Kortarex

"*May the galaxy weep at your fury.*"

―Tyranis to Kortarex, Awaken the Progeny

De facto leader of the Apex Dozen, the Prime Progeny, and speculated non-biological "son" of Tyranis.

## History

### Origins

To the wider universe, little is known of Kortarex's true origins. Acridius speculates and hints at what he believes to have occurred, but even his supreme knowledge does not encompass the full story of Kortarex's birth. For millennia, Tyranis had planned to create a "safety net" of sorts - one who could inherit his mission and cause to remove the Imperian Confederacy from power and conquer the known universe, should Tyranis himself be unable to or be killed. Tyranis, also, had ulterior motives in regards to the wider multiverse, and the return of the Demonkin in time. Thus, he began the long, arduous process of creating Kortarex's physical form.

The first element of his son's being was the Black Heart, a shard of the Demonkin's hellish armour which had broken off eons ago in the titanic confrontation between the multiversal conqueror and the Magnificentus. The Heart itself was voracious, with an appetite that could never be sated. To stave it off, Tyranis had to sacrifice somewhere around one billion individuals to it (the precise numbers, even Tyranis does not know). For a time, he satisfied the Heart enough for it to slumber in the dying wake of a supernova, and in the mean time, he formed the Guardian Heart - an equivalent artefact, made from a shard of Zenus' armour. When the Guardian Heart came into being, the other awoke and began attempting to swallow Tyranis' soul across space. He spent years traversing the thousand mile distance between where he began weathering its assault and where it lay dormant, but when he reached it, he combined the two to form the Iron Heart. A much more reasonable, albeit still malicious entity, he was able to utilise it whilst he continued the process of Kortarex's birth.

Following the heart, Tyranis amputated one of his arms and burnt it to ashes, which the Iron Heart infused with its unearthly energies. Next, he tracked down and imprisoned three surviving Magnificentus, torturing all three to the specifications set out by the Iron Heart. Each time one expired, their remains would be cremated, and the Iron Heart would bestow some of its combined energies upon the ashes. Once all three had been killed and 'blessed', Tyranis delivered each speck of ash into the core of a sun (this process alone took almost a thousand years, sped up only by his ability to teleport large distances). When he finally finished, Tyranis took time to plan other elements of Kortarex's birth. After the passing of another millennia, the ashes turned to a type of glass, and a note played across the universe which all sentient beings heard. Each sun then promptly died, but not explosively; they simply dimmed as if devoid of any more energy. He gathered the specks of glass and used them to form the shell of a brain which was to be surgically implanted in Kortarex's body, when it was ready.

After that, Tyranis had to find a suitable biological heir - a woman - who would form the other half of the genes necessary for the creation of a zygote, which would become Kortarex's body. His only real candidate - and the only one he judged to be sufficient - was that of the Tudari Empress. Sybilia was part of the Monarch class, and thus had the genes of a Magnificentus in her DNA - part of which explained her ability to live for long periods of time. Tyranis masqueraded for a century as a Tudari male of the Nudera racial group. Using his natural charisma and knowledge, he was able to gain her attention. After a night of intimacy, he took a sample of her DNA and left behind both his and Kortarex's marks - intending to strike fear into the Tudari Coalition. When he returned, he used his own and hers to create the zygote.

The final stage necessary would be finding a woman strong enough to bear him. Even Sybilia did not possess the necessary physical mettle required to give birth to Kortarex, and so he sought another - Flumali. Knowing that he could not abduct without both alerting the Confederacy and descending into realms of depravity he was not prepared to enter, he used his influence over Ignithitus to mentally cause him to seek intimacy with her. When they had finished, Tyranis artificially impregnated Flumali with the zygote, and left. For the next nine months, he kept steady watch over her as the infant Kortarex's growth progressed. When it was time for her to give birth, he killed their doctor and impersonated him, convincing the two the baby had been stillborn. In reality, Kortarex had been born successfully - there were now two things left to fully prepare Kortarex for his role as Tyranis' heir.

