History Fridge / DawnOfWar

** In fairness, The Kaurava Chaos Forces are Chaos Undivided (Alpha Legion), not Khornites. Carrion may lean Khorne, but they're still making use of whatever they can from all 4 chaos gods.

* ''Retribution'': In the mission on Calderis, no matter your faction, you have to kill the corrupt Blood Ravens attacking the village. All factions have a good motive to do so: getting information on The Ascendant at least, and alternatively, protecting Imperial territory (Space Marines and Imperial Guard), protecting the nearby Webway assembly (Eldar), preserving the village so your forces can loot it (Orks) or gathering biomass (Tyranids). As Neroth points out, they can always destroy the village after they pick up their enemy's trail. But this gets an additional advantage while playing Chaos, because ''the attackers are Space Marines in loyalist armor''. What better way to gain cultists than save the villagers from the False Emperor's betrayal?
* The subtitle of ''Retribution'' can be confusing, but it does have precedent in the source material. A quote from the Imperial Creed is [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves "The reward for treachery is retribution."]] This quote is one of the first game's Imperial Thoughts for the Day and is directly quoted in ''Chaos Rising'' by Avitus. In this context it's likely referring to retribution for [[spoiler:Kyras, the pay-off for his monumental act of treachery]].

** Avitus, the [[TokenEvilTeammate violent, cruel]] BigGuy of your squad, seems overly cruel. But every time Avitus was acting in a particularly mean or spiteful fashion, the other squad sergeants angrily reprimanded him. His cruelty helped bring out the other Marines' inherent kindness and decency, which probably wouldn't show if it didn't resonate against his nastiness. With Retribution it is generally accepted that Avitus is [[spoiler: the canon Chaos Rising traitor. Relic was foreshadowing it the whole time.]]
** He also delivers a blistering rant about how much he hates being a Blood Raven after a late-game mission. No wonder he ends up as [[spoiler: one of the guys trying to destroy the universe.]]
** Avitus is a walking deconstruction. As much as he acts like a stock Space Marine, throwing himself into battle eagerly and quoting parts of the Imperial Creed there are hints in his speech near the end of the game that he's extremely maladjusted to his job, notably his grim assertion that "War is all we are. Killing is all we are good for." He can't stop being a Space Marine because it's such a one-way process, but he doesn't like being one, so he channels his all his resultant anger, grief and frustration into battle. Bearing in mind that [[spoiler:he's all but confirmed to be the traitor]], we know he's also haunted by the memory of all the people he's killed, and sees only death where others see life. [[spoiler:And not only was he motivated to become a traitor by {{despair|EventHorizon}} and [[BloodKnight bloodlust]], but he simply couldn't handle living in such a [[CrapsackWorld dump of a universe]] anymore.]] The things he says and his story has to say about the Imperium, being a Space Marine and even the setting itself are none too flattering.

* According to the Latin-based conventions of the human language in WH:40000, the name Avitus can be interpreted as A-vita = Non-life/anti-life. Basically, it means "Killer." Now, that's an appropriate name for the bastard.

** One of the aforesaid temple's abilities is to poison the enemy. Not only does it not spill blood (unless it dissolves something and causes bleeding that way), but Nurgle is the Chaos God most associated with such things-many illnesses are caused simply by bacteria crapping where they eat.

** Then there's the small matter of the shields he erected that poison any non-Chaos units which enter it. First of all, poison is yet ''another'' method of killing someone that doesn't involve spilling blood. Second of all, Khorne expects you to [[VillainousValour be proactive, meet your enemies head-on and stomp them into a slurry]]; hiding behind defences like a civilian and [[OrcusOnHisThrone waiting for them to come to you]], in the Blood God's view, is the ''coward's'' way of fighting. Whoever won the Kaurava conflict, it's pretty clear Khorne was rooting for ''them'' when they came to the Peninsula of Iseult. As DOW 3 confirms that it's [[spoiler:Gorgutz]], this makes much more sense.

