Blood Ravens - Notable Campaigns: Fall of the Black Fortress of Vespa (ca. 500.M41) - Captain Davian Thule, later commander of the Chapter's 4th Company, first came to prominence when he slew the Chaos Witch Morganna in the Black Fortress of Vespa.Cleansing of Obscurus (Unknown Date.M41) - Captain Apollo Diomedes had commanded the Blood Ravens' elite 1st Company for almost two standard centuries with honour and skill when his most famous victory came on the ravaged Penal World of Obscurus. On the same day, he and his battle-brothers defeated the Ork Warboss Manstompa Megakilla and the Chaos Sorcerer Anuphans the Cruel. After that victory Diomedes was elevated to the command of the Chapter Master's honour guard, becoming Azariah Kyras' most public agent amongst the Chapter's often widely dispersed Astartes.Cyrene Incident (Unknown Date.M41) - For many standard centuries, the Blood Ravens used the planet Cyrene as one of their primary bases for recruitment. The verdant world had a prosperous agrarian society and a population that enthusiastically embraced a military lifestyle. Its inhabitants showed an unswerving loyalty to the Imperium. The capabilities of its well-respected soldiery were only exceeded by the competence of the several Astra Militarum regiments that the planet had tithed to the Imperium. The world's only known failing was a propensity for a higher than normal number of mutant and psyker births. Shortly after attaining the rank of captain and command over the Chapter's 3rd Company, Gabriel Angelos returned to the planet to begin the Chapter's Blood Trials -- the Blood Ravens' system for selection of new initiates. Centuries prior, Angelos had, in fact, been recruited himself from this very world. Tragically, during the course of those trials, Angelos abruptly cut matters short, and then sent a secretive message to the Inquisition. While the contents of that message remain unknown, the results are abundantly clear. A few solar months later a fleet of Navis Imperialis and Inquisition voidcraft travelled to the system and eliminated it by writ of Exterminatus.Tartarus Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - Captain Gabriel Angelos, Commander of the Watch and leader of the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company, as well as the Force Commander of a Blood Ravens task force including the battle barge Litany of Fury and the strike cruiser Ravenous Spirit, was one of the most skilled officers within his Chapter. Angelos had uncovered a deep stain of Chaos taint on his homeworld of Cyrene, one of the main recruiting planets for the Chapter. Angelos was forced to call on the aid of the Inquisition to perform a gruesome Exterminatus action on his homeworld before its corruption could spread elsewhere in the Imperium. Shortly after the destruction of Cyrene, his 3rd Company and its task force were sent to the aid of the Imperial forces on the Civilised World of Tartarus, which had been invaded by an Ork WAAAGH!. Over the course of the campaign the Blood Ravens uncovered the planet's dark history, locating numerous sites of Chaos power and relics of the Craftworld Aeldari left behind to aid future generations in continuing to battle the forces of Chaos trapped on the planet. Over the course of the fighting most of the population that was not evacuated either fell to Chaos or was slain by the Orks and very few civilians escaped from Tartarus. In truth, the Ork invasion had been only a diversion. A warband of Chaos Space Marines from the Alpha Legion, led by the Chaos Lord Bale and the Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr, had used the cover of the Ork WAAAGH! to make planetfall undetected on the world and begin their own operations in pursuit of an ancient and very powerful Chaos artefact present on the world known as the Maledictum. Gabriel Angelos, whose own intuition indicated that there was more to the situation on Tartarus than met the eye, disregarded the warnings of the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Mordecai Toth and continued to hunt down the hidden forces on the planet. Finally Gabriel discovered that a force of Asuryani from the Biel-Tan Craftworld had come to reseal a powerful Daemon in the Chaos artefact known as the Maledictum that had been hidden on the planet beneath its capital city. However, the Blood Ravens broke the back of the Asuryani forces, slaying the Avatar of Khaine and killing many of the Aeldari warriors. Despite the xenos' intervention Sindri managed to steal the Maledictum and its key from underneath the noses of the Imperial and Aeldari forces. Perhaps the most regrettable event of the fighting on Tartarus was not the many battle-brothers lost, but the treachery of Librarian Isador Akios, who had been an initiate with Gabriel. He became corrupted by the power of the Maledictum, and it was he who handed it over to Sindri. Despite believing himself to be in control, he had been manipulated by the Chaos Sorcerer from the beginning. Akios' treachery could not be forgiven and the Librarian proved the weaker when he was faced in personal combat by Gabriel Angelos. At the conclusion of the campaign, Gabriel shattered the Maledictum with a Daemonhammer forged from a shard of the Wailing Doom, the blade of the Biel Tan Avatar of Khaine. This only released the Daemon from the artefect, however, due to the sheer amounts of bloodshed on the planet which served as a sacrifice that empowered the Daemon's awakening. When the Daemon was finally free it hinted at a connection between itself and Inquisitor Toth. It would appear that the Inquisitor was not as pure as he seemed to be. However Gabriel was unable to pursue the matter further, having to escape