Raven Guard army rules, detachment abilities, stratagems and lore for Warhammer 40k, with links to the full unit datasheet table.
The Raven Guard is one of the original First Founding Chapters of the Space Marines and was originally the XIX Space Marine Legion before the Second Founding and the adoption of the Codex Astartes.
Named for a Terran avian seen by many Human cultures as the herald of fate and messenger of death, the Raven Guard have served the Emperor faithfully throughout the glories of the Unification Wars, the Great Crusade and the dark days of the Horus Heresy and beyond. From its earliest days, the warriors of the XIX Legion were known as cunning and patient hunters, adept at biding their time until the moment to strike was at hand.
When the Legion was united with its primarch -- Corvus Corax, the Raven Lord, the Deliverer -- theirs was a form of warfare exemplifying speed, stealth and precision which was codified into their doctrine, and under the ivory-skinned, shadow-eyed and sable-haired primarch, the XIX Legion carved its name in the annals of the Great Crusade.
As the tragic histories of the Horus Heresy were recounted, however, the Legion's glories were to be scattered upon the black sands of Isstvan V during the Drop Site Massacre, and the Imperium was almost shorn of one of its greatest champions. Though severely decimated, the Raven Guard would rise from the ashes of betrayal and go on to continue to serve the Imperium of Man as its protectors. As masters of the unseen war, they fight their battles with stealth and speed rather than fury and flames. For thousands of standard years, across thousands of worlds, they have continued to stalk the enemies of the Imperium as shadows of death, waiting for the perfect moment to deliver the killing blow before melting back into the darkness once more.
The Raven Guard's Chapter homeworld is the planet called Deliverance, the airless mining moon of the Forge World Kiavahr, though its original name, before the Horus Heresy, was Lycaeus. The Raven Guard's fortress-monastery on Deliverance is known as the Ravenspire.
The Raven Guard are known for their cool-headed, even intellectual temperament, their superb infiltration skills and skill at furious, close-quarters engagements. The Raven Guard are the masters of unseen and guerrilla warfare, only engaging in frontal assaults when no other option presents itself.
The Raven Guard is also rightly feared for the potent Assault Marines and other close support units they field, who often prefer to wield a pair of Lightning Claws instead of the usual Bolt Pistol and chainsword. Kayvaan Shrike, the famed commander of the 3 Company was the commanding officer of just such a unit before he ascended to the position of Chapter Master, known among the Raven Guard as the "Master of Shadows."
The Raven Guard are the scions of the old XIX Legion, whose Primarch Corvus Corax was said to have skin as white as ivory and eyes as black as night. The Legion suffered such devastating losses early in the Horus Heresy that its ability to influence the outcome of the calamitous galactic civil war was gravely limited. The cost of the Warmaster Horus' treachery would remain with the Raven Guard for millennia to come, shaping their doctrines, beliefs and their very destiny.
The Raven Guard and their Successor Chapters are masters of infiltration and subterfuge, able to defeat an enemy of the Imperium with a precisely aimed and overwhelming assault in the manner of their primarch, whose loss they mourn to this very day.
The Raven Guard were one of the three Legions assigned to the first wave of the drop assault against the Traitors at Isstvan V, the defining battle of the opening phase of the Horus Heresy.
Looking back upon the calamitous age through which Mankind has endured, few can claim to know but a fraction of the Emperor's vision for the galaxy. Some hold that each of the great Space Marine Legions of the First Founding was created with a specific role in mind, and certainly this assertion is born out of the deeds and deameanour of many.
The Imperial Fists were in so many ways the Emperor's loyal praetorians and champions, while the Ultramarines were His dutiful, resplendent hosts. To the XIXth Legion would fall the role of the Emperor's hidden hand, vengeful sentinels against recidivists and harrowers of those who would sooner flee than bend the knee before their new master.
Drawing on the demeanour of the techno-savages of Old Earth from which it first recruited, the proto-Legion quickly demonstrated its skill at reconnaissance and target identification, and its ability to transition from inscrutable watchfulness to rapid attack in the blink of an eye. Its Legionaries waged war by infiltrating into position, studying their enemy and, when the time was right, striking from the least anticipated quarter and slaying the foe outright in a bloody, yet brief assault.
