Warhammer 40K: Meet The Legions – The Night Lords
Hailing from destroyed Nostramo, the Night Lords strike terror into their enemies. Now servants of Chaos they are down right sinister!
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.
While most certainly Chaos Space Marines, the Night Lords scorn all forms of faith and respect only temporal and material power; indeed, many of them consider themselves free of the taint of Chaos and despise those they deem to be so corrupted.
Nostramo, Destroyed Homeworld
The homeworld of the Night Lords was Nostramo, a world of perpetual night. Plagued by both systematic corruption and endemic violence, Nostraman society was radically altered and pacified by the actions of the Night Haunter, at least for a time. Eventually however, conditions on the planet backslid to the point that the VIII Legion’s Primarch, Konrad Curze, ordered its destruction. Nostramo has not existed as a world for ten thousand years, although traces of its once presence can still be found by those who know where to look.
Early History of the Night Lords
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 publicizing 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. Much of this was due to the instability of Nostramo’s and the return of the old nobility in the absence of Curze, who emptied their worlds jails for the Legion in order to keep the best warriors for their own interests. This, in addition to Curze’s probable insanity, initiated a downward spiral for the Legion.
The Night Lords Decent In Heresy
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.
Although the Night Lords had gone rogue, the Horus Heresy erupted before anything could be done about it.
The history of the Night Lords goes much deeper still. From their actions during the Horus Heresy, to the aftermath, and beyond — even up to the Great Rift. The Night Lords are still a terrible foe to face. Their reputation for terror tactics is well earned. To face them is to face off with the sheer terror that comes from the Astartes in midnight clad…
For more on the Night Lords check out the Lexicanum!
