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How Long does it take for a spore to turn to a full fledged ork?

They're plant-like, so they probably grow at different rates based on ecosystem, competition, and genetic mutations. It's probably more complex than human gestation.

Hmmm so how long would a spore take to grow to a full fledged horde ? Years days hours ?

Years I would imagine. Longer for a full fledged WAAAAGH

One spore makes one ork, or squig, or snotling, or squiggoth, or fungal growth.

The growth time would depend on what is growing out of the spore.


Generally what happens is the spores first just grow the Fungus that is the basis of the Ork food chain, which in turn sheds more spores. After there is enough Fungus, Squigs will begin to grow. Followed by Snotlings and the first orks.

As for the actual time. The above process will take years, maybe even decades.

A spore that is growing an Ork will probably only take a few months to mature once they have begun.

A full Waaaagh from a couple of spores would probably take several centuries.

What is the developmental relationship, if any, between squigs, gretchin, and orks?

There is an article in Lexicanum that might help, they don't specify time frames for growth cycles though.

Here's the link: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Orkoid_physiology#.UMpFolLeBv9

When referring to the Ork Codex on the Battle of Armageddon, it talks about the second invasion by Ghazghkull Thraka and says "Tribes after tribe of Orks born from spores seeded over fifty years ago swept down from the equatorial jungles to join the growing hordes."

So from this I gather that it takes a number of years for spores to produce something the size of a tribe.

 Greenizbest wrote:
When referring to the Ork Codex on the Battle of Armageddon, it talks about the second invasion by Ghazghkull Thraka and says "Tribes after tribe of Orks born from spores seeded over fifty years ago swept down from the equatorial jungles to join the growing hordes."

So from this I gather that it takes a number of years for spores to produce something the size of a tribe.

Indeed, and that was the result of probably billions of spores that had been shed in the previous war. Which was particularly large.

I do not think hard Numbers are ever given, but as the others side it most likely takes years or decades to make a tribe. Then that may well vary.

Ah ok I was thinking it was relatively faster but thx for the answers!

I'm trying to come up with estimates based on actual biology, but for orks, squigs, and grots that would be on the time scale of years to decades (the larger and more complex, the more time it takes, an ork would take about a decade, likely more).

That is assuming they are born fully developed, if not, then gestation periods would be a few years but they won't be very dangerous for some time.

Squigoths would take over a year to be born (given there is no way they are born fully developed) and probably grow as fast as an elephant would (I have no idea how fast that is), and, of course, ending up much bigger than one.

Edit: Of course, the 40k is hardly realistic, so none of this may apply.

 Greenizbest wrote:
When referring to the Ork Codex on the Battle of Armageddon, it talks about the second invasion by Ghazghkull Thraka and says "Tribes after tribe of Orks born from spores seeded over fifty years ago swept down from the equatorial jungles to join the growing hordes."

So from this I gather that it takes a number of years for spores to produce something the size of a tribe.

It is also stated in the Space Marine Codex when describing the Battle for Traitor's Gorge (when the Eldar help out the Crimson Fists) The eldar leader tells Pedro that unless he goes into the tunnel and wipes out the orks down bellow, in another 50 years a WAAAAGH will rise up and destroy his home world (paraphrasing obivously).

It is entirely possable for a human sized organisim to grow fairly quickly to adult size. Most natural organisims don't of course.

Orks however are not anything close to a natural organisim.


IIRC orks hatch in a juvenile form, refered to by orks as "Youfs"

Basically a small ork boy. Maybe the size of a 7-8 year old human. And with proper fighting will quickly get to adult size.

Orks would be on a similar time scale as humans, given the similarities.

But I realize my last post involves the 'youth culture' of today, which gives a distorted view of youth. If I throw that out, it is certainly possible for the orks to be competent fairly quickly, we're looking at about 10 years to be combat capable (but they definitely won't be fully developed compared to the standard ork).

But given the impossibility of ork biology in the first place, I'm doubtful of usefulness of this.

From memory of Gorkamorka, Yoofs will toughen up in a year or so. They're born nearly fully developed, but with a bit less leathery skin. Hence they'd go up to T4 after gaining enough XP.

I wouldn't assume that because humans take 15-17 years to reach adult size that orks would be similar.

It is actually very possable for an organisim to grow from a tiny juvenile size to something around the size of an adult human in only a few months.

Take pigs for example. They go from being only a couple pounds at birth to being 200ish pounds in less than a year.

So it would be entirely possable for Orks to grow to full size fairly quickly.

A entire clan of orks of noticeable size takes 50 years to create from spores. number of spores aside. To create enough say for a waghhhh would take some more, because of ork culture they kill each other in challenges creating more spores effectively speeding up the growth rate till the orks gain a critical mass and make a waghh.

if looking at any other growth system i would treat orks as an exponential system.
1 spore = 1 fungus = 100's of spores = 100,000's of spores = 100's of squiggs = 100,000 spores ect.
However it is a compound exponetial system; like that of i mentioned, each subspecies will start to mass produce itself with some relative rate, and a small chance of becoming another subspecies once another group arrises the process repeats for that group. Leave the system enough time to grow it will become self-sustaining and generate a infinite amount of orks - that is untill the food runs dry.

Well would food ever run out shouldn't the eco-system grow and reproduce at least as quick as consumed and if domesticated properly by runtheards squigs grow much quicker and bigger

The Fungus actually provides all the food the orks need. Its one reason they are so adaptable, their own species is their food source and being a Fungus it can grow just about anywhere.

50 years... ha, no. we have cases of the galaxy's oldest gretching living to the ripe old age of 9. Orks reproduce approximately 1 dozen contributors to the orkish ecosystem it they don';t just produce people they produce aan enviroment from basic warfare.

Low moss gives squigs the chance to rise up and become abundant with what one can assume are birthed in mere months if not weeks.
Once the squigs are producing consumable food, gretchin and snotlings begin to sprout up creating a basic culture and society for the orks
lastly once the ecosystem is really rocking orks make it onto the scene.

Keep in mind these 50 year circumstances are the stories of just a few spores clinging to ships or the like within 50 years produced a potent ecosystem for the orks to become brash enough to want to wipe out all life that ain't orky.

I imagine gestation periods are something like this...

Low Moss = fastest mold growth in recorded history (1-3 hours)
Snotlings = simple animal level intelligence and small size (1-3 weeks)
Squigs = Simple animal level intelligence but mid size (2-5 weeks)
Gretchin = Clever Intelligence and small/mid size (6-8 weeks)
Orks = Not particularly smart but massive size and capbilities (2-3 months)

The problem with orks is ... we don't just waaagh for fun we waaagh from frustration or "divine calling". This basically means until orks either reach wit's end or they are super excited to start killing off world or outside their home they are just as happy having a hard life of avoiding detection and looting till a spontaneous shootout in a run down part of the city rips out of no where. And then those boyz just die... so who cares? I would say 50 years is enough time for most passive/lazy orks to start getting motivated by collective waaagh presence.

Where does this "low moss" business come from?

Maybe he means Fungus?

 Grey Templar wrote:
Maybe he means Fungus?

yep! low moss meaning nothing special, mundane.when one ork dies he creates 12 cocoons or so with his spores some are basic moss/fungus