Mortarion

Mortarion, the Death Lord, is in serious need of some chapstick.

"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster . . . for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

– Friedrich Nietzsche

"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

– Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Hindu religious text, the Bhagavad Gita

"Forget no insult, my sons, as I have never forgotten those of my father, of the Emperor, nor those of Horus. Forgive no slight or grievance. Hold your bitterness deep within, and there let it fester. Let it roil and squirm and churn, until you are filled with bile so poisonous that all you touch falls to ruin. Thus shall you serve Nurgle best. Thus shall you spread his virulent gifts across the false Imperium, and watch its final rotting…"

– Mortarion

Also known as the Death Lord or the Prince of Decay after he got sick of Daddy's shit, Mortarion is the Primarch of the Death Guard (XIV), a particularly gross legion of Chaos Space Marines. HAD an absolute hatred of psykers, is a staunch believer of the Darwinian principle (Survival of the fittest [Actually a principle of Huxley, look it up]), has some serious beef with the new and improved Robert Gilligan and is Grandpappy Nurgle's big special boy.

Biography

Mortarion was left on the plague planet Barbarus by the Chaos gods. He was found by the Overlord of Barbarus, who may or may not have been a xeno or possibly a sorcerer of Nurgle, but whatever he was, he was something that was less human than Mortarion. The Overlord, naming him Mortarion (to mean "Child of Death") took the infant Primarch and raised him, teaching him the arts of combat and warfare, after caging the child on a mountain top to acclimatize to the poisonous atmosphere. Mortarion's curiosity led him to leave home and set up shop in one of the human villages in a less plague-filled valley, where he simply helped with the harvest. When the village was attacked by a marauding warlord, Mortarion charged into the fray, defending his home with his scythe. After the battle was won, Mortarion taught the villagers, and other humans on Barbarus, the same lessons of warfare he had learned from his adoptive father. Soon, they were strong enough to take the fight to the warlords of Barbarus until only the Overlord remained. The Emperor showed up in a modest robe, as he feels like doing sometimes, and challenged Mortarion to slay the Overlord alone or swear loyalty to him.

Mortarion wasted no more time and went to kill his adoptive father, but he was too weak and succumbed to the poisonous upper atmosphere. Cue Emperor time and one hit kill. The Emperor stole Mortarion's kill of evil adoptive father (Mortarion resented this as a trivialization of his struggles against the warlords, and this resentment eventually caused his fall to Chaos).

Great Crusade

He was discovered 130 years into the Great Crusade and was taken to Terra, like all his other brothers were, to learn the ways of the Imperium. But unusually he was held for a bit longer on Terra than his brothers were on the reasoning that they were going to get all of the poisons and toxins out of his system, though this would obviously hit a snag since he got his armour customised to supply him with the Barbarus gases on demand (maybe he was dependent on them?), naturally all this waiting around got him a bit frustrated and annoyed.

Mortarion managed to sneak his way through the Imperial Palace and to the construction site of the future Golden Throne (yeah, despite being all giant and pungent, he was an excellent Ninja, also evidenced by his rules below) When he demanded of Malcador what it was, he wouldn't accept the regent's excuses that it was nothing to concern himself over, since Mortarion knew warp-tech when he saw it, and considered the Emperor & Malcador big giant hypocrites. The same went for his three brothers who set up the Librarius, and he didn't get on that well with the others. Apart from maybe the Khan, Mortarion had the least central role in the Crusade of all the Primarchs.

Thus Malcador revealed to Mortarion the Emperor's greater plan; which was to remove the reliance on psykers and warp travel entirely, and that they were already planning the Council of Nikaea in advance and that Mortarion would be the one to make the case for reining it in.

