vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Death Guard - Recruitment: Attrition rates within the Death Guard Legion on active service were frighteningly high despite their legendary resilience. Indeed for many years of the Great Crusade only the World Eaters and Iron Warriors Legions were on occasion recorded to have spent more lives proportionately to their strength in pursuit of the Imperium's conquest.Barbarus itself in a short span of Terran years became little more than a factory to produce new recruits for the Death Guard Legion, and intake from other sources of recruitment to which the Legion had title dwindled to a mere handful, unless the pressure of combat losses proved too great.Mortarion's resistance to the use of bloodstock other than that of Barbarus wavered only because of the need to keep his Legion's strength battleworthy according to his own high standards.Recruitment solely from Barbarus was, however, aided by the high suitability of the planet's feral population for the Astartes conversion process.
Death Guard - Post-Heresy: Following the Death Guard's corruption and Mortarion's ascension to daemonhood after the Legion took refuge in the Eye of Terror following the Siege of Terra, the Legion began to splinter into smaller forces called warbands, although the Plague Marines still endeavour to organise themselves into multiples of seven, Nurgle's sacred number.What few vehicles remained to the Legion went unmaintained, sustained either by Daemonic possession or controlled by packs of Nurglings.However, with Mortarion's return to active leadership of the Death Guard following the opening of the Great Rift in 999.M41, a more formal Legion organisation reemerged. Now, in the Era Indomitus, the Death Guard are amongst the most ordered and coherent of all the surviving Traitor Legions.Mortarion, ever a traditionalist, still bases their structure upon the vast Space Marine Legions that fought during the Heresy, though the new formations still revolve around the sacred number of seven.Each of the so-called seven "Plague Companies" that comprise the post-Heresy Death Guard thus numbers thousands of warriors, utterly dwarfing their equivalent formations amongst the Loyalist Space Marine Chapters of the late 41st Millennium. A fully detailed diagram of the Death Guard Legion's full post-Heresy organisational scheme can be seen above.In general, each Plague Company is further divided into seven smaller units called "sepsis cohorts." Sepsis cohorts number around seven hundred Plague Marines, supported by infected auxiliaries, armour formations and Daemon Engine packs.Each sepsis cohort is divided into two "maladictums," both a formidable fighting force in its own right. The Lord Commander of each Plague Company, usually a Death Guard Lord or Daemon Prince, is the sacred host of one of Nurgle's vilest diseases, and the seven sepsis cohorts that serve him are its most favoured vessels.In turn, each maladictum is divided into seven "colonies". Colonies number seven squads of seven Traitor Legionaries led by a powerful Death Guard Lord and accompanied by lesser Chaos Champions of Nurgle, armoured vehicles, attendant Daemons and Daemon Engines. The 1st Colony of each sepsis cohort's maladictums often consists solely of Blightlord Terminators, much like a standard Space Marine Chapter's elite 1st Company.For all its theoretical cohesion, in reality the Death Guard Legion is still broken up like most Chaos Space Marine formations across thousands of galactic war zones, often at the whims of Chaos Lords, Chaos Champions and the like. These warbands vary hugely in size and composition, but all are known as "vectoriums."Those that fight together for any length of time will be named by their leader, and will often adopt -- or simply manifest -- a unifying colour scheme. Most vectoriums are drawn from the maladictums or colonies of the same Plague Company, but some can be more disparate still.Typical Death Guard vectorium warbands include so-called "Plague Colonies" comprised of standard Plague Marines, "Destroyer Colonies" of similar troops equipped with Alchemical Weapons, and "Reaper Colonies" of squads mounted in armoured transport vehicles.
Death Guard - Order of Battle: Legion CommandMortarionDaemon Primarch of NurgleLords of the LegionDaemon Princes and Death Guard LordsLegion Command RetinuePutrifiers, Blightbringers, Sorcerers, Tallymen and Plague SurgeonsDeathshroudChaos Terminator Honour Guard formationsLegion AssetsDaemon World domainsCapital-class plague shipsSecondary escort squadronsSpace HulksBound Greater DaemonsLegion ArmouriumHeretic Astartes Renegade WarbandsAuxiliary forces
Death Guard - Maladictums: Maladictums 	 	<a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/5/54/Mark_of_Nurgle_skulls.png/revision/latest?cb=20170917193550" class="image"><img alt="Mark of Nurgle skulls" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/5/54/Mark_of_Nurgle_skulls.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200?cb=20170917193550" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="200" height="109" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Mark of Nurgle skulls.png" data-image-key="Mark_of_Nurgle_skulls.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/5/54/Mark_of_Nurgle_skulls.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200?cb=20170917193550" /></a> 	 		 			 		 		 		 	 1st Maladictum2nd MaladictumMaladictum CommandMaladictum CommanderDeath Guard LordMaladictum RetinueChampions of NurgleMaladictum Command BodyguardMaladictum AssetsCultist CovensDrone SwarmsHelbrute TalonsLegion Armoured DetachmentsDaemon EnginesSuper-Heavy AssetsSummoned Daemon PacksNurglingsMaladictum CommandMaladictum CommanderDeath Guard LordMaladictum RetinueChampions of NurgleMaladictum Command BodyguardMaladictum AssetsCultist CovensDrone SwarmsHelbrute TalonsLegion Armoured DetachmentsDaemon EnginesSuper-Heavy AssetsSummoned Daemon PacksNurglings
