In the chaos game i am playing a nurglite who tries to bring all he can into 'grandfather's graces'. A fallen ecclesiarch who has come to change with his acceptance of chaos, all are welcome in grandfather's garden (ect) so instead of being xenophobic he will welcome all he can using any method at his disposal (before striking down those who reject his gifts).

So my question is this, since kroot would be the easiest to bring in on as allies (paid mercenaries) and they could be brought to embrace something to be stonger (with shaper's blessing) how would you feel/think nurgle would effect and change them?

ps: gm is ok with this and is going with it (will still be worked for) just curious on opinions

In the chaos game i am playing a nurglite who tries to bring all he can into 'grandfather's graces'. A fallen ecclesiarch who has come to change with his acceptance of chaos, all are welcome in grandfather's garden (ect) so instead of being xenophobic he will welcome all he can using any method at his disposal (before striking down those who reject his gifts).

So my question is this, since kroot would be the easiest to bring in on as allies (paid mercenaries) and they could be brought to embrace something to be stonger (with shaper's blessing) how would you feel/think nurgle would effect and change them?

ps: gm is ok with this and is going with it (will still be worked for) just curious on opinions

Well, the eaters of the dead strike me as ripe for grandfather's blessings, whether the shaper wants it or not.

After all, you are what you eat...all the more literally where daemonic plagues are concerned.

There was an account in White Dwarf of something similar happening after Kroot fed on the corpses of Slaaneshi heretics and marines and subsequently fell under the control of a daemon of Slaanesh.

But yes, you'll do best if you get the kindred's shaper on-side first (seduction test to convert him to nurgle?) - a master shaper is often a minor psyker, and leads a sizeable force of troops, and has an innate knowledge of matters genetic; he should make a fine lesser champion.

Sadly, corrupted xenos is given extremely little exposure in official WH40k publications, whether it's Games Workshop or Fantasy Flight Games. In reality, practically everyone, to different degrees (Tau are resistant because they have very small souls, Orks are resistant because they are single-minded, Craftworld Eldar are extremely focused and practice ascetic discipline, etc), yet we never get to see those few Orks that have fallen to Khorne because they lost themselves in battle against Chaos, or those eldar that throw themselves into the arms of the other ruinous powers to save themselves from She Who Thirsts, etc.

And I know that Kroot specifically avoid eating mutants (or what is referred to as mutants in 40k, that is, those adversely affected by Warp influences). They are or should be aware of the ruinous powers to some degree (likely veiled in shamanistic mumbo-jumbo) and will likely shy away from it, and more likely than not, react violently to someone within their ranks not adhering to these likely very strong taboos.

After all, the genetic structure of kroot-kind is malleable, which is likely their strongest trait, but also a considerable weakness once "damaged goods" have weaselled itself into the gene-pool.

But I really like your idea and I don't see why it wouldn't work. I would go with Grendel's suggestion of trying to subvert the leader of a pack or tribe, such as a Shaper, although reality might stop you from reaching or turning one of the higher-ups of kroot "society".

How would the Kroot be affected? I'm not sure, but I'd expect it to result in a strong "battle" between the invading influences of the warp and the chaos-affected genome, and the existing kroot genetic structure, resulting in a rather uniform appearance amongst the kroot, rather than wildly unpredictable mutations across the board and tribe.

I am imagining a tribe of kroot that are obviously diseased, with parts of their bodies crawling with parasites (so, like usual, but more obviously, with large worms slithering around their "hair", covering the top of their skulls). Their bites would obviously become toxic, moreso than whatever gangrene might've set in before (C'mon, they're birds/lizards, their bites are crawling with parasites and bacteria).

Their apparently very efficient metabolisms would likely take a hit, perhaps making them more corpulent or less capable of processing food, maybe adding more of what they eat straight to their body-mass. They would likely appear slightly bloated, maybe a Shaper would be moreso, but it's unlikely they would be adversely affected by it, remaining highly mobile. And lastly, they'd obviously become tougher and more resilient. I would argue that their skin would harden, and parts of it scab over, and their bones become softer (but not more brittle), and their intestines detaching on the inside, becoming looser (and likely infected by yet more parasites). You could represent this with Unnatural Toughness and bonuses to contortionism or somesuch, maybe just add some Armour, or all of it.

Lastly, I'd give them all the Gift of the Gods Pervasive Miasma, because those things likely smelled bad already. Imagine a pack of them now.

Thank you for the responces. I was trying to visualize possible changes. The character will possibly convert a small band but dream of one day bringing a warshere into nurgles embrace. I am glad my gm is open minded enough to say it is possible to corrupt kroot but has made it clear it will be a task to be worked towards.

Found a quote from the White Dwarf article:

As Slaanesh’s army approached our allies, horrifying changes began rippling through the Kroot and they began convulsing, screeching horribly as their flesh erupted in mutation. At this point I realised that these were the Kroot who had feasted on the flesh of the enemy dead at Fio’kai. Slaanesh’s main thrust suddenly altered direction and, instead of charging the Kroot, began heading towards my position. Worse still, the Kroot I had stationed in front as the lure, began advancing alongside Slaanesh’s forces with murder in their eyes!

I don't remember seeing a specific prohibition on eating mutants, but I can imagine one being put into place after this happened....

The thing that really seems to send Kroot into a state of enraged wibbling is genestealers.

I don't remember seeing a specific prohibition on eating mutants

Could just be one of the usual discrepancies between different books. This is 40k, after all, and every writer likes to make up new stuff.

Both options make sense to me, so just go with what you think suits best.

