Axith Orquemond
Axith Orquemond is a Cardinal of the Ecclesiarchy, who was charged with arresting the traitor Leon Chirastes.[1a]
History
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This page contains spoilers for: | The Helwinter Gate (Novel) |
The Cardinal Astra's downfall began in the aftermath of the Fenris Incident, which saw Chirastes' forces defeated by the Space Wolves. He was thought to have resigned his position afterwards and withdrawn from the Ecclesiarchy, but this was a lie. Instead Chirastes became obsessed with gaining revenge against the Space Wolves and began a shadow war against them[1a]. Chirastes still possessed his badge of office and knew that simply having its image attached to any unsigned orders he sent out, would be enough to ensure they would be obeyed. This allowed him to stay unnoticed by both the Ecclesiarchy and the Space Wolves, as there would be no name to link back to him. Chirastes operated this way for over a century[1b], but in the last decades of the 900's of M41, the Ecclesiarchy became aware of his actions. They then waged a war to destroy Chirastes' organization he had built for his revenge and also arrest the former Cardinal Astra for his Heresy against the Church.[1a]
Cardinal Orquemond was among those who were hunting Chirastes and he led a fleet from his flagship, the Immaculate Destiny. Orquemond succeeded in destroying several of the traitor's bases and by the early years of the 13th Black Crusade the Cardinal tracked Chirastes to his last base on Ojada VII. The world was already being overwhelmed by a Chaos invasion, when Orquemond ordered his forces to storm Chirastes' base and capture the traitor. Though by then, Orquemond felt his fleet would be better off protecting the Ecclesiarchy's worlds from the Black Crusade, he refused to disobey his orders[1a]. However his forces would later report to him, that they were facing fierce resistance from the Chaos invaders. Unless further reinforcements were sent, they would not be able to capture Chirastes. Orquemond refused to do so, though, and instead enacted their last option - destroying Chirastes' base, with an orbital bombardment in order to ensure his death. After the base was destroyed[1c], Orquemond ordered his fleet to withdraw and they escaped into the Warp.[1d]
Sources
