Towards the end of the Age of Strife, the Emperor crafted 20 magical clone babies that he called Primarchs. The forces of Chaos didn’t like the Emperor very much, so they kidnapped his magical clone babies and threw them randomly all over the galaxy, and the Emperor had all kinds of adventures finding them again. This thread is about the 18th magical clone baby the Emperor recovered – Corvus Corax, Primarch of the 19th Legion.

Corvus was stranded on the barren, airless moon Lycaeus, a satellite of the Forge-World Kiavahr. The inhabitants of Lycaeus were all tech-thralls of the Adeptus Mechanicus, forced to labor in the mines to the scientifically calculated limit of their abilities. In such a harsh environment, any extra air requirements or food consumed should have been noticed, but miraculously, Corvus was able to grow up and become the leader of a resistance movement against the Tech Priests. He became a master of guerilla warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and covert operations and liberated Lycaeus. The grateful miners renamed their world Deliverance when they had gained their independence. His papa was so proud of him when he found Corvus!

It shook out that Corvus’ legion (which he named the Raven Guard) was the smallest of the great legions of Space Marines the Emperor had created for his children. This was okay, at first, because of how they were used by their Primarch. However, they also happened to be the Legion on the ground when Horus started his own rebellion against the Emperor and suffered massive casualties in the inciting engagement of the Heresy. They persevered, however, even in the face of Corvus’ brother Lion constantly passive-aggressively asking why they weren’t doing more for the war effort.

Corvus still wanted to make his papa proud of him, so he sought a way to quickly bolster his legion. After many magical adventures, he found a way to grow Space Marines from scratch – a real improvement over the lengthy and painful surgical procedures on children that were (and spoilers, still are) the normal way of making one. But those rascals on Horus’ side of the war found out about this innovation and had their own covert operatives sneak in and corrupt the genetic code of the first batch of experimental Marines. These new Raven Guardsmen all came out horrible mutants, and the Emperor hates muties.

Eyes filled with tears, Corvus Old Yellered his new Space Marines, and after a year of mourning, set out on a rampage of vengeance against his wicked brothers. He pursued them into the realm of Chaos where they had fled following their defeat by the Loyalists. His last recorded words before leaping into the portal were, “Never more.” which… yeah. Over the course of many millennia, he was transformed into a being formed solely of darkness and shadow; he serves as a sort of boogeyman to the daemon-worshipping legions of Chaos.

We don’t hate mutants here at the Avocado; we try not to hate anyone. Post with kindness and cleverness, OT, and please don’t point out that the Primarch of the Raven Guard is named Raven Raven.