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Blood Ravens - Chapter Homeworld: Early in their history, the Blood Ravens maintained their fortress-monastery at Selenon, within view of the hive city of the same name on the Hive World of Aurelia in the Sub-sector Aurelia of the Segmentum Ultima's Korianis Sector. It was a technologically advanced and profitable world that served as the economic heart of the region, and the proud namesake of the entire sub-sector.In the late 40th Millennium, however, a Warp storm suddenly engulfed the planet, summoned by the Great Unclean One Ulkair in his battle against the Blood Ravens. The Blood Ravens' then-Chapter Master Moriah and Librarian Azariah Kyras sealed the Greater Daemon of Nurgle within the heart of the planet, but the damage was done.Aurelia disappeared into the Warp, and remained there for almost a standard millennium, transformed into a perpetually-shifting Ice World devoid of all life save for Daemons and other Warp entities. With the loss of Aurelia, the Blood Ravens were transformed into a fleet-based Chapter who recruited their aspirants from the other populated worlds in the Aurelian Sub-sector.As a fleet-based Chapter, the Blood Ravens now have no official homeworld. Instead, their fortress-monastery is situated onboard the massive battle barge Omnis Arcanum, which is also home to their precious Librarium Sanctorum. The rest of the Chapter serves aboard the unusually large fleet of strike cruisers and other battle barges that were assigned to the Blood Ravens long ago when the Chapter was founded.Most of the Blood Ravens' neophytes come from the major worlds of the Sub-sector Aurelia, including the desert Feudal World of Calderis, the jungle Feral World of Typhon Primaris and the nearby Hive World of Meridian, but none of the recruits from Meridian had passed the Blood Trials to become Blood Ravens neophytes in several standard centuries.Thaddeus is the first Blood Raven Astartes to come from Meridian in several centuries, having been recruited from the hiver street gangs he led there by Captain Davian Thule. It is repeatedly said that the loss of Calderis would cripple and eventually kill the Blood Ravens Chapter as they had no other way to recruit neophytes, and the defence of Sub-sector Aurelia from the Tyranid splinter hive fleet was considered important enough to mobilise both the Blood Ravens' 3rd and 4th Companies.The 3rd Company of the Blood Ravens commonly sought aspirants from the planet of Cyrene (also in Sub-sector Aurelia) until then-Captain Gabriel Angelos had it destroyed with an Exterminatus order. The taint of Chaos had been found in the planet's population, a taint so terrible that only Exterminatus could prevent the contagion from spreading to other Imperial worlds in the region.Aurelia made an ominous return to realspace in the 41st Millennium, a thousand Terran years after it was lost. This re-emergence was orchestrated by the Black Legion, and it was only by the heroics of the 3rd and 5th Companies that their plans to devastate Sub-sector Aurelia were thwarted. What was left of Aurelia remains in realspace to this day and is heavily monitored by both the Blood Ravens and the Inquisition and is garrisoned by regiments of the Astra Militarum.While the Blood Ravens now have no fixed base of operations, the other worlds of the Aurelia sub-sector continue to provide the majority of the Chapter's recruits and much of its wargear. There are a number of worlds in particular that the Blood Ravens favour over others. Why this should be the case is not fully understood, but it is speculated by some that these worlds have a higher incidence of psykers than normal. Though such speculation is not fully substantiated, the Chapter's prevalence of Librarians lends such ideas credence.The Blood Ravens, like many fleet-based Chapters, recruit from a number of different worlds. However, the class of worlds they recruit from is not limited, and they draw initiates from Feral Worlds and Hive Worlds alike. The only similarity between the worlds is the higher volume of psykers they are home to, leading to an increased number of Librarians in the Chapter. However recent events have seen the Blood Ravens lose many of these recruiting worlds. The known Blood Ravens recruiting worlds and their status are as follows:Calderis - Calderis is a Desert World sparsely populated by wandering bands of nomadic Humans. These hardy peoples used to provide recruits to the Blood Ravens but the WAAAGH! of Warboss Gorgrim drove the Feral Orks on the planet to sweep across the sands in a tidal wave of destruction. Only a scant few of the planet's inhabitants escaped aboard chartered voidcraft or with the Blood Ravens. The rest were left to die horribly and violently to the Orks. As with Typhon Primaris, it is unclear what will be done with Calderis. When Gorgrim has gathered enough Ork Boyz he will move on, leaving the world barren, the Feral Ork populace decimated and the Humans gone, having either fled or died. The planet might be re-colonised by the Imperium at some point but the culture of Calderis and the majority of its people are no more.Cyrene - An old recruiting world of the Chapter, Cyrene is located in the Aurelia Sub-sector but was cleansed by an Exterminatus action when Captain Gabriel Angelos discovered a Chaos taint on the planet and requested an Inquisitorial purge. The exact nature of the taint and the reasons Angelos deemed Exterminatus necessary, are, like many things with the Blood Ravens, a mystery.Meridian - The Hive World of Meridian is the capital world of the Aurelian Sub-sector and now the only populated world of the sub-sector as well, since Cyrene, Calderis and Typhon Primaris were cleansed of all life by the actions of the forces of Chaos, the Orks and Tyranids, respectively. Meridian itself came perilously close to succumbing to the Tyranids as well. Only the miraculous arrival of Captain Gabriel Angelos and the Blood Ravens' 3rd and 9th Companies stopped the Tyranids from overrunning the planet. The initial defenders under Sergeant Aramus were nearly wiped out during that campaign. However, Meridian is only a marginal Blood Ravens recruiting world, as the first recruits it had provided in centuries to the Chapter were Sergeant Thaddeus and Sergeant Aramus. However, Sergeant Thaddeus did locate two likely young boys during his mission deep behind Tyranid lines and they have since shown promise as aspirants for the Chapter. By the time of the Third Aurelian Crusade, much of Meridian had been devastated by the successive Tyranid and Chaos Space Marine invasions, and the destruction of the Capital Spire had annihilated the planetary government. Whether the world will recover in the wake of the end of the conflicts in the Aurelian Sub-sector remains to be seen.Rahe's Paradise - Rahe's Paradise is yet another recruiting world of the Blood Ravens to have been lost recently, the planet having been discovered to be an ancient Necron Tomb World. The Blood Ravens' campaign against the Necrons and the Craftworld Aeldari on the planet cost them dearly but did result in the recruitment of a handful of initiates to the Chapter, though the world is now lost and will provide no more new warriors.Trontiux III - Trontiux III was one of the Chapter's remaining principle recruiting worlds. Trontiux III was recently visited by the Litany of Fury following the Tartarus Campaign.Typhon Primaris - Another of the 4 inhabited worlds in the Aurelia Sub-sector, Typhon Primaris was a Jungle World that provided feral but strong recruits to the Chapter. However when Tyranids invaded the sub-sector their taint reached Typhon Primaris quickly and festered in the depths of the jungles unnoticed. By the time the Blood Ravens arrived, the planet was in the final stages of Tyranid bio-consumption and saving the world was no longer a realistic option, though the Blood Ravens did succeeded at finally defeating the splinter of Hive Fleet Leviathan that had assaulted the Aurelian Sub-sector. The Second and Third Aurelian Crusades saw extensive fighting take place between the Blood Ravens and their allies amongst the [[Astra Militarum] against Chaos Space Marine, Ork, Craftworld Aeldari and surviving Tyranid forces on this benighted world. Finally, during the Third Aurelian Crusade, the entire planet was subjected to an Exterminatus on the orders of the Inquisition, killing millions. |
Blood Ravens - Blood Ravens and the Inquisition: The Blood Ravens have an interesting relationship with the Inquisition. Blood Ravens Librarians can be found in the Deathwatch and the Chapter appears to also maintain unusually close relations with the Grey Knights of the Ordo Malleus, whose existence they are aware of. It would appear that the Grey Knights, psykers all, feel an affinity for the Blood Ravens and trust the Chapter with the knowledge of their existence, a rare sign of trust.The Grey Knights attached a task force to assist the Blood Ravens during the Dark Crusade on the world of Kronus for reasons unknown. It is interesting to note that the Grey Knights worked closely with the Blood Ravens and not with the other Imperial forces on the planet, and indeed the Blood Ravens came into conflict at that time with the forces of the Astra Militarum due to the unflinching and conflicting orders of Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander and Captain Davian Thule.It should be noted that following the first two Aurelian Crusades, the Blood Ravens' home Sub-sector Aurelia came under an increasingly powerful assault by the forces of Chaos and a splinter of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan. With increasing evidence that large portions of the Blood Ravens Chapter had been corrupted by Chaos, the Ordo Hereticus of the Inquisition commandeered several regiments of the Astra Militarum under the command of the Inquisitor Adrastia and sought to launch an Exterminatus campaign against all the inhabited worlds in the Aurelian Sub-sector.As a result of the heroics of Captain Gabriel Angelos and those Blood Ravens who remained loyal to the Emperor, the taint of Chaos upon the Chapter was purged and much of the sub-sector was saved from destruction. However, a deep and lingering suspicion still remains between the Blood Ravens and the Inquisition, and the Ordo Hereticus will continue to cast a wary eye upon the Blood Ravens and their new Chapter Master, Gabriel Angelos, for a long time to come. |
Blood Ravens - Chapter Combat Doctrine: The Blood Ravens believe by studying one's enemy, one can predict their movements before launching any attacks, rather than charging in like an uncontrolled berserker or using spontaneous lightning assaults. This has caused friction with other, more headstrong Chapters.Those who prefer a clear-cut approach to battle have branded the Blood Ravens as cowards for their overly methodical approach to waging warfare. But this is an unfair assessment, for once the Blood Ravens take to the field, they fight with righteous fury and a zeal the equal of any other Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.Once decided upon, the Chapter never deviates from the chosen strategy, from its initial planning stages to its final execution, executing it with ruthless efficiency. The thoroughness of their planning is such that every eventuality is accounted for, thanks to their Librarians' powerful divinations.Their uncanny abilities to predict enemy attacks or invasions has helped them warn or respond well before other Imperial organisations have even been made aware of the threat. More puritanical figures within the Inquisition have whispered in dark tones of the sad tale of the Thousand Sons Legion and their fallen Primarch Magnus the Red and his ultimate fate. A path trod to damnation that began with the abilities to predict such dire events, much like the Blood Ravens.In preparation for combat, members of the Blood Ravens invariably begin with intense study of their opponents and their tactics. All forms of reconnaissance and any relevant historical or psychological resources are fully utilised in the course of this exhausting research. Only once all reasonable means have been undertaken to compile data is this information thoroughly analysed. The analysis process may take solar days or even weeks, depending upon the reliability of the information acquired and the prior experience that the various battle-brothers might have with their opponents.Finally, once a thorough analysis has been compiled, only then is a tactical solution to the issue devised. Invariably, during the course of this analysis and planning, command officers rely heavily upon the input and advice of any Librarians available. These talented psykers are expected to use their talents to also plumb the depths of the Warp for additional information upon their foes and to conduct any divinations that might be appropriate. Among the Blood Ravens, these skills are every bit as crucial for a Librarian as the more forceful talents of the battle-psyker that are applied during a direct physical conflict.With a thoroughly compiled plan in hand, the Force Commander presents it to the Space Marines participating in the mission. Generally, these plans contain a myriad of alternative plans that account for an immense number of outcomes, often going into explicit and excruciating detail. Once these plans have been reviewed and accepted by the battle-brothers, they are very seldom changed.Through the course of a given battle, the Blood Ravens almost always adhere rigidly to their plans. This is in part due to the fact that the agonising level of detail permits the plans to accommodate a variety of different outcomes. However, it is more often due to the fact that the insight of their talented Librarians almost always provides accurate data such that the final plan is appropriate and consistent with the conditions encountered on the field of battle.At times, the Blood Ravens willingly make deviations from standard Codex Astartes directives when creating their complex strategies. In those circumstances where they have additional information or an unusual piece of wargear, they make such items a cornerstone of their plans.In this way, the Chapter maintains the belief that they follow the philosophy and general directives of the Codex Astartes without being constrained by the fact that the text is 10,000 standard years in age. For though these battle-brothers believe that their secrets must be carefully preserved, they also believe that their resources must be appropriately exploited in order to overcome their foes with a minimum of risk. |
Blood Ravens - Chapter Beliefs: The Blood Ravens have a deep belief in the Emperor, perhaps because they do not know who their primarch is, which leads them to give praise to the Emperor with a fervour greater than almost any other Chapter. Like most Astartes, they venerate Him not as a god, but as the mightiest of men, a belief that often times brings them into conflict with the Ecclesiarchy.A common battle cry of the Chapter is, "For the unknown primarch and the Emperor!" The Blood Ravens venerate knowledge and constantly seek it out and guard it. Their motto is "knowledge is power, guard it well," a maxim held firmly by all the Chapter's Librarians and central to the core beliefs of the Chapter.As their quest for knowledge echoes many tenets of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Chapter also maintains unusually close ties with the Priesthood of Mars. Often times the Blood Ravens will join forces with Mechanicus Explorator fleets in their search for archeotech and lost knowledge in the unknown quarters of the galaxy.The Blood Ravens are often known to seek out sites of lost artefacts, fabled writings, and ancient relics to deny them and the secrets they hold to the Archenemy. To achieve this, they rely heavily on their Librarians both to lead the continuing search for new additions to their holdings and to keep the secret archives in order and compile new records. The Blood Ravens believe that information is the greatest weapon available to them in the fight against the Emperor's enemies.The Blood Ravens are a proud and secretive Chapter, obsessed with ritual, history, and the acquisition of knowledge -- most especially for the truth of their beginnings. This gap in the Blood Ravens' history has led to endless speculation as to the exact origin of the Chapter, and what could have happened to expunge such a large and important portion of their history from their lore.It is this focus that has driven their ongoing quest to discover more information of all kinds. This quest has unquestionably subjected Blood Ravens battle-brothers to an increased exposure to heretical knowledge. Some from outside the Chapter question the wisdom of their pursuits, when they could safely embrace the security of ignorance.Because of the many facets of their investigations, the Blood Ravens have often worked closely with members of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Through the millennia, these Space Marines have uncovered many examples of archeotech, which they have almost always provided to the followers of the Omnissiah without question. At times, the Cult Mechanicus has repaid them for their generosity with gifts of additional wargear, which is well-suited to advancing their cause.There is no formal relationship, as such could be viewed as an insult to more needy Chapters. However, this appears to represent an understanding based upon enlightened self-interest. The Blood Ravens are likely to take full advantage of these additional resources as they continue to rebuild after the losses they suffered during their recent internal strife.The Blood Ravens' battle cry is, "Knowledge is power, guard it well!" This is more than just a chant to bellow as they charge forth to slay the Imperium's foes. It is a mantra by which the Chapter's battle-brothers live. They firmly believe that information is the key to solving countless problems and a weapon that can be exploited by the Imperium or by its enemies. These two points explain the care that these Space Marines exhibit prior to entering into combat and the security that they use to keep their own information and tools isolated from even their allies.It is not uncommon for groups of Librarians to be dispatched with an army of servitors and a number of Space Marine squads to uncover a lost artefact whose location has been recently unearthed or revealed through ritual divination. This has brought the Blood Ravens into direct conflict with the Inquisition on several occasions, as many of the items they seek are touched by the Ruinous Powers.The Blood Ravens insist that it is their duty to hunt down and oppose the forces of Chaos wherever they may be and that by recovering and destroying the tools of Chaos they deny the Archenemy their use. However, the Blood Ravens have been less than forthcoming regarding any proof of the destruction of any of the hundreds of Chaos artefacts they are said to have procured. Such actions do nothing to allay their critics.When dark rumours about the Blood Ravens began to circulate in the aftermath of the Third Aurelian Crusade, Inquisitors from both the Ordo Malleus and Ordo Hereticus headed for Sub-sector Aurelia determined to discover the truth. Alas for them, their expeditions coincided with the emergence of the Great Rift. They have not been heard of since and are presumed dead, lost in the deadly tangle of Warp storms that has cut the galaxy in two in the Era Indomitus.The ancient Chapter Master and Chief Librarian, Azariah Vidya, is the single Space Marine most revered by the Blood Ravens. While he is not believed to have been active at the time of the Chapter's founding, he is credited with the formation of their many traditions. While a normal Space Marine, the Blood Ravens refer to him as the "Great Father," a term that other Chapters might use to identify their primarch or even the Emperor.Such a degree of idolatry expressed towards a fellow battle-brother is certainly uncommon but seems to fulfil the void in the Chapter's iconography due to the lack of knowledge of their genetic origins and the iodentity of their primarch. Their views towards the Emperor are in keeping with the most common Space Marine beliefs; the Blood Ravens deeply respect the Emperor as their creator and leader, but they do not follow the teachings of the Imperial Cult and do not believe that the Emperor is divine.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 among their battle-brothers.Since Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos has taken command of the Blood Ravens, they have renewed their devotion to combating and overcoming the ways of Chaos. This is in large part due to the extensive heresy that he uncovered within the Chapter, and may be a consequence of the corruption that he found on his homeworld of Cyrene. Under his direction, all of the Chapter's traditions regarding the Warp are currently being scrutinised. Its leadership is now well aware that the Blood Ravens can ill-afford to lose any further members to treason or heresy. |
