Why the Night Lords are the Best Traitor Legion | Warhammer 40k Lore

g'day guys and gal it's no secret that i think the traitor primarks and by extension their legions are pretty [ __ ] they are on the cusp of total galactic domination given free will limitless power and a galaxy to play with by their father yet they decided that burning and genociding the empire that they created as well as letting their sphincters get desecrated by demons was the right way to go about things most legion's decision to join the forces of hell still makes me shake my head mortarian the anti-psycho primark who swore an oath to bring down tyrants and oppressors ended up as a witch king demon lord at tyrant fulgrim went from the emperor's number one simp to an imperium hating junkie after like one conversation with horus however the one legion that has genuinely had a lot of logic in betraying the imperium was the nightlords they served with distinction during the great crusade but they were insulted for their methods and isolated due to their primarch's eccentric personality it's no wonder they were like alright eat my dick and turned on the emperor i just finished the night lord's omnibus which really gives good insight into the logic culture and mentality of the night lords and i must say i've gained a newfound respect for them i'd go as far as to say that they are now my favorite traitor legion and by the end of this video i reckon they'll be yours too today i'll go over why the night lords legion actually dope as hell and don't get the respect they deserve i'll go over why they're so effective why their portrayal of the imperium was the most justified as well as other stuff like their really cool armor design i will talk a bit about conrad but he is a bit of a cooker so most of the praise in this video will go to his sons who despite their father being an absolute crackhead still managed to turn out somewhat okay you know if you ignore their obsession with flying babies and eating kittens let's get into it [Music] let's start with their actually pretty sweet origins the og nightlords were born in terror they were the sons of hardcore prisoners that lived in the darkest depths of the giga cities on terror they were born into darkness and death as the denzens of the blackness down there were all batshit insane see what they did there as such these children became silent pale stalkers one with the darkness so to speak they were so unnerving that even the hardcore prisoners who shared the undercity with them were like nope and actively avoided them the emperor on the other hand was like [ __ ] yeah this is sick and he recruited these knights children as they were called to become the first legionnaires of the night lords and of all the legion origin stories that is up there with the most badass by far they weren't just some desert rats or children of noble families they already had their own spice even if that spice was just been incredibly emo the night lords had a strong sense of justice to them life was black and white guilty or innocent thus they never hesitated or felt bad about inflicting justice to those they deemed deserving this cold and ruthless methodology was a big reason as to why the nightlords were so scary they did really [ __ ] up [ __ ] not because it was their duty or they enjoyed it at least not at the start they did it because they felt it was morally the right thing to do the emperor would rely on them when an enemy needed to be defeated but not destroyed opponents that required judgment but were too valuable to just straight up delete from existence who better to do that than astaris that could terrify the living [ __ ] out of you when the legion was reunited with conrad curse it was a very easy transitioning process the people of nostramon had naturally black eyes and the nightlord's jean seed also gave you black eyes so yeah bit of a match made in heaven there conrad also had a strong sense of justice even though it was a bit twisted and harsh and he enjoyed fighting guerrilla warfare literally like pays in a pod this brings me to my next point about why the nightlords are actually pretty damn awesome during the great crusade they relied on terror and war crimes to achieve imperial compliance against newly rediscovered human worlds this doesn't sound that awesome until you realize that a terrified human is still a living human the nightlords inflicted the least amount of casualties and death out of all the legions during the great crusade because they were so good at scaring everyone into obedience what's worse killing a million soldiers than blowing up a populated city to force an enemy to surrender or flying alive 1 000 soldiers placing their still living bodies around the city and then broadcasting the sounds of 100 noble innocent children getting tortured to death around the entire world causing the soldiers to surrender and the planet to give up the first option incurs 1 000 times more death trillions of dollars in destruction and a world and population in need of rebuilding the second option leaves the world's population and infrastructure intact with a very quelled and obedient world option one was regularly performed by legions like the salamanders the blood angels and even the ultramarines noble legions who looked down on the nightlords and their methods of war you can probably begin to see why the nightlords were so [ __ ] pissed at everyone when imperial worlds revolted halfway through the great crusade they would instantly surrender and apologize if they heard the night lords were coming for them yet they would fight against an imperial fist invasion suffering countless deaths and planetary damage from a logical standpoint the nightlord's method is better and even from an ethical standpoint the nightlord's method is still better the other legions were very hypocritical in judging them for this thinking the nightlords as savages whilst they themselves killed millions from orbit whilst the nightlord legion was initially solid their primark and his attitude was very flawed conrad believed that total fear would equal to total control and harmony which you know wasn't wrong however that system meant that as soon as total fear vanished chaos and lawlessness would follow when he left his pacified homeworld of nostramo to lead his legion it descended back into anarchy as he was the only one holding it together if he had introduced better education healthcare anti-corruption reforms hell even some kind of environmental system to allow in a bit of sunlight his world probably would have remained pure and righteous look at ultramar you don't see giliman flaying