Chaos has always been a defining feature of Warhammer. The four Ruinous Powers each amplify a facet of human emotion, manifesting in the real world as gibbering daemons, and corrupting mere mortals with transformative gifts. Of these four gods, Nurgle is despair and disease manifest, a corpulent god of rebirth, indolence, and entropy.
His followers are bloated, their rotten flesh spilling from cracks in rusted armour, and few miniatures captured this decrepit fecundity as perfectly as the Lord of Plagues.
A mountain of putrescent flesh corroded by Nurgle’s warp-infused rot, the Lord of Plagues was a paragon of pox, an exemplar of the effect of the Plaguefather’s gifts. Introduced originally as a Chaos Lord of Nurgle, this loathsome warrior became an instant favourite.*
He was inspired in part by Adrian Smith’s classic artwork of Korpus Festerheart, though Chaos Warrior art throughout the ages has overflowed with towering armoured figures wielding sizeable axes with unhurried menace and all of these attributes are writ large in the Lord of Plagues.
Many elements of this iconic champion became touchpoints for future followers of Nurgle. The full-face executioner’s mask with a trio of seeping eye holes, lopsided horns sprouting from a curved armour plate, flesh covered with sores, and internal organs bursting forth.
During the End Times, the Putrid Blightkings took this new swollen aesthetic and gifted the followers of Grandfather Nurgle with an assortment of rusted weapons, terrifying mutations, dolorous bells, and cheeky Nurglings.** Even Gutrot Spume, nautical reaver and master of the plague fleets, riffed on the Lord of Plagues, though one arm was half transformed into some nightmare of cephalopod origin.
The Maggoth Lords and the Glottkin took this vision of decay to new extremes, riding gigantic beasts. Ghurk, the youngest of the Glottkin, swelled to grotesque proportions.
All four Chaos Gods persist to spread their malign influence in the Age of Sigmar, and Nurgle’s entropic powers have only grown. His endless war with Alarielle has caused the Garden of Nurgle to flourish, and with it new horrors have emerged.
The daemonic legions expanded, and the Maggotkin of Nurgle received the Lord of Blights – a new hero very much in the mould of the Lord of Plagues*** – and new Plague Drone-mounted cavalry known as Pusgoyle Blightlords.
* Though he fared poorly in one-on-one combat in the White Dwarf Arena of Death against the Saurus Oldblood, who was released alongside.
** It remains a converter's dream, thanks to its range of options.