Warhammer 40K: Abaddon’s Continued Black Crusades
Delve deep into Abaddon the Despoiler’s continuing attempts to overthrow the Imperium – the mid Black Crusades.
A Black Crusade is an incursion that is formed when the usually disparate forces of Chaos unite under a particularly strong Chaos Champion and go forth en masse to wage war against the Imperium of Man.
Black Crusade Overview
Following the devastating events of the Horus Heresy, the Imperium began the Great Scouring, a campaign to cast out all traitors who had sided with Chaos and drove them into the warp storm known as the Eye of Terror. There, the followers of Chaos began to fight among each other for domination and territory and their vast armies eventually fractured.
Even so, the threat the exiles posed was far from gone. To this day they seek to overthrow the Imperium, launching separate raids and invasions against it. Once or twice within a millennium however, an exceptional Chaos Champion rises who is strong enough to bring his fellow warlords and their hosts under his sway. When this happens ancient rivalries are set aside and uneasy alliances are forged, clearing the way for what is called a Black Crusade.
The forces and fleets that gather for a Black Crusade are made up of all types of Chaos servants: the multitudinous hordes of the Lost and the Damned, ancient and towering Chaos Titans, the bizarre war machines of the Dark Mechanicum and the Daemons of the warp. Leading them into the realm of man are the vengeful warbands of the Chaos Space Marines.
When the crusade is launched, whole worlds fall prey to the rampaging hordes and the Dark Gods themselves divert their attention to the material realm, delighting in the sacrifices made in their names. Still, the nature of Chaos is fickle and unless it is repelled by the defenders, the crusade is bound to splinter into separate hosts and warbands who pursue their own ambitions.
5th Black Crusade
The 5th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler occurred in 723.M36.
The Fifth Black Crusade included among its many atrocities the scouring of the Elysia Sector, culminating in the destruction of the ancient Imperial city of Kasyr Lutien; where the entire population was sacrificed in a Chaos ritual that split the skies asunder and summoned down the uncounted hosts of the Warp. The Warmaster purposefully fomented invasions on a dozen worlds within the sector, entrusting the destruction of cities, shrines and temples to his warlords while using his fleet to keep the Imperial Navy engaged in deep void skirmishes. It was Abaddon’s intention to create a sector-wide conflict that would provoke a massive response from the Imperium and draw in Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. His plans set in motion, the Warmaster led the bulk of his Black Legion to the city of Kasyr Lutien on Tarinth, burning the great city to the ground and enslaving its people. When Warhawks and Venerators Space Marines arrived on Tarinth in Chapter strength, they made an immediate assault upon Kasyr Lutien. At the same moment, Abaddon ordered the mass sacrifice of ten million citizens. Their blood funneled via the city’s great canals into a vast lake of gore. Above the lake, the Warp opened up and Doombreed, greatest of all Khorne’s Daemon Princes, stepped into reality and howled in triumph. Abaddon had made a dark pact with Doombreed, promising it the skulls of an entire Chapter of Space Marines in return for its service. With thousands of Bloodletters pouring forth from the lake of blood, Doombreed waded into the ranks of the Warhawks and Venerators.
The Black Legion then sprang their own trap, and from prepared positions across the city, they opened fire on the loyalists, blocking their retreat. Though they fought without fear or respite, both Chapters fell that day, their warriors mutilated by the daemonic host and their gene-seed forever lost to the Imperium.
Meanwhile while Imperial forces battled against Abaddon’s assault, a Flawless Host warband led by squads of Possessed Chaos Space Marines tormented the agri worlds of Galvan II and Galvan IV. Not only did they smash their way through Imperial defense emplacements – woefully undermanned as Abaddon’s forces kept reinforcements from reaching the beleaguered worlds – but they went on to massacre the populations of several cities in a horrifically violent fashion. They raided temples and sacred shrines, leaving with powerful artifacts requested of them by Abaddon. Not satisfied with their haul, before the Flawless Host exited the planet’s orbit, they destroyed its shipyards and major factories, delivering a critical blow to the Imperium during a dark hour.
