I can tell you as someone who works in Occupational Therapy and sees how parents approach their kids struggling with things... the Emperor stepping in like "Ah, fuck this, we're on the clock", punking the kill and expecting Mortarion to be grateful is 100% on brand
@@waynebimmel6784 wait, isn't heavy water like, really bad if ingested? Feel like I heard something about that on tv. Would have been years ago though.
Not really. Half of fallen Primarchs were pretty well treated by the Emperor. Hell Fulgrim was the biggest Emperor simp until the demon thing happened. The only ones who you could argue the Emperor screwed over were Mortarion, Angron and maybe Kurze.
I like to think The Death Guard perpetually hear and sing along to some joyous 40s tune while everyone else just hears the flies, screeching and "gurgling".
He not only hated Psykers he also hated Astropaths and Navigators. Mortarion was shown the webway project when he returned to Terra by Malcador. I assume he appreciated be transported almost instantly somewhere without filthy Psykers.
What I love about the death guard is when they got cut off from the warp/grandfather's love they immediately screams fo mercy since every single wounds, parasite, disease, and viruses in their body start killing them
@@leonidaspereirafilho499 i frogot where i heard that but it is canon. Basically at all times any worshiper of nurgle has to have a connection with him at all times. Because the only reason they dont die is because of his magic.
Please tell me he’s got it trapped in like a box lined with soul spikes or whatever and when he’s in a bad mood he squeezes the box so as to stab the soul to feel better hearing the cosmic screams of his father.
@@MachineMan-mj4gj “Morty! I turned myself into an ethereal cosmic spirit of the warp Morty! I’m a cosmic spirit now! Morty, why are you putting me in a jar?! Morty! MORTY DONT LEAVE ME HERE!!!”
When I first got into 40k, these guys where the one faction that genuinely scared and disturbed me just as a concept. As humans we are naturally very scared of disease, infection, slow decay etc. I think the thought of facing these guys in battle is 10x scarier than say a Khorne berserker or even a night lord
I'd honestly be so worried about attrition over time fighting them as a astra militarium commander. they'll be using viral and chemical and radiological weapons galore and their enhanced constitutions will grant them extraordinarily resistance or flute out immunity to them.
Death Guard is my first army, still building them, but I picked them for the aesthetic and the silliness of Nurgle loving everyone. They just make me laugh, especially the nurglings
Not only it was a last minute kill steal, but what also pissed mortarion off was that at the end of the day his adoptive father's shackles were just replaced with the emperor's, he never really tasted freedom and that's not something to be undestated
I like the idea of death guard characters and nurgle worshippers in general being extremely obsessive compulsive. Constantly fretting over every plague that doesn’t succeed while meticulously tallying the ones that do. Sort of like a group of insane zombie accountants.
The death guard are not for everyone, but they are easily accepted as one the most popular chaos legions. Everyone always looks at it as just being these gross hard to kill marines, but just think of the army from the perspective of their victems. The terror of these twisted hulks of rotting flesh mutations marching slowly forward, followed by thousands of hungry zombies, grotesque daemons of plauge, clouds of stinging flys, and seige machines all spreading viruses that will painfully melt you into bloody pus in seconds. And if your lucky enough to reach the escape craft, you notice one of the other passengers cough up some blood...and the rictus grin of the walking pox spreads across his mouth...
About his Morty's meeting with Big E, I'm pretty sure the challenge was *only* for Mortarion to kill his necromancer father, which he failed in. The Emperor only stepped in once Mortarion was on the ground, his lungs and body permanently crippled by the poison, about to be killed by his foster father who noticed him dying outside on his doormat.
Mortarion had such a Grudge against the Emperor, and not even for taking him away from his men like Angron, but saving him in a way that could've been done better. As you said, it was one hell of a Grudge, and Mortarion also hated Magic, is he a Fantasy Dwarf then?
Imagine a rogue-like game where you play as Morty working your way up the mountain and whenever you lose it’s the Emperor teleporting you back down to the base and you lose all your equipment you found along the way
After listening to lords of silence, I do not think they are as happy as you claim. It's more like resigned to their fate. Just going through the motions. But their motions cause doom to poor citizens who never deserved to meet them.
Both if i remember correctly.Some of them really do love their job like that one plague surgeon in LoS. In the codex, the legion is described as half happy, half cold blooded guys if I'm not wrong
The siege of Terra has some good bits from the death guard point of view of somewhat minor characters, including mortarion’s equery and a weirdly appealing apothecary
Okay so you aren't wrong about anything here but I'd like to defend/mention something important about Mortarian's character. A lot of people focus on the kill steal, and rightfully so, but another big part of his backstory is that Mortarian learned through the Emperor's actions that he was too slow. On his home planet he was patient in earning the human's trust, he went from town to town to teach and arm them, and he slowly built up their armor and poison masks so that the humans could join him and eventually improve how far he himself could go. In the primarch book, "The Pale King" Mortarion takes a long time before committing to bringing a planet into compliance. During that time we see him do a lot of research and planning. The plan he comes up with is actually pretty creative. Which shows that when he can move at his own pace he is much more capable and interesting as a character. But the plan wasn't perfect, it was creative but also way to direct. This is because his big character flaw is him constantly trying to overcome the fact that he is slow. Slow for a primarch is still bonkers fast, but slow in comparison none the less. All of his legions tactics are straightforward and kinda dumb because the most straightforward way is often the fastest. There are tons of other small examples of this but I've wrote a book about it. Just look into his lore a little and consider the "he's slow but aware of it" angle.
I disagree I don’t see morty not being pissed Had he killed his father himself he wouldn’t want to obey big e and had bug e allowed him the finishing blow he would have seen it as an insult
I said ANOTHER big part of his backstory. I never claimed he wasn't upset about the killsteal. Even in the "Paleking," Mortarian addresses the killsteal and how it bothered him. But on that same page he doesn't indulge himself on continuing the climb to finish the fight. He decides to go where he is tactically needed the most instead. Showing that it will always bother him, but that he doesn't let it control him. However, I'm suggesting that he does let the fact that he was too slow control him. An issue caused by the killsteal indirectly. @@dumbidea1007
Pretty accurate take. For me, Death Guards are basically the other end of the spectrum of the Iron Hands. Slow Moving, grind the foes into dust kinda strategy. Where Iron Hands slowly creeps in, hates their own flesh and using all kinds of range weaponry to deal damage on the enemies from afar. Death Guard slowly creeps in and uses short range and hated the flesh of the "Non gifted". Basically, Juggernauts that both hates flesh. One hates it because it is flesh, one hates it because it's not fleshy and rotten enough. One has a knack for range, one has a knack for just get close by having close to a Stroll towards their destination.
