Ixias wrote:Do orks have any concept of families? I understand that they don't really have parents and children, but are orks from the same "spore batch" considered brothers or are they just more Boyz? It seems like it would be hard to keep track of who else is from the same origin ork as you, but orks are a very strange race so you never know
Part of the reason I'm asking is because I was trying to think up fluff for my army and I considered having my mek and warboss be brothers. I then thought maybe that doesn't work (based on my above question) so I settled on the idea of them being twins, meaning a single spore produced two orks. Is that completely slowed or is it a common occurence?
One of the conceptual strengths of the ork genesis (emerging from spores as subadults) is that it neatly explains a lot of the orkish psychology and (lack of) ethics. Orks don't have a 'vulnerable' stage, where they require the care of other orks. They don't have older orks who have cared for them in their youth. The 'greenskins' smaller than them (gretchin and snotlings) will always be smaller, weaker, and inferior to them, and simply aren't worthy (to orks) of protection or care. They don't NEED to behave altruistically toward other orks, though they can certainly cooperate to attain shared goals. Thus, a lot of the human moral values of empathy, compassion, and nurture are simply foreign to orks.
Combined with this, orks actually experience benefits from domination and violence. Not only do they become larger and stronger through brutalizing other orks, this means that they also do not enter a weaker, more vulnerable stage as they become elderly (unless they get beaten down, but that happens regardless of age). Therefore, they also don't experience the social needs of caring for the elderly, either. Evolutionarily, humans (thanks to their long childhood and vulnerable infancy) NEED to have a psychological tendency to find babies cute, and to bond with their own children and parents. Orks don't, thanks to their emergence as competent adults complete with skill sets.
Because orks genuinely don't need some of the social ties and structures that humans need (caring for the young and the elderly), it makes more sense that their society is so brutal and rapacious. Orks can perhaps intellectually understand that human young are vulnerable and require protection, rather than being 'umie grots to put to work, but emotionally, I don't think that they would really understand human feelings like familial bonds (though I bet the smartest orks would be quick to cotton onto them as another vulnerability of the 'umies).
Having said all of that, I wouldn't bother about the two orks (warboss and big mek) being twins. Instead, you could simply have them both emerging from their spores at the same time, and fighting together against a common threat (say a feral squig) immediately. Two orks who have grown up always fighting together might be bonded in a similar way to brothers, even though this would be colored by the everpresent orkish propensity for violence. Indeed, both orks might actually WANT to dominate the other, but be a bit worried that they were too evenly matched. Even an ork is loathe to take on another ork if he's not reasonably confident that he will be the victor. Two orks who share a long personal history, and who have experienced a great deal of success together, might consider each other 'best mates'.
For a bit more humor, you might even have the Mek have a Bionik Arm, having "donated" his arm to the Warboss (which is possible thanks to robust orkish physiology). That would actually make him the Boss's "Right Hand Man".
