Abaddon

"Horus was weak. Horus was a fool. He had the whole galaxy within his grasp and he let it slip away."

- Abaddon the Despoiler

Abaddon the Despoiler, once named Ezekyle Abaddon, is the Warmaster of Chaos and the greatest Champion of Chaos Undivided in the galaxy. He is the commander of the Black Legion of Chaos Space Marines and is rumoured to be the clone-progeny of the Warmaster Horus, the greatest Traitor in Imperial history, and at one time his most favoured son amongst the Space Marines of the Sons of Horus Legion. He is now infamous for leading Black Crusades, the terrible military campaigns during which the normally fractious Forces of Chaos unite under his leadership and launch a massive attack against the Imperium from within the Eye of Terror. The most recent of these attacks, the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, led to the partial capture of the vital Imperial Fortress World of Cadia and an expansion of Chaos-controlled space into Imperial territory for the first time since the Horus Heresy.

The Great Crusade
During the Great Crusade, First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon was the commander of the elite 1st Company of the Luna Wolves Space Marine Legion, a unit known as the Justaerin, and was recognised as the greatest warrior of that Legion after the Primarch Horus himself. He, Tarik Torgaddon, Captain of the 2nd Company, Horus "Little Horus" Aximand, Captain of the 5th Company and Garviel Loken, Captain of the 10th Company, were members of an informal advisory council for the Legion known as the Mournival - four senior company captains who served as the primary advisors to Horus. After the Battle for the world designated Sixty-Three Nineteen by the Legion, in which 10th Company Captain Garviel Loken managed to reach the impostor Emperor who ruled the world ahead of him, Abaddon recommended Loken's elevation into the Mournival to replace the 4th Company's Captain Hastur Sejanus, a particular favorite of Horus, who was killed shortly before the battle. Abaddon was also a member of the Legion's warrior lodge, the "quiet order" within the Luna Wolves, inspired by similar lodges on the world of Davin - which the Luna Wolves had brought to Imperial Compliance many years earlier. Abaddon notably stood against Horus' attempts to negotiate with a stray branch of humanity known as the Interex, preferring to adhere to the Emperor of Mankind's stated policy, and simply demand surrender or force Imperial Compliance upon newly discovered human cultures. This attitude was reversed in desperation after Horus was critically injured by the Chaos-corrupted Imperial Planetary Governor Eugen Temba upon the Legion's return to the world of Davin, where Horus was mortally wounded after slaying the Nurgle-corrupted Temba upon the bridge of his downed starship on Davin's moon, which had been transformed by Nurgle's corruption into a reeking swamp infested with undead Plague Zombies, Temba's own former Imperial Army garrison. Temba had wielded a blade dedicated to Nurgle known as the Kinebrach Anatheme that had infected the Primarch with a toxin so virulent that even his superhuman immune system could not defeat it. Abaddon, along with other members of the Sons of Horus' warrior lodge, took the dying Primarch on the advice of the Word Bearers' First Chaplain Erebus to a mystic healer who belonged to the Chaotic Temple of the Serpent Lodge on Davin and who was actually a Chaos Sorcerer - an act in utter contradiction of the Imperial Truth (which was stridently atheistic) and which opened Horus up to the influence of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. Following Horus' corruption by Chaos and his resurrection through their power, Abaddon backed his Primarch to the hilt and firmly aligned himself with Horus against the Emperor, ultimately giving his soul over completely to the service of Chaos Undivided.

Abaddon was responsible for the wounding and abandonment of Garviel Loken during the Battle of Istvaan III in the ruins of the Istvaanian capital known as the Choral City, although Loken survived the combat and witnessed the beginning of the orbital bombardment of the planet and the remaining Loyalist Astartes on it by the Traitor Legions' fleet on Horus' orders.

The Horus Heresy
Abaddon led an elite squad of Sons of Horus Space Marines from the 1st Company called "the Justaerin" who wore Terminator Armour during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, during the battle against the Loyalists on Yarant and during the Battle of Terra. After Horus' defeat, Abaddon led a swift counterattack to retrieve Horus' body and retreated with the Sons of Horus Legion and all of their remaining assets, Legion slaves and starships, into the Eye of Terror.

After the Heresy
After reuniting the Sons of Horus under his leadership within the Eye of Terror, Abaddon was the principal force behind the disruption of several attempts to clone Horus by the other Traitor Primarchs, culminating in the incineration of Horus' corpse to prevent future attempts, after which Abaddon renamed the Sons of Horus the Black Legion and claimed Horus' mantle as the Legion's new Warmaster. Abaddon had lost respect for Horus due to his failure to defeat the Emperor and believed that the slain Warmaster had forfeited his right to power. Instead, Abaddon believed himself to be the new chosen Champion of the Chaos Gods and Horus' rightful heir. Since that time, Abaddon has been instrumental in some of the Black Crusades against the Imperium. During the 12th Black Crusade, early in the 41st Millennium in a conflict better known in Imperial records as the Gothic War, Abaddon unleashed upon the Imperium of the Corpse Emperor his newest superweapon, the Planet Killer. This was a massive starship crafted through the amalgamation of Imperial technology and Chaotic sorcery that was capable of destroying entire planets. Abaddon also had control of the two Blackstone Fortresses that he had taken from the Imperium during the Gothic War, which he intended to unleash when the time was right.

