Editing Blood Ravens (section)

==History==
[[File:Indrick Boreale.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Indrick Baldeale, a Blud Rehvens Captain: Teh greahtehst hero of teh chaphter and mastur of <s>STEEL</s> STEAL REHN.]]
This chapter existed, but was very obscure before the Dawn of War vidya gaems. This would remain their only claim to fame if Dawn of War hadn't spawned dozens of [[meme]]s. Perhaps the most famous example of these memes is the voice acting of the Captain Indrick Boreale, who is the origin of the terms [[Emprah]] and [[Space Marine|Spehss mahreens]]. They are also infamous on /tg/ for losing half their chapter in a single campaign, also thanks to Brother-Captain Boreale, who got himself krumped by the Ork Warboss [[Gorgutz 'Ead 'Unter]].

The Blood Ravens are also famous for their '''raven'''ous kleptomania {{BLAM|'''BLAM''' Making bad puns is HERESY}}, discussed in greater depth below, as well as an infamous reputation for STEALING. SCREW YOU GABE ITS TRUE.

One of the few heavily implied, let alone interesting, things about their history is the possibility that they are descendants of a [[Thousand Sons]] schism cult or possibly (but significantly less likely) a breakaway from the Word Bearers. The short story "Rebirth" in ''Age of Darkness'' shows what might be the foundation of the Chapter, as hinted before in ''A Thousand Sons'' Horus Heresy book. That story shows that most of the Corvidae (as in the genus of birds to which the raven belongs) Fellowship of the Legion was sent away by [[Magnus]] during the Burning of [[Prospero]]. The leader of this Fellowship, Revuel '''Arvida''', has a name very similar to Azari'''ah Vidya''', the legendary hero of the Blood Ravens, who utters "Knowledge is Power, Guard It Well", the motto of the Blood Ravens. However, Arvida would later separate from any other surviving Thousand Sons and join with the [[White Scars]] on their way back to Terra, where he was merged with a fragment of [[Magnus the Red]] and became an altogether new entity named '''Ianius''', who would later lead the [[Grey Knights]] as one of their eight founding Grand Masters.

Still, Thousand Sons are known to have fought on both sides of the conflict, and any loyalist Thousand Sons force would have had to do a certain amount of foraging to remain a viable force. So the theory remains valid if you "neglect" asking the compelling question how they possibly might have managed to evade the flesh change, which undoubtedly would also have afflicted any "splinter sects" after Tzeentch basically told Magnus that the deal was off an that he would now pay the price for dealing with CHAOS during the battle of Prospero (meaning that his sons would now be prone to the flesh change again, turning them into [[Chaos Spawn]]-NONONOahvajldazbvzaj- To continue where my predecessor left off, the question remains how a possibly loyal Thousand Sons off-shoot could have avoided the flesh change for 10.000 years as they would have had the same unstable gene seed just like any other Thousand Son (which made Magnus make a bargain with CHAOS in the first place). Evidence for the Word Bearer theory are many but not limited to; interpreting Eliphas' taunts in Dark Crusade in a certain way, and Eliphas is very much someone who will take great joy in lying if it means messing with someone's head, close similarities between the Word Bearers and Blood Ravens legion-chapter culture with many of their sayings having been revealed to have their origins in Colchis, The Word Bearer's homeworld, or the most damning fact that unlike the Thousand Sons, The Blood Raven's geneseed is not only stable but is also not affected by the Rubric of Ahriman which immediately turns any non-psyker space marine that has any derivative of Magnus' geneseed into dust while geneseed from the Word Bearers are known to be stable and not prone to sudden and violent transformations. It is worth noting as a counterpoint, that the [[Lamenters]], a particularly unfortunate offshoot of the [[Blood Angels]], managed to (ostensibly) rid themselves of their gene-seed flaw...(Not any more, it returned because <s>they're unlucky bastards I guess</s> the Black Rage is a psychic curse rather than a genetic flaw.). There's also that pesky quote from [[Laurie Goulding]] that denies any connection between Revuel Arvida and the Blood Ravens, but he works for Disney writing [[HERESY|nu-Star Wars]] now so [[BLAM|'''fuck''']] him.

