The Path of Chaos - The Corvus Bloodreaper Story

Many years ago I started collecting Citadel Miniatures and, like many, was enthralled by the Realm of Chaos articles in White Dwarf.  There are many blogs that have covered the (long) history of its development into what would become Slaves to Darkness, the Lost and the Damned and an unreleased third book (I will add links below).

For this post I thought I’d look at an individual model that was released in the 80’s that, for me, was one of my favourite miniatures. Obviously the ‘sign of the horns’ gesture helped with its popularity. Probably more than any other, Corvus Bloodreaper, sculpted by Jes Goodwin, appears to have been unable to be commit to any of the Chaos Gods for very long and probably epitomises the chaotic nature of the path that is outlined in Slaves to Darkness.

Corvus Bloodreaper was a wizard (see below) that was corrupted by the chaos god Slaanesh. The first we come across Corvus is in August 1988 when he appears as a Champion of Slaanesh in the Citadel Miniatures catalogue from that year.

Citadel Miniatures Catalogue 

(August 1988)

The miniatures were designed by Jes Goodwin and Bob Naismith. Corvus appears in the bottom set of three in the middle. So Corvus starts out as a Champion of Slaanesh, arch rival to Khorne, however Slaanesh wasn’t the Chaos God for Corvus and in the same month his time with Slaanesh came to an end and he became a Champion of Chaos not following a particular god.

White Dwarf 104

(August 1988)

The following month Corvus had decided the Blood God, his scythe seems appropriate for his new found allegiance.

White Dwarf 105

(September 1988)

He would also make a guest appearance in the Games Workshop Staff section of Fantasy Miniatures publication (covering the Golden Demon Awards earlier that year). It is here we find that the miniature appearing on the Citadel Combat Cards was painted by Darren Matthews.

Fantasy Miniatures

(1988)

He would continue to follow Khorne appearing in Slaves to Darkness.

Slaves to Darkness

Corvus’s path would take another u-turn at the end of 1988, still sporting the colours of Khorne, he has become a Wizard of Chaos (not sure Khorne would be happy with this given his hatred of Magic) in the Citadel Combat Cards.

Citadel Combat Cards Chaos Set

(yes that’s my terrible 80’s paint job)

As a follower of Khorne the ability to use magic wouldn’t have been a gift so he either started with it (and lost a magic level when declaring allegiance to Khorne) or it was due to a chaos attribute. My gut feeling is he started as a relatively high level wizard.

Slaves to Darkness - Chaos Attribute

He was shown, in internal artwork, in White Dwarf 115 as part of the Combat Card additional rules Charge! (Thanks to Dante)

Corvus Bloodreaper

Pete Knifton

White Dwarf 115

With the great disfavour of Khorne, Corvus stays on the magical path for quite some time appearing next in 1989 in Advanced Heroquest as a Chaos Sorcerer.

However the seductive nature of Slaanesh was to entice Corvus back and in the winter of 1990 he was back as a Champion of Slaanesh. Evidently the magic was acceptable to Slaanesh and there would be no going back to Khorne.

Winter Trade Catalogue

(1990)

As Corvus is fickle he decided that yet again Slaanesh was not for him and decided to become a Champion of Nurgle in 1990 with the release of The Lost and the Damned. Carrying a scythe, a symbol of death, evidently impressed Nurgle.

Yet again Corvus’s fate was to shift. This time being demoted to a Chaos Warrior in the 1991 Red Catalogue.

The final appearance (that I have found to date) is in 1992 where Corvus is still part of the mass ranks of Chaos Warriors and hasn’t regained his former power.

White Dwarf 150

(June 1992)

He was last seen, again following Nurgle and leading a unit of beastmen for Lord Skrolk in May 1997. Based on reports, Festamus the Septile as he was known then, fell in battle against an army of Lizardmen.

White Dwarf 209

(May 1997)

Perhaps he should have followed Tzeentch, particularly given his magical ability, he may have become a daemon prince. I suppose at least he hasn’t become a chaos spawn the fate of many a chaos follower.

So that’s the story of Corvus Bloodreaper chaos warrior, champion, sorcerer and wizard follower of Slaanesh, Khorne, and Nurgle.

If I have missed a publication where he appeared feel free to drop me a message. Thanks to Stephen Lewis  for pointing out that he appeared in WD209.

So what’s the story behind his two brothers….well possibly more to follow.

For more information on the Realm of Chaos check out the following blogs:

https://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/

Unreleased RoC third book:

https://awesomeliesblog.wordpress.com/2021/04/22/lost-warhammer-realm-of-chaos-iii/

All Rights Reserved to their respective owners. All images of Combat Cards and of pages from Games Workshop publications are used without permission and are intended for the sole purpose of providing information. No challenge whatsoever is intended to the status of any intellectual property rights of Games Workshop Limited, including, but not limited to trademarks and copyrights of Games Workshop Limited. This site has no legal connection or relationship to Games Workshop Limited.

Citadel Combat Cards History & 1st Edition Rules

Citadel Combat Cards

For those that don’t know the first version of the Citadel Combat Cards were packs of cards, similar to Top Trumps, produced by Games Workshop in 1988. They were the brainchild of Jervis Johnson (Games Workshop game designer known for Blood Bowl, Advanced Heroquest and many many others) and were conceived following his visits to newsagents in Nottingham and seeing the popularity of collectible cards.

Each set consisted of a title card and 35 playing cards, each showing a Citadel Miniature along with a name, type and statistics. There were 6 sets Chaos, Dwarfs, Goblinoids, Monsters, Spacewar and Warriors.

White Dwarf 106 (October 1988)         

White Dwarf 108 (December 1988)

Evidently the release was delayed. So it is likely they were available at the very back end of 1988, early 1989.

Something also worth noting is the background colours of four of the released sets were changed from that shown in the adverts.

Chaos

Changed from black to red.

Dwarfs

Changed from light blue to dark blue.

Goblinoids

Monsters

Spacewar

Changed from grey to light blue.

Warriors

Changed from red to purple.

In addition to the basic rules there were bonus games included in the packs for the first releases. These were dropped on later revisions which only came with the basic rules.

Basic Rules

Imposter!

(Citadel Combat Cards - Chaos Deck Bonus Game)

Battle Lines

(Citadel Combat Cards - Dwarfs Deck Bonus Game)

Duel to the Death

(Citadel Combat Cards - Goblinoids Deck Bonus Game)

All or Nothing

(Citadel Combat Cards - Monsters Deck Bonus Game)

Deadly Doubles

(Citadel Combat Cards - Spacewar Deck Bonus Game)

Snivlin’ Snotling

(Citadel Combat Cards - Warriors Deck Bonus Game)

Games Workshop didn’t just leave it at the bonus games on the back of the cards they also published two additional sets of rules by Jervis Johnson in White Dwarf.

White Dwarf 114 (June 1989) - Attack!

White Dwarf 115 (July 1989) - Charge!

Following the initial flurry following the release of the 1st edition, apart from the odd advertisement and appearance in the catalogues there was nothing until the 2nd Edition being released in the early 90’s followed by two further editions. Further information on the history of the later releases can be found in Jordan Sorcery’s video.

If you are interested in collecting the miniatures that appear in the cards why not join the Facebook Group. I will post more details of the miniatures later.

All Rights Reserved to their respective owners. All images of Combat Cards and of pages from Games Workshop publications are used without permission and are intended for the sole purpose of providing information. No challenge whatsoever is intended to the status of any intellectual property rights of Games Workshop Limited, including, but not limited to trademarks and copyrights of Games Workshop Limited. This site has no legal connection or relationship to Games Workshop Limited.