The Chosen of Abaddon
The Chosen of Abaddon are four powerful Chaos Lords that serve under the patronage of Abaddon the Despoiler. Nowhere in the galaxy can a more feared and merciless collection of tyrants be found, always eager to put entire worlds to the sword in the name of Chaos. The last recorded deployment of a full Officio Assassinorum Execution Force was against the so-called Chosen of Abaddon. These four individuals were so hated by the Imperium that an entire team of Assassins (when it is rare for even one to be sent to deal with a problem) infiltrated Abaddon's flagship. Abaddon learned of the impending attack and laid a trap for the Assassins, slaying all four and protecting his Chosen. The Chosen bear an assortment of titles, reflecting their role in the Black Crusade or honouring particular acts of cruelty for which they are infamous. Their numbers are ever-changing, for Abaddon has little tolerance for failure amongst those who serve him. These four titles include:
 * The Lord Ravager - The Lord Ravager leads the invasion fleets of the Black Crusade. It is he who first makes landfall on the surface of a world.
 * The Lord Deceiver - The Lord Deceiver is a powerful Chaos Sorcerer whose visions of the Warp lead the Black Crusade from star system to star system.
 * The Lord Corruptor - The Lord Corruptor is tasked with instilling fear and hatred amongst the Chaos Space Marines of the Black Legion. His trophy rack is adorned with the skulls of failed servants.
 * The Lord Purgator - It falls to the Lord Purgator to ensure that every man, woman and child left alive on a world conquered by the Black Legion is dragged in chains into the hold of the Legion's starships, and that no edifice remains undedicated to the Dark Gods.

Characterisation
Prior to the Horus Heresy, Ezekyle Abaddon looked up to Horus as his rightful leader and a father figure, equal to if not above the Emperor of Mankind in his esteem. As the loyal First Captain of the Luna Wolves' 1st Company, Abaddon was proud, irascible and someone who could inspire men to "cry out for Abaddon's return" if he were to die, though Abaddon became inexplicably darker and quicker to anger as the Great Crusade reached its final stage. Abaddon was prone to panic and desperation when Horus' life was in danger and quick to cast blame on others (such as the Emperor and the Luna Wolves' Apothecary Vaddon, who attempted unsuccessfully to treat Horus after the Primarch was wounded on Davin). Initially displaying examples of dogmatic devotion towards Imperial doctrine and the traditional Imperial distrust for anything inhuman or alien, Abaddon followed Horus unquestioningly into service to Chaos and rebellion against the Emperor after the Primarch's recovery from his mortal wounding. Abaddon came to believe that the Horus Heresy was the best outcome for the Great Crusade since it would allow humanity to be ruled by a true leader like Horus rather than a weaker ruler like the Emperor. As he fell more and more under the spell of Chaos, Abaddon came to believe that winning and victory were the only things that matter and that the acquisition of power was the rightful role of the Astartes, since they should rule over their fellow men rather than just serve as their protectors and guardians as the Emperor had intended. The very fact that the Emperor had sought to replace the Primarchs and the Astartes with legions of "mortal" officials and bureaucrats in the governance of the Imperium after the Ullanor Crusade only further convinced Abaddon that the Emperor was a weakling and a fool who did not deserve to rule over Mankind.

Physically, Abaddon was a towering and truly imposing Space Marine, taller even than the vast majority of his fellow Astartes, with a crested top-knot atop his shaven head and the straight nose and wide-spaced eyes reminiscent of Horus' own visage as was common among the Sons of Horus Astartes, though not enough for Abaddon to truly be a doppelganger of the Primarch.

After the Heresy, Abaddon's view of Horus abruptly changed and he came to view the defeated Warmaster with disdain in light of his new view that what mattered was the acquisition of power. Abaddon effectively stepped out of Horus' shadow, as was exemplified when he said, "Horus was weak. Horus was a fool. He had the whole galaxy within his grasp and he let it slip away." Abaddon also displayed the psychotic contempt for human life characteristic of most Chaotics and was willing to inflict an endless stream of atrocities upon other human beings so long as such actions enhanced his own power and position. Through his martial skill and personal might and the obvious favour he held among the Ruinous Powers after Horus' death, Abaddon won the respect of the other Traitor Legions and is shown to be an inspiration to the Chaos Space Marines who dwell within the Eye of Terror. Some of the Traitor Legions, namely the Word Bearers under the leadership of the Dark Apostle Erebus, think that Abaddon is not fit for the position of Warmaster of Chaos and their cause would be better served if it was lead by a leader with more strategic acumen and less temperamental choler.

