I've neglected this post somewhat, so I'll rectify it here and now.
I have just finished writing some back story for the force. Here goes -
The Pestilent ScourgeThe Pestilent Scourge are a warband of dedicated followers of Nurgle that plague’s Imperial space from their disease-ridden warships. Named The Ghost Fleet by Imperial Astropath’s, the Inquisition suspects that Rheumpox, the Daemon Lord at the head of the host, is able to bend the warp to his will much more readily than previously encountered warp-spawn, and allows the fleet to remain completely undetected for months, even years at a time if he so chooses. It is this very ability that makes the Scourge such an immense threat to the Imperium, as they attack without warning, unleashing massed viral bombs on their target before making planetfall and marching relentlessly throughout the firestorm, the blessing of Nurgle providing more protection in these hostile environments than ceramite or plasteel.
Naturally, the power generated by such a pestilent leader leaves a trail of rotting devastation in its wake. Often, the Imperial forces arrive in response to distress signals to planets completely devoid of life, although recent Inquisitorial recon teams have witnessed a great, bloated monstrosity the size of a small Warhound battle-titan offer the surviving citizens of conquered planets a choice to serve – those that refuse he kills personally, before using warp-sorcery to reanimate the dead and bind them to his eternal service. While only speculation can attest to what becomes of the traitors who choose to serve him, encrypted Inquisitorial reports dictate that each time the Scourge fight against Imperial (or traitor, in some cases) Astartes and emerge victorious, they thieve the precious gene-seed from the fallen. Logic states that they then implant these organs into new initiates each time they conquer a planet or system.
A recent open conflict with a single company from the Scourge also uncovered a further disturbing element to the host as an entirety. The particular company in question fled at the hands of Imperial Astartes from the Ultramarines, who have long held a hatred for the Scourge – having met shameful defeat at their hands previously. As the Ultramarines became aware that the pestilent traitors they were engaged with were in fact the Scourge, they alerted Inquisition forces immediately. Driving the Scourge from the planet in full retreat, the bulk of the Ultramarine force held ground and awaited the Inquisition’s agents. As they arrived, it became apparent that a number of the Scourges fallen war machines were detailed with the blasphemous symbol of the Dark Mechanicum, foul traitors who turned from the Emperor’s light at the beginning stages of the Horus Heresy.
Armed with this information, the Inquisition requested an audience with the Grand Masters of the Grey Knight Daemonhunters. It seemed logical to suggest that the Scourge’s numbers now amount to the high thousands of followers, be it traitor, heretic or daemon. In addition, the support of a Dark Mechanicum faction suggests the growing danger that Rheumpox will soon have access to battle titans of various classes – and so must be stopped once and for all. To this end, an entire Grey Knight battle company has been placed at the disposal to the Inquisition, as indeed has the Mechanicum Legio Bravus and a full company of Sisters of Battle. Together, with the aid of the Ultramarines who also seek vengeance and justice, they hope to hunt down the monstrosity that is Rheumpox, Lord of the Scourge and favoured of Nurgle, and put an end to his trail of destruction once and for all.
Rheumpox, Daemon Lord of the HostRheumpox is first recorded in Imperial history during battle with the Grey Knights. Accounting for a total of twenty-seven slain Battle-Brothers in single combat during the Daemonic incursion of the Grohl Sector, he was finally banished by a massed Purifier psychic assault for a thousand years. Finally re-materialising on the planet Cordellus, unknowingly summoned by a renegade psyker and ultimately possessed. He instigated a worldwide rebellion that was ultimately responsible for millions upon millions of Imperial lives.
As Imperial reinforcements arrived in-system in the form of the IX Dragoon Imperial Guard Battalion, Cordellus was torn asunder by a mass Daemonic incursion of the Plague God. Hundreds of thousands of Plague Bearer’s, Nurglings and Chaos Spawn ripped through the portal through which Rheumpox himself clawed his way back into reality. Pre-warned by the Prognastar’s, the Grey Knights arrived less than a week later. After initiating a teleported planetstrike, they found nothing but a stinking charnel pit that festered with diseases that defied description. Of the Daemonic forces, Imperial Guard or Imperial citizens, no trace was ever found. The planet being committed to Exterminatus, the Grey Knights made the journey back to Titan and continue to hunt Rheumpox to this day.