Death Guard - Colonies: Sepsis Cohorts 	 	<a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/c/c6/MarkofNurgle2.png/revision/latest?cb=20111207161520" class="image"><img alt="MarkofNurgle2" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/c/c6/MarkofNurgle2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20111207161520" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="110" height="106" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="MarkofNurgle2.png" data-image-key="MarkofNurgle2.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/c/c6/MarkofNurgle2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/110?cb=20111207161520" /></a> 	 		 			 		 		 		 	 1st Colony2nd Colony3rd ColonyColony CommandColony CaptainDeath Guard LordColony Retinue1st Squad2nd Squad3rd Squad4th Squad5th Squad6th Squad7th SquadColony AssetsBlightbringers and Heralds of NurgleSorcerersPlague SurgeonsTallymenPutrifiersBlightspawnRhinos and Legion Siege TanksHelbrutesBloat-Drones and Blight DronesPoxwalkers and Cultist AuxiliariesNurglingsPlague FliesColony CommandColony CaptainDeath Guard LordColony Retinue1st Squad2nd Squad3rd Squad4th Squad5th Squad6th Squad7th SquadColony AssetsBlightbringers and Heralds of NurgleSorcerersPlague SurgeonsTallymenPutrifiersBlightspawnRhinos and Legion Siege TanksHelbrutesBloat-Drones and Blight DronesPoxwalkers and Cultist AuxiliariesNurglingsPlague FliesColony CommandColony CaptainDeath Guard LordColony Retinue1st Squad2nd Squad3rd Squad4th Squad5th Squad6th Squad7th SquadColony AssetsBlightbringers and Heralds of NurgleSorcerersPlague SurgeonsTallymenPutrifiersBlightspawnRhinos and Legion Siege TanksHelbrutesBloat-Drones and Blight DronesPoxwalkers and Cultist AuxiliariesNurglingsPlague Flies4th Colony5th Colony6th Colony7th ColonyColony CommandColony CaptainDeath Guard LordColony Retinue1st Squad2nd Squad3rd Squad4th Squad5th Squad6th Squad7th SquadColony AssetsBlightbringers and Heralds of NurgleSorcerersPlague SurgeonsTallymenPutrifiersBlightspawnRhinos and Legion Siege TanksHelbrutesBloat-Drones and Blight DronesPoxwalkers and Cultist AuxiliariesNurglingsPlague FliesColony CommandColony CaptainDeath Guard LordColony Retinue1st Squad2nd Squad3rd Squad4th Squad5th Squad6th Squad7th SquadColony AssetsBlightbringers and Heralds of NurgleSorcerersPlague SurgeonsTallymenPutrifiersBlightspawnRhinos and Legion Siege TanksHelbrutesBloat-Drones and Blight DronesPoxwalkers and Cultist AuxiliariesNurglingsPlague FliesColony CommandColony CaptainDeath Guard LordColony Retinue1st Squad2nd Squad3rd Squad4th Squad5th Squad6th Squad7th SquadColony AssetsBlightbringers and Heralds of NurgleSorcerersPlague SurgeonsTallymenPutrifiersBlightspawnRhinos and Legion Siege TanksHelbrutesBloat-Drones and Blight DronesPoxwalkers and Cultist AuxiliariesNurglingsPlague FliesColony CommandColony CaptainDeath Guard LordColony Retinue1st Squad2nd Squad3rd Squad4th Squad5th Squad6th Squad7th SquadColony AssetsBlightbringers and Heralds of NurgleSorcerersPlague SurgeonsTallymenPutrifiersBlightspawnRhinos and Legion Siege TanksHelbrutesBloat-Drones and Blight DronesPoxwalkers and Cultist AuxiliariesNurglingsPlague Flies
Death Guard - Line Formations: Plague Marines - Bloated with festering corruption, Plague Marines form the mainstay of the Death Guard, and unlike many Traitor Legions their numbers have only swollen as the millennia have passed. Sworn to Nurgle's service, Plague Marines have disgusting, rotted bodies that stink of decay. The putrescent slime that oozes from their sores corrodes armour and boils away skin, yet despite their horrific disfigurements they are fearsome warriors indeed. Their rotting brains are inured to the agony of bodily corruption, making them all but immune to the pain or debilitation caused by battle wounds.Foul Blightspawn - Foul Blightspawn rise from amidst the Plague Marine ranks, typically those warriors who feel joy in watching their victims suffer in the grip of Nurgle's plagues. Malignant cruelty festers in their souls, manifesting itself in ever more grotesque physical degeneration. Their flesh bulges with putrid flab until it becomes translucent. Their eyes dribble from their sockets as black slime, leaving the Blightspawn to 'see' in shades of warp energy. Their mouths twist into fanged, puckered spouts, and a wretched stench seeps from their pores, so foul that it causes even Plague Marines to balk. All the while, forbidden secrets of Nurgle's plaguecraft blossom in the Blightspawns' minds, compelling them toward obsessive alchemy and the joyous brewing of noxious disease.Chaos Cultists - On every world beset by disease or despair, cults of Nurgle arise. Worshippers seek escape from the pain and misery of sickness, and take perverse pride in their diseases and deformities. Led by bubo-ridden magisters and prophets of plague, the cults taint water supplies, destroy food stores, release weaponised viruses and stockpile arms and equipment for their inevitable uprising. Many Nurgle cults are rooted out and burned by the Imperial authorities. Yet others grow and multiply until, when the Death Guard arrive to despoil their world, they are ready to rise up and aid their new masters. Other cults are recruited from the tribes of the Plague Planet, or founded by the Death Guard themselves from the slaves they claim in their wars against other Chaos powers. Whatever their provenance, Cultists of Nurgle assail the foe in huge numbers. Their diseased bodies are inured to pain, their fevered minds so deranged that they charge screaming into battle without fear.
