"Sticks 'n' stones'll break my bones but Mork'll kick yer teef in ya big bugger!"
- —Warlord Killboss facing off against an Imperial Warhound-class Titan
Gork and Mork - the deities of the Orks
Gork and Mork are the gods of the Orks, the echoes of the Greenskin species in the Empyrean, the fathers of the WAAAGH! and all-round thugz. Gork is brutal but kunnin' and Mork is kunnin' but brutal. What more is there to say? Look at them wrong and they'll kick yer teef in.
Whilst Gork smashes you over the head with his huge spiked club, Mork will give you a staggering low blow, demonstrating the kunnin-ness and brutality of the Orkish Gods. Ork Stompas and Gargants are built in honour (and possibly in the likeness of) the two mighty Greenskin Gods. The Mekboyz who build them work from a vision held within their imagination that they believe has been sent to them by Gork and Mork, usually inspired during the onset of a new WAAAGH!.
Quick Answers
What are the main characteristics of Gork and Mork?
How do Gork and Mork embody the Ork species?
What is the difference between Gork and Mork in terms of their brutality and cunning?
How do Gork and Mork compare to the Chaos Gods?
What is the significance of the WAAAGH! in relation to Gork and Mork?
History
An ancient depiction of Gork and Mork, the fierce Gods of the Orks
The Ork species' collective unconsciousness registers in the Immaterium much as do the collective psyches of the Aeldari and Humanity. In the Orks' case, their relatively simplistic psyches coalesce into two entities they worship as gods called Gork and Mork, who are much like the Chaos Gods, the lost Aeldari Pantheon or the Emperor of Mankind's empowered soul within the Warp.
The difference between the twin Greenskin gods is simple: Gork is brutal but cunning, while Mork is cunning but brutal. To make this comprehensible, one has to think like an Ork (a debatable proposition at best); Mork hits you when you aren't looking and Gork hits you even harder when you are. Like their own species, the Greenskins believe that when facing the gods of the other intelligent species of the galaxy their deities can be defeated but never entirely extinguished; like the Orks themselves, they will always come back, spoiling for the next fight.
The Orks believe that Gork and Mork are personal gods; i.e. they will offer divine aid to those Orks who ask for it, if they are found deserving, but it does not matter which of the two gods an Ork prays to, since they are essentially interchangeable. However, if a distinction were to be made, it could be said that Gork is the favoured god of the average Greenskin as the manifestation of the physical power that defines the Orks, while Mork is the favoured deity of the Oddboyz, the cunning Orks who do more than just fight to keep the Ork species moving forward to the next battle.
The greatest of the Ork warlords, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, the Ork who unleashed both the Second War for Armageddon and the even more brutal Third War for Armageddon, is currently considered the Prophet of Gork and Mork. Ghazghkull and his Orks believe that the twin gods provide him with the information to unleash strategies that will finally give the Orks victory over the Imperium and all their enemies -- which basically includes every other thinking being in the Milky Way Galaxy. Rumours abound that Ghazghkull intends to call for the Ragnarork, the Great WAAAGH!, the final apocalyptic battle in which the Orks would prove their worth before the eyes of their violent and primitive gods.
The Twin Gods
- Gork - The Ork psyche is so strong and robust that their reflection in the psychic mirror-universe of the Warp is a potent force indeed. There are two mighty, belligerent and boisterous Ork gods that the Greenskins believe in above all others -- Gork, who the Orks say is brutal but kunnin', and Mork, who is kunnin' but brutal. Though both are warrior gods, Gork is the primary deity of clobbering, smashing, breaking, killing and pummelling the rest of the galaxy into submission. This is a notion that resonates strongly with the more single-minded warbosses of the Ork species.
- Mork - Mork, the most cunning god of the Ork pantheon, is the patron deity of Greenskin thinkers, creators and shamans. Whereas Gork is most likely to clobber an enemy god in the face, Mork will happily wait until his enemy's back is turned before raising his club and belting him around the back of the head. It is Mork who is revered by the stranger and arguably more intelligent strains of Orks -- Kommandoz, Weirdboyz, Mekboyz, and those rare warbosses who like to have a good hard think about their battle plans before beating their enemies into a bloody red paste.
Trivia
The Greenskins of the Warhammer fantasy universe and the Orks of the Warhammer 40,000 universe worship the same gods, Gork and Mork.
Sources
- Codex: Orks (4th Edition), pg. 15
- The Red Waaagh! Campaign Supplement (7th Edition), pp. 7, 52, 67
- WAAARGH: Orks (1st Edition), pg. 60