A member of the Flawless Host, who ran rampant during the 5th Black Crusade
6th Black Crusade
The Sixth Black Crusade was one of the Black Crusades of Abaddon the Despoiler, taking place in 901.M36.
During the Crusade, Abaddon conspired to eliminate rival fellow ex-Sons of Horus warband leader Drecarth the Sightless. Forging an alliance with Drecarth and his Sons of the Eye, the Chaos forces assaulted the Forge World of Arkreath. However at the end of the battle, while they were celebrating their victory, Abaddon betrayed Drecarth and impaled him on his Power Claw. After the death of their leader, the Sons of the Eye joined the Black Legion.
Abaddon slew arch-rival Drecarth the Sightless during the 6th Black Crusade
7th Black Crusade – The Ghost War
The Seventh Black Crusade occurred in 811.M37. The forces of Chaos spewed forth from the Eye of Terror past Cadia and then disappeared. This is where it earned the name, the Ghost War. The following years saw a game of hide and seek which spread confusion, paranoia, disinformation, and deceit. Raids became commonplace in far-flung areas, but eventually, they went back to the Eye and mankind had to simply wait for the next attack.
During the 7th Black Crusade, the entire Blood Angels Chapter fell upon Mackan to do battle with a vast Black Legion warband led by Abaddon the Despoiler himself. Though they had their full strength behind them, the aftermath of the battle saw the Blood Angels nearly destroyed at the hands of Abaddon and his primary lieutenants Telemachon Lyras and Iskandar Khayon. After the Black Legion departed from Mackan, the Blood Angels’ corpses were found desecrated and their Gene-seed ruined beyond recovery. The only exception was the Reclusiarch Thalastian Jorus and his Death Company, who had managed to survive the initial slaughter of their Chapter and launched a surprise attack on Abaddon and his honor guard weeks later. Jorus and the Death Company managed to kill many of the honor guard before being struck down, and Abaddon would leave their corpses untouched, sitting upon thrones made from the armor of the Chaos Space Marines they had killed.
A member of the Blood Angels Death Company, who fought successfully against the Black Legion during the Ghost War.
8th Black Crusade – The Skullgather
The Eighth Black Crusade, also known as the Skullgather was one of the Black Crusades of Abaddon the Despoiler launched in 999.M37.
As the Eighth Black Crusade raged across the stars, the Black Legion struck out from the Eye of Terror in every direction. At first, the Imperium could only guess at the Traitor Legion‘s plans, as some raids accounted for entire settlements whereas others only seemed to cause limited carnage by the horrific standards of the Black Legion. On the moons of Teekus, eight of the twenty crater cities were peeled open to the void, their inhabitants freezing in place while the others remained untouched. The chartist pilgrim vessel the Divine Path was waylaid en route and nine-hundred, and ninety-nine of its passengers were murdered in ascending order of the pilgrim tokens they carried. The rest were left to weep over the fallen.
In what later became known as the Skullgather, tens of thousands were killed across the Segmentum Obscurus in a variety of ways, and in specific numbers, their corpses were left in ritualistic patterns. It was part of a plot to appease Tzeentch, the numbers and patterns creating a mathematical equation of terrible and profane perfection. While Imperial forces pursued the Black Legion, trying to bring them to battle, the Inquisition attempted to break the cipher, driving hundreds of adepts insane in the process.
Finally, on the forge world of Rithcarn, the Traitors instigated a massive uprising of the mutant workers, plunging the world into chaos and ruin. In the confusion, the Black Legion sacrificed the council of Tech-Magi in the gears of their own manufactorums; with their destruction, the complex sequence of death was complete and Tzeentch was greatly pleased.
Abaddon devoted the Skullgather to pleasing the Changer of Ways
Learn More of the Black Crusades
