Fallen Blood Ravens

[Hyaenidae]

I apologise right now, as this will be a touch long winded and irritating... :yes:

 

So, ladies and gents, here's the deal. I adore my chaos army (current codex and all), and win or lose, I always have fun with them. The problem is, these fellas were painted long ago, when my painting skills were still developing, and my modelling skills were poor to non-existant. Not to mention, they are painted in Brazen Bronze, a color that GW doesn't even produce anymore, lol! So, with a heavy yet confident heart, I have begun the process of slowly bathing my army in Mean Green, so that I may give my army a fresh, more terrifying look. "But who should they be?", I asked myself. First, I was thinking Night Lords, but I'd like to save that project until I can aquire some more cash for a ton of Forgeworld stuff, so no. Next, I debated Iron Warriors, but decided no, as I feel that the current codex simply doesn't do them the justice they deserve as of right now (I miss traitor Basalisks, lol). After that, I was thinking Sons of Malice...but I have different plans for them later on down the road, along side the Night Lords (Yeah, Malal-ite Night Lords, heh heh).

 

In short, I was stuck. I bumbled around the Lexi, staring at colors and histories of Traitors, and even played around with some ideas for some DIY's, but nothing was kicking on a lightbulb in my head. Discouraged, I decided to do what I always do when I'm stuck on an idea and hit a mental roadblock, and began rummaging around the Hall of Honour and Works in Process here on the B&C, hoping to see something to give my brain a kickstart. Suddenly, I came across this beautiful pic by Greyall of Azariah Kyras, Fallen Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens...

 

Bingo. :P I love 'What if?..." scenarios...

 

But not just Azariah and his chosen. The entire freakin' Chapter, fallen from grace. All of the loyal dogs, Gabriel Angelos and Davian Thule included, slaughtered during the Civil War. No dissenters, no power house during the Chapter Civil War to halt Kyras the Ascended from swearing his chapter to the Dark Gods. All of the Chapters' tainted weapons and lore (Which is a freakin lot, if DoW II: CR is anything to go by, lol), unlocked from their sealed vaults and wielded against the Throne by the most powerful Champions of the Chapter. Books once forbidden now used to possess entire squads of willing, howling Blood Ravens. The Chapter takes the Space Hulk, Judgement of Carrion for themselves, and along with the rest of the Blood Raven fleet, move into the Maelstrom as a base of operations, reaving and pillaging the Imperium at will. A once strong and loyal Chapter, now one of the Imperium's most lethal and dangerous foes in the 41st millenium....how's that sound?

 

So here's the questions I'd like some feedback on...

1.The Chapter symbol. Keep it the same, alter it slightly (thinking a bird skeleton with a blood drop), or something totally different?

2. Colors. Same, or reversed (like when you're playing Co-op)?

3. Umm, the Khornate Psyker thing ain't working for me though. Thinking maybe Kyras voluntarily sacrifices his psychic powers to prove his loyalty to Khorne by submitting to a Collar of Khorne. The Collar traps his powers inside his mind, driving him utterly insane. Just the way Khorne likes it...Sound good? Other ideas?

4. One God for the Chapter, or Undivided? I'm leaning towards Undivided, but hey, convince me otherwise, lol.

5. Really, anything else you guys can think of...

 

Thanks for all your help in advance, guys and gals!

 

P.S. A big 'Thank You' to Greyall for the wonderful inspiration!!!

[Menkeroth]

That's the deal! Good one, brother ;) i like chaoticians who corrupt loyalists :)

So the entire Chapter of Khorne... Why not? Than my answers:

 

1 - if Khorne so it can be either unchanged or slightly, i think.

2 - The same if Khorne.

3 - Why not? Than perhaps a Chaos Lord with Mark of Khorne and Bloodfeeder?

4 - If Undivided so it changes everything. And as for me DoW is in some part not fluff so may be instead of Cyras it's better to use another one who won't be Khorne follower? Than the Undivided is possible.

5 - as for another ideas... For example, mix of loyalist and chaos bitz, icon of Khorne/Chaos Glory, Chaos Lord with Mark of Khorne and Bloodfeeder/pair of claws... or if Kyras than a Daemon Prince of Khorne... lesser and greater daemons of Him...

 

Smth like that ;)

[Menkeroth]

That's the deal! Good one, brother ;) i like chaoticians who corrupt loyalists :)

So the entire Chapter of Khorne... Why not? Than my answers:

 

1 - if Khorne so it can be either unchanged or slightly, i think.

2 - The same if Khorne.

3 - Why not? Than perhaps a Chaos Lord with Mark of Khorne and Bloodfeeder?

4 - If Undivided so it changes everything. And as for me DoW is in some part not fluff so may be instead of Cyras it's better to use another one who won't be Khorne follower? Than the Undivided is possible.

5 - as for another ideas... For example, mix of loyalist and chaos bitz, icon of Khorne/Chaos Glory, Chaos Lord with Mark of Khorne and Bloodfeeder/pair of claws... or if Kyras than a Daemon Prince of Khorne... lesser and greater daemons of Him...

 

Smth like that ;)

[Brother Ambroz]

They use Magnus' geneseed so that would be ALOT of psykers. That would mean a great many collars of Khorne which could give you a pretty crazy (fluffwise) chapter. Or you could go the route of Tzeentch and have lots of psykers (like the Tsons) but with some normal marines as well (unlike Tsons). Lots of options here.

[Hyaenidae]

@Menkeroth: Well, I know Kyras turns to Khorne, but I feel like he's taken his own path, and the rest of the Blood Ravens will take their own as well. Some will follow each of the Gods, or some of the minor warp entities, or Undivided, etc. I mean, the Blood Ravens are supposed to have so many books and tomes that their collection rivals the libraries of Terra herself. Quite a few of them are tainted, or outright daemonic (including a copy of the Book of Lorgar). The Corrupt Blood Ravens would now be pouring through those books, trying every incantation, spell, and dark scripture possible, drunk with dark knowledge.

 

I tried out a few different colors with the army painter, and I'm probably gonna run with their original colors, with a few twists here and there.

 

I like Kyras as a Daemon Prince, but I'd like to make a version of him just before acension. I'm gonna try my hand at truescale, like his body is swelling with dark power, his armour cracking open and mutating, but not quite there yet. A bloodfeeder is a must for him, lol, I agree. Thanks for your help!

 

@tanith ghost:Good call, I was kinda thinking the former Librarians of the Chapter would probably be all Tzeentchian, or undivided myself. Knowledge is power, after all, and Tzeentch is knowledge, lol. Kyras was gonna be the exception to the rule, is all. Thanks!!

 

Any other thoughts, opinions, or ideas?

[Hyaenidae]

Hate to double post, but new developments have altered this project somewhat...

 

My friend, Noctus Cornix, noted this little project of mine and immedietly called me. We decided to split the project and characters availible, and began brainstorming ideas as a joint operation. Some things we decided on...

Keeping the original colors, but with bone colored pauldrons and greaves, like the traitors in DoW II: Retribution

Altering the Chapter symbol slightly. The raven and blood drop will stay, but the tips of the feathers will be chaos arrows.

Undivided worship, but with a lot of marks and such spread throughout.

Lots of Daemons and possessed, as the Blood Ravens use every scrap of dark knowledge they once resisted to set fire to the Imperium, like addicts on a binge.

More Mk. VII plate than anything, since they just turned.

 

The Characters I called dibs on:

Azariah Kyras: He will be the one truescale mini in my army, to reflect the dark powers flowing through his veins. Since the events in Retribution wouldn't have come all the way to fruition, he wouldn't have acended to daemon prince yet. So, instead, he will be swollen with power, his armour cracking and marked with the rune-skull of Khorne. A Collar of Khorne will ring his neck, and his psychic hood will powered down, broken and useless. I decided on a Possessed force sword for him, counting as a bloodfeeder, although he will also have the unusable shattered remains of God-Splitter strapped to his back, as a proud reminder of Gabriel Angelos's death at his hands. Ivory horns will thrust from his brow, his mouth full of shredding teeth. This guy's gonna look massive compared to his brothers, as he nears asencion.

 

Avitus: The price of betrayal is heavy amongst Traitors, thus Avitus shall be entombed within the hull of an ancient, relic Contemptor Dreadnought. Avitus the Ever-Damned will still carry the weapons of his trade in life: an Assault Cannon, a typhoon Missle Launcher, and a dreadnought CCW. Desiring death, he is doomed to earn redemption in Lord Kyras's eyes, though he will never achieve this. This one is gonna be fun.

 

Thaddeus: Mark of Nurgle. Not entiely sure what I'm doing with his yet, but the idea of an 'Airborne Infection' sounded like too awesome an idea to ignore. Probably gonna make him look more wasted away, than bloated, just to be strange and different.

 

Cyrius: Possessed. Yes, possessed. Bone-chitin and thick unnatural muscle growth will count as power armour, though some of his Carapace Armour will still be showing through, and will still be wearing the shredded remains of his camo-cloak.

 

Noctis nabbed the rest of the Characters, though we decided that both Thule and Angelos would be dead, along with the few loyalists during the chapter war. Hopefully he'll be here soon to pitch in his plans, lol.

 

So, thoughts and opinions? Ideas? Swear words and death threats?

[Arkangilos]

They use Magnus' geneseed so that would be ALOT of psykers. That would mean a great many collars of Khorne which could give you a pretty crazy (fluffwise) chapter. Or you could go the route of Tzeentch and have lots of psykers (like the Tsons) but with some normal marines as well (unlike Tsons). Lots of options here.

 

Actually, it is unknown whose gene-seed they use.

[Larkyn]

They use Magnus' geneseed so that would be ALOT of psykers. That would mean a great many collars of Khorne which could give you a pretty crazy (fluffwise) chapter. Or you could go the route of Tzeentch and have lots of psykers (like the Tsons) but with some normal marines as well (unlike Tsons). Lots of options here.

 

Actually, it is unknown whose gene-seed they use.

 

It's heavily suggested that the Blood Ravens were formed from Loyalist Thousand Sons. There's a short story in Age of Darkness, and the A Thousand Sons book suggest that they are. Also, given the amount of Librarians, it's quite acceptable that this is true.

[Brother Ambroz]

Yep what he said.

 

@1000Heathens- That's good you got Kryas. You can make a Lord and a DP outta that and still be fluffy. ;)

 

Going to start a WIP for this?

[Bearingtheword]

This is gonna be on interesting build so keep us all in the loop with a WIP thread if you would. I think it is an awesome idea.

 

Just a quick thought: As I haven't played DoW 2 in a while (I need to replay it methinks) correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't there a deal struck by Kyras with a Great Unclean One, Ulthair or something like that? or was that only Eliphas that struck the deal with him... If so then he wouldn't have to be strictly Khornate, even though when he turned into a DP he did look heavily like a 'thirster...Just some food for thought....

 

Good Luck to you both on it :)

 

~BtW

[Hyaenidae]

Well, I haven't talked to Noctus about it yet, but yeah, I'd like to create a joint WIP thread where we'll both post our mini's as we go along. I'm also planning on doing this WIP thread in the Chaos forum, in an attempt to bring some life back here. Most of the topics here lately have been downright depressing, so I'd like to put some stuff up here to bring some positive attention to the Dark Gods again. Maybe even inspire some 'on the fence' players to give Chaos a chance. Anything to to put 'Ascendant' back into 'Chaos Ascendant', lol.

 

Ah, the Thousand Sons gene-seed question...I was waiting for that one. The most recent book, Age of Darkness, pretty much put the question to rest. If they don't actually come from TS gene-seed, the Sons at least had a heavy hand in their creation...both being quite damning. Really, the main issue was that the gene-seed was unstable, leading to flesh change, and psychic flux. I'm assuming that the Blood Raven stock was far more stable, or else the Chapter would have been annihilated long, long ago, as soon as their brothers began bursting out of their warplate and growing nasty claws and a hundred 'nom nom' mouths. If anything, it will be irrelivent to the current project, as the Blood Ravens willingly possess themselves and throw themselves into learning the dark knowledge of the Gods with the raw energy and enthusiasm of a drug addict on the biggest binge of his short life. Mutations are welcome now. Horns are cool. The voices in my head are all my friends. This blade that's trying to eat my soul...um, ok, so there are still issues, lol. But were talking fully devouted Fallen Blood Ravens now, not the loyal curs of the past. The gene-stock is no longer the issue...now the issue is, how long can the Ravens keep up this hectic, dark knowledge binge before they destroy themselves....

