Welcome back, fellow lore-lovers, for another deep dive into the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000. Today we’re casting our gaze upon some of the most reviled entities in the cosmos, the Plague Surgeons of the Death Guard Legion, and the enigmatic Tallymen, who serve as the deathly scribes of Nurgle, the Chaos God of Pestilence.
Plague Surgeons, such as the infamous Nauseous Rotbone, are more than mere battlefield medics. They are the harbingers of death and decay, and their ceaseless abhorrence of the Emperor’s Space Marines is legendary. Their medical kits are not just tools for healing, but weapons of war, their rust-coated reductors designed to breach the carapace of an Astartes and extract his precious Gene-seed.
Rotbone, the personal medic to the Primarch Mortarion himself, is a figure of dread across the Death Guard Legion. He ensures the potency of the plague censers deployed at Mortarion’s vanguard and the noxious effluence of the daemon Nurgling pests that carry them. He is also the custodian of the surgical dungeons nestled deep within Mortarion’s black mansion on the Plague Planet. This is where the Death Guard safeguard their reserves of corrupted Gene-seed, and from these dark quarters, Rotbone launches his sorties into real space, aiming to acquire new specimens for his perverse genetic repository.
The Death Guard’s fixation with the sacred numeral seven, the Blasphemous numeral of Nurgle, is embodied by the Tallymen. These festering fanatics march into battle, burdened with hefty volumes and scrolls of parchment, their decaying pages overrun with tallies inscribed in a cramped arachnidian script. They are at once priests, demagogues, metaphysical clerks, and quartermasters. They count the flies in the air and the number of the dead, victories won and defeats endured, always tallying the sacrilegious seven.
Their litany is incessant, a tormenting monotone of enumeration that crescendos in a seven-fold climax before restarting in a perpetual cycle. Through this zealous repetition, ritual conjunction, and symbolic fidelity, the Death Guard harness the energies of their hallowed number to solicit the favor of Nurgle. The faithful of Nurgle draw empowerment and inspiration from the Tallyman’s enumeration, feeling the presence of their dark God writhing within their flesh like serpents.
The Tallymen are also entrusted with the numeric codes needed to unseal the concealed chambers where the Death Guard store their most fearsome viral armaments. Such viral strains, capable of erasing entire planets from existence, are invaluable and irreplaceable. The Death Guard lord who demands access to these horrific instruments of destruction had best be prepared to pay their terrible price.
So, there you have it, a glimpse into the macabre practices of the Death Guard’s Plague Surgeons and Tallymen. Stay tuned for more tales from the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000.
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