Night Lords/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Like most Chaos Legions, the Night Lords of the 41st millennium are disparate and follow no leader. This being said, it becomes difficult to keep track of the vast number of parties without some sort of roster. Some spoilers for Blood Reaver or Lord of The Night may be unmarked, and all events occurring in Soul Hunter are unmarked.

Tropes applying to the Night Lords as a whole

  • Avenging the Villain: They have their own agendas but individual Night Lords warbands will team up to destroy training centres for Callidus Assassins, to take revenge for their murdered Primarch.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: Night Lords have enormous pupils, along with black irises and scleræ. Justifiable for the same reason as Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette.
  • Brown Note: Justifiably, bright light causes theme severe discomfort and the occasional bout of ocular bleeding. What is blinding for a Night Lord may only mildly glaring to another marine or an unmodified human.
  • The Dreaded: Night Lords specialize in brutal terror tactics, and stealth (both in infiltration and slipping deep into enemy space), so they are naturally one of the most fear-inspiring forces in the 41st Millenium.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Every Night Lord who doesn't shave his head; Nostramo was perpetually shrouded in night.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: As expected from huge super soldiers. Xarl in particular, and the Exalted's unnatural voice are of particular mention.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Night Lord epithets tend to be short and brutally descriptive.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: A favorite phrase of their primarch, and an accurate descriptor for the legion as a whole.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: Night Lords show a special fondness for cranking up the output amplification on the vox speakers in their helmets, and screaming literal and figurative bloody murder until the humans in the area are curled in the fetal position clutching bleeding ears.
  • Pretentious Latin Motto: Ave dominus nox. "Hail to the lord of the night."
  • Primal Fear: What they aspire to be.
  • Skeletons in the Coat Closet: They frequently have severed heads hanging from their waists as a terror tactic.
  • Torture Technician: Somewhat of a hat for the legion to go with the extensive terror tactics. Both protagonists so far have shown a proficiency in interrogatory cruelty.


Konrad Curze/The Night Haunter

Son of the God-Emperor of the Imperium of Mankind

Primarch and original head of the Night Lords

"He was amused by nothing. He enjoyed nothing. Even the bloodiest moments of war set his features in a grim mask of concentration and infrequent disgust."

  • Superpower Meltdown: Talos theorizes in Blood Reaver that his slow memory loss, physical/moral degradation and mutation were the result of permanent flux in the Emperor's modifications to his body.
  • Thanatos Gambit: "Death is nothing compared to vindication."
  • Then Let Me Be Evil: The Imperium denegated him for his style of warfare for so long that his rebellion took the form of living up to his monstrous image.
  • This Is Your Brain on Evil: Not by choice, which may lead some credibility to his status as The Fatalist.
  • Vigilante Man
  • Wolverine Claws: Most mentions of him in combat include Lightning Claws.


Misc Captains

Those captains whose company has not been mentioned

Shang

Curze's Equerry

Krieg Acerbus, Axemaster

Former Night Lords Captain, now a Daemon Prince.
Leader of the largest Night Lords warband currently active.

Halaskar

Captain of Third Company, and commander of the battle-barge Hunter's Premonition.
Leader of the other Night Lords warband engaged at Crythe.

  • Cool Ship: The Hunter's Premonition, one of the Eighth Legion's last battle-barges.
  • Oh Crap: He has a massive one when he learns that Talos is having a vision of the Blood Angels arriving within hours. He is perfectly justified in this response.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He immediately advocates that the Night Lords leave Abbadon to die when he refuses to order a retreat.
  • We Have Reserves: Subverted, as he refused to leave his warriors behind on Crythe.

First Company

Zso Sahaal, Talonmaster

Captain of First Company at the time of Curze's death, and his designated heir.
Unusually for a high ranking member of the Legion, he is Terran-born.

  • Bad Dreams: About the loss of the Corona Nox
  • Break the Haughty: The first half of Lord of the Night
  • Covered with Scars: This isn't uncommon among space marines, but Mita notes this specifically about him.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Zso Sahaal is, by any normal human standards, a complete monster. That being said, over the course of the story you see that he is disciplined enough to resist the chaos-induced urge submit to mindless bloodshed and depravity. After calling upon the dark powers, he notices that he is slowly losing control of his own mind and breaks free from it. Naturally, he is horrified by his long lost brothers, who failed this test 10,000 years prior and are now less human than daemon.
  • Fish Out of Temporal Water: He was in stasis for approximately 9,600 years between the death of Curze and the start of Lord of the Night.
  • The Magnificent: Presumably his epithet refers to his mastery with Lightning Claws and/or the common Great Crusade-era practice of having the First Captain of a legion as the second in command.
  • Morality Pet: Arguably Mita by the end of the book.
  • The Neidermeyer: Not due to incompetence, glory seeking or disregard of his troops. Instead his youthful arrogance, status as a foreigner and inability to live up to Sevatar's reputation lead to portions of his company simply up and leaving to join other companies as honor guards for their captains.
  • Physical Scars, Psychological Scars
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Somewhere between type B and type C.
  • Screaming Warrior
  • Villain Protagonist
  • Wolverine Claws: Favors lightning claws in combat.


