Blood Ravens

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Blood Ravens
Battle Cry	Pre-Retribution: "Knowledge is power. Guard it well."; Post-Retribution: "None shall find us wanting."
Founding	Unknown
Successors of	Heavily hinted to be Thousand Sons
Successor Chapters	N/A
Chapter Master	Gabriel Angelos
Primarch	Unknown (possibly Magnus the Red)
Homeworld	Fleet-based
Strength	Not that many after Cyrene, Kaurava, and Kyras; less than 600
Specialty	Psykers, collecting "lost" relics, plot armor
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Red, bone white pauldrons

The Bluhd Rehvehns are one of the better-known background Chapters, primarily from their starring role in the Dawn of War series. They have waaaaaaaay too many psykers and are obsessed over stealing finding lost relics, mostly because they don't know anything about their history; they have no records dating before the Age of Apostasy. This has led some to theorize that they are actually loyalist descendants of the Thousand Sons, which, according to recent fluff, may be canon.

History

Indrick Baldeale, a Blud Rehvens Captain: Teh greahtehst hero of teh chaphter and mastur of STEEL REHN.

The Blood Ravens Chapter is primarily famous for serving as the Space Marine in the Dawn of War video game series, for which the chapter was specially created by Relic and GW. This would remain their only claim to fame if Dawn of War hadn't spawned dozens of memes.

Perhaps the most famous example is the voice acting of the good Captain Indrick Boreale, who was the origin of the terms Empra and Spehss mahreens. They are also infamous on /tg/ for losing half their chapter in a single campaign, also thanks to Brother-Captain Boreale, who refused to fuck off when Vance Motherfucking Stubbs arrived. Davian Thule had the same thing happen when he refused orders to fuck off from Governer-Militant Lukas Alexander; unlike Boreale, however, Thule actually won.

The Blood Ravens are also famous for their rav(en)ing kleptomania, discussed in greater depth below.

One of the few canonically confirmed, let alone interesting things about their history is the possibility that they are descendants of a Thousand Sons schism cult. The short story "Rebirth" in Age of Darkness shows what might be the foundation of the Chapter, as hinted before in A Thousand Sons. That story shows that 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 Azariah Vidya, the legendary hero of the Blood Ravens, who utters "Knowledge is Power, Guard It Well," the motto of the Blood Ravens. Additionally, 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 Retribution, lead by a combination Chapter Master/Librarian. Finally, their obsession with lost knowledge and mystic relics mirrors the Thousand Sons pre-Heresy.. Hell, even their color 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... except the Thousand Sons (and Night Lords as well, but they're a Chapter of psychics, not bloodthirsty butchers).

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 rumor of a Blood Ravens Codex produced by Games Workshop, which would probably expand on the theory. However, the codex never happened, the rumors quietly died, and do not look likely to be revived anytime soon.

The Blood Ravens have only two recorded mutations in their gene seed. The first one affects their Catalepsean Node, which grants them perfect memory but creates an inability to enter R.E.M sleep, forcing them to sleep while awake, basically. For anyone other than a Space Marine, this would ultimately be fatal, but it would hardly be the first time such nonsense was found in Space Marine fluff. The second mutation, if it truly is one, is its high frequency to produce or activate latent psychic power. 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 a Librarian Chapter Master who dedicates himself to Khorne. Normally this would be a case of extreme bullshit writing, 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, and that Daemon Princes, even of Khorne (which he ultimately transforms into), have massive psychic potential.

They are outright stated to be destroyed as a Chapter in the Tyranid and Chaos endings of Retribution (Due to being consumed and Daemon Prince-related issues, respectively) and they probably also die as a chapter in the Ork Campaign after Bluddflagg loots the entire Subsector and jacks a MOTHER FUCKING SPACE HULK. They are probably crippled beyond all recovery in the Eldar and Imperial Guard endings too, so the only ending where they survive is the Space Marine one. While it is unclear which ending (or even combination of endings, as was the case for the original Dawn of War, is canon, Blood Ravens appear in the Space Marine game, which almost certainly must be set after Chaos Rising and Retribution. 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. The Blood Ravens 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" schtick, indicating that it must occur after 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 decide for yourself.

