Plague Planet
The creatively named Plague Planet is the homeworld of the Death Guard. The population primarily consists of primitive tribesmen, living in fear of the inhuman monsters who dwell on their mountain fortresses, where the atmosphere is so toxic no human can survive. If this sounds familiar, its because Mortarion based this planet on his old homeworld of Barbarus, because apparently he was really fond of his horrible nightmare poison planet. This is much to the irritation of Typhus, who abandoned his master out of disgust at his sentimentality. Irony of ironies, now Mortarion is the feared tyrant-sorcerer ruling atop the mountain. The very person he hated and won his homeworld of Barbarus by casting down.
The Plague Planet was originally an Eldar world called Eliathada. The Death Guard never bothered renaming it because they initially thought it only to be a temporary residence. The other factions in the Eye of Terror called it the Plague Planet and they merely adopted it out of convenience. It was originally a world of flat plains, and the countless mountains that dot it are artificial creations formed in the mirror of Barbarus. These mountains are so tall and steep and so numerous that the entire planet is described as looking like a giant hedgehog.
The rest of the population cower in tiny villages, serving their supreme masters. These inhabitants are afflicted with all manner of Papa Nurgle's merry gifts and pray to Nurgle for relief from their constant agony. Some of them are favoured and become his Champions, and then fight among themselves for mastery and the chance to become Daemon Princes themselves. Beastmen known as Pestigors make up a large part of the population; they are bloated with disease and flies swarm around them and breed upon their rotting flesh. The beastmen are very proud of these signs of their god's favor and openly boast of the number and severity of their diseases. So like a dick measuring contest, but everyone has syphilis.
The defences of the Plague Planet are quite the tough nut to crack, with Defense Laser batteries mounted on nearly every mountaintop of the world. In orbit hang large Orbital Defense Platforms and shipyards from which the Plague Fleet is stationed. In addition to these defences, the atmosphere of the world is coated with a thick diseased cloud that will dissolve anything that attempts to enter without the consent of Mortarion.
Notable Landmarks
- The Black Manse: The largest of the mountaintop keeps, the Black Manse stretches across the three highest peaks of the Plague Planet and acts as Mortarion's own lair. Its dungeons also contain the gene-seed stocks of the Death Guard and Mortarion's libraries of forbidden lore. In an act of supremely fickle pettiness, Mortarion made it the size of the Heresy-era Imperial Palace but with everything either 7 cm, 7 m, or 7 km bigger than the original.
- Foulspawn: This colossal Chaos Spawn was banished to the Plague Planet by Mortarion, and has since grown to the size of a mountain.
- The Peal Yard: This fortress-factory is where the Tocsins of Misery, colossal bells worn by the Noxious Blightbringers as signs of Mortarion's favor are forged.
- The Disease Factories: These facilities are where Foul Blightspawn and Biologus Putrifiers work on creating new plagues to unleash upon the Imperium. These factories are large enough to be nations unto themselves, staffed with millions of cultist laborers who worship the Death Guard as gods and governed by the colossal Blightspawn elders that live at their centers.