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 usernamesareannoying wrote:
nurgle really is a unique theme to try and decide on.
you can go all morbid death and decay or fun and odd.

hell, the poxwalkers are all smiling so something must be fun on the other side of that rift.

look at the plaguebearers in the DI novel.
they invaded the hospital planet singing and dancing.

You can even make them into farmers. I find that hilarious.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
nurgle really is a unique theme to try and decide on.
you can go all morbid death and decay or fun and odd.

hell, the poxwalkers are all smiling so something must be fun on the other side of that rift.

look at the plaguebearers in the DI novel.
they invaded the hospital planet singing and dancing.

People already explained that the "Jolly Nurgle" is old fluff and IMHO it makes Him more interesting. IIRC in WHFB there was a Circus of Nurgle or something (Mordheim?).
Also, death&decay plus dance is somewhat an old theme from middle ages (Danse Macabre), albeit there is done, too, to remember to the mortals their mortality. In other words, is something the authors borrowed from real life culture and changed a bit, this is why is powerful.

Said this, I generally trim Nurglings for two reasons: I prefer a more sober Death Guard, visually too (I trim excessive tentacles etc) and I don't like how many mortal models mistreat Nurglings, I just don't see a chaos follower hurt a manifestation of the gods unless is for test their mettle and prowess or attacked... but I admit this is more head canon than anything.

Wait, you mean happy Papa Nurgle is no longer a thing?
Dammit GW, why can't you let us have nice things

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Wait, you mean happy Papa Nurgle is no longer a thing?
Dammit GW, why can't you let us have nice things

It definitely is. Refer to Poxwalkers and their big dumb grinning faces. And all the Nurgling gallivanting around.

Oh that's fine then. Its just when people refer to something as old fluff there's that implication that its no longer around.
Might just be because I'm a necron player though. Lots of old fluff there.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Oh that's fine then. Its just when people refer to something as old fluff there's that implication that its no longer around.
Might just be because I'm a necron player though. Lots of old fluff there.

Old fluff in the sense that is nothing new. Old does not necessarily mean outdated, regardless what our culture teaches us.

Reminds me of one of my favourite bizarre happenings of history:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania

i type too slow

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

FudgeDumper wrote:
a hole through your esophagus. These nurglings flying around mortarion etz are just cutsey trash that appeal to school girl anime furry friends.

TIL they were trying to appeal to anime furry trends in the 80s

Nurglings have been around for a very long time and have always been based off of Nurgle. This is not new.

He's the happiest chaos god, papa Nurgle! just love him and he'll love you and give you a pile of nurglings to cuddle with and a pile of deseases to rot your face off with and everyone will be blissful with a big ol buddha smile. That's Nurgle from the beginning, all the way back to WFRP1 til now - anyone who thinks that's not the case is just wrong.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
hell, the poxwalkers are all smiling so something must be fun on the other side of that rift.

This exemplifies why I can see that someone might suffer from theme overload. GW has a habit of narrowing and doubling down on a specific aspect. It can get overwhelming. Like with the Poxwalkers, would it kill them to sculpt some without the idiot smile and embody the grim outlook of death and decay, not just the joyous side of Nurgle?

Or the tentacles. Some people just prefer rusty Marines. But it looks like all we're getting is fleshy Marines. Both fit Nurgle, but only one is portrayed in model form.

Plus, 'Eavy Metal's paint schemes come across as pretty cartoony, at least to me.

I can see how there's room for criticism. Nurglings are still supposed to have nasty teeth and nasty habits. Laughing and bouncing while they eat you is well and good, but again there is just so much focus on the comic relief part that any other aspect of their character becomes neglected. And for that lack of diversity in portrayal, is it any wonder if someone comes and says it's "cutesy trash"?

 Geifer wrote:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
hell, the poxwalkers are all smiling so something must be fun on the other side of that rift.

This exemplifies why I can see that someone might suffer from theme overload. GW has a habit of narrowing and doubling down on a specific aspect. It can get overwhelming. Like with the Poxwalkers, would it kill them to sculpt some without the idiot smile and embody the grim outlook of death and decay, not just the joyous side of Nurgle?

