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As a wierd aside, I've been reading alot of the IG omnibus stories and they sure fight orks alot. Besides their hides being big and thick, often it was remarked that in many places the IG were short of rations and the like so I kept wondering: "Well you guys have a metric TON of ork corpses, can't you guys figure out a way to eat that?" I figured that nids eat them just fine, can humans eat them?

I then came to the idea, well they are fungi, how would they taste? Which lead to the poll above... Anyone know an answer to if they are edible at least? How about other species like Tau or Eldar? Edible for IG troopers?

Like mushrooms. Magic mushrooms. After a bit of Ork loin, it's like you're in an episode of The Mighty Boosh.

I'm sure Orks taste just awful, probably like fungus. The Tau would taste like fish and the Eldar I imagine would taste like the rainbow!

Well, Nids also eat soil, oceans, and atmospheres. I don't think they count.

Realistically, though, I'd imagine Orks may well be incredibly poisonous to humans. They're aliens, after all, and it's unlikely that they're constructed of traditional carbohydrate and protein structures - you know, the stuff we can digest. Either that, or our digestive enzymes are just totally useless on Ork flesh - so it'd get squished up by muscle action only, and then you have raw, undigested Ork-mulch in your excrement.

Unless Orkhide reacts with HCl in some interesting way. Requires further testing...

 Frozen Ocean wrote:


Realistically, though, I'd imagine Orks may well be incredibly poisonous to humans. They're aliens, after all, and it's unlikely that they're constructed of traditional carbohydrate and protein structures - you know, the stuff we can digest. Either that, or our digestive enzymes are just totally useless on Ork flesh - so it'd get squished up by muscle action only, and then you have raw, undigested Ork-mulch in your excrement.

which technically speaking is a dark dank enviroment full of nutrients, technically speaking i'd imagine Orks have emerged from worse environments than by those created in our stomachs since they are such a galactic issue. I'd say since orks shed spore crazy amounts after death you run a really concern of orkinoid spores growning inside you. So i'd imagine the flesh is noxious to eat and anything beyond a few chunks would kill you and provide an excellent little bag of nutrients to grow from

Depends; how long does it take to gestate an Ork spore? I'd say that being submersed in extremely low-pH conditions and constant muscle action would at least slow that down, also.

What'd most likely happen is your excrement would be full of Orky mush and teeny tiny Orky-equivalent spore-foetuses. Great.

EDIT: Although, this means that any dead Guardsman who has consumed Orkflesh provides an excellent sporebed for Orks to grow from, Aliens-style. I can only assume that Tyranids have developed a countermeasure to this...

 Frozen Ocean wrote:
Depends; how long does it take to gestate an Ork spore? I'd say that being submersed in extremely low-pH conditions and constant muscle action would at least slow that down, also.

What'd most likely happen is your excrement would be full of Orky mush and teeny tiny Orky-equivalent spore-foetuses. Great.

EDIT: Although, this means that any dead Guardsman who has consumed Orkflesh provides an excellent sporebed for Orks to grow from, Aliens-style. I can only assume that Tyranids have developed a countermeasure to this...

nid gestations makes sense with the amount of parasites ect, but a typical ork take 1 year to be full developed, but grots, squigs and snotlings are all very small time periods to grow and grow from any orkinoid spore. have a squig born in your belly sounds horrifying

 Fervor wrote:
The Tau would taste like fish

Why do people call the Tau fish people? Fish don't have hooves.

Buttons wrote:

 Fervor wrote:
The Tau would taste like fish

Why do people call the Tau fish people? Fish don't have hooves.

Hmm good point. It's something I've seen them being called here and there. Their vehicles reference marine life but as for the Tau themselves, I don't know.

Orks are a Fungoid Animal. So they will have body structures from both types.

As for being edible, maybe. But an Ork spore might be able to mature inside a human. At best, you'll have a nasty fungal infection and die. At worse, a squig or snotling claws its way our of your gut.

Fungoid Algal animal. They have Algal strains also,

They are genetically confused.

As to eating them: Nothing good. Anything from a vicious case of the runs to near instant death is possible, by way of becoming a squig by cell mutation or other sci-fi badness..

 Big Mek Wurrzog wrote:

 Frozen Ocean wrote:
... teeny tiny Orky-equivalent spore-foetuses. Great.

