' [[nerf]] bat. From the [[Emprah]] suggesting that the Daemon Primarchs can be redeemed, thereby making the threat of Chaos corruption impotent to Big-E literally shoving his Power Sword up [[Nurgle|Nurgle's]] ass and his garden, '''''permanently''''' wounding him grievously, to the outright confirmation that a Chaos God without sufficient faith would degenerate into Warp-soup and become perma-K.O. as faith is what gives Warp entities sentience. Godblight has single-handily trashed any presumption of Chaos omnipotence in but a few chapters, and let's not even get into a single [[Primaris Lieutenant]] kicking one of the strongest Nurglite Greater Daemons in the ass...[[Bullshit|''somehow'']].

So are the Chaos Gods powerful? In the universe of [[Star Wars]], [[Star Trek]] and [[Bioware|Mass Effect]], sure, of course they are. Are they omnipotent multiversal destroyers? Hell the fuck no. If you're honestly thinking that these ''guys'' are in the same ballpark as [[/co/|the Abstract Entities of Marvel and DC]], [[Doctor Who|the Time Lords]] or the motherfucking Downstreamers, then you should probably go see a doctor for a prostate exam; constant wanking is bad for ya health you know.

[[Tl;dr]], 40k is prone to not applying the concept of <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>, which is ironic given the reputation of 40k in general, but it happens again and again and again. A good narrative showcases its targets' capabilities and feats, a bad narrative just tells them to the viewers. If the Chaos Gods can actually pop universes like grapes, ''then we better fucking see them popping an actual universe''. No wishy-washy flowery language, no offhand statements in the codex, no shenanigans inside the Warp which is unreliable ''at best''. <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>. It isn't just the Chaos Gods that are guilty of this mind you, the [[Men of Iron]] and even the [[War in Heaven]] [[Necron]]s are guilty of this as well. Sun-snuffing machines the size of Saturn's rings and Breath of the Gods asshattery means jack shit if we don't actually see them in action. <u>'''Show Don't Tell'''</u>.

Or maybe they are merely aspects of the the warp itself, immutable, unstoppable and actually multiversal, creating monsters for it's amusement.

==Khorne==
{{Main|Khorne}}
[[File:Khorne First.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Lord of RAEG, War, Butthurt, Steroids and Testosterone. Really just a grouchy puppy.]]

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! MILK FOR THE KHORNE FLAKES! BUTTER FOR THE POP KHORNE! Oh, sorry. In case it wasn't obvious, Khorne is the god of battle, martial honor, and oh yeah, BLOOD! Although primarily formed from hate and rage, bravery and honor are also thrown in the mix. Also in the mix are mercy (in particular, mercy for those too weak to put up a fight and be a challenge to kill. This is almost never shown in the fluff though, annoyingly), courage, regret, fear, athleticism, determination, daring, impulsiveness, and struggling onward in the face of any odds.
* Gender - DEFINITELY A MAN, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!! <strike> I thought he was female? </strike> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!* *BLAM!* THAT'S DOUBLE HERESY!!'''}}
* Main Enemy - Slaanesh, as he considers him/her/them to be too frilly and really doesn't care about sensations, especially when they prolong the spilling of blood, to the point fluff wise it is distinctly pointed out he hates the priss even more than tzeench, going so far as to have slaaneshi and khornates have the hatred special rule against eachother.
* Bro god - Nurgle, although he doesn't seem to mind Khaela Mensha Khaine (they're probably the same thing, though), and he is rumored to be in a polyamorous relationship with Mork and Gork.
* Love Interest - Gork and Mork (see above). [[Valkia the Bloody]] (Canonically - yes, your brain is now broken).
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - The [[World Eaters]], other various chapters and bands of warriors dedicated themselves to him since. Also has IG-equivalent armies like the [[Blood Pact]].
*[[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: Arbaal the Undefeated (ANGRY VIKINGS!! FUCK YEAH!!), Valkia the Bloody, Scylla Afingrimm (former warlord turned [[Chaos Spawn]] and still kicks ass), Hrafn Untam, Haargroth the Blooded, Skarr Bloodwrath. Khorne also has an entire Norse confederation especially devoted to him known as the Aeslingr.
* Sacred Number - 8 ("The eightfold path")
* Adjective - Khornate

<center><gallery>
File:WE Heretic Astartes 2.png|A Khornate Berzerker Heretic Astartes of the [[World Eaters]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Nurgle==
{{Main|Nurgle}}
[[File:Nurgle Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Despite his and his minion's appearances, they're actually pretty nice (for debatably self-aware boogers).]]

Nurgle is the god of filth, pestilence, decay, and generally being a cool dude (which are [[Neckbeard|obviously related]]). Formed from despair and fear of death, his portfolio also includes acceptance and stoicism. Other values include inevitability, empathy, kinship, struggle, (familial) love, tradition, mercy, and memory. Nurgle is also notable for being the only Chaos god that cares for his followers whatsoever, bordering on love (in fact in 40k, he loves the [[Eldar]] goddess [[Isha]] so much that he [[grimdark|chained her up and force feeds her his new diseases]], because that's the only way he knows how to express love... yeah, love sucks <s>sometimes</s> <s>all the time</S> most of the time). Also note that one aspect of him that is played up in the End Times is that he is in fact the god of life, only for him it means unrestrained, infinite life such as with pathogens and tumors.
* Gender - A (slob of a) man. A VERY fat, old one.
* Main Enemy - Tzeentch, the paragon of hope and change, in opposition to Nurgle's representation of decay and inevitability.
* Bro god - Khorne, mostly because Nurgle is the only Chaos god Khorne doesn't entirely hate.
* Love Interest - His joy and wife, [[Isha]]. Now pins for Alarielle, since he [[Everqueen#Isha.2FAriel_Alarielle_Fusion_Dance.21|lost Isha to her]].
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - The [[Death Guard]]. Has tons of other followers like the [[The Purge]] (omnicidal wackos who have no problem using chemical and virus weapons on helpless populations), [[Apostles of Contagion]] ([[Zombie Plague]] aficionados), the [[Lords of Decay]] (utterly loyal Marines sent to die in the Eye, holy fuck these guys made a direct assault on the Solar System and won Pluto), and human IG armies like the rebellion on [[Vraks]].
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: [[Valnir|Valnir the Reaper]], old school champion of Nurgle; [[Festus the Leechlord]] (this guy used to be a doctor in the Empire; he's not even a Northman). The Crow Brothers of the Björnlings are especially devoted to him also (Festus leads these guys), the [[Glottkin]], [[Gutrot Spume]] (a Nurglite pirate barbarian), the [[Maggoth Lords]] of Icehorn Peak. It could also be possibly argued (especially considering [[Age of Sigmar|Age of Skubmar]]) that the Skaven Clan Pestilens is some sort of splinter cult built on worshipping Nurgle while thinking that they're worshiping an aspect of the Horned Rat.
* Sacred Number - 7 (though 3 is also a popular number)
* Adjective - Nurglite
* Please note that the above lore mixes both Warhammer fantasy lore and Warhammer 40k lore which, although the character is virtually indistinguishable, are not the same thing. [[Skub|Maybe]].

<center><gallery>
File:Plague Marine 8th Ed.png|A [[Plague Marine]] of the [[Death Guard]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Slaanesh==
{{Main|Slaanesh}}
[[File:Slaanesh Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The embodiment of all things PR0N.]]

Slaanesh is the god/dess of pain, pleasure, and perfection... or, in other words, a god of [[1d4chan|emotions formed from emotions]], not all of which are bad. In 40k (WHFB didn't elaborate how Slaanesh was born, so we can only assume he/she/they manifested normally like the other Gods), the an inherently psychic race called the [[Eldar]] created him/her/them by having so many damn orgies they tore space-time a new asshole (The Eye of Terror). Formed mainly from hedonism and excess, love and creativity are also attributes of Slaanesh. Other facets include perfectionism, obsessiveness, attention-whoring, jealousy, sensuality, [[Doomrider|DRUGS]], empathy, self-expression, individuality, art, music, joy, and admiration (so quite literally the god of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll!).
* Gender - Whatever you want it to be, sugar! In WH Fantasy you'll see illustrations of a lecherous old hag / old man / old bits-of-both; in WH40k depictions are of a young flamboyant hermaphrodite.
* Main enemy - The brutish Khorne, obviously. H-he never calls...
* Bro god - Tzeentch, although that's mostly because he's the least icky of the Chaos gods. His/her/their friendship with Nurgle is a bit questionable since he stole [[Isha]] during Slaanesh's proverbial and... literal raping of the former Eldar Empire, though it isn't shown anywhere that Slaanesh still openly detests Nurgle for that (Hell, their daemons temporarily joined forces once or twice). Generally the most open to working with the others.
* Love Interest - All of them. Still pines for Isha, and is depressed no one ever seems to love him/her/them back. Tries to tempt Khorne into raping him/her/them. Gave up on Nurgle after he got married. For a long time has been pining for Tzeentch of all people, but she can never seem to make him think she likes him as more than just a friend. Basically, she's the hot chick who got friendzoned by the nerd. But he/she/they won't give up!
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - [[Emperor's Children]]. Also has others to call on like The [[Flawless Host]] (their drugs make Emperor's Children's look like baking powder), [[Violators]] (these guys body sculpt themselves enough to make a [[VtM|Tzimisce]] well up with pride), as well as, again, various IG-equivalent armies.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: Sigvald the Magnificent (he really is quite magnificent...), [[Dechala|Dechala the Denied one]], former high elf maiden turned into near greater daemon level, Azazel, former bro of [[Sigmar]], Styrkaar of Sortsvinear. <s>The Varg tribes serve him.</s> NO WE DON'T. Likely that the Hung worship him/her/them, purely judging from their nomenclature. Also, [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark Elves]], pre-retcon.
*Sacred Number - <s>sex</s> 6. Probably 69 and 420 as well, due to what they’re associated with.
* Adjective - Slaaneshi

<center><gallery>
File:Mandraykh Blyss EC.png|A Slaaneshi-Heretic Astartes of the [[Emperor's Children]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Tzeentch==
{{Main|Tzeentch}}
[[File:Tzeentch Old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Change we can all believe in...]]

Tzeentch is the god of [[Just as planned]], being a wishy washy nerd, and magic, arguably the coolest and most potentially powerful of the four due to being nerfed from his actual true power in the height of his age of coming from both respective canons of Warhammer and generally being the most victorious when fighting against humanity and other races as a scheming jerkass. Tzeentch is formed from paranoia and plotting, but also, amazingly enough, hope and ambition. Other values include trust, curiosity, dissatisfaction, aspiration, progress, knowledge, learning, protection, will, anarchy, and change.
* Gender - Always changing, but usually male or genderless.
* Main Enemy - Nurgle, because he symbolizes stagnation, a.k.a. refusal towards change. Khorne as well, as the jock bullies him for his nerdiness, which is what Tzeentch wants you to believe, in truth he bullies and torments Khorne.
* Bro god(dess) - Slaanesh, who isn't as brutal/dumb as Khorne and not as much of a lazy bastard as Nurgle. Plus, he/she/they're nice to little Tzeentch! [[Cegorach]] might have a Shonen Rival Bro Bond with him when they dont fight on different teams.
* Love Interest - Kind of wishes that the Deceiver, Cegorach, and the Emperor were chicks. For female gods hes got an Eye for [[Arianka]] since she's a rival to his whole all play to her all work dynamic and wants her to be the [[Isha]] to his Nurgle.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion - [[Thousand Sons]], and basically no other Space Marine groups; only [[The Scourged]] are canonical non-TS-descendants who are dedicated to Tzeentch. Tzeentch also apparently doesn't have any IG-equivalent armies dedicated to him in particular (besides the [[Prospero Spireguard]] who are more like the Thousand Sons auxilia than anything else). In-universe this is most likely because if a Guardsman is going to turn to a specific Chaos god, the prospect of [[Khorne|power and unending glorious conquest]], [[Nurgle|freedom from all pain and suffering]], or [[Slaanesh|all the booze, drugs and whores you can handle and then some]] are more attractive options than being a scheming nerd. Or else Tzeentch's non-marine cultists are rarely warriors or soldiers, more often power-hungry bureaucrats, nobles, Imperial Governors, and even Inquisitors. Out of universe it's hard to make Tzeentch-focused units other than TS when their signature units are sorcerers, who only come in small quantities on the tabletop, and the Sons-specific Rubric Marines. He also offers limited knowledge of the future, represented in game with a boosted Ward save from the Mark of Tzeentch.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero": <s>Vilitch the Curseling</s> [[Egrimm van Horstmann|Egrimm van Horstmann]]. No Chaos Tribe seems to revere him to any exceptional extent (well there was this Sarl tribe and it was ruled by a Tzeentch chieftian, but [[Wulfrik the Wanderer|Wulfrik]] killed him as well as his son) but he pulled out some nasty tricks such as becoming the grand magister of the Order of Light and fucking said order up before flying away on top of a dragon. Also, got [[Cathay]] in a bag.
* Sacred Number - 9
* Adjective - Tzeentchian

<center><gallery>
File:TS Sorc Divination.png|A Tzeentchian Chaos Sorcerer of the [[Thousand Sons]] Traitor Legion.
</gallery></center>

==Malal==
{{Main|Malal}}
[[File:Malal.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Then we have this motherfucking out of place/odd one out weirdo here....]]

Though not as relevant as the other big four, Malal is still more notable than the other minor Gods mentioned below. He's sort of the borderline between major and minor chaos gods.

Malal is a renegade Chaos god that only appeared in one comic for Fantasy before his creators divorced and took their character with them, resulting in GW shitcanning most of the original sculptors and artists. Then he was replaced with two entirely different characters with the same basic domain before being quietly swept under the rug and forgotten, barring the odd reference that slips out here and there. He is fittingly the god of fractiousness and dissent, which means his power is parasitic: any time the four other major Milky Way Warp gods do their thing, which is to say strive to gain power at the expense of the materium and eachother, Malal grows in power as well. Because of his nature as a common enemy to the big four and thus a Warp Entity that fights the Warp, he is also sometimes a god of atheism, contradictions, and paradoxes, when he exists at all. That being said, he did have awesome champions who lived solely to hunt down the greatest champions of the other gods, which is pretty [[Awesome]]. Sadly (or not, depending on your opinion), [[Games Workshop]] idiotically lost the rights to his name, so he's been more or less retconned. Except now he <i>might</i> be back in 40k, with a [[Chaos Space Marine]] warband called the [[Sons of Malice]] who worship a god called Malice...who just happen to wear a color scheme of black and white, and just happen to have a symbol of a bisected skull, and whose premier Chaos weapon specializes in killing Daemons. There's also [[Beastmen]] of Malal in one of the card games. But nope, don't you dare say they worship Malal. Like Khorne, Malal has an aspect of hate, however it's more along the lines of loathing (including towards self), [[derp|malice]] and cold contempt compared to Khorne's ragey hot-blooded variety. While a worshipper of either might shoot up a school, a malal worshipper would probably think of it like exterminating pests rather than a pleasant rampage. Beyond all that, his portfolio includes paradoxes, justice, revenge, nihilism, and the inevitability of Chaos turning upon itself. Every time the others fight or power shifts between them, he grows stronger. Just like Chaos will eventually win and consume all worlds, Malal will eventually win and consume all Chaos resulting in oblivion for all things...then if GW took the full bite off Moorcock's work and not just the parts they wanted, the whole thing starts all over again from the beginning.
* Gender - Maleal
* Main Enemy - EVERYONE. Because Malal's an edgy loner who doesn't play by the rules (also because he represents one of the few things GW didn't steal from [[Moorcock]], that Chaos eventually destroys itself), although the forces of [[Chaos Undivided]] might logically be prioritized over other folk.
* Bro God(ess) - Probably any character that has been retconned away, that [[Squats|is angry about not being a part of the canon anymore]]. A story where he temporarily joins forces with someone like Emps or the [[C'tan]] might also work.
* Love Interest(s) - As per his nature as an edgelord, he has a tsundere love-hate relationship with chaos itself.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Chapters - [[Sons of Malice]]. And that just about sums it up. No Imperial Guard equivalent, no daemon spawn, nothing (that we know of). So yeah, that pretty much makes him a god of hipsters too. /tg/ has made a fan-codex for [[Malal Daemonkin]], though, so go help yourself :)
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero"/Chaos Tribe: A fellow named Kaleb Daark was Malal's first revealed servant, who swung around a pterodactyl head on a stick. The Ogre Skrag the Slaughterer fucked up dwarves in his name before pussying out to follow some shitty Ogre god thanks to retcons. There's a small tribe of Beastmen named the Claws of Malal as well.
* Sacred Number - 11
* Adjective - Malalic

<center><gallery>
Image:Maxresdefault.jpg|220px|A Malalic Space Marine
</gallery></center>

==Great Horned Rat==
{{Main|Horned Rat}}
[[File:Betterskaven.jpg|220px|right|thumb|Thinks he's better than sliced Jesus.]]

This otherwise-unnamed deity is patron of the [[Skaven]], and god of... well, rats. He also infringes copyright on both Nurgle's and Tzeentch's portfolios, but it's mostly rats. The Horned Rat once appeared in material form; he's the only Chaos god to do so. Of course, in Skaven fashion, he just ate a ton of the Skaven present, gave some orders and left; the Skaven only serve him out of fear, even though their belief in him only makes him stronger. He left them with a warpstone monolith containing the Skaven equivalent of the Ten Commandments.

In Age of Sigmar he was promoted to Chaos God following the demotion of Slaanesh out of the Great Game.
* Gender - Referred to as male.
* Main Enemy - Everyone, backstabbing is his primary creed and portfolio. Being cowardly, he will also work with any Chaos God, mostly Nurgle. Archaon shows him the least respect, however.
* Bro God(ess) - Nurgle, as far as his followers are concerned. They have very similar hobbies.
* Love Interest(s) - As Skaven themselves are incapable of feeling love, it is unlikely GHR can either.
* Dedicated [[Chaos Space Marine]] Chapters - None. Great Horned Rat does not exist in 40k. Although there are [[Death Guard]] miniatures with [[Skaven]] heads.
* [[Warriors of Chaos]] "Hero" - [[Clanrats]]. All of them. ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also apparently [[Thanquol]], because the Great Horned Rat thinks his fuckups are hilarious.
* Sacred Number - 13

==The Other Ones==
Older editions of Warhammer Fantasy and 40k mention several lesser Chaos gods. Nowadays, they only appear(ed) in WFB (and even then, only sparingly), with some (the Horned Rat and Hashut in particular) generally considered to be separate from the "main" Chaos pantheon.

Until the Horned Rat replaced Slaanesh as the Fourth Chaos god after the End Times. This change did not affect 40k (or presumably any other universe Slaanesh exists in), and Slaanesh is slowly breaking the prison walls.

===Warhammer Fantasy===
====Ashedte'gash====
A Minor Chaos God who was once an orphan on the streets of the Empire, who grew up learning that strength and cleverness are what allows one to survive, and that those who are weaker and stupider should be climbed over and killed to serve their betters. As such, he is served by only a few Greater Daemons, as the Lesser Daemons that followed him were all killed off for realsies in the Warp by their betters in an Ayn Randian survival-of-the-fittest natural selection murderfest.

Ash has only a handful of Greater Daemons serving him. All of the lesser daemons were destroyed in the ever present struggles to prove oneself to Ash. The remaining daemonic servants of Ashedte'gash are heavily armored Greater Daemons, wearing plate armor, carrying giant two handed swords. Little is known of these foul servants of Ashedte'gash. They lack wings to fly, but except from this nothing is known, but of their great strenght at arms.

====Atagro====
Lord of Beasts, was once mortal but was risen to Minor Chaos God status by Shagraunt, another Minor Chaos God, deeds included slaying a Sandworm in Araby. Atagro is a huge vicious creature clad in glistening black armor and crowned with a fierce, horned helm atop his blackened, skeletal head. Atagro's eyes burn with a fiery luminance, and he wears a huge shroud-like cloak. Tormented, vaguely human wretches struggle and writhe to peer out from under its folds. Atagro's armor is decorated with all the symbols of chaos, as he was once their most powerful champion. His hands are filthy and rotted; capped with grim steel talons and dark metal studs. Atagro's weapon, Kagorr, is a huge tooth edged sword with a second blade extending from the handle. The mighty god wields the blade with whirling grace and deadly precision. Kagorr is the most powerful weapon of chaos ever created and less powerful blades of similar appearance are often granted to Atagro's followers.
*'''Storm Lasher''' (also known as ''Serpent-Giants'', ''Twisting Punishers'', or ''Lashing Gargantuans''): These disgusting creatures appear as bloated gray skinned giants with long flailing tentacles for heads. The creatures have thick, two fingered hands with each finger ending in huge dark tentacles. Their short opposable thumbs are their only true fingers. The storm lashers are so named due to their affinity for lightning. Lashers whip their enemies with tentacles and make a sound like thunder when they run.
*'''Gull Grinder''' (also known as ''Raging Slug Men'', ''Screaming Beasts of Frenzy',' or ''Atagro's Habitations''): These creatures are among the more deadly of Atagro's demons. They appear as huge brown skinned strongmen with slug bodies for legs. Their enormous muscled arms end in the heads of lions and their own flat, bald heads are featureless save for beady black eyes and huge mottled beaks. The Gull Grinders attack by biting or spewing fireballs with their lion heads.
*'''Corpse Render''' (also known as ''Butchers of Atagro'', ''Beast-Lords'', or ''The Dark Titans''): The horrifying Corpse Renders are absolutely Atagro's most powerful greater demons. They look like massive 20' humanoids with black skin and the heads of rhinos. The Corpse Renders arms end in spherical masses of dark, twisted blades which spin and rotate at the will of the demons. The Renders awesome muscular legs end in flattened black hooves which they may scrape across the ground as they snort in anticipation of a coming fray.

====Be'lakor====
{{main|Be'lakor}}
The first [[Daemon Prince]] and ostensibly the only Daemon Prince of [[Chaos Undivided]], Be'lakor commands a great amount of power over the Realms. While still under the thumb of his four parents, he has been able to control a sizeable army of followers and has claimed to have even influenced [[Archaon]].

====Chaos Gods of Law====
Alluminas, Arianka, and Solkan the Avenger. These old-school dudes have their own page!

====Hashut====
{{main|Hashut}}
Hashut apparently means "Father of Darkness" in Dwarfen, which naturally means he's the god of the [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. And if his followers are any indication, he's also god of penis-compensating hats.

====Khakkek====
[[File:KhakkekkFollowers.jpg|200px|right]]
From old-school Warhammer, was the god of the Chaos Goblins. Was only mentioned once or twice, but was described as a red skinned, 8 limbed spidery-goblin who was a god of bloodletting but unlike Khorne, allowed for magic. Described as seen as halfway between Khorne and Khaine. The picture above shows a cult of his worshippers. If you look closely, you can see the Symbol of Chaos on the Shaman's Loincloth.

*'''Greater Daemon:''' The Great Demons of Khakkek feature an almost Goblinoid physiognomy, so they can be easily mistaken, from afar or in poor light, for an Orc (albeit very large). On closer inspection, however, we discover glowing red eyes, Chaos armor, and an impressive number of sharp teeth and claws (including a nice pair of fangs). His face can mirror Khakkekk's, and he wields a fiery giant sword with immense skill. Its characteristics are the same as those of a standard Minor Demon.
*'''Lesser Daemon:''' Just as the Big Demon looks like an Orc, Orc, the Little Demon looks like some kind of Goblin. He too, from afar or in poor light, can easily be mistaken for a Goblin (albeit tall), with red eyes. His face and impressive array of dangerous teeth and talons (no fangs) are also reminiscent of Khakkekk. Its characteristics are similar to those of a Minor Demon.
*'''Daemonic Beast:''' These creatures, sociable in the manner of the Nurglings, appear as Brats (would be Snotlings in more modern editions, since Greenskins now reproduce by spores) with glowing red eyes (this is the common characteristic of the demons of Khakkekk, with sharp teeth and talons) and sport 1d4 Chaos mutations. Like other demons, each has a face that strangely recalls its master. The profile of a Demonic Creature is the same as a standard Servant Demon, or, alternatively, that of a Nurgling (if you have Realm of Chaos: the Lost and the Damned).
*'''Daemonic Steed:''' Khakkekk's Demonic Mount appears virtually identical, at least physically, to a Large Wolf, and it may actually be. Whether or not this is the case, it is virtually identical. You can therefore use the description of the Big Wolf from the bestiary of WFRP1 or that of present in this project.

====Kweethul====
Kweethul Gristlegut was a Skaven who managed to become an extremely minor Chaos God in the older Warhammer editions. He was later mentioned as being a HERETIC against the Horned Rat in a later Skaven army book. The Horned Rat will suffer no challenger to its dominion over Skaven-kind! Could create his own Daemons, too.

*'''The Six Eyed Slayer:''' Greater Daemon. He stands about 10ft in height with a pair of three eyed goats heads. It carries a Chaos Weapon with the power of mutation.
*'''Floating Horror:''' Lesser Daemon. Appearing much as a Harpy but with the clawed feet of a Bear.
*'''Fire Runner:''' Daemonic Steed. A partially feathered beast with burning clawed feet.
*'''The Thing:''' Daemonic Beast.

====Meneloth====
An androgynous god of pleasure among the Elves, may have been a sort of proto-Slaanesh before being absorbed into the greater whole of Slaanesh upon Slaanesh's birth, either that or a toned-down aspect of Slaanesh used to lure Elves into worship of Slaanesh, like a dealer giving a watered-down needle of heroin to a kid to get them addicted before giving them the hard stuff.

====Necoho====
[[File:Necoho_Revealed.png|500px|thumb|right|[[/tg/]] has recently deduced Necoho's true identity.]]
Necoho is the god of atheism and one of the other minor gods invented as a replacement for Malal. Stupid as it sounds, it actually works, as Chaos is a reflection of all human beliefs and emotions, including, paradoxically, disbelief. He generally works to make religious movements disappear and wears a permanent expression of comic amusement, as he fucking knows he's a walking, talking paradox.

Note that Necoho was introduced in an adventure for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st Edition, so his current canonicity is doubtful, to say the least. That being said, he has been mentioned sporadically since then, such as the [[Gotrek & Felix]] novel ''Road of Skulls'', which is more than can be said for Zuvassin. Has been mentioned by name in the Age of Sigmar novel ''Auction of Blood'', along with a mention to his cult and an antitheist tract called "The Revelations of Necoho, or the Light of Doubt".

In the popular series [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device]], [[Magnus the Red]] made the point that the Emperor was, perhaps unknowingly, feeding a Chaos god of unbelief by promoting his Imperial Truth.

====Obscuras====
Brother of Alluminas, Chaos God of Law. Was originally one of the Gods of Law but got jealous of his brother and turned to Chaos proper.

Shadowphytes (also known as Shadow Daemons) are daemons of Obscuras, standing around the height of an average man. The most dedicated of Obscuras' cultists hope to join the ranks of the Shadowphytes upon their deaths. Shadowphytes appear as black shadowy humanoids whose features are only barely visible through the inner darkness they radiate. They cannot fly but possess the ability to melt into the shadows in one place and reappear in the shadows somewhere else within their line of sight. They fear the light and it is know to cause them actually damage when not standing in full or demi-darkness.

Shadowphytes can't cause physical wounding upon their victims, but cause damage through their touch, which robs the victim of his or her strength, and they are skilled users of the magical art of their master. It's said that anyone slain by a Shadowphyte is condemned to eternal torment in Obscuras' realm of shadow.

====Oubelgyr====
Oubelgyr is a Daemon-Prince who sits at the cusp of just-about-to-be-but-not-quite a Minor Chaos God, who is known to be a Peddler of Knowledge, like some sort of Daemonic Informant. Whereas Tzeentch is all about learning and then coveting secrets, Oubelgyr is always trying to find secret knowledge then sell it to the highest bidder, a trait useful for Chaos Sorcerers with sacrifices to spare who wish to skip the chanciness of Tzeentch's blessings. Was inprisoned at one point, but was able to scheme a way to unlock the door to his prison, only to then decide his prison was a nice lair and pretended to still be locked in. Rather than having daemons of his own, he has multiple Daemons and Mortal slaves who he has bound with contracts, who have to do as he says and guard him.

====Quorn====
[[File:QuornArtwork.jpg|200px|right]]

Not to be confused with Khorne, Quorn was the Minor Chaos God of carnivorous plants, whose schtick basically was "Radical Anti-Veganism" with carnivorous plant life devouring all flesh-creatures. His name was a double-pun, meant to sound like Khorne's and the same as a vegetable-based fake-meat substitute from before Impossible Meats were a thing. (Note: Pictured above is fan artwork produced by putting Quorn's name and description into Nightcafe, an Artificial Intelligence Art Program that makes art based on text description)

====Rhasneth====
The Chaos God of Insanity. Must be pretty batshit insane if his brand of nutters stands out amongst the general mental sickness of the rest of the Pantheon of Chaos.

The daemons of Rhasneth are to varied to make a single name for them, the most horrible nightmares of the most twisted madmen made real, pushing their way from the realm of nightmares into the world of the living to do their master's wish. The daemons of Rhasneth are special in that not all can see them, only those who have already lost their sanity can see them while all others fail to even notice them. The madman can scream in terror when his nightmares comes for him, not only to haunt him in his dreams but to feast upon his soul, while the rest of the world remains ignorant of the creature and tells him there is nothing there. Even as the daemon slowly approch, a mad twisted snarl upon its face...

====Screaming God-Child====
[[File:Screaming God-Child.png|200px|right|]]
Appearing only in the [[Malus Darkblade]] novel ''Lord of Ruin'', and more completely in the Malus chapters in Warhammer Monthly, the God-Child is the ruler of a little corner of the Realm of Chaos known as ''Alterity'', a massive chunk of rock on top of which lies walls in the shape of an eight-pointed star, guarded by ancient daemons who keep the locals and guests who enter from leaving Alterity. The God-Child himself takes the appearance of a young humanoid being with a near featureless face, only having a mouth, wearing robes and an amulet in the shape of the star of Chaos.

====Shagraunt====
A Minor Chaos God of whom even less is known of than Atagro, it was Shagraunt who ascended Atagro into the ranks of the Minor Chaos Gods.

====Stromfels/Mermedus====
Whilst often speculated to be [[Manann]]'s edgy dark half, Stromfels' mutant cults and rumored links to Khorne in earlier editions point towards his status as a minor Chaos god. Further proof of this is his patronage of sea mutant pirate Aranessa Saltspite, and his Chaos cult in the Gotrek and Felix story "Slayer of the Storm God", featuring his avatar, the "Harbinger of Stromfels".

Another variation of Manann but Chaos exists in the form of '''Mermedus''', the Norscan god of the sea, that's considered by some to be an even more edgy version of Stromfels. Notable that most Norscans don't even like him, because all who die at sea are claimed by him and denied entry to their patrons realm, except for the Skaelings who drown prisoners of war and animals for him after battles and raids. He's described as a ghoulish and bulbous figure that walks on the sea floor, covered in eyes and bloated like a drowned person. This is odd, as Stromfels' Avatar, Harbinger of Stromfels, looked like a Giant with a Tentacle where each of the Arms would be and the Head of a Shark.

In [[Total War: Warhammer II]], he is also [[Cylostra Direfin]]'s patron deity, having resurrected her as a vengeful ghost to wreak havoc against the High Elves and Bretonnians who rejected her singing.

In Age of Sigmar, he apparently is still worshipped by pirates in one area of Ghyran, and was worshipped by a tribe of Gargants in Azyr before Sigmar cleansed the realm of Chaos.

====Tristaris====
A Chaos Goddess of Misery, with a minor interest in knowledge. Represents the misery brought about by knowledge of Chaos' ultimate victory. Sounds like Tzeentch's perfect girl, a big tiddy goth nerd GF.

*'''Blissbane:''' (also known as ''Wailing Woman of Misery'',''Mistress of Destress'', or ''Gaunt Spirits of Lamentation'') This infernal creatures look like haggard, ghostly women with wild hair and gaunt, wrinkled bodies. They wear white shroud like clothes and are translucent to the eye. The Blissbanes emit occasional shrieks of pure misery as well as sudden bursts of maniacal laughter. They can pass through any obstacle as though they were ethereal, but are also incapable of manipulating any material objects. Often Blissbanes appear in groups of four, the number of Tristaris.
*'''Sloathe:''' (also known as ''Mounts of Misery'', ''Hunching Beasts of Suffering'', or ''Steeds of Tristaris'') The sloathes are bear sized creatures with four legs and short curved claws. The creatures have no heads and appear to be made almost entirely of layer upon layer of dark rags and shrouds. They make low grunting and grumbling sounds as they walk. The sloathes lash out with their claws in combat, and they have the ability to collapse into a pile of useless rags. The rags may be scattered by the wind or even burnt up; but unless every single one of them is destroyed the creature can return to its normal shape from any one of the pieces.
*'''Humanwood Tree:''' (also known as ''Oaks of Despair'', ''Petrified Eyes of Torment'', or ''Roots of Evil'') The humanwood trees are powerful demons that largely inhabit the groaning forests of misery in the pocket dimension that is Tristaris's realm in the chaos warp. The trees look like stubby, twisted oak trees with thick trunks and anguished human faces and bodies seemingly squirming about beneath their flexible bark. The trees speak a language that is their own and to hear it is to surely lose one's mind. All who hear the trees speaking will feel suffer from it as blood pours from their ears. The trees lash out with their branches and should the victom be caught the trees nine limbs will easily rip a held person to shreds. Strangly enough they are also immune to fire, somehting that would otherwise have been their main weakness.
*'''Sade:''' (also known as ''Screaming Devils of Sorrow'', ''Sobbing Lords of Tribulation'', or ''Jeering Lords of Languishing'') The Sades are Tristaris's greater demons. They look like gaunt red skinned men with long black beards, tiny horns from their foreheads and pointed chins. The Sades dress like nobles and their eyes are white and constantly streaming with bloody tears. Each of them carries a large, gleaming sickle. They also each carry a Lash of Lament and have long claws which they can use in close quarters. The Sades must consume twice their weight in living hearts each day that they exist in the material world if they are summoned.

====Urlfdaemonkin====
Urlf isn't a name. It's the last fucking death cry a guy makes when you gut him. That should tell you all you need to know. Anyway, this guy used to be a Norscan (like most of the daemon princes on this list) and was elevated to princehood by Khorne for exceptional badassery. Before his ascension, he was a massive, tall, bearded, Clint Eastwood-type Chaos Champion and was a chieftain of the Snaegr clan of Aeslingr. He's so fucking powerful that he was able to create his own lesser daemons and can bless warriors with the Mark and mutations of Khorne. Urlf has his own summoning days like most powerful daemon princes, and is usually worshiped as a lesser deity of Chaos by those who serve his master, Khorne. He has a short story in the 6th edition Chaos army book, where he muses on the fuck-you nature of time in the Warp and remarks on how the new Chieftain of the Snaegr resembles one of the sons he fathered in his mortal life. He also blesses the new chief with Khorne's mark and turns him into a monstrous cross [[Awesome|between a Bloodletter and a Chaos Champion]].

====Vymnn====
A Minor Chaos god who was only known as the master of the Daemon Prince Hakrii, who Atagro slayed (Hakrii, not Vymnn) in his quest for Daemon Princehood himself.

====Zhedun====
A Chaos God of gnawing, eternal hunger, who represents how Chaos would destroy itself if it ever won in the end, being dependent on sapient mortal thought for sustenance.

Daemons of Zhedun are known as Devouring Fiends (a.k.a. Mawed Ones, or Devourers) creatures ruled entirely by their own voracious appetite. They stands well over six feet tall, stooped, with atrophied arms but strong legs, and their heads are comprised mostly of a giant gaping jaw filled with massive teeth. Often they will stop at fallen foes, devouring their bodies in their Chaos-spawned hunger.

====Zuvassin====
Zuvassin is one of the two minor gods invented as a replacement for Malal. He just likes to see shit fall apart, specifically nonphysical stuff like schemes and lives - in other words, he's the god of [[not as planned]]. He's the guy who makes all the bad shit happen in infomercials. Generally, he makes sure that Murphy's Law is always enforced in the most spectacular possible ways. He doesn't have many worshippers, as he makes sure to fuck up whatever they're planning too.

Note that Zuvassin was only introduced in an adventure for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st Edition, so his current canonicity is doubtful, to say the least.

Actually, he is still canon, at least in Warhammer Fantasy. The 2nd Edition "Tome of Salvation" lists both him and Necoho as Chaos Gods.

And the motherfucker is STILL canon in Age of Sigmar, where a short story features a Chaos Champion named "Zuvass". Hmm.. I wonder who he might be worshipping.

Makes an appearance in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: WARHAMMER III]], where [[God-Slayer|Daniel]] can get an event where you can communicate with him and get his blessing, as he considers you important in disrupting the balance of Chaos.

====Ziraad, Thain, Blazzach and Javate====
4 Minor Chaos Gods known among the people of Araby, mentioned in Atagro's backstory as the gods worshipped by 4/6 members of his BATTLE-HAREM, the last 2 being a one of Tzeentch and one of Slaanesh.

===Warhammer 40,000===
====Balphomael====
[[File:Balphomael.png|200px|right]]
A minor Chaos God skirting on the edge of independent Greater Daemon, ruler of the Daemon World of Woe. Has a Christian Devil, "Let's Make a Deal" sort of vibe about him, complete with looking like classical illustrations of Demons and his name being a portmanteau of Baal, Baphomet and Samael. The art above is from a Dark Heresy book.

====King in Rags and Tatters====
Quite possibly a Chaos God version of Hastur from the Cthulhu Mythos, may or may not be a guise of Tzeentch. Leader of the "Menagerie" a Chaos Cult that seeks to unravel reality itself. Has unique demonic minions in the form of Warp Spectres, roiling, constantly changing masses of hideous-energy-being Daemons (like a Chaos Spawn made of gas and energy instead of fluid flesh?).

====Lord of Misrule====
Another minor Chaos God skirting on the edge of being an independent Greater Daemon from Dark Heresy. Also seeks to undo the veil between reality and the Warp.

====Melkirth====
Mentioned in older background material for Warhammer 40,000. Melkirth was a minor chaos god described as "The god of evil, malice, and wanton cruelty and suffering." While Melkirth remains a minor god, it is said that the actions of the mortal races, particularly the Dark Eldar, are causing Melkirth to grow in power until he ultimately becomes the fifth major Chaos God. The daemons of Melkirth are described as being the colour of shadow and able to take on the appearance of any daemon, be it a daemon of Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch. These shadow daemons could be inspiration for the shadow daemons Morathi encounters in Ulgu in Age of Sigmar, as they are also having to do with Dark Aelfs.

====Mo'rcck, Phraz-Etar, and Ans'l====
Puns on the last names of sci-fi and fantasy author Michael Moorcock (from whom the idea of [[Chaos]] as a fundamental force in the world was blatantly stolen/took inspiration from, and don't anyone ever say "borrow for a while" since even the author and Games Workshop have admitted it), artist Frank Frazetta (who drew a lot of movie and comic book posters, especially in sci-fi and fantasy), and Citadel Miniatures founder Bryan Ansell (who wrote several of the [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|First Edition]] rulebooks). These guys helped set the tone of the early [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe (purposefully or not), including the propensity of putting spikes on [[Chaos]] things. Games Workshop decided to pay homage in the (initial) Third Edition [[Codex]]: [[Chaos Space Marines]], which mentioned that Chaos Space Marines often put "spiky bits" on their armour in praise of these three gods. They were never mentioned anywhere else, and probably shouldn't be considered "canonical"... not that canonicity counts for much in 40k anyway.

====Raptor God====
The minor god worshipped by the [[Chaos Raptor]]s, responsible for turning them from standard [[Assault Squad|Assault Marines]] to the mercenaries they currently are, and maybe also the one that turns them into [[Warp Talons]].

====Ysarille the Daemon-King====
According to an Eisenhorn book, Ysarille was a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch from a time before the Eldar first went to space, before Slaanesh was born, and who gained enough power that he became capable of creating his own Daemons. He went to battle with his former master, and after a billion-year battle, Tzeentch finally killed Ysarille. His surviving Daemons took his body and fled, setting up a Tomb world for him on the planet Ghúl, and their own Daemon Empire of 600 worlds surrounding planet Ghúl, in exile from the Warp.

===Age of Sigmar===

All Warhammer Fantasy Gods, presumably. Zuvassin and Necoho are explicitly active.

====Archaon====
{{main|Archaon}}
Upon completing a new set of challenges by the Chaos Gods in AoS, he was empowered to demigod level and given free reign to do whatever he desired.

====Devourer of Existence====
A primitive aspect of Chaos as an apex predator, that wishes to devour all else and despises any sign of civilization, worshipped by the Untamed Beasts. Maybe a modern take on Zhedun?

====Eightfold Watcher====
Some sort of Chaos-Spider-Godbeast worshipped by the Tarantulos Brood. From Warcry Red Harvest.

====Ever-Raging Flame====
A massive fire of Chaos, said to be the Chaos personification of Aqshy itself, worshipped by the Scions of the Flame in the Realm of Fire.

====The Great Gatherer====
A (presumably) giant crow worshipped by tribesmen from Ulgu in the [[Age of Sigmar]]. Not much is known about him, since [[Warcry|the only game his followers appear in]] isn't out yet, but we do know that the [[Corvus Corax|Corvus]] Cabal (the aforementioned tribesmen) consider [[Archaon]] to be his avatar in the Mortal Realms. Theories range from it being an aspect of [[Tzeentch]] (notable avian features, Tzeentch is known to be interested in the Realm of Shadow, maybe gathering secrets?) or [[Nurgle]] (the Crow was Nurgle's totem animal among the Norscans, maybe gathering bodies?) to being a minor, but ascending, Chaos God not so far removed from the Great Horned Rat's path to the pantheon. He even has the weird connection to both Nurgle and Tzeentch the GHR does. It has been confirmed that the Warbands from Warcry will be usable in the main game, possibly as normal units, and will have the keyword SLAVES TO DARKNESS, which means he'll have some representation in a mainline game. Not too bad for the newest kid on the block.

====Morghur====
{{main|Morghur The Shadowgave}}
Originally one of the most notable Beastmen, he's worshipped as a minor Chaos God of mutation and devolution in Age of Sigmar. Wait what the fuck is this??

====Nagendra====
Originally a Godbeast, was splintered and the remains corrupted into Daemons called Coiling Ones, worshipped by the Splintered Fang.

===Blood Bowl===
====Nuffle====
{{Main|Nuffle}}
A joke Chaos God for [[Bloodbowl]], Nuffle is a mispronunciation of NFL (as in "National Football League", the American gridiron football pro league in real life), which would be pronounced "Noofle" as in "book" if you tried pronouncing it. Nuffle explains why the Blood Bowl universe is so wacky and gridiron football obsessed. Technically the superior to the rest of Chaos, although apparently only in the Blood Bowl universe.

===When Tzeentch was the best===
According to recent Tzeentch Codex/Battletome Tzeentch was at one point the sole major chaos god. A rebellion against him fractured him into many pieces, which because of warp time fuckery, technically counts as a different god. When chaos was first forming (just after War in Heaven for 40k) there were many chaos gods and entities competing (rather than the total domination that exists now). Tzeentch somehow became number one, and was a super god of sorts, although he was possibly less powerful than the current Tzeentch due to the lesser size and influence of chaos. A rebellion by all the other chaos gods fractured him, creating the Tzeentch we know today. In the same way that Slaanesh has always existed in 40k, the new Tzeentch has always existed the way he is. While the old Tzeentch is permanently destroyed (across all time), while still doing the things he did, what really matters is the influence in the material realm: Tzeentch's new self and Slaanesh started doing that when they were created relative to the materium, while the Warp is such a mess that a contradiction like old Tzeentch being completely destroyed while still having done the things he did is basically nothing. They are implied to be two seperate entites.

This is a variant of the backstory of The Blue Scribes.

{{ChaosGods}}

[[Category:Heresy]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Squig

2022-08-04T21:53:10Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Other Squigs */

[[File:Squig.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Squigs. Making [[Tyranids]] feel insecure in the eating department.]]

[[File:MilkSquig.jpeg|thumb|Sadly noncanon, at least not yet...]]
A Squig, short for squiggly beast, is any one of a variety of bizarre organisms that exist semi-symbiotically with [[Orcs & Goblins]] and [[Orks]] alike. [[Fungus]]-based animals, their most iconic form resembles a large round ball that opens up a huge maw full of teeth, propelled by two strong legs that let it run, scramble and jump all over the place.

Night Goblins in particular like to herd huge swarms of these things onto the battlefield, as they are violently unpredictable and surprisingly dangerous.

In the 41st millennium, on the other hand, they play a somewhat different role. Some ork [[Warboss]]es will keep such squigs as personal attack animals, [[Oddboys|slavers]] always have trusty squig-hounds to help tame [[grot]]s, and [[Tankbustas]] favor a breed that they cram full of bombs and coax to charge towards (hopefully) the enemy before blowing up.

According to the [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] splat, "Old World Bestiary", squig-meat is perfectly edible by humans and actually very tasty. Spit-roasted squig is described as resembling smoked ham with the consistency of young chicken.

[[Age of Sigmar]] introduces a mythological aspect to their origins with the introduction of Boingob, the godbeast progenitor of all Squigs. This massive creature barreled through the realms in a frenzied pursuit of the light of Hysh (basically the sun), until it finally jumped up and was roasted alive. Now its colossal skeleton serves as a holy place/impenetrable lurk lair to the Moonclan Grots.

Squigs can be bred into a vast variety of forms and functions. The most famous of these is arguably the monstrous [[Squiggoth]] which provide a similar sort of heavy infantry to a war elephant. Other, more obscure types include (but by no means limited to) Bag Squigs, Bomb Squigs, Eating Squig, Gas Squigs, Hair Squigs, Oily Squigs, Paint Squigs, Squig Sharks, Squig Hawks, and Squigeons all of which can be further explained below. Squigs are basically the apps of Ork society: if you can think of a function, there's a squig for that.

==Squig Varieties==
As mentioned. Squigs come in all sizes and flavors. Here are the documented species of Squigs officially recognized by the Imperium/whatever-institutio-exists-in-AoS.

===Attack Squig===
[[File:AttackSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Attack Squig.]]
The most common and identifiable type of Squig. Whenever someone says Squig, this is the one that pops in everyone's head. The Attack Squig (''Orkus ferocitas''), also known as the Cave Squig, looks like it's trying to compete with the [[Tyranids]] for sheer 'OMNOMNOMNOMNOM' ability, consisting of nothing more than a bouncing ball of claws and razor-sharp teeth. These Squigs, as their name implies, are often used as attack animals, weapons, or pets. They can be given to the [[Grots]] as a food source (if the Squig doesn't eat them first) or even war mounts if said Grot is feeling particularly brave that day.

Sometimes an Attack Squig is transformed into a '''Bomb Squig''' via jamming as much explosive materials into the Squig's mouth (or strapping explosives to their bodies) as possible before setting it loose to fuck up some tanks. These specialized Attack Squigs are often utilized by either Ork Flashgitz or Tankbustas.

<gallery>
File:BombSquig.png|Bomb Squig.
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===Bitey Squig===
[[File:Bitey Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bitey Squig]]
Bitey Squigs are a sub-species of Attack Squigs that have sufficient jaws, claws, and stingers to savage the target and anything close by. This breed s frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas. Launched gnashing and snarling into the enemy, they latch onto the first thing they hit and do not stop chewing until they are killed. A bit like the Face-Eating Squig to be honest.

Legends states that the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]] was created due to a [[Just As Planned|'mishap']] when a Bitey Squig or some form of Attack Squig was accidentally stuffed into the launcha and fired into a ''very'' unfortunate Ork’s face and thus, the legend was born.

It seems that the Bitey Squig can be differentiated from the normal Attack Squig by its stronger jaw; this can be seen with its more pronounced jawline which could only be supported with powerful jaw muscles. There are also the aforementioned stingers, which would most likely be located at the tail; unfortunately there isn't any indication that the tail has something like a stinger. Bitey Squigs are also much smaller than the Attack Squig in order to fit inside a Squig Launcha; seeing as how an Attack Squig is often the size of a sheep, it makes sense for the Orks to utilize a much more smaller and mobile version to be used as ammunition.

===Bile Squig===
[[File:Bile_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bile Squig]]

The Bile Squigs come in a variety of breeds and are capable of spraying, squirting, or vomiting harmful fluids from their orifices. This breed of squig is frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas.

Typically launched by the handful, these creatures squeal and thrash while jetting acid, lubricants, poisons, and flammable fluids in every direction. The effects can sometimes be harmless, but other times can cause their victims to burst into flames, explode, or dissolve. Essentially, they are the Orky version of the [[Flamers of Tzeentch]], you never know what you're gonna get.

Bile Squigs seem to have an enlarged earhole or an orifice for which they shoot out their concoction of liquids, it is identified by its very [[Derp|derpy appearance]] and its long tongue which maybe used to lick off any excess liquid it shoots out.
===Bat Squig===
[[File:Bat_squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bat Squig]]

A squig that has bat wings..... That's it..... Look it's just a squig that has bat wings alright it has the typical squig mentality, lives in a cave and can fly the only difference is that IT JUST HAS BAT WINGS. These Bat Squigs descend upon their victims in a flurry of gnashing jaws and spattering guano. It's not got some depressing story in which it lost its parents and now hunts down all everything that isn't greenskin, NO IT'S JUST A SQUIG WITH BAT WINGS, also no legs.



On tabletop, at the start of your shooting phase, you can pick 1 enemy unit within 18" of this model and roll a dice. On a 5+ that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound. This ability cannot be used if the Bat Squig minion has been removed.

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File:Bat_squig_in_a_shellnut.JPG
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===Boom Squig===
[[File:Boom_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Boom Squig]]

A special sub-species of the 'Splodin Squig.

This breed is squig is frequently fired from [[Squig Launcha]]s and [[Heavy Squig Launcha]]s. Boom Squigs, also known as Mine Squigs due to their shape, are infamous for their defense mechanism of violently exploding at the slightest provocation, typically due to direct physical contact or a loud noise ([[FAIL|or sometimes even their own bouts of indigestion]]).

They detonate with such force that they kill or maim anything unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. These creatures thus make the perfect living ammunition for Orks and are also sometimes used as landmines. They are also favored by Orks as the tools of [[Lulz|practical jokes,]] as nothing will amuse a Speed Freek more than hiding a [[Just As Planned|Boom Squig under the seat of a Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy driver like an explosive whoopee cushion.]]

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File:Boom_Squif_Top.JPG
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===Bowel-Torrent Squig===
[[File:Bowel_Squig?.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bowel-Torrent Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to only as one of the most "revolting" and "panic-inducing". [[Shitstorm|Given its name it should be very easy to understand why.]] They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time...or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might best describe the Bowel-Torrent Squig the best.

Due to the Squig's... [[Bullshit|unique way of expelling its munitions]], we believe that the small albeit grumpy-looking Squig with the long tail ''may'' be the elusive Bowel-Torrent Squig. Ya know... 'cause it looks similar to that of a pigeon and this thing can 'fly' once it exits out the Squig Launcha. We would let your figure out the rest.

