Black Legion: Warhammer 40K Lore Guide

Once they were the Luna Wolves, the first among equals of the Great Crusade. Then they were the Sons of Horus, the Warmaster's own Legion, at the head of the greatest betrayal in human history. Today they wear black: the color of mourning, of shame, and of a new beginning. The Black Legion is Abaddon the Despoiler's army, the closest thing the forces of Chaos have to a standing empire, and the spearhead of thirteen Black Crusades that finally broke the gates of Cadia.

Of all the Traitor Legions of the Chaos Space Marines, the Black Legion is the most important to the story of the 41st millennium. This guide goes beyond the overview: the Legion's journey from Luna Wolves to Black Legion, Abaddon and his inner circle, how the Legion recruits and organizes itself, the Black Crusades from the Gothic War to the fall of Cadia, and what the Legion looks like in the era of the Great Rift.

Black Legion at a Glance

From Luna Wolves to Sons of Horus

The XVI Legion was raised from the gang-ridden mining world of Cthonia, where the Primarch Horus had grown up. Under Horus, the Luna Wolves became the Emperor's most trusted vanguard: fast, disciplined, endlessly victorious. After the triumph at Ullanor, the Emperor returned to Terra and named Horus Warmaster, commander of all the Imperium's armies. In his honor, the Luna Wolves were renamed the Sons of Horus and repainted from white to sea-green.

The Legion's heart was the Mournival, an informal council of four captains who advised the Warmaster: Ezekyle Abaddon, the First Captain; Horus Aximand; Tarik Torgaddon; and later Garviel Loken. Abaddon commanded the First Company and its elite Justaerin Terminators, and he was so like his gene-father in appearance and temperament that many thought him the Primarch's true son.

When Horus was wounded on Davin and turned to Chaos, most of his Legion followed him without hesitation. The loyalists hidden in its ranks, Loken and Torgaddon among them, were marked for death in the purge of Isstvan III. The Sons of Horus fought at the front of every major campaign of the Horus Heresy and stormed the walls of the Imperial Palace during the Siege of Terra. Then the Emperor boarded Horus's flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, and killed him. Abaddon reached his Primarch's body too late. The Legion carried Horus's corpse with them as they fled the Great Scouring into the Eye of Terror.

The Legion Wars and the Birth of the Black Legion

The Eye of Terror did not offer sanctuary. The surviving Legions turned on each other in the Legion Wars, and the Sons of Horus, blamed by many for the failure at Terra, were hunted from all sides. The Emperor's Children stole Horus's body so that the geneticist Fabius Bile could clone the Warmaster. The Legion was broken, its fortress lost, its warriors scattered into mercenary bands.

Abaddon refused to let his father's legacy become an Emperor's Children experiment. He tracked down the clone, destroyed it, and burned Horus's body. Then he did what no other traitor would: he renounced Horus's failure. He rejected the name Sons of Horus, painted his armor black, and founded a new Legion in his own image. The Black Library Black Legion novels by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, beginning with The Talon of Horus, tell this story from the point of view of Iskandar Khayon, a former Thousand Sons sorcerer who joins Abaddon, and show the Black Legion being built from warriors of many different Legions rather than the Sons of Horus alone.

Two weapons became Abaddon's symbols. The Talon of Horus is the Warmaster's lightning claw, combined with a twin-linked bolter, the very weapon that killed Sanguinius. Drach'nyen is a daemon sword of terrifying power, bound to Abaddon's will. With both, he became the most formidable champion in the Eye.

Abaddon the Despoiler

Abaddon is the Warmaster of Chaos, the title Horus once held, and the one figure who can unite the squabbling powers of the Eye of Terror for a common cause. He is unusual among Chaos lords in refusing to kneel to any single god. He accepts their gifts but uses them, playing the four powers against each other rather than becoming a pawn of any one.

His ambition is simple to state and almost impossible to achieve: to finish what Horus started and conquer the Imperium. Whether he also fights for the gods, for revenge or for himself is a question the lore deliberately leaves open. That ambiguity is a big part of his appeal as the setting's principal villain.

Organization: An Army of Many Legions

The Black Legion is not a pure Legion. It recruits from every warband willing to swear allegiance to Abaddon, so its ranks mix Heresy-era Sons of Horus veterans, renegades from other Traitor Legions, fallen loyalist Chapters and newly made Chaos Space Marines. They paint their armor black as a sign of fealty to the Warmaster, often keeping the marks of their old Legions beneath.

• Warbands: the Legion is divided into many semi-independent warbands, each led by its own Chaos Lord, that gather together when Abaddon calls a Black Crusade.
• The Chosen and the Justaerin: Abaddon's elite, the successors of the Sons of Horus First Company. The Justaerin still guard the Warmaster in Terminator armor.
• Sorcerers: the Legion relies on sorcerers to read the Warp and navigate its currents.
• Mortal and daemonic hosts: cultists, mutants, renegade regiments, daemon engines, Chaos Titans and fallen Knight houses swell every Black Crusade. The giant war machines are covered in our Chaos Knights guide.

Notable figures include Haarken Worldclaimer, the Herald of the Apocalypse, who announces Abaddon's attacks to their victims; and, in the Black Library novels, Iskandar Khayon and Falkus Kibre, the Widowmaker, leader of the Justaerin. Because the Legion is so mixed, almost any converted Chaos Space Marine can plausibly belong to it.

