Azariah Kyras
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This page contains spoilers for: | Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising |
Azariah Kyras is the enigmatic leader – Chapter Master and Chief Librarian both – of the Blood Ravens and heavily suspected of chaotic taint.1
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Background
Relatively little is known of the current leader of the Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter. What is known is that 1,000 years before the Black Legion's invasion of subsector Aurelia, planet Aurelia disappeared during a Warp Storm after being pushed sufficiently out of orbit for the planet to be covered with glaciers and almost the whole population killed. Just before the planet was taken by the Warp, Librarian Kyras managed to imprison a wounded Great Unclean One of Nurgle by the name of Ulkair, after his master Moriah was killed fighting it. Soon after, the Warp took the planet, and Azariah Kyras with it.1
Kyras eventually returned some centuries later, appearing inexplicably before the battered elements of the Blood Ravens 5th Company aboard a space hulk called the Judgment of Carrion. Kyras aided Apothecary Galan, the leader of the expedition, in fighting the daemons and Tyranids infesting the hulk. Though the Space Marines had found a lost Battle-Brother, they were still marooned, unable to escape. Their "exits sealed, and beacons failed," Galan and his Marines were given to despair. Galan was haunted by a daemonic presence, which was given name when Kyras regaled the other survivors with his tale of losses endured by their Chapter in imprisoning Ulkair. The daemon reached out from his imprisonment within the Warp-swallowed world of Aurelia, tormenting the Blood Ravens and hungering for their gene-seed. Kyras did nothing to hinder the defeatist mood, and spread the taint of Chaos into his brothers instead. Eventually Kyras made a pact with Ulkair for their release from the Judgment of Carrion, which required that Galan be possessed by a daemon of the Warp.1
Both Galan and Kyras escaped the Judgment of Carrion, and Kyras' return was hailed as a blessing by elements of the Blood Ravens, but not the Captain of the 3rd Company, Gabriel Angelos who viewed the return of Kyras as an omen. Sometime thereafter, Kyras rose to the ranks of both Chief Librarian and Chapter Master. Galan was stationed as a Apothecary within the Honor Guard.1
The Aurelian Crusade
The Black Legion's invasion into subsector Aurelia (featured in the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising video game) finally revealed Kyras' corruption. The Blood Ravens attached to the 4th Company boarded the Judgment of Carrion and discovered evidence left behind by Galain and Kyras, suggesting chaotic influence and revealing the pact with Ulkair.1
Kyras himself was not present in the subsector during the invasion, instead having sent Captain Apollo Diomedes of the Honor Guard to represent his authority and order a withdrawal from any contact with the Black Legion. However, according to Galan's confession as he lay mortally wounded by the Force Commander, Diomedes himself was not corrupted; only some of the men under his command had been tainted.1
Gabriel Angelos and the Force Commander disobeyed the Chapter Master's order to withdraw and stayed to defeat the stirring Ulkair on Aurelia. The ending of the game states that the "renegade" Blood Ravens plan to depose Kyras, creating a prologue for a Chapter-wide civil war.1
Kyras the Ascended
Following 10 years after the Aurelia Crusade, the subsector remains in turmoil as remnants of the Black Legion, Orks and Tyranids remain to cause further chaos to the Imperium held worlds. The civil war amongst the chapter still continues, which combined with the chaos, forces the Inquisition to declare Extermintatus on the entire sub sector. In order to prevent this, Captain Apollo Diomedes investigates the events to either prove Kyras' corruption, or to redeem him.
The resulting investigation goes to prove that Kyras has fully committed himself to Chaos, orchestrating the events in subsector Aurelia to force the Extermintatus. He confirms that while the whispers of the Great Unclean One Ulkair started his path to chaos, it was ultimately the daemon of Khorne that was released from the Maledictum by Gabriel on Tartarus3 that fully convinced Kyras to forsake the Emperor and devote himself to Khorne. He eventually extends this offer to Diomedes, but was rejected.
With the Extermintatus under way, Kyras goes to Cyrene, a former Blood Raven recruiting world that was already given Extermintatus before the events of Tartarus took place. There Kyras ascends to become a Demon Prince, but only partially as he is inturrupted by Gabriel and Jonah Orion, and then by Diomedes, Cyrus, Martellus, and Tarkus. During this confrontation Kyras severely wounds Garbriel (forcing him out of the fight) before finally succumbing to combat himself, finished off by an orbital bombardment from the Litany of Fury2.
Azariah Kyras's successor in Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens is Captain Gabriel Angelos2.
References and Sources
- 1: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising
- 2: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Retribution - Space Marine Campaign
- 3: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