Blood Ravens - Chapter Gene-Seed: The Blood Ravens' greatest mystery concerns the history and reasons behind their founding. A large part of the Chapter's ongoing quest to recover lost information is in the fervent hopes of discovering their origins.Because of their unusually high number of battle-brothers who possess psychic talents, the Adeptus Mechanicus has tested their gene-seed for mutation or Chaos contamination at a substantially more frequent interval than that normally required. Even through the course of these countless investigations, the Blood Ravens' gene-seed has consistently shown a high level of stability and purity.At the same time, it is unusual that it shows no consistent traits that could be used to link it to the genetic lineage of any of the primarchs. Thus far, there has been little evidence of mutation, and nothing that points to their gene-seed as the source of the Blood Ravens' disproportionate number of psykers or the unusual potency of the psychic powers they exhibit.There has been much speculation regarding which of the First Founding Space Marine Legions the Blood Ravens' gene-seed is derived from. Both the Blood Angels and Raven Guard have been suggested, but these are likely to be based on nothing more than the similarity of names between the Chapters.Other persistent rumours say that the Blood Ravens may have derived their genetic stock from the Dark Angels' gene-seed, but no definitive facts have ever been presented to establish the true source of the Chapter's genetic material.The lack of records pertaining to whom they descended from implies that they were created in anticipation of a specific purpose, to counter some threat to the Imperium in centuries past that has since been dealt with and defeated, or from a source that was considered so shameful that all records of the connection between the Blood Ravens and their progenitors had to be hidden from future generations. The truth of their origins is sought above all other knowledge by the Blood Ravens themselves. |
Blood Ravens - Secrets of the Dark: Blood Ravens have an abiding understanding of many of the dark secrets of the galaxy as a result of their ongoing quest to understand their past and the prodigious numbers of Librarians seeded throughout the Chapter. The origins of the Blood Ravens are shrouded in mystery and the true nature and name of their primarch is unknown to them. A battle-brother comes into the ranks of the Blood Ravens with only limited knowledge on the history of his gene-seed and a sense of curiosity to understand their ancestry so that they might better understand their own abilities.This thirst for understanding the mysteries surrounding the Blood Ravens is further fuelled by the principles of the Chapter and the value it places on knowledge and secrets, a thirst instilled in many battle-brothers by the Chapter's Librarians and their own quest to slowly uncover the past.In time, a Blood Ravens Space Marine's hunger to learn more of their Chapter's past or uncover the darker forbidden lore of the galaxy can lead him to recklessness and even the dangerous line between understanding and embracing the forbidden.Even though the Chapter remains fiercely loyal and its commanders and most powerful Librarians are well steeled against the perils of the Warp and its deadly secrets, many who come into contact with the Blood Ravens see their desire to learn the hidden knowledge of their enemies and delve parts and pasts of the Imperium best left untouched as the first signs of Chaos corruption and taint.To a Blood Ravens battle-brother, though, the drive to gain knowledge can be too much, and where a more reluctant or cautious Imperial servant might leave a book unopened or a vault sealed and untouched the battle-brother must learn of its contents. Perhaps somewhere out there in the dark are the clues that will lead the Chapter to better understanding its past or even uncovering the identity of its primarch. At the very least a battle-brother that adds new lore to the great Librariums of the Chapter will always be well-received and honoured for his diligence and his respect for the greatest of all weapons: knowledge. |
Blood Ravens - Primarch's Curse: Deepening Mysteries: Due to the Blood Ravens not knowing the name or the lineage of their primarch, a Blood Ravens Astartes is characterised by the nature of his Chapter and its doctrines rather than the genetic line from which he is descended. For the Blood Ravens, this flaw is based on their hunger for forbidden knowledge and their obsessive quest for the truth behind their creation.A Blood Ravens Space Marine can become consumed by his thirst for knowledge if he is not careful in his pursuit. This comes with the added danger that much of the sort of lore the Blood Ravens seek is dangerous in and of itself, either as proscribed texts or things touched and tainted by the Warp. This genetic curse usually occurs in three stages:Stage 1 - Unhealthy Curiosity: The more answers about their past the Blood Ravens discover, the more questions arise to be answered, leading to an ever-expanding circle of secrets and lies that can consume those without the restraint to know when to stop looking. The battle-brother's quest for lore and knowledge has led him into dangerous places, and his continued survival given him a false sense of security and the drive to press on. Whenever the battle-brother is presented with the chance to learn a secret or uncover some knowledge either of importance to the Blood Ravens or pertaining to the Adeptus Astartes, he must summon forth his willpower to overcome his overarching obsession with the acquisition of knowledge.Stage 2 - Knowledgeable Obsessions: As a Blood Raven learns more forbidden lore, they can become obsessed with a particular subject, an aspect of the whole which they come to believe is linked directly to the secrets of their Chapter or some other great and important part of the Imperium's struggle against its enemies. Whenever a battle-brother is presented with a chance to learn more about this obsessive knowledge, he almost always places his quest above the needs of others, often putting his own life or the lives of his squad in danger.Stage 3 - Unholy Enlightenment: After a time a Blood Raven will learn many secrets from his Chapter and may even spend time in its Librarium coming into contact with great volumes of forbidden lore. All of these secrets can taint a battle-brother, burdening his mind and granting him both a great understanding of the universe but also a touch of madness as he tries to contain and understand it in his mind. |
Blood Ravens - Notable Blood Ravens: Chapter Master Azariah Vidya - The Librarian Azariah Vidya was the Master of the Chapter Librarium during a campaign in the Gothic Sector, in which the Blood Ravens had taken terrible losses putting down a series of Chaos-inspired rebellions against the Imperium. During this campaign, the Chapter Master and the Master of Sanctity were both killed in a trap, and it seemed that the Blood Ravens were to be exterminated as a Chapter. Azariah spent much time studying the movements and reactions of the enemy, using the Imperial Guard and his own depleted battle-brothers in a series of feinted attacks. Using this information, as well as his potent psychic powers, he launched a series of raids against seemingly empty areas that turned out to be important staging areas for the Chaos Cultists. For his skill in crushing the rebellion, Azariah was raised to become the Blood Ravens' Chapter Master, as well as continuing to hold his previous position as the Chapter's Chief Librarian. Vidya is the single Space Marine most revered by Blood Ravens. While he is not believed to have been active at the time of the Chapter's Founding, he is credited with being the true founder of many of the Chapter's traditions. The Blood Ravens refer to him as the Great Father, a term that other Chapters might use to identify their Primarch or even the Emperor. Such a degree of idolatry expressed towards a fellow battle-brother is certainly uncommon but seems to fulfill the void in the Chapter’s iconography due to the lack of knowledge concerning which primarch's lineage they can call their own. Vidya's apprentice and successor as Master of the Librarium and eventual Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens, Azariah Kyras, succumbed to the taint of Chaos during his time on the derelict Space Hulk Judgement of Carrion.Chapter Master and Chief Librarian Azariah Kyras - Azariah Kyras was the former Chapter Master and Chief Librarian of the Blood Ravens Chapter. Kyras is now known by elements of the Blood Ravens to have been corrupted by Chaos. Azariah Kyras has an unusually mysterious and dark past for the Chapter Master of a Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Early in the 41st Millennium, almost 1,000 standard years before the present, the world of Aurelia in the Aurelian Sub-sector of the Korianis Sector was swallowed by a vast Warp storm. Before the storm swallowed the planet into the Immaterium, it had been pushed out of its orbit and much of its population had died as a result of the sudden frigid environmental changes. Azariah Kyras was a Librarian of the Blood Ravens Chapter serving alongside his master Moriah, the Chief Librarian of the Blood Ravens. Just before Aurelia was swallowed by the Warp, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle named Ulkair, a Great Unclean One, had manifested on the world and slain Moriah. Kyras proved luckier and managed to defeat Ulkair and imprison the immensely powerful Daemon. Then the Warp took the world and Azariah Kyras along with it. Many standard centuries later, the 5th Company of the Blood Ravens had taken serious losses from the groups of Tyranids and Daemons that infested a space hulk known as the Judgement of Carrion they had been tasked to explore. Azariah Kyras suddenly appeared amidst his fellow Blood Ravens on the hulk and used his abilities to aid Apothecary Galan, the remaining ranking officer in the company, in defending the surviving battle-brothers from the hulk's hideous inhabitants. The remains of the 5th Company, despite Kyras' aid, were still trapped on the Space Hulk, unable to get back to their Thunderhawks and escape. At the same time, Galan found himself haunted by a malignant Daemonic presence that Kyras identified as Ulkair, the Greater Daemon that the Blood Ravens had suffered terrible losses imprisoning and which had caused Kyras to be lost in the Warp for centuries. Kyras, corrupted by Chaos during his long imprisonment in the Warp with Ulkair, sought to corrupt his fellow battle-brothers by enhancing their despair and playing on their fears. To gain the escape of the remains of the 5th Company from the Judgement of Carrion, Kyras entered a pact with Ulkair in which in return for the Blood Ravens' escape from the space hulk, Galan was possessed by a Daemon. When the 5th Company escaped, both Kyras and Galan were hailed as heroes of the Chapter and Kyras was welcomed back into the fold as a lost battle-brother. Yet one Blood Raven, Captain Gabriel Angelos of the 3rd Company, remained highly suspicious of Kyras, believing him to be tainted by Chaos. Yet Kyras rose quickly back through the ranks of the Blood Ravens because of his great experience and eventually became both the Blood Ravens' Chapter Master and their Chief Librarian, holding both offices simultaneously in an unusual arrangement. Kyras' strongest ally amongst the Blood Ravens, Galan, became the Chapter honour guard's Apothecary. It was the invasion of the Aurelian Sub-sector by a warband of the Black Legion that finally revealed Azariah Kyras' true allegiance to Chaos. Blood Ravens of the 4th Company tracked down and boarded the Judgement of Carrion to learn the truth of Kyras' and the 5th Company's escape from the space hulk. The Blood Ravens gained evidence of the pact made by Kyras and Galan with the Daemon Ulkair. Kyras himself was not present in the Aurelian sub-sector during the Chapter's Imperial Crusade against the elements of the Black Legion. Instead, he sent Apollo Diomedes, the captain of the Blood Ravens' honour guard, to order the Blood Raven forces in the sub-sector to withdraw from all contact with the Chaos Space Marines. Yet, the Blood Ravens officer who served as the Chapter's Force Commander in the Second Aurelian Crusade turned against Apothecary Galan, who confessed to his own corruption by Chaos as well as Kyras' true allegiance. But Galan explained that Captain Diomedes was untainted, though much of the honour guard did serve the Ruinous Powers and Ulkair in particular. The Force Commander and Captain Angelos disobeyed their corrupted Chapter Master's orders and remained in Aurelia to defeat the Black Legion and end the threat of Ulkair. With the defeat of the Great Unclean One on Aurelia, the Force Commander and Captain Angelos went renegade, determined to bring down Azariah Kyras and the other Chaos-corrupted Blood Ravens, no matter the cost. During the start of the Ordo Hereticus' purge of the Aurelia Sub-sector that began ten standard years after the end of the Second Aurelian Crusade, Azariah's intentions became known to the rest of the Blood Ravens, and he was hunted down on the Dead World of Cyrene. On Cyrene Azariah was in the middle of his transformation into a Daemon Prince when he was confronted by elements of the Blood Ravens 3rd and 1st Company led by Gabriel Angelos. During the resulting battle most of the Blood Ravens were killed and Gabriel was viciously struck down. A strike force of Blood Ravens led by Captain Diomedes were able to keep Azariah from fully transforming and called in an orbital bombardment right on top of the nascent Daemon Prince, which was enough to destroy his physical form and send his soul reeling into the Warp.Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos - Gabriel Angelos is the current Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens and the former Captain of the Chapter's 3rd Company and Commander of the Watch. Angelos recently led the Loyalist Blood Ravens against the Chapter's former Master and Chief Librarian Azariah Kyras after it was learned that he had been corrupted by Chaos. During the final battle to free the Sub-sector Aurelia from the influence of Chaos, Angelos was badly wounded and has had to undergo extensive bionic augmentation to survive. Like many of the Blood Ravens, Gabriel was born on the planet of Cyrene, where the Chapter often drew recruits from among the Planetary Defence Forces. Gabriel was an accomplished leader of his peers before he even entered his teen years, and passed the Blood Trials set by the Blood Raven Chaplains. Many years later, now with an entire company of Blood Ravens under his command, Gabriel returned to Cyrene, to preside over the Blood Trials and recruit new members into the Chapter. But Gabriel found something very wrong on the world during the Trials, and cut them short. He quickly returned to his strike cruiser, and sent a coded astropathic signal out of the star system. Within hours of the signal being sent, starships of the Imperial Inquisition and the Navis Impeialis appeared over Cyrene, bombarding it for a week straight with Cyclonic Torpedoes until nothing on the planet remained alive. All records of the incident, and Gabriel's astropathic message to the Inquisition, have been sealed, but Gabriel himself carried the guilt of his actions with him for a long time, particularly during the Chapter's battles on the planet Tartarus. Captain Angelos lead the Blood Ravens forces that accidentally released a Daemon on Tartarus and combated the Tyranid and Chaos invasions of the Sub-sector Aurelia during the First and Second Aurelian Crusades. Captain Angelos was the only member of the Chapter's command elements to view Azariah Kyras' return to the Chapter with mistrust. Angelos quietly investigated the Chapter Master at every opportunity, ultimately exposing Kyras as a Heretic and Traitor when he confirmed links between the fallen Chapter Master and the Traitor Legions. However, the truth was discovered too late. By the time Captain Angelos was prepared to reveal his findings to the Chapter, a large number of its Space Marines were already corrupted by Chaos. Instead, Kyras declared Gabriel a Traitor and initiated a vicious hunt for the captain of the 3rd Company and his forces. A bloody Chapter civil war ensued, one that engulfed the entire Aurelian Sub-sector at its peak. Kyras eventually openly declared his loyalty to Chaos and ascended to become a Daemon Prince. The Daemon was slain upon the Dead World of Cyrene in the midst of the Ordo Hereticus' purge of the sub-sector, but at a great cost to Gabriel's Loyalist forces. After the battle to defeat Kyras was over, Captain Apollo Diomedes retrieved Gabriel's body, only to find that he was still alive, and was able to call off the Inquisition's Exterminatus of all the remaining inhabited worlds of the Aurelian Sub-sector. Afterwards, Gabriel's broken body was repaired with extensive cybernetic augmentation and he was elevated to become the new Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens. It is unknown who took his place as the Captain of the 3rd Company.Chief Librarian Jonah Orion - Jonah Orion has served under Gabriel Angelos since the aftermath of the Tartarus Campaign. Once a protégé of Isador Akios -- who fell to Chaos on Tartarus -- Jonah was subject to suspicion, but the support of Captain Angelos and Chapter Master Kyras soon put those doubts to rest. During the Tyranid invasion, he was one of the psykers tasked with battling the mighty Hive Mind as Captain Angelos made for sub-sector Aurelia. Of the dozen Librarians, Navigators and Astropaths accompanying Angelos, only Jonah survived. Although still bearing the scars of his ordeal in the Warp, Jonah has served with honour over the last year. His psychic abilities have allowed Blood Ravens to root out several leftover pockets of Tyranid infestation. Orion was believed killed during the Loyalist Blood Ravens' final fight with their corrupt Chapter Master Azariah Kyras during the Inquisition's crusade to eliminate the taint of Chaos from the Aurelian Sub-sector. Although he sustained what many thought was a mortal wound on Cyrene, he miraculously survived. Understanding the gravity of Jonah's sacrifices for the Chapter and his undeniable role in their victory against Arch-Traitor Azariah Kyras, the newly-appointed Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos promoted him to Chief Librarian.Librarian Isador Akios - Brother-Librarian Isador Akios was the Librarian of the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company and was a secondary character in the PC game Dawn of War. Much like Captain Angelos, Isador was born and raised on Cyrene, and became a Blood Raven around the same time as Gabriel. Isador met Gabriel during the Blood Trials, when they were both aspirants. They fought back to back and reaped a toll so bloody the trials were bought to an end early. Although his homeworld was destroyed, Isador did not blame Gabriel for his actions on Cyrene, since it had to be done. While the Blood Ravens 3rd Company was on the doomed planet of Tartarus, Isador slowly succumbed to the powers of Chaos, tempted by the traitorous Sorcerer of the Alpha Legion named Sindri Myr, telling him of the "Key", and tempting him to use it. When Inquisitor Mordecai Toth arrived, he detected a Chaos taint among the Space Marines and came up with the assumption that it originated in Gabriel. Because of this, the Blood Ravens were blinded to Isador's corruption and thus could not stop Isador before he finally seized the Maledictum and turned to Chaos, bringing Gabriel's trust in his old friend crumbling to the ground. Isador was killed in a duel between himself and Gabriel, and Gabriel used his death as an example of the fate of Space Marines who fell to Chaos. Isador was armed with a Force Weapon and Bolt Pistol. He was able to be upgraded with a Plasma Pistol later on in the campaign.Epistolary Anteas - Epistolary Anteas is a senior Librarian of the Blood Ravens Chapter tasked with aiding Brother-Captain Davian Thule's purge of the planet Kronus.Reclusiarch Mikelus - Reclusiarch Mikelus was a Blood Ravens Chaplain who served under Captain Davian Thule's forces consisting of the 1st, 2nd and 4th companies during the Kronus Campaign. He carried the faith of the Emperor into battle, inspiring his fellow Space Marines to fight with a ferocity uncommon even among the ranks of the Adeptus Astartes. He was killed when battling the Necron Lord with Captain Thule, the latter of which commended Mikelus with the honour of killing the Necron Lord (even though Mikelus had already perished before).Chaplain Prathios - Chaplain Prathios is the current Chaplain of the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company. Prathios was the one who oversaw the Blood Trials of Gabriel Angelos and Isador Akios when they were still young recruits of the Blood Ravens.Chaplain Apollo Diomedes - Diomedes is the Chaplain and former Captain of the Blood Ravens' Honour Guard. Previously, he had commanded the Blood Ravens elite 1st Company for almost two standard centuries with honour and skill. Diomedes' 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. Although not corrupted by Chaos himself, Diomedes, acting under orders from Azariah Kyras, aided the heretical Blood Ravens Apothecary Galan in opposing the efforts of the unnamed Force Commander in the Sub-sector Aurelia, who had been declared a Renegade by Kyras, to destroy Galan's Stronghold. In the course of the Second Aurelian Crusade, Diomedes leanred the truth about Kyras corruption by the Greater Daemon Ulkair on Aurelia centuries before. He returned to the sub-sector 10 years later during its cleansing by the forces of the Inquisition to discover the truth of the corruption that had eaten at the heart of the Blood Ravens with Scout Sergeant Cyrus and Techmarine Martellus.Captain Indrick Boreale - Indrick Boreale was the Force Commander of the Blood Ravens expeditionary force that was sent to the