Bardorax

Artwork design being considered

**Bardorax the Exile** is a Daemon Prince in the service of Nurgle. He is a former Space Marine of the Death Guard, and leads a group of his brethren called The Blightborn. Once he led a mighty army & was destined to be a key player in finally destroying the Imperium. Bardorax has since been weakened greatly by Nurgle and cast out for his costly failures. Abandoned by most of his followers, he wanders the galaxy with a small retinue, spreading disease and corruption in the hopes that he might be forgiven by the Lord of Decay.

## History

Bardorax the Blight-born ascended to daemonhood some time in M37, having led his personal vectorium since the end of the Horus Heresy. In 997.M41 he had conceived a scheme to severely weaken the Imperium by corrupting the Realm of Ultramar from within. He allied with Abaddon the Despoiler, who approved of his plan and convinced Bardorax to lend his strength to the 13th Black Crusade.

### Seeds of Doom

Bardorax's plan was to infest the raw materials on several Mining Worlds near the borders of Ultramar space with a dormant form of the Warp-taint 'Ferric Blight'. Once planted, it would slowly spread through Forge World after Forge World, and into the arms of various branches of the Imperial military. By the time it started to manifest symptoms, countless lapdogs of the False Emperor would fall victim to the malady, leaving Ultramar vulnerable. Through this weakness, a large, productive swathe of Imperial territory would be brought low, weakening the whole and gaining vast armies of followers for Grandfather Nurgle.

### Undone by Arrogance

In 997.M41, a Grey Knights Librarian scried the future and discovered that a daemon called Bardorax would be the architect of victory for Chaos in a future battle against the Imperium. It was predicted that not only would Bardorax slaughter all Throne-loyal forces in his way, he would sew the seeds of the Imperium's fall by poisoning raw materials which were meant for the defence of Ultramar. The Grey Knights realised that such an eventuality must be delayed if it could not be denied. They deployed multiple brotherhoods across numerous locations it was suspected Bardorax would strike. When the Death Guard made planetfall on a Mining World on the outskirts of Ultramar space, the Grey Knights were ready. The Blight-born's force consisted mostly of daemons empowered by the opening of the Great Rift. Arrogantly assured of the success of his plan, Bardorax did not think to push forth his psychic might to sense any traps. Just as he was about to contaminate multiple ore caches with the seeds of *Ferric Blight*, the Grey Knights collapsed the floor causing the Daemon Prince and his entire entourage to fall into the killzone. They were cut to pieces by disciplined bolter fire, the Plaguebearer's fierce regenerative abilities no match for the sanctified rounds and blades that burst their mouldering flesh. Bardorax howled in fury as he was surrounded and torn apart by the combined efforts of a dozen Grey Knights.

### Banishment

Though it took approximately 50 Terran years for Bardorax's essence to reform on his Daemon World, to him it felt like an eternity of torture. Whether this was due to the vicissitudes of Nurgle or due to the fact that the laws of space-time are wildly unpredictable in Eyespace can only be guessed at. Regardless, his disembodiment and agonising reconstitution was only the beginning of Bardorax's punishment. The Plague God was decidedly annoyed at the ease with which such a potent servant had been dispatched by servants of the Anathema. Combined with the loss of the Plague Wars and the unsatisfactory progress of the War for the Scourge Stars, Nurgle decided to vent his fury on the one whom he felt was to blame. Bardorax felt his very essence being pulled apart as his patron cruelly stripped him of much of his potency. His decayed and tattered wings were reshaped; his psychic potential was curtailed and the Daemon Prince visibly shrank. Worse still was inflicted on his followers as the Lord of Decay punished them by proxy. Plague Marines lost their immunity to the contagions they carefully nurtured within their bodies. Some fell apart as entropy ran rampant upon their forms, or were reduced to withered husks as numerous diseases quickly overcame their corrupted forms. Yet more fell victim to Nurgle's Rot, becoming Plaguebearers who loped away. Taking this as a rather obvious sign that he had lost their god's favour, most of the Blightborn turned their backs on their former lord. They departed, taking all but one of his Plague Ships with them. What precisely has happened to them is unknown. In all likelihood any survivors have been absorbed into existing Chaos forces or formed warbands of their own.

Bardorax suffered further humiliation as he was dragged by Nurglings to his sole remaining vessel, a capering Sloppity Bilepiper dancing and japing around his paralysed form. For all this weakening, Bardorax still had a small retinue of stoically loyal followers: warriors who had remained untouched by Nurgle's wrath. The Plague Ship *Entropy's Wake* took flight unbidden and plotted its own course out of the Eye. During his recovery, Bardorax was assured by a Herald of Nurgle that his banishment would be temporary if he could prove he deserved to return...