"Orks vs Orcs?" Topic

What is really the difference..besides one is in space the other in middle earth?

The Middle Earth one is Copyrighted.

No the term Orks is trademarked, orcs is a generic term and cannot be copyrighted.

The image of Orcs from the Lotr films is protected however, so as long as you do not obviously look like them you are ok.

…as long as you do not obviously look like them you are ok.

If I obviously looked like them, I would be seeking medical attention.

In GW's games, the Orc spelling is used in Warhammer, and the Ork spelling is used in Warhammer 40,000. That's really all there is to it, although the concepts have drifted apart over the years – I don't think the fantasy Orcs have the same spore-based life cycle as the Orks, and they don't have the genetically-prescribed specialist castes either.

I agree with FreddBloggs and Andrew Paul.

If I obviously looked like them, I would be seeking medical attention.

If I obviously looked like them, I would be seeking medical attention.

…

(thinks)

…

…

(rushes off to hospital)

I like to use Orksis for Orks in space.

Orcs are wimpy, Orks are not so lean, but mean fighting machines.

But what about Orqs?

As ever, one can power a medium sized town from the leccy generated hooked up to JRRT spinning in his grave…

John T

But what about Orqs?

I think the proper spelling of that would be Orques, would it not?

Doug

Orqs…. I like that.

I like Orx, but think someone copyrighted that too.

As ever, one can power a medium sized town from the leccy generated hooked up to JRRT spinning in his grave…

He didn't invent the term either, just popularized it. Hobbits, now that he's got grounds to spin about, which is why they're usually "halflings" these days.

one can power a medium sized town from the leccy generated hooked up to JRRT spinning in his grave…

I hear funding for that fell through.
link
link

"Space Orx" was used by Atlantis Games' TACTICAL STRIKE (1996) rules.

Al | rivetsandsteam.com

Orcs = Fantasy … Orks = Sci-fi …

"So do you agree that these authors are spinning in their graves?"

"Well, not their original graves"

"I've connected their remains to my thanatropic generator, which essentially converts posthumous indignity into clean energy"

"If sufficiently disgusted, an author's spinning corpse can produce over 400 megajoules per grievance"

Spin = Sa (r+d)
Spin = __ w

r = author's reknown
d = defamation of work
Sa= audience size
w = skeleton weight

*****************

What a clever comic, good stuff!

Then there are David Ferris' D'Orques (part of his Generic Legions/ Red Chicken Rising universe), and my own Norx (StarMarines).

I use SP-ORKS and F-ORKS to differentiate them.

The Shockforce folks had Orgs.

What's the difference? One letter.

Leidang – nice

"Orcs" and "Orks" go back centuries, to before spelling issues like this were the least bit standardized. Neither is owned by anyone. GW has told some people it owns "Orks" but the folks who have stood up to them (John Wick's Orkworld, for one) have been able to use it.

Up to and including Elizabethan times no one saw any real virtue in consistent spelling. In some of the early printings of Shakespeare's plays, even the Folios, character names are spelled differently within the same work. Even Shakespeare's own name was spelled differently by different people.

So there is no meaningful difference between "Orc" and "Ork," outside of maybe attempting to get arguments started on some of the web's dweebier discussion groups.

Andrew

wouldn't space orks be … wait for it ….

Sporks?!?!?!?!

Why not Orkz?

"Orkz" is owned. It's the title of a game I was thankful to be able to trade away in a math trade on boardgamegeek.com

Andrew

Sporks?!?!?!?!

In German, they would be known as Schporks. ("Schporken zie Deutsch?" ;-)

I know this can take a light approach, but I am an old school Ork/Orc 40k player. I take my Orks very serious, with there hop splat guns, squig boms, and other such hilarious contraptions of war.

I have had this debate before, and for me Ork is a GW IP trade mark name. Orc is just fine by me!!! Then the is the Orgs form SF. Another very cool race that was put to rest by the GW ultra marine lawyers brethren chapter! I do hope this chapter make the new movie, and get there by the hands of the Orks!!!!!!!!!

So to me they are what you want them to be, just if you use the word Ork or a variation of it you will of the UMLBC (see above).

Noel

"Up to and including Elizabethan times no one saw any real virtue in consistent spelling. In some of the early printings of Shakespeare's plays, even the Folios, character names are spelled differently within the same work. Even Shakespeare's own name was spelled differently by different people."

This is true. Shakespeare's use of both the term "ork" and "orc" describes only the fantasy characters as far as I am concerned. I'm certainly not a Shakespearean expert but I don't think that any of his plays really take place in the 40K universe. The orcs, when they appear, seem to be creates that do not spawn from some sort of spore, this is evident from the encounters that Hamlet and Prospero have with them.

Even in the areas where we see them using magic in Shakespeares works they seem to be using more of the ritualistic/shamanic Orc type of magic than the psychic accidents of the Orks.

Although the arguement for Killer Kans being the means by which the castle at Dunsinane was taken, rather than by the guys hiding themselves behind cut branches, I prefer to see it from a wider standpoint. Clearly there were orcs there, I don't think anyone is disputing that at this time. The talk of the green wood moving up to the hill is too obviously meant to be that the orcs have joined the aliance rather than that the men themselves are moving parts of the trees thither. The evidence that points to killer kans cannot be readily refuted, however it is only slight and tangential. The real matter is that the orcs have joined in with the aliance against MacBeth, not something 40K orks would do as readily.

And the reference to the woods coming to the hill is further evidence that the orcs are orcs and not orks as orks would not live in the woods, while orcs readily live in wooded areas.

Makes sense to me …

Aww cmon Bill the flat skull ,big teef, heavy lower jaw is damn sexy.The Klingons wish they could be Orks!DaOrksRule!Fungus ale any one?

I would think an ork would kick a Klingons butt.

But I don't think an ork could kick a tyranids bug butt

"orques" seems a bit baroque to me. Perhaps in a blackpowder fantasy setting?

What about Orcas?

They are pretty nasty.

G^is,
JohnG

Well … as long as the Klingon(Human, Romulan, etc.) stays out of Close Combat range … their phasers/disrupters/etc. should cook those "Greenskins" pretty good … Same would go for the 'Nids. As long as you get'm before they close the range, you'll be good … And I'm sure this holds true for "Orcs", "Orks", "Orksez", etc., etc. …

Well… I think the Orks would use their massive chins to smash the orcs