'Da stinkin' 'ooman lackeys. Sum Orkses will do anyfink fer teef. Nufink wrong wiv dat, but hob-nobbin ' wiv 'oomans, dat' s difrunt.'

The Blood Axes were the first clan to encounter the armies of the Imperium, and it is they who have had most contact with the Imperial culture. This has led to the Blood Axes picking up a number of Imperial battle practices which are not used by other clanz, most notably the wearing of camouflaged wargear and the use of captured or traded Imperial vehicles. The Blood Axes’ Warlords tend to have a better understanding of grand strategy, and will even retreat if they are losing rather than fighting to the bitter end like the other clanz, normally coming back later reinforced with more Boyz and better prepared than they were before!

The Blood Axe clan is known by the sign of the blood-drenched axe. They are always at odds with every other clan, over and above the inevitable animosity and constant feuding of the Ork race.

This clan was once very powerful, and easily dominated Ork society for a long time. When they began having too many friendly dealings with aliens (especially Humans), it was too much for the other clans to bear. A lot of the Blood Axe Boyz were wiped out in a nasty inter-Ork war known as Da Big Party. As a result the clan were overthrown and the surviving Blood Axes fled into hiding for many years.

There are a few utterly corrupt and devious rogue traders and pirates who trade weapons with the Orks. Although the Imperium does not supply the Blood Axe Orks with weapons, the influence of Imperial military style is there for all to see. There is, however, a preponderance of Meks and heavy weapons in the Blood Axe clan. Warriors wear helmets, combat fatigues, and forage caps. These accoutrements are drab in colour and are usually patterned in camouflage. High-rankers in this clan love to don military trappings, such as medals, eagle-wing or axe cap-badges, binoculars, monocles, and bandoliers festooned with grenades.

Worn along with these trappings are Orkish adornments, such as back-plates bearing the clan symbol, axe-shaped earrings, and black or blue facial war paint - the designs which identify individual warbands. The favourite hand-to-hand weapon of the Blood Axes is naturally an axe. This weapon is usually stuffed down a long, lace-up combat boot. True to the tradition of the clan, the Blood Axe Orks do not wipe the blood off the blade after a battle.

By means of a few working spacecraft crewed by slaves, and by infesting suitable space hulks, the Blood Axes are able to launch sporadic raids on other Ork clanz. They do this to settle old scores; to capture loot, slaves and Gretchin.