Battle of Tsagualsa
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The Battle of Tsagualsa or Tsagualsa Retaliation was a battle of the Great Scouring.[1]
Contents
Background
The Night Lords were already breaking apart during the Horus Heresy, with many among their ranks creating petty warlord regimes. Only the presence of their Primarch, Konrad Curze, and a select few commanders such as Jago Sevatarion kept most of the Legion together and suppressed the most blatant warlordism.[1] Yet the Legion's cohesion was broken at the end of the Thramas Crusade, when only 60,000 of 100,000 Night Lords escaped Dark Angels ambushes at Sheol IX and Qetesh. Curze and Sevatarion went missing, and the Night Lords devolved into infighting raider warbands.[3]
Following the Siege of Terra, the Imperium hunted the Traitor Legions. Most of the Traitors were driven into the Eye of Terror by 021.M31.[6] Yet the Night Lords largely remained within Imperial space, carrying out raids and ambushes which inflicted heavy losses on the Imperials.[1][7]
At some point after 032.M31,[4a] Konrad Curze was reunited with the Night Lords Legion.[4b] Though the Primarch's sanity increasingly slipped away and the Legion remained broken and dysfunctional, his presence resulted in the bulk of his sons rallying at a new base at Tsagualsa.[4b][5] The planet was heavily fortified, with the Night Lords increasing their attacks into Imperial-controlled space.[1][5] Ultimately Curze was slain by the Callidus Assassin M'Shen,[5] whereupon the Night Lords once again squabbled among themselves. While most of the Legion continued to operate from Tsagualsa and even increased the pace of its raids, a growing number of warbands broke away to pursue their own goals. Many Night Lords relocated to the Eye of Terror.[1]
Battle
Years after Konrad Curze's death, the Imperium finally launched a massive offensive to end the threat posed by the Night Lords at Tsagualsa. For this purpose, the Ultramarines rallied their Second Founding descendants including the Aurora Chapter, Praetors of Orpheus, Novamarines, Genesis Chapter, Silver Eagles, Black Consuls, and Doom Eagles.[1]
The Ultramarines-led coalition made a surprise warp jump into the middle of the Tsagualsan System, quickly engaging the Night Lords fleet. Even though the Traitor armada was vast, the Imperial strength eclipsed it. Before long, the Traitor fleet was decimated and began to flee. On Tsagualsa itself, the Night Lords quickly realized that they could not hope to stop the invaders, and organized a fighting retreat - each warband on its own, with cohesion quickly breaking down.[1]
Once they had broken through the Traitor fleet, the Imperials made planetfall on Tsagualsa. Even though the Ultramarines and their allies suffered heavy losses as they assaulted the Night Lords' main fortress, they rapidly broke into the complex and began to hunt down the local Traitors. Talos Valcoran, the Night Lords' infamous prophet, was among those nearly killed in the operation, though his squad managed to escape on a captured loyalist Thunderhawk and flee the system under Vandred Anrathi's command.[1]
Aftermath
The Night Lords were left completely broken as a Legion after the Battle of Tsagualsa. They never again united in great strength.[1]
Sources
- 1: Void Stalker (Novel), Chapters 12-14
- 2: Pages from the Black Books – Night Lords at Thramas, pgs. 6-8
- 3: Pages from the Black Books – The Thramas Crusade, pg. 47
- 4: Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter (Novel):
- 5: Index Astartes II, pgs. 20-27
- 6: Warhammer Community: The Scouring timeline – How the Warhammer Studio worked with Black Library authors on the new series (archived from the original 12 March 2026, last accessed 12 March 2026)
- 7: Codex: Dark Angels (8th Edition), pg. 10 - Dark Heritage