Always thought the death guard was one of the most deadly legions with just there passive abilities that I feel are nerfed especially in terms of how their described to be so destructive and killing
If I could make a book recommendation for seeing Nurgle in an interesting light, Plague Garden by Josh Reynolds is phenomenal. It’s an AoS novel that follows a redeemed Nurgle chasing a pirate daemon through the realms of the plague god. Great vid as always!
Nurgle doesn’t seek death. Death ends the suffering and misery. Death is an aspect of change (hint) from life. Nurgle seeks continuous entropy, which is halted when the person dies.
I honestly never cared for the Death Guard due to their aesthetic, but I do understand the appeal. That being said, the last lore tidbit was utterly hilarious.
I absolutely love the Death Guard minis. To me they are the perfect minis to learn how to paint on. You get large armor pieces. Huge skin pieces. Lots of boils, puss, wounds, etc. Tons of details.... they are amazing minis for being able to practice almost everything
That's a good point. It also must be pretty forgiving since they're supposed to be ratchet looking. If you mess up a couple lines or details it wouldn't throw off the aesthetic as much as minis that have a lot of clean lines and more fine details
Always felt that Mortarion and his legion were one of the coolest heresy legions in aesthetic and concept, but have been given a raw deal in the lore. I do think Chris Wraight does a banger job with them and even Mortarion himself, but more needs to be done.
I’m coming in seven months late because I was flashbanged by the phrase “The Emperor don’t miss too often,” because looking back this at golden sociopath makes him look like the Imperium’s drunk uncle giving them some cool alternative lifestyle while hiding the fact that they just doomed themselves to heroin addiction… love your content btw :)
regarding phosphex I am pretty sure it can burn in vacuum just fine, you can't put it out, you just have to wait and hope it burns out on it's own. Also I have heard it described as having a particularly horrifying quality where apparently the flames can somehow detect movement and will "chase" after it. So if you are near phosphex flames and you try to get away, it's going to follow you and kill you.
@@CaptainGrief66I mean they already engineered it to burn without fuel or oxygen which is insane. The fire is easily disturbed in the direction of an air current or something?
@@GreaterGrievobeast55 That's not impossible, we already have chemicals that burn underwater that occur naturally and adding oxidisers to compounds let's them burn in low oxygen environments, this is just an extreme case of that But how the hell can you make fire follow people
Lords Of Silence is an amazing book. The opening battle where loyalist marines vomit their innards out through their helmets’ rebreathers is just so gloriously horrible.
What do you mean the emperror don't mess (miss?) that often? He fks up all the time, from the ban on chaos knowledge, which led to the whole mankind corruption, to being the shittiest dad in the universe.
Literally the best way the emperor could have made mortarion a loyalist would be to give him either a suit of power armour, purify the air around necare's mountain using psychic magics or I dunno, give him a magic sword or something
You know what’s the worst part about the death guard, and plague marines across the eye? Nurgle is no great schemer or trickster. He may set up the dominos, but it’s up to the individual to choose to push them over. They are for the most part; sane, lucid, and chose this completely willingly.
The thing is I’ve become more interesting in the old dusk raiders more than the death guard. The flight of the Eisenstin book introduced a interesting idea of space marines legions that no-one really considers before the relationship/ culture clash between a primarch the original Terran born marines of the legion.
I've found out about warhammer at the middle of the 8th edition and bought the death guard parts from 1 dark imperium, 2 know no fear and 3 first strike boxes, but because none of my friends got interested in 40k i sold it all since i had no one to play with, and words cannot describe how much i regret selling those miniatures.
Getting into 40k right now, and I did pick the death guard. Made my own warband called the Spinal Corps. A group of loyalists deathguard marines who were caught and turned into a barely sentient mush and left to die. But were later repurposed and made useful again by a couple of opportunistic plague surgeons.
Honestly love the Death guard, besides Mortarion. The original recruits were drawn from old Albia which was the last city to fall under compliance to the Emperor during the Unification War, actual ending up joining due to the respect that the Emperor had to them cause they were able to hold off his forces for so long that big E actually resorted to diplomance. The original death guard, called the Dusk Raider took a large degree of their culture into the legion, however this was destroyed by Mortarion, who stripped any identity of the Dusk Raiders. Fun Fact, Albia was also the origin recruit origin of the Iron Hands and Night Lords meaning 1/6 of all the known legions (not counting two or eleven) can trace their origins back to Albia which in itself is really fucking cool.
‘The light will come again!’ Xydias thunders. And that, of all that has been claimed or boasted, is a genuine sorrow. It will never come again. There has not been light, genuine light, for ten thousand years. Vorx should know - he witnessed it, the original blaze of hope, being extinguished by the Doomed Warmaster at the behest of gods he now serves. So this pain must end. This delusion must end. Better to prosper in darkness than batter away at some false dawn like a shroud-moth on a lantern.
The Emperor planning to become a mummy and that's why he was an asshole to some of the Primarchs is cope and if GW makes it canon it would be incredibly stupid. Turns out the totalitarian space dictator plays favorites between his experiments, treating some as sons and some as just tools. Big deal. People play favorites in real life, it doesn't have to be more complicated than that.
Mortarion was a real asshole. He wanted to do it alone. This time I think the Emperor was at least, reasonable. Mortarion failed, failed miserably in his attempt to kill his foster father. He could kill his foster father on his own nor would he accept any help. He was too stubborn and petulant to be helped. The Emprah here just run out of patience and gave an early ultimatum.
I had only just read the Buried Dagger, it's a fun one which goes this in a fair bit of detail. I side with the Emperor on this one. Mortarion was fucking up, over and over again unable to do this. He had multiple ways to take down the Overlords, but only *his* way was going to work and it was stupid. The armor was untested and too expensive to mass produce, so only his best soldiers got them and wouldn’t you know it, they all died on the first assault. The Emperor saved him and his people. Mortarion was too stubborn to accept the help and went into his death just to spite him, letting his people he supposedly cared for suffer.
