Death Guard

In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Death Guard are one of the traitor legions of Chaos Space Marines. They worship the Chaos god Nurgle and from his gifts, many of their number are Plague Marines - men rotting away within their armour.

History

Mortarion

When the twenty Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions were scattered across the galaxy in a mysterious accident, one came to rest on the planet Barbarus, a world completely surrounded in poisonous fog. The population of the world was split into two groups, the controlling warlords, necromancers with fantastic powers, and the human settlers, who had been trapped on the planet millennia before, and were now forced to eke out an existence in the poison-free valleys of the planet, fearing the wrath of the warlords and their creations.

The Primarch-child was taken in by the most powerful of the warlords, who found him amongst the corpses of a battlefield, screaming and wailing where a normal child would have suffocated and died long before. The Overlord of Barbarus took the child in with the intention of creating a son and heir, naming him Mortarion; child of death.

Mortarion was kept in a fortress positioned at the limit of even his superhuman tolerance to the toxins in the air, while the Overlord moved his own fortress to the highest peak of the world, beyond where even Mortarion could go. He trained the child, who had a voracious appetite for knowledge; Mortarion learned everything from battle doctrine, to arcane secrets, from artifice to stratagem. However, the young Primarch's questions began to turn towards subjects the Overlord did not want to talk about, namely the pitiful creatures in the valleys that the many warlords preyed upon for corpses to reanimate and bodies to warp.

The Deliverance of Barbarus

Finally, knowing he would be unable to find the answers he desired from his adoptive father, Mortarion broke out of the fortress that had been his home and prison, and headed for the valleys of Barbarus. Breaking through the poisonous mists, Mortarion discovered that the prey of the warlords were in fact the same people as he was, and swore to bring them justice. His acceptance among the people of Barbarus was slow, but helped immensely when the creatures enthralled to another warlord attacked the village. Seeing that the peasants were unable to effectively fight back, Mortarion joined the fray, wielding a massive harvesting scythe, slaying the creatures and executing their lord.

Accepted into the village with no further reservation, Mortarion began to train the villagers in the art of warfare, to better defend themselves against the monsters that came for them. Soon, representatives from other villages journeyed to learn from Mortarion, while the villages scattered across the valleys of the world became strongpoints. Mortarion travelled from settlement to settlement, teaching, building and defending his people.

He recruited the toughest, most resilient people he could find, forming them into small units which he taught personally. He enlisted the aid of blacksmiths, craftsmen and artificers to create suits of armour that would allow men to travel through the poisonous fog. As each battle in the mists was fought, Mortarion and his Death Guard would learn how to better adapt the armour, and themselves, to reach the more poisonous heights. Eventually, only one peak denied them access, the one on which Mortarion's adoptive father had made his home.

The Coming of the Emperor

Returning to the village, Mortarion found his people talking of the arrival of a benevolent stranger, promising salvation to the people of Barbarus. Finding this stranger in conference with the village elders, Mortarion claimed that his people needed no outside help. The stranger commented that even Mortarion and his Death Guard were having trouble pacifying the final warlord, and offered a challenge. If Mortarion could defeat the Overlord, the stranger would leave. If not, Mortarion had to swear fealty to the stranger and the Imperium of Man he represented.

Ignoring the protests of his Death Guard, Mortarion left alone to confront his adoptive father, motivated by a compulsion to prove himself to the stranger below. The confrontation was brief. The air surrounding the Overlord's fortress was so poisonous, that parts of Mortarion's armour began to rot. He collapsed at the gates of the Overlord's citadel, bellowing challenges. The final thing Mortarion saw before he passed out was the Overlord of Barbarus coming to kill him, then the stranger leaping between the two and slaying the Overlord with a single sword thrust.

When he recovered, Mortarion swore fealty to the stranger, who revealed himself to be Mortarion's father, the Emperor of Mankind. The Emperor granted Mortarion command of the Fourteenth Space Marine Legion, which quickly adopted the name and dogma of Mortarion's Death Guard.

The Great Crusade

Mortarion believed that victory in battle came through sheer resilience, and Horus, who used the strengths and weaknesses of the different legions to create the most efficient fighting force possible, used his legion in co-ordination with Mortarion's frequently. Mortarion and the Death Guard would draw out the enemy and tire them down, and then the Luna Wolves would strike. This combat tactic worked brilliantly, and Mortarion grew close to Horus.

File:Deathguard-preheresy.jpg

Farsight variation of Tau emblem

Mortarion was huge, pale and rarely spoke. He was viewed by others as a freak, and was distant from all his brother Primarchs save Horus and Night Haunter, the leader of the Night Lords Legion. Some Primarchs, such as Roboute Guilliman, feared that Mortarion was more loyal to Horus then to the Emperor; however the Emperor claimed that loyalty to Horus was de facto fealty to the Emperor. It was this bond that would lead Mortarion to follow Horus into heresy and rebellion.

The Horus Heresy

When Warmaster Horus turned to Chaos, he did not require much effort to drag Mortarion and his Legion down with him. Horus had been one of the few Primarchs with whom Mortarion had felt comfortable, and as such he showed more loyalty to the Warmaster during the Great Crusade than to the Emperor himself. Initially, the loyalty of Mortarion was more to Horus than the forces of Chaos, which spared his Legion the corrupting influence of the Ruinous Powers - for a time.

