He worshipped the Warmaster like a god and Horus treated him as his most favoured son. Indeed, some whispered that he was in truth the clone-son of the Primarch himself, product of the earliest geno-experimentation.

When the Heresy came it was clear that Abaddon's loyalty was to his Primarch and not the distant Emperor of Mankind. He led the Terminator armoured Sons of Horus in campaigns on Istvaan, Yarant and in the siege of the Imperial Palace on Earth. His anguish at Horus's defeat in that final conflict drove him deeper into madness and hatred than any mortal should ever sink. He took Horus's lightning claw, tearing it from the Warmaster's armour with a howl of rage which echoed through the great ship.

Abaddon has fought to rebuild the pride and reputation of the Black Legion, always leading his forces into the most dangerous conflicts personally. At first, Abaddon won the grudging respect of the other Traitor Legions, but as his deeds have grown mightier he has succeeded in winning their support too. His impassioned words have rekindled the Traitor Legions' smouldering hatred of the Imperium and warriors of all the Legions have fought beneath his banner. Abaddon has marshalled his strength with care and now commands the loyalty of champions from all of the other Traitor Legions. Those who oppose him are crushed. Those who join him add their strength to the greatest army ever assembled within the Eye of Terror. Abaddon has tested the strength of the Imperium many times, and with each victory his power grows.

When Abaddon first returned it was at the head of a diabolic horde which ravaged entire systems around the Eye of Terror before the Imperium could muster the strength to halt it. During this first 'Black Crusade', Abaddon made many bloody pacts with the infernal powers. In the crypts below the Tower of Silence on Uralan, Abaddon recovered a daemonsword of prodigious power. With the howling daemonblade in his fist, Abaddon became nigh on unstoppable. Whole cities were burned in sacrifice to the ever-hungry daemons of Chaos, and entire armies were torn apart by gibbering Warp entities. Abaddon's power swelled to inhuman proportions as the Gods of Chaos rewarded him lavishly and he undertook acts of fiendish bravery which horrified those who stood against him.

During the recent Gothic War, Abaddon almost brought an entire sector to its knees. His fleets were augmented with a newly constructed flagship, known for good reason as the Planet Killer. Alongside this he somehow activated and gained control of the Blackstone Fortresses, mysterious constructions allegedly pre-dating the Imperium itself, that combined to generate prodigious destructive firepower. Abaddon attacked while the sector was cut off from reinforcements by warp storms, causing huge damage to the Imperial battlefleet, destroying a number of planets and devastating many more. Only the intervention of the Eldar enabled Imperial forces to stop the Chaos fleet. The High Lords of Terra live in fear of the day that Abaddon unites all of the Traitor Legions into an unstoppable horde and returns to play out the last acts of treachery begun by Horus ten thousand years ago.

Back: The Black Legion

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