vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Night Lords - Strategic Purpose: Following the victory of the Drop Site Massacre, Horus called a meeting of the primarchs of 8 of the Traitor Legions (minus the participation of the Alpha Legion's Primarch Alpharius) aboard his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit. Five of the primarchs, including four who had fought at Istvaan V, met in person, including Horus, Fulgrim, Angron, Mortarion and Lorgar. Three appeared through the use of hololithic emitters that transmitted their signals through the Warp, including Perturabo, Night Haunter and Magnus the Red, who had only recently joined the Traitors after the Scouring of Prospero when the broken remains of his XVth Legion had been transported by Tzeentch into the Eye of Terror to the Planet of the Sorcerers. The Thousand Sons, bitter at what they perceived as their betrayal by the Emperor, now willingly became the ninth Traitor Legion.The council of Traitor primarchs made their plans for the next step in their war against the Emperor and then each Legion went its way according to its assigned role. The Night Haunter's fleet had already departed, bound for the planet of Tsagualsa, a remote world in the Eastern Fringe that lay shrouded in the shadow of a great asteroid belt.From there, the Night Lords' terror troops would begin a campaign of genocide against the Imperial strongholds of Heroldar and Thramas, star systems that, if not taken, would leave the flanks of the Warmaster's strike on Terra vulnerable to attack. This campaign was also more importantly intended to delay the Dark Angels Legion from reinforcing the Loyalists, for Horus knew that Lion El'Jonson would seek to stop the Night Lords' campaign of terror and genocide in the Eastern Fringe at all costs. The Thramas System was of particular importance, as it comprised a number of Mechanicum Forge Worlds whose loyalty was still to the Emperor.
Night Lords - Hunting the Night Haunter: The Dark Angels' meticulously planned ambush on the Night Lords' fleet while it was in transit across the Tsagualsa Sub-sector had seen the back of the Night Lords Legion broken and their primarch mortally wounded after having faced his brother Lion El'Jonson once again in a nearly-suicidal mortal combat.Thanks to the skilled coordination and superb execution of the Lion, the Night Lords fleet was devastated, losing dozens of capital ships and approximately one-quarter of their Legion fleet to the Dark Angels' assault.Unfortunately, the remainder of the Night Lords fleet fled the Dark Angels' wrath, taking their critically wounded primarch with them before the Lion could finally end his wretched life.Later, after a period of recovery, Cruze, his First Captain Jago Sevatarion and the elite Night Lords Atramentar Terminators led a desperate boarding assault action upon the Dark Angels' flagship Invincible Reason. This resulted in the death of all but a dozen of the Atramentar and the capture of Sevatar and the remaining survivors.Konrad Curze fled the Lion's wrath, evading the Dark Angels for solar months, stalking the shadows within the bowels of their flagship, and continued to wreak terror and chaos amongst the mortal crew.The Night Lords primarch also killed every hunter-killer team sent by the Lion to hunt him down. After losing several squads of Dark Angels, the Lion himself took up the hunt for Curze, stalking him throughout the bowels of the Invincible Reason for the next sixteen solar weeks.However, the Lion could never find his elusive brother. At some point, the remaining Night Lords captives somehow managed to affect their escape and fled into the void.
Night Lords - Imperium Secundus: With the torrential Ruinstorm raging, blocking out the light of the Astronomican and causing Warp travel to be all but impossible, the Imperium was effectively cut in half during much of the Horus Heresy following the Battle of Calth. The Dark Angels came to the realisation that they were unable to return to Terra to assist in its defence, even with the use of the Tuchulcha Engine.Miraculously, they managed to lock onto the beacon of the strange alien device known as the Pharos, on the world of Sotha, which guided the Ist Legion fleet safely through the Warp and to the Realm of Ultramar's capital world of Macragge.There, they were greeted by Roboute Guilliman and Sanguinius, whose Blood Angels Legion was also guided to the Realm of Ultramar by the Pharos.The three primarchs were instrumental in the foundation of the "Imperium Secundus" as a means of continuing the fight against the Traitors and securing the Emperor's great work. Guilliman proclaimed Sanguinius as the rightful heir to the Emperor and declared him the new ruler of Imperium Secundus.Lion El'Jonson was made the Lord Protector of this new empire of Humanity and supreme commander over all its military forces, a title that was similar to that of Warmaster. Unfortunately, the foundation of Imperium Secundus was marred when Konrad Curze escaped from the bowels of the Invincible Reason where he had been hiding and rampaged across Macragge, intent on spreading as much terror and chaos as he could.Eventually, both Guilliman and the Lion confronted the cornered Curze. Their attempts to kill him were unsuccessful as the Night Lords primarch had laid a cunning trap. He brought down an entire chapel upon the two primarchs through the use of planted explosives and fled the scene.Guilliman and the Lion were only saved through the direct intervention of the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, who was communicating with Guilliman at the time of the attack through a portal that was opened by the Pharos. On instinct, the Warsmith reached through the portal and pulled the two primarchs to safety on Sotha.
Night Lords - Night Lords After Curze: After the Siege of Terra had failed, the Night Lords did not splinter and flee into the Eye of Terror like the rest of the Traitor Legions. Instead, they had continued to attack the Imperium and establish their own terrible dominion among the worlds of the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy.However, their tactics had seemed to change, betraying a self-destructive desperation. The Night Haunter himself was still gradually losing his sanity and the sense of purpose that had earned the respect of his Legion, and in his last days would frequently erupt into fits of violence, incoherency, and sadism. Many in the primarch's closest circle, such as Jago Sevatarion, became disheartened at what their primarch had become. The Emperor Himself, wishing to disband the Night Lords forever, dispatched half the Callidus Temple of Assassins to terminate the renegade primarch, and one of them, M'Shen, finally succeeded as Curze had long foreseen.After the assassination of Konrad Curze, the Legion splintered into multiple feuding warbands, as is the nature of all those who serve Chaos willingly or not, and eventually relocated to the Eye of Terror. By the 41st Millennium, the Legion had deteriorated in both its numbers and its capabilities.There was also continued infighting within the Legion as there was no clear leadership, with several ranking Night Lords contending for the right to lead the entire Legion. Currently, the Night Lords hire themselves out as mercenaries and elite shock troops for the other forces of Chaos or even for pirates who raid Imperial worlds, such as Huron Blackheart.The Night Lords have been known to assist the Warmaster of Chaos Abaddon the Despoiler in his Black Crusade campaigns when asked to do so, as the quest for their own vengeance against the Imperium continues.Their most infamous post-Heresy raid in the Imperium was on the world of Scound's Fall, just a few hundred light years from Holy Terra. Nearly all of the Raptors in the service of Chaos originate from the Night Lords Legion.
Night Lords - Era Indomitus: The Night Lords welcomed the coming of the Great Rift at the dawn of the Era Indomitus with relish. Fully half of the Imperium, the Imperium Nihilus was wreathed in impenetrable darkness, cut off from the light of the Astronomican, while the other half, the Imperium Sanctus, was left in confusion and chaos, leaving the warbands of these piratical Heretic Astartes to indulge their every depraved whim.Indeed, the remnant of the VIIIth Legion, who had been reduced to an existence of piracy and reaving in order to replenish their battle gear and numbers, prospered like never before.Departmento Munitorum worlds were stripped bare by nightclad warriors. Several Space Marine fortress-monasteries were raided, gene-seed stolen and armouries emptied, the defenders mutilated and ritually slaughtered.Worse still, the Legion's Chaos Sorcerers devised new methods of exploiting Humanity's weakened state. These methods were as cunning as they were unthinkably cruel; thousands of astropaths were abducted and subjected to agonising torment, for the sons of Konrad Curze had learnt how to use the combined psychic trauma of their victims to create siren signals that would divert or lure stranded Imperial vessels into their clutches.The Night Lords learned to practice this dark art on a grand scale. Entire worlds were transformed into monuments to pain and terror, and the sons of Curze delighted in every gruesome atrocity.
Night Lords - Pre-Heresy: The inheritance of Nostramo coiled throughout the structure of the Night Lords. Outwardly they followed a pattern close to many other Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade era, but behind this basic skeleton lay the courts of Nostramo, the gang traditions and the aesthetics of terror that infused every aspect of the VIIIth Legion. At the squad level, the Night Lords fielded a broad range of units, though taken as a whole the number of configured Breacher Siege Squads were proportionally rarer than in other Legions. The Night Lords also had a number of unique units: the infamous Terror Squads, whose sole purpose was to create and embody a state of horror in their enemies, and the Night Raptor Squads, who would soar above their enemies trailing the bloody remains of their kills while shrieking from modified Vox casters. Almost all squads within the VIIIth Legion had a name that they used in place of the simple designation. So it was that squads within a company might be referred to as "Claws", "Talons" or a number of other epithets often coupled with an indication of hierarchy or honorific: the Stygian Talon, the 10th Claw, the 5th Oathed, to name but a few amongst thousands.The company was the basic strategic deployment unit within the Night Lords Legion and each squad belonged to a company which might number anywhere between 100 and 1,000 warriors. Most companies had a title in addition to their numeric designation. The 27th Company were (their names in translation from the Nostraman) "The Shattered Skull", the 104th Company "The Sable Brothers", the 71st Company "The Crimson Judges" and so on. Unlike many others, the Night Lords used battalions and Chapters as semi-permanent groupings of companies, rather than a universal structure favouring their own divisions. This seemingly byzantine complexity masked a surprisingly efficient and flexible approach to warfare which allowed the VIIIth Legion to operate with a high degree of fluidity and to be readily fractured into autonomous units or combined into ad hoc formations as their master dictated.A notable example of one of these unique formations is the "Crimson Sons". This formation was formed from the remnants of the VIIIth Legion's 9th Company midway through the Terran Unification Wars, as their formation had suffered near total destruction during the pacification of the wasteland domain of Oxitania. The Emperor, in His beneficence, offered the King of Oxitania the rank of Rogue Trader in remission of his execution. The "Crimson Sons" would retain a degree of the VIIIth Legion's early heraldry before the return of Konrad Curze and fought as a coherent unit, serving alongside the Rogue Trader Gotha before returning to the VIIIth Legion's fold. The later status and whereabouts of the Crimson Sons is unknown, and it is possible they were slain during the many battles of the Horus Heresy which followed the Drop Site Massacre.
Night Lords - Vehicles: The Night Lords had access to the full range of war machines utilised by the Emperor's armies during the Great Crusade, and even though the VIIIth Legion favoured terror tactics and infiltration over set piece battles, it still made use of such mighty vehicles.Because each of the Legion's companies tended to operate independently, most of the Night Lords' vehicles were held at the company level, squadrons operating in direct support of the company's squads.A small number of companies within the Legion choose to operate exclusively as armoured formations, often acting on the direct orders of the Primarch or the VIIIth Legion's command cadre when several companies were fielded together as a battalion or Chapter and more substantial armoured support was required.The Caradara Armour Claw is one such company-sized armoured unit whose reputation had spread beyond its Legion before their treachery. The formation's masters had perfected a form of armoured combat which mirrored that utilised by the VIIIth Legion as a whole. Striking when possible from the darkness of dusk or dawn, the Caradara assaulted the enemy where they were weakest, rampaging through rear zones in order to sever lines of communication, and resupply and isolate individual concentrations of enemy troops.Having done so, the Caradara destroyed its targets at its leisure according to the proclivities of individual squadron or vehicle commanders. The Caradara were often noted to favour using prow-mounted dozer blades to bury enemy troops in their own trenches, while other gained unholy satisfaction from overrunning helpless defenders and grinding their bodies beneath the tracks of their armoured vehicles.Needless to say, few defences stood long against such brutal assaults.
Night Lords - Legion Armoury: The Night Lords utilised a wide range of assets throughout the Great Crusade, finding that even the most standardised of weapons and armour could be adapted and utilised in their favoured manner of warfare.Armoured troop transports of all classes were used by the VIIIth Legion to smash deep into the heart of the enemy's positions, with flanks clad in grotesque trophies to sow horror and dread in all who looked upon them. Aircraft were used to deliver death from the night sky, descending without warning to strike the enemy where he least expected it and ensuring that no foe could afford even a moment's rest or respite.They also made more use of automated systems such as the Tarantula than many other Legions, preferring to assign mundane duties like static defence to such robotic weapons, as well as employing them as part of their offensive strategies cunningly concealed and programmed to funnel enemy refugees into killing grounds pre-registered by the Legion's artillery masters.
Night Lords - Post-Heresy: The Night Lords Chaos Space Marines have several unique genetic traits inherited from the gene-seed of the Night Haunter: they all possess very pale, white skin and haunting black-within-black eyes like their Primarch. They can see in absolute darkness, with a clarity that is above and beyond even the ability of normal Space Marine occular implants.They also possess an innate "preysight"; the ability to see in the infrared spectrum to detect heat signatures. Finally, a Night Lords Astartes can emit abnormally loud shrieks and cries that cause immediate deafness and disorientation in those who hear them.The Night Lords rarely use daemons in their armies largely due to their lack of faith in Chaos, with the exception of Furies, daemons of Chaos Undivided who share the Night Lords' fondness for brutal murder and psychological warfare. The Night Lords do not worship any individual power of Chaos as a Legion, instead venerating the concept of Chaos Undivided when they choose to pay any attention to Chaos at all.Indeed, the Night Lords maintain a certain contempt for all of the Ruinous Powers, as well as for what they perceive as weakness of any sort, a mistrust they inherited from the Night Haunter, who was no more fond of the major Chaos Gods than he was of his father the Emperor. The Night Lords also mistrust psykers of all kinds, including Astropaths, although they may utilise them, as well as Navigators, when the situation demands it.However, as of the late 41st Millennium, some Night Lords may be tainted by the touch of Chaos and have developed mutations, a fact that those so affected try to hide from their brethren, as the Night Lords are traditionally as disgusted by mutation as their Loyalist counterparts, seeing it as a form of physical and spiritual weakness.Some of the original Traitor Legions have retained a degree of their old fraternal loyalty, in however twisted a fashion it may manifest. The Night Lords had little enough to begin with, however, and have only becomemore self-centred and cruel as the millennia have slipped past.Each warrior amongst them vies with his comrades to claim the most glorious kills, to spread the most terror and adorn his wargear with the most baroque warrior trophies.
Night Lords - Legion Combat Doctrine: The Night Lords adopted the modus operandi of their primarch without exception, and thrive in sowing fear and confusion among their enemies. It is common practice for Night Lords Chaos Space Marines to ensure that the communications of a target planet are shut down, broadcasting hideous messages and screams across the airwaves as they begin slaughtering the occupants at their leisure.It is very rare that the Night Lords voluntarily fight a force able to withstand them; they much prefer to attack the weak and frightened. Repeated instances have shown that the Night Lords will not give quarter, and are entirely bereft of mercy. Any poor soul offering to surrender will have his pleas answered by mutilation and painful death.Night Haunter's Legion has no holy crusade, no belief that causes them to spread murder and misery to the worlds they visit. Similarly, they have no martial creed, as all concept of martial honour has been eroded by their transformation into warbands of vicious killers.The Night Lords are masters of stealth, able to infiltrate a position quickly and silently. These arts appear to be innate to the Legion, and are used most often during the sick games the Night Lords use to drive their prey into paroxysms of terror.Once they have prepared themselves and found places to launch an assault that meets their standards, the Night Lords are capable of sudden, shockingly brutal ambushes or unconventional attacks intended to thin the enemy's ranks or simply sow chaos amongst the foe.One such tactic designed to enhance fear that has been observed to be used by the Night Lords is when they unleash a fifteen-second-long Vox-augmented scream that ruptures any unprotected eardrums in the vicinity. Once their victims are hunched over in agony, stunned and deaf, the Night Lords unleash their wrath.Even before they turned to Chaos, the Night Lords adorned their armour with the imagery of death; this is because they know that fear can be used as a weapon just as effectively as a Chainsword or Bolter. Given the Night Lords' predilection for assaulting weaker foes, a fully-armoured Night Lords Chaos Champion armed with a devastating array of weaponry is always more than a match for the foes he chooses to fight.Since the Heresy, Night Lords warbands have tended to attract a greater proportion of Raptors than those of any other Traitor Legion. The swooping attacks once favoured by Konrad Curze are echoed by the diving, tearing assaults of the Night Lords Raptors, predators that strike from the sky amidst an ear-splitting chorus of shrieks that can force even the most stoic of veterans to cower at the critical moment.
Night Lords - Night Lords Names: Night Lords names are generally derived from those used by the people of ancient Nostramo, though they also sometimes include a name derived from a physical feature, personality quirk, past deed or other defining feature.Examples of Night Lord names include Kharros Reeve, Drachos Nightblade, Myros Balicor, Jago Khade, Ravkos Souleater, Otho Nosferrus, Cel Terask, Garras Kavatar, Tovac the Agoniser, Naravesh Mercygiver and Malithos of the Midnight Claw.
Night Lords - Pre-Heresy: Space Marine Legions often changed after the rediscovery of their Primarch and their surrogate homeworld. In the case of the VIIIth Legion, Nostramo and Curze doomed them, but at first they seemed the least changed of all of the Legions upon the return of their gene-sire. There were changes of course, but many of these were relatively small. Nostraman became the language of the VIIIth Legion, its curling runes and sibilant words spreading as Nostraman recruits began to include a dark and cruel sense of humour, and a snide fatalism.New traditions, twisted reflections of Nostraman gang-rites and customs, were adopted within the Legion, such as marking condemned Legionaries' gauntlets red to show that a death sentence hung over them. The honorific titles sported by many of the VIII Legion's officers started to take on the form of those of the Nostraman noble courts. These changes, though noticeable, did not touch the heart of the VIIIth Legion's nature, for if anything, Curze's return saw the Legion's righteous drive to punish intensify.Their ways and methods of war changed not at all, and the integration of Terran and Nostraman warriors was amongst the swiftest of any Legion. The old Legion and the new fitted together like two sides of a coin; both raised from darkness to create order and strife, both made of flesh born in shunned and lightless places.Callous and brutal though they were, the Night Lords were not without pride, and the trappings and titles of aristocracy and dominion formed a key part of their identity, and rivalry, often violent, was endemic among the Astartes of the VIIIth Legion.The gang traditions of their lightless homeworld were carried over to every aspect of their Legion. There were few amongst their ranks who did not bear some form of title, and the craftsmanship with which they embellished their weapons and armour was remarkable, if grotesque.Furthermore, far more so than even the most barbarous members of the World Eaters or White Scars Legions, they habitually adorned their armour and vehicles with the brutalised and mutilated remains of those who had resisted them, and made an art of flaying and presenting the dead in order to sow fear in their foes. There was method in this madness, at least at first; such grisly displays were a clear signal saying, "This fate will be yours to share."
Night Lords - Legion Gene-Seed: The gene-seed of the Night Lords seems surprisingly pure, bearing the least evidence of mutation. Before their fall to Chaos, the only notable physical abnormality was their jet black eyes and pale skin, which became even more prevalent with the introduction of the genetic material of the dour people of Nostramo.Surprisingly, of all the Traitor Legions, the Night Lords seem to bear the least evidence of mutation. This is perhaps due to an unusually stable gene-seed stock, or perhaps due to the fact that they rarely associate themselves with a particular Chaos power for any length of time.However, the real legacy of their mad Primarch may have been psychological, as there was a tendency for paranoia and self-destructive behaviour displayed by many within the Night Lords. They thrive in the use of psychological warfare and fear tactics, merely for the sheer, sick joy of it.It is also said that their Chaos Sorcerers have a pronounced vulnerability that causes them to be wracked with painful seizures in which they experience visions, oblique or not, of the future. The Night Haunter was believed to have only been able to see the darkest path of all possible futures, a terrible curse, and the visions tended to be self-fulfilling.It is hoped that the Night Lords' sorcerers suffer the same fate. This is as yet speculation. However, given their Primarch's susceptibility to such prophesies, it seems more than likely.
