Mortarion - The Warhawk and the Death Lord: For much of the Great Crusade, the errant White Scars Legion under the command of the Primarch Jaghatai Khan had remained noticeably absent from the current chain of events that were only now beginning to trickle in to their fleet's astropathic choirs.As they interpreted the astropathic messages they received in a contradictory manner, they began to suspect that things were not right. It had begun in the Chondax System, right towards the end of the campaign against the Greenskins -- the first inkling that all was not well.There had been no detail then, no authentication, just stray astropathic messages of dubious provenance. It should have been easy to dismiss, to put down to the warping power of the Empyrean. But it had worn on the Khan, unravelling his sleep. Jaghatai was next contacted by the Space Wolves' Leman Russ who had just returned from the Battle of Prospero and the assault against the Space Wolves' old rivals, the Thousand Sons Legion.The VI Legion's fleet had mustered at the Alaxxes Nebula to lick its wounds after the recent campaign, when it was beset by the forces of the Alpha Legion.Although the Khan sympathised with the Space Wolves' predicament, he refused to get involved until he was able to sort out the conflicting and often contradictory astropathic messages he had received.Until he knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, who was ally and who was an enemy, he refused to choose sides. Wishing his brother the best of luck, Jaghatai wished to seek his answers elsewhere.The White Scars fleet made all haste towards Prospero, the recently ravaged homeworld of the Thousand Sons Legion. The Khagan ordered his Legion to head for the source of the trouble, to find the architect of the chaos engulfing the Imperium. Yet, only one soul could see the Warp as it truly was, and that was Magnus the Red, the only one of his brothers that Jaghatai had ever truly trusted.If Magnus yet lived then everything could be salvaged. If he was dead, then the Imperium was finished. Eventually the Khan found the answers he sought in the crystal caves deep underground, beneath the destroyed Prosperine capital city of Tizca.When he made his way back to the surface of the planet, he next encountered an unexpected visitor. As the clouds above them began to glow, a vibrant shard of light speared down from the smog, crackling as it hit the stone below. The Terminators turned to face it, powering up their weapons.Jaghatai told his bodyguard he had felt this new arrival's presence following them for a long time. He had been on the Khan's heels since Ullanor. At long last he had finally caught up. The Khan ordered his warriors to stand down, for the stranger was beyond all of them. How could he not be?For his brother Mortarion, the Death Lord, primarch of the Death Guard Legion, had found them. Watching the ash settle and the residual snags of aether-burn ripple into nothing, seven figures within the maelstrom emerged. Six of them were Legionaries.They were clad in pale, thick-slabbed Terminator Armour and carried huge Power Scythes known as Manreapers. Their pauldrons were olive-green and the links between the plates were cold iron.They were massive, heavier-set than the Khan's retinue, hunched at the shoulder and leaking pale green vapour from the last of the teleportation beams. These were members of Mortarion's elite bodyguard, the Deathshroud.Mortarion proceeded to explain the reason for his recent arrival; he told Jaghatai that he had sought him out, for things had changed. Jaghatai realised that his brother had come to persuade him to join the Traitors' cause. The Khan observed him guardedly, for Mortarion had always been hard to read.He left his blade unsheathed, holding it loosely at his side. Observing the physical changes in his brother, he noticed that Mortarion's power seemed to have grown.Something burned in him, dark like old embers. His flesh was somehow bleaker, his stance a little more crabbed, and yet the aura of intimidation around him had been augmented. Back on Ullanor, even at the height of their triumph, he had not possessed quite the same heft.Jaghatai commanded his brother to say what he had come to the ruins of Prospero to say. The Khan correctly surmised that Horus had not sent Mortarion, he had come of his own accord, with his own agenda. Mortarion brushed off the Khan's reasoning, but Jaghatai pressed him.The Death Guard primarch attempted to sway the Khan to Horus' cause as Jaghatai had surmised, to imagine a galaxy of warriors, of hunters, where the strong were given their freedom to act as they would, unbound by the Emperor's demands.The Khan was no fool, of course this new galaxy would all be led by Horus. Mortarion merely shrugged -- Horus would be the start of the new order. He was the champion, the sacrificial king. He might burn himself out to get to Terra, he might not. Either way, there would be room for others to rise to power over the galaxy to come.Mortarion told his brother that he should not have thrown in his lot with Sanguinius, let alone Magnus. He hated to see the three of them getting dragged in deeper by the Emperor's hypocrisy.Their father had tried to pretend that it was not there, the Warp, as if He were not already up to His elbows in