===Bag Squig===
[[File:Bag_Squig_2.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Bag Squig.]]

This type of Squig has a large, gaping mouth and a bag-like body that is almost entirely composed of stomach and nothing else. The stomach coincidentally functions secondarily as a pouch that allows the Squig to survive by slowly digesting food it stores up inside its body, similar to modern Earth animals that survive hibernation by eating a lot of food during the summer. If the Squig is dried out, it can be made into a flask for drinks. If it is tanned like leather, it makes a useful bag or belt pouch.

By far one of the most practical form of Squigs used by the Orks.

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Image:Bag_Squig.PNG
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===Burna' Squig===
[[File:Burna_Squig_2.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Burna Squig.]]

The Burna' Squig is similar to the 'Sploding Squig. However while the 'Sploding Squig is a biological grenade the Burna' Squig is a biological molotov cocktail. Inside a Burna' Squig consists of multiple chemicals that when mixed, burst into flames rather than exploding. Orks sometime shake their Burna' Squigs to further enhance their fiery potential (Or force them to swallow even MOAR flammable materials such as Promethium) after being thrown-- if it doesn't explode in their face of course.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and don't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers, he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course, these may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

The effects of Burna Squigs are equivalent to other flammable explosives found in the Imperium.

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File:Burna_Squig.PNG
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===Buzzer Squig===
[[File:Buzzer.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Buzzer Squig.]]
Buzzer Squigs are an insect-like like variation of the Squig typically used by Orks and Gretchins in a [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult,]] as they are very vicious and a swarm can strip the flesh off a man-sized creature within seconds. They are essentially flying piranhas but more aggressive than any piranha.

Buzzer Squigs are found among Ork fungus groves and are trapped in pots by Gretchin. The special pots are made from sun-baked mud, drilled with tiny holes to allow the Squigs inside to breathe. The top of the vessel is corked shut and sealed with more mud once a good number of Squigs have been put inside. Normally the Squigs feed by burrowing into other larger Squigs or small animals such as rats, so when they are captured they soon begin to get very hungry. They can be kept without food in the pot for many weeks, getting angrier and more savage all the time. If the Gretchin is unfortunate in capturing these hornets of doom or accidentally breaks a pot full of these things, then he may end up as their lunch.

Gretchin can tell which pots contain the angriest Squigs from the high pitch of the droning and the vibrations of the pot as the Squigs try to burrow out (the walls of the pot must be made thick and hard). These pots, each containing a small swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, are the missiles fired by the Squig Katapult. The pot cracks open on impact, releasing the swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, who attack anyone nearby. They are great against Imperial Guards, Tau, Kroot, and low level Tyranid forces (cue irony of the [[Lulz|Tyranids getting out-NOMMED in their own game]]). Unfortunately they are quite useless when it comes to MEQs as those claws and fangs aren't going to do much against ceramite and reinforced wraithbone.

Buzzer Squigs can also be found on the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]], although they're far more limited in role due to the presence of other Squig species.

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File:Buzzer_Squig_Model.JPG
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===Buzzing Squig===
[[File:Buzzing.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Buzzing Squig.]]
Not to be confused with Buzz''er'' Squigs, Buzz''ing'' Squigs have tiny, propeller-like wings on their tails: miniature airscrews that allow them to fly like a biological helicopter. When they contact flesh (which they can smell), they bores in and eat their way straight through the unfortunate target. Upon emerging from the victim, they immediately dive back and bore through again, or set upon another victim. Orks have learned to use these deadly nuisances as weapons.

Gretchin are set to work trapping them for dispersal as swarms around the battlefield. Buzzing Squigs may also be kept in pots and thrown from makeshift catapults like the [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult.]] When the pot containing the Buzzing Squigs cracks, it releases a swirling swarm of these flesh-eating monsters.

In all honesty though, by function there is very little difference between the Buzzer and Buzzing Squigs as they both fulfill the same niche. They only look different enough to warrant their own species.

===Coffin Crawler===
[[File:CoffinCrawlerSquig.png|right|thumb|150px|Coffin Crawler]]
Coffin-Crawlers were an Old-School Tyranid Squig who would consume fresh corpses and grow in bulk until they were ready to return to the [[Norn Queen]], carrying their swollen bodies back to feed her.

Genetic material in the form of captive creatures and corpse scavengers called Coffin-Crawlers is fed into the great maws located at the top of the Norn Queen and synthesised by its genetic shredder organs. The dissembled DNA structures form a gene-bank which provides the raw material from which new creatures called bio-constructs are created. Once a type of bio-construct has been designed more identical creatures can be cloned by the Norn Queens.

Much like the Grabber-Slasher Squig, when Squigs were separated from Tyranids, they were reduced to the status of just being a variety of Big Squig. That, and their role has been replaced by [[Rippers]].

===Gob Squig===
[[File:Gob.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Gob Squig.]]
Gob Squigs are small enough to be put into an Ork's mouth and left there for the rest of the day (or the next few days, if the Ork forgets about it). The Squig cleans the Ork's mouth out by rooting round the teeth and eating the juicy bits of food that are stuck between them. They look like your typical fantasy [[Slime]] with a funny face although your local Commissar would suggest not petting one as they are known to bite. They are essentially an Ork's version of a toothbrush but more effective and cost-productive

The '''Chewin' Squig''' is another variant of the Gob Squig. An Ork can pop this sort of Squig into his mouth and chew on it while he sits and thinks (or sits and enjoys not thinking), basically Orky chewing gum. How the Squig could survive being munched by an Ork is a feat unknown by Imperial Xenologists.

===Great Cave Squig===
[[File:99800209017_GoblinWarbossCaveSquigNEW01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Great Cave Squig]]
Think a regular Attack Squig given steroids. A Great Cave Squig is simply a larger variant of the more common Cave Squig that has grown to such a magnificent size that it has become as large as an Imperial warhorse. This Squig sub-species is the second largest of the non-Squiggoth family, with only the Colossal Squig surpassing it in both size and weight. Its large mouth is filled with teeth the size of swords and sabres and their appetite as ravenous as their smaller counterparts. These things are solitary predators that like to [[Get shit done|get shit done by themselves.]]

Because of their large size, the Great Cave Squig makes excellent cavalry for Night Goblins. However, their aggressive behavior makes it difficult to tame effectively. The process of [[Rape|breaking in]] a Great Cave Squig would cost the lives of many Night Goblins, but once the beast learns to accept a rider, they serve as a more stable mount than the smaller and more unruly Cave Squig. Although they are costly to maintain, eating over twice their own body weight daily, a Night Goblin Warboss would do almost anything to keep such a magnificent asset in the hands of his tribe.

Since they're so difficult to tame, often times Goblins don't even bother doing so, instead just chaining two Great Cave Squigs together, pointing them vaguely in the direction of the enemy and setting them loose, resulting in the infamous Mangler Squigs. The Squigs drag and pull each-other across the battlefield, resulting in them essentially becoming living wrecking balls. In Age of Sigmar, some particularly insane Loonbosses use a pair of Mangler Squigs as a mount, usually if they're leading a Squigalanche warband.

On the even rarer occasions when a Great Cave Squig continuous to grow exponentially, they would grow to such a monstrous size that they are once again categorized into another even larger variant called simple as the Colossal Squig (As seen below).

<gallery>
Image:GreatCave Squig.png|NYUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!
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===Colossal Squig===
[[File:CollossalSquig.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Colossal Squig.]]
Think an Great Cave Squig on steroids and having a mouth and stomach that could rival a [[Haruspex]] and the [[Mawloc|Mawloc]] in a eating competition. The Colossal Squigs are the largest variants of Squigs known to exist short of Squiggoths.

These frequently six-eyed monsters boast an insatiable appetite, and are in essence no more than an impossibly vast fleshy maw studded with row upon row of scimitar-bladed teeth. The only way they get into battle is by finding some Orks and just moving in with them.

The Colossal Squig is often used as a giant living battering ram, bashing and splintering anything smaller than the Squig into a fine paste. Of course the presence of the Squiggoth kind of placed the status of the Colossal Squig in question. Nevertheless, they still have the capability of eating entire Space Marines whole let alone normal Guardsmen, granting some laughs by the local Boyz if the Squig doesn't eat them first.

Of special note is a small change to this subtype of Squig in [[Age of Sigmar]] - When a Colossal Squig dies, it blows up into a bunch of smaller Cave Squigs! ... Nature running its course?...

===Cape Squig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Capesquigs10vh-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Cape Squig]]

These cute little Squigs are there to make you feel just a tad bit more important.

A Squig found only in [[Age of Sigmar]]. A presumably regal and dignified breed of squig, these little beasties help Skragrott keep his magnificent cape off the floor. Or maybe they’re trying to eat it. Probably both…

Anyways, these Squigs are quite sought after since they have a... distinct head shape of the Greenskin's moon, which makes it downright flash. Why their heads are shaped like that is anyone's guess (selective breeding?). Skragrott, the Loonking himself, is the self-styled overlord of the Gloomspite Gitz (AKA Night Goblins, trademarked). His sinister presence upon the field of battle ensures his fellow grots fight with greater spite and cunning than ever.

On tabletop, these little beasties are there for decorative purposes in order to make Skragrott look more important than he really is. Seriously you think they would provide anything of substance in the actual game?

===Dice Squig===
[[File:DiceSquigs.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Dice Squig]]
Famed for their bounciness, the rare and elusive Dice Squigs have been known to be used by particularly kunnin’ Grot Loonbosses in games of tactics and chance. They are usually given out in an event of a mass brawl, with [[Grot]]s assembling bets on would emerge the victor.

These small, eyeless, limbless blobs of flesh have very little use other than your usual Ork gamblin', however, a wise Greenskin must still be cautious when handling these things as they still have a mouth that may bite your fingers off.

Currently, most Dice Squigs have different yellow splotches on each side save for the face, which is an obvious analogue to the actual numbers system of an actual dice. Also represented as an actual limited edition squig-dice for sale by Games Workshop.

{{Clear}}

===Eating Squig===
[[File:EatingSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Eating Squig.]]
An Eating Squig (also known as Grubs or ''Orkus consumit'') is a limbless blob used as the primary Ork food source. It resembles an elongated, squarish slug with two eyes and a small pug mouth (like a cross between a blob fish and uncanned SPAM). Orks usually prefer them cooked, but they can be eaten raw as well. Gretchin are quite adept in cooking them and have a number of methods including kebabing, marinating in fungus wine, stuffed with fungus and herbs, roasted on a spit, deep fried with fungus chips, or griddled over a campfire. Who knew the Ork race had such a flair for culinary skills? Again Commissars would suggest not petting one no matter how pug-cute it looks, although suggesting to eat one for emergency rationing is fine for them.

With the fast reproduction on all Orkoid lifeforms, it is unknown why the [[Imperium of Man]] still haven't decided on capturing one of these Squigs and then mass producing them which would stop Galactic world hunger that plagues some of the Imperial Worlds (and no, [[Grox|not because of heresy]]). Maybe they are already looking into it, but with how slow the IoM usually is it may take decades to even centuries for it to be finalized and distributed in the entire Galaxy. Or it might have something to do with the fact that they're creature from the orkoid genus, so they release spores everywhere that can grow into the more dangerous parts of the genus including actual orks.

If the Eating Squig is the Duck/Chicken of an Ork culinary experience, then the '''Juicy Squig''' is the foie gras of Ork cuisine. The Juicy Squig is a very rare and delicious type of Eating Squig that may perhaps be the only known Ork delicacy. This Squig lives at the very bottom of an Ork fungal drop, and are not only rare, but difficult to find and bring up from the depths. Since these Squigs are seldom caught by the Gretchin and Snotlings, they often grow quite large and become even tastier as they get older.

In Age of Sigmar, there is also type of swamp-dwelling squig in the Mortal Realms called the '''Slobbersquig''', mentioned in the second edition Orruk Warclans Battletome as being part of the regular diet consumed by the Kruleboyz, alongside bog toads, swamp hoppers, cold crawfish, spine-ridged mud worms, and human flesh. Compared to the rest of the food on this list, it could be conjectured the Slobbersquig is a sluglike, unappealing Eatin' Squig that drools constantly and lives in swamp muck instead of the bottom of the greenskin drops.
<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-trader.jpg|Lovely indeed.
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===Guard Squig===
[[File:Guard_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Guard Squig.]]
Ork Kaptins have been breeding a form of Squig known as a Guard Squig, or Squig Hound to some. They're Orky Guard Dogs. These creatures have all the ferocity of an Attack Squig, but are bred to be utterly loyal to their masters. When alone or not in battle, Squig Hounds are usually seen sleeping on their post or lying on their master's lap. Guard Squigs are often seen as a step up above the normal Attack Squig due to their aforementioned loyalty.

Guard Squigs are not to be confused with the Herd Squig whose nickname also bears the name Squighound or the [[Derp|actual Squighound themselves.]] Why GeeDubs thought repeating the name of three different species is a good idea is a mystery.

Is it though? These are Orks we’re talking about. Considering the rather direct (and often short) manner with which Orks approach life, it’s hardly a surprise they’d have one name for several breeds of Squigs. One Ork may name a particular breed of Squig "Bitey" for biting a lot, only to have his head bit off by said Squig, prompting the next Ork to confirm that it is indeed a Bitey Squig, while somewhere else in the mob the same little drama is occurring with an entirely different breed of biting Squig with identical results. Orks are pragmatic...in their way.

===Targeting Squig===
[[File:Targeting-squig-art.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Targeting Squig.]]
A unusual type of Squig, Targeting Squigs (''Orkus scopum'') are weird creatures with a single targeting eye that serve as biological equivalents of Gitfindas used by Flash Gitz. Sometimes their pupils are even shaped into a cross-hair.

How the Squig communicates with the Flash Gitz is unknown. Although certain unique sounds or barks could be help the Ork to signal that there may be ample prey around. That or it could flash different colors or release certain pheromones that only Orkoid species can detect.

On tabletop there is very little difference between the Squig and regular Gitfindas other then the cosmetic change. They're cool-looking models though!

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File:Targeting-squig.png
File:Last-wall-squig.jpg
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===Face-Eater Squig===
[[File:Face Eater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Face-Eater Squig.]]
Humans have binge eating contests and the Orks too have their own variety. Of course in this case the food has the potential of eating your face off. Here is where the Face-Eater Squigs come into play. The Face-Eater Squig is a toothed variety of Squig used both as a weapon and in the infamous Ork face-eating contests.

These Squigs, also known as "Gnashers" or "Gnasher Squigs," are a vicious mass of sharp teeth and claws. In their active state they appear to be just a gnashing mouth and very little else, though they look much like any other Eatin' Squig when they are at rest. Because of their violent nature, Gnashers provide the Orks with endless entertainment, and Squig-eating is one of the Orks' favorite pastimes. The Ork and the Squig both open their mouths and bite, in a parody of a kiss. If the Ork eats the Squig, he wins. If he keels over backwards, he loses.

Some Painboys made attempts to use Gnashers to amputate a patient's limbs, but these attempts weren't very successful as they tended to bite off orderlies' arms or even the Dok's fingers. Face-Eaters are often used as an attack squig. This organism is known to Imperium biologists as Orkus ravenati.

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File:GnasherSquig.jpg|Nasty little fuckers.
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===Flesheater Squig===
[[File:Flesheater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Flesheater Squig.]]
In order to increase their wealth, some Orks breed large, ferocious beasts known as Flesheaters. The Flesheater looks like a furry, Orky crocodile, with a great, gaping mouth full of rows of sharp fangs that are similar to an Ork's [[Teef]]. Flesheaters continually shed and replace their teeth, and all the Orks have to do to collect this wealth is send a Gretchin to collect the teeth; they, of course, aren't overly keen on this duty.

Like Ork teeth, Flesheater teeth also deteriorate after a few years. Flesheaters are extremely long-lived, but rarely breed in captivity, making them even more valuable. Most Orks who own Flesheaters are either already Nobz, or become Nobz on account of the wealth derived from owning these Squigs. Not surprisingly, impoverished Orks sometimes attempt to steal a Flesheater, or even raid rival settlements to capture them.

They are literally a mobile money-making machine - who says money can't grow on <s>trees</s> animals?

===Gas Squig===
[[File:GasSquigs.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Gas Squig.]]

It is a Squig that literally has a [[Lulz|killer fart.]]

The Gas Squig produces a gas so toxic that Orks with gas masks throw this Squig in combat, using the Squig itself as a chemical weapon. Besides their use as a one-time explosive, the Ork can just let the Squig run loose in the battlefield, spreading as much chaos as possible as these nasty little runts can cover an entire field in a bath of toxic miasma and corrosive chemicals.

It is unknown what type of chemicals allow the Gas Squig to unleash a untold volume of lethal farts. High levels of methane or magic/warp-related bullshit is the only potential answer.

They are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

According to the illustration of Warhammer Online, Gas Squigs look like normal Attack Squigs but with hole-like projections that constantly spew out the toxic materials like chimneys.

===Grabber-Slasher Squig===
[[File:Grabberslasher.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Grabber-Slasher/Big Squig]]

These guys originated way back in older editions of Warhammer, when Squigs were the result of Tyranids consuming Orkoid biomass instead of being fungoid kin. The Grabber-Slasher is a form of large ambush Squig that prefers to lurk in ducts and either grab prey with its massive arm and drag it away to devour, or hump-slash it with its big crotch-spike.

As one can imagine from things ''that'' early on, they look like fucking abominations out of a Cronenberg film. Seriously, that giant clawed hand on top of its head does not help. They also apparently have a chameleonic ability to change their skin colour and texture to hide better in crevices and ducts. But again, with that giant hand and [[/d/|horned dick,]] the idea of it being chameleonic should be taken with some salt. Even worse is the fact that the Tyranid Hive Mind used it as a prototype to the Lictor in early editions, using it to assassinate those who threatened the plans of the Tyranids. Imagine the shame and humiliation of being killed by something as fugly as THAT!

When Squigs were later retconned into being always a part of the Orkoid Fungus Biosphere, the Grabber-Slasher was retconned into being just a [[Derp|"Big Squig"]], which is honestly, quite disappointingly generic.

===Hair Squig===
[[File:Hairy.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hair Squig.]]
Do you want to know how and where the Orks get their hairy ponytails from? The answer is obviously simple: they use Squigs to do the job, due to Orks being naturally hairless. Hair Squigs are a parasitic variety of Squig which possess small bodies, no legs, no eyes, and a pair of pincers in place of a mouth.

They have long hair running from their tiny bodies that Orks like to customize and dye after clamping the Squig's pincers onto their own hairless heads; this customization has no effect on the Squig's health.

One particular variety of Hair Squig is known as a '''Chin Squig'''. These creatures feature a long thin body with claws and hair all over it and serve as the equivalent of a beard. They are also known to be a sign of age and status among Orks.

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File:Hair Squig.jpg
File:Chin_Squig.jpg|Chin Squig.
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===Limpin Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SquigBall1jvrh.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Limpin Squig or a turkey drumstick, you make the call.]]

[[Lolwut|A Squig football/handegg. It makes sense in context.]]

Technically, this squig is from [[Blood Bowl]] rather than the [[Age of Sigmar|Mortal Realms (AKA Age of Sigmar)]], but its existence is so hilariously dumb it might as well be part of the Squig family. Also known as the Squigball, Orc teams are known for using Squigs as balls, shearing one leg off so it can’t run away. Sometimes, they just find a particularly bulbous Squig and then literally kick its ass.

These Squigs must be extremely durable, squishy and bouncy. The best Limpin' Squigs have flesh that is extremely flexible, sturdy bones to survive repeated impacts and kicks, a skin firm enough to be held onto for long periods of time, an attitude that makes sure it doesn't ends up biting its holder in the middle of some intense Blood Bowl, and just the right enough shape to bounce to its trajectory.

It is not known is they exist in 40k or AoS, although seeing as how Orks/Orcs are stereotypical British hooligans, we wouldn't be surprised if they did.

===Mendin' Squig===
[[File:Squig-hairy-medical.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Mendin' Squig.]]
Mendin' Squigs, or more commonly (and annoyingly) called Hairy Squigs (again not to be confused with Hair Squigs much to the Xenobiologist's constant frustration), are a type of medicinal Squig. Hairy/Mendin' Squigs are used by Painboyz as sutures. The Painboy simply applies it to the open wound, which it holds closed with its tiny, needle-like teeth. The Painboy then twists its tail off, leaving the head embedded in the flesh, repeating the process until the wound is "riveted up." The Mendin' Squig feeds off blood oozing from the wound, thus keeping it clean and free from infection. By the time it shrivels and drops off, the wound has usually healed.

This form of medical technique is actually quite closer to reality than you'd think. Some South American and African tribes use particularly large bulldog ants to act as crude sutures. They just grab the ants and allow the powerful jaws to snap shut on the wound and like the Mendin' Squigs they then twist its body off, leaving only the head which is still in contact with the wound until it shrivels and falls off once fully healed.

===Herd Squig===
[[File:HerdSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Herd Squig.]]
Herd Squigs have been specially bred and developed by Runtherds for the purpose of herding and controlling the herds of Runtz. They are related to the many varieties of pet Squigs, but have been selectively bred for their speed, intelligence, ferocity and endurance.

Their long, sensitive snouts and keen ears enable them to track down errant Snotlings and Gretchin wherever they might hide. Herd Squigs are excellent tracking beasts, and can follow trails which are days old.

They are also called Squighounds, which as you already know, [[Herp|should not be confused with the Guard Squig who already bears that nickname or the actual Squighounds themselves.]]

They look like pigs but more Orky.

===Hoppa Fungus===
[[File:DKI3T3c3fv3xNy92.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hoppa Fungus]]
A Hoppa Fungus or Fun-Hoppas, are a type of Squig that skirts the line between Orkoid Mushroom and Squig, from the Snotling Blood Bowl set. They are small, round, lumpy "mushrooms" with a cartoony, squiggy face on their front. There are two sizes of them, one for throwing like a living rock and another for riding like a moon hopper, even more so than normal squigs as these ones lack legs.

How they managed to hop around without a leg, we are not too sure, although more technical elegan/tg/entelmen had assumed that they use their entire body mass as one giant muscle like a snake, to propel themselves for locomotion.

They seem overall, pretty harmless as far as Squigs go, given that they don't seem to routinely eat their riders or throwers. But boy do these giant grey meatballs look like they came out of a Loony Tunes cartoon.

<Gallery>
Hopper_Fungus.JPG
</gallery>

===Horned Squig===
[[File:HornedSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Horned Squig.]]
<s>A Squig that's [[/d/|''so Horny!'']]</s> {{Blam}}

The Horned Squig is a Squig gifted with long, sharp horns stretching from its head that Orks often jam into barricades to serve as living obstacles or act as a moving and mobile battering ram for siege warfare. They act like bulls and if used against troops, often ram their horns into some poor unfortunate sod in a relentless, charging stampede. They have a brighter red color scheme than Cave Squigs.

If the Horned Squig is disabled, then the Ork can simply just strap the Squig on its forearm and use it as a living weapon. The Orks are anything but wasteful and is capable of using anything, even other living organisms, to its 'full' potential.

Like the Gas Squigs they are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

===Mimic===
[[File:Squig_Mimic.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Mimic.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>CA-CAW! OI GITZ GET MOVIN UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO TELL DA BOSS ON WHO IS MUCKIN' ABOUT!</span>

A particularly popular type of pet Squig is known as the Mimic. As you imagine, they are Ork parrots. This Squig has a large and toothy beak-like mouth (it also apparently has feathers) and is vaguely parrot-like in both appearance and function.

Mimics can be seen perched on the shoulders of many an old and haggard Ork, usually from the [[Freebooterz]] to keep the pirate theme, squawking expletives and insults at Greenskin passersby. Kaptins have a endearing affection for these little creatures and their ability to shout and swear at larger and more opposing Orks is often seen as a humorous delight to the Kaptin. Woe to any Ork who accidentally swats one of these creatures out of annoyance. [[FATAL|The chance of getting your head wired to a Big Lobba by a pissed off Kaptin? Too high.]]

===Oily Squig===
[[File:Grot_Oiler.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Oily Squig.]]
The Oily Squig is a variety of Squig bred by Ork Meks to create fuel for the Orks' ramshackle vehicles. They create the fuel, an organically-synthesized version of Promethium, in their rotund bellies, and it can be squeezed out of their anteater-like trunks. These Squigs have no mouths, other than their trunk, and are not combat-oriented like their far more aggressive counterparts.

The most efficient way of extracting the oil from the creatures is to use a large pressing machine, although more primitive methods, such as having gretchin to jump up and down on them are also widely used. Orks prepare the barrels of the squig oil in advance and take those with them when they go on campaigns.

There exist two varieties of Oily Squigs: one with arms and a distinct head, and one that resembles an Attack Squig with a trunk for dispensing their fuel oil.

<gallery>
File:Squig-oily.jpg
File:7e-grotoiler.jpg
</gallery>

===Paint Squig===
[[File:PaintSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Paint Squig.]]
Orks can be creative artists too! This small, vividly colored Squig excretes powerful dyes that are used as warpaint. These paints are also used by Gretchin artists as pigments for wall paintings and decorative banners.

Many Paint Squigs have tufts of hair on their trails, which allows the artist to use the Squig as both a brush and tube of paint simultaneously. The shells of Edible Squigs are also used by Gretchin artists as paint pots and palettes.

===Parasite-Hunting Squig===
[[File:Parasite-Hunter.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Parasite-Hunting Squig.]]
Parasite-Hunting Squigs are tiny but voracious feeders used to clear an Ork's body and clothes of parasites. An Ork simply drops a handful of these Squigs into his clothing and lets them crawl around. They look like Orkified spiders, which can give arachnophobes nightmares but the Orks don't give a zog.

The Squigs prey on lice, ticks and other vermin the Ork may have acquired in the course of his many unsavoury habits. When the engorged Parasite-Hunting squigs drop out of the Ork's clothing, the Ork simply gathers them up and pops them into his mouth for a juicy snack.

===Rat Squig===
[[File:RatSquig.jpg]]
[[File:Rat_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Rat Squig]]
A unholy abomination spawned from [[Skaven]] science (is anybody surprised?).

The Rat Squig is a species of Squig created by Clan Moulder by fusing rat or skaven meat with Squigs, creating a form of furry, rat-faced squig with scaly patches of leathery skin, and the ability of regeneration. They apparently also have bloodlust, even in comparison to normal squigs.

They commonly do not have flat backs like Skarl, the Rat Squig in the illustration above, who is also outfitted with a specially-made saddle able to carry his Grey Seer master, Farquan (also in the illustration). It is unknown if Farquan is the member of Clan Moulder responsible for creating the original Rat Squigs, or just his mount Skarl. Now whether they breed via spores like a normal Squig, we have no idea as the fluff doesn't really go that much into it.

There is a mod in Total War: Warhammer called [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2746640530 Elon's Rat Squigs] where these creatures were implemented in. Most of the images came from this mod.

<gallery>
Rat_Squig_Mod.JPG
</gallery>

===Scorpisquig===
[[File:Spiker_M01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Scorpisquig tail.]]
Scorpisquig Stingers are used by Gloomspite Gitz Gobbapalooza Spiker Shamans on the end of their Stikkas for stabbing things with poison. Not much is known about them, and we mean it ''literally''. Seriously, the only thing shown of them is the barbed-end of their stinger tail.

Whatever it is, we can assume that the Scorpisquig is a much sought-after source of Squigs that these goblins hunt, as even after their stingers are lobbed off from their bodies, they still retain enough venom to be an effective and dangerous weapon.

Curiously enough, the goblin who carries such a weapon are incredibly mutated, sprouting extra limbs and eyes that mimics that of the Scorpisquig (we assume). Like seriously, these guys are severely fucked up, so one wonders what kind of warp fuckery they were dabbling in; perhaps, in an ironic twist, these guys may actually slowly transform into a Scorpisquig itself after (Assumingly) consuming its flesh. Whatever the case, the Scorpisquig wielders are not to be fucked with.

{{Clear}}

===Screech Squig===
[[File:Screech_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Screech Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to as having [[Sonic Weaponry|oversized lungs that allow it to make an extremely loud screech.]] Screech Squigs disorient, incapacitate and/or make the enemy's eardrums burst with one of the most horrid sounds possible (We in /tg/ imagines it as mixing the cries of an infant that has sand paper in its throat with that of fingernails scratching the surface of a chalkboard). They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time... or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might be the Screech Squig. Due to the fact that it is nothing more than a living Sonic Weapon, the Screech Squig needs both a big mouth and a wide barrelled body to encompass its huge lungs; unfortunately, most Squigs have a big mouth and a wide body. Likewise, we hypothesize that the Screech Squig might be in fact, the big Squig we see inside of the Heavy Squig Launcha, due to the fact that its mouth is close relatively shut and will only open once fired from the Launcha. You wouldn't want your Boyz to go all bleeding in their noggins because they failed to pacify that thing, right?

A similarly themed and named Squig exists in Age of Sigmar called the '''Syari Screamersquig'''. A rare albino beast that loathes any form of light, and reacts to it with ear shattering screams. Unfortunately for it, it’s native to the Syari region of the Realm of Light. It’s been hunted to near extinction by the Lumineth Realm-Lords and is prized by many Grot Loonbosses for its screaming powers.

===Snufflesquig===
[[File:Snufflesquig.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Snufflesquig]]

Squig truffle pigs but more [[Derp|derpy in appearances.]]

Snufflesquigs are little more than massive noses and snapping mouths with wiry little legs that can be trained by Sneaky Snufflers to identify Looncaps, a type of mushroom that grows from the light of the Bad Moon, from others that induce effects such as vomit slime, break out in luminous yellow spots, babble uncontrollably or even burst into flames. When the Bad Moon approaches these unique squigs begin to howl with raised snouts.

Like truffle pigs, Snufflesquigs have a tendency to eat these shrooms if not carefully attended.

May be a reference to Snuffler Orcs, a breed of Orc from Middle Earth described as small, black, and huge nosed, used for tracking victims.

===Smasha Squig===
[[File:LAEMX6Acaz90SDmn.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Smasha Squig]]
A cousin to the [[Squighog]], the Smasha Squig is basically an orkified [[Dinosaur|Pachycephalosaurus]].

Smashas are usually ridden by [[Nob]]s from the [[Beast Snagga]] sub-kulture, where they are often found leading mobs of [[Squighog Boy]]z into battle. The Smasha Squig itself is bipedal, running on two legs rather than four. It is also larger, tougher, and even more ferocious than your regular old [[squighog|Squig Bacon]]. Any Nob who has managed to beat a Smasha Squig into submission is ''not'' an Ork to be trifled with.

Once "tamed," a heavy armor plate is bolted to the Smasha Squig's skull. This is not done to protect the squig, for among its kind it is already noted for having an exceptionally thick skull encasing an exceptionally tiny (and shock-resistant) brain. Rather, the plate enhances the beast's natural head-butting tendencies so that the Smasha truly becomes a living, snarling wrecking ball.

On the tabletop, the Smasha Squig complements the Nob rider who is already a beast (pun intended) in close combat. Crunchwise, this oversized fungal dinosaur grants additional attacks with its jaws and its Smasha 'Ead has a chance to deal up to [[rape|five mortal wounds]] after a charge or heroic intervention. Finally, the rider is equipped with a Big Choppa and a slugga, and with T6 and 5 wounds the model is just as hard to kill as you'd expect.
{{Clear}}

===Spiky Squig===
[[File:Spiky.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spiky Squig.]]
Spiky Squigs look like a living ball covered with spines which, as an instinctive reaction when agitated, can shoot out at any threatening creature rather like porcupines were once thought to do. These spines inflict a poisonous sting on anyone struck by them, though the effect of the poison on Orkish flesh is not as drastic as it is on other races due to the similar biology of all Orkoid races. Squigs of this kind are used in some bionik arms fitted with cages and a quick release system, so they can be used as a close combat weapon like a living Morning Star.

Spiky Squigs move via rolling around like a ball; however when it comes to hunting food, it propels itself at high speed before launching into the unsuspecting prey, launching its poisonous spines and letting it run its course. This unusual hunting method has been seen by xenobiologists as bizarre and weird.

===Spiteshroom===
[[Image: Spiteshroom.png|150px|right|thumb|Spiteshroom]]

A creature that blurs the line between Squig and Fungus, much like Hoppa Fungus. Spiteshrooms are fungal creatures that inhabit the dark and damp caves favoured by Dankhold Troggoths. They emit an incessant high-pitched shrieks and shrill idiot ditties that distracts even the most veteran warriors. The fungal clouds they release can rot flesh from bone. They are favored as familiars of Madcap Shamans.

Due to the fact that they seemed locked into ground like actual mushrooms, Spiteshrooms are immobile like the larger Stalagsquig.

<gallery>
Spiteshroom_and_Stalagsquig.JPG|With a Stalagsquig in a ''literal'' face off.
</gallery>

==='Sploding Squig===
[[File:Splodin_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|'Sploding Squig.]]
A biological grenade used by the Orks if they run out of stikkbombs. 'Sploding Squigs possess multiple stomachs, each containing a thick broth of unstable digestive chemicals. Some 'Sploding Squigs are covered in spines which may act as fragmentation when it explodes.

When agitated, usually though violent shaking, the 'Sploding Squig's digestive juices combine into a combustible liquid, causing the Squig to explode in a shower of meat, teeth, and bone fragments. While typically thrown in combat, 'Sploding Squigs are also often buried and used as mines. Orks are known to force-feed 'Sploding Squigs a meal of scrap metal before battle in an effort to enhance their lethality.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and doesn't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course this may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

However, the widespread use of regular Bomb Squigs has lessened the value of 'Sploding Squigs. No need to wait around for a specialized and uncommon Squig to mature when the most common type of Squig (plus explosives) already fulfill their purpose.

===Spore Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SporeSquig3mteg.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spore Squig]]

[[Drug|A Squig to huff some shrooms and get high.]]

A walking LSD projector. These little squigs are used defensively by Fungoid Cave-Shamans, who need but stamp on one to release an obscuring cloud of spores. The Fungoid Cave-Shamans themselves are the lepers of Goblinkind. Found only in [[Age of Sigmar]], the mushroom-gobbling grot maniacs known as Cave-Shamans are obviously not right in the head.

To these greenskinned nutters, to get lost in a brain-mangling vision is to grow closer to the side of Gorkamorka that epitomises cunning and trickiness over brute strength, which is the side that all grots like the best.

The Spore Squig is nothing more than a living, breathing hookah for the greenskin to sniff some grade-A meth and can, on command, release said spores towards its enemies to make them just as high as the Squig's personnel caretakers.

Moral of the story, don't do drugs kiddos, especially on the battlefield.

===Squigadon===
[[File:Squigadon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigadon.]]
A form of Squig larger than a Great Cave Squig but smaller than a Giant Squig. Maybe a smaller [[Squiggoth]].

First appeared in White Dwarf utilized by Hobgoblins. The creator of this monster was Nick Bayton who literally used a Large Squiggoth from Forgeworld and converted it into a unit for Fantasy by using the [[Lizardmen|Stegadon]] rules in battle. Whilst it may look big, don't let it fool you. Perspective is deceptive and whilst hobgoblins may view it as huge, you should take note that hobgoblins are like half the height of a human, so that Squigadon would be slightly bigger than a rhino.

Seeing as how the Squigadon is literally a converted [[Squiggoth]], whether it would be considered another demonym for a Squiggoth or an entirely different subspecies is unknown. Moreover, how 'canon' this Squig is, we have no clue since it only appeared in ''one'' issue of White Dwarf and that's it. We don't even have any of the barest hints of fluff. So your guesses on its validity are as good as ours.
<gallery>
W8ox5l0jxaua.jpg|As it appeared in White Dwarf.
</gallery>

===[[Squiggoth]]===
The largest of all squig species, have their own page.

===Squigeon===
[[File:Squigeon3.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigeon.]]

Squigeons (''Orkus aerium'') are the Squig counterparts of the Terran pigeon or columbidae if you are feeling fancy, often utilized for sending messages during battle amongst Ork tribes that lack more advanced methods of communication. Although they are sometimes hunted by the dreaded Squighawk or used as target practice by Stormboyz.

[[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-|They are the cutest little orkspawn your will ever get the chance of meeting.]] Unfortunately, due to GeeDubs incompetence, we never ever get to see them further fleshed out in fluff. This time the Commissar would be fine with you petting a Squigeon.

<gallery>
File:Squigeon.jpg
</gallery>

===Squighawk===
[[File:SquigHawk.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squighawk.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:200%'>'''BA-CAAAWK! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!'''</span>

Think of a Orkified Pterodactyl. Squighawks are a wild, flying species of Squig that are large enough to eat Orks. Thus, they are ECKS BAWKS HUEG.

Unfortunately, they are often too difficult to be trained (could be because the Squighawk view Orks as prey too) and are as such are rarely used by Ork Runtherdz-- which is saying something considering the Orks manage to successfully tame the much larger Squiggoth.

Still, it would be cool if we actually got to use these <s>Dinosaurs</s> flying reptiles on the tabletop. Chances are these things could potentially reach a size to rival some larger Tyranid flying strains such as the [[Harpy]].

===Squig-Hog===
[[File:Beast Snaggas.jpeg|200px|right|thumb|Squig-Hog]]
[[Boarboyz]] haven't been mentioned in core Ork fluff for quite some time. While they were cool in their own way, it didn't really ever make sense for Orks to be riding Earth animals in the first place. Well, as of 9th Edition it seems that Boarboyz have been retconned and/or [[squatted]] for good, because [[Squighog Boy]]s have now been introduced as a far more [[awesome]] type of Ork heavy cavalry. Squig Hogs are tougher, larger, and far more dangerous than other types of cavalry such as a horse or warboar, and they can eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouths (including the rider, if he fails to keep his mount in line). However, the horse still has a modest speed advantage.

[[Beast Snagga]]s use them as cavalry like the Imperium's [[Rough Riders]] and they are ''thicc'' enough that a [[Gretchin]] can hop on as well. Snaggas who ride these guys are called [[Squighog Boy]]z. While Squighog Boyz can belong to any Klan, they are presumably most common among the [[Snakebites]].

Crunchwise, Squighogs have a pretty nasty bite of S6, AP-1 and D2, meaning you should be able to dispatch the now tough-to-kill [[Primaris Space Marines]] as well as other MEQs and GEQs consistently. What you want from it however, is the fact that these walking fungal bacons are allowed 2 additional attacks every time the unit fights. Combined with the additional weapons from the Ork himself and you get a nasty cavalry unit.
{{clear}}

===Squighound===
[[File:Squighound.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Squighound.]]
Squighounds (''Orkus canis''), commonly known as "Growlers," are a variation of the Attack Squig, used by Ork Slaverz to help them keep the Gretchins and slaves from other races in line. Most have four legs, although two-legged varieties certainly exist. "Growlers" are also often kept as a form of pet by other Orks, as they are roughly the size of a small dog, hairy, and particularly vicious.

A Pet Squig often scurries about behind its master, barely under his control, giving its owner no end of amusement and laughs [[Troll|especially when the Squig snaps at the ankles of another Ork.]]

They are not to be confused with the Guard Squig or Herd Squig who are also [[Derp|referred to as 'Squighound'.]]

===Squigosaur===
[[File:Squigosaur_2.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigosaur]]
The Squigosaur are large two-legged squigs that [[Beast Snagga]]s ride upon. They are similar in appearance to the Smasha Squig, but whilst the Smasha Squig is an Orky Pachycephalosaurus, the Squigasaur is the Allosaurus of the family.

The most famous of these is the Big Chompa, otherwise known as '''The Great White Squig''' (AKA the Great White Shark on legs or "I can't believe it's another Moby Dick reference!"), a legendary alpha Squigasaur regarded as the most belligerent, vicious, and savage of its kind. It was responsible for a breathtaking number of missing Boyz and thought to be utterly untameable-- that is, until Beast Snagga Mozrog Skragbad appeared with all his chad energy and proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of it for three days until it complied.

Although he has tamed the Squigosaur, it will revert to its original destructive nature when he is not nearby. In order to keep Big Chompa in line, the long-suffering Skragbad is forced to keep himself at its side and the two are rarely seen apart.

On the tabletop, the Squigosaur's jaws works lethally well with a mounted [[Beastboss]]; three extra attacks which can practically gobble up [[Terminator]]s - especially if you roll a 6 to hit and score 3 mortal wounds.
<gallery>
Squigosaur.JPG|The Great White Squig
HxDM6t0oZyXjrBtR.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}

===Squigpipe===
[[File:Pipe.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigpipe.]]
Just to further hone the Scottish stereotype within the Orks (prejudice much, GeeDubs?), this special type of Squig is used by the Orks as a musical instrument. Several tube-like proboscises emerge from this Squig's bag-like body.

The Musical Squig can be tucked under one arm and inflated by blowing down one proboscis. Then, by squeezing the Squig, weird and terrifying sounds can be made through the creature's other proboscis pipes. This turns the Squig into a musical instrument, much like the bagpipes, but a thousand times more cacophonous. Orks like to go into battle accompanied by this Squig much to the detriment of their enemies.

<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-playing.jpg
</gallery>

===Squigshark===
[[File:SquigShark.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigshark.]]
Orks as Jaws. Squigsharks are the Squig counterparts of Terran sharks that inhabit Ork-infested worlds. And no they are not huggable; your local Commissar definitely urges you to '''''NOT''''' pet one out of safety and preventing potential stupidity.

They are known to be very dangerous beasts and many Ork sailors trying to cosplay as Moby Dick end their lives as a food for Squigsharks. Whenever one appears, it is obligatory to play the signature Jaws music. They are by far the top oceanic predator of any Ork World.

YOU. HAVE. BEEN. WARNED.

<gallery>
Deff_Skwadron_Squig-Shark-2.jpg|Dun dun...dun dun...dun dun dun dun dun....
</gallery>

===Snake-Squig===
[[File:Snake-Squigs.jpg|170px|right|thumb|Snake-Squig]]
The Snake-Squig is a very little known species of Squig only shown as an illustration with a [[Snake Bites]] [[Weirdboy]] of said Snake-Squig constricting the Odd Boy like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Speaking of Temple of Doom, it is quite possible that a Weirdboy uses his psychic mumbo-jumbo to control them like a snake charmer controls a snake. Of course, what the Weirdboy actually ''does'' with the snakes, we have no idea, as they are just there to make him look cool.

In terms of its ecology, the Snake-Squig should share the same niche and behaviour as... well... a regular old snake, specifically the constrictor kind when you compare it to its sheer size. These beasts are about 2-3 meters long, if the image is any indication, and is presumably capable of chomping down prey as it is, swallowing them whole.

But its role is never ever really known given that all Snake-Squigs are actually victims of Old Zogwort who managed to Harry Potter them into ''becoming'' a Snake-Squig. Because Old Zogwort is the only known Ork that does this, whether the Snake-Squig is an actual Orkoid species or just the consequence of psychic mishap is currently unknown.

{{Clear}}

===Squig Gobba===
[[File:Squig Gobba 2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Squig Gobba.]]
A [[Forge World]] model the size of a colossal squig. The difference is that this one can fire smaller squigs out of its mouth. The Squig Gobba is essentially living artillery.

Dragged and prodded onto the battlefield by its malevolent Goblin tenders, it is a huge beast with an oversized gaping maw, a set of extremely powerful lungs and a ravenous appetite to rival even that of a Troll. With the Squig Gobba heavily chained into position to prevent it bounding off after the first tasty morsel it spies, its tenders start dragging lesser squigs from the cages surrounding them as battle is joined, slicking these vicious beasts with foul-tasting noxious liquids.

This not only renders the creatures senseless for a short time, but also prevents the Squig Gobba from immediately swallowing them as the stunned squigs are unceremoniously stuffed into its jaws. Goblins can also make it explode if they want to.

<gallery>
File:Squig Gobba.jpg|Hey look! It seems that the last of the Gastric Brooding Frogs have evolved!
</gallery>

===Stalagsquig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Stalagsquig10vx-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Stalagsquig]]

Squigs are highly adaptable creatures, taking a myriad range of forms. Some, for example, infest the rock itself, creating Stalagsquigs.

The Stalagsquigs are a what happens when orks and gobboz believe that <span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>"OIH DAT STONE FING OVER DERE LOOKS LIKE A BITEY SQUIG"</span> and as such the power of [[WAAAGH|WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH made it so.]] The species looks like normal stalagmites from afar but get close enough and you will be introduced to a stone skinned biting nightmare. This particular breed has yet to be seen in 40k but it is prevalent in Ye Age of golden hammer jackasses ([[Age of Sigmar]]).

It is unknown how these squigs move (if they move at all) since they seem to have no visible legs, unless it's a luggage scenario where it sprouts thousands of little legs from its base when it wants to move... WELP, have fun sleeping after thinking about that. Emperor damn, it's like the [[Chaos Spawn|chaos spawns all ov-BGRIHSRAJKHSJAHDSAIUOFDGHU.]] However, according to Warhammer Community, they are totally immobile and viciously hungry creatures that make exploring caves in the Mortal Realms an even worse idea than you thought it was.

As a side note there has been no recorded evidence on how big these squigs can grow to but seeing as how normal stalagmites can grow to be bigger than a skyscraper if given enough space we might have to worry about descending into caves in the foreseeable future.

===Swab Squig===
[[File:Swab.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Swab Squig.]]
The Swab Squig is a type of Hair Squig, but unlike the long trailing hair of its cousins, its round body is covered with short, fluffy fur. Orks use Swab Squigs to mop up during operations, and they come in handy for emergency handkerchiefs too. Despite looking like a giant fluffball they have a humongous mouth and are quite snappy too. Swab Squigs tend to share a comedic relation with [[Snotling|Snotlings]] due to the latter's mentally retarded habit of poking things that should not be poked, which often ends with the little snots running around having their asses bit by the Swab Squig.

Non-pettable by your local Commissar.

<gallery>
File:Squig-swab-2.jpg|It is wise not to pet something that looks cute....
File:Squig-swab-3.jpg|....Or else this happens.
</gallery>

===Syringe Squig===
[[File:Syringe.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Syringe Squig.]]
Syringe Squigs are primarily used for medicinal purposes. These medical Squigs have natural properties which Painboyz find useful when patching together battle-damaged Orks. Syringe Squigs have a long needle-sharp proboscises with which they inject venom into their prey. Syringe Squigs exude a soporific venom which makes a fine anesthetic for Orks when the traditional anesthetic (known to other races as a "concussion") is unavailable.

Syringe Squigs are divided by their sizes to 'small', 'big' and 'urty' which are used depending on the strength of the dose required. The venom is sometimes extracted from the creature and used separately for mixing up some kind of special 'medicine', or if a really large dose is needed.

There is also a special type of Syringe Squig called a '''Vaccine Squig''', whose own immune system produces natural vaccines and antibodies to a host of different pathogens that are extracted and used by Painboyz to aid diseased Orks.

===Tapewyrm Squig===
The Kruleboyz Orruk shaman Gobsprakk can summon a squirming swarm of Tapewyrm Squigs inside the stomachs of his enemies, sickening them and even causing them to explode in a shower of Waaagh! Magic like some sort of twisted DeviantArt fetish. Yeah.

===Tomb Squig===
[[File:Tomb_Squig_placeholder.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Tomb Squig]]
From old-school Warhammer, Tomb Squigs are an albino breed of burrowing squig that feeds on corpses and undead alike.

Often found in [[Dorf|Dwarfen]] tombs that have been broken open and looted, they are sometimes also found in graveyards where their presence often makes sure undead aren't present in these areas. Slightly smaller than regular Squigs, they possess amazingly powerful jaws for their size, which they use to break open stone sarcophagi and to bite through the ceremonial armour Dwarfs often bury their dead in.

At the cost of there being corpse-eating squigs, these critters are as likely to attack and devour the undead as the actually dead (and living as well). As such, Tomb Squigs can serve as a [[Just As Planned|nasty surprise]]; really ruining a tomb robber’s day as not only do they present a threat to life and limb, [[Troll|they can also destroy valuable weapons and armour hidden in the tomb.]]
Source: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Tomb_Squigs

===Tramplasquig===
[[File:Tramplesquig.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tramplasquig]]
A quadrupedal Squig breed that is large enough to drag large vehicles. Tramplasquigs are the rhinoceros of the Squig family and their poor temper makes them a popular beast of war as well as a versatile beast of burden.

The [[Beast Snagga]]s use them to carry their [[Kill Rig]]s and [[Hunta Rig]]s. Although they lack any other form of natural weapons other than their bulk and teeth, Beast Snaggas mount armored helmets with a giant blade on top to further maximize their carnage.

On tabletop, the Tramplasquig is essentially the vehicle itself. It works well in conjunction with its ferried troops. As such, the whole thing is no slouch in melee either, as it not only has the squig itself fighting but also a bunch of boyz to hack away. What it does really well is if you have the Ramming Speed stratagem, as it not only throws it at an enemy from further away but it also drops some MWs on top of that, which can help with wiping the mob.
{{Clear}}

===Vampire Squig===
[[File:Vampire.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Vampire Squig.]]
The Vampire Squig is a blood-sucking creature with long sharp fangs, used by Painboyz to bleed the patient and suck bad blood and pus from septic wounds. The Squig does not seem to mind what the blood is like or from what species it comes so long as it gets a regular and plentiful supply.

When times are hard (which for Orks is when there's not much fighting) the Painboyz are forced to find other ways to keep their pets alive, which they do by extolling the benefits of regular bleeding to otherwise healthy Orks. It is also a good way to earn tons of teef in a short amount of time.

=== Wyrdsquig ===

[[File:Wyrd.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Wyrdsquig.]]

A Wyrdsquig is a little known psychic Squig subspecies that has close genetic links to the Gnasher Squig. Despite their close relations, they are fucking hideous, looking more like an aborted love child between [[H.P. Lovecraft|Yog-Sothoth]] and the [[Halo|Timeless One.]]

This subspecies is rarely encountered in the wild and possesses psychic abilities similar to those of Ork [[Weirdboy]]z. The Wyrdsquig is often employed in battle as a "psychic bomb," releasing a catastrophic telepathic shockwave at the moment of its death. So in layman's terms, it is the Ork equivalent of a Imperial [[Grenades & Explosives#Psyk-Out Grenade|Psyk-Out Grenade]].

They are one of the few Warp-based weapons that the Orks utilize along with the [[Shokk_Attack_Gun|Shokk Attack Gun]] and [[Tellyport_Blasta|Tellyport Blasta]].

