Nocterra

> There are monsters in this galaxy, my sons. Monsters that should not exist, part of our heritage as a species from the darkest days of the Dark Age of Technology and Old Night. There’s horrors must be fought, and I swear to you, this will be our calling. We will become a brotherhood of one mind and body, dedicated to this most singular of pursuits. Let Solaris and his Supernal Seraphs claim glory as they peacock before the enemy. Let the galaxy believe that the XIXth Legion, this Celestial Host, are theirs and us but an afterthought. We will know better. We will strike from the darkness! We will know no fear, for we will clad ourselves in it! We will know no mercy, for what we face deserves none! We will be the darkened blade! Stand with me now, my Angelis Noctem!
>
> Nocterra upon meeting her legion for the first time

**Nocterra**, Primarch of the Angelis Noctem, lunar branch of the Celestial Host, XIXth *Legiones Astartes* is known by many names; "The Dark Lady, "The Mistress of the Slumbering World", "The Daughter of the Emperor", "Kinslayer", each a title earned or bestowed upon her, never demanded of others. Regardless of what she is known as, she stands utterly apart amongst the pantheon of the Primarch's, unique in visage as well as power. A psyker rivalled in potency by the Emperor and her twin, Solaris alone, Nocterra long ago threw off the male form she had been created with, knowing in a heartbeat that such was not her true form. Weaving a new form for herself through the immaterium, Nocterra made herself anew, her new guise suiting her far more completely than her birth body ever had, and yet forever marking her as different, te sole daughters in a family of brothers.

Taking up arms for the Imperium, Nocterra strode onto the galactic stage not to the thunderous applause and blaring fanfare that greeted most other Primarchs, her twin included, but instead with the quiet whisper of night eternal. She was no master assassin like the shadowy figure of Haqis'rahk, twin Primarch of the Umbral Blades, and yet where she moved, the night followed, wrapping her in its darkness, veiling her from others sight. Indeed, for a time few even knew she existed, even her brothers not meeting her the moment of her unification with the Imperium, the light shining from Solaris obfuscating her own form entierly. When she did finally become known, little new truthes were brought to light, Nocterra and her legion ever the introverted sort, keeping themselves, their knowledge and skills, and most importantly their chosen prey, strictly to themselves.

Many dismissed Nocterra for this, believing she skulked in the shadows for fear of the light. Nocterra cared little for their assessment of her, indeed she perpetuated it, ensuring that she would remain ever overlooked, allowing her to continue her appointed task free of gainsayers or those who would hold her back. When pushed however, such as during the Great Secession, Nocterra held nothing back, proving herself one of the most compitent duelists of the age, the match for any of her brothers, her fightning style, mentality and desires a mystery to all, giving her the supreme advantage on the battlefield. Nocterra cared nothing for 'morality' of lesser beings, as evidenced by her seemingly sadistic tendancies or predilection towards terror tactics. This was not strictly true, Nocterra gaining no pleasure from the acts she took, they were simply tasks to be completed, lives of those below her to be cut short, for while Nocterra claims she is nothing like her hated twin, she knows the undeniable truth of the matter; both Primarchs were cut from the same cloth, and no matter how much she attempts to bury it, the personality, pride and sense of superiority that Solaris showcases and broadcasts with glee, is inexorably a reflection of her own mentality, Nocterra simply being utterly secure in her own ascendance, needing no validation from others, while Solaris forever craved such adulation.

## History

### The Lady of the Night

When the Emperor set about creating the Sire of the XIXth Legion, he poured into them his own Psychic might, forging a Primarch who would be closer to his ultimate power than any of his brothers, a singular example of Psychic might within the Primarch’s pantheon. As with all their kind however, the vengeful powers of the warp played their own hand, scattering the young primarch’s to the four corners of the galaxy, one in particular taking an interest in the young sire of the XIXth. For an eternity and an instant, the gods of the warp whispered in the mind of the young Primarch, always being rebutted, but always worming deeper, never able to push beyond the surface. Had this continued, the gods may even have been denied his prize, but the weaver of fates was not one to surrender easily, nor to allow any problem to defeat him for long.

