Crow's Children

**This article, Crow's Children, was written by Graythorne. It may be linked to any page without asking for the author's permission.**

## Crow's Children

Crow's Children armorial with corrupted warband iconography.

Crow's Children colour scheme, as worn by Sorost, the Defiler of Light.

## Chaos Warband

### **Leader**

Chaos Lord Daedelus the Betrayer (Deceased), Peredrath the Ruiner (Current).

### **Specialty**

Raptor Swarms, Surprise assaults, Chaos uprisings.

## Pre-Heresy

### **Home World**

Lor'dra (Feudal World)

"*The Crow unfurls its ebon wings, its talons rake into the carcass of the double-headed eagle. The Crow tears and consumes the rotting flesh of the great Pretender's empire until its beak reaches the decadent heart, and the Crow knows victory.*"
—Portent of Ruination, a prophecy foretold by Peredrath
The **Crow's Children**, or the **Knights of Carrion**, are a notorious Chaos Warband made up of Heretic Astartes, formed from the renegade Order of the Crow, of the Loyalist Penitent Knights Space Marine Chapter. Daedelus the Betrayer, the Warband's infamous Chaos Lord, fell to the Ruinous Powers and turned traitor against his Chapter Master, Archalus, after constant frustrations over the Highlord's sympathy for the mortal civilian life of the Imperium. And even when Archalus reprimanded Daedelus for disregarding orders, a strange voice whispered into the ear of the Knight Captain, telling him that he would have his day. After the mutiny of the Order of the Crow, and the company escaped into the Warp, the powers of Chaos changed them all to Chaos Space Marines, and their mission was to destroy their loyalist brothers. However, their lust for death has taken them throughout the Sub-sector they once protected and beyond, earning them the title, "the Scourge of Asteria." The Crow's Children desire to cast down the Imperium, seeing the Emperor's supremacy as empty fiction, seeking to become lords of Man themselves. And indeed, with the favor these fallen dark Knights have attained with the Ruinous Powers, the Penitent Knights are all that keep the warband from realizing their ultimate goal of raising a hellish kingdom of Chaos from Asteria.

Recently, the Crow's Children have been feared for boasting a grand number of heretic Astartes in their ranks, all ruled by an iron fist of Daedelus' most powerful Sorceror. It is unclear as to how Peredrath the Ruiner, the Librarian that caused Captain Daedelus to fall to the Ruinous Powers in the first place, has managed to keep the Warband from splintering, but with the death of the Betrayer, the Children seem a more potent threat than ever before. For Peredrath is no longer shackled to Daedelus' leadership and stunted, limited vision for the Children.

## History

**Night of the Crow** **(627.M32) -** Long before their betrayal, the Order of the Crow was notorious for being a bellicose and unforgiving company of the Penitent Knights Space Marine Chapter. On several occasions, their excesses had to be reigned in by their Chapter' s Chaplains, and on more than one occasion they were reprimanded by Lord Crusader (Chapter Master) Archalus himself. Led by Knight Captain Daedelus, a bellicose and malevolent soul, this battle-brother should never have risen to a position of command within the Chapter, but his prowess as a warrior and reputation as a superlative tactician were often reasons enough to overlook some of his more...extreme excesses. But following one particular campaign (which was deleted from the Penitent Knights archives) Knight Captain Daedelus and his warriors were formally reprimanded by Archalus for their dishonourable actions and the collateral damage left in the wake of the Order of the Crow's assault, which resulted in an extreme loss of life amongst the Imperial civilians.

Instead of choosing to gravely punish Daedelus and his restless subordinates for disobeying orders, in his wisdom, he forced the Order of the Crow to humble themselves by forcing them to perform mundane patrol duties to protect the populated planets near the Aegimius System, the Chapter's Fortress-System. Unfortunately, the machinations of the Ruinous Powers are insidious, and they would not easily give up their potential prize, and so, through fate (or direct influence, though none can say for sure) when this force entered the Warp upon Archalus' Battle Barge, *Brotherhood*, they were set upon by a massive daemonic incursion in the ship. Mysteriously, the Gellar Fields on many of the Penitent Knights' vessels began to falter, and soon the Neverborn began to materialise aboard their ships and began massacring the ships' mortal crews.

