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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→Pre-Reunification
The winner of the battle in which Mortarion had landed was the [[Warlord of Barbarus|greatest of the warlords]]. 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 searching for the child, not stopping once until he found it. For a moment he considered killing the child, but he realised that no human should be able to breath at this height, let alone cry out. He considered what he had found, and then bundled 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 the child Mortarion, child of death.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|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 mansion past this to keep it from the child. Perhaps he knew the child was better than 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 Mortarion. He was constantly at the front fighting against all of the other warlords' armies, sometimes of undead humans, sometimes of more [[daemon]]ic creatures. Mortarion was still human though, and he sought to know of those who dwelled below the layer of fog. After witnessing the Overlords hauling captive humans away for torture and experimentation{{Fn|17a}}, Mortarion escaped from his holdings and descended the mountain, the warlord bellowing after him of his treachery and that to return would mean death.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|6b}} He first found safety with a young [[Calad Calas Typhon]].{{Fn|17d}}
As Mortarion descended, he began to realise he had found his people. He smelt the scent of food for the first time, he saw people unobstructed by the fog and for the first time he heard laughter, real laughter, not that of the victorious warlord's. He realised that the prey that the warlords fought over was his own people, and with this came a sense of hatred and he vowed to give them justice over their oppressors.{{Fn|1}}{{Fn|6b}}