I really love the Death Guard in 30k more than 40k, and I think Mortarion the Pale King is one of the big reasons why. Just seeing this horrible, brutal campaign, and getting to see the effects of fucking Phosphex is one of those 'jesus christ, how horrifying' moments, and it's greeeeeeeeat, and they're my Horus Heresy army of choice for the 'oops all warcrimes' moments, behind Iron Warriors. I can't believe you didn't mention too that Morty decided to build a 1-1 replica of the Imperial Palace on his new daemon world, but as a fuck you to The Emperor it's exactly 7 centimeters larger in all dimensions. I love this petty bitch. Also Huron-Fal my beloved, too good for this setting.
There actually was friction between the Terran born dusk raiders and the Barbarus death guard. The terrans saw them as savages and the barbarus people saw the terrans as weak and arrogant.
I really want to share a comment I came across on r/grimdark that completely changed my perspective of Mortrian. It was in response to the question of did Mortrain have any other traits aside being big and smell. After all,Typhus seems to be Nurgle’s champion. Otherwise, as the question went, they didn’t see the point in him: “In many ways its kinda the point that hes a bit of a fuck up tbh, because when you run down his credentials hes one of the more impressive primarchs: hes a high level psyker, hes an expert in infantry tactics, he's stealthy enough to infiltrate the imperial palace far enough to find the proto webway project, he commands a fanatical undying sense of loyalty from his [barbarus born] legionaries, hes an engineering and biochemical expert, hes one of the physically strongest primarchs on top of being the primarch with the highest endurance, of the major traitor primarchs he was right behind perturabo for "having his shit together" during the siege of terra, post heresy he masters numerology as a means of fortune telling, he has doomsday weapons out the ass, his post heresy legion commands one of the largest traitor fleets and is the third most unified/organized, etc. etc. and all of that flys at odds with how so incredibly insecure he is about himself and his capabilities. that for all that he's capable of, he's never good enough. he wasn't good enough to climb that mountain and take necares head, he wasn't good enough to liberate barbarus himself, hes never hard enough, strong enough, good enough to achieve the heights he believes he needs to hit both to meet his own standards and to meet the darwanist mentality that was hammered into him from his youth on babarus. and that is why i would argue mortarion fits so well as nurgles champion. he's not just hardy, hes a miserable wet towel of anxiety, paranoia and inadequacy. the primarch most prone to depression but who also tries to brute force his way through that mental battle because admitting to that weakness means failing his own standards. and he knows it which ends up compounding the problem as he doubles down to overcompensate [hence why he tends to get to hyper fixated on individuals and perceived sleights]. which then compounds itself further with the tragedy that, he so dearly wanted to be a more heroic figure like sanguinius or horus [pre heresy], to be the same liberator he was on barbarus to the rest of the imperium. but his psychological hangups get in the way, his physical scarring gets in the way, and the simple fact that hes so locked into a mindset that worked on barbarus but is out of place near everywhere else dooms him to becoming a grim sanction of utter destruction by both circumstance and choice. now has Black librarys writing always done him justice, no, but that could be said about most if not all of the traitor primarchs.” - TrillionSpiders
Im in the process of finishing my Slaanesh army ( I have five more boxes in my pile of shame to finally finish). I was gifted with a squad of Blightlord Terminators.. I will definitely be making a Deathguard army very soon. They are very interesting bits of plastic crack. And im beginning to like the abilities they have. They tend to grow on you ,, like a malignant fungus..
The sick bois have a cool ascetic, I'm more into Khorn ascetic though. I feel like as they come into battle, there would be a melancholy orchestra playing. The Khorn followers are blasting metal.
Death Guard is an awesome chaos faction and outside of the 1K Sons I always loved their death and decay aesthetic and I even run a Death Guard themed deck in MTG. In contrast, I just cant seem to get into Mortarion. To Mortarion's credit, the Death Guard are the most coherent traitor legion that has been active. However at the end of the day, Imo, The Emperor was right. It may have been his life struggle, but in the grand scheme of things if you live solely for revenge then thats a pretty wasted life. The Emperor had plans, and Mortarion was destined for bigger things. Granted, the Emperor could have easily just told a HUGE white lie and said "if you follow me we will crush men like him a hundred times over and you can kill the problem at its true source" That would of course crumble away and Mortarion would probably hate the Emperor anyways for lying...but thats kinda the whole thing with Morty. Dude is just too bitter
He is just wasted potential. Look at Perty, he's bitter, petulent and brutal but they actually made him much more than that. Why couldn't they have made Mortarion like that. Perturabo was a flawed but interesting character. He's petty but that didn't define everything he did. Guilt also weighed down on him. He felt more interesting than whatever the fuck Morty's characterization
I can't wait for next week. Been waiting for the thousand sons video ever since I found this brilliant series. In all seriousness I absolutely love your work . And wish the best of luck for every future endeavor.
“Look at him! His preferred weapon is gardening equipment!”🤣🤣🤣🤣 that was good. It does appear that the Emporer and Malcodor knew that the Primarchs would eventually rebel but they just didn’t know how it would go down. It can be argued that they’re KNOWLEDGE that it would happen, influenced their behavior towards the Primarchs, ENSURING it would happen. Self-Fulfilling prophecy kinda stuff…
I suspect primarchs falling to Chaos was part of the knowledge deal Big E did. Though I doubt numbers or names were discussed besides: Each chaos god gets one champion. So after finding the primarchs, the Emperor tried to push certain ones to Chaos while protecting others.
Phosphex sounds more like chlorine trifluoride than white phosphorus. That stuff will burn *anything*, including fire bricks and asbestos. One person quipped the best equipment to have during a spill is a good pair of running shoes 😂
I love the aesthetic and playstyle, I'm also really fond of painting them - it's oddly satisfying making someone gag because of how well I've painted the nastiness, lol The one part of their lore I feel conflicted on is the original legion supposedly originated from Albion, another word for Britain but long before the Angles and Saxons came; so in my own wee head cannon I imagine the celts took back Britain at some point and everyone has either a Scottish, Welsh or Irish accent - my conflict is we're not THAT smelly 🤣
Most other lore videos on Morty say that the Emperor first gave food and medicine to morty's people and then offered to help him kill the last overlord together. I don't know how you can interpret that as the Emperor screwing up. But I never did read the books myself, so maybe I got a warped version of events.
