Curze

Biodata

Power Progression

Background and History

Adoption and education

Han Mingxuan adopts Curze when he is approximately the size of a one-year-old. Recognizing him as a Primarch, Han initially hopes that raising him will eventually provide a route to a comfortable retirement on Terra. Curze knows they are not blood relatives and later credits his father’s care with preventing him from becoming a monster 1 3.

Han teaches him Chinese, literacy, and moral reasoning, emphasizing that knowledge is a tool rather than a reason for pride. Curze learns quickly, but initially struggles to write words such as “wisdom,” “courage,” “life,” and “beauty”: the characters sometimes turn into High Gothic or illegible scribbles. These difficulties largely disappear as his education progresses 1.

Fairy tales become a nightly part of his upbringing. His prophetic curse makes him perceive disastrous alternatives even in stories with happy endings. Over time, he becomes better able to endure these visions without throwing away or tearing up the books 1.

First killings and the Night Haunter

Curze first kills to protect Han from thieves who enter their mine and threaten his father’s life. Using a handmade storybook as his weapon, he slaughters the intruders. He identifies with the hunter in Little Red Riding Hood: someone with the power to stop predators rather than wait helplessly for them 2.

Once his anger fades, the smell of human blood makes him sick, and he loses consciousness. In a strange inner world, a monstrous figure urges him to open a door promising absolute power. Curze instead uses his father’s ore bracelet as knuckle-dusters and smashes the door apart, declaring that he is human and will not submit to a god 2 3.

After awakening in a dramatically enlarged body, Curze discovers that the figure remains inside his mind. Calling himself the Night Haunter, the entity advises him to build an independent force to protect Han. Worried that his abnormal growth will cause trouble for his father, Curze exchanges the thieves’ bodies for nutrient paste, leaves the food under Han’s pillow, and quietly departs the labor camp 3.

The Bat of Eternal Night

Curze begins taking control of the mining hive’s middle levels. Although he accepts killing criminals, he rejects the Night Haunter’s instruction to flay a corpse for deterrence, citing Han’s teachings about human equality and the treatment of the dead 4.

When he returns to Han months later, his father welcomes him without demanding an explanation for his absence. Han gives him a handmade copy of The Art of War and later a crude metal bat emblem. The emblem represents Han’s hope that Curze will bring justice to Nostramo through public authority and policy, rather than personal strength alone 4 5.

Learning that Archmagos Azil Sikas intends to activate the Final Efficiency Protocol, Curze sends his followers back to protect Han and infiltrates the upper hive alone. He kills Sikas, uses the severed head to pass iris authentication, and cancels the protocol. In a public broadcast, he identifies himself as Konrad Curze, the Bat of Eternal Night, and calls on the lower-level laborers to rise against their oppressors 5 6.

He then decapitates the heads of upper-hive noble and gang families, leaving bat symbols beside their heads. His stated purpose is to provoke succession struggles and political chaos, not merely frighten the survivors 6.

Establishing the Justiciar Legion

Curze consolidates his position by eliminating die-hard gang members, resistant Underhive warlords, and Underhive xenos. Han praises the judgment and personal maturity reflected in his decisions rather than his fighting ability 9.

His organization grows into the Eternal Night Justiciar Legion, attracting recruits who want to become Justiciars. Curze recognizes that their lack of education is a problem even as their numbers increase 15.

As Grand Inquisitor, he investigates nobles before negotiations and brings the Evernight Code into their meeting. After establishing actual rule over Quintus Hive City, he prepares to use it as the foundation for conquering Nostramo. He has already dispatched Talos and two thousand elite legionaries to the strategically important Fourth Hive City 19 20 23.

Unification and reconstruction

Curze deliberately studies governance before expanding further. Although his power allows him to travel anywhere in the hive cities, Han’s stories have taught him that taking territory is easier than holding it. Once he understands the methods used in Quintus, he moves to unify the planet 27 28.

After bringing every hive city under control, he begins judging nobles and legally recovering their resources. His reconstruction program uses airborne nanobots to cleanse the atmosphere and an artificial orbital light source to end Nostramo’s perpetual darkness 28.

His initial proposal to raze the hive cities is subsequently moderated by professional advice: suitable structures are modified rather than indiscriminately demolished. By the anniversary of the return of light, Nostramo remains a mining world, but its population is no longer depicted as numb and hopeless 37.

His father’s mortality and the relocation project

Archmagos Angrak reveals that Han’s body cannot be deliberately genetically modified and that even ideal Imperial rejuvenation treatment could extend his life to no more than five hundred years. Curze is devastated: he had expected his own efforts to let his father live for thousands of years 32 33.

In his distress, the shattered door offering godlike power reappears, promising a way to save Han. This time Curze wants to open it, but the Night Haunter stops him and returns the bracelet bearing their father’s moral teachings. He urges Curze to understand both brothers as continuations of Han’s influence 33.

The brothers conceal plans to relocate Nostramo from Han. When their father discovers the project, he rebukes both of them, particularly the Night Haunter’s attempt to shape the younger Curze into an idealized demigod. Han insists that neither son needs extraordinary achievements to earn his love; his central demand is that they remain uncorrupted people 39 40.

By the later preparations for the Emperor’s arrival, Nostramo has been relocated, though rebuilding has not made it wealthy 49.

Recognition and the Emperor’s approach

At the anniversary ceremony in Light-Bathed Square, Curze places his hand on the Evernight Code and addresses the planet. He celebrates Nostramo’s rebirth while acknowledging both its people and Han as the makers of that achievement 37 38.

He subsequently begins teaching the Night Haunter the principles Han taught him, starting with the Chinese character for “person.” In exchange, he asks to learn about the future from which his counterpart came 41 42.

A painful vision of a fleet and a golden sun warns him that the Emperor is approaching. Curze informs Han, then continues the planet’s work. Preparations for the visit proceed without stopping ordinary life or production, and Curze assembles the Legion’s original five thousand members to receive ceremonial armor made by Han 43 49 50.

Appearance

• Early childhood: Initially the size of a one-year-old, then rapidly grows to resemble a six-year-old 1.
• After awakening: Over 1.9 meters tall, with a physique more muscular than Han Mingxuan’s 3.
• Clothing and arms: Returns to his father wearing well-fitted light armor and carrying weapons 4.
• Complexion: Initially described as pale; after a year participating in Nostramo’s construction, his skin is closer to wheat-colored, contrasting with the Night Haunter’s persistent pallor 2 38.
• Physical development: Thunder Warriors respect his strength and capacity for labor, but unanimously regard him as underdeveloped 38.

Personality

Curze is cheerful, outspoken, and educated, sharply contrasting with the gloomy and paranoid outlook Han initially attributes to a letter actually associated with the Night Haunter. He frequently mocks his counterpart’s appearance, calls him “Big Bat,” and dismisses his pretensions to godhood 3 17.

His affection for Han governs many of his decisions. He builds a force partly to protect him, worries that his own growth will burden him, and becomes intensely jealous when the Night Haunter is accepted as another son. The prospect of Han’s eventual death produces his most severe emotional crisis 3 19 32 33.

He is willing to kill decisively but does not accept cruelty as automatically useful or justified. He refuses corpse-flaying, distinguishes deliberate political destabilization from intimidation, and increasingly relies on investigation and law when exercising authority 4 6 19 20.

Curze consciously rejects divinity. Even when his abilities make planetary conquest seem effortless, he identifies them as products of technology and insists that he remains human. His continued study of law and governance reflects an understanding that strength alone cannot sustain the society he wants to build 27 28.

Abilities and Skills

Primarch Physiology and Combat

Curze’s rapidly developing body provides exceptional strength, speed, and endurance 1 3 5.

• Kills armed intruders using a book made from discarded materials 2.
• Moves quickly enough to decapitate an administrator with a sharp metal fragment before beginning a conversation with the Night Haunter 4.
• Develops increasingly reliable battle instincts through combat 5.
• Earns the respect of Thunder Warriors through his strength and physical work 38.

Precognition

Curze can perceive future events, though the ability is initially associated with visions of calamity and destruction 1.

• Sees disastrous endings while reading otherwise happy fairy tales 1.
• Anticipates a plasma attack during his infiltration of the upper hive 5.
• Recognizes that Azil Sikas is stalling and kills him before he can exploit the delay 6.
• Suffers a severe headache before seeing the approaching Imperial fleet and a golden sun; the Night Haunter helps him regain control 43.
• Rejecting his Warp Essence considerably weakens his precognition, with the Night Haunter’s presence compensating for that loss 38.
• By the brothers’ discussion with Han, neither has experienced further self-destructive prophecies since the Night Haunter entered Curze’s mind 18.

Stealth and Infiltration

Curze can move through heavily controlled hive territory without detection 5.

• Follows the Archmagos without being noticed 5.
• Reaches the upper hive alone and destroys a robot after evading its attack 5.
• Eventually regards the hive cities as freely accessible, though he delays conquest until he understands how to govern them 28.

