Fluff questions about Nurgle and Mortarion

[Sawtooth]

Two questions for the putrid loremasters, since I'm not up to date on all the HH books and it's been a long time since I started playing.

 

First, I could swear I recall fluff saying that certain Nurgle champions ascended to a level that they mastered their diseases, such that they looked normal again but were still deadly carriers. I don't know if this is old 40k fluff, old fantasy fluff, or something I hallucinated in a fever. Does anyone remember this at all?

 

Second, has Mortarion ever pulled the 'you have failed me' thing and killed an underling the way Perturabo, Angron, and Abaddon are known to do? I mean, besides that whole purge potential loyalists during Istvaan incident? He always seemed like a Primarch who genuinely cared for his men, but I could be crazy.

 

Just curious, these questions have been bugging me lately.

[DogWelder]

Two questions for the putrid loremasters, since I'm not up to date on all the HH books and it's been a long time since I started playing.

 

First, I could swear I recall fluff saying that certain Nurgle champions ascended to a level that they mastered their diseases, such that they looked normal again but were still deadly carriers. I don't know if this is old 40k fluff, old fantasy fluff, or something I hallucinated in a fever. Does anyone remember this at all?

 

Second, has Mortarion ever pulled the 'you have failed me' thing and killed an underling the way Perturabo, Angron, and Abaddon are known to do? I mean, besides that whole purge potential loyalists during Istvaan incident? He always seemed like a Primarch who genuinely cared for his men, but I could be crazy.

 

Just curious, these questions have been bugging me lately.

 

"Vengeful Spirit" has Mortarion slaughters several of his Deathshroud bodyguard and offers up one of his apothecaries as a sacrifice to bring back Ignatius Grulgor from the warp so he could become a living carrier of the life-eater virus.

 

“An old friend,’ said Mortarion. ‘One I thought lost.’

No one ever thought of the Death Lord as being quick. Relentless, yes. Implacable and dogged, absolutely. But quick? No, never that.

Silence was a hard iron blur, and by the time its blade completed its circuit, all seven of the Deathshroud lay slain, simply bisected at their midriffs. An apocalyptic quantity of gore erupted within the vault, a glut of shimmering, impossibly bright blood. It sprayed the walls and flooded the polished steel deck plates in a red tide. Mortarion tasted its bitter tang.

Apothecary Burcu backed away from him, his eyes wide and disbelieving behind the visor of his helm. Mortarion didn’t stop him.

‘My lord?’ begged the Apothecary. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Something grim, Koray,’ said Mortarion. ‘Something necessary.”

 

Excerpt From: Graham McNeill. “Vengeful Spirit.” iBooks. 

[Sawtooth]

Thank you, interesting. I shall have to read that, I read Flight of the Eisenstein and didn't realize Grulgor reappeared later on.

[DuskRaider]

While yes, the Death Guard have mastered their diseases in that they no longer suffer from their effects per say (they're not wracked by pain and torment), they definitely show the physical decay of each virulent pox. They have also learned to use them to their advantage and as carriers, can spread them at will. 

 

While Mortarion did dispatch the Deathshroud, it was more to bring back one of his favored sons and less because they failed him. There's no evidence of corporal punishment in the XIVth Legion, as even the Destroyer Corps. is seen as honorable compared to other Legions. There's a good chance that if he had the opportunity, he'd love to kill Typhus but we see him attempting to bring his wayward First Captain back into the fold in the new fluff, only to have Typhus snap at him. Disappointing, to be sure.

[Sawtooth]

Thank you. I keep getting this typhoid Mary concept in my head, I must have picked it up from another piece of fiction. Killing the Deathshroud for the ritual is very interesting, and his motivations seem very true to Nurgle.

[Lord Marshal]

Thank you. I keep getting this typhoid Mary concept in my head, I must have picked it up from another piece of fiction. Killing the Deathshroud for the ritual is very interesting, and his motivations seem very true to Nurgle.

 

The Deathshroud were also officially listed KIA as soon as they were inducted, so their lives were always forfeit to a point. Not that it really excuses the act, but he did choose to execute the most 'expendable' of his men over others. Well, that and the apothecary.