Editing Night Lords (section)

==History==
[[File:Oh shit the batmarines by sonicbrew-d2z88fe.jpg|200px|left|thumb|Masters of Ambush]]
{{topquote | I wanted to be a hero... and look how that turned out. |Talos Valcoran, evidencing how most Traitor members of the Legiones Astartes feel}}

Originally incepted by the Emperor to be a terror weapon, the VIIIth Legion's recruit pool originated from the worst Terra's criminals; monsters who had been put in vast, underground prison complexes to keep them away from the rest of the populace. These criminals would occasionally have offspring who, if by some miracle they survived past infancy, would come to be known by their fellows as "the night's children". Pale and silent, they were so accustomed to the horrors of these prison complexes, having known nothing else, that they were avoided by even the boldest of killers. These pale children would be the VIIIth Legion's first recruits. The Geneseed of Konrad Curze transformed the already pale skin of these children to bone-white, and darked their eyes to black. Already accustomed to the low light conditions of the underground prisons, these new Astartes found that, with the implantation of the Geneseed, they had developed the ability to see in complete darkness. However, they also found that they needed the HUD of their Power Armor to operate in daylight conditions. As such, they quickly came to prefer night time engagements. Seemingly because they were simply so used to it, the VIIIth Legion quickly developed a dark reputation for dealing with their foes with such brutality that it surpassed the rumors surrounding even the VIth and XIIth Legions.

They got their start on Terra when the Emperor sent them against a recidivist kingdom known as the Crimson Walkers. Having learned of their defiance of his edicts despite having pledged themselves to his cause, the Emperor decided that their treachery required... retribution. When asked how he wished to deal with the traitors, he is recorded merely to have said "[[awesome|Send the Eighth]]". So the VIIIth were sent, and the horror they enacted upon the Crimson Walkers was so terrible that the VIIIth in and of itself became a deterrent against recidivism. They would continue upon this path for the rest of the Crusade, typically being used to quell uprisings, or in cases where the most terrible butchery would send a useful message to others.

Eventually, Imperial forces would stumble upon the VIIIth's Primarch Konrad Curze. When [[Chaos]] abducted the infant [[Primarch]]s, they were scattered across the galaxy. Poor lil Konrad ended up on Nostramo, a world of perpetual darkness. And unlike the other Primarchs who were found by the inhabitants of a planet (highly debatable) and taken care of, Konrad was left all alone to fend for himself, [[Grimdark|in a world that was a dark, lawless land]]. But who's to say it would've been better? So then he grew up, he became like the Batman of the 31st millennium, where he punished the corrupt and the evil. Unlike Batman, he had no compunctions about killing them in the most gruesome manner possible (and displaying the corpses) to the point the sewers were clogged with bodies. [[Grimdark|Strangely enough, this was actually considered an improvement]]. So yeah, he became such a popular icon that the people of Nostramo basically fixed their shitty society because they feared that the "Night Haunter" would screw their asses to unimaginable levels, thus making him Vlad the Impaler IN SPESS!!! It says something about his world that, even as Vlad the Impaler, he was still clearly quite the good guy.

Curze tried to be a good leader for his people, but there was one thing he was just unable to do: delegate. So when [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Big.E]] came rolling by and took him along for [[Great Crusade|a good scrap all over the galaxy]], it didn't take long for Nostramo to fall back into crime, anarchy and the like. With the scary thing in the night gone kicking ass AnywhereButHere, it suddenly wasn't scary anymore. Insult to injury, Nostramo provided most aspirants for the Night Lords, and soon only those that thrived in such a lawless environment ascended to become Space Marines... with all the complications one could imagine. Despite the psycho-indoctrination, many Night Lords were serial-killers and sociopaths, hiding their bloodlust beneath a thin veneer of loyalty to the Crusade, and this rot slowly but surely spread to the Legion as a whole.

They also have an unhealthy addiction to flying and lightning. They are known for scaring the hell out of civilians for shits and giggles, and also known for being insanely giant fucking nutheads. Wherever the Night Lords strike, they leave corpses and signs of their assault on display and generally make it look like all the Segmentum's worst metal bands had a gig in the exact same area at the exact same time.

Despite being "traitors" they claim not to be terribly fond of the Chaos Gods. It varies between warbands but many make little to no use of daemons (unless they are warp talons because they really fit well with the “flying and lightning” mentioned above), so they're more of a renegade legion than an unclean one. Which makes them less likely to (accidentally) become possessed. It won't matter though, because they are fucking insane anyway, not only because of their combat doctrines, but also because they have been around for a very long time. Notable exceptions include Krieg Acerbus, a [[Daemon Prince]] currently leading the largest warband of Night Lords, who also happen to be hardcore, full-on '''bat'''shit chaos worshippers. There's also the first claw's Uzas, who's all about blood for the [[Khorne|Blood God]]. In fact, earlier incarnations of the background listed them as a Khornate Legion, and Khorne smiles upon those who murder for the sake of murder, even one's allies, which Night Lords do whenever they can. However, because they're in denial about their religion, they neither get the goodies of the Chaos Gods, nor the technology of the [[Imperium]]. So whenever loyalists show up with assault cannons, stormbolters, cyclone missile launchers, land speeders, drop-pods, and hunter killer missiles they silently cry in the night. Or take it out on them by kicking the shit out of the local chapter of [[Ultramarines|Ultramarines]].