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What would be interesting to know is the proliferation rate of orks. Even if orks aren’t spread by some sort of fungal spores they are doing some sort of asexual reproduction. So in theory you could drop 1 ork boy on a planet and eventually there would be a whole society which would grow but be have regular internal conflicts that would temporarily reduce the population as the orks fight to find the best leader.

However worth noting that a fisticuffs beating is very unlikely to kill an Ork. So whilst I don’t doubt there is internecine attrition, it may work out to be fairly low. Provided there’s a Painboy around.

Yeah it's one of the things that makes Orks horrible - they're so innately resilient that they don't take physical harm seriously at all.

So it really is "all a bit of fun" for them, but if they do the same things to human captives it's brutal torture.

Orks are like Rangers in a Duece and a Half. How many can fit inside? Always one more.


How many Orks are here? Whatever you counted plus 10,000 more.

 Hellebore wrote:
There is an old piece of text that had imperial probes leave the galaxy only to relay the sounds of orks waaaghing, implying that the orks have spread everywhere.

where's that from? would be curious to see it myself

I recall that as well, was it 2e Codex Imperialis? Or maybe 3e Codex Orks? No longer have the books to check :(

From my internet research it's from Waaargh the Orks, and the specific quote was this:

Millennia ago, a probe was sent out from Terra, its mission to reach the utmost limit of the universe. The Techpriests who built it hoped that it would someday return to its place of origin after circumnavigating the universe. The probe still sends back faint signals after 14,000 years adrift, and hasn't yet begun it's return voyage (and it's uncertain if it ever will). To the utter despair of the Imperial Techpriests who monitor the incessant battery of incoming signals, many are identified as Orkish. The depressing conclusion for mankind can only be that wherever they travel in space, there's a good chance that the Orks will either have been there first or won't be long in arriving too.

So interestingly it would need to be a DAoT probe and capable of traveling faster than light (and sending signals faster than light). And it implies that not only have Orks left the galaxy but that humans also aspire to do so. Not really an idea that comes up in the later fluff to my knowledge.

I've never been under the impression that space hulks couldn't drift between galaxies since apparently they can even drift back in time, in which case Orks populating other galaxies via space hulk could be expected.

 Orkeosaurus wrote:
From my internet research it's from Waaargh the Orks, and the specific quote was this:

Millennia ago, a probe was sent out from Terra, its mission to reach the utmost limit of the universe. The Techpriests who built it hoped that it would someday return to its place of origin after circumnavigating the universe. The probe still sends back faint signals after 14,000 years adrift, and hasn't yet begun it's return voyage (and it's uncertain if it ever will). To the utter despair of the Imperial Techpriests who monitor the incessant battery of incoming signals, many are identified as Orkish. The depressing conclusion for mankind can only be that wherever they travel in space, there's a good chance that the Orks will either have been there first or won't be long in arriving too.

So interestingly it would need to be a DAoT probe and capable of traveling faster than light (and sending signals faster than light). And it implies that not only have Orks left the galaxy but that humans also aspire to do so. Not really an idea that comes up in the later fluff to my knowledge.

I've never been under the impression that space hulks couldn't drift between galaxies since apparently they can even drift back in time, in which case Orks populating other galaxies via space hulk could be expected.

the only extragalactic thing i remember seeing, besides the tyranids, is the time that the silent king spent in extragalactic space. not an area that gets explored often

With their Orkiforming capability, and millions of years of The Warp being all messed up? It’s perfectly plausible that at least some Ork Spacehulks have been inhabited for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, even millions.

Who knows where and how far they’ve drifted? Once infested, the Orks can ensure a sustainable environment and population, so basic survival food and drink shouldn’t be a huge problem. And when they do become scarce? Welcome to the Punch Up. Well. The biggerer punch up.

I bloody love Orks, me. They’re ace.