Shrike was born on the Imperial Forge World of Kiavahr, and as a boy, demonstrated a preternatural ability for stealth and espionage. As a youth, he worked as a runner for the Tarkal Guild, a gang that operated within the hive city Shrike lived in. But it was an incident in his late teenage years that set him on the path to destiny -- he had been pursued by a rival gang for days on end. He'd managed to evade them for a week, feeding on rancid fungi and brackish water as he fled his pursuers. But the gang members weren't the only ones following Shrike; high above, in the gargoyle-studded spires of the city, the Chaplains of the Raven Guard, who often traveled stealthily through the cities of Kiavahr, looking for Neophytes for the Chapter, were observing the progress of the hunt with growing