the planet with the wounded and the single recruit taken from the planet, Tempestus Scions Sergeant Ckrius. The young Storm Trooper had been taken under the wing of Terminator Sergeant Tanthius and despite being badly wounded in the fighting was taken aboard the Litany of Fury, where he began the long and painful process of becoming a Space Marine. On Tartarus the Scout Sergeant Corallis suffered grievous injuries at the hands of the Asuryani's Warp Spiders, however he survived and returned to service with the aid of numerous bionic replacements.Dark Crusade (Kronus Campaign) (Unknown Date.M41) - The terrible campaign known as the Dark Crusade began when the Blood Ravens uncovered artefacts from their unknown past in the frozen wastes of North Vandea on the former Imperial Civilised World of Kronus, a planet in the Eastern Fringe that had recently been seized by the T'au Empire. Under orders from their Chapter Master, three Blood Ravens companies were despatched to cleanse the world of the xenos forces present so that the Chapter might further explore the ruins and learn more about their lost origins. However, after Imperial survey teams discovered the existence of a Hellstorm Cannon, a weapon from an ancient Imperator-class Titan, the Aquila Ignis, which had been lost on Kronus during the Horus Heresy, General Lukas Alexander of the Astra Militarum was named governor-militant and ordered to take the planet back for the Emperor by the Administratum. This order directly contradicted the Blood Ravens' intentions to maintain the secrecy of whatever they discovered about their origins on the world and ultimately led the two Imperial forces to clash in a bloody contest. Forces from the Word Bearers Traitor Legion under the command of the Dark Apostle Eliphas the Inheritor, the WAAAGH! of the Ork Warlord Gorgutz, the T'au forces under Shas'O Kais and Asuryani Aeldari from Craftworld Biel-Tan under Farseer Taldeer were also present. The Blood Ravens forces, which included the 1st, 2nd and 4th Companies, were led by Captain Davian Thule of the 4th Company, and the battle barge Litany of Fury was present as well. The Blood Ravens also successfully managed to defeat all of the other factions present on the world until only they and their fellow Imperial servants of the Imperial Guard under the command of Governor-Militant Alexander remained. The Astra Militarum, having set their stronghold near the Hellstorm Cannon, had claimed as their forward operating headquarters a city that they had wrested back from the T'au after their landing and renamed Victory Bay, fully believing that they could regain control of the planet for the Imperium, even if that meant facing Space Marines. The Blood Ravens, however, were able to fight their way through the heavily-defended Imperial stronghold at Victory Bay, and eventually took control of the Hellstorm Cannon itself and sparked a revolution amongst dissident Imperial troops who refused to fight Astartes after their commissar was killed. The Blood Ravens added these troops to their own forces and fought their way through the heavy defences held by Governor-Militant Alexander, and were able to end the Lord Governor's reign on Kronus. In the after battle report given by Thule, it was mentioned that the Blood Ravens held Alexander in the highest regard, especially since he had stayed absolutely loyal to his orders and had defended Victory Bay with skill and honour. Despite his loss, Alexander and his troops were commended and honoured for their bravery in standing up to the Blood Ravens' assault. The one exception to this was the treacherous 5th Company of the 1st Kronus Regiment, who were all executed without mercy for betraying their regiment, even though they had joined forces with the Space Marines after Anton Gebbett, the commissar attached to their company, was killed. Kronus was also a Necron Tomb World and the Necrons were stirred to wakefulness by the battles raging on the surface of the planet far above their subterranean stasis tombs. The Necrons, the original rulers of Kronus, emerged from their stasis tombs in the Thur'abis Plateau while the battles between the other factions raged and began to retake the planet region by region, harvesting all sentient lifeforms they encountered. Having defeated the Astra Militarum to secure control of the planet, the Blood Ravens launched a furious assault upon the Necrons' subterranean complex in the Thur'abis Plateau. Led by Captain Thule, the Blood Ravens descended into the caverns beneath the plateau to discover a huge network of catacombs hidden within, holding innumerable amounts of Necron warriors. Despite the dark and fearsome location, the Blood Ravens fought their way through the catacombs, destroying Necron beacons as they worked their way to a key structural point inside. Captain Thule placed a powerful explosive device which caused the catacombs to collapse, thus ending the Necron threat on Kronus, though it is possible that the Necrons were merely slowed in their reemergence by the collapse, and not destroyed outright. After the events on Kronus Davian Thule was questioned by Inquisitor Mordecai Toth for his attack against other servants of the Emperor, but Toth found no concrete evidence that the Space Marine captain's actions had been heretical or driven by Chaos corruption. Thule had once been considered one of the greatest Astartes of the Chapter. His brilliant command of the Kronus Campaign and the victory he won there for the Blood Ravens should have vaulted him even higher into the inner circle of Blood Raven leadership, but instead led to a falling out with the Blood Ravens Chapter Master at that time, Azariah Kyras. Many within the Chapter have speculated