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Is their any fluff to Huron using Daemons as a supplement to his Red Corsair forces? If I remember correctly, the only mention of it in Badab was that he diverted crucial forces to stop several planets near the maelstrom from turning into daemon-spawning worlds. But this, I assume, was during his period of lucidity nearer to the beginning than the end of the war. Does Blackheart have any documented reservations against summoning or binding daemons after his full fall to chaos?

I don't think he was ever a Psyker or a Sorcerer, so would lack the means to conjure Daemons. He's less a religious nutter, falling to worship the Ruinous Powers and gain all sorts of magic powers, and more a political renegade and rebel, who turned to Chaos for the material, military support they could offer.

This isn't to say that his underlings did not have, or did not gain, such abilities, but I don't recall Huron himself being the sort.

 Psienesis wrote:
I don't think he was ever a Psyker or a Sorcerer, so would lack the means to conjure Daemons. He's less a religious nutter, falling to worship the Ruinous Powers and gain all sorts of magic powers, and more a political renegade and rebel, who turned to Chaos for the material, military support they could offer.

This isn't to say that his underlings did not have, or did not gain, such abilities, but I don't recall Huron himself being the sort.

Yeah, I sort of rolled to the same conclusion. I don't understand what the deal is why Hamafsnafdsan or whatever the feth that little thing is. It's a little daemon familiar that gives him a small amount of favor from the ruinous power. Don't know how he got it in the case that he doesn't really venerate the chaos gods.

Doesn't Huron have a pet familiar or something along those lines?

Yeah, but a Familiar isn't something you create or conjure, necessarily. By game-rules, at least, it's simply an award from Chaos.

You do some stuff, you impress a Ruinous Power, they go "Here, have this little daemon-pet. It does tricks." And now you have a Daemonic Familiar.

Then if he actually got a reward from the Chaos gods then it wouldn't be too farfetched that they might lend him aid in the form of a few detachments of bloodletters when assaulting a planet?

If you want to go purely by game-mechanics-translated-to-stories, that's perfectly possible. Going as far back as the Realms of Chaos books, getting Daemons or other soldiers added to a Champion's warband as a reward for his/her service to Chaos was definitely a thing that could happen.

In regards to the familiar, is it a pet or does it actually have powers?

 mjl7atlas wrote:
In regards to the familiar, is it a pet or does it actually have powers?

The Hamadrya is a creature that manifests curious powers. In addition it makes Huron a Psyker granting him a randomly generate power every turn.

That's taken right from the CSM codex. It's able to give Huron the ability to use psychic powers, somehow imparting the knowledge to him and allowing him to use it, if only briefly. The way I have interpreted it is that The Hamadrya has to have some power of its own to be able to bestow it on someone.

From a writing standpoint, it sounds more like the Familiar is the one doing the actual Psychic work (being a Daemon, it is a direct channel into the Warp) and just using its own abilities to tell Huron what it can do for him right now, or something to that effect. Game-mechanicswise, it allows the player controlling Huron to treat Huron as a Psyker and generate powers. Also, iirc, the pet is an upgrade, similar to wargear, it's not an IC.

Psychic ability in 40K isn't something you can just turn off and on.

 Psienesis wrote:
From a writing standpoint, it sounds more like the Familiar is the one doing the actual Psychic work (being a Daemon, it is a direct channel into the Warp) and just using its own abilities to tell Huron what it can do for him right now, or something to that effect. Game-mechanicswise, it allows the player controlling Huron to treat Huron as a Psyker and generate powers. Also, iirc, the pet is an upgrade, similar to wargear, it's not an IC.

Psychic ability in 40K isn't something you can just turn off and on.

Yeah. It acts as a combat familiar in game.

So to answer the guy who asked, yes, the thing has its own power.

Huron Blackheart has the largest empire in the Maelstrom, so daemon summoning is definitely something his Corsair's can do. He would have a large number of sorcerer's and daemonancers at his disposal.

It's likely not a tactic often employed by the Corsair's though, they're a raider/pirate empire, relying on quick devastating strikes to take what they need and cripple their opponents, rather than hanging around enacting rituals and the like to summon daemons. But if they were drawn into a protracted campaign or whatever, they would likely be capable.