White Dwarf 305 (UK) mentions Gabe as their Chapter Master, further confirming SM ending, though WD has been shit wrong many times.

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

Knowing Games Workshop though, Eliphas is probably still alive. Probably a daemon prince, too. Because, as with all secondary 40K media, screw coherency in the name of storytelling!

The Hats

The dust settled and the Ork horde lay dead at her feet. But with such a victory came sacrifice. The good General lay dead, his final words asking "Who wants to live FOREVEEER?"(Seeing as he's Freddie Fuckin Mercury in Space) with a wry smile on his face. The Imperial Guard had either died or retreated when the Commissar Lord fell in battle. But it did not matter, her hat and her popped collar would hide any tears that she may have shed for them.

And then suddenly, there was a thumping. It couldn't be! She had bombed the area! She had drowned the orks in the bodies of the devoted guardsmen! She had evaporated the green tide with faith and fire! And yet... he still stomped through the ashes.

"ALRITE YA SQUISHY! I WANTZ DAT HAT!". He was as determined as he was arrogant, but even with his stubbornness, she could see something change in his face. Confusion had entered his small little brain. Perhaps it was because he was shocked that naught but a "pitiful" human could stand tall against the full force of a WAAAGGHHH. What was more amusing that the Warboss had lost his patented pirate hat. She reached for her own hat, to tip it in torment at the Ork's incompetence... only to find nothing but hair in it's place. "WHERE IZ IT!? WHERE'Z DA HAT?!" the Ork roared in fury before noticing his own unprotected head. Shock turned to anger as both reached the same conclusion.

"DIOMEDES!" She screamed in unison to the Ork's own war-cries for "DEM'Z BLUDY MAGPIES HEADZ!" The eternal war made for some strange alliances, but none as strange as the Inquisitor and Warboss hunting down the Thieves of Thieves in retribution for their loss.

Diomedes sat with his new pirate hat. He thought it fitting for his position in a chapter as renowned as his for "acquiring" gifts. "We Shahl Coll this maneuvah Stehl Stehl!" The Ancient remarked as he disregarded his tattered old helmet for the Witch Hunter's headpiece.

Famous Blud Rehvens

• Captain Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos - Original Badass and current Chapter Master of the Blod Rehvens, at least in the SM and IG endings anyway. He dies in every other ending. He is the first Blood Ravens Chapter Master in recorded history to not also be the Chief Librarian, probably because they finally realized that having a Chief Librarian/Chapter Master is a bad idea. That idea stems from Chief Librarian Azariah Vidya (get it? cuz they are in a vidya gaem? I will fucking end you, I swear to the God-Emperor. The Emperor isn't a god, he's a powerful psychic corpse on a chair.), who led the chapter soon after their founding in a campaign against Alpha Legion, who have slain their Chapter Master, most of the 1st Company and most of their command structure beforehand. Vidya used some kind of Tactical Genius, plus his already large experience battling Chaos forces, to "understand" his enemy and perfectly guess where his Rehvens need to strike, essentially finding the "I WIN" button for that campaign. Vidya is hinted to actually be 'Arvida,' a 'Corvidae' or seer, in the Thousand Sons Legion.

• Isador Akios - Gabe's Librarian buddy. Was successfully tempted by Sindri Myr into betraying the Blood Ravens, and was eventually killed by Gabe himself for heresy (thus also enabling Gabe to spout an awesome one-liner while pulling the trigger).