During the height of the fighting, the Order of the Crows turned upon their brothers and assisted the daemons in killing those aboard the *Brotherhood*. This slaughter started in the lower decks, the daemons appearing and killing all the crewmen and stray Knights that stood in their path. Lord Scholar Graynerius, the Chief Librarian, alerted Archalus to the invasion of Chaos, directing the *Lightbound* to lock down choke points along the Brotherhood to either contain or slow the daemonic tide while Graynerius worked to speed them out of the Warp. It was at that point that the Crows turned, opening fire and throwing grenades at the backs of the Paladins of the Lightbound. However, the Order of the Lightbound raged and held off their traitor brothers and daemons for hours before the Battle Barge exited the Warp, the entire Order of the Lightbound slain during the betrayal. The Paladin Captain Fortareis was cut down saving Archalus from a fatal blow. Their mutiny only partly successful, what remained of the Order of the Crow fled into the Warp with their new daemonic allies, to rebuild and give themselves wholly to their Dark Gods, eventually becoming the Crow's Children Chaos Warband.

Over the next few centuries, the Crow's Children began to raid and pillage across the entirety of the Asteria Sub-sector, leaving only grief and rubble in their wake. The new Chaos Marines reveled in their bloodshed, taking what they pleased whenever they desired. Once, they were noble warriors of the Emperor, but by the corroding influence of Daedelus and the Ruinous Powers, they razed worlds in the name of the Dark Gods. So much did they enjoy wanton slaughter and decadence, that Daedelus offered the entire Sub-sector to the Gods, including their loyal brothers, the Penitent Knights.

**Battle of Sanus** **(863.M32) -** Following years spent in the Warp with their new Daemonic masters, the Crow's Children reappeared in the Aegimius System, and immediately set to laying waste to the Civilised World of Sanus and its young Imperial settlements. Descending upon the helpless populace with their Corvian-styled jump-packs, the Children massacred all they could see, reducing cities to rubble in a matter of hours with their Warp-forged weaponry. The Penitent Knights, however, rushed to annihilate the traitors with all speed, but alas arrived days too late to save the civilians of Sanus due to the Children virtually destroying all communication from the planet. When the Knights arrived on planet, they were greeted with a sea of bones and broken buildings. But in Thadeliv, Sanus' capital, the Crow's Children erected grand effigies of the Chaos Gods from the metal and bone reaped from the innocents of Sanus. A fierce battled followed as the loyal and traitor marines engaged within the confines of Thadeliv, with great costs to both sides. Archalus and Daedelus dueled in the throne room of the previous Planetary Governor, while the rest of the Knights fought in an almost berserk state against their traitor brothers, for both their betrayal and the devastation they had caused. Ultimately, Daedelus had eventually tired out the Highlord to the point where he was able to knock Archalus to the ground and rip off the loyalist's left arm from his body with his power fist before himself being wounded by bolter fire from Knight Captain Balder Karn, of the Order of the Gryphon. Subsequently, the Crow's Children retreated back into the Warp using a portal they had crafted.

After the idols of the Chaos Gods had been utterly destroyed by the Penitent Knights, Archalus deemed that the barren world of Sanus would become the Cemetery World of Penance, an eternal reminder of the consequence of their failure to defend the innocent from the wicked jaws of the Children.

