Tanith First And Only

The Tanith First-and-Only is deployed as part of the reinforcement army sent by Warmaster Macaroth. They learn that Ferrozoica, whom Vervunhive had fought in the Trade War ninety years before, had silenced communications with its neighbours in recent months and began arming. The influence of Chaos is evident. Warhammer, Tanith First and Only, Astra Militarum pendant, Forces of Mankind, Emperor, Imperial Guard symbol. From shop ForgeOfMimir. 5 out of 5 stars (131) 131 reviews $ 38.99 FREE shipping Favorite Add to Tale of Tanith Sticker Sheet - Toad vinyl art stickers - by Mab Graves mabgraves. From shop mabgraves. Tanith 1st and Only - posted in + ASTRA MILITARUM +: So Ive finally collected enough minis to run a Brigade of Tanith 1st and Only. Now Im trying to figure out how to run them. So far Im thinking a custom Regiment with Woodland Survivors and Disciplined Shooters to represent their camo cloaks and rifle prowess. That or Tallarn to get some cool sneaky vibes coming in on the flanks. Tanith First and Only The Tanith First, more commonly known as the Tanith First and Only, was an Imperial Guard Regiment raised during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. They were also colloquially known as 'Gaunt's Ghosts', after their commanding officer, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt.

First and Only is a military science fiction novel by Dan Abnett, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Published in 1999, it is the first novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series, which, as of 2019, consists of 16 novels and multiple short stories, as well as two spin-off novels (Titanicus and Double Eagle) and a companion book that acts as a mock history of the military campaign which forms the setting of the series.

The work is Abnett's first published novel,^[1] and was also the first novel published under Games Workshop's Black Library imprint. Prior to then, Games Workshop published short stories in its magazine Inferno!, and a limited number of novels, including Ian Watson's novel Space Marine and Inquisition War trilogy, under the label 'Heretic Tomes.'

As of 2006, it remained Black Library's best-selling title.^[1]

Publication history[edit]

Abnett first wrote a set of loosely connected short stories which appeared in Inferno! magazine (issues 4, 8, and 30). The next story, entitled 'Vermilion Level', was written out to novel length as First and Only and published in 1999. The earlier-published short stories were subsequently incorporated as flashback-style chapters of Ghostmaker, the second volume of the series.

The first three novels of the series, First and Only, Ghostmaker, and Necropolis were collected, along with the short story 'In Remembrance', into the omnibus The Founding, published by Black Library in 2007.

In 2013, First and Only was re-published as one of Black Library's three earliest-published and most influential novels, along with Graham McNeill's Nightbringer (also taking place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe), and William King's Trollslayer (the inaugural novel of the Gotrek and Felix series taking place in the Warhammer Fantasy universe).

In 2019, Black Library announced a limited edition hardcover re-publication to commemorate the novel's 20th anniversary.^[2]

Synopsis[edit]

In the 41st Millennium, the Tanith First light infantryregiment of the Imperial Guard is part of the massive Imperial force fighting to retake the Sabbat Worlds from the forces of Chaos. The regiment is informally called the 'First And Only' (because it was actually formed from the survivors of three regiments raised just before their homeworld of Tanith was destroyed by the enemy), or sometimes 'Gaunt's Ghosts', after their commanding officer, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, and their superlative skills at stealth and infiltration tactics.

During their latest combat theatre, the Ghosts are instrumental in re-taking the world of Fortis Binary from the enemy, partnered with the Vitrian Dragoons regiment, while another regiment, the Jantine Patricians, feel cheated of glory.

Granted temporary R&R on Pyrites, the Ghosts escape a trap laid for them by the Patricians. Gaunt is contacted by an old friend, Fereyd, who warns him that the army's superior, Lord General Dravere, is conspiring to supplant Warmaster Macaroth as supreme commander of the campaign, and something hidden on the campaign's next target world, Menazoid Epsilon, is vital to the conspiracy.

While en route to Menazoid Epsilon, Gaunt's subordinate, Major Rawne, is abducted by Patrician soldiers and brutally interrogated by Inquisitor Heldane, who is assisting General Dravere's plans. The Ghosts rescue Rawne, and Heldane is badly wounded.

