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Simple question, really. Have there been any 'official' references to the color of Ork blood? i.e. do they bleed red?

Orks bleed green, due to the fungal strains in their DNA. This is also why their skin is green.

This should explain any other questions you have:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ork_Physiology

Ah, excellent, thank you.
I thought it might be green, but wasn't sure, and was pretty sure I'd seen both that and red on GW models.

Ugh, the everlasting horrible fluff mess-up of ork blood.

Here goes. *Deep breath*.

It has been described as green in the past, and has also been described with the same regularity as being black.

In Dawn of War it is red, however in the game's intro sequence it is black.

And in the book "Flight of the Eisenstein" it is specifically stated by a Space Marine as being red.

Help!

In order to bring all of the (contradictory) fluff under one 'correct' answer, I offer the following hypothesis:

Fungus comes in all different colors. Orks themselves (containing fungal DNA) come in a variety of colors, although most of them shades of green. I postulate that orkin blood is primarily green, with other colors being possible. The color of their blood is a genetic trait, passed down to further generations. Green would be the primary color, with other colors being less common (black and red being the next two most common). Perhaps it is a recessive trait, similar to human eye color.

Just a thought.

Exor wrote:Orks bleed green, due to the fungal strains in their DNA. This is also why their skin is green.

This should explain any other questions you have:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ork_Physiology

But fungi aren't all (or even mostly) green. There's simply no reason, from the fact that they are partially fungal, to assume that their blood is green. Also, regardless of the merits, overall, of Lexicanum, the Ork page has numerous (bordering on multitudinous) items which should be noted as controversial, if not outright false. For example:

A particularly favoured ingredient in their diet are Squigs, short for 'squiggly beasts' - a variety of symbiotic races about the size of a cat, but legless.


Given the gigantic amount of Ork material and artwork which has been provided for decades, including, but not limited to Gorkamorka, 'Ere We Go, and the Ork Codexes, there's simply NO way you could argue that squigs are universally "about the size of a cat" and legless. There are numerous models, descriptions, and illustrations of squigs with legs. There are numerous models, descriptions, and illustrations of squigs which are quite large, and others that are very small (including buzzer squigs and nut squigs). This page is riddled with errors, or, at the very least, riddled with statements which conflict with known GW material about Orks (orks have gills on their bodies? Is someone thinking a hair squig is part of the ork?)

Given that there has been fluff that Ork blood is green, black, or red, I would offer the following suggestion:

Red blood looks good on ork skin. This allows you to paint blood that looks visually arresting, and isn't confused with grease, oil, or grime. Green blood looks odd for orks, and does not usually provide a visually arresting image.

It really varies a lot. In Dawn of War it's red, in some fluff it's green, and in other fluff it's black.

Pretty sure it's black in WHFB too.

Da Butcha wrote:

Exor wrote:Orks bleed green, due to the fungal strains in their DNA. This is also why their skin is green.

This should explain any other questions you have:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ork_Physiology

But fungi aren't all (or even mostly) green. There's simply no reason, from the fact that they are partially fungal, to assume that their blood is green. Also, regardless of the merits, overall, of Lexicanum, the Ork page has numerous (bordering on multitudinous) items which should be noted as controversial, if not outright false. For example:

A particularly favoured ingredient in their diet are Squigs, short for 'squiggly beasts' - a variety of symbiotic races about the size of a cat, but legless.


Given the gigantic amount of Ork material and artwork which has been provided for decades, including, but not limited to Gorkamorka, 'Ere We Go, and the Ork Codexes, there's simply NO way you could argue that squigs are universally "about the size of a cat" and legless. There are numerous models, descriptions, and illustrations of squigs with legs. There are numerous models, descriptions, and illustrations of squigs which are quite large, and others that are very small (including buzzer squigs and nut squigs). This page is riddled with errors, or, at the very least, riddled with statements which conflict with known GW material about Orks (orks have gills on their bodies? Is someone thinking a hair squig is part of the ork?)

Given that there has been fluff that Ork blood is green, black, or red, I would offer the following suggestion:

Red blood looks good on ork skin. This allows you to paint blood that looks visually arresting, and isn't confused with grease, oil, or grime. Green blood looks odd for orks, and does not usually provide a visually arresting image.

It depends on your perspective. In terms of painting, i agree with you absolutely! But if we're talking fluff-wise, then the matter becomes very contradictory. We have to remember that not all fluff is true, and could quite easily be Imperial Propoganda and such like. I suppose it's up to the person to decide what is correct.

Orks are not orcs.

In the 40k fluff they are highly alien, a mix of fungus and algae.

In 'my' 40k that means I paint their tongues scaly green (a kind of blue/green) instead of pink. I paint their blood a scaly green/black mix. They aren't humanoid or even meat based, they are a plant/fungus.

It's the victim of many years of retcons, different writers and no solid answer. If you prefer your ork blood red, carry on.

YMDC!

I prefer it greenish black myself.

