[Xenos]Nurgle worshipping race (needs a better name)

[Malika]

With Hive Trygon/Troll Forged mentioning the idea he had for an alien race and Destecado's ideas about humans uploading themselves into machines I've started to ponder how I could fit this all into one concept. Originally my Machine Plague stuff was meant to represent some Legio Cybernetica force which has fallen to Nurgle, but the idea of a Chaos worshipping alien race was just to cool not to have.

Right now I've only got some vague ideas and concepts, not a clear and coherent story but hopefully that will come after some discussion and all that!

Index Xenos – "Nurgle worshipping alien machines" (help Malika find a name!!!)

Evolution and history
-Originally an organic race of predators who hunted in packs (similar to wolves);
-Evolved into creatures who could stand upright, remained predatory though;
-Similar to their animal ancestors these aliens lived/hunted in packs. Clans were formed consisting of several packs;
-Clans started to fight amongst each other, some being conquered while others were completely wiped out;
-Introduction of agriculture. However, instead of growing plants these aliens started to domesticate prey species and bred them for consumption;
-Citystates started to form which were based on the old Clans. These citystates fought amongst each other for food, slaves and other resources;
-With the coming of industrialisation the most powerful citystates managed to conquer their enemies, forming nationstates. These nationstates fought amongst themselves until several empires were formed, each covering a continent of their homeworld;
-The global war (needs a better name): the empires fight amongst themselves until one emerges victorious and basically rules the world;
-Unified under a single leader this race starts to head out for the stars, planets in the local star system are colonised;
-Spaceship developed which are able to travel in the speed of light based on solar sail technology, while fast they are still way slower than Warp travel. Other systems are colonised;
-First contact with humanity. At first this was not hostile, but this quickly changed when the aliens started getting sick. Diseases caused by bacteria/germs/etc introduced on the colonies by humanity. Military raids against humans started to be carried out, eventually humanity left this part of space;
-Disease becomes a major part of their culture, this becomes clearly visible in art and religion;
-"Birth of a God", the aliens start to worship a God of Disease (needs a better name), in reality they are worshipping a god who is already quite old: Nurgle;
-Diseases start to get worse, killing millions. Eventually the aliens encapsulate what is left of their bodies and minds into metallic shells which are parodies of their former bodies. What they did not realise is that Nurgle had a major role in the worsening of the diseases;
-The metallic shells the aliens escaped into start to get sick as well. It is then that the aliens believe/realise that it is their God (Nurgle) who is responsible for this. The aliens embrace their disease as a gift of Nurgle;
-First raids against other races are carried out. Humans, Orks and other species are enslaved not only to work for their rotting mechanic masters but also are sacrificed to Nurgle;
-The Great Crusade: Imperial Army and Space Marine forces under the command of Alpharius manage to wipe out most of the aliens. Most colonies are cleansed and repopulated by humans, home system is completely exterminated (multiple cases of Exterminatus);
-Horus Heresy: survivors attack both sides of the conflict. Due to the distractions of war the Imperium is unable to prevent the aliens from colonising a few worlds in the Revocatus sector;
-Raids carried out against Imperial worlds in both the Revocatus and Anargo sectors;
-Great Xenos War: Imperial forces purge xenos throughout the Esquiline Quadrant. New alien empire is destroyed, survivors manage to escape once again;
-Age of the Imperium: survivors live on giant rotting ships, once in a while raiding Imperial and Ork worlds. Ordo Malleus and Xenos seek to hunt down these Chaos worshipping aliens.

Physical traits
Original organic form:
-7 to 9 feet tall;
-Bipedal, however unlike humans who have a single joint in the leg (knee) these creatures have two;
-Shoulders on top of the body, gives the impression as if the head grows out of the chest;
-Long neck which can move quite freely;
-Single eye, results with these creatures having problems detecting depth;
-Hearing and smell (through the tongue) are way superior compared to humans, those are the main senses used;
-Three sexes: reproduction takes place between a single male and two females (different sexes as well). Male inseminates both females with his orally (similar to the Genestealer's Kiss and how the Xenomorph Facehuggers impregnate their prey). After several weeks both females inseminate each other orally as well, this results in both females becoming pregnant.

Mechanic form:
-Strange parodies of their former selves;
-Increased size, now stand 15 to 20 feet tall;
-Various tools and weapons have become part of their bodies;
-Incapable of reproduction in a natural sense. However AI's with limited intelligence have been created as servants. Another means of "reproduction" has become to copy the conciousness into other bodies. However, these copies lack a true soul and are therefore very much inferior compared to the originals.

