Culture
Ork culture circulates around seemingly random violence, which dominates every aspect of their culture. However, to characterize it as evil, malicious, or racist is to ignore the fact that it is in their nature. Most competitive activities amongst fellow Orks end in death. In fact, most activities Orks engage in involve death. Their culture (when not fighting each other) is mainly reminiscent of tribal methods, with a crude understanding of trade and commerce (although comically, their currency is said to be the teeth knocked out of each other in brawls). This may be a byproduct of the rather brutal 40K universe, however, and it is possible that behavioral conditioning of Orks could result in a more placid lifeform.
Ork behavior is dominated by the WAAAAAGH!, a gestalt psychic field they generate that affects the Ork psyche, as it allows Orks to instinctively recognize who is 'bigga N' Dead Killy' and therefore in charge, which also feeds into the physiological expressions of success. All Orks generate this field, and it grows stronger as the Orks enjoy themselves, generally while fighting. The WAAAAAGH! helps give momentum (and the name) to the Orks' planet-crushing WAAAAAGH!s. These WAAAAAGH!s are a cross between a mass migration, holy war, looting party and pub brawl, with a bit of genocide thrown in for good measure. Millions of Orks will gather together, drawn to the power of a single dominant Ork called a Warboss, who are essentially extremely successful Ork Nobs, distinguished from most Nobs thanks to their higher level of intelligence, many qualifying as geniuses even by human standards (which is not to say that Warbosses are always intelligent; some are simply too big, too green, and too strong to be resisted), though their lack of education can often lead their enemies to assume their stupidity (which is usually the last mistake they make). Once assembled into a huge mass, consisting of hundreds of millions or even billions of Orks and their countless ramshackle vehicles and spacecraft, the Orks will set off to find an enemy to fight - any enemy. Ork Waaagh!s will sweep whole planetary systems away and destroy armies and fleets in tides of bloodlust and carnage, and only once the Orks have killed every available enemy will they start to fight amongst themselves again!
Read more about this topic: Ork (Warhammer 40,000)
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“The purpose of education is to keep a culture from being drowned in senseless repetitions, each of which claims to offer a new insight.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)
“I am writing to resist the view that Europe and civilization are going to Hell. If I am being “crucified for an idea”Mthat is, the coherent idea around which my muddles accumulated—it is probably the idea that European culture ought to survive, that the best qualities of it ought to survive along with whatever cultures, in whatever universality. Against the propaganda of terror and the propaganda of luxury, have you a nice simple answer?”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil,—to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than as a member of society. I wish to make an extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school committee and every one of you will take care of that.”
—Henry David David (1817–1862)