Balantisis the WretchedBalantisis’ name lives in infamy within the Despoiler’s Black Legion. Pledging himself to Abbaddon during the thirteenth Black Crusade, he led the speartip assault upon Cadia, earning great favour with the Warmaster during the campaign’s opening months. Always the deceiver however, he led a mutiny against Abbaddon while his focus was elsewhere, claiming the Plague forces allied with Abboddon as his own before stealing a great many artefacts, weapons and supplies from the Warmaster’s inner circle before abandoning the fighting upon Cadia and escaping with the spoils unharmed.
Balantisis first encountered Rheumpox before his daemonic ascension during battle against Imperial Fists. The Fists having assaulted Balantisis’ fortress on the captured forge world of Sera Alpha, the Death Guard had been able to initially hold the Imperial’s at bay. However, a chapter loyal to the False Emperor are ever determined when facing against the forces of Chaos, and few possess the seigecraft skills developed by the Imperial Fists over countless millennia battling across the stars. As the curtain walls to the greatest of Sera Alpha fell through, the Death Guard were forced to begin a tactical withdraw. Defiling the sacred ground with their very presence, Balantisis ordered that they make their stand within an Imperial Shrine to the Emperor himself, claiming he had received a vision that the Dark Gods would not dare to let such a defiant stand against the Corpse of Terra fall against the ancient enemy.
His boldness prevailed – just as Balantisis slew the Imperial Fist Captain in personal combat, the screams that signalled a massed Dreadclaw assault were heard around the city, as Rheumpox’s forces arrived to encircle the remaining Imperial Fists, who were killed to a man after much bitter fighting.
It was as the dawn approached that Balantisis and Rheumpox first met. As the golden light enfolded over the destruction that had once been a centre of Imperial religion, Balantisis fell to his knees as he proclaimed that Rheumpox was the very reality of his earlier vision and offered his eternal service to the warlord before him. Since that day, Balantisis has served Rheumpox’s every demand, wish or desire without hesitation, and will continue to do so for as long as either lives.
Biphasis, the Blight of Medusa IVOriginally a Veteran Sergeant in the Death Guard Legion, Biphasis earned the favour of the Poxfather Nurgle during the Horus Heresy, infecting hundreds of thousands with the Destroyer Hive alongside then-named Typhon. During the battle for Medusa IV, he acted as Ignatius Grulgor’s second in command, leading the Death Guard in protracted retreat through Omphilus Mountains when the ever self-conserving Daemon Prince fled in the face of the Adeptus Sororitas pursuit. Taking command of Grulgor’s remaining forces, he led a savage counter attack amidst the mountain passes, capturing dozens of live Sisters of Battle. Exposing them to the virulent plagues on board his vessel Bilestorm, he then escorted the diseased prisoners to religious Imperial Worlds in the Nebulas Turbia, crippling the Imperial counter attack to a Chaos Daemon incursion. He now serves Rheumpox as the head of the Chosen Order, responsible for maintaining his Lord’s connection to the realm of the Dark Gods and acting as a beacon with which to summon the Daemons of Nurgle.
Torulosis the Betrayed
Torulosis’ Astartes inception originally began in Guilliman’s Ultramarines. Following a disastrous Ultramarine ambush, the Death Guard escaped relatively unscathed with a dozen live prisoners and the gene-seed ripped from the bodies of the fallen Sons of Ultramar. Among the prisoners was Veteran Scout Sergeant Torulosis. Captured by Biphasis before Rheumpox’s service, Biphasis subjected the youth to unimaginable torments, attempting to break and bend him to the service of the Dark Gods. For what seemed like years, Torulosis resisted. As always however, a man has a breaking point – even Astartes. Twisted and broken aboard the Bilestorm, his test of initiation into the Plague Marine ranks was to kill the fellow prisoners of Ultramar who were deemed as too strong willed to recruit. This he did, and without hesitation as his new found faith in the Plague God was rewarded as Warp energy rushed into his limbs as he engorged upon their gene-seed.
