The Death Guard are the most formidable of the mortal champions of Nurgle, each a hulking Heretic Astartes warrior blessed with the unholy gifts of the Plague God. But there’s much more to the sons of Mortarion than meets the eye, and that’s where Black Library comes in.
To start you on your reading journey for all things Death Guard, we’ve come up with seven titles (the sacred number of Nurgle) that are not only great reads, but will offer fresh* insight into the XIV Legion.
We’ll kick things off in the Age of Darkness, and the role that Mortarion and his sons played in the tragic events of the Horus Heresy.
Lantern’s Light
Witness Mortarion’s earliest years with Lantern’s Light, from 2019’s Black Library Celebration short story series. Shortly after being united with the Legion that bears his genetic legacy, Mortarion struggles to find his place within the Great Crusade and the Emperor’s plans.
The Flight of the Eisenstein
Not all of the Death Guard blindly followed their Primarch’s lead by siding with the Warmaster at the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. The Flight of the Eisenstein tells the tale of one such band of loyalists – led by Battle Captain and future Knight-Errant Nathaniel Garro – and their desperate escape from the massacre on Isstvan III to warn the Emperor of Horus’ treachery.
Grandfather’s Gift
In the short story Grandfather’s Gift, Mortarion awakens within a strange garden that brims with fecund life and decay – the very cycle of life made manifest. The Plague God is revealed to Mortarion for the first time, and the secular Imperial Truth is proven unequivocally false.
The Buried Dagger
The precursor to the Siege of Terra series, The Buried Dagger finds the Death Guard leading the vanguard of Horus’ forces towards the Throneworld itself. Yet as Mortarion’s fleet becomes becalmed in the warp, a terrible bargain is struck, and Nurgle claims them for his own.
Warhawk
The rivalry between the Primarchs Mortarion and Jaghatai Khan of the White Scars takes centre stage as the Siege of Terra escalates. With the walls of the Emperor’s Palace breached and Horus’ numberless hordes pouring through the gaps, the Warhawk of Chogoris enacts a desperate plan to retake the Lion’s Gate spaceport from the Death Guard, and cut off the tide of Traitor reinforcements. But the Great Khan must first face his nemesis once more…
We now skip forward 10,000 years to the Era Indomitus, where the Death Guard are still very much an active force in the galaxy, spreading Nurgle’s diseases wherever their putrid armies march, as witnessed in the Dark Imperium trilogy.
The Lords of Silence
With the Cadian Gate shattered by the fury of Abaddon’s 13th Black Crusade, the Death Guard surge forth from the Eye of Terror to sow ruin and plague across the unprotected worlds of the Imperium Nihilus. But in The Lords of Silence, the Death Guard find that no matter where their armies roam, they can’t escape the shadows of the past.
Unification
On the topic of shadows of the past, Unification sees Captain Vorx of the Death Guard – one of Mortarion’s oldest and most loyal sons – face a long-forgotten foe.
The question is, which of these thrilling Death Guard tales will you read first? Let us know on the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page. And if all this reading inspires you to start a new army for the new year, grab yourself a Combat Patrol set for all the essentials – you could even use it as the basis for a display board for Armies on Parade 2022!
* Probably not the most appropriate word to use in the case of the Death Guard, really.