Sevatarion "Sevatar" Jago, The Condemned, Prince of Crows

Captain of First Company prior to Zso Sahaal.
Died in the siege of Terra.

  • Blade on a Stick: Fights using a chain halberd with a meter long blade. He's noted to be one of the twenty best fighters in the Horus Heresy era.
  • Dead Man Walking: The arterial red color of his gauntlets marks him as condemned, living only on the whim of his primarch.
  • Famed in Story: His fame during the crusade era was nearly equal to that of Abaddon the Despoiler.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Speaks with mock cheer and courtesy the majority of the time, even when addressing a former flaying victim he intends to... finish off.
  • Flashback to Catchphrase: Originated the phrase "Death to the False Emperor!", which cultists and Chaos Marines of the modern day use constantly.
  • Flaying Alive: He's capable of taking off in long continuous ribbons of human skin in one go, despite the size and power of his chainblade.
  • Genuine Human Hide: He wears the results of his flayings bolted to his armor.
  • I Have Many Names
  • Mark of Shame: Wears gauntlets painted in sinner's red. He doesn't view them as much to be ashamed about, however.
  • The Magnificent: "The Condemned" and "Prince of Crows"
  • Number Two: Split between him and Shang. Curze associates the role with him so strongly that in his senile moments after Sevatar's death he would demand his presence in war councils.
  • Skull for a Head / White Mask of Doom: Wears a skull faced helm in the manner of Talos.
  • Soft-Spoken Sadist: All the more jarring given how much he pisses off his enemies.

Tenth Company

The Exalted/Vandred

Captain of Tenth Company following Malcharion's entombment.
Previously Sergeant of First Claw.

Lucoryphus: "The Exalted is wrathful"
Cyrion: "The Exalted is always wrathful"

  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: Type two very firmly applied, lampshaded and justified
  • More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Made even more alien by the black gums, and the strange angles at which the teeth are set.
  • The Neidermeyer: Aside from its personal guard, none of the Night Lords feel any particular loyalty to the Exalted beyond the chain of command. It's willing to sell them out to Abaddon the Despoiler for advancement. It is more the daemon's influence than Vandred however.
  • Orcus on His Throne: The Exalted has left The Covenant of Blood exactly once within the main narrative, during Throne Of Lies
  • Overly Long Tongue: It can lick its own eyeballs, among other things, bonus creepy points for being black.
  • Phlegmings: All the time, in exhaustive, nauseating detail.
  • Telepathy: Its favored form of daemonic power.
  • That Man Is Dead: Standard response to being addressed as Vandred.
  • Spell My Name with a "The": Though it will respond to "Exalted One" or "Exalted of the Dark Powers".
  • The Strategist: The Exalted in the arena of void warfare, and Vandred before him. Deconstructed in that it achieves consistent, immaculate victory through means which usually put the crew and occasionally its beloved ship in danger. Being possessed by a daemon of Tzeentch tends to cut down on the physical risks to the ship, but danger to the lives of the crew—or even to the dwindling supply of Astartes—is moot in its eyes. Blood Reaver reveals this to be the result of The Exalted scraping Vandred's memories from him. Without that, it is incapable of void warfare.
  • Tears of Blood: Due to facial paralysis, any act which requires strain on those muscles causes its tear ducts to leak a dark, bloody, oily substance.


Malcharion, The War Sage:

Former Captain of Tenth Company

  • Deadpan Snarker: Most of his dialogue is either snark or threats.
  • Man in the Machine
  • The Mentor
  • More Dakka: His twinlinked Reaper Autocannon mount, which he uses to great effect on Terminator Vraal, at point blank range.
  • Not Quite Dead: Almost permanently as a result of being a dreadnought. Ultimately subverted, when he dies at the climax of Soul Hunter.
    • Until it's revealed that Malek, the Terminator Champion of the Atramentar, ordered Deltrian to preserve the Warsage. Talos found out and was not pleased, though did not enter a berserker fit that Deltrian expected.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: In sharp contrast to The Exalted.
  • Red Baron: The War Sage. Because he wrote about combat tactics Curze gave him this nickname mockingly, and even joked that he should go join the Ultramarines.
  • Take Up My Sword: He gives Talos his old storm bolter after Talos lost his own. Many Night Lords regard this as a sign that Malcharion believes Talos would be a better leader than Vandred, or as a sign that Talos is attempting to usurp the position of Tenth Company's captain. Talos refutes this and even when he ends up with command, he is still very reluctant.


