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Just curious on this one, my knowledge of Ork fluff is mostly from 5th edition. (I have their modern codex, but haven't read all the fluff in it.) To my knowledge, Orks grow in size and strength the more they fight, starting out at Ork-boy size, growing up to be Nobz if they last a while and do some damage, and eventually making it to be a Warboss if they continue to excel in combat. It seems like Ork Warlords, though, don't really seem to be much larger than the average Warboss - While a Nob is clearly bigger than a Boy, and a Warboss is clearly bigger than a Nob, it doesn't seem like Ghazkull Thraka (The only Warlord with a model) is significantly bigger than a Warboss, once you take into account that part of his bulk comes from his Mega Armor. (And also when you consider that, aside from +1 wound, his statline isn't really any 'Tougher' than that of other Warbosses.)

So, is that where Orks cap out? Warboss size, no larger? I remember old fluff stating that there were Ork-dominated sectors of space that no Imperial ship could even approach, and it was theorized that the Ork Empires at the heart of those sectors would be strong enough to make Ghazzy look mediocre, but I dunno if that's still canon or not.

And, if it's not, would it be possible for a cunning (Or brutal) Ork Eugenicist to arrange a multi-planetwide fight club, pitting Ork Boys against each other in equal measure to create an ultimate Ork by throwing boyz of equal size against each other until they got big and strong, and then throwing all those winners against each other and so on until you've got a Warlord the size of a smallish Stompa?

In Theory, as long as one could keep fighting, killing and winning. An Ork will keep constantly growing.

It would just take a long time.... Orks literally can't die of old age.
As far as I know "The Beast" was a giant among orks with nobs as big as elephants or something.

It just takes time, a lot of combat, and a little luck (to not get killed by who knows what) and an Ork will just keep getting bigger. It would take a really REALLY long time before Orks in Stompa size would come about (that and being of such size, as time goes along the likelihood of death increases due to being a big target for pretty much everyone around him)

 Engine of War wrote:
In Theory, as long as one could keep fighting, killing and winning. An Ork will keep constantly growing.

It needs to be clarified that it mostly happens of...happiness. Orks grow when they're happy. And it so happens they're happy when they fight and win, or drink a lot than fight and win, or construct absurd weapons they'd use afterwards to fight and win. But this actions must be of some quality. Ork wouldn't be happy enough to grow up if he decides to kill a bunch of helpless grots. He needs to fight a worthy enemy or construct something mindbogging - perform a worthwhile task all in all.

In this sense orks are a bunch of happiness-craving mushroom people.

So, technically, The Beast was a jolly green giant

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
So, technically, The Beast was a jolly green giant

"That's no moon... that's an-"

"WAAAGH!!!"

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

*Transmission ends*

 amazingturtles wrote:
"That's no moon... that's an-"

"WAAAGH!!!"

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

*Transmission ends*

You can imagine a mek that is pretty much just happy being a battlestation in space :p.

Wait, didn't Big E and Horus almost get pasted by something like that?

Kind of. You are thinking of the Warlord of Gorro.

The Wolf of Ash and Fire wrote:The Emperor fought an armoured giant twice his height and breadth. Its skull was a vast, iron-helmed boulder with elephantine tusks and chisel-like teeth that gleamed dully. Its eyes were coal-red slits of such vicious intelligence that it stole Horus’s breath.
Horus had never seen its equal. No bestiary would include its description for fear of being ridiculed, no magos of the Mechanicum would accept such a specimen could exist.
Six clanking, mechanised limbs bolted through its flesh bore grinding, crackling, sawing, snapping, flame-belching weapons of murder. The Emperor’s armour was burning, the golden wreath now ashes around his neck.
Chugging rotor cannons battered the Emperor’s armour even as claws of lightning tore portions of it away. It was taking every screed of the Emperor’s warrior skill and psychic might to keep the mech-warlord’s weaponry from killing him.
‘Father!’ shouted Horus.
The greenskin turned and saw Horus. It saw the desperation in his face and laughed. A fist like a Reductor siege hammer smashed the Emperor’s sword aside and a fist of green flesh lifted him into the air. It crushed the life from him with its inhuman power.

After this quote Horus came to his aid and gave him a good smacking, but that the Ork got this far is quite impressive nonetheless. It is the most impressive I have seen outside of the Beast series (and I do not usually take the Beast into consideration because it doesn't really make sense).

As for the OP's question, unknown. Every Ork has died in battle before they can grow to any truly excessive size (again, disregarding the Beast).

 Ashiraya wrote:
Kind of. You are thinking of the Warlord of Gorro.