Death Guard - Other Heavy Support Forces: Alongside phalanxes of battle tanks and monstrous Daemon Engines that regularly fight under their command, the Lords of the Death Guard can also call upon many other heavily armoured assets and deadly constructs to support their Legionaries in battle.The corruption of Chaos is insidious, and amidst the filth and horror of war, many Astra Militarum regiments have sold their souls to Nurgle. Such turncoats bring with them entire divisions of powerful battle tanks and -- on occasion -- even behemoth super-heavy war engines such as Baneblades and Stormswords. Daubed with heretical slogans, festooned with gruesome trophies, these tainted battle tanks grind the foes of the Death Guard into the dirt.Through torment or madness, the noble Knights of the Imperium also fall, on occasion, to the worship of Nurgle. A Knight is a forty-foot-tall bipedal war engine, a swift and deadly bringer of death whose limbs and shoulders mount devastating weapon systems. Each machine is operated by a single warrior, who is wired into the Throne Mechanicum at the Knight's heart.Should a Knight transgress against his noble house, he will be exiled as a Freeblade, and it is these lonely and tormented individuals who most often fall to the temptations of Chaos. Even one Chaos Knight can rip through an enemy formation, while on those rare occasions when entire households fall, the Death Guard gain a terrifying force of allied war engines that can crush entire armies.Greater and more terrifying still are the corrupted god-machines of the Traitor Titan Legions. Though these towering abominations are rare, even a single such engine can change the course of a campaign. From the swift and deadly Warhound-class Scout Titans to the walking fortresses known as Warlords.The strangest and most arcane of all the Death Guard's allies are the secretive magi of the Dark Mechanicum. Once servants of the divine Omnissiah, these tainted Tech-priests have abandoned their faith in exchange for forbidden secrets and dark lore.Those that worship Nurgle have learned the secrets of the living rust, viral scrapcode and the countless machine-poxes of the Engineflayer Tomes. They use this abominable wisdom to fashion monstrous engines of flesh, metal and daemonic energy. Such cursed war machines rumble into battle powered by soul furnaces, fed upon diseased corpses and unleashing eldritch weaponry that obliterates all before them.
Death Guard - Plague Marines: The members of the Death Guard are also known as Plague Marines. As a result of their servitude to Nurgle, they are rife with all manner of deadly diseases, which renders them immune to pain. In practical 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 of 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 through sheer attrition. Because Mortarion intended for the Death Guard to rely heavily on infantry, the Death Guard are short some measure of fast assault vehicle and heavy weapons.As a result, Death Guard Astartes 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 the Death Guard are an infantry-based force, a Death Guard warband can be made up solely of Heretic Astartes with no armoured vehicles or daemons in its midst whilst still functioning as well as any other Chaos force that is better equipped. The average Death Guard Astartes can lay down a heavy rain of Bolter shells while still standing his ground if charged.Many Plague Marines, particularly those who were originally members of the Death Guard Traitor Legion, still prefer to wear the Mark III Iron Pattern suits of Power Armour first used during the Great Crusade.Even though more modern marks of Power Armour had become available to them before the Horus Heresy, the Death Guard retained a large stockpile of the heavier Mark III pattern, preferring it both for its durability and the ease with which they could customise it to better handle the rigours of the often-toxic battle zones in which the Legion excelled.The armour of Plague Marines, regardless of its type, usually suffers from severe corrosion and structural breaches over its millennia of service with a corrupted Astartes.Plague Marine Power Armour is often further modified with the inclusion of a heretical pattern "open vent" reactor backpack and blasphemous inconography as well as swelling or even cracking like a broken egg shell to contain the grotesquely mutated physique of its wearer.
Death Guard - Special Weapons and Wargear: What follows is a small selection of the unusual wargear and special abilities which can be used by members of the Death Guard:Nurgle's Rot - Nurgle's Rot is a virulent psychic power granted to some members of the Death Guard by Nurgle to use at will. The horrific plagues of Nurgle are summoned and unleashed upon the enemy. Those not tightly armoured are instantly affected, and quickly killed by the supernatural infection.Blight Grenades - Plague Marines also carry weapons known as Blight Grenades or "Death Head Grenades." These grenades are made from the heads of conquered foes of Nurgle. Constructed by Nurglite Chaos Sorcerers, the severed head is covered with a waxy mix of organic slime and contaminated blood until it is watertight. The brain cavity is then filled with pus and left to fester, becoming a poisonous gas. The result is a missile that bursts on impact, releasing a deadly acidic vapour laced with various pathogens that is capable of eating through most forms of personal armour.Manreaper - A Manreaper is a powerful Daemon Weapon that is a unique form of Power Weapon that pays homage to the Death Guard's Primarch Mortarion. Manreapers are carried by Chaos Champions of Nurgle, such as Typhus the Traveller. The weapon often takes the shape of a large Power Scythe, enabling a warrior to face many times their number in battle, cutting them down like a reaper through a field of ripe crops. Manreapers are also covered in a corrosive poison that contains a vicious toxin, allowing the bearer to wound his opponents with ease.Plague Knife - The hallmark weapon of the Death Guard was their close combat blade, a broad trench dagger, which was a brutal and efficient weapon in hand-to-hand combat. When Astartes of the Death Guard were transformed by the corrupting influence of Nurgle, these blades transformed as well. Now they have become Plague Knives, corroded weapons coated with rust and numerous diseases, the better to spread Father Nurgle's vile blessings across the galaxy. Only those pure in his sight such as his Plague Marines are granted such a weapon, and any lesser being suffering even the slightest wound is gifted with one of his innumerable creations such as Nurgle's Rot or the Weeping Pox.The Destroyer Hive - The Destroyer Hive is a vile ability only available to Typhus, the "Herald of Nurgle." It is a monstrous swarm of plague-infested flies, so numerous they blot out the sun and flood the air surrounding Typhus with contagions. It was the prize granted to Typhon when he delivered the Death Guard to Nurgle, his very body now transformed into a host for this innumerable horde of Nurgle's sacred animals.
