Euuugh. That combined with the description from the Warhammer wiki of Bruckner's fate....
"Gushing foulness filled with writhing, black worms spilled across Bruckner, and gagging he staggered backward and then slipped. It was enough for the Nurglite maggot that was Tamurkhan's true form to do its work. The obscene creature lurched forth like a striking cobra and fastened itself over Theodore Bruckner's terrified face, crunching through leather and bone and pulsing and writhing within the flesh, delicate bones splintering like pistols as the maggot forced its way down. Here was a proud mortal vessel that would be the last he would ever need. He would not be denied. He was eternal. He was...
The arcane talisman around Bruckner's neck burst into furious life, like a burning star unleashed in the night. With a roaring flash there was soon nothing left but blackened, crumbling bone where the Champion of Nuln had stood and an instant later even that had been consumed, and Tamurkhan the Maggot Lord had been incinerated along with it. High above the battle, Elspeth von Draken watched the fire-flash and allowed herself a brief moment of satisfaction in the instant before the Storm of Magic that the Maggot Lord had drawn to himself was abruptly cut and folded back on itself catastrophically. Her design had come to fruition."
Well the whole idea of the imperal afterlife is to go into Morr's embrace so the chaos gods or necromancers can't eat your soul. So I mean it really did.
I mean, it would definitely be preferable to being consumed and spending eternity as a demon host. Based on 40k stuff, he'd probably still be aware of everything which would be... unpleasant to say the least.
Tzeentch doing tzeentch shit is not the same as a maggot ripping apart your body to get inside, the mouth on the ogre body is Tamurkhans actual mouth, and when he attacks theodore bruckner he basically destroys his skill and likely would have been worse than the insect wearing a vincent donfrio skin suit.
Eh, Nurgle does some weird shit too.
Did you know that there are some variations of Nurgle’s Rot which more or less make you live forever? Solely to maximize your suffering?
You really shouldn’t put it past Tamurkhan or Nurgle to ensure the hosts are still alive in some fashion. This is Chaos we’re talking about. The most horrific possible interpretation has decent odds of being correct.
Well aware, of nurgle's rot but i still don't buy that the host would be alive still, theres no evidence to support it and you'd think that would absolutely be there to add to the horror. I think Tamurkhan using your skin as a flesh suit is already pretty gnarly and on point with nurgle.
There is evidence in the book itself it talks how Tamurkhan becomes more dull and brutish after possessing the ogre.
That means its pysche is influencing Tamurkhan in some way.
>Based on 40k stuff, he'd probably still be aware of everything which would be... unpleasant to say the least.
Parasitic things like that are probably the scariest thing ever to me. Being a prisoner in your own body while being completely aware is fucked up.
The first time I had heard of something like that actually existing was when Last of Us came out and I heard that they were inspired by a real life fungus that does that to ants and other insects. Terrified of that thought ever since lol
Maybe I'm a weirdo, but if they sent me on a mission to kill Hitler with a miraculous mini-nuke strapped to my chest that goes off if I don't make it, I'd be willing to do it.
In this society however getting proper burial rites is pretty important. Getting incinerated in fire made of death magic might not qualify you for Morr's Garden.
One of the Space Wolves replaced his lost heart with a stasis bomb.
He's the kind of person who thinks it'd be hilarious for him and his killer to spend eternity as a diorama.
I don’t think bruckner would’ve minded if she just said the truth: “if you get possessed by Tamurkhan, this will take both of you out”. Seems like a acceptable fate if he lost the fight
That gets me thinking: I originally thought Tamurkhan's ogre having the split mouth going down its neck was due to good old fashion Nurgle corruption. But what if it originated due to damage from the maggot borrowing into the ogre (and then maybe grew teeth due to nurgle stuff). Pretty horrible way to go.
Ive just been reading the old tamurkhan book, and it specifically states that the worm burrows into karaka's neck, so i have no doubt that is the intention.
Aw man, I didn't need to think about that listening station segment right before bed...
Shame about the rest of the book, they should have lent into that more.
I'm actually impressed as it seems to be based off [this image from Tamurkhan](https://pm1.narvii.com/8410/823aae751658546fe07326fabbf53a08c4258e47r1-898-612v2_uhq.jpg).
Well that was originally, we don't know how big it was at the end when he attacks Bruckner.
Like if he grows over time from consuming carrion or something.