that Thule's fall from grace was the result of his willingness to vilify the Imperial Guardsmen slain by the Blood Ravens on Kronus, a fact that was noticed during the Inquisition's investigation of the matter. There are darker rumours, though, of secrets discovered on Kronus -- secrets that fundamentally shook Thule's faith in the Blood Ravens and caused him to voluntarily retreat from participation in the Chapter's politics. After Kronus was taken by the Blood Ravens, Thule supposedly destroyed the ancient relics of the Chapter's history he had recovered there beneath the ruins of an ancient Blood Ravens' fortress-monastery.Kaurava Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - The campaign for the Kaurava System saw the Blood Ravens once again pitted against the Astra Militarum troops stationed in the system and an Imperial Crusade of the Order of the Sacred Rose of the Adepta Sororitas. Despite the presence of more than enough enemies in the form of the Orks of WAAAGH! Gorgutz, Asuryani of Craftworld Ulthwe, the Drukhari of the Kabal of the Black Heart, Chaos Space Marines of the Alpha Legion under the command of the Khornate Chaos Champion Firaeveus Carron, and the T'au, the Imperial forces present in the system wound up engaged in brutal infighting. To make matters worse, the Necrons had been slumbering under the sands of Kaurava III, a Necron Tomb World, for millions of Terran years and were now led by the newly awakened Necron Lord of Kaurava. The campaign proved to be a disaster for the Blood Ravens, though how events unfolded remains uncertain in Imperial records. The Blood Ravens established their presence in the Kaurava System on the second world, Kaurava II. Recognising the strength and potential of the local inhabitants of the inhospitable mountains in which the Blood Ravens established themselves, the Chapter decided to examine the possibility of recruiting from these fairly barbaric inhabitants of the system's backwater planet. Unfortunately for the Blood Ravens, Captain Indrick Boreale was lost along with all 5 of the Blood Raven companies under his command, essentially costing the Chapter half of its manpower in a single campaign. As a result, the Blood Ravens desperately needed to step up their recruiting process in Sub-sector Aurelia, their only remaining recruiting ground for neophytes who desperately needed to make good the Chapter's losses during the disastrous Kaurava Campaign. The survivors of the Kaurava Campaign in the Chapter would speak of it rarely, if at all, and viewed the campaign as a terrible mistake that deeply depleted the Chapter's strength.Targa Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - Captain Gabriel Angelos of the 3rd Company delivered a crushing defeat to the T'au in the Targa System of the Eastern Fringes, which the wily xenos had sought to annex to the T'au Empire.First Aurelian Crusade (Unknown Date.M41) - The Sub-sector Aurelia of the Korianis Sector had long been deeply important to the enigmatic Blood Ravens Chapter, as both a source of new recruits for the fleet-based Chapter and a major source of technology, weapons and other manufactured items drawn from its capital, the Hive World of Meridian. At an unknown time late in the 41st Millennium, an unnamed Blood Ravens Force Commander aided by Sergeant Tarkus launched a deep strike onto the desert Feudal World of Calderis to aid Captain Davian Thule and his company of Blood Ravens Astartes in engaging a force of Orks who were threatening the people of Calderis. The Blood Ravens neophytes drawn from the Aurelia Sub-sector were needed more than ever after the Blood Ravens suffered terrible losses during the campaign conducted by the Chapter in the Kaurava System. As the Blood Ravens strike force on Calderis drove away the Orks, they were confronted by the Mekboy Badzappa and his Wartrukk. Although the Mek escaped, the Astartes collapsed the mine through which the Orks had been assaulting the Human settlement on Calderis and claimed victory. The Blood Ravens next attacked from the strike cruiser Armageddon into a hamlet on Calderis where Scout Sergeant Cyrus was waiting for them to help defend against another Ork assault. The strike force managed to fight their way to the Blood Raven commanding the defence of the hamlet, Sergeant Avitus, rescue him and save the hamlet from the Orks. The Blood Ravens then received word that the Orks had attacked two more key locations on Calderis and they understood that someone with more tactical skill than a normal Greenskin was leading them. The first attack was led by a Stormboy Nob named Skykilla and the second by the Warboss Gutrencha. After their defeat of the Orks, the Space Marines extracted information from Skykilla and Gutrencha and discovered that both had visited the Felhammer Mine recently. They also learned that Mek Badzappa was there as well. Sergeant Cyrus remained onboard the Armageddon to provide technical support as the strike force moved to drive the remaining Orks from Calderis. When the strike force of Astartes entered the mine they discovered an Asuryani Warp Spider Exarch and his retinue were already there but they vanished into the Warp before they could be engaged just as the Orks attacked. The Astartes were rescued from Ork gunners by Sergeant Thaddeus. They also found Badzappa and his mob under attack by an Asuryani Warlock and a company of Guardians. Although the Astartes slew the Warlock, the wily Ork Mek escaped once again. As the Warlock died, he spoke of the existence of a greater foe that threatened all of the sub-sector, but the Blood Ravens remained unconcerned by what they took to be the random babbling of the member of a xenos species known for their