Mortarion got his own legion and swore allegiance to the big E. Weirdly, for all his dad and Malcador's worries about him, they didn't see fit to keep him fighting alongside the Emperor like (clearly sane and well-adjusted) Vulkan. Regardless, he wasted little time in transforming the Dusk Raiders into the Death Guard, and proved himself one of the Great Crusade's best frontline generals. Despite his skill and ambitions, however, he found himself at the margins of the war. Combined with the genetic heritage of Barbarus, Mortarion's gene-seed produced insanely tough Astartes, which made them the obvious choice for prosecuting campaigns in the most inhospitable climates. Perhaps as a result, the Death Guard also doubled down on their use of alchemical weapons, the kind that most Legions would only entrust to their Destroyer units. Consequently the Death Guard found themselves ever further away from the centre of the action,

After a few years of raping and pillaging those filthy Xenos he becomes best buds with Horus and that creepy pseudo-batman. He wasn't that bad of a guy, but he resented pretty much everyone whose upbringing hadn't been as awful as his, except Horus. There's a bit in Scars where he bitches and moans at Sanguinius, Jaghatai and Fulgrim about how they had it easy before snapping at the Khan that he doesn't resent it. Hmm. The newly renamed Death Guard was moulded to resemble Mortarion's old army on Barbarus, as it began prioritising endurance over everything else. In combat Mortarion relied on his raw strength, which according to Jaghatai Khan, only Ferrus Manus had a hope of matching. In a primarch-on-primarch duel he just absorbed damage, tiring his opponent out.

Horus Heresy

When the Horus Heresy began, of all his traitor brothers, we don't quite yet know why Mortarion joined the Traitors since there haven't been many books with him as the protagonist. But it was presumably for ideological reasons rather than being outright corrupted, broken or renegade already since we know he already considered the Emperor and the Imperial Truth to be hypocritical and had never forgiven the Emperor for being the one to kill his foster "father" instead of him. He also felt that the whole goal of the Imperium was the wrong one- viewing non-combatants as unworthy, and hating the influence that civilians began to wield post-Ullanor. Horus' rebellion promised an order based on Might Is Right, and if the Warmaster died in the process of overthrowing the Emprah, then Mortarion might get a shot at the top job. So was probably like "Yeah I won't worship Chaos, but I'll follow you anyway!" with Horus. Then again, a flashback with Malcador tells us that Mortarion might've had mental scars just as big as Curze's and Angron's, between the jailkeeper relationship with his adoptive dad, wanting to kill said foster parent, failing and watching his real dad kill said evil dad and finally finding out that his real dad was also a psyker (basically everything that Mortarion hated).

If he was telling Jaghatai the truth, in Horus he saw a leader who could give the strong freedom to dominate the galaxy, driving out the weak and impure. At the same time, Horus might not keep the throne once he got it; there would be "room to rise" when the war was over. Specific, room for him to take Horus's place.

However, that wasn't as easy as he thought, especially when he saw just how many despised psykers, witches, and sorcerers were running around all over the place. As a last-ditch attempt to change the balance, he tried to recruit Jaghatai Khan on Prospero, using the Warrior Lodges to subvert the White Scars. Being an architect of the Librarius and a generally cool guy, the Khan told Mortarion he was an idiot and went to town on the Death Lord. Mortarion gave Jaghatai the fight of his life, but eventually ran away to take his butthurt out on the rest of the Prosperine system, all the while brooding over the Khan's taunts. He'd thrown his lot in with the thing he hated the most and now that he'd run out of allies, it was going to claim him. Scars kinda retcons the start of Mortarion's descent here- the Khan thinks that Mortarion's "power" has grown (probably psychically) and that the guy's face looks discoloured around his rebreather. Despite this, he still insisted on claiming he was the only "pure" Primarch.

Just after getting into that scrap with the Khan, he travelled to a library world that once belonged to the Thousand Sons and set about purging it to find a particular person possessed by a daemon. This would prove a turning point, as he kept the daemon in order to extract knowledge on how to defeat daemons, but ended up getting goaded into using sorcerous powers to blast the creature into a mushy pulp and declaring that he would learn all he could about his enemy in order to learn how to better eradicate it. Which the daemon had forseen as the beginning of Mortarion's descent into Nurgle's Pocket. The retcon continues here, as Mortarion's claims to "purity" are mocked to his face and we're told that a Chaos God has already staked a claim on him. It's also pretty clear that Mortarion's close to going nuts even before this push, as his quarters are littered with Scientific Anti-Warp Devices (AKA shit tons of charms, incantations and numerical codes which do hurt Daemons... once he starts using the Warp). Oh yeah, and he makes speeches about how destroying worlds is good for the soul.

Following this he went on a psychic binge on Molech, using the daemon prince who his old captain Ignatius Grulgor had become to wipe out entire cities. However, he also took a blast from a Stormhammer cannon in the face, stayed on his feet, and destroyed the Goddamn superheavy tank.

