Nurgle

About

Nurgle, also known as the Plague Lord, Grandfather Nurgle and the Lord of Pestilence, is a fictional character from the Warhammer universe (Fantasy and 40K) and one of the Chaos Gods, specifically of disease, decay, death and destruction. In memes, he is often used alongside references to his association with diseases, which is frequently seen in both anti-vax memes and memes surrounding the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic. In these, Nurgle is often used as a reaction image to anything that depicts people making decisions that lead to the further spread of sickness where he appears to voice his pleasure or happiness due to their actions. “Papa Nurgle” is the name frequently used in humorous content featuring the Lord of Pestilence, which refers to his paternal stance. Of all the Chaos Gods, only Nurgle is said to truly care for his followers.

Origin

As with many figures in the Warhammer universe, Nurgle originally stems from a real-world example. In Ancient Mesopotamia, the deity “Nergal” was worshipped throughout the region, and he even appears in the Hebrew Bible. His followers worshipped him as the god of war, plague, death and disease, sharing many similarities with Nurgle from Warhammer.

The Chaos Gods, including Nurgle, were introduced to Warhammer by Games Workshop^[1] in 1990, following the “Realm of Chaos” sourcebooks (shown below). In the fictional universe, Nurgle and the other Chaos Gods (except Slannesh) were birthed together before mankind but only became conscious later on. Nurgle became conscious around the time of the Black Death. In the lore, his followers relish in the pestilence he inflicts upon mortals, feeding off their despair. Unlike many of the other gods, his followers are somewhat beloved by him and are ultimately gifted with immortality, often turning to Nurgle upon being afflicted by disease that causes intense suffering (although they are often horribly warped into plague-ridden monstrosities).

Spread

The majority of Nurgle memes initially appeared alongside the anti-vax movement, where people would mock their ideas for helping to spread diseases. One such example was posted to the satirical news site NewsThump^[2] on June 5th, 2019, under the title, “Leading anti-vaxxer becomes Daemon Prince of Nurgle.” The article (seen below) has since received over 21,000 likes on Facebook.

On August 16th, 2020, the Facebook^[3] page Freak Show of Madness posted another anti-vax meme to their feed (shown below) receiving 81 likes, 17 shares and 10 comments.

During the coronavirus pandemic, particularly around March and April 2020, Nurgle can be seen in numerous memes that associate his relationship with diseases to COVID-19. Many of these either attribute the cause of the outbreak to Nurgle himself or how the actions of protestors rallying against quarantine orders please the Lord of Pestilence. On March 13th, 2020, YouTuber^[4] Majorkill uploaded the video “Nurgle EXPLAINED by An Australian | CoronaVirus Special” that discusses the topic. The video (seen below) received nearly 46,000 views, 3,400 likes and 455 comments.

The trend also spread to Reddit,^[5] where it was frequently seen in memes on Warhammer subreddits, such as r/Grimdank. On May 10th, 2020, Redditor^[6] DarkGaurdian29 posted another example to the r/Grimdank sub, where it was upvoted 384 times (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References