"I have seen... the mighty city of marble and smoke, the shattered kingdoms, the dead of nations, the fires of the Horned Darkness, the throne... the Throne of Chaos."
- —Tamurkhan the Maggot Lord[1b]
The Gallows Tree of the Chaos Wastes
The Gallows Tree was a warped and horrific entity dedicated to Nurgle, the Chaos God of disease and decay, in its own right, located deep within the northern Chaos Wastes. Its tangled limbs were coiled and spread as if distorted in pain and held high above a rot-strewn swamp of vine-choked thorns, looming higher than a temple's steeple above the desolate wastes. Foul and unutterable things dwelt beneath its canopy, the tree being a living gateway to the horrors beyond this plane of reality in the Realm of Chaos.[1b]
It is said that within lay an unclean Daemon-hag called the "Pox-Mother," shunned even by her own kind, who would bestow hidden secrets and dark prophecy on those who pleased her. Those who failed to meet her standards of devotion to Nurgle, however, ended their time as grisly adornments hanging from the boughs of the great tree above, food for maggots and crows alike after they had been subjected to a fate more terrible than a sane mind could conceive of.[1b]
History[]
"Yessss...if you would claim the throne, become as us, you know what you must do. You must be a scourge upon the world, Tamurkhan, an unstoppable plague of muscle and bone your war-host must be, a spreading disease that consumes all before it with a thousand, thousand iron teeth and which leaves nothing but famine and destruction its wake so that all of Father Nurgle's little children may breed and multiply."
- —The Pox-Mother of the Gallows Tree[1b]
During his invasion of the Old World, the Champion of Nurgle and Chaos Lord Tamurkhan brought his vast horde to the edge of the foetid mire that surrounded the Gallows Tree in the hopes of determining what the Chaos Gods desired him to achieve with the great horde he had won control of in the battles of Zanbaijin, and none save the most devoted and insane disciples of Nurgle would venture further. It was Tamurkhan alone that braved the deadly paths to the foot of the Gallows Tree and stepped within. Left under the nominal command of Kayzk the Befouled, the nascent war host arrayed itself across the plain to await the judgement of the Chaos Gods, isolating itself into wary camps, distrusting of their neighbours, even while brought together in a divinely ordained cause.[1a]
Long days passed, and while the horde remained encamped in the Chaos Wastes, with the black and many-hued storm radiance from the Realm of Chaos rending the distant skies above them, the host's numbers continued to swell with warriors keen to taste battle and savour the rewards of victory. Some came from as far away as the lands of the Gharhar in the north and of the Avags in the east, while dozens of renowned Chaos Champions born of many races, some from far beyond the Chaos Wastes, were led to the camp by strange visions and whispered promises.[1a]
As the days went on the Chaos Sorcerer Sayl the Faithless, seeking to establish himself as a power in the horde, sent parties of Dolgan horsemen roaming the wastes, gathering together such reinforcements as they could, as well as stealing the lion's share of the forage available in the windswept and desolate land about them.[1a]
Soon scouting forces were sent out by the various warlords of the host to guard against attacks by the warlike Dragon Ogres and other vile creatures that lived in the high mountains nearby, although sometimes when their parties failed to return, they rightly suspected each other rather than the appetites of the denizens of the wastes as the cause of their demise.[1a]
When Tamurkhan at last returned from the stygian depths of the Gallows Tree, he was met with the immediate rejoicing of the devotees of Nurgle within the horde, whilst its other elements gave the Champion of Nurgle a wary respect. All could plainly see that the Maggot Lord had been marked by the Chaos Gods, such was his transformation. The body of Sargath, which Tamurkhan had taken as his new vessel, was decayed beyond recognition and soon he needed a new host for the next stage of the conflict. He also returned with scrolls of power, containing the true names of Daemons and other monstrous creatures, as well as an urn containing the poisoned waters of Nurgle's domain in the Realm of Chaos.[1b]
When Tamurkhan returned to the horde, he called up a gathering of the warlords and sorcerers within his command and told his intentions to claim the legendary Throne of Chaos. The one who sat upon the throne would claim dominion over the mortal world, a dominion gained by standing upon a mountain of the dead and ultimately achieving ascension to Daemonhood. In this way, Tamurkhan hoped to surpass the legend of his own father, the Great Kurgan. For those that joined him on his conquest, fame and renown would sing of their deeds for thousand of years in the Chaos Wastes. Thousands upon thousands of lives would perish before their blades, a great unholy sacrifice to the Dark Gods, and their names would be carved into the skin of the world for the powers beyond its boundaries to see.[1b]