Apparently the tank shell was loaded with the rare substance known as "common sense" (and admittedly with his regular author back) so Mortarion retreated from the Warp again, smashing up his trinkets, locking Grulgor away, banning sorcery again (although that only applied to his own Legion and he was more lenient on his allies) and generally treating the whole thing as some kind of lost weekend. His paranoia only got worse when First Captain Typhon disappeared, and then Horus assigned him the task of destroying the White Scars. Mortarion was so suspicious that he accused Horus of trying to get him killed, not appreciating that he was the only one Horus could trust to Get Shit Done in this scenario until Horus explained that the other Primarchs had fucked off, were uncontrollable, disillusioned, not really fans in the first place or were too busy pursuing personal vendettas.

To that end Mortarion worked alongside Eidolon of the Emperor's Children, and despite Eidolon being a glory-whore who was all for using Chaos to modify himself wherever he could while also employing sorcerers (while Mortarion's the polar opposite), the two got along really well (mostly because Mortarion made it clear Eidolon was working with him and not for him). Surprisingly Mortarion arguably treated Eidolon better than Eidolon's own Primarch, given how Mortarion was supportive and didn't cut Eidolon's head off. The mission would have gone swimmingly, if the Scars' head psyker hadn't opened up a Webway gate. Still, Mortarion was able to break open the Khan's flagship and teleported aboard with three hundred Terminators... only to find the ship empty, with the Khan and co evacuated to another ship (admittedly Jaghatai hated doing it, feeling like he was a coward for running away). Next thing he knew, the shields came back and his force was zerg rushed by the last of the Sagyar Mazan death squads formed from disgraced(attempted to usurp the Khan) White Scars. So he watched as his nemesis escaped and the warriors he'd once hoped would force the Khan to join them redeemed themselves by delaying him. And best of all? They were laughing.

And all the while, all his ships were getting grimier and the mortals were getting sicker...

Eventually he'd use Eidolon's sorcerers to locate Typhon, his first captain would kill his navigators, claiming they were secretly loyalists, and then he'd convince Mortarion that he could take them to Terra. Why Mortarion trusted a hidden Psyker who revealed himself as his first captain after butchering the navigators who served him quite well isn't fully known yet since those books haven't been written (hopefully there's a plausible explanation). When his big ol' fleet was pimping their way to Terra, they were caught in a Warp Storm, where they had to suffer diseases which would kill anyone else. The Death Guard's legendary endurance turned against them, holding them just on the edge of death, suffering so hard that it makes a Dark Eldar torture feel like massage (no, really). Well, what would be the best way to stop the disease? Start the worship of the God of the Diseases, of course! To be fair, Typhon was already doing that- in fact, he was the one who arranged them to be caught in the warp storm in the first place. Nurgle was pleased as the Death Guard swore loyalty to him, and he ended their suffering (but made them walking sacks of meat that simply won't die, our beloved Plague Marines). Mortarion instead became... actually he didn't change all that much. Seriously, aside from getting a scabby face he looks nearly identical to how he used to be.

This act of "swearing loyalty" takes on a different context when you realize that Mortarion utterly despised the Ruinous Powers (even if he may have been getting some assistance from them towards the end of the Heresy, if the events of Scars are to be believed) and only submitted to Nurgle because he physically couldn't suffer any longer or watch his sons do the same. Certain fluff sources literally state that as Mortarion lay in agony he pictured himself once again defeated atop his daemon-father's lair, too weak to fight on in the face of certain death, only this time he knew the Emperor wasn't going to save him from his fate (when you consider the importance he placed on strength and the refusal to surrender, this becomes an even bigger nightmare). And so, after a lifetime of striving to become the most grim, unstoppable motherfucker in the galaxy he crumbled when the stakes were highest, and lost his soul to Chaos, becoming everything he hated most. Grimdark.

Post Heresy

Seriously, Morty was playing Ol'Grimmy before the Nightbringer was ever thought up! So much for originality GW.

