Kranon the Relentless

Kranon the Relentless is the current Chapter Master of the Crimson Slaughter warband of Chaos Space Marines. Once known as Sevastus Kranon, he was known to be militant and brutal even during the days when he was still a loyal servant to the Emperor as the Chapter Master of the Crimson Sabres Chapter. His Chapter eventually slid into heresy and damnation following the massacre committed on the world of Umidia. Cursed by the Blood God Khoren, the Crimson Sabres were driven insane by the voices in their heads of their murdered victims. Upon leading his warband into self-imposed exile in the Eye of Terror, Sevastus was corrupted by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. Renaming himself Kranon the Relentless, he has driven himself and his Chapter to commit more and more bloody and vile acts in an attempt to silent the maddening voices that plague him.

History
Sevastus Kranon was once Chapter Master of the Crimson Sabres Space Marines. Under this command his Chapter won great accolades, crushing worlds in the name of the Emperor. His brutal manner, however, earned the Chapter a darker reputation too. The Crimson Slaughter's descent towards excommunication began on the Jungle World of Umidia, where they conducted a genocidal purging of the Balethu Cults in 928.M41. Subsequent interrogation of captured Crimson Sabres revealed that the cults of Umidia were in the process of summoning a Daemon of Khorne, and in their rush to judgment, the Crimson Sabres purged the entire planet of life. In revenge (or possibly reward) for the bloody annihilation of his followers, Khorne cursed the Crimson Sabres to be haunted by the voices of all those they killed.

The entire Chapter was literally haunted by the butchery of the mysterious Balethu; poltergeist activity surrounded the Crimson Sabres wherever they went. Whenever a Space Marine closed his eyes, he could see the faces of those he had killed and hear their screams in his mind. Sleep became impossible and, slowly at first, a pall of paranoid insanity spread through the Chapter like a disease. This led the Crimson Sabres to being declared Renegades by the Inquisition and the High Lords of Terra due to signs of continued psychological instability and over-zealous prosecution of their campaigns.

In an attempt to burn away the harrowing memories in the fires of war, Chapter Master Sevastus Kranon declared the neighbouring world of Demetra tainted by mere proximity to Umidia, and the killing began anew. The desperate plan worked, for the spectres of the Balethu were drowned out by a series of gore-drenched wars. Subsequent bloodshed could silence the voices, but only for a short time. Sevastus Kranon, the Chapter Master of the Crimson Sabres, led his warriors into the Eye of Terror to slaughter Traitors instead of spilling the blood of innocents, thereby gaining a temporary respite. Exiled in the Eye of Terror they were blessed with many gifts to further their combat prowess and were finally fully corrupted by Chaos and were remade as the warband of Chaos Space Marines called the Crimson Slaughter.

Sevastus Kranon, reborn as the Chaos Lord Kranon the Relentless, learned of the mystical Chaotic artefact known as the Hellfire Stone, an altar to Khorne, that could forever free his Chapter from its curse and silence the voices in his head once and for all. Joining forces with more powerful Traitor Legions during a Black Crusade, Kranon and the Crimson Slaughter began their rampage across a dozen or more worlds in the southern rim in search for the Hellfire Stone. Carving a bloody swathe across the populated worlds that dotted the southern rim of the galaxy, the Crimson Slaughter overwhelmed Imperial garrisons and slaughtered whole populations before vanishing into the Warp once more. Although their rebellion against the Imperium had been well documented - if subsequently suppressed - the remote nature of the planets they attacked meant that by the time a distress call was answered, the Crimson Slaughter had long departed.

That was until the Crimson Slaughter made the mistake of engaging the Dark Angels 5th Company in battle upon the world of Stern's Remembrance, slaying many Battle-Brothers including Company Master, Zadakiel. Such an act of violence earned the undying vengeance of the Dark Angels and the newly ascended Company Master, Balthasar, who swore to hunt down those responsible and bring their heads back to the Rock, the spaceborne Fortress-Monastery of the Dark Angels. The 5th Company was also accompanied in this task by members of the elite 1st Company, the Deathwing, members of the 2nd Company, the Ravenwing, and a powerful Librarian named Turmiel, who was trained by Ezekiel, Chief Librarian of the Dark Angels, himself.

Relentless was the hunt, across a dozen worlds, until finally the Chaos Space Marines were tracked to the world of Bane's Landing where they were confronted by the Dark Angels 5th Company once again. Kranon the Relentless sought to use the Hellfire Stone to summon forth his daemonic masters and usher in an age of darkness. As the Dark Angels raced to stop him, a mighty conflict between the loyal Balthasar and the Traitor Kranon was in the offing.