Editing Abaddon (section)

===V 2.0 "The CrimsonPath"===
Apparently GW realized how thoroughly they fucked up their BBEG's reputation and made a massive rework/retcon of his plans and his crusades with the 6th edition CSM codex and subsequent Black Legion supplement.

Abaddon's new plan is something called [[Bloody Path|The Crimson Path]]. The idea is to zerg Cadia with enough daemons to destroy the Pylon network, and envelop the planet in the Warp. After Cadia, he intends to use the strategy to burn/slaughter/impress his girlfriend the whole way to Terra, by bringing the Warp to it. At the same time deploying minor warbands ahead to disorganize and plunder, [[Khorne|kill, maim, burn,]] and do <strike>bad</strike> totally sweet stuff to stir up the Warp. He is preparing for the next stage of the plan, when Cadia finally <strike>falls</strike> gets potted like an eight-ball in the wrong damn pocket. Game Over.

It wouldn't be so bad. Ya'know, a planet lost in the Warp is not so uncommon these days. The bad thing is that Cadia has the ONLY warp-restraining system in thousands of light years (the aforementioned [[Necron|Pylon system]]). Why is this bad? This is when the vanguard of Chaos lackeys mentioned previously enters stage right. With the Warp getting <strike>high</strike> turned into a nightmare shitstorm worse than any previous time in the last ten millennia, the Eye of Terror itself will expand at the hilariously snuffy pain of the already ravaged and raped planets. The CSM apparently NOW CAN resist warpstorms to a degree; thus making a scar where daemons will be a common sight, warp travel now more dangerous than ever. Abbadon and [[Traitor Legions|his brohams]] could advance without opposition along the "Crimson Path". Ah, and he plans to take the path directly to Terra, hoping that the Imperium, Eldar, Tau, Orks, Rak'gol, Perpetuals, Dark Eldar, Necrons and rival Chaos Space Marines *Cough* Alpha Legion *Cough* don't get their shit together. Not to mention the gods themselves, who are pretty OK with a status-quo, as a current [[Nurgle|rotten]], [[Slaanesh|decadent]], [[Tzeentch|backstabbing]], [[Khorne|warmongering]] Imperium fuels them with all the bad emotions they need.

To add to the above, now only the 13th of Abaddon's crusades has directly targeted Cadia. His first ever Black Crusade was to recover his fancy sword and cement his position as Warmaster. His fourth Black Crusade was directed against the Citadel of the Kromach on the planet El'Phanor, which was a success (and the gates of the Citadel were even broken by Abaddon himself). His sixth ended in the betrayal and elimination of the Sons of the Eye, another warband derived from the Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus that he viewed as a threat to his claim to be Horus' successor. His ninth was directed against Cancephalus, an Imperial naval base of strategic importance and hilarious name (which he not only destroyed, but bombed it with Cyclonic Torpedoes for good measure). The tenth was a strategic success, as he was able to assault [[Medusa]] with the help of [[Perturabo]] and the [[Iron Warriors]]; even though the [[Iron Hands]] were able to survive their siege, Abaddon and Perturabo learned a lot about [[Medusa]]'s defenses and left the Iron Hands at a fraction of their original strength. His twelfth might also be considered a victory, given that he managed to acquire two [[Blackstone Fortress]]es (though it's arguable if this was his objective all along, a win is a win, pick up the chips and leave the table). Only his thirteenth Black Crusade is him directly invading Cadia, contrary to popular opinion. While he has sent forces there before then, they were primarily intended to distract the Imperium while he could accomplish his real goals. What's interesting is that we probably should have seen this coming, as his title, "the Despoiler", literally means "looter". At the very least, it explains why he wants the [[Blood Ravens|Bloody Magpies]] dead so badly.

And of course there is the little question of "wait, wasn't Cadia targeted because it was the only reliable way out of the Eye of Terror? What gives?" So the retcon has gone and introduced a rather gaping plot hole as making everything but Cadia the target for the prior twelve crusades has called into question why Cadia is even special at all. One possible answer is that Abaddon had Cadia ''appear'' as a primary goal of each Black Crusade, so the Imperium would think of it as a major defensive point and fill it with the bajillions of soldiers that he needs as a sacrifice to fuel his Crimson Path plan. Also while waiting for his final crusade maintaining the stupidly expensive Cadian gate fortress-world network would bleed the Imperium off the much needed resources that could be used to defend against shit like Tyranids or WAAAAGH! Ghazghkull so as to weaken the Imperium even more.

It also retconned the reason Abaddon wanted to take Cadia. In the old fluff the Cadian Gate was one of the few places where a huge fleet could exit the Eye of Terror (and the ''only'' one where it could be done without [[Thousand Sons|top-grade sorcery]] or [[Word Bearers|direct divine intervention]]) without being scattered all over the place and hunted down by Imperial cordoning fleets one by one. This piece of fluff was already quite dubious, considering Abby ''did'' take the full might of the Black Fleet for his [[Battlefleet Gothic|12th Black Crusade]] that took place thousands of light years from Cadia. In the new fluff the Imperium still does (somehow) think Abaddon needs Cadia to get his fleet out of the Eye, but his new "actual" plan is not so much as to ''conquer'' Cadia but to ''destroy'' it since it houses a pylon system that stops the Eye of Terror from expanding no matter how much death and suffering he causes to disturb the Warp.