Kaurava System. Having studied under Gabriel Angelos, Boreale lead no less than five Blood Ravens companies into battle, and favoured a tactic called "Steel Rain" in which he kept entire companies in reserve on his Battle Barge, to be deployed by Drop Pod at a moment's notice. This allowed him to land his reserve forces quickly and put pressure on the foe. As a result, he did not make much use of static defensive structures like turrets. During the Kaurava Conflict, Boreale was forced to battle against fellow Imperial forces like the Sisters of Battle and the 252nd Conservator Regiment of the Imperial Guard due to conflicting interests and each Imperial force acting on their own (such as the unleashing of Canoness Selena Agna's Purgation Crusade in the Kaurava System). Scout Sergeant Cyrus later revealed that the Blood Ravens' Kaurava campaign proved to be a disaster, with many Astartes, including most of Cyrus' Scout Marines and Indrick Boreale himself being slain. This critical blow left the Chapter largely undermanned. One of the relics of the Chapter was an Iron Halo that was intended to be presented to Boreale upon his victory at Kaurava, but which was never awarded following the disastrous outcome of that campaign.Captain Atanaxis - Atanaxis is the current Captain of the Blood Ravens 7th Company. He was the Blood Raven who met Shield Captain Apollus Pertinax of the Adeptus Custodes and received the required gene-seed and technology to create Primaris Space Marines.Captain Balthazar - Balthazar was the Blood Ravens captain in command of the battle barge Dauntless during the Acheron Campaign.Epistolary Sarbander - Epistolary Sarbander was a Senior Librarian of the Blood Ravens Chapter tasked with aiding Captain Indrick Boreale during the Kaurava Conflict.Epistolary Valestis - Epistolary Valestis was a Senior Librarian who accompanied Captain Atanaxis aboard the Strike Cruiser Glory of Calderis.Trythos (Dreadnought) - Three millennia before the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company destroyed the artefact known as the Maledictum containing a Greater Daemon during the Tartarus Campaign, Captain Trythos had arrived on Tartarus with a squad of the Deathwatch. While on this mission, the Deathwatch kill-team recovered a shard of the Wailing Doom, a psychic [[Aeldari] weapon carried by an Asuryani Avatar that was later used to craft the Daemonhammer God-Splitter wielded by the Inquisitor Mordecai Toth, but Trythos was mortally wounded during the operation. He was encased within the cybernetic shell of a Dreadnought and returned to his home Chapter, where he joined the 3rd Company. Trythos had been the first Blood Raven to take up the Long Watch with the Deathwatch. Three thousand standard years later he found himself again on Tartarus fighting alongside Captain Gabriel Angelos and the 3rd Company. Unfortunately, at the Battle of Magna Bonum against the Eldar, he was slain. A year after the end of hostilities on Tartarus, after the planet had returned to realspace from the massive Warp Storm that had claimed it, the Techmarine Brennan led a Blood Ravens strike force back to the planet to recover his remains. Despite massive damage, the Dreadnought remained standing where the Blood Ravens had been forced to leave it. Its return to the Chapter's Armoury was a cause for great celebration.Davian Thule (Dreadnought) - Davian Thule is the former Captain of the 4th Company of the Blood Ravens and is currently a Dreadnought of the Chapter. Thule commanded the Blood Ravens' assault on the Civilised World of Kronus during the Dark Crusade. He was raised and recruited into the Chapter as a Neophyte on Cyrene, but was originally born on Tartarus. During the Dark Crusade, he commanded the Blood Ravens' 1st, 2nd and 4th Companies. He was there protecting ancient Chapter knowledge. He eliminated all opposition on Kronus in order to safeguard secrets he had learned on that world about the Chapter, and even fought against fellow Imperial forces -- the Imperial Guard. After the events on Kronus he was questioned by Inquisitor Mordecai Toth for his attack against other servants of the Emperor, but Toth found no concrete evidence that his actions had been heretical or driven by Chaos corruption. Thule had once been considered one of the greatest Astartes of the Chapter. He first came to prominence four centuries before the Kronus Campaign when he slew the Chaos Witch Morganna in the Black Fortress of Vespa. Thule also had distinguished himself during the Blood Ravens' campaign on Cadia. 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 lead 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. It is unknown if this knowledge links the Blood Ravens with a Traitor Legion like the Thousand Sons, but it is now gone forever. Thule is usually armed with Alexian's Blade and a Bolt Pistol. During the events of the First Aurelian Crusade, Thule was mortally wounded while leading the 4th Company in defence of Calderis by the festering toxins of a Tyranid Warrior, although his life was saved by the actions of the Blood Ravens' Aurelian Sub-sector Force Commander and he was ultimately resurrected as a Space Marine Dreadnought by Apothecary Gordian so that he might continue to serve the Chapter. He later fought during the Third Aurelian Crusade, though his ultimate fate in that terrible conflict remains unknown.Apothecary Gordian - Apothecary Gordian served under Davin Thule as his personal Apothecary during the Dark Crusade on Kronus. Later, during the First Aurelian Crusade, Gordian serves aboard the strike cruiser Armageddon as the Blood Ravens' Apothecary in the Aurelia sub-sector. Gordian was responsible for putting Captain Davian Thule in stasis, after he was attacked and poisoned by a Tyranid Warrior on Calderis. When the Blood Ravens acquired the toxin to counteract the poison, with the help of Techmarine Martellus he placed Thule into a Dreadnought allowing the legendary Captain to fight again. During the final battle with the Tyranids, he is lost aboard the Armageddon above Typhon Primaris.Techmarine Martellus - A Techmarine aboard the Blood Ravens' strike cruiser Armageddon, Martellus served under Force Commander Aramus throughout the Tyranid invasion in Dawn of War II. During the climactic battle, Martellus was aboard a Thunderhawk gunship supporting the Space Marines on the ground. The Tyranid horde eventually overwhelmed the gunship. In Chaos Rising he returns, when he's saved by the Force Commander while defending the Astronomic Array on Typhon Primaris. Martellus served as part of Captain Apollo Diomedes' strike force during the Blood Ravens' attempt to save the Aurelian Sub-sector from both the taint of Chaos and an Exterminatus unleashed by the Inquisition's Crusade within the sub-sector.Tactical Sergeant Tarkus (The Ancient) - Tarkus is a Tactical Marine Sergeant in the Blood Ravens 4th Company. He is a Veteran with centuries of experience in warfare, and is an expert tactician as well as a rock-solid second-in-command. Amongst his Tactical Marines, Tarkus is renowned for his confidence and steely demeanour in battle. Tarkus was awarded Terminator Honours for his involvement in the assault on the Necron Catacombs of Kronus during the Dark Crusade, where he and his squad repelled wave after wave of Necron forces to buy Captain Davian Thule time to plant the bomb that would end the Necron threat to the planet. Tarkus is stated to have lost one of his hands killing a Necron Tomb Spider when out of ammunition by holding a live grenade in a weak point near the Tomb Spider's head. In Dawn of War II, Tarkus once again served alongside Captain Thule in his defence of the Aurelia Sub-sector. Tarkus left the command of the Blood Ravens' Force Commander of Aurelia Sub-sector on the world of Meridian to investigate the reason behind recent Ork appearances at Angel Gate. He rejoined the Force Commander's troops while they were planetside, searching for the force of Eldar that attacked the vulnerable Angel Gate. The Eldar planned to overload the Forge's reactor to devastate Meridian and stall the splinter Tyranid Hive Fleet from reaching the Craftworld of Ulthwé. During the events of the Inquisition's Crusade to cleanse the Aurelia Sub-sector some 10 Terran years later, Tarkus refused to speak to his fellow Astartes, unable to forgive himself for the betrayal of his close friend Devastator Sergeant Avitus who had been corrupted by Chaos during the Second Aurelian Crusade and so he was referred to by his fellows simply as "The Ancient." His true identity as Tarkus was also not revealed until Captain Apollo Diomedes began to show the first signs of Chaos corruption. Tarkus' actions prevented Diomedes from falling to Chaos as Avitus had done.Assault Sergeant Thaddeus - Thaddeus is an Assault Marine sergeant in the Blood Ravens 4th Company. He was a native under-city gang leader on the Hive World of Meridian in the Aurelian Sub-sector before his personal recruitment into the Blood Ravens by Captain Davian Thule, following a series of uprisings in Spire Legis. After witnessing Thaddeus stand against hundreds of rioters single-handedly, Thule was impressed and recruited him into the Blood Ravens, making him the first Blood Ravens Aspirant to be drawn from that Hive World in centuries. He has a reputation as a brash and idealistic brawler; and made his name battling Feral Orks on Calderis and Typhon Primaris. Thaddeus is also something of a humanitarian, and fights as much for the people of the Imperium as he does the Emperor and the Chapter.Devastator Sergeant Avitus - Avitus is a Devastator Marine Sergeant in the Blood Ravens' 4th Company. He fought alongside Captain Davian Thule in the Dark Crusade on Kronus and slew the Chaos Witch Morgana. He also distinguished himself during the assault on the Imperial Guard stronghold of Victory Bay. It was also in this battle that Avitus lost many of his squad-mates, which forever changed Avitus and prompted his vision of Imperial Guardsmen as traitors and weaklings. He is renowned for his unmatched hatred for the enemy, which many regard as his greatest weapon. Avitus once again serves alongside Captain Davian Thule during his defence of the Aurelian Sub-sector from a Tyranid splinter fleet. Avitus was ultimately corrupted by Chaos and betrayed his fellow Blood Ravens during their campaign against the Chaos Space Marines of the Black Legion led by the Chaos Champion and former Dark Apostle Eliphas the Inheritor on the frozen world of Aurelia.Scout Sergeant Cyrus - Cyrus is a Veteran Scout Sergeant in the Blood Ravens 10th Company who has dedicated himself to training the Chapter's initiates and scouts, as well as honing them into full-fledged Space Marines. Even amongst his own Chapter, Cyrus is a man of few words, and has a fearsome reputation. His methods, while highly unpopular amongst the Battle Brothers, have earned them countless victories, most notably during the Genestealer outbreak on Victoria Primus. It is revealed part-way through the campaign that he has fought the Tyranids before, during his time in the Deathwatch. He also fought in the Kaurava campaign under Brother-Captain Indrick Boreale, and reveals that the campaign gone horribly wrong for the Blood Ravens. He declares the said campaign as "a huge mistake," vowing not to speak of the Kaurava System again.Sergeant Endymion - Endymion was the second-in-command to Davian Thule, the former Captain of the 4th Company of the Blood Ravens, who was transformed into a Dreadnought. He perished on the world of Aurelia at the hands of an Eldar Wraithlord during the Eldar invasion of the Minos Iceworks in the Second Aurelian Crusade, saving the Librarian Jonah Orion in the process from the assault of the war machine. Jonah then sent a message requesting reinforcements to the Blood Ravens Strike Cruiser Retribution in orbit above Aurelia. Blood Ravens reinforcements soon arrived at their position and rescued the survivors. Davian Thule, now a Venerable Dreadnought, defended Endymion's remains while the Blood Ravens destroyed the Eldar's Webway Assembly, which severed their own ability to reinforce. Endymion's gene-seed was collected by the Blood Ravens and his remains preserved as one of their honoured dead.Sergeant (Force Commander) Aramus - Aramus, commonly referred to simply as "the Force Commander," was the leader of various Blood Ravens strike forces during the Aurelian Crusades. Aramus first drew attention to himself during the Hadrian Campaign, where he led a mission that successfully destroyed an enemy artillery position without taking any casualties. In the wake of this success he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and the position of force commander by Chapter Master Azariah Kyras himself. The youngest Blood Raven to ever gain this position, some of the senior members of the Chapter believed it to be a premature promotion. Aramus and his surviving warriors were awarded the title "Heroes of Typhon" after the final battle against the Tyranids on that world. Aramus would eventually rise to become captain of the 4th Company, promoted by Kyras' successor as Chapter Master, Gabriel Angelos, to take the place of Davian Thule, who had been entombed within a Dreadnought. Aramus is actually a character created in the Dawn of War novels to take the canonical place of the Blood Ravens force commander who represents the player in Dawn of War II. His name is chosen by the player, but he does not speak and is only referred to as "Commander" by the others, though his name is given as Sergeant Aramus in the novelisation of the game. As described in-game, the Force Commander is relatively young for his rank, promoted by the Chapter Master, Azariah Kyras, despite resistance from the rest of the Chapter and the fact that they have never met in person. As a result, he must both prove himself to Angelos, Thule and his Veterans -- many of whom were veterans of the earlier Kronus and Kaurava Campaigns -- and serve as an example to the new Blood Ravens recruits. |
Blood Ravens - Chapter Fleet: The Blood Ravens have existed as a fleet-based Chapter since the loss of their original homeworld of Aurelia to the Warp in the 40th Millennium. The basis for this decision is unclear, as their millennia of stalwart service certainly qualifies the Chapter for possession and control of another Imperial world. It may be that the decision was made for reasons lost to their history, which has been preserved for traditional reasons rather than functional ones.To fulfil their duties, the Blood Ravens possess several battle barges, but their great mobile fortress-monastery, the Omnis Arcanum, is the largest vessel of their fleet and serves as their primary gene-seed repository. This vessel also houses the Chapter's sacred Librarium Sanctorum and copies of all the knowledge the Chapter has discovered during its missions across the galaxy.Each of the Chapter's battle barges maintains its own Librarium as well, where all of their active records and new findings are recorded. However, only a subset of the Blood Ravens' complete findings -- particularly information concerning the Warp, archeotech, and the ways of xenos -- are stored in these lesser Librariums. Through the course of their history, companies have often been assigned to extended duty apart from the main portion of the Chapter's fleet.During such missions, these independent Librariums serve as interim storage of knowledge and a valuable resource for reviewing the less-volatile lore that the Chapter maintains. Any time that one of the auxiliary battle barges reestablishes contact with Omnis Arcanum, an exchange of information is undertaken, so any new information is returned to the Librarium Sanctorum, while new data deemed safe for dissemination is provided to the lesser battle barges.One critical limitation of a fleet-based Adeptus Astartes operation is a restriction in the availability of new candidates for initiation. The Blood Ravens overcome this difficulty by recruiting from a number of worlds, with which they have long-established relations, most of which are in the Sub-sector Aurelia of the Korianis Sector. These worlds range from Feral Worlds, colonised by the remnants of ancient Human civilisations, to Hive Worlds, where gangers fight daily with whatever weapons they can scrounge, living off the scrapings of Imperial society.The only trait that these worlds share in common is a higher than normal frequency of psykers amongst their population. While the Blood Ravens Chapter does not exclusively recruit psykers as candidates, those who show psychic talents survive their initiation rates at a much higher frequency than is observed among most other Chapters.The Chapter fleet of the Blood Ravens is known to contain the following starships:Omnis Arcanum (Battle Barge) - The Omnis Arcanum is the flagship of the Blood Ravens fleet and the location of the Chapter's primary Librarium, the Librarium Sanctorum. However, little more is known about this venerable warship, where it travels or even if it really does serve as the home of the Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens.Dauntless (Battle Barge) - A battle barge of the Blood Ravens that served as the flagship of Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos during the Acheron Campaign. During that conflict, the Craftworld Aeldari Farseer Macha urged Angelos to sacrifice the Dauntless to cripple the Bloodthirster known as the "Storm Prince" by ramming it into a frozen fissure on the planet's frigid surface, sacrificing the lives of the Astartes and mortals aboard the great vessel but preventing the Greater Daemon from wreaking havoc across the galaxy in the name of the Blood God Khorne. Angelos did so, and 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 Storm Prince 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, allowing Angelos, Macha and the Ork Warboss Gorgutz to banish the creature back to the Warp. Though this sacrifice cost many lives, countless more across the galaxy were doubtless saved.Litany of Fury (Battle Barge) - A venerable warship of the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company, the Litany of Fury carries a great many secrets within its hold and is a beacon of light in the darkness of the Eastern Fringe, where the light of the Astronomican wanes. The Sanctorium Arcanum is a secret vault within the battle barge, tended by Librarians of the Chapter initiated into the Secret Orders of Psykana of the Blood Ravens. The Sanctorium Arcanum is an astropathic choir in mimicry of the Astronomican itself, a mobile psychic repeater station intended to boost the light of the Astronomican in the distant reaches of the Eastern Fringe. The Sanctorium Arcanum, like many relics of the Chapter, was created by the Great Father Azariah Vidya and its true origins and function have been lost to the mists of time, yet it is still maintained by the Librarians of the Chapter.Scientia Est Potentia (Battle Barge) - A battle barge that serves as the flagship of the Blood Ravens 5th Company.Armageddon (Strike Cruiser) - Former flagship of the Blood Ravens 5th Company, lost during the battle for the Aurelia Sub-sector in the Third Aurelian Crusade.Glory of Calderis (Strike Cruiser) - Strike cruiser under the command of Captain Atanaxis of the Blood Ravens 7th Company.Rage of Erudition (Strike Cruiser) - Strike cruiser under the command of Sergeant Saulh.Ravenous Spirit (Strike Cruiser) - This strike cruiser was in service to then-Captain Gabriel Angelos during his mission to Cyrene.Retribution (Strike Cruiser) - This strike cruiser was assigned to the remnants of the 5th Company following the loss of the Armageddon. |
