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.

Right i am in no way shape or form an Ork nut with a bunch of knowledge about them but i was wondering why Orks dont turn to chaos (or do they?) i assume it has something to do with Gork and Mork but yeah anything you can clear up would be grand

 MrBlackledge wrote:
Right i am in no way shape or form an Ork nut with a bunch of knowledge about them but i was wondering why Orks dont turn to chaos (or do they?) i assume it has something to do with Gork and Mork but yeah anything you can clear up would be grand

"We don't fight fer food, or fer teef, or guns, or cos we's told to fight. We fight cos we woz born to fight. And win."

That's why.

More they fight for just fighting, its built into there genetic make up. Seems to me there almost too warlike, they just love to fight.

For any reason from a full on war of Armageddon to a fight over who gets the better pot of stew in a ork camp.

Because they retconned Chaos Orks out mostly.

ahh right so they dont turn because they dont care?

i thought that they all had some sort of latent psychic ability surely thatd make them susceptible to Chaos?

I think it's just because Orks are so single minded and driven. It makes them "pure" in their own perverse way. You can't corrupt something that has such a narrow set of needs. Ork society is fully equal in the sense that anyone can fight their way to the top, so there is no need to plot against your leader when you can just whack him and take his place with no moral repurcussions for the rest of your society, so Tzeentch is out. They don't feel despair in the way that a human does so Nurgle is out of luck. They're A-sexual and their society doesn't really have "taboo" as such, so their isn't a need for Slaanesh. In fact decadence pretty much goes against every fibre of their desires, the struggle to survice is an Orks reason to live. Even Khorne doesn't hold much sway for them, because they have more of a gleeful joyous approach to war, rather than being driven by rage.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:
Because they retconned Chaos Orks out mostly.

Yes, I remember, back when the GW site had actual content and articles on it, there was a little piece on how Orks can still be mutated by chaos (albeit rarely).
It was mostly to show off some guy's conversion skills, but it was an interesting read.

FREEbooterz (RT) had army list entries for possessed weirdboys, mutated orks, chaos warbands , khornate stormboys , so yeah they did turn to chaos just rarely and it was younger orks that seemed to be more vunerable to the taint of chaos. I would say Orks are basically immune to chaos as they have the most stable, angstless society in the 40k world. I can imagine chaos trying to taint them going something like this.

Chaos: I can give you unlimited power.
Ork: OK i want a bigger gun
Chaos : I can give you more, I can give you powers beyond your dreams...
Ork: But I want a bigger gun.
Chaos : I can give you a whole galaxy to rule over.
Ork: Look are you giving me a gun or what , bugger this i'm out of here, the boyz are going to think I'm going all weirdy talking to the air and stuff. Where's that mekshop?

Chaos orks have been mentioned as well as had character write ups in the Black Crusade supplements.

Orks are known to have some level of gestalt psychic ability that doesn't typically translate into conscious application (i.e. Weirdboyz) but works synergistically with all other Orks.

In terms of defense against Chaos, Orks are protected by a sort of herd immunity not unlike the way humans are protected from viral infection by immunizations. Individual orks that are separated from others can show susceptibility to corruption by Chaos, and there have been examples of this throughout the Lore. Typically though, the subjects are in small numbers and their corruption appears from some concerted effort by the Chaos gods.

It is also worth remembering that Orks, like Eldar, are products of the Old Ones. Their ability to negate the effects of Warp corruption undoubtedly come from them.

Orks lack alot of the mental handicaps like fear, doubt.uncertainty that humans create for themselves. They can sometimes be though of as 'stupid' because of that, but they are in fact extremely uncomplicated, straightforward people and this gives them a huge advantage when it comes to the warp (which is shaped by thought and belief.) IT manifests in the nature of their warp gods, the whole WAAAAGH effect (Red ones going faster, etc.) and it contributes, I suspect, a great deal to their resilience to Chaos corruption (there are few if any 'levers' so to speak.)

On top of that I remember reading in the fluff that Orks tend to view Chaos Orks as 'un-orky' and will kill them if they find them, so given that they're already likely to be a minority to begin with, it would probably take an extremely unusual set of circumstances to put orks in a position to be successfully corrupted by Chaos AND survive. And if it happens (and the few examples I remember) its most likely to be towards Khorne. Cuz War and all that.

Orks can and do fall to Chaos, it's just not common, because it's rare for an Ork to have any angle by which Chaos can function.

