The inheritance of Nostramo coiled throughout the structure of the Night Lords. Outwardly they followed a pattern close to many other Legions, but behind this basic skeleton: the courts of Nostramo, the gang traditions and aesthetics of terror infused every aspect of the Legion. Callous and brutal though they were, the Night Lords were not without pride, and the trappings and titles of?aristocracy and dominion formed a key part of their identity, and rivalry, often violent, was endemic among the Legion. There were few amongst their ranks who did not bear some form of title, and the craftsmanship with which they embellished their weapons and armour was remarkable, if grotesque. Furthermore, far more so than even the most barbarous members of the World Eaters or White Scars Legions, they habitually adorned their armour and vehicles with the brutalised and mutilated remains of those who had resisted them, and made an art of flaying and presenting the dead in order to sow fear in their foes. There was method in this madness, at least at first; such grisly displays were a clear signal saying “This fate will be yours to share”.

永夜世界諾斯特拉姆的遺產(chǎn)盤繞貫通了午夜領(lǐng)主軍團(tuán)的組織結(jié)構(gòu)。表面上，他們遵循與其他其他軍團(tuán)相近的模式，但在這具基本框架的背后，諾斯特拉姆的宮廷、幫派傳統(tǒng)和恐懼美學(xué)灌輸?shù)搅塑妶F(tuán)的每個方面。雖然他們冷酷而殘暴，但午夜領(lǐng)主們也是高傲的阿斯塔特，裝飾物、貴族頭銜和支配權(quán)組成了他們身份的關(guān)鍵部分，而競爭（通常是暴力性質(zhì)的）也在軍團(tuán)中流行。幾乎沒有午夜領(lǐng)主戰(zhàn)士不會擁有某種形式的頭銜，而且他們裝飾武器和動力甲的技藝也是引人注目的——雖然也是丑陋古怪的。另外，他們習(xí)慣性地用抵抗他們的敵人那被殘忍凌虐和嚴(yán)重?fù)p壞的殘骸來裝飾自己的載具和動力甲，并且創(chuàng)造了一種剝皮和展示死者的藝術(shù)——用于在敵人心中散播恐懼，做出這些行徑的午夜領(lǐng)主們甚至比白疤或吞世者軍團(tuán)中最為野蠻的成員們還要殘忍暴虐得多。至少在一開始，這種瘋狂的行為也是有用途的：這種可怕的顯示是一個清晰的信號——汝之宿命，敬上于此。

At the squad level the Night Lords fielded a broad range of units, though taken as a whole the number of breacher and siege configured squads were proportionally rarer than in other Legions. The Night Lords also had a number of unique units: the infamous Terror squads, whose sole purpose was to create and embody a state of horror in their enemies，and the Night Raptors, who would soar above their enemies trailing the bloody remains of their kills while shrieking from modified vox casters. Almost all squads within the Legion had a name that they used in place of?the simple designation. So it was that squads within a company might be referred to as Claws, Talons or a number of other epithets often coupled with an indication of hierarchy or honorific: Stygian Talon, Tenth Claw，The Fifth Oathed, to name but a few amongst thousands. The Company was the basic strategic deployment within the Night Lords Legion and each squad belonged to a company which might number anywhere between 100 and 1,000 warriors. Most companies had a title in addition to their numeric designation. The 27th Company were (their names in translation from the Nostraman) The Shattered Skull，the 104th“The Sable Brothers”，?the 71st “The Crimson Judges”?and so on. Unlike many others, the Night Lords used battalions and chapters as semi—permanent grouping of companies, rather than a universal structure favouring their own divisions. This seemingly byzantine complexity masked a surprisingly efficient and flexible approach to warfare which allowed the Legion to operate with a high degree of fluidity and to be readily fractured into autonomous units or combined into ad hoc formations as their master dictated.

