The hidden roots of orks.

[AranaszarSzuur]

So the official story is that Wh40k Orks are based on football hooligans.

But are they? When I searched for photos of English hooligans from the 80s I saw fairly regular looking people. Like if I'd meet them outside stadium I'd never even guess they are hooligans. Another thing that struck me in Rogue Trader was illustrations of Orks in stahlhelms and SA caps. So I found the hooligans story somewhat dubious.

When I got Book of Astronomican, my doubts were confirmed:

Orks were explicitly based on Nazis. And there's a type of "hooligans" that fit the ork aesthetic - that's neo-Nazis.

Another interesting thing is how Orks were used as a stand-in for Zulus in Massacre at Big Toof River and the Battle of the Ork's Drift.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

For sure, there is a venn-diagram of Neo-nazi > Football Hooligan > Skinhead in the 70s/80s. Not all belonged to all categories, but there was a lot of overlap, especially in media reporting. I think by the mid-late 80s, Casuals were more of a thing so football hooligans looked a lot less distinctive. A lot of the RT:Orks wear Skinhead uniform of bovver boots, baggy trousers and braces, so there are clear stylistic markers, although the everpresent 2000ad shoulderpads disguise the fact. Even the later Waaagh the Orks adopted the Two-Tone chequer-board pattern.

The "Orks are British Football Hooligans" line that people trot out (is it official?) itself is really problematic as the world hooligan itself is a pejorative against working classes, and despite the huge sums of money involved, football still has a working class following that other national sports, Cricket, Rugby, don't seem to.

IIRC Tolkien in one of his letters wrote about Orcs being cannon-fodder - victims of mechanised warfare "on both sides". Also used comedy cockney accents for Trolls, which is where I think GW stole that bit from.

Stahlhelms also feature a lot of 60s biker imagery, and we've got Sleazy Rider from the same period as RT. http://www.solegends.com/citle1990/numb ... /index.htm

Then there's stuff like actual propaganda: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/16786

Oh and FWIW pseudo-nazis as bad-guys weren't all that uncommon in 80s british kids pop culture. Red Shadows -https://gijoe.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Shadows_Trooper literally repaints of WW2 germans with new helmets, and there's stuff like Ralph Bakshis Wizards that has Nazi goblin / orc types, so it's hardly the most original concept.

 

[Loose Loser]

If I remember correctly, Kevin Adams said that Orc and Goblins are based on hooligans, so it might be on behavior side more that aesthetics. Trolls and Ogres without cockney are like D&D without Magic Missile.

 

[jon_1066]

The original RT Ork box set definitely had an Africa Korps vibe.

eg see front and center here

The hooligan thing was probably as much attitude as looks and dress. ie just really up for a scrap and it doesn't matter wot its about.

 

[dieselmonkey]

The original Orks were really based on a biker/Mad Max aesthetic, the 'hooligan' comments were really aimed at their attitudes towards fighting for no reason.