Apollo Diomedes - The Aurelian Crusades: During the Second Aurelian Crusade, Diomedes arrived in Sub-sector Aurelia and ordered all Blood Ravens forces in the region to stand down in their operations against the Forces of Chaos, an order that the Aurelian Force Commander Aramus and Captain Gabriel Angelos ignored. As Diomedes grew increasingly sterner in his orders, Force Commander Aramus and Angelos continued to resist the forces of the Black Legion, with whom the Chapter had recently avoided open conflict for an unknown reason.As his investigation continued, Aramus discovered to his horror that the source of the Chaotic corruption within the Chapter was none other than Azariah Kyras himself, who had fallen under the sway of the Greater Daemon of Nurgle named Ulkair on the ancient world of Aurelia over a millennium before and spread his taint to Galan aboard the Space Hulk Judgement of Carrion.Kyras had escaped the doomed planet Aurelia when it was consumed by a Warp Storm aboard the Space Hulk with the aid of Ulkair and had returned to the Chapter with his dark seed of corruption when he met with a Blood Ravens expedition exploring the Hulk that included Galan.During open conflict with Captain Diomedes' forces in their base-camp on Calderis, Sergeant Aramus attacked Apothecary Galan, slaying the Traitor and his Chaos-tainted bodyguard of Terminators, a battle which ended in a confrontation with Captain Diomedes himself. Reluctant to accept the corruption of his political patron within the Chapter, Diomedes found himself torn but let Sergeant Aramus and his comrades leave Calderis and continue their operations against the Black Legion warband of Araghast the Pillager.Captain Diomedes, joined by Cyrus, Martellus and unknowingly Tarkus, led the uncorrupted portions of the Blood Ravens Chapter during the Cleansing of Aurelia that eventually lead to the death of Azariah Kyras and the appointment of Gabriel Angelos as the new Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens.Named by Kyras as the greatest warrior the Blood Ravens had ever known, Diomedes did possess a fatal flaw: pride. Because of this, as well as his long service under Kyras, it took a long time for Diomedes to accept Kyras' betrayal of the Emperor and his Battle-Brothers, much to the annoyance of the irascible Veteran Scout Sergeant Cyrus as well as Techmarine Martellus.In fact, these obstacles nearly brought him to ruin when he was finally faced with the truth. On the Space Hulk Judgement of Carron, Diomedes began to fall to despair when he realised that he had been serving a Traitor for many standard years. It was the intervention of the Ancient who had taken a vow of silence that prevented his fall to Chaos.The Ancient revealed himself to be Tarkus who explained he had to slay his friend Avitus who fell to Chaos, and that he now saw the same signs in Diomedes and would kill him as well if he had to and stop the corrupt Chapter Master by himself if necessary. Tarkus reminded Diomedes that though they had served a Traitor these many years, even Kyras could not take away their duty to the Emperor. Emboldened by this speech, Diomedes led his men off of the Space Hulk and defeated Kyras, saving the sector as well as the Chapter from destruction.Apollo Diomedes continued to serve for a time as the Captain of the Blood Ravens Honour Guard, which now protected the new Chapter Master, Gabriel Angelos.