“The Butcher’s Nails,” a short story by ADB in the Legacies of Betrayal collection, is a worthwhile read. The World Eaters and Word Bearers are on their Shadow Crusade, and the fleets almost fight each other over Angron’s unwillingness to stick to the plan. Great interactions and banter between Angron and Lorgar, and we get Lotara firing the ursus claws.
But this bit raised my eyebrows. 
Lorgar. Ahem. How do you know what Curze’s bedchamber looks like?
It was just so random I was dying 💀
"..... And?"
Very randomly I found a short story about Vulkan, talking about the time Curze destroyed Nostramo and how he and Horus wanted to deal with Curze after that.
I can post some excerpts if you are curious but let me tell ya, Vulkan is such a precious Boi <3
From Corax: Lord of Shadows. One Admiral Fenc is nervous and convinced he keeps making an ass of himself around Corax.
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“‘The problem with primarchs,’ his predecessor had said upon handing over command, ‘is that they are primarchs.’ … ‘They are better treated like the old gods, not like men. Each one is different, no one rule applies to all. What flatters one will insult another. They must be propitiated in the correct way, individual to the deity, in order for worship to be a success.’
At the time, he had thought this a blasphemy against the Emperor’s secular creed, but over time he had learned how right the old man was.”
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This Fenc fellow is also the same guy who had requested *checks notes* Konrad Curze to help with the compliance. And got Corax instead. And was worried about upsetting him. The good news is, I doubt Curze would have cared about breaches of decorum at dinner.
hy sister, if it's not a headache, could you show some highlights od Curze's trial after he is captured?
Oh Curze’s trial is so much fun. For Curze anyway. 🤣 It covers several chapters so it’s hard to pick the best parts. I’m posting probably too many pages, but it’s all just too good.
The trial is a Macragge-wide spectacle. They had to give out tickets to the public to keep the numbers to code. Guilliman refused to live-stream it though. That would be undignified.
The crimes include murder, murder, lots more murder, and also tearing Azkaellon’s arm off and throwing him out a window. He’s okay though. But Curze taunts him about it. The Lion asks how Curze pleads and Curze basically says “oh I did all that stuff, but it’s not crimes. Not unless what you all do all the time is also crimes, then we’re just all war criminals together. Especially the psycho from Caliban.”
Guilliman and Sanguinius: Lion, what did you do? We said no orbital bombardments I’m sure you didn’t do that right? Curze says: hmm funny how a bunch of proscribed weapons just fall out of the sky like that? Lion: oh no I used drop pods as bombers so it wasn’t technically orbital…. Guilliman/Sanguinius: what the actual- Curze: *laughs his ass off*
They sentence Curze to death and banish the Lion who teleports out, but since there are Rules about No Swords in the Courtroom, nobody has a sword to execute him with. Sanguinius says, not a problem I’ll kill him with my bare hands, and is about to when the Lion teleports back in having just had an Important Thought.
I love this damn story arc so much.
Can we have something about Konrad’s hide-and-seek aboard the Invincible Reason? Or just him making situations worse in general. Thank you;)
Thank you for the ask!
The Lion tried sending his men down after Curze, and when that ended badly too many times, he decided to hunt his brother himself. Every day for sixteen weeks. And he would have caught him too if not for that meddling… vox traffic! *cackling from the vents*
It’s Chapter 8 of Unremembered Empire, here are some excerpts.
From Pharos: I recommend this book just for this scene if no other reason. Curze confronts Sanguinius and it’s profound and chilling. And of course there’s massive snark:
“‘I know!’ he said with childish enthusiasm. ‘Your next pronouncement is so “I will call my guard, my sons in gold! They and I will slay you, you cannot stop us all!” Curze mimicked Sanguinius’ voice cruelly, imbuing it with a vanity and vapidity Sanguinius feared accurate. ‘We’ll, they won’t, and I can. You saw what I did to the Lion’s sons, and to those of the Avenging Beancounter.’” …
“So pretty, so stupid, Father’s favoured cockerel, preening in the hen coop!”
By request from @darkseraphscorner , Sevatar and Kurze. I need to track down more of their content, seems like it’s scattered in quite a few places. But I really liked this one.
From the novella Prince of Crows (in the Shadows of Treachery compilation), Kurze is in a coma and Sevatar psychically enters his dream to try to save him. The dream is of the time the Emperor and his retinue landed on Nostramo. The whole conversation is great, and illuminates that Sevatar really is the closest Kurze has to a genuine friend.
