The Mournful Choir

The current Grand Master of the Order is unknown, though the Daemon-lord Glotteus, has been known to join and often lead the order in its campaigns.

Battle Honours: The Order was heavily involved in the fighting against Belakor’s traitors, during his attempted usurpation of the Banelands region from Archaon. This conflict, while not currently active, has settled into simmering areas of influence, loyal to Archaon or Belakor - nobody knows if the fighting will not suddenly begin again.

The Choir was also seen fighting in Hysh, during the Prime Dominion Wars, as mercenaries to the Celandec faction.

A common practice for the Order is to mount so-called “cannibal hunts” against a local infestation of flesh eaters. The warriors and their barbarian vassals will regularly march into the midst of an ancient ruined town to deliberately stir up and flush out pockets of ghouls and other monsters. This regular training is sometimes used to evaluate whether certain chieftains are ready to be invited to take “The Trial of Woes” and begin induction into the ranks of the Rotbringers themselves. 

More recently, the Order, especially the Mournful Choir, has been sighted making incursions into Ghur in the area of the Bleeding Wilds. Rumours abound that they have already skirmished with a tribe of ogors within a known manticore hunting area. Reasons for their presence here are not known at the time of writing.

Undead attacks are relatively rare events in Griefmere. Apart from the troublesome Flesh Eaters nearby, the dead don't trouble the Order on their own territory often.

As for their hatred of Undead, the Order reserves its greatest ire for the Nighthaunt. No life can emerge from the departed souls, they serve no purpose in Nurgle's cycle, so need to be expunged.

They have served with other factions, mainly Slaves to Darkness and other Chaos warbands. They could be persuaded to side with Order factions but usually with the ulterior motive of bringing the Grandfather's blessings to their realms.

The greatest battle on record for the Order was during the Soul Wars. For three days, every corpse and cadaver, lost in Griefmere, arose and attacked the holdfast. This battle continued until the sorcerers were able to turn the bog into a portal to the Garden of Nurgle, and every Undead monster was sucked through it.

The Order itself doesn't have a particular nemesis, however, Baron Grubwood has recently started bearing a grudge to a certain ogor tribe.

As for the other Chaos gods, the Order sees them as worthy of attention, if they disagree with the sentiments of their followers. If anything, those that bear the Marks of Khorne or Slaanesh are misguided souls who will miss out on Grandfather Nurgle's affection. Those of Tzeentch cannot be trusted, only slaughtered.

The Skaven can be worked with, their god has echoes of Nurgle and their designs for the Mortal Realms are similar to the Order's. 

The details of the Trial of Woes are different for each hopeful. A daemon of Nurgle is summoned and it sets the task for the warrior. Usually, it entails surviving some horrible condition like bearing a mutating disease or destroying a daemon of another power.

Loyalty to Archaon is genuine, an ancient Grand Master swore fealty to the Marshal of the Apocalypse. As a result, the order was able to settle and prosper within the Banelands.

The Order sees death as inevitable, believing that only through service to the gods, can one outlive their natural lifespan. The only failure they recognise is that Nagash still holds sway in Shyish and the Undead still abound throughout the Realms.

The order has a proselytising mission when not on campaign, to turn all the adherents from worship of the Bonelord (Nagash) or the Lightning Warrior (Sigmar) to the true Lord of All Things, Nurgle. This is often achieved by spreading various pestilences throughout the lands of the heathens, then offering salvation.

The Order favours various pestilences, maladies and plagues. The former Grand Master was partial to the Marrow Splints - a particular plague that drove numbing pain through a sufferer's bones. This also had practical application in rendering skeletons too weak for use by necromancers.

Glotteus certainly holds the Order in high esteem and has been seen on several battlefields alongside them for hundreds of years. It is most unlikely that this relationship is only superficial. The level of faith in Nurgle, that the Order displays, creates a perfect environment to sustain a daemon of such monstrous size within the Mortal Realms. It is noteworthy, however, that the presence of Glotteus has not been documented since the return of the Mournful Choir from the Prime Dominion.

The Hysh campaign introduced the Choir, especially its High Pestimancer Dr. Mouldspawn, to the opportunities for destroying enemy fleets using his Rotwood Incantation. The magical destruction of a Teclandec fleet was an experiment that delivered over and above its expected results.

Daemonhood is an aspiration for some members of the Order. The only known Daemon Prince to bear the Tolling Bell emblem is Prince Bolathrus the Seventh, Champion of Gangrene.

Faith in the Grandfather teaches patience and acceptance above all. The time to finally overthrow the tyranny of the Lord of Bones will come, but it is not now. For now the Order will continue to spread the faith.

Griefmere is a great environment for the summoning of daemons. As Blessed Sons, the Order does not, however, make as much use of them as the Plaguefleets and Drowned Men of Gutrot Spume.