Abaddon stands without equal among the servants of Chaos, a warrior whose ambition is matched only by his hatred of the Emperor and all His works. In the days of the Great Crusade he was first captain of the Sons of Horus and the closest of the Warmaster's confidants, a killer of such renown that he was counted among the deadliest warriors ever to bear power armour.
When Horus fell and the traitor cause collapsed, the survivors of his Legion sank into despair and infighting. It was Abaddon who dragged them from that abyss. Rejecting the failed legacy of his master, he forged the Black Legion from the wreckage, cladding its warriors in black and binding to himself renegades and traitors of every stripe. He would not be the pawn of any single Chaos God, and so he pledged himself to Chaos Undivided, and the four powers looked upon him with rare and unified favour.
For ten thousand years Abaddon has prosecuted the Long War with relentless purpose, launching Black Crusade after Black Crusade from the Eye of Terror against the fortress worlds of the Cadian Gate. To the Imperium these assaults seemed like failures, blunted campaigns that ended in retreat. In truth each was a step toward a greater design, a gathering of relics, alliances and dark power for the blow that mattered.
That blow fell in his final and greatest crusade, when he shattered the defences of Cadia and destroyed the world itself, tearing open the galaxy-spanning warp-rift now called the Great Rift. With that single catastrophic act he undid millennia of Imperial security and flung wide the gates for the hosts of Chaos to pour forth unchecked.
He bears fearsome wargear worthy of his stature: the Talon of Horus, a relic gauntlet taken from his fallen master, and Drach'nyen, a daemon sword of terrible antiquity and appetite. Grim, patient and monstrously powerful, Abaddon the Despoiler is the living spearhead of Chaos, and he intends to end the Long War only when the Imperial Palace lies in ashes and the Corpse-God is thrown down at last.
Heroes & legends
More Chaos Space Marines
Be'lakorThe Dark MasterBe'lakor was the first mortal ever raised to daemonhood by the united will of the Chaos Gods, granted a measure of each of their power. But his masters came to fear their creation, and cast him down into eternal, bitter servitude. Now he schemes without end, a being of near-limitless might forever denied the freedom and dominion he craves.
CypherThe Fallen AngelThe most enigmatic of all the Fallen Angels, Cypher is a shadow-wrapped gunslinger whose true name and purpose none can fathom. Bearing a sword he has never once drawn, he wanders the galaxy on a slow and secret pilgrimage toward Terra, though whether he means to damn the Emperor or beg His forgiveness, no one can say.
Fabius BileThe ClonelordFabius Bile is the galaxy's most infamous and brilliant flesh-shaper, a renegade Apothecary whose experiments upon the human and Astartes form have earned him universal loathing. Obsessed with perfecting mankind through unspeakable means, he creates monstrous new breeds of warrior, clones the dead and living alike, and sells his twisted craft to warbands across the stars. Ancient, amoral and utterly without conscience, he is a self-styled savior of the species whose methods are indistinguishable from atrocity.
Haarken WorldclaimerThe Herald of AbaddonHaarken Worldclaimer is the Herald of Abaddon the Despoiler, the dread messenger who announces the doom of worlds before the Black Legion descends upon them. Descending from the skies on screaming jump-jets at the head of the Raptors, he casts his great spear at a chosen target as a symbol that the planet has been claimed in the Warmaster's name. Where he appears, invasion follows, and his coming is a proclamation that a world's last hours have begun.