The Roboutian Heresy

by Zahariel

Inspired by the great Dornian Heresy of Aurelius Rex, here is an alternate timeline to the Warhammer 40000 universe, where Guilliman turned traitor instead of Horus, and led half the Legions in rebellion against the Emperor. The Index Astartes are done for all Legions. Now, the Times of Ending have begun ... Also has a TV Tropes page now !

13. Index Astartes : Death Guard

I do not own the Warhammer 40000 universe nor any of its characters. They belong to Games Workshop.

Inspired by the Dornian Heresy, by Aurelius Rex.

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Index Astartes – Death Guard : Agents of the Emperor's Mercy

There are no monuments commemorating the victories of the Fourteenth Legion, no statues raised in the image of its Primarch. For when the Death Guard goes to war, it is only because all other resorts have failed, and they leave naught in their wake but complete annihilation. Keepers of weapons lost or forbidden since the end of the Great Crusade, the Seven Companies are the Imperium's final sanction, purifying worlds through indiscriminate extermination. Those who even know of their existence speak of it only in hushed whispers, fearing to bring the wrath of the spectral sons of Mortarion upon their heads. Risen from its ruination on the black sands of Isstvan, the Death Guard watches over Mankind from afar, bringing destruction to fledgling xenos empires before they can threaten the Imperium. Few are those with the authority to call them to the worlds of the Imperium, and few among those have the will to do so. But the Death Guard remembers all too well the horrors of the Heresy, and they are ready to expunge any trace of rebellion like a cancer – no matter how many innocents perish in the process …

Origins

It is a gross understatement to say that none of the Primarchs had an easy childhood. As beings of power beyond the imagination of most mortals, they were destined for trials, and through these trials, they either rose to greatness or fell into infamy. But even the crime-filled streets of Nostramo Quintus, the war-torn plains of Nuceria, or the brutal techno-dictatorship of Kiavahr cannot compare to the nightmarish hell-scape that was Barbarus when the infant that would become the Lord of Death was stolen from his gene-father and cast into the Warp. Though there are fewer accounts of Mortarion's life than for most other Primarchs, the Death Guards still have tales of their father's youth, and some of those are accessible to the Imperium at large.

It is unknown when exactly Barbarus was first colonized. The Death Guards believe that their homeworld was one of those seeded by Mankind during the First Diaspora, but there are few records left on Terra of that period, and none on Barbarus itself. It is equally possible that the world was populated during one of the various expansion phases of the first human intergalactic empire. What is known is that by the time of the Great Crusade, Barbarus' human population had regressed to a feudal age, all technology and most of their cultural heritage lost. In that, they were hardly unique, and while life as an inhabitant of a feudal world can be rough, it wasn't the true horror of their lives.

Barbarus was under the control of Warp-born creatures of immense power, who ruled over peaks covered in toxic clouds and occasionally descended into the plains to raid the human communities that lived in a perpetual twilight and use their corpses as material for the construction of the rambling armies they used in their wars against one another. These creatures couldn't have been daemons, for their rules lasted for hundreds of years – far longer than any Neverborn could maintain its foul existence outside of the Warp, and for all its corruption, Barbarus was no daemon world. It is believed by the Inquisition that they were corrupt psykers whose power had turned them into aberrations, half-way between mortal and daemonic. Whether these psykers were human in origin or one more breed of xenos overlords is unknown. There were plenty of actual daemons on the planet, though, summoned by the witch-lords to do their bidding or just drawn by their corrupt power.

The life-pod that came to Barbarus crashed atop one of the mountains, inside the domain of Barbarus' most powerful witch-king. The dark lord immediately sensed the arrival, and expected that the horrors of his realm would make short work of the intruder. But to his surprise, the newcomer survived, long enough to draw the witch-king's attention. The dark lord was shocked when he saw that the life-pod had only contained a child, yet one strong and cunning enough to fight off the rodents of his kingdom of toxins and poisons. He left his fortress and went to see the child with his own eyes. The infant tried to attack him, but for all his strange strength, he was no match for the dark lord – yet the master of Barbarus did not kill him for his insolence.

Instead, the dark lord took the young child in his custody, giving him the name of Mortarion. Then, he submitted the infant to trial after trial, sending increasingly more powerful servants against him while also forcing him to scrounge for his own sustenance. Sometimes, he would order Mortarion to come to him, and he would train the young Primarch in person, or teach him about war and other, darker sciences. His reasons for doing this are unknown. Perhaps he was simply curious, perhaps he wanted what no other witch-king had ever had : an heir. In the end, it matters not. Mortarion grew as quickly as any Primarch, his transhuman physiology able to fight off the poisons that surrounded him. Then, after a few years, when he was in the Primarch equivalent of adolescence, he challenged his foster father for the first time since their initial meeting : he left the clouded peak and descended into the valleys himself.

There, for the first time in his life, Mortarion met other human beings, in a village no different from countless others across the planet. Its people were farmers, living together for the meager protection numbers offered against the creatures of Barbarus. Like most such settlements, they were descendants of those who had survived the destruction of another village when the witch-lords had decided to raze it to the ground.

They were scared of him, for his appearance was akin to a spectre of death, pale and terrible, and taller than any mortal man. But he didn't attack them, nor caused them harm in any way, and so they quickly understood that, whatever his nature, this strange giant was not like the creatures that had preyed upon them and their ancestors for countless generations. Still, Mortarion's mere presence unnerved them, and the Primarch was all too aware of it. Determined to overcome their fear of him, he worked alongside them in the fields, his transhuman strength easily capable of performing the back-breaking work. In time, the villagers warmed to the newcomer's intimidating presence, and Mortarion was able to communicate with them. For a time, Mortarion lived peacefully, until the cruelty of Barbarus caught up with him.

Several months after Mortarion's arrival, the village was attacked by a raiding party from one of the witch-lords, seeking easy prey and plunder. Daemons, beasts and warped humans came by dozens, and the villagers reacted in the way normal humans had reacted to such attacks for hundreds of years : they scattered and ran, hoping that some of them would survive. This wasn't cowardice, but the only way powerless mortals could hope to survive on Barbarus as a species. The cycle of destruction and rebirth of settlements had gone on since the rise of the first witch-lords, but things were about to change, for a new element had entered the equation.

Enraged by what he saw, Mortarion took up the scythe he used in the fields, and rushed at the beasts. Compared to those which had been sent by his foster father to test him in the past, they were pathetically weak, and he dispatched them with ease, saving the lives of the villagers. He was hailed as a hero by those he had saved, and tales of his prowess spread out to other villages, whose people flocked to the settlement, hoping for his protection. Mortarion taught them how to defend themselves, and aided them in building a wall around the settlement, as well as various traps and defences to compensate for their lesser strength.

Months later, a new beast began to prey upon the villagers, and Mortarion went out to hunt it. Unlike the monsters he had fought so far, the creature fled before him, drawing him far from the village. Only after several days of dogged pursuit did Mortarion finally caught up with his prey, and he fought and slew the monster with ease. But when he returned to his home, he found it in ruins. The traps were filled with monstrous corpses, piles of rotting flesh stacked at the base of the wall, but the gate was broken, and the moans of the dying clear to his transhuman ears. Some of the bodies had been reanimated by fell sorceries, and attacked Mortarion when he entered the ruins, forcing him to destroy the revenants of those who had welcomed him.

The man's name had been Ulfer. When Mortarion had begun to work in the fields, he had been the first one to approach him, teaching him the secrets of agriculture – how to create life, rather than end it.

The scythe cut him in two, and the witch-light faded from his eyes.

The woman's name had been Thiane. She had been the first one to bring him food when he had arrived, the simple soup the tastiest meal he had ever known.

The scythe pierced her chest, and the witch-light faded from her eyes.

The child's name had been Clara. She had been the first to dare approach Mortarion as he stood silently amidst the villagers, observing them. She had not been afraid of him, for she had been too young to remember the last time the monsters had attacked her people.

Mortarion dropped his scythe. It fell on the ground with a dull clung.

Surrounded by the dying, the dead and the undead, but utterly alone, Mortarion of Barbarus screamed his sorrow, his anger and his pain at the poisoned skies.

The monster that had drawn Mortarion away had been sent by the witch-king of Barbarus, to punish his adoptive son for daring to leave the mountain and mingle with inferior beings. In the Primarch's absence, the overlord had attacked the village in person, inflicting his most heinous tortures on the people Mortarion had sought to save before departing once more. Many were still alive when the young Primarch returned, their bodies turned into horrifying canvas of agony. Mortarion watched them, despair and sorrow filling his heart. Then, he did the only thing he could do for those who had welcomed him among them : he ended their torment, and vowed that they would be avenged.

Armed with nothing but his harvest scythe and his fury, with no armor safe for a dirty cloak and the rebreather he had been given in his infancy, Mortarion marched toward his father's fortress. On his way, he was ceaselessly attacked, as the witch-king sent his minions to die in order to weaken his adoptive son. Despite their chances of survival being nil, the monsters kept coming, knowing in their black, empty hearts that a fate worse than mere corporeal death awaited them if they dared to defy the master of Barbarus.

By the time he arrived before his foster father's fortress, Mortarion was covered in wounds that would have killed any human a hundred times and more. Still, with the endurance he would one day become legendary for, he forced himself forward, until he stood in front of the creature that had, for better or worse, raised him.

A cloud of darkness clung to the witch-king form, keeping Mortarion from seeing his face clearly. In his hand he held a scythe similar to Mortarion's own – except that while his was a farming tool, the witch-king's was an instrument of death, used to impose his rule over all that he surveyed. The comparison caused something to stir within the young man's breast – a righteous fury, far older than himself. Death should not rule, it said. Death should not wear a crown.

'Kneel,' said the witch-king. 'Kneel and I will forgive your foolishness.'

'Never,' groaned Mortarion as he forced himself to his feet. The weight of the witch-king's power was crushing him, as if he was carrying a mountain on his shoulders, but he would not kneel. He would not give up.

'Your defiance is as futile as it is misguided. You have the potential to become so much more than what you currently are, my son. If you would only accept my teachings, you could surpass me in but a few years, and surpass all who have ever lived in a few decades. Power beyond imagining could be yours – it is writ in your blood, there for the taking.'

'I have seen what that kind of power does to those who wield it. I will not let it twist me into a monster.'

The witch-king laughed, in a sound like the grinding of tombstones together.

'You already are a monster, my son. All that remains is for you to accept it.'

After a short discussion, Mortarion attacked the witch-king. The exact details of the battle are unknown to us, for the Primarch never saw fit to share them with anyone. However, it was only several weeks later that Mortarion returned to the plains, most of his wounds having healed – though some of them would cause him pain for the rest of his life. After finishing recovering in a new human settlement, where word of his victory against the witch-king had granted him heroic statut, he decided to scour Barbarus clean of all remaining witch-lords.

It was in the course of this purifying crusade that Mortarion earned the title 'Lord of Death' from the grateful but fearful population. With the threat of the witch-lords diminishing, the attacks also became less numerous and fearsome – though they never stopped completely. As a result, the settlements grew, and for the first time in thousands of years, civilization on Barbarus actually advanced.

