The Ragged Knight is a powerful Bloodthirster that appeared in the novel The Talon of Horus, under the command of the traitor astartes Iskandar Khayon. Unlike most bloodthirsters, the Ragged Knight's skin is the bleeding red charcoal of scorched flesh, whilst its armour is a fire-blackened mockery of the ancient plate mail worn by the knights whose treachery gave it birth. Instead of an axe or whip, it wields a sword, engraved with runic curses heralding the War God’s glory.
History[]
Born during the Steel Era of Old Earth, the Ragged Knight was born when a holy man called Innocent demanded that the Karthur people be burned for their sins against his God. This led to a crusade on the fortress of Albajensia, in the land of Gawl, also known as the Frankish Empire. This crusade, based on the details known, would be the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229), with the Karthur people being practicing Cathars in Languedoc, Southern France, and the holy man being Pope Innocent III. The feelings of hate, fear, rage and betrayal that the Cathars would've felt during and following the Crusade would coalesce into a form that would come to be the daemon. This daemon would eventually be bound to the sorcerer Iskandar Khayon, who trapped it in one of the leatherbound tarot cards he carried.
When the Emperor's Children attacked His Chosen Son, a ruined hulk which served as a neutral ground between Khayon and two other traitor astartes, Falkus Kibre and Lheorvine Ukris, the Ragged Knight was summoned to defend the three and their soldiers. During this fight, it killed eighteen Emperor's Children legionnaires in a dozen seconds, building a throne from four of their corpses and consuming the rest. It was then commanded to fight the leader of the Emperor's Children force, Telemachon Lyras, who held his own until a successful strike caused burning viscera to spray from the wound, incapacitating him. Instead of finishing the job, the Ragged Knight turned its attention on Khayon, attempting to free itself from his control. Whilst it would succeed in gaining its freedom, it would only achieve this by defeat, being banished back to the Warp by the sorcerer.