• Captain Davian Thule - The only force commander to get 2 sexy voices in both games he appears in.....well that was until he got ripped by a Tyranid Warrior and interred into a Dreadnought, where he sounds just as scary as the next Dread. Gets buttfucked by Eliphas in the first Chaos mission in Retribution. Way to punch the players Relic....We like to pretend that the Venerable Dreadnought honor guard in Retribution is Davian Thule to soothe the deep emotional trauma caused by killing him. While the Space Marine ending to Retribution is assumed to be at least partially canon, his character is never really addressed after Chaos Rising other than the aforementioned rapemurder, and could well be dead. Still is said that he and the 4th company fought during the 13th Black Crusade.

• Captain Indrick Baldeale - A master of STEEL REHN. He is quite dead at the moment. Unlike Davian, though, nobody is in the least broken up about him. He has a daughter.

• Force Commander Hair Gel - Though he is given the name Aramus in the novel, the game and the novels contradict each other so we'll never know what is what. Usually called Force Commander Vanilla Ice or Hair Gel for his hair-esy, he's also the youngest Blood Raven Force Commander ever. In Retribution, he's mentioned in the "Hammer of the Nameless" wargear, stating that the hammer went missing after he was branded renegade by Kyras. It is slightly possible that Vanilla Ice might return in the series one day since it's never implied that he was executed by Gabe or defected to the Black Legion. Retribution hints that the "slightly tainted" ending of Chaos Rising is canon (ending #3 out of five possible endings), and in that ending he was sent to the Eye of Terror on a 100 year penitent crusade. Dialogue indicates that Thaddeus was sent along with Hair Gel.

• Avitus - A Devastator Sergeant, who's so angry that he hates everything. Is an all around badass who can fire plasma cannons and heavy bolters without needing to set up, given the proper upgrades. Has the same voice as the unknown heretic in Chaos Rising. In Retribution, he is stated to canonically be the heretic (who betrays the player and joins Eliphas' Black Legion warband) in the player's forces during Chaos Rising, as if him being fucking angry all the time wasn't enough of a dead-giveaway, and then he gets killed by his ex-BFF Tarkus later on.

• Cyrus/Spike Spiegel/also Wolverine - A Scout Sergeant, who's so grimdark that he hates everything. He's also voiced by Steve Blum, which makes him awesome. Cyrus literally hates everything, short of the Emprah, and he constantly bitches how fucked up everything is during every briefing. The whole "Spike Spiegel/Wolverine" name comes from his rather prolific VA's most famous characters, one from the anime Cowboy Bebop, the other from the X-Men cartoons and assorted games.

• Jonah Orion - Gabe's new Librarian buddy after Isador got executed on Tartarus. He played a rousing game of mindfuck with the Tyranid Hivemind to allow Angelos' fleet to enter the system during the first DoWII, he won in the end, the only remaining sane & alive Librarian on Gabe's ship. And he becomes playable in Chaos Rising. Died in all endings of Retribution at the hands of DOM-Kyras as Relic likes to keep up with the tradition that the black guy has a 99% chance of being killed in the end. He's also the first confirmed black Space Marine who isn't from the Salamanders, which is kind of unique. Well, there was also that one Black Templars guy in Damnation Crusade.

• Martellus - A Techmarine, also voiced by Steve Blum. His job is to inform you of bad news all the time while chilling on the strike cruiser. Survived getting his Thunderhawk shot down and stranded on Typhon for months, canonically wasn't the traitor in Chaos Rising, and became a playable character in DoWII Retribution. If he becomes a traitor due to the player's use of artifacts, he will attack you in a Chaos Predator, fucking your shit up. (Despite not being the canonical traitor, he is nonetheless selected as the default traitor if all members of the player's team have exactly equal corruption levels.)

• Tarkus - A Tactical squad Sergeant, who is bald and also the Ancient in Retribution. Noted for being surprisingly kind-hearted and dutiful for a Marine, Tarkus ever takes the role of a mentor and is a strict adherent to the Codex Astartes. Unusual in that if he falls to Chaos through artifacts, he does so with the express intention of using the daemonic weaponry to butt-fuck the Black Legion and Eliphas and bring Kyras to justice by his own hands. If turned to Chaos, he attacks with a Kai Gun, an ancient possessed bolter that fucks things up with retardedly strong bolts of warpfire.

