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This pic.



The dog creature can be seen on the codex edition featured in the above pic at the bottom center right (you'd need a bigger photo of the pic to see it clearly).

Was this actually for real? Does current lore support the existence of this Orky canine creature?

Not directly related I suppose, but didn’t the Adeptus Arbites have cyborgs with robotic bodies and living doggy brains?

If so, (again, my recollection is pretty vague) it seems like painting those in ork color schemes would get the job done.

It's a squighound- they're used by Runtherds to keep grots in line. The old mini doesn't have that much fur, though:

Adding to what CrispyOne said, the current Runtherd model/ grots kit has a squighound as well.

It's a lovely green squighound yes. The sole animal the orks have are actually all squigs of infinitely various shapes of form. Remember, they have no hair (it's a squig too)!

I think the ork species is wildly divergent beyond what we’ve seen. They seem to have been engineered to fill every bio form role required for any environment.

Squigs are part of the food chain and working animals. Snotlings are similar but can hold a wrench. Than grots, boyz, nobs and so on. But as someone else pointed out you need an animal to help you herd your squid’s so the squig hound comes along.

So you could imagine that if orks were establishing on a desert world then a squid might come along that can suck the moister out of the air and be milked.

Assuming orks need water….

Wait... squig sponge? Glorious

Well, kinda.

All Squigs are Squigs because Orks and Grots are either uninterested or unknowing of differences between the various Squigs at their disposal.

Just because something that isn’t Snot, Grot, or Ork is called a Squig (short for Squiggly Beasts) doesn’t mean Squigs are all the same kind of animal.

For instance, we have marsupials, lizards, amphibians, birds, insects, fish, and what have you. All come under the term “fauna”.

So I put it to Dakka that Orks got little further than “Fauna” when it came to classifying life. You then get different subnames, such as Eatin’ Squig*, Brush Squig, Faceeater Squig, Oil Squig, Buzzer Squig.

But rather than being set sub species or clades**, they’re just common descriptives. So any particularly tasty Squig of little other practical use is an Eatin Squig. Any noticeably violent Squig with a penchant for going for the face is a Faceeater Squig and so on.


*of course, all Squigs are edible, but an Eatin’ Squig is a particularly delicacy, cooked or raw.

**apologies if I’m taking outrageous liberties with proper terms.

Yes good precisions you bring here, thanks doc

Yeah, that's a fun one to consider - thanks Doc!

I suppose it gets at the heart of that fluff quote an Eldar gives about the orks not bothering with questions that other species break their heads over, because it has no practical significance for them. A squig's a squig's a squig, and da only fing to worry about is if it eats you before you eats it!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Well, kinda.

All Squigs are Squigs because Orks and Grots are either uninterested or unknowing of differences between the various Squigs at their disposal.

Just because something that isn’t Snot, Grot, or Ork is called a Squig (short for Squiggly Beasts) doesn’t mean Squigs are all the same kind of animal.

For instance, we have marsupials, lizards, amphibians, birds, insects, fish, and what have you. All come under the term “fauna”.

So I put it to Dakka that Orks got little further than “Fauna” when it came to classifying life. You then get different subnames, such as Eatin’ Squig*, Brush Squig, Faceeater Squig, Oil Squig, Buzzer Squig.

But rather than being set sub species or clades**, they’re just common descriptives. So any particularly tasty Squig of little other practical use is an Eatin Squig. Any noticeably violent Squig with a penchant for going for the face is a Faceeater Squig and so on.


*of course, all Squigs are edible, but an Eatin’ Squig is a particularly delicacy, cooked or raw.

**apologies if I’m taking outrageous liberties with proper terms.

So what you’re saying is…. There’s no such thing as a squid

Oh there most definitely are Squigs

It’s just a catch all term for any non-humanoid Orkoid life form. Some might be mammalian, some marsupial, some lizard and what have you. They’re just all referred to as “Squigs”.

And in the distant past, Squigs were Orks who had been 'changed' by the Tyranids...

Wait, what's the source material for this? I'm interested in looking it up because I never read about it before

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Oh there most definitely are Squigs

It’s just a catch all term for any non-humanoid Orkoid life form. Some might be mammalian, some marsupial, some lizard and what have you. They’re just all referred to as “Squigs”.

Sorry I was referring to the commonly known little known fact that there is no such thing as a fish

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
Wait, what's the source material for this? I'm interested in looking it up because I never read about it before

The first Tyranid Army list from WD145:

That's some funny old lore. Thanks for sharing pal

I posted all I could find of old squig lore on this thread a while ago. Love a squig. At I’ll have the old squig hound model as well!

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/807873.page#11461041

If Black Library could produce a single book which would make me forever happy?

Art book called “The Squig Spotter’s Guide”. Written in first person by a Grot intellekchool.

If GW weren't so Cease & Desist happy, it'd be cool to have an artbook along the lines of the Froud's goblins/ Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy book and/ or DiTerlizzi's spiderwick guide. Guess it'd have to be a grot doing the paintjobs, but have "translations" of the Ork glyphs off to the side.. like, some Inquisition agency is going over it before putting it into an Ordos Xenos library- or even Imperial propaganda, like "See? Look how stoopid the orks are!"

Whether we like it or not, IP has to be aggressively and proactively defended. And it’s far from a uniquely GW phenomena.

Best we can do is bombard (not spam! There is a difference) GW with requests for some kind of Squig Spotter’s Guide.