On the other hand though, they have an unusually high number of unusually powerful psykers, with two full squads of Librarians in the First Company and were (at least until the events of [[Dawn of War 2#Retribution|Retribution]]) lead by a combination of [[Chapter Master]]s and [[Librarian]]s. Finally, their obsession with lost knowledge and mystic relics mirrors pre-Heresy Thousand Sons. Hell, even their ''colour scheme'' is suspiciously close to the one used by the pre-Heresy Thousand Sons. Also, if you want to read ''way'' too much into it, it should be noted that almost every other Traitor Legion has known, named Loyalist members, most of whom aided [[Malcador]] with the creation of the [[Inquisition]].

However, given the ambiguous and circumstantial nature of what little evidence exists, we may never know if this is true. For a time, there was a rumour of a Blood Ravens Codex produced by Games Workshop, which would probably expand on the theory. However, the codex never came out, the rumours quietly died out and do not look likely to be revived anytime soon. There's also [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] revealing GW's official stance against the [[Silver Skulls|Traitor Loyalist theory]]. (Not that anyone with any sense cares 1 whit about what ADB has to say about canon, especially in regards to his widdle pwecious chaos space marines that are totally his and no one else is allowed to touch them ever ever only his spacemans can be kool ORIGINAL CHARACTER DOUGHNUT STEEL. (And please ignore the fact that ADB made his own traitor-descended loyalist chapter called The [[Shadow Wolves]].)) (Although it is supposedly also the company's devise and the Wolves was a gesture to his wife.)

Others posit that the Blood Ravens are possibly descendants of the [[Dark Angels]] though not among the Unforgiven due to their similarly secretive nature, others point to the Raven Guard for a similarity in name, and some people have raised the possibility of descent from the rather psyker heavy White Scars. Some boring people look to the Ultramarines instead, but this is rather uninteresting. The issue with all the theories of loyalist descent is that whatever the Blood Ravens' actual origins are, it's worth being ashamed of and the truth of their parentage is something Thule himself refused to tell anyone. Finding out they were descended from the Blood or Dark Angels or the Raven Guard, nevermind mutation free legions like the White Scars or Ultramarines wouldn't be worth getting angry about. Even having a modified but still purely monolineage geneseed from a loyalist chapter is not really anything to be ashamed of, as all the twenty first founding chapters with known loyalist legion parentage show no inclination to hide it from anyone. And before you say "if they were sons of the Lion with descent from the Fallen Angels wouldn't that be shame worthy?" if that were true, the Unforgiven would have probably "disappeared" the Blood Ravens a long time ago when they inevitably found out in an attempt to find more of the Fallen. Then again, if the Blood Ravens are Dark Angels successors and aren't descended from the Fallen (which is extremely unlikely, as discussed above), they might still have something to be ashamed of - they almost certainly aren't members of the Unforgiven, which would indicate that they were actually exiled from the Unforgiven due to some sin or mistake committed, which would be valid reason for shame of one's origins. Coincidentally, such a fate could be described as being found "wanting", and given the chapter's motto after Gabe's ascension to Chapter Master...

However, a dark horse theory is that they're actually a chimeric composite chapter with multiple lines of descent and component; which would explain away the flesh change, their seemingly supernaturally terrible luck, and even possibly their name, and heraldry. This theory posits that the chapter was made from the Adeptus Mechanicus' tinkerings with geneseed, quite likely including the geneseed of the Thousand Sons and possibly the, [[Night Lords]], and [[Word Bearers]], along with those of loyalist legions (including the [[Raven Guard]], Blood Angels, [[Imperial Fists]], Dark Angels, [[Ultramarines]], and even the White Scars) in an attempt to create a more stable form of psychic space marine. This theory certainly would make their origins something worth hiding from others, as even insinuating that a Chapter is born of chimeric geneseed is almost universally considered a grievous insult and is never something any chapter known in 40k openly admits. Now add the shame of being bastards to including the genetics of one, two, or more traitor legions and you'd have a very serious reason for Davian Thule to deem that the truth of the Chapter's origins is too monstrous for anyone else to ever learn. It's certainly a theory that can neatly explain any of the holes in the other theories and it would explain why they're said to have not appeared until the age of apostasy when the twenty first founding occurred. Also, lines up well with how they learnt more about their origin by studying the Primaris. And 9th did suggest to use Ultramarines' tactic (probably just for general playstyle).

