However you spell their names, Orks are an integral part of Warhammer’s DNA. From marauding orruks in Warhammer Age of Sigmar to marauding Orcs in Warhammer: The Old World and marauding Orks in Warhammer 40,000, these pugnacious hooligans have a lust for battle, a lax grasp of proper syntax, and the love of fans across the decades.
There have been many notable Space Ork warlords through the years – but we all know that one real warboss stands head and shoulders above the rest, leading the greatest Waaagh! the grim darkness of the far future has ever known.
He barely needs an introduction – it’s Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka.
Ghazghkull is da meanest, da greenest, da fightiest Ork ever to have lived. Possibly.* This incarnation of Ghazghkull debuted with Codex: Armageddon, which covered the Third Armageddon War and supported a worldwide campaign run by White Dwarf to decide the fate of the planet – you could even mail in your game results.
Much larger either than his original incarnation – which was a conversion by Andy Chambers in White Dwarf 134 – or his first official model, this massive hunk of metal took everything about Ghazghkull Thraka and dialled it up to the max. His kustom shoota and power klaw got extra nasty, while his armour was upgraded to mega armour, making him as big as a Dreadnought.**
Designed by Brian Nelson, a maestro of Warhammer’s viridian vandals, this version of Ghaz proved that the bigger the ork, the more powerful they are – even if a bunch of that mass was scrap bolted on by an enterprising Mek. The Third War for Armageddon was such a blockbuster battle that Ghaz needed every bit of strength to face off against his greatest and most tenacious foe, Old Bale Eye.***
As miniature design advanced, Ghazghkull started to feel a little bit small, but it was impossible to keep a proper menace like the Beast of Armageddon down. During the Psychic Awakening campaign, he was redesigned as an absolute powerhouse in a massive suit of ramshackle armour with two new weapons – the four-barrelled Mork’s Roar and the gratuitously oversized Gork’s Klaw. He even got his standard bearer Makari back!
Who knows what the future holds for this boisterous Warboss, but things certainly seem to be trending in a particular direction – we shudder to think what might come next. For now, he enters the hall of fame as one of the purest expressions of orkish ingenuity and brutality.
* Many Orks dispute this (and have since lost their heads), but there have been rumours of greater Orks in the distant past.
** At the time! Those pesky ’umies went and designed bigger ones, but Orks don’t care – they all blow up da same.
*** That’s Commissar Yarrick to you, soldier.