Blood Ravens - Chapter Relics: Alexian's Blade - This is a master-crafted Power Sword that once belonged to the Chapter hero Alexian. This Chapter relic was wielded by Captain Davian Thule during the Dark Crusade on Kronus.Argentus' Fury - A unique Astartes bolter gifted to Sergeant Argentus during the Second War for Armageddon by the master artificers of the Salamanders Chapter, whom Argentus fought alongside. This master-crafted bolter has been modified to fire deadly Dragonfire Bolts.Black Rage - A mysterious chainsword named after the genetic curse of the same name that currently afflicts the Blood Angels and its successors among the Sanguinary Brotherhood.Blade of Ulyus - This formidable and unique chainsword was once used by the Chapter hero Sergeant Ulyus of the Blood Ravens' 2nd Company during the Dark Crusade to destroy a Necron Pariah on the world of Kronus, a Necron Tomb World.Blade of Zeal - A unique Power Sword said to have been blessed by Chaplain Elizur on the eve of the Ninth Flagellant Heresy. The sword is inscribed with the following inscription in High Gothic: "Let the stars die and mankind end before this sword returns unblooded to its sheathe."Blighted Bolter - This unique Astartes bolter was recovered near the planetary capital of Kronus during the Dark Crusade, found amongst the carnage wrought by Traitoris Militarum. It bears the seal of the planet. Though many prayers of sanctity and rituals of absolution have purified this formidable weapon, those that utilise this bolter are loathe to recall the dark events surrounding the campaign that forced them to fight against former soldiers of the Imperium.Blinding Revelation - A unique Mark III Sun Fury Pattern Plasma Pistol and Chapter relic, Blind Revelation was wielded by Sergeant Matiel of the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company against the Ork Warboss Orkamungus and his WAAAGH! during the Tartarus campaign. Chapter records indicate that the Orks were blinded by this deadly pistol's muzzle flash and were unable to return fire.Chant of Resolve - A unique Heavy Bolter inscribed with the Third Resolution of the Faithful: "So long as His voice is heard none shall stand before us."Chorus of Resolve - A unique Dreadnought Assault Cannon. Inscribed upon this Chapter relic are the words of the Fourth Resolution of the Faithful: "So long as His eyes are upon us, none shall doubt our zeal."Fang of Fenris - A unique Power Axe that is said to have been crafted by the Blood Ravens master Techmarine Isaak Jordanus after attempting to visit the Space Wolves homeworld of Fenris. Though he was ultimately denied permission to land, he was so awestruck by the magnificent sight of The Fang from orbit that he forged the Chapter relic known as the Fang of Fenris in honour of the Space Wolves' formidable fortress-monastery.Flame of Terra - A unique Astartes Flamer and Chapter relic, its activation rites include the verse, "As holy Terra is a beacon of hope for Humanity, so may this weapon bring hope to those facing the scourge of alien tyranny."Guardian of Faith - A unique Godwyn De'az Pattern Bolter gifted to the Blood Ravens Chapter by the Adepta Sororitas following the successful defence of the Daemocles Cluster. This pattern bears both the sigils of the Chapter as well as the trademark fleur-de-lis symbol of the Sisters of Battle.Gauntlet of Blood - A unique Power Fist formally wielded by the young Sergeant Karolus during the Kronus Campaign. He managed to fight on even though the power field of the armoured gauntlet failed at the height of battle. When he returned to the rest of his company, the now-inert Power Fist was coated in the blood of many xenos species. After the Power Fist was repaired by the Chapter's Techmarines, the blood was left inside the power field, commemorating the bravery of Sergeant Karolus.Gauntlet of the Templar - A unique Terminator Power Fist, this Chapter relic has a coloured history that can be traced to the 36th Millennium. It is well known that the puritanical and zealous Black Templars have an unfettered hatred for all psykers. Given their stance on such matters, the relations between the Blood Ravens and the Black Templars has never been cordial. Things came to a head when a Black Templars Crusade actually traded shots with a Blood Ravens' strike cruiser that was commanded by a Librarian. After this incident, the Chapter crafted the Power Fist and named it for the Black Templars. Some say this was intended deliberately as a slight against the puritanical Chapter by the Blood Ravens.Gauntlets of the Ancients - A set of relic Dreadnought close combat weapons reserved for the Blood Ravens' Venerable Dreadnoughts, the revered brothers of the Chapter that slumber for standard centuries in-between campaigns, until awakened to fight only in the direst of circumstances.Gift of Blackmane - A unique Power Axe crafted by the Blood Ravens Chapter's artificers in honour of the Space Wolves Wolf Lord Ragnar Blackmane, and intended to be sent to Fenris as a gift. The young Wolf Lord respectfully declined the gift and is said to have remarked, "Let them keep their trinkets."God-Splitter - God-Splitter is a relic Daemonhammer wielded by Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos which was gifted to him by Inquisitor Mordecai Toth during the Tartarus campaign to combat the Daemon that inhabited the Chaos relic known as the Maledictum. It is said to contain a recovered fragment of the Wailing Doom, the formidable weapon used by the Aeldari craftworld Biel-Tan's Avatar of Khaine after its own battle with the Maledictum's Daemon in the 38th Millennium. Angelos has never confirmed this, though those who know of the Tartarus campaign speculate that without the power of that fragment, the Daemon could never have been defeated.Hand of Calder - A unique Power Fist and relic of the Blood Ravens Chapter said to have once been possessed by the famous Astra Militarum Colonel Argo Calder, who reclaimed the Feudal World of Calderis, located in the Aurelian Sub-sector of the Korianis Sector, after it had been lost to the Imperium for millennia. Colonel Calder had utilised this formidable armoured gauntlet to great effect against the numerous indigenous creatures native to the newly-rediscovered world. Calder would go on to conquer the planet and become the founder of the planetary capital city of Argus. The Blood Ravens have recruited neophytes from this world for millennia.Hand of Rage - A unique Terminator Power Fist of the Blood Angels' 5th Company, the Chapter's official histories say that this Chapter relic was forged in honour of the righteous rage of the pure against the Ruinous Powers, but others whisper that this formidable relic was actually named for the Black Rage, the genetic curse of sanguinary wrath that is inherent in the Blood Angels' gene-seed.Hate of the Xenos - This unique Plasma Pistol once belonged to the Chapter hero Trythios, the first Blood Raven to be seconded to the Deathwatch, the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos. Though few records exist in regards to this legendary warrior, what is known with any certainty is that he took his Plasma Pistol with him. When he returned to the Chapter after the completion of his tenure with the Long Watch, he spoke little of his time amongst this secretive group of elite xenos hunters. Since that time, Hate of the Xenos has always accompanied a Blood Raven that is seconded to the Deathwatch.Herald of the Coming Doom - A unique Astartes Bolt Pistol that was utilised against Traitoris Militarum troops during the Dark Crusade on Kronus. Though there are few details within the Chapter's records, a fragment from a journal written by a trooper of the 102nd Company of the 1st Kronus Liberators described a Bolt Pistol that made a distinctive sound, "The sound of doom itself stalking our men."Ironfist - A notorious Power Fist that possesses a decidedly sketchy reputation amongst the Chapter. Those that wielded this unique relic are instructed by the Chapter's Techmarines with a specific activation prayer, for the reason that one can never completely be confident whether or not this weapon's power field will remain functioning during an extended campaign.Judgement of the Khan - A unique Power Axe that was utilised by Sergeant Brocus of the Blood Ravens 6th Company while fighting against an Ork WAAAGH! during the 39th Millennium. It is said that Brocus emulated the White Scars Chapter, adopting their trademark lightning fast hit-and-run tactics against the Orks. Using his personally crafted weapon, he named it in honour of the White Scars' Primarch Jaghatai Khan.Lamentation of Heretics - This unique Plasma Gun and Chapter relic is inscribed with the phrase, "Suffer not the unclean to live," along its grip in High Gothic.The Lion's Roar - A unique Heavy Bolter and Chapter relic named in honour of the Dark Angels' fierce Primarch Lion El'Jonson, the bolts sprayed in an unrelenting barrage of death are said to represent the fury of the Lion at the betrayals committed by his former brother primarchs during the Horus Heresy.Lucian's Rod - Lucian's Rod is a specially master-crafted Astartes Force Staff. Lucian was a legendary hero of the Blood Ravens, who some claim could not channel his prodigious psychic powers through any normal Force Weapon. He had a special Force Staff crafted for his use, a weapon which amplified his talents ten-fold. He perished in single combat against a mighty Daemon Prince, but his dying blows banished the foul creature back to the Warp.Mephitic Perdition of Flies - A unique relic Power Fist of the former Death Guard Legion Astartes Solun Decius lost during the opening days of the Horus Heresy during the early 31st Millennium. Solun Decius was a member of the 7th Great Company, fated to be aboard the frigate Eisenstein during the Isstvan III Atrocity. When his commander, Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro seized the vessel, they fled into the Warp in an attempt to carry a warning to the Emperor on Terra of Horus' perfidy. During their sojourn through the Warp, Solun Decius was stabbed by a Plague Knife by one of the reanimated corpses of his former traitorous brethren and was infected with Nurgle's Rot. He attempted to stem the corruption by cutting off his own arm which was encased within a Power Fist. This armoured gauntlet was long thought lost, but was recovered ten millennia later in the Aurelian Sub-sector by the Blood Ravens Chapter during the Second Aurelian Crusade. Though this archaic relic is still a potent and formidable weapon, it is thoroughly corrupted with the malefic power of Nurgle.Ork Crusher - A unique Dreadnought-sized Power Fist made famous through the actions of Revered Ancient Callum upon the world of Storm Reach, when he utilised this brutal close combat weapon to deadly effectiveness, when he crushed a surfacing Ork submersible and every Ork within, killing them all.Ork Killer - A unique Bolt Pistol that was utilised by the famed Chapter marksman Scout Sergeant Elias, who once used this sidearm to kill 100 Orks after his Sniper Rifle was severely damaged in combat. After this battle, Elias chose to leave the Scout Company to join an Assault Squad, and kept this pistol with him.Pistol of Baal - A unique Mark III Bolt Pistol, this relic has the trademark bloody teardrop of the Blood Angels stamped upon the pistol's grip. The Chapter's records indicate that this weapon was acquired during a ceremonial exchange of arms between themselves and the Blood Angels in the 37th Millennium, though oddly, the Blood Angels possess no records of such an exchange.Prized of the Iron Wolf - A unique Power Axe recognised for its formidable abilities by Space Wolves Iron Priest Bjorkstein when he accompanied the Blood Ravens Chapter during a campaign upon the world of Kading Prime to purge it of the xenos presence of Aeldari Exodites.Purge of Victory Bay - A unique Heavy Bolter named in honour of the Blood Ravens' victorious campaign during the Dark Crusade on Kronus against Traitoris Militarum. It is said that the Blood Ravens believe this to have been an ignominious campaign, and this Heavy Bolter is said to have an evil reputation. Some claim that the death cries of the fallen guardsmen can be heard when the weapon is fired.Purifier of Tombs - A unique Plasma Gun and Chapter relic utilised by Battle-Brother Damon of the Blood Ravens' 4th Company while accompanying Davian Thule during the Dark Crusade on Kronus during the attack on the Necron catacombs hidden beneath the Thur'Abis Plateau. Later on, as a sergeant, Damon wielded this same weapon during the Kaurava Campaign.Rending Might - This unique Mark IIc Astartes Power Fist was once wielded by the Chapter hero Trythos. Though the Chapter was unable to recover the lost Terminator Armour of this legendary warrior, his armoured gauntlet was recovered and is still wielded by the Chapter's heroes.Rising Fury - A unique Bolt Pistol said to have been fabricated by the Chapter's master artificer Isaak Jordanos who engraved prayers of rage and zeal along its barrel.Righteous Wisdom - A unique Astartes bolter that was formerly used by the great Chapter Librarian Sunnis, and is said to be imbued with the dead Librarian's great wisdom.Scourge of Xenos - A unique Heavy Bolter which formally belonged to Sergeant Brin, who was seconded to the Deathwatch, the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos. When he finally returned to the Chapter, his weapon had seen much combat against the various xenos of the galaxy, and had received the blessings of three different Inquisitors.Scourging Fury - This unique Astartes Plasma Gun and Chapter relic is equipped with an advanced cooling system that makes it far more deadly to the Blood Ravens' enemies, for it is not prone to dangerously overheating like most Imperial Plasma Weapons.Snarl of the Wolf - The unique chainsword known as the Snarl of the Wolf takes its name from the distinctive sound it makes when activated, likened to that of a hungry, snarling wolf. This Chapter relic first saw service during the Cleansing of the Jameson Reach, where the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company deployed to reclaim a world that had emerged near the edge of the Warp rift known as the Maelstrom after millennia of being isolated by Warp storms.Stalwart Blade of Champions - This unique Power Sword is traditionally wielded by a Company Champion or Chapter Champion. When chosen for this sacred duty, the Blood Raven entrusted with this Chapter relic recites the traditional oath: "Never shall I falter in carrying out His will."Stalwart Companion - A unique Astartes Bolt Pistol whose use is attributed to the Imperial Fists hero Captain Galen, who was attributed as saying, "Only death may separate me from my sidearm." Where or how the Blood Ravens acquired this relic is not mentioned in the Chapter's archives.Tartarus - A unique chainsword, Tartarus was once wielded by Sergeant Matiel against the foul Orks when the Blood Ravens fought against the Greenskin infestation of the world of Tartarus. To commemorate his Chapter's inevitable victory, Matiel had the name Tartarus engraved into the sword's guard. Though Matiel would later perish during that hard-fought campaign, the sword would go on to continue serving the Chapter.Terror of Xenos - A unique Astartes bolter and Chapter relic said to have the words, "Let all xenos tremble before the Angels of Death," inscribed on its grip in High Gothic.Unforgiving Truth - A unique master-crafted bolter fabricated by the famous Chapter artificer Isaak Jordanos, it is said to be named for the Emperor's holy truth, which destroys all lies. Others whisper that the weapon's true name is Unforgiven Truth.Wisdom - A unique Power Sword formerly wielded by Captain Davian Thule, this relic's stewardship was later passed on to Sergeant Aramus during the Aurelian Crusades. |
Blood Ravens - Chapter Colours: The Blood Ravens primarily wear dark red power armour with weathered cream shoulder pauldrons trimmed in black. The Aquila or Imperialis on the chest is black.The black squad tactical specialty symbol -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command -- is indicated on the right shoulder plate. A white High Gothic numeral centred on the squad specialty symbol indicates squad number.The colour of the right knee plate indicates company number in accordance with the Codex Astartes -- i.e. white (1st Company), yellow (2nd Company), red (3rd Company), etc. |
Blood Ravens - Chapter Badge: The Blood Ravens' Chapter badge is a silhouetted raven in flight as seen from above, incorporated with a stylised drop of blood within.Because of their name and badge, it was once theorised that the Blood Ravens were a Successor Chapter of either the Blood Angels or the Raven Guard, but both of these suppositions have been denied by Games Workshop. |
Blood Ravens - Possible Thousand Sons Origins: Please Note: The following is informed speculation based on the sources, and is NOT recognised as canon.The Blood Ravens' dark secret may be that they have descended not from one of the Loyalist First Founding Chapters but from the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion, as before the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero was destroyed by the Space Wolves during the Horus Heresy, the XV Legion sent a portion of their forces far from their homeworld in their Legion fleet.These Astartes were not transported to the Eye of Terror under the deal their Primarch Magnus the Red made with the Chaos God Tzeentch to save the Legion's lives in return for their service to the Changer of Ways. This would mean that the Blood Ravens Chapter is not actually a Successor Chapter but is technically a remnant of one of the First Founding Legions, though with a dark and tainted past.In the book Dawn of War: Ascension, it is revealed that the ancestors of the Blood Ravens built a recruiting world on top of an ancient Necron outpost during the Horus Heresy, with the help of the Craftworld Aeldari. The two races worked in unison, using Aeldari psychic disciplines and wards to lock the Necron force lying beneath the sands in psychic stasis. The Horus Heresy-era Space Marines were then tasked with protecting this outpost by the Aeldari, to seal in the Necron threat, but they mysteriously abandoned it.It was left unrecorded in Imperial logs until the Blood Ravens rediscovered it. The Craftworld Aeldari mistook the Blood Ravens for being one and the same as the Heresy-era Space Marines, as they too wore similar red power armour, which was also the colour of the pre-Heresy Thousand Sons Astartes' power armour before their corruption by Chaos.The psychic lock the Space Marines placed on the Necrons shows that the Astartes of that time could not have already been Blood Angels, and the Thousand Sons share a bond with the Blood Ravens because both groups of Space Marines are defined by the development of unusually strong psychic powers among their battle-brothers after their gene-seed implantation.In the novel Battle for the Abyss, Mhotep, a Thousand Sons Legion psyker, whilst fighting the Daemon Wsoric aboard the starship Wrathful, responded to the Daemon's question of what did the entities of the Warp have to fear from the Emperor with the response, "Knowledge...is power," suggesting a connection to the Blood Ravens (pg. 396). Since the Daemon had been manifested in realspace for so long, Mhotep was able to destroy its physical form and banish it back to the Warp before he died of his many wounds.In the novel A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill, a vision is seen by the Remembrancer and historiographer Kallista Eris describing a future image of blood and a raven, and a Remembrancer psyker attached to the Thousand Sons has a vision of "...The Ravens, I see them too! The lost sons and a Raven of Blood. They cry out for salvation and knowledge, but it is denied!" (pg. 430) This may imply that the Blood Ravens are descended from the Thousand Sons' gene-seed. At the same time, one of the four arcane cults of Librarians that comprised the pre-Heresy Thousand Sons Legion was called the Corvidae (the Latin name for ravens and crows), and whose symbol was a black raven's head, thus making it possible that the Blood Ravens were Thousand Sons Astartes who largely belonged to the Corvidae Cult.Kallista not only predicted the future destruction of the Thousand Sons' ancient homeworld of Prospero at the Space Wolves' hands, but she may also have described the eventual formation of the Loyalist Blood Ravens. During her final psychic episode, Kallista also screamed out in anguish about the "ravens of blood", and that they were "lost, crying out for their unknown father." In her death throes she declared that they would be defined by their need to "seek knowledge and artefacts of old", which is an important activity often pursued by the Blood Ravens, particularly in their search to learn more about their own origins.Since the Blood Ravens are a fleet-based Chapter, it is possible that they descended from those Astartes aboard the Thousand Sons' own armada before they were forced to flee Prospero, which Magnus the Red had ordered to the far ends of the galaxy so that the Space Wolves could purge Prospero without having to face the Thousand Sons' fleet. The Thousand Sons Space Marines aboard that armada were also never transported by the will of Tzeentch through the Warp with Magnus and the planetside Astartes to the Planet of the Sorcerers in the Eye of Terror, as they were far beyond the edge of Thousand Sons space and were not affected by the internecine fighting.In the anthology Age of Darkness, the short story Rebirth by Chris Wraight revolves around a squad of Thousand Sons Space Marines that return to their devastated homeworld of Prospero after the sanctioned Scouring of Prospero carried out by Primarch Leman Russ and his Space Wolves. After the Council of Nikaea, and the rebukement of Magnus the Red, a recall order was transmitted throughout the Legion, with the bulk of the Legion being present on Prospero just before the events surrounding the Fall of Prospero happened.However, some of the Thousand Sons' Astartes had survived as they had not arrived before these events occurred. This would include those Thousand Sons that had been sent away aboard their Legion's fleet elements such as Captain Menes Kalliston of the 4th Fellowship. Six solar months after the sanctioned action against their Legion, Captain Kalliston led a squad of battle-brothers to the ravaged surface of their homeworld to seek for any signs of survivors or their beloved primarch. Instead, the squadron of Thousand Sons are taken by surprise when they encounter a much larger force of World Eaters who are also on Prospero for their own nefarious reasons.In the ensuing conflagration, the majority of the squadron is killed, and their captain is captured by none other than the infamous Captain Khârn of the World Eaters' 8th Assault Company and Equerry to Primarch Angron. Only Revuel Arvida, a Sergeant of the 4th Fellowship and a member of the Corvidae Cult, manages to survive. Like all Corvidae, Arvida is skilled in the psychic discipline of precognition and the determination of the likely probabilities of future events. Despite his bleak circumstances, Arvida knew -- as only a Corvidae could know -- that death would not find him on Prospero.That was no consolation for everything that had been lost, but at least it lent the task of planning his next move a certain urgency. He would survive and live to discover the true causes of his Legion's destruction, and live to fight them. He would neither pause nor stumble until everything had been revealed to him, everything that would give him a weapon to employ. He is quoted as saying, "Knowledge is power," suggesting another connection to the Blood Ravens (pg. 162). Ironically, the symbol of the Corvidae Cult's discipline is that of a black raven's head. Arvida would in time go one to become Janus, the first Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights, and the Blood Ravens are one of the only Chapters in the Imperium that the Grey Knight have allowed to know of their existence.In the novel Dawn of War: Tempest by C.S. Goto, during an incident on the world of Arcadia, a fabled library world of the elusive Harlequins, a Blood Ravens Librarian named Rhamah suffered amnesia and fell in with the notorious sorcerous Chaos warband, the Prodigal Sons, which at that time was led by the Exalted Sorcerer Ahzek Ahriman. During his time with the warband, Ahriman refers to the Blood Raven variously as "Son of Ahriman," "Friend of Ahriman" and as a "lost brother." Further evidence shows a link between the Thousand Sons and the Blood Ravens when Rhamah discovers an ancient Aeldari tome known as the Un-Founding, which mysteriously bears the crest of the Blood Ravens upon its cover.Ahriman acknowledges that he too, once owned a copy of this tome and that another one was in the possession of Azariah Vidya, Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens in the 37th Millennium. Ahriman states, "I knew Vidya better than you might expect.." He also states to Rhamah, "We are not so different, you and I. We were not always so different...there was a time, long ago, before the Change, when the Thousand Sons of Magnus wore the blood-red armour of their primarch." Though these clues are tantalizing, there is no further explanation given as to what many of these statements exactly mean. Also, it should also be noted that Ahriman, as a follower of Tzeentch, is a master of deceit and trickery, who might have been attempting to manipulate Rhamah to use the Blood Ravens Librarian for his own ends all along.Since the Blood Ravens were adopted as an official Chapter by Games Workshop following the introduction of the Dawn of War PC game, subtle hints have been given in a variety of sources that the Blood Ravens are actually a Loyalist Successor Chapter of the Thousand Sons. In particular, their unnaturally high number of Librarians and the Chapter's central focus on the pursuit of knowledge are very similar to the characteristics that once defined the Thousand Sons before their corruption by Chaos. Such a connection to a reviled Traitor Legion would also be a terrible dishonour and would explain why the Blood Ravens' genetic heritage may have been deliberately obscured from the Imperial record by the Chapter's founding generation of Astartes.Against this evidence is the word of the Games Workshop and Black Library author Laurie Golding who on the Tapatalk First Expedition Warhammer 40,000 message board explicitly refuted that the Blood Ravens were successors of the Thousand Sons. However, Golding offered no other evidence and it is not clear if the remark was made in jest. |
Blood Ravens - Sources: Adeptus Astartes: Successor Chapters (Limited Release Booklet), pg. 20Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pg. 59Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pg. 59Deathwatch: Honour the Chapter (RPG), pp. 26-33, 129White Dwarf 295 (US), "Index Astartes – Blood Ravens"White Dwarf 299 (AUS), "Index Astartes – Blood Ravens"White Dwarf 305 (UK), "Index Astartes – Blood Ravens"A Thousand Sons (Novel) (Digital Edition) by Graham McNeill, pg. 204Age of Darkness (Anthology), "Rebirth" by Chris WraightDawn of War (Novel) by C.S. GotoDawn of War: Ascension (Novel) by C.S. GotoDawn of War: Tempest (Novel) by C.S. GotoDawn of War: The Trials of Isador (Short Story) by C.S.GotoDawn of War II (Novel) by Chris RobersonDawn of War - Winter Assault (PC Game)Dawn of War - Soulstorm (PC Game)Dawn of War - Dark Crusade (PC Game)Dawn of War II (PC Game)Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising (PC Game)Dawn of War II - Retribution (PC Game)Dawn of War III (PC Game)Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III (4 Issue Comic Series) (2018)White Dwarf 35 (July 2019), "Index Astartes - Blood Ravens", "Raven's Blood", pp. 18-33Tapatalk The First Expedition Warhammer 40,000 Message Board - Laurie Golding's Refutation of Blood Ravens' Thousand Sons ancestry |
Blood Reaper - Blood Reaper: The Blood Reaper is a Daemon Engine used by the Forces of Chaos that is completely dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed, Khorne. The Blood Reaper is a large, towering Daemon Engine that is literally bristling with weapons. The machine is armed with a battery of four Tower Guns mounted upon its central tower, and these weapons blaze with continuous salvos of destruction and the two heavier uppermost cannons, known as Skull Cannons, can blast apart armoured vehicles with contemptuous ease.Any opponent that is lucky enough to survive the Blood Reaper's withering salvos of heavy munitions is overrun and impaled upon the vehicle's mighty scythes or crushed beneath its giant wheels of death. While in combat Blood Reapers ofter rumble steadily forwards over a broad front, leaving behind them a trail of smashed and blasted remnants in their wake. |
Blood Rite (Novella) - Blood Rite (Novella): Blood Rite is a novella published in the Space Marine Heroes series. |
Blood Rite (Novella) - Synopsis: Once an idyllic Imperial Shrine World, the planet of Luminata has been corrupted by an ancient and hated foe, its inhabitants driven to madness and butchery by the demagogues of the Word Bearers. The Heretic Astartes have come in force to desecrate the holy world and its most sacred treasure: the chalice of Sanguinius, bequeathed to the people of Luminata by the primarch's own hand. Such an affront cannot be borne, and Blood Angels Captain Donato and his archangels descend on the world, determined to cleanse the stain of the Traitors.However, the Word Bearers are not the only threat to the noble warriors, for with each step towards the stronghold of Dark Apostle Tur Zalak, the siren song of the Black Rage grows stronger. Caught between the blades of the enemy and the flaw in their blood, only by recovering the chalice and killing the Heretics will the angels themselves be saved. |
Blood Scythes - Blood Scythes: Blood ScythesSpace MarineChapterPrimaris Space MarinesBlood AngelsUltima Founding |
Blood Scythes - Chapter History: The Blood Scythes' first campaigns were in the Red Scar, having been united with their brother Chapters of Sanguinius' lineage after Roboute Guilliman and the Indomitus Crusade brought Primaris Marines to the Blood Angels' homeworld during the Devastation of Baal.The Blood Scythes have swiftly embraced the Blood Angels' traditions and have rapidly earned a name for themselves as warriors of honour, upholding Sanguinius' codes with the zeal of the newly converted. |
Blood Scythes - Notable Campaigns: Battle of Acrabellar (Unknown Date.M42) - An ongoing battle of the wider Angel's Halo campaign, the Blood Scythes fought to save the Shrine World of Acrabellar from an invasion by the splinters of Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Blood Angels, Blood Scythes, Cruor Blades and Flesh Eaters are defending the Shrine World, with the spiritual well-being of several sub-sectors depending on its survival. |
Blood Scythes - Chapter Colours: The Blood Scythes primarily wear white power armour with black shoulder pauldron trim. The Aquila or Imperialis on the chest plate is red.Like their progenitors, the Blood Scythes also utilise the same unique blood drop heraldry to designate company number, which is indicated on the right shoulder pauldron.The left shoulder pauldron displays the Chapter's iconography.The heraldry on the left knee plate indicates squad designation. |
Blood Scythes - Chapter Badge: The Blood Scythes' Chapter badge is a stylised black scythe with a single, red droplet of blood falling from it, centred on a field of white. |
Blood Slaughterer - Blood Slaughterer: The Blood Slaughterer, also known as the Blood Slaughterer of Khorne, is a large, gore-splattered Daemon Engine made of brass and black iron that is dedicated to the service of the Chaos God Khorne.The Blood Slaughterer is a Daemon Engine, a possessed war machine created with the single purpose of wreaking carnage on the enemy with unnatural Warp-spawned resilience and power.The Blood Slaughterer is one of the most recent incarnations of the ancient Slaughterer Daemon Engine variety that has been encountered by the Imperium since the Horus Heresy.The Blood Slaughterer is a savage and near uncontrollable Daemon Engine, as during battle it rends and kills with such indiscriminate fury that the Warp-spawned forces that empower the armoured chassis of the beast must lay empty and dormant between battles, or the daemonic monster will slaughter its own allies, as the Blood Slaughterer does not care who it kills, so long as bodies are torn asunder in Khorne's name.The empty chassis is brought back to unholy life by gore-filled rituals on the eve of conflict, and only then can the burning runes and cold iron fetters that bind the Daemonic Warp energies be loosed and the creature unleashed to slay and sow havoc in the Blood God's name. |
Blood Slaughterer - History: Although knowledge of the Blood Slaughterer has been long suppressed and purged from most historical accounts by the Inquisition, there remain records of these monstrosities that can be found deep within the sealed archives of the Grey Knights on Titan and in the sacred canticles of the Adeptus Astartes.The Blood Slaughterer, recorded justly as the "slaughtering engines of Khorne," ranked among the most terrible enemies the Imperium can face on the battlefield. The first true Slaughterers were encountered during the Horus Heresy by the Loyalist Space Marine Legions, and were thought to be a savage outgrowth of the more common Dreadnought walkers used by the Legions.The first Slaughterers were known as Berzerker Dreadnoughts for this reason and were optimised for close combat assaults and as line breaking units. These were modified from standard patterns to be larger and swifter than their more common counterparts, and employed near suicidal charges into the heart of enemy lines. Their use by the World Eaters Legion is stated in some apocryphal sources in fact to pre-date the Heresy itself in some form, and such was the savage reputation of this Legion even before its fall this may likely have been true. |
Blood Slaughterer - In the 41st Millennium: In the millennia that followed the Horus Heresy, war machines identified or reported under the designation "Slaughterer," showing a wide variety in size, configuration, and power if not role, were encountered in many different war zones, most near the Eye of Terror. There have also been sightings of the beasts during the fall of the Sabbat Worlds to the forces of Chaos and as far away as the southern galactic fringe uprisings.It was not, however, until the First War for Armageddon in 499.M41 that the Slaughterer was seen again in great numbers. In this nightmarish conflict, the most ancient and feared dread enemy of Mankind, the Daemon Primarch Angron, led his forces in an attack on the vital Hive World of Armageddon.For the first time since the Horus Heresy, the Slaughterer, now reincarnated in a dark fusion of technology and the touch of the Blood God, crashed in unstoppable waves against the beleaguered defenders of the world, bellowing horrific war cries as they slaughtered their way across the planet. They ripped through anything, flesh or steel that opposed them, savage and berserk, drowning the streets of Armageddon's hive cities in a red tide of butchery and death.Since that first dark conflict on Armageddon the Slaughterer Daemon Engine, appearing in several now recognised variants, has been encountered once more in ever increasing numbers, particularly in the hands of the World Eaters and their fractious successors.One of the latest sightings, during the Siege of Vraks, saw the deployment of the so-called "Blood Slaughterer," a scuttling multi-legged walker variant adorned with a profusion of barbs, cutting instruments, and ripping Chain Weapons.The Blood Slaughterer was perhaps the second-most numerous form of Daemon Engine encountered during the entire conflict, only after the much more common Defiler. During the conflict the Blood Slaughterer was unleashed on the battlefield as an extremely effective shock assault unit.It is surmised by the savants of the Ordo Malleus that Blood Slaughterers are constructed, or otherwise called into being, by the artifice of the Dark Magi of the Hell-Forge of Sarum -- the source of the legend of the Killing Star.They bear a clear resemblance to the greater Brass Scorpions of Khorne, yet Inquisitors and savants know not to rely on mere appearance when attempting to comprehend anything about the workings of Chaos. Brass Scorpions are almost certainly higher-order daemons of Khorne given physical, albeit mechanical, form by the rituals of the Dark Magi.Blood Slaughterers, however, appear to be machines constructed for the purpose of binding a daemon inside their shell. Unlike the Brass Scorpion, the body of the Blood Slaughterer has also been observed to mount a containment vessel thought to contain the bound essence of a daemon of the Warp. |
Blood Slaughterer - Variants: The Blood Slaughterer has several known variants, which include:Slaughterer - The Slaughterer is the original "slaughtering engine of Khorne," dating back to the time of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. The Slaughterer was encountered in a myriad of shapes and configurations, from Chaos Berserker Dreadnoughts to wheeled beasts armed with a variety of weapons such as Heavy Bolters and a Lash of Khorne. These ancient variants are rarely encountered in the 41st Millennium, as the more common Blood Slaughterer has taken its place.Blood Slaughterer Impaler - The Blood Slaughterer Impaler is a minor variant of the Blood Slaughterer that replaces one of its Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons with a massive, Daemonically-possessed barbed harpoon weapon known as an Impaler that the creature can fire at enemy infantry and light vehicles to drag them closer to the beast, so that it can finish them off with its other weapons.Butcher Engine - The Butcher Engine is a rarer variant of the Blood Slaughterer. The Butcher Engine is exactly the same in appearance to the standard Blood Slaughterer, the only difference being the daemon inhabiting the creature's armoured chassis. The Butcher Engine is bound to a more powerful daemonic spirit than normal, one that is able to exert some control over other Blood Slaughterers, and is used to lead them into battle, and urge them on to ever greater amounts of carnage. |
Blood Slaughterer - Armament: The Blood Slaughterer walks on four sets of dual-bladed limbs, each containing built-in Chain Weapons. These legs are fully capable of tearing infantry apart as well as giving the beast great speed and agility, even possessing the ability to climb up near-vertical surfaces.The creature also has a set of primary limbs, where its main weapons are attached. The Blood Slaughterer is normally equipped with two Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons that take the form of giant Power Cleavers.The Blood Slaughterer can also have one of its Power Cleavers replaced with an Impaler, a massive, daemonically-possessed barbed harpoon weapon that the creature can fire at enemy infantry and light vehicles to drag them closer to the beast, so that it can finish them off with its other weapons.The Impaler is only capable of dragging units and vehicles that are no bigger than the Blood Slaughterer itself. Blood Slaughterers armed with an Impaler are designated as Blood Slaughterer Impalers.The Blood Slaughterer operates in groups of three, and are guided into battle by a Butcher Engine, a Blood Slaughterer that has drenched in the gore of a thousand victims and within its thrice-warded binding a savage daemon of dreadful power and will lurks. Only the potent willpower of such a potent entity can master its fellows, directing them into battle and urging them on to ever greater amounts of slaughter. |
Blood Slaughterer - Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: Blood Slaughterer of KhorneVehicle Name:Blood SlaughtererMain Armament:2 arm-mounted Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons (Power Cleaver)Forge World of Origin:UnknownSecondary Armament:8 leg-mounted Chain WeaponsKnown Patterns:UnknownTraverse:360 degreesCrew:N/A (Possessed)Elevation:-90 to 90 degreesPowerplant:Unknown (Warp-Powered)Main Ammunition:N/AWeight:UnknownSecondary Ammunition:N/ALength:5.4 metres (approx.)Armour:Width:8.8 metres (approx.)Height:4.4 metres (approx.)Superstructure:UnknownGround Clearance:1.1 metres (approx.)Hull:UnknownMax Speed On-Road:UnknownGun Mantlet:N/AMax Speed Off-Road:UnknownVehicle Designation:8484-074-2787-RESTRICTEDTransport Capacity:N/AFiring Ports:N/AAccess Points:N/ATurret:N/A |
Blood Slaughterer - Sources: Black Crusade: The Tome of Blood (RPG), pp. 116-117Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pp. 34, 154-156, 211Imperial Armour Apocalypse II, pg. 64Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost & The Damned by Andy Hoare with Alan Bligh & Neil Wylie, pp. 121-123Only War: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 354White Dwarf 153 (UK), "The World Eaters: Chaos Space Marines - The Blood Slaughterer: Daemonic Robot of Khorne," pp. 4-10Forge World Webstore: Blood SlaughtererForge World Webstore: Blood Slaughterer Impaler |
Blood Storm - Blood Storm: The Blood Storm was a warband of Chaos Space Marines of unknown origin or Founding. Little else is known about this particular warband in official Imperial records. Recently, they took part in the Cholercaust Blood Crusade in the 41st Millennium. |
Blood Storm - Notable Campaigns: Cholercaust Blood Crusade (Unknown Date.M41) - The Blood Storm joined the massive Khornate force known as the Cholercaust which followed the path of the Keeler Comet and brought war and ruin to the worlds in its path. The Cholercaust Blood Crusade was finally stopped by a small coalition of Imperial forces on the Cemetery World of Certus-Minor. The Blood Storm and other Traitor Marines took to the field under the command of Chaos Lord Umbragg of the World Eaters and participated in the final attack on Obsequa City. The Cholercaust suffered a total defeat and all in its ranks were slain, including those of the Blood Storm present, by the mysterious Legion of the Damned. |
Blood Storm - Chapter Colours: The Blood Storm's warband colours are not currently recorded in Imperial records. |
Blood Storm - Chapter Badge: The Blood Storm's warband badge is not currently recorded in Imperial records. |
Blood Swords - Blood Swords: The Blood Swords is a Codex Astartes-compliant Loyalist Space Marine Chapter that was created using the gene-seed of the Blood Angels. The Blood Swords' Founding date is not known.The Blood Swords' homeworld is the planet Jaggafall.The Chapter is unique among the Space Marines in that for a time its former Chapter Master, Daggan, was actually a Venerable Dreadnought. |
Blood Swords - Chapter History: Currently, the Blood Swords have joined with the Star Dragons Chapter to travel the wastes of space near the Eye of Terror in a joint containment fleet designated Containment Fleet Kappa.For centuries prior to their deployment to the Balanor System to investigate the mysterious Space Hulk called the Accursed Eternity, these two Chapters had frequently joined forces when a given situation demanded it. The close proximity of their homeworlds of Jaggafall and Draconith had given them great reason to remain cordial and closely allied.Sometime in its recent history the Blood Swords Chapter was torn from its homeworld. This act of shame resulted in the Chapter undertaking a Penitent Crusade in order to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Emperor of Mankind.In the wake of the act of shame that saw the Blood Swords torn from their homeworld, the Star Dragons had moved to support them. There had been no question of debt or honour on the Star Dragons' part. This reciprocal act of loyalty engendered a rare sense of genuine fraternity between the two Chapters that more commonly is confined only to Battle-Brothers of the same Chapter.There was a pooling of similar traditions and history, and this gave rise to surprisingly strong friendships that spanned the Chapters. Additionally, both the Blood Swords and the Star Dragons fielded stalwart warriors with an eye for tactics that made them a terrifying force to be reckoned with when they took to the field of battle together. |