The Blood Ravens have only two recorded mutations in their [[gene seed]]. The first one affects their Catalepsean Node, the Implant that allows a Space Marine to need less sleep and resist the effects of sleep deprivation. In the Blood Ravens, this node malfunctions, preventing them from entering R.E.M. sleep, a real and terminal condition called Fatal insomnia, but the Catalepsean Node keeps them alive despite this, and has the side effect of giving the Blood Ravens perfect memory. The second mutation, if it can be counted as one, is the chapter's unusually high frequency of producing or activating latent psychic power, with the chapter having an extremely high number of librarians like Blood Angels and [[Solar Hawks]].

Other, less documented (as in fan-developed) characteristics include a massive tendency to develop kleptomania, generate a gelatinous substance in their scalps to allow for the creation of hairetical hair, and something known as "unavailable original voice acting" which causes some members' voices to change periodically.

They are also notable for having [[Azariah Kyras|a librarian chapter master]] [[C.S. Goto|who dedicates himself to Khorne]]. Normally this would be a case of extreme bullshit writing, <s>but appears to make some degree of sense in that the Chapter Master/Head Librarian in question is never seen using sorcerous powers after revealing his new loyalty</s> He psykically projects himself onto Typhon, in order to trick the protagonists onto the planet to cause the Exterminatus. But after that, Daemon Princes, even of Khorne (which he ultimately transforms into), actually have massive psychic potential.

The [[Dawn of War III]] initial reveal page shows that good ol' Gabe is in fact alive, meaning that the Space Marine ending in Dawn of War II was in fact completely canon. Unfortunately, Gabe is no longer mostly bionic so [[Derp|who knows what's canon]].

Anyways, the Blood Raven's new motto under Gabriel Angelos was "None Shall Find Us Wanting", which is the saying they use in Space Marine, unlike their old "Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well" schtick, indicating that the events of Space Marine occurred after DoW:Retribution. In any event, whether Space Marine itself is actually canon or not is up for debate, though GW's official stance is that most of it is not, which would mean that there is no evidence at all about what actually happens. You'll have to [[Matt Ward|decide for yourself]].

Interestingly, seen as a whole, this also means that Graham McNeill's incorrect statement that Gabe was the Chapter Master at the time he wrote the WD Blood Ravens Index Astartes article (published Nov 2004), is now retroactively correct, as Gabe does indeed become Chapter Master in the Space Marine ending of Retribution (released in Mar 2011)... unless this was [[JUST AS PLANNED|already the intended direction of Relic/Games Workshop's plot arc from the beginning]].

[[Wat|Knowing Games Workshop though]], Eliphas is probably still alive. Probably a Daemon Prince, too. Because, as with all secondary 40K media: "Fuck coherency in the name of storytelling!".

===Post-[[Cicatrix Maledictum]]===
In the White Dwarf of July 2019 we discovered [[Advancing the Storyline|what happened after Acheron]].

After the clusterfuck that was Acheron and the chapter reduced to half-strength (or maybe a third by that point), the Blood Ravens returned to Subsector Aurelia in force to a large-scale regroup and rebuild (which means that they didn't pursue [[Gorgutz]] and his no-longer-majikal pointy stikk) with the hope of putting the chapter back in full strength. [[Not as Planned|However]], a few weeks later the Great Rift opened and Subsector Aurelia is on the bad side of the rift. Barely managing to make contact with the groups doing the recruitment, losing ships with aspirants in the warp, weird shit happening all across the subsector and mutation and heresy spreading to the point of Daemonic incursions (Fortunately, Ulkair didn't break out, but not for lack of trying). Angelos, being awesome if sentimental, dispatched help whenever needed and tried to contact the Imperium, and sent ships to find out what happened, with [[Fail|predictable results]].

