Corvus Corax
Not to be confused with the awesome Neo-medieval band of the same name.
Corvus Corax, the Common Raven, also known as the Northern Raven, is a large, all-black passerine bird and is the Primarch of the Raven Guard. Corax was big on fast assaults (and screamo music; it's a surpise his chapter motto isn't Blood on the Dance Floor lyrics) and is notorious both for being the head of one of the hardest-hit chapters during the Horus Heresy and for the steps Corax took to try to help the Imperium, as well as the self-imposed exile he put himself to in an attempt to atone for what he had caused. Whilst /tg/ often jokes that he's emo, he's also a complete badass, like a lot of the Primarchs, and unlike this fucker actually got shit done.
He also had some kind of super-secret psychic-invisibility. Like he could make anything with brains not see or hear the ten-foot superhuman demigod flying on the Imperium's largest jump-pack until he start ripping out their heads and limbs. He could not trick robots and automatic turrets with this ability because this was some kind of telepathy rather then actual invisibility. However, he hid this ability even from his own Legion, being quite aware about the Imperium's attitude towards psykers.
The Liberator
Like all the Primarchs, Corax was scattered by Chaos to prevent the Emperor from destroying their plans. Corax wound up on Lycaeus, a dry, dusty moon with no atmosphere, orbiting the planet Kiavahr. At this time the planet was a technologically advanced Forge World, providing Kiavahr's gigantic manufactorums with minerals extracted from Lycaeus by slave labor.
The slaves of Lycaeus were mostly regular people - inhabitants of the moon, as well as criminals, political opponents of the wealthy aristocracy on Kiavahr, and Kiavahran workers who had done crimes such as failing to meet quotas or taking one too many bathroom breaks - in essence, Lycaeus was an unlimited source of free, exploitable manpower, which they kept in line with hired guns and openly executing anyone who tried to escape.
When the people of Lycaeus found Corax as an infant, they were mystified - no one could identify where he had come from and yet all could tell there was something unearthly - and extremely important - about the child. They named him Corax - "The Deliverer," in their language - and in spite of the risks and drain on resources, they took him in and kept him safe from their masters. Believing that Corax was their salvation from the Kiavahrans' tyranny, they began training him in the various skills he would need both as a leader and as a warrior: urban warfare, close combat, and demolitions work as well as political and philosophical training and analysis - ultimately Corax's abnormally-fast maturation (being a Primarch and all) comforted the slaves and united them in believing that Corax was the savior that as a people they had waited ages for.
Finally the day came when Corax was old enough to assume leadership and fulfill his destiny. He began his task by quietly organizing the workers into fight teams, promoting the best, smartest, and strongest to squad leaders. He began using the mines' fabrication tech to create weaponry, and then hid stockpiles of equipment in strategic positions throughout the mines. Corax took full advantage of the environment the Kiavahrans had set up, doing a bang-up impression of Anonymous and staging strikes, sit-ins, and riots in strategic spots, knowing that the Kiavahrans would deal with them harshly and feed the flames. Finally things reached their breaking point and Corax's forces launched their attack, taking key positions. With a combination of sabotage, strategic demolitions, and access to manufactured/stolen weaponry, Corax's forces killed the occupation force to the man and the moon of Lycaeus declared its independence.
When Kiavahr's rulers struck back with their armed forces, Corax was ready for them, having seized the equipment of the defense forces Kiavahr had left behind, and used the fabrication equipment to make demolitions-grade ordnance for the battles to come. At every battle, the Kiavahrans found battle-hardened warriors who were exceedingly skilled in urban and hit-and-run warfare - guerrillas that constantly ambushed and outmaneuvered their heavily-armed and armored forces, whittling down their ranks. With Kiavahr's forces already demoralized and destabilized, Corax pulled a MacGuyver-esque feat of legerdemain and sent a set of nuclear mining charges along the gravity tethers used for moving supplies and ore shipments to Kiavahr, blowing the Kiavahran manufactorums to hell and guaranteeing that the Kiavahrans couldn't produce a thing. The tech guilds who ran Kiavahr plunged into civil war, and with this, the conflict for control of Lycaeus was won.
In celebration, they re-named the planet Deliverance.
That very day, the Emperor arrived, apparently pleased with what Corax had accomplished, and after the two spent a day and a half together, he appointed Corax head of the newly-formed Raven Guard. Nothing is written regarding what Corax and the Emperor discussed that day except for Corax's sole condition of acceptance: that the Emperor help restore peace on Kiavahr. The Emperor agreed and the Adeptus Mechanicus took control of Kiavahr, rebuilding it and turning it into a glorious shard of the Imperium. Deliverance, meanwhile, was reinforced, and the citadel that had once housed the guards the Kiavahrans had deployed to maintain order was now, ironically, the headquarters of the Legion, dubbed "the Ravenspire." In contrast, many primarchs preferred to leave their home planets as Feral or Death Worlds.