Lucoryphus, Bleeding Eyes

Head of the Bleeding Eyes Raptor Cult acquired at the end of Soul Hunter

  • Aloof Ally: Typical of raptors.
  • Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag: He constantly behaves like an animal, particularly a bird, he walks on all fours surprisingly well, but can be persuaded to stand on his feet, though the notion bothers him. He often chides his men for speaking too much in raptor clicks and hisses, though he does it himself sometimes.
  • Armed Legs: His armor has a pair of claws where the feet would be, typically used for hanging from things, but in one instance he uses them for leverage to snap a loyalist Marine's neck, and later he show's that they are also lightning claws.
  • Death From Above: Comes with being a raptor, really.
  • Dwindling Party: When 10th company gets them, the raptor cult number thirty members. Roughly 10 or so at the end of The Core, and five at the beginning of Void Stalker. He is the only survivor by the end Void Stalker (at least of the 10th company Bleeding Eyes), the rest having been killed by Eldar
  • Evil Makes You Monstrous: Obviously so, he has developed Chaos mutations which gave him his title and rendered him practically inhuman.
    • When we finally do see under his helmet, he's described as a drowned corpse, complete with decay and vigor mortis.
  • I Am a Humanitarian: Unlike most of 10th company, who have demonstrated a tradition of selective dining on certain fallen enemies, the Bleeding Eyes have proven to be less selective on what or who they eat. Variel hypothesizes that it helps sustain them from their own mutations.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: As demonstrated in The Core, which cost him about nine of his raptors and forces him to flee when he takes on a group of Salamanders Terminators.
  • The Magnificent: Bleeding Eyes. This gave his raptor squad the title of "Cult of the Bleeding Eyes".
  • No Sense of Personal Space: Towards unmodified humans,
  • Rage Helm: His helmet is often described as a screaming daemon's face. The models of raptors often have an avian motif.
  • Tears of Blood: Constantly, resulting in his epithet. Though later, they are described as being red and silver lightning bolts from the eyes lenses rather than actual tears of blood.
  • 24-Hour Armor: Of all the Space Marine characters, he is seen without his armor only once.
  • Verbal Tic: Raptor speech. He often clicks, whistles, or hisses, though he is not as bad as some of his men who have stopped using normal words altogether.
  • Wall Crawling: Raptors typically hang upside down from the ceiling or something they can hang onto, but the Bleeding Eyes have demonstrated a few times that they can move along walls or ceilings with little trouble.
  • Was Once An Astartes
  • Yes-Man: He acts as this for the Exalted for a time, being his messenger and his eye on matters. Subverted, however; after the Exalted's death, he is loyal to Talos, so he appears to be loyal to his Legion commander, whoever that may be.


Vorasha

A member of the Bleeding Eyes Raptor Cult


Ruven:

Former sorcerer to Tenth Company

  • Break the Haughty: Found in the [1] grip of the Red Corsairs at his reintroduction in Blood Reaver. He doesn't learn an ounce of humility, though.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Betrayed, in turn, his birth legion, the Black Legion and the Red Corsairs.
    • He claims he was cast aside by the Black Legion, and that the incident which landed him in trouble with the Red Corsairs wasn't his fault. Talos hardly believes either story, considering that Ruven's an unapologetic liar.
  • Epic Fail: Threatening Talos' three slaves in Blood Reaver. They simply point their firearms at him, convincing him to leave when they show they're not scared of him (although he could probably have just killed them all easily). Octavia threatening him with her Navigator eye, probably helped too.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: It says a lot that even The Exalted despises him.
  • Evil Sorcerer: The only reason anyone tolerates him is because of his abilities.
  • Face Heel Turn: After the death of Konrad Curze, but far before Soul Hunter.
  • Half the Man He Used To Be
  • Smug Snake: It isn't uncommon for marines to look down upon humans, but Ruven feels his mastery of the Warp allows him to look down on just about everyone. 10th company was willing to tolerate this when he still loyal to the VIII legion, but as of Blood Reaver even Talos' slaves find him insufferable.
    • He's all but bragging to Talos' slaves when he describes how he killed Secundus, and how Talos eventually stopped trying to get revenge. Octavia contemplates that this didn't sound like Talos, at all.
    • Even being dead is no impediment to his smugness... if only in Talos's visions / nightmares.
  • Welcome Back, Traitor: Subverted brutally, and with good reason given his history.
  • Yes-Man: To Abaddon the Despoiler.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He claims he ran after he failed Abaddon in order to survive, and it was mentioned he was reaching this point when Huron's sorcerers couldn't Mind Rape much more information from him. Then, with Ruven's duties complete in the retaking of the Echo of Damnation, Talos is the one that finally kills him, both in revenge for the killing of Secundus, and in confidence that Ruven would betray them again.

Malek

Champion of the Atramentar, the Exalted's bodyguard.


Garadon

Member of the Atramentar.


Vraal

Member of the Atramentar, sent to disrupt Malcharion's reawakening.

  • Armor Damage: Invoked, Vraal chooses not to repair his armor as a sort of display of honor. He believes it's more badass to show what it had protected him from, which tied in nicely as his role of The Brute.
  • Bearer of Bad News: Yet he's so happy when he delivers it:

Brothers! Everyone in this room is going to die!


