Nathaniel Garro

Nathaniel Garro is a Loyalist Death Guard captain who was an exemplar of the Emperor's vision of the champions of humanity. He survived the betrayal at Isstvan III, escaping to Terra and becoming a Knight-Errant of the Imperium, the predecessors to what would become the Grey Knights.
Nathaniel Garro was featured in a few works of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, including Flight of the Eisenstein, Garro: Oath of Moment, Garro: Legion of One, Garro: Sword of Truth, Garro: Shield of Lies, Garro: Ashes of Fealty, Vengeful Spirit, Garro (Novel), The Buried Dagger, and The Horus Heresy Book Six: Retribution.
== History ==
=== Unification Wars ===
In the grim darkness of the far future, humanity's once-great stellar empire was shattered by the Age of Strife, leaving the species divided and slowly dying among the stars. Terra was ruled by tech-barbarian hordes that scoured the remains of the planet, and Nathaniel Garro was born into this bleak time, in the Terran region of Albia, once known as the British Isles. However, the Emperor of Mankind, an immortal psyker of great power, sought to reunify humanity and return it to its golden age. As such, he led the Unification Wars to once again create a fully united Terra, and by the time Garro lived, the Emperor utilized Legions of the Adeptus Astartes, colloquially known as Space Marines. Garro, seeking to join the Emperor's cause, enlisted in the XIVth Legion, then known as the Dusk Raiders, and was genetically and cybernetically modified into an Astartes. He joined the 7th Great Company of the Legion, where he became its captain, and during the course of the Unification Wars, Garro earned an honorific bestowed by the Emperor Himself. Garro would carry this award for many centuries afterwards.
=== Great Crusade ===
After the Unification Wars created a united Terra under the Emperor, the Emperor set out on the Great Crusade, a campaign to reintegrate all the lost and scattered human colonies across the galaxy under one banner. He had created 20 Primarchs, His transhuman sons, to be the leaders of his Space Marine Legions in the crusade, but the powers of Chaos stole the Primarchs, shooting them out to different worlds. Regardless, the Space Marine Legions set out in the Great Crusade, and for a time, Garro and the Dusk Raiders knew no Primarch but the Emperor. One by one, many Primarchs were found scattered through space, each now the master of their world, and on the planet Barbarus, the Emperor found the Primarch Mortarion, who had led a successful rebellion of the planet's human populance against their tyrannical xeno overlords. Mortarion was given command of the Dusk Raiders, who he renamed the Death Guard, and the ranks of the Death Guard were bolstered with men from Barbarus.
As the Great Crusade continued, Garro noticed the number of Terrans in the Death Guard dwindling, more and more of their number coming from Barbarus, bringing their own traditions into the Legion and slowly wiping away the noble character of the Dusk Raiders. Garro sometimes found himself pondering what would happen if he was the last Terran in the Legion, and thus resolved to hold on to his Terran ideals as best he could, causing the Barbarus-born Death Guard to dislike him, seeing Garro as high-handed and staunch.
Like the 2nd Great Company captain, the Barbarus-born Ignatius Grulgor, Garro held an especially esteemed rank. While he was technically of equal rank as the other six Great Company captains, Garro, along with Grulgor, could carry the rank of commander if he so wished. Regardless, Grulgor strongly despised the reserved Garro, referring to him as "Straight-Arrow Garro" and hating how Garro held on to "outdated" Terran practices, seeing Garro as unfit for his rank. Garro ultimately didn't help the growing rift between Terran and Barbarus-born Death Guard by refusing to join any warrior lodges, growing fraternities in the various Legions, even when invited, for he believed that the lodges went against the tenets of the Imperium.
