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Inquisition

2018-06-01T06:07:49Z

2A02:587:3A15:F00:34D7:FE7D:BB5E:1FFF:

[[File:Inquisitorial_Symbol.png|100px|center]]
{{Topquote|Innocence proves nothing.|Inquisitorial motto}}
{{Topquote|It does not follow that because the devil has been given power over someone on account of his sins, that power must come to an end on the cessation of the sin.|Malleus Maleficarum}}
{{Topquote|Hmm.. Lost my sock... EXTERMINATUS!|Basically Every Inquisitor}}
''[https://youtu.be/zOERyX3xnHQ?t=29s "My chief weapons are surprise and fear!"]'' 
:- [[Inquisitor Adrastia]]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iejq_rVJMR0 She did it, boys! She did it, she said it! *AIRHORNS*]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf_Y4MbUCLY '''NOBODY EXPECTS THE IMPERIAL INQUISITION!''']

Also known as the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]]'s pet psychopaths - at least according to [[Commissar]] [[Ciaphas Cain|Cain]]. Strange how he gets away with this [[heresy]]. (It was because the Inquisitor writing it was his lover, he was probably dead when it was published and she probably agreed with him on the matter in regards to many of her colleagues.)

MP jokes aside, the Holy Orders of the Officio Inquisitorus, or just Inquisition, are the "secret" police and internal investigators of the [[Imperium of Man]], the eponymous hunters of the alien, the mutant and the heretic. The inquisition is a semi-omnipotent organization that has authority over every other organization and watch every single life in the Imperium for the slightest signs of heresy 1984-Big Brother style. On the plus side, though, literally ANYONE can become an inquisitor if they really impress and win all their FOR THE EMPRAH rolls; really, even hab worker #343332791984. The Emperor and his guards are the only people in the Imperium beyond their jurisdiction; even the High Lords can be (and were) subject to Inquisitorial investigation. Plus they're FUCKING ASSHOLES! (Most of them, but there are a couple that are sympathetic. Key word being COUPLE.) They have an unfortunate but justified tendency to be the secret plot-twist antagonist/instigators in a lot of Black Library works, mainly because simple fights between two diametrically opposed foes tends to be rather boring. Their =][= symbol seems to have originated from Malcador's Sigillites, a secret order of chroniclers and history-keepers that guided humanity from the very beginning through their knowledge of the past. They also have real close ties with the Red Hunters Chapter.

==History==
[[Image:Inquisitors.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Monty Python|Bet you weren't expecting]] [[Spanish Inquisition|that]].]]
So when it became obvious that the Emperor's plan to starve the [[Chaos Gods]] with [[Imperial Truth|atheism]] was a failure due to the [[Horus Heresy]], the Big E ordered [[Malcador the Sigillite]] with the formation of the Inquisition. Charged with finding "men of character" to seek out the [[heresy|heretic]], the [[xenos|xeno]], the [[daemon]], and the unexpecting, the Inquisition serves as the secret protectors (or murderers) of the [[Imperium of Man]], guarding it from those who would destroy it from within, from without, and from [[Warp|beyond]]. Only two of the four founders is known: Kyril Sindermann, once the [[Iterator]] of Horus's fleet and one of the first believers in the Emperor's divinity, and Lemuel Gaumon AKA Promeus, a former Remembrancer of the Thousand Sons and the first person to successfully be exorcised.

The Inquisition began with the [[Knights-Errant]], a group of proto-Grey Knights drafted from Loyalist Space Marines (including those formerly from Legions that had turned traitor) that were active during the Heresy, forming the beginnings of the Ordo Malleus (the Ordo Malleus wouldn't form proper until the Inquisition also made the Ordo Xenos). Over time, the other ordos were added; the Ordo Xenos after the [[War of The Beast]] (partly to manage the brand new [[Deathwatch]]), the Ordo Sicarius after the Wars of Vindication, and the Ordo Hereticus after the [[Age of Apostasy]], and so on. Over time, the Inquistion's overall mission became less about fighting the machinations of Chaos so much as preserving the Imperium's integrity as much as possible; as deviance was to be interpreted as disloyalty and therefore Heresy, this also meant they took a more active approach in Imperial affairs.

As part of their duties, [[Inquisitor]]s have damn near unlimited power, up to and including [[Exterminatus|the destruction of worlds]]. If they have good cause, they can demand service from anyone, from lowly citizens to the [[High Lords of Terra]]. The only people officially exempt from this are the [[Adeptus Custodes]], who can legitimately say they have a more important job in guarding the Emperor on the Golden Throne, not that this has stopped a couple of irredeemably stupid ones from trying to throw their weight around with them. In practice, though, Inquisitors tend to at least say "please" and "thank you" when they require service from the more powerful Imperial organizations, especially [[Space Marines]], since they tend to get turfy about taking orders from any non-Space Marine save the Emprah. Those who don't tread lightly tend to get a close encounter with a [[chainsword]]. With the resurrection of Guilliman, they are having to tread very carefully around him due to him being the son of the Emperor and generally not happy with their standard operating procedure, or the fact that he introduced several new organisations whose goals fly in the face of much of the Inquisition's previous work at censoring and blacklisting history and records.

==On the Tabletop==
In the past, the Inquisition was represented by three different armies, that being the [[Daemonhunters]], [[Witchhunters]], and <s>[[Alienhunters]]</s> Okay that last one didn't have any genuine tabletop representation back then. However, these armies ended up being split apart, with their chambers militant effectively becoming independent armies with their own codices as the [[Grey Knights]], [[Sisters of Battle]], and [[Deathwatch]] respectively. The disadvantage to this move was that these new armies suffered from a lack of unit choices, especially the Sisters of Battle, who lack the variety in vehicle and infantry support normally enjoyed by other factions such as the Space Marines. Realistically, unless you're up against an equally under-equipped enemy, allying up with another force is practically a necessity.

As for the Inquisitors themselves, you could still field them, but only as an allied detachment to a mainline army, such as the Imperial Guard. And like the factions mentioned above, they lost not just their chamber militants, but also their basic troops in the form of Inquisitorial [[Stormtrooper]]s (in fact the Inquisition can't field troops at all, only elites in the form of henchmen). They do have a few unique units like [[Jokaero]] and [[Crusaders]], but without some cheap units to help screen the enemy you'll end up with an expensive and easily outnumbered army, as you can only take 36 henchmen at most per inquisitor. However, they do come with a number of transports (including the nominally [[Space Marine]]-only [[Land Raider]]), which can be a boon to armies lacking in vehicle options. And if you want to bring [[Officio Assassinorum|assassins]] with you, you'll get them through the inquisitor. Besides, fluff-wise an Inquisitor would normally want plenty of meat-shields to do the shooting for them anyways.

After getting reorganized into Codex: Imperial Agents, Inquisitors can now play closer to their original incarnation if you so choose. Inquisitors can now easily call upon detachments from other organizations, including Grey Knight Terminators, Sisters of Battle, or Deathwatch, depending on the Inquisitor's Ordo. They can also utilize astropaths, enginseers, assassins, etc.

With the recent release of 8th edition, the big =][= has taken quite the hit. You no longer have access to those astropaths, enginseers, assassins, AND the crusaders, ministorum priests, arco flagellants, and death cult assassins. But possibly the biggest blow to both casual inquisition players and neckbeards longing for the old witchhunters and daemonhunters days, the chambers militant special rule is gone, an you can also no longer mix what you have into henchy squads, or upgrade the armor on any of your units. Despite this the inquisition is still useful, but VERY situational. Probably the best use for Inquisitors these days is relatively cheap Psykers and buffing the Leadership of your other units.

== Organization ==
[[File:PPI.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Heresy]], [[chaos]], and [[xenos]]. These were the most dangerous threats to the [[Imperium]] that were foreseen, but the [[Emprah]] of Mankind suddenly foresaw something more threatening than the three: EXTRA HERESY. Thus, the Inquisition was born! Using their ultra abusive authority, the [[Ordo Malleus]], [[Ordo Hereticus|Hereticus]], and [[Ordo Xenos|Xenos]] have dedicated their lives to defending the Imperium, and killing the enemies of the Emprah!]]

The Inquisition is unique among Imperial departments in that it has no formal definition of a hierarchy or structure. However, [[Inquisitor]]s with common interests tend to band together to tackle issues too large for a single Inquisitor, and over time, these coalitions have coalesced into bodies called ''Ordos'' which specialize in handling a particular class of threat to the Imperium. Joining an Ordo isn't mandatory, but most Inquisitors are "raised" in an Ordo as an interrogator, or gravitate towards on over time. Inquisitors will also form looser, smaller groups called ''conclaves'' to handle specific threats -- for example, a single [[Tyranid]] invasion, or threats pertaining to a particular planet. Conclaves usually include members of a single Ordo, but there's no rule against having multiple Ordos represented, and some Inquisitors actively form conclaves with experts in diverse fields.

There are three ''Ordos Majoris'' in the Inquisition:

*[[Daemonhunters|Ordo Malleus]] - They are guys who hunt [[daemon|daemons.]] The [[Grey Knights]] are the Malleus' Chamber Militant.
*[[Witch Hunters|Ordo Hereticus]] - Guys who like to hunt [[wizard|witches]], [[heresy|heretics]], and [[furry|mutants]]. While lacking a Chamber Militant of their own, the Hereticus frequently rely on the [[Sisters of Battle]].
*And the [[Alienhunters|Ordo Xenos]] - The guys who fight aliens. All the time. The [[Deathwatch]] are the Xenos' Chamber Militant.

