Over the last few days I’ve been listening to one of the recent Horus Heresy audiobooks “Prince of Crows”. It is a story about the Night Lords Legion after they were ambushed by the Dark Angels and the Primarch Curze is in a coma.
In the past I had always thought that either the Iron Warriors were probably the most out and out evil of Horus’s forces but this book changes that view. The Night Lords are not righteous or motivated by devotion to a god……they are just sociopaths.
The book starts with some internal “cleansing” of the Night Lords command structure by the First Captain. It then starts to delve into the division between the Terran based Night Lords and those from Curze’s home planet of Nostramo. This division is a recurring storyline in the Heresy books – most of the death Guard sent down to Istvaan III were Terran. Similarly in Deliverance Lost, splits develop between those that had been imprisoned on Kiavahr and Raven Guard from Terra.
The 8th Legion also carries the guilt for the orbital destruction of their homeworld and this has increasingly manifested itself in dark dreams both for the Primarch and his captains. Prior to the ambush, these dreams were being treated by having the soothing presence of skinned and flayed bodies hanging from meat hooks in their private quarters. So these guys are a really well-adjusted bunch of malcontents.
Discussions between the leadership show little appetite for following the orders of Horus or for devotion to the Chaos gods. As a result the Legion is re-organised into six/seven Great Companies each with their own fleet. They are then directed to disperse and cause mischief. How or what they do is up to the individual leader.
Again the book is useful in showing that different Legions and factions have different motivations and that with out the Emperor’s controlling presence that any ties holding the different forces together quickly unravel.
Personally I find it much easier to sleep under a mobile of flayed neighbourhood felines.
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