"Until I looked close, I thought his skin was roiling and writhing. Then I saw dozens of tiny Daemons burrowing through his flesh, gnawing on his bones and suckling upon his vile secretions. All this horror was belied by the beast's cultured voice, which welcomed me as a long-lost son even as I fell retching to my knees."
- —Liber Malefic[1a]
A Great Unclean One, the Greater Daemon of Nurgle
The Great Unclean Ones, known also as Fly Masters, Stench Lords, Nurgle's Plaguefathers, Plague Lords, and the Decayed Ones, are the massive Greater Daemons of Nurgle, embodiments of plague and disease can lay low entire armies and can endure the greatest and most horrific punishments that can fell even the mightiest of Daemonkind.[1a]
Each Great Unclean One is more or less a smaller and less powerful facsimile of Nurgle himself, both physically in their apperance and in terms of their jovial and ironically good-natured personality. Indeed, a Great Unclean One is sometimes referred to as Nurgle or Father Nurgle by his underlings, although of course each also has their own daemonic name.[1a]
A Great Unclean One is invariably a gigantic, bloated green figure swollen with disease and every form of physical corruption or decay possible in flesh. The Daemon's skin is a necrotic and leathery surface covered with pockmarks, sores and other signs of loathsome infestation. Its inner organs, rank with rotten flesh, spill through the ruptured skin and hang like rotting drapes about its immense girth. From these organs burst tiny pustulant creatures called Nurglings, which chew and suck upon the nauseating juices within. Such foulness echoes the fundamental truth of the mortal world and the teachings of Nurgle himself: whilst there is life, there will be ruin and decay, even unto the end of all things.[1a]
The joyous, if sinister face of a Great Unclean One
In perverse contrast to its horrific appearance, the Great Unclean One is neither morbid nor consumed with despair -- if anything the opposite is true. Great Unclean Ones are downright exuberant in the pursuit of their enthusiasms. Great Unclean Ones are invariably ebullient and obstreperous, full of a natural will to organise and achieve. Indeed, it is not uncommon for Great Unclean Ones to compete amongst themselves to see which can better spread Nurgle's plague-riddled "gifts" across the world.[1a]
Gregarious and curiously sentimental, Great Unclean Ones hold their mortal and daemonic followers dear and even refer to them as their "children." They take great patriarchal pride in the achievements of their servants and allies, proclaiming vociferously the splendours of the poxes and sores evinced by those around them, and bellow with hearty laughter in response to the destruction wrought in Nurgle's name.[1a]
Role
A Great Unclean One fighting on even after having been disembowelled.
A Great Unclean One is a massive daemonic terror that embodies a horrific combination of grotesqueness and rampant decay. They have no shame, no sense of decency, and revel in the basest of acts. Fat, worm-ridden fingers probe the depths of their dripping nostrils. They randomly spray their leavings in great clouds of such pestilential power that the faintest whiff kills. They engorge themselves on food and drink, spilling their tainted meals out onto the ground through the rents and tears in their prodigious bulk. [2a]
On the battlefield, the Great Unclean One waddles into the thickest of the fray, muttering such foul jokes that the souls of those who hear them shrivel. It joyously slaughters foes, chortling with disgusting mirth. It might snatch a fleeing warrior to stuff the unfortunate soul into its suppurating maw only to spray back out the mostly dissolved carcass in a stream of noxious vomit. [2a]
Great Unclean Ones are sinister beings, whose affection and corruption evoke shuddering madness from those who witness it. When not indulging their bestial appetites, they laugh and pinch, coddle and coo their mewling broods of Nurglings. In the bodies of their victims bloom the most unsightly monstrosities, and a Fly Master, always patient and endearing towards its spawn, will pause to aid in the birthing of some new unspeakable enemy of the mortal world or harvest the shoots of fungus and corruption that represent the new life born from the twitching dead.[2a]
When a Great Unclean One addresses his blighted throng of Daemons and mortal champions of the Plague Lord, he expostulates in a manner immediately reminiscent of the great leader he is, chivying and directing his decaying minions with a paternal indulgence at odds with his monstrous appearance. Just as this love of Nurgle's creations brings the Great Unclean One immense joy, it is also filled with rage when the petty-minded enemies of Chaos try to thwart Nurgle's grand designs.[1a]
Such wrath initially manifests as a thunderous and adjective-laden oratory, declaiming those who question Nurgle's will, but swiftly descends into brutal, if still somewhat jovial, violence if the heretic is not to be cowed by words alone.[1a]
A Great Unclean One appears, ready to face those who would dare seek to stop the spread of Nurgle's "gifts" to the mortal world.
When roused to battle, a Great Unclean One is a truly horrifying entity. He bellows ribald joy across the battlefield in stentorian tones, brimming with the jollity of one fulfilling divine commandment, and pauses only to unleash his formidable sorceries against targets ripe for Nurgle's blessings. Made ponderous by his colossal bulk, a Great Unclean One is slow to advance upon the enemy, but is all but unstoppable once he has reached his target.[1a]
Any foe foolish enough to stray into the Great Unclean One's path swiftly discovers the immense strength concealed by the Greater Daemon's corpulent form. Whether a Decayed One batters his enemy with an iron plaguesword dripping with virulent fluid or a plague-ridden flail matters little, for the result is always the same -- an indescribable mess of blood and bone, already teeming with Nurgle's choicest festering pestilences.[1a]
Appearance
The Greater Daemons of Nurgle are among the most horrific Daemons known to mortals. Beneath clouds of swarming flies comprised of damned souls, they are almost perfect replicas of Nurgle himself: bulbous, bilious figures bloated with corruption. Their sickly green skin is little more than a few smooth places between mountainous boils, cavernous wounds from which spill torrents of chunky pus, and fields of quivering blisters.[2a]
Through the various rents of decayed and ruptured flesh, the internal organs are in full view, pumping corruption throughout its massive bodies, leaking filth and bile over its thick hide, painting it with fresh new contagions to tickle the flesh. It is a breeding ground for every pox and blight ever to torment the good people of the mortal world.[2a]
The truly disgusting maw of a Great Unclean One filled with maggots; its spittle alone contains a thousand extraordinarily virulent diseases and plagues.
Crawling and nuzzling and suckling and hiding on this grotesque entity are swarms of tiny Nurglings, whom the Fly Master sees as his brood. Despite their macabre appearance, the Great Unclean Ones possess a surprisingly cheerful disposition, favouring their pets and followers with almost fatherly attention. Between the rancid coos and the constant praises that stream from its seeping maw, its existence is maddening to mortals who see it.[2a]
Great Unclean Ones take great pride in the achievements of their fellow Nurglish creatures, whether Daemon or mortal, loudly celebrating each new affliction, new pox, and new sore spread into the mortal world with exuberance. When faced with the destruction wrought in Nurgle's name, their booming laughter can be heard for miles.[2a]
Such love of Nurgle and his children breeds a cheerful readiness to fight in the Plague Lord's name, for the corpse-strewn battlefield is a fertile garden for new diseases and pestilences. The Great Unclean One sweeps through war at the forefront of a tide of filth and decay, swinging its great flail and splashing all with droplets of corruption.[2a]
The Decayed Ones butcher their way through armies with each swing of their mighty but sore-riddled arms, as unstoppable as the unyielding march of decay and despair themselves. Truly, the Great Unclean Ones represent the inevitable decay and decline of all things.[2a]
Environmental Manifestations
A Great Unclean One wielding a plaguesword in battle.
