Raven Guard

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Raven Guard

The Raven Guard are one of the original Space Marine Legions. The Primarch of the Raven Guard is Corax . Their homeworld is Deliverance (originally named Lycaeus), a moon which orbits the Hive World Kiavahr.⁶

Basic Information

	Space Marines Portal
Raven Guard
Legion Number	XIX
Primarch	Corax
Homeworld	Deliverance
Fortress-Monastery	Ravenspire
Chapter Master	Unknown
Colours	Black, White
Strength	~1000 Marines
Battle Cry	Victorus aut Mortis
Successor Chapters: Black Guard, Revilers, Raptors

History

The Raven Guard were all but annihilated in the Drop Site Massacre during the Horus Heresy, the battle of Isstvan V reducing the legion's strength from some 80,000 astartes to less than 3,000¹. It is rumoured that Corax used cloning technology to replenish the Chapter's numbers. Many of these clones resulted in degenerated and inhuman creatures. Being so depleted in strength the Legion was forced to put these monsters into combat, where they proved brutally efficient. There is one documented incident where a Raven Guard force appeared herding huge bestial creatures ahead of it to defeat the defenders of an Iron Warriors held fortress.²

In 862.M41 Waaagh! Skullkrak invades the Targus syetem. Kayvaan Shrike and the Raven Guard 3rd company are amongst the forces that respond.⁷

Appearance

The degeneration of the Raven Guard gene-seed means several of the unique organs of the Space Marines no longer work properly or no longer grow. Raven Guard do not have the Mucranoid or Betcher's Gland. The Melanchromic Organ has a unique mutation that causes the skin of the Space Marine to grow paler. Eventually some Marine's skin becomes pure white many but not all Raven Guard also have jet black hair.¹³

Organisation

The right shoulder guard trim denotes the type of Space Marine. Green is for tactical squads, red is for assault squads and yellow is for devastators. The left kneepad displays the company number⁸

Combat Doctrines

Raven Guard

The Raven Guard are known for hitting weak points in enemy defences hard and they perform lightning strike upon locations of tactical importance to cripple their enemy. The Raven Guard disdain the notion of recklessly charging into enemy ranks. This differentiates their tactics from those of the Blood Angels. The Raven Guard rely heavily on their Scouts for pinpointing enemy positions and to scout for good drop sites. Because of their hit and run tactics they also make extensive use of Assault Squads. The Tactical Squads of the Raven Guard are often deployed via Thunderhawks or Drop Pods. The favorite weapons of the Raven Guard Commanders are the Lightning Claws and it is a common sight that their command squads also come equiped with these weapons in addition to their Jump Packs.

Raven Guard Captains are fiercely independent, and it's incredibly rare for the chapter to fight as a whole. Individual companies are completely autonomous and are quick to lend their aid to imperial commanders across the galaxy, with or without the sanction of their Chapter Master. Such behaviour has led to some to question the Raven Guard's soundness, but most recognise that such fluidity of command proves the presence of formidable discipline, not its absence.⁴

Due to their specialised combat style, the Raven Guard makes less use of heavier vehicles and tanks (such as the Land Raider and Predator) than most chapters.³

File:Assalt.jpg

Raven Guard Veteran assault marine

Equipment

The Chapter makes wide use of the "beaked" and older marks of Power Armour (Mk. IV-VI). After their near-destruction at Isstvan V, the Raven Guard had to make to do with older armour and equipment. The available resources were too few to re-equip them and even today there is a higher percentage of ancient suits of armour amongst the Chapter than most others. The Raven Guard's chapter planet and base of operations has the production capacity of a small forge world, ensuring that the Raven Guard rarely lacks for the material to prosecute its campaigns.⁵ Raven Guard's Power Armour utilises enhanced cooling systems that which helps to blend in better with the background. By this means Raven Guard's warriors are hard to be detected by thermal or infrared devices.¹²

Recruitment

Owing to the instability of the Raven Guard gene-seed and the experiments of Corax, much of the chapter's genetic stock has been irreparably damaged. Now, much of their genetic material comes from supplies held on Terra. This means the cycle of recruitment for the Raven Guard is much slower than other Chapters and fewer Raven Guard candidates for the Chapter prove able to survive their training and genetic modification. This means the chapter is constantly short-handed.

The Raven Guard's chapter planet Deliverance is said to lack the population resources available on other chapter's homeworlds. By the time of the Horus Heresy only a few thousand marines in the Raven Guard's number were recruited from Deliverance, the rest made up of the original Terran forces inducted before the Great Crusade.¹

Company Disposition

Like all Codex chapters, the Raven Guard are divided into ten Companies. Each Company is led by a hero of the Raven Guard who bears the title Shadow Captain⁹ and who - in addition to his Company command - is in charge of a particular aspect of the Chapter's logistics. The current Company commanders are as follows:

• First Company: Unknown
• Second Company: Captain Aajz Solari
• Third Company: Captain Kayvaan Shrike
• Fourth Company: Captain Aethon Shaan^11a
• Fifth Company: Captain Corvane Valar¹⁰
• Sixth Company: Unknown
• Seventh Company: Unknown
• Eighth Company: Unknown
• Ninth Company: Unknown
• Tenth Company: Captain Korvydae

Noted Elements of the Raven Guard

Notable Members

Heresy Era

• Corax - Primarch of the Raven Guard

Post-Heresy

• Kayvaan Shrike - Captain of the Raven Guard 3rd Company
• Aajz Solari - Captain of the 2nd Company
• Korvydae - Captain of the 10th Company - Master of Recruits⁹
• Ardaric Vaanes- Former Brother-Captain of the 4th Company now a member of an Iron Warriors Grand Company^11b

Sources

• ¹:Raven's Flight (Audio Book)
• ²:Index Astartes IV
• ³:Codex: Space Marines (4th Edition)
• ⁴:Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition) p.25 6th Paragraph
• ⁵:Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition) p.25 5th Paragraph
• ⁶:Index Astartes IV p.96 1st Paragraph
• ⁷:Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition) p.49
• ⁸:Insignium Astartes p.59 upper right corner image
• ⁹:Imperial Armour Volume Eight - Raid on Kastorel Novem p.112
• ¹⁰: Cadian Blood (Novel) p.62
• ¹¹:Chapter's Due (Novel) by Graham McNeill
  • ^a: p.25
  • ^b: p.123
• ¹²: Andy Hoare: The Hunt for Voldorius p.92

Related Articles

• List of Space Marine Chapters