Corax

Overview

The shadow-walking Primarch who freed the prison-moon Lycaeus and led the Raven Guard's guerrilla wars. He was haunted by his failed attempts to rebuild his shattered Legion.

He could move unseen even in plain sight and fought with lightning claws, soaring into battle on a flight pack. At Isstvan V, his Legion was all but wiped out. He went to Terra and was allowed to use the gene-labs to rebuild, but the results were monsters, which he was later forced to destroy. Corax, known as the Raven Lord, led the Raven Guard. He was raised on the prison moon of Lycaeus, where he grew up among slaves of the Kiavahran tech-guilds before leading them in revolt. He was a master of stealth and decapitation strikes. After the near annihilation of his Legion at Isstvan V, he tried desperately to rebuild it. Those efforts led to the creation of the Raptors and to terrible mutations among his sons, which haunted him for the rest of his life.

Origins

Raised among political prisoners in the mines of Lycaeus, he led their revolt and renamed the moon Deliverance.

On Lycaeus, he grew up among the prisoners who mined the moon for its ore. He learned how to fight against overwhelming odds, using stealth, sabotage and guile. His revolt freed the prisoners and destroyed the moon's overseers, and he became their leader before the Emperor arrived.

Key events

1. Was found on the prison moon of Lycaeus, where he led a revolt against its overseers and freed the world.
2. Led the Raven Guard as stealth specialists in the Great Crusade.
3. Survived the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre with a handful of his sons.
4. Used gene-tech from the Emperor to rebuild his Legion; the experiments produced monstrous Raptors.
5. Waged shadow-war on traitors during the Heresy.
6. Left his Legion after the Heresy to hunt traitors in the Eye of Terror.
7. Departed the Raven Guard after the Heresy, leaving his Legion with the word 'Nevermore'.

The battle of Gate Forty-Two scarred his relationship with Horus long before Isstvan. At the war council, Perturabo accused Corax of avoiding battle, a charge close to dereliction, and only Leman Russ stopped them from fighting. Russ advised him to keep his bitterness smouldering and use it to fuel the attack. Corax put his Terran-dominated companies in the van. Horus counted the battle a victory, but it left the XIX with only 80,000 legionaries, the smallest of the Legions, and Corax took his Legion out from under Horus's command, swearing never to serve with him again. Many of the Terran officers who had served under Horus, and through whom the Warmaster might have influenced the Raven Guard, died there. During the Kiavahr revolt, Alpha Legion operatives disguised as Raven Guard helped Omegon, who had been on Kiavahr all along, steal the Primarch gene-stock and work to destroy the Legion's gene-seed.

Battles & campaigns

• Liberation of Kiavahr: He led the slaves of Lycaeus to victory over the Kiavahran guilds. The prison moon was renamed Deliverance.
• Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre: The Raven Guard were almost wiped out. Corax fought Lorgar before escaping with a small number of survivors.
• Gene-seed recovery: With the Emperor's permission he went deep beneath the Imperial Palace to recover advanced gene-tech, and he used it to rebuild his Legion. Some of the results were monstrous.

Personality

Brooding, idealistic and fiercely opposed to tyranny.

He hated oppression and was disgusted by tyranny in any form. He was guilt-ridden by the destruction of his Legion and by the monsters his experiments created. His brooding nature and his idealism made him a complex figure among the Primarchs.

Weapons & Vehicles

Power FistMelee Weapon

An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…

ChainswordMelee Weapon

The brutal motorised tooth-bladed sword carried by Space Marines, Imperial Guard officers and Chaos renegades, chewing through armour a…

Bolter & Bolt RifleRanged Weapon

The signature .75-calibre rocket-propelled mass-reactive firearm of the Adeptus Astartes, firing self-propelled explosive bolts that de…

Stormraven GunshipAircraft

A heavily armed VTOL assault gunship and flying transport of the Adeptus Astartes and Grey Knights, capable of carrying both a full squ…

Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.

Connections

Characters (3)

• 
  The Emperor of Mankind creator · Imperium of Man

  After the Heresy Corax sought to rebuild his Legion with gene-tech the Emperor had entrusted to him.

• 
  Kayvaan Shrike gene-father · Raven Guard

  Shrike leads the Raven Guard, Corax's sons.

• 
  Konrad Curze enemy · Night Lords

  During the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V, Curze caught and taunted Corax, who escaped only by firing his flight pack.

Factions

• Raven Guard primary faction

Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.

Legacy

Corax left the Raven Guard with a culture of stealth and a guilt-laden past. His gene-seed experiments haunt the Chapter, and his disappearance into the Eye remains unresolved. His tale is a study in liberation and its dark costs, from freeing Lycaeus to the Raptors his own experiments created, and it influences how the Raven Guard approach every battle. The Raven Guard's guerrilla style, their bitter wariness of the Alpha Legion and Night Lords, and their gene-seed problems all trace back to Corax. He eventually left his Legion and disappeared into the Eye of Terror.

His legend continued after he left. On the daemon world Sicarus in the Eye of Terror, the Dark Apostle Kalta-Ar was building a vast monument to Lorgar when something began killing his Word Bearers. His slaves said it was a shadow that rose up and tore the Heretic Astartes apart, a description the Raven Guard would recognise.

Appearances & sources

• The Horus Heresy novels Deliverance Lost and Corax: Soulforge (Gav Thorpe)
• The Horus Heresy anthology Raven's Flight
• Raven Guard background in Codex: Space Marines