First Claw

Tenth company's first squad, and the protagonists of the Talos saga.

Tropes relating to all of First Claw

Talos Valcoran, Soul Hunter:

Tenth Company's apothecary.
Default leader of First Claw by the time of Soul Hunter
Heads Tenth Company following Vandred's death

"I made this Imperium. I built it, night after night, with my sweat and my pride and a blade in my hands. I bought it with the blood in my brothers veins, fighting at the Emperor's side, blinded by his light before you entombed him as a messiah. You live, mortal, only because of my work. Your existence is mine. You know what I am. Look at me. Look past what know cannot be true, and see what holds your life in his hands."

  • Bald of Awesome/Bald of Evil: He's shaved his head. Whether it's primarily awesome or evil depends on how you view Talos.
  • Blessed with Suck: His seizures render him "a prophet of the VIII legion". However they also cause him so much trauma that he bashes his Astartes strength skull into the walls hard enough to dent. In addition, he suffers periods of paralysis and visions throughout it all which leave him screaming constantly when not paralyzed.
    • In Blood Reaver, these trances could result in Talos' death, especially if he already suffers heavy combat trauma. The extremely invasive surgery into his skull during his stay at Hell's Iris reveals that the Legion modifications did not take well, and coupled with his foresight, can inflict damage on his body, leading to eventual degradation. Much like what happened to Night Haunter.
  • Catch Phrase: Not used often, but when he abducts somebody he invariably says:

"My name is Talos, and you're coming with me."

  • Cheshire Cat Grin: When someone or something has drawn his sardonic amusement--which is never a good thing--Talos will smile his rare, usually hidden, always specifically worded, "crooked smile". All that's keeping it from being a full blown Psychotic Smirk is the lack of intensity of emotion.
  • Combat Medic: He's still an apothecary, even if he lacks the tools.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: In conjunction with the seizures.
  • Earn Your Title: Inverted, he received his title before the event in question. Prophetic powers are funny that way. He doesn't particularly enjoy being called Soul Hunter however.
  • Gatling Good: makes use an Assault cannon in the last few chapters of Void Stalker. Cyrion expresses a fair amount of envy of that weapon
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Aurum is almost archetypically heroic.
    • And before that, he used a standard chainsword.
  • Human Notepad: Along with the walls of his cell, his armor is covered in prophetic etchings.
  • I Gave My Word: Talos lives up to every promise he makes, even if it takes a few thousand years.
    • Except for Curze's death at Tsagualsa. Although his genesire knew that would happen.
  • Innocent Prodigy: He was a very bright child, but his lack of participation in school caused most adults to think he was "slow".
  • It's What I Do: He admits that even if his cause will never fully be reached, he is still an Astartes and all he knows how to do is wage the Old War.
  • Knight in Sour Armor
  • The Magnificent: Konrad Curze named him Soul Hunter for his prophesied role in Curze's own death.

"‘One soul’ [Curze] said. ‘You will hunt one shining soul while all others turn their backs on vengeance.’"

  • Noble Demon: For all that he is a consummate example of his legion, he will always be kind to his slaves. Additionally, he is firmly entrenched in a standard of honor most of his legion has discarded.
  • Reluctant Ruler
  • Skull for a Head/White Mask of Doom: His helm is painted bone white in the shape of a skeletal face. A single Nostraman rune is etched into the forehead area.
  • Son of a Whore: Though he averts most of the baggage which usually comes with it.
  • Taking You with Me: detonates five frag grenades and his armour's power pack, to annihilate the Void Stalker.
  • Villain Protagonist: Of the main sequence of books.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Whether they realize it or not, Talos and Xarl. They might not be especially fond of each other, but they're still brothers, and they do trust each other.
  • The Wise Prince
  • Wreaked Weapon: At some point during 'Void Stalker' Talos will break Aurum as seen by the prologue.
    • it is broken when the Void Stalker herself impales Talos with his own sword.


Xarl:

Member of First Claw

  • The Ace: The best fighter of First Claw, and arguably the entire company.
  • Artful Dodger: As a child he was much more enthusiastic about joining a gang than Talos.
  • BFS: And very proud of it. He uses a two-handed chainsword (one-handed variants are much more common).
  • Big Damn Heroes: Pulls this when he engages in a duel with a Chapter Champion of the Genesis Chapter to save First Claw. He wins spectacularly.
  • Childhood Friends: Not quite, but with Talos. He and Talos have known each other since they were boys. They associated with each other and acted as friends because they were all but expected to, but they never became earnest friends.
  • Combat Pragmatist: taunts an Imperial Space Marine, till he can no longer hold back his wrath, and when grappling in close combat, headbutts him into submission.
  • Commander Contrarian: Uzas can identify him over the vox entirely through his complaining.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Xarl may be a Traitor Space Marine, but he is not a Chaos Space Marine, openly hating warp corruption and viewing Uzas, Cyrion, and the Exalted as little more than animals who need to be put down.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: succumbs to crippling wounds after fighting the Genesis Chapter Champion.
  • Honour Before Reason: Despite hating Cyrion for his daemonnic corruption, when Talos warns him that in a vision he saw Cyrion being beheaded by Uzas, he promises that if Uzas is responsible he will kill him.
  • Jerkass: Generally the most abrasive of First Claw.
  • Only Sane Man: Considers himself to be one, regarding anyone who believes that Konrad Kurze was a Noble Demon as an idiot.
  • Properly Paranoid: He trusts next to no one. In the Enemy Civil War of post Horus Heresy Chaos legions, that is a wise decision.
    • That said, he has admitted that he does at least trust Talos.
  • Screaming Warrior: "and Xarl likes to howl."
  • Skull for a Head/Rage Helm: Before he began wearing his winged ceremonial helmet constantly, his regular helmet had a daemonic skeletal face.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: How he feels about those who regard Konrad Curze as a Noble Demon.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Whether they realize it or not, Talos and Xarl. They might not be especially fond of each other, but they're still brothers, and they do trust each other.


Cyrion:

Member of First Claw

  • Admiring the Abomination: Found the fortress on Tsagualsa to be "hauntingly beautiful".
  • Affably Evil: Unlike the rest of First Claw, Cyrion is genuinely friendly, as well as respectful to Talos' servants. He's still a brutally evil Night Lord though.
    • Averted horribly in Void Stalker, where he is revealed to have hunted serfs and crew members to slake his corrupted thirst for fear. It is revealed that he is responsible for most of the deaths laid at Uzas' feet
  • A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: His "gift" of feeling the fear of all sentient things tends to come back to bite him during combat.
    • Until he displays something akin to addiction to this in Void Stalker.
  • Artificial Limbs: He needs an augmetic arm towards the end of Soul Hunter. He needs some time to get used to it, and promises himself to get a better one since it was a rushed job.
  • Catch Phrase: "So, how are you?" It's even his Last Words.
  • The Conscience: Will serve as Talos' moral compass at times.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Usually the first one to snark at whatever terrible situation First Claw is presently in, regardless of where, when or to whom he is speaking.
  • Dying Alone: Averted, Talos stays with him till he expires after being critically wounded at the end of Void Stalker, where he apologises to Uzas for hating him, and thanks Talos for all he has done.
  • Power Incontinence: Cannot turn his mind reading ability off in any way.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: When he needs to feel "the flood" (feeling his victim's fear) he mainly targets those on the lower decks who don't provide the Legion any important service (it's implied this is done by other Night Lords, as well). He considers that a point of pride over Uzas's rampage in the upper decks in Blood Reaver.
  • Psychic Powers: Slaanesh claimed to have given him his ability to feel the fear of all living things. Very appropriate for a legion which runs on terror tactics, but not exactly appreciated. Not openly, at least.
  • Sarcastic Devotee: He may be the closest thing Talos has to a friend, but that doesn't stop him from making jokes at his expense.
  • Serial Killer: Like the much of the Legion, Cyrion was a murderer before he joined the Legion, and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds by the end of the trilogy. What makes him stand out, is that he kills to feed his psychic vampirism. And those numbers are just the ones he let Uzas take the fall for.


Uzas:

Member of First Claw
Former sergeant of Fourth Claw

  • The Atoner: Marked as living only to serve Talos' purposes in attrition for his killing a favored slave during Blood Reaver.
  • Axe Crazy: He's accepted the gifts of Khorne, and all that implies.
    • Though by the end of Blood Reaver, he appears to be resisting them and has lengthy scenes of lucidity.
  • An Axe to Grind: Like many warriors of Khorne, Uzas uses a chainaxe.
  • The Berserker: Much so. He will sometimes go into a hallucinatory rampage.
  • The Big Guy/The Brute: Uzas is the most aggressive of First Claw, and as a rampaging berserker, he is arguably one of their best hand-to-hand combatants.
  • Blood Lust: Somewhat of a justifiable addiction for a Khornate.
  • Bloody Handprint: A symbolic one is painted onto his helm in reminder of a particular kill he was fond of.
  • Butt Monkey: Justified, as centuries of his degenerating mind have left the rest of his Claw with little patience for his... idiosyncrasies.
  • Dead Man Walking: As a result of his condemnation at the end of Blood Reaver he is alive only on Talos' whim. If and or when Talos orders Uzas to give his life for the Legion, he must.
  • Determinator: He had survived being flung into a wall by a neverborn with enough force to crack power armour, he still gets up five seconds later and throws his chainaxe at the daemon's face!
  • Dumb Muscle: Double Subverted. He was a competent warrior before Khorne got him, and he has a few moments where he shows surprising insight. But at the end of the day, he's still damaged goods.
  • Dying as Yourself: When impaled by Talos, he thanks him for freeing him from the demands of Khorne, and dies with a smile on his lips.
  • Genuine Human Hide: It's implied that most of First Claw have cloaks of human skin, but Uzas' is mentioned in the most detail. Apparently it used to be the entire royal family of an imperial backwater.
  • Hearing Voices: He often hears Khorne demanding him to kill.
  • Hidden Depths: He used to be sergeant of Fourth Claw before the Blood God took him. He still has surprising moments of lucidity.
    • In addition, he displays an incredible amount of knowledge regarding Eldar tactics and religion and warrior aspects, much to the disbelief of his squad mates.
  • In the Back: Done to him by Talos when he tries to kill Cyrion at the end of 'Void Stalker'.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Much to the annoyance of the rest of First Claw.
  • Mark of Shame: Painting his gauntlets sinner's red at the end of Blood Reaver
  • Phlegmings: Oozes drool during battle like a ruptured abscess leaks pus.
  • Psycho Party Member: Clearly. Uzas is perhaps the most Ax Crazy member of his company. Possibly subverted, he has been known to have moments of lucidity, and they seem to be increasing by the end of Blood Reaver.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes on against Cyrion, for the murders he has committed that Uzas has been blamed for, until Talos stopped him.
  • Room Full of Crazy: His room is filled with little more than Skulls. Again, because of Khorne.
  • Screaming Warrior: Much more so than Xarl. Goes with being Khornate.
  • Troubled Fetal Position: While trying to resist the demands of Khorne.