Death Guard - Fearful Weapons: It is of note that the Death Guard under Mortarion quickly became associated with the use of alchemical and radiation weaponry to a greater extent than any other Legion, further darkening their reputation with the Battle-Brothers of the other Legiones Astartes.Simply put, the use of toxic gas, burning Phosphex and contaminated rad-shells did not rankle their Legion's honour as it did for some, while Mortarion himself was a master in the use of such weapons of mass destruction and a student of the most horrific arts of war, and had no compunction in their use against any foe that threatened humanity.The Death Guard Astartes' inherent resilence to toxins and poisons enabled them to be deployed to warzones afflicted by the most hellish and lethal conditions, be they atomic, biological or chemical in nature, in which they would then excel.The Great Crusade was, after all, launched to conquer worlds and not destroy them, unless there was no alternative, but in such war zones, already hopelessly contaminated and unsuited for human life, the usual caveats and protocols restricting the use of contaminate weapons by the Emperor's command did not often apply.
Death Guard - Pre-Heresy: Barbarus was a Feral World which orbited near its dim yellow sun in the Segmentum Tempestus, which created a thick, miasmic atmosphere of toxic chemicals. The most virulent of these gases rose through Barbarus' perpetual clouds towards the heat of its star, making the world beneath a dismal place of night, unbroken by starlight and with short, shadowy days.An atmosphere breathable by humans existed only in the lowest elevations, on flat moors and in the valley basins of the jagged, stony mountains which spined the world. Unknown alien beings immune to the toxic soup of the planet's higher atmosphere existed on Barbarus, building great keeps of grey stone in the mountain fastnesses.When humans first settled Barbarus, the horrific environmental conditions from which they had to eke out survival quickly reduced them to a pre-feudal state. The higher beings' incomprehensible Warp-based powers, their ability to survive where humanity could not, and above all their hunger to prey upon, experiment with and accurse humankind, caused the settlers to ascribe to those beings a medieval supernaturalism.The true nature of these dark overlords, beyond their obvious connection to the dark entities of the Empyrean, will likely never be known. Barbarus is assumed to have been destroyed by an Exterminatus order issued by the Inquisition after the end of the Horus Heresy, like all the other worlds belonging to the Traitor Legions.
Death Guard - Post-Heresy: Mortarion has crafted a new home from a Daemon World called the Plague Planet within the Eye of Terror, which resembles ancient Barbarus, Mortarion's original homeworld, remade in yet more hideous hues, a fume-wreathed nether-hell where disease runs rampant and barbarian tribes cling to a nightmarish existence amidst rotting forests and swamps.Worm-eaten mountains rise to pierce the churning skies, their flanks roamed by plague-ridden abominations that should be dead yet still prey on human flesh. Higher, atop the peaks, the Death Guard maintain their fortresses as once the carrion lords of Barbarus ruled from on high, revelling in the bitter irony that they have become the very despots they once fought to depose.The clouds of contagion that wreathe these slab-sided, rusting fastnesses are inimical to life. None but the Death Guard can endure even a single breath of them. Quite besides the brutish batteries of orbital guns that stud every single mountaintop of this world, its vapours alone have proved enough to massacre invading armies on more than one occasion.The Plague Planet is replete with hideous spectacles and places of foetid power. Amongst the suppurating valleys rise tri-lobed platforms of rusted iron upon which mortal tribal champions battle for the right to join the Death Guard's ranks. Hanging in orbit are chained rings of biomechanical defence platforms and suppurating orbital docks, at which the Plague Fleets suckle like flies on a carcass.Shrines to Nurgle, crawling molluscoid fortresses, smog-spewing plague factories and crackling alchemical shield generators dot the planet's surface. The world's mortal citizens cower in tiny villages, serving their supreme masters of the Death Guard, who reside in mighty fortress citadels far above all of them.Greatest of all, though, are the seven mountaintop keeps of the Death Guard's Plague Companies, one company ruling over each in their own uniquely revolting fashions.The largest of these, known as the Black Manse, stretches between the three highest peaks of the Plague Planet and serves as Mortarion's personal keep. The dungeons and laboratories of this nightmarish fastness conceal horrors of the very darkest kind.
