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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→The Heresy
====Fall of the Death Guard====
After these campaigns, Mortarion received orders from Horus to make for Terra. Mortarion rejoined the primary Death Guard fleet under [[Calas Typhon]], who was battled the [[Dark Angels]] fleet in a campaign of misdirection in the aftermath of the [[Battle of Perditus]].{{Fn|12}} On [[Ynyx]] Mortarion and Typhon reunited, and their whole fleet set course of [[Terra]] for the [[Siege of Terra|coming battle]]. Upon Typhon's advice, Mortarion would make the journey inside the ''[[Terminus Est]]'' as opposed to the ''[[Endurance]]''. However , Mortarion found his once-beloved brother Typhon changed, and once their vessels were inside the [[Warp]] the First Captain framed all of the fleet's [[Navigator]]s. Accusing them of agents of [[Malcador (Character)|Malcador]], Typhon had his [[Grave Warden]]s execute all of the Navigators but assured Mortarion that he and his [[Librarian|trained specialists]] could navigate the Warp to Terra. Mortarion's distrust of Typhon intensified as the Death Guard became afflicted with the [[Destroyer Hive]]. This plague transformed the Death Guard into bloated mutants, unable to die by any means. No cure was found, and it seemed the Death Guard was doomed to something as petty as disease. After Mortarion himself became infected, he confronted Typhon aboard the Navigator's station on the ''Terminus Est''.{{Fn|17b}}
Mortarion accused Typhon of treachery, and the First Captain replied that he had indeed lied to his Primarch but for a greater purpose he would come to appreciate. Enraged, Mortarion engaged Typhon in a duel, with the First Captain's psychic abilities allowing him to hold off the Primarch's attacks for a time. However , Mortarion eventually prevailed and struck down Typhon with his scythe. Due to the Destroyer Hive, Typhon quickly came back to life. Mortarion then revealed his trump card: unleashing the deformed [[Ignatius Grulgor]] from his confines. Grulgor strangled Typhon to death, fulfilling his oath to Mortarion to kill the First Captain. However , Typhon quickly came back to life, and both the First Captain and Daemon laughed as Mortarion realized he had been betrayed. With no more options and overcome by the Destroyer Plague, Mortarion began to hallucinate that he was back on Barbarus attempting to endure the toxins of the mountains to reach his father's fortress. He heard the voice of [[Nurgle]], stating that without his submission that he and the Death Guard would be doomed to this torture for all eternity. However , with submission would come new unparalleled endurance and power. Mortarion simultaneously experienced himself before the Emperor after his failure to kill his father, and finally snapped. He pledged himself to Nurgle and the torture ceased.{{Fn|17b}} According to a Daemon known as [[The Remnant]], Mortarion had allowed Typhus to corrupt the Death Guard as he saw no other path for the survival of his sons.{{Fn|23a}}
====Terra====
What emerged from the warp bore little resemblance to what had gone in. The Marines' once gleaming armour was corroded and shattered, barely containing their bloated, pustule covered bodies. Their weapons and armour were powered by the energies of Chaos and they became known as the [[Plague Marine]]s, although they would still use the name Death Guard{{Fn|7}}. During the [[Siege of Terra]] Mortarion was the last of the traitor Primarch's to appear in the [[Sol System]]. The Lord of Death appeared aboard the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'', his putrid stench sending all but Horus, [[Abaddon]], and [[Tormageddon]] into convulsions. True to his earlier pledge, Horus let Mortarion's Death Guard be the first to land upon Terra.{{Fn|18}} During the battle on Terra he oversaw the siege of the Western regions of the Palace, spreading plague and misery wherever he appeared. Unlike Angron and Fulgrim, he did not even attempt to penetrate the Emperor's psychic shield around the Palace.{{Fn|19}} During a war council he mocked [[Perturabo]] for not fully embracing Chaos but nonetheless allowed [[Typhus]] to work with the [[Iron Warriors]] Primarch as part of a ritual to weaken the Emperor's psychic shield of the Palace.{{Fn|19a}} Mortarion next met with [[Magnus]] in order to discuss an attack on the [[Colossi Gate]], revealing to his brother that he hated his current Daemonic visage and was in constant pain. Magnus helped Mortarion control his new abilities, allowing the Primarch to regain his lost composure. Grateful, Mortarion immediately organized an attack on the Colossi Gate that Magnus would use as a screen while he infiltrated the [[Imperial Dungeon]].{{Fn|21}}
Sometime before his eventual battle with [[Jaghatai Khan]], Mortarion assaulted the Marmax Bastion alongside Typhus but was met by [[Nathaniel Garro]]. Garro rejected his fathers offer to return to the Death Guard and instead challenged Mortarion to a duel, buying time for [[Euphrati Keeler]] to escape. While Mortarion initially toyed with the warrior to humiliate him, after taking a wound he became enraged and struck the warrior down. Mortarion declared he would turn Garro into an undead puppet to serve him for eternity, summoning a great host of flies to convert him into a Nurgle abomination. However , thanks to the Emperor's power being infused into him by Keeler, Garro was able to fight Mortarion back for a time but was still ultimately no match for the Daemon Primarch's power. Garro died, but not before giving Mortarion a painful wound in his neck with the broken shard of ''[[Libertas]]''.{{Fn|24}}
[[Image:WarhawkArtFull.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Mortarion battles [[Jaghatai Khan]] during the [[Siege of Terra]]{{Fn|23b}}]]
Following the withdrawal of [[Perturabo]] and the [[Iron Warriors]] from Terra Horus gave Mortarion the [[Lion's Gate Spaceport]], which he turned into his own personal headquarters. However , this was assailed in a massive counterattack led by Mortarion's old foe [[Jaghatai Khan]], leading a force of White Scars and [[Imperial Army]]. During the fight for the Spaceport the 2 Primarch's once again came to blows. Faced with Mortarion's new Daemonic endurance and strength, the Khan was brutally beaten down and nearly defenseless. However , he was able to find a weakness in the Death Lord with his pride. Jaghatai Khan scolded Mortarion for being weak and giving into the powers of the Warp, while he himself had resisted the temptations of Chaos and remained true to the Emperor. Mortarion flew into a rage, which the Khan took advantage of to launch a second wave of dizzying attacks that overwhelmed the Primarch. In the end the badly wounded Jaghatai Khan was impaled on the blade of Mortarion's scythe, but simply pulled his body along its length to get face-to-face with the Death Guard Primarch. The loyalist Primarch decapitated Mortarion, who was banished into the Warp in a massive explosion similar to that of a [[Vortex Weapon]]. Later the Khan's badly wounded body was recovered by Imperial forces.{{Fn|23}}
After Horus was defeated, Mortarion reappeared and claimed the [[Plague Planet]] in the Eye of Terror as his new base. He shaped it so well that Nurgle promoted him to [[Daemon Prince]]. Mortarion got what he wanted, a world of his own. He ruled over a toxic death world of poison, horror and misery, with his own position ironically mirroring the one his monstrous step-father had held on Barbarus. He had come home.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|16}}{{Fn|25}}
