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1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
Known across the Imperium as the Pale Harvestmen, the Scythes of Nurgle and the Eyes of Mortarion, the Deathshroud are the hand-picked Terminator bodyguards and silent emissaries of the Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard. Their order dates back to the Great Crusade, when Mortarion personally selected individual XIV Legion battle-brothers who had shown extraordinary grit and endurance — often the sole survivor left standing after the rest of their squad had perished. Upon induction, a recruit was officially recorded on the Legion rolls as killed in action, swore an unbreakable vow of silence, and never again removed his helmet in life or in death, so that his true identity was known only to Mortarion himself.
Throughout the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, it was the sacred law of the Deathshroud that at least two of their number never strayed more than forty-nine paces from their Primarch's side — even when Mortarion himself slew all seven of his attending Deathshroud with a single sweep of his scythe Silence aboard the flagship Endurance before Molech to birth the daemon-host of Ignatius Grulgor, only to raise the order anew.
Ten millennia later, swollen with the foul blessings of Nurgle, the Deathshroud still guard their gene-sire in silence, speaking only in a rattling hiss when relaying Mortarion's own words. When dispatched to serve as an honour guard for a Death Guard Lord or Plague Champion, their presence is a double-edged gift: they fight with superhuman lethality at the commander's side, yet if he fails in his duties, the Deathshroud execute Mortarion's judgement on the spot.
Appearance & wargear
Towering and barrel-chested inside ancient, corroded Cataphractii-pattern Terminator Armour split open by bloated flesh, curling horns and squirming tentacles, the Deathshroud are wreathed in a permanent blizzard of fat black plague flies and noxious smog spilling from their dorsal chimneys. Their faces are forever hidden behind rusted visors, rebreather masks and cowled hoods. In their gauntleted hands each warrior wields a massive, filth-encrusted Power Scythe known as a Manreaper — modelled on Mortarion's own weapon — while their wrists mount Alchem Casters or Plaguespurt Gauntlets that hose enemies with infectious, armour-dissolving slime.
Weapons & Vehicles
The colossal, rust-pitted two-handed battle scythe of Daemon Primarch Mortarion, forged on Barbarus and steeped in the soul-rotting pla…
The corroded, pus-dripping combat blades of the Death Guard Plague Marines, so saturated with Nurgle's supernatural contagions that a s…
A volatile liquid-promethium projector that floods bunkers, trenches and xenos swarms in clinging, self-oxidising gouts of cleansing ch…
Chaos Dreadnoughts whose entombed pilots have been driven insane, combining tank-like firepower with psychopathic fury.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Advancing in eerie, wordless silence without uttering a single battle cry or rising to any personal challenge, the Deathshroud form an impenetrable wall of ceramite, rusted iron and whirling scythes around Mortarion or his chosen champions. Despite their massive, distended bulk, they whirl their Manreapers with terrifying speed, decapitating entire ranks of infantry or cleaving through Terminator plate while their Plaguespurt Gauntlets and cloud of daemon-flies blind and choke anyone brave enough to charge them.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary Advancing in eerie, wordless silence without uttering a single battle cry or rising to any personal challenge, the Deathshroud form an impenetrable wall of ceramite, rusted iron and whirling scythes around Mortarion or his chosen champions. Despite their massive, distended bulk, they whirl their Manreapers with terrifying speed, decapitating entire ranks of infantry or cleaving through Terminator plate while their Plaguespurt Gauntlets and cloud of daemon-flies blind and choke anyone brave enough to charge them. asset of Death Guard, Deathshroud Terminators relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.
Notable battles & users
- Veteran Sergeant Khorak — Led his Deathshroud squad at Mortarion's side during the Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre, breaking the spearhead of the Salamanders Legion where flame met chem-cloud.
- Sacrifice aboard the Endurance before Molech — Mortarion reaped all seven of his attending Deathshroud with a single stroke of his scythe Silence inside the flagship's gene-vault to feed the daemon essence of Ignatius Grulgor.
- Battle of Kornovin and Slaunn of the Lords of Silence — Deathshroud bodyguards who marched with Mortarion against the Grey Knights and served as silent arbiters among the Plague Companies.
Related
Characters (4)
Mortarion · Primarch of the Death Guard, the Death Lord
Typhus · Herald of Nurgle, Host of the Destroyer Hive
Fabius Bile · Primogenitor, Clone Lord
Grandfather Nurgle · Chaos God of Disease, Decay and Despair; the Plague Father
