Mortifactors

Mortifactors armorial with Legion iconography.

Mortifactors Legion Breacher, Brother Vargol of the Bartok Tribe.

The **Mortifactors** are the ghoulish sons of Arpaza, the XX Legion of the grand Legiones Astartes. The Mortifactors are a mysterious and unsettling army among the myriad forces of the Imperium, often stalking forwards from ethereal mists alongside the hungering shades of the dead; these towering giants always leave any battlefield they enter as a silent ruin, belayed with creeping frost, and the wisps of the vacating damned.

Seen as distant and secretive by their fellow legions, they are still however treated with respect given their steadfast progress forward against the many enemies of the Imperium.

## Legion History

"*A flickering mists descended across the battlefield. Everything stilled as glowing motes of ash began to drift from the sky, the temperature dropped sharply until the enemy soldiers breath misted in front of them and ice began to creep along the battlefield. All fighting ceased. A deep unsettling silence took over. When through the mists marched white clad giants covered in gleaming bone, alongside them came the restless dead, whispers pervading their ethereal ghostly figures. All their eyes were empty voids. By the time the mists moved on only the dead remained.*"
— *Imperials Journal*
### Founding

Having been one of the original twenty legions created by the Emperor, the Mortifactors fought during the end of the Unification Wars. As such the born out of recruits made out out of the various tribes and near feral citizens on the planet, the legion operated under the name Devourers until the discovery of Arpaza. As well as the reclamation of Sol; mostly deploying into the shadowed monster infested reaches of the system, such as the Jovian moons, Pluto, and the other outer worlds.

## Notable Campaigns

* **The Hunt across Sevit System** - A campaign, before the discovery of Arpaza, against a xenos race that specialized in teleportation technology, thus leading the XX Legion to deploy and chase this species across the twelve planets and dozens of moons in the system.
* **The Breaking of Vertigo XII** - A campaign done alongside the Soul Drinkers and their Primarch Hamartia against a xenos race that had powerful technology but were ill prepared for warfare under the cover of night. Shortly after this campaign Arpaza gifted a dreadnought pattern to Hamartia.
* **Night Falls of Aribir Prime** - A non-compliant human civilization that possessed technology existed roughly around the same as Terra's during the period known as the Information Era. In a single night the Mortifactors systematically wiped out the strongholds of the ruling elite and enforced surrender and Imperial compliance the next dawn.
* **The Pacification of Rynus** - An Imperial world that rose in rebellion believing that it had no need to pay tithes to Terra and that the Imperium should happy they joined at all. The rebellion adopted hit and run tactics, dragging the Mortifactors in a almost Terran year long engagement.

## Legion Homeworld

Posul is classified as a Night World do to the immense distance from the system's star. Thus making the planet's general atmosphere much colder than normal. Posul is world that best described as silent, for the only true noises on this world are the howl of the wind across the sands and the noises of the reptilian fauna. Across the vast deserts and shallow oceans, all that remains of the native inhabitants are the tombs and mausoleums of the long dead and the empty ruins that lie seemingly abandoned.

Arpaza roamed this world for nigh a century, with only the howling wind and grinning bones of the dead as his companions.

### Fortress-Monastery

The Black Tower is a truly monolithic structure designed in the style of Posul that sits on a narrow stretch of land between two of the world's oceans.Given that the materials used to make the fortress stand out starkly against the pale sands, obsidian against near ivory.

## Legion Organisation

### Specialist Formations

* **Cryptsmiths**
* **Crypt-Shamans**
* **Tomb Keepers**
* **Pale Wind**
* **Mortis Dreadnoughts**

#### Shades

* **Shade-Guard** -

* **Shade Marines** -

### Legion Auxiliaries

* **Inferni-Guard** - The black clad mortal troopers of the legion, these elite units march forwards with unyielding focus alongside their bone clad masters. The standard armor of the Posul Inferni-Guard is a full suit of enclosing pitch black armor, with red accents and eye lenses. This visage has often sent many opponents fleeing as these ghoulish figures step from the chilling fog. Not truly from the dead world of Posul, these specialists warriors are gathered from the number of dusk and death worlds the Mortifactors recruit from. Pulled often from the death obsessed tribes of these worlds gives them a similar mysticism, leading them to adopt the practices and rituals of the legion.

