Black Legion - Age of Retribution, M32-M39: The Long War Begins (ca. early M31) - Swearing to succeed where his forefather Horus failed, Abaddon takes up the mantle of the Warmaster of Chaos and begins the Long War anew. Thirsty for revenge, the Chaos Space Marines strike out against the Imperium from the depths of the Eye of Terror. The Adepts of the Administratum are horrified to find that the number of their invasions consistently increases with every passing solar decade.1st Black Crusade (ca.781.M31) - Abaddon the Despoiler, the self-appointed heir of Horus and the new Warmaster of Chaos Undivided after Horus' death, makes his first attempt to launch a new offensive against the Imperium of Man following the Horus Heresy when his forces initiate 1st Black Crusade and the First Battle of Cadia. This attempt fails and the Forces of Chaos are unable to penetrate the Cadian Gate that will allow them to take control of the only truly navigable pathway out of the Eye of Terror and into Imperial space. For the next 10,000 standard years, Abaddon will bend all of his efforts to finding a way to complete what Horus began and launch a Chaotic war that will conquer Terra and eliminate the Corpse Emperor. These massive assaults become known as "Black Crusades" to the people of the Imperium. However, on Uralan, Abaddon recovers the Daemon Sword Drach'nyen after battling his way through the haunted labyrinth to the great inner chamber where the blade has languished in stasis for many Terran centuries. The howling blade contains the bound essence of a dangerous Warp entity who has the power to rend reality apart wherever the weapon strikes. After the recovery of the malefic sword, Abaddon's power swells to inhuman proportions.The Tormented Mine (027.M32) - Faenroc the Forgotten of the Black Legion discovers a world formed from Warp-infused iron ore. He constructs a vast mine to harvest its wealth for Abaddon, the Warmaster of Chaos. Slaves prove too fragile to work the mine as the ore mutates them uncontrollably, while some mine shafts secrete fluids that dissolve the workers within. Faenroc remedies this problem by binding daemonic entities to his mining machines in a ritual that involves the mass sacrifice of the entire mortal workforce.2nd Black Crusade (597.M32) - During the 2nd Black Crusade, Abaddon places a terrible curse upon the worlds of the Belis Corona Sector, infusing them with the touch of the Warp. Meanwhile, his fleet attacks the sector's Imperial shipyards, destroying dozens of Imperial Cruisers being constructed or repaired. Before the Imperium can muster its strength to fight back, the Despoiler retreats into the Eye of Terror, his works complete. The Imperium, focusing on the war in space, musters a naval force to fight back. Entrusting his flagship to his Sorcerers, the Despoiler then teleports to the Inquisitorial stronghold of Nemesis Tessera. He topples its hexagrammic "Eldritch Needles," ravaging the black stone with sustained Melta fire before withdrawing. The Inquisition later find that a critical vault cell has been opened and its daemonic prisoner -- the legendary nemesis for which the planet is named -- is missing.The Traitorous Eye (Unknown Date.M32) - Drecarth the Sightless forms the Sons of the Eye out of those Sons of Horus who refused to join Abaddon after the Heresy. In the Battle of the Keening Deep, the Sons defeat Voslok and his World Eaters, claiming their fortress and hurling their skulls into the soulfires that rage beneath the planet's crust. Drecarth personally wrests Voslok's daemonic axe from his grip during the battle, turning the weapon upon its former owner.3rd Black Crusade (909.M32) - The Despoiler sends the Daemon Prince Tallomin against the Cadian Gate in a reckless and bloody frontal assault during the 3rd Black Crusade. The daemonic horde that follows in Tallomin's wake accounts for the destruction of millions of lives and draws in Imperial Guard regiments and Space Marine Chapters from across the Segmentum Obscurus. Eventually, warriors of the Space Wolves manage to send Tallomin howling back into the Warp. Under the cover provided by the attack, Abaddon leads a strike force to desecrate the Shrine World of Gerstahl, breaking the ancient seals on the eponymous Imperial Saint's tomb and destroying his remains while the Imperium's attention is directed elsewhere. This act of supreme violation banishes the saint's spirit, thwarting the prophecy that he would one day rise again as a Living Saint whilst weakening the planet's psychic defences.Zaraphiston's Penance (Unknown Date.M32) - The Thousand Sons Sorcerer Zaraphiston travels deep into the heart of the Eye of Terror at the behest of Tzeentch, where he is granted the power of prophecy. Gifted with a profound understanding of the millennia to come, Zaraphiston pledges his loyalty to Abaddon the Despoiler.4th Black Crusade (001.M34) - Also known as the El'Phanor