Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Do all orks that are not feral belong to one of the clans that are in the codex. The reason i ask this is due to the fact that for them being orks it feels very ridgid. I alsoam really not a fan of the color schemes id prefer to make my own.

There are lots of small clans and all orks don't belong to a specific clan. Young orks usually take their time to find their place in an ork society but I haven't read orks leaving a clan once they have joined it.

Ya, what Illuknisaa said. But I think they can leave a clan if they want, not many do though.

The ones in the codex are the main 6? i forget the number, but i belive 6, but that doesnt mean there are other clans
there are often merging of clans, like orks from one clan, orks from another clan, join together to make a hybrid so to speak, like my orks are either own clan, but have aspects of DeathSkulls and Evil Suns.

your thinking of clans as something an ork joins, like a club. a clan is an orKs natural afflitation to a certain way of life. orks dont choose a clan, they are born into that clan. its as easy to change as skin colour.
to answer the original question, i dont think so. there are certain kulturs (tankbusters,kommandos,lootas ect.) that stand alone but orks are pretty simple by nature; they like money, stealing, going fast and hitting stuff, which all the clans cover

if that was directed to me , thats what i mean, but my clan comprises of two clans merged say two small warbands of two different clans , but ruled by the leader of one ( for arguments sake) the deathskulls, so they unite under Banner of the deathskulls ork leader, but retain clan symbols etc preferences and the like individually.

If it wasnt directed at me, id agree with orkiod STD's response anyway, its in a much better worded way than mine

thats entirely possible yes, however it would be ulikely that the orks of the non-deathskull clans, lets say for ease theyre all snakebites, probably wouldnt like living under the influence of a warboss from another clan, and so would leave or get eaten by the aformentioned warboss. that is why tribes usually only have one clan in them.

Orks are inherently chaotic. Each clan is simply a loose association of Orks that happen to dress similarly, most of the time if a Warboss declares that he wants his army to be a certain color then nobody's going to argue with him (see the story about the Warboss who decided his army should be painted purple to make them sneakier, because nobody had ever seen an army painted purple). Either that, or you could assume that in the incredibly massive reaches of the galaxy, there are more than six broad organizations of Orks.

AnomanderRake wrote:Orks are inherently chaotic. Each clan is simply a loose association of Orks that happen to dress similarly, most of the time if a Warboss declares that he wants his army to be a certain color then nobody's going to argue with him (see the story about the Warboss who decided his army should be painted purple to make them sneakier, because nobody had ever seen an army painted purple). Either that, or you could assume that in the incredibly massive reaches of the galaxy, there are more than six broad organizations of Orks.

of course the categories are very broad but they are broken down by kultur. an ork in the red sunz might prefer riding in planes to bikes, or a blood axe will prefer making plans to sneaking around undergrowth. orks will usually find themselves in tribes led by warbosses of the same clan as they are, simply because they enjoy being there more.

And keep in mind Orks are glorified bullies, more often than not they want to do the bullying so they seek ways to be part of the biggest mobs and getting their way as often as possible. Smaller clans might be dominate on some worlds but where concentrations of orky population go so too do their achievements like space travel and the like as normally a mek will need tons of resources to have his own toys. I think a smaller clan would be fun you might be considered feral by most orks but have the ability to prove em wrong. Basically just have a good reason for titans and I think the rest is justifiable

Big Mek Wurrzog wrote:And keep in mind Orks are glorified bullies, more often than not they want to do the bullying so they seek ways to be part of the biggest mobs and getting their way as often as possible. Smaller clans might be dominate on some worlds but where concentrations of orky population go so too do their achievements like space travel and the like as normally a mek will need tons of resources to have his own toys. I think a smaller clan would be fun you might be considered feral by most orks but have the ability to prove em wrong. Basically just have a good reason for titans and I think the rest is justifiable

nope.a clan is not an organisation its a way of life; the only things the orks like doing fit into those six categories. pleez read my original post above

The clans, just like chapters, hivefleets, craftworlds, kabals, dynasties, septs, warbands, regiments and orders are only in place to justify colour schemes. So realistically, there'd probably be a whole lot of non-clan orks, but because Warhammer is a miniatures game, all the fluff has to abide by the rules set by the hobby. So yes, I'd say almost all orks are in clans...because of the tabletop game, not because of any logical reason.

Y'all are getting tribes and the klans mixed up.

