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Nostramo

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Nostramo was the homeworld of the Night Lords Space Marine Legion until Night Haunter destroyed it.[1]

Map Basic Data Planetary Image
px Name: Nostramo NostramoArt.jpg
Segmentum: Ultima Segmentum[2]
Sector: Nostramo Sector[5]
Subsector: Unknown
System: Unknown
Population: None
Affiliation: Imperium
Class: Destroyed, former Hive World and Adeptus Astartes Homeworlds
Tithe Grade: Aptus non

Overview

Nostramo, on the inside edge of the Ghoul Stars[2], was a planet of perpetual darkness, covered in clouds of pollution and a perpetual solar eclipse. Only the planetary elite could afford artificial illumination. Murder, extortion, and theft were rampant, while the elite oppressed the vast underclass of foundry workers with hired thugs, the closest approximation the planet had to law enforcement. Violence, both interpersonal and suicide, kept the population in check[1].

Nostramo's geology contained priceless wealth, particularly huge quantities of naturally occurring adamantium. The mineral trade made Nostramo great amounts of wealth, but at the cost of vast chemical and metalworking facilities scarring the landscape, throwing up the toxic clouds that perpetually darkened the skies[1].

The planet's synchronicity with its moon, Tenebor, kept the planet under the darkness of a solar eclipse even in the height of summer. As a result, the human population of Nostramo had pale albino skin and black eyes adapted to live in an environment of near-total darkness[1].

The Purging of Nostramo Quintus

One year, the petty criminals of Nostramo Quintus started turning up gruesomely dismembered. This pattern soon stretched to corrupt bureaucrats and protestors as the long, hot summer stretched on. Quintus quickly developed a self-imposed curfew: the city's streets, once buzzing with activity, went silent at dusk. By the end of the year, crime had fallen to near-zero as the people lived in fear of the "Night Haunter"[1][4].

The Night Haunter became the city's first monarch. The few nobles who survived by swearing loyalty to him became his mouthpieces. He would rule with a fair and even hand, but any who transgressed would suffer, not at the hand of an appointed enforcer, but by that of the Night Haunter himself. The Night Haunter eventually claimed the other four cities of Nostramo, bringing increased productivity and fearful peace to the world[1][4].

The Fall of Nostramo

The Night Haunter warned his governors that his father's space fleet was coming for him. When the Delegation of Light arrived, the rain stopped as if in acknowledgement of its presence and the citizens wept at the sight of the Astartes: the primarchs Rogal Dorn, Lorgar, Ferrus Manus, and Fulgrim, representatives of their legions, and a group of Ultramarines. The Emperor of Mankind led the procession, the sight of him striking blind all who looked upon him.[1][4]

The Night Haunter collapsed in agony at the Emperor's first breath to him. When he recovered, the Night Haunter listened to the Emperor speak.[4]

"Be at peace, Konrad Curze. I have arrived and I intend to take you home."
"That is not my name, father. My people gave me a name and I will bear it until my dying day. And I know full well what you intend for me."

At first, the people felt they were free to speak their minds again, no longer subject to the gruesome punishments of the Night Haunter, but replacing his autocracy with the Administratum soon became a return to the old ways[1]. Eventually Ashkar Skraivok, a relative of the Night Lords Captain Gendor Skraivok, launched a coup that massacred the Imperial Governor and his cabinet. Ashkar did not secede from the Imperium, but declared the old ways of Nostramo were to be restored.[6] The bureaucratic corruption of the Administratum was bad enough, but the Emperor's arrival robbed the Nostramans of their ignorance. They now knew that there were better places in the galaxy than this one and they would never be able to see them. The only class of people who would ever get off-world were the new breed of violent criminals who were selected to fill the ranks of the Night Lords Space Marine Legion[1][4]. The criminals were dispatched to the Legion as the old nobility of Nostramo, now gaining strength in Curze's absence, intended to keep the best fighters for their own interests.[6]

The next time the Night Haunter returned to Nostramo would be the last. Word had reached the legion that Imperial governor Basileus's regime allowed crime to run rampant once again. The Night Haunter's entire fleet arrived in orbit and aimed their weapons at their home world. Countless lance barrages and orbital torpedoes pummeled the surface. The bombardment reached the planet's core, possibly through a weakness left in the crust by Curze's landing or the extensive adamantium mining, and the planet burst apart[1][3]. There were widespread mutinties among the Nostraman-born Human crew of the Night Lords fleet during the bombardment, which were brutally put down by Sevatar and his Atramentar. Even a few Night Lords themselves rebelled, but were purged with all the rest.[6a]

Trivia

As many names in the background of the Night Lords links to the writer Joseph Conrad, Nostramo is probably a reference to Nostromo, a supposedly incorruptible anti-hero who is killed when he succumbs to his thirst for power.

The name is also used as the name for the ship in the science-fiction horror film Alien, slightly based upon another of Conrad's novels.

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Sources