In the midst of the fighting on Menazoid Epsilon, Fereyd rendezvous with Gaunt, who leads him to an underground bunker containing an incredible find from mankind's 'Dark Age of Technology': an intact Standard Template Constructor, an automated factory capable of mass-producing 'Men of Iron' (self-awarerobots). Dravere and Heldane's agents discovered evidence of the factory and realized they could build an army loyal to themselves that was powerful enough for any purpose.

Dravere, aware now that the Ghosts are working against his plans, declares them traitors and orders the Jantine Patricians to wipe them out. The small picket force of Ghosts that Gaunt left behind to guard their rear is killed to the last man by the Patricians, but not before inflicting three-to-one casualties on their attackers, which further enrages the Patricians' commander, Colonel Flense.

To Fereyd's surprise, Gaunt insists that the factory must be destroyed immediately. Fereyd is actually a puppet, being controlled by Heldane's psychic powers from his sickbed inside Dravere's headquarters vehicle. Heldane panics and orders Fereyd to kill Gaunt, but Major Rawne (who Gaunt suspected of being brainwashed by Heldane in captivity) saves Gaunt's life by shooting Fereyd in the head. This causes a massive feedback in Heldane's psychic energies that explodes, destroying Dravere's headquarters and killing both conspirators.

The novel is intercut with a series of flashbacks: the young Ibram Gaunt is orphaned when his father is killed in action, and raised by his father's commanding officer, General Aldo Dercius. But during his first campaign as a Commissar, Gaunt is approached by an enemy prisoner, a rogue psychic, who tells him the truth: his father died when Dercius fled the battle and left the elder Gaunt to die. Using his ostensible authority to punish cowardice, Gaunt confronts his 'Uncle' Dercius and kills him in a sword duel.

After blowing up the factory, Gaunt and his small entourage are confronted by Colonel Flense, who reveals that he is General Dercius's son, and was forced to change his name and restart his career from scratch after the family disgrace. Flense tries to kill Gaunt, but Gaunt gains the upper hand and kills him instead.

When the Ghosts emerge from the bunker, they are confronted by the remaining Patricians, who are themselves ambushed and slaughtered by the Vitrian Dragoons, coming to the Ghosts' aid. With Dravere dead, there is no record of his orders declaring the Ghosts renegades, and the Patricians are posthumously disgraced and permanently disbanded.

Before he died, Fereyd tried to convince Gaunt that the Men of Iron could have been used to aid the Imperial forces as much as the Chaos forces. Remembering this, Major Rawne asks Gaunt why he decided to destroy them instead. Gaunt confides that the same psychic who told him the truth about his father's death also predicted his dilemma, years later, on Menazoid Epsilon, and warned him that leaving the Men of Iron intact would lead to nothing but disaster.

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abAbnett, Dan. The Founding omnibus, ISBN9781844163694, BL Publishing, Foreword, 'Welcome to the Sabbat Worlds'
2. ^https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/first-and-only-20th-anniversary-ed--ebook-2019.html (last accessed 28 October 2019)

The GRIMDARK Sharpe to Cain's Flashman. Stars in the series of books written by the God-Like author Dan Abnett about the Tanith First (And Only) Regiment. Nobody knows why he shares his last name with a species of Tyranid. Perhaps he is so goddamn badass that he fought a Hormagaunt three seconds after he was born, tore it in half, and wore its head as a hat. This is a distinct possibility.

Perhaps one of the best characters in the 40k fluff because he acts like a decent person trying his hardest in the bleakest setting possible and not losing hold of his morals or conviction. Lesser authors in the Black Library wish they could make such a well rounded and kick ass character like Gaunt for their books.

• 2Current Status
• 4Stats

Origins of the Tanith First (And Only)[edit]

After Tanith was selected by the Warmaster to create three new regiments, the planet was plunged into a party the likes of which none (save Slaanesh) had ever seen before. Cine prado analysis. The massive party was noticed by a wandering Chaos Armada, whose ass was recently kicked. Angry, the Chaos Armada destroyed most of the planet. Ibram Gaunt then had to make a painful decision: he would take what forces were available and leave the planet, allowing the destruction of Tanith. His troops at first didn't understand why he did this, and resented him for it. Eventually, they forgave him (ok, no not really).

