The new name was chosen after the Astartes of the Sons of Horus painted their power armour black in grief at the death of their Primarch Horus and shame at their failure to overthrow the False Emperor and seize control of the galaxy in the name of the Ruinous Powers. After Horus' treachery and final defeat at the Siege of Terra during the Horus Heresy, however, the Legion was renamed once more as the "Black Legion" by its new Warmaster, Abaddon the Despoiler.
Horus, at first reluctant to aggrandise himself in this way, eventually instituted this change following a conversation with the Primarch Sanguinius in the wake of the Luna Wolves' inability to avoid war with the Human/ xenos hybrid civilisation known as the Interex. In honour of Horus' great achievements during the latter years of that era after the Imperial victory over the Orks during the Ullanor Crusade, the Emperor suggested that the Legion be renamed the Sons of Horus. The XVI th Legion was originally known as the Luna Wolves during the Great Crusade. The Black Legion is the only one of the Traitor Legions to have changed its name following the Horus Heresy. Whenever the entirety of the Black Legion is called to battle, it marks the beginning of another one of Abaddon's Black Crusades against the Imperium of Man. They are always brought together in great numbers to work the will of their Warmaster of Chaos, Abaddon the Despoiler, the heir of Horus. They oppose the infighting that consumes so many of their brethren amongst the other Traitor Legions, for the Astartes of the Black Legion are the greatest servants of Chaos Undivided. The Black Legion is now one of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines who are united in the pursuit of the single purpose of overthrowing the Imperium. They were as stalwart and indefatigable as any of the servants of the Emperor and their actions exemplified what it meant to be a warrior of the Space Marine Legions.īrutal, ruthless and unwavering but also honourable, and once loyal beyond question, the history of the Black Legion is the history of the ambition of the Imperium itself, and the flaws that broke its founder's dreams of unification and glory for all Mankind asunder. Before the dark days of the Horus Heresy they fought at the Emperor's side on Terra and through the early years of the Great Crusade. Such are the crimes of the Black Legion that it is easy to forget that the past was very different, and that there was a time when its Astartes and their perfidious master Horus were lauded above all of the other warriors of the Legiones Astartes, and were considered the most favoured servants of the Emperor of Mankind.īorn as the XVI th Space Marine Legion on Terra, the Black Legion would first rise to greatness under the name of the Luna Wolves. The Black Legion, at that time still known as the Sons of Horus, became the primary instrument of its primarch, the Warmaster Horus, to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind and seize control of the Imperium in the name of Chaos. The Black Legion was one of the 9 First Founding Legions of Space Marines who turned Traitor to the Imperium during the Horus Heresy in the early 31 st Millennium.
The Black Legion is a Traitor Legion of Chaos Space Marines that is the first in infamy, if not in treachery, whose name resounds as a curse throughout the scattered and war-torn realms of Humanity.