After Horus got his ass kicked, Mortarion made epic formations, and marched his ships (yes, marched them!) to the Eye of Terror; as a reward for his service and his ability to keep his Legion from disintegrating on the way to the Eye, Nurgle made Mortarion a Daemon Prince and gave him a nice new home, known as the Plague Planet, which they started decorating and uhh... "cleaning". Yes, seriously. Mortarion changed the Plague Planet to resemble Barbarus which caused Typhon (now Typhus) to abandon him in disgust of the sentimentality (not to mention he was more interested in getting shit done). Nurgle on the other hand, likes good gardeners and wholly approved of the whole venture. Though Mortarion was somewhat displeased with Typhus' insubordination, he allowed Typhus to leave rather than trying to control his former Captain as the Emperor sought to control him.

Surprisingly, his appearance barely changed from how he used to be, and if you ignored the wings (and the immortality) you could be forgiven for thinking he wasn't a Daemon Prince at all. He even stayed about the same size as before (at least until GW released a new model that makes him as big as Magnus). Very different to Nearly every other Daemon Prince in the setting.

Incidentally, did we mention that he built his fortress atop the high mountains shrouded in toxic miasma and rules over billions of slaves? You know, exactly like the Overlord of Barbarus all those millennia ago?

Ever since getting the Plague Planet Mortarion hasn't done all that much (though he's far from being the laziest Primarch in the setting). The whole enslavement and broken-by-plague thing has probably hurt Mortarion's motivation a little bit, whereas Fulgrim, Angron and Magnus all get to have some fun with their Chaos abilities, Mortarion is just stuck in a mess of self-hatred. He's basically ended up like his adoptive father, punishing all his subjects for being too weak to rebel against him - by proxy, punishing himself for his own weakness. In those moments he was not completely consumed with self-loathing, though, he got creative and designed toys for his sons to play with like the Plagueburst Crawler.

To his credit, he did make himself useful in the Fall of Sanctia in 437.M36 by sending an army of diseased Orks to soften the planet up, then made their corpses explode into a massive horde of Nurglings when he and the Death Guard landed, wiping out all life in less than a day. It's also emerged that he helped Typhus concoct the Plague of Unbelief, which helped raise the curtain on Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade. More recently, he led the Death Guard's invasion of Ultramar to kick off the Plague Wars.

Apparently at some point in time after his ascension he spent a millennium tracking down the soul of his foster "father", which he now keeps in a jar to torture when he's in a bad mood. Better late than never, right?

The Draigo Incident

Tl;dr: he got his ass handed to him by Kaldor Draigo who carved the name of the previous SUPREME GRAND MASTER, Geronitan, into one of Mortarion's hearts.

The longer story, as told by the Audio Drama Mortarion's Heart: Geronitan more or less baited Mortarion and allowed whole sectors to die under the Primarch's massive force (every Nurgle cult and warband within 100 sectors) until he showed up at Kornovin, which was one of the few places the Grey Knights could perform the ritual to bind his soul and kill him for good. It failed due to the fact that Geronitan forgot to wear a helmet so Mortarion just Plague Winded him to death and laughed as the entire Grey Knights Chapter cried (yes this happened.)

Afterwards, Kaldor got elected, mostly because he's the most expendable Grand Master who's also skilled enough to fight the Death Lord. Grand Master Crom gave Kaldor a potent weapon, the true name The Emperor gave to Mortarion.

After a laughably short and one sided fight, which was really just Mortarion punching Kaldor in the face over and over again, Kaldor was able to light Mortarion's cape on fire when Mortarion eventually got a hand cramp. Mortarion paused for a second because that was his VERY favorite cape and became distracted enough to allow Kaldor to slip Mortarion's true name into the Death Lord's mind, which caused him to FUCKING EXPLODE somehow, regardless of the fact that in every other instance of true names ever the worst that can happen is your combat stats getting halved. Though it might be because in this case the name itself originated from the Emperor, and anything that has to do with the Big-E will mess up anything Daemonic big time. Kaldor then crawled over to a helpless, nearly broken in half Mortarion and wrote Geronitan's name on Mortarion's heart in magic marker.

He is still incredibly bitter about his loss. More so than usual, anyway.

Plastic Model

After Magnus the Red got a Daemon Primarch model, rumor was that either Mort or Angron would receive one next. In of early 2017, an image of Daemon Mortarion started floating around the internet. New video on Warhammer tv. His model is confirmed, as well as plastic plague marines. He came out in force to help the first ever Death Guard codex as the third 40k Primarch release.