**The Uprising of Noarilia (120.M33) -** Noarilia was the center of the commonwealth System of the Asteria Sub-sector, prosperous and wealthy in its status. A perfect place to set a vile trap for the Penitent Knights, Daedelus knew. Under both the council of Peredrath and Savaathon, insurgents of the Crow's Children melded with the populace of Noarilia and waited for their time. Years past, until the Raptors of the Children descended upon the Governor's palace, violently tearing apart any Planetary Defense Forces that stood in their way. Approximately an hour later, Daedelus himself broadcast a message across the entire planet:

*"Denizens and wretches of the Imperium, hear these words. Your 'Governor,' is dead, his body being flayed by my brothers at this very moment. The weak Imperium cannot stand against us, blades of the Chaos Gods! Yes, you have all been lied to, nameless millions of slaves of the 'Emperor.' You know of what I speak- the nagging temptations you feel at every second, the suppressed desires you crave against the shackles of your law. NO MORE! Now, rise up, you who now know the truth of this universe! Chaos will have this galaxy, and all others! For now, that you have merely heard this simple truth, the Imperium sends its puppets to kill you all, because they fear the word of Chaos! Rise up, and deny your would-be murderers, or die like insects to their guns. The Gods accept all into their fold..."*

Within hours, the agents of the Warband ensured that indeed a full Chaos rebellion took place among the cities of Noarilia, the people engaging in dark orgies of slaughter and degeneration at will. Daedelus looked down from the Governor's palace and smiled darkly as the Gods were given more sacrifices, and more to their flock. And sure enough, the Penitent Knights came again to meet their enemy upon the field of war.

However, when the Orders of the Undaunted and the Cleansing Flame arrived in Noarilia's orbit, they saw that it was not merely the Crow's Children that were their enemy, but the corrupted populace. Torn as they were never before since the death of Archalus by the order of the High Lords of Terra, the Knights faced a situation where both civilian and traitor had to be put to the sword. For hours, they heatedly argued the next course of action, and the weight of sinning to strike down a civilian or to let this atrocity go unanswered. In grief, they deployed into Noarilia's surface.

When personally seeing the full degeneration of the twisted populace, the Knights of the Undaunted and Cleansing Flame knew that a quick death would be a far better end to them rather than to be further turned from the Emperor's light. The purgation was a slow but steady process, emptying ravaged forests of concrete after another, until both Companies stood before the Governor's palace, and at that point, hundreds of the Crow's Children leapt from the shadows and surprise attacked the Knights. Daedelus himself glided down from the tallest balcony of the palace, swinging both his plasma pistol and daemon sword into many Knights. A fierce and bloody battle followed, but both Knight Captains of the Orders managed to drive off the Betrayer, and thus, the Children cackled maniacally as they ascended to another portal maintained by Peredrath the Ruiner. To this day, Noarilia is still a source of great shame on the Chapter of the Penitent Knights.

**Discovery of the Dark Carrion** **(400.M33)** - For almost an entire millennia, the Crow's Children had prowled across the Asteria Sub-sector, always on the move, with no place to call their den, their fortress. Then, under the guidance of the Sorcerer Peredrath, the Children found a large Space Hulk, largely empty and waiting for someone to claim it. Soon after, the Children had turned the amalgamation of ships into their own star-fort, their slaves working tirelessly to reinforce numerous positions along the Space Hulk's surface, along with many idols of the Chaos Gods both inside and out. Daedelus personally oversaw the fortification of the innards of the Space Hulk, modelling the many galleries and corridors into a perversion of the Fortress-Monastery of the Penitent Knights. Raids and assaults led by the Warpsmith Morderoth brought back with them captured Imperial vessels and supplies, which they used to build wicked spires filled with plasma macro-cannons, Lance batteries and other defensive machinations. When the deed was done, the Space Hulk resembled more of an impenetrable fortress than an assortment of lost ships. And when the final additions were made to his own den of evil, Daedelus sat upon a throne crafted from bones of the slaughtered. And thus, the *Dark Carrion* was finished, and the Crow's Children had a stronghold inside the Sub-sector.

