Kaldor Draigo

The tale of the Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter, Lord Kaldor Draigo truly began on the world of Acralem, in the Vidar sector, during a large daemonic incursion in 799.M41. Then-Battle-Brother Draigo was sent along with the Third Brotherhood of the Grey Knights, alongside nine regiments of Imperial Guard and Space Marines from the Astral Knights and Flesh Tearers Chapters.

What ensued was one of the most terrible battles of that century. Had the Grey Knights not been present, there is little doubt that Acralem would have fallen. The tide was only turned by their daring strike against M'kar's Warp-fortress. It was here that Battle-Brother Draigo made a name for himself, fighting against M'kar himself and dealing the deathblow, and so cast the daemonic horde back into the Warp. But unfortunately the Daemon managed to cling onto life just long enough to place a vengeful curse upon his slayer:

"Victory is yours this day mortal, but know that if ever you set foot upon this world again, you and all who follow you shall walk with damnation for ten millennia."

Victory saw Draigo was acclaimed with the rank of Justicar - the first of many such promotions. For the next two centuries Draigo continued to serve his Chapter and Emperor with unfailing distinction - earning honours and glory unsurpassed - save perhaps by the Grey Knights first Supreme Grand Master, Janus. Two hundred years to the day since Draigo's victory the Grey Knights received an Astropathic beacon bringing news to Titan that Acralem had once again been invaded by M'kar and his Daemon army. Now the senior-most Grand Master, Lord Draigo forbid his Chapter to involve themselves - a duty his Battle-Brothers bore unwillingly, though, to his knowledge none disobeyed. Lord Draigo took the burden upon himself to face his greatest nemesis. The world of Acralem would not be abandoned to its fate.

At the siege of Castle Gorseth it was Draigo who unleashed the psyflame that swept the Daemons away, and he who struck down the plague-rotten abomination that commanded the assault. In the Trebarin Valley, it was Draigo who held rearguard in the narrowest part of the pass, holding the baying hordes of madness at bay whilst the Cadian 912th fell back. Survivors of the retreat recount that Draigo held that rock-strewn corridor for two days, never once missing a blow nor taking backward step. The final confrontation between the two adversaries took place upon the pinnacle of Shadow Peak, before the swirling Warp rift from which the Daemon Prince drew his unholy power. Again and again, Draigo summoned !he sanctifying flame, yet M'kar merely laughed at the charring of his own flesh, and Draigo could not keep pace with his adversary forever. M'kar's blade glowed darkly with Warpflame, and he unleashed a blow mightier than any that had preceded it. The Daemonblade struck home with a dull crack, shattering the Nemesis sword halfway down its length and driving the Grey Knight to one knee. M'kar bellowed with victory, and brandished his blade for the final blow

Draigo managed to deliver M'kar a fateful death blow with the stump of the broken blade of his Nemesis force weapon. But Draigo's ultimate victory was robbed from him as the Daemon Prince cast the Grey Knight into the collapsing warp rift. So did Kaldor Draigo pass out of the mortal world and into legend. For an uncounted age Draigo wandered that terrible landscape. His path was strewn by Daemons fair and foul, who sought to slay him or seduce him to darkness, yet Draigo overcame them all.

Through uncounted legendary acts, and many thousands more, did Kaldor Draigo forge a new legend, but this time in a domain where legend is the stuff of life. Rarely now did Daemons haunt Draigo's footsteps. The Grey Knight had time and again proved his utter resistance to corruption. and had left so many thousands of slaughtered Daemons in his wake that now only the most crazed of Khorne's minions continued to seek his death. That anything could exist in the Realm of Chaos, yet be utterly immune to the will of the Chaos Gods, was a fresh impossibility in a domain riven with the impossible. Yet if the Dark Gods could not vanquish Draigo, then nor could Draigo win any meaningful victory.

However, the mortal world was not yet done with Lord Draigo. Since that time, Draigo has been cursed to the hell of being doomed to walk within the Realm of Chaos, unable to escape, but when a Daemonic incursion occurs in the material universe, and a Daemon Prince draws power from the Warp, Draigo is once again drawn back into the material realm. Momentarily reunited with his Chapter, Draigo fights alongside his fellow Grey Knights once again. But their victory is always a hollow one, as Lord Draigo is once again drawn back into the Warp. The fortitude of character that Draigo possesses to endure this half-life is unheard of, yet endures he does. He continues to walk the Realm of Chaos still, continuing his eternal battle against the Chaos Gods. But there is still hope, that while Draigo still lives, he will one day yet prevail and return to be reunited with his Chapter.