Nostramo was the homeworld of the Night Lords Space Marine Legion, a sunless hive world rich in adamantium and rotten with crime. Its primarch, Konrad Curze, destroyed it himself, and that single act shaped everything the Legion became.
What Nostramo was like
Nostramo sat on the inner edge of the Ghoul Stars, in the Ultima Segmentum. It was a world of permanent night: heavy pollution and a solar eclipse caused by its moon, Tenebor, kept the sky dark even in summer.
Its people adapted to that darkness with pale albino skin and black eyes. Only the planetary elite could afford artificial light, and everyone else lived under the thumb of hired thugs who served as the closest thing to law enforcement.
Murder, extortion and theft were everyday facts of life, and the elite kept the huge underclass of foundry workers in line through violence.
Why the planet mattered
Nostramo’s rocks held enormous quantities of naturally occurring adamantium, and the mineral trade made the world extremely wealthy. The cost was a landscape scarred by chemical and metalworking plants that threw up the toxic clouds darkening the skies.
The planet was also the original recruiting ground for the Nostraman Damnatii Solar Auxilia Regiments. After Nostramo was destroyed, those regiments were mustered from across the Nostramo Sector and beyond.
The Night Haunter’s rise
One year, petty criminals in the city of Nostramo Quintus began turning up gruesomely dismembered. The killings spread to corrupt bureaucrats and protesters as a long, hot summer dragged on, and the city imposed its own curfew because nobody dared be out at dusk.
By year’s end crime had fallen to almost nothing. People were terrified of a figure they called the Night Haunter, who then became the city’s first monarch. Nobles who survived did so by swearing loyalty and acting as his mouthpieces.
He ruled fairly and evenly, but anyone who crossed him was punished by the Night Haunter in person rather than by an appointed enforcer. He went on to claim the other four cities of Nostramo, bringing higher productivity and a fearful peace to the whole world.
The fall of Nostramo
The Night Haunter warned his governors that his father’s fleet was coming for him. When the Delegation of Light arrived, carrying the primarchs Rogal Dorn, Lorgar, Ferrus Manus and Fulgrim, the rain reportedly stopped as if acknowledging their presence, and citizens wept at the sight of the Astartes.
What happened next is the part everyone remembers: the primarch destroyed his own homeworld. Sources don’t fully agree on the details, but the outcome is clear. Nostramo is gone, listed as destroyed, with no population left and an Aptus non tithe grade.
Key facts
- Nostramo was the Night Lords’ homeworld, in the Ultima Segmentum near the Ghoul Stars.
- It was a sunless hive world, kept in permanent eclipse by its moon, Tenebor.
- Its huge adamantium deposits made it wealthy, at the cost of toxic pollution and brutal labour.
- Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, ruled it before the Imperium found him.
- Curze destroyed the planet himself, and it’s now listed as destroyed with no population.
FAQ
Which Space Marine Legion came from Nostramo?
The Night Lords. Nostramo was their homeworld until their primarch, Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, destroyed it.
Why was Nostramo always dark?
It was tidally locked with its moon, Tenebor, so a permanent solar eclipse kept it in shadow. Pollution from its metalworking industry made the darkness worse.
Does Nostramo still exist in the 41st millennium?
No. It’s classified as a destroyed world with no population, and its tithe grade is Aptus non.