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Orgs
26th Mar, 2010

This is an idea for Orgs, the Sciror version of Orcs/ Orks. I like the Warhammer version of Orks with spores, and the breeding cycle of Genestealers and thought about combining the two and messing about with the blended concept to play into stereotypes about teenagers and counter-cultures. I also wanted a bit of the 'The Thing' and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' in there too. All to create a potent invasion organism that attacks from the inside on many layers.

Concept: The Org spores infect a person and get into their blood. The spores affect the gamete cells, and hence any subsequent child derived from them is altered. The child would appear to be normal, but the Org characteristics lay dormant within the child. When a child reaches puberty they start to transform (many parents would agree with this!).

It would be like a 12-13 year old pumped full of growth hormones and steroids (far more than usual). At first they may seem athletic, but soon it goes completely haywire. They loose teeth, and a third set (with tusks) breaks through. They shoot up in height, pack on muscle, eat nothing but red meat, and are prone to 'roid rage'.

They form gangs, hang out of street corners,  and attack humans. Their behaviour becomes more extreme over time, until they start killing and eating humans. They become a head-hunter 'serial killer' gang. As they mature they become green, first blotchy, they all over.

The final transformation is when they 'die'. Once the heart stops it triggers a massive change, and the Org 'reanimates' the corpse, and it is driven by an extreme hunger. Now the 'Orc' is out of control and rabid. It becomes a berserker driven by primal instincts (very true if their was massive brain trauma).

This final stage is the end game. The Org is probably part of a gang (which it still recognises) but it has gear and weapons acquired while still in the 'human' stage.

The Org are rebels, insurgents, and revolutionaries, they are anarchists, vandals, destroyers, nutters, psychos.

Stages:

  • Micro-Spore - can be ingested, or contracted. Grows inside the host to create Bacterium like structures, also produces Bacteriophage (attacks native bacteria in the human host), and Retrovirus (payload) all acting in unison.
  • Child - looks and acts human
  • Teenager - groups of the infected gather together to form gangs as they starts to transform (wears a hoodie to hide this transformation :P). Starts mugging people and beating them up, only a matter of time before they start eating them too! Eating human flesh leads to;
  • Mature - looks a bit like a hobgoblin, very strong, high pain tolerance, and blotchy green skin. Prone to rages, but is still smart and understands technology. Have their own abbreviated language and a psionic link to each other. If they are killed this triggers the next stage;
  • Undead - if the heart stops the Org go into overdrive and seize control. Reanimation. The host is reborn as a rabid 'Orc'. Insane levels of hunger, rapid regeneration, possible psionic-boosters in areas where there is a psionic-manifestation. Very fast, constantly running (charging) and extremely tough. An AK-47 will not kill them. You literally a have to dismember them to slow them down (but they can reattach limbs by holding the soggy end close to the severed point) but they will also regenerate in the case where they can not reach a lost limb.
  • Rebirth once more - Total death (incineration) releases spores that infects the area, and gets into the food chain (dormant). Once eaten it infects the host, including the genitals (inc. eggs and sperm). Can also be passed on as a sexually transmitted disease (having sex with an infected person pass on the spores, as well as leading to teenagers (with Org syndrome).)

Their sole mission is to destroy civilizations from within. The Org gangs can be styled after any gang, warband, or counter-culture from anywhere in the world, or sci-fi inspired gangs from anywhere (or any-time) in the world, or completely made up. This allows Player to style their Orgs as they see fit. They could wear tartan kilt with blue face paint, or Samurai gear, even Ninja Orgs. Anything and everything - a mix of Org and human - hells angels, chavs, Blackwater Mercenaries, you name it.

The role of Mature Humans who are infected: a mature human who is infected will still transform on death. I'm considering this make a smaller 'Goblin' type, that is cunning and avoid direct fighting, and sabotages the food supply, hospitals etc all with intend of creating conditions ideal for spreading the infection.

Until death, a mature human who is infected as an adult, may exhibit secondary, far less pronounced, transformation traits.

  • For example - Infected Mercenaries who are official contractors, with links to the military, would likely to show only secondary traits, as they are too old to be full 'hobgoblin' Orgs as this would be seen by the time the are ready to be selected as from the ranks of the military Mercenaries.

This is an advantage for the Org as such infected contractors would be hard to spot and would be sympathetic to up and coming full Orgs. These infiltrator Orgs may have extra muscle mass and aggression. This allows the Org to infiltrate the military and retain their cover, not alerting the command structure or others, yet at the same time may be 'heroes' (and spreading infection).

