House Orlock

With bikes and ridgehaulers revving, the gangs of House Orlock descend upon their foes with iron-hard will and even harder bullets. These gangs are the rulers of Necromunda's roads, their recruits drawn from the descendants of their founding families and the toughest of their drudging classes to create formidable fighters. Many claim that the scions of House Orlock are born with ore in their blood, for theirs are the ancient mines of Necromunda and what little wealth the planet still has to offer. However, it is their tight grip on their house's affairs that defines them, with billions of drudges slaving away at the house's command; this pragmatic and brutal approach to keeping their own in line has seen House Orlock rise through the ranks to become a Clan House in just three short millennia.

Orlock gangs do not rely on flashy weapons, cowardly stealth or acrobatic prowess. They know that the most reliable thing in this world is cold, hard iron, and whether or not your shot finds its mark. Tools of the trade are common amongst their number, who will just as readily use mining lasers and rock saws alongside their shotguns and autopistols — if it gets the job done, it is as good as anything else. Most scions of the Orlock are also well practiced in fighting at high speed, for coming of age within the clan is not complete without time spent running with a road gang. House Orlock rules the roads as much as it rules the mines, and it is out in the ash wastes where the majority of their fortune and power lie.

The Orlocks are renowned for their monopoly on Necromunda's mines. Though the planet has been stripped to the bone of resources, it is the Orlocks who have developed the technology and canny sense to find the little left that remains untapped. The countless drudging classes that they employ toil day in, day out to sift riches from rubbish and pick through kilometres upon kilometres of rock until mineral seams are found. The Orlocks also hold a tight grip on many of Hive Primus' shipping yards, in no small part due to their control of the surrounding roads. Goods leaving Necromunda can only depart from Primus, which holds the planet's only spaceport; with the Orlocks protecting the roads, it only makes sense that they deal with much of the incoming manufactured goods. More recently, some Orlocks out in duster settlements have become famous for the brewing of Wild Snake, an alcohol hugely popular with underhivers.

With such a huge expanse of operations, House Orlock depends on their servile drudging classes to get much of their work done. Other houses might soon collapse to riot and revolution from keeping such a huge population in poor working conditions. Not so the Orlock, who have learned through painful experience just how powerful the drudges can be when united. Instead, promising drudges are promoted into gangs, and occasionally even married into the main house — the tantalising prospect of rising above one's station keeps them toiling away.

Unlike many of the other Clan Houses, House Orlock was born in the ash wastes. The first of their number, a man named Olandus Orlock, stumbled upon wealth when he sheltered from an ash storm in the Spoil, only to discover that his refuge was in fact an ancient voidcraft. Rich from the scavenge, he set his eyes upon the lucrative mining contracts of House Orlund, resolving to claim them for himself. A canny and ruthless diplomat, Olandus offered an alliance to the most powerful duster clans in the Spoil. The Kamund, Cinderjack and Merdena clans chose to accept his offer and Olandus readily claimed the holdings, drudges and crawlers of those who had refused him. The newly united Clan Orlock, consisting of these four duster clans, spent decades raiding House Orlund's holdings until their rivals faced complete collapse. Eventually, the daughter of Orlund's leader betrayed her father to marry Olandus' eldest son, ending the shadow war once and for all. House Orlock assumed its place within the Clan Houses and took Orlund's contracts for itself.

It would take near ruin, however, for the Orlocks to realise just how powerful the drudges they now controlled could be. After centuries of decadence, running of the mines had passed almost entirely to hired guns; it was only a matter of time before the dissatisfied drudges rebelled. House Orlock was nearly ruined as the drudges used the wealth of the house's largest mining site against them. Yet the sons and daughters of the house, who had long harboured their own disquiet over their house leadership's growing complacency, broke away from their elders and formed a new cluster settlement. They offered the rebel leaders a place in their reborn house, and the forces established a new way of order. The elders of the house were cast out and left powerless, and the newly born city of Crucible became a symbol of unity for the young Orlocks and the drudges. This began the methods that are used to this day, promoting the best of the drudging class and therefore policing their own workers.

In the 41st Millennium, House Orlock are rivalled as miners only by the Squats, and serve as Hive Primus' main source of ore and unrefined metal. The House of Iron maintains control of almost all land trade on Necromunda, the roads connecting the hives and the loading levels of the great cities grasped within their fist like the chain upon their sigil.