Event · M41

Rise of Ghazghkull on Urk

The Rise of Ghazghkull on Urk was Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka’s ascent from a Goff trooper to ruler of the Ork clans of Urk, in the Zornian System of Segmentum Solar. No coordinates are recorded. His birth is recorded as 920 to 930.M41 and also as almost five hundred years after the First War for Armageddon in 444.M41. Oral traditions of his early years tend to begin about ten years before the Second War for Armageddon, and the span of his time on Urk before the exodus is also given as between nine and twelve Urk-years. He was spawned in a blizzard on the tundra and made his way to the Goff fort of Gogduf, where he joined the warband of a chief known as the Old Goff by headbutting him. He was known then as Newcomer, and was later taken on raids as a trooper. Dark Angels monitoring stations on Urk were run from an unmanned command sanctum on Rukblud Peak. After goading from Newcomer, the Old Goff led the warband in a frontal assault on that station. The opposition was automated bolter sentry guns. A bolter round cut through the right side of Ghazghkull’s cranium, taking an ear, an eye, and about 30 per cent of his brain, and he was left where he fell. Mad Dok Grotsnik, a Deathskulls painboy (an Ork surgeon), rebuilt the skull with an adamantium plate, replaced brain tissue with wires and squig sinew, and fitted a bionic eye. Accounts differ on how Ghazghkull reached Grotsnik’s tent at Rustspike. One account, told by the gretchin (a lesser Orkoid servant) Makari, says he walked about 200 miles holding the wound closed. Another says opportunistic Orks, or his own warband, sold him to Grotsnik. Another says Grotsnik was on the raid and operated at once. Makari, under interrogation, said that all of these stories are true. Ghazghkull died on the operating table, and Grotsnik dumped the body. A gretchin found it, Ghazghkull awoke, named that gretchin Makari, and ordered him to carry a banner, and he claimed a vision from the Ork gods Gork and Mork. He then challenged Dregmek, the Deathskull warlord of Rustspike, and killed him, the last blow a headbutt, at the same time as a bolt of green lightning struck the city’s central spike. He became leader of Rustspike. One tradition says he also beat dozens of Dregmek’s nobz. Another says Dregmek’s second in command, Bullets, pledged the clan. Over the following six years, Ghazghkull brought the other warlords of Urk under him. He beat Shazfrag, speedboss of the Evil Sunz, in a warbike race around Shazfrag’s citadel. He subdued Snazdakka of the Bad Moons in a campaign across the Great Western Steppe. Grudbolg, chieftain of the Snakebites, pledged himself after a knife fight in a swamp, and only after Ghazghkull had decapitated him and reattached his head twice. Ugrak, warlord of the Goffs, lost a headbutt duel at the gates of Rustspike. Genrul Straturgum of the Blood Axes entered Ghazghkull’s dwelling, came within stabbing distance to show that he could, and then pledged his clan. Smaller tribes, abandoned Imperial stations in orbit, and the other inhabitable worlds of the Zornian System also came under him. One account says this was achieved by campaigns of conquest, and another says the smaller tribes pledged themselves. Those other worlds are not named. Unknown to Ghazghkull, Aeldari of Craftworld Ulthwé raided Urk during this rise in order to favour him, since the farseer Eldrad Ulthran had judged that Ghazghkull’s later host would go to Armageddon, whereas the hosts of his rivals would go toward Aeldari craftworlds. As Urk’s star failed, Ghazghkull treated this as a sign to leave, and preparation for the exodus lasted three years. He occupied a deserted Fortress of Redemption, later renamed Da Forktress, and obtained a super-heavy battlewagon called Da Killblasta. Flares then killed much of the remaining life on Urk. A space hulk emerged in orbit, was secured to one of Urk’s moons, and over a few weeks received Orks ferried from the surface. Ghazghkull named it Wurld Killa. The fight with daemons aboard that hulk was not fought on the surface of Urk.

See where Rise of Ghazghkull on Urk occurred on the galactic map in the 41st Millennium.

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