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This elite group of warriors was decimated during the [[Unification Wars]] but their skill made them famous, to the extent that it's men were drafted to serve as elite bodyguards for higher ranking members of the [[Imperial Army]].{{Fn|1}}
By the time of the [[Horus Heresy]], they were considered an infamous as well as near extinct group. One of the divisions within the Lucifer Blacks was the Ischian Brigade.{{Fn|2}}
*[[Lord Commander]] [[Teng Namatjira]] had a companion retinue of Lucifer Blacks serving him during the [[Great Crusade]].{{Fn|1}}
The Lucifer Blacks became Regiments of the newly formed [[Imperial Guard]] after the Heresy. Acting as an elite praetorian guard on [[Terra]], the Lucifer Blacks provided security for the [[Imperial Palace]] and were frequently employed as bodyguards for the Terran nobility and [[High Lords]]. By mid-[[M32]], during the [[War of the Beast]], the Lucifer Black's overseer [[Segmentum Solar|Solar]]-[[General]] [[Sayitora]] had become a crony of [[Lord High Admiral]] [[Lansung]], which turned the Regiments into the ambitious Admiral's personal fighting force. They were treated like mercenaries, being distributed to Lansung's followers as a reward for favors.{{Fn|3}}
When [[Chapter Master]] [[Koorland]] announced he was replacing [[Udin Macht Udo]] as [[Lord Commander of the Imperium]], Udo rather farcically summoned his Lucifer Black bodyguards and demanded they disarm and remove the [[Space Marines]]. The unit's commander, out of reverence for the warrior who had successfully stormed the [[Attack Moon]] over Terra, instead bent his knee to Koorland, and the rest of his soldiers quickly followed suit.{{Fn|4}}
After [[The Beast]] was killed by the [[Imperium]]'s forces, [[Lord Commander]] [[Maximus Thane]] left the [[Grand Master of Assassins]] [[Drakan Vangorich]] to oversee the ineffectual [[High Lords of Terra]] as his '''Lord Protector'''. This proved to be a mistake however, as Vangorich began [[The Beheading]], which resulted in most of the High Lords of Terra being killed and being replaced by puppets of the Grand Master. Afterwards, Vangorich enacted a series of changes on [[Terra]], the first among them being the disbandment of the Lucifer Blacks. Vangorich claimed that the Lucifer Blacks' inability to stop a group of [[Eldar]] [[Harlequin]]s that had invaded the [[Imperial Palace]] during the [[War of the Beast]], proved the group's usefulness was at an end. He then proclaimed that security for the Imperial Palace would now be provided by agents of the [[Officio Assassinorum]].{{Fn|5a}}
Sometime after Vangorich's death however{{Fn|5b}}, the {{PAGENAME}}s Lucifer Blacks were re-established as Regiments. By the time of the [[Thirteenth Black Crusade]], they were among those Regiments regularly chosen to guard the Imperial Palace and their name and reputation was well known throughout the Imperium.{{Fn|6}}
==Sources==
*{{Endn|1}}: [[Legion (Novel)]] by [[Dan Abnett]], Chapter 5
*{{Endn|2}}: ''[[Blood Games (Short Story)]]'' by '''Dan Abnett'''
*{{Endn|3}}: [[The Emperor Expects (Novel)]] by [[Gav Thorpe]], Chapter 2
*{{Endn|4}}: [[Echoes of the Long War (Novel)]] by [[David Guymer]], Chapter 18
**{{Endn|5b}}: Chapter 16
*{{Endn|6}}: [[Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor's Legion (Novel)]], Valerian Chapter 3
[[Category:Astra Militarum Regiments]]
[[Category:Imperial Army Regiments]]
