Event · M31

Battle of Nocturne

The Battle of Nocturne was a Horus Heresy battle above and on Nocturne, home world of the Salamanders, after which their primarch Vulkan returned to life. It was fought in M31. First Captain Artellus Numeon and surviving Salamanders had left Macragge aboard the battle-barge Charybdis with Vulkan’s body, believing that he could be resurrected on Nocturne. A contingent of Death Guard aboard the Vengeance-class grand cruiser Reaper’s Shroud, under Captain Malig Laestygon and aided by the Word Bearers Dark Apostle Quor Gallek, followed them through the Ruinstorm, the vast warp storm of the period. These Death Guard had been cast off by Mortarion after the Drop Site Massacre and sought to regain his favour by destroying the Salamanders. It has been suggested that the expedition passed through the Ruinstorm only through the machinations of Magnus the Red. After a brief engagement in space, in which the Death Guard attempted to board the Charybdis in search of Vulkan’s body, the Salamanders landed on Nocturne with the primarch’s coffin and joined fellow survivors of the Legion under Chaplain Nomus Rhy’tan. The Death Guard cruiser attempted to destroy the planet with a virus bomb, which was burned away by a vast flame weapon on Nocturne’s surface. The Death Guard then launched a ground assault and, after heavy fighting, were killed or driven from the planet; Laestygon was among the dead. After the battle Numeon and his brothers interred Vulkan’s body within Mount Deathfire. When a week passed without result, Numeon cast off his rank and armour and threw himself into the volcano’s flames, and Vulkan soon returned to life. The Salamanders afterwards waged the War of Drakes to purge the Death Guard from the region around Nocturne.

See where Battle of Nocturne occurred on the galactic map during the Horus Heresy.

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