Good day everyone, Zak here from Cape Town, South Africa. Here is another Warhammer 40,000 article. My last post dealt with Khorne, the blood God, who feeds on violence and hatred.
Now it is time to talk about the Flylord, the Father of Plagues, the Master of Pestilence - Nurgle. He is a God of Decay and Disease.
This is another of those primordial forces that have existed in the universe for a long time. Some would argue that on earth in the 2nd Millenium during the great plagues of Europe, Nurgle was born, but then if Warp Entities are born from the spiritual emanations of races with a connection to the warp then Decay and Pestilence would have existed long before.
Most likely, this was when Humanity made its first major connection to this God of Chaos.
Nurgle is a God that feeds of Despair, yet interestingly, also Hope. The Great Decayer also brings forth rebirth and regeneration. Life and Death flows in a cycle. Bacteria, Viruses and carrion eaters flourish and feed and grow from death. Hope is born from Despair.
Perhaps the minds of those "blessed" by this God is never quite at ease.
Usually, like with Khorne, there is path to the Corruption found from this God. Usually in Nurgle this starts in a feeling of not wanting to let go. The need to preserve oneself and others no matter the costs, especially purity.
In Nurgle, the sensation of pain is not necessary (we will discuss Slaanesh soon), blood is not required (See Khorne we did yesterday), so his followers can enjoy a feeling of numbness from those sensations and instead enjoy an unending decay and rebirth in corruption within their bodies.
If their need was for their family and followers to remain immortal, the plagues, poxes and mutations borne from those diseases will change their bodies from what they are into a sort of catalyst of disease and puss. You get it... its pretty gross.
On the uptake, Nurgle followers become extremely tough and difficult to harm.
Let's look at those followers:
Daemons of Nurgle:
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Lesser Daemons of Nurgle include Nurglings, Plaguebringers and others. The big one you see there is a Great Unclean One, a Greater Daemon. These massive putrid effigies laugh as they spread their "gift" to others. They are generally found to appear joyful, not hateful.
Death Guard:
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The Legion of Space Marines that pledged themselves to Nurgle were the Death Guard... quite on the nose really. They are tougher that other Space Marines and other Chaos Space Marines and use an arry of Plague weapons etc.
Daemon Primarch: Mortarion
I can't tell you too much about their Primarch... I just know he is Mortarion and he now has wings. Perhaps I will learn more about him for the future. Apparently I will be seeing him on the tabletop soon enough.
Before:
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After:
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