Pestigor

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Its a 10 inch maggot in his pocket AND he's happy to see you!

Pestigors are Beastmen in Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40000, or Age of Sigmar who have dedicated themselves solely to the worship of Nurgle and been rewarded with his Mark for their feats. While it would've been extremely funny if they were called Nugors or Nurgors (say it out loud), its less clear why they aren't called Nurglgors given the nice phlegmy sound it has, or even Nurgigors, as that is sufficiently removed from certain misinterpretations.

Overview

WFB

Nurglgors Pestigors are exactly what you'd expect. Full of disease, have bloated bellies and puss-filled sores giving them a highly asymmetrical shape, extra thick hide they can't feel, have one horn and a recurring image of threes in the details, wear the heaviest armor and can be seen poking through its rusted parts in places, and have no loss of vigor from it all. Unlike the rest of Nurgle's kin, Pestigors are not darkly cheerful in their happy hopelessness. Quite the opposite, they're possibly the most civilization-hating rabid monsters of all the Beastmen. For contrast the Tzaangors are kept organized by the direct whim of Tzeentch, Khorngors appreciate the discipline and craftsmanship their god centers around, and Slaangors hate themselves for loving the pleasures of ordered races. Nurgle's Beastmen just want to see the world rot, to an obsessive degree; if anything Pestigors represent an even more extreme version of the standard Beastmen hat trope. It helps quite a bit that most of the Beastmen named characters are clearly Pestigors (in actions and mindset anyway). In particular, that's pretty much all the Beastmen centered around in End Times.

Despite ALL THAT...lore states that they are more organized than most Beastmen. Khorngors get more organization, Pestigors get more armor. Both defy the trope of their species a small amount. Most likely the "organization" is more akin to Nurgle's disease-counting than actual military drills.

For most of WFB history they didn't really have their own stats, and existed as models (until they were squatted and replaced with generics for all varieties) that represented what Marks your forces had. In the original Realms of Chaos duology, when they were introduced in "The Lost and the Damned", Pestigors were defined by Hating foes aligned to Tzeentch and having a 50% chance to carry Nurgle's Rot, which didn't debilitate them but instead infected enemy units in close combat. Also, Pestigor shamans automatically had Nurgle spells appropriate to their level, selecting bonus spells normally.

In the Beasts of Chaos armybook, the only Pestigors were Bestigors, chariots (ridden by Bestigors), and Characters, since only they could take the Mark of Nurgle, presumably because they were the only ones to prove themselves. If the Mark was given to a Lord or Hero, then it would make them cause Fear and give them +1 Wound. Unsurprisingly this made it one of the more popular Marks if you were souping up a character with a ton of Wargear. If it was given to a unit then it made them cause Fear only, which was dogshit for Chariots, but fantastic on regular units because back then if you beat combat (easy enough for Bestigors to do) and you outnumbered your opponent (easy for Beastmen to do) then your opponent automatically failed their Break test. They could be Stubborn at Ld 10 with a re-roll and they'd still auto-fail it.

Variety was gutted when Chaos was split into three armies and somebody took Marks away from the Beastmen, then retconned the fluff to say that Beastmen were never given and could never have Marks.

Molokh Slugtongue is a Beastman special character who is clearly a Pestigor Bray-Shaman in everything but name.

Unlike Khorngors, Slaangors and Tzaangors, there are no specific animal features associated with Pestigors; their highly diseased and rotting appearance, iconic to Nurgle worshippers as a whole, distinguishes them.

40k

Beastmen mutations are not automatically Chaos in 40k, but at the same time Beastmen aren't a dominant and uncontrollable force so most Nurglgors Pestigors are just considered Chaos Mutants and lumped in with human Cultists. Way back in the day, when Chapters were first being created and released, each one would get a list of how many Beastmen slaves they had access to; obviously any Chapter of Chaos Space Marines that was devoted to Nurgle had Pestigors.

AoS

Pestigors have finally returned to the Age of Sigmar where they have become essentially a chaotic counterpart to the Flagellants of Sigmar; they constantly subject themselves to various forms of physical abuse, such as whipping themselves, to create lots of minor injuries they can then allow to fester and fill with disease for the greater glory of Nurgle. Hosts of pestigors, known as Rotfrays, quickly become physical and spiritual sinkholes of corruption who can swiftly spread all manner of vile plagues upon the landscape.

Character-wise, pestigors are unusual in that they aren't defined by their hatred so much as by their pride and their faith. These beastmen are holier-than-tho types who have embraced the identity of being spiritual martyrs - we ain't comparing them to Sigmarite flagellants for shits 'n' giggles here! When not actually fighting anyone, they spend their time in masochistic rites, praying feverishly (pun unintended) to Nurgle to bless and cherish them as they whip, scratch, bite, stab, scratch and otherwise mutilate themselves to create wounds for him to kiss, as well as reopening existing wounds. Such is their yearning to use pestilence to erode the realms, breaing down civilization into the ruins from which new chaotic wilderness will grow, that they are totally blind to fear. They will happily martyr themselves on the blades of their enemies, content in the knowledge that their deaths are part of the cycle of rot and reform, giving their lives so their killers may be touched Nurgle through the fountains of blight-ridden gore and diseased pus that spurt from their deaths.

Basically, these guys are kind of like to the regular beastmen as Clan Pestilens is to Skavendom.

Gallery

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  Carelessly shaving off the mold lines could result in lead shaving splinters that could give you an infection or cancer. Papa Nurgle approves!

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  The later models.

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  Tony Ackland's Pestigors.

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  More of Ackland's.

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  A Blanche Pestigor.

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  Extra heretical Pestigors.

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