Several ''Ordos Minoris'' exist as well, although their exact number is uncertain (especially because an Ordo is only as big as the number of Inquisitors who care about its particular issue -- the factor that separates the major Ordos from the minor ones is that there are always plenty of daemons, heretics, and xenos to go around, while other threats rise and fall in prominence). The best-known (relatively speaking) are as follows:

*Ordo Aegis- They help with keeping the Cadian Gate secure (given the fall of Cadia their jobs just got exponentially harder).
*Ordo Astartes- They try to keep some degree of control over the [[Space Marines]], with "try" being the operative word. Some recent breakthroughs have been made with the introduction of [[Vindicare|Ork Sharpshooters]] and [[Minotaurs|dickery]].
*Ordo Astra- They keep stellar maps up to date. Given that there are about 50 of them and shit's fucked, they have a lot of work to do.
*Ordo Barbarus- They watch over pre-industrial worlds to make sure Chaos cults can't spring up on them. Essentially, a specialist branch of the Ordo Hereticus.
*[[Ordo Chronos]] - They specialized in the possibility of time travel (particularly because time in the Warp doesn't flow normally), and they sought to deal with temporal anomalies, such as a ship reaching its destination before it actually left its starting point. Unfortunately for them, they just up and vanished without a trace. Nobody knows where they went, and as a result, this Ordo has been essentially forgotten by the rest of the Inquisition. They also have a more mundane division that deals with the various heresies, inconsistencies, and general galactic level idiocy surrounding the dating system - to the point where the current year could be inaccurate by a margin of 200 to 1000 years.
*Ordo Custodum- They make sure Holy Terra stays secure and devoid of heretics; another Ordo Hereticus sub-Ordo.
*Ordo Desolatus- Purpose unknown. For some odd reason it only has one member.
*Ordo Excorium- They make sure nobody tries to call in an [[Exterminatus]] without having a good reason for it first. The Imperium could probably use more of them, seeing as Exterminatus seem to happen all the time for things that could probably have been resolved in other ways. They are doing their job since by official statistics, over 90% of Inquisitors who declared a single Exterminatus were stripped of their rank and declared heretics for this exact reason. But they really need to put some effort to prevent such kind of behavior. Print some guidelines or something.
*Ordo Machinum - They ensure that the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] properly integrate STC variants (and the occasional piece of xenos tech) into Imperial technology, while also trying to keep their hoarding tendencies to an acceptable level.
*Ordo Militarum - Their role is to ensure that the Imperial armed forces remain loyal. The [[Commissar]]iat is their child organization.
*[[Ordo Necros]]- Nobody's entirely sure what they do, but since they apparently needed an entire Ordo to supervise them (The Ordo Vigilus), it must be really important. Something to do with the [[Necron]]s, maybe? (Looking after the [[C'tan|Void Dragon]]?) Something to do with a nature of death and the afterlife? In any case, someone was and is really fucking worried about them and whatever the hell they're doing, since the Ordo Vigilus' only job is looking into this Ordo's business.
*Ordo Originatus- They act as the Inquisition's historians, attempting to sift through ten thousand years' worth of myths and legends for the few grains of truth that remain. Polar opposite of the Ordo Redactus.
*Ordo Obsoletus- Only mentioned in the fluff a few times, the Inquisition's official department of What The Fuck just happened here? Tends to chase up inexplicable events like the Legion of the Damned turning up. Basically the 41st millennium's X-Files. Tend to be suspicious about miracles.
*Ordo Redactus- The Inquisition's equivalent of the Ministry of Truth, which makes sure that the secrets of the Inquisition's past stay secret, and that history books say what they ought to say. Naturally, this can be quite a problem for the Ordo Originatus if the two don't work together.
*Ordo Thanatos - Unknown purpose. Considering though they are named after the Greek word for death, it points to their purpose having some relation to death, perhaps investigating means of immortality?
*Ordo Sanctorum- This branch keeps a close eye on the [[Ecclesiarchy]] so a second Reign of Blood doesn't occur.
*Ordo Scriptorum- Like a grimdark version of the NSA, they examine and investigate written records and communications and try to cut through the Administratum's red tape when doing so would keep the Imperium safe and secure. Occasionally referred to as the Ordo ISO 9000.
*Ordo Scriptus- Oversees official historical records on Terra. Since they only have 6 (Inquisitorial) members, they most likely make use of great amounts of administratum resources, and even then they are constantly and horribly out of date.
*Ordo Senatorum- Unknown purpose. Perhaps it has something to do with the [[High Lords of Terra|Senatorum Imperialis]] and their staff?
*[[Ordo Sicarius]] - They watch over the [[Officio Assassinorum]] to make sure that they don't try to repeat [[The Beheading]].
*[[Zombiehunters|Ordo Sepulturum]] - They're dedicated to fighting plagues and diseases, but mainly the Zombie Plague and the zombies that result.
*Ordo Vigilus - their purpose is to keep an eye on the Ordo Necros. Someone must have been really concerned by Necros to make an Ordo for the sole sake of keeping an eye on an Ordo.

And nice red uniforms OH DAMN.

Most of the Ordos are very straightforward, doing jobs that are necessary to keep the Imperium running and acting as checks and balances to other powerful organizations in the Imperium, making sure at least most of the various factions play nice while they're around to do important things.

[[File:Azeroth.jpg|left|1200px|thumb|In the 8th game of the World of Warcraft series, which was the first since the current 8th editions of Warhammer Fantasy and 40K, they also advanced the storyline following the same trend, as we have an official Alliance-Horde war for the first time since Warcraft 3, in total coordination with the real world when long unsettled conflicts, such as the Arab-Israeli war, Grexit, Kim Jong-un, US-China trade war, Fascism emerging in Europe starting from Italy, Neo-ottomanism, American civil war, Monroe dogma over Nicolas Maduro and Lula and even a volcano in Hawaii erupting, are simultaneously all emerging as if we are truly living in a novel.]]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Name
!Class
!Value
!Wargear
!Quantity
!References
|-
|Guardian
|Troops (Aeldari)
|9 Points
|Mesh Armour, Shuriken Catapult and Plasma Grenades
|60
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Guardian]
|-
|Neophyte
|Troops (Imperium)
|14 Points
|Boltgun, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|21
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Tactical_Marine]
|-
|Spider
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|18 Points
|Heavy Aspect Armour, Death Spinner and Warp Jump Generator
|162
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warp_Spiders]
|-
|Devastator
|Troops (Imperium)
|24 Points
|Heavy Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Devastator_Marine]
|-
|Templar
|Troops (Imperium)
|29 Points
|Plasma Gun, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Veteran_Marines]
|-
|Bazooka
|Troops (Aeldari)
|30 Points (No cost for 3 due to Guardian Battlehost)
|Heavy Weapon Platform with Eldar Missile Launcher
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Craftworld]
|-
|Culverin
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|30 Points
|Support Weapon with Pair of Guardians and Shadow Weaver
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vaul]
|-
|Blademaster
|Elites (Imperium)
|35 Points
|Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Power Sword
|5
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Darnath_Lysander]
|-
|Warlock
|HQ (Aeldari)
|40 Points
|Rune Armour, Shuriken Pistol and Singing Spear
|14
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warlock]
|-
|Terminator
|Elites (Imperium)
|40 Points
|Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Chainfist
|35
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Terminators]
|-
|Exarch
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|58 Points
|Heavy Aspect Armour, Death Spinner, Pair of Powerblades and Warp Jump Generator
|18
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Exarch]
|-
|Centurion
|Elites (Imperium)
|60 Points (70 Points for leader of every 6)
|Twin-Linked Melagun, Hurricane Bolter and Dual Siege Drills
|30
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Centurion]
|-
|Cataphract
|Elites (Imperium)
|60 Points
|Terminator Armour, Assault Cannon and Chainfist
|10
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Assault_Cannon]
|-
|Sergeant
|Troops (Imperium)
|64 Points
|Plasma Pistol, Power Fist, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Sergeant_(Space_Marine)]
|-
|Lancer
|Elites (Imperium)
|70 Points (80 Points for leader of every 6)
|Twin-Linked Lascannon and Hurricane Bolter
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Lascannon]
|-
|War Walker
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|75 Points
|Shuriken Cannon, Starcannon, Power Field and Spirit Stones
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/War_Walker]
|-
|Vyper
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|85 Points
|Shuriken Cannon, Starcannon, Holo-Field and Spirit Stones
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vyper]
|-
|Farseer
|HQ (Aeldari)
|105 Points
|Rune Armour, Shuriken Pistol, Singing Spear and Ghosthelm
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Farseer]
|-
|Dreadnought
|Elites (Imperium)
|135 Points
|Seismic Hammers with Built-in Meltaguns, Hurricane Bolters, Searchlight, Smoke Launchers and Extra Armour
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Ironclad_Dreadnought]
|-
|Champion
|HQ (Imperium)
|140 Points
|Armour of Faith, Black Sword, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Emperor's_Champion]
|-
|Chaplain
|HQ (Imperium)
|150 Points
|Master-Crafted Plasma Pistol, Crozius Arcanum, Rosarius, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Merek_Grimaldus]
|-
|Fire Prism
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|160 Points
|Prism Cannon, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Field and Spirit Stones
|15
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Fire_Prism]
|-
|Marshall
|HQ (Imperium)
|180 Points
|Sword of the High Marshalls, Combi-Melta, Iron Halo, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Helbrecht]
|-
|Avatar
|Lords of War (Aeldari)
|195 Points
|Wailing Doom
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar]
|-
|Raider
|Heavy Support (Imperium)
|275 Points
|Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter, Dual Twin-Linked Lascannons, Storm Bolter, Multi-Melta, Searchlight, Smoke Launchers and Extra Armour
|11
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Land_Raider]
|-
|Wraithknight
|Lords of War (Aeldari)
|325 Points
|Dual Heavy Wraithcannons and Dual Shuriken Cannons
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Wraithknight]
|}

[[File:Eldar_Guardians.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Tactical_Marines.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Warp_Spiders.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Terminator.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Howitzer.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Assault_Centurion.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Warlock_Conclave.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Devastator_Centurion.jpg|800px]]
[[File:War_Walker.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Ironclad_Dreadnought.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Vyper_Jetbike.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Templar_Champion.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Grav-Prism.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Chaplain_Grimaldus.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Avatar_of_Khaine.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Marshall_Helbrecht.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Eldar_Wraithknight.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Land_Raider.jpg|800px]]

==Hierarchy==
[[File:I.png|thumb|right|30em|More or less how they act on /tg/]]
[[Dark Heresy]] gives us a look at the inner workings of the Inquisition in how they operate and recruit people. Many of them come from nearly every other organization of the Imperium, with a few criminals and death cultists thrown in.

*Acolyte - these are the guys who get recruited (or press-ganged) into the Inquisition's service, for the long term that is. While an Inquisitor can commandeer anyone they need for a particular mission, these agents officially belong to the Inquisition and have received training for their part in the organization. Reasons for recruitment can vary between a person's skills being seen as valuable, to the person in question has seen too much but can be put to use instead of purged, or if the person in question is simply expendable. Acolytes are often servants or meatshields for inquisitors, but if a particular agent shows a high degree of resourcefulness, they may be selected for becoming an inquisitor's personal retinue.
*Throne Agent - An Inquisitor's trusted aides, they tend to be more experienced than acolytes and aid in investigations. Throne Agents who are especially talented with a history of success may be recommended to become Inquisitors themselves.
*Explicator - Apprentice Inquisitors, they train directly under an Inquisitor on how to investigate.
*Interrogator - Inquisitors in training sent out into the field. They have their own rosettes and can order people around, but still lack the authority to perform independently. Once they have enough field and leadership experience they get promoted by the approval of three Inquisitors or one Inquisitor Lord.
*Inquisitor - the full monty. These are the guys who get to root out Heresy, order Exterminatus, rope entire armies into service, and so forth.
*Inquisitor Lord - Not a rank per se, rather a title that recognizes the power and influence of an individual inquisitor. Invitation-only and requires the agreement of three existing Inquisitor Lords. They tend to be the oversees of a particular conclave.
*Master - One of, if not the Head Honcho for a sub-sector.
*Grandmaster - Like the master, but for an entire sector.
*Inquisitorial Representative - The elected representative to the [[High Lords]]. Oddly, it's not considered a desirable final career stage for an Inquisitor, and tends to be a figurehead for whatever shadowy conclave is on Terra at the time.

==Philosophies==

The Inquisition is a big and complicated place, and many have different philosophies on how to protect the Imperium and stop [[Chaos]]. While there are dozens of doctrinal and philosophical disputes, the two important branches are either Puritans or Radicals. Both are fucked up assholes.

