Great Unclean One

Great Unclean One

Great Unclean Ones are the Greater Daemons of Nurgle. In form they are massive and bloated with disease and decay, their necrotic and boil-covered flesh is rent, where their organs spill out, hanging across their huge girth. They usually carry a blade known as a Plague Sword into battle. These massive, rusted blades are said to be dipped in the foul pus and contagion at the base of Nurgle's throne.

Father of plague

Great Unclean Ones can endure tremendous amounts of damage before being felled. Many cannot stomach to look at one, let alone fight one.²

Great Unclean Ones are unlike the Great Daemons of other Powers, in that where the latter are essentially just immensely powerful servants, the Great Unclean Ones are each facsimiles of Nurgle himself, both physically and in terms of their personality. In other words, every Great Unclean One is also Nurgle. Thus followers often refer to these daemons as "Nurgle" or "Father Nurgle".

Despite their completely bloated and putrid appearance, Great Unclean Ones are neither deathlike or morbid in character. In fact the opposite is true, and the daemons are motivated by all the trivial human enthusiasms which drive the living. They are gregarious and even sentimental in nature, and hold their followers dear, even referring to them as their "Children", and taking an obvious pride in their appearance and endearing behavior.¹

Notable Great Unclean Ones

• Botchulaz ⁵
• Ku'Gath ³
• Scabeiathrax ⁴
• Ulkair ⁶

Sources

• ¹:Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned
• ²:Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), p. 23
• ³:Codex: Chaos Daemons (4th Edition), p. 48
• ⁴:Imperial Armour - Apocalypse, p. 98
• ⁵:Ragnar's Claw (Novel) by William King
• ⁶:Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising