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Ezekyle Abaddon
Warmaster of Chaos, Lord of the Black Legion
Also known as Abaddon the Despoiler, The Despoiler
Homeworld: Cthonia
Ezekyle Abaddon is the Warmaster of Chaos and master of the Black Legion, formerly First Captain of the Luna Wolves and the Sons of Horus.
Abaddon was born on Cthonia in the late 30th millennium and rose through the ranks of the Luna Wolves to become First Captain and a member of the Mournival, the inner council of close companions that advised the Primarch Horus. When the Luna Wolves were renamed the Sons of Horus, Abaddon retained his rank and his place at Horus’s side. Unlike the daemon primarchs, who gave themselves wholly to the Ruinous Powers, he has refused to do the same.
During the Siege of Terra he remained First Captain. At the Lion’s Gate spaceport he led 3,000 Sons of Horus, not the Legion as a whole. He later led the Justaerin and elements of the 18th and 19th Companies in the subterranean attack at the Saturnine Gate, which failed. He reached the Vengeful Spirit only after the Emperor had struck Horus down. Aboard that ship, Constantin Valdor wounded him with the Apollonian Spear and named him the Despoiler.
After the Heresy, Abaddon travelled to the daemon world of Harmony, where he took up the Talon of Horus and killed a clone of his former primarch. He then renamed the Sons of Horus the Black Legion, and has led it in a long series of campaigns against the Imperium known as the Black Crusades. These are properly understood as separate campaigns, fought under his command across millennia, rather than a single war continued under successive names. The First Black Crusade began in 781.M31; later crusades included the Twelfth, fought in the Gothic sector and known as the Gothic War, and the Thirteenth, dated to approximately 999.M41, in which the Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity was driven into Cadia and destroyed it. In the Vigilus campaign he sought to close the Nachmund Gauntlet, deployed a weapon called the Voidclaw, and duelled Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines before withdrawing to save the Vengeful Spirit. In the early 42nd millennium he allied with the daemon Vashtorr in the Arks of Omen campaign, assembling fragments of an artefact called the Key. No end to that war is recorded.
Track Ezekyle Abaddon's known locations across the galaxy.
Key engagements
- Abaddon claims Drach'nyen (entered the Tower of Silence on Uralan and took up Drach’nyen when the daemon took the form of a blade)
- First Black Crusade (opened the crusade at Cadia in 781.M31 and killed Sigismund; accounts differ on whether Drach’nyen was claimed in 781.M31 or at the crusade’s end)
- Legion Wars on Harmony (took the Talon of Horus, killed the clone of Horus aboard the Fleshmarket, and was proclaimed Horus’s successor)
- Raid on Luna (commanded the Traitor attack on Luna in the Solar War and took the Selenar gene-laboratories)
- Siege of Terra (First Captain; led Sons of Horus contingents at the Lion’s Gate spaceport and the failed Saturnine attack, and reached the Vengeful Spirit after Horus had been struck down)
- Ullanor Crusade (went with Horus and a First Company Terminator detachment against Urlakk Urg)
- 2nd Black Crusade (led the Cursing of Corona in 597.M32; Cadia held after five years, while the Belis Corona yards were destroyed and the Eldritch Needles were toppled)
- 3rd Black Crusade (destroyed Saint Gerstahl’s remains on Gerstahl while Tallomin drew the defence onto Cadia)
- Devastation of El'Phanor (broke the Kromarch’s gates with Drach’nyen, ended that line, and destroyed the monolith; Imperial forces then cleared El’Phanor)
- Scouring of Elysia (burned Kasyr Lutien on Tarinth and brought Doombreed through; the Warhawks and Venerators were destroyed)
- 7th Black Crusade / Battle of Mackan (nearly destroyed the Blood Angels on Mackan and killed Captain Acrion; Telemachon Lyras was not killed there)
- 9th Black Crusade (drew defenders to Antecanis IV, destroyed the planet with cyclonic torpedoes, and ravaged the sector for seventeen years; the opening is dated both to 165.M37 and to 537.M38)
- 10th Black Crusade (with Perturabo, feinted at Helica’s Thracian Primaris and watched the Iron Warriors burn Medusa’s outer worlds before withdrawing; Medusa stood)
- Doom of Relorria (fought Murgor ‘Undred Teef on Relorria after his fleet was scattered, took thousands of Orks to the Eye, and then retreated)
- 13th Black Crusade / Fall of Cadia (commanded the crusade and drove the Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity into Cadia)
- Gothic War (commanded the Twelfth Black Crusade in the Gothic Sector from 139.M41; accounts differ on whether he kept two Blackstone Fortresses or three, and on whether the war closed in 151.M41 or 160.M41)
- War of Nightmares (brought the Black Legion to Vigilus to close the Nachmund Gauntlet, fired the Voidclaw, duelled Marneus Calgar, and withdrew to save the Vengeful Spirit; he did not take the world)
- Arks of Omen (allied with Vashtorr to assemble the Key; he did not command the assault on the Rock, which failed)
- Battle of Idolatros (led the Black Legion fleet at Idolatros; the military result favoured the Imperium, and the strategic result favoured Chaos because Vashtorr completed the Key)