The Overlords of Barbarus are minor, yet historically important antagonists in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. They are an enigmatic species of pale, unnervingly tall, corpse-like humanoids who lorded over the planet Barbarus, before they were all slain by the Primarch Mortarion, although the true origin and nature of the Overlords is unknown. They have displayed magic abilities, possibly Chaos-based, with one Overlord implying that they were servants of Nurgle.
The Overlords were featured in the works Lantern's Light, The Horus Heresy Book One- Betrayal, The Lords of Silence, and The Buried Dagger.
History[]
In the grim darkness of the far future, humanity's great stellar empire was shattered by the cataclysmic Age of Strife. Many human settlements were destroyed, or degraded in isolation. One settlement, on the bleak, toxin-laden planet Barbarus, was ruled over by the Overlords. While seemingly alien and later referred to as xenos, the populace of Barbarus circulated legends that the Overlords were once humans who made pacts with dark powers, which would make the Overlords Abhumans. This may be closer to the truth, as Calas Typhon was said to be a hybrid from a human mother and Overlord father, which resulted in his mother being lynched. Whatever the case, the Overlords and were tyrants who ruled the humans from fortresses atop the peaks of the planet's high mountains, as the toxic fogs forced all humans to live in the lowest valleys. Humans were enslaved and oppressed by the Overlords, who commanded legions of undead soldiers known as Golems, waging wars against each other for humans to prey on. The humans soon came to see the Overlords as invincible immortals, when in truth, Overlords had weak bodies and relied on their underlings and magic. However, they were immune to the poisonous fog, which kept the humans at bay far below them.
By the late 30th millennium, High Overlord Necare was the greatest of the Overlords. He had just won a battle against enemies to his rule when the incubation pod of Mortarion crashed into the nearby high mountains. Hearing the young Mortarion crying out, Necare realized that no mere human could survive at that height, and retrieved Mortarion, deciding to raise him as a son and personal enforcer. Unbeknownst to Necare, Mortarion was one of the Primarchs, the transhuman sons of the Emperor of Mankind.
Necare trained Mortarion in the art of war, having Mortarion lead his inhuman armies, yet always feared Mortarion and his ability to survive where no baseline human could. However, a combination of Necare's cruel treatment and Mortarion's own humanity led him to turn away from Necare and venture into the human settlements. Horrified by how the Overlords treated the humans, Mortarion organized a rebellion against the shadowy rulers, beginning when Mortarion led a revolt against a lesser Overlord who was personally leading his golems in collecting human slaves. Said Overlord attempted to retreat into the poisonous fog, smugly believing that Mortarion would die from the toxins, only for the Primarch to follow the Overlord up to the toxic area and personally slay him.
From there, Mortarion organized his own army of peasants, leading them against the Overlords, although the humans could not follow Mortarion up the mountains after the Overlords. Eventually, Mortarion created crude respiratory equipment for his most elite followers, allowing them to follow Mortarion up the mountains. Over the next hundreds of battle, Mortarion pushed ever higher, killing Overlords and their forces, with one Overlord, Volcral, being captured by Calas Typhon, Mortarion's strongest champion. Volcral claimed that he saw the touch of Nurgle in Typhon, and implied that the Overlords were also worshippers of the foul Chaos God, but Volcral was promptly executed when he offered to teach Typhon the ways of Nurgle.
Eventually, almost all Overlords were dead, except one- Necare, who resided in a mansion so high up that even Mortarion's respiratory equipment could not survive the toxins, and Mortarion himself could not survive the air either. Regardless, Mortarion vowed to finish the war, only to get news that a mysterious stranger had arrived on Barbarus, offering salvation. Not wanting to share his glory, Mortarion confronted the stranger, who challenged the Primarch to kill Necare alone, declaring that if Mortarion failed, he would join the stranger in complete obedience. Mortarion thus scaled the mountain to face Necare alone, but found his armor's respirators deteriorating from the air, and the high atmosphere of Barbarus, higher than Mortarion had ever gone before, greatly weakened him as he breached the mansion. Necare thus had an easy shot to kill Mortarion, but before he could deliver a killing stroke, the stranger, completely immune to the toxic fog, entered the building and killed Necare. As it turns out, the stranger was none other than the Emperor of Mankind, Mortarion's true father.
While the Overlords are now extinct, their true origins left forever unknown, Necare's soul was later captured and tortured by Mortarion, who had been converted into a Daemon Prince of Nurgle in the wake of the Horus Heresy.
