40K Lore: The Terror of the Night Lords
This week we answer the question: what makes a traitorous legion of corrupt criminals and malevolent miscreants turn to chaos?
It seems a mystery to me, Loremasters, but the lessons of the Night Lords prove that nobody is above Chaos. Not even a band of murderers and prisoners who are used to controlling the populace through fear and terror and brutality is safe from the tempting, sickly sweet words of Chaos, whispered in their ears. Let us look then to their history, that we might glean from the past an insight into how the perils of Chaos and its Ruinous Powers might be avoided in the future.
The Night Lords were the VIII Legion 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 fragmented terror force who seem to go to war only to slaughter or acquire material possessions.
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. 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.
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 Haunter 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.
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 held Konrad Curze, after hearing that crime and corruption had returned to Nostramo in his absence, 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.
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. 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 so 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.
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.
Read more about the Eye of Terror
And most recently one has sought apotheosis in the cavernous hull of a derelict space hulk…
