Black Legion - Rise of the Black Legion: Following the dire events of the Horus Heresy during the final epic Siege of Terra and the death of the Warmaster Horus aboard his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, First Captain Abaddon and the surviving Sons of Horus broke orbit over Terra and fought their way free of the battle and escaped into the void.A time of Imperial reprisal and retribution known as the Great Scouring followed, and countless worlds were put to death by the Loyalists for siding with Horus, their corpses left as a warning to others. Those Traitor Legions that remained in the Imperium were hunted mercilessly and hounded across the stars by pitiless Loyalists. Abaddon and the remaining Sons of Horus took refuge in the Eye of Terror, choosing to plunge into that maelstrom of madness rather than face extinction at the hands of the Emperor's vengeful warriors.The Sons of Horus managed to reach the Eye of Terror with the bloodied survivors of the Scouring, but the once mighty XVIth Legion was reduced to a fraction of its former size. Led by only a few remaining captains, the Legion struggled with its loyalty to their fallen Primarch and the cold reality of their defeat at the hands of the Emperor and His lackeys.Bereft of their glorious Primarch, the Legion floundered, and in desperation turned to each of the Chaos Gods in turn in their search for renewed power, inviting daemonic possession and the ever more costly blessings of the Warp. All the while, the Legion suffered the jealous attacks of their former allies. As the Traitor Legions turned upon one another, the Dark Gods subverted and manipulated their new playthings, reshaping the Legions for their own ends and the never-ending war between the gods.Ezekyle Abaddon abandoned the Legion; broken by the death of Horus and sick of war, he wandered alone into the Eye of Terror. Meanwhile the Sons of Horus carried the body of their Primarch, preserved in stasis, further into the Eye, ignoring the wars that raged around them. On the Daemon World of Maeleum, a graveyard world of steel and rust, the Sons of Horus raised a fortress, Lupercalios, fashioning a mighty citadel from the wrecks of decaying vessels lost to the Warp with the aid of the thousands of slaves they had taken from the worlds of the Imperium. Surrounded by living darkness and the bones of dead Warp-dragons, it was fashioned from the wrecks of decaying vessels long lost to the Warp, with each spire and tower made from the jagged prow of an ancient voidship. The Legion interred Horus' body within a great tomb, where many fell into worship of their fallen demigod.Horus' body hung suspended in a spiralling chamber of bone-white stone, bathed in flickering golden light, his perfect form looking down upon his sons. Reaching up as far as the eye could see, the deeds of Horus were carved into the arching crypt walls, each one depicting a great battle or glorious victory. Each day, the worshippers would gather in the shadow of their Primarch and offer up their oaths anew, unable and unwilling to find a new leader. With their Primarch dead and their Legion on the verge of extinction, the Sons of Horus stagnated. Like many of the other Traitor Legions, the Sons of Horus suffered from incessant daemonic attacks during the early years within the Eye of Terror. There was a never-ending supply of daemons to fight off, and many fell to the uncontrollable influence of Chaos, losing their mind and bodies to possession by these insidious Warp entities.Some within the Legion argued that the Sons of Horus should offer their allegiance to a single power rather than deal with the daemons of many gods. Most, however, warned that the XVIth Legion should never bow to an outside power again; they remembered too well the yoke that the Emperor had placed around the neck of their Legion, and were wary of letting another master hold such power over them again. The martial pride of the XVIth Legion also meant that they would never completely accept a master who did not come from their own ranks, be it the Emperor of Mankind or even a God of Chaos.Lupercalios, the Monument, was a mausoleum to the XVIth Legion as much as a stronghold. It was where the body of their Primarch had been interred after the Terran Breaking. Few of the other Legions were permitted anywhere near the Sons' last bastion. It also served as a fortress from which they would launch further attacks upon both the Imperium and their fellow Traitor Legions. All the while, the XVIth Legion suffered the jealous attacks of their former allies amongst the Forces of Chaos as the brief