Current Status[edit]

Upon being declared 'Lost in the Warp', Gaunt was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lord General and given full military honours. When he showed up after making a 10-year leap into the future from a botched Warp translation, he was given his promotion and ascended to the Sabbat Crusade's high command. In the wake of a confidence of crisis in Warmaster Macaroth's leadership, Gaunt was further promoted to First Lord Executor, essentially Macaroth's second-in-command and de facto heir should the Warmaster be slain.

Items of Significant Importance[edit]

1. One of the Tanith Guardsmen named Rawne tries to kill Gaunt many times. The first time, Gaunt KO's his ass when there's a demo charge about to go off, and instead of leaving him there or *BLAM*ing his ass he risks his life to carry him out. (Also of note is the fact that later Rawne becomes the de facto second in command and takes over field command while Gaunt goes on a short vacation with the 'friendly' neighborhood torturers.)

2. Gaunt is one of the only men ever to achieve the rank of Colonel-Commissar giving him EPIC status. (However, his mentor was mentioned to be General-Commissar, making even more EPIC! Actually, he was Commissar-General, which means he was General within the Commissariat. Colonel-Commissar means he is both Imperial Guard Colonel and Commissar at once.)

3. To further elevate his awesomeness he found an STC that was INTACT but had to be destroyed because it was tainted by Chaos (Motherfuckers!). Everything was alright though, given it was heretical tech to begin with.

4. Gaunt's favorite weapon is a power sword that CAN SLICE THROUGH ANYTHING!!!!!! Gaunt kills TANKS with IT!!!!!! and even cut down a Chaos Marine SINGLE HANDED !!!!(yeah it was a surprise attack but still) - The weapon is the heirloom sword of Heironymo Sondar, the original leader (or one of them) of Vervunhive, the sword is of antique design and probably hails from when the Emperor walked around. Therefore it deserves its AWESOME status. He also has an old bolt pistol that always seems to be running out of ammo, but it's ok because then he just switches to his POWERSWOARD!

5. Gaunt's trademark item is a Tanith Camo-cloak, which he made himself to better lead his regiment of Scottish Ninja Assassins, making him the only Commissar EVER capable of INFILTRATION. (Actually not only, since Lord Commissars in Codex: IG can also take stealthpants, but the only NAMED.)

6. He also loves to charge enemies firing double bolt pistols, and fight multiple Chaos Marines at once with nothing but his power sword. He can do this because Gaunt is almost as badass as Ciaphas Cain is (Cain having taken on the same with a chainsword and flashlightpistol, but he certainly hates the experiences like this).

See Full List On 1d4chan.org

7. Gaunt led a unit that killed a Giant Battleship-Pyramid-Tank commanded by Heritor Asphodel, one of the supreme generals leading Chaos forces during the crusade, that would've given most Titans a run for their money.

8. Before setting off to destroy said Giant Battleship-Pyramid-Tank, His daughter's bodyguard got herself shot running straight at a sniper with no armour so maybe it's a good thing she's not around to teach anyone her bad habits.

9. When all the senior Vervunhive commanders were killed, Gaunt was the only ranking military officer left alive to coordinate the defense of an entire hive city under siege by Chaos forces on all sides. For many commanders, this task would be flaming-pants-on-head overwhelming, to say the least, but Gaunt just sighs and resigns himself to spend the rest of the day calling out orders; reorganizing thousands of demoralized soldiers and shattered armor over the vox, and effectively holding off AN ENTIRE CHAOS army. We get a glimpse of the strategist that Gaunt could be if Command ever gave him the time of day. After the battle, do Gaunt and Co. get medals of honor and gold statues? A day named after him? A fucking commemorative plaque?? No. Not A Single Fucking Medal Was Given That Day. Of course not they were doing their job, you don't get medal for that! Well at least in the Imperial Guard you don't (although the hivers literally build a statue to the Tanith men, the architect states the statue has nothing to do with Gaunt, whom he never even spoke to. He's also called the People's Hero. So you know). The Tanith are 'allowed' to absorb the remaining Vervunhivers to reinforce their dwindling ranks, and Gaunt's Ghost are again rushed off to yet another battlefield.