Since then, Torulosis has earned the nickname “The Betrayed”, signifying the betrayal of the False Emperor in allowing him to succumb to the ruinous powers. He leads his squad of pestilent Plague Marines with distinction, forever silent and brooding in the theatre of war.
Cystitis the ImmortalEven by Death Guard standards, Cystitis is considered truly invulnerable to pain and has been named “The Immortal” by those who serve Nurgle alongside him. When his Plague Marine squad was decimated by Plasma Annihilator fire within the gate breach during the siege of Omega Prime, he continued to march through the defenders fire and cleave through the barricades. When his body was eaten away by bio-acids during a boarding action of a Tyranid Hive ship, he recovered swiftly and took the head of the xenos beast commanding the host for his own. When the Grey Knights bathed him in psychic fire during the attempted summoning of a Greater Daemon of Nurgle, he withstood and held the gap long enough for the monstrosity to climb through the portal.
Such is his apparent favour of Nurgle that Balantisis now keeps Cystitis close at hand in the attempt at discovering just what it is that pleases Grandfather Nurgle so. Should he ever succeed and harvest this invulnerability, then the consequences upon the galaxy could be dire indeed...
Exanthem ShiftersThe Exanthem Shifters have been bound to Rheumpox’s vile host since Balantisis sworn himself to the servitude of the Pestilent Scourge. Originally brought into reality by Abbaddon the Despoiler for use in the attack on Cadia during the thirteenth Black Crusade, the Obliterator’s were one of the many spoils that Balantisis managed to steal from the Warsmith’s inner circle before fleeing his wrath.
Since Balantisis has served Rheumpox, the Obliterator’s of the Exanthem have played a part in all of the Scourge’s large scale offensive and defensive actions. During the attack of the Imperial Shrine world of Servia Delta, they were responsible for the swift killings of the majority of the capitol city’s populations by teleporting deep into civilian sectors while Balantisis led the Terminator squads against the militia. During the defence of the Scourge’s gunship Blightrot against Ork assault parties, they held off the hordes until Plague Marine heavy weapon squads were in position and slaughtered them with murderous crossfire, and it was them who claimed the skull of the Warboss leading the attack. Where ever Rheumpox decides to spread his decay, the Exanthem Shifters can be safe in the knowledge that they will play a vital role in his plans.
I have plans for writing more, but I want to finish up a couple of units in the painting area of things first.
And without further a due, I present the latest painting updates.
Balantisis the Wretched (Typhus count-as)
DSC_0024 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0025 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
This guy is a Scibor miniature. He stand at just over twice the height of a standard CSM. I love how imposing he is in battles surrounded by his Terminator bodyguard, just as much as I loved the look on my mates face when he started cleaving through Imperial Guardsmen turn after turn.
The Manreapers.
DSC_0023 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
As you can see, much further down the WIP chain than some of my other models at the moment. This is because... well, Chaos Terminators just don't seem that good to me in the current Codex.
Also pictured are the Exanthem Shifters (Obliterators - WIP) and two Chaos Spawn (again, WIP).
Plague Marine Squad 1.
DSC_0004 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0005 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0006 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0007 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0008 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0009 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0010 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
Pretty much completed for the time being at gaming standard. I will go back and detail them further at a later date.
Plague Marine Squad 2.
DSC_0011 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0012 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0013 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0014 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0015 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0016 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0017 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
Same as above, really.
Plague Marine Squad 3.
DSC_0018 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0019 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0020 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0021 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
DSC_0022 by
Araziel 619, on Flickr
Very, very WIP. Obviously. I should have finished these guys by now, but I honestly grew a little bored painting standard troops that I took a bit of a break from them.
Edited by Araziel, 29 January 2012 - 02:36 PM.