Seventh Pestilence Vectorum (WIP, feedback wanted)

[Julgolax]

Index Traitoris

 

Legion: Death Guard
 

Vectorum: Seventh Pestilence
 

Threat Rating: Extremis
 

Known Leader: Julgolax
 

Homeworld: The Plague Planet
 

Colors: Bone White, Rotten Green, Tarnished Brass and Silver
 

Insignia: a 7 made of 7 fly icons.
 

Strength: Roughly a company, unknown
 

Battlecry: none
 

Motto: "A blessing is best given to those who do not look for it."
 

History
 

The Seventh Pestillence is the remnant of a much larger company of Death Guard from the aftermath of the plague. These plague marines are all natives of Barbarus before it's destruction and have carved out a location for themselves on the Plague Planet similar to their company's barracks on their birthworld.
 

The Seventh Pestillence Vectorum is lead still by it's original leader, the former commander Julgos Nothan who took up a new name after the great infection. The company was one of many within the 4th Great Company of the Legion to embrace their new situation during the days of the Horus Heresy.
 

Since then they had been primarily a raiding force which made excursions out of the Eye of Terror in search of new worlds to conquer and new populations to destroy. Like many Vectorums, they see themselves as bringers of Nurgle's blessings, that each plague is a new and glorious opportunity for each imperial and alien alike to serve the will of the Plague God.
 

Organization
 

The Vectorum still adheres to it's ancient battle tactics and marches forth in waves of combined arms assaults, now supported by hordes of captured Poxwalkers and daemons of Nurgle. Their tactics mostly rely on fighting on foot but their twisted Warpsmith still keeps watch over a small host of Rhino and Land Raider APC vehicles for terrain too difficult to cross effectively on foot.
 

The favored tactic of Julgolax is to send in his hordes of infected Poxwalkers flanked by swarms of daemonic flies and jabbering Nurglings to pin the enemy down in combat before his main force arrives to create a crescendo of plague-ridden violence. He orders his warriors to practice restraint though, as any survivors are taken to replenish his beloved Poxwalkers and the corpses of the dead are used to create grotesque hives for his cherished fly swarms.
 

Recruitment

 

Since the geneseed of Mortarion has long since been corrupted beyond all reproduction and all known reserves destroyed, recruitment is nearly impossible. The Death Guard have employed the sorcerous powers of their Plaguecasters to replenish their ranks via pacts and agreements with the Dark Mechanicum.
 

Through the bargains struck by the Plaguecasters, the souls of the most worthy fallen warriors can be brought back and summoned into new bodies grown by allied forces in the Dark Mechanicum but it is rare and these warriors must fight all the harder to gain acceptance among the members of the Vectorum.
 

The cost is usually quite high for the Plaguecasters as more pacts are made with daemons, they face great torment should their charges fail and die again...
 

Alliances
 

The Seventh Pestilence has always found itself aided in times of war by the forces of their patron, when circumstances warrant it, and they view direct intervention by the Plague Hosts of Nurgle as a sign of great favor and blessing from Grandfather. In particular, the Great Unclean One known as Gholburast has shown great interest in the forces of Julgolax and was the one who gifted him the Black Tree those millennia ago on Nurgle's behalf.

 

The Seventh Pestilence has allied itself with a few outside organizations in order to keep their war efforts supplied and operational. Julgolax has made personal pacts with the Dark Mechanicum and a warband of Iron Warriors under Warpsmith Thulbor. In exchange for war material and support from the famed daemon engines of the Iron Warriors, Julgolax has given his allies an entire world on the border of the Eye of Terror (now Cicatrix Maledictum) with which to practice their craft.

 

In addition to them, Julgolax has known to ally himself on occasion with members of the Word Bearers, Black Legion and even the Night Lords should they agree.
 

Notable Battles
 

(WIP)
 

Notable Individuals
 

Julgolax - Formerly 7th Company Captain Julgos Nothan of the 4th Grand Company, Julgolax took up a new name as the last vestiges of humanity rotted away. From a lifetime of despair that weighed heavily on his Legion, new joy came in the form of spreading the plagues of Nurgle to the people of the Emperor's fractured domain.
 

He spent nearly a decade of leading raids into realspace to rid any lingering regret from his blackened soul in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, and subsequently corrupting his body beyond return. He is a warrior loyal to Mortarion through and through, and has always possessed an independent streak that made him a born commander.
 

Regoth Molod - During the Great Heresy, Molod was one of many psykers who were repressed by Mortarion and who eventually were given free reign to explore their powers after the Legion had fallen. Regoth Molod was one such psyker who fervently embraced the varied and bizarre powers available for him to learn from communing with the daemons of Nurgle.
 

He has always been a part of the same company as Julgolax and though he is sometimes a challenge to his lord's rule, he would not dare cross the ancient and favored commander of the Vectorum. His powers have given him great status and respect among the host of warriors and will often lead his fellow plague marines in the absence of Julgolax.
 

