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Let's imagine the (highly improbable) case of a human possessing enough dakka to personally bully an Ork Warboss into submission and kill by himself those who try to protest. Would he become some kind of Warboss ?

(I mean, Yarrick was captured and released unharmed by Ghazghkull. But Ghazghkull is smarter than a lot of Orks)

Yarrick and Cain may take down Warbosses, but Orks still won't follow them because they are still not Orks.

Orks won't follow someone who is un-orky, at least not for long. It might be orky to kick down a Warboss but you're still not green and you're probably very small compared to even a Nob. You'd have constant challenges against your authority and eventually some Nob would get lucky.

But such a show of power would allow you to talk to the orks from a position of strength. An ork who doubts he could take down Ghazzy would probably at least listen to what the powerful Evil-Eye Yarrick has to say. You couldn't "lead" them but maybe suggest there's a better battle to be had elsewhere.

You could pay the orks to fight for you

 oldzoggy wrote:
You could pay the orks to fight for you

Until you run out of money, they get board or they just decide that it would be much easier (or more fun) to kill you and take your money rather than wait for it.

 Steve steveson wrote:

 oldzoggy wrote:
You could pay the orks to fight for you

Until you run out of money, they get board or they just decide that it would be much easier (or more fun) to kill you and take your money rather than wait for it.

Nah, promise them a nice hat and a good fight, you are golden

There is the Herman von Strab appocalypse formation

 Steve steveson wrote:

 oldzoggy wrote:
You could pay the orks to fight for you

Until you run out of money, they get board or they just decide that it would be much easier (or more fun) to kill you and take your money rather than wait for it.

Keep knocking their teeth out for money and send them into the Eye of Terror so they aren't bored.

You'd have to embody pretty much everything which makes an ork 'orky' their, culture is very much based on it

You basically have to be an ork

Nope, the codex is explicit in saying that the vast majority of Orks would rather die than bow to the will of a non-greenskin's will. I could see temporary alliances or being hired as mercenaries but genuinely following a non-Ork as a leader? If that were true then there'd be a lot of Chaos Lords running around with personal ork retinues.

Yep, they follow a fallen Warlord in ravenwing, much to the surprise of the dark angels.

They're not ducklings.

Yarrick is as close to an honorary Ork as you can get and even then I don't think any Orks would settle for him being their boss. Even if the boyz were too scared to question him, every Nob would challenge him (or just murder him outright) until he is dead. Orks follow who is biggest (and proppa orky) and its painfully clear that humans aren't as big as a proper boss or nob.

As stated before, yes Orks will follow a non ork "warboss" but it's all about the circumstances, most likely it will be a temporary alliance, inevitably resulting in the Orks attacking the non ork, we have Orks following chaos, being hired as mercenaries, following a fallen Warlord, it's not much of a stretch having Orks following a human temporarily.

A human no way. A suitable rogue Astartes maybe, as he's bigger than the boys (but not Nobs) and has the capacity to take on a Nob or Warboss. A Marine in TDA probably. Just walk in, break da boss over his knee and re-enact "Look at me! I'm the boss now!" scene from that Tom hanks movie.

If he isn't bigger than the Nobz, then he's obviously un-Orky. Size matters with the Boyz, the biggest Ork is the biggest Ork because he's obviously meant to be in charge. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be the biggest Ork.

Orks following humans is as canon as it gets.

Orks have been known to make alliances with humans or work for them as mercenaries. However I don't think Orks will keep following a human leader after the alliance or mercenary contract expires. That just ain't Orky.

Orks didn't really 'follow' Von Strab, though he was allowed to give some orders. He was a puppet Ghazkull used to confuse matters for the humans, and he was a bullet magnet - Ghazzy knew the IOM would spare no resources to take down the traitor, which helped him control the flow of battle.

The Nobs were there more 'minderz' than as some kind of honor guard. They did enforce some of Von Strab's orders, but you can bet that if ol Hermann got any ideas about striking out on his own they'd rip off his head and present it to Ghazzy double quick.

My two cents anyway.

Only the blood axe clan would ever consider following orders from a human and even then it's only if they're getting paid with some more advanced weaponary or technology but all other clans hate the blood axes because they're seen as treacherous, they trade openly with the imperium and consider retreat as well as being un-orky, they go on military drills and enjoy following orders but not from a human unless they can pay with a lot of technology.

The only "human" I could see an Ork following is an Ogryn, either with green tattooed all over his/her body and/or covered with green paint.

SOURCE: Dark Heresy makes for fun times with the right amount of imagination.