Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 268 Index_Astartes_NighthauntCourt

The Night Ghost King's Court was born in the deep midnight.

Since the 30th year of 843.M, the Primarch Konrad Curze returned to the Legion, and with new and unique rare regulations, the entire Legion has been firmly bound to the unique commandments and rules. The Night Haunted Court has been in the name of the Emperor. , in the darkness, spreading harsh laws that go hand in hand with fear to countless worlds.

Under the guarantee of the Emperor, the Legion Master of the Eighth Legion, Konrad Curze, named "Nightghost Bloodlord", introduced his unique laws and regulations, as well as the accompanying judgment system. , gradually penetrated into the foundation of the entire legal system of the human empire.

Just speaking from the foundation of the empire's legal system, even in the 40th millennium, the Night Ghost King's Court, which has long disappeared into the darkness, is still deeply known to all scholars of law and non-laws, and even the general public other than scholars. An important legion.

+++Origin+++

According to the narrator who followed Conrad Curze, the Dark Lord of the Night at the end of the Great Crusade, Conrad Curze was born in "a dwelling of eternal night", a place rife with vendettas, arson, banditry, betrayal, and crime. It is unscrupulous, extremely rampant, and has been so for many years.

Although Curze never stated it explicitly, according to the speculations of Imperial scholars, this planet is undoubtedly the recruitment site of the Night Ghost Court, and the planet where Konrad Curze first appeared in the Empire's sight, Nostramo.

Here, eternal darkness shrouds the entire world in a gloomy near-death condition. The surface of the earth's crust is covered with towering Gothic buildings and scar-like complex architectural structures. Countless psychedelics and heavy metal residues flow in the rivers. , so that anyone who tries to wade through the water may drown directly in madness.

Within the planet, there is a huge gap between the material and non-material buildings between the upper and lower levels. People at the peak of power are not afraid of trampling, killing, and torturing the lower levels. The dangerous balance is maintained within the narrow range that violence can limit. Until the arrival of Curze.

According to Konrad Coates himself, there were roles in his early life that could be compared to teachers and guides, but these roles did not leave dates of birth and death in any narrative, and they did not even have names. was informed.

In any case, Konrad Curze received a unique education system unknown to the Empire until now, created by the words and deeds of his teachers and the entire dangerous social environment.

He wandered in the suffocating and terrifying streets. With his powerful body, his hands stained with blood and his feet stepping on bones, he stepped to the top of the power of the corrupt society and carried out a series of drastic and merciless reforms.

It was described as "like a rainstorm of blood" in a "midnight celebration of death." Judging from the current situation of Nostramo, no matter how horrific the narrative is and how many malicious slanders it contains against the Night Ghost Blood Marquis by old political opponents, his reforms are undoubtedly successful.

Light never came to Nostramo. This is one of the few primordial home planets that even the Emperor has never set foot on. Only through the transformation and filtering of Konrad Curze can the brilliance of the Holy Eagle barely reach this eternal night star in a remote part of the galaxy.

But the Nostramos never felt dissatisfied. For them, order in the night is all they need. bright? Leave it to those who can't stand the darkness.

+++Debt of Atonement+++

"Some people always say that Night Ghost Blood Marquis is a crazy butcher and a cruel tyrant, but if this is true, why is the debt-atonement policy he formulated still in use today? It has brought us so much glory and Glory, allow us to join the good old days of the deceased royal court?”

"Conrad Coze is not the lord of tyranny, but a truly just Marquis. As long as we are willing to defend justice with actions and wash away sins with repentance, then our debts will one day be repaid."

During the Great Crusade, the recruitment system of the Eighth Legion Night Ghost Court was built on a precise and cold-blooded cruel mechanism. To understand the recruitment mechanism of the Night Ghost Royal Court, first of all, you must understand the unique model of this huge royal court, the "Debt of Atonement".

When Konrad Curze took control of the entire Nostramo, he personally ordered that all mortals born on the planet Nostramo before him were born with sin, and the only difference was that The depth of guilt.

This debt is even distributed to the unborn descendants of each mortal family. At this time, these sins that cannot be repaid immediately will be recorded on the parchment and the array of thinkers at the same time, and kept from generation to generation until all the debts in the list are cancelled.

