Chaos

This is something I wrote a while ago. I haven't updated in a few days, so here's this thing.

I have to say my favorite Chaos legions are the Alpha Legion and the Night Lords.  It is no coincidence that these are the two "least chaotic" legions.  By this I mean these are the two with the least actual devotion to the Chaos Gods, least afflicted by mutation, and least zealous.  They have several other things in common: most notably the death of their Primarchs.  Of which more later.
 
This is because the stories of their individual reasons for turning against the Emperor are the most complex and nuanced.  And their feelings towards the Imperium and towards Chaos are the same.
 
First the Alpha Legion.  I think it is not an exaggeration to say that Alpharius was the smartest of all the Primarchs.  While the parallels between Konrad Curze and Batman are too obvious to ignore, I would actually say that Alpharius embodies Batman's ethos much more closely.  Let's just pretend I never said anything as nerdy as the last sentence.  Alpharius takes the "long view;" he is much more interested in how battles are won, using every tool at his disposable to do what it takes to succeed, rather than committing to any narrow definition of strategy or victory.  Even a tactical genius like the Lion has abandoned all of the tools outside of battle, and I believe that in any evenly matched fight, Alpharius would defeat any of his brother Primarchs.  
 
Alpharius's pragmatism is his greatest strength.  His utter focus on achieving his desired goals by any means necessary means that when he saw the Acuity, he focused on one goal: denying the Primordial Annihilator at all costs.  Alpharius saw, however, what even the Cabal missed.  The Cabal hoped that the Heresy could defeat Chaos once and for all, by giving it a brief moment of ascendance and then annihilating it.  They were wrong, and Alpharius knew they were wrong.  
 
  Utopian goals-- the complete destruction of Chaos-- are counterproductive to species survival.  It is best to manage and maintain the flaws of the universe on an ongoing basis.  Thus, they chose to ally with Chaos in order to manage it, prevent its final victory, and keep it suppressed over time rather than attempt to wipe it out in one cataclysmic battle.  It would not surprise me to learn that the failures of the Black Crusades and the defeat of prominent Chaos champions have been due to subtle machinations by the Alpha Legion.  In this way they prevent the final victory of Chaos witnessed in the Acuity.
The death of Alpharius proves his point.  I have heard fanboys claim that Alpharius is not dead.  Believe me, I wish it were so.  But he has to be dead.  Alpharius's death was meaningful because it proved his point.  It proved that no cost is too great if victory is achieved, that dividing command structures are reacting fluidly to developments is a superior strategy to any fixed battle plan, that the Alpha Legion's means of waging war were the right ones.  If Alpharius lived, it simply meant Guilliman's gambit failed.  If he died, it means Guilliman succeeded and still lost because Alpharius's combat philosophy was better.
 
On to the Night Lords.  I feel that the best characterization of the Night Lords is in Aaron Dembski-Bowden's work-- and by the way, ADB is rapidly becoming my favorite 40k author, even if his writing is a bit more bleak than Dan Abnett's.  Konrad Curze is the reason I like the Night Lords.  This is a man who hates his Legion.  He does not hate their methods, or what they've become.  He hates them.  He hates his children and he hates himself.  Konrad Curze is a man who has absolutely no illusions.  He knows the bestial savagery at the heart of humanity.  He knows what it takes to keep people in line.
 
Think of Konrad Curze, the primarch.  He was a living demigod, a paragon of strength and wisdom.  He was designed to be the perfect warrior-- stronger and faster, able to formulate strategies in the blink of an eye, able to plan assaults, marshal forces and command armies.  He was not only a warrior but a master scholar and tactician with a brilliant mind.  Why did he squander his potential and become a feral tyrant?  It was his sacrifice.  Kurze knew that to control people, he had to make them fear the consequences of disobedience.  He knew that in order to protect the weak from the predations of the strong, there had to be someone stronger and more terrible.  He made himself an animal-- he sacrificed everything noble and good about himself in order to do that.  He gave up the life he could have had and made himself an exile for the good of the rest of society.
 
Think about that.  Curze knew that only brutality could keep a brutal species in line.  He despised the violence he engendered.  He knew that violence had to be punished, but all that did was create a new offender.  By being the only punisher, the holder of a monopoly on violence, he took all of society's sins upon his shoulders.  I'm not going to go so far as to say that Konrad Curze was a Christ figure, but the parallels are there.  And for that reason, Konrad Curze knew he had to die.  He hated violence, but in order to prevent violence he had to commit it.  And that made him an offender, and therefore he had to be punished.  
 
Konrad Curze's death proved his point.  He refused to apologize or beg forgiveness for the violence and cruelty he had inflicted, because he knew he had to do it to maintain order.  Nor did he shirk away from the deserved punishment for his actions.  He knew that by dying, he was proving what he had said all along: that society must punish the wicked for their crimes, that to do so perpetuated the violence, and that the punisher must pay for the punishment he inflicts, as wholly deserved as it may be.  Death is nothing compared to vindication.
 
The Night Lords refused to compromise.  They refused to take the easy way out-- to claim that what they were doing was right, or that they should avoid punishment.  They knew that what they were doing was wrong, but they did it anyways because it had to be done.  They despised the weakness and corruption of both the Imperium, which claimed that its violent crusade was somehow more moral and acceptable than the violent regimes it overthrew; and the weakness and corruption of Chaos, which claimed that violence was not a sin, that murder and death were not only acceptable but desirable.  The Night Lords exist as a beacon of perfect law and retribution in a galaxy of sinners and criminals, and to punish these foes they must become worse sinners yet.  They do not shirk away from this or make excuses for what they are or what they do.  
 
In the end, they have become perfect nihilists, knowing that they do not deserve to live but denying that anyone else is any better.  They hate themselves, they hate the Imperium, they hate the forces of Chaos, they hate the weak for their weakness and the strong for their cruelty.  They hate the passive for their acceptance of an evil universe and the active for their attempts to justify their actions.  They hate the wrathful for their wrath and the meek for their inability to defend themselves.  To be a Night Lord is to know that you deserve death, but refuse to kill yourself, instead committing slow suicide-by-enemy and refusing to give an inch.  They are the Rorschach of Legions.