Ghesmei Kysnaros
Ghesmei Kysnaros was a Lord Inquisitor at the time of the First War for Armageddon. Despite his involvement with Armageddon, he was not a member of the Ordo Malleus, and remained unaligned until his death.[1e] Despite the Wolves' insistence that that the defenders of Armageddon be spared for their bravery, Puritan voices held majority in the Inquisition, and it was decided that the planet's populace would would be expunged and the world resettled to erase any Chaotic taint and maintain silence regarding such a powerful Chaos entity, let alone the rumors that he was one of the Emperor's lost sons. Kysnaros was one of the prime overseers for the purge of the surviving civilian and Imperial Guard population. Kysnaros commandeered the Imperial Navy vessel Corel's Hope for use in the operation.[1] Lord Kysnaros believed that with enough impetus, he could convince the Space Wolves to agree to the Inquisition's cold reasoning without having to censure or destroy the chapter entirely. Given his ardent support of the purge and his initially soft attitude with the insubordinate Space Wolves, juxtaposed with his harsh methods in dealing with them in the crisis had served only to escalate the situation.[1a]
During the next few months, the Space Wolves would use defensive tactics to protect the courageous surviving Imperial Guard elements that served on Armageddon and worked to disseminate them to relative safety across the Imperium in defiance of the Inquisition. Over the next several months, the Grey Knights would be the spearhead that would lead to entire Imperial populations across nearby space being destroyed to maintain silence of Armageddon, despite the incredibly bloody price that silence would demand. The Inquisition's cold war with the Space Wolves came to a head when the Inquisitorial fleet opened fire upon Space Wolves ships during an armistice of negotiation. Logan Grimnar, having already boarded Corel's Hope for negotiations, exchanged some heated words with Kysnaros and struck down Grey Knights Grand Master Joros directly in front of the Inquisitor Lord in a bout of righteous fury. Kysnaros, believing he could still convince the Space Wolves of the necessity of his actions, allowed the Space Wolves to escape. Outraged, the Wolves would instead shift to a more aggressive stance, and the civil war between the Inquision and Space Wolves began in earnest.[1b]
After he let the Space Wolves go after the armistice incident, Kysnaros' own inexperience and political naivete became apparent. It was later learned that Kysnaros had earned his title through overseeing a series of small-scale Crusades and street-level purges. Though these acts were admirable, his lack of experience with large scale operations and the political finesse in dealing with Imperial organizations that could afford to defy him, left him ill-suited to manage the Armageddon containment campaign, one of the largest operations ever undertaken by the Ordo Malleus.[1b]
Kysnaros's clashes with the Wolves culminated in his mobilization of an entire Battlefleet including the full Fleet of the Red Hunters in order to besiege the Wolves homeworld of Fenris, intending to use a show of force to intimidate the Chapter to surrender and embark on a penitent Crusade. Kysnaros declared a parlay, and was received by Bjorn the Fell-Handed in the absence of Logan Grimnar. Kysnaros entreated Bjorn with the same proposal to submit to the will of the Inquisition to avoid further war, but was rebuffed. However Kysnaros' fleet was met by the entire Space Wolves fleet above The Fang, and his own flagship (still Corel's Hope) was boarded by a force of twenty Terminators led by Grimnar himself. Lord Inquisitor Kysnaros was killed by Grimnar in the ensuing battle aboard Corel's Hope. The timely intercession of Bjorn being teleported onto the bridge to negotiate peace with the surviving Grey Knights was the only thing that allowed either side to stop fighting and reach a peaceful solution before one side wiped out the other.[1c]
During a conversation with Hyperion before his death, it became apparent that Kysnaros was both a potent psyker and an expert rhetorician. He also laid out his reasoning illuminating some of his past actions, as he was an idealistic individual who believed the Wolves could come to agree with the Inquisition's reasons regarding the culling of the Guard regiments from the First War of Armageddon. His own logic was betrayed by one of his nominal subordinates, Inquisitor Annika Jarlsdottyr, a native Fenrisian, who's background predisposed her to revering the Imperium's heroes rather than disposing of them.[1d]
