Gabriel Angelos

Gabriel Angelos is the Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter and former Captain of that Chapter's 3rd Company. Angelos was recently responsible for slaying the Chapter's former Chapter Master and Chief Librarian, Azariah Kyras, who had become a pawn of Chaos. Angelos has been responsible for some of the most notable events in the Blood Ravens' recent history, including the battles against the Forces of Chaos on Tartarus, Lorn V and and the defeat of a splinter Tyranid Hive Fleet and Chaotic invasion of the Sub-sector Aurelia of the Korianis Sector, the Chapter's primary recruiting grounds for new Blood Ravens Neophytes. Angelos and his faction of the Blood Ravens managed to defeat those Blood Ravens elements led by Kyras who had fallen to Chaos, saving the settled worlds of the Sub-sector Aurelia from a regional Exterminatus order at the hands of the Ordo Hereticus' Inquisitor Adrastia. Angelos carries a guilty conscience for destroying his homeworld of Cyrene in an Exterminatus action and agonizes over this part of his past continuously, though he rarely speaks of it to others. Only his fellow Battle-Brothers of the Blood Ravens truly understand his feelings on the matter. Initially, he is armed with a Power Sword and a Bolt Pistol. Gabriel, like most Imperials, greatly distrusts aliens; it is for this reason he shows incredible disdain for the Eldar in his initial encounters with their Farseer. However, over time, his disdain for them gradually lessens.

Cyrene

Like many of the Blood Ravens, Gabriel was born on the planet of Cyrene, from whence the Chapter often drew its Neophytes. He had grown up on Cyrene with the Blood Ravens' Librarian Isador Akios, whom he trusted above all other Battle-Brothers in the Chapter because of their childhood friendship. Unfortunately, during the Blood Ravens' campaign on the planet Tartarus, Akios was corrupted by an agent of Chaos and betrayed his longtime friend and the entire Chapter. 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 as an Aspirant. 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 months of the signal, ships of the Inquisition and the Imperial Navy appeared over Cyrene, executing an Exterminatus order bombarding it for a week straight with cyclonic torpedoes 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.

Tartarus

It was on the forsaken world of Tartarus that Gabriel was to undergo the true test of his limits, as he had to both stall an unstoppable Ork invasion long enough to evacuate the Imperial citizens from the planet, while simultaneously seeking out and eradicating the forces of the Alpha Legion's Chaos Marines on the planet, led by the Chaos Lord Bale and the Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr. The forces of Chaos were searching for an ancient artefact of Chaos Undivided called the Maledictum, and the sorcerer Sindri managed to corrupt the Chapter Librarian Isador Akios into betraying his fellow Blood Ravens. Gabriel, haunted by his guilty conscience, nonetheless executed Isador for heresy and went on to lead the Blood Ravens against Chaos. He slew Lord Bale in a duel and eventually helped defeat Sindri when he used the Maledictum to transform himself into a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. However, Gabriel destroyed the Maledictum after the battle, thinking to eradicate the Chaos threa posed by the artefact once and for all, but instead released a Greater Daemon of Khorne from its prison, as foreseen by the Eldar Farseer Macha of the Biel-Tan Craftworld who had aided in fighting the daemon. Farseer Macha had warned him not to destroy the Maledictum but he had proceeded to smash it with Godsplitter, a Daemonhammer given to him by the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Modecai Toth who also arrived on Tartarus to seek out the source of the Chaos corruption that was affecting the world. Godsplitter had been forged from the fragments of an Eldar Avatar of Khaine's sword and so was a potent psychically-charged weapon against the daemonic entities of the Warp. He escaped Tartarus before the ensuing Warp storm trapped him there, and has vowed to defeat the new Chaos threat he himself unleashed upon the galaxy.

Rahe's Paradise

Shortly after the battles on Tartarus concluded, Angelos traveled to the world of Rahe's Paradise, where he attempted to conduct the Blood Trials to recruit Neophytes for the Chapter. At first all seemed routine (save for Gabriel's strange premonitions of an Eldar invasion), but soon after the discovery of an ancient tablet from the time of the Horus Heresy that possessed both Imperial and Eldar script and indicated cooperation between the Imperium and the Eldar on the world millennia before, conflict erupted. Eldar Rangers from the Biel-Tan Craftworld conducted multiple hit-and-run attacks focusing exclusively on the psykers of the Blood Ravens Chapter and the potential psyker Neophytes among the Blood Trial Aspirants, and Gabriel met with Farseer Macha once more. She revealed that the Eldar had killed the psykers to prevent the breaking of Lsanthranil's Shield; an Eldar artefact that generated the illusion of a large Eldar psychic presence on the planet. This would prevent the awakening of the Necrons hidden under the surface of the planet, which was also an ancient Necron Tomb World, as they would slumber as long as they believed that their ancient foes among the Eldar still dominated the galaxy. All was not lost, however, until a space battle destroyed the Spirit Pool of the Dark Reaper Aspect. The psychic scream of the Eldar souls lost to the hunger of Slaanesh shattered Lsanthranil's Shield and awakened the Necrons. Gabriel had the planet destroyed under an Exterminatus order, and left for the threatened worldof Lorn V with the surviving Aspirants.