**Burning of the Carrion** **(520.M41)** - For great many millennium, the horrendous Crow's Children Warband of heretic Astartes called the Space Hulk, the *Dark Carrion*, their den. And for all those long years, the location of the dark construct remained hidden and elusive, to both the Penitent Knights and the Heralds of the Storm. But in the mid of the 41st Millennium, the Sons had finally discovered the Dark Carrion, hidden deep within the ungoverned and wild reaches of the Asteria Sub-sector. Immediately, the young Chapter sent word to their progenitors, but also set about working to destroy the outer defenses of the Space Hulk. For not only had the Crow's Children constructed nigh-impregnable hull modifications and bastions upon the Carrion's surface, but the traitor Astartes had also built smaller fortresses and installations across the void around the Space Hulk's position. The Heralds set themselves to task by besieging the smaller fortifications in smaller strike forces, bringing down the hammer upon the anvil, as they would say. These operations were largely successful, as the small fortresses were garrisoned by mercenaries and blackguards from the Crow's Children mortal followers, with a few Astartes present to maintain control. Over the course of two standard weeks, the Heralds were then joined by the Penitent Knights.

After pleasantries and fair tidings, the two Chapters with their combined fleets managed to smash through whatever ramshackle pirate or pillaged Imperial vessels the Children had amassed for their defenses, but all became far more sobering whence both armies saw the monstrosity that was the *Dark Carrion.* On top of the incredibly sturdy hull of the Space Hulk was several layers of reinforced bulkheads, with spires and bastions that bore a striking resemblance to the Penitent Knights' fortress-monastery of Galadhor, as well as almost innumerable cannon embankments. To further the gravity of the task, the Lord Scholar of the Knights made the discovery that a cabal of Sorcerors were casting disruptions that made the use of teleportariums to reach the inside impossible. And so, the Lord Marshall of the Heralds created the plan of using the battle-barge *Valiant Scion* to smash into to Carrion and deposit the elite of his Chapter into the Children's hellish abode.

Through fire, plasma, and heretical fury, the *Scion* smashed into the hiding place, and the full force of the Chapter's elite Redeemers scoured the foul innards of the Space Hulk. Every step of the way, they were beset by Chaos Marines and the Warband's reckless and mindless followers. So bloodthirsty and dangerous were the Children that by the time half of the defense cannons were disabled, the Heralds of the Storm's force was reduced to half strength. The Lord Marshall, Aethelar Perro, ordered the wounded of the force to return to the *Valiant Scion* and hail rescue while the rest of the Redeemers continued onward. The terrible truth of what befell the large party is that the Betrayer himself, Daedelus, descended upon the loyalists and tore them apart with his Raptor chosen, in a bloody battle near the engine compartment. It is speculated that one of the Redeemers, seeing the desperation of their situation, had somehow detonated a large explosion in the compartment, starting a chain reaction across the *Dark Carrion.* Though many of the Crow's Children managed to escape the destruction due to teleportation by Peredrath the Ruiner, most of the Warband had been punished for their sins with the destruction of their den. Mourning the selfless sacrifice of the Storm Heralds' elite, the Penitent Knights declared Aethelar and his fallen brothers heroes of both of their Chapters.

**Red Dawn** **(540.M41) -** Humiliated and raging, Daedelus the Betrayer finally mustered the strength he deemed fit to launch a final vengeful attack on the Penitent Knights, to settle the score for eternity, though he knew not how. Peredrath then appeared in the Betrayer's chambers and bid the Chaos Lord to strike the heart of the loyalist Chapter's power; Lor'dra. As the Millennium came to a close, the skies above and the earth below was rent open, the Crow's Children descended upon wings of flame and innumerable Necron machines marched forth from their ancient tombs. Whilst the unfeeling xenos destroyed the countryside the Crow's Children burned the sole Feudal city of Lor'dra, until the Penitent Knights descended with their only Orders on hand, the Lightbound and the Cleansing Flame. The two old foes clashed again, amid the flames and snow of their homeworld, with Flamers and Chainswords, Lightning Claws and Power Swords, Emperor and Chaos.

With the Necron armies fast approaching both Traitor and Loyalist's location, Daedelus soon came face to face with the latest Knight to don winged helm and take up the fabled relic blade Avalon, Graythorne Crowslayer. At that moment, Peredrath's face contorted in malice, for he knew the outcome of this fated duel. The magnificence of the each's strength and skill was enough to make others around them cease their own carnage to spectate. Destiny was thick in the air, as Betrayer and Lord Crusader's swords crossed, and even as Graythorne cleaved Daedelus' arms from his body. Dying and defeated, the Betrayer offered no resistance as the Lord Crusader plunged *Avalon* through Daedelus' dark heart, and the Crow's Children were routed.

