Event · M30–M31
Raven Guard reconstitution
The Raven Guard reconstitution was the rebuilding of the shattered Legion on Deliverance after the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V. Betrayed alongside the Salamanders and Iron Hands by the Traitor Legions under Horus’s command, the Raven Guard suffered catastrophic losses, and the primarch Corax led the survivors in a fighting withdrawal before returning to his home world to rebuild what remained of his Legion from a fraction of its former strength. On Deliverance and its moon, Lycaeus, Corax restructured the Legion around smaller, more numerous companies suited to infiltration, ambush and rapid withdrawal rather than the massed formations favoured before Isstvan V. Recruitment and gene-seed implantation were accelerated to replenish the ranks quickly, a measure that carried recognised risks to the stability of the process but was judged necessary given the scale of the losses sustained. The reconstituted Legion that emerged from this period was markedly smaller than before but adapted to the guerrilla methods that would come to define it, equipping its warriors for operations conducted under cover of darkness and confusion. This period of rebuilding shaped the Raven Guard’s subsequent conduct through the remainder of the Horus Heresy and influenced the doctrine of its successor Chapters thereafter.
See where Raven Guard reconstitution occurred on the galactic map during the Horus Heresy.