40k big bad suggestions

[Iron Angel]

I'm running a Rogue Trader game of all Orks, and they've got themselves wrapped up in a local WAAAAGH!. I have some big plans for this, as they fly around helping the WAAAAGH! get unstuck at certain points where it has ground to a halt. I have plenty of ideas for missions of that sort though. The game is VERY pulpy- I usually run my games straight, but since this is Orks, I found this to be a great opportunity to let loose and do some really crazy things, and my players are loving it.

But I need a big bad to start emerging.

So as a rundown of the cluster**** thats happening in this system:
1: You have Orks, who are doing their thing. Their boss is a Blood Axe, so he's been more methodical than most.
2: You have Imperial forces, mostly IG, trying to hold them off and keep them from claiming resources.
3: You have the Eldar, who are trying to keep the war going because it makes a fine distraction- Needless to say, the Eldar become very displeased with the players once they start making progress because they're ruining the perfect balance they have been engineering, and they are in fact behind a lot of the problems the WAAAGH! has been having moving forward.
4: You have a Harlequin troupe, trying to investigate one of the worlds in the system while everyone is on alert, everyone is trying to kill everybody else, and they need more bodies than they have and are running out of time to finish their investigation.
5: You have the Necrons, slumbering in the world the Harlequins are trying to investigate. The tomb world is actually defunct, but there is a different legion of Necrons here with a small team looking for something specific that the Tomb World has- Specifically, a shard of the Deceiver.
6: Finally, you have Chaos, drawn to the bloodshed and war like flies to a festering wound and finding the besieged Guard pliable subjects for "salvation".
7: I'll probably use the Tau as the butt of some joke at some point.

Now, I do know who I do NOT want to be the big bads:
1: I do not want Chaos to be the big bad. They're always the big bad. It would be cool if the players THOUGHT the emergent Chaos presence as the war drags on was the big bad, and then they aren't. But I don't want to dust off the "Chaos are the big bad" book yet again unless I have to.
2: I do not want Necrons to be the big bad. The reclaimer force sent in is relatively small and will actually attempt to cut a deal with the Orks. They know if the humans win they'll never find what they're looking for, because humans will shoot them on sight, but if they help the Orks, then the deal is they let the Necrons look for their "Very unimportant I assure you" doodad and be on their way.

That leaves a short list.
1: The imperium is going to be hard to be a Big Bad because they tend to respond to threats like this not with big things the players can have an epic battle with, but with dozens of huge ships that turn planets into molten glass from orbit. I COULD have them drop, say, an Imperator titan on the world, and while that would be ludicrously unrealistic, it would also be ludicrously AWESOME, which has been more of my concern in this game. The problem there is that an Imperator titan would have to be fought Shadow of the Colossus style, and I dont think my players want to be making hundreds of skill checks and calling it a final boss. The other option is Space Marines, which would be doable for sure.
2: The Eldar could work; They might just get so fed up with their plans failing they decide to intervene directly, and a particularly powerful Wraithseer would be a hell of a final boss. My players sure do love krumping some pointy 'eadz, but I'm not sure how I would wedge them in as a "big bad". I know there is a way to do it, but I'm having trouble thinking in the fifty shades of deception that Eldar would be operating in- Plus, Eldar aren't going to be a "growing" threat. If they decide to attack, its going to be an all-out lightning strike where they smash everything as fast as possible. While that would make a fun few sessions in itself, it leaves little opportunity to hype them up.
3: One consideration I had is that if the Tau are going to be the butt of a joke, lets make the whole campaign a joke. All of this crap is going on, and the war is reaching a boiling point, and players are sure the there is an exterminatus incoming, Chaos is going to summon a bunch of daemons and overrun everything, and they're just moments away from an Avatar of Khaine and an entire Eldar warhost dropping on their heads, and then BAM, Tau appear, announce they are going to recruit everyone for the greater good, and start shooting everyone. While comedic at first though, I feel like it would probably break the narrative and make the rest of the accomplishments the players have been working for feel pointless. I might have this scenario happen and then they just get shot out of the sky moments after appearing, which makes TWO jokes out of the event!
4: I do have some Dark Eldar shenanigans planned, but I don't think I can make them a big bad as they tend not to get involved in huge battles unless absolutely necessary, preferring instead to just appear, kill a bunch of people, take a bunch of slaves, then vanish again (Which is what will make them good mission targets- Whole mobs of boyz and guardsmen just vanishing and leaving behind a handful of shredded corpses and no survivors to tell what happened, go find out wotz ruinin' me zoggin' front ya gits!)
5: There is one last thing- There is a large-scale Grot rebellion in progress, spanning the entire WAAAAGH!. Only a few of the Grots are actually participating, but its one of those "special problems" the players are put to task on. I COULD make it so that it explodes into a full-grown coup, but if anything that would be a minor issue, since winning doesn't actually resolve the big picture- It just removes an obstacle.