**Shadow of the Ruiner** **(544.M41) -** Following the climatic and perhaps predestined duel between Daedelus the Betrayer and the Lord Crusader of the Penitent Knights, Graythorne Crowslayer, the Crow's Children in their entirety were thrown into disarray when their ancient Chaos Lord was finally slain after millennia of commanding them. Threatening to collapse and cannibalize itself, the Warband was soon brought firmly under the iron fist of the Sorceror, Peredrath the Ruiner. Controlled and kept in their place by the terrible Warp-given powers of the Sorceror, the Crow's Children once again were set upon the galaxy. It bodes ill for the warriors of Asteria that the feared Children are now led by one with much greater vision than Daedelus ever possessed. Long was the Asteria Sub-sector overdue in its offering to the Ruinous Powers, but Peredrath was never one to displease his Neverborn masters.

**Ambush at Storl IV** **(102.M42)** - Seeking to remind the Penitent Knights that they were not safe, nor were they beyond the Ruiner's reach, Peredrath commanded his Champion of Khorne, Halakhar, to lie in wait on the Dead Planet of Storl IV. Divining where the Knights would patrol through the system through sorcery and planning, Peredrath ordered the trap be sprung, and Halakhar's band attacked the loyalist Order of the Winterbound, the Penitent Knights' close combat specialists. Peredrath purposefully chose this battle for his latest champion to prove himself as a commander, and to allow Khorne to be most satisfied with the battle even if it was lost. Though Halakhar was able to slay the loyalists' Knight-Captain, the Knights were able to rally and fend off the Crow's Children and escape.

**Dark Calculation (120.M42) -** Until the attack at Storl, the Crow's Children were unheard of in the Asteria Sub-sector, a time during which the Penitent Knights thought to regain their strength and grip of the area while the galaxy burned. But the Children were far from destroyed or hiding, rather, the Warband was moving across the galaxy to gather new members and gene-seed, armaments and relics. Peredrath's dark calculation to the ruin of his foes was drawing close to fruition. The Children were ruthless as always in their forced recruitment, forcing other traitor Astartes into their ranks akin to the Black Legion's methodology, and crushing those that resisted. Mechanicus shipments of weapons and gene-seed were plundered, their attackers melding back into the shadows of the void after seizing what they desired. Soon, the Crow's Children reached well over a thousand Marines by the third century, and each one was yearning to finally end their "loyalist brothers."

However, Peredrath's own fiercely dedicated servant, known as Morgal the Vessel, was also sent on a pilgrimage of slaughter and excess to follow the path of the Possessed. To this effect, Morgal joined the Plague Champion Varruth's entourage as the servant of Nurgle launched an assault on the Heralds of the Storm's fleet. The Heralds, awaiting to be joined by fellow Astartes to engage in offensive operations in the Gothic Sector, were caught off-guard when the Crow's Children, whose home they had destroyed, suddenly collided their ships into the Battle Barge, *The Crucible*, unleashing plague into the ship. While Morgal himself was but a mortal, his overt size and strength was sufficient to wield a Warp-forged Autocannon, which tore apart any Loyalist scum he came across. The Vessel then gathered a hefty sum of Astartes' heads as future offerings for his ultimate fate and departed the Crucible before Varruth took control of environmental control and coaxed out a devastating pestilence into the ship's air ventilation. The Heralds of the Storm either fled their doomed spiritual home to fight another day, or died horrible deaths where they stood.