Also, their gods, Gork & Mork, are the most powerful entities in the Warp. They constantly fight amongst one another, but if another of the Powers tries to attack them, they turn from their own fight and gang up on that one and beat the piss out of it, and then go back to their own fighting.

Khorne offers strength. Orkzez iz the strongest dere iz!

Slaanesh offers pleasure. Orkzez already have all the fun they need eatin' drinkin' fightin' and lootin'!

Nurgle offers freedom from fear. Orkzez fear nuffin already!

Tzeentch offers knowledge. Orkzez already know everyting dey need ta know ta be Orkz!

Ork souls are pure and complete. There is no yawning emptiness inside them for the Gods of Chaos to take advantage of. If an Ork is hungry, he eats. If an Ork is thirsty, he drinks. If an Ork is bored, he finds something to fight. If he wants something, he takes it. (Usually after hitting the previous owner on the head.) Because Ork souls are complete, Chaos has a hard time corrupting them. They are, however, very easy to manipulate.

 Psienesis wrote:
Orks can and do fall to Chaos, it's just not common, because it's rare for an Ork to have any angle by which Chaos can function.

Also, their gods, Gork & Mork, are the most powerful entities in the Warp. They constantly fight amongst one another, but if another of the Powers tries to attack them, they turn from their own fight and gang up on that one and beat the piss out of it, and then go back to their own fighting.

If memory serves me the claims of the mightiest entities in the warp isn't as exact as one being straight up better than another. The codices I believe contradict each-other. That being said, yeah it's a thing, just a very minor thing because not that many orks can gain something out of chaos (nor do many probably live long enough for corruption to take hold)

There used to be Storm Boyz of Khorne

And Nurglorks.

Warpheads used to be weirdboyz who'd been possessed by a Deamon that got trapped inside their skull.

Well the thing is, chaos brings out the worst of a flaw when it comes to humans, but since orks are extremely simple creatures who have 1 purpose and no flaws at all really, then chaos can't bring out the worst in them, because "the worst in them" is completely absent.

Chaos Orks has never been retconned to my knowledge. On several times they came up though, it's been stated that they're really rare.

Besides many of the mentioned reasons above, there's also the fact that Orks already have their own gods. And honestly, from an Ork perspective, Mork and Gork are pretty gosh-darn swell gods. Why worship Khorne who won't let you feel pleasure or woship Slaanesh who doesn't want you overcome by hate when Gork and Mork let you have both?

In the current ork codex an ork warlord led his Waargh into the Eye of terror, for a laugh.

He and his remaining retinue end up being reborn daily on a Khornate planet to struggle with the daemons there. It implies that they come back as orks, not as a chaos spawn things.

The Khorne daemons get a fight out of it, so they are happy, so are they orks.

My take:
I get the impression chaos cannot hurt you except though physical violence or deception. So a bloodthirster can cut you up, but cant corrupt you unless you allow it to. Most humans dont realise that they can say no to chaos, Daemons being very persuasive in thier message that your doomed.
Orks on the other hand really dont care.

This answers a lot of questions, it explains how faith works in the 40K universe, it explains how it is possible to fight Nurgle forces at all wirthout giviung everything hermetically sealed suits and explains why nids arent afraid to bite them.
The spirit must first be contaminated for the body to be contaminated.

 MrBlackledge wrote:
ahh right so they dont turn because they dont care?

i thought that they all had some sort of latent psychic ability surely thatd make them susceptible to Chaos?

That latent psychic ability is tied to Gork and Mork. its called the Waaaaagh field.

Gork and Mork are more powerful than the Chaos Gods combined, so that is why its very rare to find Chaos Orks.

Orks are so single-minded that it's usually impossible to sway them for any length of time. The only thing you can be sure of is that you eventually will have to fight them.

Bribe them to do something? Sure, but then they know you're weak sice you didn't just kick the boss and demand instead. They'll take the bribe and maybe do the job before coming back to demand more.

Manipulate them with words? Well, if you promise a good fight or loot they'll probably go there if it's not too inconvenient. But don't expect gratitude - they'll take your stuff (and life) too if they fancy it, and anything you wanted left intact might be blown up because why not?

Offer an alliance? Hurr, hurr... If you're so weak you need allies then any reasonable ork will krump you and take your shinies.

Threaten them with force? That's starting a fight, and orks love it! Have at you!