 

The Kyras-Ulikair Pact: Kyras was already corrupt before the pact was made, due to being trapped in the warp for so long. Kyras made the pact with Ulkair so as to ensure the survival of the 5th Company, who were trapped aboard the Judgement of Carrion, so that he could carry his corruption throughout the chapter, while they hailed him as a hero. In return, Ulkair asked that Kyras's apothecary, Galan, be possessed by a Daemon. Kyras himself was already dedicated to Khorne, but with all that tasty, tasty knowledge laying around in stasis vaults, I don't feel that the rest of the chapter would follow the same path as him. Some, yes, but not all.

 

Keep it coming, guys and gals, you're getting me motivated, lol!!!

[Noctus Cornix]

Afternoon, brothers and sisters. Noctus here to give you guys an update on our work on the Corrupted Blood Ravens. We're still in the brainstorming phase of the process but gotten alot of ideas thrown around and we both started making our first marines last night.

 

Now here's what we've thrown around.

 

As Heathens said before, we've seperated most of the known characters between us to convert into special units in our army. Here's the list.

 

 

Heathens-

 

- Chapter Master Kyras (chaos lord with blood feeder)

-Cryrus (possessed champion)

-Jonah Orion (Tzeentch Sorcerer)

-Avitus (Contemptor Dreadnought)

-Thaddeus (Plague Assault Marine)

 

 

Me-

 

-Captain Diomedes (Chaos Lord with wings and slaaneshi daemon weapon)

-Apothecary Galan (Plague Champion)

-Tarkus (Chosen Champion)

-Martellus (Predator Tank Commander)

-Unnamed Force Commander (Chaos Spawn)

 

 

So here's some of my thoughts on my army

 

 

The majority of my army will represent the honour guard and the first company of the Blood Ravens Chapter, to represent that Diomedes indeed the captain of the honour guard and we decided that Kyras has taken more of a liking to Possessed marines as his retinue instead of the honour guard. So while Heathen's army will be mainly close combat, mine will be a bit more balanced, focusing on short to medium ranged combat with sharp sword at the front (Diomedes and his retinue) and a strong shield at the back (predator and a few havocs)

 

So my arm will mainly consist of standard marine squads and chosen with some plague marines lead by Galan as the resilient vanguard of the force.

 

Diomedes himself will be a slaanesh worshipper. I always saw him as a potential son of the dark prince. His lust for honour and duty and next to none of his chapter and he bedecks himself in more golden trim and shiny :P that he looks like a bloody pre-heresy Emperor's Children. So I'm going with the idea that Kyras was able to corrupt Diomedes to his side through whispers of glory and perfection and Diomedes would fall like wheat before the scythe. He will, for the most part, look almost the same, adorned in fully golden warplate with chaos stars and slaaneshi symbols put here and there. For his weapon, when you get the retribution race pack for space marines, you obtain a giant two handed axe that looks pretty much like the honour guard axes from the red scorpion box. I'm going to make a corrupted version of that, still with the giant wings and eagle on the top, but the rest of the weapon will look brutal and sick. Now as far as his wings go, I'm not exactly sure what I want. I'm not sure if i want to give him angel wings, daemon wings, or just go with a jump pack. It's hard to decide. What do you guys think?

[Bearingtheword]

I'm liking it... really liking it!

 

 

As I said before, I can't wait to see the WIP and the finished product....

 

 

~BtW

[Brother Ambroz]

For wings hmm you could use the possessed wings, I use them and they work great for me but I'm a Night Lord player mostly. There's the gargoyle wings from the Nids, carrion wings from fantasy wouldn't be too bad just make them look corrupted instead of diseased. You could go with the Sang Guard wings and just convert them a bit. Fair amount of options depending on what look you want. There's also a fair amount of wings on bitz websites as well.

[Rafen_2]

Heathens-

- Chapter Master Kyras (chaos lord with blood feeder)

-Cryrus (possessed champion)

-Jonah Orion (Tzeentch Sorcerer)

-Avitus (Contemptor Dreadnought)

-Thaddeus (Plague Assault Marine)

 

 

Me-

-Captain Diomedes (Chaos Lord with wings and slaaneshi daemon weapon)

-Apothecary Galan (Plague Champion)

-Tarkus (Chosen Champion)

-Martellus (Predator Tank Commander)

-Unnamed Force Commander (Chaos Spawn)

 

Awesome Can't wait to see some of these.