As the Primarch’s pod finally crashed through the veil of the warp above the world that would become the Primarch’s home, the Chaos Gods lashed out with but a fragment of his power, the tendrils of energy slicing at the Primarch’s very soul, splitting it in half in one fell swoop. Suddenly, the being that had once been singular was now two, each a twin of the other. Into one went the Primarch’s fire, his power and righteousness given to him by the Emperor himself, that which had temporarily resisted even the Weaver of Fates himself. But into the other twin went the Primarch’s spite, his ambitions, his grand designs. In him, the gods  had crafted the perfect host for his power, one forever touched, however unknowingly, by his power, a being of pure psychic might who forever belonged to the ruinous powers.

Though Nocterra was created in the guise of a male as had all the Primarchs, something changed within the young child as the pod crashed to the ground of Noxim, two being leaving where before there had been only one. The first, that which would become Solaris, took on the guise of the older brother, the one who would lead the pair through this new land, and who would ensure that all knew their names, something he soon forgot, ensuring only one of their names was truly known.

For the other however, Nocterra to future generations, such was not desired, the young primarch wishing to remain in the shadows, to watch first before acting rashly. The other would not be dissuaded however, dragging his kin alongside him. Just as they were night and day in their outlook on life, so too did Nocterra realise that they were far more different than simply a disagreement in personalities, and in that moment, a more fundamental change was wrought, the great psionic potential of the child moulded his, or rather her, flesh anew, Nocterra forever standing as the sister to Solaris, never one to rise to her brothers boasts, always watching, planning the move that would see the easiest path to their goal unfold, without taking undue risks.

In those early days, the still unnamed Nocterra had little sway over her impulsive brother, contenting herself with following his lead for the time being. However, when the unnamed Solaris made plain his plans to use the mighty orbital artifact known only as the *Mantle of Deliverance* to give light to a world which had never known such, Nocterra finally stepped forth and made plain her disagreements. For days the pair sparred, the heavens cracking in the display of their power, those who dwelt on Noxim sure that the gods themselves were angered by some transgression. When finally the fight had ended, it was Solaris who stood victorious, his immense psychic power radiating off him as he descended from the flattened mountains he had done battle upon. As he walked, he cast his mind upwards, grasping the *Mantle* and infusing it with his power, the moon resisting for but a moment, before its light rays exploded outwards, bathing the planet, and Solaris, in the light of a star. Those who saw Solaris’s descent wept tears of joy as they fell to their knees, many blinded by his radiance, but all chanting the same two words; Solaris! Lightbringer! Solaris! Lightbringer!

So was the first twin named, Solaris, the Lightbringer, God of the Sun. Few saw his sister however, walking in the long shadow he now cast. Bruised from the fight yet already planning for the future, Nocterra’s eyes went not to the light, but to the darkness. What dwelt there that may now be awoken? She did not have to wait long to find out.

Terrible creatures from the time before Old Night who slept in the darkness now found their homes invaded by the uncaring light. When the sun had passed, they awoke to wreak havoc on the populace, none able to stand against them. None, save Nocterra.

Night after night did stand alone, Solaris dismissing her claims that the beasts were a clear and present threat, too focused on the adulation of his people. The death toll rose as inevitably, some creatures got into the city, Nocterra not able to stop them all, but here, she was finally seen.

As she fought against their kind, others flocked to her side. Though small in number they took up weapons and helped to drive the beasts back. Soon, more flocked to this new being who protected then without need for thanks or praise, though far less than those who flocked to Solaris. Soon, there was a new god of Noxim, one of the night and moon, not of the sun. So to was Nocterra named, stepping into her new role as the Dark Lady.

Finally, the inevitable happened, and the Emperor arrived on Noxim, his own radiance eclipsing even that of Solaris. The pair were raised to the legion, the Emperor gifting them their own legion to rule over, while supplying scores upon scores of psykers to keep the artificial ‘sun’ of Noxim ablaze as Solaris moved away. For Solaris, this was a great blessing, promising to bring light to yet more worlds in the name of the Emperor, but for Nocterra, it was naught but another task to be undertaken, the Emperor entrusting her with the knowledge few others would ever possess. The creatures on Noxim were not the only ones of their kind, nor were they even the greatest, the Emperor’s own Custodes combating them at times, the order of the Shadowkeepers striking against these most terrible of foes. As the XIXth Legion into the Celestial Host, Nocterra and her chosen Angelis Noctem would continue her ever-appointed task, aiding the Shadowkeepers in their eternal war against the terror of ancient man.

### The Black Star Rift

Since the earliest days either of them could remember, the two Primarch’s of the XIXth Legion had stood apart, in word, deed and, while neither of them knew it, metaphysical composition, a subtle sense of wrongness rolling out from both Primarch’s to the other, only sensible due to their prestigious psychic powers. It is of little surprise then that the pair never formed any bond but one of enmity and hatred, even as they walked the near pitch black surface of Noxim together for decades, keeping their own company and remaining away from the humans who scurried in the darkness.

This all changed when Solaris, or at least the being who would come to wear that name in time, first discovered the *Mantle of Deliverance*, a ball of perfectly sculpted crystal hanging in orbit around the world of Noxim, forged in an age long past with the express purpose of amplifying psychic abilities. Were a mortal psyker to stand upon its surface, their powers would be increased drastically, but for a primarch, the effect was extraordinary. Solaris’s powers were magnified to unthinkable levels, allowing the Primarch to change the *Mantle of Deliverance* into a facsimile of a star, giving light and warmth to the world below.

While the Primarch who would soon be named Nocterra by her followers focused her attention on what had awoken as light covered the world anew, Solaris instead set about examining the *Mantle of Deliverance*, seeking to unlock its power while his subjects below fell to worshipping him like the god on high he truly was. Such an artefact as the *Mantle of Deliverance* had infinite secrets, one could spend a lifetime there and only scratch the surface, but there was one that Solaris found that would change everything, not an inanimate object, but an entity of the Sea of Souls; Tuchulcha.

Tuchulcha was a fickle being, never one to give its power simply to anyone, but while it did not trust Solaris, it did see into the skeins of the future with ease, parting the potential and the certain to arrive at a single conclusion; Solaris would take it where it wished to go. Solaris was unaware of Tuchulcha’s duplicity, the warp entity clever and subtle enough to give the Solar Deity no reason to doubt it, and so, Tuchulcha became the trusted confidant of Solaris, feeding the Primarch a censored version of the truth, never enough to provide all answers, but always enough to build trust and force the Primarch to return time and time again, wishing to hear more of what Tuchulcha had to offer.

None within Solaris’s court, nor his legion after the arrival of the Imperium, knew of Tuchulcha’s existence, a special chamber constructed on the *Sol Invictus* by servitor drones, Solaris erasing their minds from existence the instant upon its construction, their bodies burnt away to nothing soon after. For decades, Tuchulcha would remain a secret, Solaris believing himself its master. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

As the Great Crusade wore on, Solaris’s questions began to take on a different feel, no longer about what he would do, but of what he was, a question Tuchulcha had waited to answer since the first day the pair had met. Solaris asked what he truly was, knowing he was not like his brothers or sister, and in his own way, Tuchulcha answered truthfully, never telling a lie, but never telling a full truth. Worlds were selected by the warp entity, worlds that it said would hold answers for Solaris, and without hesitation, Solaris followed the path laid before him, the Supernal Seraph’s criss-crossing the galaxy seemingly at random, keeping to no military path and subjugating worlds seemingly at random. At times they would assist Imperial Forces, like they did upon the world of Carnaum with the Imperial Wardens Army Group, while at others they would land to subjugate entire worlds without support, often worlds assigned to other legions that they simply had not yet reached, such as the world of Brakanal IV, where Umbral Blades operatives had been preparing the world for a seamless and bloodless takeover, the Supernal Seraph’s arriving and invading far in advance of the IIIrd legions own planned compliance of the world. This earnt them no small amount of enmity amongst the other legions, who saw the legion as flaunting common strategy and Imperial High Commanders orders, but Solaris cared little for this, continuous requests for reports and updates on his actions going unanswered, the Supernal Son seemingly already a master unto himself, a cold reflection of what was to come.

Each of these worlds held nothing for the solar Primarch, and yet each world unlocked a door just the same, steering him further along the path Tuchulcha desired. A choice word here, a subtle stroking of the ego there. For all his pomp and grandeur, his correct viewpoint that he was indeed a god, Solaris was not omnipotent, putty in the ancient warp entity’s hands. Eventually, after nearly a decade of random jumps, Imperial High Command teetering on the verge of declaring the entire legion renegade and calling them to account by force if required, the Supernal Seraph’s fleet arrived above the world of an ancient people; Xenobia, of the Interexine Star Empire.

The Interex were a noble people, one whose ambitions for unity rivalled the Emperor’s own, but where the Emperor used conquest, the Interex used diplomacy, bringing others into their fold peacefully, even xenos breeds such as the kinebrach within their ranks. Where one of the more moderate Primarch’s of the Imperium to have encountered the star empire; Ayenwathaa of the Storm Riders, Eshmun Kadluk of the Keepers of the Flame or Alexios Justarion of the Paragon Order, peace might have been a true and viable option. Instead, Solaris made war upon these people without hesitation or parlay, Tuchulcha spilling the great purpose of the Interex Empire; to fight the force of Kaos.

Kaos, or to give it the true names that Tuchulcha ascribed to the force, the Primordial Truth or simple Chaos, was a word already known to Solaris, Tuchulcha having used it many times to further goad the Primarch into action. Tuchulcha knew its true purpose however, but Solaris remained blissfully unaware of such things, believing Chaos to simply be a force within the galaxy such as gravity, both the Supernal Seraph’s and the despised Angelis Noctem understanding that the warp was far more than simply an other realm, knowing that it was inhabited by creatures of pure thought and emotion. What neither grasped however was that the Warp was sentient, Chaos no more a force of nature than the Orks were. It was an entity more than capable of malevolent thought, and it had been Solris’s true creator, splitting the Primarch from Nocterra at the moment of their scattering.

The Interex were powerful, their ornamental arms and armour easily able to cut through Astartes Power Armour and resist bolt shells, though the warriors within were mere humans and often died from the concussive qualities of the legions weapons, even as their armour remained intact. They were no match for a legion at war however, and in short order, their empire was put to grass, Solaris careful not to damage their history and knowledge, finally coming to understand the truth of Kaos.

This was the final spark that lit the fire within Solaris, his mind opening to the galactic truth of the Primordial Creator. Like a dam being broken, one piece of knowledge spiralled into two others, and from there each piece into two more. For close to a year, Solaris and the Supernal Seraph’s remained within the Interexine Empire, delving deep into all the vaults of the now dead empire, bringing their wealth of knowledge to Solaris. Imperial high Command would not stand for this, finally sending an Investigation Fleet to bring orders to Solaris and the Supernal Seraph’s to report to the nearby staging ground of Kalo III, there to answer for their actions and to accept a new assignment. The Investigation Fleet would never return, Solaris and his sons slaughtering the Imperial forces without hesitation or remorse. Imperial high Command was shocked by this, the act of a legion publicly murdering loyal Imperial soldiers utterly unprecedented.

If they believed that would be the worst of Solaris’s transgressions however, they were sorely mistaken. In possession of all the knowledge he required, Solaris and his sons struck at Imperial Worlds, close to a dozen burning, most of their populations slaughtered, those with Psychic Prowess or potential dragged back to the legions fleet in chains. The Legion was quickly declared Traitoris Maximus, but aided by Tuchulcha, none could bring them to battle, the fleet performing impossible warp jumps from inside systems, easily escaping the warriors of the Imperium. At the height of his insanity, Solaris and his sons struck at one of the nigh on mythical Black Fleets, those vessels crewed by the Silent Sisterhood that stalked the void lanes of the Imperium, gathering psykers as tithes from Imperial Worlds. The Silent Sisters were amongst the greatest warriors against Psykers, and yet even they could not stand before a massed legion, their ships seized, their precious cargo secured.

With this final conquest, the Supernal Seraph’s return to their homeworld of Noxim, Solaris transferring Tuchulcha to the surface of the *Mantle of Deliverance* alongside the thousands of psykers he had taken captive. Arranged upon the Psy-moon in geo-centric patterns, these slaves were tortured, their souls flensed away as their flesh brunt, their powers siphoned from their bodies and prepared to inhabit a new host; Solaris.

