Raven Guard

Overview
The Raven Guard is one of the original First Founding Chapters of Space Marines and was originally the XIX Space Marine Legion before the Second Founding and the adoption of the Codex Astartes. The Primarch of the Raven Guard was Corax, a name which is a play on the Latin word for raven (corvus corax). The Raven Guard's homeworld is the planet called Deliverance, though its original name, before the Horus Heresy, was Lycaeum. The Raven Guard are known for their cool-headed, even intellectual temperament, their superb infiltration skills and skill at furious close-quarters engagements (as especially displayed by their Successor Chapter the Raptors in the Warhammer 40,000 novel Fire Warrior). The Raven Guard is also rightly feared for the potent units of Assault Marines they field, who use a pair of lightning claws instead of the usual bolt pistol and chainsword. Captain Kayvaan Shrike, the famed commander of the Raven Guard's Third Company, is the commanding officer of just such a unit.

Combat Doctrine
The Raven Guard Chapter specializes in guerrilla tactics behind enemy lines, using precisely coordinated attacks and refraining from frontal attacks or protracted attrition warfare. The Chapter's typical tactical doctrine consists of rapid maneuver engagements consisting of the deployment of Assault Marines, Land Speeders and bikes aimed at harassment, sabotage and the destruction of key strategic targets over the frontal engagement of enemy forces at large. The Raven Guard's Tactical Marine Squads are deployed via Thunderhawk gunship insertions, supported by drop-pod deployed Dreadnoughts (as opposed to tracked vehicles that cannot be air-deployed). The chapter maintains few and fields even fewer fire support units such as Predators and Land Raiders. The Raven Guard relies heavily on its Scout Marine elements, which operate without support for extended amounts of time, even by Space Marine standards. The Chapter, by and large, operates as something of a cross between a mechanized infantry and a special forces unit, combining small unit tactics with their preference of covert, behind-enemy-lines operations.

The Horus Heresy
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. During the Horus Heresy, the Raven Guard were involved in the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V, where four Space Marine Legions 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 3,0001. 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 follwoing 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 monsters who had to be destroyed. The results of this accelerated recruitment program were not always successful. Ninety percent of the recruits were unable to hold a 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 the method, the Raven Guard was eventually able to become combat-worthy enough to aid the other Space Marines in their continuing battle against the Chaos Marines 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.

Appearance


Due to the degeneration of the Raven Guard's gene-seed, several of the genetically-engineered organs normally implanted in Space Marines no longer function properly or simply no longer even develop after they are implanted as zygotes. For instance, Raven Guard Marines do not have the Mucranoid which allows an Astartes to survive extremes of heat, cold or even exposure to the vacuum of space or Betcher's Gland, which allows them to spit a venomous toxin. The Raven Guard's Melanchromic Organ which allows a Space Marine's skin to adjust to incoming levels of solar radiation has a unique mutation that causes the skin of a Raven Guard member to lose its pigment, regardless of its original hue. Eventually the skin becomes pure white while the hair and eyes darken, until they become jet black.

Chapter Colors
The Raven Guard Chapter paints their Power Armor black with a white Raven on their shoulder. The right shoulder trim denotes the Space Marine's Company (gold/yellow for 2nd Company, red for 3rd Company, green for 4th Company, etc).

Chapter Symbol
The Raven Guard Chapter symbol is a stylized white raven.

Organisation
The right shoulder guard trim of Raven Guard Power Armour denotes the type of Space Marine. Green is for Tactical Marine Squads, red is for Assault Marine Squads and yellow is for Devastator Marine Squads.

Combat Doctrines
The Raven Guard are known for hitting weak points in enemy defences hard and performing lightning strikes upon locations of tactical importance to cripple their enemy. The Raven Guard disdain the notion of recklessly charging into enemy ranks. This differentiates their tactics particularly from those of the Blood Angels. The Raven Guard rely heavily on their Scout Marines for pinpointing enemy positions and for reconnaissance to identify good drop sites for the rest of the Chapter's deployed forces. Because of their preference for hit-and-run guerilla tactics, the Raven Guard also make extensive use of Assault Marine Squads. The Tactical marine Squads of the Raven Guard are often deployed via Thunderhawks or drop-pods. The favorite weapons of Raven Guard Force Commanders are Lightning Claws and it is a common sight for their command squads to also be equipped with these weapons in addition to their Jump Packs.

Raven Guard Captains are fiercely independent, and it is incredibly rare for the Chapter to fight as a whole. Individual companies are completely autonomous and are quick to lend their aid to Imperial commanders across the galaxy, with or without the sanction of their Chapter Master. Such behaviour has led some in the other Space Marine Chapters to question the Raven Guard's soundness as a military force, but most recognise that such fluidity of command only proves the presence of the Chapter's formidable discipline, not its absence.4

Due to their specialised combat style, the Raven Guard make less use of heavier vehicles and tanks (such as the Land Raider and Predator) than most other Space Marine Chapters.3

Equipment
The Chapter makes wide use of the "beaked" older versions of the standard Space Marine Power Armour (Marks IV-VI). After their near-destruction as a force at Isstvan V during the Horus Heresy, the Raven Guard had to make to do with the older Power Armour and equipment that remained in their reserve armoury. The available resources were too few to re-equip them up to the most advanced technological standards of the Imperium and even today there is a higher percentage of ancient suits of Power Armour amongst the Chapter than for most others. The Raven Guard's homeworld of Deliverance and its fortress-monastery on that planet has the production capacity of a small Forge World, ensuring that the Raven Guard in the present now rarely lacks for the materiél needed to prosecute its campaigns.5

Recruitment
Owing to the instability of the Raven Guard's gene-seed due to the experiments of Corax, much of the Chapter's genetic stock has been irreparably damaged. Now, much of their genetic material comes from stored supplies held on Terra by the Adeptus Mechanicus. This means the cycle of recruitment for the Raven Guard is much slower than for other Chapters while they wait for purified samples of gene-seed to be sent from Terra and fewer Raven Guard recruits for the Chapter prove able to survive their training and genetic modification. This means the Chapter is constantly short-handed.

Company Disposition
Like all Codex Astartes-compliant Space Marine Chapters, the Raven Guard are divided into ten Companies of 100 Space Marines each when at full strength, a standard which Raven Guard companies rarely achieve because of their constant manpower shortage. Each Company is led by a hero of the Raven Guard, who - in addition to his Company command - is in charge of a particular aspect of the Chapter's logistics. The current Company Commanders of the Raven Guard are as follows:
 * First Company: Unknown
 * Second Company: Captain Aajz Solari
 * Third Company: Captain Kayvaan Shrike
 * Fourth Company: Unknown
 * Fifth Company: Unknown
 * Sixth Company: Unknown
 * Seventh Company: Unknown
 * Eighth Company: Unknown
 * Ninth Company: Unknown
 * Tenth Company: Unknown

Successor Chapters
Successor Chapters of the Raven Guard include the Black Guard, the Revilers, and the Raptors. There has also been much speculation about whether the Hawk Lords and the Knights of the Raven Chapters are also Successors of the Raven Guard, due to the fact that they share the same Chapter emblem. Games Workshop has never officially confirmed this speculation.

Notable Chapter Members

 * Corax: The Chapter's Primarch
 * Kayvaan Shrike: Captain of the Raven Guard 3rd Company
 * Aajz Solari: Captain of the Raven Guard 5th Company


 * Ardaric Vaanes- Former Raven Guard Battle-Brother who is now a member of an Iron Warriors Grand Company