Psychological traits
No idea??? Help???

Society
-Single unified society;
-Worships Nurgle;
-Disease and decay major aspects of art and religion;
-Children raised in groups which will become Packs when they grow up;
-Females (both types) are more common than males, males are quite rare which makes them valuable members of society who have to be protected at all cost.

Religion
-Worship/venerate disease;
-Eventually create a godlike form, Nurgle (no they did not create Nurgle, they simply created their own God who already existed);

Civilisation
Already kind of mentioned in Society.

Technology
-Capable of building limited artificial intelligence;
-"Dreadnought technology";
-Limited light speed travel;
-Most weaponry first based on missile/rocket (explosives) technology, later on moved to chemical and biological warfare.

Culture
Pre human contact:
-Statues and jewellery main forms of artistic expression, relate to the glorification of the Pack/Clan;
-Literature based on heroic feats of the Packs/Clans.

Post human contact:
-Disease becomes main theme in various forms of artistic expression;
-Art takes on a more religious form.

Post organic form:
Ideas???

Military
-The Pack remained the basic unit throughout history;
-Biological and chemical warfare become dominant after human contact;
-Military based on carrying out raids to enslave the population, not so much on imperialist needs.

Psykers and chaos
-Haven't reached the evolutionary stage in order for psykers to emerge;
-After human contact started to worship Nurgle.

So yeah, here are just the very basics of this race. As you can see a lot still needs to be fleshed out and re-thought. But yeah...what do you guys think about them so far?

[Destecado]

What about Vokkaran for a name? 

The concept is interesting, although I’m not too sure about escaping the disease through artificial bodies.  I’m not saying that it’s not a possibility and something we should examine, but what about those who found strength in the disease.  You speak of them venerating it or the god who brought it down upon them.  Should it not then have some beneficial effect?

I came up with a concept a while back for a human world that had been infected by the forces of Nurgle.  Several scientists came up with a way to treat the plague.   It required regular infusions of untainted blood to purge the system of the toxins that perpetuated the disease.   The effects of the disease had benefits; no longer felt pain or seemed to age.   Some obtained unusual mental capacities…the ability to control plague zombies and influence those in the throws of the plague.  It was originally an attempt to translate vampire counts into 40K.   

It could possibly be used for the race you have in mind.   Instead of transfusions of blood, what about the disease renewing the predatory habits of their past?   Like the old adage, starve a cold and feed a fever, it could be eating others or more accurately infecting them, which staves off the worst parts of the disease.   Their mouths and claws are rife with disease.  Even a scratch could be a death sentence.   

It could be that they first set upon each other, with only the strongest “surviving”.  They then branched out to attack other races to feed “the hunger”.   If they are unable to feed, the disease turns inward and starts to once again devour them.   It is in a way a two edge sword.   It gives them strength, resilience and other abilities, but these abilities require a constant influx of raw protein.   Hmm…maybe this makes them like the Skaven of Warhammer Fantasy. 

[Malika]

Hmm, sound intriguing. I was also pondering about the potential of them devouring souls or giving souls to Nurgle so that they remain alive. Very similar to the relationship the Dark Eldar seem to have with Slaanesh. However I don't know if that would be the greatest solution. The idea that the Eldar Fall had a major impact on this race might be interesting to look into though. I mean the birth of a Chaos God caused a gigantic shockwave in the Warp. Perhaps they embraced Nurgle as a means of escaping this shockwave or something along those lines.

Which leaves me curious though, what other (official) races were directly affected by the Eldar Fall?

[CELS]

None. But the orks were noticeably more grumpy for several days.

I'm going to have to reply to this topic later, since I'm focussing on the website stuff at the moment. For what it's worth, I think it's great to see another alien race, and a chaos corrupted one at that!

Only a few brief comments;
- I would advise against the soul devouring
- The antihumanoid in me would suggest a less humanoid appearance, even if they do survive in humanoid 'dreadnought' suits. Oh, and I assume they come from a nocturnal world or something since they don't have very good vision? It's very uncharacteristic of a predator to have poor vision. Most animal predators have both their eyes in front of their head as opposed to the sides of their heads for just this reason.
- I love the idea of solar sails, but as an intersystem propulsion, it doesn't work very well. Not enough starlight. I do suggest you keep it as intrasystem propulsion though.

More later, I hope.

[Malika]

None. But the orks were noticeably more grumpy for several days.

