“The common Ogryn is large and physically powerful, but
lacking in intellect or insight. Their physique is their primary
advantage, as soldiers and labourers, but their dull-witted nature
and simple obedience make them enthusiastic servants of
Him-on-Terra, as loyal bodyguards and willing enforcers. Indeed,
their unquestioning obedience makes them almost incorruptible,
mainly because they lack the wit to even understand
corruption.”
Humankind colonised a vast range of worlds during the original
expansions, and as can be expected, many of those worlds left their
mark on the generations of people raised upon them. Harsh, cold,
high-gravity worlds, commonly used as prison planets by the petty
human star empires of ancient times, led to the development of
human beings into Homo sapiens giganticus – better known as
Ogryns.
Ogryn Evolution
Ogryns are built to survive. Everything else is secondary. Their
kind is the product of harsh, uncaring worlds with little food
beyond competing predators and rugged herbivores.
The most obvious facet of this is their size. The average Ogryn
stands between 2.5 and 3 metres tall, and are far bulkier and more
muscular than humans, having a muscle mass to height ratio of about
double that of a human being. All in all, the Ogryn is built to be
able to fight and win against fierce predators, with only the most
primitive and rudimentary of weaponry.
The Ogryn Ripper Gun is a huge shotgun designed for Ogryns to
wield. As a result, it’s large, rugged and exceedingly brutal.
Shells for Ripper Guns cost three times as much as normal. Further,
the Ripper Gun is so robust that it may be used as a Great Weapon
in melee. In the hands of anyone who is smaller than an Ogryn
(anyone who lacks the Hulking, Enormous or Massive traits), it
counts as a Heavy weapon instead of a Basic weapon, and suffers an
additional -20% penalty on their to-hit roll due to back-breaking
recoil.
The other most notable facet of their evolution is their
digestive system. The worlds upon which Ogryns came to exist in the
first place were comparatively barren, lacking in many of the
foodstuffs that most humans take for granted. As a result, the
Ogryn digestive system is rugged and efficient, able to derive
nourishment from even the most unpalatable and inedible of organic
substances. Further, the already prodigious bulk of Ogryns is often
enhanced by vast reserves of stored food, developed because few
Ogryns know where or when the next meal will be coming from.
All this, however, comes at a price. Ogryns are not the most
intelligent of creatures. As a result of generations of brutal
survival and nothing else, in situations where higher reasoning was
utterly unnecessary, the Ogryn brain is atrophied. In the most
basic terms, Ogryns are stupid. However, their adaptations mean
that, on their terms – those of fighting, eating and general
survival – Ogryns have a great many advantages.
Ogryn Appearance
Ogryns would look almost farcical if not for their sheer size
and aggressive temperament. Hugely-built, with thick, heavy bones
beneath thicker, heavier slabs of dense muscle, often layered with
thick layers of fat and thick, hairy skin, they resemble
crudely-made oversized humans. Their skulls – large and
solidly-constructed – seem disproportionately big, with heavy brows
and almost tusk-like teeth giving them an almost feral mien.
Almost all Ogryns are scarred and battered from a lifetime of
fighting. Such is the brutality and resilience of such creatures
that even friendly altercations (and Ogryns are such enthusiastic
fighters that such altercations are commonplace, even expected)
lead to injuries.
The majority of Ogryns maintain a personal appearance in keeping
with the crude cultures of their homeworlds – furs, coarse cloth,
animal hides and primitive chain armour are all commonplace, and
often accompanied by ritual tattoos, body-painting and
scarification. Their hair varies from thick and coarse, and
generally dark in colour, to naturally bald in some cases. Those
inducted into the Imperial Guard often adopt the styles of the
military, shaving their heads or wearing their hair close-cropped,
wearing heavy boots (Ogryn-issue boots normally weighs in the
region of 5 kilos each), and fatigue-style clothing. This is
combined with devotional tattoos – regimental insignia and crude
examples of the Aquila and other symbols of the Imperium.
Bionic Ogryn Neural Enhancement, also known as Biochemical Ogryn
Neural Enhancement is a procedure sometimes performed on Ogryns who
have demonstrated intellect and insight above the norm. Using a
combination of Augmetic implants, biochemical trea tments,
electro-shock therapy and surgery, the subject’s brain is enhanced,
allowing it to operate more efficiently than a normal Ogryn.s
brain. An Ogryn who has undergone this procedure is known as a
BONE’ead, a title which is worn with pride by those granted it.
This procedure is performed as per the Attaching Bionics and
Implants sidebar in the Armoury chapter of the rulebook, as well as
requiring a six-week course of drugs to be administered.
Ogryns are notable for their lack of hygiene. Few Ogryns wash
regularly and most are infested with some form of parasite, some of
which can be quite disturbingly large – sometimes as large as rats!
Some of these parasite colonies are even cultivated by their
owners. as emergency food supplies or even as pets. However, such
is their hardiness that few Ogryns are ever particularly bothered
by the results of their lack of cleanliness.
