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Blood Ravens

2023-02-20T03:49:40Z

202.7.231.235: /* Post-Cicatrix Maledictum */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Blood Ravens
|Heraldry = [[Image:Bloodravenslogo.jpg|250px]]
|Battle Cry = '''Pre-Retribution:''' "Knowledge is power. Guard it well."<br>'''Post-Retribution:''' "None shall find us wanting." <br> '''Unofficial:''' <br> "STEAL IT!! MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE"[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tavp0vrBOLA]
|Number = Unknown, technically 15
|Founding = Unknown, technically Second
|Successors of = Unknown, as close to confirmed to be [[Thousand Sons]] as you can get.
|Successor Chapters = N/A
|Chapter Master = [[Gabriel Angelos]]
|Primarch = Unknown, though probably <s>[[Trazyn the Infinite]]</s> [[Magnus the Red]]
|Homeworld = Aurelia (devastated), currently fleet-based
|Specialty = [[Psyker]]s, <s>looting, liberating, collecting</s> '''Recovering''' "lost" relics, plot armour,[[Reasonable Marines| Attacking in key positions]]
|Strength = as little as 250 after [[Dawn of War 2#Retribution|Kyras’ ascension]], currently greater than 2000 following Primaris reinforcements
|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man]]
|Arch-enemies = [[Chaos]]
|Colours = Red, bone white inner pauldrons with black trim
}}

{{topquote|1=I am a thief of knowledge, and in a survival way, I had to solve all the problems around me.|2=Philippe Petit}}
{{topquote|1=Blood Ravens? Go lock the reliquary.|2=[https://youtu.be/mabM64rAd4k?t=14m13s Calato, Deathwatch Champion, to a random Stormtrooper upon encountering a Blood Ravens force... and pretty much any other loyalist chapter working with them.]}}

The '''Bluhd Rehvehns''' are one of the better-known background Chapters, primarily from their starring role in the [[Dawn of War]] /v/ series.

Because of how greatly received were the original 2 DoW entries, and thanks to the fact that they are the custom Chapter of [[Relic Entertainment]], they might give a shot for their money to the Ultramarines for the most recognizable Chapter of Space Marines to the general public. Damn, they might be THE most recognizable among the modern new hobbyists because of that.

They have ''waaaaaaaay'' too many psykers and are obsessed with <s>stealing</s> <s>finding</s> <s>reclaiming</s> <s>stealing</s> <s>finding</s> <s>reclaiming </s> <s>stealing</s> <s>finding</s> <s>reclaiming</s> <s>stealing</s> <s>finding</s> <s>reclaiming</s> <s>stealing</s> <s>MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE</s> <s>STEAL RAIN</s> <s>STHEEL REHIN</s> recovering lost relics, mostly because they don't know anything about their history. They have no records dating before the [[Age of Apostasy]]. This led to a meme that they are [[Traitor Legion Loyalists|loyalist descendants]] of the [[Thousand Sons]], but later, according to fluff, became about as canon as it gets, though some bits doesn't workout.

In short: The Blood Ravens are a Space Marine chapter of an unknown founding with an unknown history. They have a heavy focus on Psykers, especially in leadership, and may be [[Traitor Legion Loyalists]] of the [[Thousand Sons]]. There is a meme about them supposedly having kleptomania due to many of the character upgrades in Dawn of War 2 being blatantly stolen ("gifted") from other chapters; as a fleet based chapter with little Imperial support, they are known to do heavy battlefield scavenging. In [[Skub|nu-40k]], they are roughly made up of about half Primaris, and are on the wrong side of the [[Great Rift]].

==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.

== The Thousand Sons connection ==
While the records of who the Blood Ravens are descended from are lost/redacted/burned, etc. The Blood Ravens have made it a mission to find out. In general, possibilities have ranged from just loyalists (such as having relics of several different chapters / legions, including a few relics from primarchs), to being a [[Traitor Legion Loyalists|loyal successor of a traitor legion]] (due to having extremely strong links to Thousand Sons). Most specifically, the strongest evidence for the Thousand Sons' progenitor legion indeed being that of the Great Crusade-era Thousand Sons' Corvidae Cult:

* Publications like the July 2019 White Dwarf often end their discussion of the progenitor of the Blood Ravens with things like "their propensity for sorcery suggests their sire was not one of the Emperor's nine loyal sons...".
* The Blood Ravens being traitor legion genestock is often hinted at, as any time the Blood Ravens' inner circle of leaders find strong evidence of their progenitor....they destroy or hide any record of their discovery, despite their normal obsession with finding/hoarding/protecting knowledge. Even when they were given the tech and geneseed for Primaris Marines, they apparently found ''something'' that they are making damn sure remains hidden from anyone outside of the chapter.
* The Blood Ravens armour painting bares similarities to the Thousand Sons' pre-Heresy colors. Near identical to the Sekhmet, the elite veterans of the Thousand Sons, who once shared leadership with the Corvidae Cult.
* The Blood Ravens' obsession with discovering / hording knowledge is a mirror of the Thousand Sons own knowledge obsession. Complete with an obsession of keeping vast libraries and archives.
* They have a massive amount of psykers, easily the most of any individual chapter. Just like the Thousand Sons had by far the most psykers of any of the original legions.
* Their recruitment practices of pulling from worlds with a larger number of psykers mirrors the same from the Thousand Sons.
* Their tactics are a mirror of the Thousand Son's Corvidae Cult. Using their psykic powers to see into the future to foresee enemy plans.
* The sigil of the Corvidae Cult being a raven's head, while the Blood Ravens use a raven as their own sigil.
* In the novel, 'Burning of Prospero', the psyker "Kallista Eris" is used by the Corvidae Cult to scry the future. Describing her visions, she says this: '"It’s too late... the Wolf is at the door and it hungers for blood. Oh, Throne... no, the blood! '''The Ravens''', I see them too. The lost sons and a '''Raven of Blood'''. They cry out for salvation and knowledge, but it is denied! A brother betrayed, a brother murdered. The worst mistake for the noblest reason! It cannot happen, but it must!"'
* In the short story, 'Rebirth', featuring Revuel Arvida (a member of the Corvidae Cult. And who would later become Janus, the first Grand Master of the [[Grey Knights]]): '"'''Knowledge is power'''," he breathed. Then he turned away from the scene, and stole quickly back into the occlusion of the ruins. As he went, the dim red light of the angry magma fires caught on his shoulder guard, exposing the serpentine star set about the black raven-head of his cult discipline."' ('''Knowledge is Power''' being the first half of the Blood Raven's own motto, and the scene drawing attention to the Corvidae Cult's Black Raven head sigil as a black raven is the Blood Raven's own sigil. This statement also hints that it may have well been Arvida himself who founded the Blood Ravens.
* Ahzek Ahriman, who was once the leader of the Corvidae Cult before the fall of the Thousand Sons, stated that he knew the Blood Ravens' former Chapter Master "Azariah Vidya" very well, and admits that both he and Vidya had copies of the "Un-Founding", a book detailing the history of the Blood Ravens. This implying that he once met Vidya, and together they discovered the Blood Raven's history.
* In the Index Astartes - Blood Ravens, the section talking of their combat doctrine alludes to how their foresight is similar to how Magistus Amon's (founder of the Corvidae Cult) warnings to Magnus inadvertently lead to the primarchs fall to Chaos.

=== Founded by Janus? ===
If the Blood Ravens were somehow founded by Arvida, after his transformation into Janus, then it would well explain how the Blood Ravens suffer neither the Flesh Change, nor Rubric. As Janus was created by infusing Arvida with a shard of Magnus' soul. Magnus was noted to have a stabilising effect on the Thousand Sons' gene-seed (basically stabilising the warp-fuckery that is inherent to the Tsons gene-seed). Arvida merging directly with a shard of Magnus could have easily perma-fixed not only his body but his gene-seed as well, so even gene-seed grown from his progenoid glands would not suffer the gene-flaws. However, after the merge, "Janus" claimed that he had no memory of his life as Arvida. He could have later remembered his past life, or as the Grand Master of the Grey Knights, there would be nothing stopping him from finding out. And being a shard of Magnus (and one of the Thousand Sons), finding lost knowledge would always be of interest to him. Alternatively, he may have been under orders from [[Malcador]] or the Emperor to claim as such.

The hints at Janus being the founder of the Blood Ravens is the strongest of any potential individual:
* A statement he made, without anyone around to hear him, "'Knowledge is Power'", is the first part of the Blood Raven's chapter motto.
* He was a member of the Thousand Sons' Corvidae Cult, which the Blood Ravens are as close to confirmed to be descended from as you can hope for.
* Being the Grand Master of the Grey Knights, wiping any record of his own existence would easily explain the Blood Ravens' inability in discovering their real founder.
* Related to the above, what records of the Blood Ravens exist are redacted under the order of the Ordo Maellus, which the Grey Knights are a part of.
* The Blood Ravens have worked alongside the Grey Knights before, and apparently have a good relationship with them as the Blood Ravens took a suit of Grey Knight armour and the GK's didn't do anything about it and in dawn of war dark crusade and soul storm the marines (the faction it self pattered after the Blood Ravens), could use a unit of Grey Knights.
* The oldest known leader of the Blood Ravens is an Astartes named Azariah Vidya, who was noted to already have extensive knowledge/experience in combating the forces of Chaos and used it to OP effect against the Alpha Legion, "Azariah Vidya" sounding similar name to "Arvida". Wouldn't be like he hasn't changed his name before, from "Ianus" to "Janus".
* Janus disappeared sometime between 546.M32 and 290.M34, as by the latter date, the Grey Knights have a new Supreme Grandmaster.

== On the Tabletop ==

Thanks to Dawn of War, Blood Ravens now receive at least passing mention in each Space Marine codex -- including, as mentioned above, a lot of fluff and rules updates in July 2019's White Dwarf.

Canonically they lost a good amount of their number due to being trapped in the Dark Imperium, but were gifted -- no, seriously this time -- Primaris geneseed and tech by the Emissaries Imperatus of the Custodes. According to the fluff the Blood Ravens have a not insignificant number of Librarians, as befitting a possible Thousand Sons successor chapter.