War, during the 4th Black Crusade the Black Legion besieges the great Citadel of Kromarch. Abaddon leads the charge against the adamantium gates of the famously unbreachable citadel upon the world of El'Phanor. Only one in ten of Abaddon's spearhead reach the gates before they are trapped by Heavy Bolter fire. Utilising his Daemon Sword Drach'nyen, the gates of the citadel prove harder than diamond, but they split apart like cordwood before Abaddon's dolorous blow. In an orgy of violence, the Traitor Legions and their daemonic allies fall upon Kromarch and his kin, extinguishing their ancient line forever.The Nightmare Well (Unknown Date) - Zagthean the Broken pillages Helosian in the Agripinaa Sector. Taking the Convent of Alabaster Maidens prisoner, he exposes them to the energies of the Warp, triggering their latent psychic gifts. Zagthean then uses Warp-tech to fuse the maidens into a single entity, before using the resultant abomination as a living Warp portal to unleash a daemonic invasion.The Ragged King (Unknown Date) - Imperial Cruisers orbiting the Feral World of Skyrro destroy the Traitor vessel Talon of Rage. A single Black Legionary escapes the ship's destruction and makes his way down to the surface of the world. Skyrro's indigenous populace come to worship the Chaos Space Marine as a god whom they hail as the "Ragged King," and are gradually turned to the service of the Ruinous Powers through his influence. It takes the Imperial Guard more than a solar decade to destroy the Legionary's Chaos Cultist armies and reclaim the world for the Emperor.5th Black Crusade (723.M36) - During the 5th Black Crusade Abaddon scours the Elysia Sector, ordering the destruction of specific cities, shrines and temples across dozens its worlds. Each act of violation shatters the Warp-seals that had held psychic mutation stable in that region of space. On Tarinth, the Despoiler lures the Warhawks and Venerators Chapters into the ruins of Kasyr Lutien where he traps them between the daemonic hordes of Khorne and the Black Legion. In a bitter last stand, both Loyalist Chapters are completely destroyed, their skulls taken by the Daemon Prince Doombreed to be mounted upon Khorne's throne.6th Black Crusade (901.M36) - The Sons of the Eye were a splinter warband of the Black Legion, founded and commanded by the infamous Chaos Lord Drecarth the Sightless, the Blind Butcher of Irridous VII. Drecarth was a former Battle-Brother of the Sons of Horus who had fought alongside Abaddon during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy that followed. Always jealous of the Primarch Horus' favour for the Despoiler, the Sons of the Eye considered Abaddon a usurper. During the 6th Black Crusade, launched in 901.M36, Abaddon visited his wrath upon Drecarth the Sightless and his treacherous warband. Abaddon aided the Sons of the Eye in an assault on the Forge World of Arkreach, fighting side-by-side with them until the Adeptus Mechanicus defenders were finally crushed. The triumphant Abaddon then slowly killed Drecarth, impaling him with the Talon of Horus, even as the Despoiler made him watch every member of the Sons of the Eye bow before their new master.Antecanis Massacre (165.M37) - The Black Legion is known to have participated in the Antecanis Massacre alongside other Chaos Space Marine warbands, most notably The Purge.The Tournament of Blood (Unknown Date.M37) - Displeased with his Chosen, Abaddon pits them against each other. For eight solar days, the Chosen fight in the gore-spattered holds of the Vengeful Spirit until only one of them remains. Impaling the victor on the Talon of Horus, Abaddon seals a pact with Khorne, gaining a powerful daemonic ally in the form of the Bloodthirster Hakk'an'graah.The Prison of Madness (Unknown Date.M37) - Abaddon conducts experiments on captured Loyalist Space Marines, torturing them with repeated visions of a future in which the Imperium falls to Chaos. Despite the psycho-indoctrinated mental resilience of the Adeptus Astartes, such is the ring of truth in these prophecies that those who do not take their own lives are left as soul-blasted husks that eventually swear allegiance to the Despoiler.7th Black Crusade (811.M37) - The 7th Black Crusade was a Black Crusade launched against the forces of the Imperium of Man, led by the infamous Chaos Champion Abaddon the Despoiler and his Black Legion, which emerged out of the Eye of Terror in 811.M37. At this time, the Forces of Chaos spewed forth from the Eye of Terror past Cadia and then disappeared. This event is what earned this conflict its informal name of the Ghost War. The following years saw a game of hide-and-seek played between the Forces of Chaos and the Imperium of Man which spread confusion, paranoia, disinformation and deceit across the galaxy. Raids became commonplace in far-flung areas but eventually the servants of the Dark Gods returned to the Eye of