The Plague Wars

Mortarion was sulking in a pile of slime as usual when the winds of the Warp whispered that his brother Roboute Guilliman had finally been pulled off life-support and took the position of Lord-Commander of the Imperium. Morty was not pleased that Rowboat got a second chance at life while he remained in Grandpa Nugle's clutches, so the Death Lord decided to finally get off his ass and start acting like a Daemon Primarch for once!

He brought the Death Guard to real space after Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade succeeded in expanding the Eye of Terror (and nothing else). Magnus failed to kill Guilliman when he had the chance so, prepared to get shit done, Morty Boy planned out a massive campaign called the Plague Wars to meticulously rot and plague every single planet in Ultramar. He released many different plagues, including several variations of Typhus' Zombie Plague: Shoot the zombies and you only make it worse since they explode into a swarm of full-grown Nurglings. For a guy who spent 10,000 years sitting on his ass and getting beat up by Mary Sues, he proved surprisingly effective at penetrating deep into Ultramar before Gorillaman was able to halt his advance. Nurgle's little scythe boy managed to carve out 3 whole star systems for the Death Guard to use as their base of operations in real space: The Scourge Stars.

Alas, Mortarion's big Ultramar come-back tour was bound to end eventually. Guilliman's waifu Yvraine headed into the Warp and retrieved an eldar artifact called the Rose of Isha, which let the Ynnari take back the Hand of Darkness and slow the spread of the Death Guard's plagues, leading to the Ultrasmurfs pushing the rotting bastards back. Mortarion and Guilliman clashed personally on the hospital world of Iax. Unlike his duel with Magnus, Robby G didn't have the Adeptus Custodes or Sisters of Silence backing him up, so the two were at a complete stalemate, Mortarion's strength and resilience vs. Guilliman's tactical genius. The Death Guard eventually had to retreat, as Khorne and Tzeentch had grown jealous of Nurgle's fledgling empire and were sending forces to take it for themselves while the Death Guard was away.

• Nurgle: I'm so proud of my little plague bringer, he's finally giving my love to the galaxy like I always wanted! *sluuuuurp*

Also at one point after the Great Rift appeared to fuck shit up, Perturabo led the Iron Warriors to attack a temple planet. However, the Death Guard had the same idea too and were attacking. What's more was that they were led by Mortarion. As to be expected the two Primarchs had a grand old family reunion (a big fight resulting in heavy losses on both sides with Titans being destroyed). The duel lasted for seven hours but Mortarion managed to beat Perturabo and drive him off. Being the salty Primarch he is, Perturabo detonated a series of explosives before he left.

During a talk with one of his non-Barbarus Chaos Lords (oh how accepting he has become, it seems Nurgle is rubbing off on him) Mortarion states that he has no desire to go back to Terra or wreck havoc on the Imperium on such a scale as the Heresy. He said that the damage inflicted on Terra was beyond horrific and would never heal (considering just how downtrodden the Imperium is he is definitely right) and he also states that his fellow Brother-Primarchs ARE RETURNING TO REALSPACE! (Holy Shit, Mortarion vs Khan ROUND 2!)

Tabletop

Heresy

Here's his mini teaching all of us how to properly wield a scythe.

	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Mortarion:	7	5	6	7	7	5	5	10	2+/4++

Mortarion is a tough oponent : with the Primarch rule, T/W 7, flat dice wounds like poisoned and fleshbane wound on 6's, rerollable IWND and Toughness tests, 2+ armor save and a 4+ invulnerable save, he's basically a Gargantuan Creature for all intents and purposes. He negates Maledictions affecting him or his unit on a 4+, (which isn't a Deny the Witch, so Adamantium Will doesn't help and you get his 5+ DtW after, though it works out to being exactly the same as nullifying them on a 3+ anyway), Death Guard gain Stubborn and Poisoned (4+) on all frag grenades and missiles which is pretty sickening. For weapons he has the Lantern pistol which is almost a pistol meltagun, phosfex bombs (an unlimited supply of them, and he can throw them at double the range!), frag grenades and Silence, a S7 AP 2 no longer unwieldy power scythe with sweep attacks that causes Instant Death and reroll failed penetration rolls. Great for getting rid of that annoying Praetor or captain. Notably, he's also one of the only characters in fiction who knows how the hell you're supposed to hold a scythe! Take that, Poldark!

they also gave him the Shadow Of The Reaper rule. It makes enemy units take a fear check at -1 leadership. By itself in normal 40k rules, it's situationally great, making it pretty mediocre on the whole, but in the pre-ATSKNF 30k setting, it's much more useful. But much more importantly, it gives him a special move in the shooting phase: if Mortarion isn't locked in combat or embarked and doesn't shoot or run, he can take a leadership test and teleport 10 inches away from his current position. It does not count as moving, does not scatter, and does not prevent him from charging (But he does count as making a disordered charge. Not that big of a problem, seriously). There are some other caveats, but he effectively has a minimum 18" charge range without factoring in his base size, and he is fleet to boot. Because he's fucking terrifying.

