Before the grand relaunch of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy with the Age of Darkness box and a new edition of the rules, much of the game was carried by a series of books known to Heresy veterans as the ‘Black Books’ – tomes of lore and rules that covered legendary campaigns and the forces fighting in them. Slowly, they fleshed out most of the major factions who took part in the Horus Heresy, and alongside the Black Library novels became a foundation of the setting’s background info.
Much of that lore is still relevant today, so over the course of the next few months we’ll be diving into these books and carving out sections for you to download and read at your leisure. ‘Carving out’ may seem like an odd choice of words, but it’ll make sense in a minute, because the first Legion on the block is the vicious Night Lords.
While many of the Traitor Legions fought against the Imperium out of duty, devotion to the Warmaster, or a seething need for revenge, the rank and file of the Night Lords did it because rebellion allowed them to indulge their darkest instincts with bloody slaughter and cruel torment aplenty. They were, put simply, a bunch of sadistic killers – but more lay behind their bloodsoaked faces than most would ever realise.
This excerpt from 2013’s Book Two – Massacre covers the basics of the Legion and what makes them the absolute monsters we know and love. If you haven’t given the Night Lords much thought beyond their lightning bolts and cackling devilry, it’s a great place to start.
The Night Lords
View Downloads
This is only the first sheaf from a vast library of lore that we’ll be dropping each Thursday for the foreseeable future, so come back next week when we open the file on the notorious Thramas Crusade – the Night Lords’ three-year campaign of terror against the Emperor’s worlds.
