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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 4412593" data-attributes="member: 2205">Actually, he comes from a bit farther back than that.  Nurgle is just a deliberate mispelling of the Babylonian god/devil Nergal, who's portfolio included plague and disease.In an interesting bit of trivia, which I just discovered, some people believe Cthulhu might have actually originally been a name that Lovecraft dredged up for Nergal; the theory goes that Cthulhu was actually a deliberate mispelling/adoptation of the word Cuthalu, which means "man of Cuthah" which was the underworld city where Nergal resided as well as the name of the real world city where his cult was strongest, and was therefore a title of his.The theory may not be correct, and actually I think "man of Cuthah" is supposed to be written Lucuthah, not Cuthalu, but it's very fascinating nonetheless.  Just because it's not technically correct that way doesn't mean Lovecraft might not have stumbled across the idea and mixed stuff up to make it less transparent.  I think the idea of a link between Nergal, demon-lord of disease and Cthulhu makes for great fun.</blockquote>