Night Lords - 1st Claw, 10th Company: Talos Valcoran - Known as the "Soul Hunter", Talos is a former Night Lords Apothecary and now the de facto Sergeant of the 1st Claw of 10th Company. Talos was the first Night Lord who sought vengeance against the Imperial Callidus Assassin M'Shen following the death of the Legion's Primarch. This quest proved to be successful and Talos eventually slew the Assassin and earned his Legion's revenge. Upon his return to Tsagualsa, Talos died sacrificing himself to kill the Eldar Void Stalker. His gene-seed was later harvested by Variel and used to give birth to the new prophet of the Night Lords Legion.Cyrion - Talos' unofficial second-in-command of the 1st Claw. Cyrion is a devotee of the Chaos God Slaanesh. Cyrion died after taking horrible wounds from the Void Stalker, and he was slain on Tsagualsa by the Eldar Phoenix Lord Jain Zar.Mercution - Relatively new recruit of the 1st Claw, due to his old squad having been annihilated. Mercution died after he forced First Claw to leave him behind after he sustained horrendous wounds. He fought the Void Stalker in single combat, severing the Eldar's right leg. His last words were: "How are you going to run now?"Uzas - The fifth member of 1st Claw who is a devoted follower of the Blood God Khorne and a Khornate Berserker, though this made him undisciplined and hard to control in combat. Uzas was slain on Tsagualsa by Talos Valcoran.Xarl - A highly-disciplined Astartes of the 1st Claw. Unlike the rest of 1st Claw, Xarl died before their return to Tsagualsa, Xarl died aboard the Strike Cruiser Echo of Damnation after he slew Telemion, the 3rd Company Champion of the Genesis Chapter of Space Marines. Xarl died from the loss of blood after he killed Telemion.Variel - The newest member of 1st Claw, Variel once served under the lordship of Huron Blackheart of the Red Corsairs as the star pupil of Garreon the Corpsemaster. Talos and the rest of The Exalted's warband asked Variel to aid them in taking back the Echo of Damnation, a Night Lords Strike Cruiser that had been taken by the Red Corsairs years before. Variel, who had made a pact with Talos years before, aided Talos in recovering the Echo, and soon afterwards joined the 1st Claw. Unlike the rest of 1st Claw, Variel survived the return to Tsagualsa. He harvested Talos Valcoran's gene-seed which was used to create the new prophet of the Night Lords Legion.
Night Lords - 3rd Claw, 10th Company: Dal Karus - Former Sergeant of the 3rd Claw, 10th Company
Night Lords - 9th Claw, 10th Company: Lucoryphus - Sergeant of the Bleeding Eyes Raptor Squad, later designated the 9th Claw of 10th Company. Lucoryphus leads 19 Night Lords Astartes. Lucoryphus' and his fellow Raptors' skeletal structures have mutated into a hunched, bestial form that makes it easy for them to walk (and climb) like quadrupeds. Most of the Bleeding Eyes degraded mentally as a result of this mutation and have become nearly feral, some only barely remembering how to speak. Lucoryphus alone retains his Astartes intelligence, patience, and forethought. With his new streak of animalistic instincts, Lucoryphus is both the wildest fighter and most cunning tactician of the Bleeding Eyes.Vorasha (KIA) - Vorasha was Lucoryphus' second-in-command of the 9th Claw. He was killed in a failed ambush against the Salamanders Chapter of Loyalist Space Marines.Shar Gan (KIA) - Shar Gan was a former squad member of the 9th Claw that was killed in a failed ambush against the Salamanders Chapter.Zon La - Zon La was a squad member of the 9th Claw.
Night Lords - Legion Appearance: The gene-seed of the Night Lords seems to be surprisingly pure despite their allegiance to Chaos Undivided. Of all the Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legions, the Night Lords seem to be the least mutated.Night Lords Chaos Space Marines have jet-black eyes and pale skin. Those Night Lords who date from the time of the Horus Heresy do not have irises, with the visible part of their eyes consisting entirely of jet-black pupils. Their skin, eyes, and even their senses of smell and hearing are all adapted for living in complete darkness.Even before they turned to Chaos, the Night Lords adorned their armour with the imagery of death. They know fear can be used as a weapon just as effectively as a chainsword or bolter, and revel in the twisted anatomies that the powers of Chaos sometimes lavish upon them. It is common to see the Night Lords adorned with malefic symbols -- fanged skulls, bat-like wings and glowing red eyes all feature heavily upon the battle-plate of these murderous Traitors.In the days before the Heresy, the Night Lords' midnight blue, lightning-streaked power armour lent them a sinister appearance at odds with the bold livery of Legions such as the Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children. There are still those amongst their ranks that wear the Mark IV Maximus Power Armour that was so common amongst the Legion during the Horus Heresy.Many Night Lords incorporate Human bones into their wargear. Skull faceplates are laid over -- or even sorcerously melded into -- helms, femurs are inlaid along greaves, splayed ribcages adorn breastplates, and even compacted ground bonemeal is used to trim shoulder guards.The bones themselves come from the most terrified of the Night Lords' victims, the Chaos Space Marines believing that their victims' last moments then radiate out from them as an aura of pure fear.The Night Lords tend to be nomadic, and are hence sometimes forced to scavenge equipment and wargear from their fallen, or even from the fallen of Loyalist Space Marines. Mismatching armour elements are a common sight, although before long they are remade in the colours of the VIIIth Legion and bathed in so much blood and agony that any Machine Spirit they might possess is corrupted beyond recovery.Since the Horus Heresy, the battle plate of the Night Lords has grown ever more baroque, in some cases growing to resemble the icons and motifs daubed upon it. For this reason, skull-like visages, jutting horns and winged helms are prevalent amongst the Night Lords' ranks -- often, the sinister silhouette of the wearer is the last thing their victims see.
Night Lords - Legion Colours: The Night Lords' power armour is not only commonly adorned in images of their Legion, and symbols of death such as trophy racks, spikes, spiked armour, and numerous skulls of all sizes, but also a peculiar form of imagery that occurs on each and every Night Lord Chaos Space Marine's armour.The Night Lords' night blue armor is alive with a mysterious network of lightning bolts that constantly play across their battle-plate when in combat.Whether artificial, a curse, or something else, this lightning is a signature of the imagery of the lords of night and terrorises their foes in the inky blackness of the night.
Night Lords - Legion Badge: The Night Lords' Legion badge is a bleached skull with red Chiropteran wings superimposed over a black Star of Chaos.