Offering up the heads of those that burned the Dark Carrion and humiliated the Children, Morgal's body writhed in agony as Peredrath called upon the Empyrean to join the flesh of mortal and dark holiness of the Immaterium in one. After competing with one another to possess the Vessel, Morgal's body was a canvas for the Daemon's will, and thus became the first of the so-called Fell Knights of the Warband. Peredrath then held up a corrupted Relic Blade that glowed with sinister red and echoed the screams of thousands, one of Morderoth's *Croven Blades*. Even the Daemon possessing Morgal saw wicked potential in the sword and took it up, roaring in anticipation for bloodshed. Many more Fell Knight Possessed followed in Morgal's steps, and soon there was a new dark order of the fully Warp-blessed in the Crow's Children, to lead their lesser brethren from the front lines, tearing the loyalists apart.

## Warband Organization

"*A Thousand Wings, A Thousand Talons, A Thousand Souls, all for the Dark Gods.*"
—The Portent of Ruination
### Ranks and Titles

Keeping with the urge to create specially named roles and ranks among their number, like their loyalist brothers, the Crow's Children have created such designations, albeit only a few.

* **Blackguard** - Taking the place of Chaos Champions, Blackguards of the Children are vicious melee combatants that can without artifice say that they have killed dozens of Penitent Knights or other loyal Astartes of the Imperium in battle. Usually found with either lightning claws or other power weapons, Blackguards proudly brand themselves with either the iconography of the Warband, or the symbol of their Chaos Gods.
* **Corruptor** - When the campaign of turning Imperial citizens into mewling scions of Chaos, the Dark Apostle lets loose his Corruptors, usually being mortal servants and serfs of Warband. These pathetic souls will spread discontent and rebellious sympathies as far and wide as they can, often causing them to be seen as prophets due to the Dark Apostle grooming them to speak in such ways that connect to the miserable and forgotten of the Imperium's Hives.

### Specialist Formations

#### The Murder

As the Crow's Children contain many Chaos Raptors, the fearsome traitors have been referred to as simply "the Murder" in reference to the name given to a flock of Terran crows. The Murder is "commanded" by the Raptor Champion Sathulak, who keeps a very tentative position as its leader. The members of the Murder are as bipolar as their Champion, wishing only to kill and soar through the air, covered in the blood of loyalists. Moreover, when the Raptors are commanded to either hold position or to stop the hunt, they return hateful gazes and perhaps a crackle of their Lightning Claws.

#### The Fel Knights

Born of Peredrath's sinister machinations, the Fel Knights are Possessed Chaos Marines that alongside their daemonic claws wield dark Relic Blades that even the Daemons inside the former Marines can see as worth their hands. These Possessed are spread across the Children's varied Warbands, leading them through the tides of the Warp and into the heart of the enemy.

## Warband Combat Doctrine

Following a rough translation of the Primarch Horus Lupercal's philosophy of battle, with weakening an enemy's defensive line to then deploy air assaults against them to shatter their formation is used frequently by the Crow's Children. Usually, this often plays out with a horde of mindless Cultists and Chaos Spawns to weather their foes down, to then suddenly engage with large numbers of Raptors followed by heavier land-based units, with the intent of breaking the enemy in a ruinous carnage.

## Warband Gene-Seed

As is the case with their Penitent Knight brothers, nearly all of the Children do not know the origins of their gene-seed, Peredrath is the only one aware of this knowledge, and strangely, both of them refuse to talk of the subject, although with an evil grin on his pale face when one asks the question.

## Recruitment

As a Warband from the Thirty Second Millennium, the Crow's Children have had to recruit from their hosts of mortal slaves, armies of Chaos Cultists, and indeed other Renegade Astartes into their augmented ranks. However, there are still some of the Children that are the original traitors from the Order of the Crow, and are far more respected among the Warband, with a select few rising above the rest in the eyes of their Lord for their ferocity.

Though, whence a slave or Chaos-worshiping mortal rises to receive the augmentations and dons the corrupt plate of the Crow's Children they trade an abysmal life for mockery and disdain by those above them in experience and rank. Particularly from the Warband's Raptor formations, who are see themselves as the true members of the Children.

