Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum, but,

What role (if any) did the Orks have in the Horus Heresy?

In the heresy itself? Little to none, other than likely rampaging through imperial space while the SPESS MERRENZ were off busy fighting each other.

But orks had a pretty major presence in the galaxy ever since man's first interstellar footsteps, and they were absolutely present and a threat during the time before, during, and after the heresy. There's quite a few fluff battles of the emperor and sons v. orks, as well. I think horus himself earned his first victories against orks, and there's even a warboss who allegedly almost took down the emperor himself.

In one word: Ullanor!

In a few more: Orks had no real function during the Heresy, but were the last serious threat during the Great Crusade. Ullanor was the site of a giant battle between an Ork warboss (30k's Gahzkull) and the Imperium, involving even the Emperor and Horus. In fact, I think it was the last time Big E fought alongside his sons before retiring from the Crusade in favor of his super-secret project. It's also the site where Horus Lupercal was crowned Warmaster.

Great crusade/pre heresy: they fought with imperial forces (look at Ullanor)

durring the heresy: they were there, but they were never the main focus. there were bigger fish in the lake, so to speak.

From what I can gather - little directly, but one could argue more indirectly. At the end of the Ullanor Crusade, the largest of the OrK Empires was pretty much smashed and hence they ceased to be as serious a threat (although they were likely still as tenacious and as hard to eradicate as their 40K counterparts). Hence, they ceased to be as serious a threat to the Imperium - so long as the Legions were on hand. However, indirectly, it can be argued that what remained of the Orks complicated the Horus Heresy as they were heedless of the Heresy and continued to grow, even while the Legions were fighting each other. For example, the White Scars had been tied down in the Chondax System fighting Orks where it's possible they could have been better employed elsewhere - such as reinforcing the assault on Isstvan V.

Kap'n Krump wrote:there's even a warboss who allegedly almost took down the emperor himself.

That'll be the Mech-Warlord who the Emperor fought on Gorro before the Ullanor Crusade . Larger than Horus or the Emperor (Horus in TDA), he nearly got the better of the Emperor before Horus intervened. Curiously enough, when Horus intervened it allowed the Emperor to gut the Ork - but the killing blow was when the Emperor destroyed the Ork by literally scouring him from every sphere of existence - just like Horus would be destroyed on the Vengeful Spirit.

Edit: Aw boo, ninja'd :(

 Warpig1815 wrote:

Kap'n Krump wrote:there's even a warboss who allegedly almost took down the emperor himself.

That'll be the Mech-Warlord who the Emperor fought on Gorro before the Ullanor Crusade . Larger than Horus or the Emperor (Horus in TDA), he nearly got the better of the Emperor before Horus intervened. Curiously enough, when Horus intervened it allowed the Emperor to gut the Ork - but the killing blow was when the Emperor destroyed the Ork by literally scouring him from every sphere of existence - just like Horus would be destroyed on the Vengeful Spirit.

Edit: Aw boo, ninja'd :(

I fear the answer to this question is "mind bullets", but how did the emperor scour something from existence? Like set him on fire? If it was like a demon, I can see how eliminating from the universe would be important, but for an ork, just kill him and he's pretty much done, except for the spores, I guess.

Yup. Though this was more like a mind kamehameha than a bullet.

 HirogenHunter wrote:
In one word: Ullanor!

In a few more: Orks had no real function during the Heresy, but were the last serious threat during the Great Crusade. Ullanor was the site of a giant battle between an Ork warboss (30k's Gahzkull) and the Imperium, involving even the Emperor and Horus. In fact, I think it was the last time Big E fought alongside his sons before retiring from the Crusade in favor of his super-secret project. It's also the site where Horus Lupercal was crowned Warmaster.

What was his Super Secret Project?

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:

 HirogenHunter wrote:
In one word: Ullanor!

In a few more: Orks had no real function during the Heresy, but were the last serious threat during the Great Crusade. Ullanor was the site of a giant battle between an Ork warboss (30k's Gahzkull) and the Imperium, involving even the Emperor and Horus. In fact, I think it was the last time Big E fought alongside his sons before retiring from the Crusade in favor of his super-secret project. It's also the site where Horus Lupercal was crowned Warmaster.

What was his Super Secret Project?

Humanity's Webway.

The Heresy also lasted only a few years, so that is not much time for the Orks to do anything noteworthy, especially since the Orks were still weak from the beatings they received galaxywide during the Great Crusade.

 Kap'n Krump wrote:

 Warpig1815 wrote:

Kap'n Krump wrote:there's even a warboss who allegedly almost took down the emperor himself.

That'll be the Mech-Warlord who the Emperor fought on Gorro before the Ullanor Crusade . Larger than Horus or the Emperor (Horus in TDA), he nearly got the better of the Emperor before Horus intervened. Curiously enough, when Horus intervened it allowed the Emperor to gut the Ork - but the killing blow was when the Emperor destroyed the Ork by literally scouring him from every sphere of existence - just like Horus would be destroyed on the Vengeful Spirit.

Edit: Aw boo, ninja'd :(

I fear the answer to this question is "mind bullets", but how did the emperor scour something from existence? Like set him on fire? If it was like a demon, I can see how eliminating from the universe would be important, but for an ork, just kill him and he's pretty much done, except for the spores, I guess.

Pretty much - he was kinda angry that the ork had disarmed him and then lifted him by his throat. The specifics were that he channelled all his psychic might into his sword and then blasted the ork into literal oblivion :d And then he proceeded to 'fold' realspace around the plasma core of a scrap-hulk planet and push it into the warp so he and Horus could conveniently escape from the rapidly degenerating scrap-planet. So yeah - mind bullets.

Wait, in the middle of a battle, he threw an entire planet into the warp? And weren't there more marines on the planet besides him and horus?

 Kap'n Krump wrote:
Wait, in the middle of a battle, he threw an entire planet into the warp? And weren't there more marines on the planet besides him and horus?

The Emperor sent the core of the planet into the Warp, which would give the SPESS MUHREENS time to escape with Horus and the Emperor, while the Orks watched their wonderful creation collapse around them.

The battle was over. Basically, his psychic energy jumped from ork to ork burning them all to ash. Then, as the core of the planet went into overload, he folds space-time around it (so much so that Horus, standing next to him can see into the warp) and chucks it wholesale into the warp. Then they escape. Presumably on Astartes Mk. X Flying Carpets. Along with the whole Sons of Horus Legion and the whole of the Emperors Custodes war host. Then they watch the pretty explosions from Horus's Flagship's Bridge.