Huron Blackheart

The Tyrant of Badab

Lufgt Huron was Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, a respected Imperial Fists successor chapter posted to the troubled Maelstrom Zone in the Badab Sector. He held the zone for decades against Tyranid splinter-fleets, Ork incursions, and Drukhari raids — and slowly, while no Imperial governor was paying close attention, built an unofficial empire around the Badab system whose tribute kept the Chapter operational when the wider Imperium could not.

In 901.M41 he refused the standard tithe of gene-seed and recruits to Terra. The Imperium called it rebellion. Huron called it self-defence. He took the title Tyrant of Badab.

The War

The Badab War was the longest intra-Astartes conflict in Imperial history. Six to nine loyalist chapters fought the Astral Claws and their allied chapters (Mantis Warriors, Lamenters) for over a decade. In 912.M41 the loyalists broke through to Badab Primaris. Huron was wounded in the final assault on his fortress-monastery and presumed dead.

He did not die. A Chaos cult in the Maelstrom recovered his body, rebuilt him with daemonic implants, and presented him with a choice. He took the choice that kept him alive.

The Imperium killed me. Something else made me. I owe nothing to the first and everything to the second.

— Huron Blackheart, attributed early M42

The Red Corsairs

Huron rebuilt his Chapter, in exile, as the Red Corsairs — now a pure Chaos warband and the dominant power in the Maelstrom rift. The Red Corsairs are unusually disciplined for a Chaos force; Huron retains enough of his Astral Claws command instinct to enforce a level of order most warlords in the Eye of Terror would consider unnecessary.

The Red Corsairs raid Imperial shipping, pirate small Imperial colonies, and occasionally act as mercenary heavy-hitters for other Chaos warlords willing to pay Huron's prices.

M42

Huron Blackheart has been a senior figure in the Arks of Omen campaign — Abaddon's campaign in the late Indomitus Era to seize ancient daemonic technology. He has fought alongside the Black Legion in coalition, although he has been notably careful not to subordinate himself to Abaddon's long-term plan.

The Imperium regards him as the most operationally consistent Chaos warlord active outside the Eye of Terror. The Inquisition has, multiple times, attempted to assassinate him. He has, multiple times, declined to die.