---
cover:
tags:
  - 📚Book
  - warhammer40k
title: The Buried Dagger
subtitle: Doom of the Death Guard
author:
  - "[[James Swallow]]"
Hub:
  - "[[📇 Books]]"
  - "[[📇 My books collection]]"
  - "[[📇 Warhammer40k]]"
status: Read
template-version: "1.0"
---

# Information

 54th book in [[The Horus Heresy (Novels)]] by [[James Swallow]]

Précédé par [[📕 Titandeath]] by [[Guy Haley]]
Suivit par [[📕 The Solar War]] by [[John French]], first in the [[Siege of Terra]] Arc
# Summary

> _The Buried Dagger_ is set immediately before the events of the Siege of Terra, and follows the Perspective of the "Death Guard" Legion. The book is divided into three distinct parts, the first is the narration of Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard, about his childhood on Barbarus, a planet with a toxic atmosphere and ruled by tyrannical warlords, and his attempt to liberate its people, culminating with meeting the Emperor, who kills the last Warlord, as Mortarion risks finally succumbing to the poisonous atmosphere. The second part, however, is set prior to the Siege of Terra, and follows Mortarion and the Death Guard slowly succumbing to debilitating diseases as their ships malfunction in a journey through the Warp. It is revealed at the end that Typhus, who Mortarion had known since Barbarus, had sabotaged the systems to become favoured of the Plague God Nurgle. This part of the story ends with a mirror of the first, as Mortarion swears loyalty to Nurgle, before he succumbs to the diseases that would otherwise condemn him to undeath. The third part of the story is largely unrelated to the Death Guard, and follows Garviel Loken and Nathaniel Garro, alongside several other characters, as they form the Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines upon the eve of the Siege of Terra.

Source:: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horus_Heresy#book54
# Notes