Night Lords fluff through the times

[Grunge]

When I first started playing Warhammer, I didn't pay much attention to Chaos Marines fluff, but common knowledge had it that the Night Lords were lightning-fast-hard-hitting-terrifying foes in battle. Their special unit was the Raptors back in the day, I always pictured a Night Lords army all in Jump Packs. So I always had it that they were kinda like a Chaos version of the Raven Guard, except more brutal and less "ninja".

I have been reading more recent stuff and it seems they shifted to a more Raven Guardish ninja style, favouring cover-ops and with an emphasis on elite warriors (few in numbers) and terror tactics with no focus on jump packs whatsoever.

Was my idea wrong back in 3rd or 4th edition 40k or have they truly shifted the Night Lords modus operandi?

[PondaNagura]

Actually if you go back and read the info provided in IA and the 3.5 chaos dex, they are cited as being adept at infiltration, stealth and guerrilla tactics, infilitrating worlds, wiping out communications before scaring the warp out of their intended victims/targets.

The raptor specialization was never really concrete, rather they weren't limited by the 0-1 the entry held in 3.5 dex, and could trade the heavy support slots for the extra FA slot...the entry about the trade indicates both usage in jump packs and bikes.
so, really if it raptors restriction hadn't been lifted, and CSM bikes were as worthwhile to take, Night Lords could just have easily become the Ravenwing/WS of chaos.

[Col. Tartleton]

They used to be Khornate in the fluff. Then they got redesigned as being non affiliated.

If the World Eaters are Shock and Awe the Night Lords are Asymmetry and Terror. World Eaters kick down your door, throw a fistful of grenades, dump a clip from their bolter and then go Sir Lancelot at a wedding with a chainsaw ax and an industrial flame thrower. Nightlords make the patrols disappear only to reappear dismembered in your bed. Then while you're like "OMG" they slam the door shut, lock it, and set your house on fire cackling.

Less sneaky than Alpha Legion. But still very very sneaky.

[Grunge]

That was my point, what I maybe got wrong in the start was the impartance of Jump Packs for them. Jump Packs are usually a Khornate sort of thing, descending from the sky on top of your foe and rip him to bits, flaring fire from your backs. That doesn't suit the NL ninja style too much.

I guess they had to give them some special unit back in the day and Jump Packs didn't fit anywhere else? I mean, no other Chaos Legion favours them much if I'm correct.

I guess I was wrong but this is how all Night Lords looked like in my head

[Scalebug]

I have a suspicion the Night Lords affiliation with Jump Packs came as an effect of the "1st generation" (to make a distinction from "1st edition") Raptor models being sculpted with wings, and then as they started to write the IA articles as deepen the fluff for the various legion someone thought "Hmmm, that seems to fit to these guys, they have wings in their heraldry and such..."

As Col. Tartleton said, originally, in the Realms of Chaos book Slaves to Darkness (1988) and the first Epic version (set during the heresy) the Night Lords were listed as Khornate, altough it was only as a an off hand remark, their Legion symbol appearing on the page of Khorne heraldry, and some illustration of a Night Lord flag being half Khorne rune and Half winged skull, it was never as explicit as with the World Eaters. (in the same vein. Alpha Legion and Iron Warriors were on the illustration of Slaanesh-aligned traitors).

If I'm not remembering it wrong, they dropped that alignment rather quickly after the Realm of Chaos books (sometimes around 1991-92 or so), when the traitor Terminators came out in a white dwarf article the legions we since have known as "undivided" were listed as such.

2nd ed didn't have much info on them, really, just that they were into terror tactics for the sake of it, and there were no jumppacks available (in 1st edition the chaos list had essentially had everything the loyalists had, and with the 2nd ed codex they started to diversify, noting some things as discovered after the heresy, or lost to the traitors through lack of resources).

1st version of the chaos codex in 3rd edition brought back jumppacks, but now explained as a sub-cult of (undivided) chaos marines drawn from surviving elite assault troops from all the traitor legions, aside from what organisation remained of the various legions, and the IA article and 3.5 codex noted that the Night Lords had a lot of dealings with this "Raptor cult".