Mortarion is among the top 3 best Primarchs for his points, as SotR lets him reach combat by turn 2 unless you fail your Ld test. Furthermore, Stubborn is an absolute game-changer in 30k, as it drastically reduces your odds of breaking in Assault and Poisoned allows you to functionally ignore certain legions Toughness shenanigans (and it makes it easier to hurt Mechanicus). He doesn't really need a transport or retinue, giving you more points to put towards dakka, and provided you're smart enough to avoid concentrated AP2 you're very likely to see the end of the game. He can't fight Land Raiders, but with 5 S7 Sunder attacks you shouldn't underestimate his ability to fuck up Dreadnoughts. Ultimately, his biggest strength is that unlike Angron or Vulkan he is an effective force multiplier who gives a lot to his army while needing almost no support in return.

His model is equally as badass as his rules, if you can get past the fact that he doesn't have a rebreather (it's a part of his armor's chest piece now, which still begs the question, why not just give him a rebreather and shut fa/tg/uys up on the subject?). Although the designer probably thought that he didn't really need to breathe, and he's probably immune to anything poisonous anyway (on Prospero the Khan had to go in totally suited up, whereas the Death Lord just strolled in dressed just the same as normal, and Girlyman established that Primarchs can breathe in an incredibly thin atmosphere - he can apparently fight in near-vacuum for hours on end without a helmet, because fuck physics). (Even in-universe, Guilliman's ability to fight in the void without a helmet and little oxygen has Imperial scholars going "WTF?")

40k

This is Mortarion's stat line in 40k:

Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv	Power
Mortarion	*	2+	2+	8	7	18	*	10	3+/4++/5+++	24

His movement/attacks are based on his wounds remaining.

Wounds	Move	Attacks	Host of Plagues
9-18	12"	6	4+
5-8	10"	5	5+
1-4	8"	4	6+

Toxic Presence: Enemy models with 7" must subtract 1 from their Toughness characteristic.

Host of Plagues: Depending on Morty's remaining wounds, roll a die for each enemy unit within 7"; on a success, the unit takes D3 mortal wounds.

So what do we get? With 18 wounds, a 4++ save, and Grandaddy's trademark Disgustingly Resilient rule, he will prove quite hard to bring down, and his survivability can be boosted further with Nurgle's stratagems. He has the best (at the moment) anti-horde weapon in the game, his huge scythe Silence. It can dish out Ax3 (18 base!!!) S:U AP:-2 D1 Plague Weapon attacks per phase of combat (and incidentally, his WT lets him and everyone near him using a Plague Weapon reroll all failed to wound rolls), which will annihilate tarpits like there's no tomorrow. To deal with anything requiring more killing, Silence has a second profile being S:x2 AP:-4 D:1d6 Plague Weapon. His 'command aura' affects every enemy unit standing within 7" of him, giving them -1 toughness and they will receive 1d3 mortal wounds on a roll of 4+ (scaling down as he takes wounds, alas). He still carries his old Lantern pistol that can cause quite a bit of damage to lined units for it hits automatically every unit in a straight line between him and the one he aims for, but only once per shot. He still carries his phosphex bombs that deal 2D6 S5 AP-1 hits (They're not Plague Weapons, though), and he can perform a bunch of weaker attacks on top of his normal ones thanks to his retinue of Nurgling helpers. Cherry on top, he's now a psyker. (Yeah, the very thing he hated back in the days but, hush. No more tears, only Nurgle's happiness now!) He knows 3 powers from the Contagion discipline, he's able to cast two and deny three every turn. All this is in addition to the fact that he is the fastest piece in the army, moving 12" with FLY. And as ultimate finger flip, if he does somehow go down he explodes like a vehicle for a few parting mortal wounds. All in all a really, REALLY strong big daddy.

