Night Lords

From Lexicanum

Ambiguous Term? This article is about Space Marine Legion. For other uses of Night Lords, see Night Lords (disambiguation).

Chaos Portal
Night Lords

The Night Lords were Legion VIII of the original twenty Space Marine Legions. Their Primarch was Konrad Curze, also called the Night Haunter. The Legion turned traitor during the Horus Heresy, after which it fought its way across Imperial space in a bloody campaign that culminated with the death of Konrad Curze at the hands of an Imperial Assassin. Since the loss of their primarch the Night Lords have based themselves in the Eye of Terror and now operate as a somewhat fragmented terror force who seem to go to war only to slaughter or acquire material possessions.^[1a]

While most certainly Chaos Space Marines, the Night Lords scorn all forms of faith and respect only temporal and material power^[1a]; indeed, many of them consider themselves free of the taint of Chaos and despise those they deem to be so corrupted.^[2]

Marine

Basic Data

Current Symbol

- Night Lords -
Legion Number:	VIII
Primarch:	Konrad Curze aka Night Haunter
Homeworld Pre-Heresy:	Nostramo (Destroyed)
Homeworld Current:	Somewhere in the Eye of Terror
Chaos God:	Chaos Undivided
Colours:	Blue-black with imagery of death
Specialty:	Stealth/Terror tactics
Battle Cry:	"We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox!"

Pre-Heresy Symbol

Homeworld

The homeworld of the Night Lords was Nostramo, a world of perpetual night.^[1a] Plagued by both systematic corruption and endemic violence, Nostraman society was radically altered and pacified by the actions of the Night Haunter, at least for a time. Eventually however, conditions on the planet backslid to the point that the VIII legion primarch ordered its destruction.^[1a] Nostramo has not existed as a world for ten thousand years, although traces of its once presence can still be found by those who know where to look.^[2a]

History

The Great Crusade

Formation

Great Crusade era Night Lords Astartes

Currently, almost nothing is known of the VIII legion before the discovery of Konrad Curze, other than it was made up of Terran Astartes and not noted to be particularly different to the main body of the Legiones Astartes.

Combat Disposition and Record

The Lord of the Night

After his discovery by the Emperor, Konrad Curze underwent a period of training under the tutelage of Fulgrim, primarch of the Emperor's Children, who introduced him to not only wider military strategems, but also Imperial culture, specifically that of Terra itself. Following this period, Curze was placed at the head of his legion, who are known to have adapted to his philosophies quickly and with diligence, as well as intelligently transforming the primarch's beliefs into military tactics. Curze's experiences upon Nostramo in his self-appointed role as the Night Lord had instilled in him the philosophy of terror, whereby he had inspired obedience to the law by fear of extreme punishment. This societal philosophy translated into the military tactics of swift, sudden and decisive strikes often carried out to excess, as well as making sure the enemy knew who had hit them. The Night Lords therefore developed a practice of regularly using excessive force to defeat their enemies, as well as publicising these actions so that other potential transgressors would be well aware of what could happen to them should they break faith with the Imperium.^[1a]

This approach made the Night Lords well-suited for dealing with worlds brought into the Imperium during the Crusade who were subsequently lax in achieving full compliance, or who even threatened to rebel. They were heavily utilized as a force that solidifed the Imperium's grip after initial pacification was achieved; as this sort of endeavor mirrored what Curze did as the Night Haunter on Nostramo, the Night Lords excelled at reinforcing the Emperor's will - through fear. To increase their effectiveness in this regard, Curze encouraged the Night Lords to decorate their power armour with death imagery. The legion soon gained a tremendously terrifying reputation, one that would cause many planetary rulers to immediately make good any outstanding tithes, make sure Imperial laws were being followed and sometimes would entirely stop an incipient rebellion at the mere rumour of Night Lord retaliation.^[1a].

As the Great Crusade wore on and the Night Lords began to slowly receive replacement Marines from Nostramo (which had meantime fallen back to its pre-Night Haunter ways), the criminal element of Nostraman society, including murderers and rapists, began to fill the ranks^[1a]. This, in addition to Curze's probable insanity,^[4] initiated a downward spiral for the Legion.

