Roots of the Infection: A History of Hexfleet Virules
I. A Betrayal Within:
Scattered Imperial records say that, several hundred years ago, a relatively young and small Space Marine chapter near the Eastern Fringe struggled to survive and carry out its operations almost entirely without Imperial support. Atypically, the chapter’s Chief Librarian had always served in a dual capacity as Chapter Master of the entire order. This tradition may well have explained the chapter’s near-isolation, as the Ultramarines and other more orthodox Imperial groups near the Eastern Fringe have long frowned on a practice that deviates from the Codex Astartes in such a major way. Placing a Chief Librarian in uncontested command of an entire chapter may frequently expose a figure most needed for foresight and counsel to the front lines of battle, to say nothing of the dangers of daemonic possession or corruption by the Warp. This chapter would go on to prove that such fears are well-founded.
Although the vast majority of details—even the name of the chapter itself—have since been purged from Imperial records by the order of the Inquisition, surviving primary sources indicate that the chapter’s last Chapter Master was an unusually gifted psyker known at least in part by the name of Virilian. While Virilian was said to have possessed martial prowess and tactical acumen that were average at best by the extraordinarily high standards of a Space Marine Chapter Master, both his ability to directly channel the powers of the Warp and his gifts of divination were at the highest levels ever recorded in the chapter’s history. While one tale found in the memoirs of a long-dead Rogue Trader hints that Virilian’s ability to foretell the future spiked shortly following the live capture of an Eldar Farseer, no other evidence exists to corroborate such a dark accusation.
What is known is that Virilian would eventually go on to commit an unprecedented act of heresy so grave that any discussion of the event itself was outlawed on pain of death throughout most of Imperial space. Whether he saw glimpses in the strands of time that his dying chapter was doomed to extinction or whether he simply acted out of pure self-interest, Virilian the Librarian ultimately made a choice unimaginable to the self-sacrificing and noble nature of most Adeptus Astartes Chapter Masters.
After issuing an order for the recall of every surviving Space Marine in his chapter currently out on operations, Virilian waited until the last member of his order returned before suddenly announcing an immediate gathering of every single battle brother in the fortress-monastery’s hallowed and enormous chapel. The Chaplains and Apothecaries were even forced to gather every sacred relic and bank of Geneseed and transport them to the nave of the chapel hall. While this new pronouncement generated even more confusion and suspicion among the ranks, Space Marines are trained from the start to obey their masters, and the members of the chapter had anyway been expecting some sort of major announcement in light of the order’s growing plight.
Although only one person alive today can say for sure what truly happened next inside that most holy of places, the event itself rocked Imperial astropaths and psykers across a vast swath of systems located in adjacent regions. Those strong enough to have survived the bursting of blood vessels or sudden eruptions of pestilence babbled with mad ravings of a noxious betrayal on a scale not seen since the dark days of the Horus Heresy.
In the most sanctified chambers of his order, Virilian called out to Father Nurgle and offered up his chapter root and branch. Planes of reality overlapped in a violent wave and the dutiful Astartes soon found themselves trapped in place within the deepest bogs of Nurgle’s Garden. The Traveler’s many voyages had taken the Terminus Est through even Virilian’s isolated region of space, and the Master Librarian had taken careful note of the old legends that inevitably always followed in the Plague Fleet’s wake. Whereas Typhus had once elevated himself by damning his entire chapter, Virilian surpassed even this abominable ceiling of betrayal by offering unto Nurgle the live sacrifice of every member and every piece of Geneseed of his chapter save his own. In a sense Virilian died that day as well, for from among the collapsing and fetid ruins of the fortress-monetary strode Virules, newfound favorite of Nurgle.
II. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice:
In return for the most unimaginable of acts, Virules demanded the most unimaginable of prices. For his allegiance, the former Librarian gained the Mark of his new master and the chaos-infused blossoming of all his former physical and psychic gifts. For the feeding his entire chapter’s Geneseed to the Great Lord of Decay, Virules insisted on another gift just as great: personal and eternal dominion over a Great Unclean One selected from amongst Nurgle’s oldest and most powerful ranks. While the whole of the Plaguefather’s foul realm reeled in shock at the mortal’s incomprehensible audacity, the Garden of Nurgle roiled in turmoil when their patron finally answered with gurgling mirth.
Papa Nurgle is nothing if not generous with his followers, and for the sacrifice of Virules’ charges, Nurgle sacrificed a child of his own in return. Among the truly noxious of Nurgle’s most powerful servants there was one the Lord of Disease had personally raised to greatness since Nurglinghood, a rearing that took place before even the oldest memories of the ancient Eldar. This Great Unclean One had grown complacent in its favored status, thinking it could be maintained in perpetuity without merit and could be flaunted without cost. With the foul deed offered up by Virules, Nurgle saw an opportunity to teach the whole of his servants that the favor of Chaos is a thing that must be constantly earned, not a gift to which one is entitled. Nurgle reached deep into the Garden, rousing the Greater Daemon’s gigantic mass from out a smug slumber within the former favorite’s colossal green palace. Crafting hexed shackles of poisoned vines, Nurgle chained the great monster with colossal ethereal links. Hurling the bellowing beast across time and space, Papa Nurgle touched the mind of Virules and spoke the True Name the Great Unclean One had been at his birth as a Nurgling.
Crossing a peasant’s field near his ruined fortress, Virules stooped in the hay to lift up a crooked, makeshift farmer’s scythe. Within this splintering and nearly broken instrument, Virules received the similarly broken presence of a spirit so foul the whole of the new sorcerer’s former homeworld began to wither and decay in an anguish of flora and fauna. The once-Librarian stripped the Greater Daemon of its ancient name, dooming the wretched entity to be known forever simply as The Shadow of Virules. From then on, Virules could draw on the power of the great daemon without restriction or barrier, channeling its huge reservoirs of power through the empowered scythe, through foul spells, or even through the physical manifestation of the daemon’s own avatar.
Emboldened by his elevation to nearly demi-God levels, Virules rode his slave’s daemonic essence across the currents and ebbing flows of the Warp until finally crossing paths with Typhus and his roaming plague fleet. Bolstered by The Shadow’s vivid and putrid presence, Virules strode unopposed to the command throne of the Terminus Est and demanded that the Traveler take on the former loyalist as a sorcerer’s apprentice. Such hubris was risky beyond all measure, for Chaos Warlords have cultivated their positions of command and supremacy through centuries of ruthless suppression of rivals and upstarts. Moreover, a Veteran of the Long War was not apt to suffer such an insult to his pride as to allow a recent Loyalist to march to the center of Typhus’ own daunting host with no gifts of fealty or signs of respect. The Traveler would have been well within his rights to order his host to behead the intruder, or to slay the upstart himself.
However, one who came bearing such clear and unprecedented favor from their mutual patron could not be dispensed with or ignored so easily by the gathered ranks of the Death Guard. What’s more, great warlords have maintained and grown their influence by prioritizing opportunity and cunning over pure pride. By adopting such a powerful apprentice, Typhus saw an opportunity to more easily further his own myriad of schemes and acquisitions. Although uneasy at the thought of taking on a follower whose potency so closely rivaled—and psychically, perhaps even surpassed—his own, the Traveler ultimately saw little threat by the addition of a sorcerer who entered the ranks of the Death Guard without a single friend or ally to his name. Whereas the name of Typhus had been whispered with fear across the galaxy since ten thousand years, the young wizard of Nurgle possessed virtually no experience with serving side of Chaos. The benefits clearly outweighed the risks.
A dark pact was made, and Typhus agreed to accept Virules as his student.
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