Hey everyone. This is where I hope to start my project log, which will chronicle my work on the various imperial factions that I'm interested in working on. I have about 5-6 thousand points of imperial guard, with about 1,500 points of DKoK and the rest in the Altairan First, a regiment of my own making which will someday make it onto this log. For now I'm working on the first company of my space marine chapter, the Dark Ravens. All the armies are modeled around participating in the Battle of Pilgrim's Ashes, when heretic forces launched a major assault on the capitol of the Altair Sector, Altair Prime. So lets jump right in.
The events that set the Battle of Pilgrim's Ashes were initiated, like many events in the 41st millennium, long before the actual battle took place. In the close of the 38th millennium, on the Serra's World, the final resting place of the saint that originally lead the crusade to claim the Altair sector in the name of the emperor, a massacre at a small coastal abbey would set into motion a secret conflict that would eventually see its climax at the beginning to the First Altair Sector War. Inquisitor Lord Byron Serren requested the personal aid of Dark Raven's chapter master Byron Forwin. The Dark Raven's had in the past often been willing to lend their aid to fellow imperial forces, and so they did so on Serra's World. Unfortunately, the Dark Raven's were entering a trap. Serren presented evidence that the tenants of Carfax Abbey had fallen to the dark gods and were attempting to summon a host of demons. Trusting Serren's intel, the Dark Raven's slaughtered all who they found in the abbey, and deep within it found a number of bound demon hosts.
Serren, an Istvaanist Radical had lured the space marines to this place to initiate the tremendous conflicts that wrack the Altair Sector even today. It was he, not the abbey tenants who had summoned and bound the demons, and he now set them upon the space marines that had come to offer him their aid. In the ambush, Forwin was fatally wounded. Despite the suppress attack, the terminators of the first company were able to slay all but one of the demons. The one that escaped, Shavra Kar, was bound in the body of a young girl, clad in a simple white dress. Kar escaped the abbey, initiating a private conflict between herself and the Dark Raven's that would last for the next two thousand years.
The Dark Raven's never could catch Kar, and though they came close a score of times she always slipped away. That is, until just four years ago, when she allowed herself to be captured by the Dark Raven's. Despite the betrayals of the past, the Dark Raven's had continued to work closely with other imperial organizations, and upon capturing Kar they contacted the Inquisition. The Dark Raven's gave Kar up to a Black Ship, where she then wrought havoc upon it and escaped. Taking with her, a band of acolytes who she would then use to rally her forces.
This event marked the beginning of the War of Shadows, a secret war fought between the forces of the Inquisition and the Dark Raven's against Kar's increasing power and influence. Much of this secret conflict was fought upon the imperial worlds of the Altair Sector without anyone every gaining knowledge of it. Over time, the Inquisition fell more and more behind as Kar moved across the sector rallying her forces. As this occurred the Inquisition began to prepare to the war that was to come, but they did not act fast enough.
Simultaneously attacking from the borders of the Gorgon's Reach to the trailing edge of the sector, and from the rimward edge Void Fields, as well as from the turncoat forgeworld of Lillith, the armies of the archenemy drove into the heart of the sector. Just weeks after the first shots were fired on the Sector's borders, the Archenemy fleet was trading broadsides with the Imperial Navy above Altair Prime. When the defenses were broken, and heretic drop ships lowered themselves into Altair Prime's atmosphere, torpedo salvos and missile barrages plummeted past them.
The bombardment was heaviest at the Pilgrim's Stair, a famous landmark from Altair's history, where Saint Serra had risen out of the tide and walked among the beleaguered colonists. Since that time a great stair had been erected, which now lead from the shores of the Sea of Serra to the point where she laid a golden aquila in the grey sand, marking the birthplace of the sector. Each day, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims walk the stair, from the shore, to what is now the Basilica of the First Dawn. They day that the enemy attacked was now exception, in fact, even greater droves of imperial civilians took the walk that day, praying to their saint and to the emperor for deliverance. After the orbital bombardment had ceased, it was said that the ashes of the dead were so many, that they rose to the knee.
This space marine army is the Dark Ravens force that deployed from orbit to reinforce the beleaguered imperial forces on the ground.
So, here is what I have of the force so far. Most of what I still need to obtain is drop pods. The army list uses Wolf Guard, even though the icons and look are closer to that of the dark Angels.
Reply With Quote
