OMAKE: Of Orks and Orcs
Primus had mentioned this world before, where the Aeldari exodites named themselves Kal'dorei, perhaps unconsciously awaiting the arrival of the proto-Krorks.
The exodites had diversified into various phenotypes over time, which was interesting. Humans had shown up from local genetically engineered abhumans eventually producing enough "stunted" offspring that they did not kill to establish a breeding population, which was also interesting. And there were Men of Stone who had become organic and had organic descendants, which was astonishing...
However, these proto-Krorks, who called themselves Orcs (spelled differently from Orks), were by far the most impressive things on this planet.
It turned out that the original species the Krorks had been engineered off of was fully capable of rationality and peaceful pursuits, even after some trouble with the blood of Mannaroth, a Greater Daemon of Khorne who they believed they had severed their connection to by slaying the physical manifestation of.
They were also SOMEHOW reproductively compatible with Humans, Eldar, and the other human-like races found on the planet, who were all SOMEHOW compatible with each other. The Eldar scientists attempting to figure out how the bloody hell this worked had eventually thrown up their arms, credited it to Old Ones foresight, planning, and generally trolling the younger races, then gone to get drunk. According to rumours, the Emperor had taken one good long look at the data, then promptly done the same, throwing up his arms and striding off to get as drunk as possible for his physiology.
These "Orcs" were considerably bigger and stronger than humans, but were actual mammals instead of the fungoid Krorks and later Orks. How much work had the Old Ones gone to, to engineer a variant of this race to be so very different? Or were these just a false start on their development of Krorks? The truth may never be known.
These "Orcs", at least the actually green-skinned ones (many were brown or even grey-skinned) could potentially be employed for infiltration missions against Ork encampments, though they will likely be limited to being Boyz in rank due to limited size and strength compared to what Orks could reach. Common ways to distinguish between "Orcs" and Orks are their comparatively well-groomed appearance, facial and bodily symmetry, far better hair styling (on the rare instances when Orks had hair at all), dignified, coherent speech, and human-like levels of battle-lust--many of the humans from warrior-cultures easily outdo Orcs in typical martial competitiveness and aggression among peers.
Another possibility that must be explored thanks to these "Orcs" is the possibility of assimilating them into Humanity. Isha, Primus and Hydaelyn would like to remind the Emperor that, like it or not, he is revered enough among Humans to count as their racial God. If he assimilates these "Orcs" under the Biological Species Concept, at least they would not fall under the sway of Gork and Mork, let alone Khorne (their sense of honor didn't help their past connection, but breaking free of the influence of a Greater Daemon of Khorne is certainly to their credit). And if he could interfere with Gork and Mork, or enable psyker strikes against the WAAGH field by assimilating these "Orcs" into Humanity, considering they were close to humans than many Abhuman races... well that could be quite useful in battles against the Orks. These were all hypothetical possibilities though, so further investigation will be needed before considering any real action.
Isha would also like to remind dear old "Gilly" (or "Adam") that she's been spending a lot of energy helping fend off Nurgle, so if he would help Eldar souls have a longer timeframe before either having to enter a soul stone or falling to Slaanesh, that would be just great. He can just acknowledge the present Eldar as human enough under Biological Species Concept, and that could help shield them for a while. It would be useful to buy time if a soul stone was damaged or destroyed in anything but an outright Chaos ritual and a transfer or replacement was needed, and less power to Slaanesh would surely be a good thing all around.
Unfortunately, the Emperor has been in depression ever since learning he's accidentally become a Racial God. It may take him a while to get over it.
XX
A/N: Yeah, that's Azeroth. Methinks orcs would be quite interesting, when meeting 40K... They're basically what Orks would be if the base form was humanoid instead of fungoid.