The Wolf of Ash and Fire wrote:The Emperor fought an armoured giant twice his height and breadth. Its skull was a vast, iron-helmed boulder with elephantine tusks and chisel-like teeth that gleamed dully. Its eyes were coal-red slits of such vicious intelligence that it stole Horus’s breath.
Horus had never seen its equal. No bestiary would include its description for fear of being ridiculed, no magos of the Mechanicum would accept such a specimen could exist.
Six clanking, mechanised limbs bolted through its flesh bore grinding, crackling, sawing, snapping, flame-belching weapons of murder. The Emperor’s armour was burning, the golden wreath now ashes around his neck.
Chugging rotor cannons battered the Emperor’s armour even as claws of lightning tore portions of it away. It was taking every screed of the Emperor’s warrior skill and psychic might to keep the mech-warlord’s weaponry from killing him.
‘Father!’ shouted Horus.
The greenskin turned and saw Horus. It saw the desperation in his face and laughed. A fist like a Reductor siege hammer smashed the Emperor’s sword aside and a fist of green flesh lifted him into the air. It crushed the life from him with its inhuman power.

After this quote Horus came to his aid and gave him a good smacking, but that the Ork got this far is quite impressive nonetheless. It is the most impressive I have seen outside of the Beast series (and I do not usually take the Beast into consideration because it doesn't really make sense).

As for the OP's question, unknown. Every Ork has died in battle before they can grow to any truly excessive size (again, disregarding the Beast).

well if we consider the model update Ghazghkull from 2nd edition to current he has growth quite a bit

I always thought orks kept growing until something kills them. Kinda like crocodiles

This brings up a second question: In the 5th edition codex, we got to read the saga of Warboss Tuska, who led his raiding party into the Warp and ended up stumbling upon a sort of Ork Heaven. (A Daemon planet of constant fighting, where each morning all those who were killed are restored to full strength to begin again.)

Would all the Orks there eventually grow to the herculean proportions of The Beast and others? Even if we assume they have to survive the whole day in order to grow, statistically a few Orks will survive every day, and they'll grow, and eventually the whole Horde will be massive.

Waaaghpower wrote:
This brings up a second question: In the 5th edition codex, we got to read the saga of Warboss Tuska, who led his raiding party into the Warp and ended up stumbling upon a sort of Ork Heaven. (A Daemon planet of constant fighting, where each morning all those who were killed are restored to full strength to begin again.)

Would all the Orks there eventually grow to the herculean proportions of The Beast and others? Even if we assume they have to survive the whole day in order to grow, statistically a few Orks will survive every day, and they'll grow, and eventually the whole Horde will be massive.

If I remember right, Khorne thought the Orks little fight was so entertaining that the entire waaagh was essentially sent back in time to repeat the day they all died again and again. As for surviving, I think the story states that each and every ork dies. That and I'm not sure if the Orks are completely aware of the time reversal. Even if they are, due to the fact that time reverses to before they all died so there is no way for them to grow.

I have a feeling that the limit to their size is when they're finally large enough to host Gork or Mork... or maybe both within their body.

 King Pariah wrote:
I have a feeling that the limit to their size is when they're finally large enough to host Gork or Mork... or maybe both within their body.

Or they get big enough to go into the warp and challenge one of them to a fight.

If Orks somehow defeated the IoM and conquered the galaxy you can bet there would be a warlord at the head of it the size of a gargant.

well, one warboss plugged itself into a forge world, basically making it into a planet sized cyborg.

 Exergy wrote:
If Orks somehow defeated the IoM and conquered the galaxy you can bet there would be a warlord at the head of it the size of a gargant.

And yet we haven't seen one this big anywhere mentioned in the fluff.
I don't believe this they can get as big as they want stuff, just as I don't believe that alligtors can grow the size of the moon. The biggest ork we have seen was in the beast series as far as I know.
Without any further evidence I would say that this is about the maximum size an ork could become. I might be of with a factor ~1,5x but I don't expect to be off with a factor 1000+

The beast reached the size of a hab-block right? And that wasn't even the largest of the 6 Prime orks, a larger one later enters to stamp on Koolan. The beast was taking more of a command role by the time his waaagh was launched suggesting he himself wasn't fighting as much, I would assume that the rate of growth slows the larger an ork becomes and no ork has actually survived long enough to become moon sized due to the sheer time such altered scaling would take. But I don't think there is necessarily a cap. I think it's implied that several of the prime orks are not yet dead, so who knows how large they could be now...

 koooaei wrote:

 Engine of War wrote:
In Theory, as long as one could keep fighting, killing and winning. An Ork will keep constantly growing.

It needs to be clarified that it mostly happens of...happiness. Orks grow when they're happy. And it so happens they're happy when they fight and win, or drink a lot than fight and win, or construct absurd weapons they'd use afterwards to fight and win. But this actions must be of some quality. Ork wouldn't be happy enough to grow up if he decides to kill a bunch of helpless grots. He needs to fight a worthy enemy or construct something mindbogging - perform a worthwhile task all in all.

In this sense orks are a bunch of happiness-craving mushroom people.

That's an interesting summation.p of the ork species. To answer the OP I think that because as you stated orks need worthy opponents they have a natural cap on how big they can get. A car-sized ork won't be having much fun if all he's stomping are guardsmen, and a bus-sized ork might consider space marines to be small fry. Knight-sized orks should probably get used to fighting vehicles, because those and some larger tyranids are basically the only way they can have a decent scrap.