duplicity. The Blood Ravens then travelled to the jungle Feral World of Typhon Primaris to eliminate the Asuryani activity that had been detected on that world. A Warp Spider Exarch was stirring up revolt among the Feral Orks of the Evil Sunz klan located in Typhon's jungles and he and his force had to be put down. This Exarch mentioned nothing of the so-called "greater foe" once confronted by the Blood Ravens but Thule asked the Asuryani to return to Calderis as Mek Badzappa was launching an attack against the capital of the desert planet, and its citizens were reporting plants mutating and small purple creatures killing livestock. The Space Marines returned to Calderis and finally killed the Ork Mek, but they were almost immediately attacked by Tyranids drawn from a probable splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Leviathan that had entered Sub-sector Aurelia intent on devouring all of its worlds. Thule was mortally wounded by a Tyranid Warrior and Techmarine Martellus led the Blood Ravens on Calderis back to safety after they destroyed the Tyranid attack force. The Space Marines returned to Typhon, leaving Apothecary Gordian in charge of caring for the badly wounded Davian Thule. The Blood Ravens killed the Asuryani Ranger Nemerian, who had been stirring up trouble for the Imperium amongst the Feral Orks, and returned to Calderis to kill the Tyranid Warrior who had mortally wounded Captain Thule. After this the Blood Ravens had three primary objectives they needed to complete to defeat the Tyranid threat: gathering a sample of bio-toxin from the Tyranids that could be used to create a genetic poison against the splinter hive fleet assaulting Sub-sector Aurelia, securing data from an ancient Astronomical Array from the Dark Age of Technology located on Typhon Primaris that could pinpoint a critical weakness in the approaching Tyranid hive fleet, and defending the great hive city of Angel Forge on the Hive World of Meridian. Securing the Astronomic Array granted the Blood Ravens the abilities to unleash orbital bombardments and deep-strikes, defending Angel Forge allowed Sergeant Tarkus to gain a suit of Terminator Armour, and gathering the Tyranid bio-toxin added a Dreadnought to the Blood Ravens strike force, which was actually the revived Captain Davian Thule, his body having been interred within the cybernetic coffin of the Dreadnought. Meridian was the target of constant Asuryani attacks and it was ultimately revealed that the Farseer Idranel of Craftworld Ulthwe had been planning to lure the entire splinter Tyranid hive fleet to Meridian using the world's Human population as bait. The Farseer had planned to destroy it to eliminate the Tyranid threat to her craftworld but at the expense of destroying a vital source of manufacturing for the Blood Ravens. Upon completion of all three objectives, the Tyranid bio-toxin was ready for delivery. However, the Navigators of the Blood Ravens battle barge Litany of Fury, which had been making its way to the aid of the Aurelian Sub-sector for some time, were psychically assaulted by the Tyranid Hive Mind which placed the vessel in grave danger of becoming lost in the Warp. This effectively eliminated any potential reinforcements for the Aurelian Force Commander Aramas -- but the Hive Mind had been weakened by this exertion and sent its hive fleet to consume Typhon's bio-mass so that it might replenish itself. The Blood Ravens' strike team deployed to Typhon and administered the engineered bio-toxin to the Hive Mind through its feeder tendrils. In the space battle high above the Jungle World, the Armageddon was destroyed and Apothecary Gordian was killed. As the genetic poison took effect within the hive fleet's bioships, all appeared lost as the strike team possessed no means of retreat and massive waves of Tyranid creatures were preparing to attack. Suddenly, Captain Gabriel Angelos and an entire company of Blood Ravens landed on the battlefield from the recently arrived Litany of Fury and protected the beleaguered Aurelian Blood Ravens strike force from the oncoming swarms of Tyranids. Angelos himself joined the Aurelian Force Commander Aramas' strike force and his aid proved decisive in killing the Hive Tyrant Alpha who was controlling the swarm. With that synapse creature dead, the Tyranid swarms became undirected by the Hive Mind and turned on each other even as the bioships in orbit fell ill and died as the bio-toxin finally took effect. The Blood Ravens had won the day and Sub-sector Aurelia and its billions of people had been saved from complete annihilation by the Great Devourer.Second Aurelian Crusade (Unknown Date.M41) - Just when all seemed to be returning to normal in the Sub-sector Aurelia of the Korianis Sector, the Warp opened up and spat out the former capital world of the sub-sector and ancient homeworld of the Blood Ravens, the Ice World of Aurelia. Home to the Blood Ravens' original fortress-monastery of Selenon and many loyal citizens of the Imperium, the planet had been corrupted by a Greater Daemon of Nurgle known as Ulkair. Chapter Master Moriah had attempted to destroy the Daemon but failed, and the weakened Daemon was imprisoned in the depths of Keep Selenon by Azariah Kyras, then a Librarian of the Blood Ravens. Yet the Daemon's influence proved too strong and eventually the shaken Kyras fell to the taint of Chaos. Aurelia itself was swallowed by the Warp and its existence in the sub-sector that had been named after it was all but forgotten. Yet the ice-encased world returned to realspace in the 41st Millennium bearing the foul hordes of Chaos, a warband of Chaos Space Marines from the Black Legion led by the Chaos Lord Araghast the Pillager and the former Word Bearers Dark Apostle Eliphas the Inheritor, who had been resurrected by the will of the Dark Gods so that he might seek the destruction of the Blood Ravens, now as a member of the Black Legion. Captain Gabriel Angelos and Force Commander Aramus rallied the Blood Ravens Astartes of the 3rd and 5th Companies to face this threat, but no sooner did they join combat then the Asuryani and the ever-present Orks rose up to cause trouble along with the heretical soldiery of the Hive World of Meridian's noble House Vandis. Before long the entire sub-sector was embroiled in fresh combat against multiple foes with the forces of Chaos causing havoc at will. As the Blood Ravens scrambled to respond to these threats even more dire circumstances came to light as the space hulk Judgement of Carrion returned to the sub-sector. Determined to recover valuable intelligence and ancient advanced technology from the space hulk to aid them against the foul servants of Chaos, the Blood Ravens under the command of the local Force Commander, Sergeant Aramus, assaulted the Judgement of Carrion only to discover the bodies of fallen Blood Ravens from the 5th Company, formerly members of an expedition led aboard the space hulk by Apothecary Galan. As the forces of Aramus investigated the hulk they were shocked to find evidence of Galan's corruption by the powers of Chaos, but the truth of the matter was far more insidious. As Aramus and Captain Angelos desperately fought to keep control of the sub-sector and unlock the secrets of both the Judgement of Carrion and the lost planet Aurelia, they were interrupted by the arrival of Apollo Diomedes, the captain of the Blood Ravens honour guard and the right hand of the Blood Ravens' Chapter Master and Chief Librarian Azariah Kyras. Diomedes ordered all Blood Ravens forces to stand down, an order both Angelos and Aramus promptly ignored. As Diomedes got increasingly sterner in his orders, Aramus and Angelos continued to resist the forces of the Black Legion, with whom the Chapter had recently avoided open conflict for an unknown reason. As his investigations continued, Aramus discovered to his horror that the source of Chaos corruption was none other than Chapter Master Kyras himself, who had fallen under the sway of the Greater Daemon Ulkair during his earlier campaign on Aurelia centuries before and spread his taint to Galan aboard the Judgement of Carrion. Kyras escaped the doomed planet Aurelia aboard the space hulk and had returned to the Chapter with his dark seed of corruption when he met with Galan's expedition. Daring open conflict with Captain Diomedes' forces in their base-camp on Calderis, Aramus attacked Apothecary Galan, slaying the Traitor and his tainted bodyguard of Terminators, a battle which ended in a confrontation with Captain Diomedes himself. Reluctant to accept the corruption of his political patron within the Chapter, Diomedes found himself torn but let Aramus and his comrades leave Calderis and continue their operations against the Black Legion warband of Araghast the Pillager. The Battle of Aurelia culminated in the death of Eliphas the Inheritor, who seized control of the Black Legion warband by betraying Araghast and leaving him to the mercies of the Blood Ravens earlier in the fighting. Despite Eliphas' machinations, Aramus was able to re-seal the Daemon Ulkair in its icy tomb within Keep Selenon on Aurelia. Even with this victory, Chapter Master Kyras declared Captain Gabriel Angelos a Renegade and Traitor to the Chapter and Sergeant Aramus found himself faced with the knowledge that the Chapter Master was a corrupt agent of the Chaos Gods. Diomedes and Aramus returned to the Chapter to bide their time while Angelos fled Kyras' wrath. When the time was right the 3rd Company was determined to return and join with Force Commander Aramus and Captain Diomedes to cleanse the Chapter of the insidious taint that lay like a malignant cancer at its core.Third Aurelian Crusade (Unknown Date.M41) - This third and final campaign in the Aurelian Sub-sector took place ten standard years after the banishment of Ulkair. Despite the banishment of the Greater Daemon of Nurgle and the defeat of the Black Legion, the worlds of the Aurelian Sub-sector remained gripped by constant warfare and bloodshed. More Black Legion forces and Chaos Cults arose to cause havoc throughout the sub-sector, while Imperial forces struggled with the feral remnants of the original Tyranid invasion, and Orks continued to ravage the fringes of every world. The Asuryani still raided from the shadows, whispering of the remains of a long-fallen craftworld that lay within the sub-sector. In this situation, the Imperium had finally reached the limits of its patience. In a bold effort to restore full control over the sub-sector, Imperial Segmentum Command sent several regiments of the Cadian Shock Troops of the Astra Militarum to the sub-sector, led by the Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Adrastia, who had been tasked with conducting an investigation of the Blood Ravens and determining whether they had been hopelessly corrupted by the Archenemy. She was to make her determination before the arrival of a large Ordo Malleus Retribution Fleet, which was tasked with subjecting every inhabited world in the sub-sector to Exterminatus if the Chaos corruption was deemed to run too deep. The Imperial Guard regiments quickly took control of the sub-sector's various Planetary Defence Forces. The bulk of these troops had been deployed to Typhon Primaris, a world whose dense jungles provided sanctuary to both aliens like Orks and Tyranids as well as Heretics. However, progress was slow, and the Imperium had prepared a more permanent solution