801
edits
Changes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→The Horus Heresy
===The Horus Heresy===
At the beginning of the Horus Heresy, many Death Guard who remained loyal to the Emperor were [[Battle of Isstvan III|massacred]] on Isstvan III by their fellow Space Marines, including Captain Ullis Temeter. Roughly a third of the Legion was still loyal to the Emperor.{{Fn|16c}} Shortly after, they battled Imperial forces in the [[Drop Site Massacre]]. During which the Death Guard would deploy the entirety of its their armoured reserves to combat their loyalist counterparts. They suffered brutal losses against the loyalists, to such an extent that the Death Guards capacity to wage armoured war was left severely degraded.{{Fn|76a}} A number of Death Guard Marines, and one Luna Wolf who renounced his Sons of Horus status, led by Battle-Captain of the 7th Company [[Nathaniel Garro]], remained loyal to the Emperor. They formed part of the crew of the [[Eisenstein]], a frigate which ran the Traitor blockade in the Isstvan system in order to bring news of Horus' descent into Chaos to the Emperor on Terra.{{Fn|2a}}
During the Horus Heresy, the Death Guard joined Warmaster Horus in many battles and raids on the Imperium. The Lord of Death split his fleet, commanding one himself and [[Calas Typhon]] the other. Mortarion's smaller fleet led a [[Second Battle of Prospero|failed attempt]] on [[Prospero]] to convince [[Jaghatai Khan]] and the [[White Scars]] to join with them, and the Mortarion found himself in combat with the Great Khan. After the White Scars managed to abandon the Death Guard fleet, Mortarion had his Legion embark on a spiteful purge of the Prospero System.{{Fn|18}} Mortarion then fought alongside Horus in the [[Battle of Dwell]] and [[Battle of Molech]] before rejoining Typhon's main fleet, which had been waging a campaign of misdirection and misery against the [[Dark Angels]] since the [[Battle of Perditus]].{{Fn|17b}}
When the Death Guard's fleet embarked for [[Terra]] Typhon made his move. The First Captain had his [[Grave Warden]]s frame and kill the [[Navigator]]s, whom he alleged remained loyal to the [[Emperor]], and assured his Primarch that he could lead the fleet to Terra without their help using his own corps of [[Librarian]]s.{{Fn|27a}} Instead, he led them into a trap - becalming the Death Guard fleet in the warp, adrift, helpless and at the mercy of [[Chaos]].{{Fn|19}} Then came the [[Destroyer Plague]] and the Death Guard were struck down, but Typhon received his reward from "Grandfather [[Nurgle]]" and he absorbed the full power of the plague from [[Ignatius Grulgor]]. His body became home to the flies of Nurgle, his armour a hive of pestilence. He then became '''Typhus, Herald of Nurgle''' and the Host of the Destroyer Hive.{{Fn|3b}} Mortarion himself succumb to the Destroyer Plague, facing its agony with his sons. [[Nurgle]] himself came before Mortarion, stating that if he did not pledge himself to the Plague God they would be doomed to torturous undeath for all eternity. Mortarion broke and pledged himself to Nurgle. Though the agony ended, the Death Guard were remade into a shambling army of diseased [[Plague Marine]]s, bearing little resemblance to what first entered the Warp. Mortarion himself was remade into a [[Daemon Prince]].{{Fn|27b}}
The forces of Horus besieged Terra and the Imperial Palace itself. After a breach in the Palace defensive wall was forced by Titans of the Legio Mortis Titan Legion, the Traitor Legions, including the Death Guard, poured into the breach only to be met by loyalist forces led by the Primarchs Rogal Dorn and Sanguinius. It is recorded that Mortarion personally led his pustulent Plague Marines into the thickest fighting that day.{{Fn|3a}} Following the departure of [[Perturabo]] and the [[Iron Warriors]] from the battle, Horus gave Mortarion command of the [[Lion's Gate Spaceport]]. However this was assailed in a sudden counterattack by [[Jaghatai Khan]] and the [[White Scars]]. At the height of the fighting, Mortarion and Jaghatai Khan dueled. At the end of the battle a badly wounded Jaghatai Khan managed to banish Mortarion to the Warp, while the loyalist Primarch himself grievously wounded. After the banishing of Mortarion command of the legion fell to [[Typhus]].{{Fn|64}}
===Horus Heresy Aftermath===