Night Lords - Sources: Black Crusade: The Tome of Blood (RPG), pp. 26-27, 30-31Codex: Blood Angels (5th Edition), pg. 51Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. 42Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pp. 13, 21, 70Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 10, 12, 80Codex: Chaos (2nd Edition), pg. 14Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 34-37Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pp. 34-37Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition), pp. 13, 17Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pg. 23Codex Supplement: Iron Hands (8th Edition), pp. 32-33Traitor Legions: A Codex: Chaos Space Marines Supplement (7th Edition), pg. 93Deathwatch: First Founding (RPG), pp. 80-81Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, pg. 126Index Astartes II, "Bringers of Darkness - The Night Lords Space Marine Legion", pp. 20-27The Horus Heresy Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 92-113The Horus Heresy Book Four: Conquest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 162The Horus Heresy Book Nine: Crusade (Forge World Series), pp. 22, 128-135, 181White Dwarf 200 (US), "'Eavy Metal: WH40K Chaos", pg. 8White Dwarf 260 (US), "Index Astartes First Founding: Bringers of Darkness, The Night Lords Space Marine Chapter"White Dwarf 261 (US), "Lords of the Night: Cityfight, Night Lords vs. Imperial Guard"White Dwarf 332 (US), "Chaos Space Marines Design Notes - Night Lords", pp. 16-29First Heretic (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-BowdenAngel Exterminatus (Novel) by Graham McNeill, pg. 148Age of Darkness (Anthology), "Savage Weapons" by Aaron Dembski-BowdenThe Watcher (Short Story) by C.Z. DunnThe Primarchs (Anthology), "The Lion" by Gav ThorpeShadows of Treachery (Anthology), "Prince of Crows" by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, pp. 130-187Pharos (Novel) by Guy HaleyChild of Night (Novella) by John FrenchLord of the Night (Novel) by Simon SpurrierHammer & Bolter 11, "Shadow Knight" by Aaron Dembski-BowdenSoul Hunter (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-BowdenBlood Reaver (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-BowdenVoid Stalker (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-BowdenThe Dark King (Audio Book)Throne of Lies (Audio Book)Fear The Alien (Anthology), "The Core" by Aaron Dembski-BowdenSons of Fenris (Novel) by Lee LightnerAngels of Caliban (Novel) by Gav Thorpe, Chs. 28, 30-35Ruinstorm (Novel) by David AnnandaleKonrad Curze: The Night Haunter (Novel) by Guy Haley, Chs. 5, 6, 9-11, 13Treacheries of the Space Marines (Anthology), "The Masters, Bidding" by Matthew FarrerWarhammer 40,000: Rulebook (5th Edition), "The Antecanis Massacre," pg. 148Psychic Awakening - Faith & Fury (8th Edition), pp. 12, 18-19, 66-71Horus Heresy: Legions (CCG), "Hidden Dagger" Expansion (Images)The Horus Heresy - Exemplary Battles of the Age of Darkness, Volume One (Expansion), "The Defence of Sotha," pp. 7-13Warhammer Community - The Road to Thramas – Part 5: The Lion (Image)
Night of a Thousand Rebellions - Night of a Thousand Rebellions: Night of a Thousand RebellionsSegmentum PacificusChaos
Night of a Thousand Rebellions - History: Carefully seeded rebellions sown across the Segmentum Pacificus all bore their bloody fruit upon the same night. Uprisings and discord struck at the heart of hundreds of Imperial worlds, including the supposedly secure Imperial strongholds of Enceladus, Darkhold and Minisotira.Even the homeworld of the Lions Defiant Chapter was lost to anarchy caused by secret cults and frenetic agitators. Contact was interrupted with large swathes of the Segmentum as the Heretic Astartes moved in, revealing themselves as the orchestrators of the insurrection. They took advantage of the discord and disorder that reigned across the Segmentum to cement their control over as many worlds as fell under their assault.
Night of Revelations - Escape from the Dark City: With Commorragh erupting into bedlam, Yvraine joined forces with the Eldar Corsairs that had once been hers to command. Their ship did not escape the spined ports unchallenged, however. None escaped the Supreme Overlord of the Dark City without paying a high cost.As the Lanathrialle's sails caught the solar winds of Commorragh's stolen suns, a ﬂotilla of Vect's shard-craft peeled away from the Corespur dictrict's dock-spars. They came alongside Yvraine's voidship as the Corsair ﬂeet of those captains she had sought in Sec Maegra shimmered on the false horizon. They were tantalizingly close, but not close enough to intervene.A communiqué was sent, ordering the Corsairs to turn Yvraine over to the Kabal of the Black Heart. The choice was stark -- either try to escape and be shot to pieces in the skies above, or hand Yvraine over and risk a return to the growing chaos below.The Corsairs sought another path. It appeared by their progress they were heading for the arterial Webway portal yawning wide over Commorragh, but that route was soon barred by Vect's nimble interceptors. Instead, as they came close to one of the minor portals through which only small frigates could pass, they steered at the harshest angle they could execute.Though Vect's blockade destroyed many of the ﬂeet's ships with pinpoint fire, they could not halt the momentum of its massive capital ship. The Corsairs slammed the Lanathrialle's prow -- bridge and all -- straight into the portal. The rest of the spacecraft would not even come close to fitting through, however, sticking out like a greatsword shoved into a scabbard made for a dagger.A dozen blinding explosions burst into dazzling profusion across the neck of the great ﬂagship as it ground into the spined crescent of the Webway gate. The metaphysical forces unleashed by the collision were so powerful they ravaged the Lanathrialle inside and out.Proud Corsairs were burned alive or sent ﬂailing from the torn sides of the ﬂagship, tumbling into the eternal night of the Dark City to be blasted to atoms by the disintegrator fire of Vect's hunters.A moment later, the stricken corpse of the Lanathrialle was caught in the crossing beams of the Corespur's tractor pincers, slowly hauled from the burning Webway gate to be cored, scoured of life as a lesson to those who would defy Vect.With the Supreme Overlord's city shaking in the grip of a Warp Dysjunction, Vect wanted nothing more than to punish the perpetrator of the carnage. He watched from the observation galleries of his ﬂoating fortress, but swallowed down a scream of rage and frustration as the prow of the vast voidship was drawn backward from the Webway portal.It was all but intact, except for a perfectly circular hole cut in the vizier deck of the ship's elegantly tapering bridge. Vect did not need to wait for confirmation from his shadowy agents.Yvraine and her vanguard were gone, already lost in the labyrinth dimension's tunnels -- as sure as the rest of the Corsair ﬂagship's crew would soon suffer an agonising death in Rakarth's hellish dungeons.
