Blood Ravens

The Blood Ravens are a chapter of Space Marines that prize information greatly, but ironically know little of their earliest centuries of service. Their Chapter also has a high concentration of powerful Librarians.

This chapter was specifically created for the PC game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and has since appeared as a "Chapter of Legend" in the Chapter Traits section of 4th Edition's Codex: Space Marines.

Homeworld
The Blood Ravens have no official homeworld, Instead, their Fortress-Monastery is situated onboard a Battle Barge known as Omnis Arcanum, which is also home to their Librarium Sanctorum. The rest of the chapter serves onboard the fleet of Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges.

The 3rd Company of the Blood Ravens commonly sought new recruits from the planet of Cyrene until Captain Gabriel Angelos had it destroyed, an Exterminatus. The true purpose for this has never been told outright, but it merely hinted at in the game Dawn of War and the novel of the same name by CS Goto.

Azariah Vidya
Azariah was the Master of the Chapter Librarium during a terrible campaign in the Gothic sector, in which the Blood Ravens had taken terrible losses against a series of rebellions. 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 finished.

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 tremendous psychic powers, he then launched a series of raids against seemingly empty areas, that turned out to be important staging areas of the Chaos cultists or supplies. For his skill in crushing the rebellion, Azariah was promoted to the office of Chapter Master, as well as his previous position. He is now enshrined in the chapter's history as the Great Father.

Gabriel Angelos
Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos is the present commander of the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company.

Like many of the Blood Ravens, Gabriel was born on the planet of Cyrene, where the Chapter often draws recruits from among the planet's defense force. 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, 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 during the trials, and cut them short. He quickly returned to his strike cruiser, and sent a coded signal out of the system. Within hours of the signal, ships of the Imperial Inquisition and Navy appeared over Cyrene, bombarding it for a week straight until nothing on the planet remained alive. All records of the incident, and Gabriel's message to the Inquisition, have been sealed, but Gabriel himself carries the guilt of his actions with him to this day, particularly during the battles on the planet Tartarus.

Gabriel Angelos is the main character of the game Dawn of War.

Librarian Isador Akios
Brother-Librarian Isador Akios was the present Librarian of the Blood Ravens 3rd Company, and a secondary character in 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 because they were brought up together. Isador met Gabriel 30 years before the events on Tartarus when Gabriel was still a battle brother. 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 Chaotic taint and came up with the assumption that it originated in Gabriel. Because of this, they 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.

Colors and Iconography
The Blood Ravens wear dark red armor with black trim and tan shoulder armor. Their symbol is a silhouetted raven in flight as seen from above, incorporated with a stylized drop of blood within.

Because of their name and symbol, it has been theorized that they are a successor chapter of either the Blood Angels or Raven Guard, but this has been denied by Games Workshop.

Hinted Connections to the Word Bearers Chaos Marines
During the campaign in Dark Crusade, should one choose to play as the Chaos Space Marines, they will eventually come head to head with the Blood Ravens. The banter of the commanders suggests that Blood Raven's history may not be as clean as they once thought, but this is may just be a Chaos ploy to wind up the Blood Ravens by claiming to be their "brothers".