===Other Squigs===

The breeds of squigs are innumerable and there are a lot of other, little-known types of these creatures in existence. From tiny micro-organisms on Ork bodies to the gigantic beasts put in the Ork spaceships to create breathable atmosphere, each of them has an use in Ork society. Notorious breeds such as the yellow-spotted '''Facegnasha''', the greater '''Fang-gob''', or the infamous '''Leapin’ Deff''' are especially popular for their use as Bomb Squigs. In Age of Sigmar, it is further expanded with examples such as the '''Glo-Squig''' are a type bioluminescent squig used to light up Lurklairs of the Gloomspite Gitz. Most of the models below include original Squig models, although also included is a green, gelatinous blob that had two beady eyes, similar to a Japanese RPG Slime, which some fa/tg/guy thought was explainable as being like the Orkoid Fungus equivalent of a Slime Mold; searching has found that this is an unofficial model produced by a third party company, "Krakon Games". The idea for the model being a Slime Squig probably came from the old Games Workshop Troll boardgames aimed at children, specifically "Squelch!", one about Trolls playing a game involving stomping on Squigs; among the illustrated Squig Cards there is a little Slime Squig. There is also a Small, Hairy, Humanoid Squig, perhaps the Orkoid equivalent of a Gibbon, covered in what could be fungal cilia or mould, called a "Beastling" (see below), which is an older official model. There was a Squig with a face resembling a Grot's like the Cape-Bearing Squig, but with long, bendy tube legs like stilts. There were 2 spiderlike squigs, one with a face like an Ork's, the other with a massive piercing proboscis, called a "Coffin Crawler" which was responsible for feeding Tyranid Norn Queens. A White Dwarf Squig character was Niblitz, [[Gobbledigook]] the goblin/snotling's pet who resembled an attack squig covered in fuzz and with two little horns, who was often said to be "spiderlike" somehow. Niblitz may be the very first squig ever designed, as he first appeared before any other squig models. The Forest Goblins also used to be shown with Squigs who had arachnoid features, or even riding Spider-Squigs.
<gallery>
File:Squigs_Old_Mini.jpg
File:Retro_Squigs.jpeg
File:VariedSquigs.JPG
File:Niblitz.jpg
File: Forest_goblin_art_2.jpg
File: Forest_goblin_art_3.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}
[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]

[[Category: Orcs & Goblins]]

[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]

[[Category: Gloomspite Gitz]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Orks]]

[[Category: Feral Orks]]

[[Category: Squigs]]

[[Category: Megafauna]]

{{template: Orks-Forces}}

Squig

2022-08-04T21:52:35Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Other Squigs */

[[File:Squig.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Squigs. Making [[Tyranids]] feel insecure in the eating department.]]

[[File:MilkSquig.jpeg|thumb|Sadly noncanon, at least not yet...]]
A Squig, short for squiggly beast, is any one of a variety of bizarre organisms that exist semi-symbiotically with [[Orcs & Goblins]] and [[Orks]] alike. [[Fungus]]-based animals, their most iconic form resembles a large round ball that opens up a huge maw full of teeth, propelled by two strong legs that let it run, scramble and jump all over the place.

Night Goblins in particular like to herd huge swarms of these things onto the battlefield, as they are violently unpredictable and surprisingly dangerous.

In the 41st millennium, on the other hand, they play a somewhat different role. Some ork [[Warboss]]es will keep such squigs as personal attack animals, [[Oddboys|slavers]] always have trusty squig-hounds to help tame [[grot]]s, and [[Tankbustas]] favor a breed that they cram full of bombs and coax to charge towards (hopefully) the enemy before blowing up.

According to the [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] splat, "Old World Bestiary", squig-meat is perfectly edible by humans and actually very tasty. Spit-roasted squig is described as resembling smoked ham with the consistency of young chicken.

[[Age of Sigmar]] introduces a mythological aspect to their origins with the introduction of Boingob, the godbeast progenitor of all Squigs. This massive creature barreled through the realms in a frenzied pursuit of the light of Hysh (basically the sun), until it finally jumped up and was roasted alive. Now its colossal skeleton serves as a holy place/impenetrable lurk lair to the Moonclan Grots.

Squigs can be bred into a vast variety of forms and functions. The most famous of these is arguably the monstrous [[Squiggoth]] which provide a similar sort of heavy infantry to a war elephant. Other, more obscure types include (but by no means limited to) Bag Squigs, Bomb Squigs, Eating Squig, Gas Squigs, Hair Squigs, Oily Squigs, Paint Squigs, Squig Sharks, Squig Hawks, and Squigeons all of which can be further explained below. Squigs are basically the apps of Ork society: if you can think of a function, there's a squig for that.

==Squig Varieties==
As mentioned. Squigs come in all sizes and flavors. Here are the documented species of Squigs officially recognized by the Imperium/whatever-institutio-exists-in-AoS.

===Attack Squig===
[[File:AttackSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Attack Squig.]]
The most common and identifiable type of Squig. Whenever someone says Squig, this is the one that pops in everyone's head. The Attack Squig (''Orkus ferocitas''), also known as the Cave Squig, looks like it's trying to compete with the [[Tyranids]] for sheer 'OMNOMNOMNOMNOM' ability, consisting of nothing more than a bouncing ball of claws and razor-sharp teeth. These Squigs, as their name implies, are often used as attack animals, weapons, or pets. They can be given to the [[Grots]] as a food source (if the Squig doesn't eat them first) or even war mounts if said Grot is feeling particularly brave that day.

Sometimes an Attack Squig is transformed into a '''Bomb Squig''' via jamming as much explosive materials into the Squig's mouth (or strapping explosives to their bodies) as possible before setting it loose to fuck up some tanks. These specialized Attack Squigs are often utilized by either Ork Flashgitz or Tankbustas.

<gallery>
File:BombSquig.png|Bomb Squig.
</gallery>

===Bitey Squig===
[[File:Bitey Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bitey Squig]]
Bitey Squigs are a sub-species of Attack Squigs that have sufficient jaws, claws, and stingers to savage the target and anything close by. This breed s frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas. Launched gnashing and snarling into the enemy, they latch onto the first thing they hit and do not stop chewing until they are killed. A bit like the Face-Eating Squig to be honest.

Legends states that the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]] was created due to a [[Just As Planned|'mishap']] when a Bitey Squig or some form of Attack Squig was accidentally stuffed into the launcha and fired into a ''very'' unfortunate Ork’s face and thus, the legend was born.

It seems that the Bitey Squig can be differentiated from the normal Attack Squig by its stronger jaw; this can be seen with its more pronounced jawline which could only be supported with powerful jaw muscles. There are also the aforementioned stingers, which would most likely be located at the tail; unfortunately there isn't any indication that the tail has something like a stinger. Bitey Squigs are also much smaller than the Attack Squig in order to fit inside a Squig Launcha; seeing as how an Attack Squig is often the size of a sheep, it makes sense for the Orks to utilize a much more smaller and mobile version to be used as ammunition.

===Bile Squig===
[[File:Bile_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bile Squig]]

The Bile Squigs come in a variety of breeds and are capable of spraying, squirting, or vomiting harmful fluids from their orifices. This breed of squig is frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas.

Typically launched by the handful, these creatures squeal and thrash while jetting acid, lubricants, poisons, and flammable fluids in every direction. The effects can sometimes be harmless, but other times can cause their victims to burst into flames, explode, or dissolve. Essentially, they are the Orky version of the [[Flamers of Tzeentch]], you never know what you're gonna get.

Bile Squigs seem to have an enlarged earhole or an orifice for which they shoot out their concoction of liquids, it is identified by its very [[Derp|derpy appearance]] and its long tongue which maybe used to lick off any excess liquid it shoots out.
===Bat Squig===
[[File:Bat_squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bat Squig]]

A squig that has bat wings..... That's it..... Look it's just a squig that has bat wings alright it has the typical squig mentality, lives in a cave and can fly the only difference is that IT JUST HAS BAT WINGS. These Bat Squigs descend upon their victims in a flurry of gnashing jaws and spattering guano. It's not got some depressing story in which it lost its parents and now hunts down all everything that isn't greenskin, NO IT'S JUST A SQUIG WITH BAT WINGS, also no legs.



On tabletop, at the start of your shooting phase, you can pick 1 enemy unit within 18" of this model and roll a dice. On a 5+ that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound. This ability cannot be used if the Bat Squig minion has been removed.

<gallery>
File:Bat_squig_in_a_shellnut.JPG
</gallery>

===Boom Squig===
[[File:Boom_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Boom Squig]]

A special sub-species of the 'Splodin Squig.

This breed is squig is frequently fired from [[Squig Launcha]]s and [[Heavy Squig Launcha]]s. Boom Squigs, also known as Mine Squigs due to their shape, are infamous for their defense mechanism of violently exploding at the slightest provocation, typically due to direct physical contact or a loud noise ([[FAIL|or sometimes even their own bouts of indigestion]]).

They detonate with such force that they kill or maim anything unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. These creatures thus make the perfect living ammunition for Orks and are also sometimes used as landmines. They are also favored by Orks as the tools of [[Lulz|practical jokes,]] as nothing will amuse a Speed Freek more than hiding a [[Just As Planned|Boom Squig under the seat of a Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy driver like an explosive whoopee cushion.]]

<gallery>
File:Boom_Squif_Top.JPG
</gallery>

===Bowel-Torrent Squig===
[[File:Bowel_Squig?.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bowel-Torrent Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to only as one of the most "revolting" and "panic-inducing". [[Shitstorm|Given its name it should be very easy to understand why.]] They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time...or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might best describe the Bowel-Torrent Squig the best.

Due to the Squig's... [[Bullshit|unique way of expelling its munitions]], we believe that the small albeit grumpy-looking Squig with the long tail ''may'' be the elusive Bowel-Torrent Squig. Ya know... 'cause it looks similar to that of a pigeon and this thing can 'fly' once it exits out the Squig Launcha. We would let your figure out the rest.

===Bag Squig===
[[File:Bag_Squig_2.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Bag Squig.]]

This type of Squig has a large, gaping mouth and a bag-like body that is almost entirely composed of stomach and nothing else. The stomach coincidentally functions secondarily as a pouch that allows the Squig to survive by slowly digesting food it stores up inside its body, similar to modern Earth animals that survive hibernation by eating a lot of food during the summer. If the Squig is dried out, it can be made into a flask for drinks. If it is tanned like leather, it makes a useful bag or belt pouch.

By far one of the most practical form of Squigs used by the Orks.

<gallery>
Image:Bag_Squig.PNG
</gallery>

===Burna' Squig===
[[File:Burna_Squig_2.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Burna Squig.]]

The Burna' Squig is similar to the 'Sploding Squig. However while the 'Sploding Squig is a biological grenade the Burna' Squig is a biological molotov cocktail. Inside a Burna' Squig consists of multiple chemicals that when mixed, burst into flames rather than exploding. Orks sometime shake their Burna' Squigs to further enhance their fiery potential (Or force them to swallow even MOAR flammable materials such as Promethium) after being thrown-- if it doesn't explode in their face of course.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and don't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers, he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course, these may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

The effects of Burna Squigs are equivalent to other flammable explosives found in the Imperium.

<gallery>
File:Burna_Squig.PNG
</gallery>

===Buzzer Squig===
[[File:Buzzer.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Buzzer Squig.]]
Buzzer Squigs are an insect-like like variation of the Squig typically used by Orks and Gretchins in a [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult,]] as they are very vicious and a swarm can strip the flesh off a man-sized creature within seconds. They are essentially flying piranhas but more aggressive than any piranha.

Buzzer Squigs are found among Ork fungus groves and are trapped in pots by Gretchin. The special pots are made from sun-baked mud, drilled with tiny holes to allow the Squigs inside to breathe. The top of the vessel is corked shut and sealed with more mud once a good number of Squigs have been put inside. Normally the Squigs feed by burrowing into other larger Squigs or small animals such as rats, so when they are captured they soon begin to get very hungry. They can be kept without food in the pot for many weeks, getting angrier and more savage all the time. If the Gretchin is unfortunate in capturing these hornets of doom or accidentally breaks a pot full of these things, then he may end up as their lunch.

Gretchin can tell which pots contain the angriest Squigs from the high pitch of the droning and the vibrations of the pot as the Squigs try to burrow out (the walls of the pot must be made thick and hard). These pots, each containing a small swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, are the missiles fired by the Squig Katapult. The pot cracks open on impact, releasing the swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, who attack anyone nearby. They are great against Imperial Guards, Tau, Kroot, and low level Tyranid forces (cue irony of the [[Lulz|Tyranids getting out-NOMMED in their own game]]). Unfortunately they are quite useless when it comes to MEQs as those claws and fangs aren't going to do much against ceramite and reinforced wraithbone.

Buzzer Squigs can also be found on the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]], although they're far more limited in role due to the presence of other Squig species.

<gallery>
File:Buzzer_Squig_Model.JPG
</gallery>

===Buzzing Squig===
[[File:Buzzing.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Buzzing Squig.]]
Not to be confused with Buzz''er'' Squigs, Buzz''ing'' Squigs have tiny, propeller-like wings on their tails: miniature airscrews that allow them to fly like a biological helicopter. When they contact flesh (which they can smell), they bores in and eat their way straight through the unfortunate target. Upon emerging from the victim, they immediately dive back and bore through again, or set upon another victim. Orks have learned to use these deadly nuisances as weapons.

Gretchin are set to work trapping them for dispersal as swarms around the battlefield. Buzzing Squigs may also be kept in pots and thrown from makeshift catapults like the [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult.]] When the pot containing the Buzzing Squigs cracks, it releases a swirling swarm of these flesh-eating monsters.

In all honesty though, by function there is very little difference between the Buzzer and Buzzing Squigs as they both fulfill the same niche. They only look different enough to warrant their own species.

===Coffin Crawler===
[[File:CoffinCrawlerSquig.png|right|thumb|150px|Coffin Crawler]]
Coffin-Crawlers were an Old-School Tyranid Squig who would consume fresh corpses and grow in bulk until they were ready to return to the [[Norn Queen]], carrying their swollen bodies back to feed her.

Genetic material in the form of captive creatures and corpse scavengers called Coffin-Crawlers is fed into the great maws located at the top of the Norn Queen and synthesised by its genetic shredder organs. The dissembled DNA structures form a gene-bank which provides the raw material from which new creatures called bio-constructs are created. Once a type of bio-construct has been designed more identical creatures can be cloned by the Norn Queens.

Much like the Grabber-Slasher Squig, when Squigs were separated from Tyranids, they were reduced to the status of just being a variety of Big Squig. That, and their role has been replaced by [[Rippers]].

===Gob Squig===
[[File:Gob.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Gob Squig.]]
Gob Squigs are small enough to be put into an Ork's mouth and left there for the rest of the day (or the next few days, if the Ork forgets about it). The Squig cleans the Ork's mouth out by rooting round the teeth and eating the juicy bits of food that are stuck between them. They look like your typical fantasy [[Slime]] with a funny face although your local Commissar would suggest not petting one as they are known to bite. They are essentially an Ork's version of a toothbrush but more effective and cost-productive

The '''Chewin' Squig''' is another variant of the Gob Squig. An Ork can pop this sort of Squig into his mouth and chew on it while he sits and thinks (or sits and enjoys not thinking), basically Orky chewing gum. How the Squig could survive being munched by an Ork is a feat unknown by Imperial Xenologists.

===Great Cave Squig===
[[File:99800209017_GoblinWarbossCaveSquigNEW01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Great Cave Squig]]
Think a regular Attack Squig given steroids. A Great Cave Squig is simply a larger variant of the more common Cave Squig that has grown to such a magnificent size that it has become as large as an Imperial warhorse. This Squig sub-species is the second largest of the non-Squiggoth family, with only the Colossal Squig surpassing it in both size and weight. Its large mouth is filled with teeth the size of swords and sabres and their appetite as ravenous as their smaller counterparts. These things are solitary predators that like to [[Get shit done|get shit done by themselves.]]

Because of their large size, the Great Cave Squig makes excellent cavalry for Night Goblins. However, their aggressive behavior makes it difficult to tame effectively. The process of [[Rape|breaking in]] a Great Cave Squig would cost the lives of many Night Goblins, but once the beast learns to accept a rider, they serve as a more stable mount than the smaller and more unruly Cave Squig. Although they are costly to maintain, eating over twice their own body weight daily, a Night Goblin Warboss would do almost anything to keep such a magnificent asset in the hands of his tribe.

Since they're so difficult to tame, often times Goblins don't even bother doing so, instead just chaining two Great Cave Squigs together, pointing them vaguely in the direction of the enemy and setting them loose, resulting in the infamous Mangler Squigs. The Squigs drag and pull each-other across the battlefield, resulting in them essentially becoming living wrecking balls. In Age of Sigmar, some particularly insane Loonbosses use a pair of Mangler Squigs as a mount, usually if they're leading a Squigalanche warband.

On the even rarer occasions when a Great Cave Squig continuous to grow exponentially, they would grow to such a monstrous size that they are once again categorized into another even larger variant called simple as the Colossal Squig (As seen below).

<gallery>
Image:GreatCave Squig.png|NYUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!
</gallery>

===Colossal Squig===
[[File:CollossalSquig.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Colossal Squig.]]
Think an Great Cave Squig on steroids and having a mouth and stomach that could rival a [[Haruspex]] and the [[Mawloc|Mawloc]] in a eating competition. The Colossal Squigs are the largest variants of Squigs known to exist short of Squiggoths.

These frequently six-eyed monsters boast an insatiable appetite, and are in essence no more than an impossibly vast fleshy maw studded with row upon row of scimitar-bladed teeth. The only way they get into battle is by finding some Orks and just moving in with them.

The Colossal Squig is often used as a giant living battering ram, bashing and splintering anything smaller than the Squig into a fine paste. Of course the presence of the Squiggoth kind of placed the status of the Colossal Squig in question. Nevertheless, they still have the capability of eating entire Space Marines whole let alone normal Guardsmen, granting some laughs by the local Boyz if the Squig doesn't eat them first.

Of special note is a small change to this subtype of Squig in [[Age of Sigmar]] - When a Colossal Squig dies, it blows up into a bunch of smaller Cave Squigs! ... Nature running its course?...

===Cape Squig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Capesquigs10vh-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Cape Squig]]

These cute little Squigs are there to make you feel just a tad bit more important.

A Squig found only in [[Age of Sigmar]]. A presumably regal and dignified breed of squig, these little beasties help Skragrott keep his magnificent cape off the floor. Or maybe they’re trying to eat it. Probably both…

Anyways, these Squigs are quite sought after since they have a... distinct head shape of the Greenskin's moon, which makes it downright flash. Why their heads are shaped like that is anyone's guess (selective breeding?). Skragrott, the Loonking himself, is the self-styled overlord of the Gloomspite Gitz (AKA Night Goblins, trademarked). His sinister presence upon the field of battle ensures his fellow grots fight with greater spite and cunning than ever.

On tabletop, these little beasties are there for decorative purposes in order to make Skragrott look more important than he really is. Seriously you think they would provide anything of substance in the actual game?

===Dice Squig===
[[File:DiceSquigs.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Dice Squig]]
Famed for their bounciness, the rare and elusive Dice Squigs have been known to be used by particularly kunnin’ Grot Loonbosses in games of tactics and chance. They are usually given out in an event of a mass brawl, with [[Grot]]s assembling bets on would emerge the victor.

These small, eyeless, limbless blobs of flesh have very little use other than your usual Ork gamblin', however, a wise Greenskin must still be cautious when handling these things as they still have a mouth that may bite your fingers off.

Currently, most Dice Squigs have different yellow splotches on each side save for the face, which is an obvious analogue to the actual numbers system of an actual dice. Also represented as an actual limited edition squig-dice for sale by Games Workshop.

{{Clear}}

===Eating Squig===
[[File:EatingSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Eating Squig.]]
An Eating Squig (also known as Grubs or ''Orkus consumit'') is a limbless blob used as the primary Ork food source. It resembles an elongated, squarish slug with two eyes and a small pug mouth (like a cross between a blob fish and uncanned SPAM). Orks usually prefer them cooked, but they can be eaten raw as well. Gretchin are quite adept in cooking them and have a number of methods including kebabing, marinating in fungus wine, stuffed with fungus and herbs, roasted on a spit, deep fried with fungus chips, or griddled over a campfire. Who knew the Ork race had such a flair for culinary skills? Again Commissars would suggest not petting one no matter how pug-cute it looks, although suggesting to eat one for emergency rationing is fine for them.

With the fast reproduction on all Orkoid lifeforms, it is unknown why the [[Imperium of Man]] still haven't decided on capturing one of these Squigs and then mass producing them which would stop Galactic world hunger that plagues some of the Imperial Worlds (and no, [[Grox|not because of heresy]]). Maybe they are already looking into it, but with how slow the IoM usually is it may take decades to even centuries for it to be finalized and distributed in the entire Galaxy. Or it might have something to do with the fact that they're creature from the orkoid genus, so they release spores everywhere that can grow into the more dangerous parts of the genus including actual orks.

If the Eating Squig is the Duck/Chicken of an Ork culinary experience, then the '''Juicy Squig''' is the foie gras of Ork cuisine. The Juicy Squig is a very rare and delicious type of Eating Squig that may perhaps be the only known Ork delicacy. This Squig lives at the very bottom of an Ork fungal drop, and are not only rare, but difficult to find and bring up from the depths. Since these Squigs are seldom caught by the Gretchin and Snotlings, they often grow quite large and become even tastier as they get older.

In Age of Sigmar, there is also type of swamp-dwelling squig in the Mortal Realms called the '''Slobbersquig''', mentioned in the second edition Orruk Warclans Battletome as being part of the regular diet consumed by the Kruleboyz, alongside bog toads, swamp hoppers, cold crawfish, spine-ridged mud worms, and human flesh. Compared to the rest of the food on this list, it could be conjectured the Slobbersquig is a sluglike, unappealing Eatin' Squig that drools constantly and lives in swamp muck instead of the bottom of the greenskin drops.
<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-trader.jpg|Lovely indeed.
</gallery>

===Guard Squig===
[[File:Guard_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Guard Squig.]]
Ork Kaptins have been breeding a form of Squig known as a Guard Squig, or Squig Hound to some. They're Orky Guard Dogs. These creatures have all the ferocity of an Attack Squig, but are bred to be utterly loyal to their masters. When alone or not in battle, Squig Hounds are usually seen sleeping on their post or lying on their master's lap. Guard Squigs are often seen as a step up above the normal Attack Squig due to their aforementioned loyalty.

Guard Squigs are not to be confused with the Herd Squig whose nickname also bears the name Squighound or the [[Derp|actual Squighound themselves.]] Why GeeDubs thought repeating the name of three different species is a good idea is a mystery.

Is it though? These are Orks we’re talking about. Considering the rather direct (and often short) manner with which Orks approach life, it’s hardly a surprise they’d have one name for several breeds of Squigs. One Ork may name a particular breed of Squig "Bitey" for biting a lot, only to have his head bit off by said Squig, prompting the next Ork to confirm that it is indeed a Bitey Squig, while somewhere else in the mob the same little drama is occurring with an entirely different breed of biting Squig with identical results. Orks are pragmatic...in their way.

===Targeting Squig===
[[File:Targeting-squig-art.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Targeting Squig.]]
A unusual type of Squig, Targeting Squigs (''Orkus scopum'') are weird creatures with a single targeting eye that serve as biological equivalents of Gitfindas used by Flash Gitz. Sometimes their pupils are even shaped into a cross-hair.

How the Squig communicates with the Flash Gitz is unknown. Although certain unique sounds or barks could be help the Ork to signal that there may be ample prey around. That or it could flash different colors or release certain pheromones that only Orkoid species can detect.

On tabletop there is very little difference between the Squig and regular Gitfindas other then the cosmetic change. They're cool-looking models though!

<gallery>
File:Targeting-squig.png
File:Last-wall-squig.jpg
</gallery>

===Face-Eater Squig===
[[File:Face Eater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Face-Eater Squig.]]
Humans have binge eating contests and the Orks too have their own variety. Of course in this case the food has the potential of eating your face off. Here is where the Face-Eater Squigs come into play. The Face-Eater Squig is a toothed variety of Squig used both as a weapon and in the infamous Ork face-eating contests.

These Squigs, also known as "Gnashers" or "Gnasher Squigs," are a vicious mass of sharp teeth and claws. In their active state they appear to be just a gnashing mouth and very little else, though they look much like any other Eatin' Squig when they are at rest. Because of their violent nature, Gnashers provide the Orks with endless entertainment, and Squig-eating is one of the Orks' favorite pastimes. The Ork and the Squig both open their mouths and bite, in a parody of a kiss. If the Ork eats the Squig, he wins. If he keels over backwards, he loses.

Some Painboys made attempts to use Gnashers to amputate a patient's limbs, but these attempts weren't very successful as they tended to bite off orderlies' arms or even the Dok's fingers. Face-Eaters are often used as an attack squig. This organism is known to Imperium biologists as Orkus ravenati.

<gallery>
File:GnasherSquig.jpg|Nasty little fuckers.
</gallery>

===Flesheater Squig===
[[File:Flesheater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Flesheater Squig.]]
In order to increase their wealth, some Orks breed large, ferocious beasts known as Flesheaters. The Flesheater looks like a furry, Orky crocodile, with a great, gaping mouth full of rows of sharp fangs that are similar to an Ork's [[Teef]]. Flesheaters continually shed and replace their teeth, and all the Orks have to do to collect this wealth is send a Gretchin to collect the teeth; they, of course, aren't overly keen on this duty.

Like Ork teeth, Flesheater teeth also deteriorate after a few years. Flesheaters are extremely long-lived, but rarely breed in captivity, making them even more valuable. Most Orks who own Flesheaters are either already Nobz, or become Nobz on account of the wealth derived from owning these Squigs. Not surprisingly, impoverished Orks sometimes attempt to steal a Flesheater, or even raid rival settlements to capture them.

They are literally a mobile money-making machine - who says money can't grow on <s>trees</s> animals?

===Gas Squig===
[[File:GasSquigs.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Gas Squig.]]

It is a Squig that literally has a [[Lulz|killer fart.]]

The Gas Squig produces a gas so toxic that Orks with gas masks throw this Squig in combat, using the Squig itself as a chemical weapon. Besides their use as a one-time explosive, the Ork can just let the Squig run loose in the battlefield, spreading as much chaos as possible as these nasty little runts can cover an entire field in a bath of toxic miasma and corrosive chemicals.

It is unknown what type of chemicals allow the Gas Squig to unleash a untold volume of lethal farts. High levels of methane or magic/warp-related bullshit is the only potential answer.

They are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

According to the illustration of Warhammer Online, Gas Squigs look like normal Attack Squigs but with hole-like projections that constantly spew out the toxic materials like chimneys.

===Grabber-Slasher Squig===
[[File:Grabberslasher.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Grabber-Slasher/Big Squig]]

These guys originated way back in older editions of Warhammer, when Squigs were the result of Tyranids consuming Orkoid biomass instead of being fungoid kin. The Grabber-Slasher is a form of large ambush Squig that prefers to lurk in ducts and either grab prey with its massive arm and drag it away to devour, or hump-slash it with its big crotch-spike.

As one can imagine from things ''that'' early on, they look like fucking abominations out of a Cronenberg film. Seriously, that giant clawed hand on top of its head does not help. They also apparently have a chameleonic ability to change their skin colour and texture to hide better in crevices and ducts. But again, with that giant hand and [[/d/|horned dick,]] the idea of it being chameleonic should be taken with some salt. Even worse is the fact that the Tyranid Hive Mind used it as a prototype to the Lictor in early editions, using it to assassinate those who threatened the plans of the Tyranids. Imagine the shame and humiliation of being killed by something as fugly as THAT!

When Squigs were later retconned into being always a part of the Orkoid Fungus Biosphere, the Grabber-Slasher was retconned into being just a [[Derp|"Big Squig"]], which is honestly, quite disappointingly generic.

===Hair Squig===
[[File:Hairy.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hair Squig.]]
Do you want to know how and where the Orks get their hairy ponytails from? The answer is obviously simple: they use Squigs to do the job, due to Orks being naturally hairless. Hair Squigs are a parasitic variety of Squig which possess small bodies, no legs, no eyes, and a pair of pincers in place of a mouth.

They have long hair running from their tiny bodies that Orks like to customize and dye after clamping the Squig's pincers onto their own hairless heads; this customization has no effect on the Squig's health.

One particular variety of Hair Squig is known as a '''Chin Squig'''. These creatures feature a long thin body with claws and hair all over it and serve as the equivalent of a beard. They are also known to be a sign of age and status among Orks.

<gallery>
File:Hair Squig.jpg
File:Chin_Squig.jpg|Chin Squig.
</gallery>

===Limpin Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SquigBall1jvrh.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Limpin Squig or a turkey drumstick, you make the call.]]

[[Lolwut|A Squig football/handegg. It makes sense in context.]]

Technically, this squig is from [[Blood Bowl]] rather than the [[Age of Sigmar|Mortal Realms (AKA Age of Sigmar)]], but its existence is so hilariously dumb it might as well be part of the Squig family. Also known as the Squigball, Orc teams are known for using Squigs as balls, shearing one leg off so it can’t run away. Sometimes, they just find a particularly bulbous Squig and then literally kick its ass.

These Squigs must be extremely durable, squishy and bouncy. The best Limpin' Squigs have flesh that is extremely flexible, sturdy bones to survive repeated impacts and kicks, a skin firm enough to be held onto for long periods of time, an attitude that makes sure it doesn't ends up biting its holder in the middle of some intense Blood Bowl, and just the right enough shape to bounce to its trajectory.

It is not known is they exist in 40k or AoS, although seeing as how Orks/Orcs are stereotypical British hooligans, we wouldn't be surprised if they did.

===Mendin' Squig===
[[File:Squig-hairy-medical.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Mendin' Squig.]]
Mendin' Squigs, or more commonly (and annoyingly) called Hairy Squigs (again not to be confused with Hair Squigs much to the Xenobiologist's constant frustration), are a type of medicinal Squig. Hairy/Mendin' Squigs are used by Painboyz as sutures. The Painboy simply applies it to the open wound, which it holds closed with its tiny, needle-like teeth. The Painboy then twists its tail off, leaving the head embedded in the flesh, repeating the process until the wound is "riveted up." The Mendin' Squig feeds off blood oozing from the wound, thus keeping it clean and free from infection. By the time it shrivels and drops off, the wound has usually healed.

This form of medical technique is actually quite closer to reality than you'd think. Some South American and African tribes use particularly large bulldog ants to act as crude sutures. They just grab the ants and allow the powerful jaws to snap shut on the wound and like the Mendin' Squigs they then twist its body off, leaving only the head which is still in contact with the wound until it shrivels and falls off once fully healed.

===Herd Squig===
[[File:HerdSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Herd Squig.]]
Herd Squigs have been specially bred and developed by Runtherds for the purpose of herding and controlling the herds of Runtz. They are related to the many varieties of pet Squigs, but have been selectively bred for their speed, intelligence, ferocity and endurance.

Their long, sensitive snouts and keen ears enable them to track down errant Snotlings and Gretchin wherever they might hide. Herd Squigs are excellent tracking beasts, and can follow trails which are days old.

They are also called Squighounds, which as you already know, [[Herp|should not be confused with the Guard Squig who already bears that nickname or the actual Squighounds themselves.]]

They look like pigs but more Orky.

===Hoppa Fungus===
[[File:DKI3T3c3fv3xNy92.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hoppa Fungus]]
A Hoppa Fungus or Fun-Hoppas, are a type of Squig that skirts the line between Orkoid Mushroom and Squig, from the Snotling Blood Bowl set. They are small, round, lumpy "mushrooms" with a cartoony, squiggy face on their front. There are two sizes of them, one for throwing like a living rock and another for riding like a moon hopper, even more so than normal squigs as these ones lack legs.

How they managed to hop around without a leg, we are not too sure, although more technical elegan/tg/entelmen had assumed that they use their entire body mass as one giant muscle like a snake, to propel themselves for locomotion.

They seem overall, pretty harmless as far as Squigs go, given that they don't seem to routinely eat their riders or throwers. But boy do these giant grey meatballs look like they came out of a Loony Tunes cartoon.

<Gallery>
Hopper_Fungus.JPG
</gallery>

===Horned Squig===
[[File:HornedSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Horned Squig.]]
<s>A Squig that's [[/d/|''so Horny!'']]</s> {{Blam}}

The Horned Squig is a Squig gifted with long, sharp horns stretching from its head that Orks often jam into barricades to serve as living obstacles or act as a moving and mobile battering ram for siege warfare. They act like bulls and if used against troops, often ram their horns into some poor unfortunate sod in a relentless, charging stampede. They have a brighter red color scheme than Cave Squigs.

If the Horned Squig is disabled, then the Ork can simply just strap the Squig on its forearm and use it as a living weapon. The Orks are anything but wasteful and is capable of using anything, even other living organisms, to its 'full' potential.

Like the Gas Squigs they are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

===Mimic===
[[File:Squig_Mimic.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Mimic.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>CA-CAW! OI GITZ GET MOVIN UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO TELL DA BOSS ON WHO IS MUCKIN' ABOUT!</span>

A particularly popular type of pet Squig is known as the Mimic. As you imagine, they are Ork parrots. This Squig has a large and toothy beak-like mouth (it also apparently has feathers) and is vaguely parrot-like in both appearance and function.

Mimics can be seen perched on the shoulders of many an old and haggard Ork, usually from the [[Freebooterz]] to keep the pirate theme, squawking expletives and insults at Greenskin passersby. Kaptins have a endearing affection for these little creatures and their ability to shout and swear at larger and more opposing Orks is often seen as a humorous delight to the Kaptin. Woe to any Ork who accidentally swats one of these creatures out of annoyance. [[FATAL|The chance of getting your head wired to a Big Lobba by a pissed off Kaptin? Too high.]]

===Oily Squig===
[[File:Grot_Oiler.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Oily Squig.]]
The Oily Squig is a variety of Squig bred by Ork Meks to create fuel for the Orks' ramshackle vehicles. They create the fuel, an organically-synthesized version of Promethium, in their rotund bellies, and it can be squeezed out of their anteater-like trunks. These Squigs have no mouths, other than their trunk, and are not combat-oriented like their far more aggressive counterparts.

The most efficient way of extracting the oil from the creatures is to use a large pressing machine, although more primitive methods, such as having gretchin to jump up and down on them are also widely used. Orks prepare the barrels of the squig oil in advance and take those with them when they go on campaigns.

There exist two varieties of Oily Squigs: one with arms and a distinct head, and one that resembles an Attack Squig with a trunk for dispensing their fuel oil.

<gallery>
File:Squig-oily.jpg
File:7e-grotoiler.jpg
</gallery>

===Paint Squig===
[[File:PaintSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Paint Squig.]]
Orks can be creative artists too! This small, vividly colored Squig excretes powerful dyes that are used as warpaint. These paints are also used by Gretchin artists as pigments for wall paintings and decorative banners.

Many Paint Squigs have tufts of hair on their trails, which allows the artist to use the Squig as both a brush and tube of paint simultaneously. The shells of Edible Squigs are also used by Gretchin artists as paint pots and palettes.

===Parasite-Hunting Squig===
[[File:Parasite-Hunter.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Parasite-Hunting Squig.]]
Parasite-Hunting Squigs are tiny but voracious feeders used to clear an Ork's body and clothes of parasites. An Ork simply drops a handful of these Squigs into his clothing and lets them crawl around. They look like Orkified spiders, which can give arachnophobes nightmares but the Orks don't give a zog.

The Squigs prey on lice, ticks and other vermin the Ork may have acquired in the course of his many unsavoury habits. When the engorged Parasite-Hunting squigs drop out of the Ork's clothing, the Ork simply gathers them up and pops them into his mouth for a juicy snack.

===Rat Squig===
[[File:RatSquig.jpg]]
[[File:Rat_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Rat Squig]]
A unholy abomination spawned from [[Skaven]] science (is anybody surprised?).

The Rat Squig is a species of Squig created by Clan Moulder by fusing rat or skaven meat with Squigs, creating a form of furry, rat-faced squig with scaly patches of leathery skin, and the ability of regeneration. They apparently also have bloodlust, even in comparison to normal squigs.

They commonly do not have flat backs like Skarl, the Rat Squig in the illustration above, who is also outfitted with a specially-made saddle able to carry his Grey Seer master, Farquan (also in the illustration). It is unknown if Farquan is the member of Clan Moulder responsible for creating the original Rat Squigs, or just his mount Skarl. Now whether they breed via spores like a normal Squig, we have no idea as the fluff doesn't really go that much into it.

There is a mod in Total War: Warhammer called [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2746640530 Elon's Rat Squigs] where these creatures were implemented in. Most of the images came from this mod.

<gallery>
Rat_Squig_Mod.JPG
</gallery>

===Scorpisquig===
[[File:Spiker_M01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Scorpisquig tail.]]
Scorpisquig Stingers are used by Gloomspite Gitz Gobbapalooza Spiker Shamans on the end of their Stikkas for stabbing things with poison. Not much is known about them, and we mean it ''literally''. Seriously, the only thing shown of them is the barbed-end of their stinger tail.

Whatever it is, we can assume that the Scorpisquig is a much sought-after source of Squigs that these goblins hunt, as even after their stingers are lobbed off from their bodies, they still retain enough venom to be an effective and dangerous weapon.

Curiously enough, the goblin who carries such a weapon are incredibly mutated, sprouting extra limbs and eyes that mimics that of the Scorpisquig (we assume). Like seriously, these guys are severely fucked up, so one wonders what kind of warp fuckery they were dabbling in; perhaps, in an ironic twist, these guys may actually slowly transform into a Scorpisquig itself after (Assumingly) consuming its flesh. Whatever the case, the Scorpisquig wielders are not to be fucked with.

{{Clear}}

===Screech Squig===
[[File:Screech_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Screech Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to as having [[Sonic Weaponry|oversized lungs that allow it to make an extremely loud screech.]] Screech Squigs disorient, incapacitate and/or make the enemy's eardrums burst with one of the most horrid sounds possible (We in /tg/ imagines it as mixing the cries of an infant that has sand paper in its throat with that of fingernails scratching the surface of a chalkboard). They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time... or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might be the Screech Squig. Due to the fact that it is nothing more than a living Sonic Weapon, the Screech Squig needs both a big mouth and a wide barrelled body to encompass its huge lungs; unfortunately, most Squigs have a big mouth and a wide body. Likewise, we hypothesize that the Screech Squig might be in fact, the big Squig we see inside of the Heavy Squig Launcha, due to the fact that its mouth is close relatively shut and will only open once fired from the Launcha. You wouldn't want your Boyz to go all bleeding in their noggins because they failed to pacify that thing, right?

A similarly themed and named Squig exists in Age of Sigmar called the '''Syari Screamersquig'''. A rare albino beast that loathes any form of light, and reacts to it with ear shattering screams. Unfortunately for it, it’s native to the Syari region of the Realm of Light. It’s been hunted to near extinction by the Lumineth Realm-Lords and is prized by many Grot Loonbosses for its screaming powers.

===Snufflesquig===
[[File:Snufflesquig.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Snufflesquig]]

Squig truffle pigs but more [[Derp|derpy in appearances.]]

Snufflesquigs are little more than massive noses and snapping mouths with wiry little legs that can be trained by Sneaky Snufflers to identify Looncaps, a type of mushroom that grows from the light of the Bad Moon, from others that induce effects such as vomit slime, break out in luminous yellow spots, babble uncontrollably or even burst into flames. When the Bad Moon approaches these unique squigs begin to howl with raised snouts.

Like truffle pigs, Snufflesquigs have a tendency to eat these shrooms if not carefully attended.

May be a reference to Snuffler Orcs, a breed of Orc from Middle Earth described as small, black, and huge nosed, used for tracking victims.

===Smasha Squig===
[[File:LAEMX6Acaz90SDmn.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Smasha Squig]]
A cousin to the [[Squighog]], the Smasha Squig is basically an orkified [[Dinosaur|Pachycephalosaurus]].

Smashas are usually ridden by [[Nob]]s from the [[Beast Snagga]] sub-kulture, where they are often found leading mobs of [[Squighog Boy]]z into battle. The Smasha Squig itself is bipedal, running on two legs rather than four. It is also larger, tougher, and even more ferocious than your regular old [[squighog|Squig Bacon]]. Any Nob who has managed to beat a Smasha Squig into submission is ''not'' an Ork to be trifled with.

Once "tamed," a heavy armor plate is bolted to the Smasha Squig's skull. This is not done to protect the squig, for among its kind it is already noted for having an exceptionally thick skull encasing an exceptionally tiny (and shock-resistant) brain. Rather, the plate enhances the beast's natural head-butting tendencies so that the Smasha truly becomes a living, snarling wrecking ball.

On the tabletop, the Smasha Squig complements the Nob rider who is already a beast (pun intended) in close combat. Crunchwise, this oversized fungal dinosaur grants additional attacks with its jaws and its Smasha 'Ead has a chance to deal up to [[rape|five mortal wounds]] after a charge or heroic intervention. Finally, the rider is equipped with a Big Choppa and a slugga, and with T6 and 5 wounds the model is just as hard to kill as you'd expect.
{{Clear}}

===Spiky Squig===
[[File:Spiky.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spiky Squig.]]
Spiky Squigs look like a living ball covered with spines which, as an instinctive reaction when agitated, can shoot out at any threatening creature rather like porcupines were once thought to do. These spines inflict a poisonous sting on anyone struck by them, though the effect of the poison on Orkish flesh is not as drastic as it is on other races due to the similar biology of all Orkoid races. Squigs of this kind are used in some bionik arms fitted with cages and a quick release system, so they can be used as a close combat weapon like a living Morning Star.

Spiky Squigs move via rolling around like a ball; however when it comes to hunting food, it propels itself at high speed before launching into the unsuspecting prey, launching its poisonous spines and letting it run its course. This unusual hunting method has been seen by xenobiologists as bizarre and weird.

===Spiteshroom===
[[Image: Spiteshroom.png|150px|right|thumb|Spiteshroom]]

A creature that blurs the line between Squig and Fungus, much like Hoppa Fungus. Spiteshrooms are fungal creatures that inhabit the dark and damp caves favoured by Dankhold Troggoths. They emit an incessant high-pitched shrieks and shrill idiot ditties that distracts even the most veteran warriors. The fungal clouds they release can rot flesh from bone. They are favored as familiars of Madcap Shamans.

Due to the fact that they seemed locked into ground like actual mushrooms, Spiteshrooms are immobile like the larger Stalagsquig.

<gallery>
Spiteshroom_and_Stalagsquig.JPG|With a Stalagsquig in a ''literal'' face off.
</gallery>

==='Sploding Squig===
[[File:Splodin_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|'Sploding Squig.]]
A biological grenade used by the Orks if they run out of stikkbombs. 'Sploding Squigs possess multiple stomachs, each containing a thick broth of unstable digestive chemicals. Some 'Sploding Squigs are covered in spines which may act as fragmentation when it explodes.

When agitated, usually though violent shaking, the 'Sploding Squig's digestive juices combine into a combustible liquid, causing the Squig to explode in a shower of meat, teeth, and bone fragments. While typically thrown in combat, 'Sploding Squigs are also often buried and used as mines. Orks are known to force-feed 'Sploding Squigs a meal of scrap metal before battle in an effort to enhance their lethality.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and doesn't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course this may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

However, the widespread use of regular Bomb Squigs has lessened the value of 'Sploding Squigs. No need to wait around for a specialized and uncommon Squig to mature when the most common type of Squig (plus explosives) already fulfill their purpose.

===Spore Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SporeSquig3mteg.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spore Squig]]

[[Drug|A Squig to huff some shrooms and get high.]]

A walking LSD projector. These little squigs are used defensively by Fungoid Cave-Shamans, who need but stamp on one to release an obscuring cloud of spores. The Fungoid Cave-Shamans themselves are the lepers of Goblinkind. Found only in [[Age of Sigmar]], the mushroom-gobbling grot maniacs known as Cave-Shamans are obviously not right in the head.

To these greenskinned nutters, to get lost in a brain-mangling vision is to grow closer to the side of Gorkamorka that epitomises cunning and trickiness over brute strength, which is the side that all grots like the best.

The Spore Squig is nothing more than a living, breathing hookah for the greenskin to sniff some grade-A meth and can, on command, release said spores towards its enemies to make them just as high as the Squig's personnel caretakers.

Moral of the story, don't do drugs kiddos, especially on the battlefield.

===Squigadon===
[[File:Squigadon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigadon.]]
A form of Squig larger than a Great Cave Squig but smaller than a Giant Squig. Maybe a smaller [[Squiggoth]].

First appeared in White Dwarf utilized by Hobgoblins. The creator of this monster was Nick Bayton who literally used a Large Squiggoth from Forgeworld and converted it into a unit for Fantasy by using the [[Lizardmen|Stegadon]] rules in battle. Whilst it may look big, don't let it fool you. Perspective is deceptive and whilst hobgoblins may view it as huge, you should take note that hobgoblins are like half the height of a human, so that Squigadon would be slightly bigger than a rhino.

Seeing as how the Squigadon is literally a converted [[Squiggoth]], whether it would be considered another demonym for a Squiggoth or an entirely different subspecies is unknown. Moreover, how 'canon' this Squig is, we have no clue since it only appeared in ''one'' issue of White Dwarf and that's it. We don't even have any of the barest hints of fluff. So your guesses on its validity are as good as ours.
<gallery>
W8ox5l0jxaua.jpg|As it appeared in White Dwarf.
</gallery>

===[[Squiggoth]]===
The largest of all squig species, have their own page.

===Squigeon===
[[File:Squigeon3.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigeon.]]

Squigeons (''Orkus aerium'') are the Squig counterparts of the Terran pigeon or columbidae if you are feeling fancy, often utilized for sending messages during battle amongst Ork tribes that lack more advanced methods of communication. Although they are sometimes hunted by the dreaded Squighawk or used as target practice by Stormboyz.

[[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-|They are the cutest little orkspawn your will ever get the chance of meeting.]] Unfortunately, due to GeeDubs incompetence, we never ever get to see them further fleshed out in fluff. This time the Commissar would be fine with you petting a Squigeon.

<gallery>
File:Squigeon.jpg
</gallery>

===Squighawk===
[[File:SquigHawk.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squighawk.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:200%'>'''BA-CAAAWK! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!'''</span>

Think of a Orkified Pterodactyl. Squighawks are a wild, flying species of Squig that are large enough to eat Orks. Thus, they are ECKS BAWKS HUEG.

Unfortunately, they are often too difficult to be trained (could be because the Squighawk view Orks as prey too) and are as such are rarely used by Ork Runtherdz-- which is saying something considering the Orks manage to successfully tame the much larger Squiggoth.

Still, it would be cool if we actually got to use these <s>Dinosaurs</s> flying reptiles on the tabletop. Chances are these things could potentially reach a size to rival some larger Tyranid flying strains such as the [[Harpy]].

===Squig-Hog===
[[File:Beast Snaggas.jpeg|200px|right|thumb|Squig-Hog]]
[[Boarboyz]] haven't been mentioned in core Ork fluff for quite some time. While they were cool in their own way, it didn't really ever make sense for Orks to be riding Earth animals in the first place. Well, as of 9th Edition it seems that Boarboyz have been retconned and/or [[squatted]] for good, because [[Squighog Boy]]s have now been introduced as a far more [[awesome]] type of Ork heavy cavalry. Squig Hogs are tougher, larger, and far more dangerous than other types of cavalry such as a horse or warboar, and they can eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouths (including the rider, if he fails to keep his mount in line). However, the horse still has a modest speed advantage.

[[Beast Snagga]]s use them as cavalry like the Imperium's [[Rough Riders]] and they are ''thicc'' enough that a [[Gretchin]] can hop on as well. Snaggas who ride these guys are called [[Squighog Boy]]z. While Squighog Boyz can belong to any Klan, they are presumably most common among the [[Snakebites]].

Crunchwise, Squighogs have a pretty nasty bite of S6, AP-1 and D2, meaning you should be able to dispatch the now tough-to-kill [[Primaris Space Marines]] as well as other MEQs and GEQs consistently. What you want from it however, is the fact that these walking fungal bacons are allowed 2 additional attacks every time the unit fights. Combined with the additional weapons from the Ork himself and you get a nasty cavalry unit.
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===Squighound===
[[File:Squighound.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Squighound.]]
Squighounds (''Orkus canis''), commonly known as "Growlers," are a variation of the Attack Squig, used by Ork Slaverz to help them keep the Gretchins and slaves from other races in line. Most have four legs, although two-legged varieties certainly exist. "Growlers" are also often kept as a form of pet by other Orks, as they are roughly the size of a small dog, hairy, and particularly vicious.

A Pet Squig often scurries about behind its master, barely under his control, giving its owner no end of amusement and laughs [[Troll|especially when the Squig snaps at the ankles of another Ork.]]

They are not to be confused with the Guard Squig or Herd Squig who are also [[Derp|referred to as 'Squighound'.]]

===Squigosaur===
[[File:Squigosaur_2.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigosaur]]
The Squigosaur are large two-legged squigs that [[Beast Snagga]]s ride upon. They are similar in appearance to the Smasha Squig, but whilst the Smasha Squig is an Orky Pachycephalosaurus, the Squigasaur is the Allosaurus of the family.

The most famous of these is the Big Chompa, otherwise known as '''The Great White Squig''' (AKA the Great White Shark on legs or "I can't believe it's another Moby Dick reference!"), a legendary alpha Squigasaur regarded as the most belligerent, vicious, and savage of its kind. It was responsible for a breathtaking number of missing Boyz and thought to be utterly untameable-- that is, until Beast Snagga Mozrog Skragbad appeared with all his chad energy and proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of it for three days until it complied.

Although he has tamed the Squigosaur, it will revert to its original destructive nature when he is not nearby. In order to keep Big Chompa in line, the long-suffering Skragbad is forced to keep himself at its side and the two are rarely seen apart.

On the tabletop, the Squigosaur's jaws works lethally well with a mounted [[Beastboss]]; three extra attacks which can practically gobble up [[Terminator]]s - especially if you roll a 6 to hit and score 3 mortal wounds.
<gallery>
Squigosaur.JPG|The Great White Squig
HxDM6t0oZyXjrBtR.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}

===Squigpipe===
[[File:Pipe.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigpipe.]]
Just to further hone the Scottish stereotype within the Orks (prejudice much, GeeDubs?), this special type of Squig is used by the Orks as a musical instrument. Several tube-like proboscises emerge from this Squig's bag-like body.

The Musical Squig can be tucked under one arm and inflated by blowing down one proboscis. Then, by squeezing the Squig, weird and terrifying sounds can be made through the creature's other proboscis pipes. This turns the Squig into a musical instrument, much like the bagpipes, but a thousand times more cacophonous. Orks like to go into battle accompanied by this Squig much to the detriment of their enemies.

<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-playing.jpg
</gallery>

===Squigshark===
[[File:SquigShark.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigshark.]]
Orks as Jaws. Squigsharks are the Squig counterparts of Terran sharks that inhabit Ork-infested worlds. And no they are not huggable; your local Commissar definitely urges you to '''''NOT''''' pet one out of safety and preventing potential stupidity.

They are known to be very dangerous beasts and many Ork sailors trying to cosplay as Moby Dick end their lives as a food for Squigsharks. Whenever one appears, it is obligatory to play the signature Jaws music. They are by far the top oceanic predator of any Ork World.

YOU. HAVE. BEEN. WARNED.

<gallery>
Deff_Skwadron_Squig-Shark-2.jpg|Dun dun...dun dun...dun dun dun dun dun....
</gallery>

===Snake-Squig===
[[File:Snake-Squigs.jpg|170px|right|thumb|Snake-Squig]]
The Snake-Squig is a very little known species of Squig only shown as an illustration with a [[Snake Bites]] [[Weirdboy]] of said Snake-Squig constricting the Odd Boy like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Speaking of Temple of Doom, it is quite possible that a Weirdboy uses his psychic mumbo-jumbo to control them like a snake charmer controls a snake. Of course, what the Weirdboy actually ''does'' with the snakes, we have no idea, as they are just there to make him look cool.