And give I have an odd track record of agitating for things which come to pass? Maybe now is the time.

No I’m not claiming my agitation = future real. But….you never know! I am full for good ideas!

Huh? Wotsat Bodgit? A letter from GW? That I’m certainly full of something, but it’s more brown and smelly?


WHYIOUGHTA!

 TheChrispyOne wrote:
If GW weren't so Cease & Desist happy, it'd be cool to have an artbook along the lines of the Froud's goblins/ Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy book and/ or DiTerlizzi's spiderwick guide. Guess it'd have to be a grot doing the paintjobs, but have "translations" of the Ork glyphs off to the side.. like, some Inquisition agency is going over it before putting it into an Ordos Xenos library- or even Imperial propaganda, like "See? Look how stoopid the orks are!"

Well, there is old Xenology (art)book, which had a lot of deciphering of xenos texts, legends, and second hand data (plus dissections) by an Inquisitor, excellent writing. Too bad GW never reprinted it

Then there is this, new book on Xenos written by foppish Rogue Trader who is apparently completely wrong (or just made up details) about half the entries, haven't read it yet so don't know if it's any good: https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Liber_Xenologis

Well, since the entire Orkoid race is a single species of fungus technically all Squigs are the same. They're just different biomorphs of the same species of Fungus.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Well, since the entire Orkoid race is a single species of fungus technically all Squigs are the same. They're just different biomorphs of the same species of Fungus.

Not quite true- Orkoids are a collection of symbiotic organisms which share a common algal/fungal strain paired with various animal strains that determine the form of the organism. The algal strain is identical throughout and stores all the myriad animal forms, but each orkoid organism only expresses one animal form (although spores from any can produce any and all of the forms). It doesn't really fit into our classification of life, as each different Orkoid form is a symbiote of the same species with a different species, yet all forms of the animal species are contained within the algal symbiote.

So squigs, despite being lumped into one category by orks (along with gretchin, snotlings, and orks), likely constitutes myriad distinct genetic animal strains paired with the common algal strain, which are probably as different genetically as gretchin and snotlings and orks.

Animal and algal/fungal used as approximations- this is an engineered alien that does not match our earthly categories, but those most closely match.

On the broad categorisation thing?

Worth keeping in mind the difference between a tiny Grot and a large Snot is entirely academic to an Ork.

Wee = Snot

Not quite as wee = Grot.

Both are there to be bullied and eaten with relative impunity. Indeed one could argue the main difference between a Snot and a Grot of similar stature is whether it’s smart enough to avoid the Ork, or distract its attention to something else.

Yeah, orks are very general in things, so you won't get a very detailed taxonomy. Just look at their "alphabet":


In the Ghaz book, he fights what's obviously a Bloodthirster, but they just call it a "Fing", which is just their word for Mutant or strange thing. And note that Squig is also food/ supplies/ useful thing in addition to the animal.

Also, on the taxonomic capabilities of Orks, I believe that 'squig' is short for 'squiggly beast', so any beast which squiggles is a squig.

This means that orks might distinguish non-motile organisms (like coral) from moving organisms (though the movement of live coral parts might be squiggly enough for them--given that hair squigs are clearly seen as squigs).

"Squig" is an environmentally neutral term. Orks may well consider bears, dog, grox, Catachan Barking Toads, and completely non-orkoid creatures squigs as well. Though Imperial xenologists may choose to distinguish 'native ork' creatures as properly 'squigs' and other non-orkoid creatures as not being 'proper squigs' regardless of what orks call them, that's a fairly cocky assertion given that the term is ork in usage. If it's a squig to an ork, then it's semantically a squig.

As readers outside the game, we all "know" that ork spores produce enough variety for an entire orkoid ecosystem to evolve, but it's quite clear that Imperial scientists do not consistently recognize that, and it's highly likely that orks would consider the entire discussion irrelevant.

To further complicate matters, Snakebites convey snakes from place to place. Are these Terran snakes, alien species resembling Terran snakes, or Orkoid squigs resembling Terran snakes? In all likelihood, orks don't know or care to know. Similarly, orks clearly have some concept of 'pigs' and 'hogs', due to Pigdoks and Squighogs, as well as a concept of cattle, due to the existence of the black bull's head motif of the Goffs. Were these orkoid creatures that were labeled as pigs and bulls after the orks gained a grasp of Gothic and what Imperials called them, or were they Terran animals or Imperial-named Terran analogues?

Only stupid humies would even wonder about it. Orks know snakes is da snakey-looking squigs wot bite ya.

Yes, I think any reference to actual animals should be taken as imperial pov and reference, with a huge pinch of . Instead, use the scientifically and taxonomically correct term and refer to them as "squigs"

Pretty sure we could make up a name for Ork snakes using the chart posted above.

SlamDunkerista wrote:
This pic.



The dog creature can be seen on the codex edition featured in the above pic at the bottom center right (you'd need a bigger photo of the pic to see it clearly).

Was this actually for real? Does current lore support the existence of this Orky canine creature?

squig hounds?

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:


Pretty sure we could make up a name for Ork snakes using the chart posted above.

It's up there: Snaga. Which makes sense, as the new Beast Snagga boyz are just Snakebitez... who apparently have a lot of Bioniks on them, despite being adherents of "da old wayz". But if I had to ranch great white shark squigs, I'd probably be missing a limb or two also.