The Black Crusades

A Black Crusade is a vast invasion launched from the Eye of Terror, assembling Traitor Legions, renegades, daemons and mortal hordes under Abaddon's command. There have been thirteen. Each was costly, and each was considered a failure by the Imperium, as Abaddon withdrew without conquering Terra. But every crusade achieved a hidden goal: an artifact claimed, an Imperial defense weakened, a piece of a plan spanning ten thousand years put into place.

• The Twelfth Black Crusade, the Gothic War: Abaddon sought the Blackstone Fortresses, ancient alien star-forts of devastating power, in the Gothic Sector. He seized several of them, and the war was one of the largest naval campaigns in Imperial history.
• The Thirteenth Black Crusade: at the end of the 41st millennium, Abaddon launched the greatest invasion since the Heresy against the Cadian Gate, the only stable route out of the Eye of Terror.

The Fall of Cadia

For ten thousand years, Cadia had held the Cadian Gate, defended by billions of soldiers and its mysterious pylons, which helped hold back the Warp storms around the Eye. Its people became the most famous soldiers of the Imperium; see our Cadian Shock Troops guide for their side of the story. During the Thirteenth Black Crusade, Abaddon broke the planet's defenses and drove a Blackstone Fortress into Cadia itself. The world was shattered. Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed led the evacuation of what survivors could be saved.

The fall of Cadia was followed by the birth of the Great Rift, which split the galaxy in two. Whether that was Abaddon's ultimate goal, or the gods' design, the result was the same: the Imperium's gatekeeper was gone, and the roads out of the Eye were open.

The Black Legion in the Great Rift Era

The return of Roboute Guilliman and the Indomitus Crusade gave the Imperium new hope, but the Black Legion did not stop after Cadia. Abaddon's forces struck worlds such as Vigilus, and later campaigns, including the Arks of Omen story, followed the Warmaster as he pursued new weapons and new victories across the divided galaxy. In the current setting, the Black Legion is at the peak of its power, and the Warmaster remains the single greatest threat to the Imperium of Man.

How the Black Legion Differs From Other Chaos Space Marines

• The Warmaster's Legion: it is led by the most powerful mortal champion of Chaos, and it alone can rally the other Legions.
• Undivided and pragmatic: the gods are used, not obeyed. Their marks are welcome, their masters are not.
• A melting pot: its ranks blend veterans of many Legions and renegades, unlike more tribal Legions such as the Iron Warriors or the Night Lords.
• A long plan: where other Legions raid or brood, the Black Legion pursues a war of conquest measured in millennia.

Playing and Collecting the Black Legion

The Black Legion is the default face of the Chaos Space Marines army, and it suits players who want to use the whole range: Chaos Lords and Sorcerers, Legionaries, Chosen, Terminators, Possessed, daemon engines and cultists, all marked by any of the four gods. Abaddon himself is one of the most powerful characters in the game, and building an army around the Warmaster is a natural choice. The identity is versatile and aggressive: elite warriors backed by heavy support, adaptable to almost any style.

For painters, black and gold is easy to start and satisfying to finish, and the Legion's mixed origins give you license to add old Legion markings, Heresy-era armor and conversions.

Black Legion FAQ

Are the Black Legion and the Sons of Horus the same Legion?

Yes. The Black Legion is the XVI Legion, first called the Luna Wolves and then the Sons of Horus. Abaddon renamed it after destroying Horus's clone and burning his body, though it has since absorbed warriors from many other Legions.

Who leads the Black Legion?

Abaddon the Despoiler, once First Captain of the Sons of Horus and now Warmaster of Chaos.

How many Black Crusades have there been?

Thirteen. The Twelfth was the Gothic War, fought for the Blackstone Fortresses; the Thirteenth destroyed Cadia at the end of the 41st millennium.

Why is the Black Legion black?

Abaddon painted his Legion black in mourning and shame after the death of Horus and the theft of his body, renouncing the Warmaster's failure along with the old name and colors.

Which Chaos God does the Black Legion serve?

None exclusively. The Black Legion serves Chaos Undivided; individual warriors may bear the mark of any god. For the four powers, see our Chaos Gods guide.

What weapons does Abaddon carry?

The Talon of Horus, his gene-father's lightning claw with a built-in bolter, and Drach'nyen, a daemon sword of enormous power.

Continue Exploring

• Chaos Space Marines — the Traitor Legions, the Long War and every renegade warband.
• Warhammer 40K Factions: Complete Guide to All 29 Armies — every army, its lore and how it plays
• Word Bearers — the first Legion to fall, and the architects of the Heresy.
• Red Corsairs — Huron Blackheart's renegade pirates of the Maelstrom.
• Alpha Legion — the hydra's infiltrators and saboteurs.
• Cadian Shock Troops — the soldiers who held the Cadian Gate against the Black Crusades.
• Horus Lupercal — Horus Lupercal in depth
• Abaddon the Despoiler — Abaddon the Despoiler in depth

For the rest of the setting, browse every guide in the Warhammer 40K lore hub, and name your own Black Legion champion with the Chaos Space Marine name generator. To chronicle your own Black Crusade, Anima is free and runs in your browser with no account: a wiki, a timeline, and campaigns with a live DM screen.