So I'm not sure how I should go about this. Thoughts?

[Magua]

Depends if you're linking the big bad to the problems the waaagh is having or not. If they are related, then the Eldar seem the obvious choice; if they're not related, then it seems you require a tie-in to actually make /them/ the big bad rather than the Eldar who are already slowing down the waaagh.

That said:

- You're already playing Rogue Trader. The big bad could /be/ a rogue trader, who benefits from the ongoing waaagh in some (financial) way and will step in if the players are doing too well. Rogue trader means ship, access to any resources you want, but still the tendency to come out and get involved hands on when needed. Could also lead to a situation where the players ram their ship into his and then have an impromptu boarding party.

- An Ordo Xenos inquisitor + retinue. Yes, the Imperium's answer to things tend to be "orbital bombardment", but if the Imperium gets it into their head that the PCs are the sole cause of the waaaagh doing well, then maybe this becomes more reasonable.

- A high placed ork who has turned traitor and is essentially selling the waaagh out for....well, I'm not really sure what an ork would need to do that, but there's got to be something. Alternatively, some psyker (eg the Inquisitor, or the rogue trader's astropath) could be mindcontrolling said ork, making it more of a subplot.

- I know you say you don't want it to be the Necrons, but if the PCs go about stopping the Eldar from their investigations/whatever on the Tomb World, welp, it could prove to be an ironic twist. Not that orks would care, but the players might

- Deathwatch strike team.

[Grim Portent]

How about a Sisters of Battle Crusade lead by a Living Saint?

A few thousand Battle Sisters, a great many basically insane Imperial Cult adherents who have the insane courage to charge Orkish lines, the various hangers on and attachments and some fresh super heavy tanks.

Have the planet contain a small, but highly significant shrine to the Emperor or one of his saints that has hitherto gone largely unfortified due to limits in manpower and resources. When the planet comes under threat of Orkish invasion, Chaos incursion and Eldar and Dark Eldar machinations, a large group of Ecclesiarchy forces on their way to a different warzone decided to redirect themselves to fight the Orks and other enemies on the planet.

Exterminatus is now unlikely, as to do so would destroy not only the shrine, which would annoy the Ecclesiarchy to no end, but it would also require the Living Saint to quit the field, which is unlikely if it is of a sufficiently zealous nature.

[MeeposFire]

The ultimate in jokes...it is the Squats.

[Iron Angel]

How about a Sisters of Battle Crusade lead by a Living Saint?

A few thousand Battle Sisters, a great many basically insane Imperial Cult adherents who have the insane courage to charge Orkish lines, the various hangers on and attachments and some fresh super heavy tanks.

Have the planet contain a small, but highly significant shrine to the Emperor or one of his saints that has hitherto gone largely unfortified due to limits in manpower and resources. When the planet comes under threat of Orkish invasion, Chaos incursion and Eldar and Dark Eldar machinations, a large group of Ecclesiarchy forces on their way to a different warzone decided to redirect themselves to fight the Orks and other enemies on the planet.

Exterminatus is now unlikely, as to do so would destroy not only the shrine, which would annoy the Ecclesiarchy to no end, but it would also require the Living Saint to quit the field, which is unlikely if it is of a sufficiently zealous nature.