Abaddon's troops among the Traitor Legions and the other Forces of Chaos know that he will not accept failure in any form, much like his masters, and follow his every command without question. He is the only person to command the obedience of all 9 Traitor Legions during a Black Crusade; no other Chaos Warmaster has ever been able to do the same. Abaddon is the personification of the power of Chaos, the ultimate prodigal son whose return will one day bring the apocalypse to the Imperium of Man.

Wargear and Abilities
Abaddon is possibly the most powerful character in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, other than the Emperor of Mankind or one of the other Dark Gods of the Immaterium. Abaddon is a powerful warrior of immense strength and skill. In his left hand he carries the Daemon Sword Drach'nyen. Drach'nyen was powerful enough to destroy a Space Marine Land Raider and flay the souls from those it struck with a single touch. In his right hand he carries the Talon of Horus, a unique Lightning Claw fitted with a twin-linked Bolter taken from the corpse of the Warmaster Horus himself. Abaddon also possesses the Mark of Chaos Ascendant, which bestows all the benefits of every one of the four other Marks of Chaos, forever branding him as the greatest Champion of Chaos Undivided. Abaddon's armour is covered with many archaic devices, runes, and fetishes that he has collected over time. The ancient Sons of Horus Terminator Armour Abaddon wears still incorporates a Daemonic Rune gifted to him by the Daemon-Oracle of Asellus Tertius which greatly enhances his protection from normal weapons. He is also described as a demagogue, able to sway other followers of Chaos to his cause against the Imperium. Abaddon's extraordinary connection to all 4 of the major Chaos Gods and multiple arcane layers of daemonic protection means that he cannot be killed outright by anything in the purely physical world, even direct fire from a super-heavy tank such as a Baneblade or a Land Raider. Like his predecessor Horus, only the power of the Warp, harnessed by a psyker of immense power and undoubted purity of mind and heart, will be able to slay Abaddon the Despoiler for all time and forever place his soul beyond the capabilities of even the Ruinous Powers to resurrect.

13th Black Crusade
Abaddon managed to unite all the Forces of Chaos that exist within the Eye of Terror under his leadership as the Warmaster of Chaos Undivided in 999.M41 after decades of preparation to unleash the greatest Chaotic assault upon the Imperium of Man since the Horus Heresy, more than 10,000 standard years ago. This great campaign, Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade against the realms of the Emperor of Mankind, focused its assaults upon the sectors of the Segmentum Obscurus surrounding the Fortress World of Cadia and the Cadian Gate it protected. The Cadian Gate is the only known free passage through the roiling Warp Storms of the Eye of Terror into Imperial space, and the capture of Cadia would allow the Forces of Chaos their first uninterrupted chance to assault Imperial space in millennia. In the end, after months of truly titanic fighting that spread across hundreds of worlds and tested the resources of the Imperial military as never before, the campaign wound down in a stalemate. Though Abaddon's Chaotic forces were able to gain a territorial foothold upon Cadia itself, the Imperial Navy's Battlefleets proved to be the victors in the massive space battles that were waged high above the world. The Forces of Chaos are currently trapped on Cadia and have lost air and space superiority to the Imperial forces, who daily bombard the Ruinous Powers' servants from the air. However, should Abaddon and his Chaotic allies discover a way to defeat the massive Imperial fleet in orbit over Cadia, the Forces of Chaos would have an open path to drive on the heart of the Imperium and perhaps assault Terra for the second time in its history. As the various Tyranid Hive Fleets are also inexorably moving towards the shining Astronomican beacon of the Emperor's mind that shines out like a light in the darkness from Terra, and the Adeptus Mechanicus reports that the Golden Throne is finally failing, it may well be that the current era of the Age of the Imperium, the Time of Ending, is well-named. In the face of the terrible threat presented by Abaddon the Despoiler and the other enemies of the Imperium, only one true hope may remain for the salvation of Mankind, drawn from the most ancient litany of the Imperial Creed: the Emperor protects...

Trivia

 * Abaddon (also known as Abaddan, Apollyon, Appolyon and Appolion) literally meaning destruction, ruin or perdition — is the Hebrew name of the demon identified as the 'angel' of the bottomless pit, or the abyss, in Christian Bible in the Book of Revelation of St. John; Revelation 9:11.
 * Abaddon has also earned the nickname "Failbaddon" by Warhammer 40K fans, due to his many failed Black Crusades.