Night Lords / NIGHTLORDS

History

1. Formation

Originally known as the VIIIth Legion, the Night Lords first recruits were from the stinking ancient prisons of Terra. Here the children of prisoners were raised in the dark and among death, and these pale “Night’s Children” made perfect Astartes recruits. The Legion saw its first use when the Emperor deployed them against the Terran Saragorn Enclave, who despite having surrendered to the Imperium during the Unification Wars still continued banned psy-breeding experiments. The Emperor’s retribution on the Enclave was viciously carried out by the VIIIth Legion.

• 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.

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.

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, 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, 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.

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 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.

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

• The Horus Heresy

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. 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.

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. 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. Eventually however the Night Lords fleet was ambushed and badly mauled by the Dark Angels at the climax of the Thramas Crusade, with one fifth of the Legion confirmed destroyed. Worse still for the Night Lords, Curze himself had been badly injured and rendered comatose by Lion El’Jonson during the debacle, forcing Sevatar to take command of the Legion and organize a regrouping. Sevatar would divide the fleet into six parts and order their commanders to scatter. Fortunately for the Night Lords, Curze would eventually recover.

• 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.

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.

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. 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. As for the Soul Hunter, he slew the assassin in the manner of the Night Lords.

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.

• 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, 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.

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.

Notable Engagements

• The Great Crusade

Vhnori Resurgence – Pacification action. Battle of Velekshar‎ – Anti-Ork fleet action. Cheraut – Pacification action. The location where Konrad Curze struck Rogal Dorn and surrendered to Imperial judgement, before rejecting it and taking his legion rogue. The Winnowing – Pacification action. Nostramo – Exterminatus action; the legion destroyed their own homeworld with concentrated lance firepower, shattering it apart.

• The Horus Heresy

Isstvan V – The Drop Site Massacre. The Thramas Crusade and Eastern Fringe Genocide- Diversionary campaign; continuing even after the defeat of Horus, though suffering a severe defeat at the hands of the Dark Angels, the Night Lords were only stopped by the assassination of Konrad Curze.

• Post Heresy

The Aschen War – Several warbands of Night Lords fall under the control of the Daemon Prince known as the Horned God. The Te’Oran Scouring – Systematic extermination of the planetary populace by Virus Bombing. The Orpheus Revolt The Culling of Grendel’s World – Systematic extermination of the entire planetary populace. The Fall of Vilamus – The Night Lords warband of the Exalted aid the Red Corsairs in sacking the fortress-monastery of the Marines Errant Adeptus Astartes. Combat breaks out between the Night Lords and the Red Corsairs in the aftermath. The Khai-Zhan Uprising – The Nightlords aid the planets populous in revolting against the Imperium, eventually becoming embroiled in one of the most bitter urban battles in recent memory. Scound’s Fall – The Night Lords raid an Imperial world a mere one hundred light years from Terra itself. 13th Black Crusade – The Night Lords fighting alongside Abaddon the Despoiler unleash great terror upon the people of the Cadian Sector.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Night_Lords