10. Gaunt has never had to BLAM his own troops. (Though he tried to on Aexe Cardinal, before his chief medical officer talked him down.) He has, on several different occasions, BLAMMED troops of other units, including for stealing vital medical supplies. Do note, that even Cain had on occasion BLAMed his own soldiers (although for nothing less than outright treason).

11. TwoTHREEFOUR different Inquisitors have tried taking Gaunt on. One ended up MINDFUCKED and the other was kidnapped/recruited by the Eldar, the third turned out to be a Chaos specialist of some kind, and the last ultimately allied with him.

12. Gaunt has carried more wounded Imperial Guard troops off the field of battle than a medivac Valkyrie. And he's a commissar. Enough said.

13. Gaunt and Co. were stranded on a Chaos held world for a sizable stretch of time. Gaunt and Co. return to the Imperium untainted. Apparently simply telling the insidious cancer of Chaos to FUCK OFF actually works.. as long as you are Colonel Commissar IBRAM FUCKING GAUNT.

14. Gaunt and Co. are the favored regiment/and have acted as the honor guard of a reborn Living Saint. It's like fucking having an Angel as a best friend in real life!

15. Gaunt's eyes were seared off by cultists when he was captured once. The asswipe Battlegroup General who sent him and his men on the mission that lead to this felt so guilty that he paid the best techmagi to give Gaunt bionic eyes. Which look like regular eyes but now allow him to see into the infrared spectrum. YES, he can stealth/infiltrate, he has a blade, and a hightech range weapon (bolt pistol). FUCK. YEAH.

16. Gaunt was an HQ choice in 4th edition, making his men Fearless (and thus not being the big, bad, executing type). His metal mini can still be found on the Games Workshop website (or Ebay), as well as a smattering of other characters from the Tanith 1st.

17. By taking all accounts in all the novels to be true, he has cut down enough chaos loving cultists to fill several armies several times over. Seriously the body count done by this man is insane. Kharn would buy him a drink and ask him to join his homies if he could.

18. LORD MILITANT IBRAM GAUNT!

19. FIRST LORD EXECUTOR IBRAM GAUNT!

Books that include Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt (All by Dan Abnett)[edit]

The Founding

First & Only, Ghostmaker, Necropolis

The Saint

Honour Guard, The Guns of Tanith, Straight Silver, Sabbat Martyr

Abnett first wrote a set of loosely connected short stories which appeared in Inferno! magazine (issues 4, 8, and 30). The next story, entitled 'Vermilion Level', was written out to novel length as First and Only and published in 1999. The earlier-published short stories were subsequently incorporated as flashback-style chapters of Ghostmaker, the second volume of the series.

The first three novels of the series, First and Only, Ghostmaker, and Necropolis were collected, along with the short story 'In Remembrance', into the omnibus The Founding, published by Black Library in 2007.

In 2013, First and Only was re-published as one of Black Library's three earliest-published and most influential novels, along with Graham McNeill's Nightbringer (also taking place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe), and William King's Trollslayer (the inaugural novel of the Gotrek and Felix series taking place in the Warhammer Fantasy universe).

In 2019, Black Library announced a limited edition hardcover re-publication to commemorate the novel's 20th anniversary.^[2]

Synopsis[edit]

In the 41st Millennium, the Tanith First light infantryregiment of the Imperial Guard is part of the massive Imperial force fighting to retake the Sabbat Worlds from the forces of Chaos. The regiment is informally called the 'First And Only' (because it was actually formed from the survivors of three regiments raised just before their homeworld of Tanith was destroyed by the enemy), or sometimes 'Gaunt's Ghosts', after their commanding officer, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, and their superlative skills at stealth and infiltration tactics.

During their latest combat theatre, the Ghosts are instrumental in re-taking the world of Fortis Binary from the enemy, partnered with the Vitrian Dragoons regiment, while another regiment, the Jantine Patricians, feel cheated of glory.

Granted temporary R&R on Pyrites, the Ghosts escape a trap laid for them by the Patricians. Gaunt is contacted by an old friend, Fereyd, who warns him that the army's superior, Lord General Dravere, is conspiring to supplant Warmaster Macaroth as supreme commander of the campaign, and something hidden on the campaign's next target world, Menazoid Epsilon, is vital to the conspiracy.

