"Throne, don't they ever stop? I must have killed a hundred or more of the damned things. -- You probably keep killing the same one. If you don't destroy the head, they get back up again."
- — Captains Tarik Torgaddon and Garviel Loken, Sons of Horus Legion, during the Battle of Davin's Moon - Great Crusade
A horde of Plague Zombies
Zombies, also known as Plague Zombies, are victims of a highly contagious and deadly viral infection known as the "Zombie Plague" or the "Curse of Unbelief", spread by the minions of the Chaos God Nurgle, the god of disease and despair. Not only do they die as the result of the disease, they are reanimated by the virus as undead, mindlessly devoted to adding their former comrades-in-arms to their number by infecting them with the Zombie Plague virus they carry in their saliva and blood.
The Zombie Plague is a supernatural Warp-based disease, and as such it does not follow the laws of biology or physics, for it can actually only infect those mortals consumed by despair, who have no hope or faith in their hearts. In the uncaring grind of Imperial life in the 41st Millennium, the vast majority of the populace can be counted amongst that number. The unfortunate victims of this horrendous malady rot from the inside out, coughing themselves to death over a long, painful period. Yet that is merely the beginning of their suffering. Those that fall do not stay dead -- their bodies are reanimated by the uncanny psychic power of the arcane infection, and they lurch after the living, desperate to gnaw upon warm, supple flesh. Even a single bite can transfer the infection to a new host, and so the process begins anew.
The Curse of Unbelief has appeared in the underhives of Necromunda and in Chaos-influenced regions of the Segmentum Obscurus near the Eye of Terror, with documented instances of undead fighting against the servants of the Emperor going all the way back to the final days of the Great Crusade before the Horus Heresy, such as during the Luna Wolves Legion's assault upon the feral moon of the world of Davin.
The first recorded instance of the Zombie Plague in the 41st Millennium was on the world of Hydra Minoris in 757.M41. A quarantine was imposed by the Imperial Navy, trapping 23 billion uninfected people alongside a rising tide of hungry and mindless undead.
The Curse of Unbelief is believed to be a spiritual as much as a physical contagion, hence its name, and the disease is held by the Ecclesiarchy to afflict only those lacking a pure faith in the Emperor. The disease is one of the multitudes of foul contagions spread by the Plague Fleets of Nurgle; most notably the warships of the Chaos Lord Typhus of the Death Guard Traitor Legion.
Plague zombies act very much like the zombies in ancient films from Old Earth's Age of Progress; they are mindless, shambling and cannibalistic. The main thing about plague zombies (and zombies in general) is that they are hard to kill and require an accurate shot to the head or complete dismemberment to put them down for good.
Notable Variants
- Fydae Strain - Fydae Strain Plague Zombies, named for the outbreak of the disease that assaulted the mining settlemernt of Sutter's Rock in the Calixis Sector, first appear to be no more than gaunt, dead-eyed plague victims in soiled and blood-spattered clothing. However, this does little to dim the horror for friends and loved ones wracked with grief. As the outbreaks worsen and the Warp-spawned entities known as the Vile Savants themselves make an appearance, the Fydae Zombies decay at an unnaturally accelerated rate. They turn into horrific rotting husks of putrescent flesh, but are no less active or deadly for it.
- Poxwalkers - Poxwalkers are a form of Chaos-infected, mutant undead similar to Plague Zombies who have been cursed by one of the Chaos God Nurgle's Warp-derived maladies, the so-called "Walking Pox," so that they can serve as unliving weapons for the Death Guard Traitor Legion and other mortal servants of the Plague Lord. Some Inquisitors of the Ordo Sepulturum -- the new Ordo Minoris of the Inquisition dedicated to battling the undead -- claim that the Walking Pox is actually a variant of Nurgle's Rot, since unlike "standard" zombies encountered before the birth of the Great Rift, the victim's flesh often mutates even after physical death, growing horns, tentacles and spikes similar to those of Nurgle's victims who become the Lesser Daemons known as Plaguebearers.
Videos
See Also
Sources
- Gang War 3, "Hot from the Forges: Mail Order Catalog - Plague Zombies: Zombie Regiment," pp. 31-33
- Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pg. 142
- Inquisitor: The Thorians Sourcebook (Specialty Game Background Book)
- Necromunda: Outlanders Rulebook, pp. 81-82
- The Redeemer (Graphic Novel) by Pat Mills and Debbie Gallagher, illustrated by Wayne Reynolds
- The Thirteenth Black Crusade (Background Book) by Andy Hoare, pp. 12-13
- Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (6th Edition), pg. 172
- White Dwarf 198 (US), "Scavvies: Background and Tactics - Plague Zombies," & "Zombie Master: Karloth Valois," pp. 55-58
- White Dwarf 200 (US), "Tales from the Underhive: B-Move Scenario Inspirations - Hive of the Living Dead & I Will Survive"
- False Gods (Novel) by Graham McNeill, pg. 122