Darius Kardmah

An old hand within the IVth Legion, Darius had fought in Shaaa’s name for close to two centuries by the time of Ullanor, having survived the Squat Wars and yet been passed over for command of anything greater than a Brigade time and time again, other, less deserving in his eyes, warriors superseding him each time. This resentment festered over the years, and by the time he finally got his wish, his heart had already blackened and turned to hate, not for the enemies of man, but to Shaaa himself.

Even by the standards of the Star Guardians, Darius was a brutal, almost sadistic warrior, having fought alongside the Hounds of Surmah for decades, learning the ways of the Destroyer from the undisputed masters of such warfare. When he returned and fought at Ullanor, this new training showed through, and finally, Darius got his desire, assigned to build the 20th Division during the massive expansion of the Legion as they stepped into their new role as Praetorians, not Crusaders.

Soon, the 20th became characterised by the Destroyer, becoming a stark parallel to the Hounds themselves and taking the unofficial name of "The Astral Ravagers". Most of these warriors knew little of the darkness in their master's heart, dismissing it as simply a byproduct of commanding such hellish weapons, but there were some who knew all too well, and when Surmah found the truth of the galaxy, it was not long before Darius was brought into the fold, vowing to bide his time, poisoning the IVth not from without, but from within.

As the Apostasy broke out, Darius began his work. It was he who ensured the Consuls strike team could approach close enough to Ceres to strike at Shaaa, and when the traitors finally arrived, it was Darius who struck against his allies, his closest cadre of warriors flocking to his side as they defected, turning on the Star Guardians without a second thought, aligning themselves with Surmah, who they saw as a true lord worthy of their loyalty.

Since that day, Darius and his warriors, now a warband known as the Astral Ravagers, have been a stain on the honour of the Star Guardians, none more so than the Saturnyne Rams, descendants of the ancient 20th Division who remained loyal. When those two forces clash, worlds die, both forces unleashing the most proscribed of weapons to see the other permanently put to grass.

True to his calling as a Destroyer, Darius fights with the most debilitating of weapons, their effects gaining little purchase in his corrupted form. As he approaches he lets loose punishing blasts of cross-spectrum radiation from his ancient Irad Cleanser, his victims suffering horrendous deaths as they are boiled alive from within and blasted apart on a cellular level. It is when he reaches close combat however that he truly shows his sadistic nature, unsheathing a mighty two handed sword, a weapon that looks like it is hewn from a rough, dull red crystal. When the weapon, known only as the Fractal Blade, strikes its target, it splinters, tiny fragments of the sword burrowing deep into flesh before beginning to expand, growing and pushing themselves deeper, causing agonising, debilitating injuries to whichever unfortunate stands before Darius, while also prolonging their unfortunate lives. If each and every splinter is not removed quickly, the growth will become exponential, unstoppable in their advance, until finally giant spikes burst forth from the still living target, soon leaving them resembling a staked man, stuck in a state of unending, agonising life. While the crystals are within their target, the warrior can never truly die, chaos bestowing immortality upon them simply to prolong their agony; death only coming in the rare case that the body is retrieved, and the crystals purged from their body. More often than not however, these unfortunates are retrieved and returned to Darius’s shadowed base of operations, stored with his other victims, their screams bringing pleasure to the fallen Guardian.