Intelligence and Engineering

Curze combines extensive inborn knowledge with a Primarch’s rapidly developing intelligence 1 13 28.

• Identifies the importance of Nostramo’s transportation network when planning further conquest 13.
• Understands the Archmagos’s control terminal at a glance and terminates the Final Efficiency Protocol 6.
• Designs an environmental transformation program tailored to Nostramo 28.
• Implements atmospheric cleansing through airborne nanobots and creates an orbital source of light and heat 28.
• Proposes converting his homeworld into a vast battle carrier when considering its industrial and geological problems 29.

Law, Governance, and Command

Curze’s authority rests increasingly on the Evernight Code and the institutions built around it 20 28 37.

• Establishes rules forbidding his followers from joining gangs or behaving like thugs 6.
• Orders detailed investigations of nobles before negotiations 19.
• Studies legal texts even while campaigning 27.
• Uses legal judgments to recover resources from the nobility for reconstruction 28.
• Commands the Eternal Night Justiciar Legion, with ten selected Justiciars responsible for leading and managing the organization beneath him 23.

Cooperation with the Night Haunter

The older counterpart provides combat experience, psychic support, and knowledge of another future 18 29 41 43.

• Can project an imposing presence through Curze during confrontations 21.
• Supplies destructive psychic force capable of shutting down a forge temple’s combat machinery 29.
• Helps steady Curze during a painful precognitive episode 43.
• Refuses to substitute for Curze’s own study, insisting that he personally learn Han’s teachings 27.

Equipment and Items

• Ore bracelet — Made by Han from exceptionally hard ore and engraved with benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. Curze uses it as knuckle-dusters to destroy the door offering godlike power 3.
• Handmade fairy-tale book — Constructed from scrap materials by Han; serves as both a reading text and Curze’s weapon against the thieves 1 2.
• Handmade copy of The Art of War — Engraved onto scrap from mining machinery and bound with wire; given to him when he returns to Han 4.
• Metal bat emblem — A crude gift representing Han’s hope that Curze will bring justice and liberation to Nostramo 5.
• Evernight Code — His central legal reference, brought to negotiations, studied during campaigns, and used during his public oath at Light-Bathed Square 20 27 37.
• Armor and weapons — Initially wears fitted light armor; later receives ceremonial equipment alongside the Legion’s original five thousand. Han’s Adamantium-alloy armor and swords incorporate Necron technology for size adjustment and inscriptions of the Evernight Code intended to resist Warp erosion. Despite their materials, they are ceremonial rather than reliable frontline protection 4 50.

Relationships

• Han Mingxuan — Adoptive father, teacher, and chief moral influence. Curze credits him with teaching him how to be human and publicly shares the credit for Nostramo’s transformation with him 3 37 38.
• The Night Haunter / Konrad — An older Curze from another world who inhabits his mind. Initially treated as an untrustworthy xenos, he becomes an acknowledged older brother and collaborator. Curze only explicitly learns that they are versions of the same person during Han’s confrontation over the relocation project 18 29 39 41.
• Jago Sevatarion — Trusted subordinate ordered to protect Han during Curze’s attack on the Archmagos. Curze later assigns him to investigate the nobles seeking contact with his father 5 6 19.
• Talos — Entrusted with two thousand elite Justiciars and an advance mission to Fourth Hive City 23.
• Archmagos Angrak — Evolutionist technical adviser who presents the colonization STC, explains Nostramo’s long-term environmental danger, and reveals the limits of Han’s lifespan 32.
• Priest Herbert — Evolutionist Tech-Priest whose commitment to reason aligns with Curze’s rejection of religious submission; helps guide Nostramo’s construction 30 37.
• Trazyn — Addressed by Curze as “Uncle Trazyn.” Provides security assistance to Han and Necron technology used in the Legion’s ceremonial armor 43 50.
• The Emperor — The approaching Master of Mankind. Han advises Curze to receive him courteously but without servility, while the Night Haunter warns that his arrival will complicate their lives 38 43.
• Horus — Regards the un met Curze as a potential rival for the Emperor’s affection after learning that their father’s attention has been unusually affected by him 42 43.

Notable Quotes

“There are no gods or emperors in this world!” 3

“At heart, I’m still human.” 28

“Darkness gave birth to us, but it could not confine us.”
— Spoken together with the Night Haunter during the anniversary address 37

“This was also the first character I learned: person, meaning ‘person.’”
— Beginning the Night Haunter’s lessons 41