Death Guard - Legion Beliefs: The beliefs of the Death Guard before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy echoed those of their Primarch. At the heart of their core beliefs before the Heresy was the unshakeable determination that Mankind should be free of oppression and terror. Such freedom could only be won by destroying those that would shackle and devour humanity.The battle for the future of Mankind was one that could only be achieved through the endurance of any hardship, no matter how terrible. The liberation of humanity justified the ultimate use of any means.The Death Guard's faith in inner strength, iron will and unshakeable resolution in the face of hardship led to overweening pride, arrogance and an utter contempt for those they deemed inferior. When Nurgle's Rot laid the Death Guard low during their time trapped in the Warp before the Siege of Terra, their pride and arrogance in their strength and contempt for those they deemed weak was laid bare.The Plague Marines' subsequent surrender to Nurgle left the Death Guard with an incredible depth of self-hatred and despair that only fuels their sole desire: to infect the strong, slay the weak and bring everyone and everything to rot and ruin.In their eyes, their own debasement would no longer seem as shameful if Nurgle's pestilence dragged the rest of the galaxy down into the same depths of ruin and despair.
Death Guard - Cult of Personality: The arrival of the Primarch Mortarion within the XIVth Legion in the later days of the Great Crusade seemed to augment and amplify characteristics that had always been present in the Dusk Raiders to new and unseen extremes, while other aspects of the Legion's established nature fell away like a shed skin.Mortarion possessed a razor-sharp intelligence and flare for organisational simplicity and efficiency. These factors, coupled with the ability to inspire a fanatical loyalty in those of Barbarus blood who viewed him as no less than a near-divine saviour, engendered a fanatical loyalty to its Primarch rarely seen in other Legions.It was no wonder then that by the time of the Istvaan III Atrocity, with the majority of the Legion being of Barbaran bloodstock, that their loyalty was to their Primarch first, then their Legion and to Horus.The majority of the Barbaran-born Death Guard Space Marines were more than willing to spit upon their oaths of fealty to the Emperor of Mankind and cast their lot with their macabre Primarch when the time came, a decision which ultimately encompassed the XIVth Legion's doom.
Death Guard - Number Seven: When Mortarion reorganised the XIVth Legion's organisational structures he reorganised them into seven Great Companies. The number seven and its derivations seemed to hold occult and ritual significance both to Mortarion and the Barbaran culture of his blighted world of adoption.Notionally each company was to hold some 70,000 Space Marines, meaning that the desired total strength of the Death Guard Legion was some 490,000 Astartes, although in reality nothing approaching this number was ever achieved.Attrition and bloodshed, as well as the constraints of time and Imperial resources, were to ensure that the XIVth Legion never reached this number but the figure remained, if nothing else, a measure of Mortarion's ambition.
Death Guard - Battle Damage: The Death Guard cared little for emblems of rank, except where needed for battlefield recognition. Nor did the Astartes of the Death Guard care for badges of honour or other trinkets to commemorate deeds of valour.The closest the Space Marines of the Death Guard came to such decoration was respect for the marks of battle itself on their armour, be they from an enemy's blade or bullet, or the corrosive stains of a toxic environment none but the Death Guard could have endured.So long as the integrity of the armour plate itself was not compromised, such damage was left to adorn a Death Guard Space Marine's armour as a statement that there was nothing they could not endure, adding to the XIVth Legion's increasingly sinister appearance and deepening reputation among their fellow Astartes during the Great Crusade.
Death Guard - The Cups: Often, a Battle-Brother of the Death Guard would be singled out by Mortarion, who would then offer the selected warrior the rare opportunity to share a celebratory drink with him. It was said that there was no toxin too strong, no poison so powerful and no contagion of such lethality that a Death Guard could not resist it.The Death Guard were known to harden themselves through stringent training regimens as Neophyte Astartes, willingly exposing themselves to chemical agents, contaminants, deadly viral strains and venoms of a thousand different shades. They could resist them all.From a set of bowls was mixed and poured dark liquids into a pair of ornate goblets. The senses of the chosen Astartes often rebelled against the odour of the toxins, their implanted Neuroglottis and Preomnor organs rebelling at the mere smell of the poisonous brew; but to refuse the cup would be seen as weakness.The poured distillate often contained a potent mixture of agent magenta nerve bane, some variety of sword beetle venom, and other, less identifiable compounds. The cups were Mortarion's, and in each battle where the Death Lord took to the field in person, he would select a warrior in the aftermath and share with that warrior a draught of poison. They would drink and they would live, cementing the unbreakable strength of the Legion they embodied.Mortarion understood that many within the Legion frowned upon such traditions as "The Cups," but the Primarch knew that honours and citations were sometimes necessary. Warriors needed to know that they are valued. Praise from one's peers must be given when the moment was right. Without it, even the most steadfast warrior would eventually feel unvalued.
Death Guard - Legion Gene-Seed: The Legionaries of the Death Guard always reflected the gaunt, shadow-eyes quality of their Primarch that gave the lie to the hardness with which they were made. The original Terran-stock displayed a stoic temperament and gene-crafted aptitude, reminiscent of their genetic inheritance from the Ironside warriors of Old Albia.With the introduction of the feral stock of the pale, gaunt people of Barbarus, the Death Guard Legion's gene-seed seemed to amplify the uncommon resistance to contagion and toxins in its Barbarus candidates to unheard of levels.The contagion which led to their damnation corrupted them physically, as well. As Plague Marines, the once-gaunt Death Guard are now bloated and seeping like an infected abscess, covered in boils, sores and weeping wounds crusted with the brown and green filth of the unclean.Nurgle does not accompany this repulsive aspect with gifts of mutation as freely as the other powers (such capricious change is the province of his antithesis, Tzeentch), but on occasion will alter the countenance of a Death Guard aspirant with a tentacle, facet-eyed head of an insect or some other hideously repulsive form.