In the Index Astartes update in WD July 2019, a specific Chapter Tactic was provided -- '''Relentless Seekers''', which forces any unmodified rolls to wound of 1 or 2 to always fail, as well as giving them the ability to reroll 1s for any Psychic test or Deny the Witch. They also have a special Stratagem which for 1CP, allows them to make one of their librarians a '''Chief Librarian''', which has 1 more power and can deny the witch 1 more time per turn.

In perhaps a nod to what the Bloody Magpies are best known for, '''Purgatorus''', a special bolt pistol that they just happened to end up with is also listed as a wargear option.

The release of the 2019 Space Marines codex, however, made it clear that Magpies still steal everything, including chapter tactics — as theirs is a pick of two options from the make-your-own-successor-tactic list, and Purgatorus is a generic relic available to anyone.

=== Blood Ravens Paint Scheme ===
[[File:Rik Turner's Blood Ravens.png|275px|thumb|right|They were gifted Primaris Gene Seed from the Custodes. No, literally.]]

The first official colour scheme provided was Khorne Red Armour, a Black Imperial Aquila, and Ushabti Bone pauldrons with Black trim. The company colour is painted on the right kneepad. A more modern bone colour from GW is 2019's Morghast Bone, which is somewhere between Zandri Dust and Ushabti Bone, and is for all intents and purposes a base paint version of Ushabti Bone. For Contrast paints, you're probably looking at Flesh Tearers Red armour, a Black Templar aquilla, and Skeleton Horde pauldrons; Blood Angels Red may also work for the armour if you prefer.

[[File:Battle-Ready Blood Ravens.png|230px|thumb|left|'Battle-Ready' scheme for the Blood Ravens.]]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4nCScpgDhA Warhammer TV] shows them being painted similarly, although the Ushabti Bone pauldrons are now Zandri Dust (partially because Ushabti Bone is a layer paint, and painting it on top of a non-Zandri Dust undercoat is a pain in the ass). Forge World (on their Gabriel Angelos page) alongside some newer WTV videos suggest Mephiston Red with 100% Carroburg Crimson shade instead, which is almost the same as Khorne Red with a more gradual shading. Paul Norton from the GW Heavy Metal Team [https://twitter.com/ajuntapaulpal/status/876099214513770496?lang=en painted a Primaris Lieutenant] and used a 50/50 mix of Mephiston Red and Rhinox Hide, for those that prefer the darker red of their vidya appearance and aren't shy about mixing paints.

What isn't covered in any detail is how, exactly, Sergeants / Veterans / Veteran Sergeant / Lieutenants are handled. In typical Codex chapters these are handled by Red / White / Red + White Stripe / White Stripe + Red Stripe, but this falls apart when the armour colour is red to begin with, and the video game dodged the issue by not giving any officers helmets and only including terminators as Veterans. Paul Norton's Primaris Lieutenant (above) used a bone coloured helmet with a black stripe, which implies: Sergeant: Black, Vet: Bone, Vet Sergeant: Black with Bone Stripes, Lieutenant: Bone with Black Stripes or Red with Black stripe and bone inner stripe.

Rik Turner's army in the 2019 White Dwarf article on Blood Ravens, on the other hand, had a Sergeant with a bone helm, and a Primaris Ancient + Lieutenant with a black helmet and bone face mask -- with the Aquilla being bone instead of black, and the kneepads not painted in any longer. The Captain seems to have a gold helmet, as well. Possibly, they are gifts.

==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 to a man 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 was 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 the 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 announced, as he disregarded his tattered old helmet for the Witch Hunter's headpiece.

==Famous Blud Rehvens==
[[File:60177 md-Blood Ravens, Space Marines, Tactical Squad.JPG|300px|thumb|right|A squad of ravens out on the hunt for loot.]]
*Chapter Master [[Gabriel Angelos]] - Original Badass and current Chapter Master of the Blud Rehvens, at least in the SM and IG endings of Retribution (the SM ending is canon, but he dies in every other ending). He is the first Blood Raven Chapter Master in recorded history to not at the same time be the Chief Librarian, probably because they finally realized that having a Chief Librarian/Chapter Master is a Bad Idea™. Gabe was the first Blood Raven character we were ever introduced to and has the most fully-formed character of anyone else. Known for his catch phrase "Walk softly and carry a big gun", which translates to "Steal the biggest thing and don't get noticed". He sentenced his own homeworld of Cyrene to [[Exterminatus]] after discovering extensively deep [[heresy]] on it (which he's still hurting over) and accidentally set the events of most of the series in motion by destroying a daemonic artefact known as the Maledictum and thus setting a Greater Daemon of Khorne loose. He still did his damnedest to make up for it and succeeded.
**Comes back in Dawn of War III wearing an impressive looking suit of Tartaros Terminator Armour, as well as making ridiculous [[C.S. Goto|front 360 flips in it]].
*Chief Librarian Azariah Vidya (get it? cuz they are in a vidya gaem?) - Led the chapter soon after their founding in a campaign against Alpha Legion (who have slain their Chapter Master) with most of the 1st Company and most of their previous command structure. Vidya made use of some kind of [[Creed|Tactical Genius]], and his already large experience battling Chaos forces, made him naturally "understand" where the enemy was, so that his Rehvens perfectly striked where needed. He essentially found the "I WIN" button for that campaign and pressed it while engaging his inner troll-face. Vidya was hinted to actually be 'Arvida', a 'Corvidae' or seer, from the Thousand Sons Legion before GW decided to have Arvida merge with a shard of Magnus to become a being called Janus, later the first Supreme Grand Master of the [[Grey Knights]] (although this still doesn't rule him out as there is 5,000 years between when Janus/Arvida reappears on the galactic scene, and the appearance of Vidya. Not to mention how the Blood Ravens are able to field Grey Knights as troops without being mindwiped in the process).
*[[Isador Akios]] - Gabe's Librarian buddy. Was successfully tempted by [[Sindri Myr|Ssssiiiiindriiiiii]] into betraying the Blood Ravens, and was eventually killed by Gabe himself for that heresy (thus also enabling Gabe to spout an awesome one-liner while pulling the trigger).
*Captain [[Davian Thule|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 any near-psychotic Dread. Gets rekt by Eliphas in the first Chaos mission in Retribution, though. Way to punch the players in the gut, Relic.... We like to pretend that the Venerable Dreadnought honour guard in Retribution is Davian Thule, to soothe our deep emotional trauma. While the Space Marine ending to Retribution is canon, his character is never really addressed after Chaos Rising, other than the aforementioned humiliating annihilation, and could well be dead. It is still hinted that he and the 4th company fought during the 13th Black Crusade.
*Captain [[Indrick Boreale|Indrick Baldeale]] - A master of [[meme|STEEL REHN]]. He is quite dead at the moment. Unlike Davian though, nobody is in the least broken down about him. It is suggested that he was promoted too early and put into a campaign way above his current pay grade to get most of the loyal Blud Rahvens killed as a ploy by Kyras.
*[[Blood Ravens Force Commander|Force Commander Hair Gel]] - Though he is given the name Aramus in a [[C.S.Goto|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. On top of that hate list are Imperial Guardsmen; when he was a regular human they were jerks who oppressed his neighbourhood, and on Kronus he lost several battle brothers to the Guardsmen that stood against the Blood Ravens' cleaning up their Chapter's dark secret. 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. He then gets killed by his ex-BFF Tarkus later on.
*[[Cyrus|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 constantly bitches about how fucked up everything is during every briefing in the game. 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. Prefers to wear scout armour instead of tactical armour to show off he's that badass. He served in the Death Watch, explaining why he knows so much about the Tyranids.
*[[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 (and had the coolest corruption ending). Died in all endings of Retribution at the hands of DOM-Kyras. He's also the first confirmed black Space Marine who isn't from the [[Salamanders]]. Later turned out to be not quite dead, and appears as the new Chief Librarian in Dawn of War 3.
*[[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 artefacts, 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 none of the squads have been corrupted.)
*[[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 artefacts, he does so with the express intention of using the daemonic weaponry to fuck over the Black Legion and Eliphas and bring Kyras to justice by his own hands. If turned to Chaos, he attacks with a [[Awesome|daemonically 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.
*[[Apollo Diomedes|Captain Apollo Diomedes]]- Captain of the veteran First Company and Honour 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... "BRRUUUHVVAA I AM HITTT!" "IT IS DE BEEEIHNNNNBLEEEEHD!" As second in command to Kyras, he is suitably ashamed when the Chapter Master is revealed to have been a traitor for centuries. He steps down as First Captain and takes up the mantle of Chaplain to pay amends.
*[[Azariah Kyras]] - A [[skub|Space Marine Librarian who falls to Chaos and dedicates himself to Khorne]]. In his early days he was stuck in a Spacey Hulk with a couple of marines, and after fighting in it for Emperor knows how long, he was corrupted by the Nurgle demon Ulkair. 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 (just 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 favour of Khorne in the history of 40k (apparently good enough to be granted daemonhood on top of all that too). This is largely due him kicking Ulkair to the curb after he got owned by Commander Hair Gel, and decided to cater to the daemon of Khorne Gabriel released.
*Moriah - Chapter Master and Chief Librarian that was before Kyras. Was known as the greatest and most powerful Blood Raven psyker to ever appear in the Chapter after Azariah Vidya. Fought [[Ulkair]] in a epic fight on planet Aurelia, psionically chained him to the planet and all before it got gobbled by the Warp. Did not survive the fight in the end. During the campaign you can get items that used to be wielded by him.
*Apothecary Galan - A traitor apothecary with a great voice, possessed by a daemon of Nurgle, trying to corrupt Abaldo Diomedes. Was part of the expedition that found Kyras aboard the Judgment of Carrion. Notable for bucking the "apothecaries aren't badass"-trend by carrying a chainsword that hits like a 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... and then dies. Since Diomedes is alive in Retribution, that means canonically, Galan is dead.
*Apothecary Gordian - A friendly apothecary attached to Hair Gel's command in the first DoWII who's responsible for patching up, curing and interring Davian Thule into a Dreadnought after a [[Tyranid Warrior]] [[rape|had its way with him]]. Also cooked up the bio-toxin that the team used to fuck up the splinter fleet and provides support from the Strike Cruiser during the final battle, but is killed when the Strike Cruiser gets shot down. It's a pity that he gets virtually no screen time since his few appearances mark him as a useful and generally cool character.
*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 [[rape|properly fucked.]]
*Sergeant <s>Lysandros</s> 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 (the player) to fuck off and stop being a buzzkilling asshole. The player then proceeds to kill 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 [[Beakie|Corvus]] Marines - Shows up in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine during the Chaos Invasion. Noticing a group of Black Templars travelling 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 - [[C.S. Goto|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 [[Ferrus Manus|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.
*Jensus Natorian - In the Deathwatch Overkill boxed game, Jensus is the librarian in Kill Team Cassius. Back when Jensus was a regular old human, his parents got killed by orks. That made Jensus angry. [[Angry Marines|Really REALLY angry]]. He raged so hard he developed psychic powers, [[Rip and tear|started tearing hordes of orks into hamburger with his bare hands]], and made Khorne himself raise his fiery eyebrows and say “…{{BLAM|DAMN}}.” So yeah, he kinda went <s>super saiyan</s> Angry Librarian. After Jensus ran out of greenskins to render down to their component parts, he was right about to be taken by the Black Ships when a chap by the name of Inquisitor Belicor decided that Jensus’ rage could be put to better use, shipped him off to the Blood Ravens, and later oversaw his induction into the Deathwatch, where his psychic contributions are less about mind bullets and more about mind [[RIP AND TEAR]]. Jensus also makes the Blood Ravens the only non-First Founding Chapter represented in the Deathwatch Overkill box, much to the disappointment of Black Templar players.
*Captain Atanaxis - 7th Company Captain, received the Primaris reinforcements from Custodes Shield Captain Pertinax.
*Captain Yriel Rikarius - M37 2nd Company Captain, helped oversee the development of the Razorback Rikarius which is named in his honor. All thanks to his connections with Magos M'Lell of Mars.
===Fan Made===
*Captain Arthrus Godfrey - The Captain of 4th Company that fought Hivefleet Behemoth with Inquisitor Kryptman in the series made by [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Eliphas the Inheritor.]] Scares the crap out of the Death Watch members who know that the Blud Rehvens are thieving bastards.