Blood Swords - Notable Campaigns: Purging of Inando System (845.M41) - The Blood Swords Chapter carried out the purging of the Inando System in 845.M41 in which more than 100 billion Imperial citizens were slain in the resulting Exterminatus actions.Assault on the Accursed Eternity (998.M41) - The joint Blood Swords-Star Dragons Containment Fleet Kappa was requested by Inquisitor Shadrach Remigius of the Ordo Malleus to come to the Balanor System to assist the forces of the Inquisition against a Chaos warfleet. Remigius ordered the containment fleet to immediately comply since it was the closest Adeptus Astartes force in proximity. There had been a reported sighting of a Space Hulk matching the description in Imperial archives of the legendary ghost ship called the Accursed Eternity. Manifesting from the Warp, the small Astartes fleet was instantly caught up in the very heart of the battle that raged between the Chaos warships and those of the Inquisition. Two of Kappa's small Escort vessels were incapacitated instantly by the guns of the Ordo Malleus ships, merely by dint of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Furious words from both Imperial parties were exchanged. The Inquisition had not been expecting the Containment Fleet to arrive with such alacrity, they claimed, and conversely, Kappa had not anticipated translating from Warpspace directly into a battle-zone. With obvious reluctance, the Inquisition ships altered their position and held fire long enough to allow the Star Dragon's Strike Cruiser, the Ladon, and the Blood Sword's flagship, the Ophidian, to take position and lend much-needed supporting fire. The Ladon opened up every gun port on her port side and unleashed a barrage of deadly fire on the Traitor vessels, but in the midst of this barrage they received a security-coded message from the Inquisition, ordering them not to fire on the anomalous vessel. Inquisitor Remigius presented himself aboard the Ladon to the Containment Fleet's commander, Captain Tanek, of the Star Dragon's 6th Company. Remigius sought an armed escort from the Astartes, for he intended to travel to the Accursed Eternity and deal with the moral threat it presented. He explained that the Accursed Eternity was not just another random Space Hulk drifting through space but possessed a much darker origin and a cursed history. He told the Astartes commanders that it was imperative for him to reach the ship's Enginarium in order for him to perform an exorcism rite to banish the daemon-possessed vessel back to the Immaterium from whence it came. But the Astartes did not fully trust the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, suspecting that he was withholding some of the facts from them. To add to the tension between the two parties, the Star Dragons appeared to have some sort of unspoken debt owed to the Ordo Malleus that the Inquisitor was only too keen to hold over the Chapter's heads. Unable to refuse the Inquisitor's request, Captain Tanek reluctantly provided him with two Claws (squads) to support his mission. The Blood Swords' Captain Khorvash agreed to send one of his own squads in support of his fellow Astartes. As the Inquisitor and the Astartes investigated the lifeless derelict, something ancient and evil awakened aboard the Space Hulk. The ship was not what it appeared to be, as the living vessel deliberately led mysterious Warp-spawned creatures and daemons to attack the interlopers within its dark corridors. When Remigius and his escort finally reached their destination to confront the ancient evil controlling the dread ship, the Inquisitor boldly attempted to send the daemon back into the Warp using the incantations of an Inquisition exorcism rite. Unfortunately for Remigius, the Ordo Malleus misidentified the source of the evil as a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch known as Kairos Fateweaver -- the Architect of Fate. But in truth the evil at the heart of the Accursed Eternity was not the Architect of Fate but an unidentified evil that Fateweaver had imprisoned aboard the Accursed Eternity long ago. Remigius paid for his mistake with his life. Unable to destroy the daemon through conventional means, the remaining Astartes fled for their lives. As they attempted to exit the cursed ship, the Accursed Eternity seemed to come to life and attempted to stop them from leaving. When the Space Marine survivors finally managed to extricate themselves from the vessel with heavy casualties, both of the Containment Fleet Kappa Strike Cruisers, as well as their Escort fleet of Destroyers and Frigates, opened fire simultaneously in a relentless stream of ordnance across space, striking the daemon-ship with unerring accuracy. Though the vessel appeared to have been destroyed, the Astartes fleet was unable to detect a Warp-core breach signature to verify that the Daemon-ship had actually disintegrated. It was more than likely that the Accursed Eternity had only been temporarily banished back to the Warp. In time the dreaded vessel would likely return to the material universe once again.Scions of Sanguinius Conclave (999.M41) - Teetering on the brink of oblivion following the events on the Shrine World of Sabien, the fate of the Blood Angels Chapter now required the magnanimity of their Successor Chapters. Lord Commander Dante summoned all of the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters for a conclave on Baal following the near-disastrous Chapter civil war that nearly tore the Blood Angels apart. Dante called for the support of the Blood Angels Successors to help aid the Chapter in the protection of their common primarch's homeworld and his remains from the attack of both the Tyranids and the forces of Chaos. While Dante led the discussion at the conclave, the Apothecaria was working on a radical new procedure to replenish the ranks of the Blood Angels in one swift stroke: the lost art of replicae. Caecus was the Chief Apothecary or Apothecae Majoris of the Blood Angels. Disturbed by the dwindling numbers of his Chapter, and dreading its extinction, he was involved in fruitless experiments, which Lord Commander Dante ordered stopped, to clone Space Marines, thus eliminating the need to go through the arduous process of the maturation and implantation of the gene-seed in an Aspirant. However, Caecus disobeyed the order and secretly continued the experiments, prodded by an agent of the vile Chaos Space Marine Apothecary Fabius Bile. He was tricked into bringing Bile, who was disguised as a well-known Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Biologis, to Baal, mistakenly thinking the false "Magos" would help in cloning Space Marines to increase the Blood Angels' numbers. Through Bile's manipulations, Caecus was duped, and only managed to create monstrous, mutant clone-Astartes known as "Bloodfiends" who were consumed by the Red Thirst. These creatures were a shattered mirror reformed in the image of a Blood Angel, but lacked any of the qualities that could be thought of as human. The mutations that cursed the gene-seed of the Blood Angels had been enhanced by the machinations and Chaotic tech-heresy of Fabius Bile, and with each drop of blood they consumed, the thirst that dominated the Bloodfiends grew stronger. The mutants broke free from the confines of Caecus' laboratorium and began to run rampant through the sacred halls of the fortress-monastery of the Blood Angels. The Blood Swords, along with the Blood Angels and their fellow Successors successfully defended their most sacred of sites on Baal -- the Golden Sarcophagus of Sanguinius within the sacred sepulchre where the Great Angel lay for all time, sleeping in light, forever preserved. The Sons of Sanguinius destroyed the horde of mutants and erased the stain of Chaos from their midst. They had paid for the continued sanctity of the Great Angel with their blood, and in the aftermath of this misery, Lord Commander Dante took responsibility for what had happened and he accepted it without complaint. Dante believed that it was his hubris that had brought the Chapter to this dark place. The Successor Chapters took this into consideration as well as Lord Commander Dante's original request for the Successors to grant the Blood Angels a small tithe of their Chapter's Initiates in order to replenish the ranks of the Chapter. The Successor Chapters unanimously agreed to hand over to the Blood Angels some of their own Neophytes to help their ancestral Chapter rebuild its strength in the wake of the Chaos assault -- and in preparation for the oncoming assault by the Tyranids and the forces of Chaos.Devastation of Baal (ca. 999.M41) - The Blood Swords were among the forces deployed by the Blood Angels Successor Chapters to defend their parent Chapter's homeworld of Baal from an assault by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan. |
Blood Swords - Notable Blood Swords: Chapter Master Ercon - Ercon was the Chapter Master of the Blood Swords who replaced his predecessor Daggan just prior to the Devastation of Baal and led his brothers when they provided aid to the Blood Swords' parent Chapter during that siege of the Blood Angels' homeworld by Hive Fleet Leviathan.Venerable Dreadnought and Chapter Master Daggan - Daggan was the former Chapter Master of the Blood Swords and a Venerable Dreadnought. Badly wounded centuries ago, he was placed within the cybernetic coffin of a Space Marine Dreadnought. He was raised to serve as Chapter Master, an almost unique honour in the history of the Adeptus Astartes for a Dreadnought, because of his widely recognised wisdom and unparalleled tactical mastery. Daggan died on Baal, helping to defend the Blood Angels homeworld from an attack by the forces of Chaos and the Tyranids. Daggan was slain during the Defence of Baal when he was ripped apart and drained of blood by a Blood Angel mutant during the Blood Angels' last stand near the grave of Sanguinius in 999.M41.Captain Khorvash – Khorvash is the Blood Swords Captain assigned to command his Chapter's contribution to Containment Fleet Kappa. Khorvash is younger than his counterpart from the Star Dragon's 6th Company, Captain Tanek, by several decades and it is clear that he wears his youth proudly. Khorvash is known to treat psykers with due deference, albeit with the clear distrust always necessary towards those of a psychic bent. He at times displays an arrogance that has yet to be tempered by experience. He is smart and quite eager to engage the foe, and displays an enthusiasm born of pure impulse that leads him to frequently give voice to thoughts that others might consider inappropriate or tactless. To Captain Tanek's mind it is a refreshing honesty that serves him well. Yet, despite their shared rank, Khorvash always respectfully defers to the wisdom of the older warrior. Khorvash has been the latest Blood Swords captain to take his place amongst Containment Fleet Kappa. It is a duty that is performed on a rotational basis with each Blood Swords company captain expected to spend a preordained length of time serving aboard the Chapter's vessel Ophidian within the Containment Fleet. With no other immediate needs drawing upon their manpower, the Star Dragons opted to serve alongside their fellow Astartes out of choice and affection alone.Captain Essus - Captain Essus is a Captain of the Blood Swords and was among the Blood Swords sent to reinforce the Blood Angels during the Devastation of Baal. It is unknown whether he survived the subsequent siege by Hive Fleet Leviathan.Sergeant Ardashir - Like his captain, Khorvash, Ardashir seems to be an eager and energetic Astartes. He commanded the Blood Swords squad that escorted Inquisitor Remigius in his investigation of the mysterious ghost ship, the Accursed Eternity.Kayan - Kayan was a Blood Swords battle-brother who served under Sergeant Ardashir. He died aboard the Accursed Eternity. |
Blood Swords - Chapter Fleet: The following warships have been confirmed to be a part of the Blood Swords' Chapter fleet:Ophidian (Strike Cruiser) - The Ophidian was the Blood Swords' flagship in Containment Fleet Kappa which aided the Blood Angels in trying to defeat the bio-ships of Hive Fleet Leviathan during the Devastation of Baal. |
Blood Swords - Chapter Colours: The Blood Swords primarily wear crimson Power Armour which includes the armour trim as well as the Aquila or Imperialis on the chest guard.The left shoulder pauldron, which displays the Chapter badge, is white. Most unusual for a Blood Angels Successor Chapter is that the Blood Swords do not utilise the same heraldic symbols used by their progenitors to show company and squad designations.Instead of using the same heraldic symbols to represent squad specialty and number, they instead utilise the Codex Astartes-proscribed squad specialty symbols -- battleline, close support, fire support or Veteran -- which are black and located on the right shoulder pauldron.It is not known how the Blood Swords designate squad or company number, as there are no visual references. |
Blood Swords - Chapter Badge: The Blood Swords' Chapter badge is a red, double-edged sword with two drops of blood falling from the blade centered upon a field of white. |
Blood Swords - Canon Conflict: In the novel Red Fury by James Swallow, the Blood Swords are identified as a true successor of the Blood Angels. But in the 5th Edition Codex: Blood Angels it states they do not claim any genetic lineage to Sanguinius, though both the Blood Ravens and the Blood Swords may be Successor Chapters of the Blood Angels, as both share many cultural similarities with the descendants of the Great Angel. |
Blood Throne of Khorne - Blood Throne of Khorne: A Blood Throne of Khorne is a Daemon Engine in the form of a great chariot employed by the Daemons who serve the Blood God Khorne. It is usually driven by a powerful Herald of Khorne called a Rendmaster who stands high in its master's favour and is pulled by twin Bloodletters.Its appearance can dramatically enhance the morale and killing power of a legion of Khornate Daemons or mortal servants of the Blood God. The Blood Throne is a baleful echo of the mighty dais upon which Khorne himself resides within the Realm of Chaos.The Blood Throne is a terrifying Daemon Engine, armoured in brass and driven into battle by iron wheels that crush and mangle all who stand in its path. The blood carnage left in the engine's wake is all but obscured by the choking black cloud of acrid soul-smoke that billows from its exhausts.The screams of its victims are almost drowned out by the sounds of industry harnessed to battle -- the grinding of gears, the clanking of pistons and the roar of the daemon furnace. |
Blood Throne of Khorne - Role: The Blood Throne is a mark of status -- a physical manifestation of Khorne's own favour. No bastion of command is this, as perhaps such a throne would be in a mortal military force -- the Herald certainly does not attempt to direct the massed regiments of Bloodletters that fight in his shadow, for even when the tang of blood is not heavy on the air, Khorne's Daemons are resolutely driven in their pursuit of skulls and slaughter.Once the battle begins, their maniacal bloodlust reduces Bloodletters and Heralds of Khorne alike to maddened beasts, with no taste for the finer details of military tactics or strategy.Few can comprehend the countless acts of slaughter and atrocity that a Herald of Khorne must commit to earn its place upon a Blood Throne, for such profane gifts are not given lightly. Legend tells that each of the Blood Thrones is forged from a sliver of brass taken from the Blood God's own hallowed throne, infused with a fraction of his own ever-simmering fury.Whether or not these tales are true, it cannot be denied that the daemonic vessels bound to each engine are amongst the most prideful and vicious of all those in Khorne's service. None but the Heralds of Khorne known as Rendmasters possess the will to keep their murderous rage upon the leash.Standing atop the throne's pinnacle, a Rendmaster does not rest or repose as would another in his position, but prowls restlessly as his chariot advances, his eyes and tongue twitching madly as he anticipates his next killHigh in Khorne's favour, a Rendmaster embodies a locus of the Blood God's power, and his blessing ripples outward from the throne.So does a portion of Khorne's unbridled wrath become infused within the veins of nearby Daemons, lending ferocity to their blows and driving them into a maddened frenzy. Thus, a conflict fought in the Blood Throne's shadow is inevitably an example of battle at its hardest and most unforgiving.From atop his macabre perch, the Herald searches for those foes whose plundered skulls will make the most audacious offerings to the Blood God. Then the Herald spurs his Blood Throne forward, howling with unspeakable joy as he readies his Hellblade for the kill.When the Blood Throne arrives at the enemy lines, the hurtling mass of brass and spikes ploughs through entire formations, leaving only mangled flesh behind. The two Bloodletters and the Rendmaster atop the hellish engine are well practised at hacking down those that survive the impact.Such a sight can often cause a potential victim to turn tail and attempt to flee, but such desperate survival tactics rarely succeed, for the enemy is swiftly run to ground. Khorne cares naught from where the blood flows -- the death of a shamed warrior offers praise to the Lord of Murder just as surely as that of an honoured hero.With that said, whilst all blood is equal in Khorne's eyes, the skulls of the slain are not. Those of cowards are fed into the Blood Throne's baleful workings, consumed in fire to bring the Daemon Engine fresh vigour.Those taken from the truly valiant are claimed by the Herald and fused with the throne itself, eternal monuments to the futility of opposing the will of Khorne.In this way, the oldest Blood Thrones bear the skulls of Space Marine Chapter Masters, the Drukhari Archons of Commorragh and the Warbosses of the Ork race stacked side-by-side. |
Blood Throne of Khorne - Rendmaster: Blade of Blood |
Blood Throne of Khorne - Throne Attendants: Hellblade |
Blood Throne of Khorne - Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: The Ordo Malleus has not yet determined the technical specifications for this Daemon Engine, if such a thing is even possible. |
Blood Tigers - Blood Tigers: Blood TigersCodex AstartesSpace MarineChapterFoundingTryjon IIImperial |
Blood Tigers - Notable Campaigns: Woe of the Blood Tigers (899.M34) - Me'kallar the Insane was considered by Imperial scholars to be one of the most ferocious Defilers ever created. In 899.M34 it was at the forefront of a savage attempt to destroy the Blood Tigers Space Marine Chapter's Fortress-Spire on the jungle moon of Tryjon II. A warband fleet belonging to The Tormented erupted out of the Warp in a rapid deployment. Twenty Defilers were among the spearhead on the ground, including Me'kallar the Insane. The Daemon Engine burned great swathes through the forest so that the Tormented could bring their war to the foot of the fortress-monastery's outer walls. While the Blood Tigers were forced to focus their efforts on the horror below, Heldrakes tormented the structure further up the Fortress Spire. Gunfire raged through the skies while great gouts of blood and flame soaked the humid jungle down below. Only one foe from the Warp managed to breach the armoured walls, and that was Me'kallar. The Defiler wreaked havoc inside the fortress-monastery, crushing whole squads of Blood Tigers. Dreadnoughts finally reduced the Daemon Engine to smouldering wreckage, but not before it had caused significant damage. Only after Me'kallar's fall did the forces of the Tormented finally retreat into the Immaterium, and the Blood Tigers were left to count their dead. |
Blood Tigers - Chapter Colours: The Blood Tigers' Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Blood Tigers - Chapter Badge: The Blood Tigers' Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Blood Trinity - Blood Trinity: The Blood Trinity, originally called the Mataras System, is a star system dominated by three habitable worlds located within the Jericho Reach. It is the source of much of the manpower for the forces of Chaos within that contested region of space. |
Blood Trinity - History: Once known as the "Mataras Sisters" during the time of the lost Jericho Sector, this system was regarded as a jewel of the Imperium. The system supported four verdant and paradise-like Agri-worlds that served as a breadbasket for the planets of the sector's core.The onset of the sector's "Age of Shadows" heralded a slow descent into blasphemy for this system as, over time, the severed and abandoned Human populations embraced barbarity and the false promises of the Dark Gods to save themselves from the brutal predations of off-world slavers and the obscene hungers of the alien.In 920.M37, Mataras IV was subject to the final sanction of Exterminatus. This sanction was carried out by the Deathwatch in order to prevent a parasite-colony of the horrific Hadrus Skin-Weaver xenoform from spreading to neighbouring worlds.As the populations of the Mataras Sisters slowly succumbed to the worship of Chaos, they strove to outdo each other in savagery and slaughter. The three surviving worlds of Mataras became known as the "Blood Trinity," thriving on violence and fighting unceasingly amongst themselves for the favour of their gods, united only against anything foolish enough to attempt their conquest from without.The Deathwatch has long suspected that the warlike natives of the Blood Trinity were chosen as a harvesting ground for fresh recruits for certain warbands of the Traitor Legions, with the most vicious among their warriors selected for their ranks.When the forces of the Achilus Crusade first probed into the Cellebos Warzone and stirred the servants of Chaos into response, the god-clans and witch-covens of the Blood Trinity served as a ready base of manpower for the rising powers of damnation. Some of the most vicious shock-troops of the militaristic Stigmartus Chaos Cult have been drawn from the worlds of the Blood Trinity.The Heretic forces are well aware of the importance of the Blood Trinity to their cause. The system is now heavily patrolled by Renegade warships which have, so far, defeated any attempt by crusade forces to forge a beachhead into the system or conduct an effective raid.Furthermore, the infamous Carnage-class Cruiser Black Grail and its attendant fleet -- believed to currently be in the possession of a splinter faction of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion -- has been repeatedly recorded at orbital anchorage over Matarus III, which indicates the level of opposition likely to be faced by any Imperial forces attempting to conquer this system. |
