Vulcan Raven

"The raven on my head... It thirsts for his blood."

- Vulcan Raven, speaking of Solid Snake

Vulcan Raven was a member of FOXHOUND who participated in the unit's revolt on Shadow Moses Island in 2005. He was a shaman and was raised in the cold state of Alaska.

Early life and career
Vulcan Raven was born to Native Alaskan American and Inuit parents. He had a large tattoo-like raven birthmark across his forehead and petroglyph tattoos covered his body. His body was able to withstand freezing temperatures. Raven was raised as a shaman by his people, giving him shamanic intuition and spiritual abilities.

Raven graduated from the University of Alaska and spent a few more years living in his homeland. He took part in the Eskimo-Indian Olympics at Fairbanks every year, and won many Muk-tuk eating and Ear Pull contests; an event where two opponents pull each other's ear while enduring the harsh cold, intended to test both spiritual and physical strength. He was also alleged to have excelled in the Four Man Carry event, having been able to accomplish it with six men, as well as having won it as well as the Stick Pull for three years straight. As a hobby, Raven enjoyed trapping deer within Alaska's perilous Brooks Mountains. On one trip across the frozen Bering Strait to Siberia, Raven met then-GRU operative Revolver Ocelot.

After that, he joined the Soviet special forces unit Vympel. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he was demoted along with other Vympel operatives following Boris Yeltsin's coup in 1993. Raven decided to leave Russia and become a mercenary for hire, eventually joining Big Boss's mercenary dispatch company Outer Heaven. The destruction of Outer Heaven was FOXHOUND operative Solid Snake's first mission, but Raven and Snake did not meet on this occasion.

With Outer Heaven in ruins, Raven, on the recommendations of Revolver Ocelot, joined FOXHOUND himself, becoming the unit's heavy weapons/explosive ordnance specialist. During his FOXHOUND years, he excelled at using a portable modification of the M61A1 20mm multi-barreled autocannon (the origin of his codename), which is widely used on American military tactical aircraft, such as the F-16.

In early 2005, Raven and the other members of FOXHOUND, along with the Next-Generation Special Forces, initiated an armed takeover of Shadow Moses Island. Ex-FOXHOUND Solid Snake was dispatched to the deal with the renegade unit, and encountered Raven while making his way to the island's warhead storage facility. Commanding an M1 Abrams tank, Raven battled Snake. However, the tank was destroyed after Snake threw grenades into the open hatch, while the gunner and loader attempted to deal with him. Raven survived the explosion and reported to Liquid Snake, indicating that the battle had been intended as a test of Snake's capabilities. The battle's aftermath also allowed Snake to recover a card key, as part of a plan to trick him into carrying out FOXHOUND's objectives. Following Snake's later capture by Sniper Wolf, Raven called Liquid's cell phone to inform him of America's lack of response to their demands.

Raven later faced Snake a second time within an underground warehouse. Here, he managed to briefly curse Snake with his raven birthmark, citing that he now had the mark of death. Raven also commented on Snake's ancestors having originated in Mongolia, similar to himself, and that he possessed "blood from the east" (referring to Snake's Japanese heritage). He then fought Snake with his M61 Vulcan cannon, though was ultimately defeated. Upon losing, having been mortally wounded, he came to believe that his own existence was no longer needed among the living, and handed Snake a card key for the underground maintenance base. In his final moments, Raven offered Snake a "hint," telling him that the DARPA Chief, whom Snake had met and saw die earlier, was actually FOXHOUND member Decoy Octopus. He did not explain why or how he was killed, nor why he was disguised in the first place, but declared that Snake would always follow a life of bloodshed wherever he went. He also vaguely alluded to the fact that Snake was an artificially conceived clone, stating that he and Liquid were "from another world," one which he did not wish to know.

"The path you walk on has no end. Each step you take is paved with the corpses of your enemies... Their souls will haunt you forever... you shall have no peace... Hear me, Snake! My spirit will be watching you!"

- Vulcan Raven's final words to Solid Snake

As he made this declaration, he was eaten alive by his own ravens, becoming "one with them."

Unconfirmed history
Shortly before fighting Solid Snake in the canyon, Vulcan Raven surveyed the area from on top of a nearby glacier, and also wondered why the U.S. Government would build the Shadow Moses facility in a remote and harsh place. However, he decided that it was not his place to question the antics of the politicians and military of America, as he held his allegiance to the Russians in spite of America being his birthplace.

Behind the scenes
Vulcan Raven (バルカン・レイブン) appears in Metal Gear Solid, where he is fought by the player during a boss battle. He is voiced in Japanese by Yukitoshi Hori, who would later portray The Sorrow in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater; another character who also possesses supernatural powers.

If the player ends up hit by Vulcan Raven's tank shell during the battle, Raven will pop out of the hatch and proceed to laugh before going back in. Killing any of the ravens prior to Snake's second fight with Vulcan Raven, in Metal Gear Solid, will make him chastize Snake for "killing his friends." In the remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, his dog tag appears near his Vulcan Cannon after he is defeated. Also, in the cutscene where Snake first encounters Raven in the M1 Abrams Tank, in the original MGS he said "Let's fight!" got back into the tank, and the boss battle began. However in The Twin Snakes, he says the line and forgets to close the tank hatch. A few seconds go by, then he humoroursly closes the tank hatch.

A McFarlane action figure of Raven appears in the Tanker chapter of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It is positioned in front of a flashlight, giving not only the player, but also Snake and Otacon, the impression that Raven himself is standing around the corner, M61 in hand. Shooting it will cause it to "speak" and fire small BB pellets. These pellets are shot out of the toy M61 Vulcan autocannon at a very low velocity, so they don't pose much of a threat. The action figure also appears in one of the flooded rooms in the Big Shell, where it floats amongst other pieces of debris.

In Act 3 of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Raven's quote "Blood from the east flows within your veins" from Metal Gear Solid can be heard when Big Mama told how Snake was created. In Act 4, he will appear as a "ghost" in the canyon of Shadow Moses.