==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 sat around on Calderis, only to 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 these fat bastards sit around on Calderis getting chewed up by gribblies. Where the fuck are they when the Force Commander needs them!? Probably "discovering and obtaining" more artefacts.

The Force Commander never actually needs them on the battlefield though: he, Thule, Tarkus, Cyrus, and/or Jonah 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 is 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 to why they don't just deploy full-sized squads to begin with and overwhelm the enemy from the start.

The rest of the company are probably deployed to other theatres, performing side objectives on the same planet, presumably launched from the Strike Cruiser Armageddon/Retribution's thunderhawk gunships and minimizing the number of reinforcements that jump in front of Thule's assault cannon or Multimelta or getting too close to Tarkus using his face as an orbital strike beacon because he gives zero fucks about being hit with lance batteries.

==Bloody Magpies==
[[File:Magpie Missle.jpg|200px|right|thumb|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.]]
[[File:Warhammer_40k_blood_ravens_magpies_comic_bolt_down_everything_1335786405659.jpg|200px|left|thumb|Don't bother, they'll just "acquire" the bolts too.]]

Throughout the Dawn of War II trilogy, the Blood Ravens have numerous opportunities to receive wargear for them to use in battle. When you read the flavor text, 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 were downright stolen from both loyal and traitor marine chapters and other Imperial organizations. How they got away with that is something only the Emperor would know. Seeing as their battle gear includes (and is not limited to) scraps from 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, the Emperor probably is the only one that could know.

''Why'' they do this is a much more obvious matter, and doesn't even need old memes to justify it: they are not an official chapter and must make do with what they find. In case you haven't noticed thus far: they are (One of several chapters) named after an intelligent bird known for feasting on the dead, which makes them value the spoils of war more than any other chapter. In addition, they are always on the move, implying heavily that they are the Space Gypsies of the Warhammer 40k. 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 Indian). Maybe the White Scars like them, but they only hang out with their successors anyway.

Even before Dawn Of War II, they already got their talons on wargear from other Chapters. Brother-Captain [[Indrick Boreale|Indrick Baldeale]] could get "Rogal's Fist" as a replacement for his chainsword. A mace that is rumored to have been made by Rogal Dorn himself to lay waste to foes that stand before it. How it ended up in the hands of the Blood Raven's instead of being locked up somewhere in the Imperial Fist's Phalanx because it was (supposedly) made by their Primarch is a mystery. A small taste or preview to the insane kleptomania that we see in Dawn of War II before we even knew it.

So [[Bjorn_the_Fell_Handed#Bjorn.27s_Happy_End|how 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 [[Kender|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?

They’ve even started to steal vehicles now. With them “Acquiring” an assortment of [[Nephilim Jetfighter|Nephilim Fighters]] from ravenwing.

<gallery>
File:StealingBastards.jpeg| We came here to do two things: purge heretics and stehl property, and we already stole all your property, so let’s do this.
File:BloodRavensTacticals.jpg|This official artwork's concept was in fact stolen from a depiction of [[Imperial Fists|the VII Legion]] on page 15 in [[Index Astartes]] II.
Image:Baalpistol.png|Also known as the Bloody Magpies.
File:BloodRavensBook.jpeg| A Blood Raven, 'protecting' a first edition crisp condition Codex Astartes from the Ultrasmurfs first company...
File:BA Flamer.jpg|When the Bloody Magpies were victimizing the Blood Angels, they didn't just settle for the Pistol of Baal.
Image:Inquisitorpistol.png|Weight on the word "discovered".
File:DoomEagle.jpg|This is primarily because the Doom Eagles didn't think to look at their own Chapter armoury.
File:Benediction.jpg|Even the Inquisition is not safe.
File:Custodes bolter.jpg|HOW THE FUCK DO YOU STEAL CUSTODES EQUIPMENT?! They could have had it "gifted" from the Deathwatch. [[Derp|But that means somebody was stupid enough to promote a Blood Raven to a Watch or Forge Master in the first place.]]
File:Jump Pack.jpg|Even the lost and dead are not safe.
File:Heretical Shotgun.jpg|Even the ruinous powers are not safe.
File:Alpha legion armor.jpg|When we said Chaos wasn't safe, we weren't kidding.
File:Termi tele.jpg|Techmarines from different chapters swear to the Emperor that they've seen this before in another chapter's armoury.
File:Artificer termi.jpg|Refusal is futile.
File:Nova Termi.jpg|The Novamarines were puzzled to see the Terminator armour gone from their honored battle brother's body after he fell against the Tau... 30 seconds later when they glanced aside.
Image:evenyoumartellus.png|Curiously, the Techpriests of Mars refused to recruit any more potential Techmarines from the Blood Ravens after Martellus' release.
Image:bloodmagpies.png|Spoiler: They don't.
File:Snakes banner.jpg|Emphasis on "recovered".
File:CustodesArmor.jpg|This really puts the achievements of all other chapters to shame.
File:Forgebreaker.png|Not even the Primarchs are safe.
File:SkarbrandMaul.jpg|[[Skarbrand|Skarbrand’s]] weapon is pretty cool too, I guess.
File:BTThunderHammer.jpg|If you steal, might as well do it from the best.
File:Ancient Bolter.gif|Even [[Matthew_Ward| Matt Ward's]] beloved [[Ultramarines|Ultrasmurfs]] aren't safe...
File:GKArmor.jpg| And neither are his other beloved [[Grey_Knights|Special Snowflakes]].
File:Dawn_of_stubbornness.png| Even the fan chapters have witnessed this.
File:Blood_Raven_1.JPG|"[[Roboute_Guilliman|Lord Commander]], a batch of [[Primaris Marines]] went missing just after the visit of-" "I know."
File:PrimarisAngelos.png|Well, we know where at least some of that missing Primaris geneseed went...
File:20180902093627 1.jpg|Not even the xenos are safe...no, really. How do you steal a Wraithlord?
File:Dd6.gif|A Blood Raven Space Marine in their natural habitat.
File:Blood Ravens Shao Kahn.jpg|Shao Kahn should have lurked moar.
File:Blood Ravens Meme.png|Memes were never save.
File:un-steal-able text.png
</gallery>

===Rumours===
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3uEf8sJt1s&feature=g-all-lik A Blood Raven marine sneaking off with an Ultramarine Land Raider with incomprehensible stealth.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4om7AuID6BY&feature=related It is worse than we imagined.] [[heresy|Also note Boreale's face while holding the Eldar]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enua52rXfmQ Much worse.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tavp0vrBOLA So bad, they would steal from each other (Though why would they want THAT particular relic is anybody's guess).]
*Stole not one, but two whole [[Primarch]]s before they were even found.

==Fanboy Ravens==
The Blood Ravens 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|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, it's better than being completely forgotten like a certain Slaanesh...

A third alternative is that, given how many relics they <s>steal</s> acquire, they may be trying to come to good terms with other chapters by spreading their loot around. That said, it is also entirely possible 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 armoury.

<gallery>
Image:trinkets.jpg|Ragnar Blackmane was suppose to be given a Power Axe by the Blood Raven artificers. He told them to screw off. <s>Probably lost his wolf mantle afterwards too</s>
File:Gift.jpg|Said Power Axe.
File:Fist's Hammer.jpg|[[Darnath Lysander]] is not amused.
File:Russ Axe.jpg|The Space Wolves can't resist trolling the Blood Ravens. They were less amused when they discovered a similar axe disappeared from their arsenal.
File:DA Plasma gun.jpg|[[Troll|Problem]], [[Dark Angels]]?
File:AzraelsSecond.png|"He mad?" "Pretty sure he mad."
</gallery>

== Daily Rituals ==
04:00 - Rousing from slumber. The Ravens get up from their beds, which they got as a "gift".

05:00 - Morning Prayer. The Blood Ravens pray to the Emperor to grant them the right to "borrow" chaos, xenos and Imperial relics.

06:00 - Morning Firing Rites. The Blood Ravens hone their skills with the ammunition "graciously gifted" by fellow Astartes chapters.

07:00 - Battle Practice. The Blood Ravens practice heists and tactical pick pocketing on Imperial worlds.

11:00 - Psychic checkup. The Blood Ravens do their daily psychic checkup on who can be a Librarian that will help the Blood Ravens locate the best loot to 'borrow' from.

12:00 - Midday Prayer. The Blood Ravens pray to the Emperor for fortune for more "gifts". The chapter's chapels has grown noticeably more gaudy.

