 It has been remarked upon by this chronicler, as I embarked upon the work of cataloging and recording the degenerate and the foul, that the many Xenos races that squat amongst the stars resemble something akin to viruses. Toxic strains of life run amok and constantly seeking to infest, corrupt, and stain the pure void with their alien taint. One above all fits this description with an almost disturbing perfection. For no other behaves quite like it. They are an infection that must be scoured out of every crevice, every cave, every hovel with shot and shell and fire and fury. For there is simply no other recourse, they cannot be bargained with nor allayed or given any quarter. Such concepts as these are as alien to their kind as they are to us. Know then that this is a record of the hated tide, the green skins, humanity's great tormentor, the orcs. The green skin menace has, it would appear, existed for untold millennia in an entirely unchanged form. Their heated race can be found inhabiting all corners of the galaxy and they appear to be utterly endemic to almost every environ humanity has yet encountered. No homeworld has ever been discerned. The green skins certainly do not appear to know of one and, given their nature, would likely place no such value in its existence, or lack thereof, one way or the other. Their culture is entirely dedicated to conflict, and it is the reason for their expansion, it is the reason for their survival, it is the very model around which all aspects of societal hierarchy are based. The green skin is a combat machine and an astonishingly focused one of that. It is no hyperbole to say that all they care about is fighting. The physiology responds to hardship, to privation. An orc who fights more and more simply grows more and more, continuing to scale in size. Biologically adapt to such things, obviously, but we require respite, nourishment, and nutrition to cultivate stronger bodies. The simple act of combat is all a green skin needs. Biologically, they are hideous marvels. The green skin stands physically taller in a humanoid form than any of our species. Although their full heist is taller still, constrained only by their perennially hunched posture. They possess a far greater amount of musculature, clad around an endoskeleton similar to that of a human, namely a calcium phosphate formed cortical structure. The face is human analogue too, although in possession of tusks that serve both decorative and combative roles, rather than aiding in the consumption of food, as baseline teeth would. Their skin is greenish in hue, which darkens as the orc grows in size throughout their life and is leather-tough, remarkably resistant to piercing weapons and tools. The skull, as with the rest of their skeletal frame, is incredibly thick, providing a highly robust casing for their brain, which is functionally larger than humans if far less complex. Their pointed ears are reminiscent of the Eildari races, as are the placement and overall structure of their ocular and aural nerve clusters, as well as their scent canals. Further examination of these latter features, however, has led biologists Magi to discern a rather more simplistic function in all three, whereas the nerves of the Eildari are hyperatuned to sensation, the orcs are direct, blunt even, attuned to narrower spectrums of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Sustainability and toughness are present here as in all other aspects of their physiology, even precedent over experience and sensation. Even in how they perceive the world around them, the green skin is direct, lacking subtlety. This is especially true of their pain receptors, which, while extant in their system, process markedly little physical pain. It has been theorized that the green skin feels only enough pain to make is aware of which limbs and organs are damaged or non-functioning, as millennia of combat records show that they are perfectly capable of continuing to be combat effective despite enduring what, for other races, would be crippling injuries or life-threatening wounds. Indeed, many dissected specimens have been noted to possess substantial amounts of scar tissue indicative of horrifically invasive surgeries and, frankly, bizarre amputations and limb grafts, with no loss in organ or limb efficiency, efficacy or dexterity. Indeed, it is believed that a green skin can be decapitated and have the head reattached with no apparent reduction in quality of life. Another exploration of orchoid physiology gives us disgusting glimpses into just why this menace is as tough as it appears. The body of a green skin is an entirely hybrid entity, straddling the line between animal and fungus, since it possesses component elements unique to both strands of biological life. The brain, for instance, is entirely animal, with a massively developed paleo-paleum, or old brain, segment, which explains the species' retention of barbaric and animalistic pack mentality and behavior despite their obvious sentience. However, elsewhere, fungal elements and tissue pervade the body. The green skin, despite its human analog skeletal system, does not possess bone marrow, instead a thick mass of spongy fungal matter that serves as its diffused nervous system and aforementioned blunted pain receptors. Numerous other internal organ features, such as their presumed digestive tract and immune system analogs, are in fact spaces or networks of incredibly diverse and robust fungal microorganisms that accomplish similar tasks. While the human body's own use of bacteria is well known, the level to which the symbiosis, the green skin, has achieved with