I 🫶DEATH GUARD! They look like they were designed both by HP Lovecraft & John Carpenter. The DG are always happy because Papa Nurgle loves us all & every day is Halloween! To me, they’re the best Legion because they just run around getting high AF, eating tacos, chips & malt liquor, while blasting Black Sabbath or DOOM metal as they ride into town. “We are the DEATH GUARD! Let’s get high & have some fun!”
I figured it was like Angron- if he let Mortarion continue on then Mortarion would have died or been harmed to point of uselessness. He already a broken tool in Angron, he didnt need another lmao
When you said "rock and stone" at 8:27, my dumbass brain just went "ROCK AND STONE!", and Idk why my brain did that. Anyways great vid. Imma Subscribe.
I love the death guard rules and concepts... I fucking hate their aesthetic... I run my death guard army as imperial fist successors who got stuck on a deathworld that got hit with one too many chemical weapons and so learned to survive and wield extreme chemical weapons...
I love the death guard, my favourite traitor legion. They're so funny. I just find them funny when I dont think too deeply about them. I just like to ignore the disease fact and think they purely kill from being so stinky.
I'm almost done listening to the Horus Heresy in Ausible and now I'm on The Lost and the Damned where Mortarion reveals his new form to the Traitor Legions. Much gagging and asphyxiation ensues. I've recently bought DG boarding patrol. Can't wait to paint the up.
The problem with a lot of Chaos primarchs backstories is that they usually scapegoat the emperor to justify the primarchs fall. IMO, this is a bullshit plot device. I really like Magnus the red as a primarch because his fall is largely his own fault, and the story recognizes it as such. Compare this to mortarion, who got his life SAVED by the emperor and then preceded to hold a grudge and become the very thing he hated.
One thing I like is just how after going to the plague planet Nurgle gave them, Typhus was like “wtf are you guys doing? Nurgle have us these gifts and you’re just gonna sit there, screw you I’m going. To which mortarian basically said “ok, you can go do whatever the fuck you want, but the moment I need you, you come back here.” To which typhus scoffs and goes on to spread Nurgle’s gifts.
Fun fact, Morty was a genuinely kind man before Emps showed up. He drank with his friends, worked alongside labourers despite his status and JOKED with his Death Guard. The Death Guard started off as freedom fighters, their first mission was tearing down tyrants so bad they make the Emperor seem like a good man. Slowly they became racist (fuck Terrans) and elitist, outright hating baselines for their weakness. I like to imagine that Mortarion grabbed a podium as he ranted and raved at the Council of Nikkea.
I can tell you as someone who works in Occupational Therapy and sees how parents approach their kids struggling with things... the Emperor stepping in like "Ah, fuck this, we're on the clock", punking the kill and expecting Mortarion to be grateful is 100% on brand
yeah in my experience parents prefer to remove obstacles rather than solve problems
Brother! Bring the alcohol! The heavy alcohol!
I'm gonna need the *heavy* vodka for this heresy
@@lil-_s_t_e_a_m_y6385 So is Vodka
Heavy alcohol is analogus to heavy water, in that it's hydrogen is deuterium.
Bwahahahahahhha!😂
@@waynebimmel6784 wait, isn't heavy water like, really bad if ingested?
Feel like I heard something about that on tv. Would have been years ago though.
"The emperor does not miss often"
excuse me, what? Hes the Shaq at the free throw line bad when it comes to his sons lol
Only when ADB writes him because he’s a chaos fanboy
That is one of the meanest things I've ever heard
I appreciate this
@@proudsaiyanprince2651 no
Not really. Half of fallen Primarchs were pretty well treated by the Emperor. Hell Fulgrim was the biggest Emperor simp until the demon thing happened. The only ones who you could argue the Emperor screwed over were Mortarion, Angron and maybe Kurze.
"Ah Horus, my favorite son that will definitely not betray me that I like just a little bit more than Sanguinius"
I like to think The Death Guard perpetually hear and sing along to some joyous 40s tune while everyone else just hears the flies, screeching and "gurgling".
Lollipop Lollipop oh Lolly lolly Lollipop!
Do you believe in magic
@CrabMan don't worry be happy. Don't worry be happy now
How much is that doggie in the window
The famous death dance they do in New Orleans plays.
"Mortarion manages to make Perturabo jealous of his spite and is a hypocrite of immeasurable proportions."
-Lion 'El Johnson
He not only hated Psykers he also hated Astropaths and Navigators. Mortarion was shown the webway project when he returned to Terra by Malcador. I assume he appreciated be transported almost instantly somewhere without filthy Psykers.
Nice profile picture.
What I love about the death guard is when they got cut off from the warp/grandfather's love they immediately screams fo mercy since every single wounds, parasite, disease, and viruses in their body start killing them
When does this happen in the lore?
@@leonidaspereirafilho499 i frogot where i heard that but it is canon. Basically at all times any worshiper of nurgle has to have a connection with him at all times. Because the only reason they dont die is because of his magic.
It didn't kill them they were just horrified by their bodies and in shock
Who can cut off the warp
@@ravenwhiteduck6460 Sisters of Silence and other Blanks.
One of my favourite parts of the Dark Imperium series was finding out Morty keeps the soul of his father captive out of spite
Please tell me he’s got it trapped in like a box lined with soul spikes or whatever and when he’s in a bad mood he squeezes the box so as to stab the soul to feel better hearing the cosmic screams of his father.
@@crimsondynamo615 It's literally kept in a jar.
@@trazyntheinfinitearchivist7866 nurgle loves his jars; it's so gratifying that his adoptive children can share his hobbies.
"Morty! Let me out of the coom jar, Morty!"
@@MachineMan-mj4gj “Morty! I turned myself into an ethereal cosmic spirit of the warp Morty! I’m a cosmic spirit now! Morty, why are you putting me in a jar?! Morty! MORTY DONT LEAVE ME HERE!!!”
