Bonesplitterz
 | |
| Grand alliance | Destruction |
| Associated factions | Orruk Warclans |
| Main grouping | Warclan |
| Major characters | Gurkak Weirdteef Chagga Weird-Eye |
| Races | Orruk |
| Mounts | War Boar |
| Creatures | Rogue Idol |
| Spell lores | Lore of the Savage Beast Lore of the Savage Waaagh! |
| Warbands | Hedkrakka's Madmob |
Bonesplitterz wild bands of Orruks driven mad by the thrumming power of Gorkamorka. Guided by mysterious shamans that they believe speak directly to Gorkamorka, Bonesplitterz hunt the great beasts of the Mortal Realms in order to slay them and absorb the spiritual might bound within the creatures bones. These savage orruks are unpredictable and difficult to best in combat, not only because of their seeming lack of organisation and tactics but also due to their toughness and sheer single-mindedness. The orruks of these wild bands are possessed by the power of the Waaagh!, unable to fully revert to what is considered normal.[1][2]
Contents
Religion
The Bonesplitterz worship Gorkamorka as the lord of those creatures in the Mortal Realms that swim, crawl, or fly; to them he is a primal lord of the hunt who blesses his followers with savage madness. They believe that all creatures contain a portion of the Great Green God's essence, and by killing them and taking their bones, they can make some part of this power their own. The most violent and ill-tempered creatures contain the greatest amount of Gorkamorka's essence, and so the Bonesplitterz pursue these monsters across the realms in the hopes of taking their power.[5b]
The mysterious energy known as the Waaagh! is important to all orruks, but none revere it more than the Bonesplitterz. Other orruks get swept up by its power when they gather in great numbers or are in a proper fight, but the Bonesplitterz experience the maddening pounding sensation in their heads at all times. Their spiritual leaders - the Wurrgog Prophets - say that the Waagh! is a roiling mass of beast souls that can be captured and contained in totems and tattoos, and the efforts of each Bonesplitterz warclan is directed to worshiping and directing this energy.[3a] When the power of the Waaagh! begins to affect other creatures due to large numbers of Bonesplitterz on the hunt, turning them aggressive and irrational, the Bonesplitterz believe that this is due to Gorkamorka stamping his feet to flush their prey out of hiding.[3j]
Every Bonesplitterz weapon and icon is considered an artefact, as it is made of the bones of a defeated beast and still contains some of their spirit; for example, a bow with boar bones tied to it means its arrows will be better at sniffing out targets and a totem with many skulls is able to see and extend its protection in all directions. Even stone weapons have spirits in them - to the Bonesplitterz, these are bones of the mountains or perhaps the realm itself.[3g]
The prophetic visions of the Wurrgog Prophets play a major role in Bonesplitter life. It is through these visions, they believe, that Gorkamorka makes his will known and shows his followers where the best hunting and fighting are. To those with less of a connection to the Waaagh!, these portents are nonsense - a cloud that looks like a boar if you squint, a vaguely hand-shaped blood spatter, an odd feeling in the prophet's bones (either the ones they took from a beast or the ones in their own skeleton). However, the Bonesplitterz trust these revelations utterly, and the Wurrgogs are right often enough that many other orruks do, too.[3p][5c]
World Spirits
The Bonesplitterz believe that each of the Mortal Realms has their own soul, not unlike those of the great beasts they hunt - and like the beasts they hunt, this spirit can be captured in a sufficiently impressive bone. No two shamans agree on the exact nature of these World Spirits, and there are many varying interpretations of what each Realm's World Spirit is, but all of the Bonesplitterz believe that Ghur's is the greatest of all since, according to the Wurrgog Prophets, Gorkamorka created Ghur and the realm took some portion of his power as its soul. Whatever the truth may be, many warclans incorporate the World Spirit of their home realm into their totemic religions.[3k][5c]
Some believe that the Ghurish World Spirit is a land, while others say it is a creature imbued with Waaagh! energy. Some believe that Ravenak, the Mouth That Lurks Beneath the World, is this spirit, but others claim it is a star scraping mountain of amber, and still others say it is the angry skies of Ghur itself.[5c]
Some examples of what various warclans believe are World Spirits:
- The Krakkskulls of Aqshy believe that Rakka Nak, a lava trillipede, is the World Spirit of Aqshy.[5c]
- The Flintjaws, an ocean-dwelling Warclan, venerate the two-headed shark Skwidmuncha as a World Spirit.[5c]
- The Splinterfoot warclan of the Jade Kingdoms pursue Big Leef, a great tree-beast imbued with Gorkamorka's raging essence, which they believe is Ghyran's World Spirit.[5c]
If any of the Bonesplitterz Warclans catch one of these World Spirits, they would immediately attempt to beat the creature to death and crack open its bones to take the Waaagh! magic from them, they would then turn this newfound energy against all eight of the Mortal Realms.[5c]
Culture
Tattoos and Warpaint
Bonesplitterz scorn mundane armour, preferring instead to put their faith in paints, tattooing, and scarification to bring the beast-souls and Waaagh! energy into their body for protection. Their belief in the protective power of these seemingly fragile wards is such that they can shrug off even brutal wounds - if not permanently, at least long enough to finish off whoever wounded them. In battle, the tattoos and warpaint seem to come alive, thrashing and writhing about, which the Bonesplitterz see as proof of Gorkamorka's might working through them.[3l][5b][6a]
