"Grey Seer is why, Clan Scruten! Clan Scruten are to blame!"
- —Nurglitch VII, like all Skaven, readily blames the Grey Seers, and Kritislik, for the failures of Skavenkind rather than his own mistakes
Nurglitch VII, often referred to as Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch or simply as Nurglitch, is the supreme leader of the Skaven Clan Pestilens and the seventh such Skaven to inherit the clan's title of Nurglitch. Nurglitch VII is described as being bloated, old, decayed and possessed of an oozing voice.[1a]
History[]
Second Skaven Civil War[]
A Second Skaven Civil War was sparked after the failure of the Red Pox to unleash the Great Ascendancy upon the surface world. The Red Pox was a disease crafted by Clan Pestilens and spread by Eshin agents in the Bretonnian city of Bordeleaux. The Skaven-created plague felled a third of the population of the city within a week, yet its spread was halted once the survivors put their city to the torch. As a result of this failure, the other Lords of Decay demanded that Pestilens be removed from the Council of Thirteen. [7a]
On the day the vote for Pestilens' expulsion was to be taken, its ratmen rose up and tried to seize control of the Under-Empire, declaring the other Lords of Decay to be the true heretics to the commandments of their deity the Horned Rat. Originally confined only to the Temple of the Horned Rat in Skavenblight, the fighting soon spread into the rest of that great subterranean city. None but the Horned Rat himself could stop the infighting that now consumed Skavendom and he did so with the creation of the Black Pillar of Commandments during the Great War Against Chaos.[7a]
Since joining the Council of Thirteen, Nurglitch VII has never really been welcomed or trusted by his fellow Lords of Decay, and remains on that body largely because of the threat he and his Plague Monks pose to the rest of the Under-Empire. Previously, he occupied the seventh seat on the council; that seat is now held by Pontifex Sitch of Clan Morbidus, as Morbidus is a close ally of Clan Pestilens and is a part of the Pestilent Brotherhood.[5b]
Hunt For The Wormstone[]
During the Second Skaven Civil War, Nurglitch VII forged an alliance with the smaller Clan Mawrl and "rewarded" them with the Pestilens-created artefact known as the Wormstone in return for their loyalty. However, the Wormstone was actually a trap; Nurglitch had intended to destroy Clan Mawrl and perhaps the entirety of the Skaven settlement of Under-Altdorf with the artefact.[1b]
Prior to this, a Pestilens plaguelord and pox-maker known as Skratsquik had been close to completing an improved strain of the Yellow Pox. However, the infamous Grey Seer Thanquol arranged for Skratsquik to be assassinated before the disease had been finalised. With the plot revealed, Nurglitch VII was forced to declare Skratsquik as a renegade to save face before his fellow Lords of Decay. For this slight, Nurglitch developed a great hatred of Thanquol and a desire to see him dead.[1a]
Lord Skrolk is the most favored of the plaguelords of Clan Pestilens in the eyes of Nurglitch, not least because he ripped out his own eyes once he beheld the arch-plaguelord's putrescent magnificence upon his ascension. It is believed by Thanquol that the arch-plaguelord was behind Clan Pestilens' attempt at reclaiming the Wormstone, who intended to use it to make another attempt to overthrow the power of the Council of Thirteen.[2a]
Nurglitch, of course, instead claimed within the Shattered Tower at Skavenblight that the Wormstone was meant to be a gift to the Council of Thirteen. [1a] He lamented the ultimate loss of the Wormstone for good after a debacle involving Thanquol, Kratch, and Skrolk despite his own treachery being a primary reason for its loss. However, Morskittar, the Skaven Warlord who ruled over Clan Skryre as its tinker-in-chief, was glad for the loss of the Wormstone, which earned him and his clan the ire of the arch-plaguelord.
Just as Nurglitch VII saw Skrolk as his favourite, Nurglitch himself was held high in the esteem of the daemonic Verminlords Throxxstraggle and Vermalanx, two of the plaguelords of the Horned Rat's domain, the Realm of Ruin, in the Realm of Chaos.[4a]
Sources[]
- 1 : Grey Seer (Novel) C.L. Werner
- 2: Thanquol's Doom (Novel) C.L. Werner
- 2a: Ch. 3
- 3: Temple of the Serpent (Novel) C.L. Werner
- 3: Ch. 1
- 4: Rise of the Horned Rat (Novel) by Guy Hayley
- 4a: Prologue
- 5: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: The Enemy Within Campaign - The Horned Rat Companion (RPG)
- 6: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Children of the Horned Rat (RPG)
- 6a: pg. 31
- 7: Warhammer Armies: Skaven (7th Edition)
- 7a: pg. 25