The Ravenspire is the fortress-monastery of the Raven Guard, carved into Deliverance, the moon they won their freedom on. It’s been their home since the Great Crusade, and it still is, though it’s a far quieter place than it once was.
From Black Tower to Raven’s Spire
Before Corax freed Deliverance, the structure was called the Black Tower, a stronghold run by the guilds’ guards. It had a torture floor known as the Red Level, which Corax banned sometime before the Horus Heresy. Word was that not even a Legionary could survive what happened there.
After the prison moon was liberated and renamed Deliverance, the tower became the Raven’s Spire and the headquarters of the Raven Guard Legion. Its rocky shell was clad in battleship-grade armour, and its flanks carried enough firepower to break an enemy war fleet.
Rebuilding a broken legion
After the Massacre at Isstvan V, Corax used the Ravenspire to rebuild his shattered Legion using the Emperor’s gene-tech. That effort ended in disaster at the Battle of Ravendelve, when Alpha Legion operatives and Kiavahr’s Tech-Guilds struck, and the gene-tech was lost.
What the fortress is like now
The Ravenspire is still the Raven Guard’s home, and its defences are as strong as ever, but it’s lost a lot of its old splendour. These days it rarely holds more than a few hundred occupants. Whole sections sit dusty or sealed off, patrolled only by robed servitors.
The Raven Guard don’t care much for pomp, so the fortress stays fully functional. It’s a working base, not a monument.
Notable locations
The Eyrie is the tallest tower, once Corax’s own roost. Its stasis fields only come down in grave emergencies, when the Chapter hopes to reach the Primarch’s spirit. Nobody who goes in talks about what they find, or about the parchments scattered across the main chamber.
The spires also hold a rookery, stocked with vat-grown organic, cybernetic, and fully mechanical flying specimens.
Beneath it all is the Forbidden Apothecarion, a vault known to only a few venerable battle-brothers and openable only on the Chapter Master’s order. This is where Corax’s attempts to regrow his Legion turned into horror, producing mutated, mindless abominations. Once he saw what he’d done, he abandoned the Apothecarion, forbade further experiments, and went in alone to execute every twisted failure himself. The vault was cleansed afterwards, but it’s said the echoes of what happened there linger.
Key facts
- The Ravenspire is the Raven Guard fortress-monastery on Deliverance.
- It was originally the Black Tower, run by the guilds’ guards before Corax’s liberation.
- Corax rebuilt his Legion here after Isstvan V, until the gene-tech was lost at the Battle of Ravendelve.
- It’s still the Chapter’s home but now rarely hosts more than a few hundred occupants.
- The Eyrie was Corax’s roost and is opened only in grave emergencies.
- The Forbidden Apothecarion beneath the fortress is where Corax’s mutated experiments were destroyed.
FAQ
Where is the Ravenspire?
It’s on Deliverance, the moon of Kiavahr. Deliverance was called Lycaeus until Corax led its liberation and renamed it.
What was the Ravenspire called before?
The Black Tower. It was held by the guilds’ guards and had a torture floor called the Red Level before Corax took over.
What’s inside the Ravenspire?
The Eyrie, Corax’s old tower; a rookery of flying specimens; and the Forbidden Apothecarion, the sealed vault beneath the fortress.