Editing Ataulf Sachs (section)

==Youth==

===Lusopolis, the Menagerie City===

Without a scintilla of doubt, Holy Terra is the shining jewel in the crown of Mankind. With palaces that could house petty kingdoms on provincial worlds, forests of dreaming spires that pierce the atmosphere and cyclopean monuments that peer down from the Empyrean like vengeful gods, it exemplