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Preface:

So if you've read my previous posts, you might have come across my super long essay on the Vikings TV show. I like vikings, and viking stuff---the history and mythology etc etc---and you would think that I, getting into Warhammer for the last year+, am a fan of the Space Wolves, the sort of designated viking faction of the setting.

But lo, I don't. I don't like the Space Wolves, I think they're big weenies and 100% someone's OC do-not-steal faction they wrote to try and be better than everyone else. Moreover, because they're one of the original chapters from when the setting was first created, they're very much based on an 80s understanding of vikings and barbarians. Like, it's clearly more evocative of comic book Thor and Conan the Barbarian than it is of the nuanced and complicated history of the vikings.

Now, to add some nuance salt into the mix: I do think they are a fairly applicable depiction of a very specific aspect of viking culture: IE, berserkers and the Cult of the Wolf---but I still think of that as an extension of the very Thor-heavy, 80s dark fantasy view of honor-bound, proud warriors etc etc that feels about as 2-dimensional as the way that Skyrim depicts Nord religion/culture (whole other rant, sorry.)

The other caveat is I don't think any one chapter is the whole picture of a culture that they supposedly represent in the setting. Even the chapter I am going to craft below is more or less based on the themes and cultural ideals explored by the Vikings show (which is a whole other can of non-historically accurate worms I don't wanna get into.)

So all of that said: If I was tasked with creating a vikings-style chapter in Warhammer, this is what I would do. If this sounds like fan fiction, it's because it is fan fiction.

The Void Ravens

History

Also known as the Muninn Chapter, the Void Ravens originate from the 21st cursed founding, a grand experiment carried out by the Adeptus Mechanicus to weed out flaws in the geneseed of the various first-founding chapters. This experiment produced a number of chapters suspected of carrying chimeric geneseed stitched together from traitor and loyalist stock alike.

The Void Ravens were one of these experiments. While they were told that were a Space Wolves successor, in reality they were a chapter which secretly based on the stock of one of the traitor legions, with the traits of several loyalist legions mixed in. The Mechanicus had quelled the rampant mutation problems presented by the VIth and XIXth legions by using an unnamed third.

Being none-the-wiser, the Void Ravens were given their first assignment: in the waning years of M35, the Space Wolves had suffered a serious defeat. A chaos invasion on one side had been compounded by a xenos invasion on the other end---and the Space Wolves, to everyone's surprise, had emerged battered and barely victorious. They had enacted a pyrrhic victory, leaving their once legion-sized chapter at barely 500. While this wouldn't stop the Space Wolves from fighting, it would hamper their ability to patrol their own territories for some time. And so, the Void Ravens, ostensibly a Space Wolves successor, stepped in to fill the gap as a fleet-based chapter, along side several other chapters that went on to occupy planets around Fenris.

For a time, the Void Ravens would fulfill their duties without having to meet the Space Wolves: they answered distress calls, stymied invasions, and took their resupplies as normal. During this time, their chapter developed in two important ways. Firstly, as Space Wolf successors, they, speaking to and interacting with the people normally protected by the Space Wolves, quickly adopted Juvjk as their own dialect, and began wearing the runes, charms, and trophies normally reserved for the Space Wolves. The Void Ravens were frequently accused of looting the bodies and armories of the Space Wolves---though they were never caught in the act.

Secondly, the personality of the chapter began to crystalize. The Void Ravens, always having to salvage their gear and supplies from the ruins of either the Space Wolves or other imperial factions, quickly developed an appreciation for efficiency, frugality, and intelligent tactics. At the same time, they were the blood of Leman Russ, and frequently found themselves charging into pitched battles. The combination of ferociousness and strategic thinking quickly developed a culture of ambition and deviousness. The Void Ravens found the most value in their smartest commanders, whose unusual tactics and vicious nature made them unpredictable and highly effective. Additionally, the Void Ravens' love of tactical superiority and plotting led them to frequently consulting their librarians and the Emperor's Tarot for predictions of the future.

Their deviousness and vicious nature combined with their fleet-based chapter meant that the Void Ravens would frequently conduct raids into xenos or chaos territory, tearing up and capturing as much technology as possible only to later destroy it and return it to the imperium as raw resources. While their hatred of xenos never stemmed, they quickly grew comfortable quietly acquiring xenos tech to bolster their armories. The void Ravens grew famous throughout the segmentum for their daring raids, their merciless tactics, their secretive nature, and their famously insane commanders.

By the time the Void Ravens would have a chance to meet the Space Wolves, their reputation as morally onerous raiders had preceded them. The Space Wolves, already disgusted by their cousins, also saw how different the Void Ravens were to them on a genetic level---and promptly ended the meeting, ejecting the Void Ravens from Fenris. The Void Ravens had already become vaguely aware that they were not like the Space Wolves, but this meeting had all but confirmed it. Driven by a desire to know more about themselves, but aware that the inquisition would likely annihilate them if they found out, the Void Ravens began to venture deeper and deeper into unknown space.

Eventually the chapters' raids brought them to an Aeldari craftworld. Unable to take on the craftworld by themselves, 1st Captain Erik Russon devised a plan to lure in the forces of chaos---allowing the nearby chaos warband to soften up their target. the plan worked, and while the forces of chaos threw themselves at one side of the craftworld, the Void Ravens enacted a surgical strike on the other. This operation led to the capture of a device that Void Ravens named the Well of Memories---a well of glowing blue liquid contained in a large floating basin. The chapter's chief librarian, Havi Coldstar, lost his hand to the liquid, which burned it away while also delivering a powerful psychic vision into his mind---though the vision faded fast. In communing with the device, Havi determined that a link could be established with the waters, but that the well required a sacrifice to establish a more permanent link. Havi then tore out his left eye and dropped it into the well. The resulting vision immediately warned Havi that the Black Legion was closing in on the Space Wolves, ready to wipe them from existence. His timely intervention led the Void Ravens to victory in the resulting battle.

The chapter knew very little about the Well of Memories, save that it offered visions of both the past and the future, and of knowledge normally forbidden to members of the imperium. Havi later became chapter master, his reputation and renown significantly swelling after his victory over the Black Legion---and his captains would all follow his example, sacrificing various parts of themselves to the well to gain its knowledge, while also establishing a permanent psychic connection to one another.

At this time, the Void Ravens made a change to their heraldry: adding a blue drop of water over the black raven of their banners. To the inquisition they claimed that Havi had been given a vision of the Emperor, and that the emperor's tears had shown them the impending invasion. The inquisition accepted this explanation, and the chapter's change in heraldry finalized---with none suspecting that the blue drop actually represented the waters of the well, and their question.

About 100 years after the acquisition of the Well of Memories, the Space Wolves were finally returned to their strength of old---and they wasted no time evicting the various chapters which had taken up residency in their region of space. The Void Ravens, now far more adept in the use of the well, foresaw this and quietly slipped away beyond the border of the imperium. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Imperium, the Void Ravens had discovered the truth of their origins through the visions of the Well of Memories---and they promptly disappeared to continue their quest for eldritch knowledge and the spoils of victory.

Over several millennia, the Void Ravens have only occasionally reappeared in imperial space. They rarely assist imperial forces unless it also suits their own goals, and they almost never associate with other chapters of astartes. On more than one occasion, they've returned to receive censure by the inquisition when rumors of their indiscretion regarding alien tech became too loud to ignore---and more recently they narrowly dodged the inquisition declaring them a renegade chapter. The balancing act of secrecy, heresy, victory, and ferocity is one kept in motion only by the power of the well and the foresight that it offers to its one-eyed master...

Heraldry

The Void Ravens' icon is a black raven over a field of red. After finding the Well of Memories, the chapter added a blue water droplet. Their armor is typically painted black, with bronze chest plates and shin guards.

The right pauldron uses a symbol and a high gothic number to denote battle role and squad number, while the left kneepad is painted with codex compliant colors to indicate company.

Void Ravens use many of the embellishments normally associated with the Space Wolves: including the addition of furs, pelts, other trophies taken from high profile kills, as well as talismans covered in runes. the Void Ravens do occasionally eschew the wearing of wolf pelts in favor of wearing black raven feathers or reptile skins.

Tactics

As a fleet-based chapter, the Void Ravens prefer ship-to-ship combat, with each ship in the fleet performing hit-and-run attacks against their foes. On the rare occasion that the chapter goes to ground, they prefer to conduct raids to relieve their enemies of vital resources---providing the chapter the dual benefit of destroying the enemy, while also starving them out.

While many of the rank-and-file Void Ravens dream of glorious death on the battlefield, the leadership of the chapter prize a very different set of values. Officers in the Void Ravens tend to value the complimentary traits of strategic thinking and ambition.

My Name is Faline Cross. I am a Librarian's assistant in Selleton High School. A Junior and knew anyone and everyone here in this provincial School. It was until 18 new students mysteriously appeared. All of them brothers, and each of them unique in their own way. Each of them Crossed paths with me and my brother, and all of them attached to me in some strange way. Their Mysterious Rich Father and Old Caretaker are always around and they seem to make sure they graduate.

What will happen in Selleton High?

((OOC: OH MY GOODNESS DID I JUST THINK OF A FUCKING SPIN OFF OF MY FANFIC!!! NOOOOOOO!!! PLEASE))