Non-Nurgle Skeletal/Zombie minions for a warband, possible?

[Tiberius Cato]

Hail brothers!

I had an idea for a warband based off my (second) favorite game of all time. I'm looking to create a warband that is caapable of having undead followers that aren't exclusively Nurgle-y. I was thinking something along the lines of Chaos Undivided, or maybe trying my hand at a minor god. Anyways, my warband will be lead by an Astartes known as the Lich King. He shall command an army of the undead from his unholy citadel, Frostmourne Citadel.

 

So in short, I don't want the maority of his undead to be pestulant and plague-ridden, although a few are fine; is there any justifiable means to do so,

[incinerator950]

Plague Zombies and varieties of Plague marines are through Nurgles reanimation.

 

So, make skeletons and Wights under a powerful spell of reanimation.

[Teetengee]

I still think undeath might fall under nurgle's domain, but I don't think there is any reason to assume that all of nurgle's creations are plague ridden. He is the god of unchange and of the cycle of life and death. There are a whole lot more aspects to that than just disease.

[Lysimachus]

Nurgle is known as the God of decay as well as disease.

[Tiberius Cato]

I think some form of sorcery is what i'm looking for. In the game (WoW:WotLK) the character is noble paladin until he comes upon a cursed runeblade that takes over his soul and turns him into the feared tyrant known as the Lich King.

 

So perhaps some daemon or Nurgle imbues a weapon with their essence and it corrupts the Astartes turning him into the lord of the damned. With each enemy he fells, his army grows stronger.

[Teetengee]

It could also be a daemon weapon of some kind.

[Tiberius Cato]

What exactly could that entail? I'm quite the noob when it comes to Chaos, this will be my first true delving into the ranks of the unholy.

[Teetengee]

Daemon weapons are* comprised of a weapon that has been possessed by a daemon and still has its power in some way or another. For instance a bloodthirster resides inside the Axe of Blind Fury.

You may want a Great Unclean One (or some other similar daemon, likely a Greater Daemon or if you are cruel a daemonprince).

Keep in mind that the daemons are* forced into this situation and thus are prone to rebelling against the wielder or twisting the wielder to his/her whims.

 

*Nothing is absolute in the Warp for it is the realm of maybe.

 

Other examples of Daemon Weapons are perhaps deserving of their own thread, but off the top of my head I can think of

The Dark Blade

Bloodfeeder(s)

Berzerker Glaive

The Black Mace

Drach'nyen

Manreaper

Deathscreamer(s)

Blade of the Laer

 

 

Daemon weapons that are imbued with god power rather than a named daemonic entity include

Axe of Khorne

[Tiberius Cato]

Twisting the wielder to the daemons whims is exactly what I'm looking for. Based off that, would it be possible that the wielder of the possessed weapon gains powers from it? Like the ability to cast frost from his fingertips or shoot dark energies towards an enemy and bring him to the wielder, like Scorpion from MK.

[Teetengee]

Yes, that is one of the reasons why Daemon weapons are one of the greatest gifts one can attain in the service of the true gods.

[Tiberius Cato]

Excellent, I think I have all I need for now. I shall now set about creating my IT.

 

Thanks for the info!

[Teetengee]

If you ever go the modeling route, guitaramus's work can probably provide you with some inspiration. He has some very nurgle but not very plague models.

[Firepower]

Bear in mind that Nurgle doesn't necessarily have dibs on all things undead.  Or at least, depending on your definition of undeath.  The Thousand Sons are souls stripped of identity and bound to armor.  Even if they aren't skeletons, that counts as Necromancy in my book.

 

It could be fun to have a Demon Weapon that can do something similar to its enemies.  Anyone it strikes dead will have their soul bound to their armor and enthralled to the King's service.  Decades go by, and the rotten, soulless corpse is just tattered flesh and bone falling from living suits of armor as they plod along the battlefield....

 

If you don't use that, I may just have to myself :D

[gameos7]

Two of my favourite universes in one place and the two that I know most about!? Let’s do this.

 

Now, I may have thought about this before and the conclusion I came to is that there are tonnes of different ways that you can have ‘undead.’ I ran into a problem though. If you want a Chaos Undivided way of doing undead, I can’t think of any way of doing it besides using a way from each God in one chapter or some weird combination of all four ways, which leads me to believe that it would probably be best to have them only follow one God. This may just be me being an unimaginative loser or something and someone else may be able to come up with a really good idea.

 

If you do only choose one God, then lets explore the possibilities.

 

Khorne: Every marine is basically a Blood Death Knight, if they were a DPS spec instead of / on top of being a Tank spec. It would probably be best to have the source of their undeath be from their blood but not from a psychic power. This leaves us with some sort of warp curse or taint. Maybe one that causes them to be animated by their blood but they need to keep om nomming blood to keep going, though this may also allow them to stay alive forever if they keep om nomming blood. Basically they’re vampires, they are undead with a heavy focus on blood remember. So they’d probably be BA successors exploring the undead side of vamparism rather than then purely the blood-sucking side (though still keeping that part).

