Youth Corvus Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard Legion[1] Corvus Corax was separated from the Emperor

while still an infant by the four Ch aos gods. He was discovered on Lycaeus, the desolate moon of the planet Kiavahr. At this time the planet was a technologically advanced Forge World, providing i ts city-size factories with minerals extracted from the non-atmospheric moon by legions of mine-slaves[2b]. Under the iron watch of heavily armed guards, the inhabitants of Lycaeus; crimin als, political opponents and workers who had failed to meet their quotas, had lo ng provided the rulers of Kiavahr a free and unlimited source of manpower. When they discovered the white skinned child who became Corax, "The Deliverer" in the ir tongue, they kept him from their masters, training him in the various skills they believe a leader and warrior needed: urban warfare, close combat and demoli tions as well as political and philosophical matters. Ultimately, his abnormally fast maturation comforted the slaves and fixed Corax in their belief that he wa s the savior they waited for[2c]. Educated to be a leader as well as a rebel, he rapidly began his task by organiz ing the workers into fight teams, promoting the best of the men as squad leaders . He began building huge stockpiles of weapons, concealing them in numerous secr et caches. He ordered a campaign of psychological warfare, launching riots and s trikes to build up followers in the worker's rebellion and to stretch the garris on strength and morale to breaking point. Waiting for the opportune time to stri ke, Corax's forces launched their attack, taking key security points and destroy ing them by crude force or sabotage, killing every man of the Lycaeus defense fo rces[2d]. When Kiavahr's rulers struck back, Corax was ready for them. He outmanoeuvred an d ambushed their forces on Lycaeus with his battle hardened warriors, crushing t heir supply lines and striking the five biggest cities in Kiavahr with one atomi c mining charge each. The charges were embarked on small transport shuttels and reached the surface via a supply gravity well. Soon, their forces nearly destroy ed, their vast factories unable to produce anything due to the minerals shortage s, the Tech-Guilds collapsed in civil war. Celebrating their victory, the inhabi tants of Lycaeus renamed their home "Deliverance"[2e]. It is said that the Emperor appeared on Deliverance that day and, after a day an d a night with his son, appointed him Primarch of the Raven Guard Legion. Nothin g is said of their conversation but one condition of Corax's acceptance was the help of the Emperor in the task of bringing peace on Kiavahr. Soon the Adeptus M echanicus stepped in and the world was rebuilt to the benefit of the Imperium wh ile the black tower which once housed the guards of the moon became the Ravenspi re, the fortress of the Legion. [Needs Citation] Great Crusade During the Great Crusade Corax's talents for planning and sabotage were of great effect and the Raven Guard, fighting frequently under the orders of Horus, beca me renowned for an unmatched ability with covert ops, sabotage, infiltration and lightning strikes. But the pair never saw eye-to-eye, and after an argument, th e two Primarchs nearly fought each other. Corax left Horus's command[Needs Citat ion]. Horus Heresy Spoiler! This page contains spoilers for: Deliverance Lost (Novel) Corax leads the remnants of his Legion on Isstvan V against the Iron Warriors. The Raven Guard primarch only met Horus again on Isstvan V [Needs Citation]. Dur ing the Drop Site Massacre, Corax was among the Primarchs leading the loyalist e

