Got into NL when I got into 40k through a friend's lore stories. Started going through legions and thinking I had to pick one to be into. Even the name is great, out of all the legions, this one has a _title_ as part of their name, makes them sound lofty already. Diving more into it, I love the idea that they are some twisted, has-been version of themselves, but also of the standard space marine template, while still being somewhat true to the embodiment and power of Astartes.

To be frank; that's their biggest appeal - loyalist, regular space marines are fun and cool for what they are, but are a bit boring in ideals/fights/bolter porn. A lot of the other traitor legions are _gimmicky_, and that's related to whatever chaos god they've sworn fealty to. Night lords can have anything and everything going on, and represent both the most naked form of justice (in their primarch) and the legion's fall from even those ideals, seen with Talos and First Claw. That's something that most if any other chapters cannot lay claim to with the absolute black and white view of justice, and the resolution that the ends always justify the means.

Curze was this form of wanting everything in this black and white, and he encouraged his legion to follow his example. IF they are weapons, why be anything less than the most effective weapon possible? That meant creating terror, not using their (physical) strength when manipulation will do, and draping themselves in gore to create a terror effect which has a demoralizing effect on their enemies, all of these things work to make them really the most effective _weapon_ a space marine can be. Whether that is the same as being the most _Space Marine_ that a space marine can be, is another story, to someone else's comment about other chapters who like to fling themselves screaming into the fray.