Too bad because well...I kind of assumed that the shockwave would have had some major impact on the universe. Oh well...at least you made it kill the Aoideans! 

I'm going to have to reply to this topic later, since I'm focussing on the website stuff at the moment. For what it's worth, I think it's great to see another alien race, and a chaos corrupted one at that!

I'm not getting why every race in the 40k universe seems to be immune to Chaos...or least leave me with that impression... 

- I would advise against the soul devouring

Just a thing I was pondering about, perhaps direct sacrifices to Nurgle instead?

- The antihumanoid in me would suggest a less humanoid appearance, even if they do survive in humanoid 'dreadnought' suits. Oh, and I assume they come from a nocturnal world or something since they don't have very good vision? It's very uncharacteristic of a predator to have poor vision. Most animal predators have both their eyes in front of their head as opposed to the sides of their heads for just this reason.

Fair enough, now I need to find a way to create a cool non-humanoid race who still has the ability to create technology. One might then also wonder why they would have picked humanoid shells to incase themselves in.

As for the predator...perhaps a total lack of eyes might be even more interesting or perhaps the eye is used to detect something else? So that they use smell/taste/touch/sound to track their prey while the eye is used to...I don't know, detect light or some sort of infrared thing like the Predator (GET TO DA CHOPPA!!!)

- I love the idea of solar sails, but as an intersystem propulsion, it doesn't work very well. Not enough starlight. I do suggest you keep it as intrasystem propulsion though.

Unless they manage to store the energy the sails capture in some sort of battery. I know it's not very effective but that is the whole idea, their interstellar travel might be relatively "fast" (just breaking the light barrier) but it's not good enough to expand that far.

More later, I hope.

Always curious to see what you will come up with! 

[Destecado]

Another possibility for a name:

Bruhmali / Brudmali / Bruhdmali / Bromali / Brumali

It's meant to be a portmanteau of brood and  mali ((Latin: bad, badly, harsh, wrong; ill; evil; abnormal, defective).  In latin mali is usually used as a prefix, but this is suppose to be an alien language, so I didn't think it mattered.  It could also be that this is the closest approximation of the name in human language.   Humans and other species may not be able to reproduce the low-pitched vocalizations.

I've been thinking about the poor eyesight issue.    What about using the low-pitched vocalizations as part of an acoustical sensing ability...similar to echolocation.   The subsonic thrumming allows them to communicate over long distances (like lions).   At close range, it could also possibly be used as a weapon against prey (to stun them).  Researchers are currently designing weapons which use subsonic or infrasonic (frequencies less than 20 Hz) sound to incapacitate and kill.


EDIT

Just a little edition to the acoustical sensory organ idea…I was watching a program about strange adaptations and one of the species examined was the star-nosed mole.   The star-nosed mole gets its name from the fleshy appendage which extends from its face.  Twenty-two tentacle-like feelers radiate out.  There has been some debate as to how this organ actually works.   New research seems to point towards a very sensitive touch sense organ.   

While this is the case with the star-nosed mole, my thought was to perhaps use something similar for the purposes of an acoustical sense, a sense of smell or perhaps both.  Minute hairs along such tentacles could be similar to the hairs in the inner ear.  They might be sensitive to noise or vibrations and if splayed out, could provide a more accurate assessment of the point of origin (for the sound).   Another advantage is that noises behind would also register…depending on the location of the tentacles.   This could make them very hard to sneak up behind. 

If we go with the infrasound "bellowing", maybe the tentacles pull back just before.  This would prevent them from stunning themselves with their own bellow.   Tentacles pulled back could be a sign of aggression...i.e "ready to strike"
Hmm...maybe the tentacles are a bit too think.   Maybe longer thinner hair like appendages...smaller in size, but more numerous.

Any thoughts?

[Govinda]

     I too am not fond of humanoid aliens but i really like the premise.
the idea of undergoing cybogisation in order to escape the curse of nurgle. It could be a race, faction or individual, willing to leave behind any trace of his biological self in order avoid the malediction.
       But you never escape a power of the warp when it is after you and even if it is perfectly protected, the cursed could be a major vector of the decease.
       I envision one or more servoskull type bots in a cloud of Nurgle green sickness, desperatly trying to escape the plans the dark brewer has for them. they would be at the same time ennemies of Nurgle, experts in the ways of healing the dark plague, and his unwilling servants, bringing sickness wherever they go.

erm , i just realise it was stated "worshipping" alien race, mine are not simply cursed.