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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
Cleaning up the mess left for me
When Kiavahr's rulers struck back, Corax was ready for them. He outmanoeuvred and ambushed their forces on Lycaeus with his battle hardened warriors, crushing their supply lines and striking the five biggest cities in Kiavahr with one atomic mining charge each. The charges were embarked on small transport shuttles and reached the surface via a supply gravity well. Soon, their forces nearly destroyed, their vast factories unable to produce anything due to the minerals shortages, the Tech-Guilds collapsed in civil war. While thousands had died in the nuclear bombardment of Kiavahr, millions of its people had been freed.{{Fn|12a}} Celebrating their victory, the inhabitants of Lycaeus renamed their home "[[Deliverance]]".{{Fn|2e}}
It is said that the Emperor appeared on Deliverance that day and, after a day and a night with his son, appointed him Primarch of the Raven Guard Legion. Nothing is said of their conversation but one condition of Corax's acceptance was the help of the Emperor in the task of bringing peace on Kiavahr. Soon the Adeptus Mechanicus stepped in and the world was rebuilt to the benefit of the [[Imperium]] while the black tower which once housed the guards of the moon became the [[Ravenspire]], the [[fortress monastery|fortress]] of the Legion.{{Cite Marker EndFn|2e}}
===Great Crusade===
[[Image:CoraxArtBook.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Corvus Corax, [[Primarch]] of the [[Raven Guard]] ]]
During the [[Great Crusade]], Corax's talents for planning and sabotage were of great effect and the [[Raven Guard]], fighting frequently under the orders of [[Horus]], became renowned for an unmatched ability with covert ops, sabotage, infiltration and lightning strikes. But the pair never saw eye-to-eye, and after an argument, the two Primarchs nearly fought each other. Corax left Horus's command.{{Cite Marker EndFn|10}} Corax also began to display great ill-favour and mistrust towards [[Terra]]n-born warriors within his Legion as opposed to those from [[Deliverance]]. This was due to Corax's disgust with the Terrans for their use of terror tactics, which reminded him of the [[Night Lord]]s. Corax instead sought to transform the Legion into a force for liberation of the oppressed.{{Fn|14}} While Corax bitterly opposed [[Horus]] violently sacrificing Terran-born recruits in the [[Battle of Gate 42]], he nonetheless began to "purge" Terrans by sending them on forgotten Crusades to the galactic rim and unexplored space.{{Fn|10}}
During the Crusade Corax was frequently compared to [[Konrad Curze]], Primarch of the [[Night Lords]]. The two were not only physically similar but also alike in their childhoods and even how they waged war. However unlike Curze, Corax retained a degree of humanity and did not engage in the mass slaughter that the Night Haunter was known for. Corax himself was disturbed by the comparisons to Curze, while the Night Lords Primarch himself came to hate the Ravenlord for the constant comparisons. During the [[Carinae Retribution]] tensions between the two came to a head, with Corax confronting Curze over his mass slaughter of civilians. The two nearly came to blows, but Corax was able to convince [[Sevatar]] to pressure Curze to withdraw.{{Fn|15}}
{{Spoiler|source=Deliverance Lost (Novel)}}
[[File:Deliverance Lost cropped.jpg|250px|right|thumb|''' Corvus Corax'''{{Fn|1}}]]
Though grievously wounded and forced to fight a guerrilla war on Isstvan V for the next 98 days he escaped the slaughter with a handful of loyal Space Marines thanks to the arrival of a small Raven Guard navy led by [[Space Marine Captain|Captain]] [[Branne Nev]]. Captain Branne had been left as reserve on Deliverance and he departed the moon only due to strange dreams haunting the nights of Praefector [[Marcus Valerius]], the commander of [[Therion Cohort]], a loyalist [[Imperial Army]] [[Regiment]]. Unbeknownst to both sides, the [[Alpha Legion]] had allowed Corax's escape to further the plans of [[Alpharius]].{{Fn|2}} On quitting the Isstvan System, Corax sent back to Deliverance all the remaining ships while he himself headed to Terra to seek the counsel of The Emperor. The Primarch was desperate as the Imperium was collapsing, his Emperor needed warriors that Corax could not provide. Moreover, Corax was not granted permission to see The Emperor due to his workings on the man-made corridor to the Eldar [[Webway]].{{Fn|2f}}
[[Image:Corax-scripts.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Corax leads the remnants of his Legion on [[Isstvan V]] against the [[Iron Warriors]].]]
The Emperor, sensing his son's desperation, was somehow able to divert part of his psychic might in order to grant Corax what he was looking for. Through a psychic vision Corax asked for a rapid and effective solution to restore his legion's might. The Emperor, feeling the righteous intent behind his son's question, implanted in his brain some selected memories concerning the project for the creation of the Primarchs and the exact place where the ancient laboratory was to be found. However, stated The Emperor, the laboratory was well guarded by a complex system called "The Labyrinth"{{Fn|2g}} and it was up to Corax himself to find a way to pass through it. Corax was successful in this task and what he obtained was the common genome all primarchs shared. From this genome, through tough selection, The Emperor created each of the twenty granting each of them some particular and well defined traits (such as psychic powers or increased strength) along with a number of commonly shared feats (increased growing rate, regenerative powers, intellectual acumen and so on).{{Cite Marker EndFn|2g}} Before Corax departed the [[Sol System]] with this new technology, he was asked by [[Malcador the Sigillite|Malcador]] to take part in the [[Perditum Incursion]] on Traitor-occupied Mars. Corax agreed, though it later turned out to be an elaborate ambush planned by the Traitors under [[Lukas Chrom]]. However most of the loyalists were able to escape, Corax included.{{Fn|19}}
Once back on Deliverance, Corax tasked his [[Chief Apothecary]] [[Vincente Sixx]] of retrieving the correct Raven Guard genome and start the direct implantation on fresh recruits. With the assistance of the loyalist Mechanicum Genetor Nexin Orlandriaz, Sixx actually accomplished the task and went so far as to approach complete removal of the progenoid glands. From the correct genome, in fact, the whole Space Marine would have grown directly, all his enhanced organs already present. The only exception would have been the Black Carapace due to its synthetic nature. The carapace permits the interface to the power armour and it is not a real organ itself. In this way, the progenoids would have been useless for future generations.{{Fn|2h}}
By the time [[Roboute Guilliman]] had relieved the [[Siege of Terra]], most of the Imperium was still unaware if Corax was alive or dead. During the [[Great Scouring]] he was the only surviving loyal Primarch to not sit upon the newly christened [[Grand Council of Reconstruction]], and he set himself outside of the Imperium's command structure.{{Fn|22}}
By the time Corax had managed to rebuild his Legion, the [[Horus Heresy]] had ended and [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s Codex edicts decreed that the Legion had to be split in smaller Chapters. Knowing that Guilliman's vision was true, Corax split his forces but remained unable to forget the growling monsters that he had personally created. After pondering for hours as to what should be done he decided to administer the Emperor's peace to the ones who remained, praying for their souls and his. Then wracked with guilt he locked himself in his chamber in the Ravenspire begging for the Emperor's mercy.{{Cite Marker EndFn|3}}
Nobody knows if he received the absolution he required but a year to the day after he had locked himself in, he left the tower and Deliverance on a course toward the [[Eye of Terror]], never to be seen by the Imperium again. His last recorded words were "Never more."{{Cite Marker EndFn|3}}
Corax can be presumed to have disappeared "shortly" before the apparent death of his brother [[Rogal Dorn]] to an unspecified Black Crusade.{{Fn|21}} (See [[Rogal Dorn#fn Conflicting Sources back|Rogal Dorn - Conflicting Sources]])
