Night Lords

Night Lords
Battle Cry	"We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox!" or “ Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible...”
Number	VIII
Original Homeworld	Nostramo
Current Homeworld	Unknown
Primarch	Konrad Curze
Champion	Krieg Acerbus (Daemon Prince). Could also be Decimus or Zso Sahaal if you’re not a chaosfag
Strength	Unknown
Specialty	Stealth, guerrilla warfare, and terror tactics
Allegiance	Depends on the warband (at least with regards to the Ruinous Powers. Otherwise, it's mostly to themselves).
Colours	Midnight Blue, with Brass trim, and living lightning effects across the armor. *Apply blood liberally, or as needed.*

"Because the Wolves kill cleanly, and we do not. They also kill quickly, and we have never done that, either. They fight, they win, and they stalk back to their ships with their tails held high. If they were ever ordered to destroy another Legion, they would do it by hurling warrior against warrior, seeking to grind their enemies down with the admirable delusions of the 'noble savage'. If we were ever ordered to assault another Legion, we would virus bomb their recruitment worlds; slaughter their serfs and slaves; poison their gene-seed repositories and spend the next dozen decades watching them die slow, humiliating deaths. Night after night, raid after raid, we'd overwhelm stragglers from their fleets and bleach their skulls to hang from our armour, until none remained. But that isn't the quick execution the Emperor needs, is it? The Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness. The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first, last, and always!"

– Jago Sevatarion

"When I was Bruce Wayne, I thought that with enough preparation, I would always win. But I was wrong. I was trapped in an unwinnable war, refusing to see the obvious answers right in front of me. The answers that are so clear to me now with victory right around the corner. To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back. You see... a Batman who laughs... is a Batman who always wins. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

– The Batman Who Laughs

"The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us but we don't ask for their love. Only for their fear."

– Heinrich Himmler

The Night Lords Space Marine Legion consists of some of the most batshit(HA!)-crazy emos in the entire Chaos faction. Think of them as a hybrid of Raven Guard and Blood Angels. They sneaky beaky, but they also jump assault to rip faces off. They get off to catching their enemies, skinning them alive and crucifying them, all the while recording it for later. Also notable for having a strong vampire motif and playing too much Mortal Kombat; they're scary creatures that live in the dark but scorn the Chaos Gods, much like the Vampire Counts. Their backstory is surprisingly compelling and deep, but they are nevertheless bitter, brutal, terrifying assholes whose battle cries include "We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox" (translated as "-Hail the Lord of the Night-").

History

Masters of Ambush

" I wanted to be a hero... and look how that turned out. "

– Talos Valcoran, evidencing how most Traitor members of the Legiones Astartes feel

Originally incepted by the Emperor to be a terror weapon, the VIIIth Legion's recruit pool originated from the worst Terra's criminals; monsters who had been put in vast, underground prison complexes to keep them away from the rest of the populace. These criminals would occasionally have offspring who, if by some miracle they survived past infancy, would come to be known by their fellows as "the night's children". Pale and silent, they were so accustomed to the horrors of these prison complexes, having known nothing else, that they were avoided by even the boldest of killers. These pale children would be the VIIIth Legion's first recruits. The Geneseed of Konrad Curze transformed the already pale skin of these children to bone-white, and darked their eyes to black. Already accustomed to the low light conditions of the underground prisons, these new Astartes found that, with the implantation of the Geneseed, they had developed the ability to see in complete darkness. However, they also found that they needed the HUD of their Power Armor to operate in daylight conditions. As such, they quickly came to prefer night time engagements. Seemingly because they were simply so used to it, the VIIIth Legion quickly developed a dark reputation for dealing with their foes with such brutality that it surpassed the rumors surrounding even the VIth and XIIth Legions.

They got their start on Terra when the Emperor sent them against a recidivist kingdom known as the Crimson Walkers. Having learned of their defiance of his edicts despite having pledged themselves to his cause, the Emperor decided that their treachery required... retribution. When asked how he wished to deal with the traitors, he is recorded merely to have said "Send the Eighth". So the VIIIth were sent, and the horror they enacted upon the Crimson Walkers was so terrible that the VIIIth in and of itself became a deterrent against recidivism. They would continue upon this path for the rest of the Crusade, typically being used to quell uprisings, or in cases where the most terrible butchery would send a useful message to others.

Eventually, Imperial forces would stumble upon the VIIIth's Primarch Konrad Curze. When Chaos abducted the infant Primarchs, they were scattered across the galaxy. Poor lil Konrad ended up on Nostramo, a world of perpetual darkness. And unlike the other Primarchs who were found by the inhabitants of a planet (highly debatable) and taken care of, Konrad was left all alone to fend for himself, in a world that was a dark, lawless land. But who's to say it would've been better? So then he grew up, he became like the Batman of the 31st millennium, where he punished the corrupt and the evil. Unlike Batman, he had no compunctions about killing them in the most gruesome manner possible (and displaying the corpses) to the point the sewers were clogged with bodies. Strangely enough, this was actually considered an improvement. So yeah, he became such a popular icon that the people of Nostramo basically fixed their shitty society because they feared that the "Night Haunter" would screw their asses to unimaginable levels, thus making him Vlad the Impaler IN SPESS!!! It says something about his world that, even as Vlad the Impaler, he was still clearly quite the good guy.