Descent

While it may be possible that the Emperor tacitly or even secretly authorized the Night Lords' excessive tactics,^[3] the legion was eventually questioned over its increasingly extreme sanctioning of Imperial citizenry, especially by some of the other primarchs, a brotherhood that Curze had never felt a part of. Apart, that was, from Fulgrim. When his brothers began to turn on him, Curze turned to his tutor and supposed friend for counsel and confession. A sufferer of prophetic visions apparently all of his life, Curze told Fulgrim of his own great fear; that he had forseen the Emperor killing him and that the Legiones Astartes would endlessly battle each other in a perpetual civil war. Fulgrim, shocked and worried by Curze's behaviour and mental state, informed their brother Rogal Dorn (who was present in the same warzone as Curze and Fulgrim at the time) of these visions and claims. Dorn then confronted Curze over what he saw as this dishonourable besmirchment of the Emperor's name; the conversation came to blows, with Curze beating his brother bloody. Subsequently accepting being placed under arrest for this action, Curze entered confinement to await the judgement of the other Primarchs.^[1a]

Such a verdict was never made, as before a conclave of the primarchs could be made, Konrad Curze decided to refuse the entire process and escaped from detention, slaying members of the Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children in the process. He swiftly rejoined his legion^[4] and took his fleet to Nostramo, the planet that had betrayed him, where he ordered all the ships in his fleet to fire upon the single weakness in the planet's adamantium crust, causing it to be destroyed.^[1a,4]

Although the Night Lords had gone rogue, the Horus Heresy erupted before anything could be done about it.

The Horus Heresy

A Raptor of the Night Lords

Despite having gone rogue, the Night Lords were one of the seven Legions dispatched to destroy the gathered Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Death Guard, and Emperor's Children at the Isstvan system.^[1] While records do not clearly explain why an apparent rogue legion was tasked to join the loyalist Astartes force charged with exterminating the traitors, at least one account puts forth the view that the Imperial justice system was both so slow and so unsure of how to deal with the Night Lords that the Imperial military commanders issued the order anyway, in their hurry to assemble a powerful force with which to crush Horus.^[1a]

Upon Isstvan V, the Night Lords, alongside the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, and the Alpha Legion, turned on the loyalist Legions who had arrived earlier and took part in the Dropsite Massacre.^[1a] Upon decimating the Raven Guard, Iron Hands, and the Salamanders, the Night Lords returned to the galactic east and began an apparently unfocused genocidal campaign; most likely this was designed to stop any support from this area reaching Terra.^[1a]

Horus Heresy Aftermath

Upon Horus's defeat, the Night Lords continued their bloody pogrom upon the Galactic East. While nearly every other Legion had been decimated in the fighting and all the other traitor Legions had begun retreating to the Eye of Terror, the Night Lords legion remained unified and retained the bulk of their pre-Heresy numbers. This heavily concerned the High Lords of Terra, who debated what could be done to cease their predations.^[1a]

This eventually led to Konrad Curze being assassinated by a Callidus Assassin. Curze had visions of this event all his life and therefore chose to allow the assassin to kill him on the world of Tsagualsa, where the Night Lords had built a fortress of living flesh. Curze felt that this assassination vindicated his philosophy of life and every action he had taken in enacting it.^[1a] Before his death, Curze left strict orders that the assassin was to be allowed to carry out her mission and escape, as well as apparently passing leadership to the Talonmaster Zso Sahaal, First Captain of the legion. These orders were not fully carried out.^[2]

Refusing to allow the assassin to escape, the Night Lord named the Soul Hunter, an apothecary of the 10th Company, pursued her with intent to kill; a solo pursuit that was joined by a significant portion of the legion's senior officers when it transpired that the assassin had also looted several of Curze's possessions believed bequeathed by him to legion's command cadre.^[2] Chief amongst these officers was the heir-apparent Zso Sahaal, who succeeded in boarding the assassin's vessel and retrieving the Corona Nox; a symbol of Curze's authority he believed was now to be his. However, Sahaal's own ship was attacked by Eldar raiders almost immediately he returned to it and vanished into the Warp, not to be seen again for almost ten thousand years.^[3] As for the Soul Hunter, he slew the assassin in the manner of the Night Lords.^[2]

Now without a leader, the Night Lords eventually fragmented into disparate warbands largely built around their original legion company structure and relocated to the Eye of Terror.^[2]

In Midnight Clad

The Night Lords have operated as raiding forces ever since, conducting terror raids in much the same style as they did whilst under the Imperial banner, only now fueled by the hate and desperation brought on by the Long War, as well as the malign influences of Chaos. While the warband of Krieg Acerbus is noted to be the largest and most chaotic in operation^[3], many of the other warbands adhere more rigourously to the example set by their primarch, deploying as organised Legiones Astartes and often with specific military goals^[2].

A particular goal of the Night Lords ever since the death of their primarch at the hands of the assassin M'Shen has been the recovery of her pict-log of the assassination. The investigations of the Soul Hunter, then an important member of the Exalted's warband, led to the discovery of a copy of this recording, which allowed the Night Lords legion to witness their primarch - to all intents and purposes, their father - for the first time in ten millenia. A copy of it was ordered disseminated throughout the legion.^[5]