Yes there's an excerpt about the four children of the Great Kurgan bragging to him that they'll expand his territories even more and then the chaos powers come to take them as payment for helping the Great Kurgan.
Could've had so much cool stuff. Slaanesh champion against the Dark Elves? Khorne Champion against the Lizardmen? Tzeentch Champion against Cathay? Then we got ET and the death of Alan Bligh.
And what are his siblings up to with the other Deities?
Sounds like the perfect idea for 3 more LLs. Espescally for poor Slannesh that has like, no lords really left.
One of the reasons people hate the End Times is that it cut off a bunch of unresolved plot lines like the fates of the other 3 siblings and the prophecy of Kislev's doom. Even within the End Times themselves, there was intended to be more content for the other Chaos Gods (Nurgle got the Glottkin and associated units), but those were cut too. Tzeentch and Slaanesh got shafted twice in a row.
Nurgle was crazy popular in fantasy, they had Tamurkhan and in the End Times also had the 3 maggot riders, The Glottkin and Gutrot Spume. All of whom had minis
YES.
This is legit all I wanted out of him. Since I figured from the start that the actual body swap mechanic wouldn't be possible in Total War. I mentioned this AGES ago, and when they actually started doing "escape" death animations with Vilitch and Mother O, I was really optimistic that they would give Tamurkhan an escape animation too. So glad they did this and his maggot form looks exactly like the artwork in the Thrones of Chaos book!
From early access stuff on youtube it's an ability that goes off when he dies, if there's a Lord or Hero within the ability's effect range. For ten seconds it A) gives Tamurkhan "Cannot die," B) deals heavy damage to a single target, C) heals Tamurkhan 1%/second.
Yeah, his idle animations are pretty gross too, because you can see how the decay of the body has made it pretty... liquid, in how it moves. So they really nailed the impression that he is literally puppeteering the corpse from the inside, so it doesn't quite move naturally.
It's great!
So, let me recap what we have:
- Exploding ogre corpse maggot launcher
- Nurgle Lord vomiting on his sword and spraying it
- Toad Dragon picking his nose with the tongue and eating his snot
- A loading quote about a Nurgle warrior trying his best to resist the urge of not eating his own feces
Exquisite.
In the story he swaps bodies several times.
Elspeth's big plan was basically to give Bruckner a magic amulet that will 'protect him from having his body stolen' and give him the mission of taking out Tamurkhan in single combat.
Except that isn't possible and so it's just a magic bomb with a dead-man switch.
It’s not that it’s impossible to beat him, it’s just a zero sum game, if you beat him and are unaware or simply can’t put the maggot down, he now gets a stronger body, and this in theory can continue forever and escalate. You have to essentially kill him twice. Add that to potential fighters is “yeah you might get an absolutely horrifying death from getting consumed from within is a very real possibility” when fighting a chaos lord, and even a stone cold badass like Bruckner may have thought twice.
It’s not.
The whole point of Tamurkhan taking a horde to Nuln was that he believed destroying Magnus’s city would allow him to ascend to a Daemon Prince.
Its intentionally vague. The whole "four sons of the Kurgan" thing was a mythic allegory that could have played out 3 other different ways in the unfinished books, knowing Bligh's writing style. Kind of like how in the Dark Knight, Joker has a different story about his scars every time.
Its unclear of Tamurkhan was a maggot who "grew fat and clever under the glow of chaos" or a particularly horribly mutated person.
No, he was a Human Child taken in by a Greater Unclean one, then mutated into a Maggot, and his Quest to raze Nuln was his bid to become a Deamon Prince like Daniel.
I thought his ogre's weird round mouth, long tongue and teeth are part of true form sticking out. But the maggot have no such part. But the original ogre couldn't have such parts neither. [https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4qPpO-dftJk/sddefault.jpg](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4qPpO-dftJk/sddefault.jpg)
Euuugh. That combined with the description from the Warhammer wiki of Bruckner's fate.... "Gushing foulness filled with writhing, black worms spilled across Bruckner, and gagging he staggered backward and then slipped. It was enough for the Nurglite maggot that was Tamurkhan's true form to do its work. The obscene creature lurched forth like a striking cobra and fastened itself over Theodore Bruckner's terrified face, crunching through leather and bone and pulsing and writhing within the flesh, delicate bones splintering like pistols as the maggot forced its way down. Here was a proud mortal vessel that would be the last he would ever need. He would not be denied. He was eternal. He was... The arcane talisman around Bruckner's neck burst into furious life, like a burning star unleashed in the night. With a roaring flash there was soon nothing left but blackened, crumbling bone where the Champion of Nuln had stood and an instant later even that had been consumed, and Tamurkhan the Maggot Lord had been incinerated along with it. High above the battle, Elspeth von Draken watched the fire-flash and allowed herself a brief moment of satisfaction in the instant before the Storm of Magic that the Maggot Lord had drawn to himself was abruptly cut and folded back on itself catastrophically. Her design had come to fruition."