• Thaddeus - An Assault Marine Sergeant, the youngest and least grimdark of the gang. Is also a hair-etic and unsurprisingly joined Force Commander Hair Gel on his heresy during Chaos Rising. Canonically gets sent away on the penitent crusade alongside Commander Hair Gel after Chaos Rising, explaining his absence in Retribution.

• Apothecary Gordian - the man responsible for bringing Davian Thule back from the brink of death and overseeing his internment in a dreadnought. It's a pity that he gets virtually no screentime and gets killed when the Tyranids destroy your strike cruiser, since his few appearances mark him as a useful and generally cool character.

• Captain Apollo Diomedes- Captain of the veteran First Company and Honor Guard, and said to be the "greatest" warrior of the Blood Ravens history. He used to be a helmet-wearing jerkass of awesomeness until Retribution, where he is revealed to be bald. As such, this fa/tg/uy dubs him Abaldo Diomedes. Looks (and sounds) suspiciously like Indrick Boreale... "BRRUUUVAA I AM HITTT!" "IT IS DE BEEEIHNNNNBLEEEEHD!"

• Azariah Kyras - A Space Marine Librarian who falls to Chaos and dedicates himself to Khorne. Was also Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens up until Retribution. Has a kickass VA ("Let the galaxy BURN!"). He looks like he hasn't slept since the time of the Ancient Sumerians, jesus look at those eye rings, someone give this man a tempur-pedic and some clonodine. He also happens to be one of the few psykers to gain the favor of Khorne in the history of 40k (apparently good enough to be granted daemonhood on top of all that too).

• Apothecary Galan - A traitor apothecary with a great voice, possessed by a daemon of Nurgle, trying to corrupt Apollo Diomedes. Was part of the expedition that found Kyras aboard the Judgement of Carrion. Notable for bucking the "apothecaries aren't badass" trend by carrying a chainsword that hits like a power weapon goddamn truck and having a bodyguard of assault terminators. If defeated in battle in Chaos Rising (optional objective), the daemon gets exorcised, and the actually repentant Galan (who was possessed against his will) gives you information that saves Diomedes' life.. then he dies. Since Diomedes is alive in Retribution, that means canonically, Galan is dead.

• Scout Sergeant Priam - Got all his scouts kidnapped by a Sorcerer on Calderis, with the rest of them holed up in shitty clay structures against Chaos Dreadnoughts, havocs, and missile-carrying plague marines. Suffice to say, if Hairgel doesn't deploy every shred of tactical genius he has, everyone gets proper fucked.

• Sergeant Lysandros MEHTULBAWKSES- shows up on Calderis to destroy an empty town in the ass end of nowhere on orders of Kyras. Notable for being the eternal nemesis of Firaeveus Carron by spamming not just Rhinos, but Razorbacks. Tells Diomedes to fuck off and stop being a buzzkilling asshole. The player kills him, obviously.

• Dreadnought- A random hero of the chapter. The Blood Ravens must have a bunch, since they're more spammable than Predators. Most players pretend (in vain) that the Venerable version you can sub out Martellus for in Retribution is Thule, and weep quietly as it instagibs infantry in the background with assault cannon sweeps.

• Unnamed Traitor- Siding with Kyras and Chaos, he shows up in the later stages of Retribution, becoming the greatest exemplar of the thieving might of the chapter by stealing a Land Raider Redeemer from the Blood Ravens themselves. Is also a teamkilling fucktard who fires off the Land Raider's frag assault launchers directly into a huge mass of cultists (on the same side as him) worshiping Khorne, resulting in ludicrous gibs.