Lorn V

When Gabriel arrived on Lorn V, he made contact with the single Eldar survivor of the battle, Farseer Taldeer, who has been asking for him since teleporting to the Blood Ravens' battle barge Litany of Fury. Ignoring accusations of heresy levelled against him by Captain Ulantis of the Ninth Company, she convinced Angelos to allow her to take him and a small squad of Blood Ravens to a rip in the Eldar Webway, made by the Librarian Rhamah during a battle described in the novel Dawn of War: Ascension, in an attempt to reach the Eldar World of Law, Arcadia, and find the last, legendary Blade of Vaul to use against the waking Necrons. On the planet, he is given the blade by the Eldar Harlequins following a battle with the Prodigal Sons of Ahriman and the potent Chaos Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion, Ahriman himself. Angelos gives the blade to Farseer Macha upon returning to Lorn V. With the last Blade of Vaul, Macha destroys the Necrons awakening on that world completely, but is not heard from or seen afterward. Gabriel then continues his command as Captain of the Watch and meets the newly transformed Space Marine Neophyte Quirus Ckrius, whom the Blood Ravens recruited from Tartarus.

The Eldar

In the Dawn of War novel series, especially that of "Dawn of War: Ascension" and "Dawn of War: Tempest," Gabriel seems to have a mysterious bond with the Eldar of the Biel-Tan Craftworld, particularly that of Farseer Macha. Despite the condemnation and even threats from his fellow commanders, the Inquisition, Adepta Sororitas, and even from his own friend Isador Akios, Gabriel was stubborn in his attempts to assist the Eldar and Macha. The Harlequins of Arcadia refer to him as "Gabriel of the Hidden Heart," and see him as a symbol of hope for the Eldar in the form of a human.

Sub-Sector Aurelia

Gabriel played a reduced role in Dawn of War II as the primary role in the game is given to the unnamed Blood Ravens Force Commander. He appears in the latter half of the campaign to advise and instruct the player after Captain Davian Thule was incapacitated and interred in a Blood Ravens Dreadnought. He finally appears as a controllable unit in the last mission of the campaign, still carrying the Daemonhammer Godsplitter he received on Tartarus from Inquisitor Toth.

During the splinter Tyranid Hive Fleet's invasion of Sub-sector Aurelia, Captain Angelos was on-board the Blood Ravens' Battle Barge Litany of Fury in the nearby sector. Diverting the Battle Barge to Aurelia, Angelos advised his friend Brother-Captain Davian Thule on how to fight these xenos. Unfortunately, as the Litany of Fury was nearing the sub-sector, the Tyranid Hive Mind reached out and threw the starship off-course, also killing most of the Navigators and Astropaths on-board with its potent psychic attack. Angelos sends out one final message before the battle barge moves out-of-range, thought to be forever trapped in the Warp. However, Angelos' message does give the Blood Raven Force Commander in the Aurelian sub-sector a chance to strike a deadly blow to the Tyranid Hive Fleet. Fortunately, the Blood Ravens fleet somehow manages to emerge from the Warp make in the orbit of Typhon Primaris and engages the Hive Fleet. The Litany of Fury launches drop pods with Blood Ravens to hold off Tyranid forces planetside, while Angelos himself joins a small team in the strike against the massive beast controlling the local Tyranids. The attack is successful, and the Hive Fleet is splintered, ending the ever-dominant threat. In the re-emergence of the planet Aurelia, Angelos directed and ordered a small striketeam to combat the Black Legion led by Araghast the Pillager and the returned Chaos Champion Eliphas the Inheritor of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. However, Gabriel was condemned by Captain Apollo Diomedes of the Blood Ravens Honour Guard, who was unaware of the Chaos corruption within the Blood Ravens and their current Chapter Master, Azariah Kyras, which had been brought upon the Chapter by the Greater Daemon of Nurgle, Ulkair. After the Blood Ravens repulsed the assault by Araghast and his Legion, Angelos once again personally led the assault against the Black Legion on Aurelia, and urged his strike team to eliminate Eliphas and the Greater Daemon Ulkair. He is seen at the front of the assault on Aurelia.

Sources

White Dwarf 305 (UK)
Dawn of War (Novel) by C.S. Goto
Dawn of War: Ascension (Novel) by C.S. Goto
Dawn of War: Tempest (Novel) by C.S. Goto
Dawn of War (PC Game)
Dawn of War II (PC Game)
Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising (PC Game)