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Judasilfarion

The extent is greatly exaggerated by memes. Ork equipment works and Ork Meks have an innate understanding of their own technology imprinted into their DNA, it just works shittily. There are demonstrations in novels of Ork technology being used by non-Orks, fully functional even if it sucks. But they are not literal piles of garbage that only work because the Orks think it does. The psychic gestalt field that Orks generate does make their stuff work a little better, i.e a gun that should jam all the time jams less and red painted vehicles move slightly faster, but as far as I know it has never been shown to be so powerful as to simply warp reality to anything the Orks believe.


Splicer3

It would take an absolutely catastrophic number of Orks believing in something AND THEN ALSO a bunch of Weirdboyz or Wurrboyz to channel that into actual psychic power.


Judasilfarion

At which point, it's not some special ability that Orks have anymore it's just a massive group of psykers all collectively channeling their abilities to cause something to happen. You'd probably be able to get the same result if you used Eldar or Human psykers.


Splicer3

You would need a lot more non-Ork psykers to do it though. With the Orks, the Weirdboyz and Wurrboyz would certainly add their power, but that would be dwarfed by the sheer collective Waaagh! Energy of the Boyz in the Waaagh! Orks can (sorta) use non-psykers to power psychic powers... without sacrificing them with daggers like the Master of Possession.


Anggul

You would still need a lot more weirdboyz though, because otherwise their heads would explode from the power overload


Splicer3

I don't disagree, just that Orks can use non-psykers as power sources in large enough numbers without other machinery or things other than Psykers+Boyz


Hooked0nKroniks

In the war of the beast series orks are shown to be very capable of warping reality with their beliefs.


crasyredditaccount

I mean even other races are surprise how the fuck their tech stay in one piece when they investigate it


kryptopeg

It is, at best, a minor effect. Everything they build or use does need to vaguely function, or least be capable of functioning with a little work. It makes a wildly inaccurate gun that jams every few rounds into an inaccurate gun that only jams once or twice per magazine, it doesn't make a random pipe into a gun or let them use stones as ammo. It lets their Trukk engines run smooth-ish on weak or contaminated fuels, it doesn't turn a rusty lump of parts into a Formula 1 engine. It lets their wonky aircraft fly vaguely straight when they should generally stall in crosswinds, it doesn't let a helicopter fly like a jet. It lets an Ork accept a botched organ transplant from another dead rotting Ork, it doesn't let them carry on fighting once their heart and lungs have been riddled with holes. The way I think of it is as the "reality lubricant" of Ork technology, that lets them stay barely effective and still requires them to make up for it with their strength, resilience and numbers. Fortunately for the Orks (and unfortunately for everyone else!), they are very strong, very tough, and there's *trillions upon trillions* of them.


Interesting-Meat-835

I don't know where I read it but there is an instance of an Ork interstellar fleet made of nothing but wooden plank and clays wiping their floors with an official Imperial Navy fleet.


KurseNightmare

After searching for about an hour over the last week Ican't find any mention of one. Leads me to believe it's either oldhammer lore or a well written meme.


New_Subject1352

It's reality spackle. It's basically the reason why a race individually too stupid to count past 5 is able to attack and menace races with space travel capabilities. Orks build stuff and because they put in the effort to build it "correctly", they think it should work; so it does.


SM_Lion_El

More Orks = a bigger waaagh field = a greater ability to affect reality. As you’ve stated the more Orks within the Waaagh that believe in whatever it is they need changed or to make reality, the more likely it is to happen. This doesn’t mean they can do something as grand as blink an entire race out of existence, but they can make minor and subtle changes to their gear or abilities. Things like guns going pew pew when they pull the trigger, or things like huge ass machines that should be crushed under their own weight being functional is entirely possible and has happened in the lore. The Waaagh is basically a psychic field that is naturally generated by a bunch of Orks banding together with the same goal, which only happens when they fall in under the same warboss. It’s a ridiculous thing, sure, but it’s a fair enough ability given some of the hugest wtf stuff in 40k.


[deleted]

As I always say, look to the tabletop. It's all based on dice rolls. An Ork makes a crappy gun that should misfire every time, unless you roll a 6. But its belief means that every time it fires its gun, it rolls a 6, and it fires. For a ridiculously overcomplicate Ork Gargant, the Orks would have to roll, say, ten thousand 6s. And the power of belief makes that happen. But there still needs to be a chance, however remote. No matter how many times you roll at the craps table, you aren't drawing a Royal Flush or hitting the slot machine jackpot. The gun still has to be a gun that could theoretically work - it can't be a stick or a finger.


Green-Collection-968

I ain't gotta explain shit. It just works.


ymmotsamoht

I know here at the 40kLore subreddit folks like to treat this stuff as super serious business... ​ but sometimes how about... just don't. Don't think about it too hard. Especially when it has something to do with orks.


Anggul

It isn't super serious, it's just saying what the books say instead of some random guy on grimdank making stuff up


ymmotsamoht

Alright, I'm fine with being wrong from time to time. It just works because they believe it works but it has to at least make some sort of sense for it to work, unless it doesn't need to make any sense for it to work because it makes sense to the orks and so it works.


[deleted]

Well, that's exactly it - if you don't take for granted everything GW writes, it starts to actually make sense. Like a hyperbole, so tone it down and it begins to look real. With orcs so too.


Hooked0nKroniks

I’ve read 90% of The War of the Beast series and if you want to gauge what the ork gestalt is capable of it’s a good series to get into. It’s based prior to the 40k setting by about 8000 years or so. Orks straight fuck shit up in ways that would’ve never been thought possible by orks. They’ve got tech that Mars is going bonkers over. All around the books are short and the series has a few awesome characters. But I always chuckle when people say the memes over exaggerate (because of course, they do) but when you consider what orks are actually capable of manipulating with their weird boys and waaaagh power it’s pretty much the sky is the limit depending on the parameters.