I can see how there's room for criticism. Nurglings are still supposed to have nasty teeth and nasty habits. Laughing and bouncing while they eat you is well and good, but again there is just so much focus on the comic relief part that any other aspect of their character becomes neglected. And for that lack of diversity in portrayal, is it any wonder if someone comes and says it's "cutesy trash"?

Why would they embody the "grim outlook of death and decay"? Nurgle has always been joyous. It's probably the only thing that survived the decade of XTREME GRIMDARKNESS (2007-2017, R.I.P.)
Perhaps the Nurgle aesthetic isn't for you if you don't like 35 years of it?

 judgedoug wrote:

 Geifer wrote:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
hell, the poxwalkers are all smiling so something must be fun on the other side of that rift.

This exemplifies why I can see that someone might suffer from theme overload. GW has a habit of narrowing and doubling down on a specific aspect. It can get overwhelming. Like with the Poxwalkers, would it kill them to sculpt some without the idiot smile and embody the grim outlook of death and decay, not just the joyous side of Nurgle?

I can see how there's room for criticism. Nurglings are still supposed to have nasty teeth and nasty habits. Laughing and bouncing while they eat you is well and good, but again there is just so much focus on the comic relief part that any other aspect of their character becomes neglected. And for that lack of diversity in portrayal, is it any wonder if someone comes and says it's "cutesy trash"?

Why would they embody the "grim outlook of death and decay"? Nurgle has always been joyous. It's probably the only thing that survived the decade of XTREME GRIMDARKNESS (2007-2017, R.I.P.)
Perhaps the Nurgle aesthetic isn't for you if you don't like 35 years of it?

Disease, decay and dying are painful and Nurgle does not take that pain away from his followers. He just stops the part where his diseases are fatal to his followers. At least that's what the background used to be when I read it.

You'll notice I'm not disputing that Nurgle has always been joyous. I'm critical of narrowing him down to that specific aspect. I'm not asking for it to go away, I'm asking for balanced portrayal of all of Nurgle's characteristics. It's the same as "Slaanesh = boobies". It's dull and repetitive design.

Anything to the effect of "Nurgle's aesthetic" doesn't exist if you want all 35 years of it. None of my 2nd ed Plague Marines have tentacles. Now they're drowning in them. So which one is the right portrayal? If it's all of it, maybe Nurgle's easthetic is something for me after all, if not in full, then selected parts of it. Which are not currently catered to.

Not sure if it's just me, but looking at what all these new DG units are called, it seems to be an awful lot like the space wolf Wolfie McWolfface naming method. I was hoping there was going to be less of that moving forward.

Yeah. The Beasts of nurgle are like happy puppys. Big, deadly happy puppys.
Why should exist beasts of nurgle that where different? Just to be more "dark" and "deadly"? It isn't their lore.
You have Khorne and Slaanesh for that kind of personality in their demons. Even Tzeentch in some cases.

Nurgle is happy, from the small Nurgling to the great Uncleans Ones, all of their daemons are always happy, all the time. Thats just how Nurgle is.

 Geifer wrote:


Disease, decay and dying are painful and Nurgle does not take that pain away from his followers. He just stops the part where his diseases are fatal to his followers. At least that's what the background used to be when I read it.

Actually yes. He takes away pain. The Nurgle Followers are so resistand because they don't feel anything. Thats why many sick people go look and pray for Nurgle blessing, so he can stop the pain they are suffering.

But I can agree in the fact that now Nurgle is all about tentacles when theres other forms of represent plague marines (Rusty for example as you said). But thats an aesthetic decision, not about the "theme" and personality of the God and their daemons.

Souljet wrote:
Not sure if it's just me, but looking at what all these new DG characters are called, it seems to be an awful lot like the space wolf Wolfie McWolfface naming method. I was hoping there was going to be less of that moving forward.

That is sadly not likely to happen. We live in the copyright friendly age of nounnoun adjectivenoun names now. Expect more of this going forward, not less.

Souljet wrote:
Not sure if it's just me, but looking at what all these new DG units are called, it seems to be an awful lot like the space wolf Wolfie McWolfface naming method. I was hoping there was going to be less of that moving forward.

