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Or maybe warhammer fantasy... I admit I'm more familer with 40k

Sorry to yammer on but this has been on my mind for a week or so if I'm in the wrong place I am truly sorry for that


If you havent heard of it Orc stain is a comic by James Stokoe who judging from some of his artwork is a fan of 40k and has used as some warhammer fluff with his Orcs

the similarities are interesting In both orks are only partially animal, being a single gender race, with Warhammer orcs reproducing through spores and Stain orcs reproducing through the painful expulsion of a flying seed pod when the reach the age of 5 (and also presumably 10). Both are are fighters that just live for battle, both use body parts as currency (teeth for warhammer and errr coins made of a more intimate organ in the Stain) both races are born with a fair amount in innate knowledge. and Like the Warhammer breed Stain orcs don't seem to die of old age they get bigger and meaner the older they get... its not there fualt they usually die before the age of 10. Both have there share of strange abilities and able to pull off odd feats. Like Stains One eye and his ability to to defect flaws in structures or the ninja orcs and there fluid bodies. both are little more than stew pots of aggression and anarchy who are only ever organized around a powerful warleader

ther are some major differences though. mainly in body type and tech levels

Here you have Stain orcs


Compared to Warhammer orcs or orks they seem rather Puny


not to mention there differing skin tones

as for the Tech levels

Orks of course have shootahs, mechs and all kinds of fun killy stuff we know and love. But the Stain orcs seem to use a weird bio tech. They use crossbows and knives but they are also as likely to use living gun made from a bird that fires spears, or launch rockets with Explody shells (basicly oysters that detonate on impact) at you, big eyed bugs that work like spy cameras... but they crawl into your mouth before you can see what they saw. some times even there hand tools, and clothing is alive.

Such as Chopper's axe and gloves here here


Heck in one issue the main char One Eye opens a beer can... which screams in pain as its top is popped, and lots of every day items get gibberish word ballons



So what do you think In the 40k universe do you think there could be a distant far flung planet with off shoot branch of the Orkiod family tree that some how mutated into these lovely abominations. though less physically imposing then Ork boys, they could be a more agile force, just as aggressive, but more stealthy and cunning. Heck maybe what happened was genetic drift caused the Ork and grechen phenotypes to merge some how the organic tech might be an offshoot of there squig dna. the corruption that changed the ork body could have some how combined the mekboys genetic knowledge of devices with the genes that generate squigs causing the symbiotic species of weapons and armor that the stain sport.

what could have caused this, millennia of isolated warp radiation maybe? genetic corruption from contact with a weaker strain of tyranid possibly? just random mutation?

But do you think it would be too unusual to come across Orcs like this in either warhammer verse? and do you think an army based around this concept could work?

Honestly? I could see this happeneing, the Warp is a strange beast, and they are still Orks, just scrawnier

Grots, the lot of 'em.

Personally loathe the artwork style tbh.

 Ratius wrote:
Personally loathe the artwork style tbh.

I like the artwork quite frankly, reminds me of some of the gorillaz band's artwork for some reason.

Definitely not Orks. They could be a different Orkoid species, but they are not Orks.
Also, living clothing and beer cans seems a bit too far-fetched for anything but Chaos.

And just as a side note: Warhammer Orcs reproduce in the regular way, it is only the 40k Orks who reproduce through spores.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Also, living clothing and beer cans seems a bit too far-fetched for anything but Chaos.

Living beer cans is certainly a stretch, but 40k Orks use a number of... well, for lack of better words, "living tools". Namely, squigs. Back in RT there was a nifty chart explaining the various subspecies of squigs and their uses, that went from the ordinary (food, pets, traction beasts...) to the downright absurd (engine parts, musical instruments). I don't know how much of it stays canon, but Oiler Squigs just made a discreet return in miniature form in the recent Meganob/Big Mek kit.

Btw, I like the art style. Very 80s. And -oddities like uneven number of limbs aside- really not too different from 40k orks.

They remind me of necromunda. I would go for some kind of renegade/chaosy human style army and use necromunda figures + lots of conversions.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

Also, living clothing and beer cans seems a bit too far-fetched for anything but Chaos.

And just as a side note: Warhammer Orcs reproduce in the regular way, it is only the 40k Orks who reproduce through spores.

On another read through of the comics the armor and clothing doesn't seem to be alive, just organic in nature, and the orcs just don't bother removing the eyes or teeth. Atleast the clothing doesn't ever change expression or talk. there weapons on the other hand do talk, from a sniper rifle bitching about hating its life, to swords and axes rolling there eyes. also they have a wide range of weird vehicles, fungal looking tanks shaped like and orc chiefs head, amphibious motorcycles that seem to be the weird cross breed of a kracken, a paddle boat, and a ork war bike.







While not all of these look to be wholly organic there are massive amounts of organic parts to them and in most cases they seem to be still alive
Though this might actually negate the tech level statement I made earlier. I had forgotten about the tanks.

Much like like Orks, and presumably warhammer fantasy Orcs The stain breed have lots of long range killy things they simply really like swords, axes and spears

But these also reinforce the physical differnces in the breeds. Stain orcs have a huge amount of variety to them


These stain orcs could be a variety of chaos infested orc breed, and I agree the beer can is one of the weirder silly pieces, but I still love that concept. all the organic weapon though including implanted living guns that fire mall creatures as ammo tends to make me think tyranid

Also thank I did not know Warhammer fantasy had female orcs. It does make me wonder though about ork physiology, and not just because I'm a perverted bastard. I know Orks defecate
since I did read the book that mentioned a drunk ork pissing on a hiding space wolf. so this makes me wonder about there plumbing. In the Stain despite being a single gender species like orks they still have fairly male genitalia. and oddly enough the author has created a believable in universe reason for that.

If you wanna see the explanation its here, It a 6 page comic spread, and it does contain some NSFW and cringe inducing imagery, but its not porn
https://orcstain.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/stork-stain/

I thought it was interesting, But also thought he two page comic he did explaining how orcs turn gronch into money was intereting

Wow I really love that style. Thx for showing it to me, I'm going to look up more of it now . I would definitely go for chaos just to be able to create all those nice living things. The idea of fungus orks might fit better, but their rules are not that great ( I would advise no one to start with the current codex) and more about machines really. Conversion wise I might actually start with kroot,tau fire warriors, tyranid guns and lots ant lots of high quality aquatic toys or fake fishes for restaurants.

Its a shame that i'm halfway finishing my new army project this is just so inviting to convert to

cool style... but its as 40k as Pokemon or DBZ... that being said, hey its your army and this theme could certainly work well from a visual perspective.