When I first got into 40k, these guys where the one faction that genuinely scared and disturbed me just as a concept. As humans we are naturally very scared of disease, infection, slow decay etc. I think the thought of facing these guys in battle is 10x scarier than say a Khorne berserker or even a night lord
But when you're dying of a terrible disease how easy is it to say "grandfather please"
I'd honestly be so worried about attrition over time fighting them as a astra militarium commander. they'll be using viral and chemical and radiological weapons galore and their enhanced constitutions will grant them extraordinarily resistance or flute out immunity to them.
Death Guard is my first army, still building them, but I picked them for the aesthetic and the silliness of Nurgle loving everyone. They just make me laugh, especially the nurglings
Not only it was a last minute kill steal, but what also pissed mortarion off was that at the end of the day his adoptive father's shackles were just replaced with the emperor's, he never really tasted freedom and that's not something to be undestated
God the Emperor is just.. such a bad dad
@@TheBoneZone40kMeh
I like the idea of death guard characters and nurgle worshippers in general being extremely obsessive compulsive. Constantly fretting over every plague that doesn’t succeed while meticulously tallying the ones that do. Sort of like a group of insane zombie accountants.
Insane Zombie Accountants is my Ice Nine Kills tribute band.
The death guard are not for everyone, but they are easily accepted as one the most popular chaos legions. Everyone always looks at it as just being these gross hard to kill marines, but just think of the army from the perspective of their victems. The terror of these twisted hulks of rotting flesh mutations marching slowly forward, followed by thousands of hungry zombies, grotesque daemons of plauge, clouds of stinging flys, and seige machines all spreading viruses that will painfully melt you into bloody pus in seconds. And if your lucky enough to reach the escape craft, you notice one of the other passengers cough up some blood...and the rictus grin of the walking pox spreads across his mouth...
i’m throwing him out and splattering his brains across the floor and getting the fuck outta there
I wish their miniatures looked more diseased honestly I find they look oddly clean, and more mutated than rotting.
About his Morty's meeting with Big E, I'm pretty sure the challenge was *only* for Mortarion to kill his necromancer father, which he failed in. The Emperor only stepped in once Mortarion was on the ground, his lungs and body permanently crippled by the poison, about to be killed by his foster father who noticed him dying outside on his doormat.
The Death Guard, where health care insurance is a machete...
Seriously dude that is fucking funny as hell😂😂😂
Mortarion had such a Grudge against the Emperor, and not even for taking him away from his men like Angron, but saving him in a way that could've been done better. As you said, it was one hell of a Grudge, and Mortarion also hated Magic, is he a Fantasy Dwarf then?
Fantasy dwarves are also slow and tanky. Death guard don't have fancy beards though.
Still 4/5 isn't bad, I'd say yes, they are!
Imagine a rogue-like game where you play as Morty working your way up the mountain and whenever you lose it’s the Emperor teleporting you back down to the base and you lose all your equipment you found along the way
After listening to lords of silence, I do not think they are as happy as you claim. It's more like resigned to their fate. Just going through the motions. But their motions cause doom to poor citizens who never deserved to meet them.
Loved that book
Both if i remember correctly.Some of them really do love their job like that one plague surgeon in LoS. In the codex, the legion is described as half happy, half cold blooded guys if I'm not wrong
The siege of Terra has some good bits from the death guard point of view of somewhat minor characters, including mortarion’s equery and a weirdly appealing apothecary
Okay so you aren't wrong about anything here but I'd like to defend/mention something important about Mortarian's character. A lot of people focus on the kill steal, and rightfully so, but another big part of his backstory is that Mortarian learned through the Emperor's actions that he was too slow. On his home planet he was patient in earning the human's trust, he went from town to town to teach and arm them, and he slowly built up their armor and poison masks so that the humans could join him and eventually improve how far he himself could go.
In the primarch book, "The Pale King" Mortarion takes a long time before committing to bringing a planet into compliance. During that time we see him do a lot of research and planning. The plan he comes up with is actually pretty creative. Which shows that when he can move at his own pace he is much more capable and interesting as a character. But the plan wasn't perfect, it was creative but also way to direct. This is because his big character flaw is him constantly trying to overcome the fact that he is slow. Slow for a primarch is still bonkers fast, but slow in comparison none the less. All of his legions tactics are straightforward and kinda dumb because the most straightforward way is often the fastest.
There are tons of other small examples of this but I've wrote a book about it. Just look into his lore a little and consider the "he's slow but aware of it" angle.
I disagree I don’t see morty not being pissed
Had he killed his father himself he wouldn’t want to obey big e and had bug e allowed him the finishing blow he would have seen it as an insult
I said ANOTHER big part of his backstory. I never claimed he wasn't upset about the killsteal. Even in the "Paleking," Mortarian addresses the killsteal and how it bothered him. But on that same page he doesn't indulge himself on continuing the climb to finish the fight. He decides to go where he is tactically needed the most instead. Showing that it will always bother him, but that he doesn't let it control him. However, I'm suggesting that he does let the fact that he was too slow control him. An issue caused by the killsteal indirectly. @@dumbidea1007
Oh my God... He's just like me! For real!
i know a few guys at the game store that resemble these lads, their only weakness is deodorant and dating apps
Showers too, surely?
@@dapperultron1784 maybe they are disgustingly resilient after all 😉
And a toothbrush 🪥
Pretty accurate take. For me, Death Guards are basically the other end of the spectrum of the Iron Hands. Slow Moving, grind the foes into dust kinda strategy. Where Iron Hands slowly creeps in, hates their own flesh and using all kinds of range weaponry to deal damage on the enemies from afar. Death Guard slowly creeps in and uses short range and hated the flesh of the "Non gifted".
Basically, Juggernauts that both hates flesh. One hates it because it is flesh, one hates it because it's not fleshy and rotten enough. One has a knack for range, one has a knack for just get close by having close to a Stroll towards their destination.
Always thought the death guard was one of the most deadly legions with just there passive abilities that I feel are nerfed especially in terms of how their described to be so destructive and killing
If I could make a book recommendation for seeing Nurgle in an interesting light, Plague Garden by Josh Reynolds is phenomenal. It’s an AoS novel that follows a redeemed Nurgle chasing a pirate daemon through the realms of the plague god.
