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Overview
Ghazghkull Thraka is the greatest Ork warlord of the age, a towering Goff who believes he speaks for Gork and Mork. He led two of the most devastating invasions in Imperial history against the hive world of Armageddon. Since the opening of the Great Rift he has gathered a Waaagh! of unprecedented scale. Imperial strategists treat him as a galaxy-wide threat.
He fights in an enormous suit of mega-armour, its power klaw and kustom guns built by his Meks, with Makari waving his banner beside him. Imperial records credit him with crushing Aeldari war hosts, banishing daemon tides and wrecking Necron phalanxes, but his greatest battles have always been against the Imperium. He is now gathering what Orks call the Great Waaagh! of Gork and Mork themselves. Ghazghkull began as an ordinary Goff on Urk who took a bolter round to the head. Mad Dok Grotsnik rebuilt his skull in adamantium, and within a week Ghazghkull claimed to hear Gork and Mork. He united the tribes, led two great wars on Armageddon and became the Prophet of the Waaagh!, the most dangerous Ork in the galaxy. His rivalry with Commissar Yarrick is one of the setting's great feuds, built on mutual respect between monsters of war. In the Era Indomitus he has grown even larger and more terrible.
Origins
He began as an ordinary Goff on the world of Urk. An Imperial round blew away part of his skull, and the Painboy Mad Dok Grotsnik rebuilt it in adamantium. Ghazghkull soon began receiving what he believed were visions from the Ork gods. Imperial scholars still argue over whether the surgery woke a latent psychic gift or simply produced an unusually driven Ork.
Key events
- Rose to warlord of his tribe and united the Orks of Urk within six years, then led them off-world aboard a space hulk.
- Launched the Second War for Armageddon. Hive Volcanus fell, but Commissar Sebastian Yarrick held Hades Hive and the Waaagh! was defeated.
- Fled to Golgotha, where Yarrick tracked him, starting a personal rivalry that would outlast the Third War for Armageddon.
- Returned for the Third War for Armageddon with improved strategy and teleporter technology, then left the planet and its endless war behind.
- Fought in the Octarian War against Hive Fleet Leviathan and Warboss Zog Steeltoof.
- Was decapitated by Ragnar Blackmane on Krongar after the Great Rift opened. Grotsnik revived him and grafted his head onto a new, bigger body.
Battles & campaigns
- The Second War for Armageddon (941.M41): He was stopped at Hades Hive by Yarrick's defence.
- Golgotha: He trapped an Imperial army between a hidden Waaagh! and his base and captured Yarrick.
- The Third War for Armageddon (998.M41): He returned and plunged the whole sector into war.
Personality
Ghazghkull is shrewd, ambitious and charismatic. He thinks about war more strategically than most Orks, choosing his battles and deploying his forces with real cunning. He is driven by a sense of destiny that the Waaagh! should conquer the stars, and he respects worthy enemies such as Yarrick.
Weapons & Vehicles
The brutal, heavy-cleaving blades and ear-splittingly loud pistols of the Ork Boyz—crude slabs of scrap iron made lethal by greenskin m…
The outrageously loud, multi-barrelled dakka-contraptions of Ork Flash Gitz, Lootas and Mekboyz—combining rotary barrels, plasma coils …
The ramshackle, turbo-charged open-topped assault trucks and spiked Battlewagons of the Ork Speed Freeks, hurtling Boyz into melee at b…
An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…
Obnoxiously wealthy Ork Nobz and Freebooter pirates obsessed with gaudy pirate finery and kustom Snazzguns that unleash deafening curta…
Rebellious young Orks who defy Greenskin anarchy by marching in step, polishing their boots, and hurtling into battle strapped to volat…
The rare Orks touched by Mork's low cunning, who creep, camouflage and ambush instead of charging, and who are distrusted by other Orks…
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Connections
Characters (8)
Mephiston survivor · Blood AngelsCalistarius was buried in Hades Hive during Ghazghkull's invasion of Armageddon and emerged as Mephiston.
Kaptin Badrukk hired gun · OrksBadrukk's Flash Gitz have fought for many Ork warlords and boast that most would be dead without them.
Mad Dok Grotsnik surgeon · OrksGrotsnik is Ghazghkull's personal Painboy; his surgery on the warlord's head wound is credited with opening his mind to Gork and Mork, and he later revived Ghazghkull after a decapitation.
Factions
- Orks primary faction
Related units (5)
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Ghazghkull is the Prophet of Gork and Mork, the greatest Ork warlord of the age and the closest thing the Orks have to a galactic leader. His long rivalry with Yarrick defined generations of Armageddon's history, and his rebirth on a new body after Krongar shows he will not be stopped easily. To the Imperium he is proof that the Orks can become more than a tide of violence, a single will able to bend the whole Ork race towards one war. Ghazghkull proves the most frightening Ork is one who can plan.
Appearances & sources
- Codex: Orks (several editions)
- Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! (Nate Crowley)
- Armageddon campaign books