EDIT: Although, this means that any dead Guardsman who has consumed Orkflesh provides an excellent sporebed for Orks to grow from, Aliens-style. I can only assume that Tyranids have developed a countermeasure to this...

nid gestations makes sense with the amount of parasites ect, but a typical ork take 1 year to be full developed, but grots, squigs and snotlings are all very small time periods to grow and grow from any orkinoid spore. have a squig born in your belly sounds horrifying

Sorry if I blurred my meaning; I was referring to Tyranids eating Orks. One must assume that they have adapted a countermeasure that prevents Orkoid spores from gestating in their gribbly bellies.

It's inedible, not unedible.

Maybe Orks are just so inedible that it requires a new word!

No it doesn't.

I have no idea. It's interesting how fungi can bleed red though - probably makes them taste different if they actually are edible.

My Ork has no tongue, how does he taste?

I would venture a guess to say that the consuming of Ork flesh would not go over well. The meat would likely be too tough for the body to digest and would have various nasty enzymes. I also think eating any Xenos would be call for a swift investigation by the Inquisition, and more than likely, a swift autopsy on your body.

Given what we know about Orks, they're probably quite toxic and horrific.

Not as bad as eating a Tyranid though. Acidic blood and contain deadly parasites deliberately put there....

I really dont think anything good will come out from eating orks, they are partially fungi and would probably be extremely poisonous to humans. nids on the other hand will eat almost anything so you cant really compare them.

 DemetriDominov wrote:
I have no idea. It's interesting how fungi can bleed red though - probably makes them taste different if they actually are edible.

They're alien funghi. They don't follow the same laws as ours do. They have true organs and mammalian-equivalent traits. They need blood, they're big and they move! Even aliens need to respire. As for being full of nasty enzymes - I doubt it. Why would their flesh contain enzymes? More specifically, why would their flesh contain enzymes that digest human tissues? Enzymes are incredibly specific things.

Actually, I think it'd be best to refer to them as funghal-like, not as actual funghi. Seeing as there is no way they're related to Earth-funghi and therefore shouldn't share the name. Eldar aren't hominids, after all; they might seem like they are, but regardless of their own evolutionary backstory they aren't genetically related to hominids at all, and therefore aren't. When fluff says that Orks are funghi - they don't mean that they're literally mushrooms, they mean that they're similar in design. Like how Tyranids are 'bugs' even though they have scales, warm blood, nervous systems, lungs, and aren't even invertebrates (they also have an exoskeleton AND endoskeleton, like nothing on Earth). And actually are more like reptiles in appearance than insects.

Anyway, the point is - Orks are primarily composed of very basic cells and crude organs. This gives them lots of redundancy, which is what lends best to their toughness - an Ork can totally survive having half his chest torn out because he's got a whole series of back-up organs to pick up the slack. It doesn't mean that they only grow in dark, damp conditions and are squishy and taste like mushroom or lichen.

I agree with Frozen Ocean, I don't know whats the reasoning behind most peopling assuming they'd be poisonous to our digestive system. As for eating them, I'm highly skeptical we can just gobble them down wthout side effects, but I'm sure there would be a way to make them palatable.

They developed from spores and eat everything. I would think that they would be poisonous or inedible.

They probably taste like chicken.

Somehow, this topic made me think of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn

Ascalam wrote:As to eating them: Nothing good. Anything from a vicious case of the runs to near instant death is possible, by way of becoming a squig by cell mutation or other sci-fi badness..

Tell that to the Flesh Tearers!

The flesh-tearers are nuts!

anyhow, how would you tell if a SM had a vicious case of the runs?

what if they were very thorougly cooked? Think that would render the spores harmeless enough to digest?

sorry about the unedible vs inedible, english is not my first language XD

 Lynata wrote:
Somehow, this topic made me think of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn

Ascalam wrote:As to eating them: Nothing good. Anything from a vicious case of the runs to near instant death is possible, by way of becoming a squig by cell mutation or other sci-fi badness..

Tell that to the Flesh Tearers!

Is it any good?

Ascalam 4 wrote:anyhow, how would you tell if a SM had a vicious case of the runs?

Surplus rations from his armour?

LumenPraebeo wrote:Is it any good?

Quorn? Beats me, I never tried it - flatmate says it's okay, though.

 sudojoe wrote:
what if they were very thorougly cooked? Think that would render the spores harmeless enough to digest?

sorry about the unedible vs inedible, english is not my first language XD

Cook e'm with a flamer, done deal.

For me they taste like chicken and a good way to support your family during though winters.