Horus Hearsay #54 – The Buried Dagger in My Heart

I thought I’d be so excited to write this post. I finished the Horus Heresy! It’s time to celebrate, right? Instead, I feel tears bubbling up. I’ve been writing about the Horus Heresy since 2019. Since before the pandemic. Even when I took my breaks from the series, the Horus Heresy was still a big part of my life. I’m really sad that it’s over, and the fact that it ended with one of the best books of the entire series, The Buried Dagger by James Swallow, did not help.

I had no idea how they could have wrapped up this series. The last few books have led up to everything before the Siege of Terra, but how does THIS particular saga end? I honestly had no idea that the final piece to lock into place would be Mortarion’s commitment to Nurgle. It makes sense, because he hadn’t turned himself over to chaos yet, and to be frank, I was immensely curious how the champion of Nikaea could align with daemons. It literally goes against everything he stood for his entire life. Well, now I know.

Oh geez. I’m already getting verklempt.

How Did Mr. Anti-Magic Turn to Chaos?

I was never a fan of Mortarion, and that was mainly because the Death Guard is gross. Only two books have ever made me rethink the Death Guard, and those were Lords of Silence and Plague War. Both books touched a little into what Mortarion actually wanted out of his life and how he was the savior of Barbarus. But dude, you aligned with the grossest of the gross chaos lords and you might have been one of the reasons why Magnus fell as hard as he did.

And then I learned he’s a victim of child abuse. That always socks me hard in the feels. It’s why I sympathize with Lorgar as much as I do. But unlike Lorgar, Mortarion’s foster father never even pretended to care about him. I now fully understand why Mortarion has his foster father’s soul in a jar on his flagship. That’s the bare minimum of what that bastion of evil deserved.

So his foster father abused him. His real father forced him to trade one tyrant for another after stealing his final victory from him. The final nail in the coffin was his best friend, Calas Typhon, who tricked him and betrayed him into pledging fealty to yet another tyrant: Nurgle. As Mortarion failed to kill the High Overlord of Barbarus, he lamented that he failed his people. When he realized he had to pledge to Nurgle, he cried again that he failed his sons.

I cried, IN PUBLIC, during my morning workout as Typhon (now Typhus) pressed this choice against him.

I can’t believe it, but I’m SYMPATHIZING with Mortarion and the Death Guard. Of all of the Traitor Legions, I empathize with the grossest of the gross. I wish I had read this book before reading the Dark Imperium trilogy. So many of Mortarion’s interactions with Typhus and even Roboute have new significance. I’m going to have to read the Mortarion primarch novel now.

The End of Mortarion, the Beginning of the Grey Knights

If you haven’t read this book, I’m not going to spoil anything here. I was incredibly surprised at how Garro and Loken’s stories ended. They’ve been working with Malcador this entire time as part of the Knights Errant, which I knew would become the Grey Knights. The second half of The Buried Dagger featured the end of the Knights Errant, their final missions, and what would happen to them next.

I did not see the ending coming. Malcador is the embodiment of “the end justifies the means.” Aaaaand that’s all I will say.

And with that, my journey with the Horus Heresy comes to a close. Thank you all who have kept reading these along the way. I also must give a shoutout to Jonathan Keeble and Gareth Armstrong, who provided most of the narration via audiobooks. Jonathan Keeble was the mainstay, and his voices were so incredible, I could pick out Malcador before the character was officially introduced as the speaker. That is, by the way, how Malcador will sound, same with Roboute Guilliman, Konrad Kurze, and Rogal Dorn.

I suppose it’s on to Siege of Terra next.

Fifty-four books down, zero to go.

Horus Hearsay is dedicated to Keri’s journey through the Horus Heresy saga. The chronicling of the Horus Heresy began over ten years ago, with currently 54 books in total, not counting The Primarchs series or the various short stories outside of the official anthologies. Horus Hearsay will only cover the main novels.