Half Orc? Half Goblinoid?

I got a half orc to add a bit of interest to my greenskins. Always took the FF/Titan line that Orcs/Goblins/Trolls/Ogres etc were to some extent interchangeable and could breed with other races. I also really like the sculpt.

One of the odd things with the GW lore for Orcs and Orks is that it made them not mammalian, and also single gender (male). The older Citadel lines did have some Orc women and children which were rather sweet, and there was still a female mini in the Blood Bowl range as late as 2nd Edition.

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Note the shield which went a bit melty in the Dettol but looks completely appropriate in the hands of a seasoned greenskin warrior.
 
ManicMan said:
^_^ Pizza time

when did they make them male only? probably after my time... would have to be post 4ed
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The sort of asexual reproduction thing came in with Waaargh The Orks for Rogue Trader and probably ended up getting ported over as a concept to the fantasy setting.

I think that Games Workshop were increasingly looking to make a separation between the different races and their armies in their games during the 90s polarising the differences between them. So concepts like half orcs which implies a degree of overlap between orcs and other races (consensual or otherwise) didn't really fit in anymore. Same with say, Imperial Dwarfs and some races which lacked their own usp like Gnomes.
 
yeah, I know the Rogue Trader book with complex name (It changes from the cover and intro page to the title page) though it's full information on Orks is.. kinda more complex then alot claim.

for example, Orks aren't Fungi, BUT they do have it mixed with them. They have a symbiotic green algae in their skin cells which had some of it since there original as the 'brainboyz' snotlings, which they breed it more into the Orks themselves. Their Blood changes colour based on what they ate, but the skin is too thick for the blood to affect the colour.

And I might be wrong but.. I believe it doesn't mention gender or breeding at all apart from family relationships.. I'll have to do a deep look through.
 
ManicMan said:
yeah, I know the Rogue Trader book with complex name (It changes from the cover and intro page to the title page) though it's full information on Orks is.. kinda more complex then alot claim.

for example, Orks aren't Fungi, BUT they do have it mixed with them. They have a symbiotic green algae in their skin cells which had some of it since there original as the 'brainboyz' snotlings, which they breed it more into the Orks themselves. Their Blood changes colour based on what they ate, but the skin is too thick for the blood to affect the colour.

And I might be wrong but.. I believe it doesn't mention gender or breeding at all apart from family relationships.. I'll have to do a deep look through.
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The source I'm referencing is Waaargh: Orks from 1990 which describes how elderly Orks leave their clans and go off to reproduce asexually. I've never read it but Lewis Davies does this and the non rules based background from Ere We Go (1991) on one of his podcasts.
 
I've not done as much as I would like, but I have been researching a bit of the orks stuff and.. I'm still not sure on the 'no gender' and 'asexual' reproduction because they kinda... show there lack of knowledge of biology.. Orks have no genders, but only SOME of them are able to create offspring... that is.. erm.. genders.. I can see why you don't THINK it's genders but.. They 100% have Genders in a more.. 'non' traditional way of thinking. Only some Orks have pouches and are able to create offspring near the end of their lives.
 
Space Ork reproduction is detailed in the Wild Ones section of Waaargh The Orks. The book describes the rise and fall of diminutive brainboyz who were overthrown by the larger gretchins and orks they created. The brainboyz owed their heightened intelligence to a fungus which the orks neglected to extinction whereupon the brainboyz regressed to become snotlings. Orkoids are green because of symbiotic algae.

Nigel Stillman certainly had a flair for sillyness. I'm guessing all this was his idea & not Ansell's, though he shoulders part of the blame.

I believe later material has them growing from spores which conveniently sidesteps a lot of ick. And I think there is a series of novels that made some orks as big as titans. I don't know if any of this carried over to the fantasy setting.

It's all just best ignored.
 

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orkwrangler said:
Space Ork reproduction is detailed in the Wild Ones section of Waaargh The Orks. The book describes the rise and fall of diminutive brainboyz who were overthrown by the larger gretchins and orks they created. The brainboyz owed their heightened intelligence to a fungus which the orks neglected to extinction whereupon the brainboyz regressed to become snotlings. Orkoids are green because of symbiotic algae.

Nigel Stillman certainly had a flair for sillyness. I'm guessing all this was his idea & not Ansell's, though he shoulders part of the blame.

I believe later material has them growing from spores which conveniently sidesteps a lot of ick. And I think there is a series of novels that made some orks as big as titans. I don't know if any of this carried over to the fantasy setting.

It's all just best ignored.
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Cheers that's it exactly.

I think there was a certain amount of impetus to make the 40k setting a bit more distinct rather than simply being what it originally purported to be which was Warhammer Fantasy in Space.
 
orkwrangler said:
Space Ork reproduction is detailed in the Wild Ones section of Waaargh The Orks. The book describes the rise and fall of diminutive brainboyz who were overthrown by the larger gretchins and orks they created. The brainboyz owed their heightened intelligence to a fungus which the orks neglected to extinction whereupon the brainboyz regressed to become snotlings. Orkoids are green because of symbiotic algae.

Nigel Stillman certainly had a flair for sillyness. I'm guessing all this was his idea & not Ansell's, though he shoulders part of the blame.

I believe later material has them growing from spores which conveniently sidesteps a lot of ick. And I think there is a series of novels that made some orks as big as titans. I don't know if any of this carried over to the fantasy setting.

It's all just best ignored.
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yep. but not quite. The Brainboyz were very smart, but got even smarter with the Fungus, so they created the others to work as a slave race which then over threw them.
 
The weirdest thing about Waaargh the Orks has nothing to do with what is printed on the pages.

It has zero binding. It's a bunch of loose pages and a hardback sleeve. Just as well it came shrink-wrapped. I bound mine with some cardboard and a bit of string. Fortunately the pages came pre-punched.

waaargh!.jpg
 
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Brother Meredith said:
So funny that the race that is the smallest and stupidest of the Orkoids was originally their rulers!! 😂
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fair enough ^_^ it's kinda a standard thing though based on how life on earth worked out. Animals like Humans developed their brain, so the rest of the body decreased, where as creatures who developed size and strength, had smaller brains cause they didn't need them. It's not a given that smaller creatures are smarter, just that was the general way evolution went based on what features were required.

reminds me of an old article/essay I read years ago, and was written even longer before on how to create a decent fiction species and thinking about things like evolution and reasons for features. with comments on some fictional species being soo poorly written due to how stupid some of the things they had were.. hell, when Stan Lee (in his words) 'got lazy with writing Origins) and started using Mutants, it kinda worked with the whole 'children of the atom' thing... but then later writers decided to change it to being 'human evolution' where it quickly made no sense and became less believable. and a reason you have to limit how much 'real world science' you put into your works.

The Basic background to the Orks with the brainboyz is quite believable compared to some. Shame Halliwell died soo young. He was not only a good game designer but had a kinda well thought out (though of course with all the fantasy elements too) background side. Not saying some of the others didn't either.

(I was gonna add a bit but that would have gone WAY too off topic ^_^)
 
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Looks like we've a day of politics then! ;) Wonderfully painted army, the checks in particular you've don really well and the earth palette keep the whole thing nicely tied together. I recognise Nigel in there (makes a surprising good face for a banner) and I guess that reads "The Company" at the top, harder to make out the lower text, to keep it friendly on the forum "those born out of wedlock" perhaps? The other two faces I'm not so quick to place.
 
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