History
The Legion of the Night, referred to also as the Nightkin, were chimeras created by Mr. Sinister. The Nightkin were combinations of the DNA of Nightcrawler and various other mutants and mutates.[1]
Origins[]
When Mr. Sinister succeeded in his schemes to conquer the world by slowly replacing important figures, first on Krakoa and then globally, he began creating chimeras, genetically engineered mutants who combined the powers of two separate X-Genes.[2]
Due to a curse placed on Nightcrawler by Margali Szardos, his DNA was initially unusable. This curse was eventually lifted by Mother Righteous, allowing Sinister to use Nightcrawler's DNA to create the Legion of the Night, his own squad of assassins.[2]
The Legion were sent to hunt down Vox Ignis, Mother Righteous' right-hand man. Using the power of his "Scream of Change", which allowed him to reorder the minds and spirits of his victims, Vox Ignis succeeded in repressing the Sinister indoctrination of several Nightkin, chief among them their leader Wagnerine. The purified Nightkin turned on and killed their Sinister comrades. Desperate for meaning, they asked Vox Ignis for guidance, and he brought them to Mother Righteous.[2]
Mother Righteous appropriated "the Spark", the philosophy of the original Nightcrawler, creating new rituals and a system of belief around the Legion of Night, before charging them with a new mission; gathering magical artifacts. The effects of the Scream of Change were not permanent, and in time the Sinister-strain could begin to reassert control, particularly due to intense trauma.[2][3]
100 Years Later[]
In the 90 or so years that followed, the Nightkin continued to do the bidding of Mother Righteous. As the Sinisters spread from Earth and began conquering the stars, the Nightkin danced between the raindrops of war, declining any offers of alliance and instead stealing powerful artifacts from civilizations doomed to destruction for one purpose; constructing the Reliquary Perilous.[3]
In this time, the Legion had dwindled in numbers, as the Sinisters had caught on to the fact that the Nightcrawler-strain was vulnerable to outside manipulation and thus stopped using it. Despite being created infertile, Wagnerine's healing factor had circumvented this, allowing for the birth of the first Nightkin child. Upon birth, the child suddenly vanished, in what was believed to be a tragic accident.[3]
The death of her daughter, and her incorporation into the Nightkin's faith, caused Wagnerine to doubt. With support from Vox Ignis, she received Mother Righteous' permission to rescue Doctor Nemesis and the original Nightcrawler from the remnants of Earth. Still beastial, Nightcrawler attacked Mother Righteous due to her misappropriation of the Spark. Mother Righteous killed him, prompting Wagnerine to lash out. Using her control over them, she easily stopped Wagnerine and disciplined the Nightkin. This instilled doubt in her servants, and in doing so, Wagnerine learned that her daughter was not lost at all, but had been taken by Mother Righteous to be part of the Reliquary.[3]
1000 Years Later[]
After another 900 years had passed, the Legion had reached the its fiftieth generation, at this point consisting of copies of copies of copies. Vat grown and clumsily crossed, they had grown stupider and more faithful than their first generation ancestors. Any lingering trace of Sinister's control had been removed centuries ago, yet Mother Righteous still enforced their ritual suicides as a convenient way to rid herself of doubters.[4]
Despite the Reliquary Perilous having been completed for centuries, Mother Righteous was forced to wait for the rest of the pieces to fall into place. In the meanwhile, she had the Legion continue securing powerful artifacts, just in case. When the original Mr. Sinister made his way to the World Farm, the time to unleash her plans had come. No longer requiring the Legion, she sacrificed all of them to weaken the barrier surrounding the Moira Engine.[4]Notes
- It appears that only Nightkin who were combinations of Nightcrawler and other heroic mutates, such as Spider-Man, Cyclops, or Colossus were susceptible to the Vox Ignis' Scream of Change. Nightcrawler chimeras with DNA from villainous mutants such as Sabretooth, Emplate, or Toad appeared to be resistant to the scream.[2]
See Also
- 2 appearance(s) of Legion of the Night (Moira VII.1)
- 1 mention(s) of Legion of the Night (Moira VII.1)
- 5 image(s) of Legion of the Night (Moira VII.1)
- 13 member(s) of Legion of the Night (Moira VII.1)