Death's Heads
From Lexicanum
Legio Mortis (Death's Heads) are a Traitor Titan Legion, now residing within the Eye of Terror. The Legion was one of several Titan Legions serving under Warmaster Horus during the Great Crusade, as part of the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet. Under Horus it fought in over a hundred campaigns of the Crusade.
The legion was corrupted by the powers of Chaos which enveloped the rebel forces under Horus, and most of the Death's Heads fell towards the vile decay of Nurgle, ironically that same entity which had so disgusted the Titan crews fighting against the hordes of Plague Bearers on the moon of Davin before Horus fell.
Legio Mortis is the most notorious of the traitor Titan Legions. The Legio directly supported Horus before his daemon-possessed treachery against the Emperor. The Legio followed him willingly. When the Horus Heresy began with the virus-bombing of Isstvan III, it was the Legio Mortis which made the landings to scour the corpse-packed hives for the last survivors.
On Mars, the Legio Mortis forces supported the traitor Fabricator General Kelbor-Hal, and were the first titan legion to walk in support of Horus. These contingents of Legio Mortis, however, were all but destroyed by Legio Tempestus, save for the Hellstorm Cannon of the Imperator Aquila Ignis.
Some say that it was mutated strains of the Life-Eater Virus that was unleashed upon Isstvan III that brought about the final corruption of the Legio. When the Legio Mortis landed on Earth to besiege the Emperor's palace they were warped and mutated almost beyond recognition. The adamantium skins of their Titans were pocked and bubbled with foul effluvia, great tentacles of flesh and metal lashed and their titan heads had been transformed into the visages of daemons.
The Legion breached the walls of the Imperial Palace during the siege. The Death's Heads also fought on Paramar and Tallarn.
The remnants of the Legion fled to the Eye of Terror following the collapse of the rebellion, and from time to time, Chaos Titans bearing the tattered banners of the Legio Mortis have attacked human planets to wreak terrible vengeance on all living things for the defeat of their beloved Warmaster.
Notable Titans
Notable Titans included the Imperator Dies Irae, which was present during all of the major ground assaults towards the end of the Crusade and the beginning of the Horus Heresy, and Imperator Aquila Ignis, which was present on Mars during the schism and the creation of the Dark Mechanicum.
Sources
- 1 Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
- 2 False Gods by Graham McNeill
- 3 Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter
