Black Legion - Age of Apotheosis, M40-M42: The Hungering Prince (Unknown Date.M40) - Glutgora, a Daemon Prince of Nurgle, invades the Agri-world of Pilentos with a massive force of Black Legionaries. While the Chaos Space Marines crush every vestige of Imperial resistance, Glutgora gorges itself on the weave-worms of the planet's sprawling silk farms. Insatiable in its hunger, the Daemon Prince consumes everything and everyone in its path, swelling to immense proportions with the meat of worm and man. Eventually, Glutgora bursts in a tide of festering organs and rancid effluvia, and a million Nurglings crawl out from its corpse. The planet is declared Perditas by the Inquisition and quarantined indefinitely.The Penumbra Prophecy (Unknown Date.M40) - Abaddon is guided by the visions of Zaraphiston to an Eldar Crone World. In the ruins of an ancient Wraithbone city littered with skeletons, the Sorcerer leads the Warmaster of Chaos to a room where a tapestry of flayed skin covers the walls from floor to ceiling. Upon its surface Abaddon reads a prophecy that reveals the secrets of six weapons of immense power.12th Black Crusade (139.M41) - Better known as the Gothic War in Imperial space, the 12th Black Crusade was fought for control of the Gothic Sector in the Segmentum Obscurus between the Chaotic forces of Abaddon the Despoiler and the defenders of the Imperium. Abaddon lead his great fleet into the Gothic Sector, capturing two of the prehistoric xenos-built star forts known as the Blackstone Fortresses. Under Abaddon's control, the might of the Blackstone Fortresses is used to destroy the star Tarantis, consuming several of the system's closest worlds in the process and ravaging the Imperial fleets sent against the Black Legion. The Despoiler's fleet is driven back at great cost, though Abaddon escapes with the Blackstone Fortresses into the Eye of Terror. The vast engines of destruction emerge once more into the material universe during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade over eight hundred standard years later, one of which is responsible for the destruction of the Fortress World of Cadia.The Iron Labyrinth (777.M41) - A Chaos fleet spearheaded by the Black Legion cuts a path into the worlds of the Cadian System. With the aid of the Imperial Fists, the Astra Militarum manage to break the Chaos forces at the Battle of the Iron Labyrinth, driving them back to the Eye of Terror. However, what their enemy's seemingly reckless thrust so far in-system achieved remains a mystery to the Imperial commanders.The Skull of Ker'ngar (Unknown Date.M41) - Abaddon travels to the Maiden World of Ildanira, seeking the artefact known as the Skull of Ker'ngar. Though initially confounded on the planet's surface by Eldar snipers from Craftworld Alaitoc, he orders all cover around his position to be levelled by orbital bombardment. Eldar reinforcements react swiftly to drive the Despoiler back, but not before he secures his prize.The Pilgrimage of Dark Lament (Unknown Date.M41) - Struck by a vision of Abaddon, millions of Imperial pilgrims abandon their worship of the God-Emperor and turn their voidships toward the Eye of Terror. After a long and perilous journey in which thousands perish, the pilgrims finally reach worlds held by the Black Legion, where they are immediately enslaved. Even as they fall beneath the lash of their new masters, the pilgrims give thanks to the Warmaster of Chaos.Pandorax Campaign (959-961.M41) - In the Demeter Sector, Abaddon led an alliance of Traitor Legions, including his own Black Legion and the Death Guard, in an invasion of the Imperial Death World of Pythos in the Pandorax System, the location of an ancient hidden gateway to the Warp. Another piece in his dark design to bring an end to the Long War, the Warmaster of Chaos fell upon the world with a small force of Daemon Engines and infernal war machines. In the space of a few bloody solar days the major hive cities were overrun and the local Planetary Defence Forces crushed beneath the might of the combined Traitor Legions. Only a small contingent of Catachan Jungle Fighters, the CLXXXIIIth Catachan Regiment of the Imperial Guard, managed to escape the destruction, trekking through the world's inhospitable jungle to the relative safety of the nearest mountain range. Abaddon commenced the complex rituals and sacrifices that would open the Damnation Cache, a portal between realspace and the Warp, breaking open seals that had remained untouched since the time of the Horus Heresy. Heeding the impassioned cries for salvation from Pythos, the entire Dark Angels Chapter, led by Supreme Grand Master Azrael himself, came to the defenders' aid. Supporting these Space Marines were Grey Knights dispatched from Titan to deal with the escalating daemonic incursion and the dire peril that the Damnation Cache posed. Both Imperial forces smashed through the Traitor Legion blockade around Pythos, in an epic void battle that pitted the finest warships of the Imperium supported by The Rock, the Dark Angels' mobile Fortress-Monastery, against the ancient vessels of the Traitor Legions. After the Chaos warfleet was finally driven from orbit and back into the void, the Space Marines were able to send their troops down through the atmosphere, bringing war to its ruined hives and hostile jungles. Failing to allow this distraction to draw him away from the awakening of the Damnation Cache, Abaddon sent an alliance of Legions to hold the Loyalists at bay. Before either the Dark Angels or the Grey Knights could stop him, Abaddon finally opened the portal to the Warp, daemons spilling out across Pythos. The ensuing conflict devastated the world as reality itself bent and buckled under the raw power of the Empyrean. The unleashed energies created rampant psychic phenomena, and Space Marines fought under boiling skies of blood and in rolling clouds of keening spirits. All across the Demeter Sector, latent psykers were awakened to full and terrible awareness and rebellions sprung up like cancerous boils on dozens of Imperial worlds in the region. After a long and bitter struggle, a squad of Grey Knights managed to reach the Damnation Cache and close the Warp portal. Starved of their daemonic allies, the Traitor Legions were forced onto the defensive and finally into retreat. Abaddon's forces left Pythos, escaping the vengeance of the Imperium once again, but the world had been irrevocably tainted by the touch of the Warp, its once proud cities and vast wilds twisted into a nightmarish hellscape. Before the portal was closed, however, Abaddon took with him a rogue psyker, rumoured to be of prodigious strength and the bearer of a unique gift that would aid the Warmaster of Chaos in his forthcoming 13th Black Crusade. This conflict is remembered in Imperial records as the Pandorax Campaign.Second Aurelian Crusade (Unknown Date. M41) - Just when all seemed to be returning to normal in the Sub-sector Aurelia of the Korianis Sector, the Warp opened up and spat out the former capital world of the Sub-sector and ancient homeworld of the Blood Ravens Chapter of Space Marines, the Ice World of Aurelia. Home to the Blood Ravens' ancient Fortress-Monastery of Selenon and many loyal citizens of the Imperium, the planet was corrupted by a Great Unclean One, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle, known as Ulkair. Former Chapter Master Moriah had attempted to destroy the daemon but failed, and the weakened daemon was imprisoned in the depths of Keep Selenon by Azariah Kyras, at that time a Librarian of the Blood Ravens. Yet the daemon's influence proved too strong and eventually the shaken Kyras fell to the taint of Chaos. Aurelia itself was swallowed by the Warp and its existence in the sub-sector that had been named after it was all but forgotten. Yet the ice-encased world returned to realspace in the late 41st Millennium bearing the foul hordes of Chaos, a warband of Chaos Space Marines from the Black Legion led by the Chaos Lord Araghast the Pillager and the former Word Bearers Dark Apostle Eliphas the Inheritor, who had been resurrected by the will of the Dark Gods so that he might seek the destruction of the Blood Ravens, now as a member of the Black Legion. Captain Gabriel Angelos and Force Commander Aramus rallied the Blood Ravens Astartes of the 3rd and 4th Company to face this threat, but no sooner did they join combat than the Eldar and the ever present Orks rose up to cause trouble along with the heretical soldiery of the Hive World of Meridian's noble House Vandis. Before long the entire Sub-sector was embroiled in fresh combat against multiple foes with the Forces of Chaos causing havoc at will. As the Blood Ravens scrambled to respond to these threats even more dire circumstances came to light as the Space Hulk Judgment of Carrion returned to the Sub-sector. Determined to recover valuable intelligence and ancient advanced technology from the Space Hulk to aid them against the foul servants of Chaos, the Blood Ravens under the command of Sergeant Aramus assaulted the Judgment of Carrion only to discover the bodies of fallen Blood Ravens from the 4th Company, formerly members of an expedition led aboard the Space Hulk by Apothecary Galan. As the forces of Sergeant Aramus investigated the Hulk they were shocked to find evidence of Galan's corruption by the powers of Chaos, but the truth of the matter was far more insidious. As Sergeant Aramus and Captain Angelos desperately fought to keep control of the Sub-sector and unlock the secrets of both the Judgment of Carrion and the lost planet Aurelia, they were interrupted by the arrival of Apollo Diomedes, the Captain of the Blood Ravens Honour Guard and the right hand of the Blood Ravens' Chapter Master and Chief Librarian Azariah Kyras. Diomedes ordered all Blood Ravens forces to stand down, an order both Angelos and Aramus promptly ignored. As Diomedes got increasingly sterner in his orders Aramus and Angelos continued to resist the forces of the Black Legion, with whom the Chapter had recently avoided open conflict for an unknown reason. Eventually Sergeant Aramus discovered the Chaotic corruption of Sergeant Avitus. As the Devastator Sergeant became a lackey of the tainted Apothecary Galan and his patrons within the Chapter. As his investigations continued, Sergeant Aramus discovered to his horror that the source of corruption was none other than Chapter Master Kyras himself, who had fallen under the sway of the Greater Daemon Ulkair on Aurelia and spread his taint to Galan aboard the Space Hulk Judgment of Carrion. Kyras escaped the doomed planet Aurelia aboard the Space Hulk and had returned to the Chapter with his dark seed of corruption when he met with Galan's expedition. Daring open conflict with Captain Diomedes' forces in their base-camp on Calderis, Sergeant Aramus attacked Apothecary Galan, slaying the Traitor and his tainted bodyguard of Terminators, a battle which ended in a confrontation with Captain Diomedes himself. Reluctant to accept the corruption of his political patron within the Chapter, Diomedes found himself torn but let Sergeant Aramus and his comrades leave Calderis and continue their operations against the Black Legion warband of Araghast the Pillager. The Battle of Aurelia culminated in the death of Eliphas the Inheritor, who seized control of the warband by betraying Araghast and leaving him to the mercies of the Blood Ravens earlier in the fighting. Despite Eliphas' machinations, Sergeant Aramus was able to re-seal the Daemon Ulkair in its icy tomb within Keep Selenon on Aurelia. Even with this victory, Chapter Master Kyras declared Captain Gabriel Angelos a Renegade and Traitor to the Chapter and Sergeant Aramus found himself faced with the knowledge that the Chapter Master was a corrupt agent of the Chaos Gods. Diomedes and Aramus returned to the Chapter to bide their time while Angelos fled Kyras' wrath. When the time was right the 3rd Company was determined to return and join with Aramus and Diomedes to cleanse the Chapter of the insidious taint that lay like a malignant cancer at its core.The Promethean War (980.M41) - The Salamanders fight an urban war against the Black Legion on Heletine. The Order of the Ebon Chalice arrives to reinforce the Space Marines, and together they push forward, but their advance is halted by the Daemon Prince Gralastyx. Saint Celestine appears suddenly, storming through the Chaos hordes and slaying Gralastyx, before vanishing once more.Raid on the Moons of Drathorian (998.M41) - Chaos Space Marines belonging to the Black Legion attack and pillage a space refinery used to extract Promethium from ore mined on the moons of Drathorian in the Acteron Sector. The refinery is completely destroyed in the attack. How the Black Legion came to be so far from the Eye of Terror and the purpose of the Chaos Space Marines' raid continues to be the subject of Inquisitorial investigation.Diamor Campaign (999.M41) - The Chaos Lord Xorphas of the Black Legion invades the planet Amethal alongside the World Eaters of Khârn the Betrayer and the Crimson Slaughter. An alliance of Blood Angels and Adeptus Mechanicus forces repels the invaders, but as the planet is consumed in a rising tide of carnage, the ancient "daemon cage" that forms the planet's interior has its structural integrity breached. The Chaos invaders are driven off, but the damage has been done. Within the solar year, a nearby Warp Storm breaks the daemon cage entirely, plunging the system into Warp-haunted mayhem and adding to the empyric tempest raging across the galaxy.Siege of the Fenris System (999.M41) - With the aid of the Tzeentchian trickster known as the Changeling, the Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons, Magnus the Red, gathers his Sorcerers and, at the head of several war sects of Rubricae, visits his revenge upon the beleaguered world of Fenris, homeworld of the Space Wolves. At the same time, through the use of a sorcerous ritual, Magnus succeeds in transporting his Daemon World of Sortiarius out of the Eye of Terror and into orbit above the husk of his ancient homeworld of Prospero.The 13th Black Crusade (995.999.M41) - The armies of Chaos invade Cadia and its many surrounding worlds of the Cadian Gate. The forces of the Dark Gods read like a roll call from epic battles of the ages. Always in the vanguard are the Black Legion, followed by the Death Guard, World Eaters, Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, Night Lords and other Legions from the annals of the blackest days. Renegade Space Marine Chapters long thought extinct renew their assaults on the Imperium of Man. Before them run scabrous Chaos Cultists, deranged mutants and traitorous scum in numbers too great to count. Behind them march daemons of all the Ruinous Powers, the nightmares of mortals made real, led by their infernal overlords. After a gruelling campaign with a death toll that spirals into the trillions across the Segmentum Obscurus, Abaddon the Despoiler succeeds in tearing down the strange xenos-built pylons that for thousands of Terran years had held the Cadian Gate as a stable region of space. Cadia falls soon thereafter, and a wave of Warp Storms roars into being across the length of the galaxy. Astropaths everywhere fear to open their minds to receive or broadcast messages, for the Immaterium rings with mind-splitting peals, possibly the sound of the myriad tears ripping open in the barrier between the material universe and the Warp, or perhaps the laughter of the Dark Gods...Guilliman Awakes (ca. 999.M41) - Strange events, the appearance of the ancient Archmagos Belisarius Cawl and a cryptic alliance with a mysterious Aeldari faction known as the Ynnari conspire to awaken the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman from his millennia-long slumber in a stasis chamber during the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade. The Primarch is immediately embroiled in battle as a Chaos assault by the Black Legion attacks Macragge as Abaddon attempts to prevent his return.The Great Rift Opens (ca. 999.M41) - Reality tears itself apart from the Hadex Anomaly at the core of the Jericho Reach in the Eastern Fringe, to the furthest star system of the Segmentum Obscurus. From that hole come Warp Storms not seen since the Age of Strife, cutting off the galactic north from Terra. The initial period, known as the Noctis Aeterna -- or the Blackness -- is terrible indeed. For a time, all Warp travel is impossible and the far-spread planets of the Imperium are isolated, with no travel or astropathic communication between them. A chain reaction of Warp cataclysms rips across the Imperium, plunging its worlds into disaster and awakening the dormant powers of latent psykers across the galaxy. Worlds in their hundreds fall before the ensuing Chaos onslaught. The pulsing Cicatrix Maledictum -- the Great Rift -- spreads like an impenetrable curtain, robbing entire systems of the holy light of Terra. Countless civilisations are lost to daemonic incursions as the galaxy burns.Crippling Terror (Unknown Date.M42) - Thousands of Imperial planets lying along the edge of the Great Rift are evacuated as the tapestry of Warp Storms threatens to consume them. On the Forge World of Raeddon, the Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests gather their most sacred manufacturing relics in preparation of shipping them off-world. But before the frigates are loaded and launched, an armada of Black Legion warships emerges from the Warp, forming an impenetrable blockade around the planet. Before long, hordes of Chaos Space Marine shock troops descend upon the Forge World. The bulk of its Skitarii defenders are deployed to guard the basilica logisticum where the Mechanicus have stored their invaluable archeotech. However, the Chaos forces do not even attempt to lay siege to this complex. Instead, they conduct a series of devastating orbital bombardments on the planet's spaceports, obliterating their static Lascannon arrays before sending in waves of ground troops to mop up the remaining Skitarii. With Raeddon stripped of its transport capabilities, the Black Legion armada recedes, leaving the Tech-priests and their precious relics untouched as the Warp Storms envelop them.Blacker Pastures (Unknown Date.M42) - The rampant advance of the Hounds of Abaddon through the Bellicose Stars comes to a grinding halt when they are met by the Imperial Fists on Gandor's Providence. The sons of Rogal Dorn deploy numerous squads of Primaris Space Marine Intercessors, creating a series of heavily defended redoubts across the surface of the Agri-world. Rather than allowing themselves to become bogged down in a prolonged siege, the Hounds of Abaddon withdraw to wreak destruction elsewhere.Gods from the Warp (Unknown Date.M42) - After a solar months-long battle in the Aralest System, the forces of the Imperial Navy are all but wiped out by a massive war fleet comprising several Black Legion warbands. The few remaining Imperial forces retreat to Everwatch Stanchion, the heavily-fortified orbital docking platform above Aralest VII, to consolidate their strength. Meanwhile, on the planet's surface, Imperial Governor Melachron Indis marshals his Planetary Defence Forces and prepares for invasion. As the Black Legion ships approach, dozens of Chaos Cults emerge from amongst the indentured populace of Aralest VII. These deluded fanatics do not see the Chaos Space Marines as invaders, but rather as saviours who have emerged from the Great Rift that burns across the sky day and night. Indis is forced to expend his troops in bloody fights deep inside the hive cities to prevent the planet from falling to the savage cultists before the Black Legion even arrive. These battles do not go in the governor's favour, for with each passing solar hour, more and more members of the citizenry join in the anarchic uprising. Indis and the remaining fragments of his armies barricade themselves inside the spire of Aralest VII's capital hive and pray to the Emperor that the naval garrison on Everwatch will soon be able to send them aid. Their prayers are not answered. The Black Legion, having captured Everwatch Stanchion several solar days earlier, dislodge the platform from its orbit and send it plummeting down to the planet's surface, directly towards the capital city. The explosion created by the colossal impact leaves only a crater where the hive city once stood, and the ensuing quake is felt across the planet. This display of raw power is the final proof the Chaos Cults need. No one on Aralest VII now doubts that the warriors of the Black Legion are indeed gods.