Fluff
| 04 October 2009
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The Horus Heresy was a time of war, betrayal, in-fighting, and unforeseen disasters. It was all these things combined that enabled Night Haunter and his legion to escape the punishment of the God-Emperor. They hid out on Nostramos while the rest of the galaxy burned with the fires of the Horus Heresy.
Taking advantage of the Heresy the Night Lords strengthened their numbers and their arsenal, and then proceeded to fight their way straight to the Eye of Terror, burning and raiding as many planets as they could. It was there they hid out, occasionally launching raids and assaults on all Emperor worshiping planets.
| 24 September 2009
Night Lords (pre-heresy to the fall)
The Night Lords, the 8th legion. These piratical tyrants weren’t numbered amongst the most combat active legions of the pre-heresy Imperium, in fact they were used as an arm of the Emperor to enforce his will on planets whose tithes had stopped, or cults had arisen. Today we explore the first legion to fall away from the Empire, The tyranic Night Lords.
If we are going to explore the Night Lords, we must begin at the very beginning. The Primarch of the legion was named Conrad Curze, alias Night Haunter, crashed on the permanent night world and quickly raised through the ranks of organized crime families and gangs to become the leader of the planet. His ascension to this point of power was not easy, for he was a child against nothing short of a world of organized crime. He started small, intervening in beatings and “tax” collections, but rapidly escalated to hunting down the wrong-doers and killing them. Within a year he had single handedly terrorized the entire planet until the crime rate dropped to 0 entirely. He had earned his nickname, The Night Haunter.
Enter the Emperor. Unlike the other legions who had either challenged the Emperor, Night Haunter foresaw the Emperor’s coming, however upon looking at the radiance of the Emperor he fell into a fit of madness and attempted to claw his eyes out, at which point the Emperor stopped him and the following conversation ensued: “Be at peace Konrad Curze, for I have arrived and intend on taking you home.” “That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you intend for me.”
Night Haunter had had more visions of his death and the future than any other Primarch, and perhaps this is why he fell into madness. After speaking of his visions to his brother Primarchs, they had failed to accept him and before fleeing back to Nostramo he beat Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists, into sub consciousness. Before he could be hunted down, the Horus heresy ensued.
Best known for: Stealth/Terror Raids and the first legion to use Raptors
Chaos Worship (post heresy): Chaos Undivided
Symbol: Skull with Bat wings
Colors: Blue-black (blended) with mysterious lightning playing across it
| 11 July 2009
Of all the armies out there, Chaos space marines probably have the greatest amount of premade and interesting back story. The nice part about this is that gw has been kind enough to actually create models for all these guys. However my concern come in while I am in the midst of developing my first chaos space marine list, I worry about keeping true to an army theme, but damnit I want an effective list. As with many themers in the chaos space marine market I went the way of Nurgle. Which is awesome, they are decent models, great in the game, a little pricey but none the less solid core troops. Now my worry from this comes with the slightly above par (for a space marine) close combat abilities. I really want to throw some berserkers in there, then there are the thousand sons. God they are marine killers thru and thru. Expensive tho. So I fear by expanding to other flavors of troops in the army I will abandon the theme of the deathgaurd/nurgle.| 28 June 2009
Dusk Raiders
Prior to the Emperor's discovery of the Legion's Primarch, they were known as the Dusk Raiders Legion. Their signature strategy had been to attack their foes at nightfall. The Dusk Raiders' armour was unpainted, but with their right arm and both shoulders coloured crimson. This was done with the intent to show their enemies that they were the Emperor's red right hand, relentless and unstoppable. Many enemies simply threw down their weapons at nightfall so they didn't have to fight the terryfying Dusk Raiders.1a
Death Guard
When Mortarion was found by the Emperor upon the troubled world of Barbarus, he was swiftly given control of his Legion. Upon first seeing them he told them, "You are my unbroken blades. You are the Death Guard." The Legion's name was then changed in accordance with this decree,1a and Mortarion's words engraved above the airlock door of the Battle Barge Reaper's Scythe in honour of the moment. Their armour's colour was changed, and whilst their main armor remained unpainted, the trim colour became dark green.
Pre-Heresy Organization
Before the Horus Heresy, the Death Guard differed from the other 17 known Legions in that they had only seven Great Companies, although these held far more men than those of other Legions such as the Ultramarines or Space Wolves. There were three privileged titles held by captains of the Death Guard. The captain of the First Company was known as the First Captain, the captain of the Second Company was known as Commander, and the captain of the Seventh Company was known as Battle-Captain.
The Death Guard tended to be organised into units of foot-slogging infantry, rather than mechanised squads. Mortarion ensured that his men were well-equipped and highly-trained. He also ensured that they could fight in almost any kind of atmosphere, and placed little emphasis on specialised units using jump packs or bikes. The Death Guard did not have dedicated Assault and Tactical Squads. Every Marine was equipped with a bolter, bolt pistol and close combat weapon and told to fight with whatever weapon circumstance dictated. The Legion was also well known for its use of Terminator Armour. Possibly as a result of this, the Death Guard were highly successful at high-risk boarding and close-quarter operations such as space hulk clearance.
At the beginning of the Horus Heresy, many Death Guard who remained loyal to the Emperor were massacred on Isstvan III by their fellow Space Marines, including Captain Ullis Temeter.
During the Horus Heresy, the Death Guard joined Warmaster Horus in many battles and raids on the Imperium. When Horus led his forces against Earth and the Emperor, the Death Guard's First Captain, Calas Typhon (now known as Typhus), killed the Navigator of their capital ship. Pretending that they were still loyal to the Emperor, Typhon led the Chapter's Fleet into the Warp but instead of going to Holy Terra to defend the Imperium, the ships became trapped and unable to return to Real Space. The Destroyer Hive flooded the ship while they were trapped in the Warp. The stinking pestilence flooded the gut and distended the flesh, while the Marines were blacked out the Destroyer Hive swarmed over them and laid eggs inside the sores of the Marines.
A number of Death Guard Marines, and one Luna Wolf who renounced his Sons of Horus status, led by Battle-Captain of the 7th Company Nathaniel Garro, remained loyal to the Emperor. They formed part of the crew of the Eisenstein, a frigate which ran the Traitor blockade in the Isstvan system in order to bring news of Horus' descent into Chaos to the Emperor on Terra.
After Horus' defeat, Mortarion led his Death Guard in a campaign of destruction over a score of planets, until finally retreating into the Eye of Terror. Here he received Nurgle's ultimate reward and became a full-fledged Daemon Prince, ruling over one of Nurgle's greatest Plague Worlds in the Eye of Terror. Mortarion sends out fleets of Plague Ships into the Warp to carry their contagions throughout the galaxy.
Organisation
A Death Guard force is largely made up of Plague Marines, and still follows the doctrines that their Primarch Mortarion taught them. Their tactics are based on the use of foot-slogging infantry, and the hardy use of their Bolters. Any vehicles that were in possession of the Death Guard at the time of the Horus Heresy have since fallen into disrepair, or have been commandeered by cheeky Nurglings.
The Death Guard make full use of Nurgle's gifts, spreading turmoil, advancing solidly amidst a mist of choking disease, surrounded by Nurglings at their feet and summoning horrific Plaguebearers from the Warp. In larger battles where the outcome is of dire importance, a decaying Daemon Prince may take the reigns of the army, or a Great Unclean One may posess a Champion.
The Death Guard organizes squads by multiples of seven, based on the sacred number of Nurgle.