Night Lords fleets?

I was wondering if we have any information on Night Lords expeditionary fleet designation and who commanded them, as well as anything on planets they pacified.

We don't really have any detail on Night Lords crusade fleets unfortunately. Konrad Kurze took the bulk of the Legions fleet with him when he went AWOL, first to destroy Nostromo and then on a wideranging rampage (although the fleet may have split up during this period).

As for planets they pacified, there are a few mentioned. Index Astartes and The Lightning Tower mention the Cherault system (pacified along with the Imperial Fists and the Emperor's Children) and one of the Imperial Armour books mentions the purging of the Shi'Hu'Gal Dominion in cooperation with the titans of the Legio Vulcanum. They took control of the planet Tsagualsa after the Heresy broke out and used it as their base (it was where Kurze was eventually assassinated). And of course the destruction of Nostromo. So far those are the only planets mentioned as far as I can remember.

Thanks a lot; I guess I'll invent some background for my story then since the possibilities are so open. What are the dates for Kurze's receiving his Legion and when he goes AWOL?

Mate, i would take a look at the IA article in the Night Lords section, it will flesh out all this kind of info for you!

Its a bit vague about when he is discovered, but from this extract you would have to say that its later on in the GC (having reached the edges of the galaxy):

As for going AWOL, how about an exact year?

The Dark King short story deals with exactly what happened there, its well worth getting hold of if you havent already!

The problem with the date is that it doesn't fit in too well given that:

A. The Heresy broke out early in the 31st Millenium, and the siege of Terra took place, at least according to the old Bill King story, 14 years into the 31st Millenium.

B. The Great Crusade lasted 200 years, and the Index Astartes suggests Night Haunter was found towards the end.

The Cherault date is given in the Official Imperial System (see here) so is in the year 29,826.

So if the date is correct, this means Kurze fought Dorn and went AWOL over 170 years before the Heresy broke out. Given that based on the novels the period between the end of the Great Crusade and the outbreak of the Heresy was measured in years rather than decades, this would place Kurze's dissapearance early in the Great Crusade, which seems highly unlikely - first of all because it seems he was found later in the Great Crusade, and second because this means after 170 years of rampaging around the galaxy indiscriminately slaughtering planetary populations he had still not been declared a traitor, and had only just been summoned to return to Terra and account for his actions (seeing as this occured just before the Heresy broke out).

I reckon that particular date should be treated with a hearty amount of scepticism personally.

This post has been edited by The Red Sorcerer on Nov 3 2009, 11:24 AM

D'oh! I didn't even think to check the IA article. Thanks for the info guys. I think I'll tailor the dates to match more with the novels, since all of the timelines I've found say the Luna Wolves were renamed at 125.M30 and Istvaan III was 012.M31, which just doesn't make sense. Would it be ok to suggest that Kurze was found around 965.M30, and his fear tactics becoming widespread in the Night Lords by 970? That would leave about 45 years before the Heresy for them to build up a nice catalogue of atrocities, and perhaps move the date of the confrontation with Dorn to just about the turn of the millenium.

That sounds like as good a guess as any really. Certainly placing the confrontation with Dorn around the turn of the Millenium seems eminently reasonable given all the factors. I would perhaps have Kurze being found rather earlier - although he was (probably) found late, I think most Primarchs (perhaps barring Alpharius) would have had at least 50-60 years leading their Legions before the Heresy broke out. Note that they didn't really start working on their 'nice catalogue of atrocities' until Kurze went AWOL - before that they were known as being harsh, but no more so than, say, the Iron Hands. It was only after the destruction of Nostromo that they started getting really nasty.