Unlike Magnus, Mortarion's command aura doesn't boost his sons but weaken his enemies so there's no reason whatsoever to hold him back. Do note however that while he's tanky he's far from invulnerable and always keep in mind that he is a massive fire magnet. Just like in 30k, you'll need supporting units and a plan to get the most of ole Morty. Deathshroud Terminators are a shoe-in for that role, of course, especially if Mortarion buffs them up first.

Mortarion VS other Primarchs:

Primarch fighting, while fun to see isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying (especially with Mortarion who can mathematically always go the entire game in a Primarch duel), with that in mind this section is how Mortarion fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities, with the exception of Blind, are taken into account (Blind is ignored because it never changes the outcome of the fights, the winner is still the winner with or without it) and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses.

• Mortarion VS Horus
  • Horus will use Worldbreaker (as wounding on 2's is better than re-rolling to wound) and hits 3.999 times, wounds 3.332 times, 1.666 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.111 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222.
  • Mortarion loses this fight.

• Mortarion VS Angron
  • Round 1: Angron has Hatred, so on the first turn he will instead hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.777 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.222.
  • Round 2: Angron hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 1.333 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion just barely loses this fight by one turn as his extra wound almost allows him to outlast Angron.

• Mortarion VS Fulgrim
  • Fulgrim hits 5.333 times, wounds 2.666 times (Fireblade)/1.777 times (Laer Blade), 1.333 times (Fireblade)/0.888 times (Laer Blade) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778/0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222.
  • Mortarion loses this fight either by a little or a lot depending on whether or not Fulgrim has Fireblade or not.

• Mortarion VS Ferrus
  • Ferrus with Forgebreaker: hits 2 times and 0.5 with his servo arm, wounds 1.666 times with Forgebreaker and 0.333 with his Servo-Arm (1.999 total), 0.999 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.444 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus with Bare Hands: hits 2 times and 0.5 with his servo arm, wounds 1 time with his hands and 0.333 with his Servo-Arm (1.333 total), 0.666 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.111 times at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.25 times, 0.416 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.083.
  • Even though Mortarion is tough in the end Ferrus wins pretty easily thanks to his superior save and damage.

• Mortarion VS Konrad Curze
  • Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.221 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
  • Mortarion wins as even though he does less damage he'll outlast Curze.

• Mortarion VS Vulkan
  • Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.278 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.25 times, 0.415 wounds after saves and 0 wounds after IWND.
  • Mortarion loses as mathematically he's incapable of harming Vulkan.

• Mortarion VS Lorgar
  • Lorgar hits Mortarion 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.278 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Round 1: Mortarion hits 2.961 times, wounds 1.752 times, 0.876 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.543 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Round 2: Mortarion hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Even with forcing Mortarion to re-roll 5's and 6's for the first round Mortarion still beats Lorgar. He also loses to invisible Lorgar Transfigured just like every other Primarch (mathematically he causes 0 wounds to him).

• Mortarion VS Perturabo
  • Perturabo hits 2.666 times (both types), wounds 1.333 times (Normal)/2.221 times (Forgebreaker), 0.666 wounds (Normal)/1.11 wounds (Forgebreaker) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.111/0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and 0.222 wounds after IWND.
  • Mortarion wins but only if Perturabo doesn't bring Forgebreaker.

• Mortarion VS Alpharius
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.568 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.0124 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
  • Mortarion wins

• Mortarion VS Rogal Dorn
  • Dorn hits 2.666 times (Normal)/1.333 times (Sundering Blow), wounds 1.48 times (normal)/1.183 times (Sundering Blow), 0.74/0.59 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185/0.035 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
  • Mortarion wins in 12 turns as Dorn does a lot less damage in return.

