2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Raven Guard

2022-10-22T21:16:45Z

2600:387:C:6C1A:0:0:0:B:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Raven Guard
|Heraldry = [[Image:RavGuardLogo.png|center|140px]]
|Battle Cry = Victorus aut Mortis (victory or death)! Surprise mutherf**ker (since they are stealthy)
|Number = XIX
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Original Name = Pale Nomads, The Dust Clad
|Successor Chapters = [[Black Guard]], [[Space Sharks|Carcharodon Astra]] (partially), [[Death Spectres]], [[Knights of the Raven]], [[Necropolis Hawks]], [[Raptors (Chapter)|Raptors]], [[Revilers]], [[Rift Stalkers]]
|Chapter Master = [[Kayvaan Shrike]]
|Primarch = [[Corvus Corax]]
|Homeworld = Deliverance/Kiavahr
|Specialty = Covert operations, rapid assault deployment, reconnaissance
|Strength = Codex compliant, (somewhere around 1,000, normally under)
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Black and White
}}
{{Topquote|A battle can be won with brute force or random luck. But a war? A war is won with cunning and waged without mercy. For the noblest of goals, one must sometimes commit ignoble acts. So ask me not to justify the Raven Guard's ways. The carrion worlds in our wake should make a statement eloquent enough|Corax, speaking at the Eurydicus Hearing.}}
{{Topquote|Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.|Sun Tzu}}
{{Topquote|So do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.|John Donne}}

The '''Raven Guard''' are a [[Space Marine]] Chapter that loves them some covert ops. They also have the highest concentration of [[Beakie]]s of any Chapter, so you know they mean SRS BSNS. Their second founding chapters include the widely-regarded Raptors chapter, which saw use in [[Tau|Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]] and several other works of import.

Their Primarch is [[Corax]] and they have a 10,000-year-plus rivalry with the [[White Scars]]. Note that this is more of a competitive rivalry and not the internecine kind of rivalry, as they work together on a few occasions. Another good example is the rivalry between the [[Space Wolves|badass bearded axe-swinging Vikings who drink alcohol that would kill ordinary people twice over]] and [[Dark Angels|the <s>semi-traitorous</s> LOYAL guys who will rain down a storm of rape and plasma on you if you so much as look at them funny.]]

Whilst [[/tg/]] jokes they are emo (mostly because of their mutation and poetic references), they're actually pretty bad-ass, with a decent history and considerable use of initiative, something a lot of other chapters lack. They hold the record for being the second-most dicked-over in-fluff army, with only the [[Lamenters]] routinely getting dicked harder (the Salamanders page claims the same thing… interesting…). A Fine example of them getting owned badly can be seen in the Damocles books, where they lose their [[Chapter Master]] to a Tau counter-ambush, so yeah. And yes, we all know how stupid it sounds that the Tau managed to do that to a Chapter mastering stealth, ambush, and so on for '''''TEN THOUSAND YEARS'''''.

In spite of this, they're pretty goddamned [[awesome]] and definitely worthy of note, and through named characters like Siefer Zeed and Nykona Sharrowkyn have some of the most badass swordsman in both 30k and 40k.

Shrike has a primaris model now, looks to have been designed based on /tg/ opinion of the Raven Guard, 'emo' hair and all.

==Mutations and Origins of the Emo meme==
The Raven Guard suffered low-level gene-seed deterioration (due to Corax's attempt to bolster the legion's numbers at any cost, which was cloning a few hundred thousand Space Marines that turned into genetic rejects), which means that like [[Matt Ward]]'s brain, several of the unique organs of the Space Marines no longer work entirely properly. Raven Guard Marines do not have functional Mucranoids (glands that helps them survive space vacuum without protection) or Betcher's Glands (which allows them to spit acid). Additionally, the Melanchromic Organ has a unique mutation that causes the skin of the Space Marine to grow paler with age. This imbalance eventually causes each Raven Guard Marine's skin to become bone-white while their hair and eyes darken, becoming pitch fucking black. So [[grimdark]].

There's also the ''Sable Brand'' a sort of gene-curse manifested as an emo-tier disregard for self-preservation in the field of battle. These marines turn utterly kill-crazy and are thus marshaled into their own little [[Death Company]]. While Corax had the acumen and numbers to afford throwing these guys together as his shadow killers and then use them as an elite strike force, the Raven Guard of the modern day aren't quite as able to do so and began experimenting to figure out why they became so emo. The Brand is a good deal more psychological than matters like the [[Red Thirst]], as Corax reshaped his battle doctrine in order to limit how his men get afflicted - it worked at limiting how many turned super-emo, but this also led to the Brand being a point of no return, whereas before there was at least a chance to come back from the edge. This later resulted in [[Roboute Guilliman]] to adopt this into the [[Moritat]] after the [[Ultramarines]] got their power butts kicked by the Ash Blind during training sessions with Corax and his sons. It is worth of note that the Primarch of the Ultramarines made sure the Moritat would make its way into every Legion, making this one formation the only one that spread unlike the likes of the Fullmentarus Terminators he planned to include into each Legion. They are also noted for going batshit crazy against any of the Legions who did that fun thing on Istvaan called the [[Drop Site Massacre]]. Corax also exiled the Terran-born [[Ashen Claws]] to [[Ghoul Stars]] as they did not fit his visions of the Legion.

Their visual style is mostly vanilla marines, mostly due to the lack of care GW has provided for them. Forge World and the Horus Heresy novels seem to push them more towards a native american style, with fetishes (not the Slaanesh-kind of fetish, you pervert) made from various kinds of animal bones and, you guessed it, black feathers.

==Combat Doctrine==
[[Image:Raven Guard Tactic.jpg|400px|left]]
{{Topquote|If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.|Henry Ward Beecher.}}

The Raven Guard are a Space Marine chapter which actually eschews the usual Space Marine tactic of [[Blood Angels|charging recklessly]] [[Angry Marines|into the enemy ranks]]. Instead, they are as analytical as the [[Reasonable Marines]], and they target weak points in enemy defenses and launch lightning strikes [[Anal circumference|deep into the enemy's rear]] and penetrate through holes in the enemy's defense after thrusting through critical locations (is it getting hot in here?). Usually they use their Scouts to move ahead and mark good drop-sites after eliminating specific threats such as anti-air weaponry before the sneaky Beakies strike hard and fast. Because of their distinctive hit-and-run combat style, they also make a fuckton of use of fast-moving units like Assault Marines, Land Speeders, and Bikes, often dropped from Thunderhawks or Drop Pods, if not booted from the back of a fast-moving [[METAL BOXES|Metal Box]] and into cover.

Don’t misunderstand. If sneaky tactics are not feasible or a direct approach is better, they’ll come in banners flying and cannons blazing like most other Chapters. They just prefer to strike with quick precision and fade away. Also, they do this with jetpacks, giant motorcycles, tanks, and drop ships. So, their strikes are usually pretty obvious to whoever is being attacked. Their stealth outside or specialized units is more at the strategic level than the tactical (made up for tactically by jump packs and snipers). So, if you’re in a base they’re attacking you’ll probably see and hear them coming. But it won’t matter because their tech and tactics would prevent the people above you knowing the Raven Guard’s movements in time to save your ass.

Fighting at first mostly under Horus, they started off as a pretty brutal bunch, wiping out their enemies wholesale and using repression tactics. This didn't play too well with old [[Corvus Corax|Papa Emo]], who'd spent his whole life fighting to liberate his adopted people, and found the XIX a little too reminiscent of the regime he'd overthrown. Corvus set about moulding his legion into a more humanitarian outfit - just as well, or the Ravens would've basically been a less crazy version of the Night Lords. This resulted in a disagreement with the Warmaster, which nearly led to Corvus and Horus coming to blows. This might have pushed Horus towards the less aggressive tack he tried in the months before everything went down the shitter. Corvus' reforms even extended to telling the then Legion commander (who was a tad too set in his ways) to take a nomadic fleet and piss off to the galactic fringe along with those that wouldn't comply.

The Raven Guard agree with [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s organisation of Spess Merheens in Chapter/Companies/Squads etc. However, they ''don't'' refer to the Codex blindly for tactical advice, instead using their own expertise and fuckin' wits where appropriate. Guilliman would have no problem with that, since that's how it's supposed to be used. The chapter almost never engages as a whole, and individual companies of Raven Guard marines openly lend a hand to Imperial Commanders of all stripes, from fellow Marines to the Inquisition (though especially Imperial Guard) all across the galaxy, with <u>ostensibly</u> nary a shit given to what their Chapter Master wants. Such behavior has led [[Ultramarines|certain chapters]] to question the Raven Guard's tendency towards insubordination, but in truth, the Raven Guard simply picked up tactics that worked from studying [[Alpharius]] after his legion sent the Ultramarines packing - basically, the Raven Guard learned well that a decentralized command structure allows them to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]]. (While not wrong, certainly not accurate either. Such Decentralization was a hallmark of the rebellion during Big Bird's time in prison. A point keenly made by the Raven Guard officer in The Seventh Serpent.) The Chapter Master gives general instructions to his direct subordinates and free rein to fulfill those as they see fit. And it works pretty damn well, too! Basically, they all know what they're doing and how to do their jobs without being micro-managed, so the Chapter Master ''leads'', not ''rules''. Master of Shadows Shrike has now reinstated their elite infantry [[Mor Deythan]], two Shadow Captains, a sergeant and a [[Knights of the Raven]] captain.

==The Last Ones Standing==
[[Image:RavenCommander.jpg|thumb|[[Beakie]]s slashing at [[Eldar]] ]]
The Raven Guard got its ass kicked in the Drop Site Massacre during the [[Horus Heresy]], the battle of Isstvan V reducing the Legion's strength from over 80,000 Astartes to a little less than 3,000. Whilst the [[Salamanders]] and [[Iron Hands]] took heavier losses, the Raven Guard lost a bigger percentage of its troops. Its primarch, wishing to do his part to stop [[Horus]] from [[Anal Circumference|ass-raping]] the Imperium, resorted to cloning technology provided by the Emperor to replenish the Chapter's numbers, which went well in the first few stages.

However afterwards, due to some dickery by [[Alpharius]] and the Alpha Legion with the gene manipulation gizmos in the cloning process, [[Troll|which they corrupted with Daemon blood and proceeded to take the pure sample for themselves]], a sizable proportion of these clones were flawed and degenerated into shambling, [[furry|inhuman creatures]]. The Raven Guard herded them up and led them into battle regardless, however, arming the strong ones and using the weak ones as meat-shields. The tactic proved brutally effective and succeeded, most notably, in pushing the [[Iron Warriors]] off a valued forge world.

Owing to the instability of the Raven Guard gene-seed and the experiments of Corax, a big portion of the chapter's genetic stock has been irreparably damaged. Now, most of their genetic material comes factory-direct from supplies held on Terra. This means the cycle of recruitment for the Raven Guard is notably slower than other Chapters and fewer Raven Guard candidates for the Chapter prove able to survive their training and genetic modification. In essence, this means the chapter is constantly short-handed, though it's recovering, albeit slowly. That said, they recovered enough to sire at least two successor chapters. How they could have problems is unclear, since their gene-seed all comes from pure stock kept in stasis and so is not corrupted and therefore the gene-seed produced by those Marines would also be pure. Most likely, the Mechanicus is just messing with them for giggleshits. That, or the [[Games Workshop|High Lords]] are just really, really senile.

==Daily routine==
04:00-Morning Prayer: The Raven Guard are roused from their nests and assemble for prayer.<br>

05:00-Morning Firing Rites: The Raven Guard practice their firing drills. Interestingly, Chapter serfs have never actually seen them utilize the firing ranges, but smoking targets are seen by the end of Firing Rites.<br>

06:00-Battle Practice: The Raven Guard head to the battle cages to practice in live fire exercises. Interestingly, the Chapter serfs never witness the Raven Guard enter the cages, but smoking servitor ruins are almost always found by the end of practice. When they aren't found, that's because the servitors themselves have disappeared.<br>

09:00-Morning Stalking Practice: The Raven Guard begin stealth practice, trying to sneak up on their fellows without being seen. Anyone who fails to ambush a single Raven Guard is assigned penitential duties.<br>

12:00-Midday Meal: A light meal is prepared by the Chapter serfs. Interestingly, most Chapter serfs discover that the plate has been picked clean a moment after turning their back.<br>

12:30-Tactical Indoctrination: The Raven Guard assemble for briefings on the enemies they will be facing, and given important information, such as the what visual spectrum the enemy can see in, traditional blind spots, and how easy it may or may not be to sneak up on them.<br>

15:00-Evening Firing Rites: The Raven Guard assemble for their firing drills. By this point the Chapter serfs will be actively attempting to sneak up on the Raven Guard and trying to spot them shooting targets. If any succeed, the Raven Guard in question is assigned to three days of fasting.<br>

16:00-Evening Stalking Practice: Any Raven Guard member that has not been ambushed at least once is targeted by the more advanced members. If he maintains his record he is promoted.<br>

19:00-Evening Prayer: The Raven Guard assemble for prayer.<br>

20:00-Evening Meal: A feast is prepared by the Chapter serfs. Somewhat relaxing for the serfs, the Raven Guard actually drop the stealth act long enough for them to enjoy the meal.<br>

21:00-Weapons Maintenance: The Raven Guard clean and polish their wargear. Some of them may take the time to alter its colour scheme for impending missions.<br>

23:00-Free Time: The Raven Guard are given free time. Some reflect on their duty to the Emperor and Corax. Others practice their stealth by sneaking up on the Chapter Serfs in full armor. Others preen and play with their pet Ravens. <br>

00:00-Rest: The Raven Guard retire to their nests for the evening.

==Famous Members==
*[[Corax]] ([[Primarch]] of the Raven Guard)
*[[Kayvaan Shrike|Captain Shrike]], a humanitarian badass and the current Chapter Master. His statline got upgraded in the 8th edition Codex. He’s too fast for you.
*Corvin Severax, mysteriously absent and non-existent Chapter Master of the Raven Guard. Speculated to be nothing more than a pseudonym used by the Raven Guard Force Commanders in lieu of having an actual Chapter Master give them orders due to their highly decentralized command structure. According to the recent 7E Warzone Damocles campaign, Severax was in fact real ...with emphasis on "was," thanks to a thorough blamming courtesy of [[Mary Sue|Commander Shadowsun]].
*Nykona Sharrowkyn, coolest of the Heresy-era Ravens. Separated from his Legion during the Drop Site Massacre, but rescued by an Iron Hand, Sabik Wayland. The two rapidly became the Galaxy's most effective buddy cops and proceeded to harass the shit out of the Emperor's Children. His deeds include sniping [[Fulgrim]] and being the first person to kill [[Lucius]] (without feeling any satisfaction as he considered killing Lucius to be equivalent to putting down a rabid dog). His eventual fate is unknown but he was responsible for ensuring that the genetic data used to create the Primaris (the Magna Mater/Sangprimus Portum) was kept safe.
*[[MURDERWINGS|MURDERWINGS]], a Raven Guard character who is widely considered to be the killier cousin of [[Chapter_Master_Smashfucker|SMASHFUCKER]].
* Korvydae, [[Brother-Captain#I_Can.27t_Believe_It.27s_Not_A_Captain.E2.84.A2|Shadow Captain]] of the 10th Company who joined the [[Deathwatch]] for 2 years to atone for his failures in the Raid on Kastorel-Novem of 992.M41. Has a Forgeworld mini.
* Ardaric Vaanes, a former Shadow Captain who joined [[Honsou]]'s [[Iron Warriors|Grand Company]].
* Kyrin Solaq, 5th Company Shadow Captain, the only other Raven Guard captain to get a mini (of the captain from Company Command). He was replaced by 7th captain, Aevar Qeld by M42.
* Aevar Qeld, 5th Company Shadow Captain and Mor Deythan.
* Illith, Shadow Captain and Mor Deythan.
* Artarix, Sergeant and Mor Deythan.
* Narix, beakie squadmate of the <i>Big Brothers</i> webcomic and, as the comic itself, and affectionate parody of his chapter. Broody and introverted, he's also an incredible badass without question over <i>600 years old</i>. Narix is shown to be able to face nearly anyone, from [[Battlesuit]]s, to [[Carnifex]]es to legions of Necrons with barely a combat knife and a cupboard box. He's also able to recite <i>Hamlet</i> from memory and is pretty good at it.
* Siefer Zeed, battle-brother of the third company seconded to the [[Deathwatch]]. Noted as being one of the most advanced melee combatants of the current Millennium, and is known as ghost, mainly for his fighting style. Notable for having no scars on his face whatsoever, a result of his combat skill. Also a sarcastic guy who questions orders, especially morally dubious ones.

==Movie night and other things==
As a reward for exemplary service to the chapter, the raven guard high command sees fit to play ancient Terran holo-videos from M3 for the chapter, principally by movie-smith Tim Burton, these include but are not limited to
*Batman Returns, a story about an ancient Terran hive noble most assume to be a proto-raven guard, who hunts down and battles with a mutant known as “Cobblepot” in one of the American hives
*Edward Scissorhands, A story about a young raven guard with an under-active melanchromatic organ and lightning claws whose apothecary died before he could become a full-fledged space marine
*The Crow, a movie most raven guard assume was made in tribute to their primarch. And his commitment to justice on Kiavahr
*The Addams family, a story centering on the return of their pale larger brother with the ability to summon electricity and get headaches, most assume Fester became some sort of librarian to the raven guard after he joined the space marines in Bermuda
*Donnie Darko, a complex allegorical story about a troubled youth, who wants to “find the sparrow” (In other words, take the trials required to become a space marine on Kiavahr (Hint: it involves sneaking up on a little bird)) most assume the character “Frank” is some kind of chaplain in disguise assessing the boy if he is fit to join the astartes.
*Live concerts of an ancient Terran band known as "Type O Negative" for when they want something mildly more jovial and soothing to listen to.

=Gallery=
<gallery widths="250" position="center" spacing="small">
Image:RavenGuardForce.jpg|Yes, they have snipers in position to provide cover fire. There are no more images because Matt Ward took them all.
Image:Deliverance Lost cropped.jpg|Primarch Corax
Image:Sons of Corax by MajesticChicken.jpg
Image:Rg m3 veteran commander.jpg
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4_DdPXtpsE Unofficial theme song for the Raven Guard]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTN2ZzpQRh4&ab_channel=NuclearBlastRecords The other unofficial theme song for the Raven Guard]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIR0fegM-AE What Corvus listened to while he sat in the tower for a year]

==Navigation==
{{Template:Marines-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Ollanius Pius

2022-10-22T00:42:58Z

2600:387:C:6C1A:0:0:0:B: /* New Fluff */

{{Oldschool}}
{{Awesome}}
[[Image:1225596941657.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Even when all you have is a [[Lasgun|Flashlight...]], with the will to resist, there is hope.]]
{{Topquote|Where I fall, ten more shall take my place! And one hundred each of them! So strike me down! I am the harbinger!|Ollanius Pius, an Imperial Guardsman (The First Guardsman), to Arch-Traitor Horus "supercharged motherfucking avatar of Chaos" Lupercal. Yes, you read that correctly.}}

{{Topquote|A hero is someone who steps up when everyone else backs down.|Anonymous}}

'''Ollanius Pius''' embodies what it means to be a soldier of the [[Imperial Guard]] in this [[Grimdark|grimdark]] universe. He is THE most hardcore Guardsman ever and also the legendary saint of the Imperial Guard, because as legend goes, in the hopes of protecting the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]], Ollanius Pius put himself directly in front of [[Horus Lupercal|a walking demigod of battle]]. The fact that he did so without fainting, shitting himself in terror, or mewling like a wounded grox suggests that his testicles must have been forged from Mars-grade adamantium (or more likely, he had power balls. His testicles were of such might that they ignored armor saves in close combat and could themselves be used as weapons). Ollanius Pius is so manly that he makes [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs]], [[Commissar Yarrick]], [[Gregor Eisenhorn]], [[Ciaphas Cain]], [[Kharn]], [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken]], [[Logan Grimnar]], [[Merrick]], [[Gunnery Sergeant "Stonetooth" Harker|Harker]], [[Creed]] and [[Sly Marbo]] piss themselves in terror. Well, maybe not [[Sly Marbo]] but he still respects the shit out of him.

Naturally, like a bunch of [[Squats|awesome]] [[Zoats|shit]] and virtually every piece of lore that has ever existed in Warhammer 40,000, [[Games Workshop]] retconned this story in several ways. Firstly his introduction is a bit of a retcon, since Ollanius wasn't in the original battle (read the Slaves to Darkness book) where the Emperor teleported to Horus' bunker (not flagship) and fought him there. Then when he was introduced, he was said to have originally sacrificed himself during Horus' assault on the Imperial Palace, placing himself between the Emperor and Horus (which would mean in that version Horus broke through), which makes sense, so they had to change it. The next story the Emperor fought Horus in Horus' command bunker again, teleporting in with [[Imperial Fists]] and Custodes, and while having a bunker on the ground makes it entirely possible that Pius was there (especially since the traitor legions were busy at the palace walls) it's fairly unlikely. Then they changed it again, this time having Emps board Horus' flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, along with a company of Imperial Fist terminators and Custodes, no Pius this time due to the fact that a Guardsmen would probably die the second they arrive there. At no point from here on out is Ollanius ever mentioned to have boarded the [[Vengeful Spirit]], though the idea of a heroic sacrifice was kept, GW replaced Pius with a [[Space Marine|Spehss Mahreen]] [[Terminator]], which wasn't that bad but then they retconned out the Terminator with an [[Adeptus Custodes]], which is SIX KINDS OF LAME.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] brought him back though (sort of, leaving his existence in current canon questionable at best), which is a great justice and if you trust them, he really is just the most badass Guardsman ever, though exactly what he did isn't too clear besides die for the Emperor. But, NOW, thanks to [[Dan Abnett]], if GW ever returns Ollanius to his place at the Emperor's side, that's no big deal. He'll just be over 10,000 years old. Still a normal human, but just one that regenerates and has lived a long time. So...following the trend, there is a risk that he will be added back in the universe as the one who made the chip in Horus's armor and not [[Sanguinius]], and thus completely ruin the original story.

Other than the fact that he was man enough to stand up to Daddy's former favourite with nothing more than a flashlight and toilet paper armour, not much else is known about him, which probably means that he did even more heroic and manly shit during the Siege of Terra.

