Why do Orks from Warhammer 40K have nipples?
Why do Orks from Warhammer 40K have nipples?
They are supposed to be grown from spores, so what use are ork nipples?
You see this discourse come up from time to time in other fantasy settings. I remember there being quite a stir over whether lizardfolk in other media should have breasts.
I'm not deep into the Warhammer lore, but there's a few things I know about orkz:
- They grow from spores like a fungus
- They were manufactured by some other race as a sort of guardian caste
- They have potent psychic powers that manipulate reality around them
My theory is that the folks who created the orkz had nipples themselves. Impressionable young orkz saw that their creators were fully grown and had nipples, so maybe they thought they ought to get some as they mature. If they believe that should happen, then it'll find a way to happen.
Later orkz would have seen that the previous generation of orkz had nipples, so they would continued growing in this way.
They have potent psychic powers that manipulate reality around them
I read once that this is why they paint their vehicles red. Because they believe that red makes it go faster, and with their latent psychic ability, the red ships actually DO go faster, because they believe so strongly in it.
... honestly, the most likely argument is that they saw other races and collectively assumed they ought to have nipples too (oi! why dem pink skins 'ave dots on em? Orkzz ought 'ave em too!! wauuugh) also and so they manifested them. now its just part of their genetic code and none of them ask why anymore.
Lore hasn't clarified it officially but I suspect their nipples are just a specialized form of squig.
What use are nipples on males?
Because males were females until the right amount of chemicals were introduced to the fetus. Take enough estrogen and males can produce milk and no longer have useless nipples.
They actually are capable of producing a small amount of milk, it's just that doing that requires so much effort for so little reward that feeding babies became the mother's job after a few thousand generations of mammals being a thing.
sexual stimulation
They have been engineered by the Old Ones. So I’m just gonna assume, they didn’t think of that when the Necron and C’tan came knocking on their doors.
psychological warfare. First thing the Necron & C'tan did in battle was hesitate thinking, "wtf? do those monsters have nipples?"
Causing a couple of circuits to burn out. Kickstarting the Flayed Ones.
I am adapting this as headcanon now.
Maybe they're not mammal nipples, but happen to look like it.
Is there a lore reason why that mushroom has a nipple?
Where do you think orc milk comes from?
Same place you get bull milk.
With that consistency I think the milk spoiled.
Which Ork models have nipples?
I can't say my knowledge of the current range is exhaustive, but I can't think of a single model that has one from the 1998 - 2016 era. There's a runtherd with a piercing where a nipple would be, but no nipple.
If Batman and Robin can have nipples, orks can have nipples too!
Because they collectively agreed that they should have them.
what if the spores get thirsty?