Adhemar:

Member of First Claw as of Soul Hunter.
Former Sergeant of Seventh Claw.

"We just crippled a Titan, so don't think raising those weapons is a deterrent to us telling the truth.


Mercutian:

Member of First Claw as of Soul Hunter
Formerly of Seventh Claw

  • BFG: He appears to specialize in heavy weapons, operating First Claw's heavy bolter, and he used a missile launcher with Seventh Claw.
  • Cultured Warrior: As a result of a superior education from a wealthy childhood upbringing as the son of a rich crime lord. Still seems more refined than many of his brothers hundreds of years later, and Blood Reaver shows he writes in his spare time.
  • The Eeyore: Justified in Soul Hunter, as he is the only survivor of Seventh Claw. Lampshaded in Throne of Lies.
  • Foil: To Xarl. Mercution is well-spoken, refined, relatively calm, and quietly proud of what he feels the Legion did out of necessity during the Great Crusade. Needless to say, he and Xarl bicker quite often.
  • The Quiet One: Amid the vox roar of snark and arguing that is the rest of First Claw, Mercutian is nearly inaudible most of the time.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: If anyone's going to say it, he's going to say it first.
    • In fact, when the Night Lords encounter a Space Marine tactical squad bringing their weapons to bear on them, he is the only that reacts vocally. In contrast to his noble upbringing, his reaction is a simple, "Oh, shit."
  • Undying Loyalty: Best demonstrated in the Eldar nightmare sequence at the end of Blood Reaver, where he is the last to die aside from Uzas; he fights past the limits of his body protecting the corpses of his brothers, before falling with an apology on his lips for failing. "Miserable, loyal Mercutian" indeed.
    • Demonstrated even further in Void Stalker when wounded by the titular Eldar, he elects to stay behind to buy Talos and First Claw time to escape. He takes three strikes from her spear to kill him, but not before he injures her leg, slowing her down greatly.


Variel the Flayer:

Ostensibly a member of First Claw as of the end of Blood Reaver
Formerly Apothecary Secundus of the Red Corsairs
Serves as acting Apothecary now that he has joined 10th company.

