Chapter 268 IndexAstartesNighthauntCourt

2x_Astartes_NighthauntCourt

The Nighthaunt Court was born in the deep midnight.

Since 843.M30, when the Primarch Konrad Curze returned to the Legion and bound the entire Legion to unique rules and regulations with a new and unique rare regulation, the Nighthaunt Court has spread strict laws and fear to countless worlds in the darkness in the name of the Emperor.

Under the Emperor's guarantee, the Lord of the Eighth Legion, Konrad Curze, who was named "Nighthaunt Blood Lord", gradually penetrated his unique laws and regulations, as well as the subsequent trial system, into the foundation of the entire legal system of the Human Empire.

From the foundation of the Imperial legal system alone, even in the 40th Millennium, the Nighthaunt Court, which had long disappeared in the darkness, is still an important legion that is deeply known to any legal and non-legal scholars, and even the general public outside of scholars.

+++Origin+++

According to the narrator who followed the Night Demon Blood Lord Konrad Curze at the end of the Great Crusade, Konrad Curze was born in "a place where the night is eternal", where there are vendettas, arson, robbery, and betrayal, and crime is rampant and has been so for many years.

Although Curze never said it explicitly, according to the speculation of Imperial scholars, this planet is undoubtedly the recruiting place of the Night Demon King's Court and the planet where Konrad Curze first appeared in the Imperial vision, Nostramo.

Here, eternal darkness shrouds the entire world in a dark and dying condition. The surface of the earth's crust is covered with towering Gothic buildings and complex architectural structures like scars. The rivers are filled with countless psychedelic drugs and heavy metal residues, so that anyone who tries to wade through the water may drown directly in madness.

On the planet, the material and non-material buildings of the upper and lower levels are very different. Those at the top of power are willing to trample, kill, torture, and other atrocities on the lower levels. The dangerous balance is maintained within a narrow range that can be limited by violence until the arrival of Curze.

According to Conrad Curze himself, there were roles that could be compared to teachers and guides in his early life, but these roles did not leave their birth and death dates in any narrative, and even their names were never told.

In any case, Conrad Curze received a unique education system that was unknown to the Empire so far, which was created by his teacher's words and deeds and the entire sinister social environment.

He wandered in the suffocating and terrifying streets, with his powerful body, blood on his hands, and bones on his feet, step by step to the top of the power of the corrupt society, and carried out a series of ruthless reforms with great sweeps.

It is described as "like a bloody rain" in the "midnight death celebration". Judging from the current situation of Nostramo, no matter how terrible the narrative is, and how much malicious slander against the Night Demon Blood Lord is contained in the old political opponents, his reforms are undoubtedly successful.

Nostramo has never seen the arrival of light. This is one of the few Primarch home planets that even the Emperor has never set foot on. The glory of the Holy Sky Eagle can only barely reach this star of eternal night in the remote part of the galaxy through the transformation and filtering of Konrad Curze.

But the Nostramo people have never been dissatisfied with this. For them, order in the dark is all they need. Light? Leave it to those who can't stand the darkness.

+++Debt of Atonement+++

"Some people always say that the Night Demon Blood Marquis is a crazy butcher and a cruel tyrant, but if that is true, why is the policy of debt of atonement he formulated still in use today? And why has it brought us so much glory and honor, allowing us to join the good old days of the deceased royal court?"

"Conrad Curze is not a tyrant, but a truly fair marquis. As long as we are willing to defend justice with actions and cleanse our sins with repentance, then our debt will be repaid one day."

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

When Conrad 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 the depth of the 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 parchment and the Thinker Array at the same time, and preserved from generation to generation until all the debts in the list are written off.

This matter was originally recorded by Konrad Curze's mortal clerk at the time, the late first Baroness of the Red Hand, Lilia Ande, and later managed by her successor. It was not until the 35th millennium that the first batch of atonement debts distributed by Konrad Curze himself was finally repaid.

And all Nostramo residents who have obtained their own debts through this judgment method and need to repay them in the way prescribed by the Blood Lord must carefully select them in order to repay the sins and debts they carry.

This is the typical model of Nostramo that is famous throughout the imperial administrative system, the debt of atonement.

Among many debts such as labor debt, blood debt, bone tax debt, and tribute debt (all of which can be understood literally, this is the concise naming feature of Konrad Curze), weapon debt, as a special way of debt repayment, is favored by many redeemers. 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 source of soldiers for the Night Demon King's Court.

Today, when Konrad Curze and the core mother group of the Night Demon King's Court have gone away together, the form of redemption debt has been changed several times, and finally settled in the current model, that is, unlimited planets, unlimited regions, limited collection, and limited distribution.

Today's war group under the Night Demon King's Court is also a rare unique war group whose recruitment area is not limited to the original body's mother planet. The secondary courts are scattered like grass seeds, taking root in various parts of the galaxy.

Although cruel and not allowing refusal, the war group leaders of each group do not want to deprive society of vitality at will. Now, they just make sure that every debt in the city is accurately recorded, and collect taxes and debts as accurately as possible.

Unless the planet breaks out in a foolish rebellion, rejects the demands of the Lesser Court Chapter, or dares to provide inferior repayment materials to deceive the world, a devastating blow will fall on the world that betrays the debt of atonement.

+++Purgation Inquisition+++

Purgation Inquisition is one of the important subordinate institutions of the Imperial Legal System "Tribunal", and it is also the only Imperial Legal System that can be classified as an Astartes Chapter in theory.

The entire legal system of the Empire today was jointly constructed by Konrad Curze and the mortal Kyril Sindermann, the 63rd Expedition Fleet and Chief Speaker at that time.