Oh I like this very much. One of the foes I was going to have them fight is going to be an IG general in a Leman Russ. Now, instead of just an epic battle, it could turn out that this general IS a living saint- Killing him only resurrects him as a champion of the emperor, and thats when the imperial defense not only hardens, but starts pushing BACK. The Eldar panic, and want to get things back in equilibrium, while everything swirls into a huge cluster**** at the sudden shift of power. The Adepta Sororitas on one of the worlds heeds the call of this living saint, and start getting involved, and thats when the Necrons make their offer- They'll help shove the Imperial forces out of the system and even try to harass and stave off the exterminatus ships (They dont want to risk the Tesseract being lost or damaged). Everything kicks into overdrive, and culminates with the players making a daring push through Imperial lines to kill the living saint amidst a massive shove by the orks to overwhelm the imperial defenders.

[Trekkin]

Hmm...if you wanted a really jokey Ork campaign, you could tie it together with something like this:

The Grot rebellion the PCs see is only half of a very kunnin' plan; the other half is the Chaos cultists who, thanks to the Eldar foiling the efforts of Chaos, have begun to worship Gork and Mork as well. After all, whisper the Grots in their increasingly desperate ears, no pointy-headz have been able to stop the WAAAGH yet, so why not leave a shoota at dis altar o' Gork too? A shoota with real worky gubbinz, only a little too big for a grot to handle...ooo, and dem camo netz is real Morky too, I bet he'd like dem...we'll see he getz dem, don't you worry, humie.

Now, Khorne does not take kindly to chants of "'Ere we go! Blood fer da Blood God! Skullz fer 'iz pointy stikk!", and he's got the perfect recourse in mind. They raise their altars, perform their sacrifices, give da grotz loads o' dakka, and behold, the Daemons come.

The Looted Daemons.

This, you see, is WAAAGH! Tuska's Big Day Out; he's come 'froo dat big hole in da sky on 'is looted Bloodthirster to see what all da fuss is about and krump it to kingdom come. After all, they've been fighting beside the same Orks all this time; it'll be good ta add to the WAAAGH!. Of course, the PCs' own Boss has no intention of following some spikey oddboy who doesn't even have a proppa gargant to ride around in -- and the fight is on, slowing both WAAAGHs as the Eldar intended. Incidentally, you could even make it out as a proxy war for Gork and Mork, with Tuska's might on the Gorky side and the PCs' kunnin' on the side o' Mork.

Sure, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'd think it would be a fitting end to the campaign to smash Khorne's own pet Warboss back into the warp -- amidst a Grot uprising, no less -- and become honored throughout the WAAAGH! as some suitably Orky title. Da Godkrumpaz, perhaps.

[Iron Angel]

Hmm...if you wanted a really jokey Ork campaign, you could tie it together with something like this:

The Grot rebellion the PCs see is only half of a very kunnin' plan; the other half is the Chaos cultists who, thanks to the Eldar foiling the efforts of Chaos, have begun to worship Gork and Mork as well. After all, whisper the Grots in their increasingly desperate ears, no pointy-headz have been able to stop the WAAAGH yet, so why not leave a shoota at dis altar o' Gork too? A shoota with real worky gubbinz, only a little too big for a grot to handle...ooo, and dem camo netz is real Morky too, I bet he'd like dem...we'll see he getz dem, don't you worry, humie.

Now, Khorne does not take kindly to chants of "'Ere we go! Blood fer da Blood God! Skullz fer 'iz pointy stikk!", and he's got the perfect recourse in mind. They raise their altars, perform their sacrifices, give da grotz loads o' dakka, and behold, the Daemons come.

The Looted Daemons.

This, you see, is WAAAGH! Tuska's Big Day Out; he's come 'froo dat big hole in da sky on 'is looted Bloodthirster to see what all da fuss is about and krump it to kingdom come. After all, they've been fighting beside the same Orks all this time; it'll be good ta add to the WAAAGH!. Of course, the PCs' own Boss has no intention of following some spikey oddboy who doesn't even have a proppa gargant to ride around in -- and the fight is on, slowing both WAAAGHs as the Eldar intended. Incidentally, you could even make it out as a proxy war for Gork and Mork, with Tuska's might on the Gorky side and the PCs' kunnin' on the side o' Mork.