In terms of its ecology, the Snake-Squig should share the same niche and behaviour as... well... a regular old snake, specifically the constrictor kind when you compare it to its sheer size. These beasts are about 2-3 meters long, if the image is any indication, and is presumably capable of chomping down prey as it is, swallowing them whole.

But its role is never ever really known given that all Snake-Squigs are actually victims of Old Zogwort who managed to Harry Potter them into ''becoming'' a Snake-Squig. Because Old Zogwort is the only known Ork that does this, whether the Snake-Squig is an actual Orkoid species or just the consequence of psychic mishap is currently unknown.

{{Clear}}

===Squig Gobba===
[[File:Squig Gobba 2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Squig Gobba.]]
A [[Forge World]] model the size of a colossal squig. The difference is that this one can fire smaller squigs out of its mouth. The Squig Gobba is essentially living artillery.

Dragged and prodded onto the battlefield by its malevolent Goblin tenders, it is a huge beast with an oversized gaping maw, a set of extremely powerful lungs and a ravenous appetite to rival even that of a Troll. With the Squig Gobba heavily chained into position to prevent it bounding off after the first tasty morsel it spies, its tenders start dragging lesser squigs from the cages surrounding them as battle is joined, slicking these vicious beasts with foul-tasting noxious liquids.

This not only renders the creatures senseless for a short time, but also prevents the Squig Gobba from immediately swallowing them as the stunned squigs are unceremoniously stuffed into its jaws. Goblins can also make it explode if they want to.

<gallery>
File:Squig Gobba.jpg|Hey look! It seems that the last of the Gastric Brooding Frogs have evolved!
</gallery>

===Stalagsquig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Stalagsquig10vx-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Stalagsquig]]

Squigs are highly adaptable creatures, taking a myriad range of forms. Some, for example, infest the rock itself, creating Stalagsquigs.

The Stalagsquigs are a what happens when orks and gobboz believe that <span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>"OIH DAT STONE FING OVER DERE LOOKS LIKE A BITEY SQUIG"</span> and as such the power of [[WAAAGH|WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH made it so.]] The species looks like normal stalagmites from afar but get close enough and you will be introduced to a stone skinned biting nightmare. This particular breed has yet to be seen in 40k but it is prevalent in Ye Age of golden hammer jackasses ([[Age of Sigmar]]).

It is unknown how these squigs move (if they move at all) since they seem to have no visible legs, unless it's a luggage scenario where it sprouts thousands of little legs from its base when it wants to move... WELP, have fun sleeping after thinking about that. Emperor damn, it's like the [[Chaos Spawn|chaos spawns all ov-BGRIHSRAJKHSJAHDSAIUOFDGHU.]] However, according to Warhammer Community, they are totally immobile and viciously hungry creatures that make exploring caves in the Mortal Realms an even worse idea than you thought it was.

As a side note there has been no recorded evidence on how big these squigs can grow to but seeing as how normal stalagmites can grow to be bigger than a skyscraper if given enough space we might have to worry about descending into caves in the foreseeable future.

===Swab Squig===
[[File:Swab.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Swab Squig.]]
The Swab Squig is a type of Hair Squig, but unlike the long trailing hair of its cousins, its round body is covered with short, fluffy fur. Orks use Swab Squigs to mop up during operations, and they come in handy for emergency handkerchiefs too. Despite looking like a giant fluffball they have a humongous mouth and are quite snappy too. Swab Squigs tend to share a comedic relation with [[Snotling|Snotlings]] due to the latter's mentally retarded habit of poking things that should not be poked, which often ends with the little snots running around having their asses bit by the Swab Squig.

Non-pettable by your local Commissar.

<gallery>
File:Squig-swab-2.jpg|It is wise not to pet something that looks cute....
File:Squig-swab-3.jpg|....Or else this happens.
</gallery>

===Syringe Squig===
[[File:Syringe.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Syringe Squig.]]
Syringe Squigs are primarily used for medicinal purposes. These medical Squigs have natural properties which Painboyz find useful when patching together battle-damaged Orks. Syringe Squigs have a long needle-sharp proboscises with which they inject venom into their prey. Syringe Squigs exude a soporific venom which makes a fine anesthetic for Orks when the traditional anesthetic (known to other races as a "concussion") is unavailable.

Syringe Squigs are divided by their sizes to 'small', 'big' and 'urty' which are used depending on the strength of the dose required. The venom is sometimes extracted from the creature and used separately for mixing up some kind of special 'medicine', or if a really large dose is needed.

There is also a special type of Syringe Squig called a '''Vaccine Squig''', whose own immune system produces natural vaccines and antibodies to a host of different pathogens that are extracted and used by Painboyz to aid diseased Orks.

===Tapewyrm Squig===
The Kruleboyz Orruk shaman Gobsprakk can summon a squirming swarm of Tapewyrm Squigs inside the stomachs of his enemies, sickening them and even causing them to explode in a shower of Waaagh! Magic like some sort of twisted DeviantArt fetish. Yeah.

===Tomb Squig===
[[File:Tomb_Squig_placeholder.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Tomb Squig]]
From old-school Warhammer, Tomb Squigs are an albino breed of burrowing squig that feeds on corpses and undead alike.

Often found in [[Dorf|Dwarfen]] tombs that have been broken open and looted, they are sometimes also found in graveyards where their presence often makes sure undead aren't present in these areas. Slightly smaller than regular Squigs, they possess amazingly powerful jaws for their size, which they use to break open stone sarcophagi and to bite through the ceremonial armour Dwarfs often bury their dead in.

At the cost of there being corpse-eating squigs, these critters are as likely to attack and devour the undead as the actually dead (and living as well). As such, Tomb Squigs can serve as a [[Just As Planned|nasty surprise]]; really ruining a tomb robber’s day as not only do they present a threat to life and limb, [[Troll|they can also destroy valuable weapons and armour hidden in the tomb.]]
Source: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Tomb_Squigs

===Tramplasquig===
[[File:Tramplesquig.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tramplasquig]]
A quadrupedal Squig breed that is large enough to drag large vehicles. Tramplasquigs are the rhinoceros of the Squig family and their poor temper makes them a popular beast of war as well as a versatile beast of burden.

The [[Beast Snagga]]s use them to carry their [[Kill Rig]]s and [[Hunta Rig]]s. Although they lack any other form of natural weapons other than their bulk and teeth, Beast Snaggas mount armored helmets with a giant blade on top to further maximize their carnage.

On tabletop, the Tramplasquig is essentially the vehicle itself. It works well in conjunction with its ferried troops. As such, the whole thing is no slouch in melee either, as it not only has the squig itself fighting but also a bunch of boyz to hack away. What it does really well is if you have the Ramming Speed stratagem, as it not only throws it at an enemy from further away but it also drops some MWs on top of that, which can help with wiping the mob.
{{Clear}}

===Vampire Squig===
[[File:Vampire.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Vampire Squig.]]
The Vampire Squig is a blood-sucking creature with long sharp fangs, used by Painboyz to bleed the patient and suck bad blood and pus from septic wounds. The Squig does not seem to mind what the blood is like or from what species it comes so long as it gets a regular and plentiful supply.

When times are hard (which for Orks is when there's not much fighting) the Painboyz are forced to find other ways to keep their pets alive, which they do by extolling the benefits of regular bleeding to otherwise healthy Orks. It is also a good way to earn tons of teef in a short amount of time.

=== Wyrdsquig ===

[[File:Wyrd.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Wyrdsquig.]]

A Wyrdsquig is a little known psychic Squig subspecies that has close genetic links to the Gnasher Squig. Despite their close relations, they are fucking hideous, looking more like an aborted love child between [[H.P. Lovecraft|Yog-Sothoth]] and the [[Halo|Timeless One.]]

This subspecies is rarely encountered in the wild and possesses psychic abilities similar to those of Ork [[Weirdboy]]z. The Wyrdsquig is often employed in battle as a "psychic bomb," releasing a catastrophic telepathic shockwave at the moment of its death. So in layman's terms, it is the Ork equivalent of a Imperial [[Grenades & Explosives#Psyk-Out Grenade|Psyk-Out Grenade]].

They are one of the few Warp-based weapons that the Orks utilize along with the [[Shokk_Attack_Gun|Shokk Attack Gun]] and [[Tellyport_Blasta|Tellyport Blasta]].

===Other Squigs===

The breeds of squigs are innumerable and there are a lot of other, little-known types of these creatures in existence. From tiny micro-organisms on Ork bodies to the gigantic beasts put in the Ork spaceships to create breathable atmosphere, each of them has an use in Ork society. Notorious breeds such as the yellow-spotted '''Facegnasha''', the greater '''Fang-gob''', or the infamous '''Leapin’ Deff''' are especially popular for their use as Bomb Squigs. In Age of Sigmar, it is further expanded with examples such as the '''Glo-Squig''' are a type bioluminescent squig used to light up Lurklairs of the Gloomspite Gitz. Most of the models below include original Squig models, although also included is a green, gelatinous blob that had two beady eyes, similar to a Japanese RPG Slime, which some fa/tg/guy thought was explainable as being like the Orkoid Fungus equivalent of a Slime Mold; searching has found that this is an unofficial model produced by a third party company, "Krakon Games". The idea for the model being a Slime Squig probably came from the old Games Workshop Troll boardgames aimed at children, specifically "Squelch!", one about Trolls playing a game involving stomping on Squigs; among the illustrated Squig Cards there is a little Slime Squig. There is also a Small, Hairy, Humanoid Squig, perhaps the Orkoid equivalent of a Gibbon, covered in what could be fungal cilia or mould, called a "Beastling" (see below), which is an older official model. There was a Squig with a face resembling a Grot's like the Cape-Bearing Squig, but with long, bendy tube legs like stilts. There were 2 spiderlike squigs, one with a face like an Ork's, the other with a massive piercing proboscis, called a "Coffin Crawler" which was responsible for feeding Tyranid Norn Queens. A White Dwarf Squig character was Niblitz, [[Gobbledigook]] the goblin/snotling's pet who resembled an attack squig covered in fuzz and with two little horns, who was often said to be "spiderlike" somehow. Niblitz may be the very first squig ever designed, as he first appeared before any other squig models. The Forest Goblins also used to be shown with Squigs who had arachnoid features, or even riding Spider-Squigs.
<gallery>
File:Squigs_Old_Mini.jpg
File:Retro_Squigs.jpeg
File:VariedSquigs.JPG
File:Niblitz.jpg
File: Forest_goblin_art_2.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}
[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]

[[Category: Orcs & Goblins]]

[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]

[[Category: Gloomspite Gitz]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Orks]]

[[Category: Feral Orks]]

[[Category: Squigs]]

[[Category: Megafauna]]

{{template: Orks-Forces}}

Squig

2022-08-04T21:51:58Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Other Squigs */

[[File:Squig.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Squigs. Making [[Tyranids]] feel insecure in the eating department.]]

[[File:MilkSquig.jpeg|thumb|Sadly noncanon, at least not yet...]]
A Squig, short for squiggly beast, is any one of a variety of bizarre organisms that exist semi-symbiotically with [[Orcs & Goblins]] and [[Orks]] alike. [[Fungus]]-based animals, their most iconic form resembles a large round ball that opens up a huge maw full of teeth, propelled by two strong legs that let it run, scramble and jump all over the place.

Night Goblins in particular like to herd huge swarms of these things onto the battlefield, as they are violently unpredictable and surprisingly dangerous.

In the 41st millennium, on the other hand, they play a somewhat different role. Some ork [[Warboss]]es will keep such squigs as personal attack animals, [[Oddboys|slavers]] always have trusty squig-hounds to help tame [[grot]]s, and [[Tankbustas]] favor a breed that they cram full of bombs and coax to charge towards (hopefully) the enemy before blowing up.

According to the [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] splat, "Old World Bestiary", squig-meat is perfectly edible by humans and actually very tasty. Spit-roasted squig is described as resembling smoked ham with the consistency of young chicken.

[[Age of Sigmar]] introduces a mythological aspect to their origins with the introduction of Boingob, the godbeast progenitor of all Squigs. This massive creature barreled through the realms in a frenzied pursuit of the light of Hysh (basically the sun), until it finally jumped up and was roasted alive. Now its colossal skeleton serves as a holy place/impenetrable lurk lair to the Moonclan Grots.

Squigs can be bred into a vast variety of forms and functions. The most famous of these is arguably the monstrous [[Squiggoth]] which provide a similar sort of heavy infantry to a war elephant. Other, more obscure types include (but by no means limited to) Bag Squigs, Bomb Squigs, Eating Squig, Gas Squigs, Hair Squigs, Oily Squigs, Paint Squigs, Squig Sharks, Squig Hawks, and Squigeons all of which can be further explained below. Squigs are basically the apps of Ork society: if you can think of a function, there's a squig for that.

==Squig Varieties==
As mentioned. Squigs come in all sizes and flavors. Here are the documented species of Squigs officially recognized by the Imperium/whatever-institutio-exists-in-AoS.

===Attack Squig===
[[File:AttackSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Attack Squig.]]
The most common and identifiable type of Squig. Whenever someone says Squig, this is the one that pops in everyone's head. The Attack Squig (''Orkus ferocitas''), also known as the Cave Squig, looks like it's trying to compete with the [[Tyranids]] for sheer 'OMNOMNOMNOMNOM' ability, consisting of nothing more than a bouncing ball of claws and razor-sharp teeth. These Squigs, as their name implies, are often used as attack animals, weapons, or pets. They can be given to the [[Grots]] as a food source (if the Squig doesn't eat them first) or even war mounts if said Grot is feeling particularly brave that day.

Sometimes an Attack Squig is transformed into a '''Bomb Squig''' via jamming as much explosive materials into the Squig's mouth (or strapping explosives to their bodies) as possible before setting it loose to fuck up some tanks. These specialized Attack Squigs are often utilized by either Ork Flashgitz or Tankbustas.

<gallery>
File:BombSquig.png|Bomb Squig.
</gallery>

===Bitey Squig===
[[File:Bitey Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bitey Squig]]
Bitey Squigs are a sub-species of Attack Squigs that have sufficient jaws, claws, and stingers to savage the target and anything close by. This breed s frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas. Launched gnashing and snarling into the enemy, they latch onto the first thing they hit and do not stop chewing until they are killed. A bit like the Face-Eating Squig to be honest.

Legends states that the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]] was created due to a [[Just As Planned|'mishap']] when a Bitey Squig or some form of Attack Squig was accidentally stuffed into the launcha and fired into a ''very'' unfortunate Ork’s face and thus, the legend was born.

It seems that the Bitey Squig can be differentiated from the normal Attack Squig by its stronger jaw; this can be seen with its more pronounced jawline which could only be supported with powerful jaw muscles. There are also the aforementioned stingers, which would most likely be located at the tail; unfortunately there isn't any indication that the tail has something like a stinger. Bitey Squigs are also much smaller than the Attack Squig in order to fit inside a Squig Launcha; seeing as how an Attack Squig is often the size of a sheep, it makes sense for the Orks to utilize a much more smaller and mobile version to be used as ammunition.

===Bile Squig===
[[File:Bile_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bile Squig]]

The Bile Squigs come in a variety of breeds and are capable of spraying, squirting, or vomiting harmful fluids from their orifices. This breed of squig is frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas.

Typically launched by the handful, these creatures squeal and thrash while jetting acid, lubricants, poisons, and flammable fluids in every direction. The effects can sometimes be harmless, but other times can cause their victims to burst into flames, explode, or dissolve. Essentially, they are the Orky version of the [[Flamers of Tzeentch]], you never know what you're gonna get.

Bile Squigs seem to have an enlarged earhole or an orifice for which they shoot out their concoction of liquids, it is identified by its very [[Derp|derpy appearance]] and its long tongue which maybe used to lick off any excess liquid it shoots out.
===Bat Squig===
[[File:Bat_squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bat Squig]]

A squig that has bat wings..... That's it..... Look it's just a squig that has bat wings alright it has the typical squig mentality, lives in a cave and can fly the only difference is that IT JUST HAS BAT WINGS. These Bat Squigs descend upon their victims in a flurry of gnashing jaws and spattering guano. It's not got some depressing story in which it lost its parents and now hunts down all everything that isn't greenskin, NO IT'S JUST A SQUIG WITH BAT WINGS, also no legs.



On tabletop, at the start of your shooting phase, you can pick 1 enemy unit within 18" of this model and roll a dice. On a 5+ that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound. This ability cannot be used if the Bat Squig minion has been removed.

<gallery>
File:Bat_squig_in_a_shellnut.JPG
</gallery>

===Boom Squig===
[[File:Boom_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Boom Squig]]

A special sub-species of the 'Splodin Squig.

This breed is squig is frequently fired from [[Squig Launcha]]s and [[Heavy Squig Launcha]]s. Boom Squigs, also known as Mine Squigs due to their shape, are infamous for their defense mechanism of violently exploding at the slightest provocation, typically due to direct physical contact or a loud noise ([[FAIL|or sometimes even their own bouts of indigestion]]).

They detonate with such force that they kill or maim anything unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. These creatures thus make the perfect living ammunition for Orks and are also sometimes used as landmines. They are also favored by Orks as the tools of [[Lulz|practical jokes,]] as nothing will amuse a Speed Freek more than hiding a [[Just As Planned|Boom Squig under the seat of a Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy driver like an explosive whoopee cushion.]]

<gallery>
File:Boom_Squif_Top.JPG
</gallery>

===Bowel-Torrent Squig===
[[File:Bowel_Squig?.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bowel-Torrent Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to only as one of the most "revolting" and "panic-inducing". [[Shitstorm|Given its name it should be very easy to understand why.]] They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time...or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might best describe the Bowel-Torrent Squig the best.

Due to the Squig's... [[Bullshit|unique way of expelling its munitions]], we believe that the small albeit grumpy-looking Squig with the long tail ''may'' be the elusive Bowel-Torrent Squig. Ya know... 'cause it looks similar to that of a pigeon and this thing can 'fly' once it exits out the Squig Launcha. We would let your figure out the rest.

===Bag Squig===
[[File:Bag_Squig_2.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Bag Squig.]]

This type of Squig has a large, gaping mouth and a bag-like body that is almost entirely composed of stomach and nothing else. The stomach coincidentally functions secondarily as a pouch that allows the Squig to survive by slowly digesting food it stores up inside its body, similar to modern Earth animals that survive hibernation by eating a lot of food during the summer. If the Squig is dried out, it can be made into a flask for drinks. If it is tanned like leather, it makes a useful bag or belt pouch.

By far one of the most practical form of Squigs used by the Orks.

<gallery>
Image:Bag_Squig.PNG
</gallery>

===Burna' Squig===
[[File:Burna_Squig_2.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Burna Squig.]]

The Burna' Squig is similar to the 'Sploding Squig. However while the 'Sploding Squig is a biological grenade the Burna' Squig is a biological molotov cocktail. Inside a Burna' Squig consists of multiple chemicals that when mixed, burst into flames rather than exploding. Orks sometime shake their Burna' Squigs to further enhance their fiery potential (Or force them to swallow even MOAR flammable materials such as Promethium) after being thrown-- if it doesn't explode in their face of course.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and don't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers, he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course, these may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

The effects of Burna Squigs are equivalent to other flammable explosives found in the Imperium.

<gallery>
File:Burna_Squig.PNG
</gallery>

===Buzzer Squig===
[[File:Buzzer.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Buzzer Squig.]]
Buzzer Squigs are an insect-like like variation of the Squig typically used by Orks and Gretchins in a [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult,]] as they are very vicious and a swarm can strip the flesh off a man-sized creature within seconds. They are essentially flying piranhas but more aggressive than any piranha.

Buzzer Squigs are found among Ork fungus groves and are trapped in pots by Gretchin. The special pots are made from sun-baked mud, drilled with tiny holes to allow the Squigs inside to breathe. The top of the vessel is corked shut and sealed with more mud once a good number of Squigs have been put inside. Normally the Squigs feed by burrowing into other larger Squigs or small animals such as rats, so when they are captured they soon begin to get very hungry. They can be kept without food in the pot for many weeks, getting angrier and more savage all the time. If the Gretchin is unfortunate in capturing these hornets of doom or accidentally breaks a pot full of these things, then he may end up as their lunch.

Gretchin can tell which pots contain the angriest Squigs from the high pitch of the droning and the vibrations of the pot as the Squigs try to burrow out (the walls of the pot must be made thick and hard). These pots, each containing a small swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, are the missiles fired by the Squig Katapult. The pot cracks open on impact, releasing the swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, who attack anyone nearby. They are great against Imperial Guards, Tau, Kroot, and low level Tyranid forces (cue irony of the [[Lulz|Tyranids getting out-NOMMED in their own game]]). Unfortunately they are quite useless when it comes to MEQs as those claws and fangs aren't going to do much against ceramite and reinforced wraithbone.

Buzzer Squigs can also be found on the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]], although they're far more limited in role due to the presence of other Squig species.

<gallery>
File:Buzzer_Squig_Model.JPG
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===Buzzing Squig===
[[File:Buzzing.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Buzzing Squig.]]
Not to be confused with Buzz''er'' Squigs, Buzz''ing'' Squigs have tiny, propeller-like wings on their tails: miniature airscrews that allow them to fly like a biological helicopter. When they contact flesh (which they can smell), they bores in and eat their way straight through the unfortunate target. Upon emerging from the victim, they immediately dive back and bore through again, or set upon another victim. Orks have learned to use these deadly nuisances as weapons.

Gretchin are set to work trapping them for dispersal as swarms around the battlefield. Buzzing Squigs may also be kept in pots and thrown from makeshift catapults like the [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult.]] When the pot containing the Buzzing Squigs cracks, it releases a swirling swarm of these flesh-eating monsters.

In all honesty though, by function there is very little difference between the Buzzer and Buzzing Squigs as they both fulfill the same niche. They only look different enough to warrant their own species.

===Coffin Crawler===
[[File:CoffinCrawlerSquig.png|right|thumb|150px|Coffin Crawler]]
Coffin-Crawlers were an Old-School Tyranid Squig who would consume fresh corpses and grow in bulk until they were ready to return to the [[Norn Queen]], carrying their swollen bodies back to feed her.

Genetic material in the form of captive creatures and corpse scavengers called Coffin-Crawlers is fed into the great maws located at the top of the Norn Queen and synthesised by its genetic shredder organs. The dissembled DNA structures form a gene-bank which provides the raw material from which new creatures called bio-constructs are created. Once a type of bio-construct has been designed more identical creatures can be cloned by the Norn Queens.

Much like the Grabber-Slasher Squig, when Squigs were separated from Tyranids, they were reduced to the status of just being a variety of Big Squig. That, and their role has been replaced by [[Rippers]].

===Gob Squig===
[[File:Gob.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Gob Squig.]]
Gob Squigs are small enough to be put into an Ork's mouth and left there for the rest of the day (or the next few days, if the Ork forgets about it). The Squig cleans the Ork's mouth out by rooting round the teeth and eating the juicy bits of food that are stuck between them. They look like your typical fantasy [[Slime]] with a funny face although your local Commissar would suggest not petting one as they are known to bite. They are essentially an Ork's version of a toothbrush but more effective and cost-productive

The '''Chewin' Squig''' is another variant of the Gob Squig. An Ork can pop this sort of Squig into his mouth and chew on it while he sits and thinks (or sits and enjoys not thinking), basically Orky chewing gum. How the Squig could survive being munched by an Ork is a feat unknown by Imperial Xenologists.

===Great Cave Squig===
[[File:99800209017_GoblinWarbossCaveSquigNEW01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Great Cave Squig]]
Think a regular Attack Squig given steroids. A Great Cave Squig is simply a larger variant of the more common Cave Squig that has grown to such a magnificent size that it has become as large as an Imperial warhorse. This Squig sub-species is the second largest of the non-Squiggoth family, with only the Colossal Squig surpassing it in both size and weight. Its large mouth is filled with teeth the size of swords and sabres and their appetite as ravenous as their smaller counterparts. These things are solitary predators that like to [[Get shit done|get shit done by themselves.]]

Because of their large size, the Great Cave Squig makes excellent cavalry for Night Goblins. However, their aggressive behavior makes it difficult to tame effectively. The process of [[Rape|breaking in]] a Great Cave Squig would cost the lives of many Night Goblins, but once the beast learns to accept a rider, they serve as a more stable mount than the smaller and more unruly Cave Squig. Although they are costly to maintain, eating over twice their own body weight daily, a Night Goblin Warboss would do almost anything to keep such a magnificent asset in the hands of his tribe.

Since they're so difficult to tame, often times Goblins don't even bother doing so, instead just chaining two Great Cave Squigs together, pointing them vaguely in the direction of the enemy and setting them loose, resulting in the infamous Mangler Squigs. The Squigs drag and pull each-other across the battlefield, resulting in them essentially becoming living wrecking balls. In Age of Sigmar, some particularly insane Loonbosses use a pair of Mangler Squigs as a mount, usually if they're leading a Squigalanche warband.

On the even rarer occasions when a Great Cave Squig continuous to grow exponentially, they would grow to such a monstrous size that they are once again categorized into another even larger variant called simple as the Colossal Squig (As seen below).

<gallery>
Image:GreatCave Squig.png|NYUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!
</gallery>

===Colossal Squig===
[[File:CollossalSquig.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Colossal Squig.]]
Think an Great Cave Squig on steroids and having a mouth and stomach that could rival a [[Haruspex]] and the [[Mawloc|Mawloc]] in a eating competition. The Colossal Squigs are the largest variants of Squigs known to exist short of Squiggoths.

These frequently six-eyed monsters boast an insatiable appetite, and are in essence no more than an impossibly vast fleshy maw studded with row upon row of scimitar-bladed teeth. The only way they get into battle is by finding some Orks and just moving in with them.

The Colossal Squig is often used as a giant living battering ram, bashing and splintering anything smaller than the Squig into a fine paste. Of course the presence of the Squiggoth kind of placed the status of the Colossal Squig in question. Nevertheless, they still have the capability of eating entire Space Marines whole let alone normal Guardsmen, granting some laughs by the local Boyz if the Squig doesn't eat them first.

Of special note is a small change to this subtype of Squig in [[Age of Sigmar]] - When a Colossal Squig dies, it blows up into a bunch of smaller Cave Squigs! ... Nature running its course?...

===Cape Squig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Capesquigs10vh-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Cape Squig]]

These cute little Squigs are there to make you feel just a tad bit more important.

A Squig found only in [[Age of Sigmar]]. A presumably regal and dignified breed of squig, these little beasties help Skragrott keep his magnificent cape off the floor. Or maybe they’re trying to eat it. Probably both…

Anyways, these Squigs are quite sought after since they have a... distinct head shape of the Greenskin's moon, which makes it downright flash. Why their heads are shaped like that is anyone's guess (selective breeding?). Skragrott, the Loonking himself, is the self-styled overlord of the Gloomspite Gitz (AKA Night Goblins, trademarked). His sinister presence upon the field of battle ensures his fellow grots fight with greater spite and cunning than ever.

On tabletop, these little beasties are there for decorative purposes in order to make Skragrott look more important than he really is. Seriously you think they would provide anything of substance in the actual game?

===Dice Squig===
[[File:DiceSquigs.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Dice Squig]]
Famed for their bounciness, the rare and elusive Dice Squigs have been known to be used by particularly kunnin’ Grot Loonbosses in games of tactics and chance. They are usually given out in an event of a mass brawl, with [[Grot]]s assembling bets on would emerge the victor.

These small, eyeless, limbless blobs of flesh have very little use other than your usual Ork gamblin', however, a wise Greenskin must still be cautious when handling these things as they still have a mouth that may bite your fingers off.

Currently, most Dice Squigs have different yellow splotches on each side save for the face, which is an obvious analogue to the actual numbers system of an actual dice. Also represented as an actual limited edition squig-dice for sale by Games Workshop.

{{Clear}}

===Eating Squig===
[[File:EatingSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Eating Squig.]]
An Eating Squig (also known as Grubs or ''Orkus consumit'') is a limbless blob used as the primary Ork food source. It resembles an elongated, squarish slug with two eyes and a small pug mouth (like a cross between a blob fish and uncanned SPAM). Orks usually prefer them cooked, but they can be eaten raw as well. Gretchin are quite adept in cooking them and have a number of methods including kebabing, marinating in fungus wine, stuffed with fungus and herbs, roasted on a spit, deep fried with fungus chips, or griddled over a campfire. Who knew the Ork race had such a flair for culinary skills? Again Commissars would suggest not petting one no matter how pug-cute it looks, although suggesting to eat one for emergency rationing is fine for them.

With the fast reproduction on all Orkoid lifeforms, it is unknown why the [[Imperium of Man]] still haven't decided on capturing one of these Squigs and then mass producing them which would stop Galactic world hunger that plagues some of the Imperial Worlds (and no, [[Grox|not because of heresy]]). Maybe they are already looking into it, but with how slow the IoM usually is it may take decades to even centuries for it to be finalized and distributed in the entire Galaxy. Or it might have something to do with the fact that they're creature from the orkoid genus, so they release spores everywhere that can grow into the more dangerous parts of the genus including actual orks.

If the Eating Squig is the Duck/Chicken of an Ork culinary experience, then the '''Juicy Squig''' is the foie gras of Ork cuisine. The Juicy Squig is a very rare and delicious type of Eating Squig that may perhaps be the only known Ork delicacy. This Squig lives at the very bottom of an Ork fungal drop, and are not only rare, but difficult to find and bring up from the depths. Since these Squigs are seldom caught by the Gretchin and Snotlings, they often grow quite large and become even tastier as they get older.

In Age of Sigmar, there is also type of swamp-dwelling squig in the Mortal Realms called the '''Slobbersquig''', mentioned in the second edition Orruk Warclans Battletome as being part of the regular diet consumed by the Kruleboyz, alongside bog toads, swamp hoppers, cold crawfish, spine-ridged mud worms, and human flesh. Compared to the rest of the food on this list, it could be conjectured the Slobbersquig is a sluglike, unappealing Eatin' Squig that drools constantly and lives in swamp muck instead of the bottom of the greenskin drops.
<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-trader.jpg|Lovely indeed.
</gallery>

===Guard Squig===
[[File:Guard_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Guard Squig.]]
Ork Kaptins have been breeding a form of Squig known as a Guard Squig, or Squig Hound to some. They're Orky Guard Dogs. These creatures have all the ferocity of an Attack Squig, but are bred to be utterly loyal to their masters. When alone or not in battle, Squig Hounds are usually seen sleeping on their post or lying on their master's lap. Guard Squigs are often seen as a step up above the normal Attack Squig due to their aforementioned loyalty.

Guard Squigs are not to be confused with the Herd Squig whose nickname also bears the name Squighound or the [[Derp|actual Squighound themselves.]] Why GeeDubs thought repeating the name of three different species is a good idea is a mystery.

Is it though? These are Orks we’re talking about. Considering the rather direct (and often short) manner with which Orks approach life, it’s hardly a surprise they’d have one name for several breeds of Squigs. One Ork may name a particular breed of Squig "Bitey" for biting a lot, only to have his head bit off by said Squig, prompting the next Ork to confirm that it is indeed a Bitey Squig, while somewhere else in the mob the same little drama is occurring with an entirely different breed of biting Squig with identical results. Orks are pragmatic...in their way.

===Targeting Squig===
[[File:Targeting-squig-art.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Targeting Squig.]]
A unusual type of Squig, Targeting Squigs (''Orkus scopum'') are weird creatures with a single targeting eye that serve as biological equivalents of Gitfindas used by Flash Gitz. Sometimes their pupils are even shaped into a cross-hair.

How the Squig communicates with the Flash Gitz is unknown. Although certain unique sounds or barks could be help the Ork to signal that there may be ample prey around. That or it could flash different colors or release certain pheromones that only Orkoid species can detect.

On tabletop there is very little difference between the Squig and regular Gitfindas other then the cosmetic change. They're cool-looking models though!

<gallery>
File:Targeting-squig.png
File:Last-wall-squig.jpg
</gallery>

===Face-Eater Squig===
[[File:Face Eater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Face-Eater Squig.]]
Humans have binge eating contests and the Orks too have their own variety. Of course in this case the food has the potential of eating your face off. Here is where the Face-Eater Squigs come into play. The Face-Eater Squig is a toothed variety of Squig used both as a weapon and in the infamous Ork face-eating contests.

These Squigs, also known as "Gnashers" or "Gnasher Squigs," are a vicious mass of sharp teeth and claws. In their active state they appear to be just a gnashing mouth and very little else, though they look much like any other Eatin' Squig when they are at rest. Because of their violent nature, Gnashers provide the Orks with endless entertainment, and Squig-eating is one of the Orks' favorite pastimes. The Ork and the Squig both open their mouths and bite, in a parody of a kiss. If the Ork eats the Squig, he wins. If he keels over backwards, he loses.

Some Painboys made attempts to use Gnashers to amputate a patient's limbs, but these attempts weren't very successful as they tended to bite off orderlies' arms or even the Dok's fingers. Face-Eaters are often used as an attack squig. This organism is known to Imperium biologists as Orkus ravenati.

<gallery>
File:GnasherSquig.jpg|Nasty little fuckers.
</gallery>

===Flesheater Squig===
[[File:Flesheater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Flesheater Squig.]]
In order to increase their wealth, some Orks breed large, ferocious beasts known as Flesheaters. The Flesheater looks like a furry, Orky crocodile, with a great, gaping mouth full of rows of sharp fangs that are similar to an Ork's [[Teef]]. Flesheaters continually shed and replace their teeth, and all the Orks have to do to collect this wealth is send a Gretchin to collect the teeth; they, of course, aren't overly keen on this duty.

Like Ork teeth, Flesheater teeth also deteriorate after a few years. Flesheaters are extremely long-lived, but rarely breed in captivity, making them even more valuable. Most Orks who own Flesheaters are either already Nobz, or become Nobz on account of the wealth derived from owning these Squigs. Not surprisingly, impoverished Orks sometimes attempt to steal a Flesheater, or even raid rival settlements to capture them.

They are literally a mobile money-making machine - who says money can't grow on <s>trees</s> animals?

===Gas Squig===
[[File:GasSquigs.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Gas Squig.]]

It is a Squig that literally has a [[Lulz|killer fart.]]

The Gas Squig produces a gas so toxic that Orks with gas masks throw this Squig in combat, using the Squig itself as a chemical weapon. Besides their use as a one-time explosive, the Ork can just let the Squig run loose in the battlefield, spreading as much chaos as possible as these nasty little runts can cover an entire field in a bath of toxic miasma and corrosive chemicals.

It is unknown what type of chemicals allow the Gas Squig to unleash a untold volume of lethal farts. High levels of methane or magic/warp-related bullshit is the only potential answer.

They are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

According to the illustration of Warhammer Online, Gas Squigs look like normal Attack Squigs but with hole-like projections that constantly spew out the toxic materials like chimneys.

===Grabber-Slasher Squig===
[[File:Grabberslasher.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Grabber-Slasher/Big Squig]]

These guys originated way back in older editions of Warhammer, when Squigs were the result of Tyranids consuming Orkoid biomass instead of being fungoid kin. The Grabber-Slasher is a form of large ambush Squig that prefers to lurk in ducts and either grab prey with its massive arm and drag it away to devour, or hump-slash it with its big crotch-spike.

As one can imagine from things ''that'' early on, they look like fucking abominations out of a Cronenberg film. Seriously, that giant clawed hand on top of its head does not help. They also apparently have a chameleonic ability to change their skin colour and texture to hide better in crevices and ducts. But again, with that giant hand and [[/d/|horned dick,]] the idea of it being chameleonic should be taken with some salt. Even worse is the fact that the Tyranid Hive Mind used it as a prototype to the Lictor in early editions, using it to assassinate those who threatened the plans of the Tyranids. Imagine the shame and humiliation of being killed by something as fugly as THAT!

When Squigs were later retconned into being always a part of the Orkoid Fungus Biosphere, the Grabber-Slasher was retconned into being just a [[Derp|"Big Squig"]], which is honestly, quite disappointingly generic.

===Hair Squig===
[[File:Hairy.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hair Squig.]]
Do you want to know how and where the Orks get their hairy ponytails from? The answer is obviously simple: they use Squigs to do the job, due to Orks being naturally hairless. Hair Squigs are a parasitic variety of Squig which possess small bodies, no legs, no eyes, and a pair of pincers in place of a mouth.

They have long hair running from their tiny bodies that Orks like to customize and dye after clamping the Squig's pincers onto their own hairless heads; this customization has no effect on the Squig's health.

One particular variety of Hair Squig is known as a '''Chin Squig'''. These creatures feature a long thin body with claws and hair all over it and serve as the equivalent of a beard. They are also known to be a sign of age and status among Orks.

<gallery>
File:Hair Squig.jpg
File:Chin_Squig.jpg|Chin Squig.
</gallery>

===Limpin Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SquigBall1jvrh.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Limpin Squig or a turkey drumstick, you make the call.]]

[[Lolwut|A Squig football/handegg. It makes sense in context.]]

Technically, this squig is from [[Blood Bowl]] rather than the [[Age of Sigmar|Mortal Realms (AKA Age of Sigmar)]], but its existence is so hilariously dumb it might as well be part of the Squig family. Also known as the Squigball, Orc teams are known for using Squigs as balls, shearing one leg off so it can’t run away. Sometimes, they just find a particularly bulbous Squig and then literally kick its ass.

These Squigs must be extremely durable, squishy and bouncy. The best Limpin' Squigs have flesh that is extremely flexible, sturdy bones to survive repeated impacts and kicks, a skin firm enough to be held onto for long periods of time, an attitude that makes sure it doesn't ends up biting its holder in the middle of some intense Blood Bowl, and just the right enough shape to bounce to its trajectory.

It is not known is they exist in 40k or AoS, although seeing as how Orks/Orcs are stereotypical British hooligans, we wouldn't be surprised if they did.

===Mendin' Squig===
[[File:Squig-hairy-medical.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Mendin' Squig.]]
Mendin' Squigs, or more commonly (and annoyingly) called Hairy Squigs (again not to be confused with Hair Squigs much to the Xenobiologist's constant frustration), are a type of medicinal Squig. Hairy/Mendin' Squigs are used by Painboyz as sutures. The Painboy simply applies it to the open wound, which it holds closed with its tiny, needle-like teeth. The Painboy then twists its tail off, leaving the head embedded in the flesh, repeating the process until the wound is "riveted up." The Mendin' Squig feeds off blood oozing from the wound, thus keeping it clean and free from infection. By the time it shrivels and drops off, the wound has usually healed.

This form of medical technique is actually quite closer to reality than you'd think. Some South American and African tribes use particularly large bulldog ants to act as crude sutures. They just grab the ants and allow the powerful jaws to snap shut on the wound and like the Mendin' Squigs they then twist its body off, leaving only the head which is still in contact with the wound until it shrivels and falls off once fully healed.

===Herd Squig===
[[File:HerdSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Herd Squig.]]
Herd Squigs have been specially bred and developed by Runtherds for the purpose of herding and controlling the herds of Runtz. They are related to the many varieties of pet Squigs, but have been selectively bred for their speed, intelligence, ferocity and endurance.

Their long, sensitive snouts and keen ears enable them to track down errant Snotlings and Gretchin wherever they might hide. Herd Squigs are excellent tracking beasts, and can follow trails which are days old.

They are also called Squighounds, which as you already know, [[Herp|should not be confused with the Guard Squig who already bears that nickname or the actual Squighounds themselves.]]

They look like pigs but more Orky.

===Hoppa Fungus===
[[File:DKI3T3c3fv3xNy92.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hoppa Fungus]]
A Hoppa Fungus or Fun-Hoppas, are a type of Squig that skirts the line between Orkoid Mushroom and Squig, from the Snotling Blood Bowl set. They are small, round, lumpy "mushrooms" with a cartoony, squiggy face on their front. There are two sizes of them, one for throwing like a living rock and another for riding like a moon hopper, even more so than normal squigs as these ones lack legs.

How they managed to hop around without a leg, we are not too sure, although more technical elegan/tg/entelmen had assumed that they use their entire body mass as one giant muscle like a snake, to propel themselves for locomotion.

They seem overall, pretty harmless as far as Squigs go, given that they don't seem to routinely eat their riders or throwers. But boy do these giant grey meatballs look like they came out of a Loony Tunes cartoon.

<Gallery>
Hopper_Fungus.JPG
</gallery>

===Horned Squig===
[[File:HornedSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Horned Squig.]]
<s>A Squig that's [[/d/|''so Horny!'']]</s> {{Blam}}

The Horned Squig is a Squig gifted with long, sharp horns stretching from its head that Orks often jam into barricades to serve as living obstacles or act as a moving and mobile battering ram for siege warfare. They act like bulls and if used against troops, often ram their horns into some poor unfortunate sod in a relentless, charging stampede. They have a brighter red color scheme than Cave Squigs.

If the Horned Squig is disabled, then the Ork can simply just strap the Squig on its forearm and use it as a living weapon. The Orks are anything but wasteful and is capable of using anything, even other living organisms, to its 'full' potential.

Like the Gas Squigs they are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

===Mimic===
[[File:Squig_Mimic.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Mimic.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>CA-CAW! OI GITZ GET MOVIN UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO TELL DA BOSS ON WHO IS MUCKIN' ABOUT!</span>

A particularly popular type of pet Squig is known as the Mimic. As you imagine, they are Ork parrots. This Squig has a large and toothy beak-like mouth (it also apparently has feathers) and is vaguely parrot-like in both appearance and function.

Mimics can be seen perched on the shoulders of many an old and haggard Ork, usually from the [[Freebooterz]] to keep the pirate theme, squawking expletives and insults at Greenskin passersby. Kaptins have a endearing affection for these little creatures and their ability to shout and swear at larger and more opposing Orks is often seen as a humorous delight to the Kaptin. Woe to any Ork who accidentally swats one of these creatures out of annoyance. [[FATAL|The chance of getting your head wired to a Big Lobba by a pissed off Kaptin? Too high.]]

===Oily Squig===
[[File:Grot_Oiler.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Oily Squig.]]
The Oily Squig is a variety of Squig bred by Ork Meks to create fuel for the Orks' ramshackle vehicles. They create the fuel, an organically-synthesized version of Promethium, in their rotund bellies, and it can be squeezed out of their anteater-like trunks. These Squigs have no mouths, other than their trunk, and are not combat-oriented like their far more aggressive counterparts.

The most efficient way of extracting the oil from the creatures is to use a large pressing machine, although more primitive methods, such as having gretchin to jump up and down on them are also widely used. Orks prepare the barrels of the squig oil in advance and take those with them when they go on campaigns.

There exist two varieties of Oily Squigs: one with arms and a distinct head, and one that resembles an Attack Squig with a trunk for dispensing their fuel oil.

<gallery>
File:Squig-oily.jpg
File:7e-grotoiler.jpg
</gallery>

===Paint Squig===
[[File:PaintSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Paint Squig.]]
Orks can be creative artists too! This small, vividly colored Squig excretes powerful dyes that are used as warpaint. These paints are also used by Gretchin artists as pigments for wall paintings and decorative banners.

Many Paint Squigs have tufts of hair on their trails, which allows the artist to use the Squig as both a brush and tube of paint simultaneously. The shells of Edible Squigs are also used by Gretchin artists as paint pots and palettes.

===Parasite-Hunting Squig===
[[File:Parasite-Hunter.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Parasite-Hunting Squig.]]
Parasite-Hunting Squigs are tiny but voracious feeders used to clear an Ork's body and clothes of parasites. An Ork simply drops a handful of these Squigs into his clothing and lets them crawl around. They look like Orkified spiders, which can give arachnophobes nightmares but the Orks don't give a zog.

The Squigs prey on lice, ticks and other vermin the Ork may have acquired in the course of his many unsavoury habits. When the engorged Parasite-Hunting squigs drop out of the Ork's clothing, the Ork simply gathers them up and pops them into his mouth for a juicy snack.

===Rat Squig===
[[File:RatSquig.jpg]]
[[File:Rat_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Rat Squig]]
A unholy abomination spawned from [[Skaven]] science (is anybody surprised?).

The Rat Squig is a species of Squig created by Clan Moulder by fusing rat or skaven meat with Squigs, creating a form of furry, rat-faced squig with scaly patches of leathery skin, and the ability of regeneration. They apparently also have bloodlust, even in comparison to normal squigs.

They commonly do not have flat backs like Skarl, the Rat Squig in the illustration above, who is also outfitted with a specially-made saddle able to carry his Grey Seer master, Farquan (also in the illustration). It is unknown if Farquan is the member of Clan Moulder responsible for creating the original Rat Squigs, or just his mount Skarl. Now whether they breed via spores like a normal Squig, we have no idea as the fluff doesn't really go that much into it.

There is a mod in Total War: Warhammer called [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2746640530 Elon's Rat Squigs] where these creatures were implemented in. Most of the images came from this mod.

<gallery>
Rat_Squig_Mod.JPG
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===Scorpisquig===
[[File:Spiker_M01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Scorpisquig tail.]]
Scorpisquig Stingers are used by Gloomspite Gitz Gobbapalooza Spiker Shamans on the end of their Stikkas for stabbing things with poison. Not much is known about them, and we mean it ''literally''. Seriously, the only thing shown of them is the barbed-end of their stinger tail.

Whatever it is, we can assume that the Scorpisquig is a much sought-after source of Squigs that these goblins hunt, as even after their stingers are lobbed off from their bodies, they still retain enough venom to be an effective and dangerous weapon.

Curiously enough, the goblin who carries such a weapon are incredibly mutated, sprouting extra limbs and eyes that mimics that of the Scorpisquig (we assume). Like seriously, these guys are severely fucked up, so one wonders what kind of warp fuckery they were dabbling in; perhaps, in an ironic twist, these guys may actually slowly transform into a Scorpisquig itself after (Assumingly) consuming its flesh. Whatever the case, the Scorpisquig wielders are not to be fucked with.

{{Clear}}

===Screech Squig===
[[File:Screech_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Screech Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to as having [[Sonic Weaponry|oversized lungs that allow it to make an extremely loud screech.]] Screech Squigs disorient, incapacitate and/or make the enemy's eardrums burst with one of the most horrid sounds possible (We in /tg/ imagines it as mixing the cries of an infant that has sand paper in its throat with that of fingernails scratching the surface of a chalkboard). They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time... or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might be the Screech Squig. Due to the fact that it is nothing more than a living Sonic Weapon, the Screech Squig needs both a big mouth and a wide barrelled body to encompass its huge lungs; unfortunately, most Squigs have a big mouth and a wide body. Likewise, we hypothesize that the Screech Squig might be in fact, the big Squig we see inside of the Heavy Squig Launcha, due to the fact that its mouth is close relatively shut and will only open once fired from the Launcha. You wouldn't want your Boyz to go all bleeding in their noggins because they failed to pacify that thing, right?

A similarly themed and named Squig exists in Age of Sigmar called the '''Syari Screamersquig'''. A rare albino beast that loathes any form of light, and reacts to it with ear shattering screams. Unfortunately for it, it’s native to the Syari region of the Realm of Light. It’s been hunted to near extinction by the Lumineth Realm-Lords and is prized by many Grot Loonbosses for its screaming powers.

===Snufflesquig===
[[File:Snufflesquig.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Snufflesquig]]

Squig truffle pigs but more [[Derp|derpy in appearances.]]

Snufflesquigs are little more than massive noses and snapping mouths with wiry little legs that can be trained by Sneaky Snufflers to identify Looncaps, a type of mushroom that grows from the light of the Bad Moon, from others that induce effects such as vomit slime, break out in luminous yellow spots, babble uncontrollably or even burst into flames. When the Bad Moon approaches these unique squigs begin to howl with raised snouts.

Like truffle pigs, Snufflesquigs have a tendency to eat these shrooms if not carefully attended.

May be a reference to Snuffler Orcs, a breed of Orc from Middle Earth described as small, black, and huge nosed, used for tracking victims.

===Smasha Squig===
[[File:LAEMX6Acaz90SDmn.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Smasha Squig]]
A cousin to the [[Squighog]], the Smasha Squig is basically an orkified [[Dinosaur|Pachycephalosaurus]].

Smashas are usually ridden by [[Nob]]s from the [[Beast Snagga]] sub-kulture, where they are often found leading mobs of [[Squighog Boy]]z into battle. The Smasha Squig itself is bipedal, running on two legs rather than four. It is also larger, tougher, and even more ferocious than your regular old [[squighog|Squig Bacon]]. Any Nob who has managed to beat a Smasha Squig into submission is ''not'' an Ork to be trifled with.

Once "tamed," a heavy armor plate is bolted to the Smasha Squig's skull. This is not done to protect the squig, for among its kind it is already noted for having an exceptionally thick skull encasing an exceptionally tiny (and shock-resistant) brain. Rather, the plate enhances the beast's natural head-butting tendencies so that the Smasha truly becomes a living, snarling wrecking ball.

On the tabletop, the Smasha Squig complements the Nob rider who is already a beast (pun intended) in close combat. Crunchwise, this oversized fungal dinosaur grants additional attacks with its jaws and its Smasha 'Ead has a chance to deal up to [[rape|five mortal wounds]] after a charge or heroic intervention. Finally, the rider is equipped with a Big Choppa and a slugga, and with T6 and 5 wounds the model is just as hard to kill as you'd expect.
{{Clear}}

===Spiky Squig===
[[File:Spiky.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spiky Squig.]]
Spiky Squigs look like a living ball covered with spines which, as an instinctive reaction when agitated, can shoot out at any threatening creature rather like porcupines were once thought to do. These spines inflict a poisonous sting on anyone struck by them, though the effect of the poison on Orkish flesh is not as drastic as it is on other races due to the similar biology of all Orkoid races. Squigs of this kind are used in some bionik arms fitted with cages and a quick release system, so they can be used as a close combat weapon like a living Morning Star.

Spiky Squigs move via rolling around like a ball; however when it comes to hunting food, it propels itself at high speed before launching into the unsuspecting prey, launching its poisonous spines and letting it run its course. This unusual hunting method has been seen by xenobiologists as bizarre and weird.

===Spiteshroom===
[[Image: Spiteshroom.png|150px|right|thumb|Spiteshroom]]

A creature that blurs the line between Squig and Fungus, much like Hoppa Fungus. Spiteshrooms are fungal creatures that inhabit the dark and damp caves favoured by Dankhold Troggoths. They emit an incessant high-pitched shrieks and shrill idiot ditties that distracts even the most veteran warriors. The fungal clouds they release can rot flesh from bone. They are favored as familiars of Madcap Shamans.

Due to the fact that they seemed locked into ground like actual mushrooms, Spiteshrooms are immobile like the larger Stalagsquig.

<gallery>
Spiteshroom_and_Stalagsquig.JPG|With a Stalagsquig in a ''literal'' face off.
</gallery>

==='Sploding Squig===
[[File:Splodin_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|'Sploding Squig.]]
A biological grenade used by the Orks if they run out of stikkbombs. 'Sploding Squigs possess multiple stomachs, each containing a thick broth of unstable digestive chemicals. Some 'Sploding Squigs are covered in spines which may act as fragmentation when it explodes.