在小隊層面上，午夜領(lǐng)主們部署了各式各樣的部隊，不過總體來看，午夜領(lǐng)主的破障與攻城配置小隊的數(shù)量在比例上少于其他軍團(tuán)。午夜領(lǐng)主也有許多獨一無二的單位：聲名狼藉的恐懼小隊，他們唯一的目標(biāo)就是在敵人中制造和形成恐懼的狀態(tài)；還有就是黑夜猛禽，他們會拖著被他們殺死的對手的血腥殘骸從敵人頭上滑翔而過，同時從聲音投射器中放出尖叫聲。軍團(tuán)中幾乎每個小隊都有一個用于代替簡單稱號的姓名，所以在一個連隊中，小隊可能被稱為烈爪、利爪或者許多其他通常與等級和敬語相關(guān)的綽號：冥河利爪、第十烈爪、第五誓約者，我們僅在此舉出數(shù)千個名稱中的幾個作為例子。連隊是午夜領(lǐng)主軍團(tuán)中的基本戰(zhàn)略部署單位，而且每個小隊都屬于一個人數(shù)在100到1000之間的連隊，多數(shù)連隊都有一個編號稱呼之外的頭銜，（例如）第27連隊是“破碎顱骨”（把他們的名字從諾斯特拉姆語翻譯過來之后），第104連隊是“喪服兄弟”，第71連隊是"猩紅判官"，等等。不同于其他許多軍團(tuán)，午夜領(lǐng)主軍團(tuán)將戰(zhàn)斗營和戰(zhàn)團(tuán)作為連隊們的暫時性集群，而非一種有利于其自身分散作戰(zhàn)的普遍性結(jié)構(gòu)。這種看似拜占庭式的復(fù)雜性掩蓋了令人驚訝的高效而靈活的戰(zhàn)爭方法：軍團(tuán)在作戰(zhàn)時具備了高流動靈活性，而且準(zhǔn)備著根據(jù)主子們的命令分散為獨立的單位或組合成專門的編隊

Legion Command Hierarchy

軍團(tuán)指揮等級體系

Konrad Curze was the Dark King of his Legion, a figure of fear for his sons as much as an object of loyalty. That many were genuinely loyal to him cannot be doubted, but as many seem to have been bound to him by fear rather than adoration, and some hated their gene-sire. Curze appeared not to have cared so long as when he commanded, all obeyed.

康拉德 科茲乃是第八軍團(tuán)的黑暗君王，對他的子嗣們而言，午夜幽魂是恐懼的具象，同樣是效忠的對象。很多第八軍團(tuán)的戰(zhàn)士毫無疑問是由衷地忠誠于原體，但也有很多人似乎是因為恐懼而非崇拜才依附于他，而某些人則是仇恨著自己的基因生父。不過科茲似乎并不在意這些情況，因為他進(jìn)行指揮時所有人都會遵命。

Around him the Dark King maintained a court of his most useful sons. The Kyroptera and its members were drawn from senior officers across the Legion and transcended rank. All had a quality that Curze found valuable, though in some cases that quality seems to have been little more than distilled bitterness and cruelty. Membership of the Kyroptera gave no absolute rank, but the fact remained that they were the ruling elite of the Night Lords, and so few others would openly disobey a command from one of them.Alongside these served the Atramentar. A company-strength formation equipped with Terminator armour and armed with the Legion's finest weapons, they were the personal command of the First Captain of the Night Lords and enforcers of?order. Renowned for their cold brutality in battle and their unswerving loyalty to their Commander and their Primarch, they seem to have acted as a check on the many fractious elements within the Legion, and though this cannot now be confirmed, it is widely thought that they served as Curze's?need arose.

黑暗君王在自己身邊保有了一個由他最有能力的子嗣們組成的宮廷。夜蝠議會及其成員是從整個軍團(tuán)的高級軍官中挑選而出的，他們的地位身份超越了軍銜等級。他們都有著科茲發(fā)現(xiàn)的某種有價值的特質(zhì)，雖然這種特質(zhì)在某些情況下似乎只不過是提煉過的苦澀和殘忍。夜蝠議會的成員們未必給予完全獨立的軍銜，但事實上他們就是午夜領(lǐng)主軍團(tuán)的統(tǒng)治精英們，幾乎也沒有其他軍團(tuán)成員會公開違抗某位夜蝠議會尊主的指揮。黑甲衛(wèi)們隨侍著夜蝠議會，這支部隊擁有一個連隊的兵力，他們裝備了終結(jié)者動力甲和軍團(tuán)中最為優(yōu)良的武器，他們是午夜領(lǐng)主軍團(tuán)第一連長的私人部隊與命令執(zhí)行者。他們因在戰(zhàn)斗中的冷酷殘暴和對于他們的指揮官和原體的堅定忠誠而著稱，他們似乎充當(dāng)了對軍團(tuán)內(nèi)部許多難以控制的因素（機(jī)仆：刺頭）的檢查制止者，盡管目前尚不能確定，但人們普遍認(rèn)為當(dāng)科茲有需要時，他們便會效勞。

Beneath the Kyroptera were the many captains of the companies. The few of?these that had been graced with leading several companies under the banner of a battalion or chapter went by a variety of?inconsistent ranks including commander, master and regent, amongst others. While these exalted leaders had clear command over the units placed under them, their authority in the Legion as a whole seems to have been more malleable. A regent might have a handful of captains under his command, but be subject to the commands of a different captain if that captain were of the Kyroptera, or exalted in some other way.