The style of warpaint and tattooing can vary between warclan to warclan and even rukk to rukk. Common themes include past kills, desired future kills, and things the orruk thought looked cool. Morboys often get a tattoo of the beast whose spirit they believe is possessing them in order to help better control its influence, while others might get a particular glyph to hopefully impart its power. Sometimes they even tattoo their war boars to help protect or empower the beasts (not that the boars appreciate it), with the fangit glyph, symbolizing speed, being especially popular.[3i][3m][6b]
Paint and tattoos can be applied using almost any pigments, though they are most commonly made with bits from recent kills. Every Wurrgog has his own recipe incorporating such items as bone dust, crushed beetles, squiggly beast parts, and any squishy or liquidy bits that they like the look or smell of.[5b][5c][6c] Some Wurrgogs prefer particular colours, such as Gurkak Weirdteef of the Bonegrinz, who paints his boyz blue since he believes that the colour attracts the strongest beast spirits.[3i]
Rukks
When large groups of Bonesplitterz gather in one place, the Wurrgog Prophets divide them into mobs and Rukks based on what aspect of Gorkamorka they best represent. The various rukks are described by analogy with parts of a great beast's skull.[3f]
- Kop Rukks are made up of the the Wardokks and the Morboys. These orruks, who best channel the spirit of Gorkamorka, form the thick skull around the Wurrgog Prophet, who is the brain of the warclan.[3f]
- Snaga Rukks are led by Maniak Weirdnobs and are made up of Savage Boarboy Maniaks. These fast-moving rukks are the horns of the warclan, plunging deep into the enemy's most vulnerable areas.[3f]
- Teef Rukks are made up of orruks carrying the massive spears known as Gork's Teeth. These Savage Big Stabbas are the teeth of the warclan, ripping great chunks out of the enemy.[3f]
- Gob Rukks form the majority of the warclan, and are further divided into the Brutal Rukks led by the warclan's Gorkaboss and specializing in smashing the enemy in close combat and the Kunnin' Rukks led by the warclan's Morkaboss and specializing in more cunning tactics such as shooting the enemy full of arrows before smashing the enemy in close combat. They are the jaws of the warclan.[3f]
Festivals
- Rukkin' Beast: During the beast-eye eclipse, when Ghur's moons align, Bonesplitterz get together to perform this dance.[6a]
Languages
The Savage Tongues of the Bonesplitterz are a collection of languages and systems of writing used by the Bonesplitterz.[3h] The glyphs used to write the language are often painted or tattooed on the orruks or their mounts in order to gain their powers.[3i]
Recruitment
No orruk is born a Bonesplitter, and no one can agree on what makes an orruk become a Bonesplitter. The most common trigger seems to be getting caught up in a Waaagh! and then just not coming down when it's over. Others might survive a serious wound or dangerous infection, or nearly choke to death on a particularly tough bit of meat. Whatever causes it, the orruk is profoundly changed, hearing the pounding of Gorkamorka in a way that his mates cannot understand. He develops strange, often violent habits, and eventually either wanders off into the wilderness or is violently ejected from the warclan when his oddness becomes too much for the other orruks to bear.[3a][5c]
These wanderers trek across the wilderness, following signs only they can see, until by chance or the will of Gorkamorka they find their way to a Bonesplitterz warclan. There, he joins up with his new fellows and receives his first proper set of tattoos, fully becoming a Bonesplitter.[3a][5c][6c]
While most orruks are content to leave becoming a Bonesplitter to the will of Gorkamorka, there are some who attempt to help the process along for one reason or another. They try to force the spirit to come into them, doing whatever reckless and dangerous thing they hear might trigger the transformation. However, Gorkamorka is not about to be pushed around, no matter how much the aspirants shout at the sky or pester weirdnobs to headbutt them to drive the Waaagh! into their skulls, and these efforts inevitably fail.[3l]
Relationships
Other Orruks regard them with a certain degree of caution because they have fully embraced Gorkamorka's feral spirit.[4] This connection, however, also makes them somewhat revered by outsiders; being so close to Gorkamorka surely means that he's told the Bonesplitterz where the best fights are.[3o] No boss would turn up his nose at the advice of a Wurrgog Prophet, in whose madness the orruks see the influence of their god.[3p] In many Great Waaagh!s, the presence of the Bonesplitterz have held disparate factions together for far longer than one might expect for the simple reason that their continued presence shows Gorkamorka's favour.[6a]
Major Warclans
- Bonegrinz Warclan: Savage beast hunters without peer and nomads that wander across the Mortal Realms.[3b]
- Drakkfoot Warclan: Originating from the Gorelakes of the Ashlands of Aqshy, the Drakkfoot Orruks see themselves as crusaders of the Great Green God with the holy task of exterminating Daemons and Gheists.[3b][5a]
- Icebone Warclan: Orruks that hunt the prey of the Skyblind Tundras of Ghur, wielding sorcerous weapons made from shards of spirit-glaciers.[3b]
Sources
- 1: Battletome: Bonesplitterz product description
- 2: Grand Alliance: Destruction - Bonesplitterz, pg. 30
- 3: Battletome: Bonesplitterz (2016)
- 4: Warcry section in Age of Sigmar website
- 5: Battletome: Orruk Warclans (2019)
- 6: Soulbound: Champions of Destruction
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