WAAAGH
WAAAGH! is the battlecry of Orks throughout the universe. Whether it's a natural noise or Orkification of the word 'war' is really, really unimportant. Pointless WAAAGHing will now follow.
Not to be confused with "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD!", a cry often uttered by fa/tg/uys, but not associated with any kind of enjoyable activity.
An important note, remember that the 'G' is silent. Nothing can piss off a pedantic Neckbeard more than calling an Ork army a "wog."
WAAAAGH
WAAAAGH
WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahem
WAAAGH! has several meanings with the Orks. While it's most famous as a battle cry, it also refers to the military campaign and energy field surrounding the Orks. As a military campaign, a WAAAGH! is named after the Warboss who gathered it together and is generally described as a holy war, pub crawl and pillaging rolled into one great big party, where Orks travel from one planet to another, fighting anything and everything that they can find.
WAAAGH! also refers to the energy the Orks generate while in a campaign. A highly psychic race, Orks do not draw psychic power from the Warp like Humans and Eldar, but instead from each other. This allows Ork psykers, dubbed Weirdboyz, to access a large amount of psychic energy. However, if they soak up too much energy, they end up exploding, taking several Orks with them. This energy field is actually vital to the Orks' war efforts, as their ramshackle technology relies on a sufficient number of Orks agreeing that it works that way as much as mechanical laws (e.g. their belief that "red ones go faster" turns into a measurable increase in the top speed of a buggy with enough red paint on it). The Orks, however, do not understand that they are making this energy field, and simply assume that the technology works because they believe that is how the universe works.
Interestingly other races can also use WAAAGH! energy, even more adeptly than the Orks themselves. The Primarch Vulkan, when facing off against the The Beast tapped into the primal WAAAGH! power itself and used it as a weapon against the Ork Warlord, indicating that a human can tap into and control WAAAGH! energy. This is particularly impressive considering even supposedly powerful psyker races, such as the Eldar, have never been capable of wielding WAAAGH! energy or the Psychic Energy produced by the Emperor either. Since Gork and Mork are real perhaps, then, this indicates that they simply favoured Vulkan as more Orky than the Orks themselves. Or it might be another proof of the axiom "Green iz da best".
And for the love of Gork (or Mork?) The "G" in "WAAAGH!" is silent. It is not pronounced "Warg", which is a bigger, eviler, intelligenter wolf.
Notable WAAAGHs
From Canon
- WAAAGH! Ghazgkhull, which became infamous for the two wars it waged on Armageddon. Currently the largest known WAAAGH! in existence, and it's quite possible that it could unite the whole Ork race under one leader and cause so much WAAAGH! energy that Gork and Mork (Mork and Gork?) will come crashing out of the Warp and join the scrap.
- WAAAGH! Nazdreg, which teamed with Ghazgkhull for a while but then take their balls and leave when things on Armageddon went boring due to all that season of fire shit. They also participated in the Medusa V campaign, which ensures major hilarity, like tellyporta-spamming a few hive cities to dust and hijacking a fully-operational Imperial battleship at evacuation stage. WAAAGH! Nazdreg is famous for being the most well-equipped WAAAGH! in the galaxy, having the most prominent Meks working for them (things like the Tellyporta and Submersible were actually invented by them). Nazdreg himself is like an orky Steve Jobs - ridiculously rich, arrogant, cunning, and merciless, but minus the cancer (Or perhaps, more. Ahh!! An Ork *WAAAAAAAAGH!!).
- WAAAGH! Snagrod, which became infamous for the near destruction of the Crimson Fists when it invaded Rynn's World. Snagrod and Chapter Master Pedro Kantor later fought in single combat; while Kantor took to the field in his full panoply of wargear, Sragrod made due with little more than a loincloth and two regular axes.
- WAAAGH! Skargor, which was the target of the Corinthian Crusade, taking on fifty Imperial Guard regiments and six Space Marine chapters. Skargor was eventually killed by Ancient Galatan of the Ultramarines at the cost of his own life.
