Ku'gath Plaguefather
Ku'gath, also spelled Ku'Gath, and known as Ku'gath Plaguefather or just the "Plaguefather," is a unique Great Unclean One, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle, the Chaos God of disease and decay. Ku'gath is driven by an eternal quest to discover the most perfect pestilence that has ever existed.
History[]
Origins[]
The corpulent and foul Great Unclean One known as Ku'gath began, humbly enough, as a diminutive Nurgling serving Nurgle. He once sat upon the great shoulders of the Lord of Decay as no more than a mite whilst his master concocted the most virulent toxin ever created. Tumbling from his nesting place whilst Nurgle was mixing the noxious contents, Ku'gath fell into the rusty cauldron. Taking a great draught of the filthy contents, the minor Daemon quickly swelled with power. Invigorated by the potent cauldron of poxes, Ku'gath continued to drink and drink until the cauldron was empty. The miniscule form of Ku'gath grew into a mighty Great Unclean One.
Laughing with joviality at the antics of his new creation, Nurgle was pleased with Ku'gath and what he had become; the embodiment of the perfect disease. Realising that his creator was not perturbed by this turn of events, Ku'gath soon realised that he had robbed the Plague Lord of his greatest achievement. Since that day, Ku'gath has sought to recreate the toxic miracle that birthed him.
Standing apart from his fellow Nurglish Greater Daemons, Ku'gath is a sombre creature. He does not revel in the gurgling delights of infection and plague. For the Plaguefather is contemplative and industrious, forever traveling throughout the Realm of Chaos and the mortal universe, seeking every ingredient and sickness imaginable in order to re-create the perfect disease once more.
Ku'gath moves across reality atop a palanquin carried by a mound of thousands of straining Nurglings, searching for the right combination of poxes and blights to replicate Nurgle's dark miracle. The palanquin is also loaded with the alchemical paraphernalia of Ku'gath's mobile laboratory, so that he can continue to experiment and distill the procured poisons of millions of worlds and the furthest reaches of the ever-changing realms of the Warp.
To field-test his creations, Ku'gath unleashes his virulent plagues during times of war in order to test the effectiveness of his various concoctions, wiping out whole armies. In battle, Ku'gath hurls his pestilent Nurglings at his enemies, for the tiny Daemons grow within the Daemon lord, each carrying a unique blend of the virulent elements that created the unique Great Unclean One.
With detached interest Ku'gath watches each particular infection and their symptoms take hold of the victims of his field experiments. Capturing those corrupted by his diseases, he takes them back to his lair in the Land of the Plaguelord within the manse of Nurgle himself to observe them more closely.
Thousands of cages, containing creatures of every known species from all across time and space, stretch into the darkness of this vast, ruinous lair. The victims of Ku'gath wail, gibber and moan in the gloom, desperate for the death that will be long and agonising in the coming.
Horus Heresy[]
During the Horus Heresy, Ku'gath was among the Greater Daemons summoned into realspace by the sorcerers of the Thousand Sons during the Siege of Terra. After the Imperial Palace's Lion's Gate Spaceport fell to the Traitors, the Daemons were unleashed to destroy the Imperial Palace's Colossi Gate. While they succeeded in tearing down the gate's outer defences, the Daemons were banished back to the Warp by the actions of the White Scars Legion's Stormseers and the Legio Custodes before they could complete their task.
Gheistos Cataclysm[]
During the Gheistos Cataclysm, a massive Daemonic incursion on the Agri-world of Gheistos that erupted in the early years of the 41st Millennium, Ku'gath led the Daemonic forces that besieged the planetary governor's fortress.
Curwen Incursion[]
In 927.M41, Ku'gath was summoned to the Agri-world of Curwen at the head of one of Nurgle's Daemonic Plague Legions. The Grey Knights deployed a strike force to deal with the incursion, and Justicar Anval Thawn led a group of Grey Knights into the very heart of the Daemonic horde to avoid encirclement. Ku'gath swallowed the Purifier whole, but Thawn detonated his weapon inside the Daemon's throat and burst from its ruined body. Ku'gath was slain by the explosion and banished back to the Warp along with his legion.
Sanctus Reach Incursion[]
Ku'gath returned to realspace in 998.M41, when Justicar Styer and his Grey Knights aided Inquisitor Malia Orbiana in her quest to the world of Squire's Rest in the Sanctus Reach to discover a biological weapon that could be used to eliminate the Orks. Unfortunately, Orbiana released into realspace the Warp-derived pathogen known as Bonewrack -- one of Ku'gath's favorite pestilences.