===Puritans===
Puritans, simply put, are those who refuse to employ the measures of the enemy, such as xenotech or the Warp. They believe that associating anything with the enemy will inevitably bring corruptible influences that will only lead to damnation for all of humanity in the end, which isn't so far-fetched given the circumstances humanity faced throughout the millennia, although it has the inevitable drawback that the more zealous Puritans will eventually start to see ''everything'' as alien and Chaotic influences, which only leads to even more problems down the line. Hardcore puritans even consider Inquisitors who act covertly or with any degree of subtlety as being radicals, preferring to solve their problems as brazenly and fear-inducingly as possible. Most Inquisitors start out as Puritans or on the spectrum of Puritanism, but it's fairly common for some to fall into Radicalism eventually (which can be classed as lesser heresy in its most extreme forms). Puritanism can fall among three major philosophies:

*{{anchor|Amalathianism}}'''Amalathianism''': The most conservative form of Puritanism in the Inquisition and the most common of the Inquisition's factions in general, Amalathians (named after Mount Amalath, where its tenets were first set down at an Inquisitorial conclave) believe that the Emperor has some sort of divine plan for the Imperium, and the Inquisition's purpose is to protect the Imperium as that plan becomes visible. Change is considered the greatest enemy (which may have [[Tzeentch|some sense to it]]), with the exception that they seek to overcome the factionalism so common within the [[Adeptus Terra]]. The irony that the Amalathians are themselves technically a faction is not lost on them. You'd think that a group which holds the Imperium at present is perfect would be off its rocker, but they're actually a fairly reasonable group who prefer to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bicker and bitch over territorial disputes. [[Gregor Eisenhorn]] was once a staunch Amalathian, but he eventually fell into Radicalism in his later years.
*{{anchor|Monodominant}}'''Monodominant''': The most extreme form of Puritianism in the Inquisition, Monodominants are basically [[Humanity Fuck Yeah]] taken to its illogical extreme. They believe that humanity, and ''only'' humanity, should be allowed to continue to exist. Given that the average inhabitants of the galaxy are [[Eldar|space pansies who would abandon you in a heartbeat]], [[Dark Eldar|space pansies who would torture and rape you in a heartbeat]], [[Ork|green hooligans who would fight and kill you in a heartbeat]], [[Tyranid|giant spacebugs who would eat you in a heartbeat]], [[Necron|undead robots who would atomize you in a clock tick]] and [[Chaos|things much worse]], this is [[Grimdark|an understandable worldview]]. Unfortunately, the Monodominants take things a few steps further, wanting to eliminate all [[mutant]]s, including the [[Psyker]]s ([[Astropath]]s and [[Navigator]]s) that humanity needs to keep functioning, as well even [[Space Marines]].
*{{anchor|Thorianism}}'''Thorianism''': The most radical form of Puritanism. While the resurrectionist concepts that make up the philosophy had their beginnings with Promeus (one of the founders of the Inquisition), it remained rather obscure as a faction until after the rise of [[Sebastian Thor]], the hero of the [[Age of Apostasy]]. They believe that Thor held part of the power of the Emperor within him, and thus believe that it is possible to reincarnate the Emperor of Mankind into a new body, allowing him to rebuild the Imperium and launch a new [[Great Crusade]]. As a result, Thorians closely study the nature of the human consciousness and the Warp, while also keeping a close eye on individuals that show enough power to be potential hosts for the Emperor's soul (such as Living Saints). They are extremely close to the [[Ecclesiarchy]].
**{{anchor|Anomolian Beholders}}'''Anomolian Beholders''': A conservative branch of Thorianism which takes a more passive approach to the resurrectionist ideology; they are more content with observing humanity for signs of the God-Emperor's return than actively trying to bring him back.
**{{anchor|Ardentites}}'''Ardentites''': A variation of Thorian belief that claims the power of the Emperor was dispersed throughout humanity as a whole rather than being concentrated in any one individual. Derisively referred to as "miracle chasers" by the rest of the Inquisition for their many failed attempts at proving their beliefs.

===Radicals===
Radicals are those Inquisitors who believe in fighting fire with fire--specifically, using the weapons of the enemy against the enemy. According to [[Gideon Ravenor]], Radicalism is an inevitable product of an Inquisitor's ideology being tested, as the more one learns about the nature of the enemy, the more they realize that the enemy has a lot better toys than the Imperium. However, given that most Inquisitors will face Chaos at some point, and given the inherently corrupting nature of the Warp, Radicalism may lead to one hoping to fight the Archenemy with its own tools before brought into the service of the Chaos Gods instead; consequently, an accusation of Radicalism is only slightly less serious than an accusation of outright heresy. Radicalism can fall into a lot more branches than Puritanism, and the following is merely a list of the most common forms it can take:

*{{anchor|Casophilians}}'''Casophilians''': Another branch of Thorianism interested in learning how to summon a deceased soul back to the Materium in the hope that doing so could be the first step to resurrecting the Emperor. (In practice, this would probably resemble a form of "reverse daemon summoning".) Relatively conservative by Radical standards, they are one of the few factions that can be considered open to new ideas and are known to work especially well with the Anomolian Beholders.
*{{anchor|Horusians}}'''Horusians''': One of the most dangerous forms of radicalism and a splinter of the Thorian philosophy, Horusians (named after [[Horus|Horus Lupercal]] and founded by Moriana, once one of the first Inquisitors and now an infamous Chaos witch) believe that power the Chaos Gods imbued Horus with to fight the Emperor can be used to create a new body for the Emperor. Mostly consists of older Inquisitors who have become angry with the other resurrection theories failing to get shit done.
*{{anchor|Istvaanism}}'''Istvaanism''': One of the most violent forms of Radicalism, Istvaanians (named for the virus-bombing of Istvaan III, which began the Horus Heresy) believe that conflict is desirable, and mankind only grows in a state of violence (while it is said that "necessity is the mother of invention", the culture in 40k minimizes technological advancements). In practice, this leads to various conflicts that would otherwise remain minor suddenly becoming unmanageable because an Istvaanite was covertly funneling resources to one or both sides. Possibly the only group in the galaxy who views the Imperium's biggest problem as too ''few'' wars.
*{{anchor|Libricars}}'''Libricars''': An extreme version of Amalthianism that insists that even the smallest deviations from the status quo warrants purging. Unlike the Amalthians, they will do absolutely ''anything'' to ensure the status quo. Needless to say, the Recongregators hate them, and the Amalthians consider them to be a perversion of everything they stand for.
*{{anchor|Oblationists}}'''Oblationists''': Bizarro Monodominants that insist that the truly righteous (i.e. themselves) must allow themselves to be damned through the use of the Warp, the xenos, and the unclean to keep humanity safe. At the same time they believe that anyone else using these things will be hopelessly damned and ought to be purged. The hypocrisy of this is lost on them.
*{{anchor|Ocularians}}'''Ocularians''': A minor faction obsessed with learning how to predict and divine the future, no matter the cost of doing so.
**{{anchor|Antiquarti}}'''Antiquarti''': A subgroup of Ocularians that seek to predict the future by discovering patterns within events in the past. That wouldn't be hard if anyone allowed them to see the few books on the past, since no one teaches history in the grimdark future.
*{{anchor|Polypsykana}}'''Polypsykana''': A group that believes humanity is evolving into a fully psychic race (which appears to be true) and that it is a good idea for them to do everything they can to accelerate this process (which is clearly arguable). They do this by trying to protect nascent psykers from their Puritan colleagues, though they have also been known to harbor witches and other rogue psykers as well.
*{{anchor|Recongregationism}}'''Recongregationism''': Radicals who believe that the Imperium has become stagnant and corrupt, and needs to be rebuilt lest it collapse further. Unfortunately for them, they aren't entirely sure about how to do this, or how it should be rebuilt after tearing down the old order. Some of the more extreme Recongregators end up like Lilean Chase, an Inquisitor who fell to Chaos and founded the Cognitae (or at least its ''40K'' incarnation), arguably these inquisitors may be the closest thing to <s>the modern views of western society</s> Inquisitors giving a crap about ordinary people, as shown in a small story one of them used a cadre of Xenos Hunters composed of Space Marines from dubious chapters ([[Black Dragons]], [[Flame Falcons]], etc) to simultaneously stop a [[Necron]] incursion and topple an oppressive planetary government with the hope something better will go out of the consecutive population uprising.
*{{anchor|Revivificationism}}'''Revivificationism''': Essentially the radical form of Thorianism, Revivificators believe in studying the effects of death and dying so that they can reverse the process and revive the Emperor of Mankind. Revivificators have a deep interest in studying the Eldar as a result, and have less ties to the Ecclesiarchy. Also occasionally try to summon angels (daemons) of the Emperor, with predictable results.
*{{anchor|Seculos Attendous}}'''Seculos Attendous''': A minor faction that views the [[Ecclesiarchy]] as an obstacle to mankind's progress and seeks to weaken it wherever they can. They're probably the only group of people in the Imperium who have realized that fact. A shame that they can't agree on what to replace it with on the absurdly tiny chance they succeed.
*{{anchor|Xanthism}}'''Xanthism''': The most overt and well known form of Radicalism, Xanthians (named after Lord Inquisitor Zaranchek Xanthus, executed for heresy in M32) believe that using Chaotic artifacts such as possessed swords and Daemonhosts are viable weapons against the Archenemy which should be used whenever possible. They hold that only by controlling the power of Chaos can Chaos be defeated. Eisenhorn eventually followed Xanthism after being forced to use Cherubael to save the lives of his retinue. Most of the time, this ends up spectacularly backfiring when their tools rebel at the worst possible time- or worse, corrupt the Xanthite using them into the service of Chaos. The Ruinous Powers hate each other, but they aren't always complete idiots about it, and when you play with fire, you only have to drop it once to set the whole house ablaze.
**{{anchor|Phaenonism}}'''Phaenonism''': A splinter group of Xanthism, considered extreme even by other Xanthites. Their dabbling with tech-heresy alongside the traditional Xanthite methods led them to openly deny the Emperor's divinity and begin creating blasphemous Warp-machines in a mad attempt to rebuild the Imperium in their own image. While they were declared Excommunicate Traitoris and are presumed to be wiped out by the rest of the Inquisition, there are still some Phaenonites that survived the purges, although they have taken great caution to conceal their allegiances from their fellow Inquisitors until they can rebuild their power base.
*{{anchor|Xeno Hybris}}'''Xeno Hybris''': A small group which sees strict anti-alien policies as being counter-productive to the Imperium of Man. They feel that sometimes Xenos can be useful or be learned from, especially when working against chaos. Many inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus in particular will do this to deal with the forces of chaos every now and again, but the Xeno Hybris makes seeking said cooperation their hat. At the very least, these guys are not tempting fate to the same extent by as other Radicals since their toys are much less likely to eat their souls. Even so, this position would most likely be more popular if the aliens the Imperium deals with on a regular basis were less of a bunch of [[Eldar|dicks]] themselves or consists of [[Slaugth|humanoid maggots]] and [[Tyranids|other]] [[Dark Eldar|horrors]] that not even the [[Tau]] will try to convince to join the [[Greater Good]]. That said: [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Yvraine#A_Desperate_Alliance given recent events with the Eldar], this faction is likely gaining power and infleunce at the moment.