• Squad Corvus Marines - Shows up in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine during the Chaos Invasion. Noticing a group of Black Templars traveling to join the Liberation Fleet heading for Forge World Graia, Squad Corvus attached themselves to the strike force in order to "acquire" more gifts for the chapter (specifically, more Titans). They show up during the Chaos invasion and kick major ass, despite there being only like four of them. Just goes to show how fucking strong Blood Raven plot armor is... or how strong their dedication to "acquire" relics for their chapter can be.

• Rhamah - The blackest of Irish lepers graced us with this librarian, who got pulled into the warp while fighting off a Gellar field breach on the Litany of Fury. He ended up on a Harlequin library planet with amnesia, where he met Ahzek Ahriman. Getting convinced that they were battle brothers, he wandered around the library while Gabriel Angelos and company were looking for him. The moment Rhamah was found, he got a viking haircut courtesy of a space elf clown's power sword. The moral of the story is to avoid heresy, and also fuck C.S. Goto.

The Lazy Fuckwits of 4th Company

The Blood Ravens 4th Company is recognized as the laziest sons of bitches in the entire goddamn sector. For all of Dawn of War 2, these bastards sit around on Calderis, and only show up when Davian Thule gets KO'd by a Tyranid Warrior. Their battle strategy basically involves "let the Force Commander do all the work". So only about twenty marines and the rest of the Blood Raven scouts actually do shit, while the rest of the fat bastards sit around on Calderis getting chewed up by gribblies. Where the fuck are they when the FC needs them!? Probably "discovering and obtaining" more artifacts. FC never actually needs them on the battlefield though, he and Cool Dreadnought alone are perfectly capable of blasting the stuffing from Cannon Fodder, Tyrants and Fatty Daemon Princess, if they are properly equipped and employing hit-run-cheat-hit tactic. Friendly Cannon Fodder useless in hard battles anyway. Better let them loot friends and foes.

If you wanted to split hairs, you could argue that the rest of the 4th Company is the reinforcements you call in when your squads get KO'd and you run back to a satellite dish/strategic point to heal up. This begs the question why they don't just deploy full-sized squads to begin with and overwhelm the enemy without having to lose guys in the first place.

The rest of the company are probably deployed to other theatres, performing side objectives or just minimising the number of reinforcements that can go jump in front of Thule's assault cannon.

Bloody Magpies

The Blood Ravens "acquiring" a master-crafted artillery shell from a Forgeworld. The next day, the Magos simply said: "THEY TOOK WHAT?!" after hearing the report that their entire artillery battery was reported missing.

Don't bother, they'll just "acquire" the bolts too.

Blood Ravens are also known to steal or loot artifacts, relics and practically everything else that isn't bolted down (didn't stop them from stealing from dreadnoughts, however) due to the fact they are not an official chapter and must make do with what they find and they are named after a bird known for feasting on the dead which makes them value the spoils of war more than any other chapter. The chapter has battlegear from (includes but are not limited to) Ultramarines, Space Wolves, Imperial Fists, Salamanders, Dark Angels, Iron Snakes, Blood Angels, Black Templars, Iron Hands, Grey Knights, even the Adeptus Custodes and at least one Primarch. One must wonder how the fuck they got away with the latter.

In addition, they are always on the move, are notorious for stealing things, the chapter has no knowledge who their genetic father is, and practically nobody likes them, implying that they are basically the space gypsies to the Space Wolves' space Vikings. This makes further sense when you consider that "Gypsies" is derived from "Egyptian", and the Thousand Sons are Egyptian themed (Although gypsies are actually ethnically Romanian Indian). Maybe the White Scars like them, but they only hang out with their successors anyway.

In Dawn of War II, the Blood Ravens have numerous opportunities to receive Wargear for their use. Strangely, a good number of them are obtained through vague circumstances or described as "gifts", either implying that they were salvaged from the dead who aren't Blood Ravens or downright stolen from marine chapters and other Imperial organizations. How they got away with it is something only the Emperor would know. Seeing as they've jacked at least one bolter and suit of power armor from the fucking Adeptus Custodes, the Emperor probably is the only one with a hope of knowing.

So where will this end?

