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"Cher-holera, tie-eye-phoid, cern-sum’shun, hally-toze-iss!
Black plague, white plague, bloody red 'n' brarn plague!
Can-ker, way-ster, foot-an’-marf, fester!
New-moniaaa, bu-bonicaaa, neeeew-mo-niaaa, beeewboney-caaa!
Runnin’ sores, seepin’ sores, rottin’ sores, weepin’ sores!
Eh-emfer-seemer, die-eye-a-rear, nasty caser wax in yer ear!
Lerr-ustrian runs, Cathay tum, Tilean sick-nerrse of ther thumb!
New-moniaaa, bu-bonicaaa, neeeew-mo-niaaa, beeewboney-caaa!
Small pox, big pox, chicken pox, pig pox!
Diseases of the eller-ment’ry kind, unease of the alleyment’ry kind!
Common cold, infler-wenzer, nasty rash, dis-temper!
New-moniaaa, bu-bonicaaa, neeeew-mo-niaaa, beeewboney-caaa!
"

—Wormfingers, Plaguebearer[3a]
Warhammer Daemons of Chaos Plaguebearer

A Plaguebearer of Nurgle attacks from below.

Plaguebearers, known also as the "Tainted Ones," the "One-Eyed Rotters," "Horned Rotbags," "Maggotkin," "Rotbearers" and the "Tallymen of Plagues," are the Lesser Daemons of Nurgle who are the rank-and-file of the Plague Lord's Daemonic legions, crafted from the soul-stuff of mortals who have been slain by the worst of all the Fly Lord's many deadly "gifts" -- Nurgle's Rot.[2a]

Role[]

"Twentieth of the dozen maladies...twenty-first of the dozen maladies carrying the one...twenty second of the dozen maladies carrying the one, carrying the two..."

—Plaguebearers heard at the sacking of Sepukzy[4]
Plaguebearer Border Princes

A Plaguebearer of Nurgle

Regiments of Plaguebearers are surrounded by a constant drone. This thrumming sound is created by the attendant hosts of plump, black flies, and by the endless counting as the Daemons attempt to calculate their divine master's ever-changing requirements. A multitude of Plaguebearers counting all at once produces a sound so sonorous and penetrating that it is enough itself to make a mortal feel distinctly unwell. It is all but impossible to tally anything amid the chaos of battle, though this in no way discourages the Plaguebearers from their efforts.[1a]

Bands of Plaguebearers are the most organised and efficient of Daemons upon the battlefield. It is the Plaguebearer's eternal role to herd Nurgle's Daemonic forces in battle, as well as keep stock of the diseases they spread, allocate appropriate fates to each new victim and attempt to maintain order amongst a naturally chaotic horde. They are the embodiment of the need of mortal creatures to impose meaning upon an uncaring world.[1a]

A Plaguebearer is a thing to be detested, but it is also a thing of power. Venerated by the Chaos Cults of the Lord of Despair, the Tainted Ones are living symbols of Nurgle's blessings, personifying all that the Dark God is. By embracing the nature of these fiends, the cultists learn to accept their own corruptions and grow beyond them. Those few who foolishly stand against the Plaguebearers learn a terrible lesson about slow, leprous death.[2a]

Appearance[]

250px-Plaguebearer

A Plaguebearer of Nurgle, the most common of the Plague Lord's Lesser Daemons.

Plaguebearers are especially foul Daemons, humanoid in shape but savaged by sickness and hunger.[2a] What little of the Plaguebearer's skin that can be seen beneath the discharge of innumerable sores is tinged with suppuration greens and vile browns.[1a]

At the centre of their being is a grossly distended abdomen, split in places to reveal the gushing organs within and the wriggling maggots that feast on the rot. Resting above this prodigious bulk is a gaunt rib cage covered by thin green or ochre flesh that testifies to their master's nature. Two spindly limbs just barely bear their sack-like bodies, bent by pestilence so virulent it warps the bones.[2a]

Of all of a Plaguebearer's features, it is their egg-shaped head perched on a thin neck that's the most disturbing. Its single, large, bloodshot eye situated in the centre of its face constantly weeps thick sludge and pus. Beneath that is a wormy mouth, slick with the filth dripping from its rolling eye. The eye rests in the shadow of a single, protruding horn that pierces the cankerous flesh on its brow -- the mark of the pestilence that is Nurgle's Rot, and which afflicted the Daemon in its mortal life, before it was reborn in the Land of the Plaguelord as a Plaguebearer after succumbing to the disease.[1a][2a]

Origin[]

According to the Sigmarite Order of the Torch, Plaguebearers embody the need of a mortal to find meaning in misery, or to rationalise suffering rather than end it. By this, they mean that it is often easier to make excuses for parlous conditions and the experience of despair than it is to do something about changing one's state.[5a]

Plaguebarers are thus regarded as personifications of the destructive rationales Men create for themselves to justify suffering, because they fear change and the failure that change might bring.[5a]

Shallyans instead believe that Plaguebearers are the suffering of every lingering mortal death, every moment of delirium and every fevered starvation, personified by the malevolent energies of Chaos and filtered through the will of Nurgle.[5a]

Exalted Plaguebearers[]

Exalted Plaguebearers TWIII

Exalted Plaguebearers as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.[4]

Exalted Plaguebeaers are those amongst the Tallymen most blessed by Grandfather Nurgle, tasked by the Fly Lord to dispense disease, decay and the gift of death to all. They are a shambling, droning, nauseating mass, hardier and more robust than even the average Plaguebearer, their Plagueswords glowing with an aura of decay.[4]

Unlike the singular, upwards-pointing horn of their lessers, Exalted Plaguebearers sport two horns protruding to either sides of their head. Besides being in general more powerful than lesser Plaguebearers, the Exalted Ones wield Death Heads as missile weapons. Nailed to the sides of their bloated bodies, the Death Heads are thrown to soften approching enemies before they are forced into a hopeless grind against Nurgle's favoured children.[4]

Notable Regiments[]

  • Festering Stooges - The Festering Stooges are the guards of the Festering Gate to the Garden of Nurgle and are replenished by its energies, obscured behind a nebulous swarm of Nurgle flies.[4]

Miniatures[]

Sources[]

  • 1: Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos (8th Edition)
    • 1a: pg. 45
  • 2: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Tome of Corruption
    • 2a: pg. 228
  • 3: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Old World Bestiary (RPG)
    • 3a: pg. 20
  • 4: Total War: Warhammer III (PC Game)
  • 5: Liber Chaotica (Background Book)
    • 5a: pg. 284

Gallery[]

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