  • Artificial Limbs: He lost his leg to a Genestealer Broodlord, and has a prosthetic in it's place. He lost the other at the climax of Void Stalker.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: His Narthecium (the Apothecary's vambrace). Amongst other medical devices, it hold laser cutters, a bone saw, a spike meant for euthanasia...
  • Blood Brothers: With Talos. Cross legion/chapter bonds like this are fairly unusual.
  • Combat Medic: Goes with being an Apothecary.
    • Deadly Doctor: Also, comes with being an Apothecary. Especially of as a Chaos Space Marine Apothecary.
  • Evil Genius / The Smart Guy: Quite probably the smartest member of 1st Claw.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He is generally polite and courteous, but in no way kind.
  • Flaying Alive: It's his epithet for a reason. He also uses it as a threat, reminding several characters that he could do with a new cloak, and he often decorates his pauldrons his victims' faces.
  • Hand Cannon: When he does go into combat, Variel's signature weapon is a good, old bolt pistol.
  • Hates Being Touched: So much that at one point resolves to remove the fingers of somebody who was grabbing at him to plea for help. And later, he does remove the hand of somebody pleading for help.
  • Heel Face Turn: Turns his back on his birth chapter due to a blood debt to Talos. Not that he shows a particular fondness for his genebrothers in the first place.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: An almost unnaturally pale polar blue. He notes they serve well to intimidate chapter serfs.
  • The Magnificent: He does, in fact, flay people, though the epithet could also be considered a dark nod to his skills as a surgeon.
  • Master Race: Variel loathes unmodified humans and their weak, primitive emotions. Additionally, if he feels a dead marine was unworthy he will outright refuse to harvest their geneseed or even destroy it.
  • Neat Freak: Admittedly one of the trademarks of the Red Corsairs is filth and disarray, but he is more upset by it than most. Somewhat justifiable for a master surgeon, but it seems to just be a form of Super OCD.
  • The Older Immortal: Played with; Variel is at the oldest, maybe 300 years old. The time dilation of the Warp and all of the time the Covenant has spent there, the 10th company has spent about 100 years of time onboard, while about 10,100 years passed in realspace, putting them more around 200-300 years.
  • Sixth Ranger: Moreso than Mercutian, given his status as a foreigner.
  • The Stoic: He is one of the most unemotive characters in the Talos saga, which is saying something.
  • Super Doc: Due in part to his enhanced physiology, and in part to being an apparent master of medical knowledge he can tell what's wrong with somebody just by looking at them. Talos even acknowledges that Variel is a better apothecary than Talos ever was.
  • Super OCD: Let's count the ways: he's a neat freak (barring blood and viscera covering his armor from necessity from time to time), he hates to be touched, and prefers not to leave others to do things what he can do perfectly.
    • Demonstrated further in 'Void Stalker where he uses his narthecium's chain blade attachment to remove an Astartes arm because he wouldn't let go of him.
  • Sword and Gun: A variation, where he uses a bolt pistol and his narthecium as a weapon at times.
  • Technically a Smile: Talos notes a sneer is as close to a genuine smile as he will come. He will smile in mock courtesy to chapter serfs, but the gesture never reaches his eyes in the slightest. It's been so long since he last laughed that Talos has difficulty recognizing the action at first.


Sar Zell

Member of First Claw who is dead by the time of Soul Hunter. Killed during the Tsagualsa Reprisal.

  • An Axe to Grind: Wielded a chainaxe in melee, which is now in currently Uzas' possession.
  • BFG: He was First Claw's heavy before Mercution, and Sar Zell wielded a lascannon.
  • The Pilot: He's First Claw's pilot at the time of Tsagualsa's fall, though Cyrion, under stress, says that he's the worst pilot in the Tenth Company.
    • Disposable Pilot: Ultimately this. He died at enemy hands, and ultimately somebody else could pilot a Thunderhawk.
  • Posthumous Character: He is only mentioned only once, until he appears in a few flashbacks.


Decimus, Prophet of the Eight Legion.

The Inheritor of Talos' prophetic gift.

  • A Child Shall Lead Them: Is noted to be incredibly young, even by Astartes standards, being barely a few decades old.
  • Take Up My Sword: He's Talos' genetic descendant, giving him Talos' power without the downsides. He even uses Talos' reclaimed wargear.
  • Theme Naming: Based on the similarity in his name to "deca" (i.e. the tenth).

Human Associates of Tenth Company

Deltrian

Tenth Company's Head Techpriest

  • Collector of the Strange: Deltrian has the 10th Company's the Dreadnought sarcophogi, at least one occupied person jar, and all sorts of odd scientific devices and artifacts
  • Cyborg: Natch.
  • Electronic Eyes: Along with the sensory apparati, he's capable of changing out his eye lenses for different colored gems.
  • Evil Genius: As a traitor techpriest, he has this down to an art form.
    • Gadgeteer Genius: To be expected of a high ranking Techpriest as old as the Horus Heresy.
    • Mad Scientist Laboratory: His sanctum certainly counts.
    • Mecha-Mooks: While they are mostly for ship maintenance and manual labor, a squad of servitors can take down a space marine squad; and they are described as being "a work of love, if he could feel that".
  • Implacable Man: He machine body makes him immune to pain and resistant to injury, apparently if his body retains enough inegrity. For example, Deltrian had been at two points, impaled by a lightning claw and "gutted" with a bolt shell, and he still finishes his job.
  • Ludicrous Precision: Asking him to do otherwise is as close to a Berserk Button as he gets.
  • Machine Worship: Still a fervent, if twisted, worshiper of the Machine God, despite his willing cooperation with a Traitor Legion.
  • No Sense of Humor
  • Skele-Bot 9000: His cyborg body was worked into this image by choice, ultimately because it inspires fear.
  • The Spock: As per usual for a techpriest. Ultimately Downplayed, however, since he gets emotional over technological assets, had felt what he hadn't quite recognized as worry for his best adept, and ultimately understands pain and anguish from influence from the Legion.
  • Spock Speak: As a part of him thinking more like a computer than a person.
  • Verbal Tic: He sometimes lets out blurts of binary code, especially when agitated.

Septimus

Talos' personal slave and artificer.