Great vid as always!
redeemed nurgle? that sounds way too interesting. like how that could ever happen?
@@setiem13 he got hit really hard with a hammer
@@redpilldiogenes4741 Sounds about right.
The Lords of Silence was such a gem of a book, I've been meaning to relisten to it.
Nurgle doesn’t seek death. Death ends the suffering and misery. Death is an aspect of change (hint) from life. Nurgle seeks continuous entropy, which is halted when the person dies.
I honestly never cared for the Death Guard due to their aesthetic, but I do understand the appeal. That being said, the last lore tidbit was utterly hilarious.
I feel like the most appealing yet least explored DG aesthetic is the demure gardener harbinger aesthetic. I want more bells and more cholera bushes.
So much for hating Warp Sorcery, eh, Morty?
"I know the Emperor don't miss that often ..." lol sure bud
My poor poor stinky boys. I'm glad theyre dealing with power creep but like.. damn..
I absolutely love the Death Guard minis. To me they are the perfect minis to learn how to paint on. You get large armor pieces. Huge skin pieces. Lots of boils, puss, wounds, etc. Tons of details.... they are amazing minis for being able to practice almost everything
That's a good point. It also must be pretty forgiving since they're supposed to be ratchet looking.
If you mess up a couple lines or details it wouldn't throw off the aesthetic as much as minis that have a lot of clean lines and more fine details
Always felt that Mortarion and his legion were one of the coolest heresy legions in aesthetic and concept, but have been given a raw deal in the lore. I do think Chris Wraight does a banger job with them and even Mortarion himself, but more needs to be done.
I’m coming in seven months late because I was flashbanged by the phrase “The Emperor don’t miss too often,” because looking back this at golden sociopath makes him look like the Imperium’s drunk uncle giving them some cool alternative lifestyle while hiding the fact that they just doomed themselves to heroin addiction… love your content btw :)
regarding phosphex I am pretty sure it can burn in vacuum just fine, you can't put it out, you just have to wait and hope it burns out on it's own. Also I have heard it described as having a particularly horrifying quality where apparently the flames can somehow detect movement and will "chase" after it. So if you are near phosphex flames and you try to get away, it's going to follow you and kill you.
“Get back here you little scamp”
How the fuck does this even work realistically? How does one engineer FIRE to follow someone?
@@CaptainGrief66I mean they already engineered it to burn without fuel or oxygen which is insane. The fire is easily disturbed in the direction of an air current or something?
@@GreaterGrievobeast55
That's not impossible, we already have chemicals that burn underwater that occur naturally and adding oxidisers to compounds let's them burn in low oxygen environments, this is just an extreme case of that
But how the hell can you make fire follow people
Lords Of Silence is an amazing book. The opening battle where loyalist marines vomit their innards out through their helmets’ rebreathers is just so gloriously horrible.
The first Space Marine Legion I was introduced to is the Night Lords and Conrad Kurze.
DID I HEAR A ROCK AND STONE??!!!
For Karl!
What do you mean the emperror don't mess (miss?) that often? He fks up all the time, from the ban on chaos knowledge, which led to the whole mankind corruption, to being the shittiest dad in the universe.
The emperor had a schedule to keep and couldn't wait for Mortarion to actually win a fight.
8:28 DID I JUST HEAR A ROCK AND STONE ?!
Mushrüm
Literally the best way the emperor could have made mortarion a loyalist would be to give him either a suit of power armour, purify the air around necare's mountain using psychic magics or I dunno, give him a magic sword or something
You know what’s the worst part about the death guard, and plague marines across the eye? Nurgle is no great schemer or trickster. He may set up the dominos, but it’s up to the individual to choose to push them over.
They are for the most part; sane, lucid, and chose this completely willingly.
The thing is I’ve become more interesting in the old dusk raiders more than the death guard.
The flight of the Eisenstin book introduced a interesting idea of space marines legions that no-one really considers before the relationship/ culture clash between a primarch the original Terran born marines of the legion.
I've found out about warhammer at the middle of the 8th edition and bought the death guard parts from 1 dark imperium, 2 know no fear and 3 first strike boxes, but because none of my friends got interested in 40k i sold it all since i had no one to play with, and words cannot describe how much i regret selling those miniatures.
Buy yourself new deathguard models and forget your regrets.
Getting into 40k right now, and I did pick the death guard. Made my own warband called the Spinal Corps. A group of loyalists deathguard marines who were caught and turned into a barely sentient mush and left to die. But were later repurposed and made useful again by a couple of opportunistic plague surgeons.
not going to lie every time you say ah...Hi! I cant get the picture of Perturabo smiling out of my head! hahaha
good
ROCK AND STONE!! 8:28
We rich
ROCK AND ROLL AND STONE!
I am severely disappointed that we didnt get at least one Nic Cage "Not the Bees!" in this video
What do you take me for?
someone with a sense of humour?
Honestly love the Death guard, besides Mortarion. The original recruits were drawn from old Albia which was the last city to fall under compliance to the Emperor during the Unification War, actual ending up joining due to the respect that the Emperor had to them cause they were able to hold off his forces for so long that big E actually resorted to diplomance. The original death guard, called the Dusk Raider took a large degree of their culture into the legion, however this was destroyed by Mortarion, who stripped any identity of the Dusk Raiders. Fun Fact, Albia was also the origin recruit origin of the Iron Hands and Night Lords meaning 1/6 of all the known legions (not counting two or eleven) can trace their origins back to Albia which in itself is really fucking cool.
8:27 DID YOU SAY ROCK AND STONE!?!?
We fighr for rock and STONE!
"The Emperor dont miss that often" Are you high? The Emperor misses every time he takes a shot.
‘The light will come again!’ Xydias thunders.
And that, of all that has been claimed or boasted, is a genuine sorrow. It will never come again. There has not been light, genuine light, for ten thousand years. Vorx should know - he witnessed it, the original blaze of hope, being extinguished by the Doomed Warmaster at the behest of gods he now serves.
So this pain must end. This delusion must end. Better to prosper in darkness than batter away at some false dawn like a shroud-moth on a lantern.