This ritual would have allowed Solaris to ascend to the realm of the gods, a prince of Chaos itself, but such would not come to pass. Nocterra and the Angelis Noctem struck at their twins, arranged in a single mailed fist that struck with characteristic speed and brutality. They held nothing back in their assault, determined that either they would end Solaris’s insanity, or they would be ended by it, either way absolving themselves of their links with the traitor.

The fighting was brutal even before the Angelis Noctem reached the surface, Nocterra managing to guide much of her fleet into the system in secret, bypassing the larger Supernal Seraph fleet and achieving high orbit around the *Mantle of Deliverance*, battle joined by hundreds of warships, chief amongst them Solaris’s own flagship, the *Sol Invictus*. Nothing could stand before the Gloriana vessel, even as Angelis Noctem ships launched boarding torpedoes filled with tens of thousands of drug crazy servitors or Ogryn Charonites, expendable fodder that could not be ignored, allowing Nocterra’s own flagship, the *Blade of Salvation* to close the gap with her counterpart.

In a straight fight, the far larger *Sol Invictus* would likely have triumphed in the clash of titans, but commanded by Nocterra herself, the result was different. Psychic runes along its surface were empowered beyond the norm by Nocterra herself, using her undeniable might to make the enemy ship all but invulnerable to any incoming fire, but more importantly, to anything seeking to leave the vessel as well. With a thought, the psy-fuel that powered the ships plasma weaponry, making up nearly all of the warships weapons, detonated, consuming the entire flagship in a fireball that should have destroyed every ship for hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Only the shield Nocterra still held in place prevented this, only dropped when the *Sol Invictus* was no more than atoms floating in the void.

The blow to the Supernal Seraph’s morale was immense, the Angelis Noctem capitalising on this to effect a landing upon the *Mantle of Deliverance* itself, fully thirty thousand Astartes deploying from the full range of the Angelis Noctem’s armoury. Nothing was held in reserve, the fleet withdrawing to ensure they themselves were not boarded now they had no Astartes left to repel such a threat. None of the Angelis Noctem believed they would return alive, Nocterra herself proclaiming this would be their final action. They had a single goal; the death of Solaris himself, those Supernal Seraph’s who followed him could be hunted down by other legions at a later date. The Angelis Noctem would strike the head from the serpent, clean their own house, even if it cost them their lives.

Cost them it did, hundreds perishing in the first instant of the landing, the number only continuing to rise, and yet like a speartip the smaller force punched into the Supernal Seraph’s, led by the Lunar Guard and the newly created Nullifactors. Finally, a gap was opened, the terminator armoured units of the legion turning to hold it as Nocterra streaked through, cutting her way through the elite of her brothers forces, before finally coming face to face with Solaris once more in the heart of the great crystalline moon, a vast empty cavern continuing naught but Nocterra, Solaris, and Tuchulcha itself, the cold but whole corpse of a child standing before it, having apparently been speaking to Solaris only moments before.

No words were spoken between the two Primarch’s, even as a flurry of psychic communication leapt between the pair. To an outsider, it would have seemed like Nocterra required no preamble, charging her brother with blades drawn, furthering her reputation as cold and merciless, willing to kill even her twin without an utterance. This view was not true, but it was something Nocterra never disputed ether, using it to her own advantage to spread more misinformation about herself.

The pair clashed with a thunderclap that cracked the walls, centuries of enmity finally finding a vent on the other as sickle shaped Divining Blades were met with pure psychic manifestations, Solaris proving once more why he was regarded as the greatest psycker of the primarch’s, not Nocterra, his power manifesting outwardly with consummate ease. As skilled as she was, Solaris countered every move she made, launching hundreds of psionic bolts at her and forcing her to dodge and weave, not able to continue her uninterrupted flurry of attacks as was her way.

While Solaris was powerful however, his sister was near his equal, also empowered by the *Mantle of Deliverance* and further pushed onwards by rage and righteous fury. Solaris required more strength, more than the human slaves he was still draining of their essence, and luckily for him, he had a far greater reserve at his disposal. It may cost him ground in the battle outside, but this fight was all that mattered. The Supernal Seraph’s had always been an oddity of a legion, spawned by what was now clearly chaos-tainted geneseed, they had suffered from none of the abnormalities of the Angelis Noctem that had so hampered the other part of the Celestial Host. They were made strong by their geneseed, but that power was not theirs, the legion simply borrowing it from their lord, repayment now coming due.

