The ancient Krork were known to possess more advanced technology than that of the present Greenskin race, and to be on average larger, in some cases standing as tall as 12 metres. In the Overlord's chamber, Horus found every Ork and Terminator dead, apart from the gore-drenched First Captain of the 1st Company, Ezekyle Abaddon, who was surrounded by crushed and broken Ork bodies. M41 Hope's End - Earth Caste engineers of the T'au Ke'lshan Sept proudly reveal an immense new colony-seeding voidcraft. This monolithic spacefaring vessel is named in the T'au Lexicon, Hope's Light. On its maiden voyage, and with over three hundred thousand T'au colonists and warriors on board, Hope's Light is boarded by the Ork fleet of Megaboss Morkrog and lost with all hands. For the next standard decade, the Ke'lshan Sept faces brutal raids from Morkrog's vast new looted warship Taukilla.

The Orks' widespread advance was only halted in 546.M32 when the Imperium resorted to the most extreme and desperate of measures to invade the Ork homeworld of Ullanor Prime and eliminate The Beast. The war incurred terrible costs upon the Space Marine Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes and the other military forces of the Imperium. However, the war also gave birth to the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition and the Deathwatch Chapter of Veteran Space Marines who were together tasked with making sure that no xenos threat to Human dominance of the galaxy ever grew so great again.An Ork's love of speed can easily affect his brain, to the point where an Ork becomes addicted to the thrill of a wild ride into battle. Beyond even a Speed Freek's delirium there are also Flyboyz, whose need for speed has driven them into the air in search of ever greater thrills, piloting the Ork's Fightas and Fighta-Bommerz. A particularly favored ingredient in their diet are Squigs, short for "squiggly beasts"; a variety of symbiotic Orkoid races about the size of a Terran house cat but legless. Due to their warlike nature, they constantly fight amongst themselves, or launch piratical raids upon nearby enemies. Such conflicts tend to be small-scale or localised. They never really develop beyond random outbursts of violence and looting. The Snotling populations that spring up around Ork settlements are monitored and cultivated by a caste of Orks known as Runtherdz. These grizzled and merciless slavers use a variety of methods to bully their charges into a state of anxious obedience, not least of which are the much feared Grot-prod and the ferocious Squig-hound.

The Orks' foes can only watch in horrified bewilderment as the phenomenon known as the Great WAAAGH! sees the Greenskins flooding across the galaxy in numbers never before witnessed, slaughtering everything in their path as they go. To compensate for this, the Gretchin possess an abundance of low cunning. Commonly known as "Grots" to the Orks, Gretchin are even more numerous than Orks. They scurry around the larger Greenskins on scrawny legs, and their grasping fingers snatch and steal from the unwary. Ork biology lends itself well to combat: they are extraordinarily strong and tough and are naturally good fighters, always looking for a scrap. Meanwhile other intelligent races steeped in high-flown philosophy fall into the same traps time and again, doomed to stagnate and decline, unless of course they are first conquered by the Orks.

Troops

Pigdoks - This unique class of Oddboy are an odd combination of a "Dok" and "Mek", although not as skilled as either individually. They often found in Feral Ork tribes, tending the Warboars that are ridden to battle by the primitives. Their main use in battle is to provide "doping" to increase the ferocity of the various beasts that Feral Orks take to war, as well as some of the Orks themselves.

Before long, another world will be conquered by the Orks, its cities reduced to ruins and its populace toiling in chains as slaves for their brutal Greenskin overlords. Orks are thus genetically engineered to be muscular, aggressive, and none too bright; their technology is maintained by a caste of Oddboyz who possess genetically-implanted dispositions and technical knowledge that grant them unusual skill with maintaining and developing technology. This gene develops in Orks as they grow, influencing their minds and releasing genetically encoded knowledge; in a similar way that a Human baby will reflexively hold its breath under water or a horse can walk half an hour after being born, an Ork's techno-gene gives it information on how to fight, operate weapons, and speak the Ork language.

Enhancements

An idea of the appearance of the Ork gods can be gained from looking at Ork Gargants and Stompas, mighty war machines constructed in the image of Gork (or possibly Mork). The Mekboyz create these titanic engines of war to reflect the essence of Orkiness in mechanical form, and as such they serve as potent religious idols.

Once again, they resort to the use of blood when the red paint runs out. Evil Sunz are distinguished by their use of bright colours, especially red and yellow. They like flame patterns and many sport goggles and driving gloves, whether they are driving a vehicle or not. The Evil Sunz are also found as an Orc tribe of the same name on the Warhammer World of Warhammer Fantasy.Ork Physiology is fascinating and terrifying in equal measure, demonstrating inhuman degrees of resilience to the point where they can withstand seemingly fatal wounds with little apparent long-term consequence. Indeed, Orks witnessed suffering fatal wounds in the midst of heavy fighting have often been observed again several days later, larger and stronger than they were before their injuries and with no sign of those wounds save for some largely superficial scarring." Though likely a corruption of whatever may have come before, by and large it functions very well. Perhaps this is because the fundamental tenet of their society is a simple one that even the most pea-brained Snotling can understand -- might makes right. The Orks are a biologically-engineered species, created more than 60 million Terran years ago as a warrior race originally called the Krork by the long-vanished reptilian alien species known as the Old Ones, whom the Orks refer to as the Brain Boyz.