Curze tried to be a good leader for his people, but there was one thing he was just unable to do: delegate. So when Big.E came rolling by and took him along for a good scrap all over the galaxy, it didn't take long for Nostramo to fall back into crime, anarchy and the like. With the scary thing in the night gone kicking ass AnywhereButHere, it suddenly wasn't scary anymore. Insult to injury, Nostramo provided most aspirants for the Night Lords, and soon only those that thrived in such a lawless environment ascended to become Space Marines... with all the complications one could imagine. Despite the psycho-indoctrination, many Night Lords were serial-killers and sociopaths, hiding their bloodlust beneath a thin veneer of loyalty to the Crusade, and this rot slowly but surely spread to the Legion as a whole.

They also have an unhealthy addiction to flying and lightning. They are known for scaring the hell out of civilians for shits and giggles, and also known for being insanely giant fucking nutheads. Wherever the Night Lords strike, they leave corpses and signs of their assault on display and generally make it look like all the Segmentum's worst metal bands had a gig in the exact same area at the exact same time.

Despite being "traitors" they claim not to be terribly fond of the Chaos Gods. It varies between warbands but many make little to no use of daemons (unless they are warp talons because they really fit well with the “flying and lightning” mentioned above), so they're more of a renegade legion than an unclean one. Which makes them less likely to (accidentally) become possessed. It won't matter though, because they are fucking insane anyway, not only because of their combat doctrines, but also because they have been around for a very long time. Notable exceptions include Krieg Acerbus, a Daemon Prince currently leading the largest warband of Night Lords, who also happen to be hardcore, full-on batshit chaos worshippers. There's also the first claw's Uzas, who's all about blood for the Blood God. In fact, earlier incarnations of the background listed them as a Khornate Legion, and Khorne smiles upon those who murder for the sake of murder, even one's allies, which Night Lords do whenever they can. However, because they're in denial about their religion, they neither get the goodies of the Chaos Gods, nor the technology of the Imperium. So whenever loyalists show up with assault cannons, stormbolters, cyclone missile launchers, land speeders, drop-pods, and hunter killer missiles they silently cry in the night. Or take it out on them by kicking the shit out of the local chapter of Ultramarines.

Tactics

"I am the thing that keeps you up at night. The fear that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I will never rest. And neither will you."

– Slade “Deathstroke” Wilson

"BOO!""

– Warcry of the night lords when they sneak up on you

Night Lord warbands, for the most part, are somewhat sensible in that they don't just send in their marines to die in droves. So, they generally don't titty-rush the nearest Titan for the lulz unless said Titan is REALLY fucking their mojo up. When they do engage in direct combat, they generally prefer complete overwhelming force to ensure minimal losses, maximum carnage, and enough skulls to stick on their pauldrons. So, they're pretty much a chaos version of Reasonable Marines. Including the Alpha Legion too, obviously (maybe?).

Considering what fluff says about them, it seems likely the Night Lords Legion conquered worlds during the Great Crusade by rarely waging actual war. They probably did it the Night Haunter way. Show up, declare Lex Imperialis, and punish violation of the emperor's law by using stealth and terror. They can get anywhere, be anywhere, and they're always watching you. They don't have to fight you as you are just that horribly outmatched. In cases of legitimate military threats, WMDs, phosphex, rad weapons, and other nasty things can be gleefully used.

Or just take pieces from their leader's little girl. Bit by bit. Without kidnapping her. From her bedroom. Over and over and ruining any attempt to move her (or take bits even after she's in their most secure location). You see, that is far more terrifying than kidnapping her and sending pieces back. Especially preceding each taking with "We have come for you".

Back when Curze was still somewhat sane, the point of the terror tactics was to basically destroy a foes' morale to thoroughly and so quickly that the casualties, though beyond brutal individually, would actually be significantly fewer than those most other Legions inflicted. Those few would suffer unspeakable horrors, but the many who bore witness would surrender without the need for further bloodshed. If all went as planned, the planet would be delivered to the Imperium with its population, infrastructure, and industrial capabilities almost completely intact, and thoroughly compliant.

