Azariah Kyras

And it took his chapter how long to realize he was corrupt and evil? (And give this man some klonopin and a comfy bed, because he looks like he hasn't slept for a century.)

Azariah Kyras, or simply Kyras, was the Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens. He looks and sounds sorta like John Hurt.

Introduced in Chaos Rising as the long awaited Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens, and given his big break in Retribution, Kyras is also Chief Librarian of the Chapter, and also proclaimed 'Keeper of the Librarium'. He is also notable as a Worshiper of Chaos, embracing the creed of Khorne in particular. This is not the fluff-contradicting rage some have claimed it to be though. Khorne hates sorcerers, which are NOT the same thing as librarians. Librarians murder things with the power of the warp as harnessed by their minds, Sorcerers use arcane knowledge such as runes, words of power or some other magic douchebaggery to sort of steal the power of the warp to murder things. Which is what Space Wolf Rune Priests do, despite it being against the Emperor's orders. While Khorne prefers his followers to murder things with their bare hands, he would not be opposed to someone murdering things with their mind. Remember, Khorne is not a particularly picky god as any blood shed in his name pleases him. Though Azariah Kyras does not worship him exclusively, as he also invokes Slaanesh when addressing the Eldar, which is kinda a slap in the face to Khorne again since he doesn't take kindly to anyone giving him tribute to be associating with that hermaphroditic freak. (Although he did offer a dead Craftworld to Khorne so I guess that makes up for it, also he was probably doing it to fuck with the Eldar anyway.)

As a librarian dedicated to Khorne, Kyras' formal title would be 'Bloodfather', which is pretty cool. Recently reincarnated as a spider Broodmother.

History

Little is known of Kyras' days before he became a Chapter Master, except that he was once the pupil of Moriah, the Chapter Master of the time. Nearly a millennium before Araghast the Pillager would slaughter the sub-sector for Khorne and the lulz, Kyras and Moriah faced Ulkair the Great Unclean One on the Blood Ravens' homeworld of Aurelia. Ulkair summoned forth Warp storms that swallowed the Hive World whole, but before it was overtaken completely, Moriah stabbed at the heart of the Unclean One before faltering. Though he died, he wounded Ulkair enough so that the Daemon could be bound by Kyras in the planet's heart. And thus, both were trapped in the Warp, along with the entire planet, which cracked like an egg and became a frozen, ruined shithole.

Somehow, he was deposited like loose change in a guy's couch in the Judgement of Carrion, therein, he was found by the 5th company and Apothecary Galan. Galan and the 5th company were viciously holding their own against multitudes of Daemons inside a giant, daemonically infested, derelict space ship that's drifting in the warp. Finding their lost brother, Galan found him to be a massive emo, consistently telling morose stories about the Battle of Aurelia. Galan was up until this time haunted by Ulkair's voice, who hungered after their geneseed. Such an experience could likely be compared to sexual harassment, as far as such a thing could exist in the 41st Millennium. Acting on the old saying "If you can't beat them, join them", Kyras took this time to spread the taint of Chaos to his Brothers and offered up Galan to the fat-assed Daemon. Thus, one of Ulkair's minions set upon Galan, and the 5th Company left the Space Hulk.

Both Kyras and the Thing wearing Galan's flesh escaped the Judgment of Carrion, with Kyras' return hailed as a blessing by elements of the Blood Ravens, but not the Captain of the 3rd Company, Gabriel Angelos who viewed the return of Kyras as an ill omen. Sometime thereafter, Kyras rose to the ranks of both Chief Librarian and Chapter Master (which had been synonymous for some time beforehand). Galan was stationed as a Apothecary within the Honor Guard. After this, and sometime after the events of the original Dawn of War but before Dark Crusade and Soulstorm, Kyras began to venerate Khorne under the instruction of the daemon Gabe freed from the Maledictum. He also promoted Vanilla Ice to Force Commander shortly after the Hadrian Campaign. Truly his most nefarious deed, aside from allowing Indrick Baldeale to lead 5 Companies into the Kaurava Conflict. Considering Force Commander Hair Gel's abundant Hairesy, maybe it was also a part of his plan to eliminate loyalist Blood Ravens.

The Aurelian crusade

The Black Legion's invasion into subsector Aurelia finally revealed Kyras' corruption. The Blood Ravens attached to the 4th Company boarded the Judgment of Carrion and discovered evidence left behind by Galan and Kyras, revealing chaotic influence and the pact with Ulkair.

Kyras himself was not present in the subsector during the invasion, instead having sent Captain Apollo Diomedes of the Honor Guard to represent his authority and order a withdrawal from any contact with the Black Legion. However, according to Galan's confession as he lay mortally wounded by the Force Commander, Diomedes himself was not corrupted; only some of the men under his command had been tainted.

