Corsus
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In Eric Rücker Eddison's high fantasy - The Worm Ouroboros - Duke Corsus is one of the secondary characters. He is the one of the war leader of the armies of Witchland. He is an enemy of Demonland and of the heroes in the story. Duke Corsus is old and somewhat fat, clearly his better days are long past. In Eddison's internal chronology, Duke Corsus was born in the year 344.
Duke Corsus is described as follows:
| “ | Wondrous solemn was the heavy face of Corsus, his eyes, baggy underneath and somewhat bloodshed, his pendulous cheeks, thick blubber upper-lip, and bristly gray moustachios and whiskers. (page 106) | ” |
Duke Corsus has two sons: Dekalajus, and Gorius. His wife is Lady Zenambria. His daughter is the beautiful (and not chaste) Lady Sriva.
Duke Corsus was the chief war leader of Witchland a decade before the story begins (in the war against the now exterminated Ghouls). Corsus is wily and skillfull but prone to drinking and no longer young.
Corsus is given the command of the Witchland army of invasion of Demonland by his king, Gorice XII but on the night the king makes this decision, Corsus sends his daughter Sriva up to persuade the king to give him the command. The king is angry that Corsus should try to sway his mind with by the use of his beautiful (and naked) daughter. The king first shows Sriva that her father has already been appointed commander of the army, and then has a night of pleasure with her (Chapter 16).
At first, Corsus's invasion of Demonland goes well and he kills one of the Demonland generals in battle (Lord Vizz at the battle of Crossby Outsikes). However he is then defeated by Lord Spitfire's army (at the battle of the Rapes of Brima) and he is forced to retreat into Owlswick castle. There he murders his second-in-command, Gallandus in a fit of drunken rage. The king, when he learns of these events from Lord Gro, replaces Corsus with Corinius who has more success, for a time.
Corsus at the end of the book fights against the Demonland army in the final battle. He is defeated and then suggests surrender to Lord Juss saying "the Demons, as we have seen to our undoing, be unconquerable in war". His advice is rejected and he is called a coward by the king. Corsus then poisons the wine given to the other lords of Witchland (killing the remaining sons of Corund as well as his own wife) but before he can leave the feast hall of Carcë, he is killed by Corinius who is dying from the poison.
