The title says it all. How has he gone ten thousand years, and launched 13(?) Black Crusades without that kind of recognition?

There's a reason he's called Failbaddon.

Because he is more useful in that way....

"in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war"

And that is all the Chaos Gods needs... war.. confrontation....it engender

a lot of passion and emotion. So the Gods made an undivided champion strong enough to make war but not strong enough to win it....

Abaddon specifically has refused to become a demon prince, although it's been offered to him. I think he's seen the overall decrease in effectiveness that the demon primarchs had once they became demons, and doesn't want to have to rely on the warp to manifest and so on. The idea is that he'll only accept it once he's actually won, once and for all, bringing the imperium to its knees.

And its worth noting that most of his black crusades have been very successful, accomplishing their stated goals. Each one was not launched with the intent of destroying the Imperium wholesale. Going by the Eye of Terror event, he did succeed in breaking the Cadian blockade of the Eye, but GW won't advance the plotline, so you won't see that.

There is also the fact that he is favoured by all 4 chaos gods, and they are not about to make the same mistake they made with Be'lakor by making a Daemon Prince of all four gods. As such, to become one, Failbaddon (the Armless) would have to dedicate himself to only one of the gods, thereby losing 3/4 of his granted powers and a whole pile of loyal vassals, and he simply cannot afford that if he is to win one day. What is more striking is that the gods have not seen fit to raise a new champion of their unified cause after his numberless failures; their reticence to do so may indicate that he may still be crucial to their plan somehow.

The whole Be'lakor thing can be safely ignored; it is written that the gods collectively offered him demon princehood, but he turned it down.

Also for real he doesn't have that many failures.

Fluff has established (somewhere) that the reason he will not ascend is that he has unresolved business with the Imperium. One other thought is that once you become a daemon, a whole new realm of weaknesses open up in your armour. You need to be wary of rituals or powers to cast you out and banish you (not a problem for humans), you cannot travel so freely due to the ties to the Immaterium. It's also a feat of power and strength, Abaddon plays the warp and its powers like a professional, why give it up?

Only once all this has been resolved and the Imperium lies in ruin, will he accept the offer and to shed his mortal form as there is but nothing left to worry of.

Also a funny weakness is you can become bound into a daemon weapon.

Finally after centuries of striving and finally succeeding and accepting the mantle of daemon prince it would be funny if some smart ass came along and bound him into their weapon. Would give great bragging rights too.

That's not really a weakness so much considering that a human can just be killed.

Everytime abbadon dies he gets resurrected by the warp lords. To defeat him the imperium would either need another soul destroying blast from the emperor like the one used on horus, or they'll need to humiliate him to the point where he loses his patronage.

He's never died; he did get teleported out of danger when Eldrad Leroy Jenkins'ed him at the beginning of the EoT campaign.

Abbadon is in a way a very underpowered Horus. While not as important as he thinks he is he is a... the best way to describe it is that he is a favoured and very fun plaything. They find that he is more enjoyable in a human form. That is what I think.

from the wiki:

Abaddon's extraordinary connection to all four of the major Chaos Gods and multiple arcane layers of daemonic protection means that he cannot be killed outright by anything in the purely physical world, even direct fire from a super-heavy tank such as a Baneblade or a Land Raider . Like his predecessor Horus , only the power of the Warp , harnessed by a psyker of immense power and undoubted purity of mind and heart, will be able to slay Abaddon the Despoiler for all time and forever place his soul beyond the capabilities of even the Ruinous Powers to resurrect.

That formatting hurts my eyes yo.

I really like this essay on why Abaddon is the head honcho of the EoT: http://aarondembskibowden.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/lets-talk-about-abaddon/

There we go that should help some.

There we go that should help some.

Just use the Remove Format button on the editor (looks like a rubber/eraser). Should get rid of the text background but will also lose your hyperlinks.

There we go that should help some.

A bit, but not enough.

Can we get back to Abbadon?

It is stated that for every Black Crusade campaign GM designates a princehood infamy treshold, which determines length, pace and difficulty of campaign. In case of Abaddon's campaign, putting it in Black Crusade terms, Infamy treshold is vast, campaign is long, slow and difficult, and both GM, NPCs and Heretics are sometimes being boring, sometimes being stupid and sometimes being awesome.

Can we get back to Abbadon?

So you can see when Abbadon is stuck with minions like us how things start to fall apart rapidly in the face of imperial opposition.

Can we get back to Abbadon?

So you can see when Abbadon is stuck with minions like us how things start to fall apart rapidly in the face of imperial opposition.

"Hold on a second! *stabs rival Slaanesh worshipper in the back* As I was saying I always put my own interest to the background."

So, Abaddon has grand plans, plot protection, and has to put up with Chaos (nuff said) and this is why he hasn't gotten anywhere besides mess up Cadia (which I'll give him almost succeeded, not complete Failbbadon)

That was supposed to have a ? at the end of it *facepalm* proofreading? What's that?

My personal take on it:

The Chaos Gods need him to marshal "their" armies. As another poster already mentioned, actual Daemon Princes and Greater Daemons make poor warlords. Whilst powerful in battle, their nature makes them generally unable to truly plan and oversee long campaigns, not to mention the intricate planning that must precede any of the Black Crusades. This is why such entities generally groom a small circle of mortal minions to command their armies as their generals, such as with Balzaropht and Miriael. The only difference with Abbadon is that he's taking his orders straight from the Big Four, befitting his fame, experience and influence. It's the same relationship, just a step higher, if you will.

I also don't agree with the "Failbaddon" meme that has been fostered by overall often poorly informed internet communities that are prone to oversimplify things. I'm willing to buy into GW's explanation that each of the previous Black Crusades has served and achieved a specific purpose.

If Abaddon is Failbaddon, then only because, ultimately, Chaos thrives on prolonged warfare with the Imperium, so it is possible that the four Gods don't actually wish to destroy the IoM entirely. And being a pawn of these gods, this makes Abaddon's quest for vengeance prone to being sabotaged by his own bosses.

from the wiki:

Abaddon's extraordinary connection to all four of the major Chaos Gods and multiple arcane layers of daemonic protection means that he cannot be killed outright by anything in the purely physical world, even direct fire from a super-heavy tank such as a Baneblade or a Land Raider.

Hahah, suuuure ..

There's a reason he's called Failbaddon.

Yeah, not really. I know this is just quibbling about something I shouldn't be taking seriously, but he hasn't tried to destroy the Imperium outright just yet. Crusade #13 looks to be that he's finally getting around to it, the rest were campaigns of preemptive strikes and weakening the areas around the Eye before he actually tries taking down the Imperium. I'm 90% certain you knew that already, but it really bugs me that people tend to take this meme too seriously.

Yet, I can't not find armless, ol' Failbaddon pretty funny.

Back to business...

I really like this essay on why Abaddon is the head honcho of the EoT: http://aarondembskibowden.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/lets-talk-about-abaddon/

Pretty much this. All mechanics from Black Crusade aside (we all know Undivided Princes are a thing), Abby flatly refuses to become one. The reasons are manifold, varied, and pretty dependent on the author in question. He refuses because he'll leave unfinished business with the Imperium once his perspective and priorities change, he partly hates what the "gift" Chaos will change in him, his hubris keeps him from becoming too dependent on the powers of Chaos, and somebody has to stay around to slap the mortal followers of Chaos to get themselves together every once in a while.