Although the Raven Warriors are not one of the original twenty chapters created by the Emperor himself, their history is both colourful and mysterious. The chapter’s origins lay in the almost forgotten times before the Horus Heresy when chapters were few and the Emperor was still alive. The story began roughly one hundred years before the Heresy on one of the outlying planets of the home system of the Dark Angels. Here a secret meeting between three of the most powerful Space Marine Commanders and Lion El' Jonson primarch of the Dark Angels took place. The meeting although shrouded in mystery, it is thought to have been about the Primarchs fears of what might happen in the near future (the Horus Heresy). It was decided at this meeting to launch a ship carrying Armour, weapons, vehicles, Dreadnoughts, other resources from the armouries of the chapter and its forge worlds and six hundred Space Marines, to establish a new chapter that would keep the name, honour and most importantly Geneseed of the chapter alive, on southern edge of Imperial space in the Segmentum Tempestus. The most skilful Apothecaries of the chapter spent over ten years working on a modified progenitor gland which could with stand the process of cryogenic freezing and a new cryogenics system to protect the warriors, when the geneseed and cryo systems were deemed successful the ship was launched.
Unfortunately this endeavour was doomed from the start, shortly after it was launched the ship aptly named the ‘Deliverance’ was swallowed in a huge warp storm created by the Gods of Chaos, all the escaped was the psychic screams of the navigators as their brains were melted by the ferocity of the storm. For millennia the ship was feared lost, until the beginning of the forty-first millennium. When the Deliverance left the warp and entered normal space around the Planet Aracus II in the southern sector (the location of several unsuccessful invasions by the joint forces of Chaos and the Orks) where it took up orbit around the main planet in the system and sent out an automated distress call on an all but forgotten frequency to the Rock, the space bourne Fortress Monastery of the Dark Angels, upon receiving the call the chapter sent Marines to investigate and if necessary destroy the vessel.
When the three ships in the fleet converged on the ship they were amazed to find it virtually intact but stripped of any shielding and still operational, when they docked and boarded they were greeted by over two hundred of the original Marines. When asked where their fellow Battle brothers were the ‘lost’ marines refused to say. After a short period of re-orientation in which the ‘lost’ marines were told the horrors of the Horus Heresy, Cyphers betryal and the main political events of the last ten millennia during the de-briefing the marines were asked why their armour had been modified and their shoulder heraldry had beeen replaced, their reply was simply this was to be the heraldry of the new chapter and inquired if after all this time their mission was still to go ahead after a brief series of discussions with the Chapter master and key members of the inquisition, who had followed the unscheduled ships scince their departure from the rock, it was decreed that the mission would still go ahead, when asked in a communication by Azrael the Grand Master of the Dark Angels, if they had decided upon a name for the new chapter, they replied proudly the Raven Warriors.
Due to the area of space they had emerged into being extremely war torn it was decided the Warriors should be located here as the nearest chapter was over a years travel away. Shortly after the Deliverance was landed on Aracus IV and a vast Fortress Monastery was constructed around the vessel to remind the marines of their chapters mysterious beginnings and shortly after the fortress was completed a small number of Techmarines, Apothecaries, Librarians and numerous other support staff were siphoned from the founding chapter and then finally ten years after the fortress was finished the first influx of trainees from the surrounding six systems under went training and implantation of the chapters geneseed and began their training to become fully fledged Marines of the Raven Warriors.
Problems
It was still going to be some time before the chapter was ready to defend the Imperium from attack as there was grave concern among the High Lords of Terra about using geneseed that had been lost in warp for so long and on the High Lords orders an Inquisitor was dispatched to evaluate the chapter, so the new chapter spent years practising their battle drills in frustration before the Inquisitor declared they were pure and clean from the influences of chaos. However the chapters two biggest problems did not become evident for some time.
The first problem did not become apparent until the chapter had fought in several major battles, three important crusades as well as defending their home system from attack, it showed that the standard Codex Astares force organisation wasn’t going to work for the chapters style of fighting, so the High Lords of Terra passed a decree enabling the chapter to be organised in a way best suited to their way of fighting and to utilise the vast array of equipment in the chapters armoury.