Despite their brutality, the Night Lords as a Legion were actually very tactically minded in their assaults if facing anything worthwhile. This was almost entirely down to the fact that nobody particularly wanted to die rather than anything else; being smart about fighting tends to cause fewer casualties. They ultimately ended up being a sadistic reflection of the Raven Guard in terms of their tactical doctrines, and the two Legions pre-Corax had a lot in common. They liked to fight indirectly if they were either at a disadvantage or were on-par with their opponents. They would strike at logistics networks, supply lines, weapons depots, etc, all in an attempt to bleed an enemy over time, and would only go for the kill when they knew the battle was winnable. Additionally, nothing in terms of weaponry or strategy was ever off the table, least of all for moral reasons. Chemical weapons, radiation saturation, Phosphex munitions, biological weapons, straight-up Exterminatus; if the Night Lords thought it might help them to win, it was always an option. Concepts like honor were considered to be a fool's prize at best, and contemptibly stupid at worst. If an enemy could be baited into a trap by, say, slaughtering civilians, they would happily do so.

When actually engaging a foe, the Night Lords prefered to make extensive use of infiltration tactics. After all, it's harder to kill what you don't know is there. In fact, the Night Lords were amongst the sneakiest of all the Legions, with only the Raven Guard and Alpha Legion rivaling their understanding of covert operations. However, they were no strangers to open battle; it was just virtually always option B. In such scenarios, they preferred utilizing small, company sized formations, and had a larger than normal number of Breacher Squads in their infantry divisions. They also preferred the use of fast vehicles to heavy armor, typically aircraft like the Storm Eagles if they could help it. Similarly, they liked to deploy jump-pack equipped infantry in the name of speed. Bikes, jetbikes, and fast troop transports like Rhinos were also favored. They did still utilize heavy and super-heavy armor when needed, but their armor pool was not so extensive as a Legion like the Iron Hands or Iron Warriors. Nor, for that matter, was their artillery pool. They did have a surprising amount of armor when compared to Legions outside the Iron Whatevers, as all of the Night Lords various companies were expected to maintain their own vehicle pool for independent operations.

When they took a position, they tended to fortify it with automated weapons platforms like the Tarantula Sentry rather than use Astartes to man them. Oftentimes they would use these static defensive areas as kill-zones for herding terrified defenders or civilians into automated gunfire. Their prefered tactics outside of just scaring the bejesus out of foes was simple but effective, and not dissimilar to that which the Imperial Fists utilized. They would locate defensive weaknesses, exploit them with Breacher Squads, APCs or other quick, heavy hitting units, and then attempt to break the foe into smaller groups to destroy them piecemeal. They also liked just driving dozer-prowed tanks over their enemies. Why more Legions didn't think to use such an effective killing method is a bit strange but there we are.

In terms of their elite units, they employed a large number of what were called Terror Squads, which were basically Assault Marines who were particularly good, even amongst the Night Lords, at committing war crimes against their foes. Another was the Night Raptors, who were an even more elite sort of Assault Squad equipped with jump packs who preferred ripping their foes apart in melee. These guys were just as nuts as the Terror Squads, but more specialized as shock troops. There also existed two variants of elite Terminators; the Contekar and the Atramentar (Both of which got their 30k rules screwed over by some biased know-it-all idiot over at Forgeworld). They functioned as essentially the same sort of unit, with the Atramentar as the 1st Company of the Contekar. Under the command of Sevatar, both groups of Terminators were sadistic screwballs of the highest order but could control their impulses, unlike the Terror Squad marines. They were extremely fractious and unruly, obeying orders only from someone they feared/respected enough to do so. Sevatar, and of course Curze, were the only members of the Legion powerful enough to reign them in.

ALTERNATIVELY:

They make use of their sneakiness and fuck shit up that way. Striking behind enemy lines, ambushes, sabotaging generators and command centers, etc. Knowing this, one considers them being pretty sensible. In one-on-one combat a Night Lord will do his best to make sure he has the upper hand, and thus resort to cheat tactics by breaking every rule possible and use every dirty trick to avoid being 'on equal footing' with the opponent. Just like certain slimy BDSM pricks. Despite considering honor to be a fool's prize, they often excelled in individual combat. In fact, their Heresy-era First Captain, Sevatar, was on-par with Sigismund himself, who was widely considered to be the greatest Astartes melee fighter of all time. On that note, the Legion's character was known to be one of, as you might expect, a sort of nihilistic sadism with alot of dark humor thrown in for a good measure. Sevatar himself is known both in and out-of-universe as one of the snarkiest motherfuckers in the entire setting, and he was far from alone amongst the Legion in that regard.

They like unconventional shock-and-awe tactics (read: Terror with a capital T). One of them, Talos, disabled a ship's bridge by doing a fifteen-second-long vox-amplified scream, which, thanks to his three lungs and superhumanly strong vocal cords, blew out every unprotected eardrum in the room and put many of the bridge staff in a coma. Another method was to kill a planet's population from fright when they broadcasted a horrible snuff movie over the comm waves. More methods include impaling innocents in hard-to-reach areas and spamming the local Internet (or whatever passes for it) with video broadcasts made of extremely scary jump-scares, torture footage and sounds, sort of a superhuman Los Zetas/ISIS/Internet Troll hybrid on crack.