During this period, Mortarion continued his hunt, barely involving himself in the affairs of Barbarus' people. The only command he gave them was to be on the lookout for any psyker born among them, whom they needed to kill as quickly and humanly as possible – as much for purely humanitarian reason as to prevent the creation of vengeful spirits from torture and oppression. He only rarely came to any settlement, usually when he had been wounded gravely enough that he required time to rest without needing to scavenge for his sustenance. Each time, the humans welcomed him, and did their best to accommodate him until he had recovered and left to return to his crusade. To this day, there are many legends on Barbarus telling the tale of the Lord of Death's fights against the monsters that once plagued the planet.

Despite Mortarion's reluctance to involve himself in the affairs of humans, the population of Barbarus was inspired by his crusade. For the first time in centuries, they formed armies to go against the minions of the witch-lords. Their psychic overlords were in too much disarray from Mortarion's attacks to be able to marshall a proper response, and many of their citadels were burned by mortal armies clad in newly built isolation suits, inspired by Mortarion's own rebreather. These warriors called themselves the Death Guards, for they defended their people not just from the horrors that could be visited upon them in life, but also from the desecration that the witch-lords inflicted upon corpses.

Years after the death of the witch-king, Mortarion finally tracked and killed the last of the witch-lord. It was then, as he looked down on the plains that he had freed at last, that the Emperor came to him. In a golden flash of teleportation light, He materialized next to His son. At once, Mortarion felt a sense of familiarity, a connection he had never felt with the creature that had raised him.

The Master of Mankind had located Mortarion years before, but events beyond His control had forced Him to delay the recovery of His lost son. He had feared the worse, for He had sensed the many horrors that lurked on Barbarus, and wasn't certain that Mortarion would emerge triumphant. When He saw that the world had been purged of the witch-lords that had held its population in thrall for generations, the Emperor was proud of what His son had accomplished. He told Mortarion so, and the Lord of Death felt his heart fill with pride and joy at such recognition. The Primarch had suffered much on Barbarus : he had known loss, he had known helplessness, and he had known horror. But he had fought, refusing to let them consume him, and from his suffering he had made the world a better place. The acknowledgement of his deeds by one such as this glorious being was proof that he had been right to do what he had done.

Then the Emperor told him of the Imperium, of the Imperial Truth and of all that He had wrought and needed his help to accomplish. Mortarion was awed by what the Emperor told him. To him, the Great Crusade was an endeavour similar to his own hunt for witch-breeds on Barbarus, only on a galactic scale. So, when the Emperor told Mortarion that he was His son, and that there was a Legion shaped in his image waiting for him to take command, the Lord of Death willingly bent knee before the Master of Mankind. He swore that he would uphold the principles of the Imperial Truth, and free all of Humanity as he had freed Barbarus.

'What name you chose for me is irrelevant, father. I was given the name of Mortarion, and I shall keep it, for I am the bringer of death to those who inflict torment upon Mankind, and the deliverer of the last peace to those who cannot be saved. By that name alone shall I be known, until the stars themselves die at the end of time.'

Attributed to Primarch Mortarion

The Great Crusade

'This war we wage is one unlike any that have come before. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors fought each other on Old Earth for material gains and illusory treasures like honor and glory. Now, we must fight a war of survival, for the galaxy is filled with horrors that would destroy Mankind if they could. But there is more than survival at stake in this conflict, my sons. If we fail, if the Imperium falls, then all hope of Humanity living free will die with it. Our species will either embrace oblivion or eternal slavery under the yoke of xenos and other, darker powers. But we will not let that happen.

We are the guardians of Mankind, the protectors of the Imperium that shelters all scions of Old Earth. By our blades and bolters, we guard them from death – and when it becomes necessary, when there is nothing left in this galaxy for them but torment, we grant death to them. For it is preferable to die than to live in slavery to the xenos.

You will be my instruments in this war as I am my father's. From this day forth, you shall be the Death Guards.'

Mortarion, upon taking command of the Fourteenth Legion

The history of the Fourteenth Legion before it was reunited with its progenitor is an interesting one. From its inception, it already showed the resilience and determination that it still possesses to this day, the reunion with its Primarch merely amplifying them. The origin of these traits can doubtlessly be linked to where its first recruits came from. While most future Legionaries were recruited from Terran tribes that had long been loyal to the Emperor, the Fourteenth Legion was formed from the sons of Old Albia. Old Albia was a territory whose population had resisted the forces of Unification for decades, fuelled by a fierce warrior tradition and a determination to never break against the enemy.

The Emperor Himself was impressed by the Albian clans' will, and travelled in person to meet their lords, ordering His forces to stop their attacks. Unarmed, He told them of His designs for Mankind, of the many tasks that remained to be done, even once all of Terra was united under His rule. He offered them a part in this glorious vision, one that would grant their descendants glory unlike any they could imagine. To the surprise of the Emperor's councillors, who regarded all Albians with dread, the lords accepted the offer, and sent their children to the Emperor's gene-labs to be reforged into Astartes.

In those early days, the Fourteenth Legion was called the "Dusk Raiders", for their habit of attacking enemy positions at sunset, after the enemy had spent an entire day waiting nervously for the transhuman army they knew was waiting just beyond their range to attack. Then, after the foe had plenty of time to prepare, the Dusk Raiders would advance, and nothing could stand in the way of their march.

This tradition came from an ancient Albian tradition of giving the enemy time to surrender while also applying considerable psychological pressure. As the Dusk Raiders fought in the final battles of the Unification Wars, their reputation grew, and soon their appearance on the battlefield was enough to sow terror and discord among the foe.

Once Terra was conquered, the Great Crusade began, and for nearly a century the Fourteenth Legion roamed the stars without its Primarch. It is said that the Dusk Raiders were honorable warriors, who would always keep their word when their enemy offered surrender upon seeing their might arrayed against it. Many human worlds were brought to compliance by their Expeditionary Fleets, though far too few without any bloodshed – the Dusk Raiders, for all their honor, were terrifying figures that did not give the lost worlds of Mankind a good impression of the Imperium.

The Dusk Raiders acknowledged this flaw in their characters – even among the transhuman Legiones Astartes, they were poor diplomats. To prevent the wasteful loss of life, they began to focus their efforts on wars of extermination, waged against xenos empires and planets that had been lost to the Warp and needed to be purged entirely. By the time the Emperor's message about Mortarion's discovery reached them, the warriors of the Fourteenth Legion were scattered, fighting a dozen wars at the same time, far ahead of the Great Crusade's main body. But they all gathered in orbit of Barbarus, where Mortarion was handed command of the Legion at once.

The Primarch renamed the Legion into the Death Guard, taking the name of those brave mortals who had fought against the witch-lords despite having none of his own strengths. Those of the human army who were still young enough took the trials to become Astartes. The Apothecaries quickly discovered that the people of Barbarus had a high compatibility with Mortarion's gene-seed, and the numbers of the Legion, thinned after several gruelling campaigns, swelled with a fresh influx of recruits.

Under the leadership of Mortarion, the Death Guard proved itself a very effective instrument of extermination. Dozens of star empires were destroyed by the Fourteenth Legion, with the Primarch himself leading the way in every battle he directed. In time, they became the Emperor's favourite instrument to silence the echoes of Old Night. On Terra, ten thousands archivists poured over the records of the Dark Age of Technology, searching for references to forge-worlds involved in forbidden research. Their findings were carried to the Fourteenth Legion, which travelled far beyond the Imperium's ever-expanding borders to purge these worlds of techno-heresy. Alien species that had hidden for millions of years and risen in the aftermath of the Fall of the Eldar Empire were hunted to extinction by Mortarion's sons. Yet when the Death Guard was called upon to fight in the Galaspar Cluster, Mortarion discovered that there were monsters wore human skin, and that they could be just as terrible as any Warp-spawn.

The Galaspar Cluster had been colonized by Mankind before the Age of Strife, but whatever glory it might have once possessed had long faded into a nightmarish tyranny. A vicious bureaucracy known as 'the Order' held dominion over the thirty billion souls of Galaspar, the cluster's primary hive-world. Their oppression was enforced both by regiments of armed militia, but also through the chemical addiction of most of the population. By controlling the source of the drugs, the Order controlled the entire planet.

When Mortarion was told of the Order, after it had refused to join the Imperium, the rage of the Lord of Death was as terrible as it was calm. Not for him the roaring fury of the Sons of Horus, nor the cold anger of the Iron Warriors. In fact, nothing visible changed in him – but mortals who had been able to stand his presence before found themselves collapsing in dread while still in another room, such was the threatening aura that emanated from him. He gathered the full might of the Death Guard to him, and launched a single, overpowered strike into the heart of the Galaspar's cluster.

The fleet of the Death Guard tore through the system's defense stations, barely acknowledging their existence at all, and disgorged a flow of drop-pods and gunships onto the primary hive-city. Tens of thousands of Legionaries, led by Mortarion himself, quickly established defensive positions, ready for the inevitable counter-attack. Soon, the Order sent hordes of chem-controlled fighters to eliminate the intruders in their empire.

What followed was a slaughter unworthy of being called a battle. While the civilian population cowered in terror, the sons of Mortarion reaped a great toll on their enemies, with bolters and scythes, while small-caliber fire was turned aside by their power armor. After a few hours, terror found its way through the chemically-induced haze that clouded the minds of the Order's troops. They broke, and the Legion resumed its advance. Over and over this pattern repeated itself, until at last the Death Guard reached the hideout of the Order's leaders.

The entire building was purged, and adepts of the Mechanicum brought in. They studied the lore of the Order, analysing the composition of the drugs by which the population had been kept compliant. Then, under Mortarion's own direction, they designed an antidote to the system-wide plague of addiction. The cure was poured into the atmosphere by the Fourteenth Legion, shattering whatever power the Order's remnants still possessed. Across the entire Cluster, regiments rebelled against their overseers as their minds cleared, and the population rose against its oppressors. When Mortarion and his warriors departed, leaving the Galaspar Cluster to the iterators and Administratum, the people they left behind were already whispering tales of their grim-faced liberators, and pledging themselves to the cause of the Great Crusade.

The high and mighty lords of the Order had been brought together, hunted across the world by the Fourteenth Legion. There were twenty-one of them, and all cowed before the Lord of Death in terror, barely kept from fainting by the drugs the Apothecaries had injected them before the confrontation. He towered above them, a demigod among mortals, a grim reaper come to harvest the souls of sinners. In his right hand, he held Silence, the scythe as long as an Astartes was tall.

They expected a speech. A list of their crimes against Imperial law, against Mankind. They had always known, deep within themselves, that what they had done to their people was wrong, and that they would one day face judgement for it.

There was no speech. Just a move of Silence, too fast for even a transhuman's eyes.

Due to the kind of war they waged, the Death Guard's attrition rate was far higher than that of the other Legions. Over time, as the Legion learned from its experience, these losses started to diminish, but they still remained high. Mortarion, tired of seeing so many of his sons die around him, began to use weapons that most of his brothers regarded with disgust : radiation weaponry, virus bombing, and other, more arcane devices. He reasoned that his task was not to conquer worlds for Mankind to populate, but to purge threats to the Imperium.