13:00 - Midday Meal. The Blood Ravens eat some food they got from other chapters or civilians. As such, food varies daily.

13:15 - Tactical Indoctrination. Blood Ravens are informed on which items to "borrow". Anything from a crate of boltguns to a [[Land Raider]] can and will be subjected to involuntary renting.

15:00 - "Battle" Practice. The Blood Ravens now put their practice session to the test on any number of worlds. It is rumoured that they can "borrow" anywhere from an entire Armoury World's worth of weapons, to a Paradise World's worth of thrones, in a single night of galactic-wide thievery.

20:00 - Evening Prayer. The Blood Ravens thank the Emperor for their new-found "gifts". Bit by bit, the chapter's chapels strangely start to resemble the intricate chapels found only on the richest of Cardinal Worlds.

21:00 - Evening Meal. A feast is provided by the Chapter serfs, who got them as "presents".

21:45 - Night Firing Exercises. The Blood Ravens practice formations in the dark to further hone in their "skills". Any marine who end up trying to steal another Blood Raven's wargear for "Extra ammunition" is disciplined.

23:00 - Maintenance Rituals. The marines maintain their equipment. The techmarines and chaplains busy themselves removing any incriminating marks and icons on their new-found "gifts". It is also at this time every librarian on the fleet monastery are led by Chief Librarian (Jonah Orion) as well as their Chapter Master (Gabriel Angelos) to skim through every documents, scrolls, and data that was "gifted" today for the clues about their [[primarch|father]]. If lucky, librarian may find hints about new "gifts" which they will then inform higher up to send the marines acquired the gifts, tomorrow.

00:00 - Rest Period. The Ravens return to 'their' beds.

==The (Incomplete) Loot List==
* [http://lparchive.org/Dawn-of-War-II/Update%2042/ Many of the weapons and armour the Magpies have been "gifted"]
* [http://lparchive.org/Dawn-of-War-II/Update%2043/ More items. Curiously, none of them are gifts.]
* The [[Squats]].
** Have since breached containment and escaped, reforming into the Leagues of Votann.
* The hands of the [[Iron Hands]].
* [[Matt Ward]]’s dignity.
* The Emperor's discarded toilet paper.
* All decent rules for playing a [[carnifex]].
* Common sense.
* [[Trazyn the Infinite]]'s coffee cup.
* Female Orcs.
* A pair of imperial [[titans]] (from Graia).
* Cawl's prototype [[Female Space Marines]].
* A clean [[Luke]].
* The manliness in [[Cato Sicarius]].
* Trazyn's outfit during first contact.
* [[Rogal Dorn]].
* 5 of the 9 Artifacts of [[Vulkan]] (Trazyn still has the other 4... the chapter is trying to change that)
** Vulkan himself (Trayzn had him apparently)
*** Actually since Cunto Shitarius got all the artifacts back [[TTS|'''VULKAN LIVES''']]!
* [[Ahzek Ahriman]]'s rub'''r'''ik’s cube.
* Ahzek Ahriman's [[Rubric Marines|other rubik’s cube]]
* [[Magnus The Red]]'s right eye (from [[Tzeench]])
* [[Slaanesh]]'s ovaries (although he/she/it immediately grew five more pairs).
* [[Corvus Corax]].
* [[Kaldor Draigo]]'s sanity.
* The [[White Scars]].
* [[Leman Russ]].
* [[/co/|Plankton’s Lawn Mower]]
* Every single OOP model.
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|The Emperor's Text-to-Speech Device]]
* [[Eldar]] and Tyranids plastic model sets.
** The Harlequins managed to take some of the Eldar ones back.
* Various NFTs, proving them fungible in the process
* Any and all (actually effective) Tau melee weapons the Earth Caste develops, ensuring their main weakness remains.

{{Marines-Official}}

[[Category:Thousand Sons]]

Horus

2023-02-05T19:10:47Z

202.7.231.235: /* Good Guy Horus */ Oh my fucking god Paragraph breaks dude

{{heresy}}
[[File:Horus Portrait.png|400px|thumb|right|<s>Yul Brynner</s> <s>Lex Luthor</s> <s>Jean-Luc Picard</s> <s>Professor X pre-paralysis</s> <s>Vin Diesel</s> <s>Agent 47</s> Horus Lupercal, the Warmaster. Here shown prior to getting his Chaos on.]]
{{Topquote|'''Let the galaxy burn.'''|Horus Lupercal, ruining everything for everyone for ever}}
{{Topquote|Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.|Satan in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost''.}}
{{Topquote|[[Primarch|Angels]] are bright still, though the brightest [[Chaos|fell]].|William Shakespeare}}
'''Horus *wah Daddy, I didn’t get enough hugs* Lupercal, The Breaker of Tyrants, The Warmaster, The Arch-Traitor, That Bald Cunt, Horace Heresy''' or '''[[If_the_Emperor_had_a_Text-to-Speech_Device|FUCKING HORUS!]]''' was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion]], and the main figure in the event known as the [[Horus Heresy|Horus]] [[Heresy]] (this is NOT a dead giveaway. Oh no), who is generally known as "'''THE GUY WHO FUCK'D IT ALL UP'''", [[Erebus |but not really really.]]

==Overview==
[[File:Past-Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|300px|right|thumb|Young Horus in all his bald glory (looking weirdly like Benito Mussolini crossed with a WWE wrestler).]]
Once the most favoured son of his father the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], he began to resent his father's treatment of him and other Primarchs, and believing that the Emperor's secret plan was to become a god using his own Primarch sons as a tool (when in fact all this is [[Just as planned|due to the lies]] of a [[Lorgar|certain religious zealot]]), eventually turned to [[Chaos]]. If you really need to be told any of this, what in the actual fuck are you doing on /tg/ in the first place? This is such common knowledge, that the outlines of the Horus Heresy and every bad ass taking part in it, are more or less [[Dwarf Fortress|engraved]] in the mind of every /tg/ reader. Much like the Emperor being crippled and the Imperium devolving into a bureaucratic [[grimdark]] empire, the death of Horus and the placement of [[Abaddon]] as the most influential Chaos champion ever, turned the Traitor legions from a genocidal force bent on utter domination for the glory of Chaos into a Saturday-morning cartoon villain organization. Also his armour made him look like an egg. A very evil egg.

It is argued that Horus was not actually evil but possessed by the Chaos Gods or that he was a victim of [[Lorgar]], who is officially labeled as "The First Heretic." However, he was still [[Eldrad|a massive dick]]. Hence the common saying in the post-Heresy Imperium: ''"Of all the mighty Primarchs, Horus sure was a dick."''

But long story short, the Imperium got into this fucked up state because this guy had daddy issues (honestly, who didn't?), he got scammed by [[Erebus|religious nutjobs]], and [[Grimdark|because the Chaos Gods showed him horrific visions of the future, supposedly under the Emperor's rule]], all while conveniently leaving out the fact that it would be his own efforts to avert said future that would cause it in the first place. Lol-irony. They did show him that the Emperor was planning to discard him and the other rest of the Space Marines when their usefulness ended, which totally contradicts previous Horus Heresy novels where the chambers the primarchs were supposed to live in once the Crusade ended were depicted. Why would you build large apartments for your "sons" if you really did not give a rat's ass about them? Or was the EMPRA intending on luring them into their respective apartment and then strangle them to death? Why go through all the effort when his psychic might was enough to force Lorgar to kneel (causing a small brain hemorrhage as evidenced by blood tricking out of his nose. See "The First Heretic)? He could have just BLAMMED them all Thunder Warrior style with all his psychic prowess and shit. Either way, you know what they say- the best lies contain a grain of truth. The Chaos Gods did show Horus the future he would create which seemed to prove that the EMPRA had planned his own ascension all along (so he obviously must enjoy to be chilling on the couch as a decomposing corpse these days).

It also doesn't help that there's prior precedence provided by Malcador committing damnatio memoriae on the [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|11th and 2nd Primarchs]], a conspiracy which was first uncovered during its development by [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]] and brought to the attention of the Warmaster himself, leading to a confrontation between [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]], Horus, [[Jaghatai Khan]] & [[Malcador the Sigillite]] on [[Terra]]. After calling each other [[that guy|ambitious freeloaders]], Horus threatened Malcador's life, to which the Sigillite said if they didn't like the erasure of the recently lost legion, they could shove that <strike>precious</strike> vainglorious memory of theirs where the sun don't shine. When Horus tried to speak his dead brother's name as an act of defiance, Malcador froze his brain & had to be talked down from sploding his grey matter all over the room by Jaghatai & [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]]. When he got back up, [[RAGE|Horus flipped a table and gave Malcador the bird when he had his back turned]], effectively planting the seed of resentment & pouring boiling piss over it.

It is during this confrontation that it's revealed that Horus had always disagreed with the idea of standard humans ruling over themselves & believed that since it was he, the other Primarchs and their Astartes who conquered the stars, that it should be themselves who rule over the compliant planets; rather than this opinion being implanted by the ruinous powers, it was merely exacerbated. His low opinion on mortals probably isn't helped by the fact that the conspiracy to condemn the memory of his [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|lost brothers]] was concocted by baseline noble humans (there was even a noble present from House Carpinus by the name of [[Dune|Na-Baron]] Petronius Vivar at the confrontation with Malcador). Evidently, the other traitor Primarchs thought much the same when he revealed to them that it was the Emperor's plan to give the right to govern these planets to standard humans of noble houses, only to then discard the Primarchs and the remaining 18 legions ([[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|2nd and 11th style]]) once their stated purpose had been fulfilled. How this plan exactly meshes with putting Magnus on the Golden Throne to manage the Webway for Him is unknown, but we suspect it involves strapping an explosive collar around his neck that would detonate should he decide to peel his red ass off the chair. No bathroom breaks.

Either way though, the Emperor psychically nuking of Horus' body and soul means Horus is gone as fuck now, occasional Fabius Bile cloning shenanigans notwithstanding, and Horus' influence of modern 40K will remain posthumous.

Also, 40K(30K?) Horus has more of an reverse connection to his Egyptian god namesake, given the Egyptian Horus heroically took to the throne of the gods from a usurper while 40K Horus is instead the failed usurper.