Blood Trinity - Trivia: The opening quote on this page is actually an alteration of a famous quote from the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the eponymous barbarian. In the movie, when asked what is best in life by his slave master, Conan responds, "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women."Yet this quote itself was derived in the movie from a real world source about the Mongol emperor Ghenghis Khan, as quoted in Ghengis Khan: The Emperor of All Men by Harold Lamb, on pp. 106-107:"One day in the pavilion at Karakorum he [Genghis Kahn] asked an officer of the Mongol guard what, in all the world, could bring the greatest happiness.'The open steppe, a clear day, and a swift horse under you,' responded the officer after a little thought, 'and a falcon on your wrist to start up hares.''Nay,' responded the Khan, 'to crush your enemies, to see them fall at your feet -- to take their horses and goods and hear the lamentation of their women. That is best.'" |
Blood Wings - Blood Wings: The Blood Wings is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and a Successor Chapter of the Blood Angels, created during an unknown Founding.Created as they were from the Blood Angels' gene-seed, the Blood Wings carry the genetic Flaw inherited from Sanguinius, which makes them susceptible to the afflictions known as the Black Rage and the Red Thirst.When a Battle-Brother falls to the throes of the Black Rage he is placed within the ranks of the Death Company. |
Blood Wings - Notable Campaigns: Devastation of Baal (ca. 999.M41) - During the Devastation of Baal, the Blood Wings was among the Successor Chapters that answered Dante's call for aid in the face of Hive Fleet Leviathan's assault on Baal. The entire contingent sent by the Chapter was destroyed to the last Astartes during the fighting. |
Blood Wings - Chapter Colours: The Blood Wings' Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Blood Wings - Chapter Badge: The Blood Wings' Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Blood Wolves - Blood Wolves: The Blood Wolves are a warband of Chaos Space Marines that were once a Great Company of the Loyalist Space Wolves Chapter of Space Marines.Following their corrupted Wolf Lord, Svane Vulfbad, these once-proud warriors are sworn to the service of Khorne. |
Blood Wolves - Wolf's Fall: The Blood Wolves were once the Great Company of Svane Vulfbad, a Wolf Lord of the Space Wolves Chapter. He became so disillusioned with the grinding workings and soul-killing bureaucracy of the Imperium that he and his Great Company turned to the worship of Chaos, and more particularly to the faith of the Blood God Khorne.In 913.M41 Wolf Lord Harald Deathwolf and his Great Company were charged by the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar to track down and execute the notorious Traitor warband and their leader. Deathwolf and his company eventually located Vulfbad in the Cliedes System, tracking their elusive quarry to the storm-wracked moon of Gallimius.Deathwolf rode his ferocious Thunderwolf through the planet's ferrite dust storms at the head of a small strike force of Wolf Scouts. The visibility was so bad that Deathwolf had to track his quarry purely by scent, but he later claimed the stink of rank sweat and treachery was so strong it was child's play to follow. It has been said that Harald's senses are so sharp he can smell the fear of his prey from several leagues distance.After solar weeks of stalking their prey, Deathwolf's hunting party cornered the Blood Wolves atop a dust-crowned mountain just as the Traitor Vulfbad was completing a sorcerous summoning ritual that would have seen his traitorous forces thronged with Daemon allies.The Renegade Space Wolf fought like a madman even after many of his Heretic Astartes had been slain, badly wounding Harald's Thunderwolf in the process, but he was ultimately outmatched.As Harald brought his axe around to deliver the deathblow, a bolt of lightning struck them both. When the dust settled all that remained of Vulfbad and his warband was his Frost Axe, a shard of which now juts from the cybernetic jaw of Harald's Thunderwolf.The current status of the Blood Wolves and their leader remains unknown. |
Blood Wolves - Warband Colours: The Blood Wolves wear bronze power armour. They make use of unit markings similar to those of the Space Wolves, except coloured cream and blood red. |
Blood Wolves - Chapter Badge: The Blood Wolves have no specific identifying symbol, instead incorporating the various blasphemous sigils and iconography of Chaos as their identifying marks. |
Blood Wolves - Sources: Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pg. 30Codex: Space Wolves (7th Edition), pg. 24White Dwarf 387 (UK), "In the Company of Wolves - Saga of Harald Deathwolf" by Phil Kelly, pp. 56-59 |
Bloodblessed - Bloodblessed: The Bloodblessed are a Khorne Daemonkin host that makes great use of Chaos Spawn. These fanatics round up great hordes of these mutated beasts, believing them to be the true form that Khorne desires for all mortals.Not only do the Bloodblessed accord Chaos Spawn the status of holy warriors but, stranger still, their own Champions aspire not to ascension but to spawndom. Thus, what is seen by most worshippers of Chaos as a dire punishment for failure in service to the Ruinous Powers has become, to the Bloodblessed, the ultimate reward. |
Bloodblessed - Warband Colours: The Bloodblessed warband's colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Bloodblessed - Warband Badge: The Bloodblessed warband's badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Bloodborn - Bloodborn: The Bloodborn was an alliance of the Forces of Chaos comprised of multiple Chaos Space Marine warbands and rogue regiments of Planetary Defence Forces and Imperial Guardsmen. The Bloodborn was jointly led by the Iron Warriors Warsmith Honsou and the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn. The rest of the Bloodborn's elite forces were comprised of Chaos Space Marine warbands which included the Skulltakers, the Apostles of MinthRas, the Claws of Lorek, and the Death Shadows. In 999.M41, the Bloodborn assaulted the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar in the campaign remembered simply as the Invasion of Ultramar. |
Bloodborn - Notable Campaigns: Invasion of Ultramar (999.M41) - The Invasion of Ultramar was launched by a large Chaos warband known as the Bloodborn, who invaded the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar. The invasion was jointly lead by the Iron Warriors Warsmith Honsou and the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn, both servants of the Ruinous Powers who had sworn revenge against the Ultramarines for past wrongs they believed had been done to them. The Chaos invasion occurred roughly concurrently with Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41. The Bloodborn's invasion was not officially a part of the Black Crusade's forces. Ultimately this quest for vengeance was foiled, as Honsou escaped and M'kar was banished back to the Warp by the Ultramarines. |
Bloodborn - Warband Colours: The Bloodborn warband used a variety of colours because of its mixture of Iron Warriors and other Chaos Space Marine warbands. |
Bloodborn - Warband Badge: The Bloodborn warband used a variety of badges because of its mixture of Iron Warriors and other Chaos Space Marine warbands. |
Bloodborn - Sources: The Chapter's Due (Novel) by Graham McNeillDead Sky, Black Sun (Novel) by Graham McNeillThe Skull Harvest (Short Story) by Graham McNeill |
Bloodcrusher - Bloodcrusher: A Bloodcrusher is one of the members of the shock cavalry of Khorne's Daemonic Blood Legions, a deadly combination of Bloodletter rider and Juggernaut Daemonic beast steed.The Daemonic mounts of Khorne are neither beasts nor machines, but fusions of both. They are massive creatures whose flesh is brass, whose sinews are iron and whose blood is fire. Their breath is fear and their every step is thunder.As Juggernauts prepare to charge, they roar with the fury of a thousand dead souls. Said to be the most brutal of all the Blood God's many daemons, they are reflections of their creator's aggression, unstoppable force and mindless violence made manifest. |
Bloodcrusher - Role: Only the most favoured of Khorne's Daemonic followers are granted the boon of a Juggernaut to ride to battle. Such an undertaking is not for the weak, for a Bloodletter must drag forth its chosen mount from the Blood God's stockade and survive long enough to break the homicidal steed.Many an aspiring Daemon has leapt upon the back of an enraged Juggernaut, only to be thrown and crushed into an unrecognisable smear. However, once mastered, a Juggernaut becomes the most lethal of all war-mounts.Small arms fire patters harmlessly from its hide, merely serving to enrage the daemonic beast further. Only the heaviest weapons have a chance of piercing its armoured skin, and by the time such armaments are brought to bear, it is usually too late.Once the armoured cavalry of Khorne begin their lumbering charge, nothing can deter them from their course. With broad heads lowered and powerful legs pistoning them ever onwards, Bloodcrushers are likened to unstoppable battering rams, momentum embodied.They smash their way through stone walls and steel barricades alike without ever slowing down. Sparks cascade in their wake as they batter through obstacles, lowering their bladed and brutal heads for the collision they know is coming.The ground itself shakes with fear under the Daemonic cavalry's heavy treads and, directed by the murderous intent of the Bloodletters atop them, they crash into their terrified foes with the force of gigantic sledgehammers, sending lifeless bodies flying in all directions and trampling underfoot anything foolish enough to remain in their way.Once embroiled in the press of combat, Juggernauts will crush those that stand before them with the ease of a man wading through long grass, each new kill coating their legs with fresh blood and gore. Horns gashing and gutting, teeth gouging and tearing, the daemonic mounts bull their way through any melee.From their broad backs the Bloodletters bring their Hellblades down in great arcs to behead those enemies still standing. Bloodcrushers take no prisoners and show no mercy -- all are fodder to their insatiable appetite for slaughter.Bloodcrushers can be found in any of Khorne's armies, used as a bludgeoning wedge to break enemy battle lines or smash through fortifications. The Brazen Thunder Legions are particularly formidable, for they are based upon cohorts made up of Bloodcrushers and led by the mounted Heralds of Khorne known as "Skullmasters."Their earth-shaking stampedes create the bass sound for which these legions are named, a gut-churning reverberation that has eroded the resolve and sanity of many great warriors and generals. Any brave or foolish enough to stand their ground in the face of this stampede are crushed beneath the pitiless brass hooves of the cavalry of Khorne.Entire Astra Militarum tank companies are as nothing to them. Their wrecking-ball charges have levelled fortresses, flattened Exodite temples and brought down Imperial Knights. While a single pack of Bloodcrushers can annihilate an army, an entire legion of them can decimate a world. |
Bloodcrusher - Unit Composition: 2-11 Bloodcrushers1 Bloodhunter (squadron leader) |
Bloodcrusher - Bloodletter Rider: Hellblade |
Bloodcrusher - Juggernaut Mount: Juggernaut's Bladed Horn |
Bloodfiend - Bloodfiend: A Bloodfiend is a vampiric mutant creation that resulted from a failed cloning procedure carried out by the Blood Angels in a disastrous attempt to rapidly increase their numbers.The result were hideous creatures utterly consumed by the Red Thirst that were exploited by the machinations of Fabius Bile in an attempt to distract the Blood Angels while he stole a sample of the Primarch Sanguinius' blood to further his own dark research into "improving" upon the Emperor's original work.All of the Bloodfiends created were destroyed during a battle within the Blood Angels' fortress-monastery on Baal in the final years of the 41st Millennium. |
Bloodfiend - History: In the aftermath of Arkio's manipulation by the forces of Chaos and the resulting schism that nearly tore the Blood Angels Chapter apart, the sons of Sanguinius teetered on the brink of extinction. Lord Commander Dante summoned all of the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters for a conclave on Baal.The Apothecaria was working on a radical new procedure to replenish the ranks of the Blood Angels in one swift stroke: the long-lost art of cloning or replicae as it was called in High Gothic, similar to the techniques that the Raven Guard had once attempted to rebuild their Legion following the tragic events of the Drop Site Massacre during the Horus Heresy.The experiments proved fruitless and Commander Dante ordered a halt to further attempts. However, the Sanguinary Priest Caecus disobeyed the order and secretly continued the experiments, prodded by an agent of the vile former Emperor's Children Apothecary Fabius Bile.Caecus was tricked into bringing Bile, who was disguised as a well-known Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Biologis named "Haran Serpens," to Baal, mistakenly thinking the renegade "Magos" would help in cloning Space Marines to increase the Blood Angels' declining numbers.With the secret assistance of Bile, Caecus created a stable clone from his own gene-seed, which he christened the "Bloodchild." At first the cloning project was believed to be a great success, but when the clone was matched in mock combat against the combined might of Sergeant Rafen and the Flesh Tearers Sergeant Noxx, the "Bloodchild" ultimately succumbed to the Red Thirst within a matter of only solar minutes. After the Bloodchild drank blood from a wound it inflicted on one of its foes, it rapidly transformed into a monstrous, vampiric mutant.Dante ordered Caecus to destroy his remaining prototype clones, but when the Sanguinary Priest returned to his laboratory, he discovered that Serpens had already released them to rampage through the Blood Angels' fortress-monastery. Bile, possessed of a dark sense of humour, had christened the creatures "Bloodfiends" and was already preparing to flee Baal as the blood-drinking mutants ran wild, though not before he revealed his true identity to a shocked Caecus. The Clonelord also stole a glass vial which contained a sample of the distilled blood of the Primarch Sanguinius that had been kept in the Chapter artefact known as the Red Grail.The Bloodfiends attacked the Blood Angels across the fortress-monastery complex, proving stronger and more vicious than the Astartes. Despite their feral nature, they soon began to scavenge armour and weapons from their blood-drained victims, which enhanced their combat abilities. Overwhelmed by the desperate need of the Red Thirst, the Bloodfiends, led by the so-called "alpha clone," penetrated the Sanguinary Chapel where the Red Grail and its precious sample of Primarch blood was kept.The alpha clone sacrilegiously drained the Red Grail dry, which only made the creature's thirst for blood worse. Dante himself led the assault of the Blood Angels to reclaim the Sanguinary Chapel and the Sepulchre where the Primarch's body had lain in state for over ten thousand standard years. It was Rafen who slew the alpha clone within a hand's width of the Primarch's sarcophagus. The Blood Angels scoured the Sepulchre clean of the remaining Bloodfiends, finally eliminating the taint of Chaos from their midst. |
Bloodfiend - Anatomy and Physiology: After being decanted, Bloodfiends were feral, primitive humanoids. As they drank more blood or consumed blood of greater potency than normal like that of an Astartes or a Primarch, they grew in strength and intelligence. After a Bloodfiend made a kill, it drained the body of its victim dry of all blood and other vital fluids.After tasting blood, Bloodfiends mutated into dark, reddish-brown humanoids whose bodily density was great enough to withstand even multiple shots from a Space Marine Bolter. They possessed extra joints in their limbs and extremities and their mouths were filled with rows of sharp fangs that were used to puncture the skin of their victims and devour their blood. They rapidly developed bat-like membranes between their limbs that allowed them to gracefully glide to the ground from a great height.It is unknown whether the Bloodfiends' rapid mutation was the result of Fabius Bile's deliberate sabotage or Caecus' ignorance of proper replicae cloning procedures for Astartes. Similar Space Marine cloning experiments by the Raven Guard during the Horus Heresy had led to the birth of mutant abominations like the Bloodfiends, though those efforts were also sabotaged by the machinations of the Alpha Legion.At the same time, when Caecus discovered Bile's true identity, the Clonelord mocked his poor attempts at genetic engineering. Bile noted that he had been experimenting with Astartes genetics for ten thousand Terran years and Caecus' crude attempts had never had even a chance of success. |
Bloodgorged, The - Bloodgorged, The: The Bloodgorged are an infamous Khornate warband of Khorne Daemonkin that prey upon the followers of the other Chaos Gods. Their ships haunt the Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom and many other hunting grounds where renegades can be found. |
Bloodgorged, The - Warband History: It is not known when the Khorne Daemonkin warband, The Bloodgorged were first formed, as their first blood-soaked campaign wasn't recorded until the early centuries of the current 41st Millennium. All must fear the fury of the Bloodgorged, and none more so than those who offer praise to Khorne's sibling rivals. The Bloodgorged see those who worship Nurgle, Tzeentch or Slaanesh as blinkered fools, whose misplaced faith cannot go unpunished. They further believe that there is no greater offering to Khorne than the violently obtained blood and skulls of those who worship his brothers. As the Bloodgorged prey upon the followers of the other Chaos Gods throughout the galaxy, Chaos Cultists labour in their name all across the galaxy, stamping out rival sects and preparing the way for Bloodgorged invasions. So cataclysmic has this warband's war of faith become, that their battles spill into settled areas of space. At such times the slaughter reaches new heights, surprised defenders scrambling to drive off the warring Chaos factions. The Bloodgorged revel in the gory mayhem of such conflicts, for only in such anarchic bloodbaths can Khorne truly be offered praise. |
Bloodgorged, The - Servants of the Skullstar: To the galactic west of the Golgotha System located in the Segmentum Ultima, mired amid violently shifting Warp currents, the Skullstar hangs menacingly in the void. A furiously burning solar body of enormous size, this star is aptly named for it resembles nothing so much as an almighty, leering skull. Historically, voidfarers have steered well clear of this baleful phenomenon; quite besides the deadly empyric tides that surge around it, the Skullstar is said to drive men mad with hatred. Certainly, more than one ship has been lost to the murderous frenzy of bloodletting that the Skullstar inspires. To the Bloodgorged, the Skullstar is nothing less than a divine manifestation of Khorne's boundless wrath. Seeking to worship the baleful star, their warships long ago braved the Warp storms and landed hordes of Cultists and labourers upon the arid, radiation-ravaged worlds that hung in its orbit. Years on, those worlds have become fortified strongholds where vast, brazen idols of Khorne tower hundreds of feet over the barren deserts. Bloody altars rise from mountains of skulls, dark temples echo to harsh litanies of heretical worship, and all the while Daemons prowl under the searing light of the Skullstar that leers over them all. |
Bloodgorged, The - Notable Campaigns: Red Saviours (183.M41) - The Bloodgorged board a fleet of Emperor's Children warships. After days of bloody deck-to-deck fighting, the Daemonkin are victorious. They scuttle the ships and depart, unaware that they have inadvertently saved the Imperial Hive World of Pyros.Into the Maelstrom (938.M41) - Leading a frenzied mass of lesser Daemonkin warbands, the Bloodgorged invade the Maelstrom. In a series of psychotic assaults, they cripple several of Huron Blackheart's outlying strongholds. Furious beyond words, the Tyrant of Badab turns the might of the Red Corsairs upon his aggressors. The war that follows lasts for long, bloody years.The Road to Hell (992.M41) - Inquisitor Bastapol Harg tracks a trail of murders back to a Khornate cult on Falchat. In eradicating the threat, Harg earns the ire of the Bloodgorged, to whom the cult paid fealty. The Daemonkin soon fall upon Falchat's hives and slaughter everyone they find, the Inquisitor included.One Hundred Skulls (997.M41) - Responding to a daemonic incursion on Hyraq II, a Brotherhood of Grey Knights plunges into battle. Crimson lightning tears the skies as the Grey Knights drive the Daemons back into the Warp, only to face fresh assault by the Bloodgorged. Retreating to a ruined temple, the surviving Grey Knights fight for their lives. In death, every Daemonkin they slay brings forth one of the Daemons the Grey Knights had already banished, until they are overrun by the screaming horde.Visions of Blood (999.M41) - Warmaster Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade bursts from the Eye of Terror and falls upon the Cadian Gate. At the same moment, across the galaxy, Khorne's Daemonkin are stricken by bloody visions of carnage. Compelled by the Blood God, the Daemonkin turn as one and begin to carve a bloody path toward the Cadian Gate. |