It was during that time that Mortarion himself designed the procedures of Exterminatus that the Inquisition follows to this day. None knew how best to kill a world than the Primarch of the Fourteenth Legion, and it was for that expertise that he was bestowed the title 'Lord of Death' from the rest of the Great Crusade's fearful forces. Planets were left barren in his wake, unsuitable for colonization safe for the most resilient servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus. On several worlds that had once been populated by humans, but were now home to masses of flesh spanning entire continent, enthralled to psychic overlords of godly power, Mortarion unleashed Phosphex bombs of immense power. These worlds, which had formed an empire that might in time have rivalled the Imperium, are still burning to this day, ten thousand years later, and psykers who go too near the quarantine borders can hear the screams of the monsters.

Of course, prosecuting such wars did little to ingratiate the Death Guard to the rest of the Imperium. While the Blood Angels, Emperor's Children and Sons of Horus were acclaimed on a thousand worlds for their nobility and martial prowess, the Fourteenth Legion was spoken of only in hushed whispers. Soldiers of the Imperial Army, rarely deployed alongside them, traded horror stories about them depicting the sons of Mortarion as the grim reapers of old myth, while the civilian population barely knew of their existence. When the remembrancers were sent across the Legions, few were assigned to the Death Guard, and those had their work carefully examined by agents of the Sigillite. This was because Malcador and Mortarion both believed that knowledge of the horrors the Death Guard fought would seed fear and disorder in the Imperium. This absence of documentation while the deeds of the other Legions were finally being exposed contributed to the climate of fear and superstition that cloaked the Death Guard.

Among the rest of the Space Marines Legions, the reputation of the Fourteenth Legion was similarly tainted. Mortarion, for all his strength and wisdom, simply did not have the same charisma most Primarchs possessed : his mien was grim and haunted by all that he had seen. Magnus was despised by Mortarion and returned it in kind, while Perturabo hated the Lord of Death, for reasons that were never recorded in the annals of history. Lion El'Jonson ordered his Dark Angels to never fight alongside the Death Guards, offering no explanation for this insult.

Still, there were those in the Imperium who trusted the macabre sons of Barbarus. Horus was one of the few who saw Mortarion's deeds as a grim necessity, rather than barbaric methods. Konrad Curze was also close to the Lord of Death, for both of them had donned dark personas in order to protect Mankind – though the Savior of Nostramo's sacrifices paled in comparison to those of Mortarion. A few others, like Angron and Dorn, respected their gaunt brother for what he did, though his presence made them uncomfortable.

Not just other Space Marines and Primarchs were close to the Fourteenth Legion. The Sisters of Silence, a now-extinct order of psychic untouchables, were frequently deployed alongside the Death Guard. They abilities made them efficient counters to the Warp-born threats faced by the Fourteenth Legion, especially since the Death Guards had no psychic warriors of its own.

At Nikaea, Mortarion argued vehemently against the presence of the Librarius in the Legions. His experience on Barbarus had forever tainted his view of psychic powers : to him, Magnus and his ilk were playing with forces they did not understand, forces that would inevitably consume them. His arguments, though born of a biased viewpoint, were sound, and many in the audience were swayed by the grim warnings of doom of the Lord of Death. He told of the horrors of Barbarus, and of the other abominations he had witnessed during the Great Crusade. He warned that the power of the Warp couldn't be relied upon, and that to allow it within the Legions was to risk it corrupting them from within. However, when came the turn of Leman Russ and his Wolf Priests to say their piece, they effectively ruined Mortarion's careful argumentation. With their tales of maleficarum and black magic, they made those arguing for the prohibition of psychic powers among the Legions look like paranoid, backwater fools.

Of course, the Emperor's judgement was not based on something as flimsy as this. Nonetheless, when the Master of Mankind announced that the use of the Librarius would be continued, Mortarion blamed Russ far more than he blamed Magnus – he actually grudgingly respected the Cyclops for his silence during the entire affair – and the altercation between the Crimson King and the lord of Fenris didn't help. Mortarion's dislike for psychic powers was rooted in all the horrors he had witnessed on Barbarus; Russ' distrust for it was nothing more than hypocrisy cloaked in paranoia.

Still, Mortarion refused to create a Librarius within the Fourteenth Legion, and the Emperor accepted his decision. The Lord of Death took the Death Guard back to the borders of the Imperium, resuming his wars of alien extermination, until the most unlikely news reached him : Guilliman, Sanguinius, Manus and Dorn had betrayed the Emperor.

The Heresy : Decimation at Isstvan V

Warmaster Horus had returned to Terra to find the survivors of the Isstvan Massacre bringing warning of their Primarchs' treachery. Now, Lupercal called for those of his brothers who remained loyal, using his authority as Warmaster to gather a force of unprecedented might, that would crush the traitors and purge them from the galaxy. The World Eaters and Word Bearers he sent to Ultramar, while commanding for all other loyal sons to go to Isstvan.

Mortarion and his Legion were engaged in a campaign against a race of xenos called the Jorgall, living in long, cylinder-shaped ships when the message came. The Jorgall had launched an invasion of human space years ago, and the Death Guard had come to the aid of the Imperial Army, pushing back the xenos forces and taking the fight to their own colony-ships. After several months of war, the Jorgall had begun to retreat, finally realizing that they were no match for the might of the Imperium. But Mortarion wanted to make sure that they never returned, and his fleet caught up to the fleeing xenos in the Iota Horologis system. The Lord of Death himself was aboard one of the xenos ships when the Warmaster's message was transmitted to him by a very nervous communication officer.

The Primarch ordered his troops to abandon the assault immediately, forcing the Sisters of Silence who had accompanied them to withdraw alongside them. He vowed that they would return one day to finish the job – but for now, there were more pressing concerns than the Jorgall's extermination. The Death Guard fleet travelled at all speed toward the Isstvan system, and because their ships were already concentrated in one location, they arrived first.

Upon seeing that they were alone, Mortarion's fleet prepared to avoid contact until the rest of the retribution force arrived. However, there were no traitor ships in the entire system. The only trace of the rebels was on the system's fifth planet, where the bulk of the four renegade Legions was building fortified positions. This troubled the Lord of Death greatly, for it made no tactical sense for Guilliman to send his fleets away. He waited, alone in his chambers, while his warriors prepared for battle, until the Night Lords' contingent arrived, quickly followed by the other Legions who had answered Horus' call.

The sons of Nostramo were led by their Primarch, but had come in lesser numbers than Mortarion had expected. At first, he feared that this was because the Eighth Legion had just fought such terrible campaign that had caused them great loss, but Curze reassured him quickly. The King of the Night remained elusive as to the reasons why his forces were only present in such small numbers, but Mortarion sensed that his prescient brother was trying to warn him of something ill-fated about to happen. Why Konrad couldn't speak clearly was unknown to the Lord of Death, but he decided to order his First Captain, Calas Typhon, to remain among the fleet during the inevitable battle on the surface of Isstvan V.

As part of the first wave, Mortarion led his sons straight toward the Ultramarines, seeking to challenge Guilliman in person and end his wayward brother with his own hands. But if he had expected the Arch-Traitor to come out and face those he had betrayed, he was disappointed : Roboute remained away from the battlefield, coordinating his allies from the safety of his stronghold.

Roboute's strategic acumen was keen, and the losses of the three loyal Legions on the field were great, though none were greater than the Death Guard's. Thousands of Mortarion's sons died as the Lord of Death led them ever onwards, driven by a burning desire to bring his brother to justice. Then, the true scope of Guilliman's conspiracy was revealed, as the Dark Angels, White Scars, Salamanders and Raven Guards arrived on the field and opened fire on those who had believed them loyal.

As the black sands of Isstvan V ran red with transhuman blood, Mortarion led the survivors of the three Legions back to their transports. He watched as Konrad Curze turned back to face Vulkan and slow down their pursuers, his heart hardening with each step that took him away from his doomed brother. During this desperate charge, he faced the one that had once been his brother : Jaghatai Khan, Primarch of the White Scars.

They had talked about it, back on Ullanor, when it had seemed the galaxy would soon belong to Mankind. All of them present had joked about which one of them would defeat the other in battle. As was his way, Mortarion had kept his silence during the discussion, until Fulgrim had brought up the question of him against the Khan. Horus had laughed, and said that while it was unthinkable that the two would ever duel, it was certain that should them fight together, none would be able to defeat them.

This day, however, was one for the unthinkable to happen. Already one Primarch had slain another – the sacrifice of Curze had given the loyalists time to withdraw. Now one more obstacle remained, one clad in the shape of his brother – but Mortarion knew better than to trust in appearances.

'I see you,' growled the Lord of Death as the creature that had taken his brother's form leapt back, with a speed that was a perversion of all the grace the Khan had possessed in life. 'I know what you have done. What you are. How dare you ? HOW DARE YOU ?!'

The Khan had been changed almost beyond recognition by the events of Chondax. He was more daemon than Primarch, his soul torn to pieces by the time he had spent on the edge of death after the slaughter of his loyal sons. Gone were his nobility, his purity of purpose : he had become little more than a beast, consumed by the urge to hunt. The highest-ranking White Scars had kept his state secret from the rest of the Legion, telling their brothers that the Khan was undergoing some great transformation that would grant him power eternal.

Mortarion recognised what his brother had become, for he faced similar creatures during his purge of Barbarus. The one he faced now, however, was empowered by a Primarch's supernatural strength. Mortarion knew that this would be a battle more difficult than any he had ever fought, but he was determined to kill the monster and grant his brother the peace of death – for though the Fifth Legion had betrayed the Imperium, Mortarion had no way to know whether his brother had ever turned before being reduced to his current state.

And so it was that for the first time, Mortarion and the Khan fought, the Lord of Death trying to free his brother, the Warhawk hungering for his prey's lifeblood. Speed was the Khan's advantage, while endurance was Mortarion's. Their battle forced the forces around them to scatter, giving the loyalists an opening to reach their ships and escape. In the end, Mortarion was forced to choose between continuing the fight and leaving with his sons, who needed him now more than ever. After promising to finish their battle one day, he struck the creature Jaghatai had become with such force that the possessed Primarch was sent flying, and turned toward the departing gunships. But there was still the blockade around the planet to pierce, and if not for the sacrifice of one of the Imperium's greatest heroes, then the survivors of Isstvan V would have perished in the void.

It felt strange, to watch it all happen from orbit. The Lord of Death had expressively forbidden him from taking part in the battle on the surface, despite his repeated pleas. Something had passed between him and his Nostraman brother during their short hololithic conversation, something he hadn't picked up on, but that had raised his master's suspicions. Now, that suspicion had been proven true in the worst possible manner, and he was the only one who could prevent a disaster to turn into annihilation.

First Captain Calas Typhon stared through the occulus of the Terminus Est's bridge and straight at the traitor fleet closing in on them. They had come to Isstvan expecting to bring the wrath of seven loyal Legions against four treacherous ones. Now, the situation had changed to three loyal Legions and eight traitor ones. At the system's edge, the ships of the Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Iron Hands and Imperial Fists had just appeared. Soon, the fleets of the Death Guard, Night Lords and Alpha Legion would be too embroiled in fighting the ships of their turncoat allies to be able to escape before the four new Legion fleets came on them and crushed them with overwhelming numbers.

