Konrad Curze

"My sons, the galaxy is burning. We all bear witness to a final truth -- our way is not the way of the Imperium. You have never stood in the Emperor’s light. Never worn the Imperial eagle. And you never will. You shall stand in midnight clad, your claws forever red with the lifeblood of my father’s failed empire, warring through the centuries as the talons of a murdered god. Rise, my sons, and take your wrath across the stars, in my name. In my memory. Rise, my Night Lords."

- The Primarch Konrad Curze, at the final gathering of the VIII Legion

Konrad Curze, better known as Night Haunter, was one of the 20 superhuman Primarchs created by the Emperor and was the leader of the Traitor Legion of Chaos Space Marines known as the Night Lords. He was killed by the Callidus Assassin M'Shen on the world of Tsagualsa in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy immediately following the end of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. His Legion, without his leadership, then broke up into competing warbands and fled into the Eye of Terror with the rest of the Traitor Legions.

Youth
The child that would come to be known as Konrad Curze was first recorded in Imperial records when his gestation capsule penetrated through the surface and into the core of the night-shrouded world of Nostramo following the Primarchs' mysterious abduction through the Warp from the Emperor of Mankind's gene-laboratories on Terra as a result of the efforts of the Chaos Gods. Nostramo was a human-settled world that circled a dying sun whose light now only barely reached the world, leaving it trapped in perpetual darkness. The crust of Nostramo bore high quantities of the strategic mineral adamantium, which provided the basis of the planet's immense mining and refining industries and supported the economies of its large hive cities. The vast majority of the planet's population lived in abject poverty, toiling in the mines while the rich grew in affluence, exploiting the already downtrodden workers. Crime ran mostly unchecked, depression was inescapable because of the constant darkness, and overpopulation was kept in check more by suicide than by any other measure. Unlike many of the other Primarchs, Konrad Curze was not taken in by any family and was left to raise himself in the vast underhive of the largest hive city on the planet, Nostramo Quintus. He spent his early life surviving off his wits and determination, feeding himself by hunting the feral animals that roamed through the vast hive city of Nostramo Quintus. He was continually plagued by visions of the darkest possible future, horrifyingly potent waking dreams that would curse him throughout his life.

Night Haunter
During his short youth, Curze was pitched into a destructive cycle of persecution and murder, focusing on the criminal elements of Nostramo's society. His vigilante actions began small, intervening when he witnessed something he believed to be wrong, but rapidly escalating into hunting down those he believed had committed transgressions. At first, several people prominent within Nostramo Quintus' corrupt civic hierarchy disappeared. Leaders of the most vocal opposition to the status quo vanished in similar circumstances. Bodies of known criminals began to appear, gutted like fish by some cruel assailant. Corrupt officials were found hung from high windows. Body parts blocked storm water drains. Many of the corpses found were so horribly beaten by their assailant that identification was impossible. Within the year, the crime rate of Nostramo Quintus fell to near-zero. Nostraman society underwent massive changes, most notable of which was the self-imposed curfew that came into being. Mothers began to threaten children that if they continued to misbehave, the Night Haunter would come for them. This term quickly came into common usage, describing a dark creature that stalked the city, ready to disembowel anyone it believed to be a criminal or heretic with dirty, razor-sharp talons. Curze saw hope for the inhabitants of his world. He had become the only object of fear and hate within the city. Appearing before the nobles that had survived his vigilante purge, Night Haunter became the first monarch of Nostramo Quintus. He assimilated knowledge almost greedily, and became considered a fair and temperate, if absolute, ruler, until word of some injustice reached his ears. He would then hunt the guilty through the streets, wearing them down and then killing and mutilating them. The unpredictable pattern of benevolent wisdom and hideous vengeance ushered in a new level of efficiency and honesty. The other hive cities around the planet followed suit, in an attempt to keep the Night Haunter from their doors.

The Coming of the Emperor
"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home." -- "That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you intend for me."

- The Emperor and his son, Konrad Curze upon meeting for the first time

A short time into the reign of Night Haunter as Nostramo's benevolent dictator, the Emperor's Great Crusade reached the outskirts of the Nostramo star system. The coming of the Emperor of Mankind was an event that had been prophesied in Nostramo's history: an event that would lead to the planet's downfall. The Emperor landed on Nostramo, and led an Imperial delegation to the centre of Nostramo Quintus on foot. The citizens of Nostramo, adapted to the near-constant darkness, could not bear to look upon the radiance of the Emperor. Most wept as the healing light he projected reflected off the rain slicked streets into their faces. Those brave enough to look upon him directly were blinded. At the end of the broad road leading to Night Haunter's palace, the Primarch stood, waiting for the delegation to approach. As they did, he succumbed to a vision so potent and horrifying that he tried to claw his own eyes out, but was stopped by the Emperor. Night Haunter then looked at the Emperor, and the following dialogue ensued:

