Warhammer 40k Lore - What are Feral Orks?

[@SusCalvin]

Feral orks have a different group instinct than larger, industrial ork groups. Their big advantage is sticking to the most remote and hostile parts of a planet. Ork tribes take a few generations to reach the numbers they need to risk more than nuisance raids, and most of the time they avoid large engagements and make their enemies come to them. The imperial forces they face is often planetary militia, PDF units and garrison/mop-up imperial guard units. The Imperium does not divert its strongest resources for this kind of security duties. Most of the time, this is part of the normal security duty of the imperial commander of a world. The enemies a feral ork faces is more likely to be a militiaman with an autogun, a locally manufactured armoured car with a heavy stubber, PDF garrisons with frag mortars or a fortified grox farm with stub rifle-equipped workers. Rooting out feral orks from their hideouts in a cave system, jungle or in some rare cases pockets in the underhive is a daunting slog. Sometimes imperial forces limit themselves to containment and regular culling of their numbers to keep the feral orks from gaining that critical population mass.

[@jacobmclemore1901]

"Are there any good Goblins if you look hard enough you'll probably find one but a good Goblin is a goblin who wouldn't be born in the first place" Goblin Slayer

[@freakwntwatchr]

Bet there are a lot of Beast Snaggas in these tribes

[@jamesgorman5692]

Imagine the mayhem you could cause by dropping Ork spores on someone's planet.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Or ANY planet really.

[@resonancebarracuda478]

The feral orks also made gargants of there own, known as the Steam Gargant, it's very similar to the ordinary gargant, big, stompy and shooty although less advanced.

[@WynterLegend]

OI FINK DEY'S GOOD'N ORKY... And I tend to put them in almost every RP setting I run, purely for the schenanigans.

[@rogerwhite9484]

Great job GDN , just heard the audiobook "the Beast must die" & it got me back interested in the orks again . Keep up the great vvork.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Thanks. I'm also covering the Beast Arises series too, now.

[@Grunkaa1]

Awesome video and subject. I never really gave any thought to the orks left behind.

[@robluxipiech4033]

Had the worst stomach bug and hangover last night and this morning. The day the city was chainsawing trees for hours... couldnt sleep. Asmr didnt work. Put on this video with some ear buds and boom, relaxed and got a nap. Thanks again bud.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

I'm glad the Feral Orks helped you rest :D

[@arethmaran1279]

GrimDark Narrator I don't want to know what kind of hellscape his world is when Feral Orks are sleeping material.

[@christopherperales19]

A difference between the two, feral orks actually hit things on shooting phase

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

That's rather funny.

[@SusCalvin]

Feral orks are fun low-level threats in Only War. Their instincts are different, they actually avoid the iggies and set low-tech traps for them. Instead of throwing themselves out in big assaults, they make the players come for them. They aren't better at shooting I think, a shootout with an industrial ork carrying a heavy shoota is a lot scarier. Instead, the feral orks are much more likely to withdraw from big fights and let traps and skirmishing do the job. Feral orks often don't have the numbers necessary to make up for their disadvantages. It can take generations for them to build up their population, more if they suffer the occasional carpet-bombing from the planetary forces. Clearing out a cave system with feral orks is just the kind of job you can give the player characters in a small task force of a few regiments.

[@MasterCrash123]

I think, once I DO get into Ork miniatures, I'm just gonna have a bunch of Feral Orks. They kinda remind me of Tusken Raiders and Jawas...and that's kinda cool.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

There's a certain purity about the feral orks :D

[@LilacMage]

Making some savage snakebites right now. ;) waaaagh!

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Waaaagh right back, kind sir.

[@jasonsantos3037]

Yeah you're still Savage like there's space for Ken but similar like that Savage Orcs from Warhammer fantasy

[@bertuslombardvisser4773]

Can wild Boyz become space Boys again if it population is big enough?

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

If they don't forget too much about how spacefaring technology works, sure.

[@gagaplex]

@@GrimDarkNarrator Wouldn't they just need to _believe_ they understand space-faring technology, though?

