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Perusing the Dakka Gallery and even on a lot of other modelling/painting pages I have noticed some really cool not green green-skins. This lead me to wonder if there were any "ethnic" diversity to the orks in the 40k or even fantasy universes? In other words, different skin colors aside from "green" I really liked a stone white ork nob I saw so it lead me to search for others. As in this guy below!

No, fluff wise all orks are green as they are like a fungus. They are green for the same reason plants are green: chlorophyll.

wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Orkoid_physiology

I have considered "painting" my orks blue, but try and make it obvious that the orks are attempting to use face paint to make them look cooler (and sometimes miss and say cover up an eye).

I did not know that that was why they are green. DUH! .... is all chlorophyll green then?

Yes, and since it is what is necessary to carry out photosynthesis, it is always near the surface and so the color of whatever it is in.

The orks in the BL novel Gunheads had reddish-brown skin because of the constant dust storms on their home planet of Golgotha.

If orks run on sunlight than why do they need all those squig pies?

In the prehistoric era of citadel you can find some orks with brown skin painted by the studio, I think they are in the book "heroes for wargames"

 RoadToRuin wrote:
If orks run on sunlight than why do they need all those squig pies?

in a word, Minerals.

even plants don't get everything from sunlight, they get everything else from the ground through their roots.

 Lotus wrote:
No, fluff wise all orks are green as they are like a fungus. They are green for the same reason plants are green: chlorophyll.

This of course is right up there with Depleted Deuterium.

Deuterium cannot be depleted, and Fungi by definition do not contain chlorophyll, which is why Fungi are rarely green.

I have to say I LOVE that albino ork, not only does it look cool, but the colouring is not dissimilar to many mushrooms, which makes much better sense for orks if they are fungus.

Just a side note, things are only the color they seem due to the light from the sun. Not all suns burn like our sun and give off the light our sun does. I have a friend who painted his army the strangest of purples but called them and used ultramarines stuff and fluff. He claimed this was cuz the light on the planet was influenced by particle layers in the atmosphere making there blue look purple. I thought it was interesting concept however impractical in its practicality. He later used glow in the dark paint to paint his nids. The orks shouldn’t be green since as it was already pointed out fungus has no chlorophyll nor should they bleed red blood or have white eyes red mouths so on and so forth. So long story short paint them how you want.

Orks are a fungoid race.

They have algae in their system that is genetically built in, it is symbiotic, it synthesizes sunlight and feeds the ork in the same manner as many of earth's corals, the ork can augment this with any and all manner of animal or vegetable matter, which directly feeds the fungoid part of their makeup.

Chlorophyll is not always green, it certainly exists in reds as well. Plants can be found throughout nature that have red leaves and red plants typically enjoy very direct sunlight.

I think reds, browns, blues etc might be possible given the ork's remarkable adaptive design, but the 'designed' ork has a green algae in it's system.

Thanks for the input. Hadn't really thought of the plant/fungi differences before. So either way, sunlight bears some relationship with their skin pigmentation? Glow in the dark orks might look cool, but not so great for sneakin n clubbin imo, lol

 mjl7atlas wrote:
Thanks for the input. Hadn't really thought of the plant/fungi differences before. So either way, sunlight bears some relationship with their skin pigmentation? Glow in the dark orks might look cool, but not so great for sneakin n clubbin imo, lol

The algae grows in their skin, giving it the green appearance, as long as they have access to any light at all, orks will show a strong color. I can't think of an example in the lore of any non-green orks that I've read, but algae can be all sorts of colors according to it's light intake. Seaweed is all giant 'macroAlgae' and it comes in all the colors of the rainbow, so there's no problem in orks in your army being whatever color you want.

The algae means that orks can survive on any planet given an atmosphere of sorts and light, they can go for an indefinite amount of time without food as the algae is producing starches in their system to feed them.

In darkness, without the light to nourish their algae side, the fungus side comes to the fore and provided it gets fed (soil, plants, animals, anything organic) they can prosper there as well.

That's all part of why they are the doomsday weapon of the ancients. Their capacity to flourish in almost any conditions by their incredibly primitive and durable design.

Tyranids need to adapt to each environment, produce specialist life forms to conquer the planet, orks come in a 'one size fits all' template prepared for all terrains, and their own bodies terraform (orkaform) the worlds they arrive on.

That is why the Ork is the most perfect conquering form of life in the galaxy.

Actually in Gunheads the Orks are more of a Rust Color rather than Green i understand the issue with photosynthesis but do orks not also eat Squigs as a source of food ? so is it possible that orks do not require to photosynthisize after a certain point . Not a biology major but thats what i understood , with Gunheads by Steve Lyons

One thing to consider is that while photosynthesis is a good energy source for something that just sits around all day, the activity level of an animal requires a good bit more energy.

http://what-if.xkcd.com/17/

While the orks get a boost from photosynthesis (and in extreme circumstances where there's nothing to eat could probably just sit in the sun and stay alive) it can't really be a primary energy source for them.

 Bludbaff wrote:
One thing to consider is that while photosynthesis is a good energy source for something that just sits around all day, the activity level of an animal requires a good bit more energy.

http://what-if.xkcd.com/17/

While the orks get a boost from photosynthesis (and in extreme circumstances where there's nothing to eat could probably just sit in the sun and stay alive) it can't really be a primary energy source for them.

I second this

 Bludbaff wrote:
One thing to consider is that while photosynthesis is a good energy source for something that just sits around all day, the activity level of an animal requires a good bit more energy.

http://what-if.xkcd.com/17/

While the orks get a boost from photosynthesis (and in extreme circumstances where there's nothing to eat could probably just sit in the sun and stay alive) it can't really be a primary energy source for them.