Vox reports from the ground were few and garbled – the traitors were using some kind of jamming that the tech-priests had never encountered before. But it was clear that the situation was even worse down there. Three Primarchs, including his own, and tens of thousands of Legionaries were in danger, and even if they managed to leave the planet, they would still be doomed. The traitors had planned their treachery well.

He could ear the voices at the back of his mind. He had denied them for so long, pushed them back with all the will of a son of Barbarus. But they were growing louder with each beating of his hearts. They promised him power, power enough to turn this battle around, to save his Legion and his Primarch if he would but give in to them.

He made his decision.

'All hands,' he called over the ship-wide vox. 'Abandon ship. Tech-priests : initiate Warp-core detonation sequence. For the Legion and the Emperor, only in death does duty end !'

The voices screamed in rage and denial, and Typhon smiled.

The cataclysmic destruction of the Terminus Est ripped a hole in the traitor formation. At Mortarion's command, the loyalist ships aimed straight for the opening, taking devastating fire from the rest of the traitor armada as they ran for the system's Mandeville Point, opposite to the ships of the other four Traitor Legions. To the eternal fury of Guilliman and his cohorts, the decimated fleet escaped, ready to carry word of this new betrayal back to the Warmaster and the Emperor. Astropathic messages were sent ahead of the fleet on the Warp's burning tides, carried over by the death-screams of tens of thousands of Space Marines. The Emperor and Horus would learn the names of the traitors, and though the Imperium would burn in the civil war that had been unleashed upon the galaxy, that knowledge at least gave them a chance to fight.

While the Night Lords had been prepared for the eventuality of betrayal, and it is impossible to estimate the losses of the secretive Alpha Legion, it is known that the Death Guard was slaughtered on the black sands of Isstvan V. Of the seventy thousand Astartes – the entirety of the Legion, safe for a few ships which had been delayed to the system – they deployed against Guilliman and his cohorts, barely three thousands managed to escape.

Mortarion led the survivors of his Legion straight back to Terra, fighting against the tides of the Warp all the way. At Guilliman's request, the Dark Gods had facilitated the journey of the loyal Legions to Isstvan, but now that the trap had been sprung and the galaxy set ablaze, storms raged unchecked in the Sea of Souls. All the ships of the ragged fleet had taken damage in their desperate escape, and as their Geller Fields fluctuated, daemons materialized aboard.

The Race to Terra : Preys of the Wild Hunt

Battle was joined aboard the loyalist fleet from the moment they entered the Warp. Creatures of nightmare, drawn by the scent of desperation and treachery, launched assault after assault on the ships. Crew members started maiming and killing each other, driven mad by the whispers of the Neverborn. Those who were lucky were found and executed by the Death Guards; those who were not became hosts to daemonic spirits, their flesh twisted and broken in the shape of the Warp's denizens. Entire decks were turned into dens for the Neverborn, that the Astartes had to purge with fire. The contingent of Sisters of Silence who had accompanied the Death Guard, but not taken part in the battle of Isstvan, proved instrumental in these battles, for their mere presence caused the daemons to weaken, their unnatural existence perturbed by the psychic void projected by the Sisters.

But these daemonic attacks, terrible as they were, were not all that Mortarion had to contend with. Another foe pursued the ragged survivors of Isstvan, led by a being that was more than half-daemon itself.

It was surprising to Roboute that he was still able to feel unease at all. He had thought that he had purged himself of that weakness long ago, but here it was : the sight of what the Khan had become made even him sick to his core. It made what he was about to do doubly important.

'I have need of you,' he said.

'What do you want, brother ?' replied the creature, mocking him with every word.

'Find Mortarion. Hunt him down, wherever he runs. And when you have found him … Kill him.'

'As you command,' said the beast with a mock bow, 'so shall it be, Anointed One. I look forward to tasting the blood of the Death Lord.'

While Guilliman's forces advanced toward the Throneworld, the Arch-Traitor had dispatched one of his brothers to deal with the remaining Death Guards. While the White Scars had broken in dozens of warbands during the killing on Isstvan V, a sizeable group remained attached to the creature their Primarch had become, and they had the favor of the Warp. Guilliman tasked them with catching up to the fleeing Mortarion and his few sons, and ending the legacy of the Fourteenth Legion forever.

The tale of this hunt is written in the Stygian Scrolls, a collection of writings by various Legionaries and human crew members who were part of the Death Guard fleet. Guarded in sealed archives on Titan, the scrolls tell us that the pursuit lasted for years. Over the course of their flight to Terra, the survivors of the Drop Site Massacre dispersed : the Night Lords were the first to leave, carrying the body of their Primarch back to Nostramo. Then the Alpha Legionaries chose to depart as well, hiding on worlds loyal to the Throne in order to help them defend against the Traitor Legions. Soon, the only ones left with Mortarion were his own sons and those mortal forces that had come with the Legion to Isstvan.

The White Scars tracked the Death Guards through the Warp, using black sorcery to sense their souls. Whenever the sons of Mortarion left the Sea of Souls to repair and chart their course anew, they were constantly on the lookout, for the Khan's warriors ambushed them several times during such pauses. Always the Death Guards were forced to flee, and always more of them were lost before they managed to escape. It is believed that the Khan allowed Mortarion to escape, enjoying the hunt more than he would the kill. Nothing else explains how the Death Guard managed to escape the White Scars time and again.

Mortarion's temper was black for the entire journey, for reasons beyond the betrayal of his brothers and the death of his sons. This was not the kind of war he had been forged to wage, and being forced to retreat, over and over, sat ill with the Lord of Death. He was used to being the one on the offensive, advancing relentlessly toward his foes and grinding them to dust. But he also knew that his Legion would be even more ill-suited to the kind of warfare the Alpha Legion and the Night Lords were waging against the traitors. His only hope to make a difference in the war was to reach Terra, and add his forces, diminished as they were, to the defense of the Throneworld.

But the Warp was boiling with the Dark Gods' power, and the path to Terra was blocked to all but the most powerful fleets, whose crew's psychic presence and combined Geller Fields could brave the Empyrean's currents. The Death Guard wandered across the galaxy, trying to find a way past the curtain in the Sea of Souls. Finally, after years of errance, and with the Khan and his warriors ever closer on their trail, the Navigators of the fleet found a waypoint in the Warp : a system where the influence of the Ruinous Powers was weakened enough that a fleet could pierce through the veil there.

Mortarion looked down at the astropath. The man looked old, his face covered in wrinkles and his flesh thin on his bones – yet the Primarch knew that he was only forty standard years old. He had looked them, too, before their nightmarish journey had begun, but the vagaries of the Warp had taken their toll. Though Mortarion despised all witches, he had to admit that the man was brave to have endured this far – and braver still to come to him and deliver such news.

'Prospero,' the Primarch repeated. The word tasted foul in his mouth. No matter the respect he had gained for Magnus at Nikaea, the idea of getting anywhere near this den of sorcerers remained unpleasant in the extreme … although, compared to what had happened in the last few years …

'Yes, my lord,' confirmed the astropath. 'Prospero. Something has happened there, something great and terrible. The storms in the Sea of Souls are at their weakest there. If we have any chance at all of crossing them, it will be at Prospero.'

Mortarion was silent for a few seconds. Then he asked :

'Has there been any more word from Terra ? Do we know where Magnus stands in all of this ?'

When the Death Guard fleet emerged from the Warp in the Prosperine system, they found themselves facing a spectacle of desolation. The Thousand Sons' homeworld had been ravaged by the Space Wolves at the beginning of the Heresy, and all the combatants had left long ago. Wrecked battlestations drifted in empty space and the carcasses of dead ships hung in the void, but the true devastation had been visited upon the planet itself. The shining cities of the Thousand Sons had been bombarded from orbit, their great libraries burned. Nothing living remained on the planet itself that the scanners could pick up.

While the fleet's Navigators began to plot the next course through the Warp, Mortarion ordered his tech-adepts to uncover the truth of what had happened here. The Lord of Death had been isolated from the rest of the war ever since it had begun, and did not even know on which side the Thousand Sons fought. His inner distrust for the Fifteenth Legion's sorceries inclined him to thinking them traitors, but he still required confirmation. It only took a few hours for the adepts to identify the responsibles of the destruction as belonging to the Sixth Legion, but Mortarion did not learn the loyalties of those involved until his pursuers caught up with the fleet.

The White Scars emerged from the Warp, not as the united horde they had been so far, but as several handful of ships, scattered all over the Mandeville Point. According to the Navigators, the Warp currents that had allowed safe passage to the Death Guard had turned against the Fifth Legion. There are theories among the Inquisition that this was due to the spirits of the Prosperine dead, and the Thousand Sons still study the effects of the Razing on the Empyrean near their homeworld.

Mortarion immediately saw the opportunity in this scattering. He hailed the enemy ships, demanding to talk to his brother so that he might learn what had happened in the system. The Khan, unable to miss an opportunity to taunt his prey once more, answered the hail, and told Mortarion of how the Space Wolves had descended upon the nearly-defenceless world and reduced it to ruin. The daemon possessing the Primarch's body told the Lord of Death that the Space Wolves now fought under Guilliman's banner, their father lost to treachery and the machinations of fate. He said that Magnus, the one Mortarion had suspected all along, was actually still loyal to the Emperor, and already on Terra by His side.

But while the Khan had hoped to break his prey's spirit with his revelation, Mortarion's hail had actually had another purpose entirely. His Techmarines tracked the source of the Khan's transmission, and located the enemy Primarch aboard the Swordstorm. Mortarion ordered his entire fleet to charge that squadron, deploying the full remaining strength of his Legion in an attempt at destroying the one he had called brother.

The Second Battle of Prospero, as the engagement would come to be known, lasted only a few hours. Mortarion himself boarded the Swordstorm and battled the Khan for the second time on her command deck, before the Traitor Primarch vanished with his surviving sons in a flash of sorcery. Enraged, and with the rest of the White Scars fleet converging on his position, Mortarion was forced to withdraw. The Death Guard fleet entered the Warp once more, and used the Prosperine currents to bypass the storms raised by the Dark Gods. Battered and bloodied, their numbers reduced to a shadow of what they had been, the Death Guards finally arrived at Terra, ready to add their strength to the defenders. For while they had been hunted by the Khan, the rest of the Traitor Legions had advanced on the Throneworld – the final battle was at hand …

The Siege of Terra

The Primarchs already on Terra were relieved to see their brother returned to them alive, though they were also dismayed at the sorry state of the Fourteenth Legion. Magnus, Horus and Perturabo welcomed Mortarion, and quickly incorporated his forces to the defense of the Imperial Palace. The survivors of the Death Guard were divided in small groups and spread across the walls, among other forces. Their experience in fighting both daemons and Traitor Marines would be invaluable in the battle to come.

