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Gabriel Angelos

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"While the enemies of the Emperor still draw breath, there can be no peace."[1]

Gabriel Angelos, Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens[7]

Gabriel Angelos is the Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens, and widely regarded as one of the Chapter's greatest heroes.[Needs Citation]

Biography

Spoiler!
This page contains spoilers for: Dawn of War
Spoiler!
This page contains spoilers for: Dawn of War (Novel Series)

Early Life

Like many of the Blood Ravens Gabriel was born on the planet of Cyrene, from whence the Chapter often drew recruits. He was an accomplished leader of his peers before he even entered his teen years, and passed the Blood Trials set by the Blood Ravens' Chaplains through working in tandem with fellow Aspirant Isador Akios.[Needs Citation]

Cyrene

Gabriel Angelos as Captain of the Blood Ravens Third Company[4]

Many years later, with an entire Company of Blood Ravens under his command, Gabriel returned to Cyrene to preside over the Blood Trials and recruit new members into the Chapter. But Gabriel found something very wrong during the trial and cut them short. He quickly returned to his Strike Cruiser and sent a coded signal out of the system. Within months of the signal, ships of the Inquisition and the Imperial Navy appeared over Cyrene and began the cleansing of the planet. Accompanying the Ordo Malleus was a full Brotherhood of Grey Knights. With the Blood Ravens and a detachment of Storm Troopers, the Grey Knights took the cleansing to the surface. What they found was not a Chaos cult per se but a world ready to embrace change. Ideas like democracy, un-registered Psykers and free trade with Xenos were now widespread. Gabriel assisted with the destruction of his world but ordered one squad of Blood Ravens, led by Sergeant Ulray to remain off the grid, searching for someone.[Needs Citation]

That person was Esmond Angelos, Gabriel's father. Gabriel refused to believe that his father, a retired Imperial Guard soldier, would have turned away from the Emperor. He fully intended to take Esmond back with him to the Chapter. But to Gabriel's horror he discovered that his father not only supported rebellion against the Imperium, but was one of the major political leaders. Esmond despised the Imperium because the Space Marines had taken away his own son and cursed Gabriel for his role as an Imperial butcher and wished he had died with his mother in childbirth. Gabriel whispered one last prayer for Cyrene and executed his father.[6]

Tartarus

It was on Tartarus that Gabriel was to undergo the true tests of his abilities and his faith, as he had to both stall an unstoppable Ork invasion long enough to evacuate the planet, while simultaneously seeking out and eradicating the Alpha Legion forces on the world, led by Lord Bale and the Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr. The Chaos forces were searching for a ancient artifact called the Maledictum, and the sorcerer Sindri managed to corrupt Isador Akios, now a Librarian of the Blood Ravens Chapter, into betraying the Blood Ravens.[1],[2a]

Gabriel, shaken by the loss of his old friend Isador Akios, nonetheless confronted him and executed him for heresy. He went on to lead the Blood Ravens against Chaos, slaying Lord Bale in a duel and eventually defeating Sindri Myr, who had used the Maledictum to become a Daemon Prince.[1],[2b]

After defeating Sindri however, Angelos destroyed the Maledictum with a Daemonhammer called God-Splitter, thinking to eradicate the Chaos threat, but instead he released a great Warp Daemon from its prison, as foreseen by Eldar Farseer Macha who had aided in fighting the daemon. Farseer Macha had warned him not to destroy the Maledictum but he had proceeded to smash it with the God-Splitter anyway. Angelos escaped Tartarus before the ensuing warp storm trapped him there, and vowed to defeat the new Chaos threat he himself had unleashed[1],[2c].

Rahe's Paradise

Shortly after the Tartarus campaign Angelos traveled to the world of Rahe's Paradise to conduct the Blood Trials for a new set of aspirants for the Blood Ravens. At first, all seemed routine (save for his premonitions of an Eldar invasion), but soon after the discovery of an ancient Eldar tablet, all hell broke loose: Eldar Rangers conducted multiple hit-and-run attacks, focusing exclusively on the Psykers of the Chapter and the potential psykers among the Blood Trials aspirants, and Gabriel met with Farseer Macha once more.[Needs Citation]Macha revealed that the Eldar had killed the psykers to prevent the breaking of Lsanthranil's Shield, a device that gave the illusion of a large Eldar psychic presence on the planet. This illusion was the only thing preventing the awakening of the Necrons hidden under the surface of the planet, which would continue to slumber as long as they believed that their ancient foes still dominated the galaxy.[Needs Citation]

Despite Macha's warnings a space battle destroyed the Spirit Pool of the Dark Reaper aspect, and the psychic scream of the lost souls shattered Lsanthranil's Shield and awakened the Necrons. Gabriel Angelos then ordered the destruction of the planet and left for the threatened planet of Lorn V with the surviving aspirants.[Needs Citation]

Lorn V

When Angelos arrived on Lorn V, he made contact with the single Eldar survivor of the battle, Farseer Taldeer, who had been asking for him since teleporting to the Battle Barge Litany of Fury.[Needs Citation]