Well, they do eat, they eat prodigiously, and I'd agree that not eating for prolonged periods would slow them down, but designing a soldier that can just rest, take a sunbathe and then be capable of continuing to function where anyone else (aside from necrons) would have starved to death is pretty cool.


And again, because some folks have not got this down, the fungoid part of the ork is constantly devouring the algae part, jellyfishes and corals do this all the time, it's like using the inside of your body to garden food, except this was designed by the ancients to fuel a supersoldier, so whilst it has parallels in the real world, it certainly doesn't have equals.

I feel a bit like Ash in Alien when I talk about orks, because they really are the most perfect things in the 40k universe in their design to fight and survive. Too stupid to be afraid, active enjoyment of the violence that surrounds them, they flourish in combat, they can fuel themselves with starlight, they can build functioning arcane weaponry from basic scrap, they reproduce at the rate of 1:1000< and they come with an inbuilt genetic ecosystem and caste system.

The rest of the universe should really take it's ball and go home, because they are going to inherit the cosmos.

Orks are green. Orks are plant/animal hybrids. Orks cannot be defeated. Ever.

End. Of. Discussion.

You people do play GW games right?

BLACK Orks.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lotus wrote:
No, fluff wise all orks are green as they are like a fungus.

I have yet to see a green mushroom. Algea on the other hand...

Orks in a biological-looking colour scheme? (Greens, reds, browns, e.x) Fine by me, looks cool, looks plausable, and you could come up with fluff to support it.

Orks in non-biological colours (Bile yellow, silver, purple) Less cool, less logical.

Remember though, you can always have orks warpaint it up. Blue is lucky, red goes faster, purple is sneakier, black is stronger, all that good stuff

Also. Orks can get dirty. Voilla, there is your red orks, from a dusty red planet like mars. There is your black orks, from a planet with tar-filled swamps. And so on. Orks don't bathe, and they won't understand this "fow-tow-sin-te-sis-wotsit's" anyway, so they wouldn't wash it off.


Last but not least. It's your army. If it looks good to you, if you like it, then just do it, and to hell what anyone else think's. You can't be told how to have fun.

Chlorophyl more like BORE-ophyl. That be a Billy Madison reference for you youngins. Algea fungus hybrid are lichens. Very hardy. Smog and fire are the only thing that kills that stuff f err om what I've read. A lot of novels say. "Called greenskins... though they are more like a brown color" I am glad they are green and not a pasty humie complexion or pale like space elves.

Well now that I got this fungi and chlorophyll information, I looked up the pictures of fungi and there is literally every color from red, yellow, white, to glow in the dark!. Cool stuff. But the other part of the question I needed to add was what determines what comes out of the spores? Some are orks, others are grots or squigs and other things. Do they farm these spores too?

 mjl7atlas wrote:
Well now that I got this fungi and chlorophyll information, I looked up the pictures of fungi and there is literally every color from red, yellow, white, to glow in the dark!. Cool stuff. But the other part of the question I needed to add was what determines what comes out of the spores? Some are orks, others are grots or squigs and other things. Do they farm these spores too?

Finally my Microbiology degree has a use!

I imagine Ork spores are a bit like human stem cells. Have you ever wondered why 1 fertilised egg cell becomes a mass of sentient brain cells, beating heart muscle, Liver,Kidneys, blood, hair and teeth etc?
The truth is every cell in your body has the genes to express these, but the tissue they become is designated by what genes are expressed and what are silenced. Our body uses transcription factors guided by hormones and other chemicals to turn on certain genes. Once this has happened a cell will permanently become a specific tissue type.

Ork spores would probably contain millions of genes, and where a spore lands it will be affected by outside influences. perhaps if it lands in arid infertile soil it will become a nutrient creating mushroom to feed the Orks that grow from spores that land on softer more nutrient rich soil.

Think this sounds unrealistic? We are 50% Banana.!
It isn't unreasonable that if an Ork only expresses 50% of it's genes it becomes a mushroom.

Chlorophyll will be whatever color is least prevalent in the spectra of the light that the planet receives. Because black pigment is ridiculously expensive to make biologically. It's green on earth because the Earth receives very little green light.

Colors that you'll never see are blue or violet, as these are pretty high energy spectra that are always good to receive. Red, Yellow, and Orange are possibilities though.

a model painted like that would actually imply that he is a yoof. Very young, not particularly good at anything, his skin would get greener as he gains more skill.

As an ork ages and gets bigger and stronger his skin gets greener and darker. The oldest and biggest orks are so green they're almost black.

So there is variation in ork skin color, but its from age. Orks are also known to paint their skin.

 mjl7atlas wrote:
nutrient creating mushroom

Hey man, completely off topic question here that maybe you can help me with. People often mention certain plants as either being a good source of X, or adding X to the soil. An example would be legumes that add... nitrogen I believe to the soil.

Do they do this by manufacturing those compounds from others in the soil, or do they simply draw out particular minerals in their growth which we can then digest, etc.

As for the thread... uhhh.... Orks iz green? Didn't know that Orks get darker as they age, though I do remember reading that ages ago. Guess I'm gonna incorporate that into my many AoBR warbosses when I finally get around to painting them

IIRC Legumes add Nitrogen to the soil from the Bacteria that live in their root systems.

They take the free Nitrogen from the air and create nitrogenous compounds as waste product, which the plant can use and the excess is then left in the soil.


Most minerals needed by living beings are not needed in their elemental form but rather have to be in compounds for the body to use them. This is why mineral water is a ripoff, most of the minerals are not in a form usable by your body. They either pass right through, or build up in your system(kidney stones). Plants on the other hand can either use elemental minerals or have symbiotic bacteria that can.

Cheers for clearing that up. It's been bothering me for ages and I don't even know why I even started thinking about it in the first place lol

Totally dig the stone white ork. You could just say they came from a dying world caused by mold.