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Hey guys,

I was going through a few pages on a couple of different sources in order to research Orks in general and I found the following on a Lexicanum page:

Orkoid Fungus wrote:All Orkoid races are symbiotic with species of fungus. In fact, all of them grow from the same spores - depending on conditions the same spore may grow to a mighty Warboss or a harmless fungi. In this way, Orkoids are not just a race, but a whole ecosystem in itself. When Orks invade new worlds, this ecosystem grows. It is widely known that once a world is invaded by Orks, it is never entirely free from them again. Ork spores grow in the wilderness, giving birth to a new forms of Orkoid life. Different forms of Orkoid Fungus play essential roles in Ork society. Ork Settlements are surrounded by great patches of the fungi. Cultivated by Snotlings, they are a primal source of food in Ork society.

The wording of his got me thinking:

Can Ork spores (eventually) terraform a world? If so, what basis would they require? (Like a bare minimum of atmosphere and some water? Or just an empty planet?)

Cheers guys

Well, the fungi that we have on Earth are heterotrophic, they can't produce organic substances. However, the green pogmentation of orks suggests that they are partialy symbiotic with some kind of plantlike organisms. Therefore they can create organic substances using sunlight, water and carbon. The byproduct would be oxigen. Since all orkoids have the same biological structure of there cells it can be assumed that they are all able to do so. Being comples organisms they also need minerals to build their bones and tissues. So the conditions for ork life would be the following: an atmosphere with carbon, water, sufficient minerals in the planets surface. The lowest fungi would absorb water and minerals, produce organic substances through photosynthesis and provide food for other orkoids. Squigs would eat the fungus and lesser orkoids and be eaten by orks. And everithing produces oxigen. If they can survive the cosmic radiation that gets to the surface they will eventualy terraform the planet.

Since Orks can evidently even survive on bare rocks and asteroids in space, the answer is probably yes. Orks spores terraform worlds.

Well spores would need water, sunlightlight, and some sort of atmosphere. Vacuums are a no go. But they might be okay even if it's an alien atmospheric composition like sulphur or something. The spores might survive in space but they'd need energy of some type to produce an ork.

It's terraforming in a sense, the spores make the orks and the orks spread the spores, the world starts to look like an ork world. Eventually the orks wipe out all other lifeforms and permanently poison the world with their warmachine, and then either find a way off or wipe themselves out too.

I think terraforming implies a symbiotic nature. While the relationship between the orks and their spores is symbiotic, thier relationship with the environment is a consumptive parasitic one.

They may have once been used more for terraforming, back when they were designed to be an elite vanguard for the old ones but without the stewardship of the old ones they run totally unchecked on their basest instinct of waging war over anything else.

Probably depends on the world in question.