The Tenshi-tachi Ronin is a Dark Angels successor chapter from the Second Founding. Originally known as the Ravening, an outrider company of the First Legion composed of Terran-born Dark Angels, the Tenshi-tachi Ronin trace their lineage back to the Unification Wars of Terra and the Samurai warrior lodges of Imperial Asia. As such, the company was largely removed from Lord Luther's influence on Caliban and the traditions of the Calibanite knightly orders. During the Great Crusade the Ravening was isolated from the larger conquests of the Legion, scouting ahead of the main Dark Angels force to make first contact with lost human worlds and xenos forces. These engagements led the Ravening to excel at stealth, hit and run tactics, and reconnaissance, in part assisted by the presence of the Librarius among their ranks. During the Horus Heresy, their Primarch Lion El'Johnson tasked the company with ascertaining the movements of Horus's fleets, and the bulk of their efforts were spent against the spies of the Alpha Legion and the scouts of the former Luna Wolves.
The Dark Angels arrived too late to the Siege of Terra, breaking system only after the Emperor had been mortally wounded by Horus. This left the Dark Angels at full strength, but dishonored by the loss of the Imperium's lord. The morale of the Terran companies, like the Ravening, was worst hit. Fearing that the Traitor Legions had weakened the Emperor's defenses against the Immaterium, and advised by one of the Watchers in the Dark, Lion El'Johnson ordered the Ravening to scout along the border of the Eye of Terror to number the forces of Chaos. Meanwhile, the remainder of the Dark Angels returned to Caliban to regroup and plan the Imperium's defense.
Though their reconnaissance mission was a success, the Ravening returned to find Caliban shattered by Lord Luther's treachery. Lion El'Johnson was lost or dead, and the First Legion was burdened with a terrible purpose: to hunt down the Fallen Angels that turned upon their brothers. In the coming Second Founding, the Ravening requested independence as a separate chapter, styling themselves as the Tenshi-tachi Ronin, the Masterless Angels. Their request was granted, and the new chapter relocated to the rogue planet Kimon, the Demon Gate, near the Eye of Terror, where they took up the task of hunting down the Fallen. They preserved the iconography of the Dark Angels, but they marked their right pauldrons with the kanji for 'ravenous' as a sign of their hunger for revenge. 
Inquisitorial files on the chapter are twofold. Officially, the Imperium has honored the chapter for zealously hunting down heretics, including commendations for their vanguard tactics during the Raid on Nova Terra (257.M35), the Red Heresy (290-310.M36), the Abyssal Crusade (321.M37), and the Hundred Planet Rebellion (518.M39). However, the Ravening was censured by Saint Basillius the Elder in 321.M37 for disregard for the Emperor's subjects, collusion with unnamed xenos organizations, and Sed Infidelitas. The Ravening was one of the thirty Space Marine chapters that embarked on the penitential Abyssal Crusade, and they returned to Imperial space in 112.M38 as forward reconnaissance for the Vorpal Swords. Bypassing the Inquisitorial checks that waylaid the returning Abyssal Crusaders, the Ravening gathered evidence proving that Saint Basillius was actually a Herald of the Dark Gods, evidence that Vorpal Swords Chapter Master Konvak Lann then used to overthrow Basillius and prosecute his execution in the Inquisitorial courts. Basillius's charges against the Ravening were dropped, but the chapter was never officially cleared by the Inquisition.
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