• Mortarion VS Corvus Corax
  • Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 2.221 times (Scourge)/1.666 times (Shadow-walk), 1.11 wounds (Scourge)/0.833 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.556/0.278 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5/1.666 times, wounds 1.666/1.11 times, 1.11/0.74 wounds after saves and 0.777/0.407 wounds after IWND.
  • Mortarion wins either way in this fight, he causes more overall damage, has more wounds, and regenerates faster. In addition even if Corax runs away Mortarion's ability to teleport will mean he'd catch Corax very quickly after he re-appears so he cannot run away to heal which would render this a stalemate.
  • Note: Corax could attempt to "cheat" his way to victory thanks to his special rules, especially Sire of the Raven Guard (which grants him Super-Furious Charge) and Hit & Run. With this he could disengage at the end of Mortarion's assault phase, in order to charge him again during his turn. Using this tactic he would Shoot with his pistols for 1.9444 hits, 0.648 wounds, 0.108 wounds after saves, then charge in with Hammer of Wrath gaining 0.333 wounds, and 0.0555 wounds after saves, then attack with the Panoply which hits 4.5 times (scourge), wounds 3.375 times, 1.6875 after saves and 1.132 with IWND for a total of 1.296 Wounds. This, combined with Shadow-walk during Mortarion's assault phase in order to mitigate his retaliation barely lets Corax win if he goes charging scourge in round 7, then scourge again in round 8 as he strikes before Mortarion, compared to 8 rounds needed for Mortarion to kill Corvus (this is including Overwatch with The Lantern).
  • Though this looks like a close fight at first glance, this tactic relies completely on Hit and Run (which is more akin to Corvus's fighting style), as well as assumes the Charging always works out in Corvus's favour and so the strategy will mathematically fail over the eight rounds needed to kill Mortarion (as there's mathematically one turn that either Hit and Run or Charging will fail when Mortarion consolidates away from Corvus's consolidation) giving the victory to Mortarion again. But that's actually the same chance of Corax Blinding Mortarion (Not included in the fights), so the odds are still the same.

• Mortarion VS Roboute Guilliman
  • Round 1: Guilliman hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times (With Hand of Dominion), 1.042 after saves, and IWND take it down to 0.486.
  • Round 2 and after: Guilliman hits 3.333 times (Thanks to Preternatura Strategy), wounds 2.777 times, 1.388 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.833.
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666, 0,833 after saves, 0.417 wounds after Armor of Reason, and after IWND they become 0.083 wounds.
  • Guilliman wins in 8 turns as Mortarion's damage is almost irrelevant.

• Mortation vs. Leman Russ
  • Mortarion: Hits 1.66 times, wounds 1.1 times, Leman's invul save brings it down to 0.55 and IWND brings it down to .363
  • Leman Hits 4 times, wounds 2.64 times (with his Axe), Invul save brings it down to 1.32 and IWND brings it down to .8712.
  • Not even a contest, as usual with the Space Wolves Primarch. It will take Leman just over 8 rounds to drop Mortation (8.03 to be precise) while it will take Mortation over 16 rounds to kill Leman, so even without the Sword (and Sever Life) Mortation is a goner. Leman is the executioner Primarch, so all the Primarch lose to him.

• TLDR version: Mortarion's good against Konrad Curze, Vanilla Lorgar, Hammerless Perturabo, Alpharius, Rogal Dorn, Corvus Corax and bad against Horus, Angron, Fulgrim, Ferrus, Lorgar Transfigured, Vulkan, Perturabo with Hammer and Guilliman, putting him quite in the middle of the road for Primarch duelling.

• Dirty Trick: Use Morturg and put Endurance on Mortarion, if you do this Mortarion can beat everyone (including Lorgar Transfigured) except Horus, Fulgrim (with Fireblade) and Vulkan as his damage output will exceed theirs or his extra wound will allow him to outlast them and/or they will be unable to hurt him at all mathematically. The reason Horus Vulkan and Fulgrim still win is because Mortarion will eventually be unable to hurt Horus thanks to Disabling Strike, Fulgrim just causes too much damage (and some of his attacks ignore FnP) and Vulkan's Instant Death hammer ignores FnP.

Gallery

• Seriously badass.

  Seriously badass.

• 

  "Not just yet. When Terra is ashes... then you have my permission to die."

• 

  Cool model from what we've seen so far

• 

  The Rotten Angel Cometh.

• 

  The official model of Morty, with no Slaaneshi colours, unlike the leaked model.

The Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions
Loyalist Corvus Corax - Ferrus Manus - Jaghatai Khan Leman Russ - Lion El'Jonson - Roboute Guilliman Rogal Dorn - Sanguinius - Vulkan
Traitor Alpharius/Omegon - Angron - Fulgrim Horus - Konrad Curze/Night Haunter - Lorgar Magnus the Red - Mortarion - Perturabo