Primarch Mortarion
Mortarion, once counted among the twenty Imperial primarchs crafted by the Emperor of Mankind, earned names like the "Pale King," "Death Lord," and "Prince of Decay" after his fall to Chaos. Initially tasked with leading the Death Guard Space Marine Legion upon the Emperor's arrival on Barbarus, he ultimately betrayed the Imperium during the Horus Heresy.
Opening
Now, as the mightiest Daemon Prince of Nurgle and the Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard Chaos Space Marines, Mortarion reemerged after ten millennia. Leading the Plague God's forces, he spearheaded the invasion of the Ultramar Realm during the Plague Wars, marking his chilling return to Imperial space.
Welcome, lore-lovers, to Liandrug! Today, we delve into the shadowed legacy of Mortarion, the Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard. From his tragic fall to his reign as the master of decay, this is a tale of despair, co rruption, and ruin. So grab your bolter and let's journey into the grim darkness of Warhammer 40k.
The Chronicle
Mortarion's tale began when the twenty primarchs were scattered across the galaxy, and he landed on Barbarus, a toxic world shrouded in poisonous mists. Barbarus was home to two groups: the necromantic warlords, wielding unnatural powers, and the human settlers, reduced to farming the safe valleys while living in fear of the warlords' predations.
Found as an infant on a battlefield littered with corpses, Mortarion survived the toxic air where others would have perished. Necare, the most powerful Overlord of Barbarus, claimed the child and named him Mortarion, meaning "child of death." Raised in a tower at the edge of his tolerance for poison, Mortarion was groomed in warfare, forbidden lore, and strategy, but his curiosity about the valley people--harvested as fodder by the warlords--led to growing discontent.
Breaking free from his fortress, Mortarion descended to the valleys and discovered the warlords' prey were his own kind. He swore to liberate them, gaining their trust by defending them from monstrous creatures and slaying their warlord master. Mortarion trained the villagers into an army, outfitting them with armor to endure the toxic mists, and led a campaign to topple Barbarus's warlords. Only Necare's mountaintop fortress remained beyond his reach.
When a mysterious stranger arrived offering salvation, Mortarion rejected his help. Challenged to defeat Necare alone, Mortarion ascended to the Overlord's lair. However, the extreme toxicity overwhelmed even him. As Necare moved to strike the final blow, the stranger intervened, slaying the Overlord with a flaming sword. The stranger revealed himself as the Emperor of Mankind, Mortarion's true father. Bound by oath, Mortarion swore allegiance but harbored resentment, denied his final vengeance.
Given command of the XIV Space Marine Legion, Mortarion reshaped the Terran-born Dusk Raiders into the Death Guard, mirroring his grim demeanor and the resilience of Barbarus. Inscribed on their flagship, the Reaper's Scythe, his decree declared them his "unbroken blades" and harbingers of doom..
The Great Crusade
Under the leadership of Mortarion, the renamed Death Guard fought relentlessly in the Great Crusade. Their approach to warfare was methodical and unyielding, advancing like an unstoppable contagion that razed worlds with grim efficiency. Mortarion molded the Death Guard's creed, emphasizing the necessity of endurance and ruthlessness to achieve humanity's liberation. His belief that no act, however brutal, was too great a price for freedom shaped the Legion's doctrine, solidifying its reputation as tenacious warriors of attrition.
Mortarion's bond with Horus deepened during these campaigns, as the two Primarchs often coordinated tactics. The Death Guard would exhaust enemies through resilience, paving the way for the decisive strikes of Horus' Luna Wolves. Mortarion's pale and ominous presence, coupled with his scythe and breathing apparatus, earned him a reputation as a spectral figure among his brothers. His only close allies were Horus and Konrad Curze, while others viewed him as distant and unsettling. This growing allegiance to Horus over the Emperor would later prove catastrophic.
The Transformation of the Death Guard
As the Great Crusade progressed, the Death Guard evolved, shedding the traditions of their Terran origins in favor of Mortarion's grim influence. The ivory-grey ceramite of their armor became plain, adorned only with jade markings reminiscent of Barbarus' poisonous swamps. The Legion's Librarius was disbanded, reflecting Mortarion's disdain for psychic abilities rooted in his traumatic experiences with Barbarus' necromancers.
Mortarion prioritized recruiting from Barbarus, valuing its inhabitants' natural resilience to toxins. This selective intake transformed the Legion's culture, with Barbaran recruits dominating its ranks. The planet itself became a production hub for new Astartes, despite the brutal and often fatal induction process. The remaining Terran-born Death Guard, while hardened veterans, became a minority within the Legion, preserving their traditions amidst Barbarus' grim supremacy.
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The Council of Nikaea
Mortarion was a key figure at the Council of Nikaea, where he vehemently opposed the use of sorcery. Drawing from his firsthand experience with the horrors of psykers on Barbarus, he delivered a concise yet compelling argument against psychic powers. His testimony significantly influenced the Emperor's decision to outlaw sorcery and disband the Librarius divisions of the Space Marine Legions. Mortarion viewed the ruling as a triumph, vindicating his belief that sorcery was a dangerous path best avoided.
The tale of Mortarion's fall and his confrontation with Jaghatai Khan is steeped in betrayal, vengeance, and tragic inevitability. Mortarion, the Death Lord of the Death Guard Legion, had long harbored a deep-seated resentment against the Emperor, who denied him the final vengeance on Necare, the tyrant of Barbarus. Horus, the Warmaster and a master manipulator, exploited this bitterness. He painted the Emperor as no better than Necare--a sorcerer who wielded the powers of the Warp. Mortarion, already distrustful of sorcery, was easily swayed, believing in Horus' promise of a galaxy purged of the Emperor's manipulative rule.