Sure, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'd think it would be a fitting end to the campaign to smash Khorne's own pet Warboss back into the warp -- amidst a Grot uprising, no less -- and become honored throughout the WAAAGH! as some suitably Orky title. Da Godkrumpaz, perhaps.

Oh I ****ing love this.

I actually am going to have an Inquisitor's ship that has Diggaz on it (as part of his collection) crash on one of the worlds. The Diggaz took the thing over, and Warboss Kragmaw's boyz have seen Humans coming out of the jungles where it crashed painted green, screaming WAAAAGH!, and killing everything that they can get their hands on. Kragmaw doesn't need crazy Humans making matters worse, so he send the players to go figure out what the zog is happening. The players discover that the Diggaz broke free and either killed or converted the rest of the crew, including several techpriests (Who are now their Mekboyz), some Ogryn (Who are the Nobz) and a Bone 'ead (Who is now their warboss). The players will probably try to cow the Diggaz into submission by having their Meganob beat him in a fight, but he's been heavily upgraded by the Techpriests there, who are now extremely intelligent and knowledgeable but at the same time no longer dogmatically shackled to the machine cult. He and his nobz are going to be tough but eventually the players will beat him, they'll be in charge, and they'll tell the Diggaz to attack the humans exclusively (Or something else, who knows what these crazy people will order them to do).

At any rate, we now have Digga Kommandos that can infiltrate the human positions and start spreading the Mork and Gork cult, getting this whole show off the ground.

Rather than have the Living Saint be the final boss, I'll hype him up to tbe the final boss- The players will kill him, and it will absolutely shatter the morale and will of the Imperial populace, who will look for something else to sve them- Oh, hey, there's this cult of Gork and Mork going around... So its a little chaos-y, the Emperor did his best and failed, lets give it a shot?

FInally the numbers of GOrk and Mork Chaos Cults reaches the numbers necessary to open the rift- And thats when WAAAGH! Tuska rolls out of the warp atop his Looted Bloodthirster and just starts killing absolutely everything. The players beat back the warp invasion with the help of the Necrons, who whip out some handy-dandy anti-warp gizmos, and the Eldar, who use their own psychic prowess to try to slow the advance of the daemon hordes. Warboss Kragmaw takes this foreign WAAAGH! as a personal insult, saying this was his system, he saw it first. Exterminatus ships arrive and this all happens amidst a backdrop of orbital bombardment. Tuska gets beaten back, the Necrons and the Eldar turn on each other, fight briefly, then vanish when they realize the Orks are still ready for another go, and the Imperial ships get destroyed by the ensuing warp storm caused by forcefully ejecting the WAAAGH! back into the warp.

[Trekkin]

Sounds good, although I'd still have the Grots rebel during the bombardment for maximum chaos.

Really, though, as long as you have a Dreadnought-sized Ork riding a Bloodthirster clad in ragged iron plates like a uniquely 40k Master Blaster, I think the exact denouement will be of secondary importance.

Perhaps the PCs might get the Diggamekz to work a bit on whatever ends up getting used for the final slugfest? And, too, if they are proper Gorkamorka Diggas, their Shaman might be the one to suggest talking to the Necrons. It worked out so well before, after all.

Come to think of it, Tuska might cause a bit of a loyalty crisis among the boyz. Tuska Daemon-Killa and by extension his WAAAGH! are, iirc, at least semi-legendary among Orks, and of course he's huge (and therefore in charge), has a real choppy stompa (and therefore really in charge). Besides, he gets to fight daemons nonstop and come back for anuvver go the next day; boyz would flock to him.

Thus, you could frame the final conflict as more than just two warbosses fighting; it's a battle for the Ork way of life. The PCs are proving that there's more to bein' a proppa Ork than just fightin' daemons all day. Dere's humies and pointyhead gitz and metal boyz and a whole zoggin' beautiful universe full of other things to fight too, and to turn their back on it and leave so much un-fragged for eternity is just...just downright un-Orky!