its soul-sucking filth. In Mortarion's opinion it should have been cordoned off, put away, forgotten about forever by Mankind.But the Khan was not fooled by his brother's sincerity. He had seen what had happened. The Death Lord had never hidden what he wanted. Jaghatai could see how his brother thought it would all play out; first hobble the sorcerers. Silence the witches. Drive them out, and rule would pass to the uncorrupted, the healthy, those untouched by the Warp.This was Mortarion's great project. He had even told the Khan all of this on Ullanor after the triumph. The Khan had thought back then that they were empty threats, but he should have known better. Mortarion did not make empty threats.But it had all gone wrong. Though Mortarion had completed his great mission and the Emperor had handed down the Edicts of Nikaea forbidding the use of sorcery and the disbandment of the Legions' Librarius divisions, there were now more sorcerers than ever amongst the ranks of the Traitors.Horus had sponsored them, Lorgar had shown them new tricks. If Magnus had not already made up his mind on which side of the conflict he would be on, then he soon would, and then Mortarion would be surrounded. He had destroyed the Librarius of the Legions only to find witches were now untrammelled amongst the Traitors.The Khan had seen the overall picture perfectly. Magnus' shade had showed him. Jaghatai proceeded to warn his brother that though his Legion might be free of the Warp's corruption for now, the change would come, for Mortarion had made his pacts with the masters of the Empyrean, and now they would come to collect their due.But this was exactly why Mortarion had come to find Jaghatai. The Death Lord had run out of friends among the Traitor primarchs. Who would stand with him against the psykers now among the Traitors? Most assuredly not their brother Angron, nor the half-mad Konrad Curze.The Khan gazed at Mortarion disdainfully. His brother had tasted the fruits of treachery and found them bitter. The Khan did not wish to be dragged into his brother's ruin -- Mortarion was on his own.Struggling to contain his anger at the Khan's refusal of his please for alliance, the Death Lord warned Jaghatai that he had come to give his brother a choice -- half of the White Scars Legion had already declared for Horus, and the others would follow wherever the Khagan ordered them.Their father's time was over -- the Khan could either be a part of the new order that replaced Him or be swept aside in its wake.The Khan merely smiled -- a cold smile, imperious in its contempt. He would not countenance a new Emperor -- neither himself nor Mortarion. Jaghatai explained that the reason neither one of them would ever rule the galaxy is that both of them were never the empire-builders. They were the outriders. Mortarion had chafed at this role, while the Khan had embraced it.Enraged, Mortarion backed away, and his scythe Silence crackled into life, sparking with green-tinged energy. The Deathshroud Terminators lowered their scythes in a combat posture. Behind the Khan, the keshig readied their blades. The Khan prepared to settle their argument once and for all.The two primarchs circled one another, prepared to finally engage in a deadly duel that would decide their fates. As the two demi-gods battled, their respective retinues also fell onto one another in deadly close combat. The silent Deathshroud were just as implacable as their master, as they fought the White Scars keshig amidst the wreckage of a lost world.Warriors of both sides soon fell, their bodies caked in the thickness of blood and dust, but the dispute raged on, bitter and unyielding. The two primarchs traded deadly blows, tearing into one another, each strike powered by raw defiance.As they hacked and countered, neither giving up a single measure of ground, their blood mingled upon their blades' edges, as rich and dark as wine. Summoning up one last burst of energy, the Khan held position, panting hard as he dragged out the remnants of his power for the final clash.In response, Mortarion only stood, rigid, as though suddenly listening for something. His scythe fell into the guard position and a thin coughing broke from his mask, which the Khan realised was an exhausted kind of chortle. "So the choice has been made."The Death Lord informed Jaghatai that their respective fleets in orbit of Prospero were now at war. This was not what they had been promised by the White Scars' treacherous warrior lodge brothers, but the Death Lord refused to lose a fleet for the sake of this fight. Feeling the dust stir around his feet, coils of marsh-green teleportation energy rippled downward.Mortarion saluted the Khan mockingly, and spears of hard-edged light lanced down from above, bursting through the cloud cover and crashing through the heart of the ruined Tizca pyramid they had been fighting within.The Khan sprang forward, seeing too late what was happening. In an instant, the Death Lord and his retinue were snatched away, sucked into the vortex of the Warp.The decastated world's wind howled in their empty wake, stirring the ashes of ruined Tizca. Jaghatai, carried by the momentum of his final thrust, staggered though the empty space where his brother -- now his enemy -- had been. The Second Battle of Prospero was over.