The Daemon-hag of the Gallows Tree, the Pox-Mother, gave the Chaos Lord a hellish visions of what would be and what could be made real if one had the will to make it so; Tamurkhan had foreseen a mighty host of Chaos, as numberless as a locust swarm, covering the mountains and fallen cities of the dead Skytitans like a spreading contagion. He had seen mighty Giants bow down before him in homage and the fires and hellish forges of Zharr-Naggrund beating out his name. He had seen the countless dead in their wake as a forest of spitted corpses, and verdant plain and barren waste alike watered in blood, and mighty rivers dammed by the bloated carcasses of the fallen.[1b]
Above all else in his dark communion, Tamurkhan had seen a great city of iron and marble torn down, its walls crumbling into dust, fire running through its streets like water in flood. It would be here that the skies would open for him, boiling away all that was wholesome into pus-yellow and cancerous black, and he would be transfigured in glory. The city he knew, though he had never laid eyes upon it, for it lived and breathed in the tales of the Kurgan; it was a city in the heart of the domain of the old enemy, the empire of thrice-damned Sigmar.[1b]
Although none of those gathered in the horde -- not least of all Tamurkhan himself -- had ever set foot within the Empire of Man, all knew of it in story and oft-repeated legend. It had been a place of great and glorious battle for the Warriors of Chaos for many generations, and many a powerful warlord had writ their saga there or died in the attempt.[1b]
It was a land of deep forests and mighty cities, the size and strength of which could barely be conceived of by the Men of the North to whom such things were an anathema given their nomadic, bellicose culture, their closest point of reference being ancient ruins, such as Zanbaijin, that lay here and there about the endless shifting landscape of the wastes.[1b]
Yet Tamurkhan knew that mere numbers and warlike strength alone had not been enough to crush the Empire in the past, for it was a mighty realm of steel and wizardry, blasting fire and bleak castles. They had long withstood the plethora of enemies that surrounded it. No matter his own arrogance and hubris, Tamurkhan judged that to wrest this great prize for the glory of Chaos, he would need to match Sigmar's heirs power-for-power.[1b]
He would need to counter their strong walls and towering fortresses with unholy and unstoppable engines of war, and overwhelm their powerful blackpowder firestorm and battle wizardry with great beasts and savage Daemons to whom such things were a mere distraction. Then would the superior martial skill and battle-lust of the scions of Chaos prove ascendant. Then would the Dark Gods' will be done and the Empire would be drowned in a sea of its own blood.[1b]
Tamurkhan's plan of attack therefore would be an indirect route. He would not, as had so many Chaos Lords of the past, assail the Empire from its north-eastern border, through Kislev and the strongest and most well-tried defences of the realm. Instead, as his visions foretold, his host would travel the length of the Mountains of Mourn, crushing all in their path and lining their way with charnel monuments to the Chaos Gods.[1b]
From there they would then cross the Dark Lands and join with the forces of the Fire Lords of Zharr, the Chaos Dwarfs. They would cross the mountains and rip into the Empire from the south, like a dagger striking at the heart up through the belly where the flesh was soft and weak.[1b]
The journey would be a long one, but glorious in souls, battle and plunder. Tamurkhan promised the warlords gathered before him that the weak would perish along the way, and the strong be made stronger; tempered by battle and blessed by the Dark Gods for their victories and the carnage inflicted in their name.[1b]
A great roar of triumph and anticipation of the glory to come went up from the host, as each warlord renewed their pledge of fealty to Tamurkhan. Only Sayl, withdrawn in the shadows, remained silent, the Faithless One keeping his own council. The Chaos horde of Tamurkhan the Maggot Lord would make its way to the Empire and seek to claim the great city of Men he had seen in the Pox-Mother's vision -- the city of Nuln.[1b]
Ku'gath Plaguefather[]
In Total War: Warhammer III, The Advisor sought out the Great Unclean One Ku'gath Plaguefather who resided in the Gallows Tree in the Chaos Wastes to convince him to seek out the dying Kislevite bear god Ursun. The Advisor promised the Greater Daemon of Nurgle that Ursun's physical body could be used to produce the greatest pestilences ever imagined. In return, Ku'gath only had to give The Advisor a small drop of the bear god's blood, with which he might free himself from the curse of the Tome of Fate.[2a]