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The typical ogre in the Warhammer Fantasy universe stands roughly one and a half times as tall as a man and often many times as wide. Any adult male ogre is known as "bull". While savage in appearance, ogres are more civilised than orcs and beastmen. Many of them live in the human realms, such as the empire. Their true home is the Ogre Kingdoms, to the east of the Old World. All ogres have a wanderlust however, and can be seen all over the Warhammer World. They are generally thought of as being unintelligent, but this is untrue. While they do have trouble with problems of numbers and logic, they are well experienced in matters of war and survival and many find employ as bodyguards and mercenaries. The ogre culture is oriented around eating, and as such, most ogres sport large guts. Indeed, they worship a god known as the Great Maw. It appears to be a vast creature that was released from a comet intended to destroy the Ogre Kingdoms near Cathay, the Warhammer Fantasy equivalent of Imperial China. It ate many of the inhabitants of the Ogre Kingdoms and is said to have passed through the center of the world (it appears that another Great Maw exists in the sea on the other side of the world). The ogres both venerate and fear it in equal measure. Its priests, known as butchers, also fulfill the roles of cooks for their respective tribes. The Ogre Kingdoms are situated in the Mountains of Mourn, geographicaly equivalent to the Himalayas (just more extendend towards North). They are a loosley organised number of small empires and kingdoms, each separate of each other. The territory of every kingdom depends on how far it's tyrant can see from the place where he lives. Their society is similiar to that of a herd of animals, with young warriors fighting for the right to mate with females. The only difference is that they fight for almost everything (but mainly for eating their opponent). The overall leader of each kingdom is known as the Tyrant. Young bull ogres challenge him for the leadership of the tribe. These challenges take the form of duels which take place in the tribe's 'maw-pit', a stake-lined pit into which pieces of red meat are thrown, as an offering for their god. In 'friendly' fights, over some food for example, the forfeit for losing is generally an ear or a couple of fingers given up to the winner as a victory snack. In more serious duels, such as a challenge for tyranthood of the tribe, the forfeit is rather larger, with the loser becoming the victor's next meal! The ogres are a primitive culture and most of their equipment is made from scavenged scrap metal and such. When they find something not edible, (not often, considering the strength of an ogre's stomach) be sure they'll find soon a way to use it as a weapon! That which they do create is made from the hides and bones of various quasi-prehistoric creatures, such as mammoths, sabertooth cats and ice age style rhinos, known as rhinoxen. The ogres hunt these creatures for food as well, naturally showing great enthusiasm in this! The ogres are served by gnoblars, a small species of goblinoids. They are smaller than typical goblins, and play the role of pets, servants and, on the battlefield, cannon fodder. The Ogre Kingdoms army for the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop game was released in January 2005. They are the first army released situated in the eastern region of the Warhammer World. They can be used a a separate army, but some of their units (not many, in fact) can be used as mercenaries. The equivalent of ogres in the Warhammer 40,000 setting are the ogryns. |