The two sorcerers of Nurgle rode together for an unknown amount of time, causing untold destruction in their mutual quest for material power and infernal knowledge. Virules proved an apt apprentice, absorbing knowledge both sorcerous and tactical with an ease unmatched by any others in the Traveler’s inner circle. At first these lessons were received with gratitude, the corrupted Librarian almost delighting in the opportunity to demonstrate newly-mastered proficiencies before Typhus and his roaming host of Plague Marines. Many in the Death Guard grew jealous and spiteful and the upstart’s favored position and seemingly-endless talent—a festering resentment that Typhus carefully nurtured to keep his student isolated and in check. Eventually, however, Virules began not only to master the lessons he was given, but even to devise his own spells and tactical stratagems. Although employed hesitantly at first, these were soon executed without consent and using ever-greater Death Guard detachments from the Plague Fleet. The gratitude faded, the tone of the apprentice grew ever more insolent.
Just as Typhus felt his patience coming an end and the great warlord finally saw no further use for his reckless charge, Virules smoothly outraced his teacher to the pair’s inevitable mutual betrayal. As the Terminus Est and the rest of its fleet rode in the Warp, the command bridge instantly blared with unexpected warning sirens. Like rotten bark peeling from a great corrupted tree, a significant minority of ships suddenly splintered off-course and away from the bloated host. While comprised mostly of smaller troop carriers, this mutinous detachment contained several mid-level ships and even one of the Traveler’s most ancient and largest vessels. Invading the great ship’s systems directly through a psychic infection, Virules personally steered the vessel away from the plague fleet even as his followers battled passengers still loyal to their former master. Just as the main fleet’s cannons could be brought to bear, Virules used The Shadow to momentarily rip open a Warp rift that directly emptied into a random location in realspace. The twice-betrayer and his new host instantly vanished into the unknown with the sickening sound of a popping boil.
Over the next several decades, putrid monuments erected on worlds throughout a vast spectrum of systems announced the new kingdom of Virules, the Plaguelich. While most within Typhus’ Death Guard had despised or looked down on the young sorcerer, a few enterprising captains and their Plague Marine squads had sensed that new opportunities could be had in following a daring upstart with such clear talent and ambition. Among Sorcerers of Nurgle in particular, many were willing to hitch themselves to a rising star from which new spells and favors of Nurgle might spill forth like rotten fruit. It would emerge that these risk-takers had made a fortuitous gamble, for Virules had kept his greatest sorcerous invention a careful secret from his teacher.
The strongest and most recent plague devised by the Host of the Destroyer Hive, feared throughout both Imperial and Xenos space, was known as the Zombie Plague. A pestilence both incomprehensible and seemingly impossible to replicate, the Zombie Plague stood as blasphemous testament to the Traveler’s perennial status as Nurgle’s favorite mortal vessel of disease.
Unbeknownst to all, Virules had been able to tap into the vast and revolting knowledge possessed by his ancient slave so as to devise a way to reverse-engineer the Zombie Plague. By inserting his own ingredients into the strain and impregnating a small fragment of The Shadow’s vast psychic presence, Virules managed to birth a mutant version he announced as the Hex Plague. While maintaining much of the potency and mimicking many of the effects of its progenitor virus, the Hex Plague’s substantial Warp component enabled a key distinction: its hosts were able to retain their wits and their sentience. As much spell as biological infection, carriers of the Hex Plague warped not only their physical bodies, but also the realspace around them.
All the ranks of the inchoate “Hexfleet Virules” were enthusiastically infected with the new Hex Plague, causing the armies of the Plaguelich to warp the very ground upon which they strode. Beneath a Plague Marine in Virules’ host, the earth rots, maggots spill forth, poisonous fungi erupt, and Nurglings emerge from putrid pools of slime. For those innocents who had not sworn allegiance to Nurgle prior to infection, the Hex Plague withered their mortal frames, sapping agility even while infusing unholy durability. While their minds remain capable in contrast to the Zombie Plague, normal humans who are infected become psychically linked to the Plaguelich as the splinter shards of The Shadow replicated with the disease. Virules therefore not only gains a new followers with every planet infected, but also feels his psychic might swell as the essence of his bound slave is copied over and over again ad nauseum.
Bolstered by his newfound strength and status, Virules has recently taken the final step marking his rise as a true Chaos Warlord: forging new infernal alliances with outside factions and daemons. While news of the Hex Plague has brought numerous Obliterator Cults and daemonic engines of Nurgle to join the Plaguelich’s ranks, Virules has reached outside his own patron deity to strike a bargain with minor barons of Slaanesh. Although the details of the deal remain shrouded in mystery, as of late two Keeper of Secrets have begun accompanying Hexfleet Virules. This male and female pair of Keeper of Secrets have brought with them their own armies of lesser Daemonettes and Seekers. While the essence of Slaanesh makes them immune to the Hex Plague’s effects, these daemons are inevitably infected as carriers of the disease. The Plaguelich’s infernal concoction is thus transmitted more quickly than ever through the rapid claws and hooves of the Hexfleet’s Slaaneshi allies.
As Typhus searches the galaxy in a quest to wreck vengeance on his former apprentice, an apocalyptic clash between two great champions of Nurgle and their allies now seems inevitable…
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