Chaos - Nurgle, the Plague Lord: Nurgle is one of the four great Chaos Gods and is the god of disease and decay, born out of every mortal's fear of death.He is the embodiment of the hungry earth, the carrion crow whose poxes and plagues are inflicted upon all. Nurgle's power waxes and wanes over time as his "gifts" to the myriad worlds are spread, are cured or simply kill off everything in sight.Many of Nurgle's victims will eventually turn to his worship in the hope that it will ward off or ameliorate the torment they suffer at his hands. For entertainment, Nurgle will orchestrate plagues and new diseases, such as the Plague of Unbelief (Zombie Plague) and watch bemusedly as the mortals struggle to fight the illness and develop a cure.Many of Nurgle's wars are indirectly won simply through the plagues that sweep that land before his armies. Of particular note is Nurgle's Rot, which gradually changes a victim into a Plaguebearer.Nurgle's followers tend to have a strong interest in the spread of disease. His worshippers become infected with horrific diseases which cause them to appear as disgusting, bloated and rotting masses of barely recognizable flesh, with many sores and open wounds in which infection and decay is rampant. Occasionally Nurgle's followers may become wizened, sickly thin and pale, while still having great power over disease.His Champions become so mutated and putrid that they are impervious to pain and almost impossible to injure. While equal in power with Khorne and Tzeentch, Nurgle's power is much less stable. At times, his forces are limitless and unbeatable, numberless rotting armies scouring the land of life.At others, his followers are scattered and weak, hiding in fetid corners of the universe. Nurgle's strength lies in stagnancy and decay, as well as the emotion of despair, which puts him in direct opposition to Tzeentch, who embodies hope, ambition and change.Nurgle is most commonly called the Lord of Decay but he is known by many names; the Fly Lord, the Great Corruptor, the Plague Lord, the Master of Pestilence. The power of Nurgle is embodied in entropy, morbidity, disease and physical corruption.Of the four great powers Nurgle is said to be the one most involved with the plight of mortals. Through the gifts of raging fevers and shaking chills Nurgle's hand is upon them from cradle to grave. Few escape the touch of Nurgle in their lives. He is sometimes called the Lord of All because all things, no matter how strong and secure, fall to physical corruption in the end.Every Chaos God embodies the hopes, fears and other strong emotions generated by mortal beings. In the case of Nurgle, their fear of death and disease is the source of his greatest power. The mortal's unconscious response to that fear -- the desperation to cling to life no matter what the cost -- gives Nurgle an opening into their souls. The whispered prayer of a parent over a fever-struck child, the anguished pleas of the dying man for one more day of life; these are meat and drink to Nurgle.Nurgle is typically depicted as an immense, bloated humanoid, his body swollen with putrefaction. His skin is shown as leathery and necrotic, his surface pocked with running sores, swelling buboes and oozing wounds.Internal organs bulging with decay spill through splits in the ruptured skin to hang like bunches of scrofulous grapes around his vast girth. Nurgle is often illustrated with hordes of tiny daemons bursting forth from its pustules and suckling upon foulness.The deranged worshippers of the Lord of Pestilence say that he concocts diverse contagions to inflict on the material universe for his amusement, and many of the most infectious and horrible diseases are Nurgle's proudest creations. It is their belief that those who die caught in the grip of one of Nurgle’s terrible poxes are swept directly to his realm.Those that sing the praises of Nurgle loud enough are sometimes spared so that they can spread his blessings further, for the church of the Fly Lord is always open to all. Nurgle has many supplicants but there are few with the fortitude to declare themselves as his champions. The few that can survive the Great Corruptor's manifold blessings exhibit a feverish, morbid energy and a preternatural resistance to physical damage.The power of Nurgle waxes and wanes as his pandemics sweep across the galaxy. When untold billions fall prey to the newest plagues his strength can overshadow that of any of the other Chaos Gods for a period. At other times the power of Nurgle withers away to lie quiescent until circumstances are ripe for it to erupt forth once more.Those that fashion themselves Champions of Nurgle represent a dire threat to densely populated worlds, where close-packed populations are vulnerable to a single contagion. Ships in the void are particularly vulnerable to disease and many dying crews have beseeched the Lord of Decay for his intercession.Such was the fate of the Death Guard Legion when it became marooned in the Warp on the long journey to Terra during the Horus Heresy. While they lay becalmed in the Immaterium, a mysterious contagion spread from one to another of the Death Guard's ships until the entire fleet was infected.Even the reinforced physiology of the Space Marines could not fight off the dire plague as it bloated the guts, distended the flesh and rotted its victims from the inside. It is said that when even the Legion's Primarch, Mortarion, fell victim to the plague he cried out to the Powers of Chaos in his delirium.His desperation to save himself and his Legion called forth Nurgle, and Mortarion became his greatest Champion. Thus, the Death Guard Legion has enjoyed the favour of Nurgle for the last ten thousand standard years.