Corvus

Cameos

Corvus appears in the following content:

• Cinematics and Trailers
  • Emergence - Cinematic
  • Rise of Furia - Cinematic*
  • Atlas' Teaser Trailer*
  • Io's Teaser Trailer*
  • Lillith's Teaser Trailer
  • Raum's Teaser Trailer*
  • VII's Teaser Trailer

• Cards
  • Desperation - Raum Card*
  • The Great Worm - Yagorath Card
  • Nasty Surprise - VII Card
  • Protectors - Io Card*

• Avatars
  • Hallowed Corvus
  • Unstable Power

• Sprays
  • Paladins' 3rd Birthday

• Other
  • End Times Story*
  • Raum Splash Art*
  • Ska'drin / Scorned Ash Splash Art*
  • Heal the World - Merchandise Design

Notable Characters that appear in Corvus' own content includes:

• Cinematics and Trailers
  • Strix, Tyra, Viktor, and Vivian - Corvus' Teaser Trailer*

• Cards
  • Cassie - Magistrate's Might and Priority Targets*
  • Grover - Priority Targets*
  • Karne - Crushing Expectations*
  • Koga - Priority Targets*
  • Raum - New Resolve and Unexpected*
  • Sha Lin - Magistrate's Might
  • Terminus and Vivian - Grand Design and Magistrate's Might
  • Tyra - Priority Targets*
  • Seris - Unexpected*
  • Valera - Priority Targets*

• Other
  • Seris - Corvus Weapon Inspect*

References

• One of Corvus' jokes "I have the power of the Abyss and Magistrate on my side! Aaaaaaaaaah!" (▶️) is a reference to a famous vine where an adolescent menacingly tells a person off-camera that they have "the power of god and anime on his side". The video ends with him screaming.
• Another of Corvus' jokes "Summon an Abyssal Lord they said, it would be fun, they said." (▶️) is a reference to the "It Will Be Fun, They Said" meme.
• The line "Innocence? Your innocence proves nothing." (▶️) may be a reference to a Thought for the Day from Warhammer 40k.
• An additional joke of Corvus "Look, it's a nice coat, yes, but what I wear doesn't define me!" (▶️) is a reference to how prior to Corvus' name being decided on, the developers had nicknamed him "coat guy".^[30]
• Corvus wielding a knife in-game is a reference to his initial appearance in the Rise of Furia lore cinematic, which featured him with a knife, and led to his most popular fan name prior to his official reveal, with said name being "Knaifu the Waifu Stealer" or "Knaifu" for short; with the "Waifu Stealer" portion originating from his "stealing" of Abby in the same cinematic.^[31]
• The line "Power overwhelming!" (▶️) may be a reference to a line from StarCraft II.
• The line "I do what I must, because I can." (▶️) is a reference to a line from the end credits song Still Alive in Portal.

Promotion

• In an effort to promote Corvus prior to his release, special packages were sent out to various Paladins influencers between March 23rd, 2019, and March 26th, 2019. Each influencer was sent a small box, containing a large number of purple crystals, including some in a jar, alongside a unique letter. Each letter can be read here. The influencers included in this promotion were Jay Flare, Supabounce, Vex30k, and Incinsion.
• Corvus' standard teasers can be seen here:
  • (Teaser 1) "I devoted my life to the Magistrate. In return? They cast me out for doing what had to be done."
  • (Teaser 2) "From the beginning, the so-called Paladins have been nothing but a nuisance. They strive for conflict and call it peace. If true peace is to be achieved, all of them must be silenced."
  • (Teaser 3) "In the shadows of my exile, I cannot help but wonder how many of my compatriots remain trustworthy. After so many battles together, could they truly see me as their enemy?"
  • (Teaser 4) "I will lead the few brave enough to see the truth. With the powers under my control, I will bring this conflict to an end."
  • (Teaser 5) "If the citizens of the Realm refuse to unite for its protection, I will be there to correct their course. No more proxies. No more lies. Peace must come. No matter the cost."