- WAAAGH! The Beast, a WAAAGH! led by an Ork Warboss known only as the Beast (Full name "The Great Beast who will bring much Slaughter") a few millennia after the Horus Heresy. It was the largest WAAAGH! to threaten the galaxy in general and the Imperium in particular in known history. The Imperium sacrificed a tremendous amount of manpower, including whole Space Marine Chapters (Including the entire Imperial Fists, who were wiped out to a man, somehow), to subdue the threat.
That's practically all that was written about it.NO LONGER. Black Library is getting a whole series of novels (with the Imperial Fists as main characters of the first book!) for the meanest Ork prior to Ghazghkull. Turns out the Beast was so mean he was the size of a Leviathan dreadnought, and his Nobs were the size of Dreadnoughts. Also, Ork attack moons, and by that we mean moons plural, and with Orks it's probably going to be a lot. Oh and Orks with finely made wargear and use of tactics, oh and Ork diplomats. So basically super smart Orks led by an Ork theorized to be the same breed as the Ullanor Warlord, y'know the one that Horus personally had to kill.
- WAAAGH! Tuska, a WAAAGH! led by a Warboss nicknamed "Daemon-Killa". Tuska's fleet bypassed Cadia's defenses in order to breach the Eye of Terror and find daemons to stomp. His WAAAGH! krumped several daemons worlds in the warp, up until they got to a world ruled by a Khornate Daemon Prince, where he and his warband finally met their end, although not before impaling the prince with his power klaw, right in the nuts. This spectacle was so hilarious that Khorne resurrected Tuska's warband back in his Brass Citadel so that they can wage war against Khorne's daemons for all eternity.
- WAAAGH! Grizgutz, also known as 'the Lost Waaagh!' was lead into the Morloq system in 978.M41 by Ork Warlord Grizgutz, a noted kleptomaniac. Due to a strange accident of Warp-travel he returned to the system earlier in time than when he launched the WAAAGH! itself. Grizlutz murdered his doppelgänger to have a spare of his favorite gun and the resulting confusion stopped the WAAAGH! in its tracks.
From Games
- WAAAGH! Orkamungus, which was an invasion of Tartarus during the first Dawn of War game. Their WAAAGH! was co-sponsored by the Alpha Legion to distract the Imperial Guard forces on Tartarus while they find the key to the Maledictium, although the Orks eventually planned to double cross the Alpha Legion after they were done. This didn't happen though as Orkamungus was eventually killed by Gabriel Angelos' 3rd Company in the middle of the Tartarus campaign, with his WAAAGH! ending shortly after.
- WAAAGH! Gorgutz, which rampaged through Lorn V, Kronus, and the Kaurava system. He lost at Lorn V and Kronus but he conquered all of Kaurava, resulting in much sputtering confusion and butthurt as well as rejoicing from Ork fans. (A lot of this confusion is due to some conflict in lore about the outcome of this WAAAGH and there are those which hold that "Dawn of War II's References" about the canon outcome are still correct in which the Imperial Guard are victorious) It then comes to Planet Archeron where technically; since the war there was over the spear of Khaine; Gorgutz also won since he was the one who walked home with the flash pointy stikk.
- WAAAGH! Bonesmasha, which was the first WAAAGH! to rampage through Aurelia during Dawn of War II. He was eventually killed by Force Commander Hair-gel and gang. Its destruction actually resulted in the creation of three "mini-WAAAGH!s", as it were... one of which was WAAAGH! Smashface, shown below.
- WAAAGH! Smashface, a WAAAGH! that was gaining steam in Aurelia during the events of DoW: Retribution. It was eventually thwarted in all cases by which ever army was chosen to play, where Smashface's supply convoys were destroyed and he himself died after trying to smash the faces of the gits who raided his convoys.
- WAAAGH! Grimskull, which hit Graia and tried to loot some Titans. His raid failed, he was killed when Captain Titus was finished with him, and the Blood Ravens probably got the Titans and claimed that it was "gifted" to their chapter.