Nurgle

Nurgle is a literary deity that features in Warhammer.

Biography

Fantasy

Nurgle was a powerful deity who stood as the youngest member of the Ruinous Powers of the four Chaos Gods.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, he was depicted as a huge, bloated humanoid, covered with boils and sores, his body completely rotten from disease. He is typically accompanied by an enveloping cloud of buzzing flies. He was frequently referred to as Grandfather Nurgle or Papa Nurgle, as well as the Lord of Decay, Master of Plague and Pestilence and Lord of All.

Like his brother gods, Nurgle grew from a single survivalist emotion: in his case, the emotion was despair. Nurgle is the Chaos god of disease, decay, despair and destruction. Despite the nature of his influence, he takes a keen interest in his victims, caring for them in a jovial manner similar to a loving grandfather.

Like all of the four major Chaos gods, Nurgle is opposed by one of his fellows. In Nurgle's case, his antithesis is Tzeentch, the god of change and sorcery. Where Nurgle is the deified embodiment of mortal despair, Tzeentch is the deified embodiment of mortal ambition. This antagonistic relationship affects the armies dedicated to each god. The correct adjective to indicate individuals and events related to this God is "Nurglesque".

Powers and abilities

As the lord of disease and decay, Nurgle's followers are vastly interested in spreading disease. His followers become infected with horrific diseases and plagues. In the Warhammer 40,000 setting, Nurgle is served primarily by the Chaos Space Marines of the Death Guard legion, although other legions also occasionally serve him. Like their Fantasy counterparts, these "Plague Marines" take on the diseases of their patron, seeking to further spread them throughout the galaxy. This causes their bodies to rot, making them more difficult to incapacitate as they become immune to pain and injury, and in the case of more dedicated champions, the diseases, particularly the disease called "Nurgle's Rot" can actually spread during battles, quickly incapacitating opponents. Nurgle's sacred number in Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 is seven, so his warriors are frequently formed in units consisting of a multiple of seven.

Various daemons wee available to followers of Nurgle which included:

• Nurglings : are tiny, mischievous daemons, resembling a miniaturized version of Nurgle himself. They normally appear in monstrous swarms which accompany armies dedicated to Nurgle. Occasionally very dedicated champions of Nurgle will become infested with Nurglings, which will live in gaping wounds and orifices on the champion's body; when the champion comes under attack, these will help defend their host.
• Beasts of Nurgle : The Beast of Nurgle is a truly horrendous aberration. It has the soft, sticky and mottled body of a pallid slug and a face of writhing green tentacles, they secrete a caustic slime of which they leave large trails in their wake and are often described as playful in almost a puppy-like manner, often poisoning and contaminating their would-be "friends" with their eager manifestations of affection.
• Plaguebearers : are rotting, wasted creatures of vaguely humanoid size and appearance, with a single burning eye. Flies continually buzz around them, therefore making them more difficult to fight. The many diseases carried by these daemons can be used to terrible effect during battle. Plaguebearers are said to be humans who were transfigured into daemons by the disease Nurgle's Rot, which they are cursed to carry throughout eternity. They are also referred to as 'Tallymen', for they constantly strive to number the poxes and represent the need of humanity to impose order on a chaotic and uncaring universe.
• Great Unclean Ones : are massive, bloated disease carriers, whose decaying flesh bulges with corpulent cancers. They usually carry a titanic rusted blade into battle. They generally act as the leaders and father figures for the other daemons, epitomizing Nurgle's joyful, paternal nature, but fly into terrifying rages if their 'children' are threatened. Due to their bloated bodies Great Unclean Ones are extremely hard to kill. It is from their bloated bodies that the Nurglings are born.
• Daemon Princes : the Daemon Princes Nurgle controls have the same strength as their brethren, but instead of the dark warp energies being emitted from them, they are horribly mutated, with bloated stomachs, boils and pores, and a massive blade, to cut down the enemy.

The armies of Nurgle are collectively referred to as the Plague Legions. Each of these Legions is associated with a specific stage of Nurgle's cycle of decay and regeneration. The Fecundus Legions were tasked with making disease, traveling across the Warp to gather ingredients. The Infecticus Legions were the harbingers of infection, the carriers of new diseases that lay the groundwork for the greater virulence to follow. The Pathogenus Legions were disease fully bloomed and sickness made manifest, equal in both attack or defense and often deployed to guard key sites within the Garden of Nurgle or to spearhead assaults. The Epidemic Legions contain the most Daemons, spreading outward to ensure initial gains turn into rampaging outbreaks. The Rot Legions revel in decay and break down anything and it is their presence more than any other that causes Nurgle's power to swell. The Morbidus Legions were the reapers, tolltakers, and bringers of death. The Necroticus Legions were the most resilient, for they use hopelessness and despair as weapons.

Within the Warp, there existed the Garden of Nurgle that served as Nurgle's realm. This unwholesome realm is home to every pox and affliction imaginable and is alive with the stench of rot. This 'garden' is not a barren wasteland, but rather a macabre paradise of death and pestilence. A thick sheet of buzzing swarms of black, furry flies litter the sky, and twisted, rotten boughs entangled with grasping vines cover the mouldering ground, beneath an insect-ravaged canopy of leaves. Defiled fungi both plain and extraordinary break through the leaf-strewn mulch of the forest floor, puffing out vile clouds of spores. Muddy rivers slither across the bloated landscape. Nurgle's Mansion of rotted timbers and broken walls resides at the heart of the garden; decrepit and ancient, yet eternally strong at its foundations. It is within these tumbling walls that Nurgle toils at his cauldron, a receptacle vast enough to contain all the oceans of the worlds of the galaxy. Nurgle keeps his companion Isha trapped in a cage in the garden of Nurgle, in the corner of a room where he keeps the cauldron in which he creates all of his plagues. Being a goddess of healing, Isha can cure herself of any of Nurgle's diseases. Nurgle takes advantage of this by force-feeding her his latest creation and sees how long it takes the goddess to overcome its effects. If he is pleased, he releases it upon some unsuspecting world, if not, he starts over, working at his cauldron until he has something new to give to his 'companion'. Whilst he is busy working though, Isha takes advantage of his distraction to instruct mortals on how to rid themselves of Nurgle's poxes.

Notes

• Nurgle was created by Games Workshop and featured in the setting of Warhammer along with its spin-off universes.

In other media

Video games

• In Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters, Nurgle was referenced in the setting of the video game.

Appearances

• Warhammer Fantasy:
• Warhammer 40,000:
• Warhammer: Age of Sigmar:

External Links

• Warhammer 40,000 Lexicanum Entry

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