Gabriel Angelos and Force Commander Hair Gel disobeyed the Chapter Master's order to withdraw and stayed to defeat the stirring Ulkair on the ruins of Aurelia. The ending of the game states that the "renegade" Blood Ravens plan to depose Kyras, creating a prologue for a Chapter-wide civil war.

Kyras the Ascendant

After Araghast's invasion, Eliphas took command of his warband and began slaughtering the Blood Raven's in Khorne's name, and started with murdering Davian Thule, evoking the shedding of manly tears. A Freebooter Kaptain called Bluddflag unleashed his lulzy voice acting upon Aurelia, leaving only joy and happiness in his wake. Diomedes continued to be oblivious about everything, some Eldar fags did shit nobody cares about and the Imperial Guard, led by Freddie Mercury, were poised to save the sub-sector while being manly. And the Tyranids tried and failed in their attempt to be relevant.

And the Ordo Malleus were poised to blow the shit outta the sector.

It turns out that Kyras, with some coaxing from the Daemon of the Maledictum that was released by Gabe back in Dawn of War I, had engineered the ENTIRE EVENTS OF THE DAWN OF WAR II SERIES in an attempt to slaughter the Sub-Sector in Khorne's Name. Yes, the Tyranids, Araghast's Black Crusade, all culminated in the arrival of the Ordo Malleus, who would exerminate all life in the sector. Which would in turn elevate Kyras to Daemonhood and open a Warp Rift to destroy the Sub-Sector, he would be a Daemon Prince so powerful that he could depose Abaddon and spread the gift of being turned into superheated space dust "to every last living soul in the galaxy". See that Tzeentch? Khorne can also plan ahead, you bird-faced furfag. And he actually gets shit done with these plans, unlike you.

Delivering an epic speech about the philosophy of Khorne shortly before merging with the Maledictum Daemon at the charred wastes of Cyrene, Kyras becomes a daemon of such magnitude that he makes Ulkair look like a weenie. Gabriel gets into a fight with him, but is unfortunately beaten, savagely mutilated and smashed into the ground, the first time in the series where Gabe loses to something. Kyras then proceeds to kill almost every single space marine Gabe brought with him except for Jonah Orion (who was just knocked out cold), including several squads of Terminators and at least one dreadnought And mind you, your typical Daemon Prince would go down like a two-cent hooker against the force Gabe brought with him.

Despite this, he is killed by Eliphas/Diomedes/Bluddflag/Kayleth/General Freddie Mercury Castor/the Not-Swarmlord, and gets his head blown off to boot. After his death, the myriad timelines warp together to all become canon at once as Gabe becomes the Blood Raven Chapter Master, Eliphas becomes a Daemon Prince, The Tyranids OMNOMNOM the sector, Bluddflag steals Adrastia's hat and a Space Hulk and goes off for more fightan', Kayleth is successful in making Slaanesh sad, and Castor adds Kyras' head to his trophy collection.

Quotes

This guy has the best voice acting Relic has ever produced, and perhaps has the best voice acting out of any game ever. Mere words cannot describe the sheer experience of listening to this guy. So here, go with this.

And if you need some help, here you go.

"Faithful... enlightened... ambitious... brethren.

In but a single decade, a few mere swipes of the pendulum, we have gathered a sacrifice to Khorne that will be made legend.

Though it was a simpler, weaker voice that illuminated me during my centuries upon the Judgement of Carrion...

...it was Khorne's messenger who showed me the true path of freedom from our pathetic corpse-Emperor.

And what is this path? This meaning, this purpose to which we gather the skulls of our foes?

It is nothing. There is no meaning, no purpose. We murder. We kill. It is mindless savagery, this UNIVERSE IS MINDLESS!

In mere hours, billions will die. Innocent! Guilty! Strong and weak! Honest and deceitful! ALL of them!

They will scream, they will burn, and for no purpose but that mighty Khorne may revel in their bloodshed!

And united in this void of purpose, fear, or duty... we shall at long last be free!

Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! LET! THE GALAXY! BURN!"

...awesome...

Additionally, he also says this;

• Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! Once the galaxy burns.. WE! WILL DEFINE! RIGHTEOUSNESS!!!

And this:

• Oh, after my Blood Ravens conquered Kronus, I oversaw the interrogation and execution of Farseer Taldeer. She must have mentioned you. - to her brother Ronahn, who then promptly threw a massive bitchfit.

And don't forget this:

• Warriors of Khorne, to war for his favor! They think themselves righteous, and righteous indeed their skulls shall be! - Referring to the player characters who have come to kill him.