In truth, Garro believed that as Astartes, they had been set on a path by the Master of Mankind, tasked to regather the lost fragments of humanity into the protection of the Imperium, to illuminate the lost, and to castigate the fallen and the invader. This was achieved with the adoption of the secular Imperial Truth, which had to be done entirely in the open, and as such, Garro shunned the warrior lodges, seeing as how they were built on a principle of secrecy that was the antithesis of the Imperial Truth. Garro did not care for selfish pursuits of glory or any further honor in battle, or even going out of his way to impress, simply believing in doing his part for the Emperor.
Garro became a seasoned veteran through his service in many campaigns of Imperial Compliance, bringing more human worlds into the folds of the growing Imperium. While swathes of planets willingly flocked to the Imperium, many others had to be brought in through force, whether due to a noncompliant populace or due to the humans being enslaved or invaded by xenos. During these campaigns, Garro fought alongside Astartes of other Legions, forming friendships and bonds with a select few of them, such as Garviel Loken of the Luna Wolves, who Garro met in the Krypt Campaign against a vile onslaught of Orks. Additionally, as was tradition for captains, Garro took on an equerry named Kaleb Arin, commonly tasked as his advisor and in charge of maintaining Garro's power armor and sword. Arin was once a Death Guard aspirant who failed his trials, and thus was not converted to an Astartes, but while other Death Guard captains like Grulgor despised Arin and other normal humans, Garro valued Arin's service and discretion.
==== Preaixor Campaign ====
Garro eventually served in the bloody, costly Preaixor Campaign, where he befriended Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children Legion. Tarvitz and Garro became such close friends that Garro considered Tarvitz his honor-brother, a distinction that extremely few outside the Death Guard were given, the two creating a pact of honor and even carved a small eagle into each others' vambraces, a sign of trust and mutual debt, for when they clasped each other's wrists, their carvings would form the sign of the Imperial Aquila. Additionally, Tarvitz' genuine amity proved to Garro that the flamboyant and self-aggrandizing Emperor's Children were not all showmen, for some, like Tarvitz, could be true men of honor and integrity who embodied the highest ideals of the Imperium.
==== Jorgall Persecution ====
Near the end of the Great Crusade, Garro served in a campaign against a race of psychically-powerful xenos, fighting alongside a detachment of the Sisters of Silence, which got Garro recognized by Malcador the Sigillite, an immortal psyker serving as a close advisor of the Emperor. Such high accolades got Garro honored by Mortarion himself after the campaign. Mortarion shared a drink with Garro, said drinks being comprised of various toxic substances, for Garro and the rest of the Death Guard had incredible immunities to the poisons, something the Legion prided itself on. Garro disliked the tradition, but accepted it regardless, drinking the toxins and living. Afterwards, Mortarion talked with Garro in private, trying to judge where Garro's true loyalties lay, for unbeknownst to Garro, Mortarion was about to join a great uprising against the Emperor.
=== Horus Heresy ===
Mortarion, along with Primarchs Fulgrim, Magnus the Red, Alpharius Omegon, Perturabo, Konrad Curze, Angron, Lorgar, and even Warmaster Horus Lupercal, the most favored son of the Emperor, were falling to the sway of Chaos. Rallying under Horus, they prepared to launch a campaign against Terra itself, but first, the Loyalists in their respective Legions had to be purged. Garro, who remained loyal to the Emperor, was slated for death in a campaign in the Isstvan system. While the campaign was officially meant to put down an uprising of Slaanesh-worshippers in the various worlds of the system, the traitorous Primarchs opted to take the opportunity to remove the Loyalists from their Legions by using the campaign as cover, for no one knew what was about to happen. The campaign began with an assault on planet Isstvan Extremis, the system's outermost world, which Garro was tasked with handling. During the attack, Garro was gravely wounded by a Slaaneshi psyker, forcing Garro out of action with severe injuries, even costing him his lower right leg. Garro was healed by Emperor's Children Apothecary Fabius Bile, but his lower right leg had to be replaced with a cybernetic. While the new bionic leg was incredibly sophisticated, it took some time for Garro to adjust, forcing him to remain out of action as the leg's systems adjusted to his movement, much to Garro's anger.