The emergence of Bonewrack allowed Ku'gath and one of his Plague Legions to manifest in realspace once more. Styer and his battle-brothers managed to defeat Ku'gath and his horde of Plaguebearers and eventually banish the Daemons back to the Warp. Ku'gath himself was slain by the Grey Knights Librarian Gared when his Nemesis greatsword bisected the Great Unclean One's head.
Plague Wars[]
During the Plague Wars of Ultramar in the Era Indomitus, it was Ku'gath who led the Daemonic Plague Legions of Nurgle from the Scourge Stars alongside the Daemon Primarch Mortarion and his Death Guard to assault the "Hospital World" of Iax. Ku'gath commanded a force of seven other Greater Daemons of Nurgle known as the "Plague Guard."
These Daemons were a plague upon all the worlds of Ultramar until the Nurglish forces finally retreated from Ultramar following the battle of Iax fought personally by Rouboute Guilliman and Mortarion. During the war on Iax Ku'gath was given a portion of Nurgle's own cauldron from the Realm of Chaos, which the Plaguefather attempted to use to concoct a brew that could slay Roboute Guilliman. Ku'gath's plan later came to a head on the Ultramarian world of Parmenio, where the Greater Daemon failed to kill Guilliman who instead slew his lieutenant among the Plague Guard, Septicus.
Despite the setback on Parmenio, Ku'gath was able to use blood he had gathered from Guilliman during the battle there to complete his ultimate disease: the Godblight. Refusing to honour the orders of Nurgle himself to withdraw to the Scourge Stars in order to repulse an assault from the Daemonic forces of the Blood God Khorne that would become known as the War in the Rift, the Great Unclean One instead sought to earn greater glory by remaining in Ultramar and continuing his alliance with Mortarion.
Upon Iax, Ku'gath sought to use the portion of Nurgle's cauldron he possessed in combination with Guilliman's death as part of a great Chaos ritual to transport the entirety of Ultramar into the Garden of Nurgle in the Realm of Chaos, but was foiled when he was assailed by an Imperial strike force of Space Marines and Cadian Shock Troops led by Colonel Odrameyer of the Astra Militarum's 4021st Cadian Regiment.
Ku'gath was able to defeat all the Space Marines but was slain when Odrameyer rammed his Leman Russ Battle Tank into the Greater Daemon and delivered and drove his Power Sword directly into the Daemon's skull. At the same time, Ku'gath's portion of the cauldron of Nurgle was destroyed thanks to the efforts of the Militant-Apostolic Mathieu, Guilliman's chosen representative of the Ecclesiarchy in the Indomitus Crusade.
Due to this failure and his prior refusal of Nurgle's orders to return to the Scourge Stars, Ku'gath's fellow Great Unclean One Rotigus happily informed the still-regenerating Ku'gath in the Realm of Chaos that both he and Mortarion had earned the Plague God's ire. Ku'gath would not be able to return to realspace for quite some time in the wake of this catastrophic defeat, and even worse, he had lost his status as the most favored of Nurgle's Daemons.
Personality[]
Unlike other Great Unclean Ones, Ku'gath is an unusually sombre creature. He is also studious and observant, all traits needed to create the perfect disease. He is pessimistic and prone to worrying, for instance, during the Plague Wars he constantly proclaimed that Nurgle's plan on Iax was likely to fail. Unlike most Nurglish Daemons Ku'gath despises music, and violently demands that the twisted bands of the Plague God keep silent whenever they are around him.
Despite his formidable powers, Ku'gath does not enjoy combat and usually attempts to avoid any situations that might require him to engage in personal combat.
Wargear[]
Ku'gath rides atop a palanquin carried by straining Nurglings that is loaded with the paraphernalia of his mobile laboratory. In battle, Ku'Gath uses the opportunity to conduct his field tests, unleashing clouds of spores, bacteria and viruses that could wipe out whole armies.
The Nurglings that grow from Ku'gath each carry a unique blend of the elements that created them, and can be hurled at the Great Unlcean One's enemies to produce various different infections.
Sources[]
- Battle Missions, pg. 17
- Codex: Daemons (4th Edition), pg. 49
- Codex: Chaos Daemons (6th Edition), pg. 51
- Codex: Grey Knights (5th Edition), pg. 16
- Dark Imperium (Second Edition) (Novel) by Guy Haley, Chs. 3, 10, 16, 17, 20
- Dark Imperium: Plague War (Second Edition) (Novel) by Guy Haley, Ch. 3
- Dark Imperium: Godblight (Novel) by Guy Haley, Chs. 6, 27, 36, 42
- Sanctus Reach: Maledictus (Novella) by David Annandale, Ch. 10
- Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (5th Edition), pp. 152-153