Abaddon the Despoiler

Abaddon the Despoiler is a male character who features in Warhammer 40,000.

Biography

During the Great Crusade, Ezekyle Abaddon was the Captain of the First Company of the Luna Wolves. He and Tarik Torgaddon, Captain of the Second Company, were members of an informal council known as the Mournival - four captains who served as advisors to Horus. After the Battle for Sixty-Three Nineteen, in which Tenth Company Captain Garviel Loken managed to reach the impostor Emperor ahead of him, Abaddon recommended Loken's elevation into the Mournival to replace 4th Company Captain Hastur Sejanus, who was killed shortly before the battle. He is also a member of the warrior lodge, the "quiet order" within the Luna Wolves, inspired by similar lodges on the world of Davin - which they had brought to compliance many years earlier.

Abaddon notably stands against Horus's attempt to negotiate with a stray branch of humanity known as the interex, preferring to adhere to the Emperor's policy. This attitude is reversed in the second book, False Gods. After Horus is critically injured upon their return to Davin, Abaddon along with other members of the warrior lodge take the Primarch to a mystic healer, an act in contradiction with Imperial doctrine (which is depicted as stringently anti-superstition). By the novel's conclusion, Abaddon is firmly aligned with Horus against the Emperor.

Abaddon's most significant action is to seemingly kill Garviel Loken during the Istvaan III incident.

Abaddon led a squad of terminator armoured Sons of Horus Space Marines called "the Justaerin" at Istvaan V, Yarant and the Siege of Terra. After Horus's defeat, Abaddon took the lightning claw ("Talon of Horus") from his corpse and retreated to the Eye of Terror.

After reuniting the Sons of Horus and destroying Horus's corpse, Abaddon renamed them The Black Legion. In total, the character has been responsible for 13 Black Crusades against the Imperium. During a conflict known as the Gothic War, early in the 41st millennium, Abaddon acquired the use of a battleship named the Planet Killer, capable of destroying entire planets, as well as control of the Blackstone Fortresses.

The last recorded deployment of an Officio Assassinorum Execution Force was against the so called Chosen of Abaddon. 4 individuals, so hated by the imperium that an entire team of assassins infiltrated Abaddon's flagship. Abaddon sensed this and laid a trap for them resulting in the extermination of the squad.

Overview

Personality and attributes

Physically, he is a towering marine, with a crested top-knot atop his shaved head and the straight nose and wide spaced eyes reminiscent of the Warmaster, though not enough to truly resemble the Primarch.

Previous to the Heresy, Abaddon is frequently depicted as looking up to Horus as a leader and a father figure, above the Emperor of Mankind. As a loyal captain of the Luna Wolf legion, Abaddon is described as proud, irascible and someone that would inspire men to "cry out for Abaddon's return" if he were to die, though the character becomes inexplicably darker and quicker to anger by the time of False Gods, the second book in the Horus Heresy series. Abaddon is also written as prone to panic and desperation when Horus' life is in danger and quick to cast blame on other characters (such as The Emperor and apothecary Vaddon).

Initially displaying examples of dogmatic devotion towards Imperial doctrine in Horus Rising and distrust of anything inhuman, Abaddon follows Horus unquestioningly after his recovery. Abaddon comes to believe that the Horus Heresy is the best for the Great Crusade and adopts the theory that winning and victory are the only things that matter.

After the Heresy, Abaddon's view of Horus is one of disdain. Abaddon has effectively stepped out of Horus' shadow, exemplified with the well known quote: "Horus was weak. Horus was a fool. He had the whole galaxy within his grasp and he let it slip away." He also displays a psychotic contempt for human life and is willing to inflict an endless stream of atrocities upon other human beings (codex Chaos 3rd edition page 9). Through martial skill and might, Abaddon has won the respect of the other traitor legions and is shown to be an inspiration to the Chaos Space Marines.

Notes

• Abaddon the Despoiler was created by Games Workshop and featured in the setting of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Appearances

• Warhammer 40,000:

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