The entire point of the character is to demonstrate that true courage and inner strength can be found even among the weakest. Games Workshop, in their infinite wisdom, completely missed this point and proceeded to replace the brave and ordinary little soldier with a progressively bigger and stronger superhero with every reveal/retcon (although, see below for a different take on his [[Perpetual|perepetuality]] and it's implications in his final act of heroism.) This, in a way, makes Horus' fall to Chaos seem less and less despicable; the original story of a superhuman so remorselessly killing an ordinary human could be seen in a similar light as a grown man killing a child. It is probably a near certainty that the next retcon will trade up the Custode for one of the missing Primarchs (such as the glorious and magnificent Ollanius [[Galactic Partridges|Partridge]]) or a fucking omnipresent [[Imperial Knight]]. Further updates will likely add the Terminator, the Custode, the second missing Primarch and an Imperial [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] for good measure, all at the same time.

However, in the Visions Of Heresy Novel, the humble Imperial Guardsman is back with his heroic act of sacrifice, though it is not stated whether his name was Ollanius Pius. Probably because there was no need to, since everyone already knew his name in the fandom.

He also has a relic in the latest 6th Edition Astra Militarum/Imperial Guard codex, with the fluff saying he martyred himself against Horus and is the epitome of Imperial Sainthood, as does a similar relic in the 8th Edition Astra Militarum Codex. The [[Dark Heresy]] ''Blood of Martyrs'' splat mentions him there, saying the story of Pius is apocryphal (bringing up that other organizations have their own version of the tale) but still frequently told and he is widely venerated among Guardsmen as an exemplar of what a faithful Guardsman should be. So the Imperial Guard apparently canonically believes the original version of the tale, whether or not that's what actually happened. And at this point, nobody knows what actually happened and never will because GeeDubs refuses to enforce any kind of consistency in its own fluff (see below).

==New Fluff==
[[Image:Ollanius Pius.jpeg|thumb|right|Oll Pius returns, "better" than ever. Note the cross around his neck.]]
Also known as "Why the Black Library should not be allowed to write or sell anything".

In Dan Abnett's Horus Heresy novel "Know No Fear" Ollanius Pius' lore has changed dramatically. In the book he is named "Ollanius Perrson" (or "Oll" to his friends) and is part of a small group of immortal humans spread throughout the galaxy called [[Perpetual]]s. John Grammaticus (who is alive and well) claimed that out of the entire Ultramarine empire (which at the time consisted of a staggering 500 planets) there are only three Perpetuals (the total amount in the Imperium is unknown, but almost certainly not much higher). Pius estimates his date of birth at some point around 15,000 BC (by contrast, the Emperor claims he was born in roughly 8,000 BC- which would make Pius no less than '''7,000 years older than the Emperor'''. It would also make him ''older than agriculture''), and is the same "breed" as Grammaticus and possibly the Emperor. At first this sounds like GW is missing the point again, but besides his ''extreme'' age and the whole immortality thing he seems to just be a normal human with normal human strength (coupled with the fact that, by all indications, he hasn't died once so far). Which, when compared to the psychic gestalt übermensch that is the Emperor, is kind of important; Ollanius is more representative of every strength (and weakness) of Mankind than the Emperor EVER was. In a follow-up in "Mortis," John Grammaticus learns from watching a vision of Ollanius Pius' memories while both were in a psychic illusion that he was actually the first Warmaster and fought for the Emperor while tackling some cult building the Tower of Babel to harness the power of Enuncia (basically "Space Thu'um"). While the cult was destroyed, he fell out with the Emperor over whether they should destroy the tower as they had originally planned or preserve it despite the dangers in the hopes of turning it against Chaos (as the Emperor had decided to do instead). In the end, he stabbed the Emperor regretfully and then left after making the tower collapse. (Essentially the First Heresy wherein a Warmaster turns against the Emperor’s designs, but a million times more reasonable.)

===The Eternal Infantryman===
In the days of ancient [[Terra]] he was one of the Argonauts who adventured with Jason on the Argo to get the Golden Fleece and later he learned how to fight with a bayonet whilst fighting for the French in the trenches at Verdun during World War I. (Note that "Ole Persson" is the obvious pun, but in idiomatic French, "Olivier Personne" means "Oliver Nobody," which has interesting implications in and of itself.) Interestingly, Ollanius seems to be a sort of "eternal soldier" (he is also confirmed as having fought in the armies of [[Awesome|Napoleon]] and [[Heresy|Saddam Hussein]]), but always is depicted as being a part of the "[[Imperial Guard|poor bloody Infantry]]", in direct opposition to ''another'' perpetual, [[The Emperor|big E]] himself, who is spoken of as having taken on the roles of various august and well known historical personages, or at least being close to positions of power throughout history. There is also an implication that Ollanius always or at least usually fought on the losing side, which is also an interesting extension to this parallel. This makes him a sort of representative of the eternal ordinary everyman; unlike almost every other perpetual, he ''doesn't'' have superpowers (except the neat trick of not dying), and lives ordinary lives, again and again (as the Emperor says to him in the exchange quoted above.) This is more in line with the original spirit of the "legend of Ollanius Pius," and is a counter-argument to the more common view that he is becoming an OP [[Mary Sue]] instead of a representative of ordinary human strength and courage, the ultimate manifestation of which is seen in his actions aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit''.

We sometimes see glimpses of his soldiering past. In ''Unmarked'', another [[Dan Abnett|Abnett]] work (a short story in the anthology ''Mark of Calth''), he travels through time to various battles he fought in while evading the daemon prince [[M'kar]]. In ''Angel Exterminatus'', where an [[Iron Warriors]] Trident [[Warsmith]] Kroeger has a flashback (sort of, the memories were the memories of other people) and relives the near-death of "Carl", a German soldier at the hands of one "Olivier Perrson." Carl thought Ol was very rude because he interrupted Carl's dinner. Yes, poor Carl's dinner. Oll happened upon Carl eating . . . Carl's own commander. Oh yeah, Carl was a closet cannibal. Still, Carl thought it was a bit of an overreaction by an overly Pius asshole to stab Carl in the gut. Carl was only saved from a certain death when the crush of the battle forces Oll out of the trench.

We don't get it either but a vision given to Ollanius by Grammaticus indicates that he'll be restored to his original status as the person who sacrifices his life to save the Emperor from Horus, so at least he's back. Of course, whether he actually dies when this happens given the Perpetuals' ability to resurrect themselves upon death is anyone's guess. The confrontation with Horus might be "true death" for him, though, as in ''Unmarked'', he gets the distinct feeling that the [[Horus Heresy|current galactic clusterfuck]] is going to be the end for him. This might even make sense, given that he was killed by not only a primarch, but Horus supercharged by the energies of all four of the Ruinous Powers during an apocalyptic confrontation which outright killed another Primarch and put the most powerful being ever to emerge out of humanity in a near-death state. Get hit by what did ''that'', you're probably not going to get up, and immortality won't help you if your soul is snuffed out by one of the most powerful material manifestations of Chaos ever.

If he did regenerate, he'd probably wake up on the Vengeful Spirit unless his body was moved-Perpetuals don't teleport when they die, they just heal and wake up. This might wind up being a far, far worse end than having his soul shredded (see over on the page for [[Perpetual]] where we say that they've drawn the short straw? Here's an example of why...) Needless to say, being trapped in the bowels of a chaos-infested warship would not be good for him (assuming he can even get off the bridge before [[Abaddon|Abby]] or one of his guards [[Blam|shoots him]].)

Also in ''Unmarked'', Ollanius briefly hooks up with John Grammaticus, another perpetual (although far more of a dick, and, unlike Oll, apparently turned into a perpetual by the Cabal rather than being born one) .. you know, the guy who is actually with the Cabal, going along with their "Alpharius gambit" to destroy humanity but wipe out Chaos, but who is at some point persuaded by [[Eldrad|Eldrad Uthan]] to turn rogue ''against'' the Cabal, since in a rare moment of non-dickery, Eldrad decided that wiping out humanity might ''not be'' the best idea, giving John the final push after long having some scruples about aiding in the genocide of his own race for, among others, arrogant space elves and a sentient floating ball of gas.

Vulkan's permanent death does put a dent on Perpetuals being unkillable, Artellus Numelon had to sacrificed himself to bring Vulkan back from that death.

In the Fury of Magnus, the titular Primarch himself uses his Chaos Sorcery/Psyker Powers to PERMANENTLY kill '''REDACTED''' which doesn't give Olly a chance in hell he would survive the duel.

===Religion===
Befitting his epithet, he is, indeed, a pious man. He is, in fact, a believing "Catheric," which is apparently a bastardization of "Catholic." Exceedingly rare in the rabidly atheistic Imperium, although not unique in the Heresy Era: another badass <s>guardsman</s> Imperial Army Geno 5-2 Chiliad hetman, Hurtado Bronzi in ''Legion'', also by [[Dan Abnett]], identifies himself as "Catheric by devotion.") He even wears a cross around his neck which conceivably could get him into trouble. ''Practicing'' the major aspects his faith (five of the seven sacraments require a priest) would be difficult, as what happened to the Pope and Church hierarchy we don't know (although it's probably pretty grimdark.) According to real-world Catholic belief, there is a Biblical guarantee for an "unbroken chain" of Popes and Papal authority (Matthew xvi, 18), so there would be theoretically a Pope somewhere, or on the way. The church in Graham McNeal's ''[[The Last Church]]'' wasn't Catholic, although it's sort of implied that it is a bastardized form of high-Church Christianity at least in aesthetic which drifted in it's beliefs over 30 millenia ... which isn't that surprising from the perspective of the sociology of religion. If it was really, however, the literal last church on Terra, and the real-world Catholic view is true, somewhere in some corner of the Imperium there is a man who is the Pope and the Church still exists (picking up sticks and moving probably would have been wise anyway.) Several sci-fi writers have speculated about this sort of thing: ''A Canticle for Leibowitz'' by Walter Miller, considered a classic, has the Catholic church surviving several end-of-the-world [[techno-barbarian]] type scenarios, preserving civilization, and enduring over many millenia, eventually spreading beyond [[Terra|Earth]].

Despite the Emperor hating religion, Ollanius was still doing the right thing by the tenants of his by-then-ancient faith explicitly says that soldiers should obey orders and people should respect their governments and leaders in general (cf. Romans xiv, 3ff., referring to the ''Emperor'' of the time ... ''ça change beaucoup de chose, non '' ?), ''except'' of course if it involved breaking the precepts of his religion (this was a real dilemma for Roman soldiers up until the 4th century or so, because they had to [[Imperial Cult|worship the emperor]]) ... but this was not such a problem for Ollie, he was a faithful Imperial citizen and, while the Imperium forbade religiosity, it did not (at the time of the Horus Heresy, which is when we last hear of him) require him to [[heresy|worship other Gods]] or such, even though such beliefs were proscribed by the Imperium (which again, resembles certain periods in Church history.)

Despite the prohibition on religion, he seemed to live his faith reasonably openly and at best be regarded as a bit of an eccentric for it: again, not all that different from certain eras of the Roman history in the 2nd and 3rd centuries-it depended on who was on the [[Golden Throne|imperial throne]] just how vigorously Christians were persecuted: sometimes it was an [[Exterminatus|all-day buffet for lions]] and sometimes Christianity was looked at as at best a strange affectation certain people indulged in (perhaps not entirely unlike we look at new religious movements today.) In fact, Ancient Rome, very unlike the 30K Imperium, would've had no problem with Christians at all if they didn't [[heresy|refuse to]] [[Lorgar|worship the Emperor]]. You know, what [[Monarchia]] got glassed for. In the 40K Imperium, the Ecclesiarchy would've probably been pretty cool with Christianity if the [[Emperor]] was ultimately seen as God (which would make Sanguinius Jesus? Except for the resurrection part.) Which Christianity would ''not'' be cool with. So Ollanius being "Catheric" would be a problem for him either way. And probably at several other points in his life (maybe in the Iraqi army, for example. And one assumes at several points over the next 30,000 years or so.)

There is another fan theory that it refers to the "Cathars," a [[extra heresy|heretical]] religious sect that the IRL [[Inquisition]] IRL [[Exterminatus|exterminatused]] in the 13th century. This is a clever play on words, but probably reads too much into it, but doesn't make any historical sense and doesn't really line up with the vague hints at "Cathericism" we get in the books.

===Saturnine, the Redo: Ollanius Piers===
A new character introduced in one of the newest Horus Heresy Books and the in-universe source of the legends about an Ollanius Pius, Ollanius Piers was an Imperial Army soldier who fought in the siege of Terra. He is the grandson of Ollanius Pius, but goes by Olly. He's a follower of the Imperial Cult, and likes to tell exaggerated stories about himself.

While under attack against forces of the World Eaters, Piers as well as a few other soldiers and a historian, Hari, went out of their way to raise up a banner of the Emperor before they were attacked by a World Eater Marine. Ollanius managed to stand against the Marine long enough that a member of the Sisters of Silence who's powers made her invisible could kill the marine. Afterwards, Piers encouraged the historian to replace the marine with Horus, and the Banner with the Emperor. Hari said that nobody would believe this story, and rejected most of the other changes Olly requested.

Olly later died during the fall of the Eternity Wall, recreating part of the original Ollanius Pius story, as he faces down Angron. Olly reflects the traditional balls-of-steel approach by challenging fucking ''Angron'' to a fight, defending the banner of the Emperor, and firing into the daemon primach until he's presumably rendered into a thin paste moments afterwards.

==Writefaggotry==
WARNING: The following entry is so manly that reading it out loud may cause you to suddenly grow a beard. Girls, do not read this out loud. A fa/tg/uy's explanation of the original Ollanius:

''LOOK AT THIS FUCKING GUARDSMAN.''

''He's spent months fighting a grueling war in which his enemies are demigods allied with daemons, and now he's found himself in the closest thing to Hell he's ever known. He probably wasn't even supposed to get teleported up to the arch-traitor's battle barge in the first place, and just ended up in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

''Somehow he's survived horrors beyond comprehension to make his way to the very bridge of Horus' flagship. He saw a veritable angel call upon Horus to answer for his crimes, and he saw that angel die as messily as any guardsman. His Emperor - who he fervently believes is a god incarnate, even if he's not supposed to - lies mortally wounded, and Horus, perhaps, has taken a moment to gloat before he strikes the killing blow.''

'' And yet there he is, standing, all alone, between the Warmaster of everything humanity have ever fought against and the greatest being amongs all humanity, if even not godhood. ''

''His armor is slightly more effective than tissue paper, his weapon slightly more powerful than a flashlight. A single electrified claw from Horus' weapon is bigger than his entire body. He stands before a being infused by the dark gods with incalculable power, that can and will obliterate his soul with no more effort than it would take him to swat a gnat. Nothing he can do could possibly make a difference.''

''He could run. He could turn his weapon on himself. He could give in to the insidious whispers that echo from the ship's corridors into his mind.''

''Ollanius Pius does the duty his Emperor requires of him. He dies standing and <b>holds the '''FUCKING''' line.</b>''

===A short poem about Ollanius Pius===
[[File:The Last Stand 1.png|400px|thumb|right|HE BOUGHT THE EMPEROR TIME... TIME TO SAVE US ALL.]]
The first time I hold my blood in my hands,
<br>The first time I see a man with nothing.
<br>Would be the first time I see my own lands,
<br>Covered in heresy, death, and rotting.

<br>My son stands over him corrupt and pale,
<br>A guard Ollanius Pius stands free.
<br>My fallen Horus lifts the deadly flail,
<br>In one instant, the strength of man I see.

<br>This mere man done what I was unable.
<br>A tear flows from my eye and it is clear,
<br>The tyrant's cold reign I must disable.
<br>Briefly I know what it means to feel fear.

<br>I leave the future to the strength of man,
<br>For they alone do far more than I can.

===Another poem regarding Ollanius===
Somewhere in the universe a coin flip lands on its side.

Somewhere in the universe a drop of water saves a life.

Somewhere in the universe a pebble stops a landslide.

Maybe it is because someone believed hard enough.

Maybe it is because everything is secretly fair.

Maybe it is because the universe is a vast place.

Yesterday, I was very cold.

Yesterday, I was very hungry.

Yesterday, I wanted to run away.

Today, I am going to believe hard enough.

Today, a pebble will stop a landslide.

[[Awesome|Today, I am not going anywhere.]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Kriegsmeisterbunker.jpg|The first version of Horus and the Emperor's duel. Notice the location, making Pius' sacrifice possible, if implausible.
The legend of Ollanius Pius.jpg|The legend.
MUH OLLANIUS PIUS.png|The retcon.
Ollanius existed and was a Perpetual.png|Fantasy Flight Games' take on it.
</gallery>

{{IG-Characters}}

[[Category:Awesome]]

Rogal Dorn

2022-10-21T19:44:41Z

2600:387:C:6C1A:0:0:0:B: /* Early Life */

{{awesome}}
[[File:Rogal_Dorn_Moustache.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Rogal Dorn, being his regular badass self. Now with a (sadly non-canon; fuck that, it’s canon, and it’s aDornable!) Moustache.]]
{{Topquote|It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.|Noël Coward}}
{{Topquote|If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.|Marcus Tullius Cicero}}
{{Topquote|Transmutemini de lapidibus mortuis in vivos lapides philosophicos - Changed from dead stones into living philosophical stones.|Gerhard Dorn}}
{{Topquote|I feel physical fucking pain whenever you speak, and I barely even have a nervous system.|[[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Big E lamenting Dorn's tendancy to take everything literally]]}}
{{Topquote|No.|Rogal Dorn}}
'''Rogal Dorn''', otherwise known as '''The Vigliant''', '''Praetorian of Terra''', '''Blade of the Emperor''', '''Lord of the Phalanx''', '''Castellan of Inwit''', [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|'''Best Treehouse Architect in the Galaxy''']], '''Crusader of Useless Exposition''', [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|'''Lord Adorable''']], '''The Unyielding One''' and '''[[Primarch]] and Sire of the [[Imperial Fists]] Chapter''', which was a Legion before [[Horus|FUCKING HORUS]] [[Horus Heresy|fucked everything up]]. He is also regarded as being kind of an asshole towards his siblings and known for shouting "Castles! I like Castles!" in a Matt Damon way. He was reliably reliable. Except for that one time he got almost his entire legion slaughtered, on purpose.

The Imperial Fists are quite famous for fortifying the shit out of everything and INTENSE CAMPING which pisses off every other race. They are highly likely the reason that the [[Emprah]] didn't get raped by Horus during [[Siege of Terra|a certain (totally awesome) siege]]. His "evil" "twin" is [[Perturabo]], Primarch of the [[Iron Warriors]], who turned to [[Chaos]] because of his eternal envy of Dorn; Rogal and Perturabo had an intense rivalry which led to old Petty Perturabo hating him. Fulgrim asked Dorn if he could build a castle which Perturabo couldn't crack, and Dorn, being brutally honest, just said, "Yes." Well, that royally pissed off Pert, though despite what lovers of Perturabo say, Dorn wasn't boastful - the only fluff that says this is either from Pert's point of view, or coming from the mouth of someone who's being a kiss-ass to him. That being said, when it came to practice Perturabo DID crack the defenses of the Imperial palace Dorn built (to be fair at the time daemons were NOT within calculations).

He also had problems with most of his other brothers as well; among the exceptions were [[Lion El'Jonson|Lion]], [[Sanguinius]], [[Fulgrim]], [[Vulkan]], [[Horus]], [[Leman]] and [[Roboute Guilliman|Guilliman]]. Alpharius in particular resented him and Guilliman for being a pair of giant assholes that resembled the brutal, primitive, militant side of the Imperium that no one ever really liked in earlier fluff, and for criticizing his bloody and convoluted methods (essentially, a much smaller body count, but having forced the enemy leadership to reenact a season of [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Game of Thrones]]) in later fluff (also Dorn killed Alpharius, so it's fair to assume that he's not on [[Omegon]]'s Christmas card list either). His lack of people skills, like Guilliman and the Lion, was one of the reasons he was passed over as Warmaster, though he had a just as (if not more) important position he was suited for as Praetorian of Terra anyway.
The one person who could truly be considered his friend was the remembrancer Solomon Voss, who was one of the only people who could elicit a vague humour response from the Primarch (this came back to bite Dorn when Horus sent back a mentally broken Voss to make Dorn depressed when the Heresy started).

==Early Life==
[[File:Past-Dorn-art.jpeg|300px|right|thumb|Young Rogal looking like a main character from League of Legends.]]
Primarchs are transcendent beings, holding a portion of the sublime and unknowable in their nature. All the qualities which seem strong in a warrior of a Legion exist more strongly, more deeply and with greater subtlety in a Primarch. Though spun from the seed of humanity, the Primarchs are not human. This nature often seems to enhance and focus the qualities gifted to a Legion by their gene-seed. So it is that at the moment at which Primarch and Legion unite, there is often a point at which a Legion's character may seem to shift. In the case of the Imperial Fists, the discovery of their Primarch, and the planet which had raised him, only strengthened the character the Imperial Fists had shown since their creation. When the 20 genetically-engineered nascent Primarchs were stolen from the Emperor's labs on Terra by the Ruinous Powers and cast into the Warp, they were scattered throughout the galaxy upon different worlds, which would shape the nature of each Primarch and later their individual Legions created from their genome. When the Primarch Rogal Dorn was restored to the Imperium, it was to be on the Ice World of [[Inwit]] located in the Inwit Cluster.
Inwit was, and is, a world of death and cold. Its star is old and withered, bleeding the last of its heat as cold, red light. Tidally locked against its dying star, perpetual darkness soaks one side of the planet, faded sunlight the other. Crevasse mazes, frozen mountain ranges and plains of frost dunes cover the planet's dark side -- this is the Splintered Land, the beast-stalked wilderness which shapes the bodies and beliefs of the human population that clings to life here. Under the ice crust, thick seas flow in sluggish tides and pale and sightless creatures swim the waters, hunting by vibration and a preternatural taste for blood. Far above this desolation, great and ancient space stations and shipyards look down on the cold-shrouded worlds through perpetual auroras -- created in a lost past, these citadels of the void have looked down on Inwit since before any records or tales can recall. Whilst on the planet, the light side of Inwit offers little more comfort than the dark, being a land of drift-crusted saline seas and sparse bare rock under the unblinking gaze of the red sun.