While en route to Menazoid Epsilon, Gaunt's subordinate, Major Rawne, is abducted by Patrician soldiers and brutally interrogated by Inquisitor Heldane, who is assisting General Dravere's plans. The Ghosts rescue Rawne, and Heldane is badly wounded.

In the midst of the fighting on Menazoid Epsilon, Fereyd rendezvous with Gaunt, who leads him to an underground bunker containing an incredible find from mankind's 'Dark Age of Technology': an intact Standard Template Constructor, an automated factory capable of mass-producing 'Men of Iron' (self-awarerobots). Dravere and Heldane's agents discovered evidence of the factory and realized they could build an army loyal to themselves that was powerful enough for any purpose.

Dravere, aware now that the Ghosts are working against his plans, declares them traitors and orders the Jantine Patricians to wipe them out. The small picket force of Ghosts that Gaunt left behind to guard their rear is killed to the last man by the Patricians, but not before inflicting three-to-one casualties on their attackers, which further enrages the Patricians' commander, Colonel Flense.

To Fereyd's surprise, Gaunt insists that the factory must be destroyed immediately. Fereyd is actually a puppet, being controlled by Heldane's psychic powers from his sickbed inside Dravere's headquarters vehicle. Heldane panics and orders Fereyd to kill Gaunt, but Major Rawne (who Gaunt suspected of being brainwashed by Heldane in captivity) saves Gaunt's life by shooting Fereyd in the head. This causes a massive feedback in Heldane's psychic energies that explodes, destroying Dravere's headquarters and killing both conspirators.

The novel is intercut with a series of flashbacks: the young Ibram Gaunt is orphaned when his father is killed in action, and raised by his father's commanding officer, General Aldo Dercius. But during his first campaign as a Commissar, Gaunt is approached by an enemy prisoner, a rogue psychic, who tells him the truth: his father died when Dercius fled the battle and left the elder Gaunt to die. Using his ostensible authority to punish cowardice, Gaunt confronts his 'Uncle' Dercius and kills him in a sword duel.

After blowing up the factory, Gaunt and his small entourage are confronted by Colonel Flense, who reveals that he is General Dercius's son, and was forced to change his name and restart his career from scratch after the family disgrace. Flense tries to kill Gaunt, but Gaunt gains the upper hand and kills him instead.

When the Ghosts emerge from the bunker, they are confronted by the remaining Patricians, who are themselves ambushed and slaughtered by the Vitrian Dragoons, coming to the Ghosts' aid. With Dravere dead, there is no record of his orders declaring the Ghosts renegades, and the Patricians are posthumously disgraced and permanently disbanded.

Before he died, Fereyd tried to convince Gaunt that the Men of Iron could have been used to aid the Imperial forces as much as the Chaos forces. Remembering this, Major Rawne asks Gaunt why he decided to destroy them instead. Gaunt confides that the same psychic who told him the truth about his father's death also predicted his dilemma, years later, on Menazoid Epsilon, and warned him that leaving the Men of Iron intact would lead to nothing but disaster.

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abAbnett, Dan. The Founding omnibus, ISBN9781844163694, BL Publishing, Foreword, 'Welcome to the Sabbat Worlds'
2. ^https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/first-and-only-20th-anniversary-ed--ebook-2019.html (last accessed 28 October 2019)

The GRIMDARK Sharpe to Cain's Flashman. Stars in the series of books written by the God-Like author Dan Abnett about the Tanith First (And Only) Regiment. Nobody knows why he shares his last name with a species of Tyranid. Perhaps he is so goddamn badass that he fought a Hormagaunt three seconds after he was born, tore it in half, and wore its head as a hat. This is a distinct possibility.

Perhaps one of the best characters in the 40k fluff because he acts like a decent person trying his hardest in the bleakest setting possible and not losing hold of his morals or conviction. Lesser authors in the Black Library wish they could make such a well rounded and kick ass character like Gaunt for their books.