unity between the Dark Gods and their servants during the Heresy once more broke down into the normal state of internecine rivalry, unleashing the Legion Wars.Some captains suspected that it would be but a matter of time before they and their Battle-Brothers were drawn into the wars between the Traitor Legions, and so they pushed for the Sons of Horus to replace its losses by increasing the Legion's gene-seed stocks. These same captains knew that any fortress, no matter how grand, could not hope to hold back a determined Space Marine assault, and called for more warriors to be found. Unfortunately, the majority of surviving captains were convinced that the Warp would provide all the power they needed, if only they could master the methods of merging daemon and Space Marine.The wars between the other Legions who had sided with Horus during the Horus Heresy raged across the Eye of Terror even as the Sons of Horus ignored the events happening around them, and continued to raise their fortress ever higher, worshipping the corpse of their Primarch. The Sons of Horus had remained largely apart from these conflicts; however, jealous eyes now turned their way. Traitorous forces gathered against them and conspired to rob them of the remains of Horus to further vile and selfish ambitions.The Primarch Horus' body, with its potent genetic information and biological secrets, was a great prize indeed. In a sudden assault, the remnants of the debased Emperor's Children, having grown vastly in power after firmly cementing their terrible pacts with Slaanesh, easily smashed their way through the defences of Maeleum and into the central chambers of the Sons of Horus' stronghold. They stole the body of the slain Primarch from the heart of its tomb and spirited it away, some say with the purpose of handing it over to the dark Apothecary Fabius Bile who intended to clone it in order to create a new and still greater Warmaster of Chaos to restore the Traitor Legions' unity and fortunes.Their fortress in ruins and their Legion decimated, the Sons of Horus stood on the brink of vanishing forever from the galaxy and fading into cursed memory. The XVIth Legion devolved into in-fighting amongst themselves, giving in to dark despair or uncontrolled rage. The divisions between the Legion's captains turned into bitter bloodshed and murder, as order completely collapsed.The salvation of the Sons of Horus came when one of its greatest captains, Ezekyle Abaddon, returned from his Dark Pilgrimage in time to watch the battle from afar. It was in that moment that he saw, with cold clarity, that it was Horus' failure that had led the Legion here, to them tearing each other apart in the blood-soaked ruins of Maeleum.Abaddon swore that he would succeed where Horus had failed in overthrowing the "Corpse-Emperor" and proclaimed himself the new Warmaster of Chaos. Finally, sickened by how far the Legion had fallen, he stalked through the ruins hunting down his fellow captains, cooling his rage with their final screams. In the end, Abaddon alone remained of the Legion's leaders, demanding obedience from his brothers.Some saw Abaddon as Horus' rightful and legitimate successor and fell at his feet willingly, while others simply recognised his raw strength and bowed their heads to his might. A few turned their back on Abaddon, and were either cut down by their brothers or managed to escape into the Warp. With his Legion brought to heel, Abaddon turned his attention to the clones of Horus; he commanded his warriors to extinguish all trace of their former Primarch and free themselves from his shadow.He then personally led an attack on the Emperor's Children that destroyed the body of the Primarch Horus and all his clones, and in so doing, ushered in a new age for the XVIth Legion. He had the Sons of Horus repainted their viridian Power Armour black, the colour of mourning and of vengeance, and cast-off the XVIth Legion's former moniker of the Sons of Horus.From then on, they became known as the "Black Legion." Through his actions, the Despoiler had reinvigorated the Legion, reviving the old notion that none could stand in their way and that they stood first amongst the Traitor Legions, destined by the will of the Dark Gods to one day inherit the galaxy itself.When the warbands of the Black Legion and the other Forces of Chaos gather under the wrathful banner of Abaddon the Despoiler to unleash yet another of their Black Crusades to overthrow the False Emperor, the words of Horus are heard upon their lips -- let the galaxy burn. The Long War for control of the galaxy by Chaos and the Black Legion had begun.