This chapter will serve as an introductory chapter to the Orks as well as to the concepts I will discuss in this part of the series. Because the Orks are the ever present antagonist of the franchise, as well as somewhat of a comic relief, I have decided they are worthy of their own series altogether. Each of the topics presented in this chapter, will have their own fully fleshed out chapter later. The reader is free to jump to whatever chapter they find the most intesteresting, but they are written to be read in order.
The nature of the beast
In this second chapter I will outline everything needed to be able to follow along with the rest of the augmentations I will make in this series. If you are already familiar with the setting of Warhammer 40,000 you may want to skip this chapter, as I will be retreading a lot of familiar ground.
This second chapter will focus on the in universe description of the Orks physiology, history, society and quirks. Their faith and strange abilities to seemingly warp reality will all be covered here. The Orks are described as power hungty, murderous monsters who lives only to kill, burn and destroy in the other factions narratives. In their own narratives they are described as being driven by pure need for adrenaline and action, for fast cars, guns and violence, something that I will show ties them closely to futurism.
The Orks furthermore are driven by absolute certainty in their own greatness and invulnerability. Each individual Ork is fueled by an absolute sense of self, and the deep rooted belief that he alone is the greatest, not only amongst his kin, but amongst every species in the galaxy. The Ork race as a whole see themselsves as the true masters of tue universe, and this belif justifies them subjecting and murdering as they see fit, a traits they share with the Imperium of man, even tough their flavour of facism is somewhat different.
Futurism and facism
Facism is a common theme within the Warhammer franchise as a whole, as seen in my series on the Imperium of Man, a militaristic empire run on cruelty and xenophobia. Facism, being the ideology that the mighty and the strong have intrinsic rights to rule over the weak, for if the weak were strong enough to rule themselves, they would not have been subjected. The ideology of might making right is something that is deeply tied to the Ork narrative of Warhammer 40k.
One of the defining features of facism, and similar movements, is the need for an Other. The concept of the Other is one I have discussed several times before on this website. In short teams, the other here is defined as something or someone that exists outside the self, and can as a result be used to define what self is not. If the othter for example is weak, the self is strong, if the other is dumb, the self is wise.
The artistic tradition of futurism is one that fascists of Europe lashed on to, arguably at least at the beginning of the 1930s, before they became too rebellious for the status quo of the ruling parties. For, as I will discuss later in its dedicated chapter, is futurism, at its heart, an ideology of change. Formed out of the frustrations of stagnation and cultural and political corruption in 1920s Italy, Futurism aimed to throw off the old, scorch the land, and build the new on the burning ashes, only to have their predecessors repeat the cycle.
Comedy and the importance of narrative points of view
As mentioned before, does the Orks often serve as dark comic relief to the rest of the otherwise melancholic setting. The Orks provide a dark variety of slapstick and brutal comedy, often in the form of dramatic irony. As I have hinted before is the Ork presented in their own texts, rather different then the one presented in the other races narratives.
This is predominantly down to dramatic irony, a narrative device where the reader of a text knows more than the characters in said text. In this case, the irony comes from the fact that the reader knows that the Orks, and the rest of the characters see the universe radically differently. The Orks have no concept of mortality and death, they feel very little pain, and grow stronger, smarter and overall healthier by fighting, much in comparison to any other species, who rarely comes away from a prolonged fight without losing something.
The eternal antagonist
In the last chapter before the conclusion I will shortly discuss the idea of an eternally irredeemable foe in fiction. Be it the droids in Star Wars or the zombies in Night of the living dead movies, are vital for the genre of action to function. The audience needs an unambiguously evil force that the protagonist can dispatch with impunity. Tolkien mentioned in his letters that he struggled with his rendition of the Orcs, wanting to give them humaninsing traits, but yet seeing the need for a foe that the heroes could strike down in vast numbers, without becoming villains themselves (Tally, 2010).
The Orks with their monstrous physique, absolute lack of empathy and morals, as well as their obsession with violence and guns makes them a perfect foil. The fact that the Orks themselves do not suffer in any real way from being hurt, or even killed, furthers their role as a perfect fodder for the protagonists of the franchise as a whole.
Next chapter
The next chapter will give the reader an in-depth presentation of the narrative threads and important characteristics of the Orks within the wider franchise. This will allow me to present more deep and nuanced topics, without needing to pause to explain context.
Tally, Jr., Robert T. (2010) Let Us Now Praise Famous Orcs: Simple Humanity in Tolkien’s Inhuman Creatures, Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 29 : No. 1 , Article 3.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol29/iss1/3
An Unused Frequency 