==== Isstvan III ====
With Garro still recovering, he was kept out of action during the next part of the campaign, the attack on planet Isstvan III. This would be where the Loyalists of four traitor Legions were to be purged- Mortarion's Death Guard, Fulgrim's Emperor's Children, Angron's World Eaters, and Horus' Luna Wolves, now known as the Sons of Horus, were to send their Loyalists onto the surface under the pretense of putting down the rebellion, roughly one-third of each Legion, where they would be bombarded. However, Garro and his company would remain aboard the Death Guard frigate Eisenstein in orbit over Isstvan III, supposedly kept in reserves under the watch of Grulgor and the 2nd Great Company. Garro, still unaware of the treachery, dutifully stayed at his post aboard the ship, but noticed Grulgor moving the frigate into low orbit, prompting Garro to send Arin down to investigate. At the same time, as the Loyalists landed on Isstvan III, Garro suddenly saw a notification from the nearby Emperor's Children battleship, and noticed a small Thunderhawk gunship zooming towards the surface. Garro first dismissed it as the insufferable Emperor's Children commander Eidolon making a sudden battle charge for an overzealous pursuit of glory, only to receive a message from the battleship informing them that the Thunderhawk was not Eidolon's, it had gone rogue and was to be destroyed, Garro then seeing swarms of Raven interceptors chasing it. However, Garro then received a message from the Thunderhawk pilot himself- none other than his honor-brother Saul Tarvtiz.
Tarvitz hurriedly explained what was going on, revealing that he already discovered Horus' plan, and how the Loyalists were to be killed with virus bombs. Tarvitz pleaded with Garro to let him reach the surface, where he hoped to save as many Astartes as he could from their doom. Garro was struck with disbelief, wondering if this was a test of some sort, but knew that Tarvitz would never lie to him- their bond was beyond that of brothers, it was forged in the fires of war. As such, Garro turned the frigate's guns on the pursuing Ravens, destroying them and letting Tarvitz reach the surface. Garro's subordinates were shocked, but Garro explained to them that the word of an honor-brother was an undeniable truth, and then informed the Emperor's Children that Tarvtiz was destroyed, using the explosion of the interceptors as a cover-up, as Tarvitz had already slipped out of detection. Garro then realized the larger ramifications, whole Legions and even their own Primarch had turned on the Emperor, and the planetside landing was a death trap. Garro's fears were confirmed with Arin returned alongside Death Guard Apothecary Meric Voyen, who confirmed that virus bombs were already aboard the Eisenstein, being loaded into the gun deck by Grulgor.
Out of options, Garro chose to act, taking Voyen, Arin, and Loyalist Death Guard Sendek to confront Grulgor in the gun decks. Grulgor, alongside other traitor Death Guard and traitor crewmen, admitted his betrayal, denounced the Emperor, and engaged Garro in a firefight. In the battle, as Garro was occupied fighting another traitor, Grulgor tried to shoot Garro, only for Grulgor's shot to be knocked astray by Arin, ricocheting off a wall and piercing a virus bomb. Grulgor then fatally stabbed Arin, but the deadly virus began pouring out of the bomb, forcing Garro, Voyen, and Sendek to take cover in a sealed compartment. Grulgor and his traitors were all killed by the virus, and as Arin died, he called out that Garro had a higher purpose that he must survive to achieve.
With the traitors dead, Garro rallied all remaining Loyalists aboard, some seventy Death Guard, and informed them of what was going on. While his battle-brothers were horrified at the revelations, Garro knew that fate itself had conspired to have him survive the initial betrayal, for if he wasn't injured on Isstvan Extremis, he would've been trapped on Isstvan III during the bombardment. As such, he resolved to make for Terra and warn the Imperium of Horus' betrayal, taking an Oath of Moment alongside his men on his own power sword. Forced to leave his honor-brother Tarvitz to his fate, one Tarvitz accepted willingly, Garro pondered immediately warning the other traitor Legion battleships, hoping to reach any Loyalist still within them, but knew that such an act would be suicide. Garro only hoped that once his mission had been fulfilled, he might see them again, either back on Terra at the end of their own escape or here once more with an Imperial reprisal fleet at his back. Isstvan III was then bombarded with virus bombs, marking the Isstvan III Atrocity.
