Orc (Warhammer) - Physiology

Physiology

Orcs are taller and broader than humans, with short legs and long arms much like a non-human ape. They have massive heads which come directly forward on their necks, giving them a stooping appearance. Their jaws are lined with vicious fangs that jut out from their underbite. They have beady red eyes, a generally foul demeanor, and are naturally hairless. An average orc stands somewhere around six feet tall, though more like seven feet tall when stretched out of his characteristic stoop. They are immortal and continue to grow larger and stronger as time goes on until they are killed.

Orcs have tough, thick, green skin which is highly resistant to pain. They can survive even the most horrific of injuries, which is reflected in-game by an above-average Toughness value. Orcs have an "adrenaline-fuelled metabolism," which means that they grow in size, strength, endurance, and belligerence as they fight and defeat opponents. An Orc will only stop growing when he finds an opponent that he can't beat.

Orcs in Warhammer reproduce asexually, though individuals are always referred to in the background material with the masculine pronoun "he" rather than the neutral "it". The nonexistence of genders among the Orcs of Warhammer is almost never clarified, but can be inferred from mention in the 7th edition rulebook (p. 124) that the spores from which Orcs grow first arrived in the Warhammer World either attached to the ships of the star-traveling Old Ones or having floated through space on their own. Given that the orkz of Warhammer 40,000 reproduce asexually, through a symbiotic relationship with a type of fungal spore, it is very likely that the two races are in fact one and the same and that the details of this process as outlined in Warhammer 40,000 background material apply to the Orcs of Warhammer also. This method of asexual reproduction has not always been a feature of the Orcs of Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000, however, and very occasional references to Orc womenfolk can be found in the earliest editions of both games. A female Orc cheerleader model is still available for use with Blood Bowl, the gridiron football game set in the Warhammer world, but no female Orc models for the Warhammer game itself have ever been produced. The somewhat comedic background material of Blood Bowl is, in any case, not considered canonical to the Warhammer world proper but instead forms a light-hearted parodic version of it.