Subolod - Once the most honored of Julgos' company, bearing the standard of the 7th company to battle, Subos Galt had followed his captain ever since he was promoted to Captain and they had always been friendly rivals. Since the great infection, Subos had followed suit with his commander and embraced the fall from grace.
 

He too took up a new name as part of washing away any lingering doubts or regrets and bore the gifts and burdens of Nurgle proudly. His great Plague Bell and Tocsins of Nurgle ring mournfully as they sound the approach of the Vectorum's plague marines, a death knell to many beleaguered defender.
 

Known Relics
 

Plague Bell of Gholburast - This Plague Bell which bears the great symbol of the Fly, thrums with an aura of despair as it's mournful gong drives the enemy to despair and the swarms of daemon flies to a frenzy of stinging, biting and lacerating.
 

Plaguereaper of Julgolax - This mighty flail was fashioned in similar fashion to the other plague weapons wielded by the mighty Lords and Plaguecasters of the Legion but instead of a traditional scything blade, it's affixed with a cruel spiked censor globe with a diminutive Nurgling inside called "Gibblet" who constantly expels virulent slime and noxious gasses.
 

The Black Tree - This abhorrent, infected tree is a twisted, slimy, black growth that lives in the heart of the company's Strike Cruiser "Exhumed Fury". It's rotten, fungal heart pulses with fell energies that it draws from the ships' reactor core and supplies many of the incredibly tough Rotwood for use in creating the Vectorums' plague weapons. It was a gift from Nurgle earned for the victory over the Blood Angels during the Putrefaction of Blood campaign.

 

​The Rotwood

 

Known by several names, The Blackbone Plague, The Ebonheart Plague, The Ossifactor, the Rotwood derived from the Vectorum's Black Tree. This gnarled, fell spore is used not only to make terrible plague weapons for the worthy to bear into battle but also a vehicle for the doom of worlds.

 

Taken and cultured from the Black Tree, samples of the Rotwood are encapsulated within munitions designed to hammer into the target world from orbit and begin an uncontrollable pattern of growth. The Rotwood is resilient, voracious and grows alarmingly fast when exposed to an energy source, be it biological or mechanical.

 

The target population will experience the sudden and terrible surprise of grey clouds of spores released from selected sites which immediately begin infecting their hosts with nigh unstoppable black growths over their bones. Meanwhile, the spores can also manage to find energy sources to create mirrors of the original strain, the Black Tree.

 

The Rotwood is notorious for spreading quickly because of it's highly mutable form, able to transition in minutes from an airborne spore to an infection and back to a spore within days once the host has reached the last stage of infection and dies, being reborn as a Poxwalker. Once a single Rotwood spore finds purchase, doom is practically assured.

Edited July 9, 2017 by Julgolax

[Conn Eremon]

Very nice beginning. I love the idea of a censure-flail containing a small nurgling. Not familiar enough with the Death Guard to know if this is already standard or not, but it's nifty nonetheless.

 

I'd like to see more of the Vectorum's character as a whole. We get to know Julgolax's personality, for example, but usually the organization itself has an identity of its own that could be showcased more.

 

You mention a world that is the warband's own, perhaps expand upon that. Is there a society (of sorts) on it, and if so what form does it take? How involved is the Vectorum with their planet? What beliefs or code binds each member of the warband together? What shared culture do they have?

[Julgolax]

Not really his own world, just a place on the Plague Planet that his Vectorum made their home base. Mortarion fashioned the Plague Planet in the same likeness, down to the smallest detail, of Barbarus so the same location where their original Company Lodge / Barracks had been is where they've based themselves until now.

 

The censor flail is a conversion that I want to make and I think adds a believable piece of character to a Death Guard model that we just don't see enough of. I thought having a crazy mini nurgling inside giving off virulent and acidic gasses and slime while being bashed around like a maniac in a rubber room, would be quite Nurgly. :D Plus if I can get a hold of a censure from the Screaming Bell and an appropriately sized chain link from Amon Ad-Raza or somewhere, it will look quite awesome on the miniature, with some green-stuffed fingers holding on from the inside.

 

When I get around to making some campaigns, their personality will really begin to show. In a nutshell, my Vectorum is your typical "Death Guard" company. I don't think any Death Guard army is really all that different from the others besides how they fight or what units they favor using. In the end, I'm going to be doing a combined force of Death Guard, Nurgle Daemons and eventually Iron Warriors / Dark Mechanicus supplements. I suppose you could say they're more amiable to outsiders than your usual Barbarus-born fare. My commander is no fool, and knows that it would offend his patron god if he were to order his sorcerer to bind a plague daemon to the shell of a warmachine. He employs the Iron Warriors and Dark Mechanicus for such tasks. His love of Mortarion is eclipsed only by his devotion to Nurgle after all! 