## Warband Relics

* ***Croven Blades*** - All devices and tools borne from Morderoth the Warpsmith's forges have sown woe and death in the hands of Chaos' servants, but there is little doubt that his "*Croven Blades*" are his most prized of all. Each weapon is entirely different, as is proper with all tools of Ruin, but for another reason; before arriving in Morderoth's hands, they were all sacred Relic weapons taken from the hands of the slain, or stolen from Chapter vaults. Through coaxing the Warp into each Blade, the Warpsmith transforms the once holy weapon into a Daemon Sword. And the secret rites and rituals of Morderoth ensures each is almost ridiculous amounts of killing-potential. A common theme for the Daemons within them is that a skull ornament on each weapon will scream in the presence of a "worthy sacrifice" to Chaos. Most of the *Croven Blades* themselves are in the hands of the Warband's Possessed "Fel Knights" and are indeed the only material weapons the Secondborn will utilize.

## Notable Crow's Children Members

### Active

* **Sorceror Lord Peredrath the Ruiner -** Once an upstanding Knight-Scholar of the Penitent Knights, Peredrath was perhaps the one to sow the seeds of heresy among the Order of the Crow. After a secret psychic ritual, the Librarian was touched by a daemon of the Warp. When Daedelus was aggrieved by the sympathy of Archalus, the Knight Captain came to Peredrath for council. When the air assault marines of the Knights felt their skills weren't tested enough, Peredrath comforted them. When the Battle Barge, "the Brotherhood" jumped into the Warp, it was Peredrath that weakened the Gellar Field. And when the Crow's Children were formed, Peredrath became all the more fearsome, sacrificing entire cities for his own gain. And when the Red Dawn came, Peredrath was one of the few Children to survive the long-awaited wrath of the Penitent Knights, to reunite the Crow's Children under his command.

* **Warpsmith Morderoth the Constructor -** The sole one building and maintaining the equipment and crafting daemon weapons for the Crow's Children, Morderoth has long toiled and worked deep in the depths of a Mechanicus ship melded with the Space Hulk den of the Warband, "the Dark Carrion." Formerly a famed Forgemaster of the Knights, Morderoth was always infuriated with the limits placed upon him by the standards of both the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Chapter, until the Knight-Scholar Peredrath approached him with an offer to craft masterful wonders, to never again be bound by the foolishness of Tech-Priests or the Omnissiah. Whenever the Children find an interesting piece of technology, or suits of power armor, Morderoth will fashion whatever he envisions, including all of the Corvian themed Raptor Power Armor and jump-packs.
* **Halakhar, Champion of Khorne** - For an entire decade, Peredrath held a dark tournament on a nameless Uncivilized World deep in the recesses of the Asteria Sub-sector. This tournament called all pirates and outlaws to its walls, the promise of eternal glory and power to whomever would emerge from the bloody combat victorious. Though it took many years to cut the wheat from the chaff, a nameless man claimed the heads of all his opponents, after exactly one hundred hours of merciless fighting. Then, this nameless man was uplifted to the Crow's Children and given the name Halakhar, Champion of Khorne. His bloodlust as an Astartes could not be denied, but guided by the Ruiner. Halakhar's dreaded dual-headed Chain Axe, named *Knightfall*, always ensures the maniacal wielder is properly covered in the blood of his enemies, blood for Khorne.
* **Sathulak, Champion of Slaanesh** - Only narrowly escaping the destruction of the Dark Carrion, the vicious Raptor Sathulak became embittered with rage and failure. He looked upon himself and all those of the Murder and demanded they perform better. And so the Raptor Champion turned to intoxicating substances and drugs to enhance both his and his men's effectiveness, always hungering for better, yearning for more. Thus, he easily chose the path of Slaanesh to further his killing ability. These days, Sathulak is less of the mindless slaughter-machine he once was, now he is a depraved lunatic that seeks the full depth of Slaanesh's offerings.
* **Varruth, Champion of Nurgle** - An outsider to the rest of the Warband, Varruth was once a Plague Marine of another Chaos Warband before it was destroyed by an Ork WAAAGH! and came to kneel at the feet of the Ruiner for a means for revenge. Now clad in the Children's colors, Varruth treads a path for other "brothers" to follow in the delightful service of the Greatfather with sweet and succulent pestilence that tears through the ranks of any that oppose Chaos. The old Plague Marine cares very little for the Ruiner's schemes, and requires only that the green tides pay for their transgressions with agonizing death. And if the servants of the Corpse-Emperor die along the way, even better.