I think we should all thank the Chapterhouse debacle for that. Naming will be more awful with each iteration.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Galas wrote:
Yeah. The Beasts of nurgle are like happy puppys. Big, deadly happy puppys.
Why should exist beasts of nurgle that where different? Just to be more "dark" and "deadly"? It isn't their lore.
You have Khorne and Slaanesh for that kind of personality in their demons. Even Tzeentch in some cases.

Nurgle is happy, from the small Nurgling to the great Uncleans Ones, all of their daemons are always happy, all the time. Thats just how Nurgle is.

I think the dissonance makes it great. I talked about the Danse Macabre but we can find it in cinema, think about the use of The Gonk in Romero's Dawn of the Dead. The final effect is sort of an eerie parody.
(is not clumsy or unintentional, even greater filmmakers like Kubrik use it, think about the use of soundtrack dissonance with what happen on screen in Full Metal Jacket).

 Galas wrote:
Yeah. The Beasts of nurgle are like happy puppys. Big, deadly happy puppys.
Why should exist beasts of nurgle that where different? Just to be more "dark" and "deadly"? It isn't their lore.
You have Khorne and Slaanesh for that kind of personality in their demons. Even Tzeentch in some cases.

Nurgle is happy, from the small Nurgling to the great Uncleans Ones, all of their daemons are always happy, all the time. Thats just how Nurgle is.

You'd think he was growing something good in that garden
The fact that they are happy all of time is a good thing. It provides a contrast to the morbid subject matter, which adds a certain disturbing quality to his lore.

Yeah, that dissonance makes it even more... creepy and sinister. Thats why I love Nurgle over all of the other chaos gods (In personality at least)

FudgeDumper wrote:
Thanks but I am aware of Nurgles playfull side. However these nurglings are way beyond playfull, its down right sculptor arch treason. You can tell the sculptor is French, thats the type of culture they have over there, no restraint at all.

I can't believe everyone just moved on without commenting on this. Gotta be one of the most ridiculously absurd comments I've ever seen LOL

A bit late to the party, but the recent article concerning the new Nurgle model shows how they remain the happy go lucky daemons:

Horticulous Slimux is the Grand Cultivator of Nurgle, and possibly Nurgle’s first Daemon. While Horticulous is much beloved by his master, he is notorious among the usually jovial Daemons of Nurgle for his lack of humour, known as “old sour-seed” – although any Nurglings caught sharing this opinion tend to find themselves being used as bait for Mulch, his monstrous mount.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/08/29/who-is-horticulous-slimux-aug29gw-homepage-post-3/

I'm loving this guy even more. He's the cranky "GET OFF MAH LAWN" ol' guy

Nurgle isn't, and has never been a God of death.

He's a God of life and fecundity. A nature deity gone utterly insane, worrying solely about the quantity over quality. With every death, with every new disease spread, new microbes and bacteria come into existence, and as we know such simple organisms can evolve really quite rapidly.

To Nurgle, beings like us are somewhat selfish. We want to keep on going, when our demise could support trillions of bacteria, microbes, insects etc.

His followed (barring Plague Bearers, who are morose) take part in that joy, knowing that life flourishes upon and around them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Qlanth wrote:

FudgeDumper wrote:
Thanks but I am aware of Nurgles playfull side. However these nurglings are way beyond playfull, its down right sculptor arch treason. You can tell the sculptor is French, thats the type of culture they have over there, no restraint at all.

I can't believe everyone just moved on without commenting on this. Gotta be one of the most ridiculously absurd comments I've ever seen LOL

Interwebular equivalent of 'LEAVE IT DAVE, HE'S NOT WORTH IT'.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Nurgle isn't, and has never been a God of death.

He's a God of life and fecundity. A nature deity gone utterly insane, worrying solely about the quantity over quality. With every death, with every new disease spread, new microbes and bacteria come into existence, and as we know such simple organisms can evolve really quite rapidly.

To Nurgle, beings like us are somewhat selfish. We want to keep on going, when our demise could support trillions of bacteria, microbes, insects etc.

His followed (barring Plague Bearers, who are morose) take part in that joy, knowing that life flourishes upon and around them.

This is from the new AoS Nurgle dude:


It fits the theme to a T.