Across the battle sphere, thousands of Supernal Seraph’s screamed in pure agony and terror as their souls were ripped from their bodies, leaving naught but lifeless, shriveled husks behind, Solaris swelling with this reclaimed power. For all Nocterra’s skill, she was unable to match her brother now, thrown to the floor, her blades skittering away from her, Solaris laughing as he sauntered forward, arrogant as always and utterly sure of his own supremacy.

Finally, Tuchulcha spoke, its voice ringing out not to Solaris, but to Nocterra. This had always been its end goal, a way for the warp entity to make contact with one it would truly serve, and with a whispered word that only she could hear, Tuchulcha spoke of the path to victory, Nocterra having no option other than to attempt what it suggested.

Though he had been the first to discover it and harness its powers centuries ago, and though he hated to admit it, Solaris knew that the *Mantle of Deliverance* had always resisted his touch, far more than it had Nocterra’s. Perhaps it was his way of demanding power rather than working to unlock it as an equal, Solaris’s cocksure attitude of utter supremacy working against him in his endeavours. Perhaps it was Nocterra’s more focused attitude towards her psychic ability, Solaris preferring to expand his mind in all direction while Nocterra delved deeper in fewer subjects. Perhaps it was simply the metaphysical nature of Solaris claiming to be a Sun God, while Nocterra was the Goddess of the Night, the *Mantle of Deliverance* a Psy-moon, not a Psy-Sun.

Whatever the reason, Nocterra used this to her advantage now, plunging her hands deep into the well of psychic energy she could call upon and unleashing it in a searing beam, any looking upon it save the two Primarch’s finding their eyes burnt from their sockets, their very comprehension of sight itself vanishing in that instant. The power was unimaginable, the white crystal of the *Mantle of Deliverance* darkening at her touch, becoming pitch black, and yet Nocterra did not take it into herself, instead focusing and directing it straight at her hated brother.

Solaris let out a roar of agony as the power overwhelmed him, his body expanding and cracking, mutating under the baleful energies Nocterra forced him to absorb. He could not control the power she directed at him, and with a final scream of impotent rage, he exploded, the power tearing him apart, a tear in the fabric of reality opening from his passing.

All across the galaxy, no matter their distance from the *Mantle of Deliverance*, Supernal Seraph’s let out a scream of their own, even the now imprisoned warrior of the Crusader Host on distant Terra not spared. Souls were ripped free and dragged into the warp, until all that was left of the once mighty Supernal Seraph’s were withered and shriveled husks, night but once full shells. It was believed that none survived the event, Nocterra and her Angelis Noctem still not grasping the truth behind Chaos, seeing it simply as a new name for the Immaterium, failing to see the true sentience that lay beneath.

The Angelis Noctem had been victorious, the Solar Rebellion ended, but the cost was nearly beyond counting. Of the thirty thousand who had begun the assault, barely half now remained, and though they now could take the entirety of what remained of the Supernal Seraph’s armoury, they were still a diminished legion.

   As they struggled to rebuild, forced to rely on cobbled together armour bearing a distinctive studden look that would soon come to be officially codified as the MkV Xenocide armour, an Edict of Obliteration was passed by the Emperor of Mankind, carried out ruthlessly and completely, all traces of the Supernal Seraph’s purged from records, those who knew of them to remain silent under threat of execution, from either the Emperor or Nocterra herself. The XIXth Legion was now and had always been the Angelis Noctem, Nocterra the sole primarch of that genetic line, Solaris and his sons wiped away in utter shame.

The Supernal Seraph’s were no more, records of them wiped out, even the Angelis Noctem’s records purged. Only a single reference to the final, cataclysmic battle remained outside of Nocterra’s eidetic memory, a single phrase that was ominous in its finality; The Black Star Rift.

