"Better to serve at the side of the Warmaster, than count yourself amongst his foes!"
- — Devram Korda, the Tyrant of Sarora
Chaos Lord Devram Korda, leader of the Chosen of Abaddon and current Lord Ravager of the Black Legion
Devram Korda, also known as "The Tyrant of Sarora", is a servant of the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure. A former Veteran Sergeant of the Sons of Horus Legion, after the events of the Horus Heresy, he rose to prominence and became a Chaos Lord. He became infamous for his blasphemous actions on the doomed world of Sarora, where he distilled the life essence of the citizens of the planet's largest hive city for a single vial of a sorcerous elixir which made him virtually invincible. He eventually became the current Lord Ravager, the individual who leads the invasion fleets of the Black Crusade in the name of Abaddon the Despoiler. It is Korda who first makes landfall on the surface of a world about to be assaulted by the Forces of Chaos. Korda also leads the personal retinue of the Despoiler, known as the Chosen of Abaddon. In the closing days of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, Devram Korda returned to his master's side, bringing with him two individuals (later identified as Skyrak Slaughterborn and Urkrathos) who had journeyed to the centre of the Eye of Terror. Together with the Chaos Sorcerer Ygethmor the Deceiver, they presented Abaddon with the Heart of Chaos, a powerful artefact that Zaraphiston, a Tzeentchian Chaos Sorcerer and rival Chaos Lord of the Despoiler, had long claimed could not exist.
History
Devram Korda served within the vaunted Sons of Horus Legion under the command of the Warmaster Horus, the greatest Primarch and most beloved son of the Emperor of Mankind. When the Warmaster fell to the corrupting influence of the Chaos Gods and began the terrible galactic civil war known as the Horus Heresy, Devram Korda willingly followed his Primarch into damnation. By the opening days of the conflict, Korda served as a Veteran Sergeant of the 13th Company, of the XVI Legion and as one of the seconds of Captain Luc Sedirae. Korda was present on the Legion's flagship Vengeful Spirit when Captain Sedirae and First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion were able to unmask the Clade Venenum Assassin known as Tobeld. Korda slew the assassin himself. Out of a total of eight different Assassins from all six prime clades of what would become the Officio Assassinorum, Tobeld had managed to get the closest to his target before failing in his mission.
As the Horus Heresy progressed and word filtered throughout the galaxy of Horus' galactic uprising, numerous Imperial worlds began to erupt into anarchy as the populations split over whether they should remain loyal to the Emperor or join the cause of the Warmaster. Dagonet was one such world, where Horus Lupercal was second only to the Emperor in being celebrated by the people of the planet; statues in Horus' honour were raised everywhere, and the Dagoneti spoke of him as "the Liberator." When the Sons of Horus teleported onto the planet's surface, an Execution Force composed of Imperial Assassins from every clade were waiting for them, and attempted to assassinate the Traitor Primarch. When the Vindicare Assassin successfully shot Horus with his Exitus Rifle, he thought he had killed the Warmaster. Instead, the Vindicare had killed Luc Sedirae, the Captain of the Sons of Horus' 13th Company. Though the target that had been shot wore the mantle of the Warmaster, the unique robe belonging to the Primarch himself, it had all been a ruse. In their anger, Devram Korda and the rest of the Sons of Horus turned upon the populace of Dagonet and began to slaughter them in earnest.
Following the events of the Horus Heresy, Korda continued his meteoric rise through the ranks of the newly renamed Black Legion. He became primarily known for the atrocity he committed upon the world of Sarora, where it is said he distilled the bodily essences of the planet's largest hive city for a single vial of elixir. The properties of this elixir was unknown, but for a period after its ingestion, Korda became, to all intents and purposes, invulnerable. He went on to conquer the entire star system and ruled it with an iron fist, distilling yet more elixirs from the bodies of each planet's population until finally he was stopped by warriors believed to have been rival Chaos Space Marines drawn from a warband of the Emperor's Children.
With the rise of Horus' former First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon as his self-proclaimed heir and Warmaster of the Black Legion, the Forces of Chaos began launching Black Crusades from the forsaken depths of the Eye of Terror. When these Black Crusades spill from the Warp, the worlds of the Imperium quake in fear. More so than any other servant of Chaos, Abaddon has brought death and destruction to Mankind time and time again; thirteen times in ten thousand standard years, marching to war at the head of a crusade tens of thousands strong. At his side are his lieutenants, the Chosen of Abaddon, and nowhere in the galaxy can a more feared and merciless collection of tyrants be found, ever eager to put entire worlds to the sword in the name of Chaos. They bear an assortment of titles, reflecting their role in the Black Crusade or honouring particular acts of cruelty for which they are infamous. Their numbers are ever-changing, for Abaddon has little tolerance for failure amongst those who serve him. Devram Korda rose to one of these esteemed positions and became the current Lord Ravager, who leads the invasion fleets of the Black Crusades.
Sources
- Apocalypse: Reload (4th Edition), pg. 55
- Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. 10
- White Dwarf 287 (UK), "Eye of Terror Worldwide Event: Death by a Thousand Cuts," pg. 36
- Nemesis (Novel) by James Swallow, pp. 12, 14, 324, 392