The Emperor planning to become a mummy and that's why he was an asshole to some of the Primarchs is cope and if GW makes it canon it would be incredibly stupid.
Turns out the totalitarian space dictator plays favorites between his experiments, treating some as sons and some as just tools. Big deal. People play favorites in real life, it doesn't have to be more complicated than that.
Mortarion was a real asshole. He wanted to do it alone. This time I think the Emperor was at least, reasonable. Mortarion failed, failed miserably in his attempt to kill his foster father. He could kill his foster father on his own nor would he accept any help.
He was too stubborn and petulant to be helped. The Emprah here just run out of patience and gave an early ultimatum.
I had only just read the Buried Dagger, it's a fun one which goes this in a fair bit of detail. I side with the Emperor on this one. Mortarion was fucking up, over and over again unable to do this. He had multiple ways to take down the Overlords, but only *his* way was going to work and it was stupid. The armor was untested and too expensive to mass produce, so only his best soldiers got them and wouldn’t you know it, they all died on the first assault.
The Emperor saved him and his people. Mortarion was too stubborn to accept the help and went into his death just to spite him, letting his people he supposedly cared for suffer.
I really love the Death Guard in 30k more than 40k, and I think Mortarion the Pale King is one of the big reasons why. Just seeing this horrible, brutal campaign, and getting to see the effects of fucking Phosphex is one of those 'jesus christ, how horrifying' moments, and it's greeeeeeeeat, and they're my Horus Heresy army of choice for the 'oops all warcrimes' moments, behind Iron Warriors.
I can't believe you didn't mention too that Morty decided to build a 1-1 replica of the Imperial Palace on his new daemon world, but as a fuck you to The Emperor it's exactly 7 centimeters larger in all dimensions. I love this petty bitch.
Also Huron-Fal my beloved, too good for this setting.
I mean he did the exact same thing to angron. Dude claims to want to preserve humanity but shows time and time again he has none of his own.
8:29 DID I JUST HEAR A 'ROCK AND STONE'?
For Karl
8:27 did i hear a rock and stone??
There actually was friction between the Terran born dusk raiders and the Barbarus death guard. The terrans saw them as savages and the barbarus people saw the terrans as weak and arrogant.
I really want to share a comment I came across on r/grimdark that completely changed my perspective of Mortrian. It was in response to the question of did Mortrain have any other traits aside being big and smell. After all,Typhus seems to be Nurgle’s champion. Otherwise, as the question went, they didn’t see the point in him:
“In many ways its kinda the point that hes a bit of a fuck up tbh, because when you run down his credentials hes one of the more impressive primarchs: hes a high level psyker, hes an expert in infantry tactics, he's stealthy enough to infiltrate the imperial palace far enough to find the proto webway project, he commands a fanatical undying sense of loyalty from his [barbarus born] legionaries, hes an engineering and biochemical expert, hes one of the physically strongest primarchs on top of being the primarch with the highest endurance, of the major traitor primarchs he was right behind perturabo for "having his shit together" during the siege of terra, post heresy he masters numerology as a means of fortune telling, he has doomsday weapons out the ass, his post heresy legion commands one of the largest traitor fleets and is the third most unified/organized, etc. etc.
and all of that flys at odds with how so incredibly insecure he is about himself and his capabilities. that for all that he's capable of, he's never good enough. he wasn't good enough to climb that mountain and take necares head, he wasn't good enough to liberate barbarus himself, hes never hard enough, strong enough, good enough to achieve the heights he believes he needs to hit both to meet his own standards and to meet the darwanist mentality that was hammered into him from his youth on babarus.
and that is why i would argue mortarion fits so well as nurgles champion. he's not just hardy, hes a miserable wet towel of anxiety, paranoia and inadequacy. the primarch most prone to depression but who also tries to brute force his way through that mental battle because admitting to that weakness means failing his own standards. and he knows it which ends up compounding the problem as he doubles down to overcompensate [hence why he tends to get to hyper fixated on individuals and perceived sleights].
which then compounds itself further with the tragedy that, he so dearly wanted to be a more heroic figure like sanguinius or horus [pre heresy], to be the same liberator he was on barbarus to the rest of the imperium. but his psychological hangups get in the way, his physical scarring gets in the way, and the simple fact that hes so locked into a mindset that worked on barbarus but is out of place near everywhere else dooms him to becoming a grim sanction of utter destruction by both circumstance and choice.
now has Black librarys writing always done him justice, no, but that could be said about most if not all of the traitor primarchs.”
- TrillionSpiders
By far my favourite army.
So happy you did them the justice they well and truly deserve.
Big Daddy E offered to help and give him armor and stuff, but Morty said, "Nah bruh...I'm good homie..."
Im in the process of finishing my Slaanesh army ( I have five more boxes in my pile of shame to finally finish). I was gifted with a squad of Blightlord Terminators.. I will definitely be making a Deathguard army very soon. They are very interesting bits of plastic crack. And im beginning to like the abilities they have. They tend to grow on you ,, like a malignant fungus..
The sick bois have a cool ascetic, I'm more into Khorn ascetic though.
I feel like as they come into battle, there would be a melancholy orchestra playing.
The Khorn followers are blasting metal.
They just fight in silence. No yelling, talking or screaming, just methodical and effective movement.
Death Guard is an awesome chaos faction and outside of the 1K Sons I always loved their death and decay aesthetic and I even run a Death Guard themed deck in MTG.
In contrast, I just cant seem to get into Mortarion. To Mortarion's credit, the Death Guard are the most coherent traitor legion that has been active.
However at the end of the day, Imo, The Emperor was right. It may have been his life struggle, but in the grand scheme of things if you live solely for revenge then thats a pretty wasted life. The Emperor had plans, and Mortarion was destined for bigger things.
Granted, the Emperor could have easily just told a HUGE white lie and said "if you follow me we will crush men like him a hundred times over and you can kill the problem at its true source"
That would of course crumble away and Mortarion would probably hate the Emperor anyways for lying...but thats kinda the whole thing with Morty. Dude is just too bitter
Morty is boring af, even angron is more interesting
He is just wasted potential. Look at Perty, he's bitter, petulent and brutal but they actually made him much more than that. Why couldn't they have made Mortarion like that. Perturabo was a flawed but interesting character. He's petty but that didn't define everything he did. Guilt also weighed down on him. He felt more interesting than whatever the fuck Morty's characterization
I weep for Fulgrim, I weep for Angron, but I look at Mortarion and go, "Fucking loser"
I can't wait for next week. Been waiting for the thousand sons video ever since I found this brilliant series.