* **Koschei Lych Squads -** Originating from the Hive World of Koschei, this accompanying force is primarily made out of sanctioned psykers, that manipulate the corpses of the dead. These corpses are often sourced from willing volunteers that are often recruited from the dying of the Imperial Army. While sanctioned psykers, the Koschei Lychs all have shutdown devices implanted inside themselves as a precautionary measure.

* **Mortis-Mechanicus** - A personal detachment of the Cult Mechanicus of Mars assigned to the Mortifactors on the Emperors order. This Mechanicus branch was designated with the personal task of arming and armoring the legion as well as finding alternate and hopefully useful purposes for the soul essence they have in abundance. Over time these tech-priests began to become obsessed with the essence and gradually shifted to similar views as their patron legion.

## Legion Recruitment

Because of Posul's status of a Dead World (even with a Mortifactor and subsequent attached forces military presence), the Mortifactors have resorted to procuring new marine stock from various Death worlds and Dusk worlds across the Imperium. They were interested in a world such as Nostromo because of its quality of being a dusk world. But they quickly acquiesced to the request of the Blood Ravens who wished to reform the world. This includes the worlds of Kanak and Beroghast.

## Legion Gene-Seed

The gene-seed of the Mortifactors is relatively stable compared to such legions as the Soul Drinkers or Astral Claws. The only notable physical defects are the paling of the skin to a shade more appropriate of a corpse, a hollowness to their features, the paling of their eye color, and their hair often changes to a shade of white. The most notable differences are more of a psychic nature, these abilities were relatively rare before the rediscovery of Arpaza. Manifestations of these abilities include a lowering of the overall temperature, ice formation, a silvery luminescent essence, and the eventual, if focused; summoning of shades.

## Notable Members

* **Arpaza** - Primarch of the Mortifactors Legion.

## Legion Fleet

* **The Pale Hand** - A Gloriana class vessel, that post discovery of Arpaza began a tradition of placing the skulls of deceased legionaries into the walls ship's Hall of Remembrance.

## Legion Relics

* ***The Throne of Posul*** - The ancient tribal throne of bone and hide that was collected in exploration of Posul when Arpaza was found. Large enough for the Primarch to sit in unarmored or a armored Astartes.
* ***Chalice of Remembrance*** - A drinking horn made from the tooth of a great reptile native to Posul, used for ceremonies and the trials of the adepts
* **Pride of Kanak** - given the large number of recruits from Kanak this obsidian black powersword is given to whichever Kanak legionary is of the highest rank at the time
* ***Shroud of the Night*** - A large psyker hood made by Arpaza for the Chief Librarian after his finding. This item is passed from each Chief Librarian to their successor.

## Legion Appearance

### Legion Colours

The Mortifactors Legion primarily wear black and bone coloured armour. The backpack, plastron (chest guard), vambraces (forearm armour) and greaves (lower leg armour) are bone in colour. The helmet, armorial insets, gauntlets, upper leg armour and sabatons are black in colour. The vents of the backpack, Aquila or Imperialis icon worn on the plastron are silver in colour. In keeping with their fixation on death, the Legionaries of the Mortifactors often adorn their armour with imagery of death - painting their helm faceplates with a large death's head, and adding skeletal phalanges to their gauntlets and sabatons. Many Mortifactors incorporate real human bones into their wargear, melding skulls into their faceplates, femurs inlaid along greaves and splayed ribcages adorn their plastrons. These bones come from their enemies, the Mortifactors believing that their last moments radiate from them as a palpable aura of pure fear.

A white coloured squad specialty symbol is stenciled on their right armorial insets, indicating a legionary's assigned squad specialty (Devastator, Destroyer, Assault, Tactical, Veteran or Command). A small white coloured roman numeral stenciled on the inset indicates their assigned squad. The colour of the shoulder pauldron trim indicates company assignment. A unique heraldry system displayed on their right poleyn (knee guard) is used to indicate a legionary's assigned Chapter.

### Legion Badge

The Mortifactors Legion badge takes the form of a large stylised white coloured human skull centered upon a field of black.