==Song==
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUMkcBctE7c tune])

 The eye that sleepth not.
 The Inquisition (Let's begin)
 The Inquisition (Look out, sin)
 We have a mission
 To kill all the Heretiiiiiics~ (Heretics, He-he-he-heretics~)
 We're gonna teach them (Wrong from right)
 We're gonna help them (See the light)
 And make an offer that they can't refuse.
 (That the heretics just can't refuse)

 Confess (confess), don't be boring!
 Re-peeeent~ (Repent), don't be dull!
 A fact you're ignoring
 It's better to ditch the skull throne than your skull (Blood for the Blood God)

 The Inquisition (What a show)
 The Inquisition (Here we go)
 We know you're wishing that we'd go away
 But the Inquisition's here and it's here to stay!

 The Inquisition (Oh boy)
 The Inquisition (What joy)
 The Inquisition (Oi oi)

 I was posting down in /tg/, I was minding my own business
 I was about to post some Loli Daemonette.
 Then these Ordos Hereticus plunge in
 And they throw me in a dungeon
 And they shoved a revved up chainsword up my ass.

 Is that considerate?
 Is that polite?
 And not a tube of Preparation H in sight.

 I'm sittin' flickin' daemons
 And I'm lookin' through the thickens
 When suddenly these guys break down my walls.
 I didn't even know them
 And they grabbed me by the scrotum
 And they started playing Ping Pong with my balls

 Oh, the agony!
 Ooh, the shame!
 To make my privates public by a game!

 The Inquisition (What a show)
 The Inquisition (Here we go)
 We know you're wishing that we'd go away
 But the Inquisition's here and it's here to-

 Hey, Torquemada!
 What do you say?

 I just got back from the autos-du-fe,
 Autos-du-fe? What's the autos-du-fe?
 It's what you oughtn't to do but you do anyway!

 Skit scat doodlebac doodle be bay

 Will you convert?
 NO NO NO NO!
 Will you confess?
 NO NO NO NO!
 Will you revert?
 NO NO NO NO!
 Will you say YES?
 NO NO NO NO!

 Now I asked in a nice way
 I said pretty please
 I bent their ears
 Now I'll work on the knees!

 Hey Torquemada
 Walk this way
 We got a new game you might want to play!
 Pull this handle, try your luck
 Who knows, Torq, you might win a buck! (All right)

 Put it in the ship.
 (In the ship In the ship!)

 How we doing? Any Heretics repent today?
 Not a one! Nay Nay Nay!
 We've flattened their fingers,
 We've branded their buns.
 Nothing is working!
 SEND IN THE NUNS WITH GUNS

 The Inquisition (What a show)
 The Inquisition (Here we go)
 We know you're wishing that we'd go away
 So come on all you Heretics and you Xenos
 We got some big news for all of yous
 You'd better change your point of views today

 'Cause the Inquisition's here and it's here to stay!

==Codex==
They share a book with all the other Imperial Agents, and will probably receive a Codex in the future.

==See Also==
*[[Daemonhunters]]
*[[Witch Hunters]]
*[[Alienhunters]]
*[[Zombiehunters]]
*[[Ordo Sicarius]]
*[[Ordo Chronos]]
*[[Dark Heresy]]
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Imperium(8E)#Inquisition|Tactics/Inquisition]]
*[[Spanish Inquisition|Their completely serious, (and more Noblebright by comparison) historical inspiration/predecessors]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isw7nLOdYXM A video showing one of the more feared inquisitors]

{{Inquisition}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{Imperium}}

Konrad Curze

2018-06-01T04:05:02Z

2A02:587:3A15:F00:34D7:FE7D:BB5E:1FFF:

{{heresy}}
[[File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|400px|thumb|right|"Yeah this guy seems nice." - Big E at some point.]]
{{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]]}}
{{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|There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment.|Hunter S. Thompson}}
{{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}}

If you were to put [[Batman]], the Punisher, [[Vampire|Vlad the Impaler]], and the Predator in a blender, '''Konrad Curze''' is the result that will reach out and rip your face off. Konrad Curze (also known as Mr. Cuddles) '''was''' the [[Primarch]] of the [[Night Lords]] Legion, sometimes known as the '''Night Haunter'''. A [[Psyker]], Curze is 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, he remains a complete bad-ass compared to [[Roboute Guilliman|these]] [[Fulgrim|faggots]].

He's widely considered the [[Chaos]]-aligned counterpart of [[Corax]]. The two probably would've gotten along pretty well had they been in the same sector during the Great Crusade and didn't have totally different views on [[rip and tear|disemboweling]] innocent civilians. Actually, the one time they did meet on the battlefield Konrad scared the living fuck out of Corvus the moment the latter realized just how similar the two are and how close he was to following the same path as his brooding psychotic murderous brother.

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

==History==
Curze wound up on the eternally-dark world of [[Nostramo]] after the Primarchs were scattered by [[Chaos]]. 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'' and had to crawl his ass out from the core, all while being a TODDLER. Even after somehow surviving making an asteroid level impact, Curze's life somehow got worse as, again, unlike his brothers, he wound up with no one to take care of him. Konrad was forced to raise himself on this lawless hell-hole, where violence and cruelty was rampant (although there was no crime, of course, there not being any laws to break) and usually went unpunished, the rich openly exploited the poor, and depression and the inability to escape one's social standing were also rampant, leading to the population being largely kept down not through any fancy measures, but instead by suicide. As he grew older, Curze became more and more enraged by how this panned out, and eventually decided to take matters into his own hands.

Stalking the eternally-dark streets as a sort of [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]], Curze began hunting down heretics and those who had been responsible for turning Nostramo into the cesspit it had become. Leaders of the corrupt administration disappeared, only to be found later hung from <s>Imperial</s> administration buildings and horribly mutilated, though their faces were often untouched so people would instantly recognize the victim. Notorious "criminals" (as defined by Konrad) were found out 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.

The really scary part? ''It worked''. Within a year, Curze had killed so fucking many dicks that the "crime" rate of Nostramo reached damned-near zero. Society went through a massive upheaval and curfews were imposed 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 - a story that came into common use on Nostramo, describing Curze, who stalked through the city, ready to disembowel any heretic or "criminal" foolish or bold enough to cross his path with anything on hand. His favored weapons, 'Lightning Claws', weren't used until he was found by the Emperor and united with his legion, which made armor and weapons available to him.

Curze became convinced of his choices being the right and just ones when he saw that the people of this world started to have hope again - he had become the only thing on the entire planet that people truly feared (and hated). Seizing the moment, Curze appeared before the few remaining nobles that had survived his vigilantist purges - the only ones who basically weren't complete assholes - and gave them a choice: Obey his rule, or die. One or two protested that he had imposed an order based on fear, but it made no difference. Curze, the Night Haunter, was made the ruler of Nostramo.

To the surprise of most, Curze proved to be a fairly capable ruler, surprisingly just and temperate. He made strong attempts to educate himself on absolutely everything he could learn, and was noted for his skills as an adjudicator, worthy of a [[Reasonable Marines|Reasonable Marine]]. This was, of course, until word of an injustice reached Curze's ears - at which point he would hunt down the transgressor himself, wearing them down, and killing them horribly. His unpredictable pattern of benevolence and wisdom contrasted by jaw-dropping levels of violence beyond that of an [[Eversor]] ushered in a new era of efficiency and honesty across Nostramo on a planetary scale, mainly as an act of capitulation in order to keep the Night Haunter from their doors. Needless to say, this peace did not come with a contentedness like some of his brothers achieved. Had he ever learned how to delegate to minions made up of the local populace, he might have been more effective, but alas.

===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 - an event which would eventually bring about the apocalypse. 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, his radiance blinding the adapted-to-darkness onlookers and mesmerizing those who did not look directly at him.

At the end of the road leading to his Palace, Curze stood, waiting for the delegation, when he had one of his visions. He saw the fate of each of his brothers and his own death; he saw blood spurting from his own neck and no matter what he did he couldn't stop it. He would have succeeded in clawing his own eyes out if the Emperor hadn't stopped him. He and the Emperor then had this badass exchange:

''"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home."'' 
''"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. Later it was revealed that during his training under [[Fulgrim]], Curze had had one of his visions, this one about the Horus Heresy. While he told Fulgrim this in confidence, he would later learn that one flaw Fulgrim had (beside dressing like a peacock) was that Fulgrim didn't know the meaning of the word confidential or that the notion of what was told to him was done so in sacred trust between himself and his favored brother. Well, the joke seemed to be on Curze, as no sooner had he told Fulgrim about the vision than Fulgrim had run over to [[Rogal Dorn]] and told him everything.[[FAIL|Rogal Dorn comforted Curze and he got better.]]

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. Or maybe "force" is the wrong word; they didn't battle so much as terrify their enemies into submission. The Night Lords quickly adapted to Curze's combat and tactical ethos, becoming one of the most brutally effective, if not ruthless, legions in the Imperium. In one notorious example, one Night Lord recalls 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 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 - grim reminders of the price for disobeying 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?

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 (which, given the strong Imperial presence on the world, especially since it was literally made out of ridiculously rare adamantium, makes no sense at all... unless the Emperor wanted this state of affairs, so he could get more effective terror troops) (which actually makes complete sense, because Nostramo had no police force due to Curze insisting on being all of law enforcement by himself, which has all of the obvious problems). The most ruthless of the criminals were the only ones healthy and strong enough - and these were the most common replacement recruits for the Night Lords..... which still does not really explain the Night Lords descent as a whole given the fact that every Space Marine undergoes massive brain-washing (or more politelyput: "indoctrination") every during their ascension. In basically all other fluff Space Marines describe their memories prior to their "ascension" as hazy at best (as a result from the psycho-indoctrination and ascension process). So they basically have some flashbacks of who they might have been and that's about it. Taken together, the development on Nostramo and the source of the recruits does not explain anything if you think about it for more than 2 seconds. Either way, despite of all of this insubordination to Curze's orders became more frequent and he began having to deal with his own measure of "fixing" things with the criminal scum that were inducted into his forces. Making matters worse, his visions continued to increase in both frequency and graphic severity.

Finally, it reached the point where Curze had no choice but to deal with the problem of his recruiting world turning into a [[Star Wars D20|wretched hive of scum and villainy]], but Fulgrim, the only Primarch Curze had any real connection with, was largely unavailable, and the other Primarchs, instead of listening to him and trying to help, bitched him out and said that it wasn't their problem.

The straw that would finally break the camel's back was during a joint operation between The Night Lords and the Imperial Fists.

[[Rogal Dorn]] had confronted Curze where he was overseeing the process of [[Grimdark|a long line of prisoners of war who were to be executed as a punitive action]], where 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. 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. Kurze pointed the gun in the prisoner's hand right under his chin, saying [[Troll|"Go ahead, kill me."]] The prisoner refused, to which Kurze stated his Astartes would not kill him. The prisoner, now confident that the Night Lords wouldn't shoot him and when Curze turned his back to him, immediately raised the gun, but Curze killed him before the prisoner could fire at him. Using intimidation and the predictable reaction to it, Curze "proved" his point: once the fear of consequence has been removed, people will feel no loyalty. Of course, he actually completely failed to do this, as he did not choose a loyal test subject to begin with, but Curze had never been one to understand the difference between a friend and an enemy.

