Blood Ravens

Blood Ravens
Battle Cry	"Knowledge is power. Guard it well."
Founding	Unknown
Successors of	Thousand Sons Unknown
Successor Chapters	N/A
Chapter Master	Gabriel Angelos
Primarch	Unknown
Homeworld	Fleet-based
Strength	Not that many after Cyrene, Kaurava, and Kyras; less than 600
Specialty	Psykers, collecting "lost" relics
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Red, bone white pauldrons

The Blud Rehvens are one of the most mysterious chapters of the spess mahrens, they don't know their original primarch nor their pre-heresy origins (heck none of their archives have any info dating before the Age of Apostasy).

History

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

The Blud Rehvens chapter is predominantly used in the Dawn of War video game series. Some speculate that the Blod Rehvens were descendants of a Thousand Sons schism cult who broke away from them during the Horus Heresy, as hinted in the "A Thousand Sons" novel (--EDIT-- The short story Rebirth in the Horus Heresy Novel Age of Darkness Shows the foundation of the Blood Ravens. One of the Fellowships of the Thousand Sons was sent away prior to the destruction of Prospero, when they returned, one of their number, whose name sounds a LOT like 'Vidya', their founder, says the Blood Ravens motto, PLUS the emblem of his Fellowship was a black raven...) As well as that, they have an unusually high number of unusually powerful psykers, to the point that two squads in their first company are composed completely out of librarians and to the point that their Chief Librarian is also their Chapter Master. Since GW is ultimately reluctant to expand their never progressing storyline, we may never know if this is true. Alternate theories include being loyalist Luna Wolves and the missing 2nd or 18th Legion. It has been rumored by a few GW office workers from the Fluff Department that the Blood Ravens will be getting much more focus outside of Dawn of War in the near future as a token of thanks to Dawn of War's part in bringing new fans to Warhammer 40k, perhaps going so far as getting their own codex.

Just what we need, another Spehss mahreen codex to hog all the attention from GW, might as well start giving each Tyranid Hive Fleet, Ork Klan, Eldar Craftworld, Dark Eldar Kabal, Imperial Guard Regiment, Necron Tombworld/Tombship, Tau Sept, Inquisitorial faction, Traitor Legion, Renegade Chapter, and Chaos God their own separate codex while they're at it. And seeing that they can deploy entire squadrons of Librarians, their army would probably be overpowered as fuck (imagine two squads of ten librarians each in terminator armor with storm shields and thunder hammers such an army already exists, thanks to the same genius that brought us Codex: Blood Angels; it's the new Codex: Grey Knights, and it's coming to destroy anything resembling balance at a tournament near you.).

Given the Blood Ravens kleptomaniac-esque drive to acquire relics for their chapter, their Codex will probably be centered around allowing them to induct troops, wargear, and vehicles from different Imperial Factions and stating that they were simply "gifted" to them by the Imperium. You see that Dreadknight, Leman Russ Battle Tank squadron, Vindicare assassin, and that Immolator tank on the table? Those were all "gifted" to the Blood Ravens. The Gauntlets of Ultramar and the Deathmask on Gabriel Angelos? Gifted to the chapter.

Due to good Captain Indrick Boreale's voice acting, the Blod Rehvens were the origins of the terms: Empra and Spehss mahreens. They were also famous for losing half their chapter in a single campaign - also because of Brother-Captain Boreale, who refused to fuck off when Vance Motherfucking Stubbs arrived, much as was the case for Davian Thule when he refused orders to fuck off from Governer-Militant Lukas Alexander. Unlike the case for Thule, however, Boreale never stood a fucking chance.

The Blud Rehvens also have 2 known mutations in their geneseed. The first one is with their Catalepsean Node, which grants them perfect memory but they can't R.E.M sleep, or sleeping while being awake. The second one is with their Betcher's Gland, which changes their voice tone every few years. Such an example is Gabriel Angelos whose voice changes between DoW II and its expansion Chaos Rising.

They are also notable for having a Librarian Chapter Master who dedicates himself to Khorne. LOLWUT?

They are outright stated to be destroyed as a Chapter in the Tyranid and Chaos endings of Retribution (Due to Omnomnomage and Daemon Prince related issues) 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. And they did survive, since Blood Ravens appearing in the Space Marine game mention the Aurelian Crusade We just checked; Aurelian Crusade just means the first game and we don't know when Space Marine happened. And White Dwarf 305 (UK) mentions Gabe as their Chapter Master, further confirming SM ending, though WD has been shit wrong many times. Knowing Games Workshop, though, Eliphas is probably still alive. Probably a daemon prince, too. Because screw coherency! he can solo fucking Land-Raiders (something a goddamn BANEBLADE can't do reliably even on easy) and rape Assault Terminators. Also, because him winning Retribution is canon in Abaddon Quest. ALL HAIL LORD ELIPHAS THE INHERITOR. Oh Empy... we cant stop this heresy. FALL BACK FAAAAL BAAACK

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 warcries 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 Blod Rehvens

• Captain Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos - Original Badass and current Chapter Master of the Blod Rehvens, well only in the SM ending any way, 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?), 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 was actually 'Arvida' a Corvidae, or seer, in the Thousand Sons Legion)

• 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. Also, the Sphess Mehreens campaign is canon now, so he's got to be alive and kicking atm. WD has been incorrect many times and Aurelian Crusade refers specifically to the events of vDoW II.

• 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 for his hair-esy, he's also the youngest Blood Raven Force Commander evar. In Retribution, he's mentioned in the "Hammer of the Nameless" wargear, and noted that he went balls-to-the-wall insane and disappeared after being declared a renegade by Kyras. So 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.

• Captain Apollo Diomedes - Captain of the veteran First Company. 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 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. 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.

• Avitus - A Devastator Sergeant, who's so angry that he hates everything. Was actually the heretic in the player's squad during Chaos Rising, as if him being fucking angry all the time wasn't enough of a dead-giveaway, and was killed by Tarkus later on.

• Cyrus/Spike Spiegel - 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 Speigel" name comes from one of his VA's famous characters from the animu: Cowboy Bebop.

• 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.

• 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 in vidya gaems. He's also the first confirmed negro 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. Hmm, a black Black Templar... does that make him a Double Nigger?

• Martellus - A techmarine 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 the chapter, 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.

• 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 magic bolter that fucks things up with 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.

• 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 is.

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. Or "Receiving"

Blood 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.

Blood Ravens are also known to steal artifacts, relics and practically everything else that isn't bolted down (didn't stop them from stealing from dreadnoughts, however). 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, hell even from the Custodes (Don't forget the Grey Knights! Even though nobody knows they exist, except the entirety of the Space Wolves). 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.

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, 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.

One wonders where this will end?

I don't know...But I'm pretty sure they are a textbook case of Mass Kleptomania.

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  Also know as Blood Magpies.

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  When the Blood 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 that this particular piece of Terminator armor was gone from their honored battle brother's body after his death at the hands of the Tau......while they were still in combat 30 seconds later when they weren't looking at their brother's general direction.

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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".

Rumors

• A Blood Raven marine sneaking off with an Ultramarine Land Raider with incomprehensible stealth.
• It is worse than we imagined.

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...

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  Ragnar Blackmane was suppose to be given a Power Axe by the Blood Raven artifices. He told them to screw off.

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  Said Power Axe.

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  Captain Lyssander is not amused.

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  The Space Wolves can't resist trolling the Blood Ravens.

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  Problem, Dark Angels?