The Death Guards spent the last few months before Guilliman's arrival training alongside the other defenders, sharing their experience with them. Then, finally, the traitor forces arrived, and the greatest battle for the soul of Mankind began. The Arch-Traitor's armies was slowed by the Iron Lord's spatial defenses, but ultimately, they broke through, and landed on the holy ground of the Throneworld itself. Space Marines from all nine Traitor Legions converged on the Imperial Palace, though most of the Ninth Legion instead assaulted the civilian settlements. Hordes of daemons were summoned, either by the Chaos Sorcerers among the rebels, or through the sheer amount of bloodshed and the battle's scale and significance.

All across the walls of the Imperial Palace, the Death Guards fought, bringing down the lords of the Warp wherever they manifested. They and the Thousand Sons were the best suited to this task, and the sons of Mortarion reluctantly fought back to back with those of the Crimson King. There, on the bloodied walls of the Emperor's sanctuary, the two Legions developed a grudging respect that has lasted to this day. The Death Guards still regard the Thousand Sons with suspicion, and the Thousand Sons consider the Death Guards to be paranoid and ignorant, but both Legions will put aside their differences and fight together at the first external threat.

On the Wall of Heroes is depicted the tale of how Caipha Morarg, Mortarion's Equerry, fought against a Daemon Prince of Nurgle and sacrificed himself to detonate the fusion bomb that destroyed the beast. Down in the Mausoleum of Martyrs, the statue of Second Captain Ignatius Grulgor is inscribed with the names of the twelve Templars of the Seventh Legion he brought down before succumbing to his wounds. But despite their deeds, and those of a hundred more heroes, there are no accounts of what Mortarion himself did during the Siege. The Lord of Death was an absent figure on the Imperial Palace's walls, for he had received another duty in this greatest of hours : to find and destroy the creature that his brother, Jaghatai Khan, had become.

It had been weeks since he had last laid eyes on the Imperial Palace's walls.

Mortarion had been hunting the beast across Terra, and the beast had hunted him back. From the desert plains that had once been oceans to the crowded hive-cities of Merika, they had clashed and fought. Alone or surrounded by others, they had chased each other. The world around them burned, and the destiny of Mankind would soon be decided. But Mortarion had an oath to keep, and orders to obey, while the beast only followed its own whims.

The command had come to him when he had been preparing for the coming of the betrayers, in his chamber within the Imperial Palace. He had seen his father, battling the Neverborn legions deep below. The golden figure had commanded him, not with words but with visions and emotions, to complete his vow : to destroy the beast his brother had become. He knew not why it was so important to his father; perhaps it was because of some terrible thing the beast would do if it was not destroyed, perhaps it was to stop it from entering the Cavea Ferrum. Perhaps it was simply a father's wish to see a tormented son put to rest. It mattered not why. The oath remained.

The beast had taunted him, over and over. It enjoyed their fight – one more game in a daemon's eternity. Mortarion had learned much about the creature's nature, searching the forbidden archives of the Endurance. Once, on Old Earth, it had been known as the Erlking, a lord of spirits that would hunt humans during the nights of full moon at the head of a horde of monsters. On Dessera, it had been called the Princeling of Slaughter; on Larakas, the Huntsman of Heker'Arn. Countless names and titles had been heaped upon the creature by the kin of those it had murdered.

He knew he couldn't destroy the creature – not really. The best he could hope for was to banish it back to the Aether for a few centuries, maybe more if he managed to really hurt it. Silence had proved its efficiency in that domain time and again during the long return to Terra.

But that didn't matter. All that mattered was that his brother would be free.

And so it was that for the third and final time, Mortarion and Jaghatai fought. Their battle lasted for the entirety of the Siege, and took them from one corner of Terra to another. Warriors on both sides of the conflict saw the two Primarchs appear from the shadows and clash for a few exchanges before the Khan would retreat, forcing the Lord of Death to pursue him once again. None were present at this duel's ending, but it was Mortarion alone that walked away from it. Never again was the Khan heard of, though his sons would spin a thousand tales about their father's fate. These tales would spread far and wide in the fractured Fifth Legion, until the White Scars had lost any hope of remembering the truth of their Primarch's fate : that he had been reduced to a vessel for a Neverborn Lord, and granted oblivion by his brother's hands.

When Mortarion returned to the Imperial Palace, he found it broken and ruined, its mighty gates thrown down and its defenders fighting to get back in, their path blocked by the ghastly figure of Ferrus Manus. For a moment, the Lord of Death feared the worst, but soon news began to spread over the vox : Guilliman was dead. The rebels were fleeing. Soon, Manus retreated as well, leaving Mortarion and the other surviving loyal Primarchs to pick up the pieces of a shattered empire.

The Heresy was over, but Mortarion would soon learn the true cost of this most bitter of victories.

Nathaniel Garro, the Guardian of the Dead

Born on Terra, and raised into the Fourteenth Legion at the beginning of the Great Crusade, Captain Garro was one of the oldest Death Guards alive at the time of the Heresy. He was Captain of the Seventh Great Company, a position of honor in the Legion. His loyalty to the Emperor and dedication to the Imperial Truth were legendary, as were his nobility and skill at arms. In a Legion that was never loved of the common Imperial citizen, his was a name that echoed along those of Ezekyle Abaddon, Saul Tarvitz, Sigismund, Khârn, and Sevatar. Though he did not agree with all of his Primarch's decision, he was loyal to the Lord of Death, who considered him to be one of his best sons.

During the Siege of Terra, when Mortarion disappeared to hunt the Traitor Primarch Jaghatai Khan, it was Garro that took command of the Death Guard, directing his few remaining brothers to assist the other Legions in defense of the Palace. As he fought against the Traitor Legions, he slew many of their champions, and was saved from certain death by the intervention of Lucius the Reborn, of the Emperor's Children. Days after this, he slew the Daemon Lord Ulracor the Twice-Living, a dragon-like creature of immense power, with his relic power sword, Libertas. He fought the daemon inside the Imperial Palace itself : the beast had broken through, and was in the process of feasting on the corpses gathered in the great crypts below the surface. Garro's actions saved the souls of those who had fallen in the defense of the Palace so far – Astartes and humans alike – and for this deed he was granted the title of Guardian of the Dead.

After the Heresy, Garro took part in the Scouring, hunting Traitor Marines and daemons alike. His name became a curse among the shattered Traitor Legions and the children of the Warp. Eventually, he met his death at the hands of a Daemon Prince calling itself the Lord of Flies, giving his life to save those of several thousands of human pilgrims on the road to Terra. After his death, he was elevated to sainthood by the young Ecclesiarchy – the only Death Guard to ever reach this status.

Post-Heresy

'We were to be the guardians of Mankind, me and my brothers. It was our task to carve a path through the galaxy for the rest of our people to follow us to greatness, while we guarded them from the horrors lurking among the stars. But my brother has ruined this dream, and now, we must protect Mankind from itself. The sins of our ancestors, as well as those of the living, stalk the Sea of Souls, eager to consume us all, while the monsters in the outer darkness see our struggle and await the slightest moment of weakness.

They shall wait in vain. This, I promise, and my oath shall never be broken.'

From the writings of Primarch Mortarion, after the Siege of Terra

When the Lord of Death saw what had become of his father, he wept for the first time in his entire life. For an entire week, Mortarion remained before the Golden Throne, hoping for any sign of life from the one trapped within it. Whether he received such a sign or not, he rose from his brooding on the seventh day, and rejoined his brothers and the new Lords of Terra.

He didn't remain on Terra for long. Though his Legion was still in ruins, there were traitors still left in the Imperium, and hundred of worlds lost to the Warp in need of purging. Gathering his troops and his ships once more, the Lord of Death left the Throneworld and dedicated his Legion to the Scouring of the galaxy. Little is known of the victories won by the Fourteenth Legion during that period, for they only sought the harshest battles, those where any mortal observer would be driven insane. Only one such battle is recorded, for it involved far more than the Death Guard : the battle of Pythos, in the Pandorax system.

Pythos was the accursed death world upon which the Iron Hands had first been exposed to the taint of Chaos. The Warp Rift that Ferrus Manus had unwittingly created when he had first been cast into the system had remained open during the entirety of the Heresy, allowing the passage of legions of daemons into the Materium. Pythos teemed with Neverborn, while titanic Warp-leviathans hung in orbit, ready to carry their lesser brethren across the stars.

Apart from the Death Guard contingent, led by Mortarion himself, the Imperial forces present at the Battle of Pandorax included Thousand Sons, Sons of Horus, and thousands of Imperial Regiments. The Endurance, Mortarion's capital ship, engaged hostilities with the daemonic fleet in orbit around Pythos, while another of his vessels, the infamous Mia Donna Mori, unleashed its full complement of Exterminatus-grade weaponry on the planet itself. The Mia Donna Mori held enough death in its holds to cleanse an entire sector, but Pythos was a daemon world at that point, and all the bombardment achieved was clearing out a fraction of the planet. That, however, was enough for the rest of the armada to land and finish the battle the old-fashioned way.

The Thousand Sons were led by their Primarch, Magnus the Red. The Crimson King could sense the source of the Warp Rift, an incredibly ancient, broken monolith. He was fairly confident that he could seal the Rift, if he could reach it. Mortarion vowed to deliver him there, no matter the cost. The Imperial expedition tore a path through the corrupted jungles of Pythos, fighting to the death every step of the way. The Lord of Death and the Cyclops fought back to back for the first time in their entire lives, taking on the most powerful daemon lords that dared to cross their path.

After days of fighting, the two Primarchs reached the location of the rift. But as Magnus began the incredibly complex spell that would close the breach between realms, the true agent of the Dark Gods on Pythos revealed itself : Vulkan, the Daemon Primarch of the Eighteenth Legion. After the War of the Dragon had ended on the other side of the Eye of Terror, he had come to Pythos through the Sea of Souls, hoping to claim control of the Warp Rift and use it to launch another crusade against the Imperium.

With Magnus busy handling the tremendous energies of the spell, Mortarion was left alone against the Black Dragon. Since his ascension to daemonhood, Vulkan truly deserved his title : he was a beast of ancient legends given form, spewing all-consuming fire from his maw. At his side came legions of horrors, as well as those of his Salamanders that had been able to follow him through the twisted paths of the Empyrean. While the Imperial army clashed with this new horde of nightmare, the Lord of Death confronted his fallen brother in what would be his last fight.

The Dragon's claws pierced through his armor and rent his flesh apart. The pain was beyond anything he had ever known. Silence was stuck in the beast's flank, black blood dripping from the wound it had opened through the creature's scales.

Give in, said the voice. Give in and you will win. You will live.

Vulkan had become a monster. There was no trace of humanity left in his eyes – only greed and hatred. Mortarion had seen eyes like those : the witch-lords of Barbarus had had the same, soulless gaze.

Give in ! The power is yours. You have but to use it !

'Never,' the Lord of Death whispered. A cold hand closed in on his hearts, and he felt everything around him slowly fade. But he knew death. He wasn't afraid of it.

You could be a king ! Give in, and you will wear his fangs as your crown !

The voice was growing desperate, and Mortarion chuckled, drops of blood spewing from his mouth as he did so.

