Unification Era Night Lords

[Ryltar Thamior]

Greetings, all. I'm presently looking for information on the Unification (and perhaps early-Great Crusade) era VIIIth Legion for a project I'm working on.

I've taken a quick leaf through the relevant segment of Massacre, but there's precious little to be gleaned (other than the fact that,f or the most part, they were recruited from the prison sinks; and that the survivors of the Legion's early IXth Company both fought in Southern France [Oxitania - cognate with the older Occitania of our own history], and incorporated some of their parent legion's heraldry when they departed Terra in the company of the area's former King turned Rogue Trader Gotha as the 'Crimson Sons'). I also read Child of Night perhaps a year ago, and will go back to poke around through that to see if there's any additional light shed. 

But yeah, long story short ... it seems like the VIIIth prior to contact with their Primarch have been presented as even MORE of a 'blank slate' than other legions. We don't seem to have unit names, solid colour-schemes, legion badges or other iconography ... or anything else, really, come to think of it. I'm also rather surprised that, unless I'm misreading Massacre, the line I initially presumed to be there about it being a specifically *Albian* Prison-Sink [which makes for a certain degree of departure from what I presumed to be the inspiration for that in the form of the Pit prison from The Dark Knight Rises being located in what appeared to be the far Middle East or Central Asia) doesn't seem to be there. Perhaps it's an inference drawn from something said in Child of Night.

In any case, the Crimson Sons artwork and depiction (which has also been picked up and run-with right to the endzone by B&C's own BCK in a number of places including this *absolutely excellent* Unification Wars exploration) seems the only substantial resource we have to go on for the Legion's early heraldry and style. 

What we can pick up from this is that a colour-scheme not entirely dissimilar to its later incarnation (albeit in perhaps more muted tones - a less 'bloody' red, and a more dusky/twilight purple than midnight blue) appears in evidence - and further, that the Legion's winged skull badge does indeed seem to have been in use prior to contact with Curze becoming established (although it is, I suppose, equally possible that these represent heraldry elements which were re-incorporated by the Crimson Sons after their own re-incorporation with the Night Lords legion at some point prior to Isstvan V). The other visual standout from this depiction is, of course, the whole "tears of blood" thing. 

So with all that out of the way ... does anyone happen to have any additional information about their Unification- or Early Crusade era dispositions, stylings, organization, nomenclature and heraldry/iconography?

[Paradigm]

Since the other early crusade-era legion colors were inspired by epic, the precedent is set.

 

For Night Lords, this would give the early 8th a black bat on a red field,or a red bat on purple/black/blue one.Sometimes halved with a skull. (it was a Khornate rune back in the day, as they were Khorne worshippers. The skull currently present is an evolution of the Khorne Rune that was also sometimes superimposed over the bat.)

 

I would retain the Crimson Sons colors and just put the OG bat silhouette on the shoulder. You can use the different color patterns for different squads or something. Maybe veterans have red with black bats for example. The regular squads could just retain whatever base color under a red bat. The eyes don't need the blood, unless you like it. We just don't know enough about where it comes from. Lots of Terran veteran markings should be present as well. It's been a while since I read HH2, but if there are any notable compliance actions in the Solar System, you could take the precedent of Planetary runes, as marking vets of those campaigns.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Since the other early crusade-era legion colors were inspired by epic, the precedent is set.

 

For Night Lords, this would give the early 8th a black bat on a red field,or a red bat on purple/black/blue one.Sometimes halved with a skull. (it was a Khornate rune back in the day, as they were Khorne worshippers. The skull currently present is an evolution of the Khorne Rune that was also sometimes superimposed over the bat.)

 

I would retain the Crimson Sons colors and just put the OG bat silhouette on the shoulder. You can use the different color patterns for different squads or something. Maybe veterans have red with black bats for example. The regular squads could just retain whatever base color under a red bat. The eyes don't need the blood, unless you like it. We just don't know enough about where it comes from. Lots of Terran veteran markings should be present as well. It's been a while since I read HH2, but if there are any notable compliance actions in the Solar System, you could take the precedent of Planetary runes, as marking vets of those campaigns.

 

Thanks for that :D Any idea whereabouts I'd go looking for some of the original art and paintschemes you mention? I've tried a few different combinations of search-terms on Google to limited avail. 

 

Also, where's the planetary runicons as victory markings on armour from? That sounds like a pretty cool way to incorporate some astrological glyphs. 

[Skalpynock]

I remember a Raven Guard having the Jovian rune from the conquest of one of its satellites (Ganymede, I think?) on a kneepad.

[Paradigm]

Here you go:

http://www.ozdestro.com/uploads/1/3/0/1/13014732/7511246_orig.jpg

http://www.ozdestro.com/uploads/1/3/0/1/13014732/660811_orig.jpg

These are images that have been in a few places back in the day. They were on the back of the first edition of Epic (Space Marine), and I think they were in Realm of Chaos books as well. Or something similar.

Note the Night Lords and Salamanders switched legion numbers, and the Night Lord color scheme is almost exactly the same as the Crimson Sons.

Matter of fact, a lot of the legion number are different.

There is a fluff bit in the HH XIXth legion section that mentions the astrological symbol. They put the "Jovian Rune" and an X together to mark vets of a particularly insane "liberation". Very few were left as of the heresy, if any. Pretty sure Ganymede is in fact the right one. Since they are similar in character it seem likely the early XIIIth would end up with somewhat similar iconography to the XIXth.

[Kol Saresk]

Let's be fair about the different Legion numbers Fortnight, the Ultramarines weren't even a Legion back in Rogue Trader era lol.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

One of the main reasons I picked the Crimson Sons and Unification era VIII Legion is precisely because there's not much background for them and I could fill in the blanks however I wanted.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Here you go:

 

[snipped pix for brevity]

 

 

These are images that have been in a few places back in the day. They were on the back of the first edition of Epic (Space Marine), and I think they were in Realm of Chaos books as well. Or something similar.

 

Note the Night Lords and Salamanders switched legion numbers, and the Night Lord color scheme is almost exactly the same as the Crimson Sons.

 

Matter of fact, a lot of the legion number are different.

 

There is a fluff bit in the HH XIXth legion section that mentions the astrological symbol. They put the "Jovian Rune" and an X together to mark vets of a particularly insane "liberation". Very few were left as of the heresy, if any. Pretty sure Ganymede is in fact the right one. Since they are similar in character it seem likely the early XIIIth would end up with somewhat similar iconography to the XIXth. 

 

 

 

Oh wow! That's some great inspiration! Thanks! 

 

 

One of the main reasons I picked the Crimson Sons and Unification era VIII Legion is precisely because there's not much background for them and I could fill in the blanks however I wanted.

Well that's something of a welcome clarification :P Your Unification era stuff is, as I said up-thread, amazing - and I'm impressed given its level of narrative involvement and attention to detail that it's pretty much free-standing :D 

 

I've placed my order for bitz to start committing resin-to-base, now that I know i've got enough 'space' to work with. Will post updates on my Heresy-era log. 

 

If there's more info out there, from short stories etc. - I'd love to hear about it.