The signs that a Great Unclean One is present on the mortal plane are visible to all, even to those that would deny such an unimaginable horror could ever stain the world. The air grows heavy and humid, and the very winds seem to slow, laden as they are with the faintest hint of decay, blending the odours of a rotten tooth with the carcass of an animal left too long in the sun.[2a]
In the folds of mortals' clothing, buried in the smallclothes beneath their armour, in the crevices of the flesh, there is sudden, tickling movement as a new maggot is born. Swollen black flies seem to come from nowhere, first individually, then in great swarms. As the Daemon draws closer, the infestation of flies and maggots spread. They infest everything, from food to water.[2a]
Fruits and vegetables ripen on the vines with such speed, that they suddenly burst, spilling their seeds onto the ground in a syrupy mess of pale, already decaying slime. Everything blooms and ripens to the perfect moment of harvesting only to collapse into foul-smelling rot and perversion.[2a]
And then, the Great Unclean One appears. Its awfulness spreads throughout the land, causing lesions to appear on the flesh and existing cancers, warts, and buboes to grow. All that lives gives way to decay and rot, sagging on the vine. Clouds of flies blot out the sun, and the very air dies, filled with the stink of death. And the booming laughter and profane muttering as the Greater Daemon finally approaches drive those who hear it mad with despair.[2a]
Capabilities
The appearance of a Great Unclean One is more than sufficient to unman even the boldest mortal hero. The air sours with their presence, filling it with a pestilential mist that causes the flesh to rebel, infesting all mortals with horrid illnesses that wreak havoc with the body and mind. With each new blast of flatulence, some new plague is born, each rumbling belch produces legions of virulent diseases, and those unfortunate enough to face these Daemons have little hope of living through the encounter.[2b]
A Great Unclean One, the Greater Daemon of Nurgle
The Great Unclean One contaminates the earth as much as it does the air. Wherever it goes, it leaves a trail of slippery slime that breeds Nurglings by the thousands. The grass brightens and grows until it can no longer bear the weight of its expanded form and it collapses into rapidly decaying ooze. The rocks dissolve, and the earth itself turns into a soupy morass of excrement and mud. What is worse is that the trail of a Stench Lord remains for decades, polluting the surrounding earth and seeding the land with future calamities and diseases always waiting to emerge and infect the unwary.[2b]
Though a Great Unclean One is awful to behold and experience, it is far worse to fight. Its dripping hide corrodes the strongest steel, and plumes of acrid smoke and droplets of acidic excreta surround the Daemon as it wades into the thickest knots of its enemies.[2b]
And through it all, it disgorges the contents of its vast and often-exposed gullet, spewing an unholy combination of entrails, partly digested flesh, wriggling maggots and its own vile excrement in a torrent that not only burns but afflicts its victims with the most virulent of all plagues to stalk the lands of Men.[2b]
Exalted Great Unclean Ones
"Take heed, little ones. You stand in the presence of a champion of proliferation."
- —Burplesmirk Spewpit, Exalted Great Unclean One [4]
Exalted Great Unclean Ones are the most powerful of their kind, and are held in the greatest esteem and affection of the Fly Lord.
There is intense rivalry amongst the Great Unclean Ones, for they all long for the sole attention of their beloved Plaguefather, as small children seek to be the apple of their grandfather's eye. To be noticed by the Lord of Decay, a Great Unclean One must surpass all others in the spreading of pestilent blessings. To be the rotten apple of all-mighty Nurgle's eye, a Great Unclean One must become a walking pandemic, a manifestation of all that is corrupt and speeds decay and the rebirth that emerges from it.[3]
Yet even this task is not enough, for to truly gain the favour of the Lord of Decay, a Great Unclean One must accomplish his befouling goals whilst displaying the most ebullient of moods. After all, it is a joyful thing to bring forth a debilitating pox, for it is a beautiful thing well worth celebrating.[3]
To those Great Unclean Ones that raise their levels of filth, corruption and disease to new heights, a special gift is bestowed. The divine blessing of Nurgle is made consummate with a draught of mouldering elixir from the Plaguefather's own cauldron in his manse in the Land of the Plaguelord. Those Great Unclean Ones who have so sipped, grow in size and stature, blossoming into what is known as an Exalted Great Unclean One. First amongst Nurglish Daemons, these unholy creatures are so huge and bloated that their bulk seems to overflow with even more ponderous fleshy folds, all rank with disease -- they truly are the foulest of the foul.[3]
Exalted Great Unclean Ones are rarely seen in the mortal world, for their great mass requires a truly prodigious supply of local magic to support them. Only when the Winds of Magic gust to hurricane force can the Exalted Unclean Ones again walk the world, bringing with them unimaginable pestilence, poisoning the very air with their mere presence.[3]
Notable Great Unclean Ones
- Burplesmirk Spewpit - A Great Unclean One gifted to the service of those Norscans who embrace an allegiance to Nurgle.[4]
- Uncle Furuncle - Those who have heard of Uncle Furuncle know to steer well clear of his gaseous girth, lest a torrent of putrid filth descend upon them from gods know where! This shower of filth heals Uncle Furuncle and harms those foes unfortunate enough to be caught in it.[4]
Sources
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos (8th Edition)
- 1a: pg. 44
- 2: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Tome of Corruption (RPG)
- 3: Warhammer: Storm of Magic (8th Edition)
- 4: Total War: Warhammer III (PC Game)
Gallery