'No crown,' he croaked. 'I will never … wear a crown …'

Though Mortarion was slain, the wounds he had inflicted upon Vulkan were grave enough that the Black Dragon quickly lost his hold over his material form and was banished into the Warp. This allowed Magnus to seal the Warp Rift unhindered, and the Imperial armada to purge the entire Pandorax system. Soon after, the few traumatized humans who had survived the battle were also executed by the newly created Inquisition in order to prevent knowledge of the rift to spread, while the Legionaries present were sworn to secrecy. A fortress was built on the rift's former location, named the Damnation Cache in the very few records that even mention its existence. Together, the Thousand Sons and the Ordo Malleus covered it into powerful seals, to prevent the rift from ever opening again.

Their hearts heavy, the Death Guards then brought their father's remains to Barbarus, where they were interred in presence of the entire Legion. Oaths were sworn by all present – and are now part of the oaths any aspirant of the Fourteenth Legion must swear – to never fail the Primarch's memory. With the Scouring complete, the Death Guards returned to the duty they had carried out during the Great Crusade : the purge of xenos empires, out into the furthest reaches of the Milky Way.

Thousands of years after Mortarion's demise, when the Hive-Fleet Leviathan appeared, it was the Death Guard that fought it on a hundred worlds. All Seven Companies gathered to stop the advance of the Great Devourer, putting the might of a Legion against that of the Swarm. When they finally managed to stop the progress of the Tyranids, billions had already been lost, and the Fourteenth Legion was scattered on a dozen worlds. Though they had support from every branch of the Imperium's armies for the first time in ten thousand years, they were still barely holding their ground. Forces from other Legions were coming, but before they could arrive and turn the tide, one man made a choice that damned his soul forever.

Lord Inquisitor Kryptman had been the first to discover the existence of the Tyranids when he had come upon the world of Tyran, stripped of all life by the xenoforms of Hive-fleet Behemoth. That Hive-fleet had then vanished into the Ruinstorm, but the data the Inquisitor had recovered had haunted him for years. Slowly, he had come to believe that the Swarm could not be stopped through conventional means, and required drastic methods to be fought. When the Death Guard stopped the Swarm's advance, he gave the order for the worlds on which the sons of Mortarion fought to be subjected to Exterminatus. The Death Guards agreed with his judgement in most cases, and rained death upon worlds that had still to be evacuated, sacrificing the lives of billions to save trillions more. However, there were three worlds that they did not think lost – worlds upon which billions still lived and where the Tyranids could be defeated. On these worlds, the sons of Mortarion held firm, confidant that they could hold back the tide until reinforcements arrived.

But Kryptman didn't care. On these three worlds, his own ships unleashed the ultimate sanction, without giving time for the Death Guards and their allies to evacuate. Thousands of Legionaries died alongside the billions of support troops and innocent Imperial citizens. Without biomass to consume, the Swarm was effectively stopped. However, the betrayal of Kryptman sent the Death Guard into a terrible rage, and very nearly sparked a war between the Legion and the Inquisition. Only the quick denunciation of Kryptman by the rest of the Ordo Xenos and his branding as Excomunicate Traitoris prevented it. Kryptman went into hiding, hunted down by the Inquisition and the Death Guard alike. But he was still convinced of his actions' rightfulness, and wasn't without allies.

When Leviathan returned, these allies executed one of his contingency plans. They arranged for the Hive-fleet Leviathan to be drawn into conflict with an Ork Empire in the Octarius sector, hoping that the two threats would destroy each other. This "Kryptman's Gambit", as it came to be known, was partially successful, in that Orks and Tyranids have been fighting each other for several years now without any of them making significant progress. But other members of the Ordo Xenos quickly pointed out that the conflict was drawing more and more Orks to it, and that the greenskins were becoming stronger and stronger from the endless battles. Meanwhile, the Tyranids were absorbing the genetic material of the Orks, producing bigger and stronger specimens.

In the end, it was the Death Guard that put an end to Kryptman's madness. Acting on intel from the elusive Alpha Legion, a ship of the 4th Company located and attacked the fallen Inquisitor's hideout, executing Kryptman and capturing all of his research on the Tyranids. It could be argued that Kryptman was loyal to the Imperium, and that his methods were merely extensions of the Death Guard's own – but none among the Inquisition are foolish enough to suggest so anywhere the sons of Mortarion might hear it. To them, Kryptman's crime rests in the lack of necessity – while they are perfectly willing to murder worlds, they only do so as a last resort.

Now, the Octarius war rages, with Imperial agents reporting that both the Orks and the Tyranids of Leviathan growing ever stronger. Forces have been massed nearby for the inevitable assault that will follow the victory of either side – for though none can tell which xenos breed will emerge triumphant, it is clear that it will turn its soulless gaze on Mankind next …

Organization

The Deathshroud

During the Great Crusade, the Deathshroud were a group of elite Terminators wielding power scythes, gathered by Mortarion himself to act as his bodyguards. Selected from the rank-and-file for their skill at arms and endurance, they were struck from the Legion's records as killed in action, and took a vow of silence, while also never removing their armor or helm in public. Numbering seven members, they were sworn to guard the Primarch with their lives, and never to be further from him than fourty-nine paces. As such, when Mortarion fell, they were close to the Black Dragon and his own elite warriors, and only two of them survived the confrontation.

It is unknown if they felt ashamed of their survival, for their oath of silence remained unbroken. They gathered the armor of their fallen brethren, and a few days later, each of the Commanders of the Death Guard found a Deathshroud warrior standing before his quarters. Ever since then, there has always been a Deathshroud in each Company, silently guarding over the Commander as his predecessors once guarded the Lord of Death. They are still bound to their charge's physical presence, and follow them on the battlefield, displaying the same prowess as those who wore their armor ten thousand years ago.

When the Deathshroud dies, his armor is recovered and brought back aboard the Company's flagship. A few days later at most, a new Deathshroud will appear, his former identity becoming one more casualty added to the list of those fallen in the engagement that saw his predecessor fall. No one among the Inquisition knows how the new Deathshrouds are chosen – it is possible that even the Death Guards themselves do not know. Theory range from the intervention of the Emperor to the Commander secretely choosing one of his warriors. That last theory, though, is made unlikely by the second duty of the Deathshrouds.

Unlike Mortarion, the Astartes who lead the Companies are susceptible to the weaknesses of Mankind, and their judgement can be altered, as well as their soul corrupted by Chaos. It is extremely rare, but not unheard of, for a Commander of the Death Guard to turn renegade. In such grim circumstances, it is the Deathshroud's duty to end the Commander's life before he can turn the tremendous power of the Company against the Imperium. Traditionally, the executioner must then take his own life, or allow himself to be killed by his brothers when they discover his deed. Thanks to this process, the Death Guard has avoided any significant group of its members rebelling at once throughout the millenia.

While other Legions are divided in dozens of battle-groups across the galaxy, the Death Guard is organized in only seven Great Companies, each operating as a single force. This peculiarity harkens back to the days of the Great Crusade, when it allowed the Legion to challenge powerful enemies without the need for auxiliary troops. After the catastrophic losses the Legion suffered during the Heresy, this organization became more dictated by necessity – there were just not enough Death Guards left. Even as the numbers of the Death Guard swelled once more, Mortarion kept his Legion divided in only seven Great Companies, bestowing upon each of their leaders the title of Commander.

Nowadays, this concentration of force allows once again the Death Guard to prosecute its campaigns of extermination without exposing other forces to the horrors they face. This avoids the need for culling these forces later to prevent the spread of moral corruption, a task that the sons of Mortarion will perform if necessary, but would rather avoid.

Since the death of Mortarion, the Legion has been led by the Commanders, masters of the Seven Companies. There is no Legion Master, though some Commander have positions more exalted than others – the Commander of the Seventh Great Company, for instance, is named "Battle-Captain", a title that grants him seniority over the rest of his brethren. When a Commander dies in battle, his chosen successor immediately takes over. The line of succession in a Great Company involve every single officer in its ranks, preserving the chain of command no matter how grievous the casualties. Complete obedience to the orders of one's superior is considered paramount among the Death Guard, and to disobey them is a mark of great shame.

Each of the Seven Companies is fleet-based, operating far outside of the Imperium's borders, destroying threats to Mankind before they can grow and returning to the Imperium when it needs resupplying or when it has been called to perform its duty on a human world. This grants each Commander far more independence than in other Legions, which is why the rank of Legion Master is considered pointless among the Death Guard.

Lantern & Silence

While the body of Mortarion lies in state on Barbarus, still clad in his battle-plate, the weapons he used in battle are still employed by the Legion. There are two of them : Lantern, an energy pistol fabricated during the Dark Age of Technology, and Silence, a scythe crafted by Mortarion himself after he was discovered by the Emperor. Both of these weapons have received many enhancements over the centuries they spent in the Primarch's hands, and are far more deadly than any other such piece of weaponry. While Lantern is a technological relic, with firepower more akin to a plasma cannon than a laspistol, Silence's origins are far more arcane. The Death Guards say that the weapon's blade is that of Mortarion's harvesting scythe. Drenched in the blood of the witch-lords of Barbarus, it eventually gained supernatural abilities of its own, and is now anathema to all things touched by the Warp.

Lantern and Silence are kept separated at all times, in the care of two separate Companies, for none but their first master may ever wield them both in battle. Every hundred years, the weapons are transferred into the care of another Company, in an heavily ritualised and even more heavily guarded ceremony. Carrying these relics into battle is an immense honor, but also one that can only be bestowed upon exceptional warriors wearing Terminator armor, due to their sheer size and weight.

Combat doctrine

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Title : Report on the Marendes Purification, 435.M38

In the year 430.M38, reports of Warp-born plague on the world of Marendes reached the Inquisition. Teams of interrogators were sent, but after all of them went silent, the Death Guard was deployed with orders to identify the source of the problem and dealt with it as they saw fit.

Population in last census prior to the spread of corruption : 14,000,000,000

Estimated population at the time of Fourteenth Legion's arrival : 2,000,000,000

Population at the conclusion of the Purification : 0

Casualties among the Fourteenth Legion's forces : unknown

Post-action surveys indicate that Marendes is now unsuited for human life – or any known type of life. The planet has been knocked off its orbits through unknown means, bringing it far closer to its sun. Temperatures on the surface average at over a thousand degrees, and almost all of the atmosphere has burned away. If the planet follows its current course, it should plunge into the star itself in a few million years. The system has been declared Perditia, and none are allowed within its borders on pain of death.

Praise the Emperor, for He is the salvation of Mankind.

The Death Guard isn't called to perform simple Exterminatus. This falls under the purview of the Inquisition, and even the Holy Ordos are unwilling to call upon Mortarion's sons. They are only called when the world in question is too heavily defended for conventional destruction. Once called, they will not stop until every trace of the threat has been erased, both from the material realm and from the pages of history. With chemical weapons capable of setting an entire planet aflame, genetically engineered virus of the same kind that was deployed on Isstvan III, and older, incomprehensible artefacts that can break a world apart with gravitic forces – the Death Guards are nothing if not thorough in their work.