Bloodgorged, The - Warband Colours: The Bloodgorged primarily wear brass coloured Power Armour and red edged in gunmetal. Their pauldrons (shoulder guards), poleyns (knee guards), greaves and sabatons (boots) are painted a crimson. They bear the warband's rune upon their left shoulder guard. |
Bloodgorged, The - Warband Badge: The Bloodgorged's icon is an elongated rune of Khorne, and is usually displayed in black centred on a field of crimson. |
Bloodgorged, The - Sources: Codex: Khorne Daemonkin (7th Edition), pp. 30, 32, 34-35, 110-114 |
Bloodletter - Bloodletter: A Bloodletter, also known as a "Chosen of Khorne," a "Warmonger of Khorne," "Slaughter-kin", "Taker of Skulls," "Khorne's Chosen," the "Teeth of Death," and the "Crimson Death," is a Lesser Daemon (Khak'akamshy'y in the Dark Tongue) that serves as one of the eager Daemonic foot soldiers of the Chaos God Khorne's Blood Legions. As a host, they march as one, in formations with supernatural precision, but in battle, they try to outdo each other in ruthless acts of cruelty and savagery.The Daemonic hordes of Khorne are largely made up of ferocious Bloodletters. These Lesser Daemons are deadly warriors, many of whom are believed by the worshippers of Chaos to have been foremost amongst the Blood God's followers in mortal life and whose will is as implacable and blood-hungry as that of Khorne himself.Sharp, needle-like teeth stud a Bloodletter's slavering jaws. Its serpentine tongue constantly flickers to taste the spilled blood of those it slays. Rippling muscles lie barely concealed beneath the Bloodletter's scaly red hide, knotted sinews that give the strength sufficient for its jet-black claws to pierce the most unyielding armour. This might is guided by a killing instinct that surpasses that of mortal men. A Bloodletter is unburdened by any other thought or compulsion than to reap the lives of Khorne's foes and claim skulls in the name of its divine lord. They carry massive Warp-metal swords known as Hellblades, great two-handed weapons that cut effortlessly though any armour crafted by mortals.Bloodletters are Khorne's most numerous warriors, the mainstay of his Daemonic legions. Their horrific appearance is an assault upon mortal sensibilities. Their skin is the colour of hot blood, and their angry eyes resemble burning coals. Bloodletters are possessed of an inhuman strength; they can rip a mortal apart with cold-blooded ease, and in battle their long, jagged Hellblades glow with the heinous energies of the Warp. These vicious swords are said to be as sharp as Khorne's own hatred. As they cut through the flesh and bone of mortals, they become coated with the blood of the slain, glowing ever brighter as they kill, invigorated by the rich taste of death.Whilst Bloodletters are not the subtlest of creatures, they are not above subterfuge if it will lead to an even greater tally of skulls to offer the Blood God. However, where another daemon may flatter and ensnare a mortal victim to torture their soul within the Realm of Chaos in perpetuity, a Bloodletter only ever resorts to persuasion or lies in order to stab a foe in the back. Bloodletters seek the blood of mortals to offer at the foot of the Skull Throne of Khorne, ever hungry for fresh prey, ever willing to tear the warm flesh from their victims with their claws and smear the gore upon their curving horns in triumph and utter ecstasy. |
Bloodletter - Role: Acts of violent rage and deeds of bloody murder resound through the Warp like a thunderous drumbeat, a booming echo that calls the Daemons of Khorne to war. Endless regiments of Bloodletters rush to answer the summons within the Realm of Chaos, their stooped forms eager to join in the slaughter. Filled with an insatiable desire for blood, these Lesser Daemons of Khorne are amonst the most aggressive creatures within the Warp. Their unholy howls of triumph when spilling blood chill the hearts of all who hear them. Equally fearsome are their ceaseless screams of "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" Simply put, Bloodletters are violence and murder given physical form and purpose within the Immaterium by the will of the Blood God.The most numerous troops among the daemonic hosts of the Blood God are the scarlet-scaled blademasters, the Bloodletters of Khorne. Though they are roughly humanoid in shape, that is where the similarities to Humans, Aeldari, or Orks end. These fell creatures possess bestial, snarling faces. Their wiry, iron-muscled frames are the hue of their master's favoured red, reeking of spilt blood. Black horns thrust out from the flesh of their heads, acting as cruel-edged weapons in their own right. Their fingers end in wicked claws, sharp enough to make a mockery of armour as easily as flesh. Ebon tongues flick across teeth that have dined on the hearts of a thousand warriors from a thousand worlds, the taste of each lingering in the memories of the fiend.Unlike the Daemonic foot soldiers of Khorne's rival gods, Bloodletters march to war in regimented formations, accompanied by an overwhelming charnel stench and proudly displaying the blood-soaked banners of the Lord of Battle. Though they might materialise out of the Warp and even manoeuvre in rank-like precision, once they draw close to their prey, it becomes apparent that they are barely restrained killers that bay for the blood of their foes. To the sound of brass war-horns they charge, quickly breaking formation as they enter a battle furore. There is a reason the Blood Legion most centred upon cohorts of Bloodletters is called the Red Tide; most caught in the Lesser Daemons' wave are instantly washed away in a sea of blood.Few foes can withstand such an onslaught, for the sight of their own comrades cut in half and butchered by howling Bloodletters is enough to break even the stoutest soldiers. Those combatants not instantly slain or fled are greeted with a frenzied rage, the Bloodletters screaming with fury as they fall upon them with dark blades, teeth and claws. As they slash at their opponents, the Daemons spit obscene promises of death and suffering, their guttural voices inspiring dread in all who hear them. It is not uncommon for Bloodletters to fall upon each other in their competition to spill the most vital fluid or claim the skulls of the greatest warriors on the battlefields; in such a way, each strives to distinguish himself before the eyes of the their legion's Heralds or Bloodthirster, as well as before the almighty Khorne himself.A soldier who locks eyes with a Bloodletter is often frozen stiff with fear, unable to look away as the beast's soulless, black orbs guide the strokes of its vicious black Hellblade through the neck or guts of his victim. Wherever these daemons exist, blood is sure to flow and headless corpses stack upon the wet earth like trees after a tremendous storm. Only the most skilled of warriors would have any possibility of surviving battle with a Bloodletter, but the furious battle itself only serves to bring them one step closer to following the Lord of Skulls.Bloodletters are ferocious daemons that descend upon their foes in baying packs. The sight of spilt blood only drives them further into a frenzied rage, screaming with fury as they fall upon mortal flesh with dark blades, teeth and claws. Few mortals can withstand such an onslaught, for the sight of their own comrades cut in half and butchered by howling Bloodletters is enough to break even the stoutest of hearts.Like all of Khorne's creatures Bloodletters are formidable and ferocious warriors, but they are also capable of vile and low tactics. The Heralds of Khorne, the most veteran group of Bloodletters, lead the vast daemonic legions of the Blood God to battle. Unlike the armies of other Chaos Gods they tend to march in disciplined regiments accompanied by horns and drums, a living example of Khorne's militarism. However, the craving for skulls, bloodshed and personal glory in battle usually turns this discipline into frenzy once they charge the enemy. Bloodletters are notorious for their fearsome advances, and, being daemons, exhibit enormous strength considering their body mass. Each Bloodletter is a master of combat from constantly fighting their brethren in the Warp as well as their mortal enemies. |
Bloodletter - Bloodreaper: A Bloodreaper is a Bloodletter who has been chosen to lead a small unit of its fellows into combat. They are effectively the non-commissioned officers of Khorne's Blood Legions. |
Bloodletter - Heralds of Khorne: Even among Bloodletters, some Daemons demonstrate an exceptionally profound talent for destruction, earning the recognition of the Lord of Blood and becoming Heralds of Khorne. These Daemons assume a leadership role among their kind. While usually less powerful than a Greater Daemon, they are justifiably regarded as a significant force to be reckoned with, even among their own kind. They are rampaging combat masters, more than capable of single-handedly taking down entire squads of lesser fighters in shows of martial skill and sheer savagery that only the best mortal warriors could hope to withstand.The Heralds of Khorne are the strongest of the Bloodletters who delight in decapitating their victims and plunging their wailing Hellblades into the beating hearts of their foes. However, their role in combat is to serve as the directors of their fellow Daemons' massacre of mortals, and to this end, these daemonic officers of the Khornate Blood Legions imbue their followers with a portion of their own eternal malice, heightening the inherent bloodlust of the daemonic and mortal minions of the Blood God to a fever pitch.Bloodletters are the most common Daemons to be specifically devoted to the service of the Blood God as Heralds of Khorne. This frequency should not be taken as a sign that their abilities are somehow lessened, as these creatures are pure manifestations of the Lord of Rage and are amongst the most brutal and devastating warriors in the galaxy. With every swing of their Hellblades, they spread bloodshed and devastation in the name of their dark master. |
Bloodletter - Bloodcrushers: Only the strongest Bloodletters can hope to claim a Lesser Daemon of Khorne known as a Juggernaut as their mount. Such an undertaking is not for the weak, for a Bloodletter must drag forth its chosen mount from the Blood God's stockade and survive long enough to break the homicidal steed.Many an aspiring Daemon has leapt upon the back of an enraged Juggernaut, only to be thrown and crushed into an unrecognisable smear. However, once mastered, a Juggernaut becomes the most lethal of all war-mounts. Those who succeed become Bloodcrushers, daemonic knights of the Blood God, the resulting daemonic cavalry adding a new weapon to Khorne's arsenal. Bloodcrushers are feared for their almost unstoppable charges.They rush headlong into the thickest part of a battle, scattering opposition as pounding hooves pulverise those not quick enough to avoid the charge. Stunned enemies are relieved of the burden of their heads as the rider's black Hellblade comes crashing down through their necks. The resultant spray of arterial blood rains down into the crushed forms that lie beneath the Bloodcrushers' feet, creating rings of carnage that leave behind a battlefield dotted with crimson circles of suffering. |
Bloodletter - Unit Composition: 9-19 Bloodletters1 Bloodreaper |
Bloodletter - Notable Bloodletters: The Huntsman - The Huntsman is a hulking, savage Bloodletter and Herald of Khorne, notable for his fierce hatred of psykers, for only Khorne and some of his greatest champions despise the witch more. Whenever a particularly troublesome psyker crosses the Lord of War, the Huntsman is dispatched to visit the wrath of Khorne upon him. To assist the creature, Khorne has blessed it with a pack of fearsome Flesh Hounds that can track his quarry even through the Warp itself. Once the Huntsman marks a psyker as his prey, that wretched individual is doomed to be hounded by the Bloodletter champion and his pack for the rest of his days, as few as they may be.Kinslayer - Kinslayer is an infamous Bloodletter and Herald of Khorne. Even amongst other Bloodletters, Kinslayer demonstrates an exceptionally profound talent for destruction, earning the recognition of the Lord of Blood and becoming one of his Heralds. Kinslayer has become one of the most powerful Heralds active on the world of Crucible within the Screaming Vortex Warp rift. He engages in a never-ending quest to find opponents who have pledged to the other Ruinous Powers. This offers his followers an endless opportunity to utilise their rage to actively weaken the other Chaotic forces on Crucible. He deliberately herds vast numbers of mortal souls into the incipient battlefields as well, where they can share in the joy of combat through their agonising wounds. Some believe that Kinslayer receives additional blessings from the Lord of Rage for each daemon skull he presents to his master. Others watch his ascendency with baleful senses, trusting that those who have embraced one of the other Dark Gods have surely made Kinslayer a target for destruction.Skulltaker (U'Zuhl) - Skulltaker, also known as U'Zuhl, is an infamous Bloodletter Champion abd Bloodcrusher who has claimed a Juggernaut Daemonic Steed as his mount and has been anointed as the Blood God's own Sacred Executioner. It is said that when Khorne created U'Zuhl, the Bloodletter's first act was to chop the head from the first creature he met -- another Bloodletter. So began an existence of decapitation that has spread terror throughout the mortal and immortal universes. In the midst of battle, Skulltaker always seeks out the mightiest of the enemy's warriors. He fought alongside the Daemon Primarch Angron on Armageddon during the First War for Armageddon, felling a quarter of the Grey Knight Space Marines present. On Agripinia-6, Skulltaker slew the Ork Grimsnag Urk after butchering the Greenskin Warlord's armoured bodyguard. Seventeen Eldar Exarchs fell to his blade during the fighting at Haranshemash. Every race has its legends concerning the Skulltaker, and all are filled with terror. |
Bloodletter - Wargear: Hellblade - Bloodletters wield these powerful Warp-forged daemonblades. On very rare occasions a mortal has bested one of these daemons and claimed this potent weapon. A jagged metal sword, blackened but edged with glowing red embers, a Hellblade is the physical manifestation of the sheer bloodlust of the user. Few mortals have the strength of will to wield such a weapon. However, the more blood it sheds, the more powerful it becomes, glowing with ever-stronger crimson hues as the blood flows.Collar of Khorne - Said to be forged from Khorne's own rage and hatred of all psykers, Collars of Khorne are gifted only to those that have given their lives to the Blood God. These brass collars, cruelly spiked and engraved with the sigils of the Blood God is worn around the neck. Each protects the wearer from cowardly sorcery or psychic powers, and once attached they can never be removed as long as the champion lives. On rare occasions a collar is stolen from a fallen warrior, and these unattached collars are highly desired by those who have not yet received Khorne's attention and attained one for themselves. |
Bloodletter - Sources: Black Crusade: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 15, 166, 351-352Black Crusade: Tome of Blood (RPG), pp. 14, 86Codex: Chaos Daemons (8th Edition), pp. 38, 103Codex: Chaos Daemons (6th Edition), pp. 29, 32-34Codex: Chaos Daemons (4th Edition), pp. 32, 50, 60-61, 76, 80-81, 94, 97Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 92, 129Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos, pg. 109Liber Chaotica: Khorne, pp. 68-69Realms of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness (1st Edition), pg. 26Rogue Trader: The Navis Primer (RPG), pg. 139White Dwarf 368 (UK), pg. 4Space Marine (Game) |
Bloodlords - Bloodlords: BloodlordsChaos Space MarinesLoyalistChapterSpace MarinesFoundingSpears of OlympusThey were corrupted after entering the Eye of Terror in 321.M37 as part of the Imperial Abyssal Crusade. It is unknown what they endured during their sojourn into the Eye, but by the time they made their way back into realspace, they had become the warband of Heretic Astartes dedicated to the service of Khorne known as the Bloodlords. |
Bloodlords - Abyssal Crusade: Following the Ecclesiarchal Purges of 321.M37, a dozen star systems were engulfed by Warp Storm Dionys, its echoes rippling along the spiral arms of the galaxy as it raged through the Empyrean. Records of mutation and Chaos Cultist activity quadrupled overnight. Worse yet, it was not only the citizens who were affected by the sudden influx of Chaos. Many of the Space Marine Chapters with homeworlds affected by the Warp storm found that the secret imperfections in their gene-seed were writ large upon their new recruits, giving rise to a wave of disturbing manifestations both physical and psychological. The Spears of Olympus were one such Loyalist Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes that had been affected by these Warp storms.When the Ecclesiarchy heard of this sinister turn of events, Saint Basillius the Elder demanded that all those Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes whose homeworlds had been touched by the Warp storm be rendered unto his judgement. Such was the elder's influence with the High Lords of Terra that within a standard year this had come to pass. After a series of stringent tests and prognostications, hundreds of Chapters were deemed unaffected by the Warp storm. No less than thirty were found wanting.The Judged, as these fallen Chapters came to be known, volunteered for a redemptive Penitent Crusade. The most militant of their number demanded the right to purify their tainted flesh in the fires of battle, to make a noble end from tragic misfortune. To the surprise of his closest advisors, Saint Basillius agreed to this proposal. He saw it fitting to send the accused into the Eye of Terror, taking the fight for the Imperium's future to the Daemon Worlds inhabited by the Traitor Marines.A representative from each of the doomed Chapters held an emergency Council of Dismay to discuss the proposed crusade. After scant hours of debate, they acquiesced to Basillius' demands, for they believed that martyrdom was preferable to an existence of suspicion and doubt. The last few days of 321.M37 saw a solemn procession of strike cruisers and battle barges pass through the Cadian Gate into the Eye of Terror, relay systems dormant and heraldic colours obscured by black mag-plates.One by one, the Chapters of The Judged disappeared into the iridescent dust nebulae that surrounded the Eye. As the massive Space Marine flotilla entered the Eye of Terror, they were set upon by a massive Chaos warfleet. The resultant battle was so fierce that the ships of The Judged were forced to retreat and were scattered to the furthest corners of the Eye.Chapter after Chapter fell to the perils of the Eye, for the Abyssal Crusade had entered a hell from which very few emerge unchanged. The true account of what occurred within the Eye to the Spears of Olympus is unknown, but most of the tales of the Chapters of The Judged ended in tragedy and sorrow. By the time they reemerged from the Eye many standard centuries later, the Spears of Olympus were no more, for they had become the Chaos Space Marine warband known as the Bloodlords, wholly dedicated to the service of the Blood God Khorne. |
Bloodlords - Notable Campaigns: Battle of Ixus IX (Unknown Date.M41) - On the ice moon of Ixus IX, the Bloodlords were unexpectedly caught in a trap set by the Necrons. The Boodlords had launched an assault on Ixus IX believing that their target was an Imperial prison facility. Instead, once within the structure they discovered that it was completely deserted of human life and instead was held by a force of Necron Warriors. Filled with bloodlust, the Warpsmith Navarch Ladon, captain of the Light Destroyer Bloodhammer, crashed his vessel into the frigid surface of the moon and unleashed the Lord of Skulls Daemon Engine he kept within the hold upon the undying Necrons. |
Bloodlords - Notable Bloodlords: Sabaktes - Sabaktes is the Chaos Lord of the Bloodlords.Navarch Ladon - Navarch Ladon serves as a Warpsmith for the Bloodlords and captain of the Destroyer Bloodhammer. It was Ladon who unleashed a Daemon Engine called a Lord of Skulls upon a group of Necrons that his Bloodlords unexpectedly found already in command of the Imperial prison on the ice moon of Ixus IX. |
Bloodlords - Warband Fleet: Bloodhammer (Unknown class) - DestroyerCrimson Hew (Unknown class) - Escort vesselFlesheater (Unknown class) - Escort vessel |
Bloodlords - Warband Colours: The Bloodlords warband's colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
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