In fact, Dorn had personally witnessed Konrad Curze's epileptic fits on Nostramo, causing him to convulse and pass out, but he still believed Konrad Curze's current prophecy was nonsense. However, Dorn didn't care if the Eighth Brother was epileptic or if the prophecy was accurate; his mind was as unyielding as the fortifications he built.
Just as Konrad Curze was furious about his Third Brother's big mouth and Dorn's wooden head, his epilepsy suddenly flared up. When Konrad Curze regained consciousness, he found himself weeping into his hands, with Dorn lying in a pool of blood before him.
However, Konrad Curze didn't know that Rogal Dorn was as hard to kill as Dorn himself, a giant rock. The "Terra Anti-Pressure King" couldn't possibly die so easily.
Just as Konrad Curze's previous seizure had led to the death of a Librarian, Konrad Curze had no intention of harming Dorn. He was completely blacked out during the seizure and had no idea what he had done.
Konrad Curze was subsequently confined for attacking his brother. At first, Konrad Curze obediently waited for his father to find time to deal with the matter.
However, after reading a set of tarot cards brought from his homeworld, Konrad Curze saw something in them. He slammed the table, tore down his confinement room with his bare hands, and casually ripped apart several Terminator Soldiers from the Seventh and Third Legions who had been sent to monitor him. He then strode away, gathered his Legion fleet, picked himself up, and headed towards Nostramo.
As mentioned before, Nostramo's entire system of order was built upon Konrad Curze's personal deterrent force, a "One Man Army." He had never taken any measures to reconstruct Nostramo into a normal society. The Kharon's infrastructure, education system, medical system, and civil services received no practical improvement during his rule, and he himself refused to acknowledge these problems.
The rapid resurgence of corrupt syndicates was the main reason for the Kharon's decline, not the fault of ordinary citizens. These syndicates eventually regained enough power to manipulate the government and rule from behind the scenes.
After learning all this, Konrad Curze became utterly disgusted with his homeworld and with humanity. He didn't care whose fault it was, nor why things had turned out this way; he just wanted this place to disappear from the universe.
"Issued an Exterminatus order for his homeworld, Nostramo."
The bombing of Nostramo marked the complete collapse of Konrad Curze's sanity. He began to see himself as a complete failure, with Nostramo as the proof. "Night Haunter" henceforth replaced "Konrad Curze" as the dominant personality, and the Eighth Legion more or less abandoned its strategic principle of using terror to minimize overall casualties.
Strangely, the Emperor made no reaction to Konrad Curze's actions. Even his near-killing of Dorn and the more severe destruction of Nostramo were completely ignored. Old Man Huang seemed to have completely forgotten about Konrad Curze and the batman Legion.
The Emperor seemed only concerned with the Great Crusade ending as quickly as possible. He never criticized the "Twelfth Legion World Eaters" for their Kharon-wide massacres, nor did he care that Perturabo, like a madman, wantonly executed a tenth of his Legion's Soldiers. The only Legion publicly punished by the Emperor was the "Seventeenth Legion Word Bearers," because they committed a heinous crime... not because Lorgar was promoting a "beta version of the Imperial Cult," but because the Great Crusade's progress was too slow.
From then on, Konrad Curze gave up. He ignored his Legion, spending his days in his room telling fortunes. Even the Horus Heresy, he left entirely to his second-in-command... "The true master of the Eighth Legion! Without you, there would be no Eighth Legion! Mr. Sevatar!"
During the Battle of Istvaan V, when the attack signal was given, the Night Lords suddenly attacked the loyalist Soldiers beside them. Their aerial forces used phosphorus bombs and other chemical weapons to indiscriminately bombard their former brothers.
Konrad Curze descended from the sky when Lorgar was being rubbed into the ground by Corax, just as Lorgar was about to have his bald head shaved off by the Raven King, blocking the Nineteenth Brother's lightning claws.
Corax looked at Konrad Curze, and he saw his own fallen self in Konrad. The terrified Raven King used his last bit of strength and his jump pack to immediately escape.
Lorgar, saved, was naturally grateful to Konrad Curze, but after seeing the enchanted warriors of the Word Bearers Legion, Konrad Curze immediately denounced Lorgar as disgusting, stating that he should have just watched the Raven King chop off his "braised egg" covered in strange writings.
Konrad Curze's joining the traitors seemed to have no ideological motive. It was simply because among all his brothers, only Horus, Mortarion, and Fulgrim took him seriously, while those who criticized him most harshly were coincidentally all loyalists. Furthermore, he deeply hated the Emperor.
He resented brothers like The Great Angel Sanguinius or the great statesman Guilliman, believing the Emperor designed them as noble, shining stars, while he was destined to be tormented by twisted nightmares.
Another reason Konrad Curze hated the Emperor was that he knew the Emperor would eventually order his death; he had seen this future when he was a child.
He also believed the Emperor and those "good" brothers were hypocritical, accusing his terror tactics of being cruel and bloody while they themselves slaughtered billions of lives.
Why were the "Fourth Legion Iron Warriors" and the "Sixth Legion Space Wolves" not criticized despite killing far more people than the Night Lords?
Leman Russ even personally killed some of their brothers... one of whom was the only brother willing to look after him during his epileptic fits.
Why did the "First Legion Dark Angels," who eradicated trillions of people, receive the Emperor's complete trust?
Konrad Curze's thoughts overlooked a simple fact: individuals are primarily responsible for their own actions.
He chose to become a cruel, sadistic butcher, rather than the rational, restrained arbiter the Emperor wanted him to be. (The Emperor wanted him to be batman, but he chose to become the Laughing Bat.)
Of course, this does not mean that Old Man Huang bore no responsibility for Konrad Curze's betrayal. Although he certainly didn't intentionally lose a Primarch, and his plan had no malice towards any specific Primarch, he did show an extremely unreasonable indifference to a few Primarchs, such as: Lorgar, Angron, Perturabo, Konrad Curze, Khan, Alpha & Omega... Sanguinius and Li Feng both believed that the Emperor, as a father and administrator, was doubly derelict in his duties, because it was precisely the failure to handle family conflicts that led to the ultimate failure.
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