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.
Notable Titans included the 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.
The legion was eventually 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. Some say that it was mutated strains of this virus which brought about their final corruption. 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 Imperial Palace. 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.
Sources
- 1 Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
- 2 False Gods by Graham McNeill
- 3 Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter
Related Articles
- Collegia Titanica
- List of Titan Legions