[@gabrielmarquez9044]

Ork technological level rises with numbers. But they can jump start their tech if the space boys left a lot of their broken tech on the planet. Or if the planet has any other technological wrekege they can learn from (fiddle with)

[@SusCalvin]

@@gagaplex They need to be able to imagine the existence of a greater galaxy out there, where stabbing the local megafauna with spears or raiding the humies' grox pasture aren't the biggest, baddest fight. This is more than most feral orks are capable of.

[@jackiesantos2121]

Welfare, all orks are still the Savage Orcs from Warhammer fantasy. One of their was the black orks. Do day exist in 40K?

[@SusCalvin]

Don't think so. Black orks started as a chaos dwarf project for better overseers or something. 40k has ork nobz with a similar role. Big and burly, motivating the others in line.

[@farkasabel]

Exodite orks. :D

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

I doubt the worlds they're on are paradises though.

[@farkasabel]

GrimDark Narrator As I know exodite eldars are living quite a barbaric life. They even have some animal gods like a huge scorpion.

[@masterspookums6506]

Dem have da best partys! 🍻🍺

[@Daimon-X]

Zog yeah! Da Wild BOYZ! From da jungle. Welcome to da jungle we have fun and games... On Armageddon some feral orks tribes where Khorne worshipers.

[@chinchin2121]

I love the orks, but it seems that most of their lore is contradictory. Like the savage orks. Their tech comes from the numbers of orks ina group, so savage orks wouldn't remain savage if their population reached a high enought population.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

I think it also works the other way around. Regular orks trapped with no space travel or tech on a world would devolve into feral orks eventually.

[@chinchin2121]

@@GrimDarkNarrator But from what I've heard, all of their technological knowledge comes from their DNA and not from any formal education on science. So even if they where born on a planet with no space orks around, I don't see why they wouldn't eventually start building guns and trucks and ships. Take for example the gargants the orks build. They say they can only build them when their numbers reach a certain high treshhold, and if I remember correctly it's the same for all of their other techs. I'm not saying orks would never become feral. Sure if there's only a handful of them around, they would probably only be able to figure out basic tools like stone clubs or maybe bronze and iron if they're lucky or numerous enough. But ounce the orks have completely taken over the planet and their numbers are high enough, the concentrated waaagh energy should give the mekboys (or boilerboys of the feral orks) ideas for new inventions. They even have oil squigs to give them the necessary oil to build their vehicles, proving that they are designed from the start to build their tech. Btw I'm not trying to say they're not cannon, I'm saying they contradict the lore that states the orcs where made to always fight and be able to make weapons and equipment out of nothing to keep fighting the necrons. And sure you could argue that other lore says they're designs and equipment are less sophisticated that they where back then (like the first orcs the humans encountered having power armors) and some lore might suggest they are devolving from their original design. But that's a slow process that affects the entire specie, while the feral orks' low technology only affects isolated groups and contradicts the rest of the lore.

[@gabrielmarquez9044]

Not having a non Ork enemy to fight slows that down. They have no need for the tech and so their genes don't unlock it. Meck boys have wonder tech in their genes. They still need inspiration or a need to unlock. Not Shure if this is just head cannon but that's my understanding But yes, eventually they will get space flight. Just slower

[@SusCalvin]

@@chinchin2121 Factions who share a planet with feral orks know that just as well. Even the imperial commander of an industrial world, with no outside help from the greater Imperium, can have her personal air force carpet-bomb known feral ork villages with promethium. Culling and containment is a common alternative to extermination when you have feral orks as neighbours. The other factions know that if they do nothing, the orks will multiply over generation after generation and finally have the numbers to become a real threat. Ork cultural and industrial development is motivated by an urge to fight someone else. What happens when the orks don't have a fight in front of them is fuzzy. Early-generation feral orks might simply not know there is a greater galaxy out there, and think the best fight possible is to tackle the local megafauna with spears.

[@SusCalvin]

@@gabrielmarquez9044 If you leave them alone, eventually some ork will hit the intuitive knowledge lottery and understand something. Or just get bashed in the head and get his brains shaken into the right place. Feral orks are fighting an uphill battle against other factions. Even the imperial commander of a crappy industrial planet, with no outside imperial aid, can arm grox herders with slug rifles into an ork defence militia or carpet-bomb known ork villages with promethium.