There is little of value on Inwit; its seas are buried or lifeless, its mountain bare of riches and its native species vicious. There is, however, one thing that this harsh world produces that led it to conquer a star cluster and endure as an island empire of order in the Age of Strife: its people. Though they are barbaric, they are far from unsophisticated. The warriors of Inwit are raised to endure and survive. The world that bears them teaches them to never relent and that the price of weakness is death, for them and the rest of their kin. Death comes in many forms on Inwit; in the ice storms that can freeze and cover a man in seconds, at the claws of the predators that roam the Splintered Lands, and in the lapse in concentration that allows the cold to penetrate the warmth-seals of a hold. These factors make a certain kind of people: strong, grim and dedicated to the survival of the whole rather than the individual. Much of the world's population is nomadic, moving between the subterranean ice hives to trade in weapons, fuel and technology. Conflict between the roaming clans is common and young warriors learn how to defend against their clan's enemies as early as they learn how to endure the death touch of Inwit's merciless chill. They are incredibly quick learners and have an innate sense of an object's functional value and, most importantly, they have the strength and intelligence to conquer those who possess knowledge they do not.

Long ago, before the coming of the Emperor was even a dream on night-shrouded Terra, the people of Inwit began to create their own realm in the stars. On every world they took, they assimilated, realigned and reinforced. With each conquest their culture and learning grew, but Inwit itself remained unchanged even as it became the centre of a stellar empire. The ice hives and clan disputes remained and while their world birthed starships and ringed its orbits with weapon stations, its rulers kept to the old ways, the ways that had created their strength, the warlords and matriarchs who commanded armies amongst the living stars have it somewhat easier than their vassals. So it was, and so it is now.

It was as part of this burgeoning empire that Rogal Dorn grew to manhood, and then to rule its domains as emperor. Much of his early years remains unknown, or at least little talked about. It is, however, for certain that in the cold and darkness of Inwit, a boy named Rogal by his adoped kin, rose to lead the House of Dorn also known as the Ice Caste, and then to the rule of the Inwit Cluster. The patriarch of the clan that raised Dorn became an adoptive grandfather to him, and taught him much of tactics, strategy, and diplomacy. Even after he discovered he was not blood-related to his "grandfather," Dorn held his memory in high value; he kept a fur-edged robe that had belonged to the man and slept with it on his bed every night (daaaaawwww!). His qualities married perfectly with those of Inwit, and he pushed their empire further than any other. Rogal led and trained its armies, and fashioned spacecraft the like of which had not been seen before. Side note: the Inwit system is probably the most underused cool subculture in the whole Imperium. Given that they had a fully functioning star empire, it's bizarre that we don't hear or see more about them.

==The Coming of the Emperor==
[[File:DORNBABY.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Turn to the side and cough...]]
{{topquote|Do not look to us for kindness. Do not look to us for hope. We are not the kind children of this new age. We are the rocks of its foundation. If you wish hope then look to what we make. If you wish kindness then look to those who will come after us.|Rogal Dorn, address to the Three Hundred Magistrates of Terra}}

Forty standard years after his grandfather's death, the outlying Imperial starships of the Great Crusade finally reached the Ice Hives of Inwit. When the true Emperor was reunited with Rogal Dorn, He regained not only a lost son, but the strength of a star spanning society already forged into a tool of war. Dorn greeted the Emperor at the helm of the enormous starship constructed during the Dark Age of Technology called the Phalanx, which the Emperor had discovered within Inwit's region of space. Dorn is the seventh of the twenty Primarchs who had been found by their father. The Emperor welcomed Dorn as his long-lost son, and returned the Phalanx to his care, transforming it into the mobile fortress-monastery of the VII Space Marine Legion which was also turned over by the Emperor to be led by Dorn, since all of its Astartes had been created using Dorn's own genetic template.
Dorn himself was fiercely loyal to the Emperor from the first moment that they met on the bridge of the Phalanx, [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|where they celebrated and ate turkey tacos]], and he never once sought any favour from his father.

Dorn embodied the human quest for truth and could never tell a lie, even if it would have aided his cause. He was inflexible and brutally honest in all things, an exemplar of what humanity could aspire to under the guidance of the Emperor. Dorn's statue stands as one of only four ever erected on Macragge, next to that of Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines. Dorn commanded the VII Legion and Expeditionary Fleets with peerless devotion and military genius. It was said that he possessed one of the finest military minds amongst the Primarchs, [[Roboute Guilliman|ordered and disciplined]] but still inclined to flashes of [[Sigismund|zeal]] and [[Lion El'Jonson|inspiration]].

While Dorn was as overspecialised as most of the other Primarchs (whether by [[Inwit|upbringing]] or [[God-Emperor of Mankind|design]]), like his brothers ([[Angron|most of them, at least]]), he generally knew how to apply his strengths to a situation and assess and deconstruct his foes with that superhuman intelligence the Primarchs supposedly possess. There's even a moment in 'Praetorian of Dorn' where, in a disagreement with [[Alpharius]] ([[Omegon|or was it?]]) over whipping out his JUST AS PLANNED dick, after the usual "This is not what the Emperor would have wanted" speech, Dorn then went on to poke holes in Alpharius' methods by his own standards, basically saying that Alpharius would have been more effective if he'd carefully selected the right times and places to subvert enemy forces instead of going for the [[Konrad Curze|shock value]] of assassinating every member of the planet's nobility.
[[TTS|So yes; he knows about other forms of war, and he doesn't care.]] Which [[Skub|may or may not]] make him better at his job as Praetorian; he may choose to have fewer weapons in his toolbox, but he probably knows more about his enemies than they expect from The Literal Living Brick Wall.

But since he was so loyal, he simply couldn't countenance anything even whiffing of disloyalty to Big.E and said inflexibility came back to bite him in the ass more than once. His relation with [[Malcador the Sigillite|Malcador]] was rocky and needlessly conflictual because Malcador was willing to go lengths Dorn refused to countenance in order to protect the Emperor and Dorn just couldn't leave it alone. [[Perturabo]]'s all-consuming hatred of him could have been lessened if Dorn's (otherwise correct!) assessments of him had been delivered with more subtlety than a punch to the face. His fight with [[Konrad Curze]] could have been avoided if he'd tried to reason with him rather than outright accusing him. When Captain Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard told the primarch about Horus' betrayal, the thought of such a monumental betrayal to the Emperor broke Dorn's stoic facade, driving him to the brink of slaughtering the captain, despite the truth of his words.

==Horus Heresy==
After Horus was made Warmaster, Dorn and his Legion were ordered to head back to Terra and fortify the shit out of the place while the Emprah went about his Big Project. Before taking off, Dorn made some efforts to keep the other Primarchs on side and helped engineer Garviel Loken's appointment to the Mournival. He reasoned that Horus needed a "naysmith" or two to stop the position going to his head. Sadly this wasn't quite enough.
[[File:Gloroius.jpg|300px|thumb|left|No mustache? No problem! The Magic of Green stuff!]]

After being warned of the Heresy by Garro, Dorn and the majority of his legion began to fortify the Sol System. He did however send a huge part of his fleet in order to help at Istvaan, but due to [[Battle of Phall|unforeseen]] [[Imperium Secundus|circumstances]] the fleet never reached Istvaan.

Despite being isolated from most the great battles of the Heresy, things were hardly peaceful for Dorn and the VII. Mars erupted into civil war, resulting in a regular stream of attacks from the surface in the form of interplanetary missiles, raiding fleets, and mountain sized shells shot into orbit. As the Heresy dragged on, raiding fleets from the outside probed the edges of the Sol System's defenses. Covert infiltrators gained access onto Terra, testing the security of the planet as well as preparing the way for Horus's inevitable attack. Even Alpharius himself led an attack on the system, whereupon Dorn (''definitely'') ultra-killed him with Storm's Teeth. After tanking a spear blow from Alpharius, Rogal cut off Alpharius's hands with Storm's Teeth, slashed open his chest, stabbed Alpharius with his own spear, then finished off the 20th primarch with an overhead chainsword swing to his unfortified head. Alpharius is actually DEAD. Omegon, half the galaxy away, sensed it and decided to adopt Alpharius's identity permanently, the rest is history. Or isn't, because Dorn had the whole affair covered up.

Matters were not helped by his disagreements with [[Malcador the Sigillite]] over the latter's methods of protecting Terra, which on more than one occasion led to direct conflicts between the forces they commanded. (To give you an idea, Big.E in person had to come in and make everyone fall in line when Dorn and Malcador got in [[skub|a bit of a pickle]] about the existence and use of the [[Officio Assassinorum]].)

It's also important to realize that Praetorian wasn't just a pretty title. During the Heresy, Dorn was in overall command of the Primarchs and the loyal Legions, at least in theory. In practice Russ, Corax, Sanguinius (when he finally arrived) and Jagathai Khan (only grudgingly) were the only ones who did what he said. The others were too busy [[Vulkan|being missing]] or [[Ferrus Manus|dead]], [[Roboute Guilliman|building their own empires]], or [[Lion El'Jonson|pursuing vendettas]]. Dorn got the Fists of the Retribution Fleet and the White Scars back to Terra while directing the Space Wolves and Raven Guard to harass the Traitors on their way to the Throneworld and had tactical authority during the Siege of Terra. His decision making about the flow of resources, when to hold fast, and when to counterattack allowed the Palace to hold for as long as it did.

Though all of the stress did catch up to him. When Vulkan finally made it to Terra, Dorn confides in him that this is all too much and that he is having difficulties keeping it together. Vulkan, being the great bro that he is, gave him a hug!

During the Siege of Terra, Dorn was under a lot of stress, like a metric fuck ton. During The Solar War, he had to fight the Daemon Samus, while also having the Phalanx crippled and boarded by Daemons as he fought mostly alone, protecting a human Admiral and unlocking his Librarians. He also had to try and keep Jaghatai in the Palace. But when The Khan sallied out, he got real pissed off, but was thankful for the information which the Khan had brought them. He also bought time for forces to flee the Lion's Gate Space Port, whilst trolling Perturabo. His relationship with [[Sigismund]] got better over time. During the battle over the Saturnine Wall, they both beat up Fulgrim and a bunch of Fulgrim's Champions, including Eidolon. Dorn also had to save Sigismund before that, though it gave him an excuse to make an epic entrance. At that point, both Sigismund and Dorn realized the nightmare that was to come had just begun, and Dorn quietly ordered Sigismund to unleash himself for the line of desperation as opposed to pragmatism was just crossed, which he did with gusto.

During the Siege of Terra, Rogal went with the Emprah and [[Sanguinius]] to Horus's battle barge to face the traitor. When the Emprah totally fucked up Horus, Rogal [[Creed|"seemingly" came out of nowhere]] and saved his ass, then got all pissy about it because he was only a few seconds short, and found Sanguinius dead and the Emprah dying. Surprisingly, he did not turn into an [[Angry Marine]] (that came a bit later), but still couldn't let go of his emotions, which Corax purportedly found painfully ironic. Once Guilliman arrived, Dorn transferred power to him in order to go all Black Templar on the collective asses of the Traitor Legions. And when we say Black Templar, we mean it. Dorn and the Fists pursued the Traitors with a fury that even the Angry Marines could only stare at in awe, until nothing remained of the Traitor forces outside the [[Eye of Terror]].

==Post-Heresy==
[[File:Rogal Dorn Portrait.png|300px|thumb|right|Rogal Dorn's canonical, and sadly non-mustachio'd face from the Horus Heresy books. RRRAAAARRGGHH! HE SHAVED THAT MORNING, HERETIC! IT WAS BACK THAT AFTERNOON, AND DON’T LET ANY SISSY MORTAL “ARTIST” TELL YOU OTHERWISE!!! His face was fortified with a MAGNIFICENT MUSTACHE! A WARRIORS IMPENETRABLE BASTION OF STEEL CORDED FACIAL HAIR!]]
When [[Roboute Guilliman]] showed off the [[Codex Astartes]] and demanded that the Space Marine Legions break up into Chapters, Dorn led the opposition against it. He had not taken his inability to protect the Emperor well, and saw Bobby's announcement as a thinly veiled denouncement of his failure. He only submitted after the [[Ultramarines]] threatened to [[Minotaurs (Chapter)|open fire]] on his fleet, deciding that tradition ''really'' wasn't worth starting another civil war over and that he couldn't afford to let himself wallow in his own grief.

Right before the [[Second Founding]] and after accepting to split up his Legion, Dorn declared to everyone that he'd capture his nemesis, [[Perturabo]], and bring him back to Terra inside an iron cage. This would be the Imperial Fist's '''Legion''' swan song and their stepping stone into the future. Pert then trolled Dorn by setting up the "Eternal Fortress", which was fortification after fortification that led into a fortress that Perturabo was residing in. It took the Imperial Fists three weeks to wade through the shit Perturabo set up. When his Imperial Fists strike force reached the actual fortress, it was actually empty - a giant, centrally-open kill-zone with virtually no cover - and with the Iron Warriors waiting in ambush. Suffice to say, the Imperial Fists then got their asses handed to them, and wound up having to [[Grimdark|use their fallen brethren for cover]] up until the [[Ultramarines|Ultrasmurfs]] came in and rescued them. To their credit, they still managed to give the Iron Warriors so much trouble that wiping the Fists out completely would have required them to sacrifice most of their own legion, including Perturabo himself, but by the time they escaped the planet, the casualties that the Fists had taken were enormous.

Who actually claimed victory that day ([[FAIL|if anyone]]) has been the subject of much [[skub|discussion]]: To the Iron Warriors, the entire point of the Iron Cage trolling was to humiliate Dorn and his legion. Perturabo hated Dorn with a passion and wanted to see him broken and on his knees. The problem was that that Dorn was already there. He blamed himself for not having been at the Emperor's side when he fought Horus, and the pain and guilt of that fact was worse than anything Perty could have ever done to him. Dorn's actions after the Heresy were those of a man seeking atonement in death (conflict with Guilliman and taking of Pert's bait hook line and sinker)... except you don't find atonement by dying, but by setting whatever you fucked up right again the best you can. Perturabo got a consolation prize in the form of some Fist's gene-seed after the battle to bolster his Legion with and ascension to daemonhood but was denied his real desire of seeing Dorn broken. Dorn ironically emerged from the battle mentally stronger than he entered, at the cost of the lives of many of his sons right at the time where Chaos still needed some ass-kicking. Yeah, the whole Iron Cage thing [[derp|kinda was one big clusterfuck]] like that. Two rocks crashing into each other, remaining mostly undamaged but crushing [[Imperial Fists|everything]] between them. The only one that could rightfully claim any form of 'victory' that day was Guilliman, for he prevented the Imperial Fists from dying to the last man and got Dorn to actively collaborate with him after that.

[[File:007 Dorn.jpg|thumb|left]]The surviving Fists then re-organized into Chapters, with the most zealous of their number going on their own under First Captain [[Sigismund]] as the [[Black Templars]] and the others (mostly) following Blue Boy's guidelines. As a farewell gift, Sigismund was given a Tier VIII ocean war cruiser, Cross of Dorn. Dorn himself kept on leading the Imperial Fists for the next couple of centuries.

Soon after this, Rogal got in a big-ass ship and got killed by Chaos Space Marines in one of the early Black Crusades. During this battle, Rogal boarded one of the ships and was swarmed and killed by an unholy amount of traitor marines. So the story goes anyway.

Fun fact: Black Watch RPG rulebook have a quote of Rogal Dorn, dating M40. Is this a typo, or did golden boy just [[Alpharius|fake his death]] and now rule Custodes operations, like some rumors claim?

The whole 'died in a zerg rush of World Eaters' doesn't make much sense anyway. If it was supposed to be Angron who killed Dorn, maybe that'd make sense. But just a pack of Marines? That's... Less likely, if only because it's unlikely that there actually were enough World Eaters left to pose any real threat to a Primarch. Before Istvaan there was something like 150,000 World Eaters, but they took big casualties, first on Istvaan III in their unsupported attacks on the loyalists, and losses again on Istvaan V, then AGAIN on Nuceria and one last time outside Big E's pimp crib, where Sanguinius was regrettably forced to choke a bitch en masse for a few days. Point is, if Dorn died (as he lived) beating the shit out of people less manly than him, then it was because he wanted to die. Or maybe [[Kharn]] was somewhere in that zerg rush, in which case anything could happen, [[Meme|because he is a pretty swell guy]].

Is it really all that implausible though? After all, Russ' "lesson" to Angron relied on the premise that a bunch of bog-standard Astartes could take a Primarch down. Corvus was apparently nearly done in by the Night Lords on Isstvan V, and an Alpha Legion kill team came close to assassinating Guilliman in his own study on Macragge. Dorn's attackers would've been full Khornate Berserkers, possibly aided by Daemons. As for circumstances, Dorn had already led a bunch of hit-and-run attacks, so he was probably somewhat worn down already, and he was fighting in cramped spaces where his sheer size would have caused him problems. An Astartes can be killed by a lucky human with a pointy stick, so Dorn's death is sadly quite plausible. Tactically though, a cramped space also means only few enemies can attack you at any given moment, and World Eaters are not exactly known for using ranged weapons, so who knows...

But just to add fuel to the fire, in The Hunt For Vulkan in [[The Beast|The Beast Arises]], just before Vulkan [[what|jumps out a high flying Thunderhawk and beats gravity weapons and void shields with nothing but his manliness]] (and a hammer), he says this to [[Slaughter Koorland]]: "You fight well, Son of Dorn. You honour his name. I will tell him this." It's worth noting that throughout that book Vulkan is a little...off. But, assuming Vulkan isn't just confused, that could mean that Dorn is still alive and kicking, and that he has made contact with his fellow Primarchs, then we know that the Primarchs know where each other are. Of course it could also have been Vulkan's way of saying he expected to die on that mission and would speak to his dead brothers in the afterlife. Does this mean that because a [[Roboute Guilliman|certain spiritual liege]] has returned that all Primarchs will come back and kick ass?

Also, we have another "never found the corpse" case, which is the literal textbook example of a writer hinting that a character is just fine and is gunna come back into the story later. [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|What really happened was his Magic Pain Glove told him to hide in the Imperial Palace, disguised as a Centurion until the time was right, or someone mentions the Space Wolves around Magnus.]]

(There is written evidence in the Horus Heresy Primarchs novel 'Konrad Curze' that Dorn is dead, and was ripped to pieces. Pg 34, however this is not to be trusted since the skeleton recovered from the incident has been revealed to be fake...meaning that it was likely a member of the Alpha Legion in disguise)

==Who is Dorn?==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
''From the B&C forums''

I like the Imperial Fists and Rogal Dorn, although they haven't gotten much attention from the Heresy books. But, I like the idea of Dorn and his Legion. I like what I've read about them, and the image I have in my mind.

There was a post in the thread that said the Fists were boring, and Dorn was a jerk. It's not an uncommon sentiment and, while everyone is entitled to their reasons, I'd like to talk about mine. Been wanting to write something like this for a while, and this seems like a good excuse.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
I guess you could say the Imperial Fists are boring. They're boring in the same way that a family man who works a 9-5 salary job every day is boring. He gets up early and goes to work like clockwork, and while he's there he works hard. A quiet worker. You don't hear much from him, unless it's related to something you need his help with or vice-versa. He puts in a lot of hours, he doesn't take many sick days or vacation days, and he never complains. He doesn't demand a raise, but he takes one when offered if he feels he earned it. He accepts gratitude and acknowledges it, but he does not expect it. He likes the work he does, he enjoys it, it gives him purpose. To his coworkers, he comes off as cold and distant. You never see him shooting the breeze at the water cooler, he's not on the company softball team, he doesn't come to the after-work parties. But he's not aloof, he doesn't think he's better than anyone. He's just busy. The boss gives him a lot of work to do, and he keeps at it until it's done. And he's doing work for others, too, because he has an unbreakable will to complete his projects. Where others throw up their hands in surrender, where others say it can't be done, he finds a way. It's not always a pretty solution, or an elegant one, but he will get it done because that's what he does.

When he goes home, he spends time with his family. He loves his sons. He works as hard with them as he does for his boss. He teaches them how to be good men, how to succeed in life, to never stop trying until you find a way to get it done. Never give in, never surrender, never stop fighting for what you believe in. As cold as he is at work, he opens up when he's with his sons. Not too much, because they crave an authority figure, but he cares deeply for them. He helps them how he can, imparts all his wisdom. He has high expectations of them, but he doesn't need to point out their failures. His sons know full well their weaknesses, and they are harder on themselves than he could ever be. They're just like him, in that way. Then he gets up the next morning, and does it all again.

To his coworkers, to his neighbors, to you he is boring and dull. To his boss, he's the man you can count on, rely on, depend upon to do any job you ask him. Even if he doesn't know how, he'll figure it out. To his sons, he's an inspiration, a loving father, an immovable foundation for their lives. To them, he's anything but boring.

It's unfortunate that the Imperial Fists are known only for their siege warfare, because they were good at so many other things. They were just as fierce in close combat, boarding actions, armor assaults and drop pod formations as anyone else. But not all combat can be glorious. War sometimes requires dirty, grueling work. The other Legions thought it beneath them that it should be left to lesser beings. But Dorn would never ask someone to do something he, himself, would not. So when the siege work and grinding urban warfare came to him, as it inevitably did, he accepted it. Dorn was happy to do whatever his father, the Emperor, and the Imperium needed him to do. He was just happy to do his father's work, as were the Imperial Fists. They would have been content to mop floors and wash windows, if that's what was needed of them. They welcomed the burden of duty.

There was another Legion that was similar, of course. Perturabo and the Iron Warriors were also known as siege specialists and urban combatants. They, too, willingly fed themselves into that vicious meatgrinder where others would not. But Perturabo did not do it for duty, or for loyalty; he did it searching for glory. He thought that taking the jobs no one else would do would bring him glory and favor. But when it didn't come, his heart grew bitter. Unlike his brother, he expected gratitude. He felt ignored, cheated, denied, forgotten. This was why he and Dorn bickered. For while Dorn may not have often smiled, neither did he frown. He simply did what was asked, with his jaw set to the task, unable to smile and laugh at the most recent victory because his mind was already turned to the things that needed to be done and those things that could have been done better. Dorn thought his brother should have been happy to serve the Emperor's will, as Dorn was himself. He did not understand why Perturabo felt he needed more.

Dorn was many things, but a glib speaker was not one of them. He loved his brothers dearly, and the only thing he loved more than his brothers were the Emperor and the Imperium. Rogal was the sort of man that knows what he wants to say, but has difficulties expressing his thoughts the way he wants to. He always admired Horus and Sanguinius for their speaking ability and charisma. It was this inability to express himself, and a perspective that was stubbornly rooted in his own place, that caused friction amongst his fellow Primarchs, as well as ruling him out as a potential Warmaster. He never meant to quarrel with Perturabo, for there was a deep kinship there, but Dorn could not understand that, for some, duty was just not enough. When he said the Imperial Palace could withstand an Iron Warrior attack, he meant it as a general who was defending a structure he, himself, had built. Dorn would have greater insight than Perturabo into the layout, its strengths, its weaknesses. If Perturabo had built it, Dorn would have said he could not take it for the same reasons. But his brother had already taken insult, and it cut deeply that Dorn had inadvertently hurt his brother so.