When the Death Guard arrives on a battlefield, they do not arrive as liberators or conquerors. Instead, they come as exterminators, purifiers of the galaxy through destruction. A world is changed forever by the coming of the Fourteenth Legion, regardless of the reason that prompted their arrival. Fortunately, it is rare for circumstances dire enough to warranty their appearance to arise within the borders of the Imperium. As a result, most of the Death Guard's campaigns are fought outside of the Emperor's realm, against small xenos empires that must be purged before they can become a threat. This puts the Death Guard far from any support or supply lines, and forces the Seven Companies to be capable of independent actions for extensive periods of time – a force of the Fourteenth Legion can spend years, or even decades away from Barbarus or another friendly port.

On the ground, the Death Guards are relentless attrition fighters. They will keep on advancing toward their enemy no matter what is hurled at them, slowly but steadily. Their superior endurance allows them to keep to the field for weeks without any drop in combat performance. The Death Guards' advance is often covered by orbital bombardments aimed far closer to the Legionaries than most Imperial forces would consider safe. Once they have reached their target, the Death Guards use standard Astartes weaponry, combined with phospex flamers, radiation sprayers, and other sterilization weapons.

The Destroyer Squads

While the rest of the loyal Legions have Devastator Squads as their heavy support and the Traitor Legions have Havocs, the Death Guard has the Destroyer Squads. To be selected as part of a Destroyer Squad is both an honor and a death sentence in the Fourteenth Legion. On one hand, only the most trustworthy warriors are allowed anywhere near the arsenal that such squads carry in battle. On the other hand, that arsenal is almost as dangerous to its wielder as it is to the foe.

There are three main types of weaponry granted to the Destroyed Squads : plasma cannons, Phosphex weapons, and rad missiles and grenades. Plasma cannons are standard plasma guns, but their sheer size allows for a much more potent payload, while also doubling the risk of the weapon exploding and almost certainly reducing its wielder to ashes whenever it is fired. Phospex weapons use canisters and shells filled with an incendiary compound that can burn literally anything in any situation. Water is worse than useless against it : it is simply more fuel. The only known way to stop Phosphex fire is to cut off the burning piece of whatever is burning and throw it into the void, where it will stop burning once there is nothing left to burn. Rad missiles are relics of the gene-wars of Old Night, when warlords fought over entire generations and poisoning the enemy's bloodline was more tactically sound than simply killing him. Enhanced by the Mechanicus, these weapons deliver a dose of intense radiation with a very short half-life, which allows the Death Guards to advance quickly on the shot's position with little danger, but is almost invariably lethal to any lifeform present near the detonation.

As a result of using such dangerous weapons, life expectancy among the Destroyer Squads is much lower than other Legionaries. Space Marines can support far higher levels of radiation than a common human, and their physiology can actually repair much of the damage to their genetic structure over time. But the constant use of their weapons adds damage far more quickly than they can heal it. Likewise, Phospex burns are almost invariably lethal, and in most cases death is preferable to the level of amputation required to remove the still-burning flesh.

Of all the loyalist Legions, the Death Guard is the only one without Librarians. This was already the case during the Great Crusade, when Mortarion's youth on Barbarus made him suspicious of any witch-breed, but the grim duties the Legion took upon itself in the Heresy's aftermath have made it more of a practical decision than one based on prejudice. With all the horrors faced by the Fourteenth Legion and without the benefits of the Grey Knights' intense conditioning, any Astartes touched by the Warp would quickly be driven insane and become a threat to his battle-brothers.

Without psykers of their own, the Death Guards must fight against daemons and other psychically active foes through means that many would find even more appalling. The Fourteenth Legion has an extensive arsenal of ancient weaponry, not all of which is designed for planetary-scale destruction. Most of these weapons would be considered heretical by even the most open-minded Inquisitor, but none of them are of Chaotic nature. They are xenos artifacts, and relics from the Dark Age of Technology, capable of turning the power of the Warp against its users not through psychic potential but through ancient, forgotten science. Outside of battle, they are kept locked in stasis-vaults aboard the Death Guard's ships, and only the most mentally resilient warriors are allowed to actually make use of them. On more than one occasion, Space Wolves warbands have attacked the sons of Mortarion, hoping to steal these relics and add them to their own collections of forbidden weapons.

It is frequent for the Death Guard to be deployed alongside the Grey Knights. While the sons of Titan are aimed at the greater threats among the foe – such as a Greater Daemon or even a Daemon Prince – the warriors of Barbarus take care of the wider battle, ensuring that not a single trace of corruption escape them. The Death Guard is also one of the only forces that do not require mind-wiping after the procession of the war is complete – there is no risk of them revealing the existence of the Grey Knights, considering how little contact they have with the rest of the Imperium. Still, over the centuries, there have been several Inquisitors and Grand Masters who have tried to force the Death Guards to go through the procedure. Each and every time, the Death Guards have refused, and simply left the planet without answering the calls of their Inquisitorial allies, before more sensible heads remind the rest that the Death Guard is too valuable to alienate. This attitude toward the Holy Ordos is also displayed in their relationship with the Ordo Xenos. On more than one occasion has an Inquisitor sought to preserve specimens from a xenos species branded for extermination in order to study it, only for the Death Guard to come knocking at his door – sometimes years or even decades after the campaign's official end.

The Tau Ascendency

Considering that the Death Guard has done a remarkable job of purging the galaxy of xenos threats before they can grow too strong, it might be surprising that the Tau Empire was allowed to reach the size it has today. But to the Death Guard, the Ethereals and their slaves are insignificant. Compared to the horrors the sons of Mortarion have fought in the dark places of the galaxy, the Tau Empire is simply not worthy of their attention. Furthermore, human worlds that have been conquered by the Taus can be liberated and reintegrated into the Imperium with only minimal loss of civilian life . The Tau corruption is subtle, but slow, and the human spirit, bolstered by faith in the God-Emperor, can resist it admirably well. This makes the involvement of the Death Guard unnecessary in the ongoing conflict between the Imperium and these upstart xenos. They concern themselves with predatory species, those of the kin that nearly drove Mankind to extinction during Old Night. The Taus are newcomers to the galactic stage, with no idea of the true nature of the universe they live in, and their psychic presence is too weak for them to risk unwittingly tearing holes in the fabric of reality.

That is not to say that there haven't been Inquisitors and Imperial Generals who have called for their help against the Taus and their various client species. But the Seven Companies have so far ignored their pleas, and the rest of the Imperial leadership has been quick in silencing them. Of course, should the Taus prove a greater threat than it is currently believed, the option remains open.

Homeworld

Deep inside the Segmentum Tempestus, Barbarus is hidden from almost every Imperial galactic chart. After four different attempts by over-zealous Inquisitors to have the planet destroyed for its past corruption, the Death Guard took measures to keep their homeworld protected. An extensive array of space forts has been built in the system, while Imperial records of its location and the Warp routes leading to it have been heavily classified – both by the Death Guards themselves, and by those Inquisitors who would rather not antagonize the sons of Mortarion.

As such, information is scarce, but it appears that even after the witch-lords were hunted to extinction, Barbarus yet remains one of the harshest worlds of the Imperium. Clouds of toxic fumes darken the skies, and life is short even among the people of the plains. The Death Guards have made attempts to purify the planet's atmosphere several times, despite the protests of those among their ranks who saw it as weakening their future recruits. But all such efforts have failed, and often even made things worse : machinery breaks down, filters are clogged, and more toxic components are released. It is believed that the pollution of Barbarus' atmosphere is so ingrained in the world's very soul that purifying it is simply impossible. The Death Guard has grimly accepted that fact after their last attempt, three thousand years ago, caused half a continent to be covered in toxic fumes that killed all human life in the region.

The people of Barbarus are, however, far more stringent in their pursuit of aethereal corruption. Legends of the witch-lords' cruelty are still ingrained on their collective memory, reinforced by nightmares that have haunted every generation born on Barbarus since the death of Mortarion at the Black Dragon's hands. These visions show the Lord of Death fighting against the ghosts of Barbarus' past overlords, keeping them at bay, but never succeeding in destroying them completely. Whether this is a result of a deep-seated belief in Mortarion's undying nature or a sign or something more sinister is known to none save the God-Emperor.

Due to its isolation and status as a Legion's homeworld, Barbarus is exempt of the Imperium's taxation, including the tithe of psykers that all worlds must pay to the Black Ships in order to both keep Mankind pure and sustain the Astronomican. To compensate for this, the population ruthlessly culls all psykers among it, calling upon the Astartes in the occasions when a witch hides its nature long enough to become too powerful for mere mortals to handle.

Beliefs

'Now we are become death, the destroyers of worlds.'

Death Guard motto

To most outsiders, the Death Guard's traditions and rituals appear to be exceedingly morbid, even by the Imperium's standards. Mortarion's early life on Barbarus taught him that there were many things worse than death, and that often, the only thing you can do to aid another is to release him from life. In ten thousand years of fighting the worse wars of Mankind, the warriors of the Fourteenth Legion have seen precious little to turn from that vision. They know neither pleasure nor joy, only duty, and the cold knowledge that what they do, no matter how cruel it might seem, is necessary. They understand mercy, but the duties that are bestowed upon them make it impossible for them – in most of the battles they wage, sparing a single enemy would make the rest of the carnage utterly pointless.

That being said, the Death Guards do not regard human life with the same callous disregard present in all too many Imperial officers. They believe that each human life is precious to the Emperor, and that each one they end is a blow against the Master of Mankind. That is why they make sure, before beginning operations on a human world, that their presence truly is the last resort. The Chaplains will take care to explain to all warriors in the Great Company the exact circumstances requiring their intervention, and do their best to soothe any concern that might arise in their charges.

Because of this grim outlook, the belief in the Emperor's divinity is more spread among the Death Guard than in any other Legion. They know that life in the Milky Way is harsh and often cruel, and they find comfort in the belief that the Emperor has a plan for all things, even if He is opposed by the Dark Gods and the other forces at work in the galaxy. They do not believe the Emperor to be all-powerful, like the Ecclesiarchy preaches to the masses, but they do believe that His eyes are ever watchful, and that He can reach into the galaxy to help those in need. Most important of all, they believe that He can shelter the souls of the dead from the predators of the Warp. This belief prevents the Death Guards from being crushed by regret over the countless innocents that die alongside the guilty during their purges. One might think that standard Astartes conditioning ought to prevent such emotions anyway, but the Emperor was too wise to create transhumans completely devoid of empathy, and the purges of the Fourteenth Legion far exceed what any training can block out.

In contrast, the Death Guard positively revels in the purging of xenos. There is none of the moral ambiguity there, none of the necessary murder of innocents : only the affirmation of Mankind's rightful rule over the stars through the manifestation of the Astartes' genetic purpose. There is a purity in this that soothes the soul of any Space Marine. All sons of Mortarion prefer the long periods spent outside of the Imperium's borders, fighting tooth and nail against inhuman monsters, to the short forays into Imperial space, when they are expected to unleash the same weapons against their fellow humans. The Commanders of the Death Guard actually arrange a rotation of sorts, ensuring that no Company spends too long away from the purges of alien life in the galactic fringes, lest the relentless tide of human extermination wear down the faith of the Astartes within its ranks.