ffort against Horus' betrayal. In the battle he personally engaged Word Bearers Primarch Lorgar in combat, impaling him with his Lightning Claws. Just as he was about to finish Lorgar, Konrad Curze intervened and forced Corax to retreat.[5] Though grievously wounded he escaped the slaughter with a handful of loyal Space Marines thanks to the providential arrival of a small Raven Guard navy led by C aptain Branne Nev. Captain Branne had been left as reserve on Deliverance and he departed the moon only due to strange dreams hauting the nights of Praefector M arcus Valerious, the commander of Therion Cohort, a loyalist Imperial Army Regim ent. On quitting the Isstvan System, Corax sent back to Deliverance all the rema ining ships while he himself headed to Terra to seek the counsel of The Emperor. The Primarch was desperate as the Imperium was collapsing, his Emperor needed w arriors that Corax could not provide. Moreover, Corax was not granted permission to see The Emperor due to his workings on the man-made corridor to the Eldar We bway.[2f] The Emperor, sensing his son's desperation, was somehow able to divert part of h is psychic might in order to grant Corax what he was looking for. Through a psyc hic vision Corax asked for a rapid and effective solution to restore his legion' s might. The Emperor, feeling the righteous intent behind his son question, impl anted in his brain some selected memories concerning the project for the creatio n of the Primarchs and the exact place where the ancient laboratory was to be fo und. However, stated The Emperor, the laboratory was well guarded by a complex s ystem called "The Labyrinth"[2g] and it was up to Corax himself to find a way to pass through it. Corax was successful in this task and what he obtained was the common genome all primarchs shared. From this genome, through tough selection, The Emperor created each of the twenty granting each of them some particular and well defined traits (such as psychic powers or increased strength) along with a number of commonly shared feats (increased growing rate, regenerative powers, i ntellectual acumen and so on). Once back on Deliverance, Corax tasked his Chief Apothecary Vincente Sixx of ret rieving the correct Raven Guard genome and start the direct implantation on fres h recruits. With the assistance of the loyalist Mechanicum Genetor Nexin Orlandr iaz, Sixx actually accomplished the task and went so far as to approach complete removal of the progenoid glands. From the correct genome, in fact, the whole Sp ace Marine would have grown directly, all his enhanced organs already present. T he only exception would have been the Black Carapace due to its synthetic nature . The carapace permits the interface to the power armor and it is not a real org an itself. In this way, the progenoids would have been useless for future genera tions.[2h] With this knowledge, around 500 new, war-ready space marines were created in few weeks. It is at this point that an infamous threachery took place. Some Astarte s of the Alpha Legion, in a plan orchestrated by the primarchs Alpharius Omegon themselves, infiltrated the Raven Guard after the Drop Site Massacre. To obtain this, Alpha Legion apothecaries grafted the facial traits of some dead Raven Gua rds over the face of their own legionaries. The objective was to hinder the Rave n Guard using their obtained knowledge as "this would have displaced the balance against Horus' forces" said the Cabal emissaries. Of course, since free to act as best suited, Alpharius Omegon had in mind also to recover the secret knowledg e in order to expand their legion too. With the help of renegade Mechanicum mago s Unithrax and his forces on Kiavahr, the Alpha Legion tainted the original geno me recovered from the laboratories of The Emperor on Terra. This was accomplishe d introducing a virus-vectored mutagen based on daemonic blood. Thus, the succes sive implantations resulted in still operational but deeply-mutated Astartes exh ibiting scales, horns, fangs, tails, overgrown muscles and similar features.[2i] After this outburst of mutations and the discovery of the Alpha Legion infiltrat ors, Corax decided to stop the rebuilding of the Raven Guard and led his warrior

s, along with all the war capable mutated marines, with small squads striking li ke lightning on the enemy weak spots.[2] When ultimately he managed to rebuild h is Legion, the Horus Heresy had ended and Roboute Guilliman's Codex edicts that the Legion had to be split in smaller Chapters. Knowing that Guilliman's vision was true, Corax split his forces but remained unable to forget the growling mons ters that he had personally created. After pondering for hours as to what should be done he decided to administer the Emperor's peace to the ones who remained, praying for their souls and his. Then wracked with guilt he locked himself in hi s chamber in the Ravenspire begging for the Emperor's mercy[Needs Citation]. Nobody knows if he received the absolution he required but a year to the day aft er he had locked himself in, he left the tower and Deliverance on a course towar d the Eye of Terror, never to be seen again. His last recorded words were "never more." [Needs Citation] Wargear In battle, Corax favoured a Heavy Bolter for long-range killing, which he hefted and aimed as easily as an ordinary man would lift a battle rifle; for close qua rters fighting he carried a three-headed power whip specially crafted for him by the Adeptus Mechanicus; in the absence of either of these weapons, he was more than able to tear apart enemies with his bare hands.[6]