Dusk Raiders

"We are the voice and the clarion call; We are tyrant's ruin and rival's fall."

- Battle Mantra of the Dusk Raiders

The Dusk Raiders were the XIV Space Marine Legion raised by the Emperor of Mankind on Terra at the dawn of the Great Crusade in the 31st Millennium. After the Emperor discovered the Primarch Mortarion on the poisonous world of Barbarus, and gave him command of the Dusk Raiders, Mortarion changed the name of the Legion to the Death Guard after the name of the military force he had raised on his homeworld of Barbarus to overthrow the rule of that Feral World's necromantic warlords.

Legion History
Prior to the Emperor's discovery of the XIV Space Marine Legion's Primarch, Mortarion, the Death Guard were known as the Dusk Raiders Legion. Their signature strategy had been to attack their foes at nightfall, thus earning them this moniker. The Dusk Raiders' Power Armour was a dull white in colour while their right arm and both shoulder plates were painted crimson. This was done with the intent to symbolically show their enemies what they truly were - the Emperor's red right hand, relentless and unstoppable. Many enemies would throw down their weapons the moment the sun dipped beneath the horizon, rather than dare to fight them.

When Mortarion was discovered by the Emperor upon the troubled Feral World of Barbarus, he was swiftly given control of the Legion whose Space Marines had been created from his genetic material and he began to enlarge the Legion's ranks with men taken from the population of Barbarus. Upon first seeing them he told them: "You are my unbroken blades. You are the Death Guard." The Legion's name was then changed in accordance with this decree, and Mortarion's words were engraved above the airlock door of the Battle Barge Reaper's Scythe in honour of that moment. The XIV Legion's Astartes had been primarily Terran-born before Mortarion joined the Legion; after that time almost all of the Legion's Neophytes were drawn from Barbarus. This changed the culture and traditions of the Legion, such that by the last days of the Great Crusade, there were increasing tensions between the Barbarus-born Astartes and the Terran minority who remained and who remembered the Dusk Raiders' earlier traditions. These tensions became most clear in the period directly preceding the first battle of the Horus Heresy at Istvaan III, when approximately one-third of the Legion was judged by Mortarion to be likely to remain loyal to the Emperor when the Legion joined the Warmaster Horus in his rebellion against the Imperium. Many of these Loyalist Death Guard Astartes were Terran-born former Dusk Raiders like Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro of the 7th Great Company whose loyalty to the Emperor outweighed their devotion to their Primarch.

Legion Colours
The Dusk Raiders Legiones Astartes base pattern Power Armour was an unpainted storm grey. The entire right vambraces, gauntlets and shoulder plates (sometimes both) were painted the deep crimson of drying blood, which signified the XIV Legion's status as the "red right hand" of the Emperor's justice.

Legion Badge
A black skull, halved, with a setting black sun on the other side, centered on a field of deep crimson. This symbolised their given epithet of "Dusk Raiders," a consequence of their use of the ancient tactic of conducting major ground attacks at the fall of night. For once the die was cast for destruction and the Dusk Raiders were unleashed upon their foes, nothing would stay the Legion's hand.