Great Crusade
Little is spoken of Corax's role in the Great Crusade, though his contributions were many. A firm proponent of mobile strikes, tactical planning, and careful sabotage, the Raven Guard excelled at lightning fast strikes and covert operations, but several of the Primarchs were not quite so sold on it. Rogal Dorn disliked the combat style of the Raven Guard, though the two purportedly respected one another and made hilarious jokes about Roboute Guilliman's retardation, causing the Smurf to go cry into his big blue pillow. Corax would have likely gotten along swimmingly with Alpharius and Konrad Curze, due to similar tactical doctrines, but the three Primarchs would be deployed to opposite sides of the Imperium during the great crusade, and would never really manage to hook up. Then again, it's implied pretty strongly that Corvus always hated what Kurze stood for, no matter how similar their tactics were.
One person who Corax flat-out didn't get along with was Horus. The pair never saw eye-to-eye, with Corax being too humanitarian for Horus' tastes and Horus being too much of a cockmongler for Corax's liking. The two also disliked one another's tactical choices, and on at least one occasion, the two nearly came to blows after Horus ordered Corvus' Legion into a frontal assault on a heavily defended fortress. A little strange, given that the Iron Warriors and Space Wolves were present and much better-suited to these tactics, but it basically boils down to Corvus' big brother being a prick. The pre-Corvus legion served under Horus, and rolled more like the Night Lords than the emo ninjas we know and love today. Corvus, who saw some uncomfortable parallels with the slavers of his homeworld, promptly set about changing this, which undoubtedly pissed off Horus. Big brother decided to flex his Warmaster muscles, and when Corvus proposed a sensible alternative Perturabo called him a big pussy. The result was a pile of dead ravens, millions of civilian corpses (who hadn't rebelled willingly, but were under the control of alien parasites), and Leman Russ of all people breaking up a fight between Corvus and Peturabo. It's suspected that Perturabo played a major role in giving the Ravens the job of trialling the Mark VI "Beakie" armour, believing it to be inferior.
Being the bigger man, Corax said "fuck this" and left Horus' command, hooking up with some kindred spirits in the form of Ferrus Manus and Vulkan; the three hit it off pretty well and found their forces worked really, really well together. They then went and continued the Great Crusade without having to deal with Horus' acting like a shit. The one upside from the Gate 44 debacle was that the Terran marines in the Legion had been largely wiped out in the assault, taking the warrior lodges with them.
The Horus Heresy
When the Horus Heresy occurred, the Raven Guard, Iron Hands, and Salamanders were all on the front lines on Istvaan V. Each faction was well-suited to lead the vanguard of the attack, but they would wind up getting trapped and pinned down in the worst part of the fighting; when 4 more Legions turned traitor and joined Horus' rebellion, the three Legions already in the thick of it wound up in a bitter fight which cost them scores of men - as well as the Iron Hands' Primarch, Ferrus Manus. During the battle Corax engaged Lorgar in personal combat after shredding the Gal Vorbak, giving his sons a chance to run for the hills. Kind of like the huntsman scene in an ultra-gritty reboot of Bambi. Corvus quickly overwhelmed Lorgar, demanding answers to why he betrayed them. Lorgar tried to tell Corax of the truth he had discovered, but Corax's responses amounted to "heresy is bad and you should feel bad", and he said it with claws. Corax was just about to take Lorgar's head when Konrad Curze intervened. At this point, Corax's resolve broke, for he looked into the eyes of the Night Haunter and finally knew fear: not the fear of death, but fear that but for chance he could have turned into something as twisted as Curze (particularly when you think of the repressive origins of his legion). Retreating, Corax's forces, primarily designed for quick insertion and covert-ops duty and not sticking around in a meat-grinder suffered the heaviest casualties - and though they fought desperately alongside the Salamanders and Iron Hands, killing countless traitor marines in turn, the loyalists were still slaughtered wholesale, forcing all three legions to withdraw, and leaving them largely unable to stop Horus' advance.
Corax realized how dire the situation was, and returned to Terra to give the Emperor his report. His warnings to Cernel Joson were not listened to and now it was too late. Far too late for now, anyway. The Imperium was collapsing, with the loyalists outnumbered and Guilliman chasing Alpharius halfway across the galaxy in the universe's biggest version of hunt the last webway gate, further thinning their forces. The Emperor needed warriors, and Deliverance had none to spare. Searching for a solution, Corax, knowing his Sons would be useless in a counter siege, and seeking absolution for running from Curze and Lorgar, beseeched the Emperor (who was already caught up in trying to use the Golden Throne to prevent a Warp gate from opening at the bottom of the palace) to spend Corax and his Legion in a suicide or glory plan: to send the Raven Guard out to disrupt traitor supply lines, allowing Rogal Dorn time to fortify Terra and the Emperor time to regain control of the Webway. Agreeing that the Raven Guard should continue their lightning strike tactics, but unwilling to waste one of his last loyal Legions, the Emperor decided to give Corax a dangerous, but potentially game changing, gift: access to the Emperor's memories on the creation of the Primarchs, and the location of the equipment from the original complex where they were made. Using the ancient books of research notes the Emperor had left behind when making the first batches of Space Marines and the genetic sample that all of the Primarchs came from, Corax began essentially cloning marines at an alarming rate.
