Saul Tarvitz

Captain Saul Tarvitz is a Loyalist Emperor's Children captain who exhibited a rare satisfaction with his place, not falling to the vanity and perfectionism of the rest of his traitorous battle-brothers and instead personifying all that was once good and noble of the IIIrd Legion. During the Isstvan III Atrocity that betrayed him and the other Loyalists of his Legion, Saul Tarvitz personally led the Loyalist survivors in a final stand against the Traitor hordes.
Saul Tarvitz was featured in a few works of the Warhammer 40k franchise, such as The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal, Horus Rising, Galaxy In Flames, Fulgrim, The Flight of the Eisenstein, and Sons of the Emperor.
== Biography ==
=== Great Crusade ===
Saul Tarvitz, presumably from either Chemos or Terra, lived in the 31st millennium, when the Emperor of Mankind led the Great Crusade across the stars, seeking to return a divided, crumbling humanity to its golden age through the Imperium of Man. To accomplish this, the Emperor created many Space Marine Legions, including the IIIrd Legion, the Emperor's Children. The IIIrd Legion was commanded by Fulgrim, one of the Primarchs, the Emperor's transhuman sons. Tarvitz joined the Emperor's Children and became the captain of the Legion's 10th company, but unlike many of his peers, he was perfectly content with his rank as a line officer, lacking the relentless ambition that consumed many of the Emperor's Children. Instead, Tarvitz believed that he was born to be rank-and-file, and that it was wrong to cast aside his standards in pursuit of glory, for Tarvitz felt that the true goal of the Emperor's Children was not superiority, but purity of purpose, which Tarvitz displayed in his devotion to both the Emperor and Fulgrim. Despite this, Tarvitz gained great respect from those that served under him, and had a considerable amount of victories to his name.
During his service, Tarvitz became the counsel and friend of fellow Emperor's Children marine Lucius, who was over-obsessed with his mastery of the sword, leading him to scar himself in an increasingly depraved way of showing "success". Tarvitz, much more level-headed, managed to calm Lucius down on occasions when Lucius was unable to show off his swordsmanship, and helped Lucius to recognize his own flaws, from overzealous self-aggrandizing to a dangerous masochism festering within him. Lucius seemed to recognize this, and made an effort to change himself, but even his friendship with Saul Tarvitz was not enough.
==== One-Forty-Twenty ====
Sometime after the successful campaign against the Laer, which set the Emperor's Children on the path to Chaos corruption, commander Eidolon of the IIIrd Legion led a campaign to reinforce the Blood Angels Legion during an assault on planet One-Forty-Twenty, a Death World inhabited by an intelligent, hostile, and incredibly dangerous arachnid xeno species known as Megarachnids. The campaign against the Megarachnids was brutal, inflicting heavy casualties on the Blood Angels and giving the planet the unofficial name of "Murder". Tarvitz was deployed to Murder's surface, although his landing party was scattered by massive atmospheric disturbances. He then discovered a strange rock formation resembling a tree, where Megarachnids were impaling dead Blood Angels on to eat. As such, Tarvitz destroyed the structure, only for the atmospheric turbulence over the structure dissipate, making Tarvitz realize that the structures were actually weather control devices. However, the Megarachnids swiftly rebuilt the structure and began killing the remaining Emperor's Children, but before Tarvitz could be finished off, he was saved by Luna Wolves Space Marines, from the Legion of Warmaster Horus Lupercal.
Tarvitz remained with the surviving Emperor's Children in accompanying the Luna Wolves in a successful campaign across the planet. As he fought alongside the Luna Wolves, Tarvitz found more kinship with them than with some of his own battle-brothers, and became allies with Luna Wolves captain Tarik Torgaddon. Saul Tarvitz presumably remained on Murder until the campaign was prematurely ended by Horus when the Space Marines were contacted by the Interex, a nearby pre-Imperium stellar empire of humans and xenos, who were the ones that contained the Megarachnids on Murder to begin with.
==== Preaixor Campaign ====
At some point, Saul Tarvitz served in the bloody, costly Preaixor Campaign, where he befriended Nathaniel Garro, a Space Marine of the Death Guard Legion, who served on a band of Space Marines from all Legions known as the Knights-Errant. 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. Additionally, Tarvitz' genuine amity proved to Garro that the 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.
=== Horus Heresy ===
As Interex was being dealt with by Horus, Tarvitz remained with his Legion in their following campaigns. However, unbeknownst to Tarvitz, Fulgrim was already falling to Chaos, having been corrupted by Slaanesh ever since the campaign against the Laer, a corruption that was spreading to the rest of the Legion. Other Primarchs, such as Angron, Lorgar, Perturabo, Mortarion, Magnus, Konrad Curze, Alpharius, Omegon, and even Horus were falling to Chaos. Under Horus' leadership, they organized a great heresy against the Emperor. As such, the traitor Primarchs sought to purge remaining Imperial Loyalists from their ranks. Saul Tarvitz, who remained true to his values and loyalty to the Emperor, noticed the increasingly distressing change in the character of Fulgrim and the rest of the Emperor's Children as the Chaos corruption spread.
Soon, Horus was tasked with purging Chaos-worshipping rebels from the Isstvan system, beginning with Isstvan III. Horus, Mortarion, Angron, and Fulgrim took the opportunity to purge the Loyalists from their Legions in the campaign, and as such, the Emperor's Children deployed to Isstvan III alongside Mortarion's Death Guard, Horus' Luna Wolves, now known as the Sons of Horus, and Angron's World Eaters, with full intent to send their Loyalists to their deaths. Saul Tarvitz, due to his rank as a Loyalist officer, was given the "honor" of leading the planetside assault by none other than commander Eidolon. However, Tarvitz' suspicion about the change in his Legion reached a breaking point at this news, as he found it incredibly irregular for Eidolon, a well-favored Lord Commander with a tendency to flaunt his martial prowess at any opportunity, would give up spearheading such an attack, much less personally assign someone else in his place. As such, Tarvitz made a scheme to stay in orbit with Eidolon as a senior staff officer, instead going to revered Emperor's Children Dreadnought Rylanor and asking the legendary Dreadnought to lead the assault in his place. Rylanor agreed, allowing Tarvitz to investigate his suspicions.
As the campaign on Isstvan III went underway, Tarvitz discovered that all the Loyalists were to be killed with virus bombs that would be launched from orbit, and discovered that Warmaster Horus himself was behind the scheme. Believing he could save the Loyalists on the ground, Tarvitz swiftly stole a Thunderhawk gunship and flew down to the surface, chased by a number of Emperor's Children Raven interceptors. As Tarvitz raced to the surface, he passed by a Death Guard frigate, the Eisenstein, which had aboard none other than Nathaniel Garro. Eidolon tried to message Garro to shoot down Tarvitz, claiming Tarvitz had turned renegade, but Tarvitz managed to contact Garro first and revealed the betrayal that was going to happen. Garro, initially struck with disbelief, knew that Tarvitz would never lie to him, for their friendship was forged in the fires of war. As such, Garro instead fired on Tarvitz' pursuers, destroying them and making it look like Tarvtiz was killed in the blast, allowing Tarvitz to reach the surface of Isstvan III.
On Isstvan III, Tarvitz arrived just in time to warn many Loyalists about the impending bombardment. He was instrumental in getting many Loyalists into bunkers, allowing them to survive the blasts of the virus bombs. As such, after the bombardment, almost two thirds of the Loyalists, including Rylanor and Tarvitz, had survived. Enraged and battle-ready, the Loyalists screamed their defiance to the still-orbiting traitors, many falling into despair upon seeing that their own Primarchs turned on them. As such, Angron and his traitor World Eaters flew to the surface to take on the Loyalists in a direct assault, soon joined by the Sons of Horus. Tarvitz himself had taken many injuries in the blasts, and soon found himself in Angron's crosshairs, meeting up with a Loyalist World Eater company but being forced to flee as the Loyalist World Eaters were slaughtered by Angron. Eidolon and other traitor Emperor's Children then flew to the surface, personally chasing Tarvitz. However, Tarvitz led them into a trap, as he had met with surviving Loyalist Emperor's Children and organized an effective defense in the ruins of a palace, routing Eidolon's forces as they arrived.
Under Tarvitz' leadership, and bolstered by the presence of the seemingly unstoppable Rylanor, Loyalists of all Legions present rallied together in a cohesive defense, turning the massacre into a guerrilla war. Tarvitz used the ruined palace as the base for himself and the Emperor's Children Loyalists, repeatedly beating back Eidolon's attempts to breach the walls. Time and again, Rylanor was declared destroyed by the traitors, only to return to the fray, which kept Tarvitz' forces motivated over a war that lasted almost two months. Soon, even the captains of the other Loyalist Legions deferred to Tarvtiz, especially as more and more traitor reinforcements poured in. At one point, Tarvitz tried to hand over command to fellow Emperor's Children Loyalist captain Solomon Demeter, who refused on account of the Loyalists trusting Tarvitz more. However, the scales then tipped in the traitors' favor as Mortarion's traitor Death Guard finally breached the enclave of Loyalist Death Guard, with each Loyalist death being a casualty that Tarvitz' forces could not afford. Despite the traitors increasing in strength and number, the Loyalists resolved to meet their death in battle, even as Tarvitz' palace was finally destroyed by a Titan under traitor control. Regardless, Tarvitz survived and continued fighting, only to be pursued by his former ally Lucius, also turned traitor out of sheer jealousy against Tarvitz. Lucius even managed to trick Solomon Demeter into firing on other Loyalists, before killing Demeter and challenging Tarvitz to a one-on-one duel, which Tarvitz accepted, and then won. However, Lucius escaped, although Tarvitz inflicted heavy damage to the traitor forces under Eidolon's command as Lucius fled.
Despite Tarvitz' defiant persistence against the traitors, he, along with the surviving Loyalist Space Marines, would eventually fall to the overwhelming hordes of his former battle-brothers. Tarvitz was forced into Chloral City, the planet's capital, alongside the still-functional Rylanor, where he fought to the last breath in the face of an unbeatable assault and orbital bombardment. However, with his dying act, Tarvitz ordered Rylanor to guard something in the deepest tunnels beneath Chloral City. As such, although Tarvitz died, Rylanor survived the complete Isstvan III Atrocity in a sealed hangar far beneath the surface, enduring for thousands of years to get revenge on the treacherous Fulgrim.
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