If they can't use fear as a tactic, they will always resort to trying to break morale by sabotaging objectives of strategic import or executing leaders and commanders. And if all else fails, well, they're still freaking Space Marines and can just, y'know, kick the absolute shit out of everyone the old-fashioned way.

BUT:

This isn't to say that their tactics make them unstoppable. Terror-tactics only work well on people who can be scared, meaning that their preferred operations tend not to work well on other Space Marines, Eldar, Necrons, Tyranids, Orks, or any sort of fanatical religious zealots, meaning that Imperial Guard are one of their favorite targets. There are individually stellar warriors at various aspects of warfare among their ranks--close-combat champions who'd acquit themselves well against any Astarte's, strategists and tacticians who pull off some incredible victories, but there aren't enough of these standouts, and they don't have a legion-wide focus on anything except terror. If anything, their big saving grace is they're competent enough to leg it when a fight isn't winnable. However, they were still competent enough outside of their terror tactics as a Legion that they fought the Dark Angels to a stalemate for around 3 years, and were ultimately only defeated due to the Lion acquiring a plot device which broke all the rules of Warp travel. Also, Curze confronted the Lion at one point during this series of battles and gave the game away by telling the Lion that he was basically just stalling him. Bit stupid that, but sadly Curze was always a bit of a spaz.

Especially noteworthy is that the last time they really had to fight face-to-face, mano-a-mano, was right after the Heresy, when the Toilet Marines came looking for them on their fortress world of Tsagualsa. The Night Lords got slaughtered. Now, to be fair, by that time it was a while since they replenished their numbers after the Heresy. Additionally, in their stupidity, they chose to "bunker down" instead of using their typical hit-and-run tactics. Not to mention the fact that many warbands were not present, the Legion having started to split up after the death of Konrad and Sevatar. Also, the character recounting this, when challenged by another about "losing to the Ultramarines", points out that it wasn't JUST the Ultramarines chapter, but every successor chapter as well. He comments on Howling Griffons working side-by-side by Novamarines, while being supported by Genesis Chapter flanking maneuvers. He comments on how every single chapter involved was running by the same playbook (The Codex Astartes), in perfect unison, and pretty much without any dissension or rebellion (unlike the Night Lords). The result was that the Night Lords were pinned down, outflanked, bombarded, assaulted (or counter-assaulted), besieged and simply fucked over in every way in a textbook fashion. The Night Lords lost so badly that they fragmented and were never united as a whole force ever again (although there were signs of a semi-reunification in the period leading up to the 13th Black Crusade). And before you cry some "Wardian bullshit", this was in the Night Lords own book, written by a pretty cool guy (actually it was Games-Workshop's fluff that limited the Night Lords.). Besides, against a legion fighting in co-ordination, it was a given who would win, not bullshit. Notice the Codex Astartes clearly works well...when working with at least a thousand Marines or multiple Chapters together (as opposed to individual companies...something Astartes are largely too stupid to realize, apparently).

On that note, Night Lords aren't terribly big on helping each other out. Oh they won't usually just outright shoot each other in the back (usually being the operative word) but they operate far more like a group of space pirates than professional soldiers. As such, while they may be formidable individually, they tend to not work very well in large groups. This holds doubly true for large groups that lack a commander strong enough to hold them together. Both Curze and Sevatar were powerful enough to do this while they commanded, but after Curze died and Sevatar probably died, nobody else quite managed it.

Bear in mind that upon returning to this fortress planet, the Night Lords proceeded to get revenge on the Ultramarine Genesis Chapter, defeating them with the time-honored strategy of blowing up the fucking moon. Why fight fair when you have nukes?

Huron Blackheart worked out the best way to use the Night Lords: as an advance force for performing a crippling first strike on the enemy. When he assaulted the Marines-Errant in their home base, he asked for a detachment of Night Lords to find a way to let his main force into the Marines-Errant fortress. So, a squad of Night Lords scaled into the fortress-monastery and drew off the Marines-Errant and their serfs while a squad of Night Lords Raptors went higher up the fortress and destroyed the actual shield generators. So you offer them something they want, tell them what to fuck up, let them work out the details on their own and do their thing and, as Huron found out, don't expect them to help much in the actual fighting afterward (which to be fair Huron neither expected nor wanted) nor should you leave any shiny toys for them to elope with while you're busy (now that dit piss Huron off! Royally!). They employ Tohruk ogryns as well.