Now, if [[Rogal Dorn]] had been better with people, he would 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 what was causing his problems. But as established before, the Emperor hadn't exactly designed the Primarchs with brains in mind. So in an effort to win the argument, Rogal revealed what Fulgrim had said to him about Curze's vision. (In all fairness, Dorn didn't know Fulgrim had broken his word by revealing him this. Still could have handled it better, though...) Angry at the betrayal of trust while in the grip of one of his visions, Curze attacked Rogal Dorn with the claws on his armor's fingers, slashing his face to such a degree that if Rogal hadn't been a Primarch he would have died from his wounds.

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 Emperors 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. This could only have lasted so long. In all actuality, the Emperor's arrival just sped things up. It wasn't the other Primarchs' problem, it was Konrad's mess and his one trick wasn't working anymore.

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 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 have some fun with me before dying quickly or slowly and painfully... depending on my [Konrad's] current mood"), leaving the world to fester in corruption and depravity like a metastasized tumor. This 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. Needless to say, Curze was absolutely pissed at his planet and his work going back to square one.

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.

Curze's actions caused him to be especially vulnerable to the whispers of Chaos. The campaigns of the Night Lords became harder and harder to justify - terror campaigns leaving a trail of devastated worlds across the breadth of the galaxy. Curze abandoned his devotion to the Emperor, instead fighting only to spread death and fear. Eventually, it got so bad that the Emperor recalled the Night Lords and prepared to call Curze to task for his actions and that of his legion.

This was 20 years before the Horus Heresy mind you, and it is very likely that the Imperium thought he had gone rogue at that point, or at the very least, completely unhinged for blowing up his homeworld, especially since they had been recalled to account for their terror campaigns and war crimes. So 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.

===Horus Heresy===
[[File:NocturnusObsessoris-Final.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Konrad overlooking the spires of Nostramo. and looking badass while doing it.]]
When Horus turned against the Emperor with Fulgrim, Curze was quick to throw in his lot behind the brothers he had actually been able to relate to as opposed to [[Roboute Guilliman|the fucking asshole]]. He even ended up saving Lorgar from [[Corvus Corax]] (although after seeing the Gal Vorbak, the very first squad of [[Possessed Marine]]s, felt it was a mistake).

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 got a fantastic one-shot off on him, though that was all he'd get and the two descended into a brawl which had to be ended with the brothers getting pulled off of each other and 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 strategist of the entire universe couldnt 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 (although the Thramas campaign was going to obviously end one way or the other and with the shit the DA can pull, not to mention their numbers probably meant that Lion could've fucked Curze up the ass without the warp engine). Anyway, ''([[Sevatar]] took over, killed 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. 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 (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. 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}}.

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. After talking for a while about how “It’s all daddy’s fault”, Curze and Sanguinius ended up fighting each other. Despite Curze outmatching Sanguinius in both speed and skill at arms he was fully aware that he could not kill Sanguinius (even if he wanted to) due to the fact his destiny was to be eventually killed at Horus’s hands. Both Primarchs had visions of what could happen during the fight and were evenly matched due to their precognition. They eventually separated and Curze gave Sanguinius the chance to kill him, but Sanguinius stopped the blow in mid-air out of pity. Curze then proceeded to mutilate [[Sanguinary_Guard#Azkaellon|Azkaellon]] before blowing up a whole lot of Sanguinary Guard, threw what remained of Azkaellon off a cliff, and disappeared.

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 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 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, snapped the Lion's sword in two and Sanguinius told him and his legion to the GTFO of Imperium Secundus. However, just as the Lion was about to leave the system, he remembered Kurze's words of prophecy, that his back, the lion's sword, and word would be broken (as well as Kurze's proclamation that he would be killed by an assassin sent by the Emperor). The Lion teleported back to Macragge, just as Kurze 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 Kurze 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 promptly jettisoned his brother's stasis coffin into space.

===Death===
They got there late to the party but still [[/tg/ gets shit done|got shit done]], inflicting considerable morale damage on the loyalists. After being jettisoned into space in a stasis coffin it's still unknown how he managed to return to Tsugalsa 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.

Curze had foreseen this, however - and he allowed it. He allowed her into his palace, and the Callidus encountered no guards between herself and his throne room. 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 the hero who lived long enough to become the villain ([[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]). We may never know the full story behind his actions, and his final words are considered one of the most bizarre enigmas in the Imperium's history.

==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. This was first evidenced by what he would come to call his "affliction" or "curse". Namely, that Konrad was often wracked by horrible visions, likened to waking nightmares, of how people would die. 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 occasionally extended to those he would lay eyes upon. This included his brother Primarchs, and explained his fondness for [[Fulgrim]] - the one person who Konrad had not seen suffer a terrible death upon first meeting him. In fact, Konrad's vision after laying eyes on Fulgrim was often described as hazy or lacking in some quality. What was apparent was that Fulgrim somehow found a way to cheat death. It was when he laid eyes on [[Ferrus Manus]], immediately after, that he was shown Fulgrim would somehow be present at the site of Ferrus' demise. Despite this, he was the one primarch whom Konrad didn't foresee a [[Grimdark|misfortunate or ghastly future.]] It was this closeness that eventually led Konrad to confess to Fulgrim the nature of the visions he had received, as detailed in the popular duology of Black Library short stories ''The Dark King'' and ''The Lightning Tower''.

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, and psychically 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.Either way for plot reasons that did not happen.

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.

[[File:Azeroth.jpg|left|1200px|thumb|In the 8th game of the World of Warcraft series, which was the first since the current 8th editions of Warhammer Fantasy and 40K, they also advanced the storyline following the same trend, as we have an official Alliance-Horde war for the first time since Warcraft 3, in total coordination with the real world when long unsettled conflicts, such as the Arab-Israeli war, Grexit, Kim Jong-un, US-China trade war, Fascism emerging in Europe starting from Italy, Neo-ottomanism, American civil war, Monroe dogma over Nicolas Maduro and Lula and even a volcano in Hawaii erupting, are simultaneously all emerging as if we are truly living in a novel.]]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Name
!Class
!Value
!Wargear
!Quantity
!References
|-
|Guardian
|Troops (Aeldari)
|9 Points
|Mesh Armour, Shuriken Catapult and Plasma Grenades
|60
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Guardian]
|-
|Neophyte
|Troops (Imperium)
|14 Points
|Boltgun, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|21
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Tactical_Marine]
|-
|Spider
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|18 Points
|Heavy Aspect Armour, Death Spinner and Warp Jump Generator
|162
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warp_Spiders]
|-
|Devastator
|Troops (Imperium)
|24 Points
|Heavy Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Devastator_Marine]
|-
|Templar
|Troops (Imperium)
|29 Points
|Plasma Gun, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Veteran_Marines]
|-
|Bazooka
|Troops (Aeldari)
|30 Points (No cost for 3 due to Guardian Battlehost)
|Heavy Weapon Platform with Eldar Missile Launcher
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Craftworld]
|-
|Culverin
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|30 Points
|Support Weapon with Pair of Guardians and Shadow Weaver
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vaul]
|-
|Blademaster
|Elites (Imperium)
|35 Points
|Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Power Sword
|5
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Darnath_Lysander]
|-
|Warlock
|HQ (Aeldari)
|40 Points
|Rune Armour, Shuriken Pistol and Singing Spear
|14
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warlock]
|-
|Terminator
|Elites (Imperium)
|40 Points
|Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Chainfist
|35
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Terminators]
|-
|Exarch
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|58 Points
|Heavy Aspect Armour, Death Spinner, Pair of Powerblades and Warp Jump Generator
|18
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Exarch]
|-
|Centurion
|Elites (Imperium)
|60 Points (70 Points for leader of every 6)
|Twin-Linked Melagun, Hurricane Bolter and Dual Siege Drills
|30
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Centurion]
|-
|Cataphract
|Elites (Imperium)
|60 Points
|Terminator Armour, Assault Cannon and Chainfist
|10
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Assault_Cannon]
|-
|Sergeant
|Troops (Imperium)
|64 Points
|Plasma Pistol, Power Fist, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Sergeant_(Space_Marine)]
|-
|Lancer
|Elites (Imperium)
|70 Points (80 Points for leader of every 6)
|Twin-Linked Lascannon and Hurricane Bolter
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Lascannon]
|-
|War Walker
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|75 Points
|Shuriken Cannon, Starcannon, Power Field and Spirit Stones
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/War_Walker]
|-
|Vyper
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|85 Points
|Shuriken Cannon, Starcannon, Holo-Field and Spirit Stones
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vyper]
|-
|Farseer
|HQ (Aeldari)
|105 Points
|Rune Armour, Shuriken Pistol, Singing Spear and Ghosthelm
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Farseer]
|-
|Dreadnought
|Elites (Imperium)
|135 Points
|Seismic Hammers with Built-in Meltaguns, Hurricane Bolters, Searchlight, Smoke Launchers and Extra Armour
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Ironclad_Dreadnought]
|-
|Champion
|HQ (Imperium)
|140 Points
|Armour of Faith, Black Sword, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Emperor's_Champion]
|-
|Chaplain
|HQ (Imperium)
|150 Points
|Master-Crafted Plasma Pistol, Crozius Arcanum, Rosarius, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Merek_Grimaldus]
|-
|Fire Prism
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|160 Points
|Prism Cannon, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Field and Spirit Stones
|15
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Fire_Prism]
|-
|Marshall
|HQ (Imperium)
|180 Points
|Sword of the High Marshalls, Combi-Melta, Iron Halo, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Helbrecht]
|-
|Avatar
|Lords of War (Aeldari)
|195 Points
|Wailing Doom
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar]
|-
|Raider
|Heavy Support (Imperium)
|275 Points
|Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter, Dual Twin-Linked Lascannons, Storm Bolter, Multi-Melta, Searchlight, Smoke Launchers and Extra Armour
|11
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Land_Raider]
|-
|Wraithknight
|Lords of War (Aeldari)
|325 Points
|Dual Heavy Wraithcannons and Dual Shuriken Cannons
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Wraithknight]
|}

[[File:Eldar_Guardians.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Tactical_Marines.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Warp_Spiders.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Terminator.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Howitzer.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Assault_Centurion.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Warlock_Conclave.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Devastator_Centurion.jpg|800px]]
[[File:War_Walker.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Ironclad_Dreadnought.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Vyper_Jetbike.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Templar_Champion.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Grav-Prism.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Chaplain_Grimaldus.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Avatar_of_Khaine.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Marshall_Helbrecht.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Eldar_Wraithknight.jpg|800px]]
[[File:Land_Raider.jpg|800px]]

==Lasting Legacy==
The Night Haunter, in his death, may have continued to leave a lasting impression upon the Imperium as inspiration for one of it's 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 Kreig 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.

==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.

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: 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". So yea, does not make any sense). 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 (again does not make sense beause of the whole brain-washing thing). Fear became an end unto itself, and its propagation was all the Night Lords desired as they fed upon it.