Terror, having caused great difficulty for the Emperor's Loyalists but having been proven unable to significantly degrade Imperial defensive capabilities at that time. During this conflict, when the Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter battled against the Forces of Chaos at Midian, Abaddon singled them out with implacable fury. He led a band of Khornate Berserkers into the teeth of the Blood Angels' Devastator positions. Even the Blood Angels' own Assault troops could not dislodge the frenzied warband and recapture the bodies of their comrades. But there is an obscure reference to the Blood Angels being saved by an unidentified Space Marine Chapter of mysterious origin. Written within the The Canticle of Cassandria Lev - Vol. CVI, the eponymous Sainted Sisters' highly mythologised and oblique account of the wars of the 7th Black Crusade, is found mention of a "grey-clad" Space Marines Chapter who came from "The outer night" to aid the Imperium, and whose "Jagged maw did swallow the stars ... and whose ... black gaze did mirror the void of oblivion." In the course of the canticle this Chapter's ships set upon Abaddon's forces following the disastrous defeat and routing of the Blood Angels at Midian and attacked the pursuing forces as Saint Lev writes: "...fell upon the servants of the skulled-one with great fury from the darkness, unseen as the beast that lurks beneath the black waters, death for death, blood for blood...thus were the Sons of Sanguinius bought respite, and did turn back upon their pursuers and so were the damned traitors of the false gods driven unto their ruin." Images of these events can be found upon the walls of the Cemetery World of Hypasitis created to house the honoured dead of that war, depicted in repeated fresco and bar relief. Curiously, the faces of the intervening Space Marines depicted there are obscured with featureless disks of black obsidian. Given the largely unknown history of the star-faring Carcharodons Chapter, accounts of their activities can only be constructed from recorded historical incidents and fragmentary records that are believed to have involved the Carcharodons on balance of evidence. This notable engagement is listed by Imperial savants as a "[Special] Probable Encounter/Recorded Sighting" of this notorious and mysterious Space Marine Chapter. After their rescue at Midian, the full might of the Blood Angels Chapter fell upon a vast Black Legion warband on the world of Mackan. Although the conflict ultimately ends in the near-extinction of the Blood Angels at the hands of Abaddon the Despoiler and his primary lieutenants -- the Sorcerer-Lord Iskandar Khayon and the swordmaster Telemachon Lyras -- the Blood Angels Reclusiarch Thalastian Jorus becomes one of the few Imperial heroes to ever land a blow against the Warmaster of Chaos. With his Chapter devastated, the Chaplain endures solar weeks of hardship in the wilderness and the constant trials of keeping his crazed warriors undetected on Mackan. When the time is right, Jorus leads his Death Company in a lightning raid behind enemy lines, butchering the unprepared sworn warriors of the Despoiler's honour guard, and allowing the Reclusiarch to lock blades with Abaddon himself. It is said the Chaos Warmaster still bears the scars of that battle, even three standard millennia later. Whatever the truth of the matter, it is known that the Despoiler honoured Jorus once the war was over -- perhaps in mockery, or perhaps with nothing but sincerity. After Mackan, thousands of Blood Angels corpses were desecrated, their gene-seed ruined beyond recovery. Of all the Chapter, only a handful of bodies were left undefiled: Reclusiarch Jorus and his Death Company, clad in their battered and broken black ceramite, seated in makeshift thrones made from the armour of those Black Legion warriors they had killed on that fateful night.8th Black Crusade (999.M37) - Abaddon the Despoiler completes a complex ritual of death in the name of Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways. On worlds throughout the Segmentum Obscurus, Imperial citizens are slaughtered in precise numbers and esoteric rituals. Only when the Inquisition finally breaks the code of damnation is the Imperium able to bring an end to the Black Legion's rampage across the Segmentum in time with these mysterious attacks, but not before countless worlds have been saturated in death.The Ark of Damnation (Unknown Date.M38) - Flesh Tearers Terminators board the Space Hulk Soul of Damnation as it drifts dangerously close to the core worlds of the Scelus Sub-sector. In the depths of the hulk, they uncover a stasis chamber containing a single casket. Inside is an ancient warrior of the Luna Wolves dating from the time of the Great Crusade. When told of his Legion's fate, the ancient Space Marine is filled with rage and takes one of the Flesh Tearers' craft before disappearing into the void.The