for the sub-sector and its citizens: each and every world would be scourged of life, subjected to the fires of Exterminatus. But the recently arrived Imperial forces under Adrastia's command actually did more harm than good, as hundreds of guardsmen fell victim to the whispered temptations of the Ruinous Powers, causing dissension within the ranks. Having uncovered heresy in the highest ranks of his Chapter, Blood Ravens Captain Gabriel Angelos had been branded as a Traitor ten Terran years before by his corrupt Chapter Master Azariah Kyras. Unwilling to spill the blood of his brother Space Marines, Gabriel had gone into hiding. There, he gathered what few friends and allies he could, readying himself to oppose the Chaos taint that consumed his brothers. Unable to confront Azariah Kyras directly, the now-Renegade Captain Angelos was forced to rely on those warriors still loyal to him to help prove that their current Chapter Master was corrupted by Chaos and was the true Traitor. Later, Angelos and his Renegade Blood Ravens determined to eliminate Azariah Kyras once they learned that he planned to use the impending Exterminatus of the sub-sector by the Ordo Malleus Retribution Fleet as a sacrifice to Khorne and ascend to Daemonhood. Unfortunately for Angelos, Captain Apollo Diomedes still believed that Chapter Master Kyras was loyal. During the beginning of the campaign, Diomedes, Techmarine Martellus and a respected Veteran sergeant known only as "The Ancient," who was in fact the former Sergeant Tarkus, fought their way across Typhon to root out and eventually destroy the Black Legion Chaos Lord Eliphas the Inheritor, resurrected once more by his dark divine patrons. Diomedes and his Blood Ravens attempted to reach a means of transport off Typhon while escaping the clutches of a local Chaos Cult and Traitoris Militarum along the way. Arriving on the world of Calderis, the Blood Ravens fought against their corrupted battle-brothers who were loyal to Kyras, successfully preventing them from purging the planet of all Human life. After next destroying a Warp portal on the former sub-sector capital world of Aurelia, Diomedes learned of an attack on the Hive World of Meridian by Traitoris Militarum and arrived there with his forces. The Blood Ravens succeeded in killing the Traitor guardsmen present on Meridian and uncovered a transmission from Kyras that not only revealed his location on Typhon, but also finally convinced Diomedes that Kyras had been corrupted by Chaos. Diomedes and his Astartes returned to Typhon Primaris to confront Kyras directly, only to be ambushed by a war host of Asuryani from Craftworld Biel-Tan. Wary of a seemingly sorcerous ritual the Aeldari were carrying out, Diomedes and his Space Marines slew the Aeldari present there. Following this action, Kyras revealed that the Aeldari ritual was actually preventing the Imperial Inquisition Retribution Fleet from arriving at the sub-sector through the Warp. The Inquisition fleet then made the jump into the sub-sector from Warpspace, and initiated the expected Exterminatus action on Typhon Primaris. Diomedes and the Loyalist Blood Ravens escaped Typhon before the Exterminatus was complete, but the once verdant jungle world of Typhon Primaris was reduced to ash. Finding themselves on the space hulk known as the Judgment of Carrion, the Loyalist Blood Ravens recovered and determined to stop Kyras once and for all. It was deduced that the Traitor Chapter Master was hiding on the Dead World of Cyrene, Angelos' own lost homeworld. As Cyrene had undergone an Exterminatus action of its own at the order of Gabriel Angelos many solar decades before, the Inquisition's Retribution Fleet had no reason to travel there. On Cyrene, Angelos and his Blood Ravens launched an attack against a joint alliance of Black Legion Heretic Astartes, corrupt Traitoris Militarum and Traitor Blood Ravens. Kyras began his ascent to Daemonhood as the battle unfolded, drawing on the power created by the sacrifice of billions of lives across the sub-sector as the Inquisition's genocidal actions proceeded. Gabriel and his 3rd Company, supplemented by Terminators of the elite 1st Company, launched an attack on Kyras but were quickly wounded or killed. But the group of Loyalist Blood Ravens under the command of Diomedes then launched their own attack, which succeeded in killing Kyras just as his powers as a newly-ascended Daemon Prince emerged. Diomedes immediately contacted Inquisitor Adrastia and requested that she halt the Exterminatus of the Aurelian Sub-sector since the source of the Chaos taint had been eliminated. The Blood Ravens Chapter was subsequently purged of any remaining Chaos affliction, its surviving corrupted battle-brothers eliminated with a bolter shot to the head. Gabriel Angelos was rescued from the precipice of death by the Chapter's Apothecaries, who replaced large portions of his ravaged body with bionic augmentations. For his loyalty to the Emperor and consistent leadership through the myriad crises of the Aurelian Crusades, Angelos was elected the Blood Ravens' new Chapter Master by acclamation. Angelos became the first Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens since Azariah Vidya not to also serve as the Chapter's Chief Librarian, a position now filled by Jonah Orion.Acheron Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - A "catastrophic weapon," known only as the Spear of Khaine, was unexpectedly discovered on the frozen planet of Acheron, long lost in the Warp, and three forces eventually converged on the world to recover it -- the Blood Ravens under their legendary Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos, the Craftworld Aeldari led by Farseer Macha , and an Ork WAAAGH! led by the Warboss Gorgutz. The campaign began when the Imperial Knight World of Cyprus Ultima came under siege from a massive Ork horde led by Warboss Gitstompa. For reasons unknown, the Imperial Inquisitor Holt had ordered the Navis Imperialis to blockade the planet and denied the ruling Lady Solaria's Imperial Knight House Varlock any reinforcements planetside. The Blood Ravens under Chapter Master Angelos ran the blockade to bring aid to Lady Solaria, but not before Varlock Keep was looted by Gitstompa's erstwhile lieutenant, Gorgutz. Gitstompa used the looted parts to build an enormous cannon capable of defeating the forces of the Craftworld Aeldari, which were also on Cyprus Ultima and assaulting the Orks. Meanwhile, Inquisitor Holt impatiently reminded Angelos that their primary mission in the region was to utilise a dozen Ramilies-class Starforts in order to form a blockade intended to contain any Warp contagion present on Acheron from spreading across Imperial space after its emergence from the Immaterium. They were not to be distracted by the violent follies of the Orks -- even if this meant the destruction of one of the Emperor's knightly houses. Autarch Kyre, the leader of the Craftworld Biel-Tan warhost, known as the Swordwind, on Cyprus Ultima, summoned Farseer Macha to aid him against the Greenskins present on the Knight World. Kyre intended to use Cyprus Ultima as a staging ground to travel to the planet Acheron when it emerged from the Warp after having been lost for many Terran centuries. Kyre was obsessed with the Spear of Khaine, named after the lost Aeldari god of war Khaela Mensha Khaine, which was said to be able to kill enemies with a single blow. Kyre had previously seized the Spirit Stone of Farseer Taldeer from her twin brother, the Aeldari Ranger Ronahn, when he was trying to transport it to their home craftworld of Ulthwé. While the stone was in Kyre's custody, Taldeer's spirit unwittingly told Kyre of the prophecy surrounding the Spear of Khaine. In a trance, she prophecised that the "wayfarers" would be called forth by the Spear of Khaine and united by the "Storm Prince." Convinced that he is the Storm Prince destined to unite the fractured and nomadic Craftworld Aeldari against their foes, the power-hungry Autarch secretly kept Taldeer prisoner in her Spirit Stone as a way to swell the ranks of his Swordwind force by using her as his puppet to reinforce the idea of his destined leadership among the other Aeldari. Unable to communicate with anyone other than Kyre in her disembodied state, Taldeer found herself effectively isolated from any outside help. Farseer Macha, however, did not trust Kyre at all, and secretly began to build an Aeldari insurgency with the aid of Ronahn, who pretended to cooperate with Kyre while serving as the Autarch's spymaster, and Jain Zar, Phoenix Lord of the Howling Banshees Aspect Warriors. A detachment of Aeldari forces next assaulted the Imperial starfort Helios where the Blood Ravens' Chief Librarian Jonah Orion was studying an Aeldari artefact, but Gabriel Angelos and his fellow Astartes arrived in time to rescue the Librarian, though at the cost of critical damage to the starfort in the wake of the battle. Inquisitor Holt was incensed at the damage done to the Helios and Angelos ordered Chaplain Apollo Diomedes to stay with his detachment on the Helios to defend it and oversee the starfort's repairs. On Cyprus Ultima, Gitstompa's cannon was sabotaged by Gorgutz, and it exploded just as Gitstompa was about to engage Macha's forces, who proceeded to overrun his position. With Gitstompa defeated, Gorgutz quickly subjugated Gitstompa's other subordinates, which included the Ork Weirdboy psyker Zapnoggin and the Big Mek Wazmakka. Gorgutz formed a new warband with them and began preparations to travel to the lost world of Acheron, which he had learned existed after battling the Aeldari and other factions to ultimate victory in the Kaurava System during the events of the Kaurava Campaign. Having learned that the Spear of Khaine lay on Acheron, Gorgutz wanted the "SUPER pointy stikk" all for himself. Farseer Macha and her forces prepared to assault the Blood Ravens on Cyprus Ultima and nearly killed both Librarian Orion and Gabriel Angelos when a meteor shower suddenly interrupted the fierce battle, heralding the return of the planet Acheron to realspace. Gorgutz seized the opportunity to crash his massive Kill Kroozer starship into another Imperial starfort and overwhelm the defending Blood Ravens before landing on Acheron. The Starfort Helios then impacted in turn onto Acheron's frozen outer shell when it emerged from the Warp. Gabriel Angelos and a squad of Terminators rescued Chaplain Diomedes from the Aeldari and Orks attacking him in the wreckage of the Helios. Farseer Macha and the Ranger Ronahn managed to gain an audience with Gorgutz (after killing quite a few of his Orks) and convinced him to fight Kyre in an effort to derail the scheming Autarch from getting to the true surface of Acheron where the Spear of Khaine was kept. Ronahn led Gorgutz straight to Kyre's outposts and Gorgutz and his forces killed the Wraithlord Valador, another lieutenant of Kyre. While Kyre was preoccupied fighting Gorgutz's forces, Macha, Jain Zar, and a handful of Striking Scorpions Aspect Warriors raided Kyre's main base where the Spirit Stone of Farseer Taldeer was kept. Macha's strike group barely escaped with the aid of sympathisers within the Autarch Kyre's ranks as well as a surprise attack from a detachment of Gorgutz's Orks. Meanwhile, Gabriel Angelos had tracked Gorgutz's warband all the way to the "Vault," one of the many passageways through Acheron's outer shell that