夜蝠議會之下是各連隊的連長們，其中有極少數(shù)人被給予了在戰(zhàn)斗營或者戰(zhàn)團(tuán)的旗幟下領(lǐng)導(dǎo)多個連隊作戰(zhàn)的榮譽(yù)，這些人擁有多種前后不一的軍銜，包括指揮官、戰(zhàn)團(tuán)長和攝政官，以及其他。雖然這些顯赫得意的領(lǐng)袖們對其麾下的部隊有明確的命令，但他們在軍團(tuán)中的權(quán)威似乎更具延展性。一位攝政官可能指揮著幾名連長，但如果另一位連長是夜蝠議會的成員或以其他方式享有更為顯赫的地位，攝政官也要臣服于他的指揮。

Just as squads and companies bore names to set them apart from each other, so too did the commanders of the Legion adorn their names with secondary monikers and titles. Many of these titles had echoes in the cursed nobility and gangs of Nostramo: Talonmaster, the Bloodless, or the Sightless Revenant. A few were no doubt calculated insults that either stuck or were adopted by their bearers out of perversity.

就像小隊和連隊擁有把自己與彼此區(qū)分開了的名稱，軍團(tuán)的指揮官們也會用次級綽號和頭銜裝飾他們的名字。許多此類頭銜都在諾斯特拉姆那些被詛咒的貴族和幫派中有著回響：利爪主宰、無血者或者無明游魂。一些頭銜毫無疑問是精心策劃的侮辱，它們要么被接受的，要么就是被所有者們出于乖僻而采納。

War Disposition

戰(zhàn)爭配置

At the time of the Dropsite Massacre, the Night Lords had been teetering on the edge of renegade status for several years. Apparently fighting their own wars with little or no regard or contact with the rest of the Great Crusade’s chain of command, it had been some time since an accurate survey of their strength had been made. Estimates of the strength of the Legion therefore vary wildly. Some put their numbers at a little over 90,000, others at closer to 120,000. The Legion was known to have continued recruiting from subjugated worlds throughout the later part of the Great Crusade, in some cases stealing away the youth of entire systems as the base from which to winnow suitable aspirants. The use of rapid psycho-conditioning and accelerated gene-seed implantation was also known to be widely practiced by the Night Lords, further supporting suggestions that their numbers were at least on a par with many of the more numerous Legions. It is also likely that a number of Night Lords elements were not at the Isstvan system, but were engaged in other self-selected actions in the unconquered corners of the galaxy.

到登錄點大屠殺時，午夜領(lǐng)主軍團(tuán)幾年來一直處于叛逃狀態(tài)的邊緣。顯然，他們在進(jìn)行著自己的戰(zhàn)爭，對大遠(yuǎn)征指揮系統(tǒng)很少或根本沒有考慮或聯(lián)系過，自從對他們的兵力進(jìn)行了準(zhǔn)確的調(diào)查以來，這種情況已有一段時間了。因此，我們對第八軍團(tuán)兵力的估計大相徑庭，有些人推測他們的兵力略高于90000，其他人則推測他們的兵力接近120000。我們已知在大十遠(yuǎn)征的后期，第八軍團(tuán)繼續(xù)從被征服的世界招募新兵，某些情況下他們會偷走整個恒星系的年輕人，作為篩選合適應(yīng)征者的基礎(chǔ)。我們也知道午夜領(lǐng)主軍團(tuán)會廣泛使用快速精神增強(qiáng)（機(jī)仆：大概就是直接灌輸戰(zhàn)斗知識、催眠訓(xùn)練之類的）和加速的基因種子植入手術(shù)（來制造星際戰(zhàn)士），這進(jìn)一步支持了某些說法：午夜領(lǐng)主的兵力至少與很多人數(shù)更多的軍團(tuán)兵力相當(dāng)。也可能很多午夜領(lǐng)主的部隊并未參與伊斯特萬戰(zhàn)役，而是在銀河未被征服的角落中進(jìn)行著自己選擇的其他作戰(zhàn)行動。