Empyrion's Blight is a warband or vectorium of traitorous Heretic Astartes of the Death Guard Traitor Legion. The Empyrion's Blight warband thrives on conflict, devastating entire worlds and leaving behind nothing but seething pestilence and death. These former Space Marines have now given over wholly to the foul taint of Nurgle. Their motives are obscure and arcane.
Their physical corruption by Chaos also seems to have affected their rational minds, for the tactics of the Empyrion's Blight cannot be anticipated. Their goals cannot be fathomed. They appear to delight only in destruction and death for their own sake. The spreading of the ways of Nurgle has become their sole purpose.
Warband History[]
Endymion's Blight warband colour scheme
The Empyrion's Blight are a Death Guard warband led by the Chaos Lord Gideous Krall, a former Death Guard captain. Known as the the "Infector of Worlds," Krall led his warband from the Eye of Terror to wreak havoc and spread the foul rot of Nurgle throughout the Imperium.
The Empyrion's Blight have invaded and plunged the region known as the Sargassion Reach into conflict, and have also spread a disease, a Warp-spawned plague called "the Sickening," in their wake. Planet after planet had fallen to the contagion, and the Imperium, as well as the Brazen Minotaurs and Raven Guard Space Marine Chapters, failed to stop them.
The spreading of the Sickening became the Empyrion's Blight's sole purpose as they made their way through the Sargassion Reach, determined to invade the Kandoor System, a sector of Imperial space teeming with heavily-populated colony worlds.
Notable Campaigns[]
- Rescue on Kasharat (Unknown Date. M41) – During the war for the Sargassion Reach between the Imperium and the forces of Chaos, the Brazen Minotaurs' Chief Librarian Theseon was captured by the Chaos Space Marines of the Empyrion's Blight warband and brought to the corrupted Mortuary World of Kasharat to be broken. Nurglite Chaos Cultists daubed the chief librarian's power armour with Chaos sigils made from blasphemous and disgusting substances in order to weaken the Loyalist Astartes' psychic defences and pry secrets concerning the Imperial offensive in the region from his mind. A small team of Brazen Minotaurs mounted a rescue mission that would likely have failed without the intervention and assistance of a squad of Raven Guard Astartes led by Shadow Captain Aremis Koryn, who deployed to the surface of the Mortuary World in advance of the Brazen Minotaurs' rescue mission and cleared the way for their successful assault and rescue of Theseon. Though both Chapters suffered casualties, the mission was ultimately successful and a previously existing debt between the two Loyalist Chapters was repaid.
- Battle for Fortane's World (Unknown Date.M41) - The Sargassion Reach was on the brink of destruction at the hands of the Empyrion's Blight. Planet after planet had fallen to the contagion of Nurgle known as "the Sickening," from the Mortuary World of Kasharat to the Forge World of Plutonis, and finally they had come to the Fortress World of Fortane's World. The last outpost on the rim of the Sargassion Reach, Fontane's World was a bizarre planet with an eccentric orbit that brought it close to the neighbouring Kandoor System, a sector of Imperial space teeming with heavily-populated colony worlds. Fortane's World, if not regained, would form the perfect beachhead for an invasion of Kandoor. Billions of human souls would fall to the Sickening if the forces of Chaos were allowed to progress. They were opposed by the mighty Brazen Minotaurs Chapter. The Space Marines were soon augmented by a strike force composed of the Raven Guard Chapter led by Shadow Captain Koryn. They had come not to displace their golden-armoured brothers, but to aid them in breaking the siege and bringing the reign of the Death Guard in the Sargassion Reach to an end. Unwilling to allow the Sickening to infest another star system, the Brazen Minotaurs' 3rd and 5th Companies laid siege to the bastion of Fortane's World, determined to cleanse it of the Traitors before they could stage an invasion of the Kandoor System and doom billions to plague and death. With time running out and the siege protracted, the enemy was able to swamp the Brazen Minotaurs with endless hordes of corrupted Imperial Guardsmen, delaying them until the planet's orbit reached its zenith and entered its neighboring system. A strike force from the Raven Guard's 4th Company led by Shadow Captain Aremis Koryn came to the Brazen Minotaurs' aid. Three squads made planetfall and though they suffered significant casualties, the Raven Guard was ultimately able to infiltrate the bastion and open it for bombardment from orbit, destroying a massive Chaos army and protecting the colonists of the Kandoor System. Though the battle for Fortane's World was eventually lost for the Chaos warband, the war for the Sargassion Reach was far from over, and the Death Guard were not yet beaten.
Notable Empyrion's Blight Heretic Astartes[]
- Chaos Lord Gideous Krall - Krall is a former Death Guard captain who became the Chaos Lord and commander of the Empyrion's Blight in its campaign to spread the Sickening and the rest of Nurgle's gifts across the Sargassion Reach and into the Kandoor System.
- Chaos Lord Lebbeous Sacar - Lebbeous Sacar was the commander of the Empyrion's Blight warband before he was replaced by Gideous Krall.
Warband Appearance[]
The Nurglish physical corruption of the Empyrion's Blight appears to extend not only to the physical -- the oozing boils, necrotic flesh and parasitic worms that they encouraged to writhe and fester inside their once glorious bodies -- but to their logical minds as well, for they no longer seem to pursue what might be considered rational goals other than the spread of disease and decay.
The Empyrion's Blight Chaos Space Marines and their mortal Chaos Cultist auxiliaries also all replace their mouths with mechanical vents that dribble caustic acids that further erodes and decays the flesh of their lower faces.
Warband Colours[]
The Empyrion's Blight power armour is the same as that of the Death Guard from which they broke away, composed of decayed and cracked plates of ceramite discoloured in sickly greens and browns.
Empyrion's Blight Chaos Space Marines, like those of the Death Guard, often wear grotesquely warped suits of the antique Mark III Iron Power Armour.
Warband Badge[]
The Empyrion's Blight warband's badge is usually a modified version of the standard Mark of Nurgle, similar to that used by the Death Guard.
Sources[]
- Labyrinth of Sorrows (Audio Book) by George Mann
- The Unkindness of Ravens (Novella) by George Mann
- Angels of Death: Death Speakers (Short Story) by Andy Smillie