He had a similar problem with Konrad. Dorn knew his brother had led a difficult life prior to being found by the Emperor, and he knew the Night Haunter was deeply troubled. Rogal did not pity him, because pity is reserved for those things seen as lesser than yourself and Dorn did not see himself as superior to anyone--especially not his brothers. But he did care for Konrad in his own way, and hoped his brother would find peace for his troubled mind. When Fulgrim shared Konrad's disturbing vision, he did not intend to fight with him. Dorn was wounded that Konrad would think so little of the Emperor, who was the only being Dorn loved more than his brothers (Konrad included). He only wanted to remind Konrad that the Emperor loved them, that He would never do such things. Dorn wanted to say he was sure Konrad's visions were horrifying, but that did not make them true and the Haunter should know the difference. But, Dorn could not express himself that way. He came across as accusatory, aggressive, hateful. It came as a complete shock when Konrad attacked him and, as with Perturabo, Dorn would look back at his words and actions with a heart full of regret. If only he had his brothers' way with words, he would have known the right thing to say.

But, Dorn was a soldier first, foremost and always. While his brothers pursued other things like art, governing, crafting, magic, religion, Dorn focused on being a warrior and a general. In his mind, that was what the Emperor needed them to be at that time. Books, politicking, forges and statues would not reconquer the galaxy. This was a sticking point between himself and Guilliman, though the two otherwise got along well. Guilliman liked to argue they could not be soldiers forever. When peace came, they would have to be leaders. What Dorn saw was his brother putting his cart before the horse. Peace had not yet been won. Humans still existed in darkness beyond the Imperium's light. Aliens continued to defy Mankind's destiny. There would come a time for Astartes to do other things, to be other things, but this was not that time. Now they needed to go forth and conquer, with minds free of other pursuits that would only cloud their judgment. As much as anything else, fixating on the need to conquer and secure the Galaxy kept Dorn free from troublesome questions about his nature and potential; questions that frightened him, although he's only known to have admitted this to Garviel Loken. It was a problem with Lorgar as well. Dorn understood Aurelian's love and devotion to the Emperor, for he shared it as deeply, but Lorgar's worship went contrary to their father's wishes. And Dorn put his father's wishes above everyone's. Including his brothers'. Including his own.

I've talked a lot about Dorn's good sides, but he wasn't perfect and he would have been the first to admit it. He had his pride, his honor, his narrow focus, his stubborn nature, his serious demeanor that put distance between him and his brothers. Rogal knew these things for he was more aware of his faults than anyone else. That was why he made the Pain Glove, to purge the weakness from him even when that weakness was imagined.

I hear a lot of people talk about Dorn being "emo", and it's difficult for people who haven't punished themselves to understand. Those with a history of self-harm, I think, can relate well to Dorn's mentality (I want to pause long enough to say you should not harm yourself. You are a way cool person. If you feel the need to hurt yourself, talk to someone about it. This is going to sound like glorifying the act, which I am, but in the context of understanding a fictional character. Don't self-harm, please). Pain can be a purifying thing, a tool to focus the mind, to strengthen the spirit and a way to ensure you won't make the same mistake again. Cultures today are filled with these ideas. We spank children because pain is the ultimate teacher. We say things like "No pain, no gain" and "Pain is the feeling of weakness leaving the body". Movies glorify characters who are shot, stabbed, break bones and dislocate joints yet grit their teeth and carry on to save the day. We brag about having a high pain tolerance and, like alcohol tolerance, there is only one way to build it. You must drink deep, and often.

Besides, how else could Dorn and his Fists punish themselves? They are Astartes, they own no possessions to take away. They have no privileges to revoke. You can't ground them from fighting because that's the entire reason they were made. You can't kill them because that's wasting the Emperor's resources. You can't physically wound them because they must be in peak condition to wage war. But Dorn found a way to inflict pain without damage, because an Astartes or Primarch damaging their flesh is spitting in the face of the Emperor to whom their body belongs.

Think about this: Imperial Fists willingly go into the Pain Glove for every mistake they make, real or imagined. The Pain Glove is said to feel like your entire body is submerged in liquid fire. And they do this to themselves, for minutes at a time, up to an hour. Can you imagine wearing napalm for an hour, willingly? Can you imagine doing it for a minute? Ten seconds? That's why the Imperial Fists are impossible to break, because there is no pain you can inflict upon them that is greater than that which they inflict upon themselves. As the Joker says in Dark Knight, "You have nothing to threaten me with."

One more thing I'd like to discuss, and then I'll be finished with this lengthy monologue.

The Iron Cage is something you hear a lot about, if you're a fan of Dorn or the Imperial Fists. It will inevitably be discussed. "Dorn was being an emo jerk", "The Ultramarines saved their butts", "The Iron Warriors tricked them because the center was a shooting gallery", "The Imperial Fists and Dorn would have been wiped out if Perturabo wasn't too busy gloating", "Dorn went crazy and forced his Legion into a meatgrinder they never recovered from".

I hope I've helped explain who Rogal Dorn was, because to understand why the Iron Cage happened you have to understand Dorn. It wasn't a pleasant time in his life. It was his absolute lowest point. He alone saw what Horus became in the he end, and lived to tell of it - he understood better than anyone how far the Imperium's greatest hero had fallen. Half his brothers had betrayed the Imperium, and it was Dorn that retrieved fallen Sanguinius, a brother he loved and admired, and the mortally wounded Emperor. His father, who he loved most. It was Dorn that heard his last words, who carried out his final wishes. Dorn, who loved the Emperor more than any other Primarch, had to carry the burden of his father's shattered body to the tomb of the Golden Throne. And with it, he knew, he was entombing his father's vision of the Imperium. It weighed heavily upon him, and Dorn blamed himself for it. Even though it wasn't his fault, even though there was nothing he could have done to prevent it, even though no one could have changed the outcome, he blamed himself. He took that burden upon himself, because he was used to carrying burdens. Dorn's shoulders were broad, and the Imperium rested well upon them. That raised eagle above his armor was far more than decoration; in his mind, he and his Legion shouldered the responsibility of fulfilling the Emperor's vision. He carried the Imperium on his shoulders, as did the Imperial Fists, and they could only blame themselves as they began to pick up the pieces.

Dorn knew what the Iron Cage was because, while he had faults, being stupid was not one of them. He knew it was a trap; that it was a battle that could not be won--it could only be endured. It was a Pain Glove for himself and the Fists. You don't go into the Glove to win. It's not something you can beat. It is an act of atonement, of purification.

It can only be endured.

Guilliman had convinced the High Lords that the Legions must be broken, that Chapters must be formed from their remains, but the Imperial Fists did not want to separate. It would mean leaving their father, who had been a constant presence in their lives. It would mean throwing the last handful of dirt upon the memory of the Great Crusade. Yet they were given no choice. The Navy had fired upon them. Guilliman had called them traitors. Guilliman, who did not bleed to defend the Imperial Palace. Guilliman, who did not carry the body of the Emperor from that cursed ship. Guilliman, who did not hear the last words of the Emperor and they said nothing of Chapters. Guilliman, who had finally become the politician he yearned to be.

With no other recourse, the Imperial Fists did the only thing they could. They would rather die as Legionnaires than live as something lesser, in their minds, than what the Emperor intended. They went to the Iron Cage without planning, for winning was never the goal of it. Sure, Dorn had said he would bring Perturabo to Terra in an iron cage, but he couldn't make his brothers understand the true reasons. He would have brought Perturabo back if events had transpired that way, but it wasn't why he went.

The Ultramarines didn't save them from anything. The Imperial Fists wanted to suffer, to bleed, to atone for their perceived failure, to die as their beloved Emperor had died. But, the Iron Warriors weren't up to the task. Whether out of fear of the price required, whether out of perverse satisfaction of watching the last battle of their hated Legion rivals (A hatred that was never reciprocated), they could not go through with it. They would have fled before being forced to spend the last of their lives, which would have robbed them of the glory they so desperately wanted, or they would have gotten bored and left. There was no way the Imperial Fists could have won the Iron Cage but, for the same reason, there was no way for them to be beaten. No matter what else you hear, believe this: the Imperial Fists and Dorn were not broken that day. They were reborn, in the way only being submerged in liquid fire for minutes on end can give a man new life. They forgave themselves for the Heresy, and set their minds to new tasks. They readied themselves for new burdens.

For the shoulders of the Imperial Fists are broad, and the Imperium rests well upon them.

Once, I didn't care about Dorn and his Legion. I thought they were dull and boring. But, now, they're my favorite Primarch and Legion. I hope, even if you don't agree, you will understand my reasons.

Additional notes: Dorn was similar to Mortarion in that he tended to keep a lid on his emotions. The only time we see him get angry is when Nathaniel Garro and Iacton Qruze deliver the Heresy news (admittedly he does punch Garro across the room and almost splits him down the middle with his chainsword), and although he vents hard after seeing the proof, it happens in private. There's a nice bit of contrast when he's faced with recordings of Horus' atrocities and left rather shell-shocked.
</div></div>

==Soul Drinkers and other Adopted Marines==

It is revealed during the Heresy that Dorn and Guilliman came up with the idea to mind-wipe everyone who had interacted with the Two Missing Primarchs and further argued that the legions shouldn't be purged along with their gene-fathers, which the Emperor and Malcador agreed with. It is generally taken as fact by many that the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines then absorbed the Marines from the II and XI, based on some lines of dialogue from ''The First Heretic'' and ''The Chamber at the End of Memory''. That said, despite it being "common knowledge", it's never been confirmed that this is what happened. At least one IF successor chapter, the [[Soul Drinkers]], was later discovered to not possess Dorn's gene-seed, but their actual origins remain unclear.

==Tabletop==
[[File:FWPreview-Rogal_Dorn.jpg|300px|thumb|right|[[Meme|Brace yourself: traitors are coming.]] [[FAIL|No badass mustache though.]]]]
{| class=wikitable
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Rogal Dorn:''' || 8 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

The Emperor's Praetorian allows all Imperial Fists to use his Ld for morale and pinning tests, while also granting a +d3 bonus to the outcome of assault results for himself and his Legion as long as he's in play. In addition to that, he also makes Phalanx Breacher Squads and Legion Terminator Squads Troop choices and he (along with his squad) has the ''Crusader'' and ''Furious Charge'' special rules. Sundering Blow acts like a powered-up Smash, halving Dorn's attacks to boost his strength by 2 and giving ''Instant Death'', while ''Unshakable Defense'' allows you to pick three fortifications to enhance; these fortifications will allow units hiding in them to reroll pinning tests and cover saves of 1. This makes him good in a defensive army with fortifications, which is 80% of what the Fists are about, but Rogal himself is a melee powerhouse fit to go with a squad of Templars or Huscarls, which is the other 20% of the Fists.

Dorn gets the following wargear: '''Auric Armor''', that gives him a 2+/4++, and no attack can wound Rogal Dorn on a roll better than a 3+, regardless of any special rules it has. (This doesn't apply to Strength D weapons). '''Storm's Teeth''' is an AP2 melee weapon with Shred and Rampage, which previously was Unwieldy for no discernible reason, but now makes Dorn suffer -1 initiative in close combat, but he gains +1 attack provided someone is in base contact with him and '''The Voice of Terra''' is a S5 AP4 gun with Salvo 3/5 (so no shooting and assaulting) and Rending. Lastly, he gets access to his own pimped ride, the '''[[Ætos Dios]]''', a modified Thunderhawk usable in games of 3000+ points as a dedicated transport. The Aetos Dios is armed with a Turbolaser and also has a single void shield, IWND, and a 4+ invulnerable save against all missile attacks. Like Perturabo's Tormentor, it doesn't take up a Lord of War slot. Finally, as of the latest FAQ he has a Teleportation Transponder, so he can deep strike in with said Huscarls. He doesn't a no-scatter buff like his deep-striking brothers though, so make sure you have a Nuncio-Vox/Damocles rhino nearby.

He's in the top 2 or 3 Primarchs for his points. He's reasonably tanky, and even with only 4 base attacks, ''Reaping Blow'' and ''Rampage'' make him one of the harder Primarchs to tarpit. Furthermore, the combat resolution bonus is very powerful in 30k, as is Ld10 for Morale. These combine to make the Fists considerably more resilient in melee, while ''Unshakable Defense'' is good for Tank Hunter Heavy Support Squads. However, [[Derp|several of his special rules provide anti-pinning bonuses, but Fists are immune to pinning while in cover now]] (though he'll still benefit allies, such as [[Siege of Terra|Blood Angels and White Scars]] with his buffed up terrain). That's not to say this makes him bad; his morale rules are comparable to Lorgar or Fulgrim, and his Phalanx Warders are good troops choices. All this means that he's somewhat undercosted, though his comparatively low mobility and few base attacks mean he isn't [[Magnus the Red|straight-up broken.]]

===Rogal Dorn VS other Primarchs:===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Rogal Dorn fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also, all of the Primarchs use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?). Note: Dorn doesn't use Sundering Blow because against Primarchs it would be weaker than his normal attacks. (an additional note: since this is only statistical analysis in a vacuum, it fails to take into consideration special rules that Rogal Dorn would get if he charges and is outnumbered. These special rules given under said circumstances would actually result in Rogal Dorn being able to beat many more Primarchs)
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Horus]]
**Horus hits 3 times (Talon), wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn hits 2 times and wounds 1.5 times, 0.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**As always, Horus takes down the challenger without problems.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Angron]]
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.556 times, 1.778 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.444.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.625 wounds after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.291 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn loses.

* Rogal Dorn vs [[Mortarion]]
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Dorn hits 2.666 times, wounds 1.48 times, 0.74 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn
**Dorn loses.

* Rogal Dorn vs [[Fulgrim]]
**Fulgrim hits 4.5 times, wounds 3, 1.5 wounds after saves and 1.167 wounds after IWND.
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn loses again.

* Rogal Dorn vs [[Ferrus Manus]]
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn hits 2.667 times, wounds 1.481 times, 0.494 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.16 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn loses.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Vulkan]]
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.333 times, 0.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn hits 2.667 times, wounds 1.481 times, 0.494 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn loses.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Lorgar]]
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Rogal Dorn Round 1: hits 2.37 times , wounds 1.579 times, 0.789 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.456 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Rogal Dorn Round 2: hits 2.666 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn wins this fight.
**Note: as always, no psychic powers.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Perturabo]]
**Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.333 times, 0.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn loses. The rivalry continues...

* Rogal Dorn vs [[Konrad Curze]]
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn loses.

* Rogal Dorn vs [[Alpharius]]
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn hits 2.667 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn actually wins, just like in the fluff.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Corvus Corax]]
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn hits 2.667/2 times and wounds 2/1.5 times, 1.333/1 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1/0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Even without factoring in Hit & Run bonus, Dorn still loses, even if not by much.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Roboute Guilliman]]
**Guilliman Round 1/2: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 3 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.963 times, 1.482 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.148 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn Round 1: hits 2.666 times, wounds 2 times, 0.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn Round 2 and thereafter: hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.375 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.042 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn loses badly.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Leman Russ]]
**Russ hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 time after saves, plus 0.583 wounds from Sever Life for a whole 2.083 wounds and IWND will take that down to 1.75 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn round 1: hits 1.333 times, wounds 1 times, 0.50 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.177.
**Dorn Round 2 and thereafter: hits 0.667 times, wounds 0.5 times, 0.25 times after saves and IWND will take that down to -0.083.
**Dorn loses hard.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Jaghatai Khan]]
**Jaghatai hits 4 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.666
**Dorn hits 2.667 times, wounds 1.481 times, 0.494 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.16 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Khan beats Dorn.

* Rogal Dorn VS [[Sanguinius]]
** Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
** Sanguinius (Encarmine Blade) Round 1: hits 4.667 times, wounds 4.148 times, 2.074 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.741 wounds at the start of the next turn.
*** Sanguinius on the charge: hits 5.333 times, wounds 5.407 times (HoW affected by Auric Armour), 2.704 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 2.37 wounds at the start of the next turn.
** Sanguinius Round 2+: hits 4 times, wounds 3.556 times, 1.778 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.444 wounds at the start of the next turn.
** Dorn loses badly.

* TLDR version: Seriously, it depresses me to no end to see the Praetorian in such a sorry state. Statistically, he would lose to any other Primarch barring Alpharius and Lorgar (without powers), even those whose entire gimmick in lore is "great at asymmetrical warfare but gets fucked up in a direct confrontation" like Corax, meaning he is actually one of the weakest Primarchs. He doesn't lose really badly in most fights, meaning he isn't easily put down during a normal game. Even though he is not strong in Primarch vs Primarch duels, he is still very lethal against anything else (he has special rules which don't affect the duel like furious charge and Rampage which means he can get 9 strength 7 attacks on the charge if outnumbered) and is the third cheapest Primarch who also gives a lot to his Legion, so in the end it all balances itself pretty well.
</div></div>
==Heresy 2.0==
Much has changed in this newest edition of the Horus Heresy.

Primarchs have a set of shared rules:
*Independent Character, Eternal warrior, Fearless, It Will Not Die (5+), Bulky (4) and Relentless. Unit type character
*They are not effected by negative modifiers to their statlines (other then wounds).
*Resolve snap shots at their normal BS.
*All hits from either shooting or close combat are allocated by the Primarchs controlling player. These hits are kept in a separate wound pool.

This edition, Dorn has seen some changes, scoring an extra wound, an extra point of initiative and ballistics skill, and 2 more attacks.
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || LD || SV
|-
| Rogal Dorn:|| 435 || 8 || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 2+(4++)
|}
He has a pretty average statline for a Primarch, aside from his extra wound and WS 8.

*'''Legiones Astartes (Imperial Fists):''' Gives a flat +1 to hit with auto and bolt weapons. Doesn’t matter since Dorn already hits on a 2+.
*'''Bulwark of the Imperium:''' Any charge targeting Dorn is counted as disordered.
*'''Crusader:''' Consolidates an extra few inches after a combat. Awesome.
*'''Furious Charge (2):''' Bumps Dorn up to strength 8 on the charge. With the +2 strength of Storm’s Teeth, he can even ID models with Battle-Hardened(1).
*'''Deep Strike:''' Lets you deep strike Dorn with a squad of Terminators.
*'''Loyalist:''' In case it wasn't painfully obvious already.
*'''Sire of the Imperial Fists:''' Just as great as it always was. Gives all characters (including sergeants!) in your army Ld 10, and adds an extra wound for the purpose of resolving combats. For the new edition, it also allows you to choose a phase to get an extra reaction in for the rest of the game.

As with all Primarchs, Dorn's wargear is quite powerful.
*'''The Auric Armour:''' Gives Dorn a standard Primarch 2+/4++, [[Awesome|and you can’t wound his well-fortified physique on better than a 4+.]] [[Fail|Fuck you, Fulgrim.]]
*'''Storm’s Teeth:''' S+2, AP2, melee, Two-Handed, Murderous Strike (6+), Shred, Reaping Blow (2). [[ Meme | Rogal Dorn's colossal chainblade]] has seen a tremendous buff this edition. +2 Strength boosts him up to S8 to ID marines, he no longer attacks at -1 Initiative, he has Shred to re-roll wounds, and now makes 2 extra attacks instead of 1 when in base contact with more than one enemy model.
*'''The Voice of Terra:''' S5, AP4, Assault 3, Rending 5+. Same as last edition, but is now Assault 3, allowing Dorn to shoot [[Rip and tear | before charging into glorious melee combat.]]
*Frag Grenades

Dorn’s seen a massive glow up since last edition, going from a slouch in combat to an absolute beast. The Voice of Terra going from Salvo to Assault allows him to take some wounds off an enemy unit before he charges, and Storm’s Teeth going to strength 8 makes him massively more effective against terminators and veterans, even with Battle-Hardened.

====30k Rogal Dorn Vs other Primarchs: Heresy 2.0====

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting has significantly changed in the new edition. The sweeping changes to the Weapon Skill system really put those with lower scores at a huge disadvantage. While the changes to universal special rules mean that characters can often bring more attacks (like with Rage and Rampage) or newer tricks (Brutal) to the table that they never could before.

This means that Primarch vs Primarch fighting is more likely to actually resolve itself within the duration of the game, rather than taking turns whittling off small numbers from each other.

Also, because Overwatch Reactions are now done at full ballistic skill, shooting will likely play a more significant role. However, for the sake of brevity, there should be no need to include them unless they make a meaningful difference to the outcome.

Although it will not be used to calculate the outcomes below, if you want to go Primarch hunting, [[Cheese | give Rogal Dorn a retinue of Phalanx warders to give him a 3+ Invulnerable save and WS9 when he's charged.]]

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
'''Dorn vs. The Lion:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.91 wounds, '''1.21 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.87 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Lion with the Wolf Blade & Deathwing subtype ''(Hits on MC 3+)'': 4.88 hits, 3.66 wounds, '''1.83 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.5 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
::Lions Choler (+1 attack): 5.55 hits, 4.16 wounds, '''2.08 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.74 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
::Lions Choler (+2 attacks): 6.22 hits, 4.66 wounds, '''2.33 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.99 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Lion with the Lion Sword & Deathwing subtype ''(Hits on MC 3+)'': 4.88 hits, 2.44 wounds, '''1.22 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.88 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
::Lions Choler (+1 attack): 5.55 hits, 2.78 wounds, '''1.39 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.04 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
::Lions Choler (+2 attacks): 6.22 hits, 3.11 wounds, '''1.55 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.21 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Lion wins- Dorn has the same WS and Dorn can’t be hurt on anything better the a 4+, while he is damaging the Lion on 2+. So this is one fight where using the Wolf Blade is actually the better option, since all eligible wounds will be AP2 and he has the benefit of Shred.
:Do note that the majority of the time, the Lion will be running the Lion Sword. In this case, it's nearly even-- Lion's Choler raises the Lion's damage output to match Dorn's increased wound count.
:The Lion's extra attacks, better accuracy and save reroll all help him win here.

'''Dorn vs. Fulgrim:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.91 wounds, '''0.97 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.64 at the end of next turn thanks to IWND.
:Fulgrim with the Laer Blade ''(Initiative 9, +3 attacks, Hits on MC 4+)'': 4.75 hits, 2.38 wounds, '''1.19 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.85 at the end of the next turn thanks to IWND.

:Fulgrim barely squeezes out a victory. His 3+ invulnerable save keeps him alive just long enough to kill Dorn in the 9th round of combat, but Dorn absolutely has ways to win this one, such as joining a unit of Phalanx warders to get WS9 from Lock-Step.

'''Dorn vs. Perturabo:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, '''1.25 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.96 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Perturabo with Forgebreaker Desecrated ''(Hits on MC 5+)'': 2.22 hits, 1.11 wounds, '''1.11 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.77 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Dorn wins. The changes to the weapon skill system result in Perturabo only hitting Dorn on a 5+. Paired with Dorn's well-fortified armour only being wounded on a 4+, Perturabo's damage potential is gutted from the get-go. Brutal helps him out a bit, but Dorn’s higher initiative and wound count win in the long run.

'''Dorn vs. The Khan:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, '''1.30 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.96 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:The Khan with the White Tiger Dao ''(Hits on MC 5+)'': 2.22 hits, 1.11 wounds, '''0.55 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.21 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:[[Black Templars | Dorn slaughters the Khan]] regardless of whether or not he’s mounted. As with Perturabo, The Khan’s lower weapon skill is the culprit- only hitting on a 5+ ruins his damage potential, regardless of his high initiative.

'''Dorn vs. Leman Russ:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.91 wounds, '''1.45 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.11 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Russ with the Sword of Balenight ''(Hits on MC 4+)'': 4.44 hits, 2.22 wounds, '''2.22 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 1.88 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Russ charging with the Sword of Balenight ''(Hits on MC 3+)'': 5.56 hits, 2.78 wounds, [[Anal circumference | '''2.78 unsaved wounds,''']] which is reduced to 2.44 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Russ using Counter-Attack with the Sword of Balenight ''(Hits on MC 4+)'': 5.25 hits, 2.125 wounds, '''2.125 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.785 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Russ wins. Having brutal on the Sword of Balenight really puts the nail in Dorn’s coffin, doubling his effective damage output. Additionally, Russ’s extra attacks over Dorn cement his place as the Emperor’s Executioner.

'''Dorn vs. Curze:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.91 wounds, '''1.45 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.11 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Curze with Mercy and Forgiveness ''(Hits on 4+)'': 4 hits, 3 wounds, '''1.5 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.16 wounds at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Dorn wins without Glimpse of Death. However, if Curze uses it, Dorn’s damage output is nearly halved.

'''Dorn vs. Sanguinius:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.91 wounds, 1.45 unsaved wounds, which is reduced to 1.11 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth when charged ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.91 wounds, 0.728 unsaved wounds, which is reduced to 0.388 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Sanguinius with the Blade Encarmine (Hits on MC 4+): 3.33 hits, 2.96 wounds, 1.48 unsaved wounds, which is reduced to 1.14 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Sanguinius on the charge with the Blade Encarmine (Hits on MC 4+): 3.33 hits, 3.238 wounds, 1.62 unsaved wounds, which is reduced to 1.28 at the end of the turn due to IWND.

:Sanguinius wins if he charges. Re-rolling his invulnerable saves on the first round of combat hampers Dorn’s damage potential while he takes more in return, despite Bulwark of the Imperium taking away 2 of Sanguinius’s attacks on the charge.

'''Dorn vs. Ferrus Manus:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, '''1.30 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.96 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Ferrus Manus with Forgebreaker ''(Hits on MC 5+)'': 2.22 hits, 1.11 wounds, '''1.67 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.33 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Ferrus Manus wins. While he strikes at I1, Brutal (3) ends up killing Dorn in the long run, despite his extra wound.

'''Dorn vs. Angron:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth (Hits on 2+): 5 hits, 4.86 wounds, '''2.43 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 2.09 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Angron with Gorefather and Gorechild ''(Hits on 4+, Turn 1)'': 3.5 hits, 2.63 wounds, '''1.31 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.97 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Dorn wins. Angron’s damage output against Dorn can be represented by the function (0.1875x+0.785)-0.34, with x representing the current turn. Due to this, by the time Dorn has done 6 wounds to Angron, Angron has only dealt 6.7375 damage to Dorn. As with most primarch duels, the Butcher’s Nails cause Angron to take more damage than his opponent.

'''Dorn vs. Guilliman:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, '''1.70 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.36 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Guilliman with the Gladius Incandor ''(Hits on MC 5+)'': 2.22 hits, 1.67 wounds, '''0.84 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.5 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Guilliman with the Hand of Dominion ''(Hits on MC 5+)'': 2.22 hits, 1.11 wounds, '''1.11 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.77 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Dorn wins. Once again, Guilliman’s lower WS combined with the Auric Armor’s permanent transhuman guts his damage output, [[Fail | even with the Brutal (2) hand of dominion.]]

'''Dorn vs. Mortarion:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, '''1.95 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.61 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Mortarion with Silence ''(Hits on 5+)'': 2 hits, 1 wound, '''0.5 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.15 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:[[What | Dorn completely tanks Mortarion’s attacks, absolutely slaughtering him.]] While Silence is a powerful weapon against terminators and elites with Instant Death, it lacks any way to reliably break through the Auric Armour.

'''Dorn vs. Magnus:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, 1.95 unsaved wounds, '''reduced to 1.3 after Shrouded,''' which is reduced to 0.96 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Magnus with [[/d/ | Ahn]]-Nunurta ''(Hits on 5+)'': 2 hits, 1 wound, '''0.5 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.15 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Dorn wins, but Magnus isn’t supposed to be in melee anyway. Similarly to Mortarion, his weapon weapon has potential to be strong, though against a Primarch, it’s nearly impossible to win a duel.

'''Dorn vs. Horus:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.91 wounds, '''0.97 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.63 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 4+)'': 3.33 hits, 1.67 wounds, '''1.67 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.33 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Horus wth the Warmaster’s Talon ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.25 wounds, 1.125 unsaved wounds, which becomes '''1.34 unsaved wounds''' after deflagrate, which is reduced to 1 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins. His 3+ Invulnerable save stunts Dorn’s damage significantly, and Brutal (2) on Worldbreaker gives Horus a major advantage in the duel.

'''Dorn vs. Lorgar:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, '''1.85 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.35 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Lorgar with illuminarum ''(Hits on MC 5+)'': 2.22 hits, 1.11 wounds, '''1.11 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.77 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Dorn wins. While Illuminarum has Brutal, [[Fail | Lorgar’s WS of 6 kills him before the fight begins.]] Similar to Magnus, you shouldn’t be fighting in melee with Lorgar in the first place– he’s a powerful psyker, not a duellist.

'''Dorn vs. Vulkan:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, '''1.3 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.8 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Vulkan with Dawnbringer ''(Hits on MC 5+)'': 2.22 hits, 1.11 wound, '''0.55 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.21 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Dorn wins. With Eternal Warrior, Dawnbringer isn’t very powerful against Dorn, only able to wound him on a 4+ with no way to re-roll, and Instant Death, while effective against terminators and praetors, is useless against Primarchs.

'''Dorn vs. Corax:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.91 wounds, '''1.85 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.51 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Corax with the Panoply of the Raven Lord ''(Hits on 5)'': 2.33 hits, 1.75 wounds, '''0.875 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.53 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Dorn wins. Corax’s WS of 7 decreases his damage output significantly, [[Just as planned | and Bulwark of the Imperium renders Rage (4) useless due to counting enemy charges as disordered.]]

'''Dorn vs. Alpharius:'''
:Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 3+)'': 4 hits, 3.89 wounds, '''1.85 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.51 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
:Alpharius with the Pale Spear ''(Hits on 5+)'': 2 hits, 1 wound, '''0.5 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.15 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Dorn wins. Alpharius suffers from the same problem that Vulkan and Mortarion have, that being a very powerful weapon that’s nearly useless against Primarchs due to its main gimmick being Instant Death.

Overall, Dorn proves himself as a very powerful fighter this edition– Whereas last edition he was only able to reliably beat Lorgar and Alpharius, he now mathematically defeats 9 of his brothers, 10 if he manages to charge Sanguinius first. Coupled with his army-wide Ld 10 and an additional reaction in a phase of your choice, Dorn is looking like a fantastic primarch this edition.

</div></div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
[[File:Behold the Primarch of the Imperial Fists: Rogal Dorminique|thumb|https://nsa40.casimages.com/img/2020/06/05/200605034705298612.jpg]]
File:Past-Dorn.jpeg
File:RogalDong.png|No fortification can hope to withstand him at full force.
File:Dorn-hh.jpg
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

Konrad Curze

2022-10-21T18:29:22Z

2600:387:C:6C1A:0:0:0:B: /* History */

{{awesome}}
{{heresy}}
[[File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|400px|thumb|right|"Yeah this guy seems nice." - Big E at some point.]]

{{Topquote|He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.|Friedrich Nietzsche}}
{{Topquote|Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was '''born''' in it. '''Molded''' by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, and by then it was nothing to me but '''BLINDING!'''|Bane, The Dark Knight Rises}}
{{Topquote|Know how I stayed alive this long? All these years? Fear. The spectacle of fearsome acts. Somebody steals from me: I cut off his hands. He offends me: I cut out his tongue. He rises against me: I cut off his head, stick it on a pike. Raise it high up so all in the streets can see. That's what preserves the order of things. Fear.|Bill the Butcher, Gangs of New York}}

'''Konrad Curze''' was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Night Lords]] Legion (his @ was '''Night Haunter'''). A [[Psyker]] (albeit a latent one), Curze was also well-known for the fact that he was [[/b/|plagued from the moment of his awakening by visions of the most horrific future imaginable, terrifying waking dreams that would follow him from cradle to grave.]] Whilst [[/tg/]] has joked that he suffered the lamest death in history due to falling to a [[Callidus]] Assassin's blade (hence the ''"was"'' earlier). This was only because he let her kill him, for what he had done, and what he became. He is probably the most badass primarch in terms of [[gets shit done|getting shit done]], especially compared to [[Angron|these]] [[Fulgrim|buffoons]].

Equal parts upstanding vigilante and psychosis-wracked terrorist, Curze's schtick was obedience through fear. To wit, if you're sat behind locked doors shitting yourself in terror for the majority of your existence, you're probably going to struggle to lead a life of crime. And if that logic doesn't make you reconsider your wayward ways, perhaps [[rip and tear|being skinned alive, then disembowelled and finally crucified]] will be the wake up call you need. Either way, Curze cut a somewhat tragic figure; he foresaw the events of the [[heresy]] only to be stitched up and censured by his [[Rogal Dorn|arsehole]] [[Fulgrim|brothers]], possibly due to [[rage|the fact he made for a nightmarish poker opponent]]. Of course, having a personality and approach that can be accurately summarized as "some unholy [[Batman]]-[[/co/|Punisher]]-[[Vampire|Vlad the Impaler]]-Predator-Santa-Cassandra-hybrid" didn't win him many fans amongst his brothers, either. Though it might be more succinct to describe both his personality and methods as a combination of The Batman who Laughs and <s>Judge Dredd</s> Judge Death.

His name is an oblique reference to ''Heart of Darkness''.

==History==
[[Image:Curzw-perturabo-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|400px|"Yeah he seems pretty balanced."]]
After the Primarchs were scattered by [[Chaos]], Konrad Curze found himself upon perhaps the worst of all the planets that any Primarch landed on, [[Nostramo]]. While not technically a Death World by way of either it's environment or fauna, the world was very poorly suited to human habitation, and made worse by overpopulation and pollution. The planet was shrouded in almost complete darkness due to its faint star and the industrial smog that choked its atmosphere. The air and the rain were acidic from pollutants, and the population of the Hives was kept in check by suicide more than anything else. Nostramo had been a mining colony during the Age of Technology, as the world possessed a tremendous amount of naturally occuring adamantium in its crust. The planet managed to weather the Age of Strife relatively intact (for whatever that was worth), and had continued on as a large scale mining operation into the era of the Great Crusade. The planet's population had retained the technology necessary to travel in the void, and so the Nostramons were able to export their adamantium off-world. Nearby systems would pay a premium for the incredibly rare and useful metal, which generated phenomenal wealth for Nostramo. However, this wealth was hoarded by Nostramo's corrupt upper echelons, who hired criminal gangs to enforce their will over what were essentially small fiefdoms within the Hive Cities. Whatever culture the miners had originally possessed had long since been replaced by a strange fusion of gangland territorialism and feudalism.

This corruption, and what came of it, were the elements that made Nostramo possibly the worst of all the planets to receive a Primarch. It wasn't just the environment which made the planet awful; other Primarch homeworlds had biospheres as bad or worse. For instance, Mortarion's home planet of [[Barbarus]] had a just barely breathable atmosphere, and Sanguinius's world of [[Baal]] was like living in a burned out nuclear reactor. However, the people of Barbarus still held a sense of communal solidarity which grew even greater when Mortarion rallied them against their Overlords, and the people of Baal still had the compassion to raise Sanguinius as one of their own. What made Nostramo truly hellish was its populace. On Nostramo, there was no compassion or fraternity. The planet's only resource was adamantium, and its mining and shipping were the planet's only industry. With the adamantium trade under the strict control of criminal kingpins, the vast majority of Nostramo's population was utterly destitute, and had turned to crime practically en masse long ago in order to simply survive. This environment had bred a population so used to depravity and horror that behavior like murder for the sake of cannibalism was quite commonplace. To get a sense of how crappy Nostramo was, Curze himself would later state that he considered ''Terra'' of all places to be a paradise.

[[Image:Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-Vulkan-Primarchs-7575420.jpeg|300px|thumb|The Night Haunter, enthroned and ready to dispense 'justice' to the people of Nostramo Quintus.]]
From the moment he landed Curze got fucked over as, unlike the usual stasis-pod-descending-from-a-beam-of-light type landing his brothers made, Konrad ''punched through the crust of the planet'' (the entire planet was made of adamantium, though... warp phukery perhaps?) and had to crawl his ass out from the core as a TODDLER. After somehow surviving an asteroid level impact event, Curze's life got even worse as, when Curze reached Nostramo's surface, exhausted and starving from his climb out of the planet's crust, he killed and ate the first living thing he could find. His meal was a member of the human populace of Nostramo, and like most people on the planet, was a criminal. As a Primarch, Curze possessed the innate ability to absorb the memories of any creature whose brain matter he consumed, and Curze's first meal included every even remotely edible piece of the criminal. He saw in the man's memories a broken, fearful, pitiless lifeform existing amongst countless others just like him; beings who environment and circumstance had reduced to a status little better than that of feral beasts. Needless to say, this was just about the worst first impression of humanity that Curze could have gotten, and it started him immediately down the path of believing the worst of the human spirit. To top it all off, unlike his brothers, Konrad wound up with no one to take care of him. Nobody on Nostramo would have even considered something as altruistic as willingly taking on another mouth to feed. Konrad was forced to raise himself on the lawless hell-hole of Nostramo, eating animals and garbage when he could find such things, and people when he couldn't. The more people he consumed, the more memories of evil he experienced, and the more he became convinced of humanity's unworthiness and cruelty. As he grew older, Curze became increasingly disgusted by the behavior of Nostramo's populace, and he decided to take matters into his own hands after he became large enough to do so.

Stalking the eternally-dark streets as a sort of [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]], Curze began hunting down anyone he saw commit a crime. At first Curze's solution was simply to kill any and all offenders, a perfectly simple matter for him even as a child. As a Primarch, there was nobody on Nostramo who could come close to so much as seriously harming him despite his juvenile status. Other potential means of stopping crime besides execution were, for whatever reason, not considered by Curze. It is likely that killing the offenders would have been, for the child Curze, the simplest means by which he could both punish a criminal and ensure that the individual did not reoffend; there were no prisons on Nostramo and no other law enforcement besides himself. Additionally, he would often consume the brains of these criminals to gain access to their memories, whereby he could learn the names and locations of other criminals. Or, if the criminal was part of a gang, Curze could learn much about the gang's membership, various haunts, and potential defenses. As he killed more and more criminals, his reputation began to spread, and the syndicates began hunting him. However, the assassins were but ordinary humans, and they never really stood a chance. Curze developed a habit of killing all but one of any particular hunting party, then gouging out the survivors eyes and returning him to his comrades with the message of ''"I'm coming for you"''.

But why bother doing any of this in the first place? It gained him nothing, and if anything it made him the enemy of essentially every single powerful person on the planet. Additionally, Curze never seemed to even consider the possibility of either allying with the corrupt nobles or forming a gang of his own, both of which would have made life significantly easier for him. Well, it was because each of the Primarchs had been created by the Emperor to serve a particular purpose, though there was significant overlap between many of them. For instance, Leman Russ had been designed to be the Emperor's executioner and IA guy, Dorn was the Emperor's architect, Guilliman was the Emperor's administrator, and Angron was... well he had undoubtedly been designed to be useful in ''some'' way (to this humble editor’s knowledge, he was an amazing healer with Jesus-type “cure the leper,” powers before the Nails). Anyway, Konrad Curze had been designed to be the Emperor's arbitrator, to be the ultimate judge. In fact one of the titles used to refer to him during the Great Crusade, and a pretty awesome one at that, was "The Last Judge". As such, he had a pre-programed knowledge of what justice was, and of what crime was (generally speaking). However, he had no understanding of why the concept of justice mattered, or any context by which to evaluate it. The child Curze simply had an instinctive desire to order his surroundings, rather like a giant grimdark sheepdog. All he knew was that crime was bad, and that justice involved punishing those who commited crime. So that was what he did. It is important to note that these "crimes" were not offenses under any sort of Nostramon law; the only law on Nostramo was the law of the jungle. It was all simply based on Curze's own innate understanding of what constituted a crime. Additionally, despite having been created with an innate sense of justice, Curze seemed not to possess any understanding of the concept that crime could have varying degrees of severity. As such, he also possessed no understanding that differing criminal offenses could have varying degrees of punishment. Curze's sole method of justice, execution on the spot, was parsed out to any criminal whether he be a serial murderer or a petty thief.

However as time went on, Curze began to notice something disheartening. Though his initial rampages were effective in terms of simply stacking bodies, no matter how many criminals he killed, the rate of crime seemed not to lessen. He'd hoped that his killings would have had a deterring effect on the remaining criminal populace of the city, but nothing seemed to have changed. At first he couldn't understand why this was, but after a time the answer dawned on him; most people committed crime on Nostramo simply to survive. He realized that people viewed him as simply one more murderer on a planet full of murderers; a more effective murderer than any to be sure, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary. It didn't really matter to the people of Nostramo if they met their end at the hands of an 8-foot tall monster child (Curze at the time), those of a couple of baseline human gangsters, or starvation. The choice for most of them was between committing crime, or dying, so ultimately there was nothing to lose by at least attempting to commit crime.

Unfortunately, instead of this realization sparking the aforementioned understanding in Curze that not all crime was the same, and thus not all crime should have the same punishment, he went in the exact opposite direction. He came to the conclusion that his murders were not having the desired effect because people weren't afraid enough of him. So Curze reasoned that if people were perfectly willing to commit crime to have a chance at survival, then all he had to do to stop them was to make the punishment for crime ''worse'' than death. He had to make the punishment for crime so terrible as to make survival itself not worth it; to become an object of such horror that people would rather see themselves and their loved ones starve than risk his wrath. There was also an element of simple practicality in this tactic, as Curze was keenly aware that he alone was never going to be able to kill enough criminals to have any real impact on crime rates on a planet populated almost entirely by "criminals". Nostramo was a Hive World, and such a world on average had a population of between 100 and 500 ''billion''. Even a Primarch would have needed something significantly deadlier than his own two hands to kill that many people before the heat death of the universe, and that's assuming they stopped breeding. If he wanted to bring order to Nostramo, the people would have to voluntarily abandon crime. Or at least, they would somehow need to be... convinced to.

As such, Curze began to commit utterly horrific acts of torture upon his victims before killing them and displaying their bodies in the most public of manners. Leaders of the corrupt administration disappeared, only to be found later hung from administration buildings and horribly mutilated, their faces often untouched so people could instantly identify them. Notorious criminals (as defined by Konrad) were found in the streets, eviscerated or impaled and left to die on the spires of manufactorum rooftops. The blood of those who had committed "crimes" flowed in the streets, with body parts stopping up storm drains. He apparently even saw suicide as a crime, and would sometimes show up at the potential perpetrator's residence before they could carry out the deed. [[Grimdark|Not to talk them out of it, but rather to torture the person to death in order to set an example.]] What the fuck. And as before, no matter the crime, the sentence was always the same; death. Only now it was via the most horrific means that could be dreamt up in the superhuman mind of a deranged Primarch, rather than simple execution.

The really scary part? ''It worked''. Within a year, Curze had terrified the people of his home hive city, Nostramo Quintus, to the point where the crime rate had reached damn-near zero. Where once the nighttime streets had bustled with activity, now everyone maintained a self-imposed curfew to minimize the casualties from [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]. Mothers began to threaten their kids that if they continued to misbehave, the Night Haunter would come for them. Additionally, absolutely nobody was safe. The planet's most powerful kingpins, crimelords, and political officials were killed just as regularly and barbarically as the lowliest of petty thieves. The criminal syndicates and planetary nobles (tautology) had continued their attempts to find and kill Curze, but after a number of years of him slaughtering their ever larger kill-teams with ever increasing barbarity, they essentially just gave up.

However, it is at this point that things started to unravel for Curze. Growing up on Nostramo had, just by itself, caused significant damage to Curze's psyche. Nostramo was a world that displayed an entire population full of the absolute worst humanity had to offer, even if the people themselves weren't entirely to blame. This left him with quite a dim view of human nature, and it would show in how he dealt with the planets he would go on to conquer. Curze had also never had anything approaching friends or family upon Nostramo, which might have allowed him to develop some understanding of comradery. All of this aside, Curze might have been able to shift his view of humanity once he got off of Nostramo but unfortunately, he had an even worse problem compounding his all-consuming pessimism. For as it turned out, Curze was a potent psyker, and his talents manifested largely in the form of visions of the future. These visions seemed unerringly accurate and were exacting in detail, but almost all of them depicted the most horrifically violent of all possible outcomes for any given situation. Curze conducted practically all of his actions around these visions, attempting as best he could to avoid, or at least mitigate, whatever terrible future he saw coming to pass. Sadly, he was almost never successful, and some brutal permutation of his visions would almost always come to pass. This left him with the hopeless view that life was both unspeakably awful ''and'' virtually impossible to change. However, sometimes Curze would have visions that presented outcomes that were not so terrible. One important example of this came when Curze stopped two boys from assaulting some random woman. He killed the first boy, than played cat-and-mouse with the other until eventually cornering him. As he prepared to kill the second boy, he had a vision. In this vision, he offered the boy a chance to live rather than killing him as per usual. This had two outcomes; the first being that the boy became a disciple of Curze's justice and helped him form a sort of vigilante group to enforce law and order upon Nostramo. In the second, the boy grabbed a knife laying on the ground, stabbed Curze, and escaped. This escape would hurt Curze's reputation, and force him to redouble his killings as the crime rate skyrocketed amongst the now less fearful populace.