Fun Facts

• It is believed they're linked to Scary Marines.
• They are one of the few Astartes legions who actually think ambushing is a good idea, rather than standing in front of a line of guns and charging it.
• *NANANANANANANANANANANANANA BATMAN! Enough of this, we will write upon your neckbeard skin an explanation of why we find such jokes awful, but first, we need your fingerbones as styli.
• Kids check under their beds for the boogie man; the boogie man checks under his bed for Astartes; Astartes check under their beds for their captains; First Company Captains check under their beds for the Night Haunter.
• Konrad Curze is that thing that goes bump in the night... and he's heading this way.
• The Night Lords know all of the things you're afraid of, and they think they are utter shit-- wait 'til they show you what true horror is...
• The first, most brutal hour of any attack by the Night Lords against is more commonly called "Candyland Hour" for all good children...
• The Night Lords once discovered records of an ancient Terran mythological figure called "Santa Claus". Reading about this fat jolly man, they couldn't help but be both amused and annoyed with his jovial antics. They were impressed with his ability to get into any habitation block, no matter how well fortified (and assumed warp trickery was at play), his army of slaves in his polar fortress and his almost Orwellian list of "naughty and nice", but couldn't really understand the whole gift giving thing: good children don't get presents, they get the greatest gift of all! They get to live! Bad children... will be made an example of in the style of the Night Haunter and his criminal mob bosses. We'll see who's naughty and nice then.
• The Night Haunter used to keep a record of who was naughty and who was nice... and then severely punished those kids who were naughty (it involved disemboweling). Today, his sons don't keep a record-- they just disembowel whoever might be in the vicinity, naughty or niceness be damned.
• Upon reading about this 'Santa Claus' figure most Night Lords assumed he used some sort of jetbike or skimmer to get around; furthermore upon discovering that bad children get "lumps of coal" for their bad behavior in their stockings, the Night Lords hit upon a great idea: once a year they would deliver coal to all the children on a particular imperial world because "they are bad and thus must be vindicated". Coal themed terrorism was rampant. In what was known as "Ash Thursday" or the Night of 1000 Sorrows, the Night Lords proceeded to unleash a planetwide coal-themed reign of terror upon a hapless imperial world: coal was shoved in their stockings...and in their throats...then ignited; the local Mechanicus weather machine was set ablaze making it rain ash; various coal trucks were detonated raining coal onto hapless Imperial citizens; local water purification centers were destroyed (coal is used for cleaning); and countless Adeptus Mechanicus kidney dialysis machines were smashed. Then they set the weather machine to "snow" and took all the coal back into space so they'd freeze in their habitation blocks and let a note that said "next Sanguinala be a little nicer".
• Further research into the concept of Santa Claus led them to stumble upon an ancient documentary series about the Dark Age of Technology known as Futurama. In viewing this series, they discovered to their delight that Santa Claus was in fact a bloodthirsty, unstoppable Man of Iron who dispensed presents to the nice and punished the naughty. But nobody was ever nice enough to meet his standards, and so he horribly murdered virtually everyone he came across. Realizing that this was essentially exactly what the Night Haunter did on a daily basis, the Night Lords decided every year to dedicate their Sanguinala celebration to this sort of activity.
• Nostramo is described as being like Gotham City, if Gotham City had no lights, there was another Gotham City on top of it, and only mob bosses and rich scumbags got to enjoy sunlight and medicine. Also everyone had guns and Batman ate his victims. Oh did we mention the Night Haunter was so bad he made everyone "nice"? Yeah. Curze killed so fucking many criminals that the survivors were too scared to do crime anymore. At least until Curze left the planet.
• They stick bats in their helmets to help them fly.
• They don't get Daemons or other warp dickery, so they always go to sleep with ease without all the voices in their heads (other than their own psychotic subconsciousness).
• Aaron Dembski-Bowden (AKA the newest edition to the Bald Brotherhood of Awesome 40K Writers) has made them fucking GREAT. 10th Company GETS SHIT DONE!
• When the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, the Alpha Legion, or Black Legion (the only four legions that really give two shits about Chaos Undivided and even then the Iron Warriors aren't the biggest fans of it and the Alpha Legion are closet loyalists-- or are they really?) try to recruit them for their next great Black Crusade, the Night Lords usually tell them to piss off and send the messengers back in a box (or several).
• They are also the origin of the Raptor and Warp Talon units, the Chaos version of Assault Marines.
• They're probably lucky that those other legions are typically too busy to deal with probably the least threatening of the Chaos Space Marine Legions.
• They are probably as old as you could normally count, because they don't hang around in the Warp so much. Sort of. The Aaron Dembski-Bowden Night Lords book mentions Talos remembering the defeat at Terra as being only a few decades from his perspective due to chilling in the Warp. He does mention his bestie is getting crow's feet though from time outside of the warp. Since every single example of Astartes age never mentions them dying of age (including a lost company of Luna Wolves re-discovered by Abaddon eight thousand years after the Horus Heresy and a Salamander whose armor was fused to his ship ten thousand years ago was found by loyalists still alive), it's safe to say that yes, Astartes are freaking immortal. Stress-related physical aging of features, though, would be totally unsurprising. Even Space Marines can only take so much shit and see so much horror before it gets to them.