In all seriousness I absolutely love your work . And wish the best of luck for every future endeavor.
“Look at him! His preferred weapon is gardening equipment!”🤣🤣🤣🤣 that was good. It does appear that the Emporer and Malcodor knew that the Primarchs would eventually rebel but they just didn’t know how it would go down. It can be argued that they’re KNOWLEDGE that it would happen, influenced their behavior towards the Primarchs, ENSURING it would happen. Self-Fulfilling prophecy kinda stuff…
I suspect primarchs falling to Chaos was part of the knowledge deal Big E did. Though I doubt numbers or names were discussed besides: Each chaos god gets one champion. So after finding the primarchs, the Emperor tried to push certain ones to Chaos while protecting others.
Who's better at totality? Russ? Angron? Or Mortarion? Prolly morty, but funny how he switched later on technically.
They DO win the prize for most legitimately friendly legion....
Phosphex sounds more like chlorine trifluoride than white phosphorus. That stuff will burn *anything*, including fire bricks and asbestos. One person quipped the best equipment to have during a spill is a good pair of running shoes 😂
"This death.... This death is ours. We choose it. We dent your victory."
~Huron-fal
I love the aesthetic and playstyle, I'm also really fond of painting them - it's oddly satisfying making someone gag because of how well I've painted the nastiness, lol
The one part of their lore I feel conflicted on is the original legion supposedly originated from Albion, another word for Britain but long before the Angles and Saxons came; so in my own wee head cannon I imagine the celts took back Britain at some point and everyone has either a Scottish, Welsh or Irish accent - my conflict is we're not THAT smelly 🤣
Moratarion being petty is why I love him so much
I really enjoyed the lords of silence book and i’m happy someone mentioned it
I like playing DG in kill team and being very, very aggressive. It’s so funny to be a slow moving wall with a heavy cleaver and plague knives.
The Emperor does miss frequently, but specifically he misses when handling the primarchs.
Ah, the bloaty-stink lads
They do have a certain alluring aroma to them yes
Most other lore videos on Morty say that the Emperor first gave food and medicine to morty's people and then offered to help him kill the last overlord together. I don't know how you can interpret that as the Emperor screwing up.
But I never did read the books myself, so maybe I got a warped version of events.
Did I hear a rock and stone?
If you dont rock and stone, you aint coming home
Morty is a beautiful butterfly 🦋🦋🦋 I kind of want him for ornamental purpose.
Love your commentary and takes great background music and stellar editing as well
I 🫶DEATH GUARD! They look like they were designed both by HP Lovecraft & John Carpenter. The DG are always happy because Papa Nurgle loves us all & every day is Halloween! To me, they’re the best Legion because they just run around getting high AF, eating tacos, chips & malt liquor, while blasting Black Sabbath or DOOM metal as they ride into town. “We are the DEATH GUARD! Let’s get high & have some fun!”
Death Guard Marines probably the hardest to paint
I figured it was like Angron- if he let Mortarion continue on then Mortarion would have died or been harmed to point of uselessness. He already a broken tool in Angron, he didnt need another lmao
When you said "rock and stone" at 8:27, my dumbass brain just went "ROCK AND STONE!", and Idk why my brain did that. Anyways great vid. Imma Subscribe.
For Karl
I love the death guard rules and concepts... I fucking hate their aesthetic... I run my death guard army as imperial fist successors who got stuck on a deathworld that got hit with one too many chemical weapons and so learned to survive and wield extreme chemical weapons...
I love the death guard, my favourite traitor legion. They're so funny. I just find them funny when I dont think too deeply about them. I just like to ignore the disease fact and think they purely kill from being so stinky.
I bet you that even if E gave him armour, Morty would have been upset.
FYI viewing the two of them as Rick and Morty is amazing.
Death Guard summarized: Look great, sh%t characters except for two or three of them.
Yo Papa Nurgle high-key the best master in 40k verse.
like the death guard fighting tactic and name, but i like the dusk raiders color scheme better
8:28 Rock AND STONE BROTHER!
DID I HEAR A ROCK AND STONE?? ⛏️
I'm almost done listening to the Horus Heresy in Ausible and now I'm on The Lost and the Damned where Mortarion reveals his new form to the Traitor Legions. Much gagging and asphyxiation ensues. I've recently bought DG boarding patrol. Can't wait to paint the up.
I Must say, Pre heresy Death Guard have one of the coolest colorschemes by far. They and pre heresy world eaters are my favorite colorschemes.
The problem with a lot of Chaos primarchs backstories is that they usually scapegoat the emperor to justify the primarchs fall. IMO, this is a bullshit plot device. I really like Magnus the red as a primarch because his fall is largely his own fault, and the story recognizes it as such. Compare this to mortarion, who got his life SAVED by the emperor and then preceded to hold a grudge and become the very thing he hated.
Shoutout Chris Wraight for making all the good DG lore, also Annandale did pretty good too
One thing I like is just how after going to the plague planet Nurgle gave them, Typhus was like “wtf are you guys doing? Nurgle have us these gifts and you’re just gonna sit there, screw you I’m going. To which mortarian basically said “ok, you can go do whatever the fuck you want, but the moment I need you, you come back here.” To which typhus scoffs and goes on to spread Nurgle’s gifts.
Curses? These are blessings of papa nurg
Fun fact, Morty was a genuinely kind man before Emps showed up. He drank with his friends, worked alongside labourers despite his status and JOKED with his Death Guard.
The Death Guard started off as freedom fighters, their first mission was tearing down tyrants so bad they make the Emperor seem like a good man.
Slowly they became racist (fuck Terrans) and elitist, outright hating baselines for their weakness.
I like to imagine that Mortarion grabbed a podium as he ranted and raved at the Council of Nikkea.
if you want a really good death guard story highly recommend chaos gate.
it was written by ADB of night lords/horus heresy and its super fun