Crow's Children

"Rise up, blades of my Order! No longer shall we fight for anyone but ourselves! No longer shall we be bound by the 'honor' of our false Highlord! Rise up with me, and we shall prove our strength! Our hope lies in the Warp..."

- Knight Captain Daedelus secretly addressing the then Order of the Crow aboard the Battle Barge, Brotherhood

The Crow's Children are a notorious Chaos Warband made up of Heretic Astartes, formed from the renegade Order of the Crow, of the Loyalist Penitent Knights Space Marine Chapter. Daedelus the Betrayer, the Warband's infamous Chaos Lord, fell to the Ruinous Powers and turned traitor against his Chapter Master, Lithandros, after constant frustrations over the Highlord's sympathy for the mortal civilian life of the Imperium. And even when Lithandros reprimanded Daedelus for disregarding orders, a strange voice whispered into the ear of the Knight Captain, telling him that he would have his day. After the mutiny of the Order of the Crow, and the company escaped into the Warp, the powers of Chaos changed them all to Chaos Space Marines, and their sole mission was to destroy their loyalist brothers. However, their insatiable lust for death has taken them throughout their once home Sub-sector, earning them the title, "the Scourge of Asteria."

Night of the Crow (094.M32)
Lithandros, instead of choosing to gravely punish Daedelus and his restless subordinates for disobeying orders to patrol and protect the populated planets near the Aegimius System, the Chapter's Fortress-System. Though, when the force entered the Warp upon Lithandros' Battle Barge, Brotherhood, they were set upon by a Daemonic incursion in the ship. The Order of the Crows turned upon their brothers and assisted the Daemons in killing those aboard the Brotherhood. This slaughter started in the lower decks, the daemons appearing and killing all the crewmen and stray Knights that stood in their path. Lord Scholar Pellidan Carinus, the Chief Librarian, alerted Lithandros to invasion of Chaos, directing the Lightbound to lock down choke points along the Brotherhood to either contain or slow the daemonic tide while Pellidan worked to speed them out of the Warp. It was at that point that the Crows turned, opening fire and throwing grenades at the backs of the Paladins of the Lightbound. However, the Order of the Lightbound raged and held off their traitor brothers and daemons for hours before the Battle Barge exited the Warp, the entire Order of the Lightbound slain during the betrayal, the Paladin Captain Fortareis cut down saving Lithandros from a fatal blow. Their mutiny only partly successful, what remained of the Order of the Crow fled into the Warp with their new daemonic allies, to rebuild and become the Crow's Children Warband.

Over the next few centuries, the Crow's Children began to raid and pillage across the entirety of the Asteria Sub-sector, leaving only grief and rubble in their wake. The new Chaos Marines reveled in their bloodshed, taking what they pleased whenever they desired. Once, they were noble warriors of the Emperor, but by the corroding influence of Daedelus and the Ruinous Powers, they razed worlds in the name of the Dark Gods. So much did they enjoy wanton slaughter and decadence, that Daedelus offered the entire Sub-sector to the Gods, including their loyal brothers, the Penitent Knights.

Battle of Sanus (101.M32)
Following years spent in the Warp with their new Daemonic masters, the Crow's Children reappeared in the Aegimius System, and immediately set to laying waste to the Civilised World of Sanus and its young Imperial settlements. Descending upon the helpless populace with their Corvian-styled jump-packs, the Children massacred all they could see, reducing cities to rubble in a matter of hours with their Warp-forged weaponry. The Penitent Knights, however, rushed to annihilate the traitors with all speed, but alas arrived days too late to save the civilians of Sanus due to the Children virtually destroying all communication from the planet. When the Knights arrived on planet, they were greeted with a sea of bones and broken buildings. But in Thadeliv, Sanus' capital, the Crow's Children erected grand effigies of the Chaos Gods from the metal and bone reaped from the innocents of Sanus. A fierce battled followed as the loyal and traitor marines engaged within the confines of Thadeliv, with great costs to both sides. Lithandros and Daedelus dueled in the throne room of the previous Planetary Governor, while the rest of the Knights fought in an almost berserk state against their traitor brothers, for both their betrayal and the devastation they had caused. Ultimately, Daedelus had eventually tired out the Highlord to the point where he was able to knock Lithandros to the ground and rip off the loyalist's left arm from his body with his power fist before himself being wounded by bolter fire from Knight Captain Balder Karn, of the Order of the Gryphon. Subsequently, the Crow's Children retreated back into the Warp using a portal they had crafted.