He did not heed the book's warnings, however, feeling that the urgency of his mission was of more import. After a fair amount of fuck ups, a solution was found and Corax had discovered a way to make stronger, faster, and more quickly maturing (physically) Astartes out of toddlers. There were those that opposed this amongst the legion stating that if it were right to give a 5 yr old that much power and produce them that quickly, then the Emperor would have done so, but Corax held that they were in dire straights and it called for an exception. Then the Alpha Legion laid the FUCK down on that entire plan, and corrupted the gene-seed that the entire project was and ever would be using. Corax led attacks against the Traitors and penetrated the rear area of the Chaos forces' supply lines before destroying them, which slowed their advance considerably.
After the Horus Heresy, Guilliman came back and had a sudden surprising outbreak of common-sense(this is a source of hot debate, many view this decision as the highest degree of fucktarded), recommending demanding that the legions subdivide so that no one man could ever hold the kind of power that led to Horus butt-fucking the entire Imperium. Corax hesitantly agreed, and split his forces, but he remained wracked with guilt; he could not forget what he had done to help save the Imperium, and was left with the horrid choice of what to do about the shambling abominations he had created. After pondering for hours as to what should be done he decided to mercifully put the screaming abominations down, praying for their souls - and for his. He then locked himself in Ravenspire, and for nearly a year, did not came out, having spent most of that time in lamentation and the rest playing Dwarf Fortress. When he did emerge, Corax left Deliverance and made a bee-line for the Eye of Terror, heading there, finally, to settle the score.
Quoth the Corax: "Nevermore."
It is believed that like Leman Russ and Vulkan, Corax will return in the final apocalyptic battle versus Chaos, when the Emperor returns - and that then, and only then, will he have the absolution he sought. /tg/ often jokes that on that same day, Indrick Boreale will talk normally.
Tabletop
| Pts | WS | BS | S | T | W | I | A | Ld | Sv | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corvus Corax: | 450 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6/5 | 7 | 6/5 | 10 | 2+/3+ |
The Raven-Lord deserves to go solo like the Primarch of an independent legion should be. His Raven Lord rule state that, unless the unit targeting him is a psyker/daemon OR Corax is in a unit OR he is the closest unit to them, they can only snap-fire at him. (note: this makes him IMMUNE to Blast & Template weapons, unless they hit him by accident!) He may also remove himself from play and return to reserves, even while in close combat. Furthermore, his Sire of the Legion gives him old-school Furious Charge and his entire legion get acute senses for outflanking and always roll 6s on run moves.
On defense he has the Sable Armour, that gives him a 2+ armour save along with a 5+ invulnerable save (3+/5+ after Istvaan), making him one of the more fragile Primarchs; however he does cause Deep Strike mishaps on doubles to units within 12" and teleport homers just don't work around him. Coupled with his speed and his snapfire defense means the enemy is unlikely to get close to him. He also has the Korvidine Pinions (Loses this at Istvaan), that makes him jump infantry (of course) and let him reroll deeps strike scatter, Vector Strike and gains D3 hammer of wrath hits at S5 AP3. If a mishap occurs, it will always cause the "delayed" result. Lastly he's got Shroud Bombs, for when he's the one getting charged (Not likely, but possible).
On the offense there's the Panopoly of the Raven Lord, an AP2, shredding, blinding weapon set that takes up two hands. Can choose each turn to add D3 attacks / gain +3 to vehicle pen and auto-wound on a 5+ / impose -1 to enemy To Hit rolls (Making him capable of taking on virtually anything, especially on the charge). Lastly there are his two S6 AP3 Master-Crafted Archeotech Pistols: while surely not the strongest ranged weapons for a primarch they get their job done. They get exchanged for an assault 3 Heavy Bolter which also grants him Hatred (All Traitor Legions which participated in the Drop Site Massacre) after Istvaan.
He also has two profiles, representing him before Istvaan and during/after the battle. After the battle he loses quite a few of his toys (notably his korvidine pinions and archeotech pistols) and has a lower statline to represent the injuries he sustained, although he also costs 100 points less while gaining Infiltrate and Scout.
| The Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions |
|---|
 Loyalist Corvus Corax - Ferrus Manus - Jaghatai Khan Leman Russ - Lion El'Jonson - Roboute Guilliman Rogal Dorn - Sanguinius - Vulkan |
 Traitor Alpharius/Omegon - Angron - Fulgrim Horus - Konrad Curze/Night Haunter - Lorgar Magnus the Red - Mortarion - Perturabo |