The Raven Guard

Описание: In tribute to the Raven Guard Space Marine Chapter.
Audio is "Divine Crusade" by X-Ray Dog.
Credit to all the artists who made these great pictures.

The Raven Guard

Battle Cry:
"Victorus aut Mortis"

Specialty: Guerilla Warfare

History:
The Great Crusade
During the Great Crusade that reunited all the worlds of mankind beneath the rule of the Imperium, Corax's talents for planning and sabotage were put to great effect and the Raven Guard, fighting frequently under the orders of the Warmaster Horus, became renowned for their unmatched ability among the other Space Marine Legions in covert operations, sabotage, guerilla warfare, infiltration and lightning strikes. But the pair never saw eye-to-eye, and after an argument, the two Primarchs nearly fought each other. Corax ultimately left Horus' command. At some point during the Great Crusade, the Raven Guard came into conflict with the rogue psykers known as the Warsingers and supposedly exterminated them.
The Horus Heresy
During the Horus Heresy, the Raven Guard were involved in the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V, where four Space Marine Legions, including the Night Lords, Iron Warriors, Word Bearers and the Alpha Legion, turned to Chaos under the banner of the Arch-Traitor Horus and unexpectedly turned on their Loyalist Battle-Brothers, catching them off-guard in a terrible cross-fire. The Raven Guard fought ferociously alongside their fellow Loyalists among the Salamanders and the Iron Hands Space Marines against the Traitor Marines of Chaos, but suffered such heavy losses that they were effectively crippled and unable to play any further constructive role in the defense of Terra from Horus' assault during the Heresy. The Raven Guard had been all but annhilated, the Battle of Isstvan V reducing the Legion's strength from some 8,000 Astartes, making them already one of the smallest Space Marine Legions, to less than 3,000. In the following reorganization of the Space Marine Legions into the Second Founding Chapters, the Raven Guard was left largely inoperable as a combat unit and was forced to spend decades recruiting new members and rebuilding itself.
It was during the Horus Heresy, when the Chapter found itself undermanned and underequipped after the massacre on Istvaan V, that the Raven Guard honed and perfected its small unit, covert guerilla tactics that utilized little fire support, armoured support or other heavy equipment. Even today, the Raven Guard's lack of Predators, Land Raiders, and newer models of technology and equipment such as the latest models of Power Armour reflects these conditions of the Chapter's past.
Post-Horus Heresy
With his Chapter depleted following the Istvaan V Massacre and the Imperium teetering on the brink of destruction, it is rumoured that Primarch Corax ordered his Chapter's Apothecaries to use forbidden zygote acceleration and cloning processes to more rapidly replenish the Chapter's numbers. The methods used to accomplish this are lost to history, but the process allowed the creation of new Raven Guard Space Marines at the cost of the genetic purity of the Chapter's gene-seed. The process of implantation of the genetically modified Space Marine organs in new recruits suffered extremely high failure rates as a result of these genetic modifications, causing many Raven Guard recruits to become hulking, aberrant monsters who had to be destroyed. The results of this accelerated recruitment program were not always successful. Ninety percent of the recruits who underwent the accelerated treatments were unable to hold a standard Space Marine Bolter, let alone fire it. Of 100 recruits, perhaps one would have a genome stable enough to become a full Space Marine. Despite the inefficiency of this method, the Raven Guard was eventually able to add several hundred recruits and become combat-worthy enough to aid the other Space Marines in their continuing battle against the Chaos Marines both before and following the defeat of Horus on Terra, despite fielding a much smaller force.
After the Heresy, Corax personally gave the Emperor's Peace to every surviving mutant that had resulted from their accelerated program of Space Marine development, an act that led him to lock himself in his personal chambers in the Ravenspire on Deliverance and beg the recently-ascended Emperor for forgiveness. Unable to alleviate his guilt, the Primarch left the Ravenspire exactly a year after he first went into seclusion in a transport that was headed for the Eye of Terror. Corax's fate remains unknown to this day, however his last recorded words as he departed Deliverance were, "Never more."