• 2Current Status
• 4Stats

Origins of the Tanith First (And Only)[edit]

After Tanith was selected by the Warmaster to create three new regiments, the planet was plunged into a party the likes of which none (save Slaanesh) had ever seen before. Cine prado analysis. The massive party was noticed by a wandering Chaos Armada, whose ass was recently kicked. Angry, the Chaos Armada destroyed most of the planet. Ibram Gaunt then had to make a painful decision: he would take what forces were available and leave the planet, allowing the destruction of Tanith. His troops at first didn't understand why he did this, and resented him for it. Eventually, they forgave him (ok, no not really).

Current Status[edit]

Upon being declared 'Lost in the Warp', Gaunt was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lord General and given full military honours. When he showed up after making a 10-year leap into the future from a botched Warp translation, he was given his promotion and ascended to the Sabbat Crusade's high command. In the wake of a confidence of crisis in Warmaster Macaroth's leadership, Gaunt was further promoted to First Lord Executor, essentially Macaroth's second-in-command and de facto heir should the Warmaster be slain.

Items of Significant Importance[edit]

1. One of the Tanith Guardsmen named Rawne tries to kill Gaunt many times. The first time, Gaunt KO's his ass when there's a demo charge about to go off, and instead of leaving him there or *BLAM*ing his ass he risks his life to carry him out. (Also of note is the fact that later Rawne becomes the de facto second in command and takes over field command while Gaunt goes on a short vacation with the 'friendly' neighborhood torturers.)

2. Gaunt is one of the only men ever to achieve the rank of Colonel-Commissar giving him EPIC status. (However, his mentor was mentioned to be General-Commissar, making even more EPIC! Actually, he was Commissar-General, which means he was General within the Commissariat. Colonel-Commissar means he is both Imperial Guard Colonel and Commissar at once.)

3. To further elevate his awesomeness he found an STC that was INTACT but had to be destroyed because it was tainted by Chaos (Motherfuckers!). Everything was alright though, given it was heretical tech to begin with.

4. Gaunt's favorite weapon is a power sword that CAN SLICE THROUGH ANYTHING!!!!!! Gaunt kills TANKS with IT!!!!!! and even cut down a Chaos Marine SINGLE HANDED !!!!(yeah it was a surprise attack but still) - The weapon is the heirloom sword of Heironymo Sondar, the original leader (or one of them) of Vervunhive, the sword is of antique design and probably hails from when the Emperor walked around. Therefore it deserves its AWESOME status. He also has an old bolt pistol that always seems to be running out of ammo, but it's ok because then he just switches to his POWERSWOARD!

5. Gaunt's trademark item is a Tanith Camo-cloak, which he made himself to better lead his regiment of Scottish Ninja Assassins, making him the only Commissar EVER capable of INFILTRATION. (Actually not only, since Lord Commissars in Codex: IG can also take stealthpants, but the only NAMED.)

6. He also loves to charge enemies firing double bolt pistols, and fight multiple Chaos Marines at once with nothing but his power sword. He can do this because Gaunt is almost as badass as Ciaphas Cain is (Cain having taken on the same with a chainsword and flashlightpistol, but he certainly hates the experiences like this).

See Full List On 1d4chan.org

7. Gaunt led a unit that killed a Giant Battleship-Pyramid-Tank commanded by Heritor Asphodel, one of the supreme generals leading Chaos forces during the crusade, that would've given most Titans a run for their money.

8. Before setting off to destroy said Giant Battleship-Pyramid-Tank, His daughter's bodyguard got herself shot running straight at a sniper with no armour so maybe it's a good thing she's not around to teach anyone her bad habits.

9. When all the senior Vervunhive commanders were killed, Gaunt was the only ranking military officer left alive to coordinate the defense of an entire hive city under siege by Chaos forces on all sides. For many commanders, this task would be flaming-pants-on-head overwhelming, to say the least, but Gaunt just sighs and resigns himself to spend the rest of the day calling out orders; reorganizing thousands of demoralized soldiers and shattered armor over the vox, and effectively holding off AN ENTIRE CHAOS army. We get a glimpse of the strategist that Gaunt could be if Command ever gave him the time of day. After the battle, do Gaunt and Co. get medals of honor and gold statues? A day named after him? A fucking commemorative plaque?? No. Not A Single Fucking Medal Was Given That Day. Of course not they were doing their job, you don't get medal for that! Well at least in the Imperial Guard you don't (although the hivers literally build a statue to the Tanith men, the architect states the statue has nothing to do with Gaunt, whom he never even spoke to. He's also called the People's Hero. So you know). The Tanith are 'allowed' to absorb the remaining Vervunhivers to reinforce their dwindling ranks, and Gaunt's Ghost are again rushed off to yet another battlefield.