Ignoring accusations of heresy levelled against him by Captain Ulantis of the Ninth Company, Angelos was convinced by Taldeer to allow her to take him and a small squad of Blood Ravens to a rip in the Webway, made by the Librarian Rhamah, in an attempt to reach the World of Law, Arcadia, and find the last Blade of Vaul to use against the waking Necrons. On the planet, he was given the blade by the Eldar Harlequins following a battle with the Prodigal Sons of Ahzek Ahriman, and Ahriman himself; Angelos gave the blade to Macha upon returning to Lorn V. With it, Macha destroyed the Necrons completely, but was not heard from or seen afterwards. Gabriel Angelos then continued his command as Captain of the Watch and met the newly transformed Ckrius Qurius, whom the Blood Ravens had recruited from Tartarus.[Needs Citation]

The Aurelian Crusades

Angelos and the Litany of Fury were in the distant Vorga system, completing a great victory over the Tau, when Subsector Aurelia was invaded by the Tyranids. They arrived in the system in time to join the Blood Ravens' Force Commander Aramus during the climactic battle on Typhon Primaris, when Angelos joined Aramus and his men in defeating the Hive Tyrant leading the swarm.[3]

Maledictum

Gabriel Angelos' broken body[3]
Gabriel Angelos' rebuilt body with Augmetics[3]

In battles with the Daemon Prince imprisoned inside the Maledictum, and with renegade Chapter Master Azariah Kyras, Angelos lost his right eye and both his legs[3],[4].

After defeating Azariah Kyras, Angelos's broken body was lifted from the debris by Captain Apollo Diomedes. Angelos recovered, with the aid of augmetics to replace his lost legs and eye, and was hailed as the Blood Ravens' new Chapter Master.[3],[4]

Acheron

On the world of Acheron, the Imperium, Orks, and Eldar would all come to blows while fighting over a catastrophic weapon known as the Spear of Khaine. The Blood Ravens under Gabriel Angelos arrived, running an Inquisitorial blockade to aid Imperial Knight forces under Lady Solaria. During the battle on Acheron, Angelos battled both Biel-Tan Eldar and Gorgutz' Orks.[7]

After tracking Gorgutz' forces to the vault containing the Spear of Khaine, Angelos was caught in an Inquisition orbital bombardment that intended to destroy the device but instead opened the vault it was sealed in. However, Angelos survived and led an attack on the temple of the Spear of Khaine that overran both the Eldar and Ork forces. When they came to the "Spear" they instead found a trap that freed a Bloodthirster and its Daemonic hordes. Desperate, Angelos had the Battle Barge The Dauntless collide with a fissure in Acheron's surface to prevent the daemonic infestation from spreading. Angelos was able to teleport to safety before the planet was destroyed.[7]

Great Rift

At the end of the 41st Millennium the Blood Ravens still reeling from the Acheron Campaign, the three Aurelian Crusades, and the Kaurava Campaign. Chapter Master Angelos had been planning to begin a rebuilding of the Chapter and decreed that this consolidation was to be conducted alongside large-scale recruitment. Blood Trials to find aspirants were carried out on every world from which the Blood Ravens recruited, and they were held more frequently. Production of arms, ships, and other war materiel increased. Angelos declared that, once enough of the Chapter had been rebuilt, the Blood Ravens would strike out into the galaxy anew.[9]

But this grand rebuilding was not to be. Scant weeks after initiating his plans, madness erupted in the sky as the Great Rift emerged and the Astronomican went out. Contact between the Blood Ravens detachments conducting Blood Trials and the Omnis Arcanum became next to impossible. Ships full of aspirants were lost to the warp. All over Sub-sector Aurelia, outbreaks of mutation and other psychic phenomena were endemic. Some Blood Ravens, psychically sensitive as many are, perished or were driven to madness by the surge in empyric energy. Those Librarians able to make some sense of the distortion reported terrible visions and nightmares, some even of the Great Unclean One Ulkair stirring in his prison in the core of old Aurelia. Entire Astropathic choirs died horrendous deaths as uncontrollable forces built up inside them to the point that their heads exploded under the expanding pressure. Worse still, many worlds under the Blood Ravens protection cried out for aid, with the entire Aurelian Sub-Sector now beset by Daemons. Ever a stubborn warrior of honor, Angelos ordered the Blood Ravens to try and intervene wherever they could and for many years the Chapter bled, isolated from the greater Imperium.[9]

Contact between the Imperium was reestablished when 7th Captain Atanaxis met with a Adeptus Custodes Cruiser. However he stated that Angels would initially not be informed of this or the new Primaris Space Marine technology transferred to the Chapter.[9a]

Relations with the Eldar

Gabriel Angelos is depicted as having a mysterious bond with the Eldar of Biel-Tan, particularly with Farseer Macha. Despite the condemnation of his fellow commanders, the Inquisition, Adepta Sororitas, and even from his own friend Isador Akios, Gabriel is shown as stubborn in his attempts to assist the Eldar and Macha. The Harlequins of Arcadia refer to him as "Gabriel of the Hidden Heart," and see him as a symbol of hope for the Eldar in the form of a human.[Needs Citation]

Images

See also

Sources

Uncited