** It's not just in DOW: One overheard line in ''Space Marine'' is a Guardsman asking for a field manual, because there are no Techpriests around despite being on a Forge World.

* For one mission of Chaos Rising, you have to explore a Space Hulk, and if you spend too long doing so your characters will start to fall under the influence of the Warp, and can be heard arguing with non-existent people or muttering to themselves. Although what they say seems to be random mutterings when you first play through the game, when you play through a second time you realize their comments actually foreshadow their reasons for possibly being the traitor! For example:
** Jonah can be heard screaming for somebody to "Get out!" [[spoiler: If Jonah is the traitor, it's because he's been possessed by a Daemon.]]
** Thaddeus can be heard sobbing "I've done what you asked, no more!" [[spoiler: If Thaddeus is the traitor, it's because he's being forced to uphold a bargain he made with Ulkair.]]
** Cyrus can be heard grumbling "He leads us in circles. Why does he lead?" [[spoiler: If Cyrus is the traitor, it's because he feels all the Blood Raven commanders (especially Boreale) are incompetent.]]
** Avitus can be heard yelling "Kill them all, Let there be Blood!" [[spoiler: If Avitus is the traitor, it's because he succumbs to his hatred/bloodlust.]]
** Tarkus can be heard mumbling how "None other will do, it must be mine, then we can fight back..." [[spoiler: If Tarkus is the traitor, it's because he wants to use Chaos-corrupted wargear to become powerful enough to destroy all the Chapter's enemies.]]

** In ''Retribution'' as well as the preceding ''Dawn of War 2'' games, the notion that [[spoiler:a psyker like Azariah Kyras]] would be an aspiring servant of Khorne would initially seem like an oversight if not an AssPull on the part of the writers. That is until one realizes that while Khorne has no love for psykers or sorcerers, neither does he actually ''care'' about whose blood is spilled (let alone how), only that it ''does.'' [[spoiler:Using the Exterminatus as a sacrifice to the Chaos God definitely helps his ascension to daemonhood too.]]
** Additionally, it's stated ''in official canon'' that Khorne's hang-up about Psykers/Sorcerer is when they ''only'' use their psychic powers for combat, and no martial prowess. A Psyker/Sorcerer that fights more like a MagicKnight, using their psychic powers to ''augment'' their martial abilities, is not as hated as a "pure mage" psyker.
** The fact that his ascension involves erecting towers that make him invulnerable is probably not winning him any points with Khorne. Perhaps that's why he's trapped in a pit with only half his body out, leaving him stuck with only his arms and short-ranged attacks to defend himself.
* The Ork aboard the space hulk is pretty angry to be there despite being under constant attack, something most other Orks would be thrilled about. However this Ork is also called the ''Mad'' Mek, and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality by Ork standards]] an Ork that doesn't want to fight all the time would be insane. Also, Tyranids have no vehicles or guns to loot, so the Mek has had nothing to use in his own projects (asides from ripping stuff off the hulk's walls) for about a decade, meaning his [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder compulsive mad science]] has had no real outlet for a long time.

* The presence of so many Chaos tainted artifacts in the Blood Ravens' armory makes a lot more sense in light of [[spoiler: Kyras falling to Chaos]]. In all likelihood the [[spoiler: corrupted Chapter Master]] encouraged the collection of such relics in order to corrupt additional members of the Chapter.
* The ending to the Space Marine Campaign in ''Retribution'' [[spoiler: has Diomedes and Angelos finishing the purge of heresy on the chapter, and Angelos ascending as the new chapter master in front of a crowd of Marines. Considering how high the Blood Raven casualties have been over the course of ''Dawn of War II'', that may very well be all that's left of the chapter.]] However, it's made slightly less horrific, as Several Space Marine Chapters have bounced back from massive losses; the most recent well-known example is the Celestial Lions, who were brought to less than 96 Astartes and are currently recouping their losses, with the aid of the Black Templars.
** Fortunately, the July 2019 edition of White Dwarf states that the chapter was indeed able to recover thanks to renewed recruiting efforts and Primaris reinforcements.