The Second problem became apparent during the Wars of Danzdorf, when during an important battle on Hauptsworld the Raven Warriors simply left mid-Battle, no reason given, no excuses they just left. The next thing that was heard from this Battleforce was when they attacked the world of Steinsgelt crushing an uprisiing rebellion. when asked by the Inqusition why they had left Hauptsworld they gave no reply. Only the members of the Dark Angels Deathwing and their successor chapter know that they left to hunt the fallen who were leading the rebellion on steingelt. This has happened many times scince as the Raven Warriors are one of the most vealous hunters of the fallen outside the founding chapter itself, but scince fighting alongside and earning the respect of many of their fellow marines they have never again left a battle where they have been fighting along side marines and were not sure of a total victory for the imperial forces.
Beliefs
Although the chapter is a relatively new chapter it is considered a second founding chapter due to its unique creation. The Chapter as with all chapters still views it’s founding Primarch with the same reverence as the God-Emperor. The Raven Warriors beliefs are centred on the Cult of the Deathwing with modifications to incorporate the beliefs of their recruits and their homeworld.
Because the chapter is a successor of the Dark Angels they often as has already being noted, partake in the hunt for the Fallen Dark Angels who sully the names of the proud warriors of the Imperium by following the ways of Chaos (see special rules section) and very often end missions prematurely to bring these Fallen warriors the ritual justice of the Emperor.
Armoury
When the vessel was launched it contained vast amounts of armour and equipment, including an estimated 1500 Tactical Dreadnought Amour suites (Terminator suites), the chapter was able to muster this many suites as the days when the Chapters had all the equipment they needed and the resources and knowledge available to the Forgeworlds was plentiful and for this reason the founding chapter could afford to release this much equipment. However only around 900 survived the journey through the warp intact, the rest were placed in vaults under the fortress to await the day when mankind rediscovered the skills to repair the TDA’s. As well as the vast number of TDA’s on board the Deliverance there were thousands of suites of Power Armour, Tanks, Bikes, Landspeeders, Dreadnoughts and over one hundred Thunderhawks, over the years some of this equipment has either been destroyed or exchanged other chapters or the Tech Adepts of Mars for new weapons or equipment, that armour still surviving from the origional ship is treated with great reverance and is only entrusted to commanders and those veterans and warriors demmed to have acheived great honour.
Whilst fighting in a crusade along side the Gore Hawks chapter the Raven Warriors proved their worth to the Supreme Commander of the Gore Hawks by rescuing groups of marines on numerous occasions, so Gareth de Gramere instructed his Techmarines to explain the secrets of the Mini-Dreadnoughts to the Tech Adepts of the Raven Warriors (for more info see the rules section)
Soon after this the chapter received the standard fleet presented to all Space Marine Chapters, the fleet consists of:
Three Battle Barges,
Ten Strike Cruisers,
Five Sword class Frigates,
Ten Firestorm class Frigates,
Fifteen Cobra class destroyers,
And numerous support vessels, assault craft, boarding craft and fighters and escorts.
In addition to this the chapter has a large fleet of Imperial Navy ships under its control which were presented to them so they could protect their homeworld and their other recruiting worlds by Marneus Calgar the Chapter master of the Ultramarines after a short crusade against the might of the Tyranid hive in which the Raven Warriors once again performed outstanding acts of bravery, and saved much of the Southern Gothic sector and the Ultramarine third company from destruction. The fleet consists of the following Imperial vessels:
One Emperor class battleship,
Two Overlord class cruisers,
Two Dictator class cruisers,
Four Dauntless class light cruisers,
Three Firestorm class frigates,
Six Sword class frigates,
Twelve Cobra class destroyers,
As well as numerous Thunderbolt fighters, Marauder bombers and Shark attack boats.
The Raven Warriors are one of the few imperial organisations to operate and maintain a working Orbital Fortress, captured during the Battle for Steingelt, which is used for planetary Defence, maintaining ships and in vast crusades it is some times transported to the battlezone and used as an orbital command and defence post.