After the idols of the Chaos Gods had been utterly destroyed by the Penitent Knights, Lithandros deemed that the barren world of Sanus would become the Cemetery World of Penance, an eternal reminder of the consequence of their failure to defend the innocent from the wicked jaws of the Children.

The Uprising of Noarilia (302.M32)
Noarilia was the center of the commonwealth System of the Asteria Sub-sector, prosperous and wealthy in its status. A perfect place to set a vile trap for the Penitent Knights, Daedelus knew. Under both the council of Peredrath and Savaathon, insurgents of the Crow's Children melded with the populace of Noarilia and waited for their time. Years past, until the Raptors of the Children descended upon the Governor's palace, violently tearing apart any Planetary Defense Forces that stood in their way. Approximately an hour later, Daedelus himself broadcast a message across the entire planet.

"Denizens and wretches of the Imperium, hear these words. Your 'Governor,' is dead, his body being flayed by my brothers at this very moment. The weak Imperium cannot stand against us, blades of the Chaos Gods! Yes, you have all been lied to, nameless millions of slaves of the 'Emperor.' You know of what I speak- the nagging temptations you feel at every second, the suppressed desires you crave against the shackles of your law. NO MORE! Now, rise up, you who now know the truth of this universe! Chaos will have this galaxy, and all others! For now, that you have merely heard this simple truth, the Imperium sends its puppets to kill you all, because they fear the word of Chaos! Rise up, and deny your would-be murderers, or die like insects to their guns. The Gods accept all into their fold..."

Within hours, the agents of the Warband ensured that indeed a full Chaos rebellion took place among the cities of Noarilia, the people engaging in dark orgies of slaughter and degeneration at will. Daedelus looked down from the Governor's palace and smiled darkly as the Gods were given more sacrifices, and more to their flock. And sure enough, the Penitent Knights came again to meet their enemy upon the field of war.

However, when the Orders of the Undaunted and the Cleansing Flame arrived in Noarilia's orbit, they saw that it was not merely the Crow's Children that were their enemy, but the corrupted populace. Torn as they were never before since the death of Lithandros by the order of the High Lords of Terra, the Knights faced a situation where both civilian and traitor had to be put to the sword. For hours, they heatedly argued the next course of action, and the weight of sinning to strike down a civilian or to let this atrocity go unanswered. In grief, they deployed into Noarilia's surface.

When personally seeing the full degeneration of the twisted populace, the Knights of the Undaunted and Cleansing Flame knew that a quick death would be a far better end to them rather than to be further turned from the Emperor's light. The purgation was a slow but steady process, emptying ravaged forests of concrete after another, until both Companies stood before the Governor's palace, and at that point, hundreds of the Crow's Children leapt from the shadows and surprise attacked the Knights. Daedelus himself glided down from the tallest balcony of the palace, swinging both his power fist and daemon sword into many Knights. A fierce and bloody battle followed, but both Knight Captains of the Orders managed to drive off the Betrayer, and thus, the Children cackled maniacally as they ascended to another portal maintained by Peredrath the Ruiner. To this day, Noarilia is still a source of great shame on the Chapter of the Penitent Knights.

Discovery of the Dark Carrion (059.M33)
For almost an entire millennia, the Crow's Children had prowled across the Asteria Sub-sector, always on the move, with no place to call their den, their fortress. Then, under the guidance of the Sorceror Peredrath, the Children found a large Space Hulk, largely empty and waiting for someone to claim it. Soon after, the Children had turned the amalgamation of ships into their own star-fort, their slaves working tirelessly to reinforce numerous positions along the Space Hulk's surface, along with many idols of the Chaos Gods both inside and out. Daedelus personally oversaw the fortification of the innards of the Space Hulk, modelling the many galleries and corridors into a perversion of the Fortress Monastery of the Penitent Knights. Raids and assaults led by the Warpsmith Morderoth brought back with them captured Imperial vessels and supplies, which they used to build wicked spires filled with plasma macro-cannons, Lance batteries and other defensive machinations. When the deed was done, the Space Hulk resembled more of an impenetrable fortress than an assortment of lost ships. And when the final additions were made to his own den of evil, Daedelus sat upon a throne crafted from bones of the slaughtered. And thus, the Dark Carrion was finished, and the Crow's Children had a stronghold inside the Sub-sector.

Lord Daedelus the Betrayer
Lord of Crows. Knight's Bane. Scourge of the Loyalist. Such are some of the titles Daedelus had accrued over many long millennia. When the Betrayer had bested his former Chapter Master in single combat, Daedelus swelled with pride and arrogance, as well as the blessing of the Ruinous Powers. Talon-like growths began to grow from his hands, and horns from his head. With every Lord Crusader of the Penitent Knights that he slew personally, a new "blessing" was given to the Chaos Lord, until he eventually met his end fighting the Lord Crusader Graythorne at the beginning of the Red Dawn war for Lor'dra. But until M42, Daedelus reaped many a soul for his Gods.

Talons of the Crow
Underneath the leadership of Daedelus, the Betrayer organized a mockery of the Council of Lords utilized by the Penitent Knights, with six exceptional members of the Crow's Children to become his Talons, and to be instruments of his revenge against the loyalist Knights, and their allies.

Peredrath the Ruiner, Master of Sorcery
Once an upstanding Knight-Scholar of the Penitent Knights, Peredrath was perhaps the one to sow the seeds of heresy among the Order of the Crow. After a secret psychic ritual, the Librarian was touched by a daemon of the Warp. When Daedelus was aggrieved by the sympathy of Lithandros, the Knight Captain came to Peredrath for council. When the air assault marines of the Knights felt their skills weren't tested enough, Peredrath comforted them. When the Battle Barge, "the Brotherhood" jumped into the Warp, it was Peredrath that disabled the Gellar Field. And when the Crow's Children were formed, Peredrath became all the more fearsome, sacrificing entire cities for his own gain. And when the Red Dawn came, Peredrath was one of the few Children to survive the long-awaited wrath of the Penitent Knights.

Raptor Lord Sathulak the Damned
The Order of the Crow contained much of the Penitent Knights' air assault marines, as was suited to their avian name. But when the Order fell to Chaos, many of the marines became bloodthirsty Raptors, led by Sathulak, the most vicious of their number. Always wearing the bones of his loyalist brothers, which eventually fused to his very power armor, Sathulak cared not when it was either Daedelus or Peredrath giving him orders, only that one could led to more killings. Known to be the most temperamental of all the Crow's Children, Sathulak would often change his allegiances to the Ruiner, to the Betrayer, or to himself.

Dark Apostle Drachlor, Master of Devotion
When their victims are not slaughtered by the Raptors of the Children, they are brought before Drachlor and he offers them a simple choice, to either die a sacrifice, or to make others a sacrifice. Serving as both the voice of the Ruinous Powers, and the greatest Diabolist among the Children. Keeping both all of the non-traitor marine cultists and the Chaos Spawns on a strict leash. Many Chaos invasions have been brought about by the combined powers of both Drachlor and Peredrath.

Exalted Champion Caine the Wrathful
Among the select few that Daedelus can truly rely upon, Caine was the Betrayer's favored Knight-Sergeant when the Brotherhood entered the Warp, and the Night of the Crow began. Following his Captain's orders, Caine set to killing any of his brothers not willing to submit to the new masters of the Order. And when the Crow's Children emerged from the Warp to claim souls for Chaos, Caine made no hesitation to garner the favor of the Gods with his lightning claws, and his disdain for any fool to cross his path and think to slay him.

Warpsmith Morderoth the Constructor
The sole one building and maintaining the equipment and crafting daemon weapons for the Crow's Children, Morderoth has long toiled and worked deep in the depths of a Mechanicus ship melded with the Space Hulk den of the Warband, "the Dark Carrion." Formerly a famed Forgemaster of the Knights, Morderoth was always infuriated with the limits placed upon him by the standards of both the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Chapter, until the Knight-Scholar Peredrath approached him with an offer to craft masterful wonders, to never again be bound by the foolishness of Tech-Priests or the Omnissiah. Whenever the Children find an interesting piece of technology, or suits of power armor, Morderoth will fashion whatever he envisions, including all of the Corvian themed Raptor armor and jump-packs.

Warband Combat Doctrine
Following a rough translation of the Primarch Horus Lupercal's philosophy of battle, with weakening an enemy's defensive line to then deploy air assaults against them to shatter their formation is used frequently by the Crow's Children. Usually, this often plays out with a horde of mindless Cultists and Chaos Spawns to weather their foes down, to then suddenly engage with large numbers of Raptors followed by heavier land-based units, most often the leader of the Children's forces.

Warband Gene-seed
As is the case with their Penitent Knight brothers, nearly all of the Children do not know the origins of their gene-seed, but both Daedelus and Peredrath are aware of this knowledge, and strangely, both of them refuse to talk of the subject, although with an evil grin on their face when one asks the question.

Allies

 * Black Legion
 * Red Corsairs
 * Black Suns

Enemies

 * Penitent Knights
 * Astral Warriors