It has sort of fallen in dis-use in the current Blanddex Chaos, and Raptors seem now to just be assault marines of the legions. I guess it had to do with the Raptor-entry being set to represent both these cultists with their superior heresy era jumppacks (they had hit-and-run and a -1 to opponents Ld to represent it, although if I recall they were priced into so-so choice territory for this...) and ordinary post-heresy assualt marine renegades like Red Corsairs and such. Bit of a shame really, hopefully it gets re-considered in future versions of the codex.

[Londinium]

1st version of the chaos codex in 3rd edition brought back jumppacks, but now explained as a sub-cult of (undivided) chaos marines drawn from surviving elite assault troops from all the traitor legions, aside from what organisation remained of the various legions, and the IA article and 3.5 codex noted that the Night Lords had a lot of dealings with this "Raptor cult".

It has sort of fallen in dis-use in the current Blanddex Chaos, and Raptors seem now to just be assault marines of the legions. I guess it had to do with the Raptor-entry being set to represent both these cultists with their superior heresy era jumppacks (they had hit-and-run and a -1 to opponents Ld to represent it, although if I recall they were priced into so-so choice territory for this...) and ordinary post-heresy assualt marine renegades like Red Corsairs and such. Bit of a shame really, hopefully it gets re-considered in future versions of the codex.

ADB's Night Lords series has a fair amount of information on the Raptor cultists aswell. They're definitely portrayed as very chaotic and culty rather than just assault marines. They engage in cannibalism, have become very avian and increasingly less human in nature and tend to prefer crawling around on all fours when on land rather than upright. All in all they're some of the strangest Night Lords out of the lot.

[Leftenant Gashrog]

If I'm not remembering it wrong, they dropped that alignment rather quickly after the Realm of Chaos books (sometimes around 1991-92 or so), when the traitor Terminators came out in a white dwarf article the legions we since have known as "undivided" were listed as such.

You are alas remembering incorrectly, the 40k Chaos Terminator rules were completely devout of allegiance info since they were irrelevant as all Terminators were effectively undivided therein - there were no marks back then and the article stated (both fluff and ruleswise) that Terminators effectively stood apart from their brethren by maintaining their pre-heresy squad size of 5 men rather than adopt their Gods sacred number. This was then contradicted by the subsquent rules for using Chaos Terminators in Space Hulk wherein squads were organised based on sacred number - and the Night Lords were stated to be Khornate. The half-bat, half-khorne banner you mention was the back banner of the studios chaos terminator captain model who appeared frequently in the pages of WD and also on the cover of the 86-91, 92 and 93 catalogues. It wasn't until Codex: Chaos came out in 1996 that they became the contemptuous atheists they are today (there was only half a page or so on them therein, but it basically reads like a good summary of the later IA article - Nostromo, Night Haunter, even M'Shen).

As a side note the Alpha Legion and Iron Warriors weren't quite in the same vein as the Night Lords in Slaves to Darkness: the Alpha Legion were on the same page as the Emperors Children but there was nothing tying them Slaanesh - other than a note saying they were wholly corrupt. Iron Warriors were rather murky since it was unclear if the pale blue slaanesh pad was supposed to be with their darker blue pads, and their chapter emblem could have been a stylized Slaanesh symbol. (which is probably why they were omitted from the Space Hulk article) The Night Lords on the other hand were blatantly Khorny: both the banner and 2 of the 3 example shoulderpads had Khornes emblem - hence the 'throwaway line' pointing out their allegiance.

[Nazguire]

ADB's Night Lords series has a fair amount of information on the Raptor cultists aswell. They're definitely portrayed as very chaotic and culty rather than just assault marines. They engage in cannibalism, have become very avian and increasingly less human in nature and tend to prefer crawling around on all fours when on land rather than upright. All in all they're some of the strangest Night Lords out of the lot.

I'm thinking that the cannibalism thing is more to do with the Cult of the Bleeding Eyes than specifically that if you're a Raptor you're one of the undead.