==New fluff==
[[File:Horus vs The Emperor.jpg|600px|thumb|right|If this reminds you of every Baroque and/or Christianity-related painting from the Renaissance up until the 19th Century, good. Also note how the Custodes are Dark Silver and wearing Pickelhauben (That's because these are Sagittarum Guard).]]
Recent fluff from the book ''Vengeful Spirit'' has Horus visiting the same gate to the Warp on Molech that the [[Emperor]] used to get some of his powers. While only seconds pass in the Materium, Horus spends what is basically implied to be an eternity inside the Warp battling rival Daemon Princes, amassing billions of warp-creature minions, and wrecking shit. In the end he somehow gains the same powers that the Emperor received to create the Primarchs, but Horus gets them in a "legit" way (as far as the Ruinous Powers are concerned) by passing their near constant tests through sheer force of will, where the Emperor just took what he wanted. Refusing to become a slave to the Ruinous Powers (or perhaps that's what the Chaos Gods wanted him to think) he leaves his Warp-empire to return to his rebellion in the Materium. Horus' time inside the Warp was so long that he, a fully grown Primarch, had visibly aged. However with his new psychic hack abilities he disguises his over-the-hill face and still maintains his youthful appearance. Apparently the Emperor does the same trick. This was basically a big retcon by Black Library who previously explained Horus being able to fight toe-to-toe with the Big E as having all four Chaos Gods channel their powers into him at once.

It's important to explore this clusterfuck of nonsense to make sense of the lore before one comes to the rubbish conclusion that the Emperor only became god-like after Molech. This is balls-deep nonsense. This is what Horus (who is himself not in any way whatsoever a good source for reliable information regarding Chaos) thinks he knows from his own narrow/skewed/manipulated point of view. The more commonly held belief is that, as with the vision he received from the [[Erebus|Great Fuckhead Himself]], he was misled. That the Emperor, a being capable of trapping and fighting a C'Tan (that as it turned out had been tired out prior by another warp entity... oops) during the Middle Ages, was always as powerful as He has been portrayed. It is explained that the Primarchs are more than just flesh and bone, and that each of them has a fraction of His personality in them that they themselves embody. [[Ferrus Manus]]' rather dramatic death highlights that inside Primarchs lies a great deal of energy. Now to the heart of it - Molech. Why would a being as powerful as the Emperor, who has to combat 4 monstrously powerful otherworldly entities whilst maintaining a beacon anywhere he goes, soul bound psykers and fight throughout the Great Crusade, split His formidable power 20 times into 20 beings? He wouldn't, he'd grab extra power to do so. That was Molech - a source and gateway to a wellspring of power claimed by Chaos for its use alone. A source the Emperor broke into and stole/took/tricked for His Primarch Project. Using the additional power, He crafted, with His scientific mastery, 20 genetically engineered super hosts. In the same way that god-aligned daemons are formed by splitting a portion off the God itself, He used each portion of power as a blank mold, investing them with a sliver of His personality and allowing the power to coalesce around it to form a soul/Emperor-Greater Daemon. That pseudo-daemon is then implanted in a host that can never die or degrade due to age, perfectly tailored to hold it. This explains why each Primarch radiates an aura of awe and magnificence. Horus didn't become as powerful as the Emperor, he retrieved the power that made himself and all his brothers and had it infused into himself. While it appears he has lost a significant chunk of this power (and a piece of his soul) after his duel with Leman Russ in the [[Battle of Trisolian]], the Ruinous Powers soon after began to mainline him with warp energy to the point where he began to bulge at the seams, so by the onset of the [[Siege of Terra]] he resembled something in between walking cancerous tumor growth amalgamation and juicing steroid junkie. Whether or not he will manage to be a match for the Emperor as yet remains to be seen. That said, we know who won the duel.

Following the duel with Russ, Horus suddenly entered a near coma, throwing the legion into disarray. Maloghurst later entered the Realm of Chaos and found that a part of Horus's soul - an uncorrupted part - was still trapped in the Warp. That part of his soul was suffering from the effects of Russ's spear, leading to the material Horus falling unconcious. The fragment expressed remorse over it's actions, as well as a morbid clarity that his rebellion was just part of the Gods plan and he had been manipulated into doing so. Left with no other option, Maloghurst destroyed the fragment at the cost of his own life, releasing Horus from his coma and giving him total control over the powers granted by the Chaos Gods, as well as leaving him utterly without doubt in his actions (however delusional they may actually have been).

In Path of Heaven he appears in all his pomp and Chaotic corruption to assign Mortarion to kill Jaghatai Khan, explain that all his other generals have gone doolally and wax lyrical about killing the Emperor, as well as make the point that being 'roided up by the raw stuff of the Empyrean doesn't get you out of having to manage the logistics of a galactic civil war. Soon after, Mortarion kills his Navigators in a fit of rage and makes the dumbass decision to go into the warp anyway. In other words, Horus was the only one of his brothers who had his shit together, which was why the Horus Heresy fell apart so quickly after his death.

Newest fluff heavily suggests that Chaos Gods' plan from the very beginning was for Horus to lose, but only barely. Apparently the Gods knew about the [[Cabal]]'s plans and made sure they would get the outcome of a fucked up Imperium that lasts for millennia, feeding them with all the negative emotions they needed, rather than an Imperium of Chaos which would go to shit in a few centuries of infighting, taking humanity and gods themselves with it. It does make sense that at least Khorne and Nurgle would appreciate a bloody and decaying Imperium. One daemon even referred to Horus as "sacrificial lamb" needed to stop the Imperium from turning into a prosperous empire of reason, and kickstart the [[Long War]]. (Though Eldrad disagrees and John Grammaticus has seen Horus actually won the Heresy and Chaos was not only fine but enjoying the aftermath) The Emperor may have developed a counter-plan that caused the Chaos Gods to scream in frustration in ''The Outcast Dead'' but that book is fairly trippy. Later still, Lorgar hinted that the Chaos Gods were displeased with the Warmaster's unwillingness to become a slave to Chaos and that his ultimate defeat in the duel with the Emperor would be a punishment for his refusal to surrender his will to them.

By the time of the Siege of Terra, his body and mind were outright falling apart as the Chaos Gods' power was becoming too much to handle, forcing Abaddon to do much of the actual work in leading the Traitor Legions while Horus was either comatose or too insane to form a coherent battle strategy. Not coincidentally, this was the point where Abaddon started viewing his gene-father with increasing contempt (and the Chaos Gods are outright stated to have begun grooming him to be their new Warmaster to replace Horus during the Siege of Terra, so they knew what they were doing).

Long after the Scouring, Fabius Bile succeeded in creating a stable clone of a pre-Molech Horus, who utterly wrecked a huge boarding party of traitor marines before being fucking impaled through the chest with his own talon by Abbadon. The clone was capable of speech and seemed to possess a semblance of memory from its twin brother's past (calling Abbadon its "son", just before being turned into a kebab). It's unknown why it was so hostile to other Astartes or what degree of control Fabius had over it. Several prominent marines were adamant that such an abomination (cloned Astartes apparently being the closest thing to taboo you can get for even a traitor marine) would not be Horus in any way, because his soul was annihilated by the Emperor.

==Good Guy Horus==
It's often forgotten by fans that before he was corrupted and decieved by [[Erebus]] and [[Lorgar]], Horus was a genuinely nice guy. Fans are quick to joke about "that dick Horus," but before [[Heresy|Things Went Wrong]] he was one of the most personable, down to earth primarchs. Yeah, part of the reason people fell for him so easily was that he shared the Emperor's psychic magnetism, but he also went out of his way to be friendly and considerate of custom, if not necessarily polite. Granted, at times he had arrogance to match [[Magnus]] and choler to match [[Angron]], but despite that he always made effort to honor those under his command, mortal and astartes alike. [[Konrad Curze|While]] [[Angron|many]] [[Perturabo|primarchs]] saw their warriors as little more than tools, or [[Fulgrim|were]] [[Ferrus Manus|aloof]] and [[Corvus Corax|unapproachable]], Horus was a true father to his sons, guiding and shaping them personally.

To most legions it would be unimaginable for the primarch to personally seek out and comfort a legionary during a time of crisis, but for the Luna Wolves, it was obvious. He was no saint or coddler, as we see him encourage rivalries within and between his legion and others, but in doing so he brought strength and glory. Even when dealing with outsiders, he always attempted diplomacy before making war, something even his gentler brothers cannot say. In fact, one of the primary reasons why Horus was named Warmaster over other candidates like Guilliman, the Lion, or even Sanguinius was that he was such a people person. He was friends with nearly all of his brothers and was superhumanly savvy when it came to knowing how to talk to people.

In this same vein, he was also a master manipulator, and routinely used his savvy to get people, even people who didn't agree with him, to do what he wanted. He was in fact so good at this this he had the ability to change his personality and demeanor to suit particular situations, appearing a slightly different person to others based on what he thought would get him the best results. He got along famously with all of his brothers save one; even total psychos like Angron and Konrad Curze just couldn't help but love the guy. The only brother of his who didn't like him was Corax, which was due to the newly-initiated Warmaster somewhat clumsily trying to exert his authority over Corax and getting a bunch of Raven Guard killed unnecessarily. Horus was a cunning, brutal, supremely confident warlord who nonetheless took great pains to make sure his warriors and mortal retainers were treated well, and furthermore, from the very few pre-Davin POV scenes we get, we know he ''actually believed'' others deserved to be treated well, it wasn't simply [[Fulgrim|feigned politeness]] or [[Roboute Guilliman|a calculated display of regard]].

In fact, his reaction to both finding the Interex and having to destroy them demonstrates that he was actually one of the most ardent good guys in the entire galaxy. Upon meeting the Interex, a group of humans who had incorporated a Xenos civilization into their own, Horus became absolutely hell-bent on trying to negotiate a Protectorate status for them. This was due not only to the fact that they successfully lived alongside xenos as part of their civilization, which Horus had essentially dismissed as impossible, but also how they had treated another hostile xenos species called the Mega Arachnids. A group of monstrous intelligent murder spiders, they had fought, and lost against, the Interex. But instead of exterminating them, the Interex exiled them to a random planet, took all the resources they could have used to build spacecraft, and quarantined them there. Horus was blown away by this non-violent solution, and wanted to learn as much as he could about the Interex. To make it clear how unusually open-minded this was, even ''Sanguinius'', most noble of men, seemed privately to be a bit iffy about Horus's desire to negotiate with xenos (though he supported Horus without reservation in public). Horus even told his closest advisor and First Captain, Abaddon, who hated the idea of negotiating with filthy xenos, to basically go sit and spin.