This was made even more clear by what Curze told Talos before he and the Assassin gotten it on: 
''"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.

==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 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 lose (not a big surprise) and as always Horus use his Talon '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 dies 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 lose 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 loose 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 ans 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 get 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.

* TLDR 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 struggle, 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]]

Cypher

2018-06-01T03:15:45Z

2A02:587:3A15:F00:34D7:FE7D:BB5E:1FFF:

[[File:2Cypher2.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Cypher, the Fallen Angel. Is rumored to have descended from <s>[[Video games|Desmond Miles]]</s> Clint Eastwood.]]

{{Topquote|Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem. - The only safety for the conquered is to hope for no safety.|Aeneis, Publius Vergilius Maro}}

''HE'S COMING, HE'S COMING, HE'S COMING!''... <s>Yeah, Right.</s> He came. He's here.

'''Cypher''', first name Louise, is a pretty impressive Independent Character who [[Games Workshop]] neglected releasing rules for despite his model being available for fucking ever and being referenced every 12 seconds in Dark Angels fluff. He was originally notable for having a 4+ on 3D6 ''completely unmodifiable proof against everything'' bullshit saving throw on death that served no function but to prevent the other player getting the victory points for killing him since he was still removed even if he passed it. [[Troll|Thanks]], Second Ed Codex: [[Chaos]]! With the Dataslate from Digital Editions, nearly everyone can now field this bastard in their 6E army.

He's basically a [[Fallen Angels|Fallen]] [[Dark Angels|Dark Angel]] who dual-wields pistols - one [[Plasma]], one [[Bolter|Bolt]] ,both master-crafted, and both possibly archaeotech - and wears a sweet bone white hoodie over his power armor. Whenever he pops up on the Dark Angel radar, the Inner Circle loses its shit and dispatches the Deathwing and Ravenwing to bring the fucker in but they never can. [[Alpha Legion|They've claimed kills, but he always fucking shows up again]].

Cypher’s continued existence bears testimony to his seemingly mystical ability to avoid capture. Every time pursuers get close, he has shown an uncanny ability to escape. Down the ages, the Inner Circle of the Dark Angels have suggested that Cypher is under the protection of some higher power. The fact that his lifespan has continued since the days before the Horus Heresy speaks of unnatural powers at play.

==Who is he?==
{{Topquote|'''He weaves in and out of my vision- I see one who is many. I see they who will test the Unforgiven. In one Hand he carries hope, in the other despair. I speak of Cypher. He is coming closer all the time.'''|Luther, the Dark Oracle}}

Cypher is as elusive as Robert Denby, a living urban legend who either has the patronage of a Chaos god, granting him immortality until he finishes his long mission, a title passed down among agents of the Fallen, a son of a bitch who sold us out to the Machines, or a bunch of random dudes pulling the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKCmyiljKo0 Spartacus Maneuver]. The issue of his identity becomes even more complicated when one considers that "Lord Cypher" was a title used by '''The Order''' of [[Caliban]] (and by extension, the Dark Angels) who was assigned to embody their traditions and customs and ensure that they would be adhered to at all times. It was specifically mentioned that the Lord Cypher was to completely abandon his old identity upon assuming his position and was given a cloak and hood to keep his appearance concealed at all times- given the nature of this role, it is possible that there has been more than one "Cypher" since the Horus Heresy, with each new one inheriting the equipment and personality of his predecessors.

===Knight of Lupus===
Thankfully we have more than just theories to go off, and something that ''is'' known for certain: his history with the Order of Lupus. If there has been more than one Cypher since the Horus Heresy, we know who the very first one was. Anyway, the Order of Lupus was a Calibanite Knight Order that was actually a [[Ordo Malleus|cult that studied and collected knowledge of Chaos]]. They were wiped out by Lion El'Jonson, save for a single survivor who was allowed to join the Order and later the Dark Angels and became The Lord Cypher, a rank of the Dark Angels. He is the person who introduced Luther to the "truths" of chaos, but kept Luther and the other Dark Angels on Caliban ignorant of the [[Horus Heresy]] at large that was going on around them. However, this Lupus-Cypher was "killed" ''(we see him fall, and the body removed by Zahariel's men)'' during the Fallen uprising, and the Librarian Zahariel took his place as Lord Cypher. The whole young Knight of Lupus thing might just be some kind of elaborate cover story though as when he was unmasked by Zahariel just before his death, Zahariel was able to recognize him as someone from his own past (he may not have even been a space marine given he was still able to feel fear).

===Zahariel El'Zurias===
See also: [[Zahariel]]

One thing that is known for certain is that the Librarian Zahariel becomes the Lord Cypher during Luther's declaration of independence. So far he is the last known person to hold the role, since the fluff hasn't identified anyone else to occupy the role after him.

However, at this point Zahariel is consumed by the power of the '''Ouroboros''', essentially making him possessed and therefore a pawn of Chaos.

===Holguin - Voted-Lieutenant of the Deathwing===
At the end of “Angels of Caliban” Holguin has self-appointed task of looking after the broken Lion Sword and planned to reforge it and make it whole once again.

However, looks like Holguin did succeed in reforging the sword, because the Lion was once again in possession of it in the space between the Horus Heresy and the Scourging. After the fall of the Emperor, the Lion met his brother Russ in the Imperial palace, and resolved their grievances with each other thrown up on '''Dulan''', with both of them admitting their guilt over putting pride ahead of their duty by being away from Terra at the time of the final battle. The Lion Sword gets thrust through Russ's chest with the Wolf King not making any move to resist, but the Lion turns the blade aside without striking any organs and leaving his brother alive. Russ then believed that they finally understood one another after that and grew to respect and admire his brother ''(but not envy, never that)'', calling him the best of them all.

So unless Holguin took the sword, gave it to the Lion, then took it back afterward, he's not any more likely to become Cypher over any other officer of the legion.

===Grey Knight Founder===
It seems that one of the Cyphers was originally destined to become one of [[Malcador]]s Knights Errant and one of the first grand masters of the [[Grey Knights]]. In the Pandorax novel Grand Master Epimethius of the original [[Grey Knights]] and one of the [[Fallen Angels]] is awoken after a ten thousand year sleep and is confronted by a [[Lord of Change]], who is confused at the [[Not as Planned|turn of events]] by expecting a different person and '''actually fears''' the consequences of the change in fate. Epimethius himself states '''[[Awesome|"someone switched places with me. That is now his path to walk"]]'''. Granted, they don't mention Cypher by name in that book but it does go great lengths in explaining Cypher's motivations in that he selflessly '''CHOSE''' to become fallen with the rest of his brethren and is attempting to rewrite his destiny for some unfathomable purpose.

It is not entirely known when Epimetheus was recruited from Caliban prior to the fall, although the Knights-Errant ''were'' on Caliban trying to figure out what [[Luther]] was plotting and found him in the middle of a downward spiral, but Cypher helped them escape, so the opportunity was there for him to get out or potentially send someone in his place.
Not to mention the fact that Epimetheus is an Alpha-Plus Psyker, so if he was a "proper" Fallen he could purge the Dark Angels if they even looked at him funny, and would probably make the entire Inner Circle collectively shit themselves right through their Termie buttplates if they knew about him.

===Time Traveler===
Another theory is that he is being cast through time in a similar manner to the [[Legion of the Damned]] appearing wherever and whenever he is needed. This is subtly hinted at several times in the fluff, first with the minor inconsistency of his [[C'Tan|phase knife]] which exists outside of the [[derp|space-time continuum]], so Cypher has it in some instances, but does not have it in other encounters. Secondly, he can fuck with the established timelines and somehow confuse [[Tzeentch|Lords of Change]] whose JOB it is to know the future ''(see above)'' and thirdly, Cypher/[[Zahariel]] is somehow connected to the [[Ouroboros]] which was concealed on [[Caliban]], which if you know your philosophy is the representation of time recycling itself eternally. So he could be time traveling, or waiting for eternity to swing back around to try things a little bit better each time round.
*According to certain Arthurian legends merlin’s wisdom and knowledge came about because he was ageing backwards through time and so already knew what was going to happen because he had already lived it. In a way Cypher could be playing the part of the Dark Angels version of the Eldar phoenix lords; traveling back through time in order to set up events in preparation for the final battle. Whatever the final plan might be according to the Lord of Change in the “Pandorax campaign” it is directly interfering with the great game of the ruinous powers; when it finds out that two of the players have somehow swapped destinies it is terrified about the implications.

===41st Millennium===
Unless the [[Watchers in the Dark]] can pull some resurrection shit or Lupus-Cypher is a [[Perpetual]] ''(or Cypher never actually "died")'' Because the Ouroboros plotline only gets resolved at the end of the 41st Millennium and we have no further candidates that we know of with any connection to the creature, and no evidence of anyone taking the mantle from him then is likely that Zahariel remains as Cypher through to the 41st Millennium.

During the talk between Azrael and Luther in “The Unforgiven” Luther mentions that his Cypher was slain by Corswain during the destruction of Caliban. Although given the situation at the end of the same book there may be more than one lord “Cypher” running around Caliban at that time.

Though with respect to the Grey Knight angle, it is possible that Zahariel passes the mantle on to someone else further down the line, allowing Zahariel to become Epimetheus whilst "Cypher" became the Fallen Angel we know so well. But the question remains: who?