Feast of Daemons (Unknown Date.M38) - The Black Legion ravages the Desert World of Sanisor, staining its dune oceans red with blood. In the Warpwind Canyons, the Chaos Space Marines erect a towering steel-framed device with a sail-like membrane of flayed skin. The creatures of the Immaterium are drawn to the world to feed on the soul-stuff caught in the nightmarish construction. When the Cadian 232nd Expeditionary Force land on Sanisor, they find it crawling with daemons like flies on a corpse.9th Black Crusade (537.M38) - As part of a wider strategy to disable the naval fortress of Cancephalus, Abaddon leads his 9th Black Crusade against the heaving population of nearby Antecanis. The seat of the world's Imperial Commander, Monarchive, is besieged by Abaddon's vanguard. Black Legionaries butcher their way through the lower levels of the hive, whilst the Despoiler himself storms its inner sanctums. By the time Astra Militarum from Cancephalus arrive to reinforce the surviving defenders, Abaddon and his forces have already left the planet's surface. As a gesture of contempt, the Black Legion drop a dozen Cyclonic warheads onto the ruins of Monarchive. The seventeen-year-long war that ensues eventually robs both Antecanis and Cancephalus of their most precious resource -- manpower. Without the fleets of the naval fortress to stop him, Abaddon is able to ravage the sector at will, and his Sorcerers are free to conduct the rituals required to weaken the walls of reality in that region of space with impunity.The Forgotten Company (Unknown Date.M38) - Almost eight standard millennia after it was sent, an astropathic distress signal reaches the Black Legion's Sorcerers from a lost company of Luna Wolves. Abaddon travels to the planet located at the coordinates in the message to find his ancient brothers have become a twisted parody of his original Legion, perverting their own gene-seed with primitive rituals and dwelling among the native inhabitants. Expecting no mercy from Abaddon's forces for their transgressions, the debased Luna Wolves are surprised when he welcomes them into the Black Legion as long-lost brothers.10th Black Crusade (001.M39) - The 10th Black Crusade is also known as the Conflict of Helica, and was a joint campaign carried out by Abaddon and the Daemon Primarch Perturabo. Both the Black Legion and the Iron Warriors struck against the Helica Sector. While the Black Legion attacked the capital, Thracian Primaris, the Iron Warriors focused their own assault against the Iron Hands Chapter to fulfil an old blood debt. In a series of bitter sieges, the Iron Warriors burn the Medusa System's worlds and push the Iron Hands to the brink of destruction. Only when the Loyalist Chapter receives heavy reinforcements do Abaddon and the Iron Warriors retreat, taking with them valuable information about Medusa's defences.The Daemonic Shipyard (Unknown Date.M39) - Deep within the Eye of Terror, Abaddon discovers an ancient shipyard drifting through the Warp. Amongst its rusting gantries and crumbling manufactorum towers, the Warmaster of Chaos finds a half-constructed vessel, vast in scale and terrible in its design. His Warpsmiths examine the ship, marvelling at its dark majesty, and promise that, when complete, it will be the doom of worlds, a true Planet Killer, the Krukal'Righ in the ancient tongue of the Black Legion's lost homeworld of Cthonia.11th Black Crusade (301.M39) - The Despoiler's fleet becomes lost in the Warp while seeking to use a daemonic guide to pass through the Warp Storms blocking access to Imperial space, finally returning to realspace in the path of WAAAGH! Murgor. In the ruins of the Cardinal World of Relorria, the Black Legion brings the Orks to battle, Bolter rounds and Chainswords tearing into the green-skinned xenos. After solar months of bloody warfare, Abaddon decides to leave Relorria to its fate and the Black Legion returns to the Eye of Terror -- but not before the Warmaster of Chaos fills the holds of his fleet with captured Ork Weirdboyz. In conjunction with a coven of his most powerful Sorcerers, he uses the volatile psychic energies of the Greenskin abductees in a daemonic hybridisation ritual that weakens the fabric of reality across the Relorrian System.Fall of the Savage Swords (Unknown Date.M39) - The Chapter Master of the Savage Swords mistakenly believes the Imperial Planetary Governor of Hyboras has stolen an ancient relic blade belonging to his Chapter. Caught up in their wrath and righteous retribution, his Space Marines commit a series of atrocities on the world. Only when their Chapter Master sits on the governor's gore-stained throne does he realise the extent of his folly, but by then it is too late. When the Black Legion arrive to push the world over the brink of disaster, the Savage Swords have already fallen to the worship of Khorne. It does not take much for Abaddon to persuade them to join him.