A TRIBE is basically all the Orks in one place. They're all controlled by the Warboss/Warlord, who is the biggest, meanest, and greenest of the lot, so he's in charge and bosses the others around until someone bigger, meaner and/or greener beats him up and takes over. A tribe may have a set klan affiliation or not; it may contain members of each klan or only one; it wears whatever color the boyz who make it up like, or if the Boss has decided everybody has to wear one color, that's the color they wear. Tribes have nothing to do with the klans, they're purely location-based and change constantly. ALL Orks belong to a tribe, because they're extremely hierarchical and somebody is always in charge.

The Klanz combine two things; physical manifestations of the genetic engineering that created the Orks, and near-universal aspects of Ork kultur. Klans are defined more by philosophy than by physical characteristics; each klan attracts a different subset of the Ork population, and some of them overlap to some extent. It's entirely possible to 'leave' a klan, but then belonging or not belonging to a klan is kind of vague anyway, and some klans have physical aspects that you can't get rid of even after you've 'joined' another one. Furthermore, not all Orks belong to any klan, or at least not all Orks belong to warband which emphasizes the philosophy of any of the klans; the normal term for Orks in one of these 'mixed' warbands is Freebooterz.

There's six main klans. There may be other, less widespread ones, but these six count among their numbers the vast majority of all Orks.

Goffs comprise those Orks who are brutal, stubborn, straightforward and arrogant even by Orky standards. They're the ones who pick up the biggest choppa they can find and get stuck into the fight as fast as Orkily possible. They place a lot of emphasis on hand-to-hand combat to resolve disputes, they don't pay much attention to decorations, tactics, or wealth, and they consider the other Orks to be 'zoggin' panziez'. They tend to be bigger and stronger than other Orks, possibly because they do more fighting overall; they're also easily the most popular klan. The typical Goff units are Stormboyz and Nobz.

Blood Axes are those Orks more skilled in and inclined towards lateral thinking; they solve problems by methods OTHER than charging straight forward and killing everything that moves. They tend to be more sneaky, more inclined to negotiate, and a little less bloodthirsty. Blood Axes look ahead and anticipate future problems more than other Orks. They tend to attract the smarter Orks. The typical Blood Axe unit is Kommandos.

Bad Moons are the only klan that has a big, obvious physical aspect to them; Bad Moons grow more teeth than other Orks, which means they're richer. Bad Moons are ostentatious, snobbish, and generally armed to the teeth with flash gear and killy stuff. Their equipment is owned as much because it's expensive looking as because it's effective. The typical Bad Moon units are Flash Gitz and Meganobz.

Deffskulls are those Orks who don't have as many teeth as the Bad Moons but still love things, mostly stealing things. They're closely associated with Meks, and tend to be relatively wealthy because they're unrepentant thieves. Deffskulls are the force behind most of the 'Orks can loot anything' fluff. The typical Deffskull units are Lootas and Big Meks.

Snakebites are those Orks who generally distrust technology and prefer the 'old ways'. They breed a lot of squigs, make use of vast numbers of Gretchin, and dislike anything more technologically advanced then a shoota. Basically, they're hardcore traditionalists. The typical Snakebite units are Gretchin and Boyz.

Evil Sunz are those Orks who love to go fast. Really, REALLY love to go fast. Like the Deffskulls they have a close association with Meks, because pretty much without exception all Evil Sunz either own or want to own a vehicle of some kind, with Warbikes and Trukks being preferred for their ludicrous speed. The typical Evil Sunz units are Trukkboyz and Warbikers.

.... pretty much what i said allthough you got some things wrong, like stormboyz being goff units: much too organised for the goffs.

on a different note, some clans are a lot more likely to group together and are a lot more organised, fer example, snake bites have an entrance ritual.

I am coming back to war-gaming after a really really long time off and I have a decent ork battle force mostly build but am debating how to to paint them up. Is it cool to have different klans in the same tribe. For instance can I paint my two groups of Nobz in Trukks as Evil Sunz, my Gretchin as SnakeBites, My Lootas or Burnas as Deffskulls, My Killa Kans as Bad Moons, etc...? Or would this just look ridiculous and be frowned upon? Thanks for any insight you all have on this.

Orks of seperate clans will always put aside their differences to fight a common foe, so yeah...nothing's stopping you from having multiple clans represented in a single warband.

Though it does take a particularly powerful and influential warboss/warlord to keep that kind of tribe together between wars as inter-clan rivalries quickly resurface in "peacetime"

Yeah I went home and ended up popping open the book right to that page and read that. Ill be doing that and coming up with a bit of fluff for my tribe and in particular the warboss. Thanks.