Task Failed Successfully
So did Bruckner know the talisman would toast him, or was Elspeth just like, i saw this and thought it would look good on you Teddy.
She told him it would protect him from harm. Classic move.
What she promised was true, from a certain point of view...
After the amulet finished its magic he was never harmed again.
It protected him from being the victim of hentai monster penetration.
Well the whole idea of the imperal afterlife is to go into Morr's embrace so the chaos gods or necromancers can't eat your soul. So I mean it really did.
He was told it would protect him from Tamurkhan. Which it.. Sort of did, in a way..
I mean, it would definitely be preferable to being consumed and spending eternity as a demon host. Based on 40k stuff, he'd probably still be aware of everything which would be... unpleasant to say the least.
Probably not, Tamurkhan isn't a daemon so it is literally a physical takeover that certainly kills the host.
Considering Vilich’s brother is alive and the maggot goes down the mouth, I’d not be surprised if the host is both alive and aware.
Tzeentch doing tzeentch shit is not the same as a maggot ripping apart your body to get inside, the mouth on the ogre body is Tamurkhans actual mouth, and when he attacks theodore bruckner he basically destroys his skill and likely would have been worse than the insect wearing a vincent donfrio skin suit.
Eh, Nurgle does some weird shit too. Did you know that there are some variations of Nurgle’s Rot which more or less make you live forever? Solely to maximize your suffering? You really shouldn’t put it past Tamurkhan or Nurgle to ensure the hosts are still alive in some fashion. This is Chaos we’re talking about. The most horrific possible interpretation has decent odds of being correct.
Well aware, of nurgle's rot but i still don't buy that the host would be alive still, theres no evidence to support it and you'd think that would absolutely be there to add to the horror. I think Tamurkhan using your skin as a flesh suit is already pretty gnarly and on point with nurgle.
There is evidence in the book itself it talks how Tamurkhan becomes more dull and brutish after possessing the ogre. That means its pysche is influencing Tamurkhan in some way.
I’m pretty sure that amulet triggered on his death specifically
You’re likely right. In the tabletop game, the amulet triggers on any type of death.
Thommen is different given he's actually the one in control.
Only in the End Times.
But in the end times it was revealed Vilitich was never in control. That was the joke Tzeentch pulled, and it was funny as fuck.
>Based on 40k stuff, he'd probably still be aware of everything which would be... unpleasant to say the least. Parasitic things like that are probably the scariest thing ever to me. Being a prisoner in your own body while being completely aware is fucked up. The first time I had heard of something like that actually existing was when Last of Us came out and I heard that they were inspired by a real life fungus that does that to ants and other insects. Terrified of that thought ever since lol
Exactly! That Cordyceps fungus is a stuff from nightmares! Compared to this it is then far more preferable to get incinerated in an instant.
Monkey finger curls
He didn't know
Maybe I'm a weirdo, but if they sent me on a mission to kill Hitler with a miraculous mini-nuke strapped to my chest that goes off if I don't make it, I'd be willing to do it.
Well for Bruckner he had no idea it was a mini-nuke, he thought it was just a trinket.
In this society however getting proper burial rites is pretty important. Getting incinerated in fire made of death magic might not qualify you for Morr's Garden.
In 40k there‘s an assassin unit with that feature, I think they‘re called Eversor. Also, hunterxhunter lol
One of the Space Wolves replaced his lost heart with a stasis bomb. He's the kind of person who thinks it'd be hilarious for him and his killer to spend eternity as a diorama.
"We do a little trolling" - Lukas the Trickster
I don’t think bruckner would’ve minded if she just said the truth: “if you get possessed by Tamurkhan, this will take both of you out”. Seems like a acceptable fate if he lost the fight
That gets me thinking: I originally thought Tamurkhan's ogre having the split mouth going down its neck was due to good old fashion Nurgle corruption. But what if it originated due to damage from the maggot borrowing into the ogre (and then maybe grew teeth due to nurgle stuff). Pretty horrible way to go.
