Chaos Orks

[Deej]

Are there any?

[snikrot]

i dont think orks are smart enough to know about the chaos gods they have worked with chaos agents before.

[mysterex]

Yes. They were described in WD279 (Australasian edition) in the article "The Downward Spiral" which discussed Daemonhunter adversaries and even included a photo of some converted models.

Before you get too excited, there were no special rules covering them.

[Valkerie]

The 1st ed. supplement Freebooters had some rules for Khorne worshiping Orks, but that was pretty well dropped in 2nd. ed. I think the basic idea now is that Orks are so closely attached to Mork and Gork that they literally CAN'T fall for any other god. But, I could easily be wrong.

[entendre_entendre]

perhaps Gork and Mork are Chaos Gods, just with difernet names with Orkified traits so the Orks will follow them (or maybe the Orks just gave them those traits because they liked them so much). ooooh conspiracy!

although i do remember seeing a conversion of a chaos Ork in WD years back, but that's it.

[Melissia]

Orks do not naturally turn to Chaos because of the everpresent nature of the gestalt psychic field that all Orks generate known as the Waaagh!. And Orks that do turn to chaos die quickly because they're not orky enough and therefor get killed by bigger, meaner Orks. And bigger, meaner Orks don't turn to chaos because they have even more Waaagh! energies.

[Sitnam]

Im not sure where I heard this from, but I heard a theory in that other, non-Gork/Mork warp beings have a hard time possesing Orks. Kind of like them being trapped in an empty box, so to say.

[Nabterayl]

I think the problem with Chaos orks is really just that orks are about the only happy race in 40K. How does one of the Chaos gods seduce an ork? By offering him physical pleasure? He gets that already by fighting, feasting, going fast, etc. By telling him that it's okay to be selfish and seek his own pleasure? He already believes that, and is part of a culture that reinforces it. So ... Slaanesh is going to have a tough time.

By holding out the possibility that things can change? He doesn't really want things to change, except to get bigger and 'arder ... which his physiology allows him to do by fighting, which gives him physical pleasure anyway. So Tzeentch doesn't have much to work with.

By offering him solace from despair? Possible, but it takes a lot to make an ork despair, and when they do, they tend to find their solace in fighting, feasting, looting, rocking out, going fast ... hardly Nurglish activities.

By telling him that it's okay to embrace his rage, to solve problems through physical violence, and offering him unparalleled skill and power as a warrior? He already believes those things, and again, his physiology allows him unparalleled skill and power as a warrior just from fighting, which also gives him physical pleasure ... so what is Khorne left with?

Not to say that it's impossible for an ork, or even a whole tribe, to fall to Chaos. But the Ruinous Powers really have very little to work with when it comes to seducing orks, compared to seducing other races.

[Just_Me]

Nabterayl makes a great point in that they really are the only happy and content 40k race, they like fighting, looting, and smashing things and they can do that constantly. Their own society and physiology already rewards them for doing those things well, add to that their deep instinctive resentment and distrust of things "unorky" and there really isn't much wiggle room left for the Chaos Gods is there?

Also, to add to that and to Melissa's earlier point, the way the Orks interact with the Warp is unique, and uniquely self contained. Their psykers can certainly be possessed by Daemons (there have been enough blurbs in the fluff to show that), but it isn't as likely as it is for the other races.

Add to that the fact that the warp hold no real horror for the Orks as it does for others, they see everything in existence, including Chaos, as falling into two categories; things to smash and things that might help them smash. The sort of existential horror that the warp generates in the other races simply doesn't cross their minds, they are too engaged in beating its brains out with something heavy (and maybe even sharp) or shooting it full of as many holes as they can with the biggest noisiest gun they can find.

None of this is to say that you can't make a cool thematic army and give it some solid backstory if want to, it just isn't an everyday occurrence like humans falling to chaos corruption, and it probably wouldn't really change the way they behave in game terms very much at all.

[Deej]

Cheers for all that - last time I read an Ork codex was 2E, and that was a long time ago so my knowledge of their background is a tad hazy!