A primer to Greenskins

Warboss Gazag Spleenrippa was powerful and mean, even for an Orc. As a Big 'Un he was almost as large as a Black Orc, yet twice as skilled with a Choppa. The stunties with their humie pals were advancing over the ridge and Gazag was itching for a fight. "Oi! Listen 'ere ya gits! Da stunties an' humies are comin' ova da hill! Fer Gork and Mork! WAAAGH!" As one, the Greenskins surged forward in a massive green wave. Some small fighting broke out here and there, while a couple of Goblins were trampled, but by and large Gazag was pleased with his WAAAGH! and knew that this was just the first of many battles. His mobs would sweep into the Old World and none would survive his green tide of destruction.

Warhammer, to newcomers, may seem on the surface to be just another generic fantasy setting. Oh how they are wrong! This series of articles will have two goals: The first, is to give role-players tips on really playing their characters as they should be in the Warhammer world. The second goal is to showcase how different all the Warhammer races are from their other fantasy counterparts.

Names
Warhammer Orcs and Goblins have a certain flavour to their names. Generally the first name is a rather primitive sounding word that frequently features the letter "G". Their last names are violent and brutal in composition and resemble titles more than anything else. Some examples of great Orc and Goblin names from Games Workshop are

Grimgor Ironhide
Morglum Necksnapper
Azhag the Slaughterer
Grom the Paunch
Badruk 'Eadsplitter
Gorfang Rotgut
and my personal favourite,
Borgut Facebeater

Now this paragraph contains extremely important information about greenskins. It is included in the Names section of this article because it applies to spelling. Greenskins speak in a debased version of the English Cockney accent. They sound like and are based on rough, tough, working class, Oi! listening, soccer hooligans.

Values
Orcs value size, strength and brutality. Orcs care nothing for honour, wealth, land, title or anything else that they see as frivolous and not pertaining to immediate combat. Orcs also value a good scrap. Whether it be a fight with a fellow greenskin or a Dwarf, physical violence is the only thing in life greenskins desire.
Goblins are a different thing altogether. Goblins value cunning, maliciousness and cruelty. Because of the constant abuse suffered from their larger cousins, Goblins are actually quite mean. The life of a "Gobbo" is a hard one and often short. It's only the meanest who survive and establish a place in Greenskin society. You can rest assured that those few that do hold their own in the greenskin tribes are absolutely vicious creatures.

Likes
Violence: Simply put, greenskins like hurting things. Whether greenskins are eating, talking, planning, thinking, laughing or doing any other activity, it will often involve violence in some form. There is no other race who sees so much violence at the individual level. There is very little difference between greenskins on and off the battlefield. Fighting, yelling, squabbling, WAAAGH! shouting and deity worship are present at all times.

Dislikes
Cowardice: Orcs, more than anything else, dislike avoidance of combat. Evasion, underhanded tactics and cowardice infuriate them to no end. Denying an Orc of its single purpose in life is not something it takes lightly. Orcs for the most part abhore ranged combat as it puts them and their choppa at a disadvantagein battle. Some Orcs have been known to use bows and "arrerz" and in extremely rare circumstances, crossbows. The vast majority, however, use a choppa and will dislike anyone who robs them of using it.

Elves: Goblins dislike many things: hard work, adversity, challenge, Men, Dwarfs, the list goes on. Nothing, however, comes close to their innate fear of Elves. Goblins are extremely superstitious and have a phobia of Elves due to their fey nature and aura of mystery. Goblins need large numbers to feel confident in battle. Their ideal fight would be outnumbering an unaware foe in the dark. In order to willinlgy engae in combat with Elves, the Goblins must have vastly superior numbers or else they will be shaking in their boots.

Religion
Greenskin religion, if it can even be called that, revolves around two gods known as Gork and Mork. These mighty deities make their existence known via the highly potent and destructive greenskin magic. Goblins are the most adept at manipulating this WAAAGH! infused magic, while the Orcs contribute to its potency by building giant effigies of the Orc gods. To the greenskins magic and "religion" go hand in hand, more so than most other races.



Battle Cries
WAAAGH!!!!!
(C'mon, do you really need anything else?)