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Ork legends, passed down by the [[Runtherd]]s,{{Fn|2}}{{Fn|5}} tell of of a legendary "Lost Race" of Brainboyz, [[Snotling]]s which were smarter in "da old days" and "used ta boss us Orks around".{{Fn|5}} The exact truth is difficult to know as Orks do not keep written records, relying instead upon oral histories to remember their past.{{Fn|2}} It is the speculation of [[Imperial]] scholars that as the Orks themselves were not responsible for the development of the legendary lost [[Standard_Template_Construct#Ork|Ork Standard Cconstruct Templates]] as even their [[Mekboy]]z could not have understood it,{{Fn|3}}{{Fn|5}} and that indeed there may have been an ancient Orkish caste upon its homeworld which initiated the [[Ork]] expansion into space{{Fn|5}} – the Ork [[Waaagh!]]s of today being the unexpected byproduct of the efforts of the Brain Boyz.{{Fn|4}}
Brainboyz were [[Greenskin]]s with the same symbiotic algae in their skin as all Orkish races{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|5}} – indeed it was these Brainboyz which gave the other Orkish castes this skin as they were their creators and progenitors.{{Fn|5}} The Brainboyz, through potent genetic manipulation, grew these ever tougher, larger, and more butal brutal [[Mutant]]s{{Fn|4}} to do thier their work and fight in wars: first growing the slave caste of [[Gretchin]] and eventually the unstoppable warrior caste of [[Ork]]s.{{Fn|5}}{{Fn|4}} Though their Ork and Gretchin servants were anything but intellectual, they had strong survival instincts and an innate understanding of their own universe{{Fn|2}} – to this end, or possibly out of some awareness of their own finality,{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|2}}{{Fn|4}} the Brain Boyz included an innate technical skills and some knowledge of their technology within the genetic strucutre structure of these [[Mutant]]s, a boon which created the [[Mekboy]]s{{Fn|1}} and enabled [[Ork]]ish continuance of their empire.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|4}}
As intelligent as the Brainboyz were, they were unaware that they owed this intelligence to their diet: Snotlings are symbiotic with the fungi they eat, since early days cultivating their spores in the underground cave-systems of their homeworld,{{Fn|3}} and it was generations of this diet that stimulated the growth of their brains and uplifted them to sapience. This ignorance was their undoing{{Fn|5}}
The exact nature of that collapse varies across stories but all end the same as [[Orks]] overthrow their oppressors and establish a new order for the Greenskins, forcing the devolution of the Brainboyz into [[Snotling]]s.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|2}}{{Fn|3}}{{Fn|4}}{{Fn|5}} It is difficult to piece together this time in Ork history in any detail, and exists primarily through fragments of Ork legends{.{Fn|5}} Whatever the truth of the matter, the Brain Boyz died out long ago: an ancient caste reduced to little more than legend{{Fn|4}}
*Some [[Runtherd]]s tell that the servant castes were put to work farming and harvesting the raw fungi, and that as they worked, they too began to eat the fungus – within a few generations their [[Ork]] brains growing smart enough for violent revolution. The [[Ork]]s enslaved their masters and denied them their fungi. As the Brainboys regressed into Snotlings, the Orks lost their knowledge of cultivation and so the fungus became less abundant: the Orks also began to regress to their base inteligenceintelligence, leaving them in the state they are today.{{Fn|5}}
*Other [[Runtherd]]s tell agree that the Orks were the labourers which harvested the fungi, but expounded that it was distrust which drove them to eat the crop. Orks had only been fed a diet of [[Squigs]], and believing the fungus special as it was forbidden instead all at once sat down and ate every last toadstool, mushroom, and puffball to the spore on the homeworld – and that while the feast had no effect on Ork brains, the denial of this crucial nutrient stupefied the Snotlings into their current state. The Orks found themselves in charge, successors to a young empire which they brought across the universe.{{Fn|3}}
*Some legends stimply simply tell that it was an un-named tragedy during an Ork rebellion which caused the Brainboyz to regress into [[Snotling]]s{{Fn|2}}
*Some Ork legends hold that it was a great centuries-long plague which stunted the Brainboyz civilization causing the whole race to die out, leaving a power void for the Orks to fill.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|2}}{{Fn|4}}
[[Runtherd]]s maintain that the [[Snotling]]s, mischievious mischevious and playful creatures content frolicking in cess-pits and catching [[Squigs]], are the same species as the Brainboyz: forever trapped in their underdeveloped pre-juvenile state.{{Fn|3}} The "Lost Race" is not lost, rather the slaves of their own creations; and the Orks the inheritors to their civilisationcivilization.{{Fn|5}} Regardless of the truth, Snotlings manifest from the same fungal spores as the rest of the Orks.{{Fn|6}}
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==Trivia==
{{Trivia}}
In [[Codex: Necrons (3rd Edition)]], it is mentioned that the Old Ones created a hardy, green-skinned race to defend their last strongholds known as the '''Krork'''{{Fn|6}} It is implied that this may have been a progenitor to the [[Ork]]s, which would in turn either suggest that the Lost Race of Brain Boyz is simply a myth told by the [[Runtherd]]s about their most diminuitive diminutive flock, or that the Brain Boyz themselves were created or displaced by the [[Old One]]s and may in some way have been these [[Krork]]s.
==See also==