Night of the Wolf - Night of the Wolf: The Night of the Wolf, officially known in Imperial records as the Ghenna Scouring, is a little known incident that occurred shortly after the massacre of the entire planetary population of the world of Ghenna by the World Eaters Legion during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium.The Primarch Leman Russ was charged by the Emperor in the wake of the massacre and the rebellion of some elements of the World Eaters Legion to take his Space Wolves Space Marine Legion to Ghenna.Russ was ordered to bring the World Eaters to heel and prevent the Primarch Angron from moving forward with plans to implant all of his Astartes with the malevolent archeotech cortical implants known as the Butcher's Nails.The two Legions met at Malkoya, on the fields beyond the dead Ghennan city of the same name.
Night of the Wolf - History: The Space Wolves Primarch Leman Russ had been charged by the Emperor to bring the World Eaters and their Primarch back into accord with the Emperor's will following the genocidal rampage by the XII Legion that had wiped out the population of the world of Ghenna during a campaign to bring that rebellious world back into Imperial Compliance.The two Astartes Legions met at Malkoya, on the fields beyond the dead Ghennan city of that same name. The World Eaters, battered and bleeding from the Ghennan Compliance campaign, formed ragged lines before the assembled Space Wolves Legion.The Primarchs stood before their hosts, armed and armoured -- Angron awash with blood and carved up by fresh wounds; Leman Russ in resplendent battle-plate the colour of the storms on his tempestuous homeworld of Fenris.In these early years of the Great Crusade, Angron still carried his first axe, the precursor to all others. He called it Widowmaker. It would break this very day, never to be used again.Russ carried Krakenmaw, his immense Chainsword, toothed by some Fenrisian sea-devil from that blighted world's many myths.Angron refused to recognise his brother's authority, and warned the Wolf King to depart before the situation became something that he would regret. But Russ refused to be cowed by the warlike Primarch. He informed Angron that the implantation surgeries must end, for the Emperor Himself had deemed it so.The massacres of newly discovered human worlds were also to end with the fall of Ghenna. The World Eaters were to submit to the Space Wolves as their escorts for their Legion's return to Terra.Once they reached the Imperial Palace, everything would be done to remove the parasitic Butcher's Nails implants from the World Eaters' minds.Angron was not amused by Russ' implied threats.
Night of the Wolf - Conflict Begins: No one ever saw who fired the first shot. In the decades after, the World Eaters claimed it came from the Space Wolves' lines, and the Space Wolves claimed the same of the XII Legion. Without either Primarch giving an order, the two Space Marine Legions fought."The Night of the Wolf," it was later called. Imperial archives referred to it as the Ghenna Scouring, omitting the moment the World Eaters and Space Wolves drew blood.The conflict would prove to be a source of pride for both Legions, and a source of secret shame. Both claimed victory. But both feared they had actually lost, and in truth, the battle proved bloody but inconclusive.Yet, at its end, the World Eaters did not return to Terra, and Angron refused to stop the implantation of his Astartes with the Butcher's Nails.
Night of the Wolf - Tide of Rage: Paying no heed to the Emperor's command, Angron ordered his Techmarines to continue to use the Butcher's Nails cortical implant technology until nearly every World Eater Space Marine had undergone the surgery. Blood rites like blood-drinking and vicious gladiatorial combats became an increasingly important part of the World Eaters' Legionary rituals and customs as they continued to slaughter their way across a broad swathe of the galaxy.It soon became common practice for World Eaters to compete in the number of skulls that they could take in battle. For some World Eaters Space Marines, the result was an uncontrollable thirst for slaughter even away from the battlefield.However, the results produced by the World Eaters on the frontlines were so effective that the Imperium --and its Emperor-- proved willing to turn a blind eye to the World Eaters' savage practices for quite some time during the rest of the Great Crusade.This would prove to be a terrible miscalculation, as the World Eaters were already falling under the sway of the Blood God Khorne and would prove a ready ally of the Warmaster Horus once he began his great betrayal of the Imperium.
