The only consistent information regarding Mortarion and his homeworld come from a single source: the Stygian

Scrolls of Lackland Thorn, a historian and polymath attached to the explorator fleet that discovered Barbarus[6b]. Mortarion crash landed on the world of Barbarus. He came to rest at the site of a huge battle fought across a vast plain. All around him were strewn the bodies of the dead and dying for miles in all directions. Barbarus was constantly cover ed in a poisonous fog and the mountains were ruled by fierce warlords. The norma l humans, dropped off millennia before, were forced to live in the lowest areas of the planet, amidst the choking fog. They were condemned to an endless life of servitude and were in constant fear of those who moved above them[1][6b]. The winner of the battle in which Mortarion had landed was the greatest of the w arlords. He was revelling in his victory until the silence was shattered by the scream of a child. It is said this warlord walked the battlefield for a day sear ching for the child, not stopping once until he found it. For a moment he consid ered killing the child, but he realised that no human should be able to breath a t this height, let alone cry out. He considered what he had found, and then bund led the child up and carried it from the carnage. He now had a son, something he had craved for years despite his dark magical powers. The warlord christened th e child Mortarion, child of death[1][6b]. The warlord tested how high the child could survive in the poisonous atmosphere of Barbarus and then erected a massive wall of black iron. He then moved his man sion past this to keep it from the child. Perhaps he knew the child was better t han him and that one day he would come for the warlord, or perhaps he was afraid of the small child able to breath where no other of his kind could. Whatever he felt, he trained the child in his image. He taught everything of warfare to Mor tarion. He was constantly at the front fighting against all of the other warlord s' armies, sometimes of undead humans, sometimes of more daemonic creatures. Mor tarion was still human though, and he sought to know of those who dwelled below the layer of fog. Eventually Mortarion escaped from his holdings and descended t he mountain, the warlord bellowing after him of his treachery and that to return would mean death[1][6b]. As Mortarion descended, he began to realise he had found his people. He smelt th e scent of food for the first time, he saw people unobstructed by the fog and fo r the first time he heard laughter, real laughter, not that of the victorious wa rlord's. He realised that the prey that the warlords fought over was his own peo ple, and with this came a sense of hatred and he vowed to give them justice over their oppressors[1][6b]. His acceptance into the community of humans was not easy. He was seen as just an other monster from above them, and this was quite true due to his appearance. He had pallid skin and hollow, haunted eyes and he terrified most of the inhabitan ts. He may have been feared, but Mortarion bade his time and helped get the meag re harvest in and was generally a useful and productive member of the society, m ore than most were. Eventually, the time he had waited for arrived, a way to pro ve himself in the eyes of his fellow humans[1][6b]. A lesser warlord had arrived with his shambling undead legions and began to carr y off those they could for their master's plans. The peasants fought back as bes t they could, but they only had fire torches and farming implements to defend th emselves. Each of them had fought many times like this during their lives and it was all they could do not to run, let alone put up an effective counter manoeuv re. Until, that is, Mortarion himself joined into the fray. He strode above his fellow humans, dwarfing all around him. He used an enormous two handed scythe an d charged into the ranks of the enemy with the hatred that had been building for years before and drove them from the village. The warlord smiled and withdrew t o the poisonous area above, unaware of the primarch's amazing respiratory abilit

