Raven Guard - Raven Guard: The Raven Guard is one of the original First Founding Chapters of the Space Marines and was originally the XIXth Space Marine Legion before the Second Founding and the adoption of the Codex Astartes.Named for a Terran avian seen by many cultures as the herald of fate and messenger of death, the Raven Guard have served the Emperor faithfully throughout the glories of the Unification Wars, the Great Crusade and the dark days of the Horus Heresy and beyond. From its earliest days, the warriors of the XIXth Legion were known as cunning and patient hunters, adept at biding their time until the moment to strike was at hand.When the Legion was united with its primarch -- Corvus Corax, the Raven Lord, the Deliverer, theirs was a form of warfare exemplifying speed, stealth and precision which was codified into their doctrine, and under the ivory-skinned, shadow-eyed and sable-haired Primarch, the XIXth Legion carved its name in the annals of the Great Crusade.As the tragic histories of the Horus Heresy were recounted, however, the Legion's glories were to be scattered upon the black sands of Isstvan V during the Drop Site Massacre, and the Imperium was almost shorn of one of its greatest champions. Though severely decimated, the Raven Guard would rise from the ashes of betrayal and go on to continue to serve the Imperium of Man as its protectors. As masters of the unseen war, they fight their battles with stealth and speed rather than fury and flames.For thousands of standard years, across thousands of worlds, they have continued to stalk the enemies of the Imperium as shadows of death, waiting for the perfect moment to deliver the killing blow before melting back into the darkness once more.The Raven Guard's homeworld is the planet called Deliverance, the airless mining moon of the Forge World Kiavahr, though its original name, before the Horus Heresy, was Lycaeus. The Raven Guard's fortress-monastery on Deliverance is known as the Ravenspire.The Raven Guard are known for their cool-headed, even intellectual temperament, their superb infiltration skills and skill at furious, close-quarters engagements. The Raven Guard are the masters of unseen and guerrilla warfare, only engaging in frontal assaults when no other option presents itself. The Raven Guard is also rightly feared for the potent units of Assault Marines and other close support units they field, who often prefer to wield a pair of Lightning Claws instead of the usual Bolt Pistol and chainsword. Kayvaan Shrike, the famed commander of the 3rd Company was the commanding officer of just such a unit before he ascended to the position of Chapter Master, known among the Raven Guard as the "Master of Shadows."The Raven Guard are the scions of the old XIXth Legion, whose Primarch Corvus Corax was said to have skin as white as ivory and eyes as black as night. The Legion suffered such devastating losses early in the Horus Heresy that its ability to inﬂuence the outcome of the calamitous galactic civil war was gravely limited. The cost of the Warmaster Horus' treachery would remain with the Raven Guard for millennia to come, shaping their doctrines, beliefs and their very destiny.The Raven Guard and their Successor Chapters are masters of infiltration and subterfuge, able to defeat an enemy of the Imperium with a precisely aimed and overwhelming assault in the manner of their primarch, whose loss they mourn to this very day.The Raven Guard were one of the three Legions assigned to the first wave of the drop assault against the Traitors at Isstvan V, the defining battle of the opening phase of the Horus Heresy. Falling prey to the Warmaster's perfidy, the Legion was devastated, and along with the Salamanders and the Iron Hands -- the so-called "Shattered Legions" -- forced to fall back to the Loyalists' drop zone where it could consolidate with the second wave of the assault and renew the attack on the Traitors.As history records, the Legions of the second wave were already in the sway of Horus, and the Raven Guard and their brothers were massacred. In a single battle, the Legion was reduced from their tens of thousands to a tiny fraction of their original numbers. The survivors were forced to return to the Legion's homeworld of Deliverance in order to rebuild their desperately reduced numbers. Upon his return to his homeworld, Corax is said to have brooded for countless solar days and nights, ordering that the most ancient texts concerning the processes the Emperor used to create the Space Marines be laid before him. Studying tomes not consulted in centuries, Corax found a way of saving his Legion from extinction, though he would hate himself for all time for the choice he was forced to make.By accelerating gene-seed replication and implantation in a manner not attempted since the wars in which the Emperor conquered Terra, the Legion's numbers could be restored. But the ancient texts had been placed under seals so dire that only a primarch or the Emperor Himself could have bypassed them, and with good reason. They warned of the consequences of accelerating the Astartes implantation process, consequences that Corax and his Legion were soon to witness first hand. No records remain of the results of Corax's experimentation, but there are legends that have been passed down through the generations. They speak of slavering, mutant monsters, some so hideously twisted they could not even hold a bolter. All were insane, their minds as blasted as their bodies by the rapid changes wrought upon them by the forbidden physiological processes.The Raven Guard never speak of these times, but secondary sources describe these mutated warriors as rabid, drooling creatures with distended limbs and impossibly overgrown musculature and skeletal structure, herded into battle by grim-faced, dark-eyed custodians.In the wake of the Horus Heresy, the XIXth Legion had only the numbers to form a handful of Successor Chapters according to the dictates of the Codex Astartes. Depending on the source, the Legion is said to have sired the Raptors, the Revilers and the Black Guard in addition to the Raven Guard Chapter itself during the Second Founding.It is said that by this time, Corax was all but consumed by the deeds he had allowed to be done to ensure his Legion's survival, and brooded upon the matter for an entire standard year, locked away in the highest chamber of his fortress-monastery. None heard from the primarch during that time, before he emerged gaunt and pale, and departed for the Eye of Terror never to be seen again.