MeanGreenStompa: I thought they were a fusion of animal/fungus/algae (to the point where it's hard to tell where one ends and other begins)? Regardless, I agree-- they're completely inhuman, and their biology would utterly baffle a modern biologist (Which is part of the reason I, as a science major, find them so fascinating).

I thought it varied from being bright red all the way to black, depending on what they had just eaten. (I think I read something like that in the ork 'dex)

This is covered quite extensively in Waaargh The Orks!

Ork blood isn't just blood in the same way as humans, it also part of an ork's digestive process and the colour changes depending on what the ork has eaten recently.

Depending then on what was most recently consumed an ork's blood can vary from red, dark red, purple or even black.

So...orks can change color as well?

No. Ork hide is so thick that it appears green at all times; with variations of green depending on age, rank, recent wounds et cetera

So all these blue, red and yellow orks out there are wrong? Isn't it feasible that some worlds have different coloured orks due to exposure to a different light spectrum or other environmental stimuli?

Blue orks? Orks use war paint if that is what you mean but all orks have green skin.

If I remember waaaay back when i started gaming GW referred to Ork blood as green and I even remember seeing a golden demon diorama that featurd orks getting shot and bleeding green blood, so I always say green, but you can of course do what ever you like they're your models after all and if GW can change things to suit them then so can you! have fun with your army and in the kindest possible way i hope they bleed lots! :-)

In the fluff that i have read its yellow.

cadbren wrote:So all these blue, red and yellow orks out there are wrong? Isn't it feasible that some worlds have different coloured orks due to exposure to a different light spectrum or other environmental stimuli?

TLDR version: Yes, they're wrong, if you need a documentable example in published GW material for something to be right.

Yes, in the same way that it's possible to have a DIY Space Marine chapter where all the tacticals have goat heads. There are gaps scattered all around the body of 40k fluff. Some are intentional to leave room for expansion and creativity (like the multitude of unnamed SM chapters that leaves room for the home-brews) and others are oversights. By being somewhat vague, players are allowed a degree of freedom to add to/twist those elements to, say, justify red orks.

It's hard to call something "wrong" in a fantasy world where elaboration is encouraged, but there are still things that fly in the face of tradition and general opinion. Personally, I don't like the look of red orks, nor have I read any homebrew fluff justifying it that I actually found compelling. To me, orks are so thoroughly green that if you want to change that, you'd better go about it in a damn snazzy way. Others love the idea.

Personally, I'd like there to be a consistent, if not 100% rigid, answer. I like a bit of flexibility in the fluff, but sometimes it's nice to be handed the answer to "how should this look?" knowing full well that you can tweak it, if you'd like. If my orks are going to bleed, they'll probably bleed red. Why? I have plenty of red paint, it looks good, and I don't need one pile of bottles for ork blood and another for SM blood.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Orks are not orcs.

In the 40k fluff they are highly alien, a mix of fungus and algae.

In 'my' 40k that means I paint their tongues scaly green (a kind of blue/green) instead of pink. I paint their blood a scaly green/black mix. They aren't humanoid or even meat based, they are a plant/fungus.

It's the victim of many years of retcons, different writers and no solid answer. If you prefer your ork blood red, carry on.

YMDC!

I disagree with that. I read somewhere that orcs origin is from fungie that grew on the Old Ones ships that landed on the Warhammer world. So they could be the same orks just living on the warhammer world.

You "read somewhere".

So where was it? Cite your source. GW has been moving away from linking WFB and 40k since third edition.

In the history of humanity, which, relative to deep time is but the mere batting of a squig's eye, on a single, small and insignificant blue planet a diversity of skin colours has developed.

Given that orkses are always fighting getting deaded and stuffed to sporedom...
across a vast universe of countless planets, it seems highly likely that orkish skin would be divers colours.

Though it is feasible that the blood will always be green
or black
or blue etc etc

cos in the beginning it was thus writted.

Ork skin is indeed invariably described as a shade of green, going darker and darker as they become bigger and stronger.

Ork blood however is described in various ways. The only consistency about Ork blood is that is smells horrible.

well to end this with an official GW answer ork blood is red. Page 52 of Chapter Approved second book of the astronomicon the question is asked and GW explains. (paraphrase) "accordingly the green pigmentation is only in their skin. photosynthesis according to their answer does not affect the coloration of other tissues such as blood plasma. it is often more red than homosapiens however due to the enhanced capacity for carrying oxygen through orks bodies.

So that begs the question of how they get iron to colour the blood red
I hope they are eating their spinach.

You can't have any squig pudding till you've eaten yer greens or you will never grow up to be a big nob, young grot!

Spinach also contains calcium which is important for bone growf and teef.

Look at what it did for Popeye.

Yeah spinach also explains the stutter and other convulsions

I always though of it as red (DOW) but I can see why people think of it as green or black. When I paint orks I generally paint scars, ect red as green and black just don't look as good.

this is all conjecture and player choice...
origionally in fantasy[1980's] most ork models had either brown, red or black

PURPLE!

cant see why it hasnt been mentioned.....

looks good on skin, and is a cool color for blood...