When agitated, usually though violent shaking, the 'Sploding Squig's digestive juices combine into a combustible liquid, causing the Squig to explode in a shower of meat, teeth, and bone fragments. While typically thrown in combat, 'Sploding Squigs are also often buried and used as mines. Orks are known to force-feed 'Sploding Squigs a meal of scrap metal before battle in an effort to enhance their lethality.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and doesn't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course this may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

However, the widespread use of regular Bomb Squigs has lessened the value of 'Sploding Squigs. No need to wait around for a specialized and uncommon Squig to mature when the most common type of Squig (plus explosives) already fulfill their purpose.

===Spore Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SporeSquig3mteg.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spore Squig]]

[[Drug|A Squig to huff some shrooms and get high.]]

A walking LSD projector. These little squigs are used defensively by Fungoid Cave-Shamans, who need but stamp on one to release an obscuring cloud of spores. The Fungoid Cave-Shamans themselves are the lepers of Goblinkind. Found only in [[Age of Sigmar]], the mushroom-gobbling grot maniacs known as Cave-Shamans are obviously not right in the head.

To these greenskinned nutters, to get lost in a brain-mangling vision is to grow closer to the side of Gorkamorka that epitomises cunning and trickiness over brute strength, which is the side that all grots like the best.

The Spore Squig is nothing more than a living, breathing hookah for the greenskin to sniff some grade-A meth and can, on command, release said spores towards its enemies to make them just as high as the Squig's personnel caretakers.

Moral of the story, don't do drugs kiddos, especially on the battlefield.

===Squigadon===
[[File:Squigadon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigadon.]]
A form of Squig larger than a Great Cave Squig but smaller than a Giant Squig. Maybe a smaller [[Squiggoth]].

First appeared in White Dwarf utilized by Hobgoblins. The creator of this monster was Nick Bayton who literally used a Large Squiggoth from Forgeworld and converted it into a unit for Fantasy by using the [[Lizardmen|Stegadon]] rules in battle. Whilst it may look big, don't let it fool you. Perspective is deceptive and whilst hobgoblins may view it as huge, you should take note that hobgoblins are like half the height of a human, so that Squigadon would be slightly bigger than a rhino.

Seeing as how the Squigadon is literally a converted [[Squiggoth]], whether it would be considered another demonym for a Squiggoth or an entirely different subspecies is unknown. Moreover, how 'canon' this Squig is, we have no clue since it only appeared in ''one'' issue of White Dwarf and that's it. We don't even have any of the barest hints of fluff. So your guesses on its validity are as good as ours.
<gallery>
W8ox5l0jxaua.jpg|As it appeared in White Dwarf.
</gallery>

===[[Squiggoth]]===
The largest of all squig species, have their own page.

===Squigeon===
[[File:Squigeon3.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigeon.]]

Squigeons (''Orkus aerium'') are the Squig counterparts of the Terran pigeon or columbidae if you are feeling fancy, often utilized for sending messages during battle amongst Ork tribes that lack more advanced methods of communication. Although they are sometimes hunted by the dreaded Squighawk or used as target practice by Stormboyz.

[[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-|They are the cutest little orkspawn your will ever get the chance of meeting.]] Unfortunately, due to GeeDubs incompetence, we never ever get to see them further fleshed out in fluff. This time the Commissar would be fine with you petting a Squigeon.

<gallery>
File:Squigeon.jpg
</gallery>

===Squighawk===
[[File:SquigHawk.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squighawk.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:200%'>'''BA-CAAAWK! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!'''</span>

Think of a Orkified Pterodactyl. Squighawks are a wild, flying species of Squig that are large enough to eat Orks. Thus, they are ECKS BAWKS HUEG.

Unfortunately, they are often too difficult to be trained (could be because the Squighawk view Orks as prey too) and are as such are rarely used by Ork Runtherdz-- which is saying something considering the Orks manage to successfully tame the much larger Squiggoth.

Still, it would be cool if we actually got to use these <s>Dinosaurs</s> flying reptiles on the tabletop. Chances are these things could potentially reach a size to rival some larger Tyranid flying strains such as the [[Harpy]].

===Squig-Hog===
[[File:Beast Snaggas.jpeg|200px|right|thumb|Squig-Hog]]
[[Boarboyz]] haven't been mentioned in core Ork fluff for quite some time. While they were cool in their own way, it didn't really ever make sense for Orks to be riding Earth animals in the first place. Well, as of 9th Edition it seems that Boarboyz have been retconned and/or [[squatted]] for good, because [[Squighog Boy]]s have now been introduced as a far more [[awesome]] type of Ork heavy cavalry. Squig Hogs are tougher, larger, and far more dangerous than other types of cavalry such as a horse or warboar, and they can eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouths (including the rider, if he fails to keep his mount in line). However, the horse still has a modest speed advantage.

[[Beast Snagga]]s use them as cavalry like the Imperium's [[Rough Riders]] and they are ''thicc'' enough that a [[Gretchin]] can hop on as well. Snaggas who ride these guys are called [[Squighog Boy]]z. While Squighog Boyz can belong to any Klan, they are presumably most common among the [[Snakebites]].

Crunchwise, Squighogs have a pretty nasty bite of S6, AP-1 and D2, meaning you should be able to dispatch the now tough-to-kill [[Primaris Space Marines]] as well as other MEQs and GEQs consistently. What you want from it however, is the fact that these walking fungal bacons are allowed 2 additional attacks every time the unit fights. Combined with the additional weapons from the Ork himself and you get a nasty cavalry unit.
{{clear}}

===Squighound===
[[File:Squighound.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Squighound.]]
Squighounds (''Orkus canis''), commonly known as "Growlers," are a variation of the Attack Squig, used by Ork Slaverz to help them keep the Gretchins and slaves from other races in line. Most have four legs, although two-legged varieties certainly exist. "Growlers" are also often kept as a form of pet by other Orks, as they are roughly the size of a small dog, hairy, and particularly vicious.

A Pet Squig often scurries about behind its master, barely under his control, giving its owner no end of amusement and laughs [[Troll|especially when the Squig snaps at the ankles of another Ork.]]

They are not to be confused with the Guard Squig or Herd Squig who are also [[Derp|referred to as 'Squighound'.]]

===Squigosaur===
[[File:Squigosaur_2.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigosaur]]
The Squigosaur are large two-legged squigs that [[Beast Snagga]]s ride upon. They are similar in appearance to the Smasha Squig, but whilst the Smasha Squig is an Orky Pachycephalosaurus, the Squigasaur is the Allosaurus of the family.

The most famous of these is the Big Chompa, otherwise known as '''The Great White Squig''' (AKA the Great White Shark on legs or "I can't believe it's another Moby Dick reference!"), a legendary alpha Squigasaur regarded as the most belligerent, vicious, and savage of its kind. It was responsible for a breathtaking number of missing Boyz and thought to be utterly untameable-- that is, until Beast Snagga Mozrog Skragbad appeared with all his chad energy and proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of it for three days until it complied.

Although he has tamed the Squigosaur, it will revert to its original destructive nature when he is not nearby. In order to keep Big Chompa in line, the long-suffering Skragbad is forced to keep himself at its side and the two are rarely seen apart.

On the tabletop, the Squigosaur's jaws works lethally well with a mounted [[Beastboss]]; three extra attacks which can practically gobble up [[Terminator]]s - especially if you roll a 6 to hit and score 3 mortal wounds.
<gallery>
Squigosaur.JPG|The Great White Squig
HxDM6t0oZyXjrBtR.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}

===Squigpipe===
[[File:Pipe.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigpipe.]]
Just to further hone the Scottish stereotype within the Orks (prejudice much, GeeDubs?), this special type of Squig is used by the Orks as a musical instrument. Several tube-like proboscises emerge from this Squig's bag-like body.

The Musical Squig can be tucked under one arm and inflated by blowing down one proboscis. Then, by squeezing the Squig, weird and terrifying sounds can be made through the creature's other proboscis pipes. This turns the Squig into a musical instrument, much like the bagpipes, but a thousand times more cacophonous. Orks like to go into battle accompanied by this Squig much to the detriment of their enemies.

<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-playing.jpg
</gallery>

===Squigshark===
[[File:SquigShark.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigshark.]]
Orks as Jaws. Squigsharks are the Squig counterparts of Terran sharks that inhabit Ork-infested worlds. And no they are not huggable; your local Commissar definitely urges you to '''''NOT''''' pet one out of safety and preventing potential stupidity.

They are known to be very dangerous beasts and many Ork sailors trying to cosplay as Moby Dick end their lives as a food for Squigsharks. Whenever one appears, it is obligatory to play the signature Jaws music. They are by far the top oceanic predator of any Ork World.

YOU. HAVE. BEEN. WARNED.

<gallery>
Deff_Skwadron_Squig-Shark-2.jpg|Dun dun...dun dun...dun dun dun dun dun....
</gallery>

===Snake-Squig===
[[File:Snake-Squigs.jpg|170px|right|thumb|Snake-Squig]]
The Snake-Squig is a very little known species of Squig only shown as an illustration with a [[Snake Bites]] [[Weirdboy]] of said Snake-Squig constricting the Odd Boy like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Speaking of Temple of Doom, it is quite possible that a Weirdboy uses his psychic mumbo-jumbo to control them like a snake charmer controls a snake. Of course, what the Weirdboy actually ''does'' with the snakes, we have no idea, as they are just there to make him look cool.

In terms of its ecology, the Snake-Squig should share the same niche and behaviour as... well... a regular old snake, specifically the constrictor kind when you compare it to its sheer size. These beasts are about 2-3 meters long, if the image is any indication, and is presumably capable of chomping down prey as it is, swallowing them whole.

But its role is never ever really known given that all Snake-Squigs are actually victims of Old Zogwort who managed to Harry Potter them into ''becoming'' a Snake-Squig. Because Old Zogwort is the only known Ork that does this, whether the Snake-Squig is an actual Orkoid species or just the consequence of psychic mishap is currently unknown.

{{Clear}}

===Squig Gobba===
[[File:Squig Gobba 2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Squig Gobba.]]
A [[Forge World]] model the size of a colossal squig. The difference is that this one can fire smaller squigs out of its mouth. The Squig Gobba is essentially living artillery.

Dragged and prodded onto the battlefield by its malevolent Goblin tenders, it is a huge beast with an oversized gaping maw, a set of extremely powerful lungs and a ravenous appetite to rival even that of a Troll. With the Squig Gobba heavily chained into position to prevent it bounding off after the first tasty morsel it spies, its tenders start dragging lesser squigs from the cages surrounding them as battle is joined, slicking these vicious beasts with foul-tasting noxious liquids.

This not only renders the creatures senseless for a short time, but also prevents the Squig Gobba from immediately swallowing them as the stunned squigs are unceremoniously stuffed into its jaws. Goblins can also make it explode if they want to.

<gallery>
File:Squig Gobba.jpg|Hey look! It seems that the last of the Gastric Brooding Frogs have evolved!
</gallery>

===Stalagsquig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Stalagsquig10vx-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Stalagsquig]]

Squigs are highly adaptable creatures, taking a myriad range of forms. Some, for example, infest the rock itself, creating Stalagsquigs.

The Stalagsquigs are a what happens when orks and gobboz believe that <span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>"OIH DAT STONE FING OVER DERE LOOKS LIKE A BITEY SQUIG"</span> and as such the power of [[WAAAGH|WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH made it so.]] The species looks like normal stalagmites from afar but get close enough and you will be introduced to a stone skinned biting nightmare. This particular breed has yet to be seen in 40k but it is prevalent in Ye Age of golden hammer jackasses ([[Age of Sigmar]]).

It is unknown how these squigs move (if they move at all) since they seem to have no visible legs, unless it's a luggage scenario where it sprouts thousands of little legs from its base when it wants to move... WELP, have fun sleeping after thinking about that. Emperor damn, it's like the [[Chaos Spawn|chaos spawns all ov-BGRIHSRAJKHSJAHDSAIUOFDGHU.]] However, according to Warhammer Community, they are totally immobile and viciously hungry creatures that make exploring caves in the Mortal Realms an even worse idea than you thought it was.

As a side note there has been no recorded evidence on how big these squigs can grow to but seeing as how normal stalagmites can grow to be bigger than a skyscraper if given enough space we might have to worry about descending into caves in the foreseeable future.

===Swab Squig===
[[File:Swab.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Swab Squig.]]
The Swab Squig is a type of Hair Squig, but unlike the long trailing hair of its cousins, its round body is covered with short, fluffy fur. Orks use Swab Squigs to mop up during operations, and they come in handy for emergency handkerchiefs too. Despite looking like a giant fluffball they have a humongous mouth and are quite snappy too. Swab Squigs tend to share a comedic relation with [[Snotling|Snotlings]] due to the latter's mentally retarded habit of poking things that should not be poked, which often ends with the little snots running around having their asses bit by the Swab Squig.

Non-pettable by your local Commissar.

<gallery>
File:Squig-swab-2.jpg|It is wise not to pet something that looks cute....
File:Squig-swab-3.jpg|....Or else this happens.
</gallery>

===Syringe Squig===
[[File:Syringe.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Syringe Squig.]]
Syringe Squigs are primarily used for medicinal purposes. These medical Squigs have natural properties which Painboyz find useful when patching together battle-damaged Orks. Syringe Squigs have a long needle-sharp proboscises with which they inject venom into their prey. Syringe Squigs exude a soporific venom which makes a fine anesthetic for Orks when the traditional anesthetic (known to other races as a "concussion") is unavailable.

Syringe Squigs are divided by their sizes to 'small', 'big' and 'urty' which are used depending on the strength of the dose required. The venom is sometimes extracted from the creature and used separately for mixing up some kind of special 'medicine', or if a really large dose is needed.

There is also a special type of Syringe Squig called a '''Vaccine Squig''', whose own immune system produces natural vaccines and antibodies to a host of different pathogens that are extracted and used by Painboyz to aid diseased Orks.

===Tapewyrm Squig===
The Kruleboyz Orruk shaman Gobsprakk can summon a squirming swarm of Tapewyrm Squigs inside the stomachs of his enemies, sickening them and even causing them to explode in a shower of Waaagh! Magic like some sort of twisted DeviantArt fetish. Yeah.

===Tomb Squig===
[[File:Tomb_Squig_placeholder.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Tomb Squig]]
From old-school Warhammer, Tomb Squigs are an albino breed of burrowing squig that feeds on corpses and undead alike.

Often found in [[Dorf|Dwarfen]] tombs that have been broken open and looted, they are sometimes also found in graveyards where their presence often makes sure undead aren't present in these areas. Slightly smaller than regular Squigs, they possess amazingly powerful jaws for their size, which they use to break open stone sarcophagi and to bite through the ceremonial armour Dwarfs often bury their dead in.

At the cost of there being corpse-eating squigs, these critters are as likely to attack and devour the undead as the actually dead (and living as well). As such, Tomb Squigs can serve as a [[Just As Planned|nasty surprise]]; really ruining a tomb robber’s day as not only do they present a threat to life and limb, [[Troll|they can also destroy valuable weapons and armour hidden in the tomb.]]
Source: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Tomb_Squigs

===Tramplasquig===
[[File:Tramplesquig.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tramplasquig]]
A quadrupedal Squig breed that is large enough to drag large vehicles. Tramplasquigs are the rhinoceros of the Squig family and their poor temper makes them a popular beast of war as well as a versatile beast of burden.

The [[Beast Snagga]]s use them to carry their [[Kill Rig]]s and [[Hunta Rig]]s. Although they lack any other form of natural weapons other than their bulk and teeth, Beast Snaggas mount armored helmets with a giant blade on top to further maximize their carnage.

On tabletop, the Tramplasquig is essentially the vehicle itself. It works well in conjunction with its ferried troops. As such, the whole thing is no slouch in melee either, as it not only has the squig itself fighting but also a bunch of boyz to hack away. What it does really well is if you have the Ramming Speed stratagem, as it not only throws it at an enemy from further away but it also drops some MWs on top of that, which can help with wiping the mob.
{{Clear}}

===Vampire Squig===
[[File:Vampire.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Vampire Squig.]]
The Vampire Squig is a blood-sucking creature with long sharp fangs, used by Painboyz to bleed the patient and suck bad blood and pus from septic wounds. The Squig does not seem to mind what the blood is like or from what species it comes so long as it gets a regular and plentiful supply.

When times are hard (which for Orks is when there's not much fighting) the Painboyz are forced to find other ways to keep their pets alive, which they do by extolling the benefits of regular bleeding to otherwise healthy Orks. It is also a good way to earn tons of teef in a short amount of time.

=== Wyrdsquig ===

[[File:Wyrd.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Wyrdsquig.]]

A Wyrdsquig is a little known psychic Squig subspecies that has close genetic links to the Gnasher Squig. Despite their close relations, they are fucking hideous, looking more like an aborted love child between [[H.P. Lovecraft|Yog-Sothoth]] and the [[Halo|Timeless One.]]

This subspecies is rarely encountered in the wild and possesses psychic abilities similar to those of Ork [[Weirdboy]]z. The Wyrdsquig is often employed in battle as a "psychic bomb," releasing a catastrophic telepathic shockwave at the moment of its death. So in layman's terms, it is the Ork equivalent of a Imperial [[Grenades & Explosives#Psyk-Out Grenade|Psyk-Out Grenade]].

They are one of the few Warp-based weapons that the Orks utilize along with the [[Shokk_Attack_Gun|Shokk Attack Gun]] and [[Tellyport_Blasta|Tellyport Blasta]].

===Other Squigs===

The breeds of squigs are innumerable and there are a lot of other, little-known types of these creatures in existence. From tiny micro-organisms on Ork bodies to the gigantic beasts put in the Ork spaceships to create breathable atmosphere, each of them has an use in Ork society. Notorious breeds such as the yellow-spotted '''Facegnasha''', the greater '''Fang-gob''', or the infamous '''Leapin’ Deff''' are especially popular for their use as Bomb Squigs. In Age of Sigmar, it is further expanded with examples such as the '''Glo-Squig''' are a type bioluminescent squig used to light up Lurklairs of the Gloomspite Gitz. Most of the models below include original Squig models, although also included is a green, gelatinous blob that had two beady eyes, similar to a Japanese RPG Slime, which some fa/tg/guy thought was explainable as being like the Orkoid Fungus equivalent of a Slime Mold; searching has found that this is an unofficial model produced by a third party company, "Krakon Games". The idea for the model being a Slime Squig probably came from the old Games Workshop Troll boardgames aimed at children, specifically "Squelch!", one about Trolls playing a game involving stomping on Squigs; among the illustrated Squig Cards there is a little Slime Squig. There is also a Small, Hairy, Humanoid Squig, perhaps the Orkoid equivalent of a Gibbon, covered in what could be fungal cilia or mould, called a "Beastling" (see below), which is an older official model. There was a Squig with a face resembling a Grot's like the Cape-Bearing Squig, but with long, bendy tube legs like stilts. There were 2 spiderlike squigs, one with a face like an Ork's, the other with a massive piercing proboscis, called a "Coffin Crawler" which was responsible for feeding Tyranid Norn Queens. A White Dwarf Squig character was Niblitz, [[Gobbledigook]] the goblin/snotling's pet who resembled an attack squig covered in fuzz and with two little horns, who was often said to be "spiderlike" somehow. Niblitz may be the very first squig ever designed, as he first appeared before any other squig models. The Forest Goblins also used to be shown with Squigs who had arachnoid features, or even riding Spider-Squigs.
<gallery>
File:Squigs_Old_Mini.jpg
File:Retro_Squigs.jpeg
File:VariedSquigs.JPG
File:Niblitz.jpg
File: Forest_Goblin_Art_2.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}
[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]

[[Category: Orcs & Goblins]]

[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]

[[Category: Gloomspite Gitz]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Orks]]

[[Category: Feral Orks]]

[[Category: Squigs]]

[[Category: Megafauna]]

{{template: Orks-Forces}}

Squig

2022-08-04T21:51:44Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Other Squigs */

[[File:Squig.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Squigs. Making [[Tyranids]] feel insecure in the eating department.]]

[[File:MilkSquig.jpeg|thumb|Sadly noncanon, at least not yet...]]
A Squig, short for squiggly beast, is any one of a variety of bizarre organisms that exist semi-symbiotically with [[Orcs & Goblins]] and [[Orks]] alike. [[Fungus]]-based animals, their most iconic form resembles a large round ball that opens up a huge maw full of teeth, propelled by two strong legs that let it run, scramble and jump all over the place.

Night Goblins in particular like to herd huge swarms of these things onto the battlefield, as they are violently unpredictable and surprisingly dangerous.

In the 41st millennium, on the other hand, they play a somewhat different role. Some ork [[Warboss]]es will keep such squigs as personal attack animals, [[Oddboys|slavers]] always have trusty squig-hounds to help tame [[grot]]s, and [[Tankbustas]] favor a breed that they cram full of bombs and coax to charge towards (hopefully) the enemy before blowing up.

According to the [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] splat, "Old World Bestiary", squig-meat is perfectly edible by humans and actually very tasty. Spit-roasted squig is described as resembling smoked ham with the consistency of young chicken.

[[Age of Sigmar]] introduces a mythological aspect to their origins with the introduction of Boingob, the godbeast progenitor of all Squigs. This massive creature barreled through the realms in a frenzied pursuit of the light of Hysh (basically the sun), until it finally jumped up and was roasted alive. Now its colossal skeleton serves as a holy place/impenetrable lurk lair to the Moonclan Grots.

Squigs can be bred into a vast variety of forms and functions. The most famous of these is arguably the monstrous [[Squiggoth]] which provide a similar sort of heavy infantry to a war elephant. Other, more obscure types include (but by no means limited to) Bag Squigs, Bomb Squigs, Eating Squig, Gas Squigs, Hair Squigs, Oily Squigs, Paint Squigs, Squig Sharks, Squig Hawks, and Squigeons all of which can be further explained below. Squigs are basically the apps of Ork society: if you can think of a function, there's a squig for that.

==Squig Varieties==
As mentioned. Squigs come in all sizes and flavors. Here are the documented species of Squigs officially recognized by the Imperium/whatever-institutio-exists-in-AoS.

===Attack Squig===
[[File:AttackSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Attack Squig.]]
The most common and identifiable type of Squig. Whenever someone says Squig, this is the one that pops in everyone's head. The Attack Squig (''Orkus ferocitas''), also known as the Cave Squig, looks like it's trying to compete with the [[Tyranids]] for sheer 'OMNOMNOMNOMNOM' ability, consisting of nothing more than a bouncing ball of claws and razor-sharp teeth. These Squigs, as their name implies, are often used as attack animals, weapons, or pets. They can be given to the [[Grots]] as a food source (if the Squig doesn't eat them first) or even war mounts if said Grot is feeling particularly brave that day.

Sometimes an Attack Squig is transformed into a '''Bomb Squig''' via jamming as much explosive materials into the Squig's mouth (or strapping explosives to their bodies) as possible before setting it loose to fuck up some tanks. These specialized Attack Squigs are often utilized by either Ork Flashgitz or Tankbustas.

<gallery>
File:BombSquig.png|Bomb Squig.
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===Bitey Squig===
[[File:Bitey Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bitey Squig]]
Bitey Squigs are a sub-species of Attack Squigs that have sufficient jaws, claws, and stingers to savage the target and anything close by. This breed s frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas. Launched gnashing and snarling into the enemy, they latch onto the first thing they hit and do not stop chewing until they are killed. A bit like the Face-Eating Squig to be honest.

Legends states that the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]] was created due to a [[Just As Planned|'mishap']] when a Bitey Squig or some form of Attack Squig was accidentally stuffed into the launcha and fired into a ''very'' unfortunate Ork’s face and thus, the legend was born.

It seems that the Bitey Squig can be differentiated from the normal Attack Squig by its stronger jaw; this can be seen with its more pronounced jawline which could only be supported with powerful jaw muscles. There are also the aforementioned stingers, which would most likely be located at the tail; unfortunately there isn't any indication that the tail has something like a stinger. Bitey Squigs are also much smaller than the Attack Squig in order to fit inside a Squig Launcha; seeing as how an Attack Squig is often the size of a sheep, it makes sense for the Orks to utilize a much more smaller and mobile version to be used as ammunition.

===Bile Squig===
[[File:Bile_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bile Squig]]

The Bile Squigs come in a variety of breeds and are capable of spraying, squirting, or vomiting harmful fluids from their orifices. This breed of squig is frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas.

Typically launched by the handful, these creatures squeal and thrash while jetting acid, lubricants, poisons, and flammable fluids in every direction. The effects can sometimes be harmless, but other times can cause their victims to burst into flames, explode, or dissolve. Essentially, they are the Orky version of the [[Flamers of Tzeentch]], you never know what you're gonna get.

Bile Squigs seem to have an enlarged earhole or an orifice for which they shoot out their concoction of liquids, it is identified by its very [[Derp|derpy appearance]] and its long tongue which maybe used to lick off any excess liquid it shoots out.
===Bat Squig===
[[File:Bat_squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bat Squig]]

A squig that has bat wings..... That's it..... Look it's just a squig that has bat wings alright it has the typical squig mentality, lives in a cave and can fly the only difference is that IT JUST HAS BAT WINGS. These Bat Squigs descend upon their victims in a flurry of gnashing jaws and spattering guano. It's not got some depressing story in which it lost its parents and now hunts down all everything that isn't greenskin, NO IT'S JUST A SQUIG WITH BAT WINGS, also no legs.



On tabletop, at the start of your shooting phase, you can pick 1 enemy unit within 18" of this model and roll a dice. On a 5+ that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound. This ability cannot be used if the Bat Squig minion has been removed.

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File:Bat_squig_in_a_shellnut.JPG
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===Boom Squig===
[[File:Boom_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Boom Squig]]

A special sub-species of the 'Splodin Squig.

This breed is squig is frequently fired from [[Squig Launcha]]s and [[Heavy Squig Launcha]]s. Boom Squigs, also known as Mine Squigs due to their shape, are infamous for their defense mechanism of violently exploding at the slightest provocation, typically due to direct physical contact or a loud noise ([[FAIL|or sometimes even their own bouts of indigestion]]).

They detonate with such force that they kill or maim anything unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. These creatures thus make the perfect living ammunition for Orks and are also sometimes used as landmines. They are also favored by Orks as the tools of [[Lulz|practical jokes,]] as nothing will amuse a Speed Freek more than hiding a [[Just As Planned|Boom Squig under the seat of a Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy driver like an explosive whoopee cushion.]]

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File:Boom_Squif_Top.JPG
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===Bowel-Torrent Squig===
[[File:Bowel_Squig?.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bowel-Torrent Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to only as one of the most "revolting" and "panic-inducing". [[Shitstorm|Given its name it should be very easy to understand why.]] They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time...or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might best describe the Bowel-Torrent Squig the best.

Due to the Squig's... [[Bullshit|unique way of expelling its munitions]], we believe that the small albeit grumpy-looking Squig with the long tail ''may'' be the elusive Bowel-Torrent Squig. Ya know... 'cause it looks similar to that of a pigeon and this thing can 'fly' once it exits out the Squig Launcha. We would let your figure out the rest.

===Bag Squig===
[[File:Bag_Squig_2.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Bag Squig.]]

This type of Squig has a large, gaping mouth and a bag-like body that is almost entirely composed of stomach and nothing else. The stomach coincidentally functions secondarily as a pouch that allows the Squig to survive by slowly digesting food it stores up inside its body, similar to modern Earth animals that survive hibernation by eating a lot of food during the summer. If the Squig is dried out, it can be made into a flask for drinks. If it is tanned like leather, it makes a useful bag or belt pouch.

By far one of the most practical form of Squigs used by the Orks.

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Image:Bag_Squig.PNG
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===Burna' Squig===
[[File:Burna_Squig_2.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Burna Squig.]]

The Burna' Squig is similar to the 'Sploding Squig. However while the 'Sploding Squig is a biological grenade the Burna' Squig is a biological molotov cocktail. Inside a Burna' Squig consists of multiple chemicals that when mixed, burst into flames rather than exploding. Orks sometime shake their Burna' Squigs to further enhance their fiery potential (Or force them to swallow even MOAR flammable materials such as Promethium) after being thrown-- if it doesn't explode in their face of course.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and don't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers, he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course, these may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

The effects of Burna Squigs are equivalent to other flammable explosives found in the Imperium.

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File:Burna_Squig.PNG
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===Buzzer Squig===
[[File:Buzzer.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Buzzer Squig.]]
Buzzer Squigs are an insect-like like variation of the Squig typically used by Orks and Gretchins in a [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult,]] as they are very vicious and a swarm can strip the flesh off a man-sized creature within seconds. They are essentially flying piranhas but more aggressive than any piranha.

Buzzer Squigs are found among Ork fungus groves and are trapped in pots by Gretchin. The special pots are made from sun-baked mud, drilled with tiny holes to allow the Squigs inside to breathe. The top of the vessel is corked shut and sealed with more mud once a good number of Squigs have been put inside. Normally the Squigs feed by burrowing into other larger Squigs or small animals such as rats, so when they are captured they soon begin to get very hungry. They can be kept without food in the pot for many weeks, getting angrier and more savage all the time. If the Gretchin is unfortunate in capturing these hornets of doom or accidentally breaks a pot full of these things, then he may end up as their lunch.

Gretchin can tell which pots contain the angriest Squigs from the high pitch of the droning and the vibrations of the pot as the Squigs try to burrow out (the walls of the pot must be made thick and hard). These pots, each containing a small swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, are the missiles fired by the Squig Katapult. The pot cracks open on impact, releasing the swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, who attack anyone nearby. They are great against Imperial Guards, Tau, Kroot, and low level Tyranid forces (cue irony of the [[Lulz|Tyranids getting out-NOMMED in their own game]]). Unfortunately they are quite useless when it comes to MEQs as those claws and fangs aren't going to do much against ceramite and reinforced wraithbone.

Buzzer Squigs can also be found on the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]], although they're far more limited in role due to the presence of other Squig species.

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File:Buzzer_Squig_Model.JPG
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===Buzzing Squig===
[[File:Buzzing.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Buzzing Squig.]]
Not to be confused with Buzz''er'' Squigs, Buzz''ing'' Squigs have tiny, propeller-like wings on their tails: miniature airscrews that allow them to fly like a biological helicopter. When they contact flesh (which they can smell), they bores in and eat their way straight through the unfortunate target. Upon emerging from the victim, they immediately dive back and bore through again, or set upon another victim. Orks have learned to use these deadly nuisances as weapons.

Gretchin are set to work trapping them for dispersal as swarms around the battlefield. Buzzing Squigs may also be kept in pots and thrown from makeshift catapults like the [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult.]] When the pot containing the Buzzing Squigs cracks, it releases a swirling swarm of these flesh-eating monsters.

In all honesty though, by function there is very little difference between the Buzzer and Buzzing Squigs as they both fulfill the same niche. They only look different enough to warrant their own species.

===Coffin Crawler===
[[File:CoffinCrawlerSquig.png|right|thumb|150px|Coffin Crawler]]
Coffin-Crawlers were an Old-School Tyranid Squig who would consume fresh corpses and grow in bulk until they were ready to return to the [[Norn Queen]], carrying their swollen bodies back to feed her.

Genetic material in the form of captive creatures and corpse scavengers called Coffin-Crawlers is fed into the great maws located at the top of the Norn Queen and synthesised by its genetic shredder organs. The dissembled DNA structures form a gene-bank which provides the raw material from which new creatures called bio-constructs are created. Once a type of bio-construct has been designed more identical creatures can be cloned by the Norn Queens.

Much like the Grabber-Slasher Squig, when Squigs were separated from Tyranids, they were reduced to the status of just being a variety of Big Squig. That, and their role has been replaced by [[Rippers]].

===Gob Squig===
[[File:Gob.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Gob Squig.]]
Gob Squigs are small enough to be put into an Ork's mouth and left there for the rest of the day (or the next few days, if the Ork forgets about it). The Squig cleans the Ork's mouth out by rooting round the teeth and eating the juicy bits of food that are stuck between them. They look like your typical fantasy [[Slime]] with a funny face although your local Commissar would suggest not petting one as they are known to bite. They are essentially an Ork's version of a toothbrush but more effective and cost-productive

The '''Chewin' Squig''' is another variant of the Gob Squig. An Ork can pop this sort of Squig into his mouth and chew on it while he sits and thinks (or sits and enjoys not thinking), basically Orky chewing gum. How the Squig could survive being munched by an Ork is a feat unknown by Imperial Xenologists.

===Great Cave Squig===
[[File:99800209017_GoblinWarbossCaveSquigNEW01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Great Cave Squig]]
Think a regular Attack Squig given steroids. A Great Cave Squig is simply a larger variant of the more common Cave Squig that has grown to such a magnificent size that it has become as large as an Imperial warhorse. This Squig sub-species is the second largest of the non-Squiggoth family, with only the Colossal Squig surpassing it in both size and weight. Its large mouth is filled with teeth the size of swords and sabres and their appetite as ravenous as their smaller counterparts. These things are solitary predators that like to [[Get shit done|get shit done by themselves.]]

Because of their large size, the Great Cave Squig makes excellent cavalry for Night Goblins. However, their aggressive behavior makes it difficult to tame effectively. The process of [[Rape|breaking in]] a Great Cave Squig would cost the lives of many Night Goblins, but once the beast learns to accept a rider, they serve as a more stable mount than the smaller and more unruly Cave Squig. Although they are costly to maintain, eating over twice their own body weight daily, a Night Goblin Warboss would do almost anything to keep such a magnificent asset in the hands of his tribe.

Since they're so difficult to tame, often times Goblins don't even bother doing so, instead just chaining two Great Cave Squigs together, pointing them vaguely in the direction of the enemy and setting them loose, resulting in the infamous Mangler Squigs. The Squigs drag and pull each-other across the battlefield, resulting in them essentially becoming living wrecking balls. In Age of Sigmar, some particularly insane Loonbosses use a pair of Mangler Squigs as a mount, usually if they're leading a Squigalanche warband.

On the even rarer occasions when a Great Cave Squig continuous to grow exponentially, they would grow to such a monstrous size that they are once again categorized into another even larger variant called simple as the Colossal Squig (As seen below).

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Image:GreatCave Squig.png|NYUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!
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===Colossal Squig===
[[File:CollossalSquig.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Colossal Squig.]]
Think an Great Cave Squig on steroids and having a mouth and stomach that could rival a [[Haruspex]] and the [[Mawloc|Mawloc]] in a eating competition. The Colossal Squigs are the largest variants of Squigs known to exist short of Squiggoths.

These frequently six-eyed monsters boast an insatiable appetite, and are in essence no more than an impossibly vast fleshy maw studded with row upon row of scimitar-bladed teeth. The only way they get into battle is by finding some Orks and just moving in with them.

The Colossal Squig is often used as a giant living battering ram, bashing and splintering anything smaller than the Squig into a fine paste. Of course the presence of the Squiggoth kind of placed the status of the Colossal Squig in question. Nevertheless, they still have the capability of eating entire Space Marines whole let alone normal Guardsmen, granting some laughs by the local Boyz if the Squig doesn't eat them first.

Of special note is a small change to this subtype of Squig in [[Age of Sigmar]] - When a Colossal Squig dies, it blows up into a bunch of smaller Cave Squigs! ... Nature running its course?...

===Cape Squig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Capesquigs10vh-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Cape Squig]]

These cute little Squigs are there to make you feel just a tad bit more important.

A Squig found only in [[Age of Sigmar]]. A presumably regal and dignified breed of squig, these little beasties help Skragrott keep his magnificent cape off the floor. Or maybe they’re trying to eat it. Probably both…

Anyways, these Squigs are quite sought after since they have a... distinct head shape of the Greenskin's moon, which makes it downright flash. Why their heads are shaped like that is anyone's guess (selective breeding?). Skragrott, the Loonking himself, is the self-styled overlord of the Gloomspite Gitz (AKA Night Goblins, trademarked). His sinister presence upon the field of battle ensures his fellow grots fight with greater spite and cunning than ever.

On tabletop, these little beasties are there for decorative purposes in order to make Skragrott look more important than he really is. Seriously you think they would provide anything of substance in the actual game?

===Dice Squig===
[[File:DiceSquigs.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Dice Squig]]
Famed for their bounciness, the rare and elusive Dice Squigs have been known to be used by particularly kunnin’ Grot Loonbosses in games of tactics and chance. They are usually given out in an event of a mass brawl, with [[Grot]]s assembling bets on would emerge the victor.

These small, eyeless, limbless blobs of flesh have very little use other than your usual Ork gamblin', however, a wise Greenskin must still be cautious when handling these things as they still have a mouth that may bite your fingers off.

Currently, most Dice Squigs have different yellow splotches on each side save for the face, which is an obvious analogue to the actual numbers system of an actual dice. Also represented as an actual limited edition squig-dice for sale by Games Workshop.

{{Clear}}

===Eating Squig===
[[File:EatingSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Eating Squig.]]
An Eating Squig (also known as Grubs or ''Orkus consumit'') is a limbless blob used as the primary Ork food source. It resembles an elongated, squarish slug with two eyes and a small pug mouth (like a cross between a blob fish and uncanned SPAM). Orks usually prefer them cooked, but they can be eaten raw as well. Gretchin are quite adept in cooking them and have a number of methods including kebabing, marinating in fungus wine, stuffed with fungus and herbs, roasted on a spit, deep fried with fungus chips, or griddled over a campfire. Who knew the Ork race had such a flair for culinary skills? Again Commissars would suggest not petting one no matter how pug-cute it looks, although suggesting to eat one for emergency rationing is fine for them.

With the fast reproduction on all Orkoid lifeforms, it is unknown why the [[Imperium of Man]] still haven't decided on capturing one of these Squigs and then mass producing them which would stop Galactic world hunger that plagues some of the Imperial Worlds (and no, [[Grox|not because of heresy]]). Maybe they are already looking into it, but with how slow the IoM usually is it may take decades to even centuries for it to be finalized and distributed in the entire Galaxy. Or it might have something to do with the fact that they're creature from the orkoid genus, so they release spores everywhere that can grow into the more dangerous parts of the genus including actual orks.

If the Eating Squig is the Duck/Chicken of an Ork culinary experience, then the '''Juicy Squig''' is the foie gras of Ork cuisine. The Juicy Squig is a very rare and delicious type of Eating Squig that may perhaps be the only known Ork delicacy. This Squig lives at the very bottom of an Ork fungal drop, and are not only rare, but difficult to find and bring up from the depths. Since these Squigs are seldom caught by the Gretchin and Snotlings, they often grow quite large and become even tastier as they get older.

In Age of Sigmar, there is also type of swamp-dwelling squig in the Mortal Realms called the '''Slobbersquig''', mentioned in the second edition Orruk Warclans Battletome as being part of the regular diet consumed by the Kruleboyz, alongside bog toads, swamp hoppers, cold crawfish, spine-ridged mud worms, and human flesh. Compared to the rest of the food on this list, it could be conjectured the Slobbersquig is a sluglike, unappealing Eatin' Squig that drools constantly and lives in swamp muck instead of the bottom of the greenskin drops.
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File:OCG-grot-trader.jpg|Lovely indeed.
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===Guard Squig===
[[File:Guard_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Guard Squig.]]
Ork Kaptins have been breeding a form of Squig known as a Guard Squig, or Squig Hound to some. They're Orky Guard Dogs. These creatures have all the ferocity of an Attack Squig, but are bred to be utterly loyal to their masters. When alone or not in battle, Squig Hounds are usually seen sleeping on their post or lying on their master's lap. Guard Squigs are often seen as a step up above the normal Attack Squig due to their aforementioned loyalty.

Guard Squigs are not to be confused with the Herd Squig whose nickname also bears the name Squighound or the [[Derp|actual Squighound themselves.]] Why GeeDubs thought repeating the name of three different species is a good idea is a mystery.

Is it though? These are Orks we’re talking about. Considering the rather direct (and often short) manner with which Orks approach life, it’s hardly a surprise they’d have one name for several breeds of Squigs. One Ork may name a particular breed of Squig "Bitey" for biting a lot, only to have his head bit off by said Squig, prompting the next Ork to confirm that it is indeed a Bitey Squig, while somewhere else in the mob the same little drama is occurring with an entirely different breed of biting Squig with identical results. Orks are pragmatic...in their way.

===Targeting Squig===
[[File:Targeting-squig-art.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Targeting Squig.]]
A unusual type of Squig, Targeting Squigs (''Orkus scopum'') are weird creatures with a single targeting eye that serve as biological equivalents of Gitfindas used by Flash Gitz. Sometimes their pupils are even shaped into a cross-hair.

How the Squig communicates with the Flash Gitz is unknown. Although certain unique sounds or barks could be help the Ork to signal that there may be ample prey around. That or it could flash different colors or release certain pheromones that only Orkoid species can detect.

On tabletop there is very little difference between the Squig and regular Gitfindas other then the cosmetic change. They're cool-looking models though!

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File:Targeting-squig.png
File:Last-wall-squig.jpg
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===Face-Eater Squig===
[[File:Face Eater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Face-Eater Squig.]]
Humans have binge eating contests and the Orks too have their own variety. Of course in this case the food has the potential of eating your face off. Here is where the Face-Eater Squigs come into play. The Face-Eater Squig is a toothed variety of Squig used both as a weapon and in the infamous Ork face-eating contests.

These Squigs, also known as "Gnashers" or "Gnasher Squigs," are a vicious mass of sharp teeth and claws. In their active state they appear to be just a gnashing mouth and very little else, though they look much like any other Eatin' Squig when they are at rest. Because of their violent nature, Gnashers provide the Orks with endless entertainment, and Squig-eating is one of the Orks' favorite pastimes. The Ork and the Squig both open their mouths and bite, in a parody of a kiss. If the Ork eats the Squig, he wins. If he keels over backwards, he loses.

Some Painboys made attempts to use Gnashers to amputate a patient's limbs, but these attempts weren't very successful as they tended to bite off orderlies' arms or even the Dok's fingers. Face-Eaters are often used as an attack squig. This organism is known to Imperium biologists as Orkus ravenati.

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File:GnasherSquig.jpg|Nasty little fuckers.
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===Flesheater Squig===
[[File:Flesheater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Flesheater Squig.]]
In order to increase their wealth, some Orks breed large, ferocious beasts known as Flesheaters. The Flesheater looks like a furry, Orky crocodile, with a great, gaping mouth full of rows of sharp fangs that are similar to an Ork's [[Teef]]. Flesheaters continually shed and replace their teeth, and all the Orks have to do to collect this wealth is send a Gretchin to collect the teeth; they, of course, aren't overly keen on this duty.

Like Ork teeth, Flesheater teeth also deteriorate after a few years. Flesheaters are extremely long-lived, but rarely breed in captivity, making them even more valuable. Most Orks who own Flesheaters are either already Nobz, or become Nobz on account of the wealth derived from owning these Squigs. Not surprisingly, impoverished Orks sometimes attempt to steal a Flesheater, or even raid rival settlements to capture them.

They are literally a mobile money-making machine - who says money can't grow on <s>trees</s> animals?

===Gas Squig===
[[File:GasSquigs.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Gas Squig.]]

It is a Squig that literally has a [[Lulz|killer fart.]]

The Gas Squig produces a gas so toxic that Orks with gas masks throw this Squig in combat, using the Squig itself as a chemical weapon. Besides their use as a one-time explosive, the Ork can just let the Squig run loose in the battlefield, spreading as much chaos as possible as these nasty little runts can cover an entire field in a bath of toxic miasma and corrosive chemicals.

It is unknown what type of chemicals allow the Gas Squig to unleash a untold volume of lethal farts. High levels of methane or magic/warp-related bullshit is the only potential answer.

They are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

According to the illustration of Warhammer Online, Gas Squigs look like normal Attack Squigs but with hole-like projections that constantly spew out the toxic materials like chimneys.

===Grabber-Slasher Squig===
[[File:Grabberslasher.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Grabber-Slasher/Big Squig]]

These guys originated way back in older editions of Warhammer, when Squigs were the result of Tyranids consuming Orkoid biomass instead of being fungoid kin. The Grabber-Slasher is a form of large ambush Squig that prefers to lurk in ducts and either grab prey with its massive arm and drag it away to devour, or hump-slash it with its big crotch-spike.

As one can imagine from things ''that'' early on, they look like fucking abominations out of a Cronenberg film. Seriously, that giant clawed hand on top of its head does not help. They also apparently have a chameleonic ability to change their skin colour and texture to hide better in crevices and ducts. But again, with that giant hand and [[/d/|horned dick,]] the idea of it being chameleonic should be taken with some salt. Even worse is the fact that the Tyranid Hive Mind used it as a prototype to the Lictor in early editions, using it to assassinate those who threatened the plans of the Tyranids. Imagine the shame and humiliation of being killed by something as fugly as THAT!

When Squigs were later retconned into being always a part of the Orkoid Fungus Biosphere, the Grabber-Slasher was retconned into being just a [[Derp|"Big Squig"]], which is honestly, quite disappointingly generic.

===Hair Squig===
[[File:Hairy.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hair Squig.]]
Do you want to know how and where the Orks get their hairy ponytails from? The answer is obviously simple: they use Squigs to do the job, due to Orks being naturally hairless. Hair Squigs are a parasitic variety of Squig which possess small bodies, no legs, no eyes, and a pair of pincers in place of a mouth.

They have long hair running from their tiny bodies that Orks like to customize and dye after clamping the Squig's pincers onto their own hairless heads; this customization has no effect on the Squig's health.

One particular variety of Hair Squig is known as a '''Chin Squig'''. These creatures feature a long thin body with claws and hair all over it and serve as the equivalent of a beard. They are also known to be a sign of age and status among Orks.

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File:Hair Squig.jpg
File:Chin_Squig.jpg|Chin Squig.
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===Limpin Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SquigBall1jvrh.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Limpin Squig or a turkey drumstick, you make the call.]]

[[Lolwut|A Squig football/handegg. It makes sense in context.]]

Technically, this squig is from [[Blood Bowl]] rather than the [[Age of Sigmar|Mortal Realms (AKA Age of Sigmar)]], but its existence is so hilariously dumb it might as well be part of the Squig family. Also known as the Squigball, Orc teams are known for using Squigs as balls, shearing one leg off so it can’t run away. Sometimes, they just find a particularly bulbous Squig and then literally kick its ass.

These Squigs must be extremely durable, squishy and bouncy. The best Limpin' Squigs have flesh that is extremely flexible, sturdy bones to survive repeated impacts and kicks, a skin firm enough to be held onto for long periods of time, an attitude that makes sure it doesn't ends up biting its holder in the middle of some intense Blood Bowl, and just the right enough shape to bounce to its trajectory.

It is not known is they exist in 40k or AoS, although seeing as how Orks/Orcs are stereotypical British hooligans, we wouldn't be surprised if they did.

===Mendin' Squig===
[[File:Squig-hairy-medical.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Mendin' Squig.]]
Mendin' Squigs, or more commonly (and annoyingly) called Hairy Squigs (again not to be confused with Hair Squigs much to the Xenobiologist's constant frustration), are a type of medicinal Squig. Hairy/Mendin' Squigs are used by Painboyz as sutures. The Painboy simply applies it to the open wound, which it holds closed with its tiny, needle-like teeth. The Painboy then twists its tail off, leaving the head embedded in the flesh, repeating the process until the wound is "riveted up." The Mendin' Squig feeds off blood oozing from the wound, thus keeping it clean and free from infection. By the time it shrivels and drops off, the wound has usually healed.

This form of medical technique is actually quite closer to reality than you'd think. Some South American and African tribes use particularly large bulldog ants to act as crude sutures. They just grab the ants and allow the powerful jaws to snap shut on the wound and like the Mendin' Squigs they then twist its body off, leaving only the head which is still in contact with the wound until it shrivels and falls off once fully healed.

===Herd Squig===
[[File:HerdSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Herd Squig.]]
Herd Squigs have been specially bred and developed by Runtherds for the purpose of herding and controlling the herds of Runtz. They are related to the many varieties of pet Squigs, but have been selectively bred for their speed, intelligence, ferocity and endurance.

Their long, sensitive snouts and keen ears enable them to track down errant Snotlings and Gretchin wherever they might hide. Herd Squigs are excellent tracking beasts, and can follow trails which are days old.

They are also called Squighounds, which as you already know, [[Herp|should not be confused with the Guard Squig who already bears that nickname or the actual Squighounds themselves.]]

They look like pigs but more Orky.

===Hoppa Fungus===
[[File:DKI3T3c3fv3xNy92.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hoppa Fungus]]
A Hoppa Fungus or Fun-Hoppas, are a type of Squig that skirts the line between Orkoid Mushroom and Squig, from the Snotling Blood Bowl set. They are small, round, lumpy "mushrooms" with a cartoony, squiggy face on their front. There are two sizes of them, one for throwing like a living rock and another for riding like a moon hopper, even more so than normal squigs as these ones lack legs.

How they managed to hop around without a leg, we are not too sure, although more technical elegan/tg/entelmen had assumed that they use their entire body mass as one giant muscle like a snake, to propel themselves for locomotion.

They seem overall, pretty harmless as far as Squigs go, given that they don't seem to routinely eat their riders or throwers. But boy do these giant grey meatballs look like they came out of a Loony Tunes cartoon.

<Gallery>
Hopper_Fungus.JPG
</gallery>

===Horned Squig===
[[File:HornedSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Horned Squig.]]
<s>A Squig that's [[/d/|''so Horny!'']]</s> {{Blam}}

The Horned Squig is a Squig gifted with long, sharp horns stretching from its head that Orks often jam into barricades to serve as living obstacles or act as a moving and mobile battering ram for siege warfare. They act like bulls and if used against troops, often ram their horns into some poor unfortunate sod in a relentless, charging stampede. They have a brighter red color scheme than Cave Squigs.

If the Horned Squig is disabled, then the Ork can simply just strap the Squig on its forearm and use it as a living weapon. The Orks are anything but wasteful and is capable of using anything, even other living organisms, to its 'full' potential.

Like the Gas Squigs they are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

===Mimic===
[[File:Squig_Mimic.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Mimic.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>CA-CAW! OI GITZ GET MOVIN UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO TELL DA BOSS ON WHO IS MUCKIN' ABOUT!</span>

A particularly popular type of pet Squig is known as the Mimic. As you imagine, they are Ork parrots. This Squig has a large and toothy beak-like mouth (it also apparently has feathers) and is vaguely parrot-like in both appearance and function.

Mimics can be seen perched on the shoulders of many an old and haggard Ork, usually from the [[Freebooterz]] to keep the pirate theme, squawking expletives and insults at Greenskin passersby. Kaptins have a endearing affection for these little creatures and their ability to shout and swear at larger and more opposing Orks is often seen as a humorous delight to the Kaptin. Woe to any Ork who accidentally swats one of these creatures out of annoyance. [[FATAL|The chance of getting your head wired to a Big Lobba by a pissed off Kaptin? Too high.]]