==== Flight of the Eisenstein ====
Before trying to flee the Isstvan system, the Eisenstein was met with another Loyalist craft, a Thunderhawk of the Sons of Horus. The pilot, Loyalist Sons of Horus captain Iacton Qruze, was evacuating from the system with three civilians, Iterator Kyril Sindermann and Remembrancers Mersadie Oliton and Euphrati Keeler, who Garro allowed to enter the Eisenstein. Once aboard, Garro spoke to Keeler, who was regarded as a Living Saint by the former followers of traitor Primarch Lorgar, and despite Lorgar's transgressions and the atheistic nature of the Imperial Truth, Garro began to believe in the Emperor's divinity by talking to Keeler.
With his conviction in his mission strengthened, Garro used a ruse of a maintenance check to fall back from the lines of the traitor fleets, only for traitor Death Guard captain Calas Typhon to give chase, as Typhon had just realized that Grulgor never reported back. As such, Garro was forced to fly the Eisenstein as far away as possible while being shot at by Typhon's ship, causing heavy damage to the Eisenstein, cutting off its communications ability and mortally wounding its only Navigator, the only person who could safely get them through the Warp. Regardless, Garro made the jump to the Warp in order to get to Terra. However, within the Warp, the ship's Gellar Field began failing, allowing the energies of Chaos to start seeping into the craft, namely that of Chaos God Nurgle. Nurgle, who had chosen the Death Guard as its champions, resurrected Grulgor and the fallen traitors as monstrous Plague Marines, who marched on the bridge to kill Garro.
In the ensuing battle, the Navigator was killed, and one of the Loyalists, young Space Marine Solun Decius, was stabbed by Grulgor's Plague Knife, infecting him with Nurgle's Rot. However, before Grulgor could kill Garro, Garro had the ship transition back to realspace, cutting the Plague Marines off from their Warp connection and killing them all. Doing so also stranded the ship in empty space, and without any way of properly navigating through the Warp, Garro ordered the Warp-Drive to be jettisoned and detonated, hoping that the released Warp shockwave would serve as a beacon for any passing crafts to pick them up. Sure enough, the explosion got the attention of Loyalist Primarch Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists, who had been on his way to Terra on the Emperor's orders. Rogal Dorn rescued the Eisenstein survivors, but was outraged by the insinuation that his brothers had turned traitor when Garro tried to break the news. However, the overwhelming evidence, especially from Iacton Qruze, convinced Dorn that they were telling the truth. Dorn thus took Garro and the surviving Loyalists back to the Sol System, having them held on a fortress on Luna as the news was delivered.
==== Knights-Errant ====
On Luna, Solun Decius, still in pain from Nurgle's Rot, finally gave in and allowed Nurgle to take his body, using Decius as the host for the Lord of Flies, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle. As the Lord of Flies went on a killing rampage throughout the fortress, Garro rushed to battle him, forcing him out onto the barren, airless surface of the moon, where Garro managed to destroy the Daemon's form, banishing it back to the Warp. After defeating the Daemon, Garro was summoned by Malcador the Sigillite, who was seeking to form an Imperial institution of 'inquisitive' nature to protect humanity from the rising threat of Chaos. To begin this plan, Garro was chosen to be among the first of a special organization of Loyalist Astartes of many Legions, who would be known as the Knights-Errant. Garro accepted, and was sent out to collect 7 more Astartes to join him.