Under better circumstances, these more optimistic visions might have provided Curze with an impetus for introducing some genuine positivity to Nostramo. As stated previously however, the nature of Nostramo's people had polluted Curze's outlook on life. The world was a place where practically nothing good ever happened and having experienced only this planet sized Sin City for his entire life, Curze was convinced that the most negative outcome of a situation was virtually guaranteed to occur. The fact that the vast, vast majority of his visions bore this out didn't help either. It follows then that Curze chose to kill the boy, believing the negligible possibility of a positive future to not be worth the risk. After killing the boy however, he noticed that the knife that he had seen the boy grabbing in his vision seemed too far away for the boy to have physically reached it. This confused and disquieted him, and he believed for a moment that he might have made a mistake. However, he ultimately dismissed his doubt and assumed that he must simply have missed something during his vision, for it was unthinkable that the vision could have been ''false''. It is thus heavily implied that Curze's [[noblebright]] vision had in fact been the real future, but his own biases caused him to disregard it. On that note, it it is highly likely that his ability to see the future was fucked with by the Chaos Gods while he was in the Warp, as Sanguinius had a similar ability which was not so grimdark. These visions also caused Curze to engage in the practice of punishing "pre-crime". That is, if he saw a vision of someone committing a crime, he would punish them as though they had successfully committed that crime, even if no actual crime had occurred. For instance, the two boys he had butchered in the above incident had not yet assaulted the woman, he had simply foreseen that they would (and to be fair to him they were about half a second away from doing so). It was also how he managed to find and kill those about to commit suicide, as obviously suicide is a rather unpunishable crime once it has been carried out. In reality of course, the entire concept of "pre-crime" is idiotic. If someone is prevented from committing a crime, even if they absolutely would have committed it if not stopped, then what that person is at worst guilty of is ''attempted'' whatever-the-crime-was. For instance, one definitionally cannot be guilty of murder if there is no murder victim. As has been noted however, Curze was not big on making distinctions when it came to his vigilantism.

The problems of Nostramo's environment, Curze's own vigilante butcherism (rip enough people's guts out with your bare hands and even the hardest motherfucker is gonna have some PTSD), and his horrific visions started to create an alternate personality within Curze's mind. As Curze continued to drown himself in blood and guts, this personality began to develop a taste for murder and torture that was independent of any greater goal. Curze managed initially to keep these dark impulses under control but as his killings continued to escalate in scope, scale, and creativity, these impulses would grow ever stronger. This additional personality would come to be known as the Night Haunter in order to distinguish it from Curze for posterity. This becomes slightly confusing however, as Night Haunter was initially just Curze's "nickname" on Nostramo, as obviously nobody knew his actual name. This confusion is then further amplified by the fact that Curze used the moniker to refer to himself long before his true descent into madness. The most simple (and least canon-breaking) way to view the situation is that Curze and the Night Haunter were essentially interchangeable for the majority of the Great Crusade, and the Night Haunter would not truly begin to manifest itself as a separate personality until the tail-end of the conflict. Basically, at any point before the destruction of Nostramo, the Night Haunter was just Curze having a particularly bad day. It should be noted however, that those bad days steadily increased in frequency and intensity as time went on.

In light of his progress in curtailing crime, Curze became convinced that his way of order through terror had been the correct one. He deemed himself to have taken on the mantle of evil in order that his people might be spared it, and judged his work to have been an ugly but noble and more importantly, successful, pursuit. Seizing the moment, Curze appeared before the few remaining nobles that had survived his vigilante purges - the few who basically weren't complete assholes - and gave them a choice: Obey his rule, or die horribly. One or two protested that he had imposed an order based on fear, but it made no difference (and was kinda the point). Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, was made the undisputed ruler of Hive Quintus. Shortly thereafter however, he came to rule the entire world by simply hinting to the nobles of the other hive cities that if they didn't fall in line with his laws, he would be paying them a visit. He was ''that'' scary. This makes him the only Primarch to have conquered his entire planet single handedly (not counting the Primarchs who were loved into rulership for being awesome, like Magnus or Sanguinius).

To the surprise of most, Curze proved to be a capable ruler and was surprisingly just and temperate. He made strong attempts to educate himself on absolutely everything he could learn, and his skill as an adjudicator would have made a [[Reasonable Marines|Reasonable Marine]] proud. This was, of course, until word of an injustice reached Curze's ears. At that point he would leave his palace to pursue the culprit himself, wearing down his prey until they could run no longer before gruesomely torturing the perpetrator to death. Curze had also made it mandatory by law that all citizens own a television, and would broadcast these torture sessions every time he conducted one in order to present everyone on the planet with examples of what happened to criminals. This unpredictable pattern of benevolent wisdom, contrasted by such jaw-droppingly savage violence that an [[Eversor]] would look askance, ushered in a new era of efficiency and honesty across Nostramo. Exports of adamantium tripled and unlike previously, the prosperity caused by this economic boom was spread across all of Nostramon society. The general populace, once so destitute as to have regularly resorted to cannibalism to survive, now saw wealth the likes of which they had never conceived of.

However, peace and order came at a steep price. Though material quality of life had improved unimaginably for the majority of people on Nostramo, everyone lived in abject terror of the Night Haunter. People policed their every word and action religiously, as nobody could ever be completely sure if something they had said or done might be misconstrued as a crime. Prosperity had spread throughout Nostramo not out of generosity or selflessness, but rather because everyone was terrified that having more than their neighbor might draw the Night Haunter's attention. Furthermore despite the order and prosperity Curze had brought to Nostramo, he was hated by the vast majority of its populace. He was simply too fearsome to engender any other response in baseline humans, and this would have dire consequences in the future. Had Curze ever learned how to delegate to minions made up of the local populace, he might have been more effective but alas. Or if he had followed the occasional visions of noblebright he had and shown mercy to some of his victims. Sadly, this was never truly an option for Konrad; his opinion of humanity in general was almost certainly too low to entrust anyone else with the execution of his justice. As would be seen later during a rather narrow minded "demonstration" to Dorn, Curze believed that humans could only be made to be orderly through fear of consequences. Without that fear, humans would behave as he had seen them behave on lawless Nostramo; doing whatever they could get away with to whomever they could overpower. Given this, his desire to be the planet's sole judicial arbitrator is understandable.

===The Great Crusade===
[[Image:The viii primarch by saint max-d424fmh.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Castlevania|I was called here by ''huuuuuumans''. Who wish to pay meeeee ''tribute''.]]]]
Soon after Curze took over and began ruling the planet, the [[Emperor]]'s Great Crusade reached Nostramo. The coming of the Emperor of Man was an event long prophesied in Nostramo's history, and an event which would eventually bring about the apocalypse of that world. The Emperor and his delegation, which consisted of [[Rogal Dorn]], [[Ferrus Manus]], [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]], [[Fulgrim]], and their respective Legiones Astartes. proceeded to the Palace on foot. The Emperor's radiance was said to be so great that, as the Nostromans were adapted to see in the dark, it blinded those who looked directly at him, but mesmerized those who did not. It was also noted that, having performed a cursory inspection of Nostramo, the Emperor was quite pleased with what Konrad had accomplished there. On the surface, Nostramo was a superb example of social order, economic efficiency, and industrial production; basically the foundation of everything the Emperor wanted to accomplish for mankind. Of course, everyone on the planet was pants-pissingly terrified at virtually all times, but the Emperor didn't stick around long enough to delve much into Curze's methods of achieving success. This opinion was also shared by Fulgrim, which Curze quite appreciated. At the end of the road leading to his Palace, Curze himself stood, waiting for the delegation, when he had one of his visions. This vision was the most violently powerful of any he had yet experienced, and consisted of the eventual fates of his present brothers and himself. The vision was so terrible that he fell to his knees screaming, and would have succeeded in clawing his own eyes out if the Emperor hadn't stopped him. The Emperor psychically soothed Curze and the vision subsided, allowing Curze to regain his composure. He and the Emperor then had this badass exchange:

''"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home."''<br>
''"That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you [[Just as planned|intend for me]]."''

Awesome. Curze began training under [[Fulgrim]], who taught him the Adeptus Astartes combat doctrines and began molding him to be a suitable leader for his role as the leader of the Eighth Space Marine Legion - the Night Lords. Despite Fulgrim being one of the Primarchs least similar in both aspect and manner to Curze, he would ultimately be the only one of Curze's brothers who made any real effort to befriend him. Curze would remark on several occasion how much Fulgrim's efforts had meant to him, and noted that Fulgrim had been the only person in the Emperor's retinue upon Nostramo who had been willing to meet his gaze. Interestingly, another draw for Curze towards Fulgrim was the fact that during his awful vision upon meeting the Emperor, he had not seen anything violent happening to Fulgrim. Instead, his vision of Fulgrim was unusually devoid of detail; the scene was never entirely visible, and it was filled with the sounds of slithering and laughing. As such, Curze had not been able to discern Fulgrim suffering any one particular fate. This was contrasted to, for instance, his vision of Ferrus, who he saw quite clearly being beheaded. This was such a pleasant oddity for Curze that he immediately became more positively disposed towards Fulgrim than anyone else he had ever met. It would later become evident that this was because Fulgrim would essentially "cheat" death by becoming a Daemon Prince in the future, and so would become incapable of dying in any conventional sense. The aforementioned "slithering and laughing" sound made a lot more sense when we already knew [[Slaanesh|which Chaos Gods Fulgrim shall serve]].

Though Curze and his legion excelled in many different hot-zones throughout the Great Crusade, a disturbing tendency arose in short order; the Night Lords would never use anything other than total, decisive force to achieve their goals. Precision strikes, assassinations, and especially diplomacy were simply out of the question, as Curze's strategic doctrine ultimately involved terrifying a foe into such total compliance that the presence of enforcers would never be necessary. He also noted that the terror his legion inspired tended to make a complete mess out of any plans his enemies might have thought to employ. Lion El'Jonson was once known to have said "no plan survives contact with the enemy" but Curze was of the opinion that if you could scare an opponent badly enough, then that opponent's plans would not survive long enough to make contact in the first place.

The Night Lords legion had already been the Emperor's primary terror weapon even before the introduction of their Primarch. As such, they changed very little when Curze arrived, and quickly adopted their Primarch's combat and tactical ethos. Under Curze's guidance, they rapidly grew to become one of the most brutally efficient and effective of the Astartes legions. In one notorious example, one Night Lord recalled dealing with a non-compliant planetary governor; Curze murdered the man and then broadcast the screams of the man’s daughter across an entire city for 3 HOURS to frighten the remaining rebels into submission. The Night Lords decorated their armor with iconography designed to inspire terror in the enemy, a tactic that proved incredibly effective. Unsurprising, considering how terrifying Space Marines are without it. Where they struck, the Night Lords left examples such as those Curze would leave on Nostramo in days past, grim reminders of the price for disobeying the Imperium. Due to this effectiveness, the Emperor often used them not just as a compliance force, but as enforcers to ensure the loyalty of suspect areas of the Imperium. In time, it became so that even the mere ''mention'' of the Night Lords' approach would cause a system to pay all outstanding tithes, cease all illegal activities, stop downloading torrents of ''Blossom'', and put to death any [[Furry|mutants or heretics]]. In hindsight, though, we here on /tg/ can't really be all that surprised by their brutality when we remember it was Fulgrim who tutored the VIII Legion's primarch. How else would the Night Haunter interpret the Phoenician's excessive battlefield perfectionism than a need for excessive violence?

Despite the Legion's horrific brutality however, there was (at least initially) a method to their madness which was outlined best during a conversation that Konrad had with his First Captain, Jago Sevatarion. In response to a question from his Primarch as to why the Night Lords committed the horrors they were known for, the First Captain responded that the Legion's terrible butchery "spilled blood to save blood." Approving of this answer, Curze added that terror was a weapon which could subdue without violence, which ultimately seemed to be the goal of his strategic outlook. The Night Lords broad tactical doctrine would most often involve descending upon a segment of a world's population in overwhelming force, and so horrifically massacring that segment that the rest of the population would surrender. Not only would this serve to limit casualties to a fraction of what other legions, such as the Iron Warriors or Dark Angels, might cause or sustain, but it also kept the vast majority of a planet's infrastructure intact. This way, the Imperium would acquire a world that was not only fully functional in terms of industry, but with a readily compliant, and largely intact, populace. This doctrine was demonstrated on numerous occasions, such as the Devastation of Zoah. Here, Curze's assault on the planet killed roughly 10% of its population, but when Magnus accused him of committing a series of massacres, Curze pointed out that the remaining 90% had surrendered without further bloodshed due to the terror of his assault, and that planetary compliance was achieved in only half the time predicted by Guilliman. It was also a somewhat grimly hilarious thing for Magnus to say, as the incident in question saw him ignore Curze's "massacres", but later risk the lives of his own legionaries to save a library. Priorities.

Another such example was a joint assault on the planet Kharaatan by the Night Lords and the Salamanders. The Salamanders had prepared for a standard assault upon Khar-tann City, but there was an unusual problem facing them. The humans of the world had been psychically manipulated into worshiping a coven of Eldar psykers, and would fight tooth and nail to protect their supposed saviors. This marshalling of the civilian populace put Vulkan in a significant quandary, as he would not countenance killing psychically coerced civilians, but subduing them without killing would mean that his Salamanders would take many unnecessary casualties. Being Vulkan, he chose to go with the latter option and the Salamanders gritted their teeth and prepared themselves. When they arrived at Khar-tann City however, they found the Night Lords winding down one of their typical terror campaigns. When Vulkan saw the unholy butchery that Curze had perpetrated he was so horrified that he nearly attacked his brother, especially after Curze sardonically told him that the ruined city was a gift to him. However, Curze had not simply been joking, as the planet surrendered without further conflict very shortly after Khar-taan City was destroyed. In the aftermath, even Vulkan was grudgingly forced to admit that Curze's terror assault had killed far fewer people than would have been lost to a conventional compliance action. Ultimately it didn't matter as the Imperium would end up killing all the human civilians anyway; too much xenos corruption. In fact, Vulkan himself would end up being in charge of the purge. Had Curze not been a Primarch, he likely would have died laughing when he found out.

One other matter of importance with regard to Curze's overwhelming reliance on terror tactics was his outlook on humanity in general. Curze was noted on many, many occasions to have expressed how much he hated humanity as a species. This was not based on his own physical or mental superiority, but instead on the fact that virtually everything Curze had ever seen or experienced of humanity ranged from selfish at best to Silent Hill levels of horrific at worst. He believed humans to be weak, pathologically selfish, cruel, and devoid of intrinsic virtue. Furthermore, he believed that because humans were so terrible as a species, they did not deserve kindness or compassion; such consideration was wasted on them. In his mind, humans could only be made to be orderly through unremitting terror. Their own well-being had to be placed into constant doubt, illusory or otherwise, if they were to behave in a civilized manner.

Problems arose, however, as the Great Crusade dragged on - reinforcements to replace the Night Lords that fell in battle were, as was the case of the other Legions, selected from the population of Curze's homeworld, Nostramo. Unfortunately, in Curze's absence, the population collapsed into the same corruption, criminality, and despair that had ruled the roost before his arrival. Nostramo had no police force due to Curze insisting on being all of law enforcement by himself, which meant that nobody was particularly interested in enforcing the law once he left. As such, the most ruthless of the criminals were the strongest and healthiest people on the planet, and these were the most common replacement recruits for the Night Lords. Not only that, but the corrupt planetary government would deliberately give the worst of these criminals to the Night Lords in order to give these gangster underlings superhuman power and a presence within the legion. The criminal culture of Nostramo began to subsume the original ethos of the Night Lords, and with this culture the Night Lords devolved into a group of transhuman gangland monsters. Instances of legionaries committing acts of barbarism not for a greater goal but for their own amusement became increasingly commonplace. These acts of insubordination were dealt with by Curze the only way he knew how; the horrific murder of those responsible.

But even Curze could simply not keep up with the ever increasing deterioration of his legion. He eventually realized that sadistic disobedience of his edicts on torture was running absolutely rampant throughout his legion, and launched his own investigation into the matter. To his horror, he found that the Night Lords were so corrupted that he essentially couldn't purge the criminal elements. There were simply so many perpetrators that to kill them all would render the legion non-functional, and he had no idea where to even begin. To make matters worse, his visions continued to increase in both frequency and graphic severity. One of these visions caused him to have a violent fit worse than any he had previously had, and he only barely managed to clear the room of occupants (or so he thought) before succumbing to the vision. When he came to, he realized to his horror that he'd done goofed. There on the floor was a clearly dead legion archivist, and Curze had been his killer. Due to the fact that Curze was totally nuts and evidently possessed no understanding of nuance, he considered this individual to have been the first "innocent" that he had ever killed. In his mind, he was now a criminal who deserved punishment no less than any of his own victims, which only served to further batter his crumbling psyche. Of course this was almost certainly ''not'' the first innocent Curze had killed, and it had been a complete accident to boot. But sadly Curze's idea of justice was zebra levels of black and white. At least he was consistent...

In the face of these ever escalating problems, Curze decided that the issue with the Night Lords recruits had to be dealt with at the source. He had been receiving reports that Nostramo had once again descended into a [[Star Wars D20|wretched hive of scum and villainy]], and he decided that he needed to do something about that if his legion was to remain true to its original ethos. Unfortunately the only Primarch Curze had any real connection to or trusted was Fulgrim, and circumstance had made him unavailable at the time. The other Primarchs, instead of listening to him and trying to help, bitched him out and said that it wasn't their problem. To be entirely fair to them however, Curze had always been rather cagey when it came to his visions, as he knew that openly announcing that the Emperor was going to kill him and that the Imperium would be torn apart by civil war would not be well received. In fact the only one of his brothers who knew about his visions was his buddy Fulgrim, and only then because Curze had had one of his vision induced seizures right in front of him. Once it ended, Fulgrim had naturally asked Curze why he had just violently spazzed out, and Curze broke down and told him everything. Fulgrim was aghast, and tried to comfort Curze by telling him that it was inconceivable that the Emperor could do such a thing, nor that the Imperium could fall prey to such an imperfection as civil war. Once Curze had regained his composure he essentially told Fulgrim that he was probably right and to just forget the whole incident; he didn't want knowledge of his visions spreading.

Unfortunately, Curze didn't count on Fulgrim being an incorrigible gossip and seemingly didn't make it clear enough that he wanted the incident kept private. This would come back to bite him later, but for the time being, Curze needed to salvage the situation with his legion. He decided that if he could provide irrefutable proof to his brothers that the Night Lords were irreparably corrupted, and that the Nostramon government had been deliberately sending him the planet's worst criminals as recruits, he might be able to rebuild his legion properly. He managed to gather the evidence he needed and prepared to present his findings to his brothers. Before he could however, disaster struck in the blunt, socially-retarded form of Rogal Dorn.

[[Rogal Dorn]] had confronted Curze while he was overseeing [[Grimdark|a long line of prisoners of war who were to be executed as a punitive action]]. Dorn had taken issue with Curze's way of doing things, saying that peace through fear was not what the Emperor of Mankind had intended, and that this was no way to build a stable Imperium. Konrad Curze decided to prove his point to Dorn that without the fear of consequences, people wouldn't stay loyal. To illustrate this, Curze gave one of the prisoners a gun and then ordered his men not to kill him, no matter what might happen. Curze pointed the gun in the prisoner's hand right under his chin, saying [[Troll|"Go ahead, kill me."]] The prisoner refused, to which Curze stated his Astartes would not kill him. The prisoner, now confident that the Night Lords wouldn't shoot him, raised the gun when Curze turned his back. The prisoner fired, but the bolter round bounced harmlessly off of Curze's armor. Curze of course immediately butchered the prisoner. Using intimidation and the predictable reaction to it, Curze "proved" his point: once the fear of consequence was removed, people would feel no loyalty. In reality of course, Curze had actually not proven anything at all. Not only had his test subject not been a loyal Imperial citizen to begin with (in fact his world had just been conquered by the ''Night Lords'' of all people), but the prisoners had all been about to be executed. So the man in question was a member of a newly (and undoubtedly horrifically) conquered world who had nothing to lose as he was about to die anyway. Curze would have been hard pressed to have found a ''worse'' test subject. That's not to say that Dorn's argument was any less stupid; that conquest through fear would necessarily result in rebellion, but ultimately neither was even remotely convinced of the other's arguments.

Now, if [[Rogal Dorn]] had been better with people, he might just have left well enough alone, or perhaps sensibly told Curze that while fear was capable of enforcing obedience it could never create loyalty, and that his inability to differentiate the two was causing him problems. But as established before, Dorn had all the tact and subtlety of a whoopie cushion, and despite his typically stolid nature, he had quite a temper when roused. So in an effort to win the argument, Rogal revealed that Fulgrim had told him all about Curze's visions. Due to the fact that the visions were of such things as Astartes killing Astartes and the Imperium falling apart, Dorn was personally insulted by the visions and berated him, accusing Curze of having lied about it all. Furious at Fulgrim's violation of trust and upset at Dorn for being a stupid asshole, Curze suddenly found himself in the grip of another of his visions. This vision was one of his worst yet, as was his accompanying psychic fit, and he attacked Dorn with his lightning claws. Despite not being conscious of his actions, he managed to maul Dorn so badly that if Dorn hadn't been a Primarch he would have died. Curze was found afterwards weeping over Dorn's broken body, as he had not meant to harm Dorn at all, and as with the murdered archivist, Curze hadn't even realized what he had been doing until after the vision subsided.

