Raven Guard
Template:IntWik The Raven Guard are one of the original Space Marine Legions. The Primarch of the Raven Guard is Corax, which is the Greek for Raven. Their homeworld is Deliverance, which was renamed from Lycaeum.
Contents
History
The Raven Guard was involved in the Drop Site Massacre at Isstvan V. By the end of the Horus Heresy, the Raven Guard was all but annhilated, reduced down to a few dozen members. It is rumoured that Corax used cloning technology to replenish the Chapter's numbers, many of these clones seem to have resulted in mutations and a rejection of the gene seed in one way or another, Corax himself is thought to have brought these unlucky souls to a merciful ending, executing each individually with an apology and a prayer. At some point the Raven Guard are thought to have actually used these ferocious, insane creatures in combat. 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.1
Appearence
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 each marine's skin becomes pure white while their hair and eyes darken, becoming black as coal.
Organisation
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 dislike chapters that charge recklessly into enemy ranks. This has led to arguments between the Raven Guard and the Blood Angels. The Raven Guard rely heavily on their Scouts for pinpointing enemy postions and to scout for good Dropsites. The right shoulderpad trim denotes the type of space marine. Green is for tactical squads, red is for assault squads and yellow is for devastors. 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.
Equipment
After the massacre of 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.
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.
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 - 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: Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike
- Fourth Company: Unknown
- Fifth Company: Unknown
- Sixth Company: Unknown
- Seventh Company: Unknown
- Eighth Company: Unknown
- Ninth Company: Unknown
- Tenth Company: Unknown
Notable Raven Guard Warriors
- Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike - Captain of the Raven Guard 3rd Company
- Corax - Primarch of the Raven Guard
- Aajz Solari - Captain of the 2nd Company
