Orc

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Orcs

Orcs vary a great deal in size and appearance, with the biggest individuals in charge of the rest. Pecking order is established by constant fighting, so only the meanest and nastiest Orcs get to the very top of the tribal ladder. Even the smallest Orc packs a great deal of bone, muscle and bloody-mindedness into a body no taller than a Man's, but which is substantially broader. Orcs have huge jaws, and tiny foreheads behind which lurk a thick skull and not much in the way of brain.

Orcs live in tribes, a collection of greenskins ruled over by the largest, strongest and loudest Boss, an individual known as a Big Boss or a Warboss, depending on his stature. These tribes might only exist as long as the Orc leading them can hold their fractious elements together, or until a challenger usurps power, invariably slaying the old Boss in a leadership challenge, and moulding the tribe to his own, unique vision. There are many tribes, and they are often colourfully named, after their leader, their deeds or some unusual characteristic or custom exhibited by them. Some particularly infamous tribes include the Ironclaw Orcs, the Red Fang Orcs, the Orcs of the Bloody Hand, and the rarely seen Whte Orcs of Mount Grimfang.

Orcs, and indeed all greenskins, worship their own gods who they call Gork and Mork - the former "fighty but kunnin", the latter "kunnin' but fighty". Their faith in their gods is made terrifyingly real through the phenomenon of the Waaagh! During the intense excitement of battle the magical field unconsciously focused by all greenskins becomes stronger until the horde is swept up in an explosion of violence so intense that it will only begin to abate when every last enemy (or Orc) is slain.

The power of the Waaagh! serves not only to drive the Orcs and Goblins forward in battle, but also to fuel the magic of their crazed Shamans. The Waaagh! always discharges through the most receptive mind, that of an Orc or Goblin Shaman. In im,ature Orcs this takes the form of random visions and crackling green energy, but mature Shamans have learned how to control these powers and turn them to their advantage in the form of powerful blasts and awesome spells of destruction.

The Black Orcs are the strongest, hardest and most dangerous brood of Orcs, that come from the Dark Lands, where they long ago were created by selective breeding by the Chaos Dwarfs.