• That's not to say that the Night Lords aren't pants-shittingly terrifying. They know what they're good at and they stick to it.
• They've had enough common sense to survive for this long, despite having so many disadvantages compared to the other eight legions.
• Of course, this is relative, because when we talk about "sensible" in the context of Chaos, we mean "will hang you with your own intestines just for the hilarity of it", rather than "completely ignore the enemy army to attack a strategically worthless town to make sacrifices for the Dark Gods." It helps that their attacks are so low-key (except for the bombing a planet once and causing a MASSIVE psychic scream by torturing a bunch of astropaths and sending dozens of planets into psy-communicating-blank) that the Night Lords are not prioritized and actively hunted by the Imperium. Otherwise they'd likely be wiped out in short order (as mentioned above with the guys that have a toilet seat as their insignia kicking their asses). DOWN WITH THE BLUE-TRDZ!(Ehem)I mean smurfs...
• Of all the Night Lords Warbands there are mainly three "Chaos" Lords that still lead based on their vision of The Night Haunter's Legacy:
  • First there is Zso Sahaal, the "Talonmaster", former First Captain of the Legion. He was a Terran Legionnaire appointed by the Night Haunter following Sevatar's death. His flight from the rest of the Legion with the Corona Nox, the rightful crown of the Primarch's successor, earned him the title "The Betrayer" to some within the Legion, but he saw Curze's use of fear as focused and controlled in its use. Could be considered defunct, as no one had heard from him for ten thousand years, the First Company dissolved rather than follow him, and as soon as he got back into the setting, no one took his claims seriously of Curze making him his heir. Will likely never get further development, as his main writer left on bad terms with Games Workshop two decades ago.
  • Next is Krieg Acerbus, a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided, whose name is a combo of Latin and German meaning "violent war" (real subtle GW). Also known as the Axemaster, he leads the largest warband of Night Lords in the galaxy and claims that Curze wished his sons to terrorize the Imperium and devour its fear. He and Sahaal battled for the Corona Nox; Sahaal kept the crown, but lost an arm.
  • Lastly, there is Talos Valcoran. Formerly an Apothecary during the Heresy/Great Crusade, he bore the titles "Prophet of the VIII Legion" and "Soul Hunter". He earned the title of Soul Hunter for pursuing and killing M'Shen, the Callidus assassin that killed the primarch, for vengeance and out of love for his father rather than greed (a difference in ideology that he would come to despise his brethren for to some extent). He was also known for prophetic powers like his gene-father, earning him the title "Prophet of the VIII Legion". Eventually he came to succeed his Company Captain/Warband Leader, Vandred Anrathi in leading the Warband of the Exalted, following the Fall of Vilamus. Under Talos' command, it was renamed to the Warband of the Broken Aquila. He later died on Tsagualsa at the hands of the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar of the Howling Banshees. He succeeded in killing her (though "kill" is a strong term when it comes to Phoenix Lords) in a spectacular display of determination and vengeance, taking her down with him. Talos believed that the Night Lords were betrayed by the Imperium, and were its truest weapon of terror when called upon before the Emperor betrayed them. Talos' gene-seed would later be inherited by Decimus (who might be the son of Octavia, who was the navigator of the ship and Septimus, another slave and a friend of Talos in the warband), who in turn assumed command of his Warband and gained his gift of foresight.
• The Night Lords' character can be pretty well summed up with this song --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XncuY4wLaA8
  • Or this one --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2wzpfPFBlw
  • Ahem; https://youtube.com/watch?v=sApYX_R4LRo
  • No, you're both wrong! It's this song. It's proven more than effective against Imperial Guard regiments
  • This is the one --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dy28ef-_tA
  • cough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqds0B_meys
  • (You might be forgetting this one —-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQPWAJWAYNQ
  • Maybe this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFqjDXy9s5A
  • This one's obvious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSaDPc1Cs5U
  • Or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz1mEMiNPHQ
  • Seriously? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGSxJ-K1vL8
• The Night Lords actually treat their serfs pretty decently for a traitor legion. It's still not particularly pleasant, but it's better than being used as a sex toy, a sacrifice, a punching bag, a zombie, or getting eaten because the last meal was improperly prepared (it does happen on occasion) or being used for target practice for lulz etc.
  • To be fair, they do still randomly punch serfs into paste and/or hunt them for sport. Oh and they make them live in perpetual darkness too, because this is a Night Lord ship and you just have to get used to it. But they do at least seem to acknowledge that they need the serfs to survive. Sure, the serfs are 100% literal slaves but they are actually useful.
• They actually gave the idea of the vampire imagery to the Blood Angels.
• Once, a warband of Night Lords decided it would be fun to fuck with some Dark Eldars. In turn, the Dark Eldar Haemonculi hunted them down to a random planed, covered said world in perpetual darkness by blocking the planet's sun, then sent Mandrakes ( Dark Eldar who live in a subrealm of total darkness ). The Mandrakes assaulted the Night Lords so badly, appearing at random from the darkness, so much so that, after the Dark Eldar left and sunlight came back on, the Nigh Lords slept with the lights on at night from then on.