### Historic

* **Lord Daedelus the Betrayer** - Lord of Crows. Knight's Bane. Scourge of the Faithful. Such are some of the titles Daedelus had accrued over many long millennia. When the Betrayer had bested his former Chapter Master in single combat, Daedelus swelled with pride and arrogance, as well as the blessing of the Ruinous Powers. Talon-like growths began to grow from his hands, and horns from his head. With every Lord Crusader of the Penitent Knights that he slew personally, a new "blessing" was given to the Chaos Lord, until he eventually met his end fighting the Lord Crusader Graythorne at the beginning of the Red Dawn war for Lor'dra. But until the Red Dawn, Daedelus reaped many a soul for his Gods.

* **Dark Chaplain Drachlor, Master of Devotion -** When their victims are not slaughtered by the Raptors of the Children, they are brought before Drachlor and he offers them a simple choice, to either die a sacrifice, or to make others a sacrifice. Serving as both the voice of the Ruinous Powers, and the greatest Diabolist among the Children. Keeping all of the Chaos Spawns on a strict leash, the Dark Apostle has mastered the art of summoning daemons of the Warp. Many Chaos invasions have been brought about by the combined powers of both Drachlor and Peredrath. He was among those slain by the Penitent Knights during the Red Dawn.

* **Exalted Champion Caine the Wrathful -** Among the select few that Daedelus could truly rely upon, Caine was the Betrayer's favored Knight-Sergeant when the *Brotherhood* entered the Warp, and the Night of the Crow began. Following his Captain's orders, Caine set to killing any of his brothers not willing to submit to the new masters of the Order. And when the Crow's Children emerged from the Warp to claim souls for Chaos, Caine made no hesitation to garner the favor of the Gods with his insatiable blade, and his disdain for any fool to cross his path. Fortunately for the galaxy, Caine was unable to escape the reckoning of the Penitent Knights and Heralds of the Storm.

* **Loram the Slavener -** A wicked and despicable Chaos Marine, even by the standards of the Crow's Children, Loram quickly rose through the ranks of the Warband for his expertise at suppressing and subjugating mortal slaves and Cultists of the Warband. Equally at home in battle with his power flail, Loram takes a sick enjoyment when forcing his "servants" to slave away under the directive of Daedelus. That is, until his timely death during the Burning of the Dark Carrion.

## Allies

* **Black Legion**
* **Red Corsairs**
* **Black Suns**

## Enemies

* **Penitent Knights**
* **Astral Warriors**
* **Heralds of the Storm**
* **Forsworn**

## Warband Appearance

### Warband Colors

The Crows Children wear primarily black power armor that shows signs of weathering and battle-scratches across the ceramite plate. The pauldron trims are painted silver, and the insets are white. It is common for specialist devotees (Khorne Berzerkers, Noise Marines, Plague Marines) to paint their pauldron insets to colors that honor their chosen deity.

### Warband Emblem

The heraldry of the Crow's Children is a black scrawled, perched crow inside of which is an eight-pointed chaos star.

## Quotes

### By the Crow's Children

"*Our 'brothers' think to save the lives of the worthless and the unworthy. Come, let us show them the fickleness of their ways...*"
— Blackguard Nemerand
"*Work! Work! If I see any of you sacks of meat stop, both I and the daemons will feast well!*"
— Loram the Slavener
"*Is it not ironic, that the Knights seek to save mortals under the Imperium, whereas we have saved mortals from the Imperium... by teaching them the infallible truth of Chaos. Ahh, how our brothers can be so hopeless.*"
— Dark Chaplain Drachlor
### About the Crow's Children

 Tzeentch Warbands
 Nurgle Warbands
 Slaanesh Warbands
 Chaos Undivided Warbands
 Malice Warbands
 Minor Chaos God-Aligned Warbands

[Source]