Death Guard - Legion Warcry: Before the Heresy the Astartes of the XIVth Legion would shout "For Terra and Mortarion!" when they entered the fray and the 7th Great Company in particular used the cry "Count the Seven!"Since their fall, the Death Guard have no rallying warcry, believing that like plagues and pestilence, death should come silently. They are pestilence and pox, famine and blight, contagion and cancer, and like all of these things, are most terrifying when they come without word or warning.
Death Guard - Legion Appearance: The Chaos Space Marines of the Death Guard often wear the antique Mark III Iron Pattern of Power Armour as it was particularly useful in providing enhanced protection in the toxic environments that the XIVth Legion preferred to fight in.
Death Guard - Pre-Heresy: As the Dusk Raiders, the XIVth Legion's armour was an unpainted storm grey. The entire right vambrace, gauntlet and shoulder plate (sometimes both) were painted the deep crimson of drying blood, which signified the XIVth Legion's status as the "red right hand" of the Emperor's justice.After their Primarch Mortarion took command of the XIVth Legion, the newly redubbed Death Guard began wearing ivory-grey unpainted ceramite, save for a few murky-jade coloured markings.
Death Guard - Pre-Heresy Tactical Markings and Heraldry: Death Guard Helm Variations - The use of vertical helmet stripes to denote seniority is believed to have originated with the Legion's re-organisation as the Death Guard, and became common as a mark of veterancy and tactical command.Death Guard Legion Armour - Battle damage that did not compromise a Legionary's Power Armour systems was retained as a mark of honour by Death Guard Astartes.
Death Guard - Post-Heresy: After their acceptance of Nurgle as their patron, the Death Guard's armour has taken on a sickly green appearance. Plague Marines are known for having many boils, sores, and open wounds visible on their bodies, and the more mutated often sport tentacles or the trademark single horn commonly seen on daemonic minions of Nurgle.The helmets of Plague Marine Power Armour often resemble old-fashioned gasmasks, particularly those of Russian or German make during the two World Wars, in reference to the poison mists of Mortarion's homeworld, Barbarus.Mortarion, with his pale skin, huge scythe and hooded robes, bears a great resemblance to classical representations of the Grim Reaper, the embodiment of Death himself.The uniforms and heraldry of the Death Guard are redolent of disease and decay. From the vectoriums of the Plague Companies to divergent Plague Marine warbands that long ago broke from their parent Legion, all can be easily identified by the filth that encrusts their armour, the rot and rust that clings to them, and the foul Nurgle iconography emblazoned on their heavy plate.Ever since the last days of the Horus Heresy, the Death Guard have retained their uniform colours of leprous green and verdigrised brass. Though many of the Legion's vectoriums have adopted their own foul panoply, vast swathes of the Death Guard still march to war clad in these same grim hues.The tri-lobed rune of Nurgle and the sigil of the Plague Fly can be seen much in evidence on the armour of the Death Guard Legionaries, proclaiming their allegiance to the God of Plagues and their dedication to spreading his vile contagions.
Death Guard - Legion Badge: The Dusk Raiders' Legion badge was a black skull halved, with a setting black sun on the other side, centred on a field of deep crimson.This icon symbolised the XIVth Legion's original given epithet of the "Dusk Raiders," a consequence of their use of the ancient tactic of conducting major ground attacks at the fall of night.Once the Dusk Raiders were unleashed upon their foes, nothing would stay the Legion's hand.After the Legion was reunited with its Primarch Mortarion before the Horus Heresy, the newly renamed Death Guard's badge was a green skull within a sunburst icon.After the Heresy, when the Death Guard accepted the Plague Lord as their patron Chaos God, the Legion has chosen to wear multiple different variants of the Mark of Nurgle, or a corrupted version of the original Death Guard badge, as their new Legion badge.