The Great Crusade
Night Haunter quickly adapted to the teachings of the Imperium, studying the complex doctrines of the Adeptus Astartes under the Primarch Fulgrim's tutelage. Night Haunter was soon accepted as the leader of the VIII Space Marine Legion that had been created from his genome, which he named the Night Lords. Although he and his Legion excelled in many theatres of war, a tendency soon became apparent. It never occurred to the Night Lords to use anything other than total, brutal and decisive force to achieve their goals. Over the first few years, the Night Lords were molded by their Primarch into an efficient, humourless force, possessing the fanatical thoroughness of Witch Hunters. Night Haunter encouraged his Legion to decorate their Power Armour with images designed to inspire fear in the enemy, a tactic that proved incredibly effective. Soon, rumours of the impending presence of the Night Lords would cause a star system to pay all outstanding Imperial tithes, cease all illegal activities and put to death any mutants and suspected heretics. Reinforcements to replace the Night Lords that fell in battle were selected from the population of Nostramo, but in Night Haunter's absence, the population of the planet collapsed back into the corrupt and decadent criminal ways that had prevailed before his arrival. The ruthless criminals were the only ones to remain healthy and strong, so it was these men who were recruited for the Legion. Night Haunter began to lose some of the control he held over his Legion, and the visions that plagued him increased in both lucidity and quantity. Learning of the fate of his homeworld, Night Haunter tried to confide in his brother Primarchs, but had never been close to them, and their reaction was less than favourable to his claims. He attacked Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists in his anger before taking the Night Lords' fleet to Nostramo. A few Imperial pursuit craft arrived just in time to see the Night Lords starships open their laser batteries into the hole in the planet's surface left by Night Haunter's arrival through the Warp decades earlier. Nostramo's core overheated and the world exploded.

The Horus Heresy
Night Haunter's terrible acts caused him to become susceptible to the whispers of Chaos. The campaigns of the Night Lords became less justifiable, little more than terror campaigns leaving a trail of devastated worlds across the galaxy. Night Haunter no longer crusaded in the Emperor's name, instead fighting only in the name of death and fear. Eventually, the Emperor was forced to order the recall of Night Haunter to answer charges laid against him and his men by the other Primarchs and the citizens of various worlds that had felt the terrible onslaught of the Night Lords. But before the Night Lords reached Terra, a new crisis for the Imperium erupted. When the Horus Heresy broke out, Night Haunter was quick to swear his Legion to the forces of Warmaster Horus as he felt that the Emperor was a hypocrite to condemn him for his brutality even as the Imperium expanded as a result of the forced reunification of humanity under the Emperor's banner. The Legion sided with none of the Chaos Gods, instead using the forces of Chaos as tools in their terror campaigns. Slowly but surely, the Night Lords, now almost entirely comprised of murderers and criminals recruited from Nostramo before its destruction, began to carve a bloody path towards Terra alongside the other Traitor Legions. After the invasion of Terra by the forces of Chaos and the death of Horus at the hands of the Emperor, the Night Lords did not splinter and flee into the Eye of Terror like the rest of the Traitor Legions. Instead, they continued to attack the Imperium in its Eastern Fringes, however, their tactics seemed to change, betraying a self-destructive desperation. The Emperor himself, wishing to disband the Night Lords forever, dispatched half the Callidus Temple of Assassins to terminate the renegade Primarch. Night Haunter was eventually killed, assassinated by the Callidus Assassin M'Shen. It is believed she was allowed to infiltrate his palace on the world of Tsagualsa, as she encountered no guards between herself and his throne room. Confronted by her, Night Haunter simply said:

"Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your False Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication."

The vid-log of the event then shows M'Shen leaping forward at the Primarch. However, the kill was never confirmed, as the video feed cut out right before the fight ensued. It is believed that Night Haunter allowed himself to be killed: he saw himself as a murderous and corrupt villain, the very thing he sought to destroy. Regardless, his final words are considered one of the great enigmas in the Imperium's history. It is implied in the novel Lord of the Night that Konrad Curze had a dual personality. "He knew that he was two men. One was... just and righteous-" the daemon spat the words, disgusted, "- whilst the other... mm... the other had felt the kiss of Chaos all its life. One thrived on focus. The other ate fear."

Trivia
Curze's name is inspired by the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, where a former ivory trader in the African Congo named Kurtz rules over the native population as a charismatic demigod even as he degenerates into a barbaric and inhuman tyrant. The book was later adapted into the film Apocalypse Now.