 

Slaanesh: If they followed Slaanesh, I think they’d probably be Chaos Space Marine versions of the Dark Eldar. They achieve their undead immortality through having stolen some Dark Eldar tech and then they’d go around stealing souls to lengthen their lives, but the downside (or upside depending on who you are) to it is that they really like eating souls so they are always trying to get more, abandoning more important things to get a few more souls. Something like that probably. Slaanesh is not my strong point but this (kinda) makes sense from what I know.

 

Tzeentch: Tied with Nurgle for the easiest way of having undead, just skeletal Rubric Marines and you’re good to go. If they were DKs, they’d be Frost. This is the best choice IMO because it works really well and easily with them being undead and then you would have some of these undead retain their intelligence and they would be Liches commanding the Scourge. Kel’Thuzad would be the second most powerful Lich, then the Lich King would be the most powerful. If you choose this then their Rubric Marine curse thing will have to be slightly different to allow some of them to retain intelligence, if not being a different curse altogether.

 

Nurgle: Like Tzeentch, really easy way of doing it, just a disease that animates corpses which I believe already exists but I can’t remember what it’s called. Every marine is basically an Unholy Death Knight, if they were a Tank spec instead of / on top of being a DPS spec. Pretty simple.

 

Or all of them at once, that might work too. Or none, that also works.

 

Now, the Lich King. Froustmourne is obviously a Daemon Weapon or something very similar, and I’m assuming that him getting it is what causes them to fall to Chaos as once he gets it he becomes the first undead of the chapter, and I’m also assuming that the chapter was once “For the Emprah!” but then became traitors slightly before or after the Chapter Master acquired Frostmourne. Also, does he become a Daemon Prince after he does the “Go to Northrend and wear my helmet” quest equivalent, if that even happens at all?

 

But about Frostmourne itself, does it steal souls like a Dark Eldar soul trap of those it slays, and then maybe makes them come back in service of the Lich King? Of course, in different ways depending on which God you decide to choose, if at all. And then maybe those who have had their soul taken by Frostmourne take the souls of those they’ve killed and so on and so forth? Something like that? Not at all?

 

And why are you calling it “Frostmoure Citadel”? It’s Icecrown Citadel god-dammit! But seriously, why? Just cause?

 

And if you wan’t to be really true to the source you could have them break away from the Chaos Gods like the Lich King did to the Burning legion, but this might make them pretty weak since they would have no allies so this may not be the best path.

 

That's about it for now. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to post it.

[incinerator950]

You can go Undivided and use a minor Chaos god of undeath and reanimation. The Soul Cairn from the ES can serve as inspiration.

[Tiberius Cato]

I'll admit that "Frostmourne Citadel" sounded correct while I was heavily medicated... When I get around to thewrite up it will be Icecrown Citadel.

 

As for origins, I see them coming from the Death Guard, primarily. I think they'll be pretty standard Nurgle boys until the fight a warband committed to a minor god and the warrior who becomes known as the Lich King takes the opposing champion's weapon, not realising is is a daemon weapon. The daemon then convinces the weak minded fool that he must journey to the world of frozen waste, and take his seat upon the frozen throne to fully realise his true power. He does so and develops some method for creating a new plague that causes undeath without the need of Papa Nurgle.

[gameos7]

"heavily medicated" he says. We all know what you were really doing.

 

But seriously, that sounds... odd. Plagues are unquestionably the domain of Nurgle, but undeath isn't, and arguably undeath may even be the exact opposite of what Nurgle is. I'd like to see what you decide to make of this minor Chaos God of yours as well, could be very cool. Remember that there are lots and lots and lots of different ways to approach the undead, just don't get too close. See what I did there?  I'm a funny man, or so I like to think.

[Tiberius Cato]

I see it as a slap to the metaphorical face of Nurgle. Like "Hey! See my new plague? way better than your old one. I don't need you anymore to bring masses of undead under my control."

 

Edit: I was purging my body of Nurgle's "blessing". I enjoy being extremely ill as much as the next guy, but I was ready to be at full health again.

[Teetengee]

I find the idea that a champion of chaos failed to recognize a daemon weapon and then took it before corruption far less likely than him taking the weapon with full knowledge of its daemonhood but mistaking his own ability to control it.

Additionally, I feel that if you want a plague causing undeath, it should be Nurgle's power, but if you want something else causing undeath, feel free to go with whatever. Also remember that Tzeentch, god of Sorcery and lord of Change is the enemy of Nurgle in the divine hierarchy.

[hummus]

How about going the universal soldier way?

A warpsmith uses ancient technology from the lost times that reanimates dead marines

[Darth Mustard]

I think the Nagash and his followers models would be great. Remember that a character such as Nagash is quite "immortal", traveling through time should not be too much of a problem for him. 

Tzeentch is an obvious choice due to the magic. Slaneesh could a sort of Fabius Bile experimenting with death. Dark Mechanicus ?

You could actually link all Gameo7 suggestions under an undivided necromancer/warpsmith/psycher. All your troops will have in common to fight for immortality each one of them for their own reason and background but all united under an "Undead" banner and commander. 

You can use as suggested an minor god. or one that is above all since it´s... death

I would suggest to start with a kill team that will help you to decide which direction you are going into.