As it was, Curze was just put on house arrest/grounded until the matter of an unsanctioned attack ''(read two missing primarchs)'' by one Primarch on another could be resolved. Curze, however, after reading a special batch of Nostraman tarot cards, said "Screw you guys, we're going home". After killing the Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children who were guarding him grimdark Batman-style, he and the Night Lords set course towards Nostramo. Curze tried to salvage things while on his homeworld, but the Emperor's arrival had removed the one last barrier the people of Nostramo had between themselves and utter despair: ignorance.

Of course, as the "Prince of Crows" heavily hints at, Curze didn't ''do'' anything other than horrifically kill people and incite fear by doing so. No improving the infrastructure, setting up a police force, or anything. And Curze refused to see this as a problem. The knowledge of other worlds beyond Nostramo inflicted a hopelessness that guaranteed that nothing on Nostramo could ever change... which makes no sense given both the fact that many in the Imperium had massively improved their lives and that Nostramo had been trading its adamantium to several other human star systems long before the Imperium arrived (though "Prince of Crows" shows that this was because Curze made it so to ensure that there was nothing to do on Nostramo besides "behave and slowly die in an adamantium foundry" or "become a criminal and die either slowly or quickly (depending on Curze's mood)"), leaving the world to fester in corruption and depravity like a metastasized tumor. This was almost certainly due to Curze's belief that humans were essentially evil at their core, as Curze had never seen baseline humans display behavior that even resembled altruism without being terrified. This situation was made worse by the Imperial governor appointed to rule Nostramo in Curze's absence, whose corruption-heavy regime more-or-less plunged the entire planet into the same shit that had given birth to the Night Haunter in the first place. Without Curze there to personally scare everyone into behaving, his "compliance through terror" schtick was doomed to failure. The inevitability of this failure was driven further home by the level hatred Curze was held in by most of the populace. He had been so effective in terrorizing the people of Nostramo that nobody really cared all that much that their lives had seen astronomical levels of material improvement. To most, it wasn't worth the improved conditions to have to endure living under the rule of such an unpredictable monster as Curze. He had essentially done his job too well. Nobody on Nostramo ever really thought about there being any underlying goal in Curze's butchery; most were too afraid to ever think about much of anything. This was the consequence of never really having explained his goals to anyone on Nostramo, nor having delegated any of his work to anyone else.

It is worth noting however that the Imperial government that was initially in place on Nostramo had attempted to keep the world as Curze wished it. Curze's heavy-handedness had served its purpose and created order and with him gone, perhaps there would have been a chance for the people to keep his overarching legal system, but add some nuance (no death by torture for jaywalking). However Curze had evidently not killed enough of the old syndicates' power structures to keep them from coming back. Like a dead weed with still-viable roots, the syndicates quickly sprouted back into being and were largely responsible for the planet's decay, rather than the people themselves being at fault. These syndicates eventually gained back enough power to simply overrule the government and rule from behind the proverbial throne, and the hopeless, terrified and powerless population could do very little about it. They simply didn't have it in them. Unfortunately, Curze either didn't know or didn't care, and he was not in the mood to do much investigating when he returned.

Imperial pursuit craft, determined to stop Curze for abandoning the Great Crusade and checking on his homeworld, arrived just in time to see the lance batteries of Curze's fleet put an end to the nightmare that the planet's inhabitants had found themselves in - the only way he knew how: remorseless mass murder. Curze destroyed the planet with sustained orbital fire to the fissures his own arrival created.

According to Curze's recollection/opinion exterminating Nostramo was a test for the Night Lords themselves. Had they stopped Curze it would have proven that at least some of them were worth something to Curze's goal: to use fear to create a true order. But even Sevatar (whom Curze favored) simply followed orders. Ironically Curze's other equerry (who Curze thought was a kiss ass), begged Sevatar to talk Konrad out of it. There were some Night Lords who did refuse to aid in Nostramo's destruction, but they got put down pretty quickly.

Blowing up Nostramo was more or less the tipping point for Curze in terms of his sanity. The Night Haunter persona came stridently to the fore of Curze's personality after this, and the Legion more or less abandoned its original ethos of using terror to decrease a campaign's casualty numbers. The reason for this was that Curze believed that he had utterly failed in implementing his philosophies. Nostramo had been the greatest proof that his methods worked; an entire world of corruption and crime brought to heel by one individual wielding one instrument; terror. But the planet had fallen back into ruin, and if all his actions had been for naught, then all he really was was a monsterous mass murderer whose means had failed to even ''produce'' an end, let alone justify one. This allowed the Night Haunter persona to take advantage of his guilt and despair and strengthen itself in Curze's psyche to a point of ascendancy. Ultimately the Night Haunter, in conjunction with Curze's psychic visions, convinced Curze that he had always been doomed to be a monster. As such, there was no longer any point in attempting to resist the darker impulses of the Night Haunter.

Somewhat oddly, the whole incident appears ultimately to have been written off by the Imperium at large. Even Curze almost killing Dorn, which in all honesty was probably a lot more significant than him destroying Nostramo in the eyes of the Emperor, was seemingly just kinda forgotten about and the Night Lords went on their merry way. Considering that other Legions like the World Eaters, Death Guard, Dark Angels, and Iron Warriors were all still tearing their way through the galaxy with similar efficacy to the Night Lords, it may simply be that there wasn't enough distinction between one bunch of rampaging mass murderers and another for it to matter. As seen with the Word Bearers and their sanction by the Emperor, all he seemingly cared about was how quickly the Great Crusade could be brought to a conclusion. The World Eaters would never be sanctioned for any of their butchery, and Perturabo killed an entire ''tenth'' of his own Legion out of spite, yet the only sanctioned Legion was the 17th, for they had committed the unspeakable crime of... being slow. Given how the Imperium functioned at the time, it is also highly likely that nobody actually cared enough about Nostramo to kick up much fuss about it being destroyed. The place was admittedly an absolute garbage heap, and it was certainly nowhere near the first planet to be blown up by the Imperium. Adamantium was the only thing of any value to the Imperium on it, and who knows; turning the world into a debris field might have actually made the metal easier to get at.

The Night Lords spent the next 20-some odd years terrorizing any non-Imperial population they could find, honing their methods of psychological warfare on their helpless victims. They would deliberately target primitive or defenseless worlds so as simply to sate their sadism, and their campaigns would grow ever more butcherous and unjustifiable. Their previous strategic goal of using terror to limit casualties and quickly end compliances was abandoned, and instead the Night Lords began to conduct their terror campaigns on a planetary scale. They would descend upon the population of entire worlds and conduct their barbaric tortures upon the entire populace, rather than brutalizing a small segment of them as an example to the rest. Word of the Night Lords' increasing transgressions would make their way back to the Emperor, who would eventually decide to recall the legion to Terra for investigation, though apparently he did so largely because many in his inner circle were pleading with him to do so. Before the summons could occur however, word reached Terra that Horus had rebelled, and so everything else was essentially put on the back burner until he could be dealt with. The Night Lords were subsequently ordered to the Isstvan system to help destroy the traitor forces. It's a bit bizarre that the loyalists thought it was a good thing that the Night Lords showed up to support them at Isstvan and ''didn't'' see a double-cross coming considering how butcherous they had become. Then again, the Iron Warriors were sent to help as well, so they may have just been grateful for whatever support they could get. So the Night Lords having [[lulz|A talent for Murder]] was probably seen as helpful, at least in the short term.

===Horus Heresy===
[[File:NocturnusObsessoris-Final.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Konrad overlooking the spires of Nostramo. and looking badass while doing it.]]
While not one of the initial traitor Primarchs, Curze was quick to fall in alongside Horus when he rebelled. His only real friends in the entire galaxy had been Mortarion, Fulgrim, and Horus, and all three were amongst the initial traitors on Isstvan V. He even ended up saving Lorgar from [[Corvus Corax]], although after seeing the Gal Vorbak, the very first squad of [[Possessed Marine]]s, he felt it was a mistake. Says a lot about how horrific those things were that ''Konrad Curze'', a man who literally decked himself out in the rotting flesh of his enemies, would be disgusted by them. This intervention also shook Corax himself to his very soul, as he saw in Konrad the very thing he might have become had he fallen to [[Chaos]] and possibly adopted a different view on [[RIP AND TEAR|disemboweling innocent civilians]].

Curze seemingly never had much of an ideological motivation for joining the rebellion, but it is known that he deeply hated the Emperor. He believed that the Primarchs had all been designed with a purpose in mind, and believed that his purpose was to be the monster that he had become (which wasn't entirely false but more on that later). He believed that his various psychoses, horrific visions, and his landing upon Nostramo had all been engineered deliberately by the Emperor in order to turn him into a more perfect monster. Conversely he saw Primarchs like Sanguinius or Guilliman and hated the fact that they had seemingly been engineered to be noble, resplendent luminaries while he had been condemned to his twisted nightmare by design. He also believed both the Emperor and many of his brothers to be exceptionally hypocritical, as quite a few of them had complained about his methods when his ways achieved less overall bloodshed. Why were, say, the Iron Warriors or the Space Wolves not looked upon with disgust when they killed far more than the Night Lords did? To Curze, the answer was simply that they killed cleanly. In his mind, they did not have the gumption to do what he did; to slaughter in a brutal and honorless way, but ultimately to kill far fewer for these methods. He also hated the Emperor for the fact that he knew the Emperor would one day kill him, which he had known since he was a child. The hatred and fear created by that knowledge festered within him, deepening his madness with the belief that he ultimately could not escape his future or change it for the better. In reality, it is very nearly impossible that the Emperor actually did orchestrate the scattering considering how significantly the event had stymied His plans. However Curze reasoned that if he and Sanguinius could see the future to the degree that they could, than the Emperor's ability to do so must have been incomprehensibly more potent. If that was in fact the case, how would it be possible to so thoroughly thwart such a being?

Of course, Curze's hatred of the Emperor, as with most things regarding his philosophy and outlook, ignored the reality that Curze was ultimately responsible for his own actions. As hinted at previously, he had almost certainly been cast in the mold of what he had been on Nostramo, but he chose to be a cruel, sadistic butcher rather than the reasonable and temperate (though still terrifying) arbitrator that the Emperor would most likely have wanted him to be. Essentially, he was always going to be some version of [[Batman]], but he chose to be the Batman Who Laughs instead of the mainline one. Additionally, after losing his inner battle to the Night Haunter, any claim he had to killing the few brutally to spare the many went right out the window because he simply stopped doing that. After Nostramo, the Night Lords instead killed the many, but they did not lessen their brutality; if anything they became worse over time. However, this does not absolve the Emperor of responsibility in the matter of Curze's descent. Though the Emperor almost certainly was not responsible for the scattering, nor was He malicious in his plans for His Primarchs, He did seem to be supremely apathetic towards quite a few of them. In Curze's case, the Emperor's apathy towards helping him with his visions absolutely doomed Curze. Curze himself was completely helpless when it came to both his visions and the fits he had during his most intense ones; he could neither avoid nor control any of it. However the Emperor clearly knew about the visions and the fits; Curze had one of his worst vision-induced meltdowns right in front of the Emperor when they first met. The Emperor even displayed the ability to bring Curze out of his fits as He did so during their first meeting, yet that was seemingly the only time He ever did anything to address the visions. Not helping Curze at all with his visions is actually quite a gigantic oversight on Big E's part, as the visions were the primary motivator behind everything that ultimately went wrong with Curze.

The Night Lords remained impious, siding with none of the Chaos Gods and instead using them as mere tools in their terror campaigns. Almost entirely populated by criminals and murderers, the Night Lords led the [[Dark Angels]] and the Lion all over the Eastern Fringe. The insanity doesn't end there. In the middle of dicking with the Angels, he invited [[Lion El'Jonson]] to a dead planet (future place of his new palace and his own death...) to deliver a message from Horus, which actually predicted the Dark Angels' fate of everyone hating their guts for not being on Terra because Curze had lead them all over the Eastern Fringe (HAR HAR HAR).

The Lion, who has [[Serious Business|zero tolerance]] for insults, proceeded to attack Curze and managed to sucker-stab him straight through the torso. The fight then descended into a brawl in which Curze nearly strangled the Lion despite his giant stab wound, but Corswain jumped onto Curze's back and ran him through the spine. The two Primarchs were then dragged back to their respective fleets.

The Dark Angels would eventually get the upper hand, presumably because Curze was partly pre-occupied by his "guest" (see below) and because the Lion would start using a [[Heresy|powerful and sentient warp engine]] that allowed him to out maneuver the Night Lords and capture Curze temporarily, essentially breaking the back of the Night Lords Legion. Strangely enough, the most (or second most) brilliant tactician of the entire universe couldn't crack a thing or two when dealing with this one-trick <s>pony</s> batman psychopath, but had to rely on plot-device to bend his brother over (the Lion may be a good tactician but he's not clairvoyant, and Curze is still a Primarch). Anyway, with Curze out of the picture [[Sevatar]] ''took over'' the Legion. Read that as murderfucked most of the leading captains and told the fleet to disperse and do [[Rip and Tear|whatever it was they wanted]].

====Vulkan====
[[Vulkan]] became Konrad's prisoner after Isstvan V. Unfortunately, Vulkan is [[Perpetual|immortal or some shit]], so he kept coming back from the dead. This pissed the shit out of Curze, who decided to torture him instead (well actually his failure to kill Vulkan for good increasingly "frustrated" him so he started to get "creative"). Vulkan had to do all kinds of shit, including being forced to kill his own [[Salamanders]], watch prisoners starve themselves, and fight [[Corax]] in a dream. In the end, though, Curze couldn't bring Vulkan down to his level, causing massive amounts of [[rage]].

{{spoilers}}

Vulkan ended up in a maze built by [[Perturabo]], with his hammer at the end of it. Vulkan had a teleporter in his hammer, which he figured Curze didn't know about, which made him hopeful. He couldn't navigate the maze worth shit though, and he was pretty much fucked, but after a couple of days, he pissed off Curze, who then led him to the center so they could fight. Vulkan revealed that Curze had just given him a teleporter and Curze was all "fuck you, teleporters don't work here", to which Vulkan replied, "[[Lulz|It's also a hammer]]". Vulkan then proceeded to beat the shit out of Curze, but didn't kill him [[Batman|(because that would be stooping to his level, apparently).]]

When he was done, Vulkan said (essentially) "Fuck you Curze, ''I'M'' VULKAN! So MY teleporters work here. I just wanted to beat the shit out of you." He then escaped, leaving Curze more emo, depressed, and filled with more [[RAGE]] than ever before. This was due in no small part to the fact that Curze was not only completely hopeless regarding the future but also suicidal, and had genuinely wanted Vulkan to kill him. Not that this mattered because Curze subsequently went on to take out his considerable ire against the entire Dark Angels Legion, leading to an impressively murderous trip to Macragge where he role-played a combination of every slasher movie killer and went with whatever felt natural; his ire got worse, however, when he went after big Bobby G's mother. He tried his usual shtick of freaking her out with how much of a creepy bastard he was. It worked for five seconds before she told him to piss off and die. He would have killed the Lion AND Roboute with a powerful explosion (he had set the chapel of Hera to explode with them in it) if it hadn't been for the power of friendship. Seriously...[[My Little Pony|friendship truly is magi-]]{{BLAM}}. He also managed to fight a 1v2 duel against the both of them for a short time in order to stall them until the explosives went off. Batman indeed.

After having a running battle with Vulkan through the streets of Macragge in which he ended up killing Vulkan several times, taking a morbid delight in seeing how long it would take for him to revive after every kill, he ended up being jumped by a bottled demon and briefly being dragged into the warp. Curze managed to kill (as in completely, not just banishing) the demon, and was dumped back onto Macragge. He had yet to reappear but had the entire planet on curfew while he was still (theoretically) around.

After spending some time terrifying the locals, he eventually snuck into Sanguinius’s throne room. Here, Curze took Azkaelion hostage in order to entice Sanguinius into having a chat with him. Before the chat could occur however, the two of them proceeded to have an extremely cool but totally pointless duel. For despite Curze being fully armed and armored while Sanguinius was not, they both not only had constant visions of what would happen during the fight (ie, this fight had more slow motion action visions than a Zhang Yimou film), but they each already knew how both themselves and the other was going to die, and each knew it wouldn't be during the duel. Despite this, and despite Curze even humorously pointing out how silly the two of them fighting would be, Sanguinius seemingly couldn't help himself and attacked Curze anyway. True to form, the entire thing played out in their heads à la the Sherlock/Moriarty brain fight in the A Game of Shadows movie, only in real time. After a long stalemate Curze got bored, backed off, and began to expound on his theory that the scattering had been a deliberate ploy by the Emperor, and that the circumstances of where and how each Primarch had been raised had likewise been the Emperor's doing. To Curze's brief delight, Sanguinius was actually somewhat receptive to his brother's theorizing, but it didn't change his outlook on the Emperor or the Imperium. Curze then gave Sanguinius the chance to kill him and thereby prove that the future could be changed, but Sanguinius stopped the blow in mid-air out of pity. Curze, ''royally'' pissed at Sanguinius's mercy, proceeded to mutilate [[Sanguinary_Guard#Azkaellon|Azkaellon]] and blow up a whole lot of Sanguinary Guard, before he threw what remained of Azkaellon off a cliff and disappeared. Almost miraculously, Azkaellion actually managed to survive.

Despite having the resources of almost 3 full legions, the rulers of Imperium Secundus had great difficulty tracking Curze down. When it was revealed that Curze had never ever even left Macragge once in the years since his arrival, the Lion put the planet under almost total martial law and brought in his official [[Dreadwing|overkill brigade]] to deal with him. Curze had been fomenting rebellion amongst the Illyrians, a part of Macragge that had never really accepted the civilisation of Konor and Guilliman. After the Dark Angels massacred an entire nation in response, Curze laid his final endgame in a mountain fortress. The Lion, in response, broke his word to Guilliman, and contrived a devastating (and forbidden) orbital bombardment using droppods and assault rams converted into barrage bombs and torpedoes. When the smoke cleared, the Lion went solo hunting again, walking into the trap Curze had set for him. Unfortunately, for a precog, Curze hadn't anticipated that the Lion had already cleared all the traps set for him and he was captured after a duel (the Lion cheated by calling in Fire Raptors to prevent Curze from escaping).

Despite being finally caught, Curze had both the penultimate and last laugh. He managed to do what the Word Bearers, World Eaters, and Night Lords legion had not managed to do with soldiers and fleets, and broke the Imperium Secundus. His official court trial had barely started when he told Guilliman that that the Lion had broken his word by staging an ersatz orbital bombardment. Guilliman, having finally lost his patience with the Lion's ends justify the means crap, snapped the Lion's sword in two and Sanguinius told him and his legion to GTFO of Imperium Secundus (because sending a legion into what he thinks is certain death by Warpstorm for the crime of shooting the bad guy and not even hurting anything but the damn fortress is a brilliant decision). However, just as the Lion was about to leave the system, he remembered Curze's words of prophecy, that his back, the Lion's sword, and word would be broken (as well as Curze's proclamation that he would be killed by an assassin sent by the Emperor). The Lion teleported back to Macragge, just as Curze was about to be executed and explained the situation. Guilliman had a mini breakdown over everything he had done on the premise the greater Imperium had fallen and Curze laughed himself into an aneurysm at the whole situation.

He would remain in custody throughout the journey back to Terra, initially kept under lock and key by the [[Dark Angels]], but was later "broken free" by Sanguinius, who dragged him down to '''Davin''' so that they could possibly change their destinies together. This frightened the absolute crap out of Curze, not least because of the potential fact that if Sanguinius could change his destiny to die by Horus' hands, then that would mean that Curze could avoid his own assassination later on, which in turn would make all of his life meaningless because he was such an evil bastard based on his absolute certainty of how events would unfold.

However, this would not be, as Sanguinius realised that to make the change in his fate, he would need to become something worse than even Horus, so he allowed fate to continue on course. What's worse is that although Sanguinius accepted his own fate, he threatened Curze with the possibility that the Emperor could even ''forgive'' him for all of his crimes, pushing Curze into silent horror at the thought that his universe was not what he thought it was. But in a cruel twist, Sanguinius decided to leave his brother to his destiny, while also pointing out that while he could pin down the actual time and location of his death to the bridge of the ''Vengeful Spirit'' at the [[Siege of Terra]]; Curze's assassination might not actually occur for millennia, and thus he promptly jettisoned his brother's stasis coffin into space.

These interactions firmly establish Sanguinius as a foil to ol' Konrad, in the sense that both were cursed from birth with precognitive abilities that would shape their personalities and ultimately their fates. Sanguinius believed it possible to avert and alter the path of his future, but accepted it instead upon realizing that doing so would entail becoming something even worse in the progress; Konrad actively rejected even the possibility of doing so, as he considered his fate to be set in stone, to the point he'd lived his whole life based on that notion. And as he had just discovered, Sanguinius was also a scary motherfucker in his own way.

===Death===
{{Topquote|The horror, The horror...|[[Konrad Curze|Konrad]]'s real last words after probably describing to M'Shen [[40k|what he really saw in his visions]]}}

After being jettisoned into space, Curze's stasis coffin was picked up by a freighter. The future victims were eager to sell his coffin for a big payday instead of being smart and chucking it into a sun, so naturally Konrad escaped. When Curze got out Horus was long dead and took a moment to ask a crew member the date. [[Grimdark|Guess what Curze did to the crew.]] [[Rip and Tear|Please, fucking guess.]]

After the battle was lost, they fled back to Tsagualsa with what was left of the Legion. The Emperor, however, wishing to stop the Night Lords forevermore, dispatched an [[Officio Assassinorum]] operative from the [[Callidus|Callidus Temple]] to kill him. He presumably did this at some point before the Siege of Terra, though why the Emperor Himself would have thought that a lone Callidus assassin could do anything to a Primarch is a bit odd. Perhaps Big E himself had heard about Curze's visions and what Curze himself thought would happen to him?

Curze spent his last hours crafting a statue of Big E to whine about how daddy never loved him, and how his ways were necessary. [[Grimdark|By the way the statue was made of human flesh.]] He was, by this time, taking insane to whole new levels, and now had the added issues of talking to himself and having severe, second-to-second mood changes. He would rage uncontrollably one second and in the next, start apologizing to the corpses that comprised his Emperor statue and thanking them genuinely for their pain and sacrifice. During this few final hours, he argued with the statue that everything he had done was necessary and just due to the inevitability of the future, but heard a voice gainsay this, which told him that it was his own choices that had led to this future. It is interesting to note that it is impossible to tell if it was in fact the Emperor speaking, or Curze hallucinating, as it is well known that Curze had always had doubts about the true inevitability of the future, buried as deeply as possible in order to keep the remaining shreds of his mind functional.