The matter was initially recorded by Konrad Curze's then-mortal scribe, the late First Lady Lilia Ender of the Red Hand, and later administered by her successors. It was not until the thirty-fifth millennium that the first batch of atonement debts distributed by Konrad Coze himself were finally repaid.

All Nostramo residents who have obtained their respective debts through this method of judgment and need to repay them in the way established by the Blood Marquis must carefully select among them in order to repay the sins and debts they bear. clean.

This was the typical model for which Nostramo became famous throughout the imperial administration, the debt of atonement.

Among the many debts such as labor debts, blood debts, bone tax debts, and donation debts (all of which can be understood literally, this is Conrad Coates’ concise and concise naming feature), war debts are a special kind of debt. The debt repayment method is favored by many sinners. Just because embarking on the road to becoming an Astartes often means a larger amount of repayment and the beginning of possible glory.

This is also the main composition of the army of aspiring soldiers in the Night Ghost King's Court.

Now that Conrad Coze and the core parent group of the Night Ghost King's Court have gone away together, the form of the debt of atonement has been changed several times, and finally settled on the current model, which is no limit to planets, no limits to regions, limited collection, and limited distribution. .

Today's war group under the Night Ghost King's Court is also a rare and unique war group whose recruiting locations are not limited to the original body's home planet. The secondary royal courts were scattered like grass seeds, taking root throughout the galaxy.

Although cruel and intolerant of rejection, the successive Chapter Masters of each regiment did not want to arbitrarily deprive society of its vitality. Today, they simply ensure that every debt in the city is accurately recorded and that taxes and crime debts are collected as accurately as possible.

Unless the planet breaks out into stupid resistance, rejects the demands of the Lesser Royal Court Chapter, or dares to provide inferior repayment materials to deceive the public, a devastating blow will befall the world that betrays the debt of atonement.

+++Criminal Inquisition+++

The Purgation Inquisition is one of the important subordinate institutions of the Imperial Legal Institutions, the Tribunal, and is the only Imperial legal institution that can theoretically be classified as a Chapter Astartes.

The entire legal structure of the empire today was jointly organized by Konrad Curze and the mortal Kyril Sindermann, the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet and chief preacher.

The Sin-Cleaning Tribunal was the last gift that Night Ghost Blood Marquis left to the human empire before he left. It was almost independent of the entire administrative system, but it always occupied a position that could not be ignored.

After the parent organization of the Night Ghost Court was completely atomized and stripped of its name for unknown reasons, the Inquisition was often regarded as the true successor of Konrad Curze.

This is a unique branch characterized by heightened oversight of high-ranking Imperial personnel. That is to say, from the Council of the Supreme Lords of the Empire downwards, the exclusive responsibilities of the Inquisition of Sins have been continuously reduced.

The specific manifestation is that when necessary, that is, when the execution court that is supposed to be operating refuses to perform its duties, the on-duty chief judge of the Tribunal has the right to convict any supreme lord except the commander of the Imperial Guard, and may impose a crime and punishment. No upper limit. When the subject becomes a Moff, the maximum penalty becomes death, and so on.

It is worth mentioning that although the Tribunal of Sins does not have any independent ruling power over other ruling bodies over those without authority, this does not mean that they have lost the Astartes Chapter they originally had. Its function is to cleanse away sins and eliminate disasters.

When there is no serious disaster that urgently needs to be judged, the then Chief Referee will often lead the team to travel across the galaxy to avoid letting the war team fall into a situation of wasting military pay. And considering the special nature of the Tribunal, its approved combat equipment is also particularly sophisticated.

This often leads to the fact that even from the perspective of the Astartes Chapter, the Inquisition can be said to have great military achievements and prestige. Apart from the various parent chapters that retain their original names, the Inquisition is perhaps one of the most famous independent non-codex chapters in the entire Empire.

The issue of supervision of the Cleansing Tribunal is an interesting topic. Imperial scholars often try to discuss and refute it, but in the end they are defeated in both theory and reality.

In fact, there is only one supervisor of the Inquisition, the long-lost Night Ghost Blood Marquis, Konrad Curze himself.

Rumor has it that if the chapter dares to abuse its power, intends to commit injustice, violates the law, and derogates the faith, then Konrad Curze will return from the depths of the netherworld and kill the evil before it is born, as if he has foreknowledge. functions, and the freedom to travel to and from the galactic universe.

Out of the fanatical worship of the Lord of the Royal Court and the Father of Genes, and the almost paranoid pursuit of justice and morality that naturally emerged among the sons of the Royal Court after inheriting the Blood Marquis genes, the powerful binding force of this law actually far exceeds the ignorance of ordinary people. imagine.

Of course, no organization can always have smooth sailing and make no mistakes for thousands of years.

Interestingly, given the oversight regulations circulating within the Inquisition, the most serious sin the Chapter almost committed was at the end of the 33rd Millennium, when they simply sought to recall the Gene Father without any evidence. case, an attempt was made to interrogate the then-Admiral of the Imperial Fleet.

No one knows how Konrad Curze learned about this, and what kind of conversation he had with the members of the Chapter in the Glory Queen-class flagship "Nightfall" that came to the Inquisition late at night.

People only knew that when morning came, all the company commanders of the Tribunal of Sins had disappeared, blood overflowed the entire meeting hall, and eight peeled masks were arranged in a circle on the round table according to their respective seats, which was horrifying and shocking. , also seems to symbolize some kind of silent ending.

+++Legion Structure+++

The special feature of Night Ghost King's Court lies not only in its unique style and philosophy, but also in the peculiar characteristics of its initial legion structure.

Today, these characteristics are retained in various sub-royal chapters. For example, some chapters are controlled solely by the Chapter Master, while some Chapters do not have a Chapter Master and are directly led by a council - of course, there is no doubt that , all leaders are firm believers and admirers of the principles of Torah written by Conrad Coates.

Under the leaders of the Lesser Royal Courts, there are Astartes warriors who were once listed as courtiers and courtiers, forming a vague correspondence with the company commanders and company commanders' adjutants of other Astartes chapters. . However, each chapter has a different number of council members and courtiers, as well as a different number of first-level soldiers.

This directly led to the Imperial Ministry of War completely giving up coordinating the specific supply distribution to the Coze lineage Chapter, and giving them the freedom to collect debts of atonement and be responsible for their own profits and losses.

If the debt of atonement in the place where a chapter is located can no longer be levied according to regulations, and unfortunately it cannot afford the operating expenses, it will often apply for an exchange of governance areas with its brother chapters, or conduct a small expedition until They found the next planet with enough sin and settled down again.

In addition to the special characteristics of the Astartes Chapter, the two main auxiliary armies of the Nightghost Court during the Great Crusade are also particularly famous. One of them is called the Nostramo Chemical Dog, because it will take batches of chemical weapons before the war. The potion was named after Konrad Coze's research into the creation of a by-product of the blood process.

During the Great Crusade, soldiers were recruited directly from the prison of Nostramo. After the expedition, they separated from the Legion and became independent, and the sources of soldiers were also transformed into various penal worlds.

The criminals were promised that they could take anything legal they wanted from the battlefield and in this way hasten the payment of their respective debts of atonement. But if they are found guilty of a second crime, they will immediately be punished with the harshest penalties.

Although they are mainly composed of desperate criminals and crazy scavengers, they are famous for their resourcefulness and aggressiveness, and their combat effectiveness is unmatched when it comes to close combat in the hive city. And their dispatch often means that the situation is serious enough to let the dogs out.

The other auxiliary army is particularly mysterious and almost disappeared after the Great Crusade, making it impossible to verify. The only information that Imperial scholars can now deduce from past historical records is that they were once known as the "Sons of the Muses", their true faces were hidden for many years, and they played a vital role in the Emperor's plans.

According to records, the leadership of the Sons of Muse was once completed by two people; one of them was Conrad Curze's important deputy during the Great Crusade, and the only important interstellar person in the history of the Nightghost Court to receive the honorific title of "Prince" Warrior, "Visitor of Bloody Hands", "Steward of Blood", "Prince of Crows", Yago Severtalion.

The name of the other person is as unverifiable as the Auxiliary Army. It is only known that his symbol is the heart-piercing black blade, and together with Konrad Curze, he disappeared into the depths of history and will never be heard again.

Well, the story after returning to Terra will be put into the next volume of lightheartedness!

By the way, I might write a free extra story tomorrow, where the Primarch will recite "End and Death 3" around the fire at night.