Then fucking [[Erebus]] happened, and Horus had to destroy the Interex. Doing so however, affected him so dramatically that he was said to have "lost hope" after the conflict. So after being presented with the idea of the Federation from [[Star Trek]], Horus became completely enamored of the idea, and lost all his optimism after having the possibility of the Imperium becoming that way dashed. Even his edgy rebellion and fall to Chaos was due to his honest love of people. He's basically 40k's version of Arthas Menethil (only bald).

Note also that part of Horus's dislike of mortals had a LOT to do with his dislike of the Imperial bureaucracy, as he considered those who had not fought and bled for the Imperium to be unworthy of simply inheriting that which others had died to obtain. In that regard, one of the things that elevates his good guy status to truly heroic heights was his unabashed hatred of the [[Lawful Evil|tax man]]. When the Emperor retired from the Great Crusade, he had sent tax officials called Exectors to collect the Imperial Tithe. The introduction of the Tithe evoked many different reactions from the Primarchs and the Imperial citizenry, most of them negative. Of Horus's, he was known to have said at one point to his advisor Garviel Loken "If I had my choice, I would kill every Exector in the Imperium. But I'm sure we would be getting tax bills from Hell before breakfast." Loken noted that he had laughed at the statement, but had abruptly stopped doing so when he realized that he couldn't tell if Horus was actually joking. Truly a great man.

==Capabilities==
It has often been said that Horus was the single greatest of all the Primarchs, and in many respects he genuinely was. Some of his brothers may have had an edge in one particular specialty or another, but Horus was very often among the top 5 in any given category. A jack of all trades, master of most, if you will. As a battle tactician, only Corax or the Lion were in his league, with the Lion possibly being just slightly better. As a grand military strategist, he was akin in skill to Dorn and Guilliman, with Guilliman likely taking the top spot by a small margin. As a logistician, only Perturabo or Guilliman were his match. As a diplomat, only Guilliman, Lorgar, and potentially Magnus were in his league. As a leader of men, only Sanguinius was possessed of similar charisma and nobility. And as a duelist, his prowess was such that Leman Russ, the Emperor's Executioner and one of the most powerful Primarchs, considered Horus to be his equal. All these traits and more combined to make Horus a virtually unmatched general. He could fight, plan, improvise, inspire, and negotiate with the absolute best of them. In terms of compliances, he had the single greatest number of military Compliances under his belt out of all the Primarchs. Only Dorn, the Lion, and Guilliman were close, and only Guilliman had a greater number of total Compliances (ones gained through diplomacy or some other non-military means).

There was a flipside to his brilliance, however. While he was arguably the greatest conqueror out of the Primarchs, he was not the type of person to leave a planet better than it was before. He had a tendency to destroy and then have Legions such as the Ultramarines clean up his messes. While he was a magnificent diplomat and always felt that the Primarchs should rule humanity, he never actually showed any interest in statesmanship, let alone any ability to rule a world. As a matter of fact, there is no hint that he ever governed a single planet - even in his youth, he was found by the Emperor long before he had any chance of ruling over his home planet like most of his brothers (in fact, in an earlier book in the Horus Heresy series, it's treated as a mild punishment for an Astartes from the Luna Wolves to be made a planetary governor). The Primarch who conquered the most planets never stuck around to make something of his gains. He wanted to always be known as his father's favourite and then when he was given the Warmaster position he started buckling under the pressure. In other words, he was the classic example of "wanting is better than having".

==On the Tabletop==
===Horus Heresy 1.0===
[[File:Horus.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Horus Lupercal, in all his miniature [[Awesome|glory]].]]
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Horus:''' || 500 || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+/3++
|}

Horus is everything you love about an HQ wrapped up in one man. He is a very good tactical HQ allowing reserves to outflank, giving every Son of Horus +1 to Leadership and seizing the initiative on a 4+. He and any Terminator unit he has joined may elect which turn they arrive in and they will not scatter if they choose to Deep Strike (and he bestows the rule to the entire unit). He also makes veteran-tactical squads and Justaerin Terminators troops choices (if he is the Warlord... but then again when are you not going to make him your Warlord?).

He is good at shooting with a BS of 5, night vision, a thing that gives - if he chooses to not fire during his turn - a single unit within 6" (other than super-heavy or Independent Characters) +1 BS, a twin-linked super-bolter, and an orbital bombardment using his BS (also twin-linked). And, finally, he is a monster in close combat, being able to take down full terminator squads in 1 turn if you roll well for his 6 attacks plus +D3 attacks if he is fighting a unit or character of weapon skill 4 or lower. He can rape blobs, MEQ's, TEQ's and HQ's.

His weapons are the Warmaster's Talon (an AP2 lightning claw which saddles whoever survives it with a -1 penalty to WS and S for every wound it inflicts that in theory can stack, ensuring that even if he doesn't kill what he's fighting, his target will be completely unable to harm him or anybody else in close combat), and a S10 AP1 master-crafted thunderhammer called Worldbreaker. Combine this with an initiative of 6, and he will strike first most of the time. He's also pretty durable with a toughness and wounds of 6, 2+ armor save, 3+ invulnerable save, 5+ deny the witch, and an additional 3+ save against any psychic attack or adverse profile modifications, which comes to play more often then you may think, given most other Primarchs are bristling with Concussive, Strikedown, Blind or some weirder stat-lowering shit. As in 30k destroyer weapons don't have a "deathblow" result, titan-killer weapons cannot one-shot him, but they still hurt a lot, and while Shadowsword cannot spam D-strength, Magnus definitely can, and the horrible abomination of cheese that is a Warlord-class battle titan could vomit out enough D to kill three Horuses in one turn, so don't get too cocky.

Horus is an absolute motherfucker, and can be thought of as everything a Chapter Master should be between his Orbital Bombardment and army buffs. Letting reserves Outflank makes crossing the board much easier. His Justaerinstar will make anything shit its pants. The Ld bonus patches his Legion's weak morale, and 4+ seize can make a huge difference. His Orbital Bombardment is also awesome. The multi-wound EWless models one finds in 30k will die, and you're likely to put vehicles out of commission. Unfortunately this comes at a really steep fucking price (500 points!) so use him wisely.

===Horus Heresy 2.0===

{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Horus:''' || 600 || 8 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 6(+1) || 10 || 2+/3++
|-
| '''Horus Ascended:''' || 1000 || 8 || 6 || 8 || 8 || 8 || 6 || 6(+1) || 10 || 2+/3++
|}

Horus' already high points cost has risen noticeably, but he has gained some new tools.

*The '''Serpent's Scales''' provides the 2+/3++ typical of Primarchs. No additional flashy rules, but he doesn't need them that badly.
*'''Worldbreaker''': The heavy hitter for smacking down anything with a bunch of wounds or an AV value. ''Master-Crafted,'' S10, AP2, ''Sunder, Brutal (2), Unwieldy''.
*'''The Talon of Horus:''' The option for wrecking squads and characters alike. This weapon is S User AP2 and comes with ''Shred'' and ''Deflagrate''. Notably it has lost the ability to inflict -1 WS and -1 S on anyone suffering an unsaved Wound from it, and combined with the inability to negatively modify any Primarch's statlines, this has made Horus significantly weaker than before, but he still manages to murder everyone, so it's not all bad.
** The Talon also doubles as Horus' gun. 24" S5 AP3, Assault 3, and Twin-Linked. Again, simple but good enough. It counts as a Bolt weapon for rules purposes.
* He also comes with a '''Cognis Signum''' as before to buff his allies' shooting.

As before, Horus also has a number of powerful special rules:
*He shares the '''Legiones Astartes (Sons of Horus)''' rule. Which applies to Primarchs this edition. In his case, this means that on a turn where he charges or gets charged, the Strength of all melee attacks against him is reduced by 1.
*'''Sire of the Sons of Horus:''' is his unique warlord trait, which grants all infantry models in the same army as Horus +1 Ld and Stubborn. Note that unlike all of the other "Sire of the X" rules, this '''ignores faction restrictions'''. As a result, you can use him in a mixed faction army (so not just other Legions, but Mechanicum or Imperial Army as well) and they'll all benefit from having him around, as opposed to benefitting only his own Legion like everyone else.
*'''Master of War''': Once per battle, Horus can give his army an extra reaction in '''all phases''' of a turn. Make it count, because after that you're stuck with the standard one reaction per phase.
*'''Master of Weapons''': Horus can split his attacks between his weapons, and in the Assault phase he can only be hit in melee on a roll of better than a 4+ regardless of his opponent's WS.
*'''Deep Strike''': Yep, he still works well with Terminators.
*'''Traitor''': Well, what the fuck did you expect him to be?

Primarchs also have a set of shared rules:
*''Independent Character, Eternal Warrior, Fearless, It Will Not Die (5+), Bulky (4)'' and ''Relentless''.
*They are not affected by negative modifiers to their statlines (other than wounds).
*Resolve snap shots at their normal BS.
*All hits from either shooting or close combat are allocated by the Primarch's controlling player. These hits are kept in a separate wound pool.

[[file:HorusAscended.jpg|thumbnail|right|The things the dark powers do to a man...]]
Optionally, Horus can be upgraded to '''Horus Ascended''' for an extra 400 (!) points, representing his empowerment by Chaos near the end of the Horus Heresy. This grants him a flat boost to his Strength, Toughness and Wounds, the Corrupted unit subtype (which in practice means he gets ''Fear (1)'' since its other effects are either already covered or negated by the Primarch rules), ''Feel No Pain (4+)'', and ''Rage (3+)''. He also gets even more special rules:

*'''A Dark Fate''': The first time Horus Ascended dies, he's instead moved into Reserves with a single wound and can re-enter play like any other model. This still counts as a death however, your opponent will get victory points from it for things like Slay the Warlord, and if Horus is killed again (not implausible if they've already killed him once since he'll have only a single wound left and you can't rely on IWND to regenerate his health back up to safe levels) they get those victory points a second time. That said, it still means you benefit from the Sire of the Sons of Horus rule until or unless he bites it again.
*'''The Power of Chaos Eternal''': Once per battle in the Assault Phase, Horus Ascended can give himself S10 and T10 for that phase and ignores the Unwieldy rule on Worldbreaker. After that, he takes an automatic Perils of the Warp, whose wounds (if unsaved) must be allocated to friendly models should Horus Ascended be attached to a unit. And why wouldn't he be?
*'''Spreading Corruption''': All models in a unit with the Infantry, Cavalry, or Dreadnought unit types can be upgraded with the Corrupted subtype for 25 points per unit, with all the benefits and drawbacks the subtype entails. Don't forget that Corrupted units can only be joined by Corrupted models, so unless you're dumb enough to have Horus go alone you'll want to use this to give him a retinue he can work with.

==Horus VS other Primarchs, Horus Heresy 1.0==
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Horus wins against any other Primarch except Leman Russ and super-charged Magnus. That's it. He beats ALMOST any other opponent he gets pitted against, although it'll take a while with Vulkan.
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No seriously, what did you expect? With WS 8, 6 Attacks with a S7 AP2 lightning claw that cripples whoever survives his onslaught or a MC S10 Thunder Hammer and 2+/3++ he can destroy almost any other Primarch relatively safely. He's clearly built to be the hardest dude around and his gear is borderline unfair. Disabling Strike is just disgusting and it's directly intended to make sure he stays the top dog no matter how [[Angron|angry]], [[Fulgrim|pretty]] or [[Perturabo|well]] [[Ferrus Manus|equipped]] anyone else is... [[Sanguinius|so long as he doesn't piss off the Angel]]. Ouch, that Talon really hurts. So, yeah, almost no one can actually fight 1 on 1 with the Warmaster, barring some incredibly lucky rolls.

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'''These are the old numbers on Leman Russ pre-FAQ:'''
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*Horus vs. Leman Russ
**Horus, Round 1: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.777 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves, and IWND brings it down 0.555
**Horus Round 2 and on: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.111
**Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack (Balenight): hits 4.667 times, wounds 3.502, 1.167 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.834 at the start of the next turn.
**Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack (Helwinter): hits 4.861 times, wounds 4.051 times, 1.350 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.017 at the start of the next turn.
**Leman Russ, full Wounds (Balenight): hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.667
**Leman Russ, full Wounds (Helwinter): hits 4.190 times, wounds 3.492, 1.164 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.831 at the start of the next turn.
**Sever Life: Being a pain in the ass to calculate, Sever Life will go off most of the time against Horus, but for the purposes of this mathhammer Sever Life's chance to not go off will be included in its average Wounds roll:
***Every time Leman Russ Attacks Horus (as he'll always manage to Wound him and it doesn't say it's triggered via unsaved Wounds) Horus takes an additional 1.091 Wounds, only 0.364 of which will make it through Horus' save.
**Keeping Sever Life in mind and the fact that Leman Russ can split his attacks, the ideal way to split them (for round one and two anyway) would be: 2 Attacks with Balenight, 4/5 Attacks with Helfrost. Here's what that looks like:
***Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack: hits 4.851 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 3.518 times with Helwinter), wounds 5.023 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.932 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.674 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.341 wounds at the start of the next turn.
***Leman Russ, full Wounds: hits 4.177 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 2.844 times with Helwinter), wounds 4.461 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.370 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.487 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.154 wounds at the start of the next turn.
Leman's negative to hit modifier is brutal, basically negating Horus' ability to do any damage, while Leman is still pounding him over the head. As stated, this includes Sever Life and Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin. The theoretical breakdown of the match would be:
*Round 1:
** Leman Russ, 6 Wounds, WS9, S6 + charge/Counter-Attack (2 attacks on Balenight, 5 attacks on Helwinter): hits 4.851 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 3.518 times with Helwinter), wounds 5.023 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.932 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.674 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 4.326 Wounds: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.777 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves.
*Round 2:
** Leman Russ, 5.112 Wounds, WS9, S6 (2 attacks on Balenight, 4 attacks on Helwinter): hits 4.177 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 2.844 times with Helwinter), wounds 4.461 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.370 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.487 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 2.839 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 3:
** Leman Russ, 5.001 Wounds (IWND puts him slightly above 5, but it can't regenerate his damaged characteristics), WS8, S5 (3 attacks on Balenight, 3 attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.188 times (1.5 times with Balenight, 1.688 times with Helwinter), wounds 3.498 times (1 time with Balenight, 1.407 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.166 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 2.006 Wounds (IWND): Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 4:
** Leman Russ, 4.557 Wounds, WS8, S5 (3 attacks on Balenight, 3 attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.188 times (1.5 times with Balenight, 1.688 times with Helwinter), wounds 3.498 times (1 time with Balenight, 1.407 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.166 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.84 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 5:
** Leman Russ, 4.446 Wounds (IWND), WS7, S4 (The Talon of Horus technically causes another unsaved wound here) (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.607 times, 0.536 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.637 Wounds (IWND): Hits 2 time, wounds 1.778 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves.
*Round 6:
** Leman Russ, 3.558 Wounds, WS6, S3 (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.071 times, 0.357 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.28 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 7:
** Leman Russ, 2.67 Wounds, WS6, S3 (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.071 times, 0.357 wounds after saves.
** Horus is dead before IWND kicks in for him and so cannot strike back.
Mathematically, if Russ takes full advantage of Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin then Horus loses the fight in 7 rounds (4 game turns!) while Russ still has 2.67 Wounds left. Whoah.
*Do note that IWND messes up the math a little at face value for Talon of Horus. Since Russ does not gain characteristics back that he lost because of Severing Strike, he'll appear to have fewer unsaved Wounds than he actually does.
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The above was based on Russ' armour before it got nerfed, which before would make -2 to hits against by round two. Now it is only -1 for the entire battle.

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'''Recalculations from Reddit by u/Fromageopain, showing Horus' win:'''
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*Round 1 (Russ's turn, 7 attacks from charge. If turns are swapped, still 7 from Counter-Attack, but Horus makes IWND first)
**Russ [6 Wounds, WS9, S6, 2 attacks with Balenight, 5 attacks with Helwinter]
***Hits 1.333 times with Balenight and 3.912 times with Helwinter, wounds 1 time with Balenight, 3.2601 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.7833 wounds after saves.
**Horus [4.222 Wounds, 6 Talon attacks]
***Hits 2 times, wound 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves and 0.444 after IWND.
*Round 2 (Horus' turn)
**Russ [5.444 Wounds, WS9, S6, 2 Balenight 4 Helwinter]
***Hits 1.333 times with Balenight and 3.201 times with Helwinter, wounds 1 time with Balenight, 2.668 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.586 wounds after saves and 1.253 after IWND
**Horus [2.969 Wounds, 6 Talon]
***Hits 2 time, wounds 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves.
*Round 3 (Russ' turn)
**Russ [4.555 Wounds, WS8, S5, 4 Balenight 2 Helwinter]
***Hits 1.5 times with Balenight and 1.375 times with Helwinter, wounds 1.111 times with Balenight and 1.407 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.203 wounds after saves.
**Horus [1.766 Wounds, 6 Talon]
***Hits 2 times, wound 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves and 0.444 after IWND.
*Round 4 (Horus' Turn)
**Russ [4.111 Wounds, WS7, S4 (he is over 4 wounds thanks to IWND, but lost his characteristics since the talon wounded 4 times), 6 Balenight]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.917 times and add 1.091 for Sever Life (let's be kind), 0.669 wounds after saves and 0.335 after IWND.
**Horus [1.430 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 times with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker. wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves.
*Round 5: (Russ's turn)
**Russ [2.687 Wounds, WS6, S3, 6 Balenight]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.917 times, add 1.091 with Sever Life (let's be kind again), 0.669 wounds after saves.
**Horus, [0.761 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 time with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker, wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves. IWND brings this down to 1.09 wounds
*Round 6: (Horus' Turn)
**Russ [1.596 Wounds (IWND), WS5, S2, 6 attacks on Helwinter (Str2 cannot hurt T6)]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.582 times, 0.194 wounds after saves (not enough to actually kill Horus) and IWND will mean that Horus will actually heal more than Leman inflicts, resulting Horus gaining 0.139 wounds at the end of the turn
**Horus [0.900 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 time with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker, wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves.
*Round 7: (Russ's turn)
**Russ [0.172 Wounds, WS4, S1, all attacks on Helwinter]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.582 times, 0.194 wounds after saves.
**Horus [0.761 Wounds, gain +d3 attacks] and finish Leman...

Keep in mind that these results are made considering that Sever Life will apply regardless of Horus successfully saving the wounds inflicted by Balenight which is greatly benefiting Russ and is probably not the way the rule is supposed to work. On a side note, if Sever Life only triggers when Horus suffers an unsaved wound from Balenight, then the fight is way more one sided in Horus' favor because Leman would have to make more attacks using the sword in order to trigger Sever Life, losing damage since the axe hits harder than the sword.
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Take in mind however these above scenerios do not take into account Russ's secret weapon basically designed to counter challenge shenanigans. And even barring that Leman Russ puts up easily the closet fight against Horus on any given day regardless.

The Wolf-kings secret weapon being: Wolves... yeah. Russ can choose to have both his dogs accompany him, both of which are characters. Thanks to how wound allocation and challenges work, Russ can force Horus to engage with the dogs instead of him for 2 whole rounds, making Horus use Worldbreaker to ID the dogs, since if he uses the Talon it'll take 3 wounds total to kill one dog and he can tank the full Worldbreaker on himself to stop the other dog from dying too fast, which prevents his stats from dropping early. As even one extra round of no stat dropping changes everything and by the time his stats even start to drop there is a high probability Horus will be on his last couple wounds if not already dead when the attacks from the wolves are added in to augment Leman Russ. Emperor's Executioner indeed.

Thanks to HH6: Retribution, the Mechanicum has its primarch-like character. [[Anacharis Scoria]], lord of Xana and the first of the Dark Mechanicum used to be able to easily kill Horus thanks to a 3+ Invuln, Feel No Pain, and a weapon that wounds automatically and causes D3 wounds at AP2 per hit (making Horus' talon worthless). This allowed him to kill Horus in 5 rounds, whereas Horus needed 6 to kill him in return. He also got nerfed in the same FAQ that nerfed Russ, so now Horus kills him too.

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==Horus VS other Primarchs, Horus Heresy 2.0==
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You guys all remember Leman Russ last edition, right? Well, as a wise man once said...
'''<big>[[RIP AND TEAR|THEY ALL DIE. EVERY. LAST. ONE. OF. THEM.]]</big>'''
Horus is a fucking powerhouse this edition, and manages to out-damage all primarchs, '''INCLUDING RUSS,''' while tanking more than any other Primarch besides Vulkan. While not industructible he definitely has a change up this edition, and it becomes an absolute curbstomp when he gets his boosts from being Ascended.
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'''Horus vs the Lion:'''
*Lion with the Wolf Blade ''(hits on MC 4+)'': 3.75 hits, 2.18 AP2 wounds + 1.62 AP3 wounds, '''0.99 unsaved wounds''' ''(0.73 against 3++, 0.27 against 2+)'', which is reduced to 0.66 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(hits on MC 4+)'': 3.75 hits, 3.125 rounds, '''2.875 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 2.54 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins- Horus wipes the floor with the Lion, having a 3++ and not being able to be hit on anything better then a 4+(In melee). He has more wounds and being able to swap between his str10 Brutal(2) maul and his talon, the Lion doesn’t stand a chance.
::The Deathwing subtype does not work against Horus' ability to only be hit on a flat 4+.
:::If anyone is interested: the Lion Sword causes '''1.04 unsaved wounds''' which is better on its own without the benefit of any extra attacks resulting from Reaping Blow. This means the Wolf Blade is actually the more practical choice as his attack value aught to increase when Horus has his retinue squad. Ironically probably giving him a better shot at damaging Horus.
:The Lion beats Horus at range, yes you are still trying to get through that 3++ but Horus has no access to AP2 ranged attacks, so will have to get through the Lions 2+ save; stay at range for as long as possible to try and soften him up a bit before charging, as the Lion does want to be the one charging Horus. If he can get some lucky shots through prior to combat the Lion actually has a legitimate shot at taking down Horus. Though the odds still favour Horus.

'''Horus vs. Fulgrim'''
*Fulgrim with the Laer Blade ''(Initiative 9, +3 attacks, hits on MC 4+):'' 4.75 hits, 3.98 wounds, '''1.33 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.99 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 4+): 3.75 hits, 3.13 wounds, '''2.09 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.75 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus wins. Despite his 3++, Fulgrim is overwhelmed by Brutal(2) on Worldbreaker. Due to the Laer Blade not having Murderous Strike or ID, Horus Ascended only takes 0.67 unsaved wounds against Fulgrim.

'''Horus vs. Perturabo'''
*Horus with the Warmaster's Talon ''(Hits on 3+):'' 4.67 hits, 3.50 wounds, '''1.35 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.02 at the end of the turn due to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''2.72 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 2.39 at the end of the turn due to IWND.
*Perturabo with Forgebreaker Desecrated ''(Hits on MC 5+):'' 2.22 hits, 1.85 wounds, '''1.23 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.90 at the end of the turn due to IWND.

:Horus wins, with his extra attack and higher WS. Though bears repeating Perturabo is still a tank and puts a better fight than many others and can even get lucky with his Brutal(2).

'''Horus vs. The Khan'''
*Jaghatai Khan with the White Tiger Dao ''(Hits on MC 5+):'' 2.56 hits, 1.23 wounds, '''0.41 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.08 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Jaghatai Khan charging with the White Tiger Dao ''Hits on MC 5+):'' 2.89 hits, 2.41 wounds, '''0.80 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.47 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''2.72 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 2.39 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:The Khan's 3+ Invulnerable save and mobility aren't enough to best the Warmaster-- his best bet is to disengage and fight someone else.

'''Horus vs. Leman Russ'''
*Russ with the Sword of Balenight: 4.25 hits, 2.83 wounds, ''(doubled before saves)'', '''1.89 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 1.55 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Russ with the Axe of Helwinter: 4.25 hits, 3.54 wounds, '''1.18 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 0.84 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Russ charging with the Sword of Balenight (hits on 4+, +1 Strength): 4.75 hits, 3.95 wounds, '''2.63 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 2.3 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Russ using Counter Attack with the Sword of Balenight: 5.25 hits, 3.5 wounds, '''2.33 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 2 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with World Breaker: 3.75 hits, 3.125 wounds, ''(doubled before saves)'', '''3.125 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 2.79 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Horus on any turn where Russ has charged (hits on 6+): 1.30 hits, 1.08 wounds, '''1.08 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 0.75 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins, however Leman Russ can still pull off a win with right conditions. If Russ charges, Horus is effectively neutered for a whole combat phase which can give the wolf king a leg-up. The Warmaster has an excellent defence: First by flattening out hit rolls and negating the WS bonus that Russ gets on the charge, then having Toughness 7 which means that Russ only wounds on 3+, in addition the Brutal rule can help with Horus's 3++ saves.
::The Sword of Balenight is the superior weapon here, although the Axe of Helwinter is more likely to wound, the sword forces more saves. If sticking with the sword Russ atleast has a chance

'''Horus vs. Rogal Dorn'''
*Rogal Dorn with Storm’s Teeth ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.91 wounds, '''0.97 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.63 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Reaping Blow (+2 attacks): 4 hits, 3.56 wounds, '''1.19 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.86 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 4+)'': 3.33 hits, 1.67 wounds, '''1.67 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.33 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus wth the Warmaster’s Talon ''(Hits on 4+)'': 3 hits, 2.25 wounds, 1.125 unsaved wounds, which becomes '''1.34 unsaved wounds''' after deflagrate, which is reduced to 1 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins. His 3+ Invulnerable save stunts Dorn’s damage significantly, and Brutal (2) on Worldbreaker gives Horus a major advantage in the duel.

'''Horus vs. Konrad Curze'''
*Curze with Mercy and Forgiveness ''(Hits on 4+):'' 4 hits, 2.22 wounds, '''0.74 wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.41 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Curze charging with Mercy and Forgiveness: 4.5 hits, 2.5 wounds, '''0.83 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.5 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 4+):'' 3.75 hits, 3.13 wounds, '''3.13 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 2.80 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins. Even with Shred, Curze struggles to get through Horus's toughness of 7 and 3++ save. Glimpse of Death can keep Curze somewhat safe, but even with Feel No Pain (4+) he takes too much damage to get through the Serpent's Scales.

'''Horus vs. Sanguinius'''
*Sanguinius with the Blade Encarmine ''(Hits on MC 4+):'' 3.25 hits, 2.44 wounds, '''0.81 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.48 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Sanguinius charging with the Blade Encarmine: 4.25 hits, 3.19 wounds, '''1.07 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.74 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 4+):'' 3.75 hits, 3.13 wounds, '''3.13 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 2.80 at the end of the turn with IWND.
**Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Against charging Sanguinius, hits on MC 4+):'' 3.75 hits, 3.13 wounds, '''1.57 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.24 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins. Even when Sanguinius charges, Horus still manages to outdamage him while taking hardly any damage in return.

'''Horus vs. Ferrus Manus'''
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''2.72 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 2.39 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Ferrus Manus with Forgebreaker ''(Hits on MC 5+):'' 2.25 hits, 1.88 wounds, '''1.88 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.55 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins. Brutal (3) on Forgebreaker is extremely powerful, but Horus's higher WS and extra attack put him at a tremendous advantage over Ferrus Manus.

'''Horus vs. Angron'''
*Angron with Gorefather and Gorechild ''(Turn 3, Hits on re-rollable 4+):'' 7.5 hits, 5.63 wounds, '''1.88 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.55 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 2+):'' 5.97 hits, 4.98 wounds, '''2.49 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 2.26 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins. Once again, The Butcher's Nails fuck Angron over. GW, please fix my poor boy.

'''Horus vs. Roboute Guilliman'''
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''3.83 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 3.50 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Guilliman with the Hand of Dominion ''(Hits on MC 5+):'' 2.59 hits, 2.16 wounds, '''1.44 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 1.11 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins.

'''Horus vs. Mortarion'''
*Mortarion with Silence ''(Hits on 5+):'' 2 hits, 1.33 wounds, '''0.44 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.11 due to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''4.08 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 3.58 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins.

'''Horus vs. Magnus the Red'''
*Magnus with Ahn-Nunurta ''(Hits on 5+):'' 2 hits, 1.67 wounds, '''0.56 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.23 at the end of the turn due to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''4.08 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 3.75 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins.

'''Horus vs. Lorgar'''
*Lorgar with Illuminarum ''(Hits on MC 5+):'' 2.22 hits, 1.85 wounds, '''1.23 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.90 at the end of the turn due to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''4.08 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 3.75 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins.

'''Horus vs. Vulkan'''
*Vulkan with Dawnbringer ''(Hits on MC 5+):'' 2.22 hits, 1.85 wounds, '''0.62 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.29 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''2.72 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 2.22 at the end of the turn due to IWND.

:Horus wins.

'''Horus vs. Corax'''
*Corax with the Panoply of the Raven Lord ''(Hits on 5+):'' 2.33 hits, 1.29 wounds, '''0.43 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.10 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Corax charging with the Panoply of the Raven Lord ''(Rage (4), Hits on 5+):'' 3.67 hits, 2.04 wounds, '''0.68 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.35 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''4.08 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 3.75 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Blinded, hits on MC 6+):'' 1.31 hits, 1.09 hits, '''1.09 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 0.76 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Horus wins, [[What|even when blinded.]]

'''Horus vs. Alpharius'''
*Alpharius with the Pale Spear ''(Hits on 5+):'' 2 hits, 0.83 wounds, '''0.28 unsaved wounds,''' [[Meme|which is entirely nullified by IWND.]]
*Horus with Worldbreaker ''(Hits on MC 3+):'' 4.89 hits, 4.08 wounds, '''4.08 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 3.75 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:Alpharius mathematically deals no damage to Horus.
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==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Horus vs Leman.jpg| Ah too many wolves.

File:CGIHorus.jpeg| The first Primarch to be fully animated. They coulda made this an actual animated series...

File:F555e5d4d313b73dd1a7950e4d9d83c2.jpg|Continues to live rent free in the heads of the [[Blood Angels]].
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Chaos]]