With his Death Guard regalia removed and replaced with the emblem of Malcador, Garro set out to complete his task. He first recruited Ultramarines Librarian Tylos Rubio, an extremely powerful psyker who was forced to suppress his psychic powers after the Emperor's formal decree had banned psychics within Space Marine Legions. Garro found Tylos in the Battle of Calth, where the Ultramarines battled the traitorous Word Bearers, where Tylos refused to leave his battle-brothers, even when Garro revealed that he was tasked with retrieving him. Garro honorably respected Tylos' devotion to his brothers and helped him fight the incoming Word Bearers, but in the battle, Tylos was forced to use his psychic abilities to stop an advance of Word Bearer Terminators, a direct violation of Tylos' sacred oath to the Emperor's decree. Tylos was thus shunned by his Legion, but Garro assured him that he did the right thing, having Tylos swear an Oath of Moment, which bound Tylos to the Knights-Errant.
Following Tylos' recruitment, Garro tracked down Loyalist World Eater Macer Varren, who had escaped his traitorous Legion after a failed attempt to kill him. Macer had taken control of a ragtag improvised warband of Loyalists from the Emperor's Children and White Scars, but the White Scars soon revealed themselves to be traitors. After the traitors were destroyed in battle, Varren reluctantly joined the Knights-Errant, as he longed to face his backstabbing brethren in war rather than run covert operations. After Varren, Garro recruited Severian of the Sons of Horus, Captain Serron of the Blood Angels, Nirun of the White Scars, and enigmatic Astartes Nemean Reaver of unknown Legion and allegiance, known as a Blackshield. Finally, Garro tracked down Garviel Loken of the Sons of Horus, who had been present on Isstvan III, the same world where Garro's honor-brother Tarvitz met his end, yet somehow survived for several years after the virus bombing. Loken, driven mad and amnesiac, had been hunting undead Daemonhosts on the ruined world when Garro and the other Knights-Errant arrived, and after slaying the Daemonhosts, Loken attacked Garro, thinking he was another traitor. Loken managed to escape the initial battle, and Garro believed that Loken's mind was irreparably broken, wanting to kill Loken out of mercy rather than leaving him to descend further into feral madness. However, Varren insisted that Loken was merely 'lost' and could be brought back, inspiring Garro to take a new approach. Soon, after a confrontation with Plague Zombies roaming the planet, Loken attacked the Knights-Errant again. In the struggle, Garro managed to reawaken Loken's memories by reminding him of the good man he once was, and how the Emperor needed him to help clear the galaxy's corruption. With Loken's memories restored, he joined the Knights-Errant to complete its membership.
Now at the helm of the Knights-Errant, Garro ran several missions for Malcador throughout the years of the Horus Heresy, also tracking down Euphrati Keeler, the very Remembrancer he had saved on the Eisenstein, who was still spreading faith in the Emperor as a Living Saint. His search led him to an Imperial scribe named Tallery who discovered that materials were being siphoned away to Titan, a moon of Saturn, for an unknown purpose. Fearing that the shipments could be a traitor ploy, Garro and Tallery investigated, fighting through security forces on Titan to find none other than Malcador waiting at the site of a fortress-monastery under construction. Malcador explained that the shipments were not a traitor scheme, but a secret project to combat Chaos even after the threat of Horus had ended. Tallery, horrified that Chaos would persist even if Horus was gone, was ordered to be put to death by Malcador to preserve the project's secrecy, but Garro refused to perform such a cruel act. Malcador relented and took Tallery in as his confidant and assistant, placing her in a bureaucratic role on Titan.
Following this, Garro was sent to slay a dragon-like Daemon that fed on blood, luring it out of hiding with reinforcements from the other Death Guard Loyalists who escaped on the Eisenstein with him, allowing him to destroy the creature. After neutralizing the threat, Garro resumed his search for Keeler, finding that many of Keeler's followers had been massacred at a remote site, soon tracking Keeler down, only to find that Keeler was being hunted by a Chaos-corrupted Vindicare Assassin named Eristede Kell, along with an Alpha Legionnaire named Haln. While Keeler was inspiring faith in the Emperor, her actions violated the still-secular Imperial Truth, which had her and her surviving followers arrested. While she was confined in a space station, the traitor operatives moved to assassinate her, only for Garro to intervene and kill the traitors, including Haln and Kell. Garro then had Keeler handed over to Malcador's custody, where she was taken to Terra and confined under the Imperial Palace, but Keeler insisted that she would one day be freed by Garro's hand. Over the next few years, Garro would occasionally visit her for advice and comfort.
==== Siege of Terra ====
Before the Siege of Terra, Garro and his increasing number of Knights-Errant were deployed to fight outbreaks of Daemon infestations on Terra as Horus approached the planet where Garro was once again faced with the Lord of Flies. During the battle against the Daemon, the Lord of Flies managed to possess Macer Varren after mortally wounding him. However, Loken managed to remind Varren of the friendship the Knights-Errant had forged in their missions, allowing Varren's willpower to shine through and overpower the Daemon, ripping Loken's grenades off his armor and using it to destroy himself. Despite the loss of its host, the Lord of Flies survived, only to have its realspace connection severed by the newly-arrived Malcador. Malcador then declared that nine of the Knights-Errant who bore psychic abilities had to go to Titan to form the order he had been secretly constructing, the Grey Knights, just as Traitor fleets entered the system. Loken refused, but Garro was not chosen to join the Grey Knights, for he lacked psychic abilities, and was thus released from Malcador's service. Regardless, Garro knew he still had two masters- honor and vengeance. As such, when the traitors invaded Terra, Garro and Loken joined the defense of the Imperial Palace, at the Saturnine section of its walls, believed to be a weak point by the traitors. In truth, it was a trap created by Rogal Dorn himself.
In the defense of the Saturnine, Garro and his allies slew a swathe of traitor Terminators of the Sons of Horus, with Garro personally killing a Daemon-possessed Terminator, showing some pity to the possessed traitor who could've been nothing more than a brainwashed slave. Then, they were faced with Sons of Horus first captain Ezekyle Abaddon, with Garro and other Loyalist commanders managing to ambush him. The ensuing battle cost many Loyalist lives, but Abaddon ended up pinned under the corpse of a Loyalist World Eater who had fought with unrelenting wrath, allowing Garro to move in for a finishing blow, only for Abaddon to teleport away. Abaddon would ultimately survive the Horus Heresy, and become the dreaded Abaddon the Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos Undivided.
Later in the siege, Garro freed Keeler from beneath the Imperial Palace, only to be attacked by the Death Guard, led by Mortarion and Typhon. The rest of the traitor Death Guard, like Grulgor, had also become Plague Marines, while Mortarion and Typhon, now known as Typhus, had become Daemon Princes of Nurgle. Garro bought Keeler time to escape by proposing a brief truce with his former brethren, making Mortarion offer him a drink again. However, Garro refused, dueling Mortarion personally. Mortarion first held back, intent on delivering humiliating punishment, only for Garro to successfully wound the traitor Primarch. Enraged, Mortarion struck Garro down, and tried to turn Garro into the new host of the Lord of Flies, only for Keeler to intervene, summoning the Emperor's light to empower Garro before she escaped to safety. Rising once more, Garro battled Mortarion with renewed fury, only to be overpowered again. However, even after being impaled by Mortarion and getting his sword broken in half, Garro stabbed the broken half of his sword into Mortarion's neck, grievously wounding the Primarch. Garro then died of his wounds, seeing a vision of the Emperor in his final moments.
The Horus Heresy ultimately ended with the Imperium broken but surviving, Horus destroyed, and the Emperor interred upon the Golden Throne life support device. Kyril Sindermann, the Iterator who Garro had saved alongside Keeler on the Eisenstein, would become a long-lived Inquisitor in the newly-formed Inquisition, where he had Garro remembered as the first true martyr of the God-Emperor.
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