Blood Ravens - The Great Father: At some point in the Chapter's history during their early campaigns in the Gothic Sector they took immense casualties in combat with the forces of Chaos -- though no corroborating records exist to confirm this conflict occurred.It is told in the Chapter that in the early days of that campaign, the foul servants of Chaos were widespread and disorganised, with no hope of standing before the Blood Ravens' might. But the machinations of Chaos are manifold, and this impression proved to be horrifyingly false. The  forces of the local Chaos Cults were far more organised than they at first appeared, and the centres of cult activity attacked by the Blood Ravens were discovered to be fiendishly cunning traps.Many Blood Ravens were lost in these elaborate ambushes, and in a blow that could have proven fatal to the young Chapter, the Chapter Master and the Master of Sanctity both fell defending the retreat of the remnants of the 1st Company. With heavy casualties and no strong replacements among the Chapter's officers to replace their leader, the Chief Librarian Azariah Vidya stepped forth and took command of the Chapter, becoming the first in the Blood Ravens to hold the dual mantle of Chapter Master and Chief Librarian, an arrangement that would soon become a tradition for the Blood Ravens.Known by his battle-brothers as the "Great Father" or the "Father Librarian," Azariah Vidya used his psychic power and traditional methods of intelligence to learn his enemies' habits in minute detail and then launch devastating attacks against their greatest vulnerabilities. A highly intelligent warrior, Vidya knew much of history and bore the burden of terrible knowledge of the Ruinous Powers. He was also blessed, although some might say cursed, with tremendously powerful psychic powers. He spent solar months studying the enemy's movements, tactics, and even their histories in an attempt to discern how they might be defeated.While keeping up the facade that the Blood Ravens were reeling from the previous attacks, he utilised his warriors and those of the Astra Militarum to probe the enemy to see how they reacted, gauging their response. To some of the Blood Ravens as well as Imperial High Command it appeared that he wasted his time, that retreating to books rather than steel and courage was no way to fight the enemies of the Emperor.Eventually, Vidya completed his divinations and studies, declaring that he possessed the knowledge to defeat the enemy utterly. The Blood Ravens launched a sweeping counteroffensive that at first seemed to be organised in a confusing and uninformed way, striking areas that were virtually devoid of enemy activity. Each move proved to foreshadow the forces of Chaos' movements however, denying them strategic ground, sources of resupply, and later routes of retreat.When the Blood Ravens launched their primary assaults, they hit the Chaos forces at their weakest points with a supernatural prescience, smashing their resistance aside with ease. Feted with honours, Vidya insisted that the key lay in researching and dissecting the enemy's movements, but some Blood Ravens, and indeed some of those outsiders aware of the story, believe that the powerful psyker was reading the enemy's minds and gleaning the necessary information he needed to defeat them in that way.After the crushing blow of the first offensive, the rest of the Gothic Sector campaign was short and extremely bloody, with the enemy forces melting before the Blood Ravens' relentless assaults. At the conclusion of the rebellion, Inquisitorial Purgatus teams discovered dark writings and abominable idols that pointed to the involvement of the traitorous Alpha Legion, a fact that the Inquisition noted did not surprise Vidya when he was informed.After the resounding victory in the Gothic Sector, legends tell of how Vidya took the Chapter away to heal its wounds, mourn its dead, and reflect on the battles it had just fought. At the insistence of his battle-brothers and the Secret Masters -- noteworthy and well-regarded warriors within the Chapter -- Vidya took on the dual mantle of Chapter Master and Chief Librarian, an uncommon but not totally unknown occurrence within the Blood Ravens, and one that was frowned upon by other Space Marine Chapters who believed in a strict adherence to the command hierarchy proscribed in the Codex Astartes.Vidya served in this dual role for several standard centuries, and his heroic deeds are told in great prayers committed to the hearts and minds of every single Blood Raven from the time they join the Chapter as aspirants. Azariah Vidya led the rebuilding of the Chapter and the current organisation of the Blood Ravens has been influenced strongly by the teachings of the Great Father. Following his example, the Blood Ravens will study their adversaries closely before launching precise attacks at key points.The Chapter also has one more distinct trait: it gathers and guards knowledge with great zeal. This is a tendency of the Chapter that catches the attention of some individuals in the Imperium, and it is a cultural quirk that is not necessarily considered a good thing amongst the higher levels of the Imperial adepta and the Inquisition.There is little information available, even among the Chapter's legends, concerning its leadership prior to the Great Father assuming the mantle of Chapter Master. Many scholars among the Adeptus Administratum believe that it was his legendary role as both Chief Librarian and Chapter Master that has led the Blood Ravens to value Librarians so highly amongst their battle-brothers.Some Imperial scholars even go so far as to suggest that Blood Ravens aspirants with these traits are deliberately sought out, as one might represent a true heir to Vidya's legend. Others argue that he may simply have set certain traditions in motion so that the Chapter will always be able to rely upon a stalwart contingent of psychically-gifted members.A tome allegedly penned by Azariah Vidya himself called the Apocrypha of the Un-Founding postulates that the Blood Ravens are a Chapter dear to the soul of the Emperor Himself, and that their history was hidden by agents close to the Throne, to keep them secret from the Emperor's other sons but not from the Blood Ravens themselves. The Apocrypha argues that searching for these lost answers is not heretical as long as the knowledge is kept within the Chapter itself.One of the most remarkable aspects of the Blood Ravens is the unusually high concentration of powerful Librarians within their Chapter. The Blood Ravens Chapter possesses far more psykers than is common among other Astartes, and most of them develop their abilities only after they have been implanted with the Blood Ravens gene-seed organs. It is unknown if this is due to the nature of the Chapter's gene-seed, but it is not an uncommon thought among the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus that there may be some Chaos taint within the Blood Ravens' gene-seed.It is said in hushed tones among the Blood Ravens that there is a special squad made up of only Librarians that works secretly within the Chapter. The Librarians of the Blood Ravens are exceptionally powerful within the Chapter's ranks, but whether this is due to the actions of the Great Father or is simply a result of the reverence the Blood Ravens hold him in, is unknown.