The men and women of the Imperial Guard sacrifice more and gain less than perhaps any other arm of the Imperial Armed Forces." — Commissar Ibram Gaunt Ibram Gaunt-0 Colonel-
Commissar Ibram Gaunt of the Tanith First-and-OnlyIbram Gaunt, also known as the "People's Hero," is an Imperial Commissar and the commanding officer of the Tanith First and Only regiment of the Astra Militarum, better known as "Gaunt's Ghosts." He later became a Lord Militant, before being appointed the First Lord Executor Militant of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade by Warmaster Macaroth, its second leader. Gaunt is most notable for leading his regiment in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade which had consumed much of the Sabbat Worlds Sector in the Segmentum Pacificus from 755.M41 onwards. A political favourite of the Imperial Warmaster Slaydo who first commanded the Crusade, Gaunt was given the unusual honour of a regimental command rank of Colonel alongside his Commissar duties on the order of the Warmaster as Slaydo lay on his deathbed. Gaunt was ordered to assume command of three full Imperial Guard regiments drawn from the heavily forested backwater Agri-world of Tanith. However, just as he was to take up the position, Tanith was assaulted from orbit by a Chaos Warfleet which destroyed the Tanith Second and Third Regiments, leaving the Tanith First as the only survivors. Gaunt forced the personnel of the Tanith First to evacuate and prevented them from dying with their world in a futile gesture of defiance.
The men and women of the lost forest world who comprised the Tanith First-and-Only were under-strength, poorly-equipped and lacked effective leadership. Through the efforts of Colonel-Commissar Gaunt, the Tanith First was transformed from a rag-tag unit that most expected would dissolve in its first combat into one of the most effective and decorated units of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Gaunt would personally lead the Tanith First into combat on multiple occasions, including serving as an honour guard for the reborn Imperial Saint Sabbat herself. From 781 to 791.M41, Gaunt and his Ghosts were lost in the Warp following a deviant Warp jump; when they reemerged into realspace, Gaunt found himself a celebrated Imperial hero who had been "posthumously" promoted to Lord Militant for his successful strategy of false flag operations which weakened the two main warlords of the Archenemy in the Sabbat Worlds, saving the Crusade. Returning to the Imperial front lines, Gaunt was immediately officially promoted to the new rank on the Forge World of Urdesh by a group of thirty Astra Militarum Marshalls and Lords Militant. Ibram Gaunt remains one of the most celebrated heroes of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, and is exemplary of Imperial military and moral leadership without recourse to the authoritarian terror tactics that have darkened the reputation of most Imperial Commissars.
History
Ibram Gaunt was born on the world of Manzipor, the son of the executive officer of the Jantine Patricians regiment of the Astra Militarum. Like almost all Imperial Commissars, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt is an orphan, the son of an Imperial Guard officer killed heroically in battle defending the Imperium from Orks. He was raised and indoctrinated on the Schola Progenium world of Ignatius Cardinal, where he was occasionally visited by his "uncle," General Aldo Dercius of the Jantine Patricians, the commander of that regiment and a close friend of his father. Gaunt learned from Dercius that his father had been an Astra Militarum hero, but had died in battle with the Greenskins. Yet the exact circumstances surrounding the death of Gaunt's father remained hidden from him.
As a Cadet-Commissar he served under Commissar-General Delane Oktar of the Hyrkan Regiments, gaining the full rank of Commissar on Oktar's deathbed after the Commissar-General was poisoned by Orks on the world of Gylatus Decimus. Gaunt then served as a political officer with the Hyrkan 8th, from the regiment's foundation to its victory on Balhaut, a world reclaimed by the Imperium during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. After this victory, Gaunt was granted the additional rank of Colonel, along with command of the three new regiments raised from the world of Tanith. While serving with the Hyrkans as a cadet, Gaunt encountered a captive girl who had been touched by the Warp, and upon questioning the rogue psyker, he discovered the fate of his father: the elder Gaunt had served on a mission to an enemy-held world, but had been abandoned by the cowardice of General Dercius and left to die. When circumstance brought Gaunt and his "uncle" together in the field, Gaunt, now a fully-fledged Commissar with the Hyrkans, revealed this knowledge to Dercius, and challenged him to an honour duel using Chainswords. While he succeeded in killing Dercius, and avenging his father, Gaunt suffered near-mortal injuries from his "uncle"'s blade and forever after possessed a jagged scar across his stomach.