 

These are also warriors who were there when the Emperor still walked as a man, were there when their legion fell to the great infection, and were around when Horus was slain and the Long War began. These "guys" have become true monsters so trying to explain that in ways that we can understand is really difficult, and probably best left to snippets from the works of authors. I mean, to me, these guys aren't human or even transhuman anymore. They're a step away from daemon. Where followers of Nurgle from astartes renegades to regular humans are sickened monsters in their own right, they are not Plague Marines. And couple that with the fact that they've had 10,000 years to be monsters, says they're not like your regular astartes. I just envision them as various carriers of Nurgle's pathogens and the embodiment of despair and entropy. :)

[Conn Eremon]

Not really his own world, just a place on the Plague Planet that his Vectorum made their home base. Mortarion fashioned the Plague Planet in the same likeness, down to the smallest detail, of Barbarus so the same location where their original Company Lodge / Barracks had been is where they've based themselves until now.

 

Going back over it, looks like I misread the part where the warband claimed a world for their allies, not for themselves.

 

When I get around to making some campaigns, their personality will really begin to show. In a nutshell, my Vectorum is your typical "Death Guard" company. I don't think any Death Guard army is really all that different from the others besides how they fight or what units they favor using. In the end, I'm going to be doing a combined force of Death Guard, Nurgle Daemons and eventually Iron Warriors / Dark Mechanicus supplements. I suppose you could say they're more amiable to outsiders than your usual Barbarus-born fare. My commander is no fool, and knows that it would offend his patron god if he were to order his sorcerer to bind a plague daemon to the shell of a warmachine. He employs the Iron Warriors and Dark Mechanicus for such tasks. His love of Mortarion is eclipsed only by his devotion to Nurgle after all!

 

While there's nothing wrong with the bog standard Death Guard force (pun sorta intended), I think there's plenty of room for individuality even without breaking the norm. The word vectorum itself appears to be High Gothic for carriers, so taking cues from particular plagues or viruses, either historical cases or biological behavior, when writing about their combat doctrine, for example, would be thematically appropriate. Applying how this disease attacks the body to how this vectorum assaults a world, or how this plague is communicated  to how this vectorum unleashes its poxwalkers. A symbiotic parasite will utilize its host to make up for its own shortcomings, much like how your vectorum utilizes other factions to cover needed, but offensive, combat roles.

 

 

[Julgolax]

 

Not really his own world, just a place on the Plague Planet that his Vectorum made their home base. Mortarion fashioned the Plague Planet in the same likeness, down to the smallest detail, of Barbarus so the same location where their original Company Lodge / Barracks had been is where they've based themselves until now.

 

Going back over it, looks like I misread the part where the warband claimed a world for their allies, not for themselves.

 

When I get around to making some campaigns, their personality will really begin to show. In a nutshell, my Vectorum is your typical "Death Guard" company. I don't think any Death Guard army is really all that different from the others besides how they fight or what units they favor using. In the end, I'm going to be doing a combined force of Death Guard, Nurgle Daemons and eventually Iron Warriors / Dark Mechanicus supplements. I suppose you could say they're more amiable to outsiders than your usual Barbarus-born fare. My commander is no fool, and knows that it would offend his patron god if he were to order his sorcerer to bind a plague daemon to the shell of a warmachine. He employs the Iron Warriors and Dark Mechanicus for such tasks. His love of Mortarion is eclipsed only by his devotion to Nurgle after all!

 

While there's nothing wrong with the bog standard Death Guard force (pun sorta intended), I think there's plenty of room for individuality even without breaking the norm. The word vectorum itself appears to be High Gothic for carriers, so taking cues from particular plagues or viruses, either historical cases or biological behavior, when writing about their combat doctrine, for example, would be thematically appropriate. Applying how this disease attacks the body to how this vectorum assaults a world, or how this plague is communicated  to how this vectorum unleashes its poxwalkers. A symbiotic parasite will utilize its host to make up for its own shortcomings, much like how your vectorum utilizes other factions to cover needed, but offensive, combat roles.

 

 

 

 

 

Ohhh, that's what you were referring to. Yes, they won a planet for their allies in exchange for their services, it's a means to tie in allies later on down the road.

 

---

 

(Speaking in-character here) I do love my beloved Poxwalkers!

(Speaking ooc here) I suppose I could go a bit more into my Vectorum's disease. Should I post it on the original post or here? Either way, it's going here first.

 

Going with the idea of a fungus, the Black Tree, etc, my Vectorum disease is basically the 40K version of the Cordyceps. The fungus is introduced via spore-bombing the target area / planet from orbit and the fungal spores released from the delivery basically start producing twisting root-like black growths everywhere and it snowballs into a full outbreak of this rapid chitinous growth. So basically I'm going to be painting all the boney protrusions black like these growths, on my marines and poxwalkers. It turns the average human, or alien, into a poxwalker and it has empowered our Plague Marines with enhanced durability. To my Vectorum it's "The Rotwood", but it's also known as "The Ossifactor", "The Blackbone Plague", and "The Ebonheart Plague".

[Conn Eremon]

That's a nifty expansion. I'd thread it throughout your article. Like when you talk about gene-seed, bring up the rotwood as a sort of induced mutation.

 

Going for a fungal symbiosis is exactly what I'm talking about, too. It's a departure from the norm, but still very much in keeping with the character of the Death Guard.