When his confession was done, he burned the corpse-statue of the Corpse-Emperor and walked in his corpse-fortress and put on his armor, told his Legion to fuck off his damn corpse-lawn, and sat down to wait for his corpse-mama to come.

Curze had foreseen everything, or had chosen a fate believing the future was set, just as Sanguinius had. With his final prediction coming true, Curze waited for his just punishment.

Confronted with the Callidus Assassin M'Shen, it is believed that Curze proceeded to make jokes about how she had [[Pretend|butt-sex]] with [[Macha]] before getting down to brass tacks and explaining why he'd allowed her in so easily:

<blockquote>''"Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your false Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication."''</blockquote>

Whilst it's never been confirmed who [[rape|came out on top]] (or whether or not the Callidus and he engaged in [[Heresy|hardcore ball-busting sex]]), it is believed by many that Curze allowed himself to be killed, having given explicit orders to the Night Lords to allow M'Shen to escape. Only one Night Lord, Apothecary Talos Valcoran of the 10th Company, pursued her out of vengeance (the Night Lords did eventually join in pursuit, but that was only after the senior Captains realized that M'Shen (no connection to Martin Sheen, none at all) had [[Ork|looted]] Curze of all his bling, which they wanted for themselves). It is believed that Curze had come to see himself as a murderous and corrupt villain - the very thing he had sought out to destroy (or perhaps he wished to prove that his decision to destroy Nostramo and join Horus was justified, as the Emperor had become one more tyrant who had to be slain). Maybe he was a heroic [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]] who lived long enough to become the villain.

==Psychic Ability==

Although knowledge of his gifts apparently were not widespread amongst the ranks of his brother Primarchs, Curze was capable of mild feats of psychic display (when compared to someone like Magnus at any rate, as he was never trained in their use). The first and most impactful of these traits were his visions of the future. Likened to waking nightmares, these visions most often were of how people would die, or some calamity involving mass death and destruction (such as the Heresy, which he had known would happen long before it did). He was no exception; as stated above, the Night Haunter had foreseen his own death from the moment he awoke on Nostramo. These visions also often extended to those he would lay eyes upon. These visions could also be applied in battle, allowing Curze to see what his opponents would do before they did it. This made him borderline broken in terms of melee combat, and the only times he was ever bested involved him essentially forgetting to use this power (or one instance where the Lion somehow countered it). While using it, he was capable of entering into a protracted stalemate with Sanguinius, who was arguably the most martially powerful of all the Primarchs, and who had similar but (ordinarily) less frequently active ability. Though Sanguinius was not armored at the time, it ultimately didn't make a difference as the future-seeing abilities of both combatants kept either from ever landing a hit.

The Night Haunter also displayed a few other feats of psychic development, such as [[Psychic Disciplines|telekinetically]] destroying a series of lights to aid in his escape from a VII Legion detention chamber. The fashion in which he did this was described as being akin to "the blast wave of an explosion, with Curze at its epicenter." He was also capable of telepathically conversing with Jago "Sevatar" Sevatarion. [[Sevatar]], a latent psyker, was exploring Konrad's psyche during the latter's unconsciousness resulting from wounds inflicted by the [[Lion El'Jonson]] during the [[Thramas Crusade]]. Apparently the Night Haunter had a role in helping to suppress Sevatar's psychic potential, as revealed in the conversation between them - and that, because Sevatar was not trained in their use, those psychic abilities would be increasingly [[Chaos|self-destructive.]] Why he simply did not start training him will probably forever remain a mystery. He must have been the legion's only psyker or there is no rationale explaining why Sevatar was not just passed over to the Night Lord's Librarius for training his abilities. (The ''Night Lords'' Trilogy explains this by an incompatibility between the gene-seed and the host, the visions being a 'side-effect' of that struggle as it grows worse over time.) He also seems to have some sort of odd and presumably psychic ability to transform briefly into a shadowy/smoky cloud thing, which he did a few times during his 2v1 duel against the Lion and Guilliman to evade attacks, and also when a Perpetual called Damon attempted to kill him on Macragge after the duel. He also has the ability to hide his mind from other psykers, as seen, once again on Macragge, when John Grammaticus states that he can seemingly only find Curze when he wants to be found. Another example occurred when Curze ambushed an Ultramarines squad with a Librarian, named Prayto. Prayto was unable to sense Curze until Curze attacked, when he stunned the Librarian by allowing him to sense, at the last second, just how horrible Curze's mind really was.

As the Primarch of the VIII Legion, Konrad had a servant throughout the Great Crusade named Ekra Trez (who bore the title of "Sin-Eater"). Trez was tasked with keeping a record of the Night Haunter's pre-cognitive visions in a massive tome, and would often make note of which ones had been proven correct or false. Trez was also more than aware of Sevatar's psychic ability, leaving some readers of the Black Library's Horus Heresy novels curious as to what role Trez may have played in the Primarch's psychic development - if any.

==Lasting Legacy==
{{Topquote|You think it's over just because I am dead, but the games have just begun.|Jigsaw}}
The Night Haunter, in his death, may have continued to leave a lasting impression upon the Imperium as inspiration for one of its many institutions. Although his legion continues to sow fear and discord amongst the stars, Konrad Curze's legacy of weaponized fear lives on within the Imperium through the Emperor's Holy Ordos of the [[Inquisition]]. Like the inquisitors of the 41st Millennium, Konrad brought loyal citizens into compliance through fear and threats of death/torture beyond imagining to those who weren't sure where their allegiances lay. Those who failed to comply were guaranteed either a swift death at the hands of his legion, or a slow death at the tender mercies of his legion's most depraved souls. Lastly, if those comparisons weren't enough, look at the fate of Nostramo - Konrad essentially carried out an act of Exterminatus. Just as Lorgar's teachings on the Emperor's divinity would later lay the foundation for the Imperial Creed of the [[Ecclesiarchy]], the Night Haunter could effectively be treated as the first author of the Inquisition's playbook. Not that they wouldn't BLAM you for heresy if you said that to their faces though.

Within the Night Lords, Curze and the Night Haunter each left their own legacy, which caused no small amount of schism. Officially, Curze appointed Zso Sahaal as his successor and Talonmaster, because Sahaal understood that a true warrior is more than just a murder machine. A true warrior has ''focus''. As you can probably predict, every other Night Lord captain decided that ''they'' were more deserving of being Curze's successor and tried to get Sahaal dethroned for being "weak" or whatever. Their logic was that Curze wasn't in charge, the Night Haunter was, and the Night Haunter was supposed to choose the ''true'' successor. After Sahaal became lost in the Warp, captain Krieg Acerbus "the Axemaster" slowly but surely took over huge swathes of the Night Lords and led them to become [[Chaos Undivided]] followers. Ironically, the Night Haunter had no intention of ever choosing a successor as he would have preferred that his legion die out completely for becoming everything he personally despised.

Even after Curze caused so much carnage, particularly to Ultramar and Macragge, it's interesting to note that Guilliman seems to still pity him. During the Plague Wars, Guilliman admits to an associate that, out of the whole fucked up Primarch family, only "poor Konrad" truly saw the Heresy coming, and that if he hadn't been insane, it all might've been avoided.

==Multiple Personality Disorder?==
Now, we all know the [[Black Library]] can range from the [[Dan Abnett|godly]] to the [[C.S.Goto|Goto]]. So this must be taken with a grain of salt. But ''Lord of the Night'' implies that Curze suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, such that he and the Night Haunter were two different people: Konrad, the just leader of men, and the Night Haunter, the murderous vigilante. ''Blood Reaver'' also implies it (a Night Lords sorcerer talking about how at one moment he was trying to teach his long-dead father some idealistic lesson, while at another he was only concerned about eating some slave's heart) and shows signs of other mental instability, such as when he has a bit of a manic episode and forgets that his First Captain died several years ago, indicating dementia or schizophrenia; ''Blood Reaver'' also suggests that the Emprah's DNA may not have entirely settled in Curze's body, explaining why he was so batshit crazy by the time of his death, not to mention the corpse-like appearance he was sporting near the end. The upshot of this is that ''only the Night Haunter'' fell to Chaos, while Curze remained clean. Which one got the other killed is unknown. Other books have inverted the relationship, suggesting that the Night Haunter was the "honest" monster that was needed to do the terrible things required, whilst Curze was the fallible human who fell to his own weaknesses. Or perhaps the Chaos taint was the only constant, corrupting whatever personality was currently dominating, with all the idiosynchrasies implied.

Another thing perhaps tied with his Multiple Personality Disorder is that Konrad Curze towards the end had ended up hating his own legion. In a conversation with First Captain Sevatar, Konrad mentioned that he had spoken with Angron and Lorgar following the Istvaan III purge. Cleansing the untrustworthy elements of the World Eaters and the Word Bearers. The sheer absurdity of the idea was laughable to the Night Haunter, for his brothers knew exactly when to stop the killing of the weak, the treacherous and the corrupt within their bloodlines. He had no idea where to begin culling the Night Lords' ranks. His sons were no longer cast in his image. Less than a decade after he had departed Nostramo that world had sent him nothing but filth to integrate into the VIII Legion as Neophytes; the disgusting dregs of humanity his own Apothecaries had infused with his genetic material and reforged into transhumans. The VIII Legion had become poisoned by their presence. The VIII Legion was now composed of warriors who were murderers in the Primarch's own image, yet devoid of his conviction (which does not make any sense at all because, see above: <s>Every Space Marine is massively brain-washed during their ascension, and in the 41st millenium chapters even preferentially recruit from either backwater worlds - where killing someone because he has more shiny bling than you is still acceptable - or hive gangers over aristocrats on more developed worlds, simply because they are more likely to survive the transformation process.. Just think of the "blood games" many chapters perform to determine the most fitting candidates "hey, lets see who can work together and kill as many of the other aspirants as possible"</s> Extensive hypno-indoctrination only really became a thing AFTER the Heresy, specifically as a reaction to it to help ensure the loyalty of future marines. How much good it's done is debatable. During the Great Crusade and Heresy, they were churning out marines at a breakneck pace to keep up all those fuckhueg legion numbers, so a marine's personality remained much intact.). The Night Lords had become nothing more than killers and abusers, bleeding the weak for their own amusements because they enjoyed it as good sport. Fear became an end unto itself, and its propagation was all the Night Lords desired as they fed upon it.

According to his novel Curze was tremendously crazy by the time of his death. He crafted a flesh golem of the Emperor to state his case to it. Soon after Curze heard a voice in his head that Curze might have thought was his statue. He thought Sevatar was still alive at the time, though Sevatar's death hasn't been confirmed yet. An important detail no one mentioned is that the Night Lords are the Eighth Legion. Section Eight is a military discharge for basically being crazy.

This was made even more clear by what Curze told Talos before he and the Assassin gotten it on:<br>

* ''"Many will claim to lead our Legion in the years after I am gone. Many will claim that they - and they alone - are my appointed successor. I hate this Legion, Talos. I destroyed its world to stem the flow of poison. I will be vindicated soon, and the truest lesson of the Night Lords will be taught. Do you truly believe I care what happens to any of you after my death?"''

Now some might say he was overreacting a bit, but still, given how the criminal overlords he had spent most of his life on Nostramo eradicating, took over again as soon as he had left the planet and started sending their henchmen to be turned into Space Marines, it might be understandable. It was not for nothing that Horus had cause to [[Perturabo|muse that]] [[Angron|his generals]] [[Fulgrim|were psychopaths]] while the Emperor's were noble, statuesque leaders of men.

=== The Final Battle between Curze and the Night Haunter? ===
On his way to the chamber where he will meet the assassin, this happens:

* ''"I am free. I am not free. I am free. I am not free." ‘Stop it!’ he hissed to himself, losing for a moment his regal posture and becoming again the hunched beast. His warriors looked silently at him, and what had been a feeling of delicious vindication turned sour.''

Was the Night Haunter trying to stop Curze? The description of him briefly becoming the "beast" instead of the regal primarch, before forcing himself back under control makes it seem so.

* ''He rallied himself, and began again his slow progress. Very well: if fate were not locked in iron, he willingly chose this death. Let this act be his and his alone, when so much of his life had been beyond his control.''
Did his decision to willingly go to his death, not because "fate demanded it", but of his own volition allow him the strength to finally force the beast back into it's cage?

* ''In pride of place, at a table by his side, sat the battered deck of cards he had consulted so many times. He meant their presence to be his last comment on fortune’s cruel grip. But the cards dragged at his attention, forcing him to reappraise them as a tool of his delusion.''
The real Konrad Curze finally regained his sanity?

What sort of seals it is Konrad Curze's final words to M'shen, the assassin who came to end him.:

* '''Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your false Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication.'''

His statement as only "punishing those who had wronged" simply isn't true, if it was really Curze who had willingly killed so many innocent people just for the fun of it. However, if you read it as Curze and the Night Haunter as separate people, it makes perfect sense. Curze had only ever punished those who had wronged, but the Night Haunter killed for fun. And by forcing himself to hold still, so that the assassin could kill him, Curze was finally punishing the Night Haunter. Curze was finally taking control back from ''whatever'' the Night Haunter was. The vindication wasn't for his actions (or the Night Haunter's actions). The vindication is that even the Night Haunter is not beyond his judgement.

For so long, people feared that the Night Haunter would come for them, but now [[Awesome|'''Konrad Curze had come for the Night Haunter''']].

==Tabletop==
[[Image:Konrad-Curze-1.jpg|thumb|right|Wristblades? Check. Stealth capabilities? Check. Skinning prey and taking trophies? Check. Now he just needs a shoulder mounted plasma gun and a muscle-bound Austrian and he'll be able to pass himself off as the Predator.]]

{| class=wikitable
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Konrad Curze:''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

On the tabletop, Curze has the basic Primarch statline plus Shrouded and Stealth. He has several fear based abilities, such as granting fear to all Night Lords (those who already have Fear impose a -1 on the leadership test), fear tests when in combat with him are taken at -3LD, and if he kills a unit in close combat any unit subject to fear within 12' and line of sight must take a leadership test or fall back. Sire of the Night Lords also grants him the Acute Senses and Night Vision USR, and he may elect to have the first turn of any game have the Night Fighting rule, giving his sons 4+ cover in the open. His weapons are 2 Lightning Claws called Mercy and Forgiveness which have AP 2, the Murderous Strike rule and grants +1 attack (Paired) and his armour, the Nightmare Mantle, provides 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save (like most Primarch Armour), plus when he charges, it grants him hit and run and Hammer of Wrath special rules (inflicting d3 HoW hits instead of the usual one).

Due to the combination of being Jump Infantry and his variety of Fear-based shenanigans, Curze is one of the easier Primarchs to use. The ability to ensure Night Fighting helps your force close to melee where it belongs, and Fear makes it more effective once you get there. He can Hit and Run, butchering high-value targets and [[Awesome|making enemies who see piss themselves in terror and flee.]] The real genius of his rules is that, like Mortarion, he's primed to annihilate a certain kind of unit and has the mobility to chase it down, while also making your legion better at what it already does well. That said, he doesn't provide any sort of morale bonus to the Night Lords, who desperately need one, and it's fucking embarassing that he can't even hurt AV13.

Best of all, his ranged weapon proves definitely that Konrad Curze is Batman. He figuratively uses Batarangs during the shooting phase. His ranged attack is called a "Widowmaker Volley", which is essentially 3 bolt pistol shots with a special rules that makes 4+ to hit precision shots: 6s to wound ignore both armor AND invulnerable saves. You can't save against the God-Damned Bat Man. The best part is the actual description of the weapons in the Horus Heresy rulebook: "The Widowmakers: Based on the micro-serrated throwing knives utilized for signature-kills by Nostraman assassin-cults, Curze favored the use of these vicious, yet highly precise weapons over more conventional firearms in battle, using them to disable and maim as he wished."

===Konrad Curze VS other Primarchs:===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Konrad Curze fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Konrad Curze VS Horus
**Horus hits 3 times (Talon), wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417.
**Konrad loses (not a big surprise) and as always Horus uses his Talons 'cause, even though he would do more damage with Worldbreaker, the Talon allows him to make his opponent basically harmless after a couple of wounds.

* Konrad Curze VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times (0.75 of which causes ID), 1 wounds after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron easily wins, doing a lot more damage and receiving less in turn.
**Note: Curze can Hit & Run, but by doing so he would only gain one more attack, while allowing Angron to reset his Hatred, thus actually making himself die even faster. However he would be a much better fight: Konrad on the Charge would do 2.625 wounds (0.875 with ID) which become 1.168, plus 0.1389 for HoW and 0,359 for the Widowmakers, for a total of 1,666 wounds, or 1.333 after IWND. This, thanks to the -1 wound of Angron, actually means that they would kill each other on the fifth assault, at the same initiative step. Provided that Konrad always succeed in his escape, that is.

* Konrad Curze vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze loses as even though he does more damage, Mortarion has 1 more wound that will make him outlast the Night Haunter.
**Note: with the Hit & Run tactics Konrad would actually win, thanks to the +1 attack on the charge, HoW and the knives, butchering Mortarion in 9 rounds while Mortarion would need 11 (counting Overwatch).

* Konrad Curze vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 3.5 times, wounds 2.333 times, 1.167 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.833 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Easy win for Fulgrim. Even with Hit & Run, Konrad would not win this fight. Still, he would outdamage Fulgrim on the charge (1.472 wounds after all saves, 1.139 after IWND) and he would lose only thanks to the superior initiative of the Phoenician, coming extremely close to claiming a surprising draw.

* Konrad Curze vs Ferrus Manus
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: Even though with Hit & Run Konrad could close the gap and do almost the same exact damage as Ferrus over the course of the fight, mathematically winning thanks to his superior initiative, this tactics is not reliable against the Gorgon thanks to the Concussive & Strikedown of Forgebreaker.

* Konrad Curze VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan is just too tanky for Konrad.
**Note: with the usual tactic of Hit & Run Curze would outdamage Vulkan, but this is hindered by the fact that Dawnbringer has Concussive, making it difficult to foresee: it could go either way. (Because it's also a Hammer.)

* Konrad Curze VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.0833 times,1.042 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.708 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 1: hits 3.555 times, wounds 2.369 times, 1.184 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.851 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

*Konrad Curze VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad loses as Perturabo does marginally more damage.
**Note: With Hit & Run Konrad would win, but the chance he is not concussed in the round he wants to escape are pretty slim, meaning that Perturabo has still the edge in this fight.

* Konrad Curze VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.

* Konrad Curze VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins thanks to his superior number of attacks.

* Konrad Curze VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times/3 times, wounds 3 times/2.25 times, 2 wounds/1.5 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.667/1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: even though they both got Hit & Run, Konrad doesn't get +1 attack to charge Corax, 'cause he has Shroud Bombs, and also doesn't get +1 S and I, making Corax considerably stronger when he charge all things considered. All in all, a pretty balanced fight, even if the stats don't say so. Corax doesn't have Widowmakers, though...

* Roboute Guilliman (with the Hand of Domination) VS Konrad Curze
**Curze Round 1: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after the Invuln, 1.286 times after the re-roll and IWND will take that down to 0.953 at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after the Invuln, 0.911 times after the re-roll and IWND will take that down to 0.578 at the start of the next turn
**Guilliman Round 1/2: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.0416 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.7083 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 3 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.778 times, 1.339 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.055 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman easily wins this fight... theoritically
**Note: As usual, Konrad should attempt to even the odds with Hit and Run, negating Preternatural Strategy while gaining the +1 attack for the charge (and sniping some wounds with his knives). Even with Guilliman using the Hand of Domination, there is a chance Curze doesn't suffer any damage from it (31% when Guilliman is WS7/8 and 20% when he is WS9) so he will actually negate Preternatural Strategy between 37% and 31% of the time, which is enough to give Rob a run for his money or even kill him if the Widowmakers score more than a single wound.

* Konrad Curze VS Leman Russ
**Russ hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 time after saves, plus 0.583 wounds from Sever Life for a whole 2.083 wounds and IWND will take that down to 1.75 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad Round 1: hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.427.
**Konrad Round 2 and thereafter: hits 1 times, wounds 0.75 times, 0.375 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.042.
**Konrad gets wrecked.
**Note : Nothing will save Konrad from the Wolf King, but as always the Widowmakers can prove themselves a tricky surprise and Hit & Run mitigates the impact of the exothermic bullshit, making Curze one of the few primarchs who can die to Russ with a bit of dignity.

* Konrad Curze VS Jaghatai Khan
**Jaghatai hits 4 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.666
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.740 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Jaghatai wins, thanks to his high number of attacks. Curze could use Hit-and-Run to try to even the odds and give himself charge bonuses, but the Khan could do the same.

*Konrad Curze VS Sanguinius
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Sanguinius Round 1: hits 4.667 times (Blade), wounds 4.148 times, 2.074 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.741 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Sanguinius on the charge: hits 5.333 times, wounds 5.574 times (including HoW), 2.787 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 2.454 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Sanguinius Round 2+: hits 4 times, wounds 3.556 times, 1.778 wound after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.444 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad loses.
**Note: With the first turn charge, Widowmakers and H&R Curze can achieve a mutual kill in Round 4, however Sanguinius regaining +1I and +1A in Round 3 lets him do 5.89 wounds average before Curze attacks, so things could go badly for the Batman.

* TL;DR version: Even though he does a lot of damage, Konrad is not really suited for Primarch vs Primarch fights. Do not misunderstand: he is a real beast when he can make use of Hit & Run and the Widowmakers are extremely good, especially against Primarchs with strong invulnerable saves. Still, you have to consider that all of his special rules are primary designed to scare his opponents and make them flee, but since all Primarchs are Fearless he can't use them. Despite this, he can win some fights and, when he struggles, he can still significantly cripple even some of the strongest Primarchs, leaving them weak and vulnerable. But you are arguably best served to employ his mobility to evade them (instead of fighting) and charge something he could actually butcher in a single round, to make the most of his King of Terror special rule. Make their allies flee in panic and then destroy them when they are alone and surrounded...

</div></div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Night haunter by cabal art.png|Isn't he the cutest murderous psychopath vigilante ever?
File:Konrad.jpg
File:BigKurze.jpg|[[Emperor|Christ]] that looks epic. Even if it's on graph paper.
File:Konspire.png|Do not get on his bad side.
File:Spess Punisher.jpg|Two merry psycho vigilantes. Glorious coincidence or awesome tribute ?
File:KonradOnMacragge.jpg|Too bad he didn't get Matt Ward while hunting the Big Blue.
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Chaos]]