the species' fungal stage is nothing short of a blasphemous union. They are inextricably linked, an unholy fusion of both animal and plant geno strains. Despite the presence of blood capillaries throughout their system, their green-hued dermal layer possesses high quantities of protein-rich chlorophyll A, suggesting that, despite their omnivorous primate-esque eating behavior and aforementioned combat nutrition, they can and do obtain nutrients, if required, through simple photosynthesis. Their reproductive traits are equally sickeningly unique. The orc possesses no external reproductive organs, nor even any internal ones, for green-skins do not gestate their young inside themselves. Rather, the cells in their dermal layer appear to contain fertilized gametes, allowing them to literally shed these spores as they continue to exist, and en masse in the event of death. Dissections of specimens have always necessitated absolute containment, lest the spores spread throughout the facility in question and mature. Observations of said maturing have been, understandably, difficult to arrange, but in the few cases extant in imperial records, it has been noted that, while the flora-esque womb analogues that form around the gestating orcoid prefer loam or soil, they can and will mature in hostile and nutrition-scarce environments, provided there is some degree of shade and moisture. Grotesquely, this maturation process will, thanks to the genetic facets of orcoid biology, produce the entire green-skin ecosystem from the basis levels, should it be required. The algal sac created is phenomenally responsive to exterior conditions, reacting to prevailing conditions rapidly. If the infested area is perceived by whatever means this fungal shell uses to remain safe, the sac will produce fully formed orcs. Should, however, external dangers be presented, such as fire or toxicological conditions, the sac will liquidize itself internally, pulping the developing orcoid created and reconstituting the hideous fungal soup into something deemed more necessary for the conditions it now prevail. At the most basic level, this will be the beast-like squigs, the basest and most voracious form of green-skin biology, under the logic that they both spread faster and further and shed more spores. Quite how this is orchestrated, with such unearing accuracy, is unknown, but is likely a facet of the orc's racial psychic field, discussions of which warrant further research and must wait for a later record. The major question that any biologist may die, nay, any casual observer will inevitably come across in studying the green-skin at the anatomical level is, where is the evidence of evolutionary process so obvious in other species, even those as old as, say, the Eildari? The simple answer is that, in millennia of study, nay, perhaps even tens of millennia, there simply does not appear to be any. They possess no vestigial traits or organs, nothing that would mark a species' transformation from baser fauna forms into something altogether more advanced. The symbiosis of their animal and fungal elements appear to work at a level of perfect balance that is simply blasphemous. They do not wither with age, only grow stronger and larger the more challenged they are in life. They do not need to eat, for simple sunlight on their skin or the hormonal elements released during combat nourishes their system. Even the slave subspecies of the green-skin genus are not evolutionary throwbacks, as it would appear, given examinations, that they have always existed alongside their larger variants, fulfilling the role of slave or servant casts, or indeed as nutrition in a pinch. They do not require viable mating partners to reproduce. All necessary genetic material is present upon the moment of their death in vast quantities. Indeed, killing a green-skin is paradoxically the most direct way of ensuring the propagation of more green-skins, or at the very least ensure the infestation of their genus in the local biosphere. That they are an unnatural breed is almost impossible to deny. They can quite literally tailor their biology to respond to the local environment while still in utero, and doing so not by any conscious means, but an ingrained, subconscious, even racial knowledge of what need is extant, what xenoform is required. They are in many ways, and as simply heretical, as it even is to think such a thing, the perfect soldiers. With a biology robust enough to see them thrive without aid in almost every environ and a mind attuned to a simple desire for warfare as nutrition, the hand of a creator is writ large upon their biology. Although just what a creator would need such a species for is simply too horrific a thought to even comprehend. Even beyond that, one is faced with a blasphemous idea. The existence of the Emperor is proof, as if any, was needed, that mankind is the rightful ruler of the galaxy. But the simple scientific fact of the green-skinned genus' existence for uncounted millennia before his rise, were the hands of some impossibly ancient progenitors at work before his rise? Can I comprehend such a thing? Should I? The questions this record raises itch and claw at my mind. Any rest? Rest but time to think upon what has been seen, what has been read. Please consult the ident tags of this record for further study upon the psychic aspects and racial memory theories of the green skin. Should you be somehow untroubled by what is raised here? If the opposite holds true, hold to the faith of he upon the throne. Let it ever guide you as it continues to guide me. Ave Imperator. Gloria in Excelsis Terra. Thank you for watching.