Almost every plot thread in Warhammer 40,000 - at least those starring the Imperium of Man, the Emperor, and Chaos - can be traced back to the galactic cluster headache that was the Horus Heresy. But despite there being over 60 Horus Heresy books exploring that apocalyptic conflict in exhaustive detail, absolutely key information about what actually went down has been inaccessible to most fans for years, locked inside the out of print 'Horus Heresy Black Books'. That's changing soon as, starting this Thursday, Games Workshop has begun to release big chunks of the lore from each of those books on the Warhammer Community website, starting with 18 pages of lore and art for the Night Lords.
That's more information about the Night Lords renegade Space Marine Legion than has ever appeared in a Warhammer 40k Codex. There's information here about the founding of the Legion, its first inductees drawn from the children of convicts in the lightless warrens of Terra's subterranean 'prison sinks'; and the role that the Emperor first put them to, bringing merciless retribution to any Terran faction that attempted to rebel against his nascent Imperium.
Then there are the plot beats you'll know if you have any familiarity with the Night Lords - the history of the Primarch, Konrad Curze; his reign of terror over the night world Nostramo; the Legion's descent into madness and sadism. Besides this, the Black Books were written as though by an Imperial scholar immediately following the Heresy, and this excerpt is peppered with illustrated case studies on individual units, from their wargear to their fate during the Heresy war.
You can download the first 'Pages from the Black Books' PDF from the Warhammer Community download page right now. Games Workshop says that it will be releasing more excerpts "each Thursday for the foreseeable future".
If you picked up the Horus Heresy wargame with second or third edition, you may be a little confused by the term 'Black Books', since all Horus Heresy rulebooks are black. But the original Black Books were special. Starting in 2012, the Black Books were supplements for Warhammer 40k sixth edition published by GW's specialist games subsidiary Forge World. Each one was a gilt-edged tome, bound in faux leather, inordinately expensive, and lovingly produced.
The lead author on the first seven books was the late Alan Bligh, a driving force in the hobby who sadly died from cancer in 2017. Bligh used the Black Books to add huge amounts of detailed lore about the most vital battles of the Horus Heresy that was simply missing from the novel series, communicated with the verisimilitude of a historical military guide, but with a persistent flare for dramatic and evocative details. The Black Books were vital in expanding the lore of the Horus Heresy, and developing the miniature wargame when it was just a niche side product produced by Forge World.
So it's fantastic to see this lore made more widely available. If I have one criticism, it's that the original authors of the book that this first free PDF is taken from - book two, Massacre - aren't credited in the document. Those were of course Alan Bligh, plus John French, Andy Hoare and Neil Wylie.
Do you have a collection of Black Books proudly displayed on your bookshelf? Were you there from the start? Or are you keen to delve into even more great lore for one of the most exciting eras of Warhammer 40k history? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community. For a weekly roundup of all our best stories, make sure you subscribe to our weekly newsletter.