A heavily armored Black Orc about to hack a dwarf to pieces.
The Black Orcs are a infamous breed of orcs from the setting of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. They are among the strongest, biggest and most disciplined types of orcs, and get their name from their dark green skin and their tendency of wearing black or dark grey heavy armor. They are taller and stronger than the common orcs, including the hulking Big' Unz, and pride themselves at being better fighters than the average orc or goblinoid creature. They are part of the Greenskins faction as elite heavy infantry.
Overview
The origins of the Black Orcs are unclear, but some scholars theorize they were created by the Chaos Dwarfs of the Dark Lands, perhaps to serve as better slaves or warriors than the average greenskin. Certainly, the Black Orcs' sturdy constitution would allow them to prosper in the harsh enviroment of the Chaos Dwarfs where other greenskins slaves would perish. They first appeared in the Old World during Sigmar's time, as a whole tribe of black orcs crossed the Worlds Edge Mountains and conquered other Orc tribes living in the hills to the northwest of Stirland. When Sigmar first united the Men of the middle Old World and founded the Empire, he first had to drive out the Orcs and Goblins that lived there. Those battles against the Black Orcs were by far the hardest fought, and only won at terrible cost to Sigmar's armies.
Ever since then, the Black Orcs pride themselves on being the best fighters in their tribe, and in their case the whole Greenskin race. Only the strongest of the Greenskins, such as the Orc Big' Unz or an Orc Warboss can ever hope to match the skill and strength of a Black Orc in combat. The pride these brutes have is due in part to the nature of Greenskin animosity. The Black Orcs are highly disciplined and martial in their behaviour, and as such they would often look down upon their brethren's ceaseless squabbling and debauchery, believing that they should use all that energy in fighting the enemies of the Greenskin race rather then be used to fight each other. The Black Orcs opinion of the Goblins is considerably far worse, thinking them as nothing more than a nuisance that is unfit to even carry their spare equipment, much less fight in open battle.
Black Orcs are also more disciplined than the other orcs and take warfare more seriously than the other greenskin races and they would find ways to either improve on their combat skills or to appear bigger or meaner as they possibly can. Due to this air of superiority, most Black Orcs usually band together in their own mobs or warbands that are usually totally independent from the rest of the army.
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In battle, black orcs keep a constant eye out for bickering in the ranks, and it takes little more than a dark scowl or a throaty growl from a single black orc to bring the other orcs into line. Should that fail, black orcs are perfectly willing, and exceptionally able, to wade in and smash some heads together, thus restoring order at the insignificant cost of the lives of the wrongdoers. Trivia
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