[[File:Azeroth.jpg|left|1200px|thumb|In the 8th game of the World of Warcraft series, which was the first since the current 8th editions of Warhammer Fantasy and 40K, they also advanced the storyline following the same trend, as we have an official Alliance-Horde war for the first time since Warcraft 3, in total coordination with the real world when long unsettled conflicts, such as the Arab-Israeli war, Grexit, Kim Jong-un, US-China trade war, Fascism emerging in Europe starting from Italy, Neo-ottomanism, American civil war, Monroe dogma over Nicolas Maduro and Lula and even a volcano in Hawaii erupting, are simultaneously all emerging as if we are truly living in a novel.]]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Name
!Class
!Value
!Wargear
!Quantity
!References
|-
|Guardian
|Troops (Aeldari)
|9 Points
|Mesh Armour, Shuriken Catapult and Plasma Grenades
|60
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Guardian]
|-
|Neophyte
|Troops (Imperium)
|14 Points
|Boltgun, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|21
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Tactical_Marine]
|-
|Spider
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|18 Points
|Heavy Aspect Armour, Death Spinner and Warp Jump Generator
|162
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warp_Spiders]
|-
|Devastator
|Troops (Imperium)
|24 Points
|Heavy Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Devastator_Marine]
|-
|Templar
|Troops (Imperium)
|29 Points
|Plasma Gun, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Veteran_Marines]
|-
|Bazooka
|Troops (Aeldari)
|30 Points (No cost for 3 due to Guardian Battlehost)
|Heavy Weapon Platform with Eldar Missile Launcher
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Craftworld]
|-
|Culverin
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|30 Points
|Support Weapon with Pair of Guardians and Shadow Weaver
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vaul]
|-
|Blademaster
|Elites (Imperium)
|35 Points
|Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Power Sword
|5
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Darnath_Lysander]
|-
|Warlock
|HQ (Aeldari)
|40 Points
|Rune Armour, Shuriken Pistol and Singing Spear
|14
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warlock]
|-
|Terminator
|Elites (Imperium)
|40 Points
|Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Chainfist
|35
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Terminators]
|-
|Exarch
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|58 Points
|Heavy Aspect Armour, Death Spinner, Pair of Powerblades and Warp Jump Generator
|18
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Exarch]
|-
|Centurion
|Elites (Imperium)
|60 Points (70 Points for leader of every 6)
|Twin-Linked Melagun, Hurricane Bolter and Dual Siege Drills
|30
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Centurion]
|-
|Cataphract
|Elites (Imperium)
|60 Points
|Terminator Armour, Assault Cannon and Chainfist
|10
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Assault_Cannon]
|-
|Sergeant
|Troops (Imperium)
|64 Points
|Plasma Pistol, Power Fist, Frag and Krak Grenades
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Sergeant_(Space_Marine)]
|-
|Lancer
|Elites (Imperium)
|70 Points (80 Points for leader of every 6)
|Twin-Linked Lascannon and Hurricane Bolter
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Lascannon]
|-
|War Walker
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|75 Points
|Shuriken Cannon, Starcannon, Power Field and Spirit Stones
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/War_Walker]
|-
|Vyper
|Fast Attack (Aeldari)
|85 Points
|Shuriken Cannon, Starcannon, Holo-Field and Spirit Stones
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Vyper]
|-
|Farseer
|HQ (Aeldari)
|105 Points
|Rune Armour, Shuriken Pistol, Singing Spear and Ghosthelm
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Farseer]
|-
|Dreadnought
|Elites (Imperium)
|135 Points
|Seismic Hammers with Built-in Meltaguns, Hurricane Bolters, Searchlight, Smoke Launchers and Extra Armour
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Ironclad_Dreadnought]
|-
|Champion
|HQ (Imperium)
|140 Points
|Armour of Faith, Black Sword, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Emperor's_Champion]
|-
|Chaplain
|HQ (Imperium)
|150 Points
|Master-Crafted Plasma Pistol, Crozius Arcanum, Rosarius, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Merek_Grimaldus]
|-
|Fire Prism
|Heavy Support (Aeldari)
|160 Points
|Prism Cannon, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Field and Spirit Stones
|15
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Fire_Prism]
|-
|Marshall
|HQ (Imperium)
|180 Points
|Sword of the High Marshalls, Combi-Melta, Iron Halo, Frag and Krak Grenades
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Helbrecht]
|-
|Avatar
|Lords of War (Aeldari)
|195 Points
|Wailing Doom
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar]
|-
|Raider
|Heavy Support (Imperium)
|275 Points
|Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter, Dual Twin-Linked Lascannons, Storm Bolter, Multi-Melta, Searchlight, Smoke Launchers and Extra Armour
|11
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Land_Raider]
|-
|Wraithknight
|Lords of War (Aeldari)
|325 Points
|Dual Heavy Wraithcannons and Dual Shuriken Cannons
|1
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Wraithknight]
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==What he's up to==
[[File:Cypher.png|400px|thumb|right|Heh...nothin personel...kid]]

His actual allegiance is a mystery- he's been just as likely to fight Chaos as he is to assist it and there have been multiple incidents where he showed up to save an otherwise doomed Imperial force or even turn on the very cults he helped create. (He even managed to steal the identity of an Inquisitor at one point without anyone noticing until he had long since gotten away with it.) His intentions regarding the Dark Angels are equally bipolar; for every time the Dark Angels have been led astray by him, there's another time where Cypher's trail just happens to lead to the capture of one of the other Fallen or even the discovery of a new recruiting world. Some members of the Inner Circle even theorize that he may be an emissary sent by the Emperor himself to test the Dark Angels' resolve (which is supported by several of Cypher's own statements, [[Troll|including a message he sent to Azrael]]).

Either way, he is slowly heading in the direction of Holy Terra, a bizarre mission that has the Dark Angels worried as hell. He may even want a word with the God-Emperor. "OH SHIT HE'S GONNA TATTLE ON US!"

In truth it's believed that he has the [[Lion El'Jonson|Lion]]'s sword, and that he intends to return it to the Emperor, ergo earning his/their absolution. Or maybe he's going to assassinate the [[Emperor]]. Or maybe both somehow, which if the latter is true essentially makes him the 40k version of Friedrich Nietzsche by killing God, especially considering Cypher's connection to the aforementioned Ouroboros and breaking the cycle of burden that seems to linger around the [[Dark Angels]]. Or not, since Nietzsche despaired the death of God.

Not to mention the whole Starchild thing, which to the best of everyone's knowledge tells us there's a 50/50 chance that if the Emperor is killed he'll reincarnate into a new body just as when he was originally born, or that the last string on his mortal tether being cut will result in the entire human race becoming unprotected warp gates for daemons and enveloping the entire galaxy in a warp storm that makes the Eye of Terror look like an anthill.
So Cypher just might be the bearer of the end times. Who knows? Games Workshop sure as shit doesn't.

Either way, the Dark Angels want him dead before they can find out.

During [[Abaddon]]'s [[Black Crusade|13th successive failure]], he had the balls to walk onto his capital ship, talk shit, and shoot the only friends Abaddon made in ten thousand years. This happened when Abaddon blinked. As in, closed his eyes and when they opened, corpses. Then he walked out again. [[Awesome|Clint Eastwood]] ain't got shit on this motherfucker. Thus it is now a known fact that Abaddon also fails at blinking.

Or so the rumors go.

This would be an intriguing, suspenseful plotline if Games Workshop ever fucking bothered to progress the storyline.

Also, he is sometimes depicted with green armour even though pre-Heresy Dark Angel armour was black. The Dark Angels who rejected [[Luther]] painted their armour green during the Heresy, and were fighting him before the [[Lion El'Jonson|Lion]] ever showed up on [[Caliban]] (this is evidenced by Merir Astellan, who hated both El'Jonson and Luther alike and kept his armor black). ''The Unforgiven'' confirms that Cypher changes colour scheme whenever he needs to. His armour is black during that book, but Belial notices that there are still traces of green paint on it (presumably left over from when he [[Alpha Legion|played loyalist dress-up]] during the attack on Piscina in ''Angels of Darkness''). That would at least explain why he shows up all over the place, dressed exactly like a Dark Angel, rustling their collective jimmies

In one instance in the [[Ophidium Gulf Crusade|fluff]] he was being pursued by the combined efforts of a single Black Templar vessel and a Dark Angel fleet. Even though the Black Templar single-handedly managed to apprehend Cypher because they get shit done, the Dark Angel fleet threatens to destroy the Black Templar ship if they won't hand over their prisoner. Begrudgingly, the Templar ship hands over Cypher, starts to send a short message to their High Marshal and then "mysteriously disappears without a trace". Likely <s>into a thousand tiny pieces because the Dark Angels are dishonest, team killing fuck-tards who commit treason to hide evidence of their oh-so-scary Fallen</s> THEY GOT LOST IN THE WARP. The smug Dark Angels then proceed to fly back home, thinking mission accomplished until they arrive and find the cell containing Cypher to be empty. Poof motherfuckers.

===More Recently===
According to [[Gav Thorpe]]'s latest novel, Cypher tracked down a Ravenwing squad, killed an enemy Fallen, willingly threw down his pistols, and demanded to meet with the Inner Circle. There followed a series of events where Cypher reveals that [[The Rock]] has secretly been host to the '''Tuchulcha''' Engine for all this time, and it is part of a triumvirate of entities that, when brought together, can cross the bridge of time, the other two being the '''Ouroboros''' buried within the core of Caliban (and later remains in Caliban's ruins) and a third device/entity held by [[Typhus]]. Cypher's involvement in bringing the three together is accompanied by unusual behaviours from the [[Watchers in the Dark]], which serve to convince the Dark Angels of Cypher's importance, if not his sincerity. When they are brought into proximity in the Caliban system, they open a rift which appears to stretch back in time to Caliban's destruction, to the interest of multiple factions: [[Azrael]] skeptically but hopefully wishes to use the rift to prevent the catastrophe, while [[Fallen Angels|Astelan]] thinks to help his rebels win, while Typhus thinks merely to use time travel to cause [[Chaos|carnage]] in the name of his [[Nurgle|dark master]]. Cypher, as we'll get to in a second, seems to want the overall picture to stay the same.
*Cypher seems to actually like and approve of Azrael saying that he would have made a fine seneschal for the Lion.

When shit hits the fan, it appears that the enemies are closer to the rift than the Dark Angels; [[Ezekiel]] is the one who convinces Azrael to destroy the rift, since the Fall of the Lion was simply meant to be, and who-knows-what could happen if their enemies traveled through, or brought something back forward in time. However, in the aftermath, there is the implication that destroying the rift in the 41st millennium may have been the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_paradox causal factor] in the event which broke apart the planet of Caliban and which initially scattered the Fallen across time [[Just as Planned|in the first place]]. Cypher escaped into the time-rift, adding yet more evidence to the theory that he is traveling back through history trying to change events, but his entire motivation for bringing the Dark Angels back to the ruins of Caliban (and therefore uniting the three pieces and destroying 30k Caliban) [[Just as Planned|remains uncertain]].

====Gathering Storm====
Cypher somehow shows up again later at the close of the 41st Millennium, presumably either traveling back forward through time or by waiting 10,000 years ''(which considering what we already know is actually quite plausible)''. This time, he shows up on [[Macragge]], at around the same time [[Roboute Guilliman]] is miraculously resurrected. While the "Terran Crusade" is making their way back to Terra, they are set upon by the [[Red Corsairs]], and Guilliman is imprisoned by [[Kairos Fateweaver]] on a '''Blackstone Fortress'''. Cypher is brought to the fortress by Harlequins and pointed in the direction of Guilliman's cell, offering to save the Terran Crusade from the Red Corsairs and guide them away, on the condition that Guilliman takes Cypher and the Fallen to Terra and to the Imperial Throne, ''for undisclosed reasons''. Guilliman promises to do so, but swears that if Cypher is up to any trickery or deceit he will regret it. Cypher then guides the crusade through the webway, while being pursued by the forces of the [[Thousand Sons]], eventually getting to Luna, where Guilliman has a showdown with his brother [[Magnus]]

However, when they eventually get to Terra, Guilliman recognises the sword on Cypher's back, and has no intention of letting him anywhere near the throne room. He double crosses Cypher, and orders him arrested by the Custodians, who put him in a prison that no-one has escaped from in thousands of years; naturally, Cypher escapes within the space of a paragraph, and is currently at large on Terra.