Night Lords Character

The character of the Night Lords is a bit...complicated. On one hand, sure, they are a legion of professional sadists, murderers, and (literal) terrorists that delight in preying upon the weak and defenseless at every opportunity. That's their MO. On the other hand, the Night Lords' actual personalities and motivations are surprisingly deep, varied, and intact, more so than probably any other Traitor Legion (especially after 10,000 years). They run the full gamut between bloodthirsty savages that believe terrorizing and killing are goals in and of themselves, and embittered philosophers that believe their methods once did and should still have purpose. Hell, there can even be the occasional comedian, cracking snide (and sometimes genuinely funny) jokes to his brothers while they carve their way through the screaming masses. With all those wildly differing personalities, the Night Lords are also about as dysfunctional a brotherhood as it gets, even by Traitor standards. They are (tenuously) bound by loyalty to Legion and Primarch, and may fight and die for each other on the battlefield, but off of it they all hate each other to some extent, and are in constant and heated disagreement as to the precise nature of their Legion and Primarch, and just how they should be fighting the Long War. Given just how batshit Curze was, they’re also all both right and wrong at the same time.

The Night Lords also have a bit of a dichotomy in regards to their treatment of slaves, with non-essential personnel being free to hunt for shits and giggles, while higher level officers and artificers are usually valued and protected to the point where they can have casual conversations and banter with the Astartes. The latter is something you don't see even in a good chunk of Loyalist chapters.

This all means it’s entirely possible that there are warbands of loyalist Night Lords out there. Crazy thought for a crazy(ier) Legion.

Notable Members

• Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter, primarch of the Night Lords, and batshit crazy mofo. Is what you'd get as the result of a teleporter accident involving Batman, Frank Castle, and Bill the Butcher. He was utterly convinced that his visions of the future were infallible and didn't react well whenever someone suggested or proved otherwise. Spent the Heresy dicking with the Dark Angels and Ultramarines until the Lion captured him a few times and broke his back. Let himself get shot by a Callidus assassin after the Heresy was over to prove his point about punishing evildoers.
• Sevatar: AKA Jago Sevatarion, but don't call him that if you like having your skin attached to your body. First Captain of the Night Lords during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. He was a snarky asshole who coined the battle cry "Death to the False Emperor!" and was also a psyker whose suppressed powers were slowly killing him. He may or may not be dead.
• Gendor Skraivok: The Painted Count, Captain of the 45th Company and makeup aficionado. Was secretly undermining Curze in collaboration with his family on Nostramo for the lulz. Became de facto commander of the Night Lords at the Siege of Terra, up until Raldoron kicked him off the Palace walls and he got sucked into the Warp to be tortured for four millennia by the daemon living in his sword because he was stupid enough to make a deal with it. Is now a daemon prince.
• Fel Zharost: Chief Librarian of the legion during the Great Crusade and a rare Terran-born Night Lord. Got kicked out after attacking Sevatar because he was upset about what the legion had become. Hid out on Terra for a while until Malcador recruited him for the Knights-Errant. He probably became Khyron, one of the first eight Grey Knights.
• Mawdrym Llansahai: Primus Medicae who was so bugfuck crazy and bloodthirsty that even the other Night Lords couldn't stand him. He was busted for performing unsanctioned vivisections and other nasty experiments and forced to paint his gauntlets red, the mark of a condemned man in the VIII Legion. Survived multiple assassination attempts by his own side and continued to be a crazy torturing psycho throughout the Heresy.
• Talos Valcoran: The Soul Hunter, formerly an Apothecary of the Night Lords' 10th Company. He inherited Papa Konrad's gift of foresight, which was just as good for his mental stability as it was for Curze's. He hunted down and killed M'Shen in the name of revenge, then later cut himself loose from his warband after a few millennia of them just dicking around and torturing people for the lulz and went on a tear through the Imperium, getting shit done in a badass way. Pulled a mutual kill with Jain Zar.
• Zso Sahaal: Star of the first Night Lords-focused Black Library book. Allegedly the chosen heir of Konrad Curze and one of the pioneers/leaders of the Raptors during the Great Crusade, Sahaal was notable/mocked for being a true follower of Curze's mantra that fear was a weapon to be wielded for greater purpose and believed that the Emperor had genuinely betrayed the Night Lords. Due to Eldar machinations, he spent 10,000 years in the Warp and emerged into the 41st Millennium knowing nothing about the current state of the galaxy. When he summoned the Night Lords to a planet he was busy terrorizing as he tried to recover one of the Night Haunter's relics, he discovered just how 10,000 years of the Long War had twisted the Night Lords into true monsters. Supposedly he tried to reclaim leadership of the Legion and was laughed off as just another pretender. As the author of his book is no longer with Black Library, it's not likely he will be revisited, but he has been referred to in Horus Heresy novels.
• Krieg Acerbus: Axemaster and current leader of the largest Night Lords warband in the galaxy. Ascended to daemonhood at some point, making him one of the rare Night Lords who is fully onboard with Chaos. His name translates from German (Krieg) and Latin (Acerbus) to "harsh/severe/violent war", just in case he wasn't enough of an edgelord already. Believed himself to be the Night Haunter's chosen heir and relished spreading fear, terror, and slaughter for their own sake.
• Decimus: New leader of Talos' warband after Talos blew himself up to kill Jain Zar. Inherited Talos' gene-seed, along with his gift of foresight and all the cool gear of the dead Night Lords who'd been in the warband.
• Lucoryphus: Raptor Commander, and the first Traitor Astartes to land on the Imperial Palace Walls during the Siege of Terra. Commands the Bleeding Eye, comprised of the best of Night Lord Chaos Raptors and Warp Talons. Currently serving as one of Decimus's lieutenants.