Death Guard - Sources: Apocalypse (Supplement), pp. 171-172Black Crusade: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp, 27, 159, 166-167, 212, 355-357Black Crusade: Tome of Decay (RPG), pp. 16, 21, 25-26, 30-31Codex Heretic Astartes - Death Guard (8th Edition), pp. 7, 8-9, 11-17, 20-23, 32, 44-48, 50, 53, 54Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 9-10, 13, 23-24, 46Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pp. 12-14, 23, 38, 57Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pp. 5, 29, 51-52Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 1st Codex), pp. 11, 31Codex: Chaos (2nd Edition), pp. 12-13, 31, 40Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition), pp. 9, 17Traitor Legions - A Codex: Chaos Space Marines Supplement (7th Edition), pp. 20, 70, 116-120Deathwatch: First Founding (RPG), pp. 84-85Horus Heresy: Visions of Death by Alan MerrettImperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost & The Damned, pp. 21, 29, 44, 55, 98Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks - Part Two, pg. 49Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pp. 182-183Index Astartes III, "The Lost and the Damned - The Death Guard Legion"Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the DamnedThe Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal (Forge World Series), by Alan Bligh, pp. 120-137The Horus Heresy - Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series), by Alan Bligh, pp. 48-51, 224-229The Horus Heresy - Book Four: Conquest (Forge World Series), by Alan Bligh, pp. 28-35, 53, 153-155The Horus Heresy - Exemplary Battles of the Age of Darkness - The Battle of Perditus: Umbral-51 (Supplement Download), pp. 7-8The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution (Forge World Series), by Alan Bligh, pg.18Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (6th Edition)White Dwarf 303 (US), "Crux Terminatus - Plague Marines", pp. 24-29White Dwarf 291 (US), "Plague Bearers: Death Guard Fiction" & "Tactica Death Guard"White Dwarf 282 (AUS), "Heroes and Villains of the 41st Millennium - Typhus, Herald of Nurgle"White Dwarf 265 (UK), "Index Astartes (First Founding): The Lost and the Damned - The Death Guard Space Marine Legion", pp. 68-75White Dwarf 204 (US), "Plague Marines: Chaos Plague Marines of Nurgle", pp. 33-35White Dwarf 122 (UK), "Symbols of the Great Power Nurgle," pg. 70Dark Imperium (Game), "Death Guard" (Booklet), pp. 2-14Galaxy in Flames (Novel) by Ben CounterThe Flight of the Eisenstein (Novel) by James SwallowFulgrim (Novel) by Graham McNeillA Thousand Sons (Novel) by Graham McNeillThe First Heretic (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-BowdenProspero Burns (Novel) by Dan AbnettDeathfire (Novel) by Nick KymeThe Path of Heaven (Novel) by Chris Wraight, pp. 56, 223Pandorax (Novel) by C.Z. DunnThe Lords of Silence (Novel) by Chris Wraight
Death Guard (Barbarus) - Death Guard (Barbarus): The Death Guard of Barbarus was the adolescent Primarch Mortarion's vanguard military force of Human Barbarite settlers, composed of the toughest, most resilient men and women on the world of Barbarus that the young primarch could find. They were created in order for the primarch and the people of Barbarus to take the fight to the monstrous, Chaos-corrupted overlords, particularly the greatets of their number, Necare, that lorded over the hapless Humans of that bleak, inhospitable world.This original Death Guard was formed into small units that trained under Mortarion's supervision, and with the aid of blacksmiths, craftsmen and artificers, they created special enclosing suits of armour and wore crude filtering hoses and breathing apparatus in order to bring death to the monstrous overlords of their world who lived in great manses in the poisonous fog of the upper reaches of the planet's mountain ranges.The constant exposure to the higher doses of toxins toughened the troops of the Death Guard. These traits would eventually prove to be transferable to each new iteration of the Death Guard, building up their legendary resilience. This would later become a hallmark of the Death Guard Space Marine Legion which Mortarion would command and rename after his original military force once Barbarus and the primarch himself were restored to the Imperium of Man by the Emperor during the Great Crusade.
Death Guard (Barbarus) - History: Of all the worlds upon which the primarchs were scattered by the transit of their gestation pods through the Warp, few were as terrible or forlorn a place as damned Barbarus. This Feral World orbited near a dim yellow sun in the Segmentum Tempestus, which created a thick, miasmic atmosphere of toxic chemicals. The most virulent of these gases rose through Barbarus' perpetual clouds towards the heat of its star, making the world beneath a dismal place of night, unbroken by starlight and possessed of short, shadowy days.Very little can be said for certain about this remote and baleful planet, or the Primarch Mortarion's formative years spent there as it appears even at the time of his finding the truth was carefully edited and obscured by the hand of the Emperor Himself. What consistent information can be gleaned now of Barbarus and the Death Guard primarch's story have a singe source, the so-called Stygian Scrolls of Lackland Thorn, authored by the famed and disreputable Remembrancer. He was a historian attached to the Great Crusade expeditionary fleet that breached the dark nebula that surrounded Barbarus's star system.The world on which the young Mortarion fell was the very epitome of the terrors which had befallen Mankind during the long night of the Age of Strife -- a domain of savage, alien overlords who ruled over an entrapped and preyed-upon Human population as cruel as terrible gods. The only atmosphere breathable by Humans existed in the lowest elevations, on flat moors and in the valley basins of the jagged, stony mountains which spined the world. These unknown alien overlords were immune to the toxic soup of the planet's upper atmosphere, building great keeps of grey stone in the mountain fastnesses.When Humans first settled Barbarus, the horrific environmental conditions from which they had to eke out survival quickly reduced them to a pre-feudal state. The higher beings' incomprehensible Warp-based powers, their ability to survive where Humans could not, and above all their hunger to prey upon, experiment with and curse Humankind, caused the settlers to ascribe to those beings a medieval supernaturalism. The true nature of these dark overlords, beyond their obvious connection to the dark entities of the Empyrean, will likely never be known.
