Editing Tallymen (section)

== Overview ==

Part [[Chaplain|priests]], part demagogues, part metaphysical scribes and quartermasters, and part abacus users, these zealots stride to battle festooned with the trappings of their strange craft. Upon their shoulders the Tallymen bear huge vox speakers through which their voices boom. Their incantations are endless, a drone of counting. Tallymen are the preachers of the Sevenfold path, emphasizing the number of [[Nurgle]], seven in all its forms. In the novel, "The Lords of Silence" one of the main characters is a Tallyman, Philemon, who is shown to care for the "Little Lords"(Nurglings) that the Death Guard keep as well as being in charge of capturing daemons to gain infomation from.

But perhaps the most notable feature of the Tallymen are the tomes they carry, filled with the woes inflicted on the enemy and other information relevant to the Plague God. This is when they actually use their stupid looking abacus. They count spent shells, wounds inflicted, brothers resurrected, disease spread and the number of screams that can be heard. They count the number of flies in the air and the number of slain. Always they tally the unholy seven, and in so doing they somehow invoke Nurgle’s boon. Nurgle’s faithful are empowered and inspired by the Tallyman’s count. Yes, you heard us right. These guys boost military effectiveness with the power of [[Wat|<u>'''MATH!'''</u>]] Who knew the children of Nurgle [[Thousand Sons|were such bookworms, eh]]? Anyway, they don't use math, they use numerology, always trying to find the number 7 as a pattern in the chaos around them - something which is always possible, thanks to confirmation bias.

Eh-hum, anyways, on the battlefield, Tallymen are terrors, yet at all other times their order is isolated and secretive. Long ago, [[Mortarion]] entrusted them with the numerological codes to unlock the hidden vaults on the Plague Planet where the Death Guard keep their most appalling viral weapons. Such strains are precious and irreplaceable, and not lightly do the Tallymen part with them. The Death Guard Lord who demands access to these horrific instruments of destruction had best be prepared to pay a price to a Tallyman. Oftentimes this price involves singing "Tally me banana" while doing a rather odd dance ritual.