The idea behind this would be that the Org want to infect military personnel (though this is more instinct; they want to fight and the want to retain cover and play by the rules) as their children will be infected and transform into 'hobgoblin' Orgs and probably have some training due to their parents. The parents may even protect their transforming offspring.

In a game, this could be used as special rules for turning seemingly uninfected enemy units into 'traitors' and launching a surprise attack from within. The Org tend to see their infection as a 'gift', and want to get rid of other humans (who they see as weak) or convert them. However the society is not stable as the Org will turn on each other when all the regular humans are gone. The Org organise into tribal units and hunt down other tribes. Only the strong survive on an Org world, a world of endless fighting.

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6 Responses

Hearing feedback is very important to me in developing my ideas. Much of my designs are inspired, and crafted, by chatting to fans on forums before snowballing into a full concept you'll find here. I would like to thank all those who have contributed critiques and participated in discussions over the years, and I would especially like to thank all those who commented on this specific topic. If you would like join in, you are most welcome!

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  1. Malika says:

    Hmm, not so sure about the Org's goals and the way the infestation works on adults. I always assumed the Org to be more instinct guided (corrupting an ecosystem, morphing into something in their own image) rather than a cultural thing (destroying society). As for the infection, I thought that the Org would infect other species on a genetic level, meaning that those infected might not notice anything different but that their offspring would be affected. The protective aspect of the parent might be kept, that once the offspring is born the parent's body releases a hormone in their system which causes them to be more protective of not only their offspring but also those with the same infection. I don't know how this would work with infecting military figures specifically, would the Org spores actually seek them out? Could spores even do that?

    • Philip S says:

      I think all you say would hold true too. As for the Military, I'm thinking those who are infected will seek to infect those which they consider a threat. This would be instinctive behaviour. So a gang may seek out a base and commit acts of vandalism, and in the process infect the area. If they get shot, then the area becomes a hot spot.

      • Malika says:

        Sounds good, but this infection would be different from the normal infection I think since the normal one would be a dormant one until passed on to the offspring. Also how would this infection work with other lifeforms? I doubt that the Org is purely based on infecting humans, what about aliens, animals, plants, fungi, etc etc etc. I guess the Org would corrupt every lifeform in the ecosystem. I doubt they would need to worry that much about human threats as long as they manage to spread the infection effectively the entire ecosystem would be their within one or two generations. Threats against that (such as doctors trying to cure it or purge the infected) would simply be killed off, but even they would probably be infected before they realise it. Spread the spores into other lifeforms and the entire water and food productions are affected, everybody consuming that would be infected.

        • Philip S says:

          The Org will infect almost any fauna or flora. The symptoms the infected will exhibit depends on time of their infection in their life-cycle. The infection of a fully mature human will have a limited effect, but the offspring of the infected human will exhibit extreme effects in later life.

          On death the effect of the Org ramps up as is starts take over. The death of an infected mature human could result in the corpse acting as an incubation chamber for a small 'Goblin', whereas the death of a fully modified (offspring of the infected) human (who looks like a 'Hobgoblin') will trigger in an extreme transformation. There is a hierarchy to it all that will yield all the fantasy archetypes of 'Orc', 'Hobgoblin', and 'Goblin'.

          Where the 'Orc' is pretty much an 'undead' super mutant rage zombie harking back to the oldest myths, the 'Hobgoblin' is relativity human and understands technology but highly aggressive and cannibalistic (serial killer/ mass murderer), and the 'Goblin' is a cunning, mischievous, imp that seeks to spread the Org to every corner of the world by stealth.

          There could be secondary effects, other than transformation, like 'smallpox' to eliminate the incompatible or weak.

  2. Kage2020 says:

    This kind of reminds me of the way that we wanted to explore in Anargo, borrowing from the 'ole "Red Weed" idea of War of the Worlds.  I think that it certainly ups the interest factor of the Orks in the 40k universe beyond what we're seeing from the official materials.
    It seems that the fan interpretations of the 40k universe are actually reaching a critical mass and that we're going to be seeing some good materials coming out of the community in the future.
    Incidentally, 3d modelling is hard!
    —Kage

    • Philip S says:

      The Red Weed sounds like a good element to add into the 40K Ork mix. I've always seen Orks are a whole ecosystem, and adding in Green Weed may be a good idea (if it doesn't mellow them out too much :P).

      The fans are doing a great job with their visions on 40K, the Dorian Heresy over on Bolter and Chainsword is a fine example. It's like 40K is becoming a multi-verse.

      And yes, 3D modelling is not easy as many think it is 😉

      Philip

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