Death Guard (Barbarus) - Coming of Mortarion: After the Emperor's 20 primarchs were scattered across the galaxy from Terra through the Warp still in their gestation capsules by the actions of the Chaos Gods, they came to rest on many different Human-inhabited colony worlds. The Stygian Scrolls tell that it was the greatest of Barbarus' carrion-crow overlords, Necare, who first discovered the infant primarch. After one of Necare's "reapings" of the Human crop, he strode well-pleased amid the massacre he had wrought upon one of the largest of settlements and was struck suddenly as the silence of the corpse-strewn battlefield was riven with the sound of an infant's cry.Drawn on through the sea of corpses, Necare walked through the mangled bodies for a local day and a night in his creaking battle armour, drawn by the wail of the infant. At last he came upon a child, pale and hungry, but alive where no such life should have been possible. Necare contemplated this white and helpless thing, clearly Human but to his alien senses clearly so much more, and considered whether to end its existence, but did not. The overlord saw in this infant a prize he could never have otherwise had -- a son and heir. Amid the carrion and battle wreckage he named the child "Mortarion" -- that which is born of death.When Mortarion was taken by the overlord, his master tested the infant's limits. When Necare had determined precisely how high into the toxic clouds of Barbarus' peaks the strange child could survive, he erected a stony keep and fenced it behind black iron. Then he moved his own manse beyond, to the highest crag, where the atmosphere was deadly even to the nascent primarch. Mortarion grew to adolescence in such a world, of citadels of weeping grey stone and cast-iron fences, where the very air was death, and the sun never more than a distant smudge.It was a world of constant war, against opposing overlords who came with undead golem armies of stitched-together corpses one day, then tormented shapeshifters, more monsters than Humans, the next. The primarch was shaped by his grim environs, but he was a child of the Emperor for all that -- superhumanly resilient to the poisonous air around him and superhumanly strong even in the absence of sufficient sunlight or nourishment. Mortarion possessed an intellect which was highly keen and which asked questions his lord was not wont to answer.Increasingly, the questions centred around the fragile things in the valleys below, which the overlords preyed upon for their corpses to reanimate, or victims to accurse. Necare kept Mortarion as distant from the Human settlements as he could, but his very act of denial fed the maturing primarch's obsession. The day finally came when Mortarion would be denied no longer. Mortarion slipped through the dungeons from his keep. The last thing he heard was the voice of Necare, the only father he had known, roaring in the miasmic darkness from the high battlements as Mortarion descended from the mountain, renouncing the primarch for his betrayal, warning Mortarion that to return would mean death.
Death Guard (Barbarus) - Birthright: Descending beneath the mists was a revelation to Mortarion; his lungs were filled with air free of poisons for the first time. He smelled aromas of food being prepared, of crops freshly harvested, heard voices unmuffled by fog and, for the first time, heard laughter. The young primarch realised that he was among his own kind, that the "fragile prey" of the overlords were his own people. And with the realisation came rage. He determined to bring them the justice denied them by the dark powers which moved above.Mortarion's acceptance amongst the Human settlers of Barbarus was no simple thing. However like them he felt himself to be, to them he was little different from the monsters above. Towering over even the tallest of them, gaunt and pallid, with hollow, haunted eyes which betrayed the horrors he had seen, Mortarion terrified most of the settlers. They looked upon him with suspicion and fear. It stung the young primarch, but he bided his time, using his great strength to work the fields for their meager harvest, knowing that his opportunity to prove himself would come. When it did in the twilight hours, he was ready.
Death Guard (Barbarus) - Saviour of Barbarus: The village was eventually attacked by a lesser overlord and his corpse-thralls. The villagers fought back with their farmer's tools and torches but were unable to prevent the shambling creatures from carrying out their master's dark purposes. Mortarion strode forth, a large two-handed starveling scythe in his hands, and charged into the ranks of the enemy and annihilated them with his primarch-borne rage. Their dark lord smiled at Mortarion as the primarch neared, withdrawing into the poisonous heights where he thought this rebellious Human could never reach him. He was still wearing his contemptuous smile when Mortarion caught up with him on the mountainside and exacted his vengeance for the "fragile prey" below. After that night, Mortarion's place among the settlers was never in doubt.As he matured, Mortarion taught the settlers of Barbarus what he knew of warfare. Word of his exploits spread, and many others made the perilous journey to learn. Slowly, villages became strongpoints, and the villagers more effective defenders. Eventually, Mortarion went amongst the people of Barbarus, travelling from settlement to settlement, teaching, building and, when occasion demanded, defending them.Always, however, his ultimate justice was denied; the dark powers could always retreat into the impregnable bulwark of their poisonous mists. His people could only fight in defence. That had to change. With the dark powers of Barbarus retreated behind the impenetrable bulwark of the poisonous mists, Mortarion saw that victory and justice could only be attained by taking the fight to the vile overlords -- his people needed to be able to attack the creatures above, not merely defend against their depredations.In order to make his dream of blood vengeance real, Mortarion recruited an army from the toughest, most resilient of Barbarus' feral Humans, forming them into small units which he drilled himself, teaching them not only defence but also attack. He turned blacksmiths from toolworking to weaponsmaking when time allowed, and crafters to the shaping of armour. He had them clad head-to-foot in crude iron plate forged by holdfast blacksmiths turned armourers, and armed them with heavy, hacking blades and wide-mawed blackpowder guns of his own devising.And, with the best artificers he could find, he bent his formidable intellect to the problem of the poisonous air. To this panoply Mortarion added crude respirator gear, the fruits of his own formidable intellect and the efforts of the ferals' finest artificers. So were the first "Death Guard" born. With his army at his command the next time a charnel lord descended from the poisoned heights with its horde of surgically created horrors and tentacle-dragging flesh-hulks, they were met by Mortarion and his newly-dubbed Death Guard in savage battle.