Borrsvål the Corpse King

## Borrsvål

"*Come join me, mortals, and thou shalt never die!*"
—Borrsvål
**Borrsvål** **the Corpse King**, also known as the **Lord of the Living Dead** and the **Soul-Stealer**, is a Daemon Prince of the Plague God, Nurgle. Borrsvål's unique and potent strains of supernatural plague impressed the Lord of Decay so greatly that he was raised to daemonhood, and he has been a diligent servant of Nurgle for millennia.

Ever since their first encounter in the late 37th millennium, Borrsvål's greatest foe has been Craftworld Tair-Melann. After being banished by the herculean effort of Sir Rhylan and Lychguard Oltyr during the Orrega Crusade, Borrsvål's desire to obliterate the Craftworld has only grown - as has his legion of foul servants.

Borrsvål is nothing short of a genius at using both science and sorcery to craft plagues. His creations are numerous and diverse, but his magnum opus is the somewhat ironically named Lifegiver Plague - the masterpiece which won him ascension. An infection of both soul and body, the Lifegiver Plague is capable of truly resurrecting the dead, dragging the soul back into the corpse and binding the victim to Borrsvål's will.

## Appearance and Equipment

Borrsvål cuts a unique figure amongst the bloated kin of Grandfather Nurgle - perhaps fitting for one whose servants do not often bear much resemblance to the typical followers of the Plague God. How much Borrsvål's current twisted appearance resembles his old mortal self is unknown - since no Imperial scholar has any record of what he used to look like, only broad assumptions can be made about his original appearance.

Borrsvål is a lean, gaunt and gangly figure, with skin of such a dark shade of green that one could easily mistake it for black at first glance. He does not appear muscular, but nonetheless has the supernatural strength and hardiness of a daemon. Borrsvål is rarely seen not wearing his armour - an ornate, even somewhat elegant suit of full plate that has turned brown from rust, but somehow still retains its strength. Atop this he wears a black hooded cloak, casting a shadow over his crowned helm and making his glowing green eyes seem to shine all the brighter.

Borrsvål is never seen without his sword, either in hand or resting in its scabbard. Named the Soul Cleaver, this murderous, corroded blade is imbued with vile sorcery, giving it supernatural armour penetration and condemning those its strikes do not kill to an agonising affliction that only the very mightiest of beings can recover from. Borrsvål's other main weapon is the Liber Mortis, the accursed semi-sentient grimoire written by him to aid his sorcery, especially the infliction of the Lifegiver Plague. The Liber Mortis levitates alongside its master, opening itself to the required page with a psychic command and spewing forth foul energies.

## Lifegiver Plague

The Lifegiver Plague is Borrsvål's greatest creation, a marvellous concoction which won him his ascension to daemonhood. The Lifegiver Plague is sometimes confused with Zombie Plague, but Borrsvål would be the first to point out that the two are markedly different. Whereas Zombie Plague turns a living victim into a shambling walking corpse, Lifegiver Plague is capable of true resurrection - it can infect not only the living, but also those who are already dead.

Though Lifegiver Plague infects the body, the true target of the pathogen is the soul, which is what allows it to achieve true resurrection. If the plague infects a corpse, the victim's soul will be dragged back into their body - as long as the soul has not been consumed or imprisoned by some other force within the Immaterium. This process is far from easy to perform, which is why Borrsvål created the Liber Mortis; a grimoire bound in tanned human skin that seemingly has a life of its own, filled with dark spells and runes which essentially automate much of the process, allowing Borrsvål to inflict the Lifegiver Plague both faster and more easily.

The state of the corpse as well as how much psychic energy Borrsvål pours into the infection both influence what kind of undead creature will arise. Only putting in a little energy means that only a fragment of the victim's soul returns to their corpse, resulting in a largely mindless servant, no different from poxwalkers or zombies in practical terms. Though such servants are weak, they are quick and easy to create, and can serve as simple labourers and as cannon fodder to distract from the more dangerous forces at Borrsvål's disposal. Such a basic form of undead is also suited to corpses which are heavily decayed or destroyed; there is little point putting effort into resurrecting someone if they would not be physically strong and sturdy when resurrected.