===Oily Squig===
[[File:Grot_Oiler.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Oily Squig.]]
The Oily Squig is a variety of Squig bred by Ork Meks to create fuel for the Orks' ramshackle vehicles. They create the fuel, an organically-synthesized version of Promethium, in their rotund bellies, and it can be squeezed out of their anteater-like trunks. These Squigs have no mouths, other than their trunk, and are not combat-oriented like their far more aggressive counterparts.

The most efficient way of extracting the oil from the creatures is to use a large pressing machine, although more primitive methods, such as having gretchin to jump up and down on them are also widely used. Orks prepare the barrels of the squig oil in advance and take those with them when they go on campaigns.

There exist two varieties of Oily Squigs: one with arms and a distinct head, and one that resembles an Attack Squig with a trunk for dispensing their fuel oil.

<gallery>
File:Squig-oily.jpg
File:7e-grotoiler.jpg
</gallery>

===Paint Squig===
[[File:PaintSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Paint Squig.]]
Orks can be creative artists too! This small, vividly colored Squig excretes powerful dyes that are used as warpaint. These paints are also used by Gretchin artists as pigments for wall paintings and decorative banners.

Many Paint Squigs have tufts of hair on their trails, which allows the artist to use the Squig as both a brush and tube of paint simultaneously. The shells of Edible Squigs are also used by Gretchin artists as paint pots and palettes.

===Parasite-Hunting Squig===
[[File:Parasite-Hunter.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Parasite-Hunting Squig.]]
Parasite-Hunting Squigs are tiny but voracious feeders used to clear an Ork's body and clothes of parasites. An Ork simply drops a handful of these Squigs into his clothing and lets them crawl around. They look like Orkified spiders, which can give arachnophobes nightmares but the Orks don't give a zog.

The Squigs prey on lice, ticks and other vermin the Ork may have acquired in the course of his many unsavoury habits. When the engorged Parasite-Hunting squigs drop out of the Ork's clothing, the Ork simply gathers them up and pops them into his mouth for a juicy snack.

===Rat Squig===
[[File:RatSquig.jpg]]
[[File:Rat_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Rat Squig]]
A unholy abomination spawned from [[Skaven]] science (is anybody surprised?).

The Rat Squig is a species of Squig created by Clan Moulder by fusing rat or skaven meat with Squigs, creating a form of furry, rat-faced squig with scaly patches of leathery skin, and the ability of regeneration. They apparently also have bloodlust, even in comparison to normal squigs.

They commonly do not have flat backs like Skarl, the Rat Squig in the illustration above, who is also outfitted with a specially-made saddle able to carry his Grey Seer master, Farquan (also in the illustration). It is unknown if Farquan is the member of Clan Moulder responsible for creating the original Rat Squigs, or just his mount Skarl. Now whether they breed via spores like a normal Squig, we have no idea as the fluff doesn't really go that much into it.

There is a mod in Total War: Warhammer called [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2746640530 Elon's Rat Squigs] where these creatures were implemented in. Most of the images came from this mod.

<gallery>
Rat_Squig_Mod.JPG
</gallery>

===Scorpisquig===
[[File:Spiker_M01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Scorpisquig tail.]]
Scorpisquig Stingers are used by Gloomspite Gitz Gobbapalooza Spiker Shamans on the end of their Stikkas for stabbing things with poison. Not much is known about them, and we mean it ''literally''. Seriously, the only thing shown of them is the barbed-end of their stinger tail.

Whatever it is, we can assume that the Scorpisquig is a much sought-after source of Squigs that these goblins hunt, as even after their stingers are lobbed off from their bodies, they still retain enough venom to be an effective and dangerous weapon.

Curiously enough, the goblin who carries such a weapon are incredibly mutated, sprouting extra limbs and eyes that mimics that of the Scorpisquig (we assume). Like seriously, these guys are severely fucked up, so one wonders what kind of warp fuckery they were dabbling in; perhaps, in an ironic twist, these guys may actually slowly transform into a Scorpisquig itself after (Assumingly) consuming its flesh. Whatever the case, the Scorpisquig wielders are not to be fucked with.

{{Clear}}

===Screech Squig===
[[File:Screech_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Screech Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to as having [[Sonic Weaponry|oversized lungs that allow it to make an extremely loud screech.]] Screech Squigs disorient, incapacitate and/or make the enemy's eardrums burst with one of the most horrid sounds possible (We in /tg/ imagines it as mixing the cries of an infant that has sand paper in its throat with that of fingernails scratching the surface of a chalkboard). They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time... or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might be the Screech Squig. Due to the fact that it is nothing more than a living Sonic Weapon, the Screech Squig needs both a big mouth and a wide barrelled body to encompass its huge lungs; unfortunately, most Squigs have a big mouth and a wide body. Likewise, we hypothesize that the Screech Squig might be in fact, the big Squig we see inside of the Heavy Squig Launcha, due to the fact that its mouth is close relatively shut and will only open once fired from the Launcha. You wouldn't want your Boyz to go all bleeding in their noggins because they failed to pacify that thing, right?

A similarly themed and named Squig exists in Age of Sigmar called the '''Syari Screamersquig'''. A rare albino beast that loathes any form of light, and reacts to it with ear shattering screams. Unfortunately for it, it’s native to the Syari region of the Realm of Light. It’s been hunted to near extinction by the Lumineth Realm-Lords and is prized by many Grot Loonbosses for its screaming powers.

===Snufflesquig===
[[File:Snufflesquig.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Snufflesquig]]

Squig truffle pigs but more [[Derp|derpy in appearances.]]

Snufflesquigs are little more than massive noses and snapping mouths with wiry little legs that can be trained by Sneaky Snufflers to identify Looncaps, a type of mushroom that grows from the light of the Bad Moon, from others that induce effects such as vomit slime, break out in luminous yellow spots, babble uncontrollably or even burst into flames. When the Bad Moon approaches these unique squigs begin to howl with raised snouts.

Like truffle pigs, Snufflesquigs have a tendency to eat these shrooms if not carefully attended.

May be a reference to Snuffler Orcs, a breed of Orc from Middle Earth described as small, black, and huge nosed, used for tracking victims.

===Smasha Squig===
[[File:LAEMX6Acaz90SDmn.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Smasha Squig]]
A cousin to the [[Squighog]], the Smasha Squig is basically an orkified [[Dinosaur|Pachycephalosaurus]].

Smashas are usually ridden by [[Nob]]s from the [[Beast Snagga]] sub-kulture, where they are often found leading mobs of [[Squighog Boy]]z into battle. The Smasha Squig itself is bipedal, running on two legs rather than four. It is also larger, tougher, and even more ferocious than your regular old [[squighog|Squig Bacon]]. Any Nob who has managed to beat a Smasha Squig into submission is ''not'' an Ork to be trifled with.

Once "tamed," a heavy armor plate is bolted to the Smasha Squig's skull. This is not done to protect the squig, for among its kind it is already noted for having an exceptionally thick skull encasing an exceptionally tiny (and shock-resistant) brain. Rather, the plate enhances the beast's natural head-butting tendencies so that the Smasha truly becomes a living, snarling wrecking ball.

On the tabletop, the Smasha Squig complements the Nob rider who is already a beast (pun intended) in close combat. Crunchwise, this oversized fungal dinosaur grants additional attacks with its jaws and its Smasha 'Ead has a chance to deal up to [[rape|five mortal wounds]] after a charge or heroic intervention. Finally, the rider is equipped with a Big Choppa and a slugga, and with T6 and 5 wounds the model is just as hard to kill as you'd expect.
{{Clear}}

===Spiky Squig===
[[File:Spiky.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spiky Squig.]]
Spiky Squigs look like a living ball covered with spines which, as an instinctive reaction when agitated, can shoot out at any threatening creature rather like porcupines were once thought to do. These spines inflict a poisonous sting on anyone struck by them, though the effect of the poison on Orkish flesh is not as drastic as it is on other races due to the similar biology of all Orkoid races. Squigs of this kind are used in some bionik arms fitted with cages and a quick release system, so they can be used as a close combat weapon like a living Morning Star.

Spiky Squigs move via rolling around like a ball; however when it comes to hunting food, it propels itself at high speed before launching into the unsuspecting prey, launching its poisonous spines and letting it run its course. This unusual hunting method has been seen by xenobiologists as bizarre and weird.

===Spiteshroom===
[[Image: Spiteshroom.png|150px|right|thumb|Spiteshroom]]

A creature that blurs the line between Squig and Fungus, much like Hoppa Fungus. Spiteshrooms are fungal creatures that inhabit the dark and damp caves favoured by Dankhold Troggoths. They emit an incessant high-pitched shrieks and shrill idiot ditties that distracts even the most veteran warriors. The fungal clouds they release can rot flesh from bone. They are favored as familiars of Madcap Shamans.

Due to the fact that they seemed locked into ground like actual mushrooms, Spiteshrooms are immobile like the larger Stalagsquig.

<gallery>
Spiteshroom_and_Stalagsquig.JPG|With a Stalagsquig in a ''literal'' face off.
</gallery>

==='Sploding Squig===
[[File:Splodin_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|'Sploding Squig.]]
A biological grenade used by the Orks if they run out of stikkbombs. 'Sploding Squigs possess multiple stomachs, each containing a thick broth of unstable digestive chemicals. Some 'Sploding Squigs are covered in spines which may act as fragmentation when it explodes.

When agitated, usually though violent shaking, the 'Sploding Squig's digestive juices combine into a combustible liquid, causing the Squig to explode in a shower of meat, teeth, and bone fragments. While typically thrown in combat, 'Sploding Squigs are also often buried and used as mines. Orks are known to force-feed 'Sploding Squigs a meal of scrap metal before battle in an effort to enhance their lethality.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and doesn't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course this may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

However, the widespread use of regular Bomb Squigs has lessened the value of 'Sploding Squigs. No need to wait around for a specialized and uncommon Squig to mature when the most common type of Squig (plus explosives) already fulfill their purpose.

===Spore Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SporeSquig3mteg.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spore Squig]]

[[Drug|A Squig to huff some shrooms and get high.]]

A walking LSD projector. These little squigs are used defensively by Fungoid Cave-Shamans, who need but stamp on one to release an obscuring cloud of spores. The Fungoid Cave-Shamans themselves are the lepers of Goblinkind. Found only in [[Age of Sigmar]], the mushroom-gobbling grot maniacs known as Cave-Shamans are obviously not right in the head.

To these greenskinned nutters, to get lost in a brain-mangling vision is to grow closer to the side of Gorkamorka that epitomises cunning and trickiness over brute strength, which is the side that all grots like the best.

The Spore Squig is nothing more than a living, breathing hookah for the greenskin to sniff some grade-A meth and can, on command, release said spores towards its enemies to make them just as high as the Squig's personnel caretakers.

Moral of the story, don't do drugs kiddos, especially on the battlefield.

===Squigadon===
[[File:Squigadon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigadon.]]
A form of Squig larger than a Great Cave Squig but smaller than a Giant Squig. Maybe a smaller [[Squiggoth]].

First appeared in White Dwarf utilized by Hobgoblins. The creator of this monster was Nick Bayton who literally used a Large Squiggoth from Forgeworld and converted it into a unit for Fantasy by using the [[Lizardmen|Stegadon]] rules in battle. Whilst it may look big, don't let it fool you. Perspective is deceptive and whilst hobgoblins may view it as huge, you should take note that hobgoblins are like half the height of a human, so that Squigadon would be slightly bigger than a rhino.

Seeing as how the Squigadon is literally a converted [[Squiggoth]], whether it would be considered another demonym for a Squiggoth or an entirely different subspecies is unknown. Moreover, how 'canon' this Squig is, we have no clue since it only appeared in ''one'' issue of White Dwarf and that's it. We don't even have any of the barest hints of fluff. So your guesses on its validity are as good as ours.
<gallery>
W8ox5l0jxaua.jpg|As it appeared in White Dwarf.
</gallery>

===[[Squiggoth]]===
The largest of all squig species, have their own page.

===Squigeon===
[[File:Squigeon3.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigeon.]]

Squigeons (''Orkus aerium'') are the Squig counterparts of the Terran pigeon or columbidae if you are feeling fancy, often utilized for sending messages during battle amongst Ork tribes that lack more advanced methods of communication. Although they are sometimes hunted by the dreaded Squighawk or used as target practice by Stormboyz.

[[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-|They are the cutest little orkspawn your will ever get the chance of meeting.]] Unfortunately, due to GeeDubs incompetence, we never ever get to see them further fleshed out in fluff. This time the Commissar would be fine with you petting a Squigeon.

<gallery>
File:Squigeon.jpg
</gallery>

===Squighawk===
[[File:SquigHawk.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squighawk.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:200%'>'''BA-CAAAWK! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!'''</span>

Think of a Orkified Pterodactyl. Squighawks are a wild, flying species of Squig that are large enough to eat Orks. Thus, they are ECKS BAWKS HUEG.

Unfortunately, they are often too difficult to be trained (could be because the Squighawk view Orks as prey too) and are as such are rarely used by Ork Runtherdz-- which is saying something considering the Orks manage to successfully tame the much larger Squiggoth.

Still, it would be cool if we actually got to use these <s>Dinosaurs</s> flying reptiles on the tabletop. Chances are these things could potentially reach a size to rival some larger Tyranid flying strains such as the [[Harpy]].

===Squig-Hog===
[[File:Beast Snaggas.jpeg|200px|right|thumb|Squig-Hog]]
[[Boarboyz]] haven't been mentioned in core Ork fluff for quite some time. While they were cool in their own way, it didn't really ever make sense for Orks to be riding Earth animals in the first place. Well, as of 9th Edition it seems that Boarboyz have been retconned and/or [[squatted]] for good, because [[Squighog Boy]]s have now been introduced as a far more [[awesome]] type of Ork heavy cavalry. Squig Hogs are tougher, larger, and far more dangerous than other types of cavalry such as a horse or warboar, and they can eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouths (including the rider, if he fails to keep his mount in line). However, the horse still has a modest speed advantage.

[[Beast Snagga]]s use them as cavalry like the Imperium's [[Rough Riders]] and they are ''thicc'' enough that a [[Gretchin]] can hop on as well. Snaggas who ride these guys are called [[Squighog Boy]]z. While Squighog Boyz can belong to any Klan, they are presumably most common among the [[Snakebites]].

Crunchwise, Squighogs have a pretty nasty bite of S6, AP-1 and D2, meaning you should be able to dispatch the now tough-to-kill [[Primaris Space Marines]] as well as other MEQs and GEQs consistently. What you want from it however, is the fact that these walking fungal bacons are allowed 2 additional attacks every time the unit fights. Combined with the additional weapons from the Ork himself and you get a nasty cavalry unit.
{{clear}}

===Squighound===
[[File:Squighound.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Squighound.]]
Squighounds (''Orkus canis''), commonly known as "Growlers," are a variation of the Attack Squig, used by Ork Slaverz to help them keep the Gretchins and slaves from other races in line. Most have four legs, although two-legged varieties certainly exist. "Growlers" are also often kept as a form of pet by other Orks, as they are roughly the size of a small dog, hairy, and particularly vicious.

A Pet Squig often scurries about behind its master, barely under his control, giving its owner no end of amusement and laughs [[Troll|especially when the Squig snaps at the ankles of another Ork.]]

They are not to be confused with the Guard Squig or Herd Squig who are also [[Derp|referred to as 'Squighound'.]]

===Squigosaur===
[[File:Squigosaur_2.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigosaur]]
The Squigosaur are large two-legged squigs that [[Beast Snagga]]s ride upon. They are similar in appearance to the Smasha Squig, but whilst the Smasha Squig is an Orky Pachycephalosaurus, the Squigasaur is the Allosaurus of the family.

The most famous of these is the Big Chompa, otherwise known as '''The Great White Squig''' (AKA the Great White Shark on legs or "I can't believe it's another Moby Dick reference!"), a legendary alpha Squigasaur regarded as the most belligerent, vicious, and savage of its kind. It was responsible for a breathtaking number of missing Boyz and thought to be utterly untameable-- that is, until Beast Snagga Mozrog Skragbad appeared with all his chad energy and proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of it for three days until it complied.

Although he has tamed the Squigosaur, it will revert to its original destructive nature when he is not nearby. In order to keep Big Chompa in line, the long-suffering Skragbad is forced to keep himself at its side and the two are rarely seen apart.

On the tabletop, the Squigosaur's jaws works lethally well with a mounted [[Beastboss]]; three extra attacks which can practically gobble up [[Terminator]]s - especially if you roll a 6 to hit and score 3 mortal wounds.
<gallery>
Squigosaur.JPG|The Great White Squig
HxDM6t0oZyXjrBtR.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}

===Squigpipe===
[[File:Pipe.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigpipe.]]
Just to further hone the Scottish stereotype within the Orks (prejudice much, GeeDubs?), this special type of Squig is used by the Orks as a musical instrument. Several tube-like proboscises emerge from this Squig's bag-like body.

The Musical Squig can be tucked under one arm and inflated by blowing down one proboscis. Then, by squeezing the Squig, weird and terrifying sounds can be made through the creature's other proboscis pipes. This turns the Squig into a musical instrument, much like the bagpipes, but a thousand times more cacophonous. Orks like to go into battle accompanied by this Squig much to the detriment of their enemies.

<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-playing.jpg
</gallery>

===Squigshark===
[[File:SquigShark.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigshark.]]
Orks as Jaws. Squigsharks are the Squig counterparts of Terran sharks that inhabit Ork-infested worlds. And no they are not huggable; your local Commissar definitely urges you to '''''NOT''''' pet one out of safety and preventing potential stupidity.

They are known to be very dangerous beasts and many Ork sailors trying to cosplay as Moby Dick end their lives as a food for Squigsharks. Whenever one appears, it is obligatory to play the signature Jaws music. They are by far the top oceanic predator of any Ork World.

YOU. HAVE. BEEN. WARNED.

<gallery>
Deff_Skwadron_Squig-Shark-2.jpg|Dun dun...dun dun...dun dun dun dun dun....
</gallery>

===Snake-Squig===
[[File:Snake-Squigs.jpg|170px|right|thumb|Snake-Squig]]
The Snake-Squig is a very little known species of Squig only shown as an illustration with a [[Snake Bites]] [[Weirdboy]] of said Snake-Squig constricting the Odd Boy like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Speaking of Temple of Doom, it is quite possible that a Weirdboy uses his psychic mumbo-jumbo to control them like a snake charmer controls a snake. Of course, what the Weirdboy actually ''does'' with the snakes, we have no idea, as they are just there to make him look cool.

In terms of its ecology, the Snake-Squig should share the same niche and behaviour as... well... a regular old snake, specifically the constrictor kind when you compare it to its sheer size. These beasts are about 2-3 meters long, if the image is any indication, and is presumably capable of chomping down prey as it is, swallowing them whole.

But its role is never ever really known given that all Snake-Squigs are actually victims of Old Zogwort who managed to Harry Potter them into ''becoming'' a Snake-Squig. Because Old Zogwort is the only known Ork that does this, whether the Snake-Squig is an actual Orkoid species or just the consequence of psychic mishap is currently unknown.

{{Clear}}

===Squig Gobba===
[[File:Squig Gobba 2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Squig Gobba.]]
A [[Forge World]] model the size of a colossal squig. The difference is that this one can fire smaller squigs out of its mouth. The Squig Gobba is essentially living artillery.

Dragged and prodded onto the battlefield by its malevolent Goblin tenders, it is a huge beast with an oversized gaping maw, a set of extremely powerful lungs and a ravenous appetite to rival even that of a Troll. With the Squig Gobba heavily chained into position to prevent it bounding off after the first tasty morsel it spies, its tenders start dragging lesser squigs from the cages surrounding them as battle is joined, slicking these vicious beasts with foul-tasting noxious liquids.

This not only renders the creatures senseless for a short time, but also prevents the Squig Gobba from immediately swallowing them as the stunned squigs are unceremoniously stuffed into its jaws. Goblins can also make it explode if they want to.

<gallery>
File:Squig Gobba.jpg|Hey look! It seems that the last of the Gastric Brooding Frogs have evolved!
</gallery>

===Stalagsquig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Stalagsquig10vx-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Stalagsquig]]

Squigs are highly adaptable creatures, taking a myriad range of forms. Some, for example, infest the rock itself, creating Stalagsquigs.

The Stalagsquigs are a what happens when orks and gobboz believe that <span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>"OIH DAT STONE FING OVER DERE LOOKS LIKE A BITEY SQUIG"</span> and as such the power of [[WAAAGH|WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH made it so.]] The species looks like normal stalagmites from afar but get close enough and you will be introduced to a stone skinned biting nightmare. This particular breed has yet to be seen in 40k but it is prevalent in Ye Age of golden hammer jackasses ([[Age of Sigmar]]).

It is unknown how these squigs move (if they move at all) since they seem to have no visible legs, unless it's a luggage scenario where it sprouts thousands of little legs from its base when it wants to move... WELP, have fun sleeping after thinking about that. Emperor damn, it's like the [[Chaos Spawn|chaos spawns all ov-BGRIHSRAJKHSJAHDSAIUOFDGHU.]] However, according to Warhammer Community, they are totally immobile and viciously hungry creatures that make exploring caves in the Mortal Realms an even worse idea than you thought it was.

As a side note there has been no recorded evidence on how big these squigs can grow to but seeing as how normal stalagmites can grow to be bigger than a skyscraper if given enough space we might have to worry about descending into caves in the foreseeable future.

===Swab Squig===
[[File:Swab.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Swab Squig.]]
The Swab Squig is a type of Hair Squig, but unlike the long trailing hair of its cousins, its round body is covered with short, fluffy fur. Orks use Swab Squigs to mop up during operations, and they come in handy for emergency handkerchiefs too. Despite looking like a giant fluffball they have a humongous mouth and are quite snappy too. Swab Squigs tend to share a comedic relation with [[Snotling|Snotlings]] due to the latter's mentally retarded habit of poking things that should not be poked, which often ends with the little snots running around having their asses bit by the Swab Squig.

Non-pettable by your local Commissar.

<gallery>
File:Squig-swab-2.jpg|It is wise not to pet something that looks cute....
File:Squig-swab-3.jpg|....Or else this happens.
</gallery>

===Syringe Squig===
[[File:Syringe.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Syringe Squig.]]
Syringe Squigs are primarily used for medicinal purposes. These medical Squigs have natural properties which Painboyz find useful when patching together battle-damaged Orks. Syringe Squigs have a long needle-sharp proboscises with which they inject venom into their prey. Syringe Squigs exude a soporific venom which makes a fine anesthetic for Orks when the traditional anesthetic (known to other races as a "concussion") is unavailable.

Syringe Squigs are divided by their sizes to 'small', 'big' and 'urty' which are used depending on the strength of the dose required. The venom is sometimes extracted from the creature and used separately for mixing up some kind of special 'medicine', or if a really large dose is needed.

There is also a special type of Syringe Squig called a '''Vaccine Squig''', whose own immune system produces natural vaccines and antibodies to a host of different pathogens that are extracted and used by Painboyz to aid diseased Orks.

===Tapewyrm Squig===
The Kruleboyz Orruk shaman Gobsprakk can summon a squirming swarm of Tapewyrm Squigs inside the stomachs of his enemies, sickening them and even causing them to explode in a shower of Waaagh! Magic like some sort of twisted DeviantArt fetish. Yeah.

===Tomb Squig===
[[File:Tomb_Squig_placeholder.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Tomb Squig]]
From old-school Warhammer, Tomb Squigs are an albino breed of burrowing squig that feeds on corpses and undead alike.

Often found in [[Dorf|Dwarfen]] tombs that have been broken open and looted, they are sometimes also found in graveyards where their presence often makes sure undead aren't present in these areas. Slightly smaller than regular Squigs, they possess amazingly powerful jaws for their size, which they use to break open stone sarcophagi and to bite through the ceremonial armour Dwarfs often bury their dead in.

At the cost of there being corpse-eating squigs, these critters are as likely to attack and devour the undead as the actually dead (and living as well). As such, Tomb Squigs can serve as a [[Just As Planned|nasty surprise]]; really ruining a tomb robber’s day as not only do they present a threat to life and limb, [[Troll|they can also destroy valuable weapons and armour hidden in the tomb.]]
Source: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Tomb_Squigs

===Tramplasquig===
[[File:Tramplesquig.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tramplasquig]]
A quadrupedal Squig breed that is large enough to drag large vehicles. Tramplasquigs are the rhinoceros of the Squig family and their poor temper makes them a popular beast of war as well as a versatile beast of burden.

The [[Beast Snagga]]s use them to carry their [[Kill Rig]]s and [[Hunta Rig]]s. Although they lack any other form of natural weapons other than their bulk and teeth, Beast Snaggas mount armored helmets with a giant blade on top to further maximize their carnage.

On tabletop, the Tramplasquig is essentially the vehicle itself. It works well in conjunction with its ferried troops. As such, the whole thing is no slouch in melee either, as it not only has the squig itself fighting but also a bunch of boyz to hack away. What it does really well is if you have the Ramming Speed stratagem, as it not only throws it at an enemy from further away but it also drops some MWs on top of that, which can help with wiping the mob.
{{Clear}}

===Vampire Squig===
[[File:Vampire.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Vampire Squig.]]
The Vampire Squig is a blood-sucking creature with long sharp fangs, used by Painboyz to bleed the patient and suck bad blood and pus from septic wounds. The Squig does not seem to mind what the blood is like or from what species it comes so long as it gets a regular and plentiful supply.

When times are hard (which for Orks is when there's not much fighting) the Painboyz are forced to find other ways to keep their pets alive, which they do by extolling the benefits of regular bleeding to otherwise healthy Orks. It is also a good way to earn tons of teef in a short amount of time.

=== Wyrdsquig ===

[[File:Wyrd.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Wyrdsquig.]]

A Wyrdsquig is a little known psychic Squig subspecies that has close genetic links to the Gnasher Squig. Despite their close relations, they are fucking hideous, looking more like an aborted love child between [[H.P. Lovecraft|Yog-Sothoth]] and the [[Halo|Timeless One.]]

This subspecies is rarely encountered in the wild and possesses psychic abilities similar to those of Ork [[Weirdboy]]z. The Wyrdsquig is often employed in battle as a "psychic bomb," releasing a catastrophic telepathic shockwave at the moment of its death. So in layman's terms, it is the Ork equivalent of a Imperial [[Grenades & Explosives#Psyk-Out Grenade|Psyk-Out Grenade]].

They are one of the few Warp-based weapons that the Orks utilize along with the [[Shokk_Attack_Gun|Shokk Attack Gun]] and [[Tellyport_Blasta|Tellyport Blasta]].

===Other Squigs===

The breeds of squigs are innumerable and there are a lot of other, little-known types of these creatures in existence. From tiny micro-organisms on Ork bodies to the gigantic beasts put in the Ork spaceships to create breathable atmosphere, each of them has an use in Ork society. Notorious breeds such as the yellow-spotted '''Facegnasha''', the greater '''Fang-gob''', or the infamous '''Leapin’ Deff''' are especially popular for their use as Bomb Squigs. In Age of Sigmar, it is further expanded with examples such as the '''Glo-Squig''' are a type bioluminescent squig used to light up Lurklairs of the Gloomspite Gitz. Most of the models below include original Squig models, although also included is a green, gelatinous blob that had two beady eyes, similar to a Japanese RPG Slime, which some fa/tg/guy thought was explainable as being like the Orkoid Fungus equivalent of a Slime Mold; searching has found that this is an unofficial model produced by a third party company, "Krakon Games". The idea for the model being a Slime Squig probably came from the old Games Workshop Troll boardgames aimed at children, specifically "Squelch!", one about Trolls playing a game involving stomping on Squigs; among the illustrated Squig Cards there is a little Slime Squig. There is also a Small, Hairy, Humanoid Squig, perhaps the Orkoid equivalent of a Gibbon, covered in what could be fungal cilia or mould, called a "Beastling" (see below), which is an older official model. There was a Squig with a face resembling a Grot's like the Cape-Bearing Squig, but with long, bendy tube legs like stilts. There were 2 spiderlike squigs, one with a face like an Ork's, the other with a massive piercing proboscis, called a "Coffin Crawler" which was responsible for feeding Tyranid Norn Queens. A White Dwarf Squig character was Niblitz, [[Gobbledigook]] the goblin/snotling's pet who resembled an attack squig covered in fuzz and with two little horns, who was often said to be "spiderlike" somehow. Niblitz may be the very first squig ever designed, as he first appeared before any other squig models. The Forest Goblins also used to be shown with Squigs who had arachnoid features, or even riding Spider-Squigs.
<gallery>
File:Squigs_Old_Mini.jpg
File:Retro_Squigs.jpeg
File:VariedSquigs.JPG
File:Niblitz.jpg
File: Forest_Goblin_Art2.jpg
</gallery>
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[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]

[[Category: Orcs & Goblins]]

[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]

[[Category: Gloomspite Gitz]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Orks]]

[[Category: Feral Orks]]

[[Category: Squigs]]

[[Category: Megafauna]]

{{template: Orks-Forces}}

Squig

2022-08-04T21:51:24Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Other Squigs */

[[File:Squig.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Squigs. Making [[Tyranids]] feel insecure in the eating department.]]

[[File:MilkSquig.jpeg|thumb|Sadly noncanon, at least not yet...]]
A Squig, short for squiggly beast, is any one of a variety of bizarre organisms that exist semi-symbiotically with [[Orcs & Goblins]] and [[Orks]] alike. [[Fungus]]-based animals, their most iconic form resembles a large round ball that opens up a huge maw full of teeth, propelled by two strong legs that let it run, scramble and jump all over the place.

Night Goblins in particular like to herd huge swarms of these things onto the battlefield, as they are violently unpredictable and surprisingly dangerous.

In the 41st millennium, on the other hand, they play a somewhat different role. Some ork [[Warboss]]es will keep such squigs as personal attack animals, [[Oddboys|slavers]] always have trusty squig-hounds to help tame [[grot]]s, and [[Tankbustas]] favor a breed that they cram full of bombs and coax to charge towards (hopefully) the enemy before blowing up.

According to the [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] splat, "Old World Bestiary", squig-meat is perfectly edible by humans and actually very tasty. Spit-roasted squig is described as resembling smoked ham with the consistency of young chicken.

[[Age of Sigmar]] introduces a mythological aspect to their origins with the introduction of Boingob, the godbeast progenitor of all Squigs. This massive creature barreled through the realms in a frenzied pursuit of the light of Hysh (basically the sun), until it finally jumped up and was roasted alive. Now its colossal skeleton serves as a holy place/impenetrable lurk lair to the Moonclan Grots.

Squigs can be bred into a vast variety of forms and functions. The most famous of these is arguably the monstrous [[Squiggoth]] which provide a similar sort of heavy infantry to a war elephant. Other, more obscure types include (but by no means limited to) Bag Squigs, Bomb Squigs, Eating Squig, Gas Squigs, Hair Squigs, Oily Squigs, Paint Squigs, Squig Sharks, Squig Hawks, and Squigeons all of which can be further explained below. Squigs are basically the apps of Ork society: if you can think of a function, there's a squig for that.

==Squig Varieties==
As mentioned. Squigs come in all sizes and flavors. Here are the documented species of Squigs officially recognized by the Imperium/whatever-institutio-exists-in-AoS.

===Attack Squig===
[[File:AttackSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Attack Squig.]]
The most common and identifiable type of Squig. Whenever someone says Squig, this is the one that pops in everyone's head. The Attack Squig (''Orkus ferocitas''), also known as the Cave Squig, looks like it's trying to compete with the [[Tyranids]] for sheer 'OMNOMNOMNOMNOM' ability, consisting of nothing more than a bouncing ball of claws and razor-sharp teeth. These Squigs, as their name implies, are often used as attack animals, weapons, or pets. They can be given to the [[Grots]] as a food source (if the Squig doesn't eat them first) or even war mounts if said Grot is feeling particularly brave that day.

Sometimes an Attack Squig is transformed into a '''Bomb Squig''' via jamming as much explosive materials into the Squig's mouth (or strapping explosives to their bodies) as possible before setting it loose to fuck up some tanks. These specialized Attack Squigs are often utilized by either Ork Flashgitz or Tankbustas.

<gallery>
File:BombSquig.png|Bomb Squig.
</gallery>

===Bitey Squig===
[[File:Bitey Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bitey Squig]]
Bitey Squigs are a sub-species of Attack Squigs that have sufficient jaws, claws, and stingers to savage the target and anything close by. This breed s frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas. Launched gnashing and snarling into the enemy, they latch onto the first thing they hit and do not stop chewing until they are killed. A bit like the Face-Eating Squig to be honest.

Legends states that the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]] was created due to a [[Just As Planned|'mishap']] when a Bitey Squig or some form of Attack Squig was accidentally stuffed into the launcha and fired into a ''very'' unfortunate Ork’s face and thus, the legend was born.

It seems that the Bitey Squig can be differentiated from the normal Attack Squig by its stronger jaw; this can be seen with its more pronounced jawline which could only be supported with powerful jaw muscles. There are also the aforementioned stingers, which would most likely be located at the tail; unfortunately there isn't any indication that the tail has something like a stinger. Bitey Squigs are also much smaller than the Attack Squig in order to fit inside a Squig Launcha; seeing as how an Attack Squig is often the size of a sheep, it makes sense for the Orks to utilize a much more smaller and mobile version to be used as ammunition.

===Bile Squig===
[[File:Bile_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bile Squig]]

The Bile Squigs come in a variety of breeds and are capable of spraying, squirting, or vomiting harmful fluids from their orifices. This breed of squig is frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas.

Typically launched by the handful, these creatures squeal and thrash while jetting acid, lubricants, poisons, and flammable fluids in every direction. The effects can sometimes be harmless, but other times can cause their victims to burst into flames, explode, or dissolve. Essentially, they are the Orky version of the [[Flamers of Tzeentch]], you never know what you're gonna get.

Bile Squigs seem to have an enlarged earhole or an orifice for which they shoot out their concoction of liquids, it is identified by its very [[Derp|derpy appearance]] and its long tongue which maybe used to lick off any excess liquid it shoots out.
===Bat Squig===
[[File:Bat_squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bat Squig]]

A squig that has bat wings..... That's it..... Look it's just a squig that has bat wings alright it has the typical squig mentality, lives in a cave and can fly the only difference is that IT JUST HAS BAT WINGS. These Bat Squigs descend upon their victims in a flurry of gnashing jaws and spattering guano. It's not got some depressing story in which it lost its parents and now hunts down all everything that isn't greenskin, NO IT'S JUST A SQUIG WITH BAT WINGS, also no legs.



On tabletop, at the start of your shooting phase, you can pick 1 enemy unit within 18" of this model and roll a dice. On a 5+ that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound. This ability cannot be used if the Bat Squig minion has been removed.

<gallery>
File:Bat_squig_in_a_shellnut.JPG
</gallery>

===Boom Squig===
[[File:Boom_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Boom Squig]]

A special sub-species of the 'Splodin Squig.

This breed is squig is frequently fired from [[Squig Launcha]]s and [[Heavy Squig Launcha]]s. Boom Squigs, also known as Mine Squigs due to their shape, are infamous for their defense mechanism of violently exploding at the slightest provocation, typically due to direct physical contact or a loud noise ([[FAIL|or sometimes even their own bouts of indigestion]]).

They detonate with such force that they kill or maim anything unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. These creatures thus make the perfect living ammunition for Orks and are also sometimes used as landmines. They are also favored by Orks as the tools of [[Lulz|practical jokes,]] as nothing will amuse a Speed Freek more than hiding a [[Just As Planned|Boom Squig under the seat of a Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy driver like an explosive whoopee cushion.]]

<gallery>
File:Boom_Squif_Top.JPG
</gallery>

===Bowel-Torrent Squig===
[[File:Bowel_Squig?.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bowel-Torrent Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to only as one of the most "revolting" and "panic-inducing". [[Shitstorm|Given its name it should be very easy to understand why.]] They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time...or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might best describe the Bowel-Torrent Squig the best.

Due to the Squig's... [[Bullshit|unique way of expelling its munitions]], we believe that the small albeit grumpy-looking Squig with the long tail ''may'' be the elusive Bowel-Torrent Squig. Ya know... 'cause it looks similar to that of a pigeon and this thing can 'fly' once it exits out the Squig Launcha. We would let your figure out the rest.

===Bag Squig===
[[File:Bag_Squig_2.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Bag Squig.]]

This type of Squig has a large, gaping mouth and a bag-like body that is almost entirely composed of stomach and nothing else. The stomach coincidentally functions secondarily as a pouch that allows the Squig to survive by slowly digesting food it stores up inside its body, similar to modern Earth animals that survive hibernation by eating a lot of food during the summer. If the Squig is dried out, it can be made into a flask for drinks. If it is tanned like leather, it makes a useful bag or belt pouch.

By far one of the most practical form of Squigs used by the Orks.

<gallery>
Image:Bag_Squig.PNG
</gallery>

===Burna' Squig===
[[File:Burna_Squig_2.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Burna Squig.]]

The Burna' Squig is similar to the 'Sploding Squig. However while the 'Sploding Squig is a biological grenade the Burna' Squig is a biological molotov cocktail. Inside a Burna' Squig consists of multiple chemicals that when mixed, burst into flames rather than exploding. Orks sometime shake their Burna' Squigs to further enhance their fiery potential (Or force them to swallow even MOAR flammable materials such as Promethium) after being thrown-- if it doesn't explode in their face of course.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and don't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers, he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course, these may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

The effects of Burna Squigs are equivalent to other flammable explosives found in the Imperium.

<gallery>
File:Burna_Squig.PNG
</gallery>

===Buzzer Squig===
[[File:Buzzer.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Buzzer Squig.]]
Buzzer Squigs are an insect-like like variation of the Squig typically used by Orks and Gretchins in a [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult,]] as they are very vicious and a swarm can strip the flesh off a man-sized creature within seconds. They are essentially flying piranhas but more aggressive than any piranha.

Buzzer Squigs are found among Ork fungus groves and are trapped in pots by Gretchin. The special pots are made from sun-baked mud, drilled with tiny holes to allow the Squigs inside to breathe. The top of the vessel is corked shut and sealed with more mud once a good number of Squigs have been put inside. Normally the Squigs feed by burrowing into other larger Squigs or small animals such as rats, so when they are captured they soon begin to get very hungry. They can be kept without food in the pot for many weeks, getting angrier and more savage all the time. If the Gretchin is unfortunate in capturing these hornets of doom or accidentally breaks a pot full of these things, then he may end up as their lunch.

Gretchin can tell which pots contain the angriest Squigs from the high pitch of the droning and the vibrations of the pot as the Squigs try to burrow out (the walls of the pot must be made thick and hard). These pots, each containing a small swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, are the missiles fired by the Squig Katapult. The pot cracks open on impact, releasing the swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, who attack anyone nearby. They are great against Imperial Guards, Tau, Kroot, and low level Tyranid forces (cue irony of the [[Lulz|Tyranids getting out-NOMMED in their own game]]). Unfortunately they are quite useless when it comes to MEQs as those claws and fangs aren't going to do much against ceramite and reinforced wraithbone.

Buzzer Squigs can also be found on the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]], although they're far more limited in role due to the presence of other Squig species.

<gallery>
File:Buzzer_Squig_Model.JPG
</gallery>

===Buzzing Squig===
[[File:Buzzing.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Buzzing Squig.]]
Not to be confused with Buzz''er'' Squigs, Buzz''ing'' Squigs have tiny, propeller-like wings on their tails: miniature airscrews that allow them to fly like a biological helicopter. When they contact flesh (which they can smell), they bores in and eat their way straight through the unfortunate target. Upon emerging from the victim, they immediately dive back and bore through again, or set upon another victim. Orks have learned to use these deadly nuisances as weapons.

Gretchin are set to work trapping them for dispersal as swarms around the battlefield. Buzzing Squigs may also be kept in pots and thrown from makeshift catapults like the [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult.]] When the pot containing the Buzzing Squigs cracks, it releases a swirling swarm of these flesh-eating monsters.

In all honesty though, by function there is very little difference between the Buzzer and Buzzing Squigs as they both fulfill the same niche. They only look different enough to warrant their own species.

===Coffin Crawler===
[[File:CoffinCrawlerSquig.png|right|thumb|150px|Coffin Crawler]]
Coffin-Crawlers were an Old-School Tyranid Squig who would consume fresh corpses and grow in bulk until they were ready to return to the [[Norn Queen]], carrying their swollen bodies back to feed her.

Genetic material in the form of captive creatures and corpse scavengers called Coffin-Crawlers is fed into the great maws located at the top of the Norn Queen and synthesised by its genetic shredder organs. The dissembled DNA structures form a gene-bank which provides the raw material from which new creatures called bio-constructs are created. Once a type of bio-construct has been designed more identical creatures can be cloned by the Norn Queens.

Much like the Grabber-Slasher Squig, when Squigs were separated from Tyranids, they were reduced to the status of just being a variety of Big Squig. That, and their role has been replaced by [[Rippers]].

===Gob Squig===
[[File:Gob.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Gob Squig.]]
Gob Squigs are small enough to be put into an Ork's mouth and left there for the rest of the day (or the next few days, if the Ork forgets about it). The Squig cleans the Ork's mouth out by rooting round the teeth and eating the juicy bits of food that are stuck between them. They look like your typical fantasy [[Slime]] with a funny face although your local Commissar would suggest not petting one as they are known to bite. They are essentially an Ork's version of a toothbrush but more effective and cost-productive

The '''Chewin' Squig''' is another variant of the Gob Squig. An Ork can pop this sort of Squig into his mouth and chew on it while he sits and thinks (or sits and enjoys not thinking), basically Orky chewing gum. How the Squig could survive being munched by an Ork is a feat unknown by Imperial Xenologists.

===Great Cave Squig===
[[File:99800209017_GoblinWarbossCaveSquigNEW01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Great Cave Squig]]
Think a regular Attack Squig given steroids. A Great Cave Squig is simply a larger variant of the more common Cave Squig that has grown to such a magnificent size that it has become as large as an Imperial warhorse. This Squig sub-species is the second largest of the non-Squiggoth family, with only the Colossal Squig surpassing it in both size and weight. Its large mouth is filled with teeth the size of swords and sabres and their appetite as ravenous as their smaller counterparts. These things are solitary predators that like to [[Get shit done|get shit done by themselves.]]

Because of their large size, the Great Cave Squig makes excellent cavalry for Night Goblins. However, their aggressive behavior makes it difficult to tame effectively. The process of [[Rape|breaking in]] a Great Cave Squig would cost the lives of many Night Goblins, but once the beast learns to accept a rider, they serve as a more stable mount than the smaller and more unruly Cave Squig. Although they are costly to maintain, eating over twice their own body weight daily, a Night Goblin Warboss would do almost anything to keep such a magnificent asset in the hands of his tribe.

Since they're so difficult to tame, often times Goblins don't even bother doing so, instead just chaining two Great Cave Squigs together, pointing them vaguely in the direction of the enemy and setting them loose, resulting in the infamous Mangler Squigs. The Squigs drag and pull each-other across the battlefield, resulting in them essentially becoming living wrecking balls. In Age of Sigmar, some particularly insane Loonbosses use a pair of Mangler Squigs as a mount, usually if they're leading a Squigalanche warband.

On the even rarer occasions when a Great Cave Squig continuous to grow exponentially, they would grow to such a monstrous size that they are once again categorized into another even larger variant called simple as the Colossal Squig (As seen below).

<gallery>
Image:GreatCave Squig.png|NYUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!
</gallery>

===Colossal Squig===
[[File:CollossalSquig.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Colossal Squig.]]
Think an Great Cave Squig on steroids and having a mouth and stomach that could rival a [[Haruspex]] and the [[Mawloc|Mawloc]] in a eating competition. The Colossal Squigs are the largest variants of Squigs known to exist short of Squiggoths.

These frequently six-eyed monsters boast an insatiable appetite, and are in essence no more than an impossibly vast fleshy maw studded with row upon row of scimitar-bladed teeth. The only way they get into battle is by finding some Orks and just moving in with them.

The Colossal Squig is often used as a giant living battering ram, bashing and splintering anything smaller than the Squig into a fine paste. Of course the presence of the Squiggoth kind of placed the status of the Colossal Squig in question. Nevertheless, they still have the capability of eating entire Space Marines whole let alone normal Guardsmen, granting some laughs by the local Boyz if the Squig doesn't eat them first.

Of special note is a small change to this subtype of Squig in [[Age of Sigmar]] - When a Colossal Squig dies, it blows up into a bunch of smaller Cave Squigs! ... Nature running its course?...

===Cape Squig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Capesquigs10vh-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Cape Squig]]

These cute little Squigs are there to make you feel just a tad bit more important.

A Squig found only in [[Age of Sigmar]]. A presumably regal and dignified breed of squig, these little beasties help Skragrott keep his magnificent cape off the floor. Or maybe they’re trying to eat it. Probably both…

Anyways, these Squigs are quite sought after since they have a... distinct head shape of the Greenskin's moon, which makes it downright flash. Why their heads are shaped like that is anyone's guess (selective breeding?). Skragrott, the Loonking himself, is the self-styled overlord of the Gloomspite Gitz (AKA Night Goblins, trademarked). His sinister presence upon the field of battle ensures his fellow grots fight with greater spite and cunning than ever.

On tabletop, these little beasties are there for decorative purposes in order to make Skragrott look more important than he really is. Seriously you think they would provide anything of substance in the actual game?

===Dice Squig===
[[File:DiceSquigs.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Dice Squig]]
Famed for their bounciness, the rare and elusive Dice Squigs have been known to be used by particularly kunnin’ Grot Loonbosses in games of tactics and chance. They are usually given out in an event of a mass brawl, with [[Grot]]s assembling bets on would emerge the victor.

These small, eyeless, limbless blobs of flesh have very little use other than your usual Ork gamblin', however, a wise Greenskin must still be cautious when handling these things as they still have a mouth that may bite your fingers off.

Currently, most Dice Squigs have different yellow splotches on each side save for the face, which is an obvious analogue to the actual numbers system of an actual dice. Also represented as an actual limited edition squig-dice for sale by Games Workshop.

{{Clear}}

===Eating Squig===
[[File:EatingSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Eating Squig.]]
An Eating Squig (also known as Grubs or ''Orkus consumit'') is a limbless blob used as the primary Ork food source. It resembles an elongated, squarish slug with two eyes and a small pug mouth (like a cross between a blob fish and uncanned SPAM). Orks usually prefer them cooked, but they can be eaten raw as well. Gretchin are quite adept in cooking them and have a number of methods including kebabing, marinating in fungus wine, stuffed with fungus and herbs, roasted on a spit, deep fried with fungus chips, or griddled over a campfire. Who knew the Ork race had such a flair for culinary skills? Again Commissars would suggest not petting one no matter how pug-cute it looks, although suggesting to eat one for emergency rationing is fine for them.

With the fast reproduction on all Orkoid lifeforms, it is unknown why the [[Imperium of Man]] still haven't decided on capturing one of these Squigs and then mass producing them which would stop Galactic world hunger that plagues some of the Imperial Worlds (and no, [[Grox|not because of heresy]]). Maybe they are already looking into it, but with how slow the IoM usually is it may take decades to even centuries for it to be finalized and distributed in the entire Galaxy. Or it might have something to do with the fact that they're creature from the orkoid genus, so they release spores everywhere that can grow into the more dangerous parts of the genus including actual orks.

If the Eating Squig is the Duck/Chicken of an Ork culinary experience, then the '''Juicy Squig''' is the foie gras of Ork cuisine. The Juicy Squig is a very rare and delicious type of Eating Squig that may perhaps be the only known Ork delicacy. This Squig lives at the very bottom of an Ork fungal drop, and are not only rare, but difficult to find and bring up from the depths. Since these Squigs are seldom caught by the Gretchin and Snotlings, they often grow quite large and become even tastier as they get older.

In Age of Sigmar, there is also type of swamp-dwelling squig in the Mortal Realms called the '''Slobbersquig''', mentioned in the second edition Orruk Warclans Battletome as being part of the regular diet consumed by the Kruleboyz, alongside bog toads, swamp hoppers, cold crawfish, spine-ridged mud worms, and human flesh. Compared to the rest of the food on this list, it could be conjectured the Slobbersquig is a sluglike, unappealing Eatin' Squig that drools constantly and lives in swamp muck instead of the bottom of the greenskin drops.
<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-trader.jpg|Lovely indeed.
</gallery>

===Guard Squig===
[[File:Guard_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Guard Squig.]]
Ork Kaptins have been breeding a form of Squig known as a Guard Squig, or Squig Hound to some. They're Orky Guard Dogs. These creatures have all the ferocity of an Attack Squig, but are bred to be utterly loyal to their masters. When alone or not in battle, Squig Hounds are usually seen sleeping on their post or lying on their master's lap. Guard Squigs are often seen as a step up above the normal Attack Squig due to their aforementioned loyalty.

Guard Squigs are not to be confused with the Herd Squig whose nickname also bears the name Squighound or the [[Derp|actual Squighound themselves.]] Why GeeDubs thought repeating the name of three different species is a good idea is a mystery.

Is it though? These are Orks we’re talking about. Considering the rather direct (and often short) manner with which Orks approach life, it’s hardly a surprise they’d have one name for several breeds of Squigs. One Ork may name a particular breed of Squig "Bitey" for biting a lot, only to have his head bit off by said Squig, prompting the next Ork to confirm that it is indeed a Bitey Squig, while somewhere else in the mob the same little drama is occurring with an entirely different breed of biting Squig with identical results. Orks are pragmatic...in their way.

===Targeting Squig===
[[File:Targeting-squig-art.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Targeting Squig.]]
A unusual type of Squig, Targeting Squigs (''Orkus scopum'') are weird creatures with a single targeting eye that serve as biological equivalents of Gitfindas used by Flash Gitz. Sometimes their pupils are even shaped into a cross-hair.

How the Squig communicates with the Flash Gitz is unknown. Although certain unique sounds or barks could be help the Ork to signal that there may be ample prey around. That or it could flash different colors or release certain pheromones that only Orkoid species can detect.

On tabletop there is very little difference between the Squig and regular Gitfindas other then the cosmetic change. They're cool-looking models though!

<gallery>
File:Targeting-squig.png
File:Last-wall-squig.jpg
</gallery>

===Face-Eater Squig===
[[File:Face Eater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Face-Eater Squig.]]
Humans have binge eating contests and the Orks too have their own variety. Of course in this case the food has the potential of eating your face off. Here is where the Face-Eater Squigs come into play. The Face-Eater Squig is a toothed variety of Squig used both as a weapon and in the infamous Ork face-eating contests.

These Squigs, also known as "Gnashers" or "Gnasher Squigs," are a vicious mass of sharp teeth and claws. In their active state they appear to be just a gnashing mouth and very little else, though they look much like any other Eatin' Squig when they are at rest. Because of their violent nature, Gnashers provide the Orks with endless entertainment, and Squig-eating is one of the Orks' favorite pastimes. The Ork and the Squig both open their mouths and bite, in a parody of a kiss. If the Ork eats the Squig, he wins. If he keels over backwards, he loses.

Some Painboys made attempts to use Gnashers to amputate a patient's limbs, but these attempts weren't very successful as they tended to bite off orderlies' arms or even the Dok's fingers. Face-Eaters are often used as an attack squig. This organism is known to Imperium biologists as Orkus ravenati.