everyone's grandma to keep order this was bad for the nightlords as their recruiting world was now tainted the best and brightest were taken to the nightlords however that usually meant kids teenagers and young adults who were the sons of ganglords or were already accomplished criminals themselves as such the legion went from the terran-born knights children mixed with the pure sons of nostromo to now receiving an influx of murderers rapists and degenerates who were given superhuman powers they were still effective for sure but whilst the true nightlords and their father performed their many horrific war crimes for justice and judy the new nightlords did it for fun the legion began to take a bit of a sadistic turn to make matters worse when conrad told fulgrim about his visions and how he saw the horus heresy approaching fulgrum told rogel who proceeded to call conrad a little emo [ __ ] heretic conrad then had a fit and nearly killed dorne resulting him getting thrown in jail he escaped with his legion and fled into deep space to try a tone for his now corrupted legion and stem the poison conrad and his sons blew up their own home world of nostromo that was actually a pretty admirable move in nostramo they had a ton of resources endless recruits and a base of operation however they gave it all up to try cleanse themselves with their failures and maintain their original nobility nice with the imperium shunning and looking down on them half their legion being genuine criminals and now being on the run from rogel it's absolutely no wonder that the nightlords joined horus and betrayed the imperium i'd actually be disappointed if they didn't by that point they had complete and total justification for their actions to make them even more badass they rejected chaos their vengeance against the imperium was pure and deliberate they would not let it get corrupted and clouded by demonic forces like most of the other trade allegiance had they saw chaotic tainter's weakness and they remained surprisingly pure throughout the heresy and beyond nightlord gene seed is said to be some of the most pure gene seed out there so there you go i want to quickly note that conrad was actually a pretty impressive primark going up against a nearly triumphing against giliman the lion vulcan and cinguinius in a 4v1 solo war the lion and gillyman would have been dead if it wasn't for some very heavy plot armor his ability to see the future with great detail made him a nightmare to fight against easily putting him in the top five duelists out of all the primarks the nightlords did their best during the heresy got some wins got their ass kicked a bit then retreated to a world called saguelsa to regroup now despite their father's obviously slipping grip on reality they loved him and they stayed by his side even when he had part of their fortress turned into countless human bodies stuck together and kept alive through sorcery yeah that was pretty weird and very questionable but hey at least they were fully committing to their villainous role when other legions would have abandoned their primark the nightlord stayed by their father been with him until he's assisted suicide at the hands of an imperial assassin despite all the [ __ ] they copped they remained incredibly loyal sons then [ __ ] got even worse the ultramarines came for them blowing up their fortress killing most of the legion ruining most of their resources and scattering the surviving nightlords into the galaxy from here the nightlord warbands maintained a lot of their nobility and will time after time rejecting chaos and continuing their vengeance against the imperium on their own terms don't get me wrong a lot of nightlords fell to chaos but they were generally shunned and insulted by their brothers they were also pretty rare compared to the corruption in literally every other traitor legion bar maybe the alpha legion the point i'm making here is that they have remained true to their ideals no matter how questionable those original ideals might have been the night lords of the great crusade are very similar to the night lords of the modern era compare that to the death guard who now smell like someone shut on a blue waffle or the world eaters who can no longer form full sentences and you'll see that it's quite the achievement in terms of aesthetics nightlords look gorgeous their midnight blue armor combined with their unique armor accents put their armor customizability and versatility up there with the blood angels unfortunately their oldest [ __ ] tabletop models now look a bit goofy but nightlord artwork is up there with some of the best who knows maybe a lord of the night major kill mini is on the horizon in the nightlord's omnibus each warrior had their own distinct style talos with his skull helm sirian with his lightning bolt helmet ooze ass with his flayed skin cloak zhal with the ceremonial batwinged helmet you won't find that level of diversity with the imperial fists and definitely not with the primaris the night lords aren't perfect by any means they are lower number low on supplies many of the living ones were a part of the sadistic gangs that conrad despised yet they still maintain their purpose and lessons of their father a new nightlord has recently emerged one with the prophetical visions of their father without all the spurginess that comes with it a nightlord that could once again lead his legion to glory watch this space i wouldn't be shocked if new nightlord models and lore aren't too far off if you enjoyed the video like nightlords and want to see some tits then patreon is the place to be only one dollar per month give you access to some some pretty cheeky anime titties hit the subscribe button and hit the real subscribe button for more content to bat too join the score for more memes and i'll see you in the next one peace [Music] bow to me [Music]

Channel: Majorkill

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Keywords: Warhammer, 40k, Fantasy, lore, Story, Explained, Australia, Australian, Majorkill, Gamesworkshop, xenos, Laer, Great Cruisade, Astartes, Astarte, Space Marine, legion, Primarchs, Emperor, top 5, top 10, Tau, Tyranids, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Necrons, Space, Sigmar, Chaos, Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, Slaanesh, Rogal Dorn, Imperial Fists, Yellow, Legion, Ultramarines, Guilliman, TTS, epic, gaming, legendary, Necron, Sister of Battle, Xeno, Thunder Wariors, Custodes, Alpharius, Dreadnought, Primaris, Psykers, Pskyers, Magnus, Crusade

Id: X2sCNM-Ajpk

Length: 11min 50sec (710 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 13 2022