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
A bit late to the party, but the recent article concerning the new Nurgle model shows how they remain the happy go lucky daemons:

Horticulous Slimux is the Grand Cultivator of Nurgle, and possibly Nurgle’s first Daemon. While Horticulous is much beloved by his master, he is notorious among the usually jovial Daemons of Nurgle for his lack of humour, known as “old sour-seed” – although any Nurglings caught sharing this opinion tend to find themselves being used as bait for Mulch, his monstrous mount.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/08/29/who-is-horticulous-slimux-aug29gw-homepage-post-3/

I'm loving this guy even more. He's the cranky "GET OFF MAH LAWN" ol' guy

Sorry, but GW got that wrong. As we learned in this thread, everything Nurgle is joviality 24/7. No exceptions.

The exception that confirms the rule

 Galas wrote:
The exception that confirms the rule

There's always one.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Nurgle isn't, and has never been a God of death.

He's a God of life and fecundity. A nature deity gone utterly insane, worrying solely about the quantity over quality. With every death, with every new disease spread, new microbes and bacteria come into existence, and as we know such simple organisms can evolve really quite rapidly.

To Nurgle, beings like us are somewhat selfish. We want to keep on going, when our demise could support trillions of bacteria, microbes, insects etc.

His followed (barring Plague Bearers, who are morose) take part in that joy, knowing that life flourishes upon and around them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Qlanth wrote:

FudgeDumper wrote:
Thanks but I am aware of Nurgles playfull side. However these nurglings are way beyond playfull, its down right sculptor arch treason. You can tell the sculptor is French, thats the type of culture they have over there, no restraint at all.

I can't believe everyone just moved on without commenting on this. Gotta be one of the most ridiculously absurd comments I've ever seen LOL

Interwebular equivalent of 'LEAVE IT DAVE, HE'S NOT WORTH IT'.

I'd argue that he's the god of the cycle of life and death, which would fit in with the nature aspect of him.
Things die, which allows other organisms to live, and these organism in turn will die to support the next generation, and so on.
Calling him a death god would incorrect, but so would be calling him a life god.
He actually shares the same darwinistic idea with Khorne. Khorne is survival of the fittest, with the strong fighters killing the weak, while Nurgle is more about resilience. In the 5th ed daemon codex, iirc, it describes those who died from one of his diseases being reborn as plague bearers, and the longer they hold off death the stronger the resulting demon becomes. This again ties in with the theme of Life and Death and the notion of survival of the fittest.

Qlanth wrote:

FudgeDumper wrote:
Thanks but I am aware of Nurgles playfull side. However these nurglings are way beyond playfull, its down right sculptor arch treason. You can tell the sculptor is French, thats the type of culture they have over there, no restraint at all.

I can't believe everyone just moved on without commenting on this. Gotta be one of the most ridiculously absurd comments I've ever seen LOL

Bloody flamboyant French!

Eh, I'm not so sure about survival of the fittest. One of the big things about the corruption of the DG was nurgle showing them that it doesn't matter if you are the fittest or toughest, everything weakens and dies eventually.

That's just my take though, I agree with the circle of life thing otherwise!

Yep, Nurgle represents disease and decay, but also rebirth, and each thing having its part in the food chain/circle of life.

This is why Tzeentch is one of only two entities in existence who can reliably piss off Nurgle (the other being the Emperor, that rat-bastard). Nurgle's ultimate, longest-term goal is the total death and decay of the universe, so that he can rebuild it as a better universe (for a certain definition of "better"). Tzeentch, uniquely, seems to enjoy screwing with Nurgle's long-term plan for no apparent reason; after all, in Nurgle's view, the death of the universe is inevitable, but Tzeentch keeps on trolling Nurgle anyway.

SilverAlien wrote:
Eh, I'm not so sure about survival of the fittest. One of the big things about the corruption of the DG was nurgle showing them that it doesn't matter if you are the fittest or toughest, everything weakens and dies eventually.

That's just my take though, I agree with the circle of life thing otherwise!

I have 3 reasons that I think this -

1) Historically Nurgle units have been noted for being tougher than most chaos units
2) That aforementioned bit of lore about stronger infected becoming stronger demons.
3) Granted, most eventually succumbs to his disease, but you then you have particularly strong individuals who've been infected for a very long time and show no signs of dying (ie Plague Marines, Morty), which does time into that concept of survival of the fittest, something that is found in nature. Its not as obvious as Khorne, but its there.