<gallery>
File:GnasherSquig.jpg|Nasty little fuckers.
</gallery>

===Flesheater Squig===
[[File:Flesheater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Flesheater Squig.]]
In order to increase their wealth, some Orks breed large, ferocious beasts known as Flesheaters. The Flesheater looks like a furry, Orky crocodile, with a great, gaping mouth full of rows of sharp fangs that are similar to an Ork's [[Teef]]. Flesheaters continually shed and replace their teeth, and all the Orks have to do to collect this wealth is send a Gretchin to collect the teeth; they, of course, aren't overly keen on this duty.

Like Ork teeth, Flesheater teeth also deteriorate after a few years. Flesheaters are extremely long-lived, but rarely breed in captivity, making them even more valuable. Most Orks who own Flesheaters are either already Nobz, or become Nobz on account of the wealth derived from owning these Squigs. Not surprisingly, impoverished Orks sometimes attempt to steal a Flesheater, or even raid rival settlements to capture them.

They are literally a mobile money-making machine - who says money can't grow on <s>trees</s> animals?

===Gas Squig===
[[File:GasSquigs.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Gas Squig.]]

It is a Squig that literally has a [[Lulz|killer fart.]]

The Gas Squig produces a gas so toxic that Orks with gas masks throw this Squig in combat, using the Squig itself as a chemical weapon. Besides their use as a one-time explosive, the Ork can just let the Squig run loose in the battlefield, spreading as much chaos as possible as these nasty little runts can cover an entire field in a bath of toxic miasma and corrosive chemicals.

It is unknown what type of chemicals allow the Gas Squig to unleash a untold volume of lethal farts. High levels of methane or magic/warp-related bullshit is the only potential answer.

They are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

According to the illustration of Warhammer Online, Gas Squigs look like normal Attack Squigs but with hole-like projections that constantly spew out the toxic materials like chimneys.

===Grabber-Slasher Squig===
[[File:Grabberslasher.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Grabber-Slasher/Big Squig]]

These guys originated way back in older editions of Warhammer, when Squigs were the result of Tyranids consuming Orkoid biomass instead of being fungoid kin. The Grabber-Slasher is a form of large ambush Squig that prefers to lurk in ducts and either grab prey with its massive arm and drag it away to devour, or hump-slash it with its big crotch-spike.

As one can imagine from things ''that'' early on, they look like fucking abominations out of a Cronenberg film. Seriously, that giant clawed hand on top of its head does not help. They also apparently have a chameleonic ability to change their skin colour and texture to hide better in crevices and ducts. But again, with that giant hand and [[/d/|horned dick,]] the idea of it being chameleonic should be taken with some salt. Even worse is the fact that the Tyranid Hive Mind used it as a prototype to the Lictor in early editions, using it to assassinate those who threatened the plans of the Tyranids. Imagine the shame and humiliation of being killed by something as fugly as THAT!

When Squigs were later retconned into being always a part of the Orkoid Fungus Biosphere, the Grabber-Slasher was retconned into being just a [[Derp|"Big Squig"]], which is honestly, quite disappointingly generic.

===Hair Squig===
[[File:Hairy.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hair Squig.]]
Do you want to know how and where the Orks get their hairy ponytails from? The answer is obviously simple: they use Squigs to do the job, due to Orks being naturally hairless. Hair Squigs are a parasitic variety of Squig which possess small bodies, no legs, no eyes, and a pair of pincers in place of a mouth.

They have long hair running from their tiny bodies that Orks like to customize and dye after clamping the Squig's pincers onto their own hairless heads; this customization has no effect on the Squig's health.

One particular variety of Hair Squig is known as a '''Chin Squig'''. These creatures feature a long thin body with claws and hair all over it and serve as the equivalent of a beard. They are also known to be a sign of age and status among Orks.

<gallery>
File:Hair Squig.jpg
File:Chin_Squig.jpg|Chin Squig.
</gallery>

===Limpin Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SquigBall1jvrh.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Limpin Squig or a turkey drumstick, you make the call.]]

[[Lolwut|A Squig football/handegg. It makes sense in context.]]

Technically, this squig is from [[Blood Bowl]] rather than the [[Age of Sigmar|Mortal Realms (AKA Age of Sigmar)]], but its existence is so hilariously dumb it might as well be part of the Squig family. Also known as the Squigball, Orc teams are known for using Squigs as balls, shearing one leg off so it can’t run away. Sometimes, they just find a particularly bulbous Squig and then literally kick its ass.

These Squigs must be extremely durable, squishy and bouncy. The best Limpin' Squigs have flesh that is extremely flexible, sturdy bones to survive repeated impacts and kicks, a skin firm enough to be held onto for long periods of time, an attitude that makes sure it doesn't ends up biting its holder in the middle of some intense Blood Bowl, and just the right enough shape to bounce to its trajectory.

It is not known is they exist in 40k or AoS, although seeing as how Orks/Orcs are stereotypical British hooligans, we wouldn't be surprised if they did.

===Mendin' Squig===
[[File:Squig-hairy-medical.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Mendin' Squig.]]
Mendin' Squigs, or more commonly (and annoyingly) called Hairy Squigs (again not to be confused with Hair Squigs much to the Xenobiologist's constant frustration), are a type of medicinal Squig. Hairy/Mendin' Squigs are used by Painboyz as sutures. The Painboy simply applies it to the open wound, which it holds closed with its tiny, needle-like teeth. The Painboy then twists its tail off, leaving the head embedded in the flesh, repeating the process until the wound is "riveted up." The Mendin' Squig feeds off blood oozing from the wound, thus keeping it clean and free from infection. By the time it shrivels and drops off, the wound has usually healed.

This form of medical technique is actually quite closer to reality than you'd think. Some South American and African tribes use particularly large bulldog ants to act as crude sutures. They just grab the ants and allow the powerful jaws to snap shut on the wound and like the Mendin' Squigs they then twist its body off, leaving only the head which is still in contact with the wound until it shrivels and falls off once fully healed.

===Herd Squig===
[[File:HerdSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Herd Squig.]]
Herd Squigs have been specially bred and developed by Runtherds for the purpose of herding and controlling the herds of Runtz. They are related to the many varieties of pet Squigs, but have been selectively bred for their speed, intelligence, ferocity and endurance.

Their long, sensitive snouts and keen ears enable them to track down errant Snotlings and Gretchin wherever they might hide. Herd Squigs are excellent tracking beasts, and can follow trails which are days old.

They are also called Squighounds, which as you already know, [[Herp|should not be confused with the Guard Squig who already bears that nickname or the actual Squighounds themselves.]]

They look like pigs but more Orky.

===Hoppa Fungus===
[[File:DKI3T3c3fv3xNy92.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hoppa Fungus]]
A Hoppa Fungus or Fun-Hoppas, are a type of Squig that skirts the line between Orkoid Mushroom and Squig, from the Snotling Blood Bowl set. They are small, round, lumpy "mushrooms" with a cartoony, squiggy face on their front. There are two sizes of them, one for throwing like a living rock and another for riding like a moon hopper, even more so than normal squigs as these ones lack legs.

How they managed to hop around without a leg, we are not too sure, although more technical elegan/tg/entelmen had assumed that they use their entire body mass as one giant muscle like a snake, to propel themselves for locomotion.

They seem overall, pretty harmless as far as Squigs go, given that they don't seem to routinely eat their riders or throwers. But boy do these giant grey meatballs look like they came out of a Loony Tunes cartoon.

<Gallery>
Hopper_Fungus.JPG
</gallery>

===Horned Squig===
[[File:HornedSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Horned Squig.]]
<s>A Squig that's [[/d/|''so Horny!'']]</s> {{Blam}}

The Horned Squig is a Squig gifted with long, sharp horns stretching from its head that Orks often jam into barricades to serve as living obstacles or act as a moving and mobile battering ram for siege warfare. They act like bulls and if used against troops, often ram their horns into some poor unfortunate sod in a relentless, charging stampede. They have a brighter red color scheme than Cave Squigs.

If the Horned Squig is disabled, then the Ork can simply just strap the Squig on its forearm and use it as a living weapon. The Orks are anything but wasteful and is capable of using anything, even other living organisms, to its 'full' potential.

Like the Gas Squigs they are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

===Mimic===
[[File:Squig_Mimic.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Mimic.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>CA-CAW! OI GITZ GET MOVIN UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO TELL DA BOSS ON WHO IS MUCKIN' ABOUT!</span>

A particularly popular type of pet Squig is known as the Mimic. As you imagine, they are Ork parrots. This Squig has a large and toothy beak-like mouth (it also apparently has feathers) and is vaguely parrot-like in both appearance and function.

Mimics can be seen perched on the shoulders of many an old and haggard Ork, usually from the [[Freebooterz]] to keep the pirate theme, squawking expletives and insults at Greenskin passersby. Kaptins have a endearing affection for these little creatures and their ability to shout and swear at larger and more opposing Orks is often seen as a humorous delight to the Kaptin. Woe to any Ork who accidentally swats one of these creatures out of annoyance. [[FATAL|The chance of getting your head wired to a Big Lobba by a pissed off Kaptin? Too high.]]

===Oily Squig===
[[File:Grot_Oiler.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Oily Squig.]]
The Oily Squig is a variety of Squig bred by Ork Meks to create fuel for the Orks' ramshackle vehicles. They create the fuel, an organically-synthesized version of Promethium, in their rotund bellies, and it can be squeezed out of their anteater-like trunks. These Squigs have no mouths, other than their trunk, and are not combat-oriented like their far more aggressive counterparts.

The most efficient way of extracting the oil from the creatures is to use a large pressing machine, although more primitive methods, such as having gretchin to jump up and down on them are also widely used. Orks prepare the barrels of the squig oil in advance and take those with them when they go on campaigns.

There exist two varieties of Oily Squigs: one with arms and a distinct head, and one that resembles an Attack Squig with a trunk for dispensing their fuel oil.

<gallery>
File:Squig-oily.jpg
File:7e-grotoiler.jpg
</gallery>

===Paint Squig===
[[File:PaintSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Paint Squig.]]
Orks can be creative artists too! This small, vividly colored Squig excretes powerful dyes that are used as warpaint. These paints are also used by Gretchin artists as pigments for wall paintings and decorative banners.

Many Paint Squigs have tufts of hair on their trails, which allows the artist to use the Squig as both a brush and tube of paint simultaneously. The shells of Edible Squigs are also used by Gretchin artists as paint pots and palettes.

===Parasite-Hunting Squig===
[[File:Parasite-Hunter.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Parasite-Hunting Squig.]]
Parasite-Hunting Squigs are tiny but voracious feeders used to clear an Ork's body and clothes of parasites. An Ork simply drops a handful of these Squigs into his clothing and lets them crawl around. They look like Orkified spiders, which can give arachnophobes nightmares but the Orks don't give a zog.

The Squigs prey on lice, ticks and other vermin the Ork may have acquired in the course of his many unsavoury habits. When the engorged Parasite-Hunting squigs drop out of the Ork's clothing, the Ork simply gathers them up and pops them into his mouth for a juicy snack.

===Rat Squig===
[[File:RatSquig.jpg]]
[[File:Rat_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Rat Squig]]
A unholy abomination spawned from [[Skaven]] science (is anybody surprised?).

The Rat Squig is a species of Squig created by Clan Moulder by fusing rat or skaven meat with Squigs, creating a form of furry, rat-faced squig with scaly patches of leathery skin, and the ability of regeneration. They apparently also have bloodlust, even in comparison to normal squigs.

They commonly do not have flat backs like Skarl, the Rat Squig in the illustration above, who is also outfitted with a specially-made saddle able to carry his Grey Seer master, Farquan (also in the illustration). It is unknown if Farquan is the member of Clan Moulder responsible for creating the original Rat Squigs, or just his mount Skarl. Now whether they breed via spores like a normal Squig, we have no idea as the fluff doesn't really go that much into it.

There is a mod in Total War: Warhammer called [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2746640530 Elon's Rat Squigs] where these creatures were implemented in. Most of the images came from this mod.

<gallery>
Rat_Squig_Mod.JPG
</gallery>

===Scorpisquig===
[[File:Spiker_M01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Scorpisquig tail.]]
Scorpisquig Stingers are used by Gloomspite Gitz Gobbapalooza Spiker Shamans on the end of their Stikkas for stabbing things with poison. Not much is known about them, and we mean it ''literally''. Seriously, the only thing shown of them is the barbed-end of their stinger tail.

Whatever it is, we can assume that the Scorpisquig is a much sought-after source of Squigs that these goblins hunt, as even after their stingers are lobbed off from their bodies, they still retain enough venom to be an effective and dangerous weapon.

Curiously enough, the goblin who carries such a weapon are incredibly mutated, sprouting extra limbs and eyes that mimics that of the Scorpisquig (we assume). Like seriously, these guys are severely fucked up, so one wonders what kind of warp fuckery they were dabbling in; perhaps, in an ironic twist, these guys may actually slowly transform into a Scorpisquig itself after (Assumingly) consuming its flesh. Whatever the case, the Scorpisquig wielders are not to be fucked with.

{{Clear}}

===Screech Squig===
[[File:Screech_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Screech Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to as having [[Sonic Weaponry|oversized lungs that allow it to make an extremely loud screech.]] Screech Squigs disorient, incapacitate and/or make the enemy's eardrums burst with one of the most horrid sounds possible (We in /tg/ imagines it as mixing the cries of an infant that has sand paper in its throat with that of fingernails scratching the surface of a chalkboard). They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time... or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might be the Screech Squig. Due to the fact that it is nothing more than a living Sonic Weapon, the Screech Squig needs both a big mouth and a wide barrelled body to encompass its huge lungs; unfortunately, most Squigs have a big mouth and a wide body. Likewise, we hypothesize that the Screech Squig might be in fact, the big Squig we see inside of the Heavy Squig Launcha, due to the fact that its mouth is close relatively shut and will only open once fired from the Launcha. You wouldn't want your Boyz to go all bleeding in their noggins because they failed to pacify that thing, right?

A similarly themed and named Squig exists in Age of Sigmar called the '''Syari Screamersquig'''. A rare albino beast that loathes any form of light, and reacts to it with ear shattering screams. Unfortunately for it, it’s native to the Syari region of the Realm of Light. It’s been hunted to near extinction by the Lumineth Realm-Lords and is prized by many Grot Loonbosses for its screaming powers.

===Snufflesquig===
[[File:Snufflesquig.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Snufflesquig]]

Squig truffle pigs but more [[Derp|derpy in appearances.]]

Snufflesquigs are little more than massive noses and snapping mouths with wiry little legs that can be trained by Sneaky Snufflers to identify Looncaps, a type of mushroom that grows from the light of the Bad Moon, from others that induce effects such as vomit slime, break out in luminous yellow spots, babble uncontrollably or even burst into flames. When the Bad Moon approaches these unique squigs begin to howl with raised snouts.

Like truffle pigs, Snufflesquigs have a tendency to eat these shrooms if not carefully attended.

May be a reference to Snuffler Orcs, a breed of Orc from Middle Earth described as small, black, and huge nosed, used for tracking victims.

===Smasha Squig===
[[File:LAEMX6Acaz90SDmn.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Smasha Squig]]
A cousin to the [[Squighog]], the Smasha Squig is basically an orkified [[Dinosaur|Pachycephalosaurus]].

Smashas are usually ridden by [[Nob]]s from the [[Beast Snagga]] sub-kulture, where they are often found leading mobs of [[Squighog Boy]]z into battle. The Smasha Squig itself is bipedal, running on two legs rather than four. It is also larger, tougher, and even more ferocious than your regular old [[squighog|Squig Bacon]]. Any Nob who has managed to beat a Smasha Squig into submission is ''not'' an Ork to be trifled with.

Once "tamed," a heavy armor plate is bolted to the Smasha Squig's skull. This is not done to protect the squig, for among its kind it is already noted for having an exceptionally thick skull encasing an exceptionally tiny (and shock-resistant) brain. Rather, the plate enhances the beast's natural head-butting tendencies so that the Smasha truly becomes a living, snarling wrecking ball.

On the tabletop, the Smasha Squig complements the Nob rider who is already a beast (pun intended) in close combat. Crunchwise, this oversized fungal dinosaur grants additional attacks with its jaws and its Smasha 'Ead has a chance to deal up to [[rape|five mortal wounds]] after a charge or heroic intervention. Finally, the rider is equipped with a Big Choppa and a slugga, and with T6 and 5 wounds the model is just as hard to kill as you'd expect.
{{Clear}}

===Spiky Squig===
[[File:Spiky.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spiky Squig.]]
Spiky Squigs look like a living ball covered with spines which, as an instinctive reaction when agitated, can shoot out at any threatening creature rather like porcupines were once thought to do. These spines inflict a poisonous sting on anyone struck by them, though the effect of the poison on Orkish flesh is not as drastic as it is on other races due to the similar biology of all Orkoid races. Squigs of this kind are used in some bionik arms fitted with cages and a quick release system, so they can be used as a close combat weapon like a living Morning Star.

Spiky Squigs move via rolling around like a ball; however when it comes to hunting food, it propels itself at high speed before launching into the unsuspecting prey, launching its poisonous spines and letting it run its course. This unusual hunting method has been seen by xenobiologists as bizarre and weird.

===Spiteshroom===
[[Image: Spiteshroom.png|150px|right|thumb|Spiteshroom]]

A creature that blurs the line between Squig and Fungus, much like Hoppa Fungus. Spiteshrooms are fungal creatures that inhabit the dark and damp caves favoured by Dankhold Troggoths. They emit an incessant high-pitched shrieks and shrill idiot ditties that distracts even the most veteran warriors. The fungal clouds they release can rot flesh from bone. They are favored as familiars of Madcap Shamans.

Due to the fact that they seemed locked into ground like actual mushrooms, Spiteshrooms are immobile like the larger Stalagsquig.

<gallery>
Spiteshroom_and_Stalagsquig.JPG|With a Stalagsquig in a ''literal'' face off.
</gallery>

==='Sploding Squig===
[[File:Splodin_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|'Sploding Squig.]]
A biological grenade used by the Orks if they run out of stikkbombs. 'Sploding Squigs possess multiple stomachs, each containing a thick broth of unstable digestive chemicals. Some 'Sploding Squigs are covered in spines which may act as fragmentation when it explodes.

When agitated, usually though violent shaking, the 'Sploding Squig's digestive juices combine into a combustible liquid, causing the Squig to explode in a shower of meat, teeth, and bone fragments. While typically thrown in combat, 'Sploding Squigs are also often buried and used as mines. Orks are known to force-feed 'Sploding Squigs a meal of scrap metal before battle in an effort to enhance their lethality.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and doesn't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course this may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

However, the widespread use of regular Bomb Squigs has lessened the value of 'Sploding Squigs. No need to wait around for a specialized and uncommon Squig to mature when the most common type of Squig (plus explosives) already fulfill their purpose.

===Spore Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SporeSquig3mteg.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spore Squig]]

[[Drug|A Squig to huff some shrooms and get high.]]

A walking LSD projector. These little squigs are used defensively by Fungoid Cave-Shamans, who need but stamp on one to release an obscuring cloud of spores. The Fungoid Cave-Shamans themselves are the lepers of Goblinkind. Found only in [[Age of Sigmar]], the mushroom-gobbling grot maniacs known as Cave-Shamans are obviously not right in the head.

To these greenskinned nutters, to get lost in a brain-mangling vision is to grow closer to the side of Gorkamorka that epitomises cunning and trickiness over brute strength, which is the side that all grots like the best.

The Spore Squig is nothing more than a living, breathing hookah for the greenskin to sniff some grade-A meth and can, on command, release said spores towards its enemies to make them just as high as the Squig's personnel caretakers.

Moral of the story, don't do drugs kiddos, especially on the battlefield.

===Squigadon===
[[File:Squigadon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigadon.]]
A form of Squig larger than a Great Cave Squig but smaller than a Giant Squig. Maybe a smaller [[Squiggoth]].

First appeared in White Dwarf utilized by Hobgoblins. The creator of this monster was Nick Bayton who literally used a Large Squiggoth from Forgeworld and converted it into a unit for Fantasy by using the [[Lizardmen|Stegadon]] rules in battle. Whilst it may look big, don't let it fool you. Perspective is deceptive and whilst hobgoblins may view it as huge, you should take note that hobgoblins are like half the height of a human, so that Squigadon would be slightly bigger than a rhino.

Seeing as how the Squigadon is literally a converted [[Squiggoth]], whether it would be considered another demonym for a Squiggoth or an entirely different subspecies is unknown. Moreover, how 'canon' this Squig is, we have no clue since it only appeared in ''one'' issue of White Dwarf and that's it. We don't even have any of the barest hints of fluff. So your guesses on its validity are as good as ours.
<gallery>
W8ox5l0jxaua.jpg|As it appeared in White Dwarf.
</gallery>

===[[Squiggoth]]===
The largest of all squig species, have their own page.

===Squigeon===
[[File:Squigeon3.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigeon.]]

Squigeons (''Orkus aerium'') are the Squig counterparts of the Terran pigeon or columbidae if you are feeling fancy, often utilized for sending messages during battle amongst Ork tribes that lack more advanced methods of communication. Although they are sometimes hunted by the dreaded Squighawk or used as target practice by Stormboyz.

[[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-|They are the cutest little orkspawn your will ever get the chance of meeting.]] Unfortunately, due to GeeDubs incompetence, we never ever get to see them further fleshed out in fluff. This time the Commissar would be fine with you petting a Squigeon.

<gallery>
File:Squigeon.jpg
</gallery>

===Squighawk===
[[File:SquigHawk.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squighawk.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:200%'>'''BA-CAAAWK! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!'''</span>

Think of a Orkified Pterodactyl. Squighawks are a wild, flying species of Squig that are large enough to eat Orks. Thus, they are ECKS BAWKS HUEG.

Unfortunately, they are often too difficult to be trained (could be because the Squighawk view Orks as prey too) and are as such are rarely used by Ork Runtherdz-- which is saying something considering the Orks manage to successfully tame the much larger Squiggoth.

Still, it would be cool if we actually got to use these <s>Dinosaurs</s> flying reptiles on the tabletop. Chances are these things could potentially reach a size to rival some larger Tyranid flying strains such as the [[Harpy]].

===Squig-Hog===
[[File:Beast Snaggas.jpeg|200px|right|thumb|Squig-Hog]]
[[Boarboyz]] haven't been mentioned in core Ork fluff for quite some time. While they were cool in their own way, it didn't really ever make sense for Orks to be riding Earth animals in the first place. Well, as of 9th Edition it seems that Boarboyz have been retconned and/or [[squatted]] for good, because [[Squighog Boy]]s have now been introduced as a far more [[awesome]] type of Ork heavy cavalry. Squig Hogs are tougher, larger, and far more dangerous than other types of cavalry such as a horse or warboar, and they can eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouths (including the rider, if he fails to keep his mount in line). However, the horse still has a modest speed advantage.

[[Beast Snagga]]s use them as cavalry like the Imperium's [[Rough Riders]] and they are ''thicc'' enough that a [[Gretchin]] can hop on as well. Snaggas who ride these guys are called [[Squighog Boy]]z. While Squighog Boyz can belong to any Klan, they are presumably most common among the [[Snakebites]].

Crunchwise, Squighogs have a pretty nasty bite of S6, AP-1 and D2, meaning you should be able to dispatch the now tough-to-kill [[Primaris Space Marines]] as well as other MEQs and GEQs consistently. What you want from it however, is the fact that these walking fungal bacons are allowed 2 additional attacks every time the unit fights. Combined with the additional weapons from the Ork himself and you get a nasty cavalry unit.
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===Squighound===
[[File:Squighound.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Squighound.]]
Squighounds (''Orkus canis''), commonly known as "Growlers," are a variation of the Attack Squig, used by Ork Slaverz to help them keep the Gretchins and slaves from other races in line. Most have four legs, although two-legged varieties certainly exist. "Growlers" are also often kept as a form of pet by other Orks, as they are roughly the size of a small dog, hairy, and particularly vicious.

A Pet Squig often scurries about behind its master, barely under his control, giving its owner no end of amusement and laughs [[Troll|especially when the Squig snaps at the ankles of another Ork.]]

They are not to be confused with the Guard Squig or Herd Squig who are also [[Derp|referred to as 'Squighound'.]]

===Squigosaur===
[[File:Squigosaur_2.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigosaur]]
The Squigosaur are large two-legged squigs that [[Beast Snagga]]s ride upon. They are similar in appearance to the Smasha Squig, but whilst the Smasha Squig is an Orky Pachycephalosaurus, the Squigasaur is the Allosaurus of the family.

The most famous of these is the Big Chompa, otherwise known as '''The Great White Squig''' (AKA the Great White Shark on legs or "I can't believe it's another Moby Dick reference!"), a legendary alpha Squigasaur regarded as the most belligerent, vicious, and savage of its kind. It was responsible for a breathtaking number of missing Boyz and thought to be utterly untameable-- that is, until Beast Snagga Mozrog Skragbad appeared with all his chad energy and proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of it for three days until it complied.

Although he has tamed the Squigosaur, it will revert to its original destructive nature when he is not nearby. In order to keep Big Chompa in line, the long-suffering Skragbad is forced to keep himself at its side and the two are rarely seen apart.

On the tabletop, the Squigosaur's jaws works lethally well with a mounted [[Beastboss]]; three extra attacks which can practically gobble up [[Terminator]]s - especially if you roll a 6 to hit and score 3 mortal wounds.
<gallery>
Squigosaur.JPG|The Great White Squig
HxDM6t0oZyXjrBtR.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}

===Squigpipe===
[[File:Pipe.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigpipe.]]
Just to further hone the Scottish stereotype within the Orks (prejudice much, GeeDubs?), this special type of Squig is used by the Orks as a musical instrument. Several tube-like proboscises emerge from this Squig's bag-like body.

The Musical Squig can be tucked under one arm and inflated by blowing down one proboscis. Then, by squeezing the Squig, weird and terrifying sounds can be made through the creature's other proboscis pipes. This turns the Squig into a musical instrument, much like the bagpipes, but a thousand times more cacophonous. Orks like to go into battle accompanied by this Squig much to the detriment of their enemies.

<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-playing.jpg
</gallery>

===Squigshark===
[[File:SquigShark.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigshark.]]
Orks as Jaws. Squigsharks are the Squig counterparts of Terran sharks that inhabit Ork-infested worlds. And no they are not huggable; your local Commissar definitely urges you to '''''NOT''''' pet one out of safety and preventing potential stupidity.

They are known to be very dangerous beasts and many Ork sailors trying to cosplay as Moby Dick end their lives as a food for Squigsharks. Whenever one appears, it is obligatory to play the signature Jaws music. They are by far the top oceanic predator of any Ork World.

YOU. HAVE. BEEN. WARNED.

<gallery>
Deff_Skwadron_Squig-Shark-2.jpg|Dun dun...dun dun...dun dun dun dun dun....
</gallery>

===Snake-Squig===
[[File:Snake-Squigs.jpg|170px|right|thumb|Snake-Squig]]
The Snake-Squig is a very little known species of Squig only shown as an illustration with a [[Snake Bites]] [[Weirdboy]] of said Snake-Squig constricting the Odd Boy like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Speaking of Temple of Doom, it is quite possible that a Weirdboy uses his psychic mumbo-jumbo to control them like a snake charmer controls a snake. Of course, what the Weirdboy actually ''does'' with the snakes, we have no idea, as they are just there to make him look cool.

In terms of its ecology, the Snake-Squig should share the same niche and behaviour as... well... a regular old snake, specifically the constrictor kind when you compare it to its sheer size. These beasts are about 2-3 meters long, if the image is any indication, and is presumably capable of chomping down prey as it is, swallowing them whole.

But its role is never ever really known given that all Snake-Squigs are actually victims of Old Zogwort who managed to Harry Potter them into ''becoming'' a Snake-Squig. Because Old Zogwort is the only known Ork that does this, whether the Snake-Squig is an actual Orkoid species or just the consequence of psychic mishap is currently unknown.

{{Clear}}

===Squig Gobba===
[[File:Squig Gobba 2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Squig Gobba.]]
A [[Forge World]] model the size of a colossal squig. The difference is that this one can fire smaller squigs out of its mouth. The Squig Gobba is essentially living artillery.

Dragged and prodded onto the battlefield by its malevolent Goblin tenders, it is a huge beast with an oversized gaping maw, a set of extremely powerful lungs and a ravenous appetite to rival even that of a Troll. With the Squig Gobba heavily chained into position to prevent it bounding off after the first tasty morsel it spies, its tenders start dragging lesser squigs from the cages surrounding them as battle is joined, slicking these vicious beasts with foul-tasting noxious liquids.

This not only renders the creatures senseless for a short time, but also prevents the Squig Gobba from immediately swallowing them as the stunned squigs are unceremoniously stuffed into its jaws. Goblins can also make it explode if they want to.

<gallery>
File:Squig Gobba.jpg|Hey look! It seems that the last of the Gastric Brooding Frogs have evolved!
</gallery>

===Stalagsquig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Stalagsquig10vx-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Stalagsquig]]

Squigs are highly adaptable creatures, taking a myriad range of forms. Some, for example, infest the rock itself, creating Stalagsquigs.

The Stalagsquigs are a what happens when orks and gobboz believe that <span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>"OIH DAT STONE FING OVER DERE LOOKS LIKE A BITEY SQUIG"</span> and as such the power of [[WAAAGH|WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH made it so.]] The species looks like normal stalagmites from afar but get close enough and you will be introduced to a stone skinned biting nightmare. This particular breed has yet to be seen in 40k but it is prevalent in Ye Age of golden hammer jackasses ([[Age of Sigmar]]).

It is unknown how these squigs move (if they move at all) since they seem to have no visible legs, unless it's a luggage scenario where it sprouts thousands of little legs from its base when it wants to move... WELP, have fun sleeping after thinking about that. Emperor damn, it's like the [[Chaos Spawn|chaos spawns all ov-BGRIHSRAJKHSJAHDSAIUOFDGHU.]] However, according to Warhammer Community, they are totally immobile and viciously hungry creatures that make exploring caves in the Mortal Realms an even worse idea than you thought it was.

As a side note there has been no recorded evidence on how big these squigs can grow to but seeing as how normal stalagmites can grow to be bigger than a skyscraper if given enough space we might have to worry about descending into caves in the foreseeable future.

===Swab Squig===
[[File:Swab.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Swab Squig.]]
The Swab Squig is a type of Hair Squig, but unlike the long trailing hair of its cousins, its round body is covered with short, fluffy fur. Orks use Swab Squigs to mop up during operations, and they come in handy for emergency handkerchiefs too. Despite looking like a giant fluffball they have a humongous mouth and are quite snappy too. Swab Squigs tend to share a comedic relation with [[Snotling|Snotlings]] due to the latter's mentally retarded habit of poking things that should not be poked, which often ends with the little snots running around having their asses bit by the Swab Squig.

Non-pettable by your local Commissar.

<gallery>
File:Squig-swab-2.jpg|It is wise not to pet something that looks cute....
File:Squig-swab-3.jpg|....Or else this happens.
</gallery>

===Syringe Squig===
[[File:Syringe.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Syringe Squig.]]
Syringe Squigs are primarily used for medicinal purposes. These medical Squigs have natural properties which Painboyz find useful when patching together battle-damaged Orks. Syringe Squigs have a long needle-sharp proboscises with which they inject venom into their prey. Syringe Squigs exude a soporific venom which makes a fine anesthetic for Orks when the traditional anesthetic (known to other races as a "concussion") is unavailable.

Syringe Squigs are divided by their sizes to 'small', 'big' and 'urty' which are used depending on the strength of the dose required. The venom is sometimes extracted from the creature and used separately for mixing up some kind of special 'medicine', or if a really large dose is needed.

There is also a special type of Syringe Squig called a '''Vaccine Squig''', whose own immune system produces natural vaccines and antibodies to a host of different pathogens that are extracted and used by Painboyz to aid diseased Orks.

===Tapewyrm Squig===
The Kruleboyz Orruk shaman Gobsprakk can summon a squirming swarm of Tapewyrm Squigs inside the stomachs of his enemies, sickening them and even causing them to explode in a shower of Waaagh! Magic like some sort of twisted DeviantArt fetish. Yeah.

===Tomb Squig===
[[File:Tomb_Squig_placeholder.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Tomb Squig]]
From old-school Warhammer, Tomb Squigs are an albino breed of burrowing squig that feeds on corpses and undead alike.

Often found in [[Dorf|Dwarfen]] tombs that have been broken open and looted, they are sometimes also found in graveyards where their presence often makes sure undead aren't present in these areas. Slightly smaller than regular Squigs, they possess amazingly powerful jaws for their size, which they use to break open stone sarcophagi and to bite through the ceremonial armour Dwarfs often bury their dead in.

At the cost of there being corpse-eating squigs, these critters are as likely to attack and devour the undead as the actually dead (and living as well). As such, Tomb Squigs can serve as a [[Just As Planned|nasty surprise]]; really ruining a tomb robber’s day as not only do they present a threat to life and limb, [[Troll|they can also destroy valuable weapons and armour hidden in the tomb.]]
Source: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Tomb_Squigs

===Tramplasquig===
[[File:Tramplesquig.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tramplasquig]]
A quadrupedal Squig breed that is large enough to drag large vehicles. Tramplasquigs are the rhinoceros of the Squig family and their poor temper makes them a popular beast of war as well as a versatile beast of burden.

The [[Beast Snagga]]s use them to carry their [[Kill Rig]]s and [[Hunta Rig]]s. Although they lack any other form of natural weapons other than their bulk and teeth, Beast Snaggas mount armored helmets with a giant blade on top to further maximize their carnage.

On tabletop, the Tramplasquig is essentially the vehicle itself. It works well in conjunction with its ferried troops. As such, the whole thing is no slouch in melee either, as it not only has the squig itself fighting but also a bunch of boyz to hack away. What it does really well is if you have the Ramming Speed stratagem, as it not only throws it at an enemy from further away but it also drops some MWs on top of that, which can help with wiping the mob.
{{Clear}}

===Vampire Squig===
[[File:Vampire.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Vampire Squig.]]
The Vampire Squig is a blood-sucking creature with long sharp fangs, used by Painboyz to bleed the patient and suck bad blood and pus from septic wounds. The Squig does not seem to mind what the blood is like or from what species it comes so long as it gets a regular and plentiful supply.

When times are hard (which for Orks is when there's not much fighting) the Painboyz are forced to find other ways to keep their pets alive, which they do by extolling the benefits of regular bleeding to otherwise healthy Orks. It is also a good way to earn tons of teef in a short amount of time.

=== Wyrdsquig ===

[[File:Wyrd.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Wyrdsquig.]]

A Wyrdsquig is a little known psychic Squig subspecies that has close genetic links to the Gnasher Squig. Despite their close relations, they are fucking hideous, looking more like an aborted love child between [[H.P. Lovecraft|Yog-Sothoth]] and the [[Halo|Timeless One.]]

This subspecies is rarely encountered in the wild and possesses psychic abilities similar to those of Ork [[Weirdboy]]z. The Wyrdsquig is often employed in battle as a "psychic bomb," releasing a catastrophic telepathic shockwave at the moment of its death. So in layman's terms, it is the Ork equivalent of a Imperial [[Grenades & Explosives#Psyk-Out Grenade|Psyk-Out Grenade]].

They are one of the few Warp-based weapons that the Orks utilize along with the [[Shokk_Attack_Gun|Shokk Attack Gun]] and [[Tellyport_Blasta|Tellyport Blasta]].

===Other Squigs===

The breeds of squigs are innumerable and there are a lot of other, little-known types of these creatures in existence. From tiny micro-organisms on Ork bodies to the gigantic beasts put in the Ork spaceships to create breathable atmosphere, each of them has an use in Ork society. Notorious breeds such as the yellow-spotted '''Facegnasha''', the greater '''Fang-gob''', or the infamous '''Leapin’ Deff''' are especially popular for their use as Bomb Squigs. In Age of Sigmar, it is further expanded with examples such as the '''Glo-Squig''' are a type bioluminescent squig used to light up Lurklairs of the Gloomspite Gitz. Most of the models below include original Squig models, although also included is a green, gelatinous blob that had two beady eyes, similar to a Japanese RPG Slime, which some fa/tg/guy thought was explainable as being like the Orkoid Fungus equivalent of a Slime Mold; searching has found that this is an unofficial model produced by a third party company, "Krakon Games". The idea for the model being a Slime Squig probably came from the old Games Workshop Troll boardgames aimed at children, specifically "Squelch!", one about Trolls playing a game involving stomping on Squigs; among the illustrated Squig Cards there is a little Slime Squig. There is also a Small, Hairy, Humanoid Squig, perhaps the Orkoid equivalent of a Gibbon, covered in what could be fungal cilia or mould, called a "Beastling" (see below), which is an older official model. There was a Squig with a face resembling a Grot's like the Cape-Bearing Squig, but with long, bendy tube legs like stilts. There were 2 spiderlike squigs, one with a face like an Ork's, the other with a massive piercing proboscis, called a "Coffin Crawler" which was responsible for feeding Tyranid Norn Queens. A White Dwarf Squig character was Niblitz, [[Gobbledigook]] the goblin/snotling's pet who resembled an attack squig covered in fuzz and with two little horns, who was often said to be "spiderlike" somehow. Niblitz may be the very first squig ever designed, as he first appeared before any other squig models. The Forest Goblins also used to be shown with Squigs who had arachnoid features, or even riding Spider-Squigs.
<gallery>
File:Squigs_Old_Mini.jpg
File:Retro_Squigs.jpeg
File:VariedSquigs.JPG
File:Niblitz.jpg
File: ForestGoblinArt2.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}
[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]

[[Category: Orcs & Goblins]]

[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]

[[Category: Gloomspite Gitz]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Orks]]

[[Category: Feral Orks]]

[[Category: Squigs]]

[[Category: Megafauna]]

{{template: Orks-Forces}}

Squig

2022-08-04T21:51:02Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Other Squigs */

[[File:Squig.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Squigs. Making [[Tyranids]] feel insecure in the eating department.]]

[[File:MilkSquig.jpeg|thumb|Sadly noncanon, at least not yet...]]
A Squig, short for squiggly beast, is any one of a variety of bizarre organisms that exist semi-symbiotically with [[Orcs & Goblins]] and [[Orks]] alike. [[Fungus]]-based animals, their most iconic form resembles a large round ball that opens up a huge maw full of teeth, propelled by two strong legs that let it run, scramble and jump all over the place.

Night Goblins in particular like to herd huge swarms of these things onto the battlefield, as they are violently unpredictable and surprisingly dangerous.

In the 41st millennium, on the other hand, they play a somewhat different role. Some ork [[Warboss]]es will keep such squigs as personal attack animals, [[Oddboys|slavers]] always have trusty squig-hounds to help tame [[grot]]s, and [[Tankbustas]] favor a breed that they cram full of bombs and coax to charge towards (hopefully) the enemy before blowing up.

According to the [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] splat, "Old World Bestiary", squig-meat is perfectly edible by humans and actually very tasty. Spit-roasted squig is described as resembling smoked ham with the consistency of young chicken.

[[Age of Sigmar]] introduces a mythological aspect to their origins with the introduction of Boingob, the godbeast progenitor of all Squigs. This massive creature barreled through the realms in a frenzied pursuit of the light of Hysh (basically the sun), until it finally jumped up and was roasted alive. Now its colossal skeleton serves as a holy place/impenetrable lurk lair to the Moonclan Grots.

Squigs can be bred into a vast variety of forms and functions. The most famous of these is arguably the monstrous [[Squiggoth]] which provide a similar sort of heavy infantry to a war elephant. Other, more obscure types include (but by no means limited to) Bag Squigs, Bomb Squigs, Eating Squig, Gas Squigs, Hair Squigs, Oily Squigs, Paint Squigs, Squig Sharks, Squig Hawks, and Squigeons all of which can be further explained below. Squigs are basically the apps of Ork society: if you can think of a function, there's a squig for that.

==Squig Varieties==
As mentioned. Squigs come in all sizes and flavors. Here are the documented species of Squigs officially recognized by the Imperium/whatever-institutio-exists-in-AoS.

===Attack Squig===
[[File:AttackSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Attack Squig.]]
The most common and identifiable type of Squig. Whenever someone says Squig, this is the one that pops in everyone's head. The Attack Squig (''Orkus ferocitas''), also known as the Cave Squig, looks like it's trying to compete with the [[Tyranids]] for sheer 'OMNOMNOMNOMNOM' ability, consisting of nothing more than a bouncing ball of claws and razor-sharp teeth. These Squigs, as their name implies, are often used as attack animals, weapons, or pets. They can be given to the [[Grots]] as a food source (if the Squig doesn't eat them first) or even war mounts if said Grot is feeling particularly brave that day.

Sometimes an Attack Squig is transformed into a '''Bomb Squig''' via jamming as much explosive materials into the Squig's mouth (or strapping explosives to their bodies) as possible before setting it loose to fuck up some tanks. These specialized Attack Squigs are often utilized by either Ork Flashgitz or Tankbustas.

<gallery>
File:BombSquig.png|Bomb Squig.
</gallery>

===Bitey Squig===
[[File:Bitey Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bitey Squig]]
Bitey Squigs are a sub-species of Attack Squigs that have sufficient jaws, claws, and stingers to savage the target and anything close by. This breed s frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas. Launched gnashing and snarling into the enemy, they latch onto the first thing they hit and do not stop chewing until they are killed. A bit like the Face-Eating Squig to be honest.

Legends states that the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]] was created due to a [[Just As Planned|'mishap']] when a Bitey Squig or some form of Attack Squig was accidentally stuffed into the launcha and fired into a ''very'' unfortunate Ork’s face and thus, the legend was born.

It seems that the Bitey Squig can be differentiated from the normal Attack Squig by its stronger jaw; this can be seen with its more pronounced jawline which could only be supported with powerful jaw muscles. There are also the aforementioned stingers, which would most likely be located at the tail; unfortunately there isn't any indication that the tail has something like a stinger. Bitey Squigs are also much smaller than the Attack Squig in order to fit inside a Squig Launcha; seeing as how an Attack Squig is often the size of a sheep, it makes sense for the Orks to utilize a much more smaller and mobile version to be used as ammunition.

===Bile Squig===
[[File:Bile_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bile Squig]]

The Bile Squigs come in a variety of breeds and are capable of spraying, squirting, or vomiting harmful fluids from their orifices. This breed of squig is frequently fired from Squig Launchas and Heavy Squig Launchas.

Typically launched by the handful, these creatures squeal and thrash while jetting acid, lubricants, poisons, and flammable fluids in every direction. The effects can sometimes be harmless, but other times can cause their victims to burst into flames, explode, or dissolve. Essentially, they are the Orky version of the [[Flamers of Tzeentch]], you never know what you're gonna get.

Bile Squigs seem to have an enlarged earhole or an orifice for which they shoot out their concoction of liquids, it is identified by its very [[Derp|derpy appearance]] and its long tongue which maybe used to lick off any excess liquid it shoots out.
===Bat Squig===
[[File:Bat_squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bat Squig]]

A squig that has bat wings..... That's it..... Look it's just a squig that has bat wings alright it has the typical squig mentality, lives in a cave and can fly the only difference is that IT JUST HAS BAT WINGS. These Bat Squigs descend upon their victims in a flurry of gnashing jaws and spattering guano. It's not got some depressing story in which it lost its parents and now hunts down all everything that isn't greenskin, NO IT'S JUST A SQUIG WITH BAT WINGS, also no legs.



On tabletop, at the start of your shooting phase, you can pick 1 enemy unit within 18" of this model and roll a dice. On a 5+ that enemy unit suffers 1 mortal wound. This ability cannot be used if the Bat Squig minion has been removed.

<gallery>
File:Bat_squig_in_a_shellnut.JPG
</gallery>

===Boom Squig===
[[File:Boom_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Boom Squig]]

A special sub-species of the 'Splodin Squig.

This breed is squig is frequently fired from [[Squig Launcha]]s and [[Heavy Squig Launcha]]s. Boom Squigs, also known as Mine Squigs due to their shape, are infamous for their defense mechanism of violently exploding at the slightest provocation, typically due to direct physical contact or a loud noise ([[FAIL|or sometimes even their own bouts of indigestion]]).

They detonate with such force that they kill or maim anything unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. These creatures thus make the perfect living ammunition for Orks and are also sometimes used as landmines. They are also favored by Orks as the tools of [[Lulz|practical jokes,]] as nothing will amuse a Speed Freek more than hiding a [[Just As Planned|Boom Squig under the seat of a Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy driver like an explosive whoopee cushion.]]

<gallery>
File:Boom_Squif_Top.JPG
</gallery>

===Bowel-Torrent Squig===
[[File:Bowel_Squig?.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Bowel-Torrent Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to only as one of the most "revolting" and "panic-inducing". [[Shitstorm|Given its name it should be very easy to understand why.]] They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time...or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might best describe the Bowel-Torrent Squig the best.

Due to the Squig's... [[Bullshit|unique way of expelling its munitions]], we believe that the small albeit grumpy-looking Squig with the long tail ''may'' be the elusive Bowel-Torrent Squig. Ya know... 'cause it looks similar to that of a pigeon and this thing can 'fly' once it exits out the Squig Launcha. We would let your figure out the rest.

===Bag Squig===
[[File:Bag_Squig_2.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Bag Squig.]]

This type of Squig has a large, gaping mouth and a bag-like body that is almost entirely composed of stomach and nothing else. The stomach coincidentally functions secondarily as a pouch that allows the Squig to survive by slowly digesting food it stores up inside its body, similar to modern Earth animals that survive hibernation by eating a lot of food during the summer. If the Squig is dried out, it can be made into a flask for drinks. If it is tanned like leather, it makes a useful bag or belt pouch.

By far one of the most practical form of Squigs used by the Orks.

<gallery>
Image:Bag_Squig.PNG
</gallery>

===Burna' Squig===
[[File:Burna_Squig_2.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Burna Squig.]]

The Burna' Squig is similar to the 'Sploding Squig. However while the 'Sploding Squig is a biological grenade the Burna' Squig is a biological molotov cocktail. Inside a Burna' Squig consists of multiple chemicals that when mixed, burst into flames rather than exploding. Orks sometime shake their Burna' Squigs to further enhance their fiery potential (Or force them to swallow even MOAR flammable materials such as Promethium) after being thrown-- if it doesn't explode in their face of course.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and don't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers, he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course, these may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

The effects of Burna Squigs are equivalent to other flammable explosives found in the Imperium.

<gallery>
File:Burna_Squig.PNG
</gallery>

===Buzzer Squig===
[[File:Buzzer.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Buzzer Squig.]]
Buzzer Squigs are an insect-like like variation of the Squig typically used by Orks and Gretchins in a [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult,]] as they are very vicious and a swarm can strip the flesh off a man-sized creature within seconds. They are essentially flying piranhas but more aggressive than any piranha.

Buzzer Squigs are found among Ork fungus groves and are trapped in pots by Gretchin. The special pots are made from sun-baked mud, drilled with tiny holes to allow the Squigs inside to breathe. The top of the vessel is corked shut and sealed with more mud once a good number of Squigs have been put inside. Normally the Squigs feed by burrowing into other larger Squigs or small animals such as rats, so when they are captured they soon begin to get very hungry. They can be kept without food in the pot for many weeks, getting angrier and more savage all the time. If the Gretchin is unfortunate in capturing these hornets of doom or accidentally breaks a pot full of these things, then he may end up as their lunch.

Gretchin can tell which pots contain the angriest Squigs from the high pitch of the droning and the vibrations of the pot as the Squigs try to burrow out (the walls of the pot must be made thick and hard). These pots, each containing a small swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, are the missiles fired by the Squig Katapult. The pot cracks open on impact, releasing the swarm of enraged Buzzer Squigs, who attack anyone nearby. They are great against Imperial Guards, Tau, Kroot, and low level Tyranid forces (cue irony of the [[Lulz|Tyranids getting out-NOMMED in their own game]]). Unfortunately they are quite useless when it comes to MEQs as those claws and fangs aren't going to do much against ceramite and reinforced wraithbone.

Buzzer Squigs can also be found on the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]], although they're far more limited in role due to the presence of other Squig species.

<gallery>
File:Buzzer_Squig_Model.JPG
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===Buzzing Squig===
[[File:Buzzing.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Buzzing Squig.]]
Not to be confused with Buzz''er'' Squigs, Buzz''ing'' Squigs have tiny, propeller-like wings on their tails: miniature airscrews that allow them to fly like a biological helicopter. When they contact flesh (which they can smell), they bores in and eat their way straight through the unfortunate target. Upon emerging from the victim, they immediately dive back and bore through again, or set upon another victim. Orks have learned to use these deadly nuisances as weapons.

Gretchin are set to work trapping them for dispersal as swarms around the battlefield. Buzzing Squigs may also be kept in pots and thrown from makeshift catapults like the [[Squig Catapult|Squig Katapult.]] When the pot containing the Buzzing Squigs cracks, it releases a swirling swarm of these flesh-eating monsters.

In all honesty though, by function there is very little difference between the Buzzer and Buzzing Squigs as they both fulfill the same niche. They only look different enough to warrant their own species.

===Coffin Crawler===
[[File:CoffinCrawlerSquig.png|right|thumb|150px|Coffin Crawler]]
Coffin-Crawlers were an Old-School Tyranid Squig who would consume fresh corpses and grow in bulk until they were ready to return to the [[Norn Queen]], carrying their swollen bodies back to feed her.

Genetic material in the form of captive creatures and corpse scavengers called Coffin-Crawlers is fed into the great maws located at the top of the Norn Queen and synthesised by its genetic shredder organs. The dissembled DNA structures form a gene-bank which provides the raw material from which new creatures called bio-constructs are created. Once a type of bio-construct has been designed more identical creatures can be cloned by the Norn Queens.

Much like the Grabber-Slasher Squig, when Squigs were separated from Tyranids, they were reduced to the status of just being a variety of Big Squig. That, and their role has been replaced by [[Rippers]].

===Gob Squig===
[[File:Gob.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Gob Squig.]]
Gob Squigs are small enough to be put into an Ork's mouth and left there for the rest of the day (or the next few days, if the Ork forgets about it). The Squig cleans the Ork's mouth out by rooting round the teeth and eating the juicy bits of food that are stuck between them. They look like your typical fantasy [[Slime]] with a funny face although your local Commissar would suggest not petting one as they are known to bite. They are essentially an Ork's version of a toothbrush but more effective and cost-productive

The '''Chewin' Squig''' is another variant of the Gob Squig. An Ork can pop this sort of Squig into his mouth and chew on it while he sits and thinks (or sits and enjoys not thinking), basically Orky chewing gum. How the Squig could survive being munched by an Ork is a feat unknown by Imperial Xenologists.

===Great Cave Squig===
[[File:99800209017_GoblinWarbossCaveSquigNEW01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Great Cave Squig]]
Think a regular Attack Squig given steroids. A Great Cave Squig is simply a larger variant of the more common Cave Squig that has grown to such a magnificent size that it has become as large as an Imperial warhorse. This Squig sub-species is the second largest of the non-Squiggoth family, with only the Colossal Squig surpassing it in both size and weight. Its large mouth is filled with teeth the size of swords and sabres and their appetite as ravenous as their smaller counterparts. These things are solitary predators that like to [[Get shit done|get shit done by themselves.]]

Because of their large size, the Great Cave Squig makes excellent cavalry for Night Goblins. However, their aggressive behavior makes it difficult to tame effectively. The process of [[Rape|breaking in]] a Great Cave Squig would cost the lives of many Night Goblins, but once the beast learns to accept a rider, they serve as a more stable mount than the smaller and more unruly Cave Squig. Although they are costly to maintain, eating over twice their own body weight daily, a Night Goblin Warboss would do almost anything to keep such a magnificent asset in the hands of his tribe.

Since they're so difficult to tame, often times Goblins don't even bother doing so, instead just chaining two Great Cave Squigs together, pointing them vaguely in the direction of the enemy and setting them loose, resulting in the infamous Mangler Squigs. The Squigs drag and pull each-other across the battlefield, resulting in them essentially becoming living wrecking balls. In Age of Sigmar, some particularly insane Loonbosses use a pair of Mangler Squigs as a mount, usually if they're leading a Squigalanche warband.

On the even rarer occasions when a Great Cave Squig continuous to grow exponentially, they would grow to such a monstrous size that they are once again categorized into another even larger variant called simple as the Colossal Squig (As seen below).

<gallery>
Image:GreatCave Squig.png|NYUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!
</gallery>

===Colossal Squig===
[[File:CollossalSquig.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Colossal Squig.]]
Think an Great Cave Squig on steroids and having a mouth and stomach that could rival a [[Haruspex]] and the [[Mawloc|Mawloc]] in a eating competition. The Colossal Squigs are the largest variants of Squigs known to exist short of Squiggoths.

These frequently six-eyed monsters boast an insatiable appetite, and are in essence no more than an impossibly vast fleshy maw studded with row upon row of scimitar-bladed teeth. The only way they get into battle is by finding some Orks and just moving in with them.

The Colossal Squig is often used as a giant living battering ram, bashing and splintering anything smaller than the Squig into a fine paste. Of course the presence of the Squiggoth kind of placed the status of the Colossal Squig in question. Nevertheless, they still have the capability of eating entire Space Marines whole let alone normal Guardsmen, granting some laughs by the local Boyz if the Squig doesn't eat them first.

Of special note is a small change to this subtype of Squig in [[Age of Sigmar]] - When a Colossal Squig dies, it blows up into a bunch of smaller Cave Squigs! ... Nature running its course?...

===Cape Squig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Capesquigs10vh-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Cape Squig]]

These cute little Squigs are there to make you feel just a tad bit more important.

A Squig found only in [[Age of Sigmar]]. A presumably regal and dignified breed of squig, these little beasties help Skragrott keep his magnificent cape off the floor. Or maybe they’re trying to eat it. Probably both…

Anyways, these Squigs are quite sought after since they have a... distinct head shape of the Greenskin's moon, which makes it downright flash. Why their heads are shaped like that is anyone's guess (selective breeding?). Skragrott, the Loonking himself, is the self-styled overlord of the Gloomspite Gitz (AKA Night Goblins, trademarked). His sinister presence upon the field of battle ensures his fellow grots fight with greater spite and cunning than ever.

On tabletop, these little beasties are there for decorative purposes in order to make Skragrott look more important than he really is. Seriously you think they would provide anything of substance in the actual game?

===Dice Squig===
[[File:DiceSquigs.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Dice Squig]]
Famed for their bounciness, the rare and elusive Dice Squigs have been known to be used by particularly kunnin’ Grot Loonbosses in games of tactics and chance. They are usually given out in an event of a mass brawl, with [[Grot]]s assembling bets on would emerge the victor.

These small, eyeless, limbless blobs of flesh have very little use other than your usual Ork gamblin', however, a wise Greenskin must still be cautious when handling these things as they still have a mouth that may bite your fingers off.

Currently, most Dice Squigs have different yellow splotches on each side save for the face, which is an obvious analogue to the actual numbers system of an actual dice. Also represented as an actual limited edition squig-dice for sale by Games Workshop.

{{Clear}}

===Eating Squig===
[[File:EatingSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Eating Squig.]]
An Eating Squig (also known as Grubs or ''Orkus consumit'') is a limbless blob used as the primary Ork food source. It resembles an elongated, squarish slug with two eyes and a small pug mouth (like a cross between a blob fish and uncanned SPAM). Orks usually prefer them cooked, but they can be eaten raw as well. Gretchin are quite adept in cooking them and have a number of methods including kebabing, marinating in fungus wine, stuffed with fungus and herbs, roasted on a spit, deep fried with fungus chips, or griddled over a campfire. Who knew the Ork race had such a flair for culinary skills? Again Commissars would suggest not petting one no matter how pug-cute it looks, although suggesting to eat one for emergency rationing is fine for them.

With the fast reproduction on all Orkoid lifeforms, it is unknown why the [[Imperium of Man]] still haven't decided on capturing one of these Squigs and then mass producing them which would stop Galactic world hunger that plagues some of the Imperial Worlds (and no, [[Grox|not because of heresy]]). Maybe they are already looking into it, but with how slow the IoM usually is it may take decades to even centuries for it to be finalized and distributed in the entire Galaxy. Or it might have something to do with the fact that they're creature from the orkoid genus, so they release spores everywhere that can grow into the more dangerous parts of the genus including actual orks.

If the Eating Squig is the Duck/Chicken of an Ork culinary experience, then the '''Juicy Squig''' is the foie gras of Ork cuisine. The Juicy Squig is a very rare and delicious type of Eating Squig that may perhaps be the only known Ork delicacy. This Squig lives at the very bottom of an Ork fungal drop, and are not only rare, but difficult to find and bring up from the depths. Since these Squigs are seldom caught by the Gretchin and Snotlings, they often grow quite large and become even tastier as they get older.

In Age of Sigmar, there is also type of swamp-dwelling squig in the Mortal Realms called the '''Slobbersquig''', mentioned in the second edition Orruk Warclans Battletome as being part of the regular diet consumed by the Kruleboyz, alongside bog toads, swamp hoppers, cold crawfish, spine-ridged mud worms, and human flesh. Compared to the rest of the food on this list, it could be conjectured the Slobbersquig is a sluglike, unappealing Eatin' Squig that drools constantly and lives in swamp muck instead of the bottom of the greenskin drops.
<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-trader.jpg|Lovely indeed.
</gallery>

===Guard Squig===
[[File:Guard_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Guard Squig.]]
Ork Kaptins have been breeding a form of Squig known as a Guard Squig, or Squig Hound to some. They're Orky Guard Dogs. These creatures have all the ferocity of an Attack Squig, but are bred to be utterly loyal to their masters. When alone or not in battle, Squig Hounds are usually seen sleeping on their post or lying on their master's lap. Guard Squigs are often seen as a step up above the normal Attack Squig due to their aforementioned loyalty.

Guard Squigs are not to be confused with the Herd Squig whose nickname also bears the name Squighound or the [[Derp|actual Squighound themselves.]] Why GeeDubs thought repeating the name of three different species is a good idea is a mystery.

Is it though? These are Orks we’re talking about. Considering the rather direct (and often short) manner with which Orks approach life, it’s hardly a surprise they’d have one name for several breeds of Squigs. One Ork may name a particular breed of Squig "Bitey" for biting a lot, only to have his head bit off by said Squig, prompting the next Ork to confirm that it is indeed a Bitey Squig, while somewhere else in the mob the same little drama is occurring with an entirely different breed of biting Squig with identical results. Orks are pragmatic...in their way.

===Targeting Squig===
[[File:Targeting-squig-art.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Targeting Squig.]]
A unusual type of Squig, Targeting Squigs (''Orkus scopum'') are weird creatures with a single targeting eye that serve as biological equivalents of Gitfindas used by Flash Gitz. Sometimes their pupils are even shaped into a cross-hair.

How the Squig communicates with the Flash Gitz is unknown. Although certain unique sounds or barks could be help the Ork to signal that there may be ample prey around. That or it could flash different colors or release certain pheromones that only Orkoid species can detect.

On tabletop there is very little difference between the Squig and regular Gitfindas other then the cosmetic change. They're cool-looking models though!

<gallery>
File:Targeting-squig.png
File:Last-wall-squig.jpg
</gallery>

===Face-Eater Squig===
[[File:Face Eater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Face-Eater Squig.]]
Humans have binge eating contests and the Orks too have their own variety. Of course in this case the food has the potential of eating your face off. Here is where the Face-Eater Squigs come into play. The Face-Eater Squig is a toothed variety of Squig used both as a weapon and in the infamous Ork face-eating contests.

These Squigs, also known as "Gnashers" or "Gnasher Squigs," are a vicious mass of sharp teeth and claws. In their active state they appear to be just a gnashing mouth and very little else, though they look much like any other Eatin' Squig when they are at rest. Because of their violent nature, Gnashers provide the Orks with endless entertainment, and Squig-eating is one of the Orks' favorite pastimes. The Ork and the Squig both open their mouths and bite, in a parody of a kiss. If the Ork eats the Squig, he wins. If he keels over backwards, he loses.

Some Painboys made attempts to use Gnashers to amputate a patient's limbs, but these attempts weren't very successful as they tended to bite off orderlies' arms or even the Dok's fingers. Face-Eaters are often used as an attack squig. This organism is known to Imperium biologists as Orkus ravenati.

<gallery>
File:GnasherSquig.jpg|Nasty little fuckers.
</gallery>

===Flesheater Squig===
[[File:Flesheater.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Flesheater Squig.]]
In order to increase their wealth, some Orks breed large, ferocious beasts known as Flesheaters. The Flesheater looks like a furry, Orky crocodile, with a great, gaping mouth full of rows of sharp fangs that are similar to an Ork's [[Teef]]. Flesheaters continually shed and replace their teeth, and all the Orks have to do to collect this wealth is send a Gretchin to collect the teeth; they, of course, aren't overly keen on this duty.

Like Ork teeth, Flesheater teeth also deteriorate after a few years. Flesheaters are extremely long-lived, but rarely breed in captivity, making them even more valuable. Most Orks who own Flesheaters are either already Nobz, or become Nobz on account of the wealth derived from owning these Squigs. Not surprisingly, impoverished Orks sometimes attempt to steal a Flesheater, or even raid rival settlements to capture them.

They are literally a mobile money-making machine - who says money can't grow on <s>trees</s> animals?

===Gas Squig===
[[File:GasSquigs.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Gas Squig.]]

It is a Squig that literally has a [[Lulz|killer fart.]]

The Gas Squig produces a gas so toxic that Orks with gas masks throw this Squig in combat, using the Squig itself as a chemical weapon. Besides their use as a one-time explosive, the Ork can just let the Squig run loose in the battlefield, spreading as much chaos as possible as these nasty little runts can cover an entire field in a bath of toxic miasma and corrosive chemicals.

It is unknown what type of chemicals allow the Gas Squig to unleash a untold volume of lethal farts. High levels of methane or magic/warp-related bullshit is the only potential answer.

They are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

According to the illustration of Warhammer Online, Gas Squigs look like normal Attack Squigs but with hole-like projections that constantly spew out the toxic materials like chimneys.

===Grabber-Slasher Squig===
[[File:Grabberslasher.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Grabber-Slasher/Big Squig]]

These guys originated way back in older editions of Warhammer, when Squigs were the result of Tyranids consuming Orkoid biomass instead of being fungoid kin. The Grabber-Slasher is a form of large ambush Squig that prefers to lurk in ducts and either grab prey with its massive arm and drag it away to devour, or hump-slash it with its big crotch-spike.

As one can imagine from things ''that'' early on, they look like fucking abominations out of a Cronenberg film. Seriously, that giant clawed hand on top of its head does not help. They also apparently have a chameleonic ability to change their skin colour and texture to hide better in crevices and ducts. But again, with that giant hand and [[/d/|horned dick,]] the idea of it being chameleonic should be taken with some salt. Even worse is the fact that the Tyranid Hive Mind used it as a prototype to the Lictor in early editions, using it to assassinate those who threatened the plans of the Tyranids. Imagine the shame and humiliation of being killed by something as fugly as THAT!

When Squigs were later retconned into being always a part of the Orkoid Fungus Biosphere, the Grabber-Slasher was retconned into being just a [[Derp|"Big Squig"]], which is honestly, quite disappointingly generic.

===Hair Squig===
[[File:Hairy.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hair Squig.]]
Do you want to know how and where the Orks get their hairy ponytails from? The answer is obviously simple: they use Squigs to do the job, due to Orks being naturally hairless. Hair Squigs are a parasitic variety of Squig which possess small bodies, no legs, no eyes, and a pair of pincers in place of a mouth.

They have long hair running from their tiny bodies that Orks like to customize and dye after clamping the Squig's pincers onto their own hairless heads; this customization has no effect on the Squig's health.

One particular variety of Hair Squig is known as a '''Chin Squig'''. These creatures feature a long thin body with claws and hair all over it and serve as the equivalent of a beard. They are also known to be a sign of age and status among Orks.

<gallery>
File:Hair Squig.jpg
File:Chin_Squig.jpg|Chin Squig.
</gallery>

===Limpin Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SquigBall1jvrh.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Limpin Squig or a turkey drumstick, you make the call.]]

[[Lolwut|A Squig football/handegg. It makes sense in context.]]

Technically, this squig is from [[Blood Bowl]] rather than the [[Age of Sigmar|Mortal Realms (AKA Age of Sigmar)]], but its existence is so hilariously dumb it might as well be part of the Squig family. Also known as the Squigball, Orc teams are known for using Squigs as balls, shearing one leg off so it can’t run away. Sometimes, they just find a particularly bulbous Squig and then literally kick its ass.

These Squigs must be extremely durable, squishy and bouncy. The best Limpin' Squigs have flesh that is extremely flexible, sturdy bones to survive repeated impacts and kicks, a skin firm enough to be held onto for long periods of time, an attitude that makes sure it doesn't ends up biting its holder in the middle of some intense Blood Bowl, and just the right enough shape to bounce to its trajectory.

It is not known is they exist in 40k or AoS, although seeing as how Orks/Orcs are stereotypical British hooligans, we wouldn't be surprised if they did.

===Mendin' Squig===
[[File:Squig-hairy-medical.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Mendin' Squig.]]
Mendin' Squigs, or more commonly (and annoyingly) called Hairy Squigs (again not to be confused with Hair Squigs much to the Xenobiologist's constant frustration), are a type of medicinal Squig. Hairy/Mendin' Squigs are used by Painboyz as sutures. The Painboy simply applies it to the open wound, which it holds closed with its tiny, needle-like teeth. The Painboy then twists its tail off, leaving the head embedded in the flesh, repeating the process until the wound is "riveted up." The Mendin' Squig feeds off blood oozing from the wound, thus keeping it clean and free from infection. By the time it shrivels and drops off, the wound has usually healed.

This form of medical technique is actually quite closer to reality than you'd think. Some South American and African tribes use particularly large bulldog ants to act as crude sutures. They just grab the ants and allow the powerful jaws to snap shut on the wound and like the Mendin' Squigs they then twist its body off, leaving only the head which is still in contact with the wound until it shrivels and falls off once fully healed.

===Herd Squig===
[[File:HerdSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Herd Squig.]]
Herd Squigs have been specially bred and developed by Runtherds for the purpose of herding and controlling the herds of Runtz. They are related to the many varieties of pet Squigs, but have been selectively bred for their speed, intelligence, ferocity and endurance.

Their long, sensitive snouts and keen ears enable them to track down errant Snotlings and Gretchin wherever they might hide. Herd Squigs are excellent tracking beasts, and can follow trails which are days old.

They are also called Squighounds, which as you already know, [[Herp|should not be confused with the Guard Squig who already bears that nickname or the actual Squighounds themselves.]]

They look like pigs but more Orky.

===Hoppa Fungus===
[[File:DKI3T3c3fv3xNy92.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Hoppa Fungus]]
A Hoppa Fungus or Fun-Hoppas, are a type of Squig that skirts the line between Orkoid Mushroom and Squig, from the Snotling Blood Bowl set. They are small, round, lumpy "mushrooms" with a cartoony, squiggy face on their front. There are two sizes of them, one for throwing like a living rock and another for riding like a moon hopper, even more so than normal squigs as these ones lack legs.

How they managed to hop around without a leg, we are not too sure, although more technical elegan/tg/entelmen had assumed that they use their entire body mass as one giant muscle like a snake, to propel themselves for locomotion.

They seem overall, pretty harmless as far as Squigs go, given that they don't seem to routinely eat their riders or throwers. But boy do these giant grey meatballs look like they came out of a Loony Tunes cartoon.

<Gallery>
Hopper_Fungus.JPG
</gallery>

===Horned Squig===
[[File:HornedSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Horned Squig.]]
<s>A Squig that's [[/d/|''so Horny!'']]</s> {{Blam}}

The Horned Squig is a Squig gifted with long, sharp horns stretching from its head that Orks often jam into barricades to serve as living obstacles or act as a moving and mobile battering ram for siege warfare. They act like bulls and if used against troops, often ram their horns into some poor unfortunate sod in a relentless, charging stampede. They have a brighter red color scheme than Cave Squigs.

If the Horned Squig is disabled, then the Ork can simply just strap the Squig on its forearm and use it as a living weapon. The Orks are anything but wasteful and is capable of using anything, even other living organisms, to its 'full' potential.

Like the Gas Squigs they are seen as one of the summoning Squigs in Warhammer Online.

===Mimic===
[[File:Squig_Mimic.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Mimic.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>CA-CAW! OI GITZ GET MOVIN UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO TELL DA BOSS ON WHO IS MUCKIN' ABOUT!</span>

A particularly popular type of pet Squig is known as the Mimic. As you imagine, they are Ork parrots. This Squig has a large and toothy beak-like mouth (it also apparently has feathers) and is vaguely parrot-like in both appearance and function.

Mimics can be seen perched on the shoulders of many an old and haggard Ork, usually from the [[Freebooterz]] to keep the pirate theme, squawking expletives and insults at Greenskin passersby. Kaptins have a endearing affection for these little creatures and their ability to shout and swear at larger and more opposing Orks is often seen as a humorous delight to the Kaptin. Woe to any Ork who accidentally swats one of these creatures out of annoyance. [[FATAL|The chance of getting your head wired to a Big Lobba by a pissed off Kaptin? Too high.]]

===Oily Squig===
[[File:Grot_Oiler.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Oily Squig.]]
The Oily Squig is a variety of Squig bred by Ork Meks to create fuel for the Orks' ramshackle vehicles. They create the fuel, an organically-synthesized version of Promethium, in their rotund bellies, and it can be squeezed out of their anteater-like trunks. These Squigs have no mouths, other than their trunk, and are not combat-oriented like their far more aggressive counterparts.

The most efficient way of extracting the oil from the creatures is to use a large pressing machine, although more primitive methods, such as having gretchin to jump up and down on them are also widely used. Orks prepare the barrels of the squig oil in advance and take those with them when they go on campaigns.

There exist two varieties of Oily Squigs: one with arms and a distinct head, and one that resembles an Attack Squig with a trunk for dispensing their fuel oil.

<gallery>
File:Squig-oily.jpg
File:7e-grotoiler.jpg
</gallery>

===Paint Squig===
[[File:PaintSquig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Paint Squig.]]
Orks can be creative artists too! This small, vividly colored Squig excretes powerful dyes that are used as warpaint. These paints are also used by Gretchin artists as pigments for wall paintings and decorative banners.

Many Paint Squigs have tufts of hair on their trails, which allows the artist to use the Squig as both a brush and tube of paint simultaneously. The shells of Edible Squigs are also used by Gretchin artists as paint pots and palettes.

===Parasite-Hunting Squig===
[[File:Parasite-Hunter.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Parasite-Hunting Squig.]]
Parasite-Hunting Squigs are tiny but voracious feeders used to clear an Ork's body and clothes of parasites. An Ork simply drops a handful of these Squigs into his clothing and lets them crawl around. They look like Orkified spiders, which can give arachnophobes nightmares but the Orks don't give a zog.

The Squigs prey on lice, ticks and other vermin the Ork may have acquired in the course of his many unsavoury habits. When the engorged Parasite-Hunting squigs drop out of the Ork's clothing, the Ork simply gathers them up and pops them into his mouth for a juicy snack.

===Rat Squig===
[[File:RatSquig.jpg]]
[[File:Rat_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Rat Squig]]
A unholy abomination spawned from [[Skaven]] science (is anybody surprised?).

The Rat Squig is a species of Squig created by Clan Moulder by fusing rat or skaven meat with Squigs, creating a form of furry, rat-faced squig with scaly patches of leathery skin, and the ability of regeneration. They apparently also have bloodlust, even in comparison to normal squigs.

They commonly do not have flat backs like Skarl, the Rat Squig in the illustration above, who is also outfitted with a specially-made saddle able to carry his Grey Seer master, Farquan (also in the illustration). It is unknown if Farquan is the member of Clan Moulder responsible for creating the original Rat Squigs, or just his mount Skarl. Now whether they breed via spores like a normal Squig, we have no idea as the fluff doesn't really go that much into it.

There is a mod in Total War: Warhammer called [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2746640530 Elon's Rat Squigs] where these creatures were implemented in. Most of the images came from this mod.

<gallery>
Rat_Squig_Mod.JPG
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===Scorpisquig===
[[File:Spiker_M01.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Scorpisquig tail.]]
Scorpisquig Stingers are used by Gloomspite Gitz Gobbapalooza Spiker Shamans on the end of their Stikkas for stabbing things with poison. Not much is known about them, and we mean it ''literally''. Seriously, the only thing shown of them is the barbed-end of their stinger tail.

Whatever it is, we can assume that the Scorpisquig is a much sought-after source of Squigs that these goblins hunt, as even after their stingers are lobbed off from their bodies, they still retain enough venom to be an effective and dangerous weapon.

Curiously enough, the goblin who carries such a weapon are incredibly mutated, sprouting extra limbs and eyes that mimics that of the Scorpisquig (we assume). Like seriously, these guys are severely fucked up, so one wonders what kind of warp fuckery they were dabbling in; perhaps, in an ironic twist, these guys may actually slowly transform into a Scorpisquig itself after (Assumingly) consuming its flesh. Whatever the case, the Scorpisquig wielders are not to be fucked with.

{{Clear}}

===Screech Squig===
[[File:Screech_Squig.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Screech Squig]]

A mysterious Squig referred to as having [[Sonic Weaponry|oversized lungs that allow it to make an extremely loud screech.]] Screech Squigs disorient, incapacitate and/or make the enemy's eardrums burst with one of the most horrid sounds possible (We in /tg/ imagines it as mixing the cries of an infant that has sand paper in its throat with that of fingernails scratching the surface of a chalkboard). They are one of the numerous forms of living ammunition from the [[Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy]].

Unfortunately, despite being important enough to be mentioned in fluff, they still didn't really get that much screen time... or an identifiable model for that specific matter in the first place.

Fortunately for us in /tg/, the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy model holds so many Squigs in its trunk and around the vehicle that we can sort of guess which Squig might be the Screech Squig. Due to the fact that it is nothing more than a living Sonic Weapon, the Screech Squig needs both a big mouth and a wide barrelled body to encompass its huge lungs; unfortunately, most Squigs have a big mouth and a wide body. Likewise, we hypothesize that the Screech Squig might be in fact, the big Squig we see inside of the Heavy Squig Launcha, due to the fact that its mouth is close relatively shut and will only open once fired from the Launcha. You wouldn't want your Boyz to go all bleeding in their noggins because they failed to pacify that thing, right?

A similarly themed and named Squig exists in Age of Sigmar called the '''Syari Screamersquig'''. A rare albino beast that loathes any form of light, and reacts to it with ear shattering screams. Unfortunately for it, it’s native to the Syari region of the Realm of Light. It’s been hunted to near extinction by the Lumineth Realm-Lords and is prized by many Grot Loonbosses for its screaming powers.

===Snufflesquig===
[[File:Snufflesquig.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Snufflesquig]]

Squig truffle pigs but more [[Derp|derpy in appearances.]]

Snufflesquigs are little more than massive noses and snapping mouths with wiry little legs that can be trained by Sneaky Snufflers to identify Looncaps, a type of mushroom that grows from the light of the Bad Moon, from others that induce effects such as vomit slime, break out in luminous yellow spots, babble uncontrollably or even burst into flames. When the Bad Moon approaches these unique squigs begin to howl with raised snouts.

Like truffle pigs, Snufflesquigs have a tendency to eat these shrooms if not carefully attended.

May be a reference to Snuffler Orcs, a breed of Orc from Middle Earth described as small, black, and huge nosed, used for tracking victims.

===Smasha Squig===
[[File:LAEMX6Acaz90SDmn.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Smasha Squig]]
A cousin to the [[Squighog]], the Smasha Squig is basically an orkified [[Dinosaur|Pachycephalosaurus]].

Smashas are usually ridden by [[Nob]]s from the [[Beast Snagga]] sub-kulture, where they are often found leading mobs of [[Squighog Boy]]z into battle. The Smasha Squig itself is bipedal, running on two legs rather than four. It is also larger, tougher, and even more ferocious than your regular old [[squighog|Squig Bacon]]. Any Nob who has managed to beat a Smasha Squig into submission is ''not'' an Ork to be trifled with.

Once "tamed," a heavy armor plate is bolted to the Smasha Squig's skull. This is not done to protect the squig, for among its kind it is already noted for having an exceptionally thick skull encasing an exceptionally tiny (and shock-resistant) brain. Rather, the plate enhances the beast's natural head-butting tendencies so that the Smasha truly becomes a living, snarling wrecking ball.

On the tabletop, the Smasha Squig complements the Nob rider who is already a beast (pun intended) in close combat. Crunchwise, this oversized fungal dinosaur grants additional attacks with its jaws and its Smasha 'Ead has a chance to deal up to [[rape|five mortal wounds]] after a charge or heroic intervention. Finally, the rider is equipped with a Big Choppa and a slugga, and with T6 and 5 wounds the model is just as hard to kill as you'd expect.
{{Clear}}

===Spiky Squig===
[[File:Spiky.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spiky Squig.]]
Spiky Squigs look like a living ball covered with spines which, as an instinctive reaction when agitated, can shoot out at any threatening creature rather like porcupines were once thought to do. These spines inflict a poisonous sting on anyone struck by them, though the effect of the poison on Orkish flesh is not as drastic as it is on other races due to the similar biology of all Orkoid races. Squigs of this kind are used in some bionik arms fitted with cages and a quick release system, so they can be used as a close combat weapon like a living Morning Star.

Spiky Squigs move via rolling around like a ball; however when it comes to hunting food, it propels itself at high speed before launching into the unsuspecting prey, launching its poisonous spines and letting it run its course. This unusual hunting method has been seen by xenobiologists as bizarre and weird.

===Spiteshroom===
[[Image: Spiteshroom.png|150px|right|thumb|Spiteshroom]]

A creature that blurs the line between Squig and Fungus, much like Hoppa Fungus. Spiteshrooms are fungal creatures that inhabit the dark and damp caves favoured by Dankhold Troggoths. They emit an incessant high-pitched shrieks and shrill idiot ditties that distracts even the most veteran warriors. The fungal clouds they release can rot flesh from bone. They are favored as familiars of Madcap Shamans.

Due to the fact that they seemed locked into ground like actual mushrooms, Spiteshrooms are immobile like the larger Stalagsquig.

<gallery>
Spiteshroom_and_Stalagsquig.JPG|With a Stalagsquig in a ''literal'' face off.
</gallery>

==='Sploding Squig===
[[File:Splodin_Squig.jpg|150px|right|thumb|'Sploding Squig.]]
A biological grenade used by the Orks if they run out of stikkbombs. 'Sploding Squigs possess multiple stomachs, each containing a thick broth of unstable digestive chemicals. Some 'Sploding Squigs are covered in spines which may act as fragmentation when it explodes.

When agitated, usually though violent shaking, the 'Sploding Squig's digestive juices combine into a combustible liquid, causing the Squig to explode in a shower of meat, teeth, and bone fragments. While typically thrown in combat, 'Sploding Squigs are also often buried and used as mines. Orks are known to force-feed 'Sploding Squigs a meal of scrap metal before battle in an effort to enhance their lethality.

If the Ork is feeling a bit picky and doesn't really want to risk having his head blown off by enemy snipers he can just let the Squig go off to its intended target. Of course this may not result in the desired outcome as the Squig may be shot before it gets the chance to explode or the Squig wouldn't even explode in the first place and just growls at the target harmlessly.

However, the widespread use of regular Bomb Squigs has lessened the value of 'Sploding Squigs. No need to wait around for a specialized and uncommon Squig to mature when the most common type of Squig (plus explosives) already fulfill their purpose.

===Spore Squig===
[[File:AoSSquigs-Jan8-SporeSquig3mteg.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Spore Squig]]

[[Drug|A Squig to huff some shrooms and get high.]]

A walking LSD projector. These little squigs are used defensively by Fungoid Cave-Shamans, who need but stamp on one to release an obscuring cloud of spores. The Fungoid Cave-Shamans themselves are the lepers of Goblinkind. Found only in [[Age of Sigmar]], the mushroom-gobbling grot maniacs known as Cave-Shamans are obviously not right in the head.

To these greenskinned nutters, to get lost in a brain-mangling vision is to grow closer to the side of Gorkamorka that epitomises cunning and trickiness over brute strength, which is the side that all grots like the best.

The Spore Squig is nothing more than a living, breathing hookah for the greenskin to sniff some grade-A meth and can, on command, release said spores towards its enemies to make them just as high as the Squig's personnel caretakers.

Moral of the story, don't do drugs kiddos, especially on the battlefield.

===Squigadon===
[[File:Squigadon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigadon.]]
A form of Squig larger than a Great Cave Squig but smaller than a Giant Squig. Maybe a smaller [[Squiggoth]].

First appeared in White Dwarf utilized by Hobgoblins. The creator of this monster was Nick Bayton who literally used a Large Squiggoth from Forgeworld and converted it into a unit for Fantasy by using the [[Lizardmen|Stegadon]] rules in battle. Whilst it may look big, don't let it fool you. Perspective is deceptive and whilst hobgoblins may view it as huge, you should take note that hobgoblins are like half the height of a human, so that Squigadon would be slightly bigger than a rhino.

Seeing as how the Squigadon is literally a converted [[Squiggoth]], whether it would be considered another demonym for a Squiggoth or an entirely different subspecies is unknown. Moreover, how 'canon' this Squig is, we have no clue since it only appeared in ''one'' issue of White Dwarf and that's it. We don't even have any of the barest hints of fluff. So your guesses on its validity are as good as ours.
<gallery>
W8ox5l0jxaua.jpg|As it appeared in White Dwarf.
</gallery>

===[[Squiggoth]]===
The largest of all squig species, have their own page.

===Squigeon===
[[File:Squigeon3.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigeon.]]

Squigeons (''Orkus aerium'') are the Squig counterparts of the Terran pigeon or columbidae if you are feeling fancy, often utilized for sending messages during battle amongst Ork tribes that lack more advanced methods of communication. Although they are sometimes hunted by the dreaded Squighawk or used as target practice by Stormboyz.

[[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-|They are the cutest little orkspawn your will ever get the chance of meeting.]] Unfortunately, due to GeeDubs incompetence, we never ever get to see them further fleshed out in fluff. This time the Commissar would be fine with you petting a Squigeon.

<gallery>
File:Squigeon.jpg
</gallery>

===Squighawk===
[[File:SquigHawk.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squighawk.]]

<span style='color:green;font-size:200%'>'''BA-CAAAWK! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!'''</span>

Think of a Orkified Pterodactyl. Squighawks are a wild, flying species of Squig that are large enough to eat Orks. Thus, they are ECKS BAWKS HUEG.

Unfortunately, they are often too difficult to be trained (could be because the Squighawk view Orks as prey too) and are as such are rarely used by Ork Runtherdz-- which is saying something considering the Orks manage to successfully tame the much larger Squiggoth.

Still, it would be cool if we actually got to use these <s>Dinosaurs</s> flying reptiles on the tabletop. Chances are these things could potentially reach a size to rival some larger Tyranid flying strains such as the [[Harpy]].

===Squig-Hog===
[[File:Beast Snaggas.jpeg|200px|right|thumb|Squig-Hog]]
[[Boarboyz]] haven't been mentioned in core Ork fluff for quite some time. While they were cool in their own way, it didn't really ever make sense for Orks to be riding Earth animals in the first place. Well, as of 9th Edition it seems that Boarboyz have been retconned and/or [[squatted]] for good, because [[Squighog Boy]]s have now been introduced as a far more [[awesome]] type of Ork heavy cavalry. Squig Hogs are tougher, larger, and far more dangerous than other types of cavalry such as a horse or warboar, and they can eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouths (including the rider, if he fails to keep his mount in line). However, the horse still has a modest speed advantage.

[[Beast Snagga]]s use them as cavalry like the Imperium's [[Rough Riders]] and they are ''thicc'' enough that a [[Gretchin]] can hop on as well. Snaggas who ride these guys are called [[Squighog Boy]]z. While Squighog Boyz can belong to any Klan, they are presumably most common among the [[Snakebites]].

Crunchwise, Squighogs have a pretty nasty bite of S6, AP-1 and D2, meaning you should be able to dispatch the now tough-to-kill [[Primaris Space Marines]] as well as other MEQs and GEQs consistently. What you want from it however, is the fact that these walking fungal bacons are allowed 2 additional attacks every time the unit fights. Combined with the additional weapons from the Ork himself and you get a nasty cavalry unit.
{{clear}}

===Squighound===
[[File:Squighound.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Squighound.]]
Squighounds (''Orkus canis''), commonly known as "Growlers," are a variation of the Attack Squig, used by Ork Slaverz to help them keep the Gretchins and slaves from other races in line. Most have four legs, although two-legged varieties certainly exist. "Growlers" are also often kept as a form of pet by other Orks, as they are roughly the size of a small dog, hairy, and particularly vicious.

A Pet Squig often scurries about behind its master, barely under his control, giving its owner no end of amusement and laughs [[Troll|especially when the Squig snaps at the ankles of another Ork.]]

They are not to be confused with the Guard Squig or Herd Squig who are also [[Derp|referred to as 'Squighound'.]]

===Squigosaur===
[[File:Squigosaur_2.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Squigosaur]]
The Squigosaur are large two-legged squigs that [[Beast Snagga]]s ride upon. They are similar in appearance to the Smasha Squig, but whilst the Smasha Squig is an Orky Pachycephalosaurus, the Squigasaur is the Allosaurus of the family.

The most famous of these is the Big Chompa, otherwise known as '''The Great White Squig''' (AKA the Great White Shark on legs or "I can't believe it's another Moby Dick reference!"), a legendary alpha Squigasaur regarded as the most belligerent, vicious, and savage of its kind. It was responsible for a breathtaking number of missing Boyz and thought to be utterly untameable-- that is, until Beast Snagga Mozrog Skragbad appeared with all his chad energy and proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of it for three days until it complied.

Although he has tamed the Squigosaur, it will revert to its original destructive nature when he is not nearby. In order to keep Big Chompa in line, the long-suffering Skragbad is forced to keep himself at its side and the two are rarely seen apart.

On the tabletop, the Squigosaur's jaws works lethally well with a mounted [[Beastboss]]; three extra attacks which can practically gobble up [[Terminator]]s - especially if you roll a 6 to hit and score 3 mortal wounds.
<gallery>
Squigosaur.JPG|The Great White Squig
HxDM6t0oZyXjrBtR.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}

===Squigpipe===
[[File:Pipe.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigpipe.]]
Just to further hone the Scottish stereotype within the Orks (prejudice much, GeeDubs?), this special type of Squig is used by the Orks as a musical instrument. Several tube-like proboscises emerge from this Squig's bag-like body.

The Musical Squig can be tucked under one arm and inflated by blowing down one proboscis. Then, by squeezing the Squig, weird and terrifying sounds can be made through the creature's other proboscis pipes. This turns the Squig into a musical instrument, much like the bagpipes, but a thousand times more cacophonous. Orks like to go into battle accompanied by this Squig much to the detriment of their enemies.

<gallery>
File:OCG-grot-playing.jpg
</gallery>

===Squigshark===
[[File:SquigShark.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Squigshark.]]
Orks as Jaws. Squigsharks are the Squig counterparts of Terran sharks that inhabit Ork-infested worlds. And no they are not huggable; your local Commissar definitely urges you to '''''NOT''''' pet one out of safety and preventing potential stupidity.

They are known to be very dangerous beasts and many Ork sailors trying to cosplay as Moby Dick end their lives as a food for Squigsharks. Whenever one appears, it is obligatory to play the signature Jaws music. They are by far the top oceanic predator of any Ork World.

YOU. HAVE. BEEN. WARNED.

<gallery>
Deff_Skwadron_Squig-Shark-2.jpg|Dun dun...dun dun...dun dun dun dun dun....
</gallery>

===Snake-Squig===
[[File:Snake-Squigs.jpg|170px|right|thumb|Snake-Squig]]
The Snake-Squig is a very little known species of Squig only shown as an illustration with a [[Snake Bites]] [[Weirdboy]] of said Snake-Squig constricting the Odd Boy like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Speaking of Temple of Doom, it is quite possible that a Weirdboy uses his psychic mumbo-jumbo to control them like a snake charmer controls a snake. Of course, what the Weirdboy actually ''does'' with the snakes, we have no idea, as they are just there to make him look cool.

In terms of its ecology, the Snake-Squig should share the same niche and behaviour as... well... a regular old snake, specifically the constrictor kind when you compare it to its sheer size. These beasts are about 2-3 meters long, if the image is any indication, and is presumably capable of chomping down prey as it is, swallowing them whole.

But its role is never ever really known given that all Snake-Squigs are actually victims of Old Zogwort who managed to Harry Potter them into ''becoming'' a Snake-Squig. Because Old Zogwort is the only known Ork that does this, whether the Snake-Squig is an actual Orkoid species or just the consequence of psychic mishap is currently unknown.

{{Clear}}

===Squig Gobba===
[[File:Squig Gobba 2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Squig Gobba.]]
A [[Forge World]] model the size of a colossal squig. The difference is that this one can fire smaller squigs out of its mouth. The Squig Gobba is essentially living artillery.

Dragged and prodded onto the battlefield by its malevolent Goblin tenders, it is a huge beast with an oversized gaping maw, a set of extremely powerful lungs and a ravenous appetite to rival even that of a Troll. With the Squig Gobba heavily chained into position to prevent it bounding off after the first tasty morsel it spies, its tenders start dragging lesser squigs from the cages surrounding them as battle is joined, slicking these vicious beasts with foul-tasting noxious liquids.

This not only renders the creatures senseless for a short time, but also prevents the Squig Gobba from immediately swallowing them as the stunned squigs are unceremoniously stuffed into its jaws. Goblins can also make it explode if they want to.

<gallery>
File:Squig Gobba.jpg|Hey look! It seems that the last of the Gastric Brooding Frogs have evolved!
</gallery>

===Stalagsquig===
[[File:GloomspiteGitzDesignersNotes-Dec27-Stalagsquig10vx-1.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Stalagsquig]]

Squigs are highly adaptable creatures, taking a myriad range of forms. Some, for example, infest the rock itself, creating Stalagsquigs.

The Stalagsquigs are a what happens when orks and gobboz believe that <span style='color:green;font-size:100%'>"OIH DAT STONE FING OVER DERE LOOKS LIKE A BITEY SQUIG"</span> and as such the power of [[WAAAGH|WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH made it so.]] The species looks like normal stalagmites from afar but get close enough and you will be introduced to a stone skinned biting nightmare. This particular breed has yet to be seen in 40k but it is prevalent in Ye Age of golden hammer jackasses ([[Age of Sigmar]]).

It is unknown how these squigs move (if they move at all) since they seem to have no visible legs, unless it's a luggage scenario where it sprouts thousands of little legs from its base when it wants to move... WELP, have fun sleeping after thinking about that. Emperor damn, it's like the [[Chaos Spawn|chaos spawns all ov-BGRIHSRAJKHSJAHDSAIUOFDGHU.]] However, according to Warhammer Community, they are totally immobile and viciously hungry creatures that make exploring caves in the Mortal Realms an even worse idea than you thought it was.

As a side note there has been no recorded evidence on how big these squigs can grow to but seeing as how normal stalagmites can grow to be bigger than a skyscraper if given enough space we might have to worry about descending into caves in the foreseeable future.

===Swab Squig===
[[File:Swab.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Swab Squig.]]
The Swab Squig is a type of Hair Squig, but unlike the long trailing hair of its cousins, its round body is covered with short, fluffy fur. Orks use Swab Squigs to mop up during operations, and they come in handy for emergency handkerchiefs too. Despite looking like a giant fluffball they have a humongous mouth and are quite snappy too. Swab Squigs tend to share a comedic relation with [[Snotling|Snotlings]] due to the latter's mentally retarded habit of poking things that should not be poked, which often ends with the little snots running around having their asses bit by the Swab Squig.

Non-pettable by your local Commissar.

<gallery>
File:Squig-swab-2.jpg|It is wise not to pet something that looks cute....
File:Squig-swab-3.jpg|....Or else this happens.
</gallery>

===Syringe Squig===
[[File:Syringe.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Syringe Squig.]]
Syringe Squigs are primarily used for medicinal purposes. These medical Squigs have natural properties which Painboyz find useful when patching together battle-damaged Orks. Syringe Squigs have a long needle-sharp proboscises with which they inject venom into their prey. Syringe Squigs exude a soporific venom which makes a fine anesthetic for Orks when the traditional anesthetic (known to other races as a "concussion") is unavailable.

Syringe Squigs are divided by their sizes to 'small', 'big' and 'urty' which are used depending on the strength of the dose required. The venom is sometimes extracted from the creature and used separately for mixing up some kind of special 'medicine', or if a really large dose is needed.

There is also a special type of Syringe Squig called a '''Vaccine Squig''', whose own immune system produces natural vaccines and antibodies to a host of different pathogens that are extracted and used by Painboyz to aid diseased Orks.

===Tapewyrm Squig===
The Kruleboyz Orruk shaman Gobsprakk can summon a squirming swarm of Tapewyrm Squigs inside the stomachs of his enemies, sickening them and even causing them to explode in a shower of Waaagh! Magic like some sort of twisted DeviantArt fetish. Yeah.

===Tomb Squig===
[[File:Tomb_Squig_placeholder.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Tomb Squig]]
From old-school Warhammer, Tomb Squigs are an albino breed of burrowing squig that feeds on corpses and undead alike.

Often found in [[Dorf|Dwarfen]] tombs that have been broken open and looted, they are sometimes also found in graveyards where their presence often makes sure undead aren't present in these areas. Slightly smaller than regular Squigs, they possess amazingly powerful jaws for their size, which they use to break open stone sarcophagi and to bite through the ceremonial armour Dwarfs often bury their dead in.

At the cost of there being corpse-eating squigs, these critters are as likely to attack and devour the undead as the actually dead (and living as well). As such, Tomb Squigs can serve as a [[Just As Planned|nasty surprise]]; really ruining a tomb robber’s day as not only do they present a threat to life and limb, [[Troll|they can also destroy valuable weapons and armour hidden in the tomb.]]
Source: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Tomb_Squigs

===Tramplasquig===
[[File:Tramplesquig.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tramplasquig]]
A quadrupedal Squig breed that is large enough to drag large vehicles. Tramplasquigs are the rhinoceros of the Squig family and their poor temper makes them a popular beast of war as well as a versatile beast of burden.

The [[Beast Snagga]]s use them to carry their [[Kill Rig]]s and [[Hunta Rig]]s. Although they lack any other form of natural weapons other than their bulk and teeth, Beast Snaggas mount armored helmets with a giant blade on top to further maximize their carnage.

On tabletop, the Tramplasquig is essentially the vehicle itself. It works well in conjunction with its ferried troops. As such, the whole thing is no slouch in melee either, as it not only has the squig itself fighting but also a bunch of boyz to hack away. What it does really well is if you have the Ramming Speed stratagem, as it not only throws it at an enemy from further away but it also drops some MWs on top of that, which can help with wiping the mob.
{{Clear}}

===Vampire Squig===
[[File:Vampire.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Vampire Squig.]]
The Vampire Squig is a blood-sucking creature with long sharp fangs, used by Painboyz to bleed the patient and suck bad blood and pus from septic wounds. The Squig does not seem to mind what the blood is like or from what species it comes so long as it gets a regular and plentiful supply.

When times are hard (which for Orks is when there's not much fighting) the Painboyz are forced to find other ways to keep their pets alive, which they do by extolling the benefits of regular bleeding to otherwise healthy Orks. It is also a good way to earn tons of teef in a short amount of time.

=== Wyrdsquig ===

[[File:Wyrd.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Wyrdsquig.]]

A Wyrdsquig is a little known psychic Squig subspecies that has close genetic links to the Gnasher Squig. Despite their close relations, they are fucking hideous, looking more like an aborted love child between [[H.P. Lovecraft|Yog-Sothoth]] and the [[Halo|Timeless One.]]

This subspecies is rarely encountered in the wild and possesses psychic abilities similar to those of Ork [[Weirdboy]]z. The Wyrdsquig is often employed in battle as a "psychic bomb," releasing a catastrophic telepathic shockwave at the moment of its death. So in layman's terms, it is the Ork equivalent of a Imperial [[Grenades & Explosives#Psyk-Out Grenade|Psyk-Out Grenade]].

They are one of the few Warp-based weapons that the Orks utilize along with the [[Shokk_Attack_Gun|Shokk Attack Gun]] and [[Tellyport_Blasta|Tellyport Blasta]].

===Other Squigs===

The breeds of squigs are innumerable and there are a lot of other, little-known types of these creatures in existence. From tiny micro-organisms on Ork bodies to the gigantic beasts put in the Ork spaceships to create breathable atmosphere, each of them has an use in Ork society. Notorious breeds such as the yellow-spotted '''Facegnasha''', the greater '''Fang-gob''', or the infamous '''Leapin’ Deff''' are especially popular for their use as Bomb Squigs. In Age of Sigmar, it is further expanded with examples such as the '''Glo-Squig''' are a type bioluminescent squig used to light up Lurklairs of the Gloomspite Gitz. Most of the models below include original Squig models, although also included is a green, gelatinous blob that had two beady eyes, similar to a Japanese RPG Slime, which some fa/tg/guy thought was explainable as being like the Orkoid Fungus equivalent of a Slime Mold; searching has found that this is an unofficial model produced by a third party company, "Krakon Games". The idea for the model being a Slime Squig probably came from the old Games Workshop Troll boardgames aimed at children, specifically "Squelch!", one about Trolls playing a game involving stomping on Squigs; among the illustrated Squig Cards there is a little Slime Squig. There is also a Small, Hairy, Humanoid Squig, perhaps the Orkoid equivalent of a Gibbon, covered in what could be fungal cilia or mould, called a "Beastling" (see below), which is an older official model. There was a Squig with a face resembling a Grot's like the Cape-Bearing Squig, but with long, bendy tube legs like stilts. There were 2 spiderlike squigs, one with a face like an Ork's, the other with a massive piercing proboscis, called a "Coffin Crawler" which was responsible for feeding Tyranid Norn Queens. A White Dwarf Squig character was Niblitz, [[Gobbledigook]] the goblin/snotling's pet who resembled an attack squig covered in fuzz and with two little horns, who was often said to be "spiderlike" somehow. Niblitz may be the very first squig ever designed, as he first appeared before any other squig models. The Forest Goblins also used to be shown with Squigs who had arachnoid features, or even riding Spider-Squigs.
<gallery>
File:Squigs_Old_Mini.jpg
File:Retro_Squigs.jpeg
File:VariedSquigs.JPG
File:Niblitz.jpg
File: Forest Goblin Art 2.jpg
</gallery>
{{Clear}}
[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]

[[Category: Orcs & Goblins]]

[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]

[[Category: Gloomspite Gitz]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Orks]]

[[Category: Feral Orks]]

[[Category: Squigs]]

[[Category: Megafauna]]

{{template: Orks-Forces}}

Orc

2022-08-04T13:17:52Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
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::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
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::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

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::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
</div></div>

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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
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===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
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As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
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===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, were Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history. In theory, Greer may have been inspired by the earlier, Pigfaced Orc breeds, as shown in a photo below with a Scaley Orc female still having six breasts like a Pigfaced Orc sow.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model, official painting on their site. Forgot to thin their paints.
Great_Scaly_Orcs_2.jpg|Fan-painted Scaley Orcs. Now you can see how these guys are intimidating up close.
Scaley_Orc_Couple.jpg| A husband and wife in the war together. Notice the six breasts, a holdover from their Pigfaced Orc Ancestors.
</gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:54:13Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

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::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
</div></div>

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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
</div></div>

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history. In theory, Greer may have been inspired by the earlier, Pigfaced Orc breeds, as shown in a photo below with a Scaley Orc female still having six breasts like a Pigfaced Orc sow.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model, official painting on their site. Forgot to thin their paints.
Great_Scaly_Orcs_2.jpg|Fan-painted Scaley Orcs. Now you can see how these guys are intimidating up close.
Scaley_Orc_Couple.jpg| A husband and wife in the war together. Notice the six breasts, a holdover from their Pigfaced Orc Ancestors.
</gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:52:54Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
</div></div>

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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
</div></div>

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model, official painting on their site. Forgot to thin their paints.
Great_Scaly_Orcs_2.jpg|Fan-painted Scaley Orcs. Now you can see how these guys are intimidating up close.
Scaley_Orc_Couple.jpg| A husband and wife in the war together. Notice the six breasts, a holdover from their Pigfaced Orc Ancestors.
</gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:49:37Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
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::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

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::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
</div></div>

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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
</div></div>

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model, official painting on their site. Forgot to thin their paints.
Great_Scaly_Orcs_2.jpg|Fan-painted Scaley Orcs. Now you can see how these guys are intimidating up close.
</gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:48:31Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
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As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model
Great_Scaly_Orcs_2.jpg
</gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:48:21Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
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::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

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::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
</div></div>

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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
</div></div>

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model
Great_Scaly_Orc_2.jpg
</gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:44:33Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
</div></div>

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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
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As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model
</gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:43:24Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
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::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

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::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
</div></div>

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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
</div></div>

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model
<gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:40:42Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Cyclops Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
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As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:40:27Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Cyclops Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
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::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

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::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
</div></div>

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cyclopticb Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:37:49Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Gallery */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
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As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
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=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
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cyclops orc.jpg
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=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:37:26Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
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::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

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::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
</div></div>

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaly Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaly Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
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{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:31:17Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Gallery */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
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As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg
</gallery>

=Scaly Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaly Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaly Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually still have models made of them, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaly Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaly Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:30:39Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Gallery */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
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::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

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::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
</div></div>

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg
</gallery>

=Scaly Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaly Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaly Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually still have models made of them, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaly Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpg| Some Scaly Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
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{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Orc

2022-08-04T03:27:39Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:A993:73BA:9643:7020: /* Gallery */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
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;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
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===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
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As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
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===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
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=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
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cyclops orc.jpg
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=Scaly Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaly Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, we're Scaly Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards sitn faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually still have models made of them, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

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Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
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=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
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Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaly Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
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{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]