If more energy is poured into the resurrection, the victim regains much of their intelligence, as well as many of their memories. In this case, the victim is considered to be truly resurrected. Unlike a zombie or poxwalker, they have autonomous minds of their own and can act on their own initiative - but their wills are nonetheless still bound to Borrsvål, and they are incapable of defying him. Borrsvål puts in this amount of effort for those whose expertise in life would serve him well; great warriors, engineers, commanders and scholars. He always dedicates at least this degree of effort for Astartes, knowing well how valuable they can be in his service.

## Poxwraiths

The being produced by what Borrsvål considers to be his greatest work goes by many names. To some, they are Blighted Souls; to others, they are Plague Ghosts; a few know them as Spectres of Decay. Their most common and most infamous name, however, and the one that Borrsvål himself uses, is the Poxwraiths.

Briefly put, a Poxwraith is a strong, intact and often psychically active soul that has been blighted to perfection by Lifegiver Plague. The soul is infected directly rather than through the medium of their corpse, and the sorcery required is so great and so specific that Borrsvål must inscribe the true name of every Poxwraith into the Liber Mortis. The outcome is worth the effort, however, as a Poxwraith provides an unadulterated connection to a soul empowered with supernatural filth, and it is the only means by which Borrsvål can bind the will of an undead psyker or sorcerer to himself while retaining their abilities.

Poxwraiths have some similarities to daemons, chief amongst them being that they are fundamentally creatures of the immaterium. Poxwraiths simply cannot manifest in realspace without the corruption of reality itself, and if the area of realspace they are invading ceases to be flooded with unnatural energies then they will return to their home dimension, whether they want to or not.

However, the other side of the immaterial coin is that Poxwraiths, being creatures that do not truly exist in any physical manner, are completely impervious to and unfazed by physical attacks. The only material assaults that can even mildly trouble a Poxwraith are those involving intense energy, such as from power weapons, but these can only interrupt, stun or stagger a Poxwraith. The only attacks that can truly harm a supernatural being are ones that are also supernatural, whether from psychic spells, force weapons, daemon weapons or other weapons somehow imbued with strange energies.

Poxwraiths are more vulnerable than daemons to suffering a "true death", though the mechanism of how true death is achieved is distinct. Obliterating the soul of a Poxwraith does not require a complex ritual, nor knowing their true name. The main requirement is preventing the Poxwraith from retreating into the immaterium to escape destruction and healing itself by basking in Nurgle's bountiful energies. This is either achieved by using some mechanism of trapping and binding the Poxwraith in realspace, or by simply inflicting enough damage in a short enough moment that the being has no time to react before being annihilated. Both of these are far easier said than done, making Poxwraiths a savagely dangerous threat.

### Appearance

Poxwraiths tend to all bear a similar ghostly appearance which bears a close resemblance to spectres and spirits from ancient folklore and fables, though the reasons behind their appearance can only be guessed at. Some scholars of the Ordo Malleus believe that Poxwraiths inherently cannot be perceived, and so their visage is one constructed by mortal minds in an attempt to fill in the gaps. Others believe that their appearance is a manifestation of the Poxwraith themselves and what they perceive themselves to be.

In both cases, the cause is ultimately the same; because Poxwraiths are ultimately undead souls, they bear a striking resemblance to the ghosts of legend and myth because that is what ghosts are "supposed" to look like. There also exists a third more simple theory, which is that Borrsvål specifically designed the Poxwraiths to resemble stereotypical ghosts because he simply wanted them to, perhaps because he found it entertaining, or perhaps because he wanted them all to resemble the first Poxwraith he ever created.

Whatever the cause of their appearance, Poxwraiths near-universally are slightly transparent beings clad in billowing hooded robes. These robes are coloured black, dark brown or dark green, and are stained with foul-smelling fluids that are better left uninvestigated. Some have rotten faces, and some have bare discoloured skulls covered in strange growths. All have skeletal hands, the bones stained with blood and pus, their fingers sharpened into claws. Poxwraiths do not walk, but rather float; as non-physical entities, in realspace they do not actually have any surface they can walk upon. The question of whether Poxwraiths actually possess legs is one that remains unanswered, as the length of their robes obscures their lower half. Some Poxwraiths constantly emit a low buzzing, hosting swarms of flies within their robes, the occasional maggot dropping onto the floor as they move. One particular Poxwraith was recorded by the Ordo Malleus as "writhing with slugs".

However, all seem to be but pale shadows when compared to the grandest Poxwraith of them all; the first and greatest, Borrsvål's finest and most beloved creation, the only being besides the Grandfather himself that he would be willing to die for.