All life feeds upon other life to exist, and from every plague grows new

generations, stronger and more virile than those who came before. Regeneration
comes from decay, just as hope springs from despair. The greatest inspiration comes
in the darkest moments; in times of crisis mortals are truly tested and driven to
excel.

Grandfather Nurgle within his vile Garden in the Realm of Chaos.

To understand what might otherwise seem contradictory or even perverse in nature,

one must first comprehend that which Nurgle embodies. On the one hand, it is the
Lord of Decay, whose body is wracked with disease; on the other, the god is full of
unexpected energy and a desire to organise and enlighten.

The citizens of the Imperium know full well that their lives will end one day and
that many of their number will live with disease or other torments in the meantime,
yet they drive this knowledge deep into the corners of their minds and bury it with
dreams and ceaseless activity.

Nurgle is the embodiment of that knowledge of mortality and the unconscious

response of all sentient beings to the knowledge of their own ending. It is the
hidden fear of disease and decay, the gnawing truth of mortality and the power of
defiance that it generates.

Nurgle itself takes the form of a titanic flesh-hulk riddled with decay and
pestilence. Its gigantic carcass is bloated with corruption and exudes an
overpowering stench that gnaws the mind. Its skin is greenish, leathery and
necrotic, its surface abundant with running sores, swelling boils and fruitful
infestation.

Nurgle's gurgling and pulsating organs are rank with the excrement of decay,
spilling and spurting through its ruptured skin to hang like obscene fruit around
its girth.

From these organs burst swarms of tiny Nurglings that chew on Grandfather Nurgle's
rotting intestines and suck upon its bountiful, noxious juices.

Every single human being in the galaxy has been touched by Nurgle's foetid hand at
some point. Countless trillions are host to its malignant, invisible creations,
which corrupt their physical forms and sow despair in their minds. Interplanetary
traffic ensures that contagious diseases are carried from world to world by the
ignorant, the wilful and the strong.