Confronted with the coming of the Emperor and His armies, some of the enemies of Unification foolishly decided to stand and fight, to deny His manifest destiny. That was until the moment that the XIXth Legion revealed themselves as the gun already raised to the target's temple without them ever seeing their would-be assassin's approach.
In the face of such infiltration, most enemies capitulated. Never given to wanton cruelty, the Emperor's emissaries would avail the target of their impending doom and offer them the choice -- kneel to the Emperor or die. Most chose to serve but many refused, and so the XIXth Legion would be unleashed.
Emerging from the shadows, the XIXth Legion would attack without warning, their methods enabling them to engage with forces far more numerous than themselves. Bereft of leadership after a campaign of targeted assassination, most enemy armies fell apart in short order. When they did not, the XIXth Legion withdrew back into the shadows, but not in retreat. Rather, they attacked again from yet another unexpected quarter, bleeding their enemy dry and denying them any chance to counterattack, regroup or take the initiative.
How many battles were won in this shadow manner throughout the last years of the Unification Wars cannot be known for certain, for so often the XIXth Legion's hand remained hidden even after the battle was won. Only much later, after the XIXth Legion united with its primarch, would it course forth into the light, but even then the Raven Guard shunned laurels and rarely courted adulation.
The similarities between the Raven Guard known to later histories of the Great Crusade and the XIXth Legion before its unification with Corvus Corax are clear, but much of the tale remains untold. It is known that the Emperor recruited the first Legionaries of the XIXth Legion from a number of Old Earth's regions, the majority drawn from the Xeric tribes of the Asiatic Dustfields. These savage yet technologically adept warrior people made constant war upon one another and against the neighbouring and much larger Yndonesic Bloc with relentless fury, battling ceaselessly for possession of scant natural resources.
The XIXth Legion was founded according to the Emperor's far-reaching vision for the armies of Humanity laid out in the structure of the Officio Militaris. The Legion was divided into chapters, chapters into battalions, battalions into companies and companies into squads. Most Legionaries considered themselves members of a given company rather than a chapter, the company being the preferred level for most independent operations.
From the earliest formation, the Legion's officers devolved command responsibility towards the lower echelons, allowing sub-commanders to take the initiative and make tactical decisions according to immediate needs without interference from higher up the chain of command. This mindset was a direct result of the practices of the Xeric tribes of Terra, who conducted their wars against far more numerous foes and were therefore well-practiced in a wide spectrum of unconventional tactics.
Individual units tended towards the smaller end of the scales passed down by the architects of the Emperor's armies, but each was a tightly-knit band of transhuman warriors trained and equipped to operate on their own for extended periods. They were well able to live off of the land, taking what few resources they needed from their environment or when opportunity or necessity dictated, from defeated enemies.
When the Legion expanded, its ranks were filled with the full panoply of war machines created for the Legiones Astartes. While its sub-units remained relatively compact, the XIXth Legion integrated numerous smaller formations into its structure, allowing them to take its place in the hosts of the Great Crusade and to confront the countless enemies of Mankind that would deny the Emperor's manifest destiny to rule the stars.
While retaining its expertise in stealth and infiltration, the XIXth Legion integrated formations of battle tanks, super-heavy war machines, artillery, assault vehicles and assets, mastering each with the skill engineered into them by the genius of the Emperor. Nonetheless, the XIXth Legion's favoured method of war focused on rapid strike, flanking, mobility and, where possible and desirable, stealth.
Maintaining many specialised units, there were certain formations the XIXth Legion favoured over others. The Legion is noted in historical accounts as fielding more Legion Reconnaissance Squads than any others, every Legionary being cross-trained to fulfill his assigned tactical role, as well as that of the reconnaissance units. Indeed, the line between Legion Tactical Squad and reconnaissance squad seems to have become blurred, the two often operating using similar tactics and even specialised equipment.
From the earliest days, the Legion employed more Moritat than did many others. The individuals assigned to this duty were often those considered extreme in their methods even by the cold-blooded Xeric tribes and they were often used -- willingly -- to undertake missions from which they were not expected to return. It is likely that the Raven Guard engaged in far more assassination and sabotage operations than is widely known to the Order of Remembrancers. Invariably, the increasing numbers of Remembrancers accompanying the expeditionary fleets were only allowed to bear witness to the Legion's victories after they had been won, the imagists, historitors and poets denied the opportunity to record the Raven Guard as they waged war on the Imperium's foes.