I don't know...But I'm pretty sure they are a textbook case of Mass Kleptomania, which could be explained as an unnoticed gene-seed corruption (because when you're checking for thing like growing the wrong number of limbs a compulsion to steal is going to be a lot less visible).

Of course, will you question the Omnissiah and the Machine Cult when it comes to handling artifacts?

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  Also known as the Bloody Magpies.

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  When the Bloody Magpies were victimizing the Blood Angels, they didn't just settle for the Pistol of Baal.

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  Weight on the word "discovered".

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  This is primarily because the Doom Eagles didn't think to look at their own Chapter armory.

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  Even the Inquisition is not safe.

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  HOW THE FUCK DO YOU STEAL CUSTODES EQUIPMENT?!

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  Even the lost and dead are not safe.

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  Even the ruinous powers are not safe.

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  When we said Chaos wasn't safe, we weren't kidding.

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  Techmarines from different chapters swear to the Emperor that they've seen this before in another chapter's armory.

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  Refusal is futile.

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  The Novamarines were puzzled to see the Terminator armor gone from their honored battle brother's body after he fell against the Tau... 30 seconds later when they glanced aside.

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  Curiously, the Techpriests of Mars refused to recruit any more potential Techmarines from the Blood Ravens after Martellus' release.

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  Spoiler: They don't.

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  Emphasis on "recovered".

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  This really puts the achievements of all other chapters to shame.

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  Not even the Primarchs are safe.

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  Abaddon's weapon is pretty cool too, I guess.

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  If you steal, might as well do it from the best.

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  Even Matt Ward's beloved Ultrasmurfs aren't safe...

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  And neither are his other beloved Special Snowflakes.(at least they partly admit they stole this one)

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  Even the fan chapters have witnessed this.

Rumors

• A Blood Raven marine sneaking off with an Ultramarine Land Raider with incomprehensible stealth.
• It is worse than we imagined.
• Much worse.
• So bad, they would steal from each other (Though why would they want THAT particular relic is anybody's guess).

Fanboy Ravens

The Blod Rehvens have also been known for their excessively fangirl-esque behavior, including forging weapons for other chapters and declaring them relics after the receiving chapter rejected them, and naming wargear after off-hand comments by famous chapters, though by now they themselves are a very famous chapter.

Alternatively, they may just enjoy trolling the hell out of other chapters. For a chapter that gives all of zero fucks about slaughtering the Sisters of Battle and Imperial Guard, it could really go either way. Either this, or Relic are massive trolls themselves and all of the Space Gypsy stuff is just as planned.

An alternative alternative is that Tzeentch is actually seeing how much he has to piss off other chapters in the Blood Ravens name in order to get them to turn completely traitor. He may even be pretending to be Khorne, since that's the only god anyone is apparently willing to worship anymore. Hey, its better than being completely forgotten like a certain Slaanesh...

A third alternative is that, given how much relics they steal acquire, they may be trying to come to good terms with other chapters by spreading their loot around. With that being said, it is also entirely possibly that it serves as a way of fencing stolen goods: take stuff, disguise true origins, and then offer the things back to their original owners with the certainty that they will reject it as an inferior copy of something they think they still have in their armory.

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  Ragnar Blackmane was suppose to be given a Power Axe by the Blood Raven artificers. He told them to screw off. Probably lost his wolf mantle afterwards too

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  Said Power Axe.

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  Darnath Lysander is not amused.

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  The Space Wolves can't resist trolling the Blood Ravens. They were less amused when they discovered a similar axe disappeared from their arsenal.

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  Problem, Dark Angels?

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  "He mad?" "Pretty sure he mad."

The (Incomplete) Loot List

• Every weapon and armor the Magpies have been "gifted"
• More items. Curiously, none of them are gifts.

Notably, these lists lack the really good (purple-quality) goods, such as stolen Custodes gear, Forgebreaker, and titan-killing multimeltas nicked from the Ultramarines.