When Horus made clear his plans to attack Terra, Mortarion promised his Legion to the invasion force. However, en route, the entire Death Guard Fleet became trapped in the Immaterium due to the actions of Captain Typhon, who had long been a pawn of Chaos. The Destroyer Plague infected the fleet while they drifted aimlessly through the Warp, making a mockery of the Death Guard's legendary resistance to poison and contagions. Desperate, Mortarion offered his Legion and his own soul in exchange for deliverance.

In the warp, drawn by the actions of Typhon, the power known as the Chaos God Nurgle responded, claiming the Death Guard for his own. The Death Guard emerged from the warp vastly different from when they had entered, now fully dedicated to the cause of Chaos.

In the end, Horus was defeated by the Emperor, but unlike the other Legions, who splintered and fled into the Eye of Terror, Mortarion's Legion, calling themselves the Plague Marines, made an orderly withdrawal, force after force breaking themselves on the Legion. Within the Eye of Terror, Mortarion claimed a new world, and shaped it into the image of Barbarus, placing himself in his adoptive father's position. He was elevated to Daemonhood by Nurgle, and is believed to still be alive in the 41st millennium.

Organisation

Mortarion was an infantryman, and the Death Guard Legion was organised around these principles. Obedience was extended throughout every rank, and the Legion was renowned for operating as a single body in combat. The Death Guard were organised into larger Companies than other Legions, each company possessing a near identical cross-section of the Legion's equipment and specialists.

After Mortarion's ascension to Daemonhood, the Legion began to splinter into smaller forces, although the Plague Marines endeavour to organise themselves into multiples of seven, Nurgle's sacred number. What few vehicles remain go unmaintained, sustained either by daemonic possession or controlled by packs of Nurglings.

Headquarters

The original homeworld of the Death Guard is assumed destroyed by the Inquisition, like the other worlds belonging to the Traitor Legions. Mortarion has crafted a new home from a daemon world within the Eye of Terror, which resembles Barbarus in many regards. Human slaves are kept in villages below the poisonous mists of the world, while the Plague Marines and other servants of Nurgle reside in fortresses constructed on the mountainsides.

Combat Doctrine

The Death Guard believed that victory came through sheer relentlessness. Their weapons, while not ornate, functioned without flaw. They did not manoeuvre in fanciful patterns to confuse the enemy, instead standing their ground and waiting for the enemy assaults to falter before striking back with fatal force. Any environment or situation Mortarion and his advisors could not compensate for, the Death Guard would overcome through sheer stubborn resilience.

Mortarion learned warfare on a world almost covered in mountainous terrain, and even though his massive intellect allowed him to grasp the use of tanks and vehicles, the primacy of the foot soldier remained the Death Guard's trademark. Each Marine was well trained in a variety of disciplines, able to function in almost any role or environment.

Plague Marines

The members of the Death Guard are also known as Plague Marines. A result of their servitude to Nurgle, they are rife with all manner of deadly diseases, which renders them immune to pain. In game mechanics terms, this makes them harder to wound and kill than other Chaos Space Marines. While all members of the Death Guard are Plague Marines, not all Plague Marines are from the Death Guard Legion; other Chaos Space Marine armies may field Plague Marines as part of their forces.

Plague Marines under the tutelage of Mortarion know how to win a battle with sheer attrition. Because Mortarion based the Death Guards heavily on infantry, the Death guards are short of any kind of fast assault vehicle and heavy weapons. As a result, all Death Guard members in Rhinos are normally chosen as a replacement for their lack of fast attack choices and Death Guards without terminator armour normally have to settle for special weapons such as the Melta Gun and Plasma Gun to replace Heavy weapons such as Lascannons and Autocannons. Also, because Death Guards are infantry based, all units are trained to use their bolters to maximum efficiency. In game terms, all models have the True Grit ability and a death guard army can be made solely of marines with no vehicles or daemons whilst still functioning better than any other army. The average Death Guard can lay down a heavy rain of bolter shells while still standing his ground if charged.

Special weapons and equipment

What follows is a small selection of the unusual gear which can be carried by members of the Death Guard:

• The Plague Sword: One special weapon available to senior Death Guard marines is the Plague Sword, a deteriorated sword covered in rust and filth which can cause its victim to decompose and die instantly. A smaller blade, a The Plague Knife, has similar properties.

• The Manreaper: The powerful daemon weapon Manreaper pays homage to Mortarion. The weapon often takes the shape of a scythe, like the one used by Mortarion to gain the trust of the human populus of Barbarus. The Manreaper is able to cut down swathes of enemy troops, but is less effective against single foes.

• The Destroyer Hive: the Destroyer Hive is only available to Typhus, the "Herald of Nurgle". It grants the wearer and all who surrounds him with an aura of pestilence that would make normal men vomit at the mere sight. It was the prize granted to Typhon when he delivered the Death Guard to Nurgle.

• Blight Grenades: Shrunken heads of those who have been killed by the Death Guard, they release a cloud of gas on detonation.

Battlecry

The Death Guard have no battlecry, believing that like plagues and pestilence, death should come silently.

Appearance

Before the Horus Heresy, the armour of the Death Guard was mottled grey and white with green shoulderguards. The Legion's symbol was a skull, with a trio of horizontal points on either side.

After their acceptance of Nurgle as their patron, their armour has taken on a sickly green appearance. They wear the symbol of Nurgle as their Legion symbol.

References

• "Index Astartes – The Death Guard". White Dwarf: Australian Edition (265). 2002. ISSN 0265-8712. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• "Heroes and Villains of the 41st Millennium – Typhus, Herald of Nurgle". White Dwarf: Australian Edition (282). 2003. ISSN 0265-8712. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)