ies. Mortarion dispatched the warlord and his place among the villagers was seal ed[1][6b]. As Mortarion grew he taught the villagers all he knew of warfare. Word of his kn owledge and exploits spread and people came from far and wide to learn from him. Soon, villages were becoming strongholds and the villagers were more effective defenders. Eventually, Mortarion began to move from village to village, teaching along the way and if need be, defend the settlements. His ultimate vengeance wa s always denied to him because of the fog that prevented the humans from pushing home their attacks[1][6b]. Mortarion then recruited the strongest and most resilient of warriors from the v illages he went to. He formed them into elite units and drilled them himself. He turned blacksmiths from toolworking to weaponsmaking when time allowed and had them craft armour. He also armed his warriors with crude air filtration apparatu s. It is said that the next attack that descended from the mountains above was r epulsed quickly and Mortarion, leading his Death Guard, as they had become known , followed them into the fog above, massacring the remaining forces and killing the warlord. For the first time in history, Mortarion had led the people into th e toxic fog and survived. Mortarion continued to improve the breathing apparatus and campaigned ever higher into the fog. The constant exposure to the toxins ha rdened his warriors, a useful and transferable skill retained by the Death Guard [1][6b]. The Unification Struggle Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard, during the Horus Heresy[Needs Citation] Only the top of the mountains denied him access. After hundreds of battles and w ars, there was just one inaccessible mansion, one which Mortarion knew well, the one where his adoptive father resided. Mortarion returned to his village, confi dent in the knowledge that he would return for his final battle. When he returne d, there was word of an amazing visitor who brought promises of salvation. The m ood of the primarch darkened. His final battle had been building for years and h e was not happy that someone else would share his glory[1][6b]. People say that Mortarion flattened the wooden door to the banquet room and he f ound the elders and a stranger who was their opposite in every way. Where they w ere gaunt and pale skinned, the stranger had bronzed flesh and a perfect physiqu e. The connection between father and son immediately formed and was plain to see , although Mortarion knew nothing of the link. The stranger challenged the young primarch to capture the last mansion alone, but if he failed he would join the stranger in total obedience. Mortarion turned away and began the ascent to the f inal mansion, that of the man he had called father, alone. He marched to the top with the anger given by years of building hatred for the final warlord. He clim bed higher than he had ever gone before, ignoring the increasing toxins[1][6b]. When the confrontation came, it was mercifully short. Even the hoses of his suit began to corrode and rot down and Mortarion was gasping for breath. The last th ing he saw was the overlord walking towards him to fulfill the promise he had ma de years before. Then, the stranger stepped between them and, defying the fog, k illed the warlord with one mighty sweep of his sword[1][6b]. Post Unification When Mortarion had recovered he bent his knee to the stranger and pledged his se rvice. Only then did the stranger reveal himself to be the Emperor of Mankind an d Mortarion's father. He then was given command of the fourteenth legion of the Space Marines, the Dusk Raiders. It was said that Mortarion brought his relentle ssness to the Death Guard legion and they followed his ideals. He only ever foun d friendship in two other Primarchs, Night Haunter and Horus. So close did Morta rion and Horus become that the ever watchful Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarin es and Corax of the Raven Guard approached the Emperor with concerns as to where

Mortarion's loyalties lay. The Emperor waved it aside with a hand gesture; loya lty to Horus was loyalty to the Emperor[1][6b]. The Heresy Mortarion, Daemon Prince of Chaos Horus found Mortarion more difficult to bring to his cause than either Angron or Fulgrim, and for it time it seemed the Warmaster may have failed to convince th e Lord of the Death Guard. However Horus at last found a chink in Mortarion's ar mor, he was beginning to see the Emperor as having been corrupted with power and now was just another tyrant drunk with power. Horus eventually used this doubt to bring Mortarion to his cause.[6a] Prior to the Horus Heresy, Mortarion led his legion into battle against a Xenos race known as the Jorgall[2]. With the entire Death Guard fleet, Mortarion set off to Terra to join the siege. Unfortunately the fleet was caught in an impenetrable warp storm, the navigator s not being able to find a way through the warp or a way back into real space. T he fleet was reduced to drifting, and in that time the Destroyer came. The plagu e that came could not be resisted, something that terrified Mortarion and the De ath Guard. It transformed them into bloated mutants, yet none could die, their o wn body being their undoing. None suffered more than Mortarion, for it was like being on the mountain top again, surrendering to the toxins, but this time witho ut the Emperor to save him. Eventually, Mortarion could suffer no more and gave himself to Chaos. Father Nurgle responded and took the legion and Mortarion as h is own[7]. What emerged from the warp bore little resemblance to what had gone in. The Mari nes' once gleaming armour was corroded and shattered, barely containing their bl oated, pustule covered bodies. Their weapons and armour were powered by the ener gies of Chaos and they became known as the Plague Marines, although they would s till use the name Death Guard[7]. After Horus was defeated, Mortarion led his forces, in an ordered formation, bac k to the Eye of Terror. Mortarion claimed the Plague Planet as his new world and it is ideal for launching attacks on the real world. He shaped it so well that Nurgle promoted him to Daemon Prince. Mortarion got what he wanted, a world of h is own. He ruled over a toxic death world of poison, horror and misery. He had c ome home[Needs Citation]. Post-Heresy In 437.M36, Mortarion emerged at the head of a Death Guard and Nurgle-Daemon arm y that led to the Fall of Sanctia.[5] In 901.M41, during the Battle of Kornovin, Mortarion killed Geronitan, Supreme G rand Master of the Grey Knights. Geronitan's subordinate, Kaldor Draigo, assault ed the Daemon Primarch and carved his forebear's name into the Daemon's heart, a n insult Mortarion has never forgotten[4].