It was in this situation that the Custodes made contact with the Blood Ravens and informed them of [[Indomitus Crusade|all]] [[Roboute Guilliman|that]] [[Cicatrix Maledictum|happened]] on the Terran side. They also "brought" with them Primaris gene-seed to help rebuild their chapter. When the Custodes made it clear that they would not take "no" for an answer, the Blood Ravens accepted and started creating Primaris Marines, and eventually this saw them back to fighting status.

Given that the future of Dawn of War is not very bright at all and the Blood Ravens were created to be poster boys for that series, this is quite possibly the last we'll ever hear of them.

Some highlights include:
* All the ass-pullery, terminator flips and Inquisitorial idiocy (which to be fair is par for the course) of [[Dawn of War III]] was [[Wat|tabletop-canon]]! Clearly, Gabriel's armour must be some Dark-Age super-relic. Then again, it's a master-crafted [[Terminator#Tartaros|Tartaros Terminator Armour]], so it's not that far-fetched...EXCEPT NOT! Due to the fact that other equally master crafted suits don't allow you to jump extremely high unless you have a Harlequin Anti-Grav Harness or something similar like near unique archeotech to allow for something like this (though if ONE chapter were to have it, it would be the kleptomaniacs).
* The Blood Ravens have been investigating the gene-seed and tools gifted by the Custodes and [[Belisarius Cawl|Papa Cawl]]. They apparently made significant insights into their origins, but it was determined that nobody outside of the chapter must ever know about their primogenitors and only the most senior officers of the Blood Ravens have actually been entrusted with that information. Draw your own conclusions.
* The Custodes are really pushy bastards, but they didn't ask for their "gifted" equipment back. Either they don't know of their presence or they don't care; given that the Custodes' standard wargear are better than even the best weapons usually Space Marines get, the latter is slightly more probable. Or maybe the writers just forgot that the Magpies had Custodes gear, we don't know.
* [[Davian Thule]]'s fate after the Third Aurelian Crusade (a.k.a. Dawn of War 2: Retribution) is unknown. Which means that he may be alive after all!
* [[Blood Ravens Force Commander|Force Commander Hairgel]] and his hair-etical friend's fates are unknown.
* The planet Aurelia is officially recognized as the former homeworld of the Chapter, their late Chapter Monastery being Selenon.
* Related to the above: Ulkair is still imprisoned in Aurelia for now, but the opening of the Great Rift stirred him up A LOT.
* Being a chapter with so many psykers also means that many aspirants end up mad because of their powers, while others end up like Isador Akios and go too deep in their studies of Chaos. These poor bastards are kept in the Librarius Sanatorum before being put to use one last time before execution. What that final use is isn't mentioned, but it's probably related as to where things went to hell with them. Chief Librarian Jonah Orion is being extra cautious with these Librarians after the Cicatrix popped up.
*New Lore is added where failed Psyker Aspirants are either Shot to prevent Daemonic Corruption, die due to their uncontrolled powers, or [[Thousand Sons|mutated by the warp and to be used as experiments by the chapter's Librarians inside the Omnis Arcanum jail called "The Tower" where they find ways to cure/prevent such anomalies present within the chapter's geneseed flaw.]] Rumour has it that sometimes [[Librarians]] have to banish warp entities that manifested themselves within the failed Aspirants, but nobody can confirm if that's true.
*Sometime later the Blood Ravens joined in with [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s Indomitus Crusade and help liberate thousands of worlds in the Dark Imperium side of the Galaxy and possibly acquire more "Gifts" for the Reliquary.