Tainted Sons warband colours, as displayed by Excresmus Golch, self-proclaimed "Father of Foulness".
The Tainted Sons are a warband or vectorium of Heretic Astartes of the Death Guard Traitor Legion. One of the most feared vectoriums of the Death Guard, the Tainted Sons earned the favour of Mortarion himself while fighting alongside him during the endless campaigns against the other forces of Chaos within the Eye of Terror. Unleashed at last upon the ailing Imperium, Death Guard Lord Gulgoth the Afflictor and his hideously bloated warriors embody the implacable fortitude and relentless aggression of the XIV Legion, and make use of every available weapon in their ongoing war against the Imperium.
When the Tainted Sons are unleashed on a battlefield, they are a slow but unstoppable force, known as effective trench warriors and line-breakers without compare among the Death Guard. Under the command of Lord Gulgoth, they have earned a reputation for brutality in close combat and display both a terrifying fire discipline and an obsessive desire for efficiency that borders on insanity.
A favoured tactic of the Tainted Sons is to make a single target their priority and engulf it in a merciless hail of fire before choosing another. The Tainted Sons' effectiveness was earned in the countless wars they fought for their Daemon Primarch Mortarion against the forces of the other Chaos Gods in the Eye of Terror, actions which also earned them the favour of the Plague God Nurgle. Once the Tainted Sons emerged from the Eye to wreak havoc, they discovered that Nurgle's blessings were still upon them, for the very ground they walk upon will curdle into churned filth, while unnatural disease-carrying spores and Warp-tainted fumes thicken the air around them. Nothing natural can survive for long in the presence of the Tainted Sons. As the servants of Nurgle close upon them, enemy troops who face the Tainted Sons will find their flesh beginning to rot from their bones as they break out in clusters of buboes. The end comes quickly once the Tainted Sons gurgle their warcry, "All will rot!"
Warband Appearance[]
Warband Colours[]
The Tainted Sons' power armour is the same as that of the Death Guard, composed of decayed and cracked plates of ceramite discoloured in sickly greens and browns. Tainted Sons Chaos Space Marines, like those of the Death Guard, often wear grotesquely warped suits of antique Mark III Iron Power Armour.
Warband Badge[]
The Tainted Sons' warband badge is usually a modified version of the standard Mark of Nurgle, similar to that used by the rest of the Death Guard.
Sources[]
- Codex Heretic Astartes - Death Guard (8th Edition), pg. 15
- White Dwarf (June 2017), "Designers' Notes: In the Grim Darkness of the Future..."
- Dark Imperium (Game), Death Guard Booklet, "The Tainted Sons," pg. 10