Lords of Carrion: post your diseased characters!

Azekai · September 21, 2017

With the release of the new Death Guard models, I know a lot of us have been working on adding to our collections, myself included. A lot of us already have blogs, but I saw a thread in the Hall of Honor just for posting HQs. I thought it would be neat if we did a similar thing but opened it up to include various characters, given how many elite choices we have in the new codex. As long as he/she/it serves Papa, they belong. We're all just one big happy family, after all. Chaos lords, daemon princes, maggotmancers, whatever; as long as it is finished and poxy!

A little blurb of background might be cool too. Often it is fun to learn the explanation behind any particularly twisted mutations or artifacts.

I will kick things off with my two favored daemon princes. First up is Marrow-Eater, one among seven daemonic overlords:

Once a human scientist, the man that became Marrow Eater released a series of retroviruses in an effort to bring about utopia. The viral treatments eradicated genetic diseases and vastly extended human life, and the scientist and his people celebrated as they entered a golden age. However, these secrets of viral manipulation had been unwittingly learned from the Master of Plagues himself; in time the retroviral treatments subtly mutated, causing widespread side effects including mass-sterilization. The planet would die a slow death, as those initially infected enjoyed a life of tainted longevity. The scientist worked tirelessly to undo his work, but rampant mutation of his samples resulted in constant failures. Decades stretched into centuries and society teetered and then collapsed as the infected finally began to die, and still the scientist strove to undo the hell he had wrought, hidden away in a vault. In the end, he was reduced to cannibalism, gnawing on the bones of the deceased for sustenance as he finally perfected a lasting solution. Nurgle, in his mercy, did eventually deign to to reveal a cure: daemonhood.

Unfortunately, by that point, there was no one else left to save...

Barabbas, the Saint of Mutants

Skedren X was a bustling hive world that declared for the warmaster at the height of the Horus Heresy. When elements of a Death Guard cohort made planetfall, searching for weapon caches during their retreat towards the Eye of Terror, they discovered a world half-devoured by the warp. Nine-tenths of the planetary population were dead after decades of bitter fighting. All those that survived were of two camps: the ordinary citizens and Imperial Army soldiers had devolved over only a few generations, and now were little more than death-worshipping mutants. Arrayed against these were the descendants of the rich and powerful elite of Skedren X totally enthralled to Tzeentch. Barabbus was among the mutants, a preacher who bore the three-lobed mark of god. It was Barabbas that brokered a truce between the mutant throngs and the Death Guard, guiding them into the very trap-filled heart of Skedren's capital.

Barabbas herded his deranged, self-hating people to their doom, using them as living minesweepers and wire-trippers even as he promised salvation through death. The preacher's words held such captivating descriptions of death and decay even some among the XIV Legion were grudgingly inspired by his dolorous oratory. Amid ambushes and pitched firefights, the servants of Nurgle battled on. When the pompous captain of the Death Guard was felled by a giga servitor, it was Barabbus that slew the mechanical behemoth, manifesting miraculous powers enacted by the will of Nurgle. When the last Tzeentch cultist died screaming, Barabbus was granted an epiphany. Skedren X was not the end, but the beginning of another cycle. He preached a new gospel to his mutant followers: they were to follow the Death Guard forever. After this, bloated and corpulent with the power of the warp, Barabbus ascended, having finally brought Skedren X into Nurgle's clutches after all those years.