The orks despise anything oposing them, but they do not fight for glory or justice, they only fight for the sake of fighting. Orks are not orks without fighting (they grow bigger each battle they win and survive).
Orks cannot be "tamed" in any way, they are immune to chaos or any other force that want them to fight with them. If there is any race brave enough to underestimate the orks and insult their reputation in that manner, beware, for they will unleash the Waaaaaaagh!!

People turn to Chaos mostly because they're dissatisfied with life. Khorne offers a vent to your frustration, Slaanesh gives an escape from boredom, Nurgle offers unconditional love and safety from death or infirmity by disease, Tzeentch offers you the tools to change your lot in life.

Orks are perfectly happy with their lot in life. Chaos offers them nothing, and the Orkoid prejudice against unorky things makes Chaos even less attractive.

Orks fight and kill because it's fun, it's all a laugh riot to them. About the most decadent thing they do is get smashed on fungus beer and brawl. Orks have no concept of family or love beyond who bosses who around and favorite weapons, vehicles, or enemies, and are extremely resistant to disease (and on a planetwide scale, are a disease in of themselves). And every Ork is born knowing all they need to know, and just being given knowledge or books or dataslates and what not isn't nearly as fun as "expereemuntashun".

Some Orks do fall, but it's such a small percentage of Ork kind that the followers of Chaos find it easier to just pay Ork war bands if they need their services.

Humanity is pretty unique among the major species in how rife Chaos corruption is among it. Every other species with truly galactic pull has a laundry list of defences against it.

 StarTrotter wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
Orks can and do fall to Chaos, it's just not common, because it's rare for an Ork to have any angle by which Chaos can function.

Also, their gods, Gork & Mork, are the most powerful entities in the Warp. They constantly fight amongst one another, but if another of the Powers tries to attack them, they turn from their own fight and gang up on that one and beat the piss out of it, and then go back to their own fighting.

If memory serves me the claims of the mightiest entities in the warp isn't as exact as one being straight up better than another. The codices I believe contradict each-other. That being said, yeah it's a thing, just a very minor thing because not that many orks can gain something out of chaos (nor do many probably live long enough for corruption to take hold)

One of them is the God of Brutal Cunning. The other is the God of Cunning Brutality. One of them will hit you when you're looking, and the other will hit you when you aren't.

Orks cannot decide on (or remember) which is which, and this is why they fight amongst themselves. But then, rarely, you get a Boss who speaks with the voice of Gork and Mork. And that's when a really, really, REALLY big WAAAAGH!!! gets going.

The ork gods are much, much more powerful than the chaos ones anyways. Especially because the orks themselves are nearly as godlike as their gods.

To continue my example, Chaos nearly always emerges out of societies in decay that creates unhappy people.

The Eldar Empire in it's last days was like a cocaine addict that needed a bigger and more extreme fix constantly until he ended up overdosing so spectacularly he exploded into a self-perpetuating nuclear detonation of crack and I think I just lost all relatability with this metaphor.

The Imperium is not a beacon of social justice in any way shape or form, and so ends up breeding the sort of conditions and unhappiness that let Chaos cults seep in and take hold among people who would like to try anything but what they're in right now.

The Orks? Give them some beer, a grot to kick around, and something to fight and they're happy as can be. Much like how people satisfied with their lot in life very rarely turn to crime, people who are happy with the state of the Imperium/Insert Minor Xenos polity here very rarely turn to Chaos without forcible corruption, and the Orks are one of the only factions in 40k who are legitimately having a good time.

In the grimdark future of humanity, Orks are having a good time.

They have no need. They desire nothing more than to fight, and since what is required to whet their beaks is never further away than another Ork, Chaos has nothing to offer them.

I loved the old fluff behind a Possessed Weirdboy. The Daemon can offer nothing the Ork wants, can't take control, so becomes trapped in the Orks head, and often goes insane!

The Ork does get someone to talk to though

Psienesis wrote:Gork & Mork, are the most powerful entities in the Warp.

Grey Templar wrote:Gork and Mork are more powerful than the Chaos Gods combined, so that is why its very rare to find Chaos Orks.

Ailaros wrote:The ork gods are much, much more powerful than the chaos ones anyways.

Warhammer 40,000, 6th edition Rulebook, page 144 wrote:Warp space is not an empty void, but an infinite and incomprehensible realm inhabited by many strange entities, the most powerful and dangerous of which are the four Great Gods of Chaos - Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh