Three-time winners of the ‘Warhammer 40k unit most in need of a shower’ contest, Great Unclean Ones are a truly disgusting sight (not to mention smell). A Great Unclean One is a greater daemon of Nurgle, the pestilent Chaos God of decay, disease, and death. They’re his most trusted and treasured servants, charged with leading his armies and bringing rot and ruin wherever they go. And they do it all with a smile, and a spring in their step.
Great Unclean Ones take the form of enormous, extremely fat humanoids with boil-covered green skin and antlers atop their heads. Their rotting bodies are filled with all manner of disease and each has grotesque wounds from which internal organs hang freely. On the tabletop, these greater daemons make for extremely distinctive models – both beautiful in their ornate detail, and extremely unpleasant.
While their business of spreading plague and bringing entropy and destruction to the Imperium (and the rest of the mortal world) is a grisly one from humanity’s point of view, Great Unclean Ones don’t see things this way. Indeed, they love their jobs, and cherish the chance to joyously share Nurgle’s ‘gifts’.
Great Unclean One models
The current plastic version of the Great Unclean One was unveiled in December 2017, as a surprise Nurgle-mas present, replacing a very old metal model. With 59 components and a 130mm base, it’s a pretty huge kit. If you wanted to pick one up it would set you back $150/£90.
The modern Great Unclean One kit allows you to create three different builds for the greater daemon of Nurgle, with different accessory and weapon options. One of these builds is a unique named character, Rotigus. You also get half a dozen Nurglings that can be attached to the daemon however you like.
If you don’t mind working with resin, then Forge World also has a Great Unclean One model. It’s fairly old, but still holds up, standing tall at four inches in height. As always with resin Forge World kits, the price tag is heftier, at $220/£144.
One of the best things about Great Unclean One models (and Chaos Daemon armies in general) is that the minis can be used in either Warhammer 40k or Warhammer Age of Sigmar. If you play both games it’s pretty swell to get two armies for the price of one.
Rotigus
Rotigus is a unique and powerful Great Unclean One character, who can control a power named Nurgle’s Deluge, a diseased storm of brackish water. He also attacks with acidic projectile vomiting from both his regular mouth and the maw on his belly. Luverly. He doesn’t wield the bileblades, plagueflails and despair-causing doomsday bells carried by other greater daemons of Nurgle. Instead, Rotigus just carries around a great big branch called the Gnarlrod.
Rotigus masquerades in the mortal realm as a deity of fertility, rain, and agriculture, with alternative names including Rainmaker and The Generous One. We presumably don’t have to tell you that accepting his generosity is a very bad idea indeed.