Another aspect of the Fourteenth Legion's rituals is their obsession with poisons. Because of the type of war they wage, they are often exposed to lethal atmosphere and venoms never encountered before. To enhance their already transhuman resistance to such dangers, the Death Guards only consume foods and drinks that have been laced with poisons which would be instantly lethal to any unaugmented human, and would sicken even an Astartes for a few hours. The exact cocktail of toxins employed is changed constantly, and it is one of the Apothecaries' duties to come up with new poisons to use for their brothers' needs. This activity is also heavily ritualised, with the officers being expected to ingest brews even more dangerous than those served to the simple battle-brothers. After a battle, the commander of the Company will select one single warrior, who has distinguished himself in the engagement, and share his drink with him. This is a mark of honor for the Death Guard, for Mortarion himself used to do the same when he still led the Legion.

The Legion of the Damned

The spirits of the Death Guards do not rest easily. Despite the sermons of the Chaplains, despite the cold comfort of knowing that their actions are justified and the only thing standing between the Imperium and yet great horror, all the sons of Mortarion are tormented by the deeds they have committed. Sometimes, the weight of necessary atrocities is too much, and breaks the mind of the Legionary. This can turn them to suicidal behaviour, or even make them rebel against the Legion and fall under the sway of the Dark Gods. But there is another path for the Death Guards who cannot bear the duty of the Fourteenth while still holding true to their oath.

When such a Death Guard can no longer bear the weight of his deeds, he leaves the Legion and wanders the galaxy, in search of a forgiveness that none can grant him. His name is struck from the rolls of the living, never to be spoken aloud again, and added to the tally of the Legion of the Damned. Thousands of names are written upon this list, which is considered a relic of the Death Guard. Many among the Fourteenth scorn these lost brothers, while older, wiser heads understand all too well the pain that drove them to leaving.

But even though they have left their Legion behind, these warriors are still fiercely loyal to the Emperor and the Imperium. It is believed that there is an actual Legion of the Damned : an organized force, built by those who left the Death Guard in such a manner over the millenia. There are many reports across the Imperium of forces wearing the colors of no Legion, their armor scorched and adorned with icons of death and fire, appearing in circumstances where all hope appears to be lost, and coming to the aid of the Imperial forces and people. No communication has ever been established with these warriors, and there are tales of them possessing ethereal powers, disappearing at will only to reappear half-way across the battlefield, like ghosts. No corpses are ever left behind by these mysterious individuals.

The Inquisition has many theories about the Legion of the Damned's supernatural abilities. They seem to be drawn to desperate situations, and to those who call for the Emperor's help – not for themselves, but for the salvation of others. Some think that they are a manifestation of the God-Emperor's will, while others believe that their powers are the result of all of the Fourteenth Legion's accumulated remorse, forming a power of its own in the Sea of Souls.

Recruitment and Geneseed

Those who receive Mortarion's gene-seed become cadaverously thin, their faces pale and gaunt. This is only in appearance, though : they are still as strong and quick as any Legionary, and more enduring than most. They are also morbid, but that is probably more due to the type of battles they wage than any genetic imperative. Among the loyal Legions, the Death Guards are incredibly long-lived and resilient, capable of fully recovering from wounds that would require extensive augmentation in others. And while it is rare for their cousins to reach a thousand years of age, due to an accumulation of minor gene-seed flaws over the millenia, the sons of Mortarion are seemingly truly immune to the ravages of time – once the initial gauntness has settled in, no more signs of age appear, either visible or through a decay of physical prowess. Of course, due to the battles they wage, few Death Guards reach an age where this comes into account, even more so in the case of the Destroyers.

Due to their regime of toxins, the Death Guards are immune to all poisons and diseases, even the pestilences of the Warp. They can breathe in toxic atmospheres for hours without their helmets before the first symptoms of poisoning appear, which is very useful when fighting xenos species with a different breathing apparatus on their home ground. However, their omophaega degenerates due to the amount of poison they ingest, causing them to lose the ability to absorb the memories of slain foes, as well as any sense of taste and smell. Over the generations, the organ has become little more than vestigial, and newly induced Space Marines suffer from a permanent disgusting taste in their mouth, that they eventually become able to ignore.

Most of the Death Guard recruits come from their homeworld of Barbarus. The young men of the planet see it as the supreme honor, and many risk their lives to climb up the poisoned peaks, hoping to reach the Legion's outposts and thus prove their worth. Many do not reach them, but not all who fail die : sometimes, if the weakness is not in their minds but in their bodies, the Legion will take them in as serfs. Other death worlds across the Imperium are also used as recruiting grounds, generally by a single Company. There have been rumors that the Death Guard very rarely takes in young men from the worlds it is sent to purge, after extensive testing, but the sons of Mortarion themselves vehemently deny all such allegations. No one, they claim, is left alive in their wake, and the mere notion that they would risk such corruption among their own ranks is nothing short of ridiculous. Mentioning this rumour to them is actually one of the very few ways to make the Death Guards lose their legendary calm.

The way the Death Guard wages war has also forced the Legion to alter its methods of recruitment. Because a Company can spend decades without returning to Imperial space, it needs to have a way to replace its fallen Astartes, but any aspirant taken aboard at the beginning of the campaign would have aged far beyond the limit for Ascension by then. This is solved by putting the aspirants in hibernation caskets soon after the expedition's beginning, to be awakened only when the time has come for them to go under the Apothecaries' knives. Because the technology employed is far less reliable than a stasis field – but a lot less costly to build and maintain – not all aspirants survive the hibernation, but this is simply considered one more test to weed out the weak. After the aspirant is unfrozen, the same process as in other Legions follows, with the aspirant spending several years as a Scout before the Black Carapace is grafted and he becomes a true Space Marine. Still, with the losses taken in some campaigns, the period in the Scout corps is generally shorter for an aspirant of the Fourteenth Legion.

The Ancients

Few Death Guards will reach the age where their extended lifespan makes any difference between them and the other Legions. But those who do reach that age – a thousand standard Terran years – are regarded by their brothers with awe. Called the Ancients, they are allowed to wear the mark of Mortarion on their helm, making them look like skull-faced wraiths of legend. In many ways, their position is similar to those of Dreadnoughts in other Legions, though they are far more lucid, and not denied positions of command. Most of them are sergeants, though a few Captains and even Commanders have been part of that illustrious brotherhood over the millenia.

Only the toughest and more resourceful Death Guards ever live long enough to become Ancients. Each of the Companies has rarely more than a handful in its ranks, and they are considered "lucky charms" for the warriors around them. In battle, there is no difference between the equipment of an Ancient and that of a younger Legionary of the same rank, though their helm often causes their enemy to mistake them for high-profile individuals. Despite the added danger this causes, the Ancients have refused to wear traditional headgear, believing that the resulting danger to their life keeps them sharp.

One would believe that such individual would naturally assume the commanding position in whatever group they are part of. But the same factors that help a Death Guard reaches the status of Ancient often also make him somewhat ill-suited for command. Ancients are survivors, who have reached their venerable age through careful planning and well-oiled instincts, while an Astartes officer is expected to lead from the front, inspiring his brothers to surpass their limits through his own example.

That is why, on the rare occasions when a Death Guard officer survives long enough to become an Ancient, his name is certain to echo in the legends of the Legion for the rest of eternity.

Warcry

When performing their purges, the Death Guards fight in silence, with the only communication between them being the exchange of orders and battle information, spoken in Barbarusian. When they are in the process of purging human worlds, they broadcast prayers to the Emperor, inciting their victims to repent in their last moments, so that their souls can at least find peace in the Empyrean rather than be consumed by the Dark Gods.

It is only when facing Traitor Marines that the silence of the Fourteenth Legion is broken. They will scream their hatred at those who bled them on Isstvan V, most of their hatred reserved for the members of the treacherous second wave – and most of that for the Salamanders. They will not break formation or give in to anger, but their hatred will push them to greater yet feats of endurance, while they shout out warcries like 'Death to the Dragons !' and 'We are judgement come at last !', as well as a variety of oaths of vengeance.

The living cry out in fear, while the shades of the dead gather ever more numerous at the foot of the Allfather's throne.

The children of the Elder Ones, the parents of the Youngest God, are kneeling before the shadowed soul, waiting for death to give birth to their salvation.

The cold minds of the long dead are awakening from the slumber of aeons, and the fragments of the Void Lords are reuniting in the dark, bringing back the horrors of a war that tore the universe apart.

From the mouth of Hell, the fallen angels are rising once more, to tear down the empire they built with blood and blade.

Beyond the eternal abyss, the ever-hungry shadow is rising, drawn to us by ancient mistakes.

Sitting upon his throne, the Dark King stirs, his will reaching out to those bearing his tainted mark.

The light of hope is fading, and soon all will be lost. Darkness and torment will rule forevermore, or oblivion will swallow all that is.

Arise, Lord of Death, for your time has come once more. Honor your oath, and defend those who cannot defend themselves.

In Dedicato Imperatum Ultra Articulo Mortis.

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AN : For the Emperor beyond the point of death.

Hello, everyone. Zahariel here. As always, this chapter took quite a long time to write, and ended up longer than I thought it would. I quite like the spin I did on the Death Guard here. In case you haven't noticed, the theme of the Fourteenth Legion is based on the character of Death from the late Sir Terry Pratchett's series Discworld - but adapted to the Grim Darkness of the forty-first millenium.

For those of you who wonder why the title names the Death Guards "Agents of the Emperor's Mercy", it is a reference to the Emperor's Mercy that Apothecaries grant to the Space Marines too gravely wounded to survive but still clinging to life.

Several people have said that I don't put enough emphasis on the events following the Roboutian Heresy. Well, that's true, but as you have seen in this chapter, I mostly reserved it for the loyalist Legions. Why ? Because the Traitor Legions are trapped within the Eye and the Ruinstorm, and apart from their own Black Crusades and internecine politics, they don't really impact the Imperium itself. That's also true in canon (name one moment when the Traitor Legions' actions have actively shaped the galaxy in the last ten thousand years. Go on, I dare you). Admittedly, there isn't much in this chapter either, but the Death Guards of the RH universe aren't very involved in the Imperium's politics. But with the Thousand Sons, Sons of Horus, and Word Bearers coming up, you can bet that I will give more focus to the great Imperium of Man from now on.

I don't think there is much more to say here. I am going to write the next chapter of Warband of the Forsaken Sons now. After considering the feedback I have had on the last chapter (by the way, twenty reviews ? I should ask your advice on stuff more often) I have chosen to go for the collection of one-or-two chapters arcs, where we see how the Forsaken Sons conquer the rest of the Wailing Storm. It's going to be a while before the Thousand Sons' Index is up, because I still have almost no idea what I am going to do with them.

So if you have a suggestion, a question, a commentary, see a mistake in this chapter, please leave a review or PM me !

Zahariel out.

PS : go check Nemris' page on DeviantArt. He has recently released a new artwork, this time of the Imperial Fists, and it is truly amazing.