Tarquin Victus

> ***"Victory...at any cost..."***
>
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Tarquin Victus Caesoninus was the son and only child of Primarch Adrien Victus and his late bonded-wife, Saira Caesonia. He gave his life during the Reaper War to ensure a Krogan-Turian alliance and prevent all out war between the two species. He was survived by his wife, Iacoba Parvus, and their infant son, Fidellion Victus - the future Primarch of Palaven - who would restore the Aurelian Empire and be posthumously deified as a Living Spirit.

## Biography

### Childhood

Tarquin was born in Cipritine on the Turian homeworld of Palaven, in the year 2161 CE. His parents were General Adrien Victus and Saira Caesonia, who was Adrien's bondmate. When Saira announced her pregnancy, both parents were excited to start raising a family together. Adrien kept copies of his son's scans on his omni-tool, which he would look at while on tour to bolster his morale, while Saira would sing to her unborn son to help him settle during his periods of restlessness. It was she who bestowed the name of Tarquin upon her son.

Sadly, Tarquin would never meet his mother. Saira went into labour earlier than expected, while her husband was away on deployment. She was discovered by Adrien's sister, Fabia, who called an ambulance and alerted Adrien to his wife's condition. Adrien was given emergency leave to attend to his family, returning to Palaven as swiftly as he could. However, he would already be too late. By the time he had landed, Saira had already succumbed to her traumatic blood loss and passed away. As Adrien stood at the end of a hospital bed, gazing upon the lifeless body of the woman he loved, his sister handed him a tiny mewling bundle - his son, Tarquin. Heavy with grief and the guilt of not having been there for his wife's final moments, Adrien made a sacred vow to Saria's spirit to raise Tarquin as she would have wanted, promising to always love and protect him.

Due to his father's superior rank, Tarquin was born a blood-member of the prestigious House Victus of Bostra. His social station afforded him many luxuries denied to other turians but also demanded excellence from him in all spheres of life. As the only child of Adrien Victus, House Victus' parriarch and renowned general of the empire, Tarquin was expected to be the living image of his father, destined for a life of military service. Tarquin idolised his father and aspired to emulate him in every way possible, believing that to be the only way of earning his father's approval and pride. But trying to live up to his father's legend had detrimental consequences for the young Victus' mental health and self-actualisation. Unlike Adrien, Tarquin had no mind for clever strategy and possessed below average combat capabilities, despite his father's rigorous tutelage.

Where he truly excelled was in engineering. From a very young age he displayed a keen technical aptitude, more interested in building cities with blocks than playing with toy soldiers. By the time he was a teenager, he could take apart almost any device then put it back together, making it perform as if it were new. He also had a gift for mental arithmetic and technical illustration, earning him high grades in his mathematics and technology classes. But such skills were considered inconsequential for the son of an old military family, which valued martial strength above all else.

### Reaper War

During the Reaper War, Tarquin was given command of the 9th Platoon on his father's orders and tasked with defusing an ancient weapon of mass destruction, which the Turians had buried on Tuchanka in the aftermath of the Krogan Rebellions as a failsafe against another uprising. Adrien's promotion of his son to the rank of lieutenant was controversial. While Tarquin was a talented engineer who had earned commendations from his superiors in the Engineering Corp, he was a poor soldier and an even worse commander. The 9th's senior officer, Lucan Marnek, was vocal about Tarquin's promotion, believing himself to be the better candidate for leadership. Marnek was an exemplarily officer and had close ties to House Victus, his sister being the wife of Adrien's nephew, Claudius Victus; Adrien's apparent favouritism of his son over him made Marnek feel undermined and betrayed.

Marnek attempted to relieve Tarquin of command after their ship crashed on Tuchanka, citing the crash and the deaths of the majority of their platoon as evidence of Tarquin's inability to lead. Desolas Arterius II intervened and managed to broker a peace between the two, telling Marnek that a mutiny would endanger the mission and, by extension, their entire species. Marnek begrudgingly backed down, but not before insulting Tarquin's lineage: "Clearly your mother's low birth has diluted your Victus blood."