  • Ace Pilot: He flew shipping craft before he was kidnapped, and afterwards he became the pilot of First Claw's thunderhawk. He's attached enough to Blackened that he refers to it as "my ship".
  • Artificial Hand
  • Battle Butler / Personal Mook: Depending upon perspective.
  • Badass Normal: Compared to his masters Septimus isn't very tough, but he's held up through fifteen to twenty years of legion slavery[3] including considerable combat.
  • Badass Long Hair: Somewhere between chin and shoulder length, and usually tied back. After the most recent run-in with the Black Legion it also serves to obscure his bionic eye.
  • Blond Guys Are Evil: He's a Punch Clock Villain at the most, but given his career he qualifies.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: His feelings for Octavia. He manages to eventually
  • Contentment In Slavery: Type one. He admits he's not happy, but is probably better off aboard The Covenant than he ever would have been if he'd lived his life on an imperial world.
  • Electronic Eye: After getting half his face shot off in Soul Hunter. The lens is violet.
  • The Engineer: Responsible for fixing all of First Claw's weaponry and armor.
  • Fantastically Indifferent: Best demonstrated in Hell's Iris, although living aboard a ten thousand year old space ship with a company of chaos space marines will desensitize one to anything.
  • Fingerless Gloves
  • Green Eyes
  • Machete Mayhem
  • The Musketeer: Two imperial laspistols at his hips and a machete strapped to his shin.
  • Perma-Stubble: He's generally described as "scruffy" for a reason.
  • Slave Brand: Has the pre-heresy Night Lords insignia tattooed in black ink and astartes blood across his upper back.
  • Say My Name: When he reveals his true name to Octavia at the very end of Void Stalker: Coreth
  • Those Two Guys: With Octavia. A rare romantic example.
  • You Are Number Six: Rather, number seven. He embraces this to the extent that he refuses to tell Octavia his birth name.


Octavia/Eurydice Mervallion

Another of Talos' personal slaves.
Navigator of The Covenant of Blood later The Echo of Damnation

  • Evil Eye / Third Eye: Like all other navigators, she was born with a warp eye.
  • Fallen Noble: Downplayed. Distant daughter of a rather low Navis Nobilite house, becomes navigator of an anonymous Rogue Trader, becomes a slave.
  • Fish Out of Water: In Soul Hunter and to a lesser extent in Throne of Lies. By Blood Reaver she seems to have mostly accepted her place in Tenth Company.
  • Hazel Eyes: Except for the third.
  • Meaningful Rename: From Eurydice Mervallion to Octavia (meaning, in this case, the Eighth Slave) signifies Octavia (reluctantly) embracing her role in a Traitor vessel.
    • Importantly, Octavia appears to have chosen to embrace this role, rather than barely accept it since the alternative was an ignominious death.
    • Coincidentally, she is the eighth of her father's daughters.
  • My Secret Pregnancy: Septimus and Octavia conspire to do this, but fail miserably on account of the Night Lords' super-senses.
  • Plucky Girl
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Her hair's more of a chestnut, but with the pallor living in Nostraman conditions induces, she fits the bill.
  • Those Two Guys: With Septimus. A rare romantic example.
  • Tsundere: Complete with the occasional mental "idiot" directed at Septimus.
  • Ultimate Job Security: Following Etregius' death in Soul Hunter, the ship cannot move through the warp without her.
  • Unkempt Beauty
  • The Watson: Her lack of knowledge of Nostraman, Night Lords' history and culture, and their general point of view often requires her to ask Septimus for explanation, and helps expands on the Night Lords' actions.
  • You Are Number Eight: Goes with the Theme Naming of Talos' slaves.

Maruc

Talos' most recently acquired slave.
Septimus' assistant.

  • Action Survivor: Holds out the longest of the crew against the Night Lord's invasion of Ganges Station. He wanted to join the Guard when he was younger, which may explain some of his survival skills and ability to think on his feet.
    • Also why he demonstrates some skill with a lasgun during Blood Reaver'. Shame the target he was shooting was a neverborn.
  • Big Brother Is Employing You: He worked as a mechanical technician of sorts on an Imperial mining station.
  • The Engineer: He worked on machines as a living before being taken, and later trained by Septimus as an artificer for repairs and maintenance for First Claw's equipment.
  • The Everyman
  • Fish Out of Water: Takes over this role just as Octavia starts to adjust.
  • Innocent Bystander
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: First Claw has already taken to calling him Nonus.
  • Older Sidekick: To Septimus
  • Right Man in the Wrong Place
  • Your Head Asplode: Killed when Daemon Calab throws him head first into a wall.
Back to Night Lords
  1. ↑ Blinded, bleeding from the eyes, bound naked to the wall, stripped of his powers, starved, dehydrated to the point of tissue damage, and mildly Mind Raped
  2. ↑ Really, you're not going to find anyone who plays the role of The Chick or The Dark Chick straight in a squad of Space Marines.
  3. ↑ Of the men who previously held his position, one was killed in combat with the enemy, two were killed by his master's brothers in arms for no apparent reason, one went mad and had to be put down, and two died of old age.
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