==List of Cypher's Achievements / Troll-List==
[[File:Tumblr nj9ccyYe4p1u19hiso1 500.jpg|250px|thumb|right|]]
*'''Circa M31''' Cypher presents himself at the Rock to the Dark Angels and their twelve successors, explaining that Fallen Angels are going to be [[Doctor Who|dropping out of time]] and spilling the beans. So they form ''the Unforgiven'' to keep the secret under wraps.
*'''632.M32''' Destroyed/''Disappeared'' a Dark Angels successor chapter (the Lions Sable) and a Dark Angels Supreme Grand Master, then returned the Lion Helm & Sword of Secrets to the Dark Angels
*'''822.M33''' Once again, gave back the Lion Helm & Sword of Secrets after the Dark Angels lost them to Orks.
*'''997.M33''' Corrupted the Angels of Redemption's recruiting world for some reason (more than likely exposed corruption, but since the planet paid its taxes on time, no one cared). At some point Cypher also guides the Dark Angels to the [[Feral World]] of [[Conan the Barbarian|Kimmeria]], where [[Azrael]] is from.
*'''M34-M35''' Was on the [[High Lords of Terra|Ur Council]] during the [[Nova Terra Interregnum]] and '''RULED HALF THE IMPERIUM.'''
*'''624.M36''' Fought the [[C'Tan]] Deceiver '''IN THE WARP'''. The paradox of that shit caused his phase knife to exist outside of the space-time continuum and so he has it, but doesn't have it. [[Derp|Cypher broke physics]].
*'''665.M38''' Impersonated an [[Inquisitor]] and deleted the Imperial records about himself and the Dark Angels.
*'''200-500.M39''' <s>Hangs out with the [[Alpha Legion]]</s> NOTHING HAPPENED, A PERSON WHO DOES NOT EXIST DOES NOT ASSOCIATE WITH PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST
*'''518.M39''' Betrays <s>the [[Alpha Legion]]</s> PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST and the Dark Angels ''incidentally'' reclaim a hundred planets from them while hunting for Cypher. The [[High Lords of Terra]] give them a whole bunch of medals which they wear with [[Rage|pride]].
*'''Late M39''' Kills the Grand Master of the Interrogator Chaplains, Belagor, delivering this bad ass line ''"Luckily for you I do not equate justice with torture so I promise you this will be swift."''
*'''976.M41''' Single-handedly saves a planet from Chaos, leaves one loyalist survivor who becomes Cypher's fall guy when the Dark Angels come checking.
*'''989.M41''' Pisses off [[Lugft Huron]] and the [[Red Corsairs]] swear to kill him. ''Get in the queue guys''.
*'''997.M41''' The [[High Lords of Terra]] get worried about broadcasts from the "Voice of the Emperor" and send '''SEVERAL''' members of the [[Officio Assassinorum]] to deal with it. ''None return.''
*'''998.M41''' [[Ophidium Gulf Crusade|Ophidium Gulf Incident]]
*'''999.M41''' Gets into a fight with [[Belial]] of the [[Dark Angels]] who is the chapter's greatest warrior. [[Just As Planned|Belial's weapons fail]].
*'''[[13th Black Crusade|Late M41]]''' Cypher attempts to kill an [[Inquisitor]] who is close to figuring out the secret of the [[Fallen Angels]], the [[Ravenwing]] spoil the kill, potentially [[Not as Planned|causing themselves problems]] later.
*'''The aftermath of [[13th Black Crusade]]''' While the "Voice of the Emperor" has caused a lot of uprisings, it becomes clear that the Cadian sector is now more faithful and prepared than it has ever been (much to Abaddon's irritation). The [[Dark Angels]] discover the source of the broadcasts was the ruins of [[Caliban|Old Caliban]] and switch it off.
*'''999.M41 (again)''' Rescues [[Roboute Guilliman]] from the [[Red Corsairs]] and leads the Terran Crusade to Luna. But gets arrested on Guilliman's order when they reach Terra and placed in an impervious Custodes prison that has never had a break out. [[Troll|Cypher then breaks out in the following sentence.]] HE AND THE FALLEN WERE SEEN BY EVERYONE IN THE IMPERIUM WALKING IN A PARADE ON TERRA WITH GULLIMAN. How the Dark Angels plan to cover this one up is a mystery for the ages.
*'''M42(?)''' ''(Some years after the battle of [[Naaman|Koth Ridge]])'' Cypher presents himself to the Dark Angels and precipitates a sequence of events whereby it is implied that the Dark Angels of the future are [[Just as Planned|involved with the destruction of Caliban.]]

==The Lion Sword==
There is no item more mysterious than Cypher’s sword – for it has never been seen unsheathed. Even in the press of close combat, Cypher has never yet been observed to wield the blade. Both psykers and auspex readouts report strange feedback that seems to emanate from the sword within the scabbard, as if it were the source of some barely veiled power. Varying legends have arisen over this never-drawn weapon, claiming it to be the Lion’s Sword once borne by the Dark Angels Primarch. The fact that [[Roboute Guilliman]] recognized the sword gives further credence to this theory, as it would have had to have been used during the Great Crusade for him to know, and that it shouldn't belong to Cypher.

During the events of “The Unforgiven” Asmodai attempted to remove the Sword form Cypher. As soon as he made contact with the blade his mind was assaulted by visions of the destruction of Caliban; viewed from a single persons view. He experienced the final moments of the person he was viewing the events through. The feelings of hurt and betrayal were so intense that even someone as mad and as zealous as Asmodai was overwhelmed. Asmodai decided that it would be better to allow Cypher to keep the sword and made every effort to never come in contact with the blade again.

During the “Gathering Storm part 3” Cypher accompanied Guilliman to Terra but was refused entrance to the throne room. Guilliman might not recognise who Cypher was but he did recognise the blade Cypher carried on his back, the sight of which made him shudder with dread and there was no way he was allowing that near his father.

Obviously Guilliman has some idea of what it could do, and was either protecting the Emperor by ordering Cypher arrested ''(bearing in mind that the Golden Throne is already protected by the [[Companion]]s, psychic wards and Mechanicum safeguards, not to mention the consciousness of the Emperor himself)'' or because he worries of any future implications surrounding the Dark Angels "Forgiveness".

==6th (and 7th) Edition==
His Dataslate comes with some insane(AWESOME) changes and were updated along with the limited edition of the 7E Dark Angels codex.

For one, he can be a non-FOC HQ (But never Warlord) for a [[Sisters of Battle]] (eh?), [[Blood Angels]], [[Grey Knights]] (Meaning that [[Kaldor Draigo]]'s even more of a dick than [[Azrael]] thought), [[Imperial Guard]], [[Chaos Space Marines]], [[Space Wolves]] (How?)(Because an Enemy of an Enemy is a friend), Vanilla Marines and [[Inquisition]] (WOT)(Read the fluff, the fucker was an Inquisitor at one stage) army. I mean seriously, how would even HALF of these armies accept this bastard as an ally?(master of disguise) And the kicker is that he'll cost -1 Ld on your real warlord. He can't join a Dark Angels army, and if he's up against Dark Angels, every model with the Deathwing rule gains Hatred (Everyone).

As an Independent Character, he gets ATSKNF, Fleet, Hit & Run, frag & krak grenades and Infiltrate. His sword also gives him Eternal Warrior and Shrouded. Also note that he has '''BS 10'''. ''THE SHIT, GEEDUBS''.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left"
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Cypher:''' || 190 || 7 || '''10''' || 4 || 4 || 3 || 8 || 3 || 10 || 3+
|} 

Also, that old rule about his daring escape is around again with three modes if Dark Angels are on the field:
* If a Dark Angel is within D6" when he goes down, he's worth 3 flippin' Victory Points for being caught alive.
* If anyone else is within D6" when he goes down, he awards no extra Victory Points for his capture. If there's both a Dark Angel and another dude around when he drops, it becomes a random roll who gets him.
* If nobody's around D6" when he goes down, he'll just leg it and nobody wins a Victory Point.
* If Cypher's still alive at the end of a game, his side wins d3 extra Victory Points.

If no Dark Angels are on the field then Cypher does not award his kill/victory point unless an enemy is within D6" of him when his last wound is lost or he is otherwise removed from the field.

His guns manage to gain some major use, as his plasma pistol ignores Gets Hot! and they allow him to overwatch at full BS. He can also shoot both pistols twice or shoot them once each before or after running. In assault, he'll also make half his attacks (rounding up) at S4 AP5 (using his bolt pistol) and the rest at S7 AP2 (using his plasma pistol), which usually means 2 plasma shots and 2-3 bolt pistol shots as he have 3 base attacks, +1 for two pistols and +1 on the charge, meaning that anything without 3+ wounds and solid invuln in challenge with him is pretty much dead. Note, that this happens on initiative '''eight'''.

He also can bring up to 3 Chosen of Chaos squads with himself, to represent his Fallen subordinates/puppets. Those Chosen does not take any slots, have ATSKNF and Infiltrate and can use Cypher's Ld if he's around at the cost of being unable to take any Chaos-y upgrades, like marks or icons, as well as no dedicated transports.

So, looking back, we can summarize the following: 
1- he's awesome 
2- he's the dark angel equivalent to my little pony on /tg/ 
3- his rules are cool, do the fluff justice, and will make DA player you face lose. Their. Mind. [[Just as planned]]. 

== 8th edition ==

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left"
! || Pts || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Cypher:''' || 110 || 7" || 2+ || 2+ || 4 || 4 || 5 || 4 || 9 || 3+
|} 

In the new edition his bolt pistol is range 16", strength 4, AP-1 and 1 damage whilst his plasma pistol is range 12", strength 8, AP -3 and damage 2 (notice how it gets overcharge statline for free with no overheat risk). Pretty damn good considering he can shoot even if he has retreated or advanced due to his 'Blazing Weapons' rule. He also also has Frag and Krag grenades. His two other powers are 'Mysterious Protection' which grants him a 4+ invulnerable save and the ability to 'not be slain' on a 2+ once he loses all wounds, though still count towards victory points. He also has 'Lord Cypher' which grants re-roll of 1's for every '''Fallen''' within 6". All this for 80 points less than last edition too!

==The Green Knight/Green Man==
[[Image:The Green Knight.JPG|200px|right|thumb| Totally not similar in anyway.]]
Through Zahariel's eyes in "Angels of Caliban" Cypher is seen as a green armoured knight with leaves adorning his helmet and cloak, wielding a bright green blade. This may seem weird but it seems to be a reference to [[The Green Knight]] of Arthurian legends.

The Green Knight can appear as one of Arthur's greatest champions where he is often portrayed as an exorcist and one of the most powerful knights in Arthur's court, or he is transformed into the Green Knight in order to test Arthur's court. His major role in Arthurian literature includes being a judge and tester of knights, and as such the other characters see him as friendly but terrifying and somewhat mysterious. He was also a [[Brettonia|Brettonian]] rather obviously.

Or as a reference to the green man, a vegetation being in medieval art; a recollection of a figure from Celtic mythology; a Christian symbol; or the Devil himself. very fitting for Caliban don't you think.

==Gallery==
<Gallery>
File:Baaaadass.jpeg|You will never find a better artwork for him than this... For now at least. Also, possibly the only official illustration that has him wearing appropriately pre-Heresy armour.
File:Cypher old art.jpg|Possibly the first-ever artwork of him.
File:Cypher artwork.png|The dude has a skull fetish, you'd think he wants to be a chaplain.
File:Cypherwallpaper.jpg
File:Cypher's Bolt Pistol.png|His bolt pistol... No idea why it changes details with every artwork though...
File:Cypher new model.jpg|Sexy new 7th Edition model, with true-scale Lion Sword!
</Gallery>

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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Dark Angels]][[Category:Fallen Angels]]