led to its true surface. He destroyed Wazmakka's cannon that was brought there to break open the Vault. Inquisitor Holt ordered the bombardment of the Vault despite Angelos being in the immediate vicinity of it, in an attempt to destroy the passageway and cut off any access to the Spear of Khaine for the xenos factions. Enraged, Chaplain Diomedes swore vengeance on the Inquisitor for seemingly killing the Blood Ravens Chapter Master and had to be calmed by Librarian Orion. It was not until Lady Solaria informed the Blood Ravens of the news of Angelos' survival from Inquisitor Horst that they shifted their priorities towards regrouping with the Chapter Master on the surface of Acheron instead. The Imperial orbital bombardment did not have the intended effect of sealing the Vault, but rather broke it wide open. Kyre saw the destruction of The Vault as an opportunity to lead his forces down to the true surface of Acheron and seize the artefact. Macha and Ronahn soon made an unsettling discovery on Acheron -- they came across an enormous Greater Daemon of Khorne -- a Bloodthirster -- trapped in the ice, but attempting to awaken. The Bloodthirster was sealed there by the ancient Aeldari eons ago. Kyre also discovered the Daemon but thought the Spear of Khaine should be used to kill the beast before it could fully awaken. Taldeer, Ronahn, and Macha were not as sure, and thought the Spear of Khaine was nothing more than a trap created by Chaos during Acheron's time in the Warp to lure others to the world to free the Daemon. When they attempted to flee via the Acheronian portals known as the Colossus Gates, Kyre locked down their escape routes. With time running out, Taldeer ordered Ronahn to place her Spirit Stone in a Wraithknight and to pilot her new mechanical body to help break down the Colossus Gates' locks. Knowing that only twins, one dead and one living, can pilot a Wraithknight, Ronahn reluctantly complied despite his objections to risking her life again. They fled to another section of Acheron far from Kyre's forces. Gabriel Angelos and his Blood Ravens, along with Lady Solaria and her Imperial Knight walker, arrived at the Temple of the Spear and overran Kyre's forces as well as a portion of Gorgutz's Orks, but Gorgutz exacted his revenge with the help of Big Mek Wazmakka's Beauty the Morkanaut. Taldeer then explained that the prophecy of the Storm Prince was unclear and her prescient vision was partially obscured. She and her fellow Farseer Macha meditated and tried to more clearly decipher the contents of the prophecy. Meanwhile, both Kyre and Gorgutz arrived at the altar of the Spear of Khaine and Kyre quickly bested the Ork warboss in individual combat. Kyre took the Spear of Khaine for himself and attempted to kill Gorgutz with it. Unfortunately for Kyre, it was revealed that the prophecy regarding the Spear was indeed a trap left by the servants of Chaos to free the Greater Daemon. As Kyre made the killing stroke on the Ork warboss, the main blade of the Spear of Khaine shattered without harming Gorgutz, and Kyre was consumed as a blood sacrifice to Khorne that was strong enough to serve as a psychic catalyst that finally released the Bloodthirster from the ice. Now free, the Bloodthirster had been greatly empowered by the countless lives taken on and around the planet across the millennia -- lives taken by all those who had come in pursuit of the Spear of Khaine's promised power. All three factions on Acheron -- the Craftworld Aeldari, Space Marines, and the Orks -- found themselves battling Warp spawn generated by the Bloodthirster using the psychic echoes of the warriors of many species who were slain on Acheron over the centuries. An alliance of convenience was quickly struck. Farseer Macha tasked Gorgutz with destroying the Chaos Spires that were powering the Greater Daemon and generating the Warp spawn. Meanwhile, Macha urged Gabriel Angelos to sacrifice his battle barge, the Dauntless, to cripple the Bloodthirster by ramming it into a frozen fissure on the planet's frigid surface; this act sacrificed the lives of the Astartes and mortals aboard the great vessel but prevented the Greater Daemon from wreaking havoc across the galaxy in the name of the Blood God. Knowing that the Daemon was shielding the planet, Angelos reluctantly complied and ordered Captain Balthazar to set a crash course onto Acheron. The impact of the great vessel at such a weak point in the planet's tectonic structure caused the benighted world to begin to crack apart. With Acheron fragmented and destroyed, the Greater Daemon quickly diminished in size and strength as his access to all the psychic power of the souls slain in the world's vicinity was lost. With the urging of Macha, who believed the prophecy predicted that all three factions -- the nomadic "wayfarers" it spoke of -- must work together to defeat the Greater Daemon, now revealed to be the Storm Prince, the three heroes teamed up to defeat the Daemon after battling through hordes of Warp spawn on the remaining fragment of Acheron housing the Temple of the Spear. All three heroes warily parted ways after banishing the Storm Prince back into the Warp, but Gorgutz stayed behind and seized the remains of the Spear of Khaine for himself as a trophy before leaving. Elsewhere, an unknown Necron Overlord took notice of the events on Acheron and prepared his armies to enter the fray.13th Black Crusade (ca. 999.M41) - The Blood Ravens deployed a portion of their forces in defence of the crucial Imperial Fortress World of Cadia during Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade. The Dreadnought Captain Davian Thule and his 4th Company particularly distinguished themselves during this campaign.