Sadly, corrupted xenos is given extremely little exposure in official WH40k publications, whether it's Games Workshop or Fantasy Flight Games. In reality, practically everyone, to different degrees (Tau are resistant because they have very small souls, Orks are resistant because they are single-minded, Craftworld Eldar are extremely focused and practice ascetic discipline, etc), yet we never get to see those few Orks that have fallen to Khorne because they lost themselves in battle against Chaos, or those eldar that throw themselves into the arms of the other ruinous powers to save themselves from She Who Thirsts, etc.

Though I do recall a battle narrative about a bunch of Orks who accidentally started praying to Nurgle because they mistook one of his shrines for one of Gork/Mork.

An interesting image:

Go go Gadget d100 Ork Mutations Table!

Seriously though, humanity gets a tad bit too much exposure when it comes to Chaos. We know for a fact that Kroot can fall to Chaos. We know for a fact that Orks can fall to Chaos. We know for a fact that Eldar can fall to Chaos.

We've seen machines "fall" to Chaos. In all seriousness, a bicycle could likely fall to Chaos, given some effort.

Anyone with a soul can theoretically fall to Chaos. The fact that some are incredibly warded against it, is no argument.

Orks can fall to Chaos, they just tend not to, because they are single-minded and only need Gork/Mork ('n' GorkaMorka can lit'rlly stompa 'sum dem khaos if want).

Kroot can fall to Chaos, they just tend not to, likely because they are pretty simple beings with strong taboos.

Eldar can fall to Chaos, they just tend not to, because they either train discipline for hundreds of years or go to great lengths to weed out their latent psychic nature while also replenishing their souls with the souls of others.

Honestly, what protects the Corsairs and Exodites in this regard, though? They don't practice the purity of aspect of the Craftworld Eldar, nor the constant (actually real) rapeculture of of the Dark Eldar.

Tau can probably fall to Chaos, they just tend not to, because they are a small speck on the galactic chart that nobody cares about, and they are nearly soulless, so they don't attract chaos like moths to a flame.

Necrons can't fall to Chaos, because they're pretty much robots protected/enslaved by the C'tan. Long story short, Chaos and C'tan don't mix.

Tyranids don't fall to Chaos, probably because they are a tremendously powerful hive conciousness. Arguably, this could be simply because the individual tyranids don't have souls, and the one soul each Hive Fleet does have, is enormously powerful. Now imagine if Chaos managed to corrupt one of them. Horrifying.

Grey Knights can fall to Chaos, they just don't, because they are covered in a metric ton of wards and brainwash that is more like a mix of plasteel, ferrocrete and ceramite than an actual living person.

And with all this in mind, why don't we get to see more of these? Now, from a Games Workshop perspective, I understand why, they don't want to create eighty-four different armies that all sell poorly, and they don't want to create a whole mountain-range of special snowflake models that aren't contextually relevant, with attached rules and rulesets. I get that.

But I'd think that the roleplaying game, which has none of these difficulties, would be an excellent place to explore these things. We have Black Crusade, a full game dedicated to Chaos, that nontheless only focuses on humans and space marines. Again.

And I understand if they don't want to make rules for playing as these characters, but I would really love if chaos amongst xenos were at least mentioned. Everything can be corrupted. Everyone can be turned. Kroot, Orks, Eldar, it doesn't matter. Some examples, some effects, some descriptions, maybe an adventure centred around a xenos conflict, or hell, abhumans. Never have I heard of a race more deserving of falling to Slaanesh than Ratlings.

Honestly, what protects the Corsairs and Exodites in this regard, though? They don't practice the purity of aspect of the Craftworld Eldar, nor the constant (actually real) rapeculture of of the Dark Eldar.

It is the great World Spirit of the Exodite planet (AKA Exodite version of Infinity Circuit) that keeps their souls protected.

*read in the voice of old Indian Shaman*

Corsairs If I understand have Spirit Stones just like Craftworld Eldars for collecting departeds soul.

Never have I heard of a race more deserving of falling to Slaanesh than Ratlings.

How do you know they haven't already They might be just posing as Corpse-Emperor lovers Little Buggers they are.

Seriously though, humanity gets a tad bit too much exposure

Fixed that for you.

I pretty much agree with your post tho. Even if I'm willing to buy into the idea that Humans are just more prone to falling to Chaos than everyone(?) else, probably as a mixture of their crazy 40k lifestyle and some biological BS reason (latent psyker genes as an inherent weakness? being "one step away" from evolution to a species of psykers making them more vulnerable, as there is no "balance" yet?).

It would still be interesting to hear more from the other species, even if it's more of an exception amongst them.

To be honest, it's nice to hear about minor races generally (part of the reason I like the Calixis/Koronus setting!)

The Yu'Vath - if they ever existed - clearly got touched by the Dark God's noodly appendages, and the Rak'Gol are going the same way.

The Slaugth are probably pretty chaos-proof as an entire untouchable species.

Kroot have rules against eating mutants but they aren't common sense to the normal population. It is the shapers that deal with what is eadible and what is not. Get rid of the shaper or put a more pro-chaos one and you get mutant kroot. So I say that it is plausible but tough.

This picture just is awsome...

Ya a good portion of effort will be taken to convincing the shapers that this will make kroot stronger.

Indeed I agree fully interesting enough during one of the campaigns with my friends one of them decided to do a chaos eldar. It was fun and interesting and I recommend more people to run xeno chaos characters. Plus people have a myth that if an eldar decides to worship slaanesh she/he would just gobble them up.

I disagree in this case because there are sources which state with the eldar slaanesh is acting in a crazy form of spurned lover situation. What do you guys think? I mean It would take an extreme case for it to happen but I don't think the chaos gods would turn down a champion that does awesome things and sends them lots of souls in sacrifice.

Plus nurgle orks look awesome.

I'd like to see some Vespid (stingwings) infected with nurgle's rot and their heads mutating into the heads of flies.

Vespids with the head of flies...