Concepts

• One of the initial proposals for Corvus suggested him as a Damage champion wielding a railgun.^[32]
• Several early concepts of Corvus can be viewed here.^[33]
  • Weapon concepts, meanwhile, can be seen here.^[34]
• Pre-final concepts for Corvus show a few differences in his abilities. Originally, he seemingly possessed a "Shadow Walk" ability, while Entropic Breach was instead envisioned as a supportive ability that would heal / buff allies, with teammates affected temporarily gaining a pair of Abyssal "horns" while under the ability's affect.^[35][34]
• Corvus' abilities originally played off his knife far more heavily.^[36]
• Corvus' name was based on the Latin word for crow. Despite Corvus being introduced around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Corvus name had been decided on six months previously.^[37]
• Various concept art for the card Ominous Relic shows some differences from the final product, as well as different lore. The first two images show Corvus holding the knife he used in the Rise of Furia lore cinematic, only with an Abyssal crystal built into the hilt. The last image though, replaces the bag of crystals on the ground with some candles, as well as the seal for summoning Raum being present on the ground. The seal can also be seen in some of Raum's cards, such as Desperation and Triumphant Ascension.^[38]
  • The first two images were originally meant to show that Corvus obtained his knife from raiding this merchant with his men, but it was ultimately changed as several people thought that Corvus was instead about to sacrifice or murder the hooded figure. As one can obviously tell by looking at the artwork, this also shows that Corvus was originally meant to wield the knife he used in Rise of Furia, rather than the one he currently wields in-game.^[39][40] It's not known why the final concept with the seal was changed though, but one potential explanation could be that having crystals indicates that Corvus and his men were raiding this merchant due to smuggling or hiding crystals.
• Concepts of Corvus' cards show an unused piece of artwork featuring a shirtless Corvus in what appears to be the destroyed village of Seris struggling to grasp his Abyssal knife.^[41] This was seemingly a concept for the card Abyssal Effluxion, but it was ultimately scrapped, apparently due to the artwork showing the knife protecting Corvus from the Destruction of Seris. It was claimed this conflicts with Corvus' teaser trailer due to it showing him teleporting away from the village instead, however, Corvus' teaser trailer only shows him appearing behind a destroyed door and seemingly not teleporting away, with this scene further not seeming to be Corvus in Seris due to his hair already being white, while it was fully brown during Seris. Additionally, the final art for Abyssal Effluxion appears to show Corvus inside the village after its destruction anyway, despite supposedly teleporting out.^[42]
• There are a number of skin concepts for Corvus that ultimately went unused; these include the Abyssal Prince, Magistrate Royal Guard, Shadow Stalker, Thousand Hands, Dragon Slayer, Plague Doctor, Pyre Redeemer, Lych, Pyre "Echo Champ" Caleb, and Vampire skins.^[43]
  • The Pyre Redeemer skin ultimately became Pyre-Lord Magnus and was seemingly also fused with the Pyre "Echo Champ" Caleb skin to a degree.
  • The Vampire skin meanwhile would ultimately become the Count and Midnight Royal skins.

Other

• Corvus was not initially meant to be a recurring character, but instead a generic Magistrate officer.^[44][45]
• Part of the reason Corvus' design changed from his initial appearance had to do with making him more suited to do actions a playable character could do, with an example being how running would be difficult for him in his original appearance.^[46]
• Prior to his official name being revealed, Corvus had several names among the community, the most notable of which being "Knaifu the Waifu Stealer" or "Knaifu" for short.^[47] The developers, meanwhile, referred to him as "Coat Guy".^[48] Both of these names are referenced with Corvus' in-game incarnation, which can be seen in the "References" tab.
• Corvus, Dutchman Makoa, Mernos Jenos, Battlesuit Godslayer Androxus, and Berserker Torvald are all voiced by the same person, Ricco Fajardo.
• Corvus and Jenos's skin Mernos have somewhat related "Curses!" VGS Command, owing to the fact that they are both voiced by Ricco Fajardo.
  • "Abyss take it!" (▶️ Corvus) - "Currents take it!" (▶️ Mernos Jenos)
• The hooded individual present in the card Ominous Relic notably has a symbol on their hood that resembles a mirrored version of the symbol on Seris' hood.
• While inspecting Corvus' knife, Seris can be heard saying "It's been awhile... friend."
  • Two of Seris voice lines were used for this. (▶️ ▶️)
• As Karne's son, Corvus is the fifth champion confirmed to be related to another notable canon character (The others being Seris & Furia and Lex & Atlas).
  • Corvus is the only one not to be related to another playable character.
• Corvus' default skin features his iconic large collar; however, an alternate version showing Corvus without his collar was also created.^[49]
• While somewhat similar-looking, Corvus is not present in Octavia's trailer, with the soldiers present being generic Magistrate soldiers. Though Corvus did serve as the template for them.<ref>ThunderBrush on Twitter<ref>