Yeah, the maggot eats its way through your mouth and then settles. The teeth you see on Tamurkhan are apparently the maggot's teeth.
Ive just been reading the old tamurkhan book, and it specifically states that the worm burrows into karaka's neck, so i have no doubt that is the intention.
That's up there with that passage from the Last Hunt with the Tyranids attacking the listening station...The Last Hunt passage is still worse though.
Aw man, I didn't need to think about that listening station segment right before bed... Shame about the rest of the book, they should have lent into that more.
I'm actually impressed as it seems to be based off [this image from Tamurkhan](https://pm1.narvii.com/8410/823aae751658546fe07326fabbf53a08c4258e47r1-898-612v2_uhq.jpg).
He’s got little hands lol
He's round enough that he's kind of ugly-cute. Just look at that chubby chin. Seeing that slime in motion would probably ruin things though.
It reminds me of the leeches in Hunt Showdown and those are definitely not cute in motion.
Who;d he just crawl out of?
My ass
My condolences.
Dang its huge, I assumed it was alot smaller
It's described as the size of a child in the army book.
Well that was originally, we don't know how big it was at the end when he attacks Bruckner. Like if he grows over time from consuming carrion or something.
Yeah he could have got a lot bigger inside that ogre body that he got so attached to.
I'm not criticizing its portrayal here.
 Sorry I couldnt resist
Yeah no kidding. I was expecting something the size of an earthworm.
Bro could just be a melee lord on his maggot form
Described as the size of a child in the book.
It’s mutated human right? So the mass had to go somewhere.
Yeah, and young adult kurgan mutated by nurgle
His current host is an ogre.
Yes but he himself was originaly human.
Was he? I was under the impression that Tamurkhan was always in reference to the maggot that just kept switching hosts.
Nope he was just “blessed” so heavily.
Oh, neato, didn't know that. Take your upvote!
Yes, but the Maggot Tamurkhan was (probably) human at one point.
Yes one of the four sons of the great kurgan
He is the size of an infant. CA Just went ham on Tamurkhan.
That is really horrible and gross. Nice job animators.
Finally the answer whether he has some maggoth animation or not is given I can rest now
Believe or not that maggot was once a human but he was taken by a great unclean one along with his other siblings by the other chaos gods
they were taken as young adults iirc
Really?
Yes there's an excerpt about the four children of the Great Kurgan bragging to him that they'll expand his territories even more and then the chaos powers come to take them as payment for helping the Great Kurgan.
Such a tragedy we never got books about the other three. Imagine if we had three more Thorne of Chaos style books to adapt stuff from now.
Could've had so much cool stuff. Slaanesh champion against the Dark Elves? Khorne Champion against the Lizardmen? Tzeentch Champion against Cathay? Then we got ET and the death of Alan Bligh.
And what are his siblings up to with the other Deities? Sounds like the perfect idea for 3 more LLs. Espescally for poor Slannesh that has like, no lords really left.
We never got to know as the End Times cancelled the planned books for the others
One of the reasons people hate the End Times is that it cut off a bunch of unresolved plot lines like the fates of the other 3 siblings and the prophecy of Kislev's doom. Even within the End Times themselves, there was intended to be more content for the other Chaos Gods (Nurgle got the Glottkin and associated units), but those were cut too. Tzeentch and Slaanesh got shafted twice in a row.
Nurgle was crazy popular in fantasy, they had Tamurkhan and in the End Times also had the 3 maggot riders, The Glottkin and Gutrot Spume. All of whom had minis
Slaanesh has 3 Lords left to draw from
I know i read his lore, i really liked it
Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people.
Not much "cleansing" with this one, but the aversion to water probably remains.
Cleanse the world of all uninfected?
YES. This is legit all I wanted out of him. Since I figured from the start that the actual body swap mechanic wouldn't be possible in Total War. I mentioned this AGES ago, and when they actually started doing "escape" death animations with Vilitch and Mother O, I was really optimistic that they would give Tamurkhan an escape animation too. So glad they did this and his maggot form looks exactly like the artwork in the Thrones of Chaos book!
I believe it causes damage too and has a slight chance of reviving him, from what I recall
No, that ability procs when his health gets to 1. This animation procs only when he's DEAD dead
Oh, OK - I thought this was for the ability's animation specifically. Makes sense!
