The Greenskins

Lore & Background

In the broader Warhammer Fantasy world, the Greenskins have no grand empire, no written history, no philosophy. They are born into a life of raiding and killing, raised in caves and war-camps where the strongest survive and the weak are food. Goblins scavenge and swarm, orcs bellow and crush, and trolls simply break whatever stands in their path. Their societies are held together by nothing more durable than fear and the promise of plunder, and their leaders — whether a particularly large orc chieftain or a Chaos-touched warlord — command loyalty through intimidation rather than any genuine devotion. What makes the Greenskins a persistent threat to the Empire is not any single act of war but the sheer, unending pressure of their numbers. Every road, every mine, every isolated village sits in the shadow of a potential raid. The Empire's frontier is defined as much by what the Greenskins do not reach as by what they do. In Vermintide, this pressure is felt by the player in the constant, escalating waves of enemies that flood every corridor, every courtyard, every bridge. The Greenskins are not a single boss to be slain and a war to be won; they are the weather of the world, the constant threat that makes every moment of safety feel borrowed. In Vermintide's specific narrative, the Greenskins exist alongside a far more insidious threat: the slow, creeping corruption of the Chaos Gods. While the Greenskins themselves are not inherently servants of Chaos — most are simply violent, tribal creatures — the corruption that spreads through the world in the games' story can twist even them into something worse, something driven by malice beyond their usual brutish hunger. This layering of a familiar, physical danger beneath a metaphysical horror is central to Vermintide's tone: the player is fighting not just goblins with clubs, but the symptoms of a world slowly being unmade.

In Their Own Story

The rain had turned the road to Middenheim into a brown slurry, and Helge's boots squelched with every step as he and the others pressed forward through the dark. The torchlight barely cut the gloom, and the smell of wet earth and old blood hung thick in the air. Then the trees on the left began to move. Not one goblin. Not ten. A river of them, eyes catching the torchlight like scattered embers, their crude spears and rusted blades clattering together in a sound like a thousand teeth chattering. The lead orc — a mountain of grey-green muscle with a skull strapped to its forehead — let out a bellow that shook the rain from the branches overhead. Karla racked her crossbow. Joris spat and readied his axe. Helge simply tightened his grip on his sword and whispered a prayer to no god in particular. The Greenskins did not negotiate. They did not parley. They simply came, and the world got smaller, and the screaming started.

Reader's Guide

Throughout both Vermintide campaigns, the Greenskins appear as the default enemy type in nearly every chapter. You will encounter goblins (small, fast, often wielding crude spears or thrown rocks), orcs (larger, heavier, using axes and clubs), and trolls (massive, slow, devastating in close range). Their behavior in combat is straightforward: they swarm, they hit hard, and they do not stop until they are dead. This reflects their canonical nature as tribal hordes with no coordination beyond basic aggression. In Vermintide 2, the narrative deepens the Greenskins' role by tying them to the broader Chaos corruption spreading through the world. While in classic Warhammer Fantasy lore, Greenskins are primarily a natural, tribal threat to the Empire, Vermintide layers them into a story where their violence is one symptom of a larger metaphysical decay. This is a narrative addition rather than a contradiction — the games use the Greenskins as the visible, physical face of a threat that is ultimately something far worse. Terms you will encounter in dialogue and item descriptions include references to specific Empire frontier locations under Greenskin siege, as well as mentions of Chaos-tainted warlords leading otherwise ordinary orc bands. If a Greenskin enemy in-game appears visually distinct — glowing eyes, unnatural coloration, or accompanied by a Chaos-touched leader — this signals the Chaos-corruption layer of the story rather than a standard tribal raid. The distinction matters narratively: the Empire has always fought Greenskins. What Vermintide's story suggests is that something is now driving them, and that is what makes this particular wave of raids different from any before it.

Did You Know?

• In Warhammer Fantasy, 'Greenskin' is a broad collective term covering goblins, orcs, and trolls — they are not a single species but a category of related, green-skinned humanoid creatures that share a cultural tendency t
• In Vermintide, the Greenskins appear as enemies in virtually every chapter of both games, making them the most frequently encountered enemy type in the entire series — you'll spill more of their green blood than any othe
• Greenskins in Warhammer Fantasy are not inherently Chaos creatures; they are a natural threat to the Empire. However, they can be corrupted or led by Chaos-touched warlords, a distinction that Vermintide's narrative buil
• The Greenskins' lack of unified civilization or long-term strategy is a deliberate narrative choice in Warhammer Fantasy: they represent the constant, grinding pressure of a world where civilization is always one bad sea