Orcs vs Orks

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**Praxiss**

Why the change in name between fantasy and 40k?

is it just to separate the fluff or is there more to it than that? Some sort of IP or legal thing?

Are they the same species?

**Space_Potato**

It's just so people don't immediately think "Orcs in Space".

Whilst the 40k breed shares many similarities with WHFB Orcs (design and mannerisms), they are not necessarily the same creatures.

And for those that still don't believe that they aren't the same:
If they are the same race, where did all the trolls go?

S_P

**BluntmanDC**

Its because WHFB and 40k are not linked. Its the same as Eldar not being called elves and dark elves in space.

**Praxiss**

Fair enough. Just idle thinking.

**Harriticus**

It's a clever trick by GW to fool buyers into thinking the Orcs and Orks aren't the same. "Drop the c and add k...They'll never know the difference!!!!"

Unlike the Eldar who are vastly different from the FB High Elves the Orks are pretty much the same as the Orcs though.

**Melissia**

No they aren't. Orcs in fantasy are a mammalian race which reproduces sexually, who have no real technical ability and are basically nothing more than barbaric hordes that rely on captured slaves for industry.

Orks, however, are a fungus-based race with mammalian attributes who reproduce asexually, and have innate technical ability (mekboyz innately understand the concepts of various forms of engineering so that they can experiment and create mechanical objects for the Ork race, mostly guns and vehicles, while painboyz understand the concepts of medicine and so on), and have a far more developed culture.

They're quite different from eachother-- at first glance they appear similar, but at a deeper glance that impression changes.

**Cheesecat**

Melissia wrote:No they aren't. Orcs in fantasy are a mammalian race which reproduces sexually, who have no real technical ability and are basically nothing more than barbaric hordes that rely on captured slaves for industry.

Orks, however, are a fungus-based race with mammalian attributes who reproduce asexually, and have innate technical ability (mekboyz innately understand the concepts of various forms of engineering so that they can experiment and create mechanical objects for the Ork race, mostly guns and vehicles, while painboyz understand the concepts of medicine and so on), and have a far more developed culture.

They're quite different from eachother-- at first glance they appear similar, but at a deeper glance that impression changes.

GW changed the fluff Orcs reproduce like Orks now.

**Melissia**

So it's closer to say Orcs are like Orks then?

**DaNewBoy**

In FB the black orcs were created by the Chaos Dwarves and the 40k the orks skin gets darker as he ages.

If Orcs=Orks then I would suppose Goblins=Grots?
If so I'd really like to see the grots more developed, like the FB goblins are.

**Cheesecat**

Melissia wrote:So it's closer to say Orcs are like Orks then?

Well 40k for the most part is taking warhammer fantasy tropes and putting them into a grim dark future setting, with a few exceptions of course (like Tau, Tyranids, etc).

Example:
Psyker = Wizard
Ork = Orc
S**** = Dwarf
Imperial Guard = Empire
Necron = Undead
Space Marines = Knights
Eldar = Elves
Dark Eldar = Dark Elves
Chaos Marines = Chaos Warriors
Daemons = Daemons
Grots = Goblins
Snotlings = Snotlings
Squigs = Squigs
Ogryns = Ogres
Ratlings = Halflings
Beastmen = Beastmen

**Melissia**

Those aren't 40k tropes, those are typical fantasy and even sci-fi tropes.

**Cheesecat**

Melissia wrote:Those aren't 40k tropes, those are typical fantasy and even sci-fi tropes.

I didn't say they were 40k tropes, I said they were warhammer fantasy tropes with a few exceptions.

**ChrisWWII**

**Melissia**

Cheesecat wrote:
Melissia wrote:Those aren't 40k tropes, those are typical fantasy and even sci-fi tropes.

I didn't say they were 40k tropes, I said they were warhammer fantasy tropes with a few exceptions.

And that's where you are wrong, as I stated:

Melissia wrote:those are typical fantasy and even sci-fi tropes.

They aren't things that WFB owns or even invented. Hell they aren't even things WFB codified or made into the best example of. They're general fantasy tropes, general sci-fi tropes. Existed before GW started trying to cash in on them, will continue to exist long after GW bites the dust.

**Cheesecat**

Melissia wrote:
Cheesecat wrote:
Melissia wrote:Those aren't 40k tropes, those are typical fantasy and even sci-fi tropes.

I didn't say they were 40k tropes, I said they were warhammer fantasy tropes with a few exceptions.
And that's where you are wrong, as I stated:
Melissia wrote:those are typical fantasy and even sci-fi tropes.
They aren't things that WFB owns or even invented. Hell they aren't even things WFB codified or made into the best example of. They're general fantasy tropes, general sci-fi tropes. Existed before GW started trying to cash in on them, will continue to exist long after GW bites the dust.

OK you're right, the reason I was trying to distinguish it from standard sci fi and fantasy tropes is because the races looks are heavily influenced by the visual style of warhammer fantasy factions.

**Melissia**

That's more because the same company made both than anything. The tropes are still fantasy and sci-fi tropes.

**AdeptusAssfartes**

Fantasy orcs do the fungal thing now?

That sucks.

**Sledgio**

Orks may be linked to Orcs, and there are lots of different theories on how they are (if one evolved into the other or the WHFB world is a planet in the warp of 40k) but it is mainly to separate the two in case of misunderstandings. That's what a member of GW staff told me, anyway...

**reds8n**

What we know as orcs did indeed first arrive on the Warhammer world as spores, carried on/in the ships of the old ones.

... whether this was deliberate or not is, of course, a matter of debate/unknown.

Since then the orcs have, seemingly, evolved or moved down a different evolutionary path than their brethren elsewhere in the ~~franchise~~ err... setting.

Obviously this is indicative of some cunning long term plan that GW have, and not at all a case of different writers making up different things at different times as the whim and muse strikes them. No siree, nothing at all like that.

**ChrisWWII**

Is it still canon that the Warhammer world is just a feral world hanging out in the 40k setting? I remember reading that before, and I kinca like the idea...

**KamikazeCanuck**

No it's not Cannon. But I just pretend it is anyway.

**Melissia**

Why would you want to pretend it's a cannon?

**KamikazeCanuck**

Not pretend it's Cannon, just pretend that the Warhammer world is a planet within the 40K galaxy.

**Melissia**

Stop misspelling canon.

**KamikazeCanuck**

What? I said it's not a Cannon...

**ChrisWWII**

Maybe the Warhammer world is just a giant plot by the Old Ones to build a giant cannon in the middle of the galaxy so they can blow up something.

**KamikazeCanuck**

ChrisWWII wrote:Maybe the Warhammer world is just a giant plot by the Old Ones to build a giant cannon in the middle of the galaxy so they can blow up something.

Ah, so you are of the Cannon theory.

**ChrisWWII**

To steal a quote from 1d4chan's page on Ollanius Pius: '

YOUR CONTINUITY GW!'