Nurgle is the Plague God, the Lord of Decay, the Fly Lord and Grandfather of pestilence. He is the power of entropy and corruption made manifest, born of the first creature's terror at its own mortality. Though his domain is disease and rot, Nurgle is perhaps the most warmly affectionate of the Ruinous Powers — a doting grandfather who bestows his gifts, the buboes and fevers and beautiful blossoming plagues, upon his children with genuine and monstrous love.
Within the garden of his soul he labours at a great cauldron, brewing new contagions to share with a dying galaxy. Those who succumb to despair, who fear death or cling desperately to failing life, are drawn into his embrace, and in accepting his rot they find a strange liberation — for a follower of Nurgle need never fear sickness or death again. His sacred number is seven, and his daemons, the shambling Plaguebearers and jolly Nurglings, tally the diseases of creation with grim delight.
His chosen legion are the Death Guard, once the stoic warriors of Mortarion, now bloated hosts of Plague Marines who spread the Destroyer Plague in their master's name. In the endurance of decay Nurgle finds his truest expression: that all things must die and rot, yes, but from that rot springs new and teeming life — an eternal cycle of death and rebirth over which the Grandfather presides with a broad and rotten smile.
The pantheon continues
