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Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum β

The Lucifer Blacks were an Imperial Army regiment during the Great Crusade, later becoming part of the Imperial Guard.

Overview

Heresy-era

This elite group of warriors was decimated during the Unification Wars, but their skill made them famous to the extent that its men were drafted to serve as elite bodyguards for higher-ranking members of the Imperial Army.[1]

By the time of the Horus Heresy, they were considered an infamous as well as near-extinct group. One of the divisions within the Lucifer Blacks was the Ischian Brigade.[2]

Post-Heresy

The Lucifer Blacks became Regiments of the newly formed Imperial Guard after the Heresy. Acting as an elite praetorian guard on Terra, the Lucifer Blacks provided security for the Imperial Palace and were frequently employed as bodyguards for the Terran nobility and High Lords. By mid-M32, during the War of the Beast, the Lucifer Black's overseer Solar-General Sayitora had become a crony of Lord High Admiral Lansung, which turned the Regiments into the ambitious Admiral's personal fighting force. They were treated like mercenaries, being distributed to Lansung's followers as a reward for favors.[3]

When Chapter Master Koorland announced he was replacing Udin Macht Udo as Lord Commander of the Imperium, Udo rather farcically summoned his Lucifer Black bodyguards and demanded they disarm and remove the Space Marines. The unit's commander, out of reverence for the warrior who had successfully stormed the Attack Moon over Terra, instead bent his knee to Koorland, and the rest of his soldiers quickly followed suit.[4]

After The Beast was killed by the Imperium's forces, Lord Commander Maximus Thane left the Grand Master of Assassins Drakan Vangorich to oversee the ineffectual High Lords of Terra as his Lord Protector. This proved to be a mistake however, as Vangorich began The Beheading, which resulted in most of the High Lords of Terra being killed and being replaced by puppets of the Grand Master. Afterwards, Vangorich enacted a series of changes on Terra, the first among them being the disbandment of the Lucifer Blacks. Vangorich claimed that the Lucifer Blacks' inability to stop a group of Eldar Harlequins that had invaded the Imperial Palace during the War of the Beast, proved the group's usefulness was at an end. He then proclaimed that security for the Imperial Palace would now be provided by agents of the Officio Assassinorum.[5a]

Sometime after Vangorich's death however[5b], the Lucifer Blacks were re-established as Regiments. By the time of the Thirteenth Black Crusade, they were among those Regiments regularly chosen to guard the Imperial Palace and their name and reputation was well known throughout the Imperium.[6]

Sources