The Death Guard's descent into treachery was aided by Calas Typhon, Mortarion's first captain and a secret devotee of Chaos. At Istvaan III, Mortarion demonstrated his allegiance to Horus by orchestrating the purge of loyalist elements within his Legion. He then stood alongside the Traitor Legions in the infamous Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V.
Amidst the turmoil of the Horus Heresy, Jaghatai Khan of the White Scars sought clarity. Unwilling to act on contradictory astropathic messages, he turned to the ravaged world of Prospero, seeking answers from Magnus the Red, his trusted brother. Deep within the crystal caves of Tizca, the Khan uncovered the truth but was confronted by an unexpected visitor--Mortarion.
Mortarion, now deeply changed, sought to draw Jaghatai to Horus' cause. He envisioned a galaxy of warriors unbound by the Emperor's deceit, where the strong ruled without restraint. Yet the Khan, perceptive as ever, saw through his brother's facade. Mortarion's disdain for sorcery and the Warp had twisted into hypocrisy, as the Death Lord himself had made pacts with the very powers he despised.
The tension between the brothers erupted into violence. Mortarion's elite Deathshroud Terminators clashed with the Khan's keshig amidst the ruins of Tizca. The two primarchs engaged in a brutal duel, their blows fueled by fury and defiance. Blood mingled with the dust of the shattered world as neither yielded.
At the battle's peak, Mortarion abruptly withdrew. His mocking words declared the choice made, as teleportation energies wrenched him and his retinue from the battlefield. The Second Battle of Prospero ended in the howl of the wind, leaving Jaghatai alone amidst the ashes, his brother now a sworn enemy.
Mortarion's Fall
After his bitter defeat against Jaghatai Khan, Mortarion turned to rage, unleashing the Death Guard across the ruins of Prosperine worlds. His vengeance masked a deeper purpose, culminating on the shattered library-world of Terathalion. The Death Guard's grey leviathans bombarded the planet, and Mortarion, despite his wounds, descended to capture a mysterious mortal woman, only to discover she harbored a daemon within.
Confronted by the creature, Mortarion sought answers about Chaos and his brothers' descent into corruption. Though he despised sorcery, the daemon mocked him, revealing that a power in the Warp already claimed him. Enraged, Mortarion's psychic abilities erupted, overwhelming the daemon, whose dying words--"Hail, Master of the Plague!"--foretold his grim fate.
The Death Guard's Damnation
During the Heresy, the Death Guard, led by Mortarion, joined Horus' assault on Terra. But Calas Typhon, a secret servant of Chaos, orchestrated their doom. Killing the fleet's Navigators, Typhon guided them into the Warp, where they became trapped. Nurgle's Rot ravaged the Legion, reducing them to bloated, immortal husks. Even Mortarion, overwhelmed by suffering, surrendered his soul to Nurgle.
Transformed into a Daemon Prince, Mortarion embodied decay, his Legion now Plague Marines. Their once-pristine grey armor became corroded, their mission twisted into spreading Nurgle's pestilence. Mortarion retreated to the Eye of Terror, claiming the Plague Planet as his domain--a mirror of his toxic homeworld, Barbarus.
The Legacy of Ruin
Long after his corruption, Mortarion stood as a living emblem of despair and decay, haunting the galaxy. From the toxic clouds of the Plague Planet to the shadows of Imperium Nihilus, his fall became a grotesque masterpiece of Chaos, orchestrated by Nurgle.
The Death Guard, once paragons of resilience, had become grotesque parodies of their former selves. Their ceramite armor rusted, their flesh riddled with unholy gifts, they were harbingers of despair. Mortarion embodied this transformation--a decayed echo of his humanity and a beacon of pestilence and death.
From his fortress high in the toxic clouds of the Plague Planet, Mortarion ruled with a vile majesty. This citadel, a monument to decay, teemed with maggot-ridden horrors. From here, he orchestrated Death Guard campaigns, unleashing calculated ruin upon the Imperium.
Beneath his bloated visage lay a sharp mind, his hatred for the Imperium and the Emperor fueling his vengeance. Mortarion turned the Cicatrix Maledictum into a stage for his ambitions, spreading corruption across the Imperium Nihilus. Worlds that once thrived became pestilent wastelands, their inhabitants consumed by plagues.
Despite his allegiance to Nurgle, Mortarion was deeply conflicted. His hatred for psykers clashed with his growing mastery of sorcery. He loathed the Warp and its denizens, even as he became one of their greatest champions, his paradoxical nature making him all the more dangerous.
Mortarion's disdain for his fellow Traitor Primarchs grew with time. He saw their flaws--Fulgrim's decadence, Angron's rage--and believed only he understood the galaxy's true nature. For millennia, his name became synonymous with despair. Even the Grey Knights bore scars from their battles with him, their encounters grim testaments to his might.
Yet Mortarion was not invincible. The Grey Knight Kaldor Draigo once carved his name upon Mortarion's heart, a humiliation that fueled the Primarch's rage. Beneath the corruption and power remained fragments of the proud warrior who had sought freedom and justice, only to become enslaved to Chaos.
In his moments of reflection, Mortarion gazed out over the Plague Planet's desolation. He saw in its poisoned skies a reflection of himself--a world defiled yet enduring. No longer a slave to the Overlords, the Emperor, or even Nurgle, he had become the master of decay, the lord of ruin.
For Mortarion, this was enough.
Closing Words
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