"I will remember this bravery, Kormak. Be assured that your reward will come in time."
- —Valkia, forecasting Kormak's ressurection
Kormak was a young, one-armed Human male and a member of the Schwarzvolf tribe of Norsca. He was Valkia the Bloody's most devoted follower who she later raised from the dead after her ascension to become a Daemon Prince of Khorne. She transformed Kormak into a Champion of Khorne following his death at her side.
History[]
"I still have my axe arm. I can still fight."
- —Kormak, persisting despite his injuries
Kormak was one of the many Schwarzvolf warriors who followed Valkia on her quest into the Chaos Wastes to lay the head of the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince Locephax before the throne of the Blood God Khorne. Throughout the march, the army would occasionally be harassed and attacked by the animals of the north, made fierce and aggressive by the harsh clime and scarce resources. Kormak was the victim of one such attack, when his arm was ripped off by a mountain lioness. However, as pragmatic as all Northmen were, he consoled himself with the thought that at least it had not been his axe arm that was taken.[1a]
Kormak was the only member of Valkia's tribe who followed her all the way to the end of the quest and died alongside her. Valkia ordered him to leave several times and slay Hepsus and the other traitors within her tribe in her name, but Kormak refused. Instead, he remained with her and was slain by Slaaneshi Daemons who ate him alive as he screamed a final prayer to Khorne. Valkia used the distraction of Kormak's death to climb the stairs of a portal to Khorne's domain within the Realm of Chaos but she was slain by an onslaught of Slaaneshi Daemons.[1a]
A combination of his own fury at death and the magics permeating the land where he died kept Kormak's soul bound to his sundered corpse for ten long years. Then Valkia returned, stepping back into the mortal world from the Brass Citadel in her new form as a Daemon Prince of Khorne, bringing a host of Bloodletters with her. She found Kormak's dessicated corpse, and bid his soul to join her in her quest for vengeance. She sank her claws into his flesh, carving Khornate runes into his skin and a final, angular rune onto his skull. For the first time in a decade, the warrior sat up, returned agonizingly to the world.[1b]
Kormak was given a choice: to either join Valkia and claim vengeance in the name of the Blood God, or to return to the sleep of eternal oblivion. He chose vengeance, his devotion to Valkia having not dimmed a whit since his death. A storm of magic whipped about him and provided him with a new form, covering him in brass and crimson armor, the skull-like Mark of Khorne emblazoned in his chest. He rose as a Champion of Khorne, bellowed out a bestial roar, and became Valkia's first Champion. Calling forth several Bloodletters and crushing their very beings into a daemonic weapon, she gave to Kormak a jagged Khornate battlexe and a Juggernaut to ride as a steed.[1b]
Kormak fought alongside Valkia when they face the Norscan Schwarzvolf tribe, breaking through their front line like the fist of a god. Following the battle, the Daemons brought by Valkia faded back into the Realm of Chaos. But the Daemon Princess demanded that Kormak remain in the mortal realm and spread the word of Khorne by burying the world in the skulls of the slain.[1c]