Nightly Rituals

17:00 - The Night Lords awake. It takes them a while to safely get down from their caves.

17:30 - Evening Meal. The Night Lords have a light meal by drinking the blood of captured civilians.

18:00 - Evening Firing Rites. The Night Lords conduct covert firing practice on unsuspecting Imperial citizens or Chaos worshipers. The Night Lords' serfs can't tell the exact period their masters strike as they often see a skinned and maimed body the moment they look away. Unlike traditional legions: kill-shots are considered a demerit and everyone is constantly perfecting their art of making the most efficient and painful wounding shot.

19:00 - Evening Terror Tactics. The Night Lords warm up by terrorizing the planet they will be raiding later in the night. Again the serfs have no idea when or how their masters accomplish this without getting caught.

20:45 - Snack Break. The Night Lords take a fifteen miniute break for milk and cookies. Naturally enough, the contents of the cookies varies, from being made from bone meal and blood to macadamia nut. Skeleton designs drawn on in white icing are personalised, but mandatory.

21:00 - Tactical Indoctrination. The Night Lords finally assemble in the stratagem-ampitheatre and plan out how to maximize the amount of terror they can bring about hapless populace of tonight's world. Serfs are typically commanded out of the room to spare them the nightmares of whatever they hear their masters discuss inside.

01:00 - Nighttime Firing Rites. Now the Night Lords strike. Unlike raids from other legions, there is only a ten percent death rate amongst their targets. Everyone else is helplessly maimed by bolter shots to the knees and elbows.

02:00 - Nighttime Terror Tactics. Here the Night Lords test their true skill as hunters of the dark. Those who manage to survive their opening salvos are sadistically hunted down and maimed slowly.

05:00 - "Decorating". Anyone still alive is dismembered and their still-living corpse nailed to a wall inspire fear. The Night Lords then finish up by activating an enemy distress call so that their friends can appreciate their work.

08:00 - Morning Meal. A feast is prepared by the serfs. This time the Night Lords have given up on their act and sit and munch down on the food.

09:00 - Free Time. The Night Lords occupy their free time by watching and reading an antique and legendary proto-Night Lord who calls himself as 'Batman'. Night Lords are often inspired by this ancient Terran vigilante of justice and terror and often tries their best to mimic him (whilst selectively ignoring the foolish decision to avoid killing his prey). It should also be noted of popular reading is a delightful novel series set in M3 called "The Punisher" written by ancient Terran scribe Garth Ennis. The night lords find Frank Castle's hard boiled murder sprees to be a delightful romp. For comedy, the sons of Curze amuse themselves with laughter when the character "Jigsaw" shows up.

12:00 - Rest Period. The Night Lords go back to their caves, hang upside down with their legs and prepare to sleep.

Gallery

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  According to Lexicanum, a depiction of Talos Valcoran, the Soul Hunter.

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  Definitely not in a Batman pose.

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  I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky...

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  'Sup, Darkclaw?

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  Masters of Stealth

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  That guardsman will be FINE, he swears.

The Traitor Legions and Warbands of Chaos
Chaos Legions:	Alpha Legion - Black Legion - Death Guard Emperor's Children - Iron Warriors - Night Lords Thousand Sons - Word Bearers - World Eaters
Legion Offshoots:	Apostles of Contagion - Bloodborn - Broken Aquila Foresworn - Mouldering Claw - Plague Fleet - Prodigal Sons The Consortium - Warband of Subsector Aurelia
Fallen Chapters (Including Judged):	Adharon's Reavers - Blood Gorgons - Company of Misery Corpus Brethren - Crimson Slaughter - Deathmongers Death Shadows - Invocators - Lords of Decay Oracles of Change - Red Corsairs - Shriven The Brazen Beasts - The Flawless Host - The Scourged Skyrar's Dark Wolves - Steel Cobras - Voidrippers
Unknown/ Other:	Apostles of Minthras - Claws of Lorek - Disciples of Destruction Dragon Warriors - Extinction Angels - Hakanor's Reavers - Punishers The Cleaved - The Purge - The Pyre - Sons of Malice - Sons of Vengeance The Reborn - Violators - Warp Ghosts - Bleak Brotherhood