10. Gaunt has never had to BLAM his own troops. (Though he tried to on Aexe Cardinal, before his chief medical officer talked him down.) He has, on several different occasions, BLAMMED troops of other units, including for stealing vital medical supplies. Do note, that even Cain had on occasion BLAMed his own soldiers (although for nothing less than outright treason).

11. TwoTHREEFOUR different Inquisitors have tried taking Gaunt on. One ended up MINDFUCKED and the other was kidnapped/recruited by the Eldar, the third turned out to be a Chaos specialist of some kind, and the last ultimately allied with him.

12. Gaunt has carried more wounded Imperial Guard troops off the field of battle than a medivac Valkyrie. And he's a commissar. Enough said.

13. Gaunt and Co. were stranded on a Chaos held world for a sizable stretch of time. Gaunt and Co. return to the Imperium untainted. Apparently simply telling the insidious cancer of Chaos to FUCK OFF actually works.. as long as you are Colonel Commissar IBRAM FUCKING GAUNT.

14. Gaunt and Co. are the favored regiment/and have acted as the honor guard of a reborn Living Saint. It's like fucking having an Angel as a best friend in real life!

15. Gaunt's eyes were seared off by cultists when he was captured once. The asswipe Battlegroup General who sent him and his men on the mission that lead to this felt so guilty that he paid the best techmagi to give Gaunt bionic eyes. Which look like regular eyes but now allow him to see into the infrared spectrum. YES, he can stealth/infiltrate, he has a blade, and a hightech range weapon (bolt pistol). FUCK. YEAH.

16. Gaunt was an HQ choice in 4th edition, making his men Fearless (and thus not being the big, bad, executing type). His metal mini can still be found on the Games Workshop website (or Ebay), as well as a smattering of other characters from the Tanith 1st.

17. By taking all accounts in all the novels to be true, he has cut down enough chaos loving cultists to fill several armies several times over. Seriously the body count done by this man is insane. Kharn would buy him a drink and ask him to join his homies if he could.

18. LORD MILITANT IBRAM GAUNT!

19. FIRST LORD EXECUTOR IBRAM GAUNT!

Books that include Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt (All by Dan Abnett)[edit]

The Founding

First & Only, Ghostmaker, Necropolis

The Saint

Honour Guard, The Guns of Tanith, Straight Silver, Sabbat Martyr

The Lost

Traitor General, His Last Command, The Armour of Contempt, Only in Death

The Victory

+Blood Pact, Salvation's Reach, Warmaster, Anarch

In the art Gaunt is usually depicted with dark hair even though the books say he's blond.This is probably a nod to how Richard Sharpe has black hair in the books but is played by a blond actor.

Stats[edit]

Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt[edit]

Commissar Ibram Gaunt

• HQ, 150 pts.
• WS 5 BS 5 S 3 T 3 W 3 I 4 A 3 Ld 10 Sv 5+
• Composition: 1 Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt
• Unit Type: Infantry (unique)
• Wargear: Flak Armour, Bolt Pistol, Sword of Heironymo Sondar (Paragon Blade; see Horus Heresy, Book 1: Betrayal), Camo Cloak, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades
• Warlord Trait: Tactical Genius
• Special Rules: Aura of Discipline, Independent Character, Fearless, Stealth, Adamantium Will, Infiltrate, Acute Senses, Voice of Command, Senior Officer

Gallery[edit]

• Gaunt, in all his minuscule glory..

• Brother Vinny's Commissar, who just happens to be wielding a power sword, bolt pistol, and wearing a camo cloak but is so TOTALLY NOT COLONEL-COMMISSAR GAUNT.

Tanith First And Only Song

Tanith First And Only Miniatures