Who is Nurgle‘s Wife?
Nurgle‘s bride is none other than Isha, the Eldar goddess of fertility, healing, and rebirth. As an avatar of new life, she seems an odd match for the Plague Lord‘s focus on disease, decay, and inevitable death. Yet her vitality has captivated Nurgle for millennia.
The Imprisoned Goddess
As the myth goes, Nurgle once battled the Eldar gods for control of Isha‘s fate. When he proved victorious, he took the maiden goddess as a trophy to his Plague Gardens. She now rests imprisoned in a rusted cage, enduring Nurgle‘s experimental concoctions of infection and his misplaced affections.
But why would Nurgle capture and craft contagions upon a goddess capable of curing any illness? Some speculate that he knows full well her powers could undermine his pestilent plans. By confining Isha, Nurgle limits the ability for life to recover from the entropy and suffering he unleashes.
Opposing Tzeentch‘s Schemes
As the Lord of Decay, Nurgle embodies resignation, inevitability, and acceptance of one‘s mortality. His arch-rival Tzeentch represents ambition, evolution, and the drive for change and control. Rather than subtly mutate events behind the scenes, Nurgle patiently waits as all things rot away in the end.
These conflicting approaches cause no end of strife. Tzeentch plots civilization‘s advancement with spells and technology. Nurgle concocts contagions to blight those aspirations back into the mud. But Tzeentch has proven capable of finding cures, furthering his own cryptic aspirations.
"Decay, in the end, defeats even the mightiest of accomplishments."
― Codex: Chaos Daemons on NurglePlaguefather‘s Favored Sons
While Nurgle nurtures and protects his worshippers like morbid children, his most devoted servants are the horrific Great Unclean Ones. These daemonic heralds proudly bear the most advanced stages of his rot.
The mightiest among them was Ku‘Gath, a orating plaguebringer covered in oozing sores and clearly mutated organs. But Ku‘Gath recently fell from Nurgle‘s favor, replaced by the next ambitious servant in the running: Spoilpox Scrivener. What dire act managed to perturb the careful patience of Papa Nurgle?
| Follower | Description |
|--------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Ku‘gath | Formerly Nurgle‘s top daemon, now mysteriously demoted |
| Spoilpox Scrivener | Upstart Great Unclean One, attempting to impress Nurgle with plagues |
| Rotigus Rainfather | Storm-wielding Great Unclean One |
| Orghotts Daemonspew| Leads a legion of Beasts of Nurgle demons |Infecting the Game Board
On the tabletop, Nurgle‘s playstyle fits his flavour as an unstoppable creeping doom. His units are insanely tough, refusing to die even against overwhelming force. Opponents must carefully manage attrition, while Nurgle players focus on patiently weathering attacks to spread infestation.
Background lore suggests Nurgle crafts some of his most inventive concoctions to impress Isha, perhaps hinting at units or spells that protect his armies as they advance decay. Rumors speak of Tamurkhan‘s horde discovering healing magics to complement their contagions.
Recommended Build Strategy:
- Maximize unit toughness
- Focus on spellcasting to bolster
- Consider protective spells to synergize any future Isha releasesSo in the fetid realm of the Plague God, the goddess Isha remains imprisoned for now. But whatever schemes percolate along with Papa Nurgle‘s plagues could someday see her freedom…and life blossoming anew from rot and ruin.