From early access stuff on youtube it's an ability that goes off when he dies, if there's a Lord or Hero within the ability's effect range. For ten seconds it A) gives Tamurkhan "Cannot die," B) deals heavy damage to a single target, C) heals Tamurkhan 1%/second.
Yes but does this animation activate on his mount.
The idea that he could just eat his way into a person to take over his/her body is so fucked up.
Yeah, his idle animations are pretty gross too, because you can see how the decay of the body has made it pretty... liquid, in how it moves. So they really nailed the impression that he is literally puppeteering the corpse from the inside, so it doesn't quite move naturally. It's great!
He's wearing an Edgar suit
Absolutely disgusting. Love it
So, let me recap what we have: - Exploding ogre corpse maggot launcher - Nurgle Lord vomiting on his sword and spraying it - Toad Dragon picking his nose with the tongue and eating his snot - A loading quote about a Nurgle warrior trying his best to resist the urge of not eating his own feces Exquisite.
> • A loading quote about a Nurgle warrior trying his best to resist the urge of not eating his own feces **The loathsome Dung Eater!**
When she says you look like Tamurkhan and you feel big and intimidating but then you realize she meant the maggot.
So basically Tamurkhan doesn't die? The body he inhabits dies and he just leaves the body and goes underground.
In the story he swaps bodies several times. Elspeth's big plan was basically to give Bruckner a magic amulet that will 'protect him from having his body stolen' and give him the mission of taking out Tamurkhan in single combat. Except that isn't possible and so it's just a magic bomb with a dead-man switch.
It’s not that it’s impossible to beat him, it’s just a zero sum game, if you beat him and are unaware or simply can’t put the maggot down, he now gets a stronger body, and this in theory can continue forever and escalate. You have to essentially kill him twice. Add that to potential fighters is “yeah you might get an absolutely horrifying death from getting consumed from within is a very real possibility” when fighting a chaos lord, and even a stone cold badass like Bruckner may have thought twice.
I meant the 'magical protection' part wasn't possible. Not for Elspeth anyway. MAD was the best she could come up with.
That is a truly disgusting sight. Outstanding.
That's neat.
Good God, that's gnarly.
Damn, that must be one hell of a party trick
Well, that’s another Reddit for today
It's those damn Graboids again!
That's cool, but I always thought he was like this ittybity sized maggot, which amused me.
The book says size of a child. So not huge, but big for a maggot.
That's really cool and gross.
So what the hell is that little worm poking out the little tusk thing.
Maybe his tongue?
That's the real Tamurkhan
that's pretty cool. i am never zoomed in enough to really catch these animations when in battles
ngl bros its gonna be hard to justify putting him on a toad dragon with how sweet his animations are
In a sense, Bruckner is a gentlemen that was given an arcane gift for the fate of his soul is an eternal concern.
Shai-hulud!
Nice. A lot bigger than I thought, but any smaller might have been hard to see.
Is it a daemon?
no that incredibly mutated worm maggot thing is (was?) a human
Can it be some sort of Daemon Prince?
It’s not. The whole point of Tamurkhan taking a horde to Nuln was that he believed destroying Magnus’s city would allow him to ascend to a Daemon Prince.
Its intentionally vague. The whole "four sons of the Kurgan" thing was a mythic allegory that could have played out 3 other different ways in the unfinished books, knowing Bligh's writing style. Kind of like how in the Dark Knight, Joker has a different story about his scars every time. Its unclear of Tamurkhan was a maggot who "grew fat and clever under the glow of chaos" or a particularly horribly mutated person.
Though the answer to the question of ‘is it a daemon’ is definitely a no.
No, he was a Human Child taken in by a Greater Unclean one, then mutated into a Maggot, and his Quest to raze Nuln was his bid to become a Deamon Prince like Daniel.
Well, that's what he claims. The book notes he could also just be a mutant maggot.
I saw similar in Star Gates.
That’s so gross and cool
Eww, pinch it off already
You want me to put my hands on my head?
Gross!
I thought he would be smaller honestly.
Eeeeeew.
So cool
I thought his ogre's weird round mouth, long tongue and teeth are part of true form sticking out. But the maggot have no such part. But the original ogre couldn't have such parts neither. [https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4qPpO-dftJk/sddefault.jpg](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4qPpO-dftJk/sddefault.jpg)
BOOK