Squig
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- This article is about the Warhammer creatures. For the fish, see squigg.
Squigs are fictional creatures from the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 universes. The term "Squig" is a contraction of Squiggly Beast, and refers to a race of half-flesh/half-fungus creatures.
Squigs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and all are extensively used by the Orcs (and Goblins) in Fantasy and Orks in Warhammer 40,000. The most common type of squig used in-game somewhat resembles a space hopper with a huge pointy toothed mouth.
- Hair Squigs have hairy growths (actually gills), and Orkoids like to stick them on their heads to give themselves hair or beards (in which case the Squig bites onto the Orc/Ork or Goblin's/Gretchin's skin).
- Attack Squigs are one of the most common types. It's a bouncing ball of claws and razor-sharp teeth up to a foot in height. Night Goblins use them as both a food source (if the Squig doesn't eat them first!) or as a weapon of war, pushing herds of them into the enemy. Orks like to keep them as pets, and sometimes even as weapons as well.
- Squighounds are a variation of Attack Squig, used by Ork Slaverz to help them keep the Grots in line.
- Buzzer Squigs are more insect-like, and have voracious appetites. Feral Orks will often load several of them into pots, which are then launched at the enemy by catapults. As Buzzer Squigs can strip the flesh off a man in seconds, this is horrifyingly effective in battle.
- Squiggoths are the largest type of Squig, huge quadruped monsters used by Orks as a primary food source. Since they're so large and tough, some Orks (primarily Feral Orks) like to lash armor plating and guns onto them, and ride them into battle like War Elephants. The largest Squiggoths, sometimes called Orkeosauruses, can rival tanks and buildings in size.
- Oil Squigs are very small squigs that look like tiny elephants. They squirt oil from their trunks and are used to maintain war machinery.
- Ball Squigs look like a football, and are sometimes swapped with the real ball in Blood Bowl games as a practical joke.
- Squigdeons is a "bird" that the orks uses to transport warplans to faraway bases (as seen in Deff Skwadron). Known for being just a bit smarter than your average Ork Pilot, who are often called to try to shoot them down. Squigdeons are a reference to Yankee Doodle Pidgeon in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines.
- Wild Boars seem to show up with Feral Orks wherever they appear, but it is unknown if they are real boars, or a type of Squig that happens to resemble one. They are large enough for Feral Orks to ride them as mounts, which they like to do, as they're every bit as ferocious (not to mention thick-skulled, stubborn, and smelly) as the Orks themselves.
In the first and second editions of the Warhammer 40,000 game, it was revealed that squigs were the result of Tyranid manipulation of Orkish gene-matter. Orks discovered the first squigs aboard a Tyranid bio-ship and subconsciously recognised them as being "Orky", subsequently taking the little creatures home. Squigs then spread throughout Ork space. This backstory neatly explained how squigs could appear in both Ork and Tyranid armies. Since then, Tyranid squigs have been retconned into Ripper Swarms.
In the gorkamorka 'fluff' however it was said that each of the orkoid species (including orks,grots,snots,squigs and forms of fungus) included the genetic material for each of the others. It described how even a single orkoid spore would eventually produce food every type of flora and fauna needed to support Ork society. In this respect each type of squig would fufill some sort of function in ork society. It is not known whether the Gorkamorka description of ork biology is still canon.