Soon, the Angelis Noctem were attached to the IIIrd Legion, the Umbral Blades, their diminished numbers making crusading alone an impossibility. It was here that a firm bond was formed between the two legions, Nocterra warming, albeit slightly, to Haqis'rahk, showing him some of the secrets of her legion that no other had been privy to. However, even this had its limits, Haqis'rahk only permitted to see what Nocterra wished him to see, some secrets still kept, such as the continued existence of Tuchulcha. The warp engine had proved instrumental in the victory against Solaris and the Supernal Seraph’s, and in so doing earnt some of Nocterra’s trust, while in return, Tuchulcha had found one he was willing to truly serve.

Tuchulcha would be instrumental not only in the Rangdan Wars, aiding in the strike at the Rangdan Queen and allowing for a seemingly impossible warp jump, but also in the Great War that followed, Nocterra and the Angelis Noctem taking up arms against the Emperor of Mankind, joining with the Secessionist cause without hesitation. With Tuchulcha aiding them, the legion became a force of terror amongst the Loyalist forces, too few in number to truly affect the course of the war on the battlefield, but able to bypass blockades, jumping to undefended worlds untouched by the war, bringing with them the force of will to put such innocents to the torch, spreading terror amongst the loyalist forces. They were brutal, but they were effective, far more so than they would be in conventional combat.

## Personality

Almost the polar opposite of Solaris as with so many other things, Nocterra is a reclusive individual, preferring the quiet of the dark and the obscuring haze of blackest night. She is not shy, for she is a daughter of the Emperor and will happily stand before the population of entire worlds and give voice to mighty speeches if that is what is required, but that is not where she thrives.

A lifetime of almost completely solitary warfare has led to Nocterra keeping her own council, comfortable in her own company, and only opening up to those few who can get close to her, almost all of them from the Angelis Noctem and later Haqis’rahk of the Umbral Blades. She is an introvert, plain and simple, and will often disappear into conjured darkness at the soonest opportunity, unwilling to remain behind for celebrations in the wake of conquest or other such open and populated events.

Her personality however has two very distinct periods of difference, separated somewhat predictably as before the Solar Rebellion, when Solaris walked the galaxy, and after, where she had struck him down herself, to all her knowledge, killing her twin.

In the first instance, she was always cold and distant, her mind fixed on victory at all costs, but she also held herself to a different standard than Solaris did, ensuring she never slipped into the peacocking territory he did, her actions calculated for the here and now. This worked perfectly, as during the Great Crusade, where compliance actions were often unlinked and an aura of fear gained in previous victories did little to help with the current compliance, this doubly so for the Angelis Noctem, who rarely fought standard compliance actions to secure worlds, fighting as she did against extremely specific targets.

This changed sharply in the wake of the Solar Rebellion. Whether it was simply the act of striking down her twin, or if part of Solaris re-bonded to her after two centuries apart, something within Nocterra changed. Blood that once ran cold purely in battle now ran as ice in all but the most familiar of surroundings, mercy a concept long since actively put to grass. Nocterra and her Angelis Noctem fought through the Rangdan War with this change vastly unnoticed, no one expecting any of the legions to show mercy to xenos, but during the Great War, this finally became known.

Forces that had surrendered were cut down the instant their weapons were removed from their hands, worlds that held no strategic advantage were laid to waste, civilians a very real target.This was not however the mindless insanity of the Harbingers, who unleashed themselves to mindless fury during the war, the Angelis Noctem were never let off the leash, nocterra never acting out of blind fury. Instead, her rage was concentrated, refined, honed into a single, simple message, a challenge and a threat to the loyalist forces in totality:

“You turned upon your own kind, now behold the repercussions of your betrayal. Every man, woman, child, the old and young, the weak and the infirm, all shall be snuffed from existence for standing beside you. You stole away the possibility of mercy when you turned upon the first founds, and with these deaths, the Imperium will be set right once more.”

It has never been recorded how many the Angelis Noctem slew in their campaign of terror, though numbers in the billions are often quoted. Nor is it recorded how many switched sides or surrendered to other Secessionist forces without a single shot being fired in fear of drawing the eye of the XIXth, but what is known is that Nocterra never apologised for her actions during the war, in all the millenia after peace was finally achieved. Even as others called for her to pay penance for her supposed crimes, she held to her calling and her actions, always believing that she was in the right, and that thanks to her cold, merciless atrocities, the war was ended far sooner than if she had fought as her more ‘noble’ brothers did.