Night Raptors - Night Raptors: The Night Raptors were a specialised Legion Assault unit of the Night Lords Legion, comprised of the most brutal Nostraman cutthroats and murderers among the Legion, who were equipped with Jump Packs and an array of close combat weapons.They served as an elite shock assault unit divided into squad formations for the  VIIIth Legion during the era of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.Following the end of the Heresy and the Traitor Legions' flight into the hellish realm known as the Eye of Terror, these troops were slowly and insidiously corrupted by the Chaos Gods so that, step by step, they were turned into something altogether the opposite of what they had once been.Where once the Night Raptors had been proud, noble Space Marine warriors, there now stood the vain, selfish creatures that quickly became known by both themselves and their enemies simply as Raptors. Some still "evolved" further, transforming their physical forms into the loathsome Warp Talons.The corrupting influence of the Ruinous Powers have enabled these vile creatures to be able to stalk their prey through the veil of reality. Having lost their sentience, these animalistic hunters behave like flesh-born Daemonic Furies, existing only to stalk and kill their prey.
Night Raptors - History: The Night Raptors were a caste apart from the rest of the Night Lords Legion -- not so much a martial elite as a bloody coterie of murderers wedded together by similar proclivities and chosen styles of warfare. The Night Raptors were equipped with Jump Packs and an array of close combat weapons, all of which they utilised to bring unfettered savagery down upon the heads of their foes in a single, overwhelming onslaught.Where the Night Lords as a Legion wielded terror as a weapon, the Night Raptors rejected all subtlety in favour of assaults as bloody and direct as a butcher's axe cleaving meat. The Night Raptors found bleak joy in soaring above the battlefield like screaming predators hunting for victims and savoured most that stark moment of clarity when a victim witnessed their death reflected back to them in the eyes of their killer.Like many of the  VIIIth Legion's elite, where possible they adorned their armour with grisly trophies and utilised advanced hololithic systems to project images of death upon its surface, images that depicted the doom of the Night Raptors' countless victims in eternal loop, as much for the amusement of the wearer as to stun his target into insensate horror.
Night Raptors - Composition: 4 to 10 Night Raptors1 Huntmaster (Squad Leader)
Night Raptors - Wargear: Power Armour (Any Firstborn pattern)Bolt PistolChainsword or Combat BladeJump PackFrag GrenadesKrak Grenades
Night Raptors - Optional Wargear: Power WeaponsNostraman ChainglaiveSingle or paired Lightning ClawsFlamerMeltagunPlasma GunPlasma PistolHand Flamer
Night Raptors - Optional Wargear (Huntmaster): Volkite SerpentaHand FlamerPlasma PistolMelta BombsArtificer Armour
Night Raptors - Notable Night Raptors: Huntsmaster Therun Kargas - Therun Kargas was a Night Raptor of the Night Lords Legion during the Horus Heresy. A huntsmaster of the Night Raptors who operated as part of the Legion's 9th Chapter, his power armour was adorned with grizzly trophies and Nostraman gang markings which noted some sort of ongoing feud within the VIIIth Legion.
Night Reapers - Night Reapers: The Night Reapers were a former Loyalist Space Marine Chapter that fell to the corruption of the Ruinous Powers and were eventually declared Excommunicate Traitoris, becoming a Renegade Chapter of Chaos Space Marines.The Night Reapers Chapter was eventually hunted down by the combined Imperial forces of the Grey Knights, Red Templars and Minotaurs Space Marines aboard the ancient pre-Human space hulk designated the Perun Cross.
Night Reapers - Chapter Colours: The Night Reapers' appearance is not listed in current Imperial records, but it is known that they utilised black, gold and purple colours on their battle-plate and vehicles.
Night Reapers - Chapter Badge: The Night Reapers' Chapter badge was a large, unidentified golden animal skull, centered on a purple circlet in front of a pair of crossed golden coloured scythes.
Night Reapers - Sources: Imperial Armour Volume Two, Second Edition - War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes, pg. 17Imperial Armour Volume Twelve - The Fall of Orpheus, pp. 136-137Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost & The Damned by Andy Hoare with additional material by Alan Bligh & Neil Wylie, pp. 25, 47
Night Scythe - Night Scythe: The Night Scythe is the Necrons’ favoured tool of invasion, a variant of the Doom Scythe that replaces some of that fighter’s heaviest weaponry in favour of a troop transport capacity. This is not to say that a Night Scythe is in any way defenceless -- quite the opposite.Like its counterpart, it is capable of combat operations in both the void and within a planet's atmosphere and it serves the Necron forces in the interceptor, starship assault and fighter-bomber roles. With its turret-mounted Tesla Destructors and the nerve-shredding shriek of its engines, the Night Scythe is a formidable fighter craft in its own right.The Necron infantry units that Night Scythes most commonly carry into battle include Necron Warriors, Immortals, Deathmarks and Lychguard.
Night Scythe - Notable Formations: Translocator Flight – Working in concert, a flight of Night Scythes can combine their wormhole projectors, creating a temporary hyperspace tunnel. Such constructs are relatively short-ranged and are also dangerously unstable. Traversing a hyperspace tunnel is almost instantaneous, but not without risk, for physical laws break down inside such a construct. Necrons, however, survive such journeys far better than mortal beings, for their metallic forms are more suited to enduring the forces within. Thus, when Night Scythes prowl the skies, Necron attack waves might redeploy in an instant, or bypass the main battlefront entirely.