Force organisation
After the High Lords passed the decree passive the Warriors went through along period of reorganisation. When this was finished the chapter had a radically different structure from all other chapters and consisted of well over two thousand marines compared to the normal thousand that all other chapters are allowed as stated in the Codex Astares. All through this reorganisation the chapter managed to maintain the secrecy of their inner circle, which acts as Commanders and Chaplains to maintain the secrets about the hunt for the Fallen Angels.
The force still follows the standard chapter structure by having ten companies, but the first company is not restricted to veterans only as there are enough veterans forged in the many campaigns the warriors have faught in to allow for large groups to be permanently assigned to any company. Each of the first seven containing the following marines and equipment:
One Command Squad – containing a Commander, Chaplain, Librarian, Techmarine, Apothecary, Standard Bearer, Sergeant and a three man bodyguard.
Five ten-man Tactical squads,
Four ten-man Devastator squads,
Four ten-man Assault squads,
Five Terminator Squads,
Four ten-man Scout squads,
Six Attack Bikes,
Three Bike Squads with five bikes per squad,
Nine assorted Landspeeders organised in to three speeder squads
Five Dreadnoughts,
One squad of five Mini-Dreadnoughts accompanied by a Squat Tech Adept,
Three Thunderhawk Gunships.
The Eighth company is dedicated entirely to planetary defence and consists of a similar line up as the first seven companies, the main differences are that the Planetary Defence Company (PDC) has a larger number of scouts and devestator squads (eight squads in total) than any of the other seven companies and it also maintains a large fleet of tanks independently of those maintained by the ninth company. The fleet is mainly made up of Vindicators and Predators. In addition to these the PDC maintains several Mole subterranean transports for moving troops with out them becoming exposed or to enter the vast Hive cities of the planets western continent undetected if the need ever arises.
The ninth company is known as the ‘Iron Ravens’ as the marines in this company are the most technologically apt members of the chapter and have under gone additional training in the ways of the Tech Adeptus from the Forgeworld of Mars. They are first and foremost the chapters tank drivers but they also take care of any minor repairs, such as the remounting of damaged weapons, minor battle damage or repainting armour as well as working on creating master crafted arms and armour, hence the name. The drivers are permanently assigned to other companies to act as drivers but the company it’s self is only sent to battle if a large force of tanks is required. Tanks from this company are assigned to other companies for transport and support. The usual line up of tanks assigned to each of the other companies is:
Four-Twelve Rhinos,
Two Rhino Destructors,
Two Razorbacks,
Two Razorback Obliterators,
Two Predators,
Two Predator Annihilators,
Two Baal Predators,
Two Whirlwinds,
Two Vindicators,
Two Landraiders.
The ninth company does not however carry out any major repairs, overhauls or upgrades, as this is the job of the Techmarines and servitors. Because of the ninth companies organisation it has a higher number of Techmarines and Tech Adepts. Members of the ninth company also under go implantation of cybernetic components and sockets to allow them to operate the equipment easily and efficiently, one side effect of these implants is that they have increased the average age span of the members of the ninth company to inexcess of 900 years however as a marine ages he can spend less and less time unhooked from the machines but this does make them better candidates for insertion in to Dreadnoughts if they have proved themselves worthy of such an honour.
The tenth company, as with all chapters is the training chapter where all the newly inducted Scout Novices go for basic training before they are assigned to one of the other nine companies for field training and final implantation of the chapters geneseed and their induction as fully fledged marines. For this reason the members of the tenth company have earned themselves the nickname of ‘Fledglings’.
Due to the vast size of the Chapter the High Lords of Terra decided to place a number of Inquisitors on permanent standby in a neighbouring system to monitor the chaoter and to maintain a force of loyal troops to combat the chapter if the corrupting essence of Chaos is found, and if needs be to destroy the chapter rather then allowing the most powerful chapter in the Imperium to succumb to the forces of Chaos.