The Purgation Inquisition is the last gift that the Night Demon Blood Lord left to the Human Empire before he left. It is almost independent of the entire administrative system, but it always occupies an important position that cannot be ignored.

After the parent group of the Night Demon Court was completely atomized and split, and for unknown reasons, the name of the Royal Court was stripped away, the Inquisition is often regarded as the true successor of Konrad Curze.

This is a unique branch, which is characterized by the enhanced supervision of the high-ranking personnel of the Empire. That is, from the Imperial Supreme Lord Council down, the exclusive power and responsibility of the Inquisition has been reduced.

Specifically, when necessary, that is, when the Execution Court that should be operating refuses to perform its duties, the Chief Judge on duty of the Inquisition has the right to convict any Supreme Lord except the Commander of the Guards, and there is no upper limit to the punishment that can be sentenced. When the person being judged becomes a star district governor, the highest crime that can be sentenced becomes the death penalty, and so on.

It is worth mentioning that although the Inquisition has no power to judge people without power alone above other judgment institutions, this does not mean that they have lost their original function of the Astartes Chapter, that is, to cleanse sins and eliminate disasters.

When there is no major disaster that needs to be judged, the then-inquisitor will often lead a team to travel around the galaxy to avoid the regiment from being in a situation of wasting military pay. And considering the special nature of the Inquisition, the combat equipment approved by it is also particularly sophisticated.

This often leads to the fact that even from the perspective of the Astartes, the Inquisition can be called a glorious and famous war. Apart from the mother regiments that retain the original names of the legions, the Inquisition may be one of the most famous independent non-canon regiments in the entire empire.

The supervision of the Inquisition is an interesting topic. Imperial scholars often try to discuss and refute it, but in the end they all fail in both theory and reality.

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

Rumor has it that if the Chapter dares to abuse its power, intends to commit injustice, violate the law, and degrade faith, then Konrad Curze will return from the depths of the netherworld and strangle the evil before it is born, as if it has its own foreknowledge and freedom to travel between the galaxy.

Due to 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 the Sons of the Royal Court naturally developed after inheriting the Blood Marquis genes, the strong binding force of this decree is actually far beyond the ignorant imagination of ordinary people.

Of course, no organization can always go smoothly and make no mistakes for ten thousand years.

Interestingly, considering the supervision regulations circulated in the Inquisition, the most serious mistake that the Chapter almost made was that at the end of the 33rd millennium, just to recall the Father of Genes, it tried to interrogate the admiral of the Imperial Fleet at that time without evidence.

No one knows how Conrad Curze learned about this, and what kind of conversation he had with the members of the regiment when he came to the Inquisition's Glorious Queen-class flagship "Nightfall" in the middle of the night.

People only know that when the morning came, the captains of the Inquisition had all disappeared, blood was overflowing in the entire meeting room, and eight peeled skins were placed in a circle on the round table according to their respective seats, which was horrifying and seemed to symbolize a kind of silent ending.

+++Legion Structure+++

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

Today, these characteristics are retained in each of the Lesser Court Chapters, such as some Chapters are led by a single Chapter Master, while others are led by a Council without a Chapter Master - of course, all leaders are undoubtedly firm believers and advocates of the principles of the Law written by Konrad Curze.

Below the leaders of the Lesser Courts are the Astartes Warriors who were once listed as Courtiers and Courtiers, forming a vague correspondence with the Captains and Captains' Lieutenants of other Astartes Chapters. However, the number of Council members and Courtiers in each Chapter is different, and the number of soldiers in the next level is also different.

This directly led to the Imperial Military Affairs Department completely giving up coordinating the specific supply distribution of the Curze Line Chapters, and giving them the authority to collect the debt of atonement freely and bear their own profits and losses.

If the debt of atonement in the place where a chapter is located can no longer be collected according to the law, and unfortunately it cannot afford the cost of operation, it will often apply to its brother chapters to exchange the governance area, or conduct a small expedition until they find the next planet with enough sins to take root again.

In addition to the particularity of the Astartes Chapter, the two main auxiliary armies of the Night Demon King's Court during the Great Crusade are also particularly famous. One of them is called Nostramo Chemical Dogs, named after the by-product potion created by Conrad Curze in the process of studying blood before the war.

During the Great Crusade, soldiers were recruited directly from the prison of Nostramo. After the expedition, they left the legion and became independent, and the source of soldiers was also transformed into various punishment worlds.

These criminals were promised that they could take any legal things they wanted from the battlefield, and they could speed up the repayment of their respective debts of atonement in this way. But if they were found to have committed a second crime, they would be immediately punished with the most severe punishment.

Although they are mainly composed of desperate criminals and crazy scavengers, they are well-known for their wisdom and enterprising spirit. When they fight in close combat in the hive city, their combat effectiveness is unmatched. And their deployment often means that the situation is serious enough to be released.

Another auxiliary army is particularly mysterious and almost disappeared after the Great Crusade, and it is impossible to verify. The only information that Imperial scholars can now infer from past historical records is that they were once called "Sons of the Muses", their faces were covered for many years, and they had made crucial contributions to the Emperor's plan.

According to records, the leadership of the Sons of the Muses was completed by two people; one of them was Konrad Curze's important deputy during the Great Crusade, the only important Space Marine in the history of the Night King's Court to be honored as "Prince", "Blood Hand Chancellor", "Fresh Blood Vessel Master", "Prince of Crows", Yago Sevitarion.

The name of the other person is as unknown as the auxiliary army. We only know that his symbol is the heart-piercing black blade, and he and Conrad Curze disappeared into the depths of history and were never heard of again.

Well, the story after returning to Terra will be put into the next volume of the lighthearted and enjoyable book!

By the way, I may write a free extra chapter tomorrow, where the Primarch recites "The End and Death 3" around the fireside