### Early Life

Learning from his past mistakes regarding the Kravarius, he was able to successfully reproduce it much more efficiently than before - although it was not as concentrated as Tyranis' own, it was still stronger than most legendary helms. Kortarex now needed a weapon of sufficient strength, but by this time, Kortarex had matured into a young teenager. He was headstone and impulsive, and often disobeyed Tyranis' commands. Tyranis knew that if Kortarex got himself killed, that would likely be the end of the Diabolith's struggle for power.

Tyranis made the decision to send Kortarex on a mission in a world aware of Tyranis' power and learn from them why Kortarex should trust his father's word and learn from him. Kortarex vehemently detested the trip and felt it was a waste of his time; when given the opportunity, he broke away from the party escorting him and killed around twenty individuals in his escape. Tyranis came to find him, but before he could, Kortarex released a huge and uncontrolled burst of shadow energy which obliterated the capital city. This set off a chain reaction throughout the planet's power network, causing atomic detonations worldwide which eventually left the planet barren and lifeless. For this colossal blunder, Tyranis felt as if he had no choice but to send Kortarex to the one place he would learn self-control and humility: the Domain of Strife.

### Post-Domain

Tyranis was pleased, and immediately set Kortarex to work gathering the surviving eleven Diobalith into a group devoted to the rebirth of Tyranis. Initially sceptical of his claims, some of the Diobalith attempted to slay him and consume his power, but Kortarex proved himself a match for each of those who attempted to best him. He was unanimously followed in order, though he was not officially recognised as the leader of the Dozen.

Kortarex went on to mastermind the Dozen's operations on Magnus Imperus, and intended to spread their influence throughout other worlds of the Imperian Confederacy as well. He achieved this, in part, by negotiating with the Matriarch of space just north of Confederacy territory; Queen Galleina, who led her empire in a way Tyranis saw to be very indicative of her usefulness as an ally. Kortarex also employed other factions, such as mercenaries, raiders, and pirates in order to weaken the grip the Confederacy held on their outer-world systems. When last seen, he was helping lead Queen Galleina's army to war on one of her neighbours, using his substantial abilities to decimate their own empire.

## Tools and Abilities

Kortarex was a heavily trained warrior, whose physical prowess outmatched most other inhabitants of the Imperian Confederacy. He has proved a challenge even for individual Erthus Primis, and has defeated tens of individual Erthus alone. He was capable of shooting bolts of pure shadow, which would utterly destroy any matter they came into contact with, as well as necromancy. He possessed many of Tyranis' powers from ages past, before Tyranis' ascendance to the Prime Evil, also being capable of shapeshifting and absorption of other beings.

He wore a unique copy of Kravarius forged by Tyranis himself, which gave him the ability to create shadow copies of himself and other beings, whilst also allowing him to utilise limited mind control on some weak-minded Erthus. He wielded the Black Hole Scythe, a weapon stolen from Acridius by Tyranis millennia past, which could create localised singularities, dragging everything but the user into a dark oblivion for the few seconds they remained active. The Scythe was also virtually indestructible, being able to tear through just about any known substance, even the famously stalwart Magnum Steel.

Kortarex's very organs and body were the product of millennia of planning on the part of his father, and thus he possessed the capacity for total immortality. Wounds which would prove fatal on any other biological individual were almost inconsequential to Kortarex, whose heart beat with the foul energies of the Demonkin, and whose mind was imbued with the energies of entire stars. For this reason, he was among the most dangerous individuals in the universe - being outstripped, perhaps, by Ignithitus, his father, the handful of Magnificentus still relatively active, and, of course, the Demonkin himself.

## Personality

Kortarex, prior to his experience in the Domain of Strife, was impulsive, headstrong, and arrogant, believing himself to be infallible and unquestionable, much like his father; however, this insolence, in Tyranis's eyes, did not make for a fit heir. Following the torturous events that took place during his three thousand year exile, Kortarex was hardened into a cold, merciless, and mostly emotionless being of pure malevolence. He outmatched even his father in cold discontent with living things, and this would affect much of how he achieved his goals.

Queen Galleina finds great pleasure in teasing him over such lacklustre personality, and it is rumoured through court intrigue that the Queen has, in fact, fallen for Kortarex, without knowing such emotional attachment is far beyond the heartless shell she fell for.