In the aftermath of the Council of Nikaea, which history does not record Corvus Corax attending, the Raven Guard obeyed the command to cease the employment of psykers and disband its Librarius. Many of the Legion's Librarians were reassigned to the line companies to serve in communication roles, although some may have served in the Legion Seeker Squads or as Vigilancers or Moritats.
While the Raven Guard were organised along the lines of the Codex Astartes in the wake of the Second Founding, their application of its principles are subtly different. Following the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V the Legion just did not have the resources remaining to re-equip properly and had to make due with older arms and patterns of Power Armour.
Because of this reality, even at present the Raven Guard uses a significantly larger number of the more ancient patterns of Power Armour than most Chapters and the individuals that are lucky enough to be gifted with these suits view themselves as blessed by their Primarch.
The senior officers of the Raven Guard are known as "Shadow Captains" and the Chapter Master is called the "Master of Shadows." Corax is reputed to have ordered the use of these titles before he disappeared and the Chapter has made use of them ever since.
Raven Guard Shadow Captains are fiercely independent, and it is incredibly rare for the Chapter to fight as a whole. Individual companies are completely autonomous and are quick to lend their aid to Imperial commanders across the galaxy, with or without the sanction of their Master of Shadows.
Such behaviour has led some in the other Space Marine Chapters to question the Raven Guard's soundness as a military force, but most recognise that such fluidity of command only proves the presence of the Chapter's formidable discipline, not its absence.
During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy the Raven Guard Legion was organized into specialized companies such as the Falcon Assault Company and the Talon Tactical Company, which were organized much like the Reserve Companies of later Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters.
Like all Codex Astartes-compliant Space Marine Chapters, the Raven Guard are divided into ten companies of 100 Space Marines each when at full strength, a standard which Raven Guard companies rarely achieve because of their constant manpower shortage.
Each company is led by an officer with the rank of "Shadow Captain" who is a hero of the Raven Guard. Each shadow captain -- in addition to his company command -- is in charge of a particular aspect of the Chapter's logistics as a Space Marine Master.
The following represents the order of battle of the Raven Guard Chapter as it stands in 999.M41:
The Raven Guard Chapter makes wide use of the "beaked" older versions of the standard Space Marine power armour (Marks IV-VI, with a heavy reliance on the beaked Mark VI Corvus Power Armour helmet pattern, even among Primaris Marines wearing Mark X Power Armour variants). After their near-destruction as a force on Istvaan V during the Drop Site Massacre of the early Horus Heresy, the Raven Guard have had to make due with the older Power Armour patterns and equipment that remained in their reserve armoury.
The available resources were too few to re-equip them up to the most advanced technological standards of the Imperium and even today there is a higher percentage of ancient suits of Power Armour amongst the Chapter than in most others.
The Raven Guard's homeworld of Deliverance and its fortress-monastery on that planet, the Ravenspire, has the production capacity of a small Forge World (since it can draw upon the resources of the actual Forge World of Kiavahr that Deliverance orbits), ensuring that the Raven Guard now rarely lacks for the materiel needed to prosecute its campaigns.
The Raven Guard generally follows the dictates of the Codex Astartes, though there are some differences in how it chooses to carry out tactical deployments due to their limited numbers and the preference for covert shadow warfare that dictates the deployment of their forces.
The Chapter specialises in guerilla tactics behind enemy lines, using precisely coordinated attacks and refraining from frontal attacks or protracted attrition warfare. The Raven Guard is known for hitting weak points in enemy defences hard and performing lightning strikes upon locations of tactical importance to cripple its enemy.
The Raven Guard disdains the notion of recklessly charging into the enemy's ranks. This differentiates the Chapter's tactics particularly from those of the Blood Angels. The Chapter also relies heavily on their Scout Marines for pinpointing enemy positions and for reconnaissance to identify good drop sites for the rest of the Chapter's deployed forces.
Raven Guard companies and their captains are often fiercely independent from one another and it is rare for the Chapter to deploy as a whole. Raven Guard companies often operate completely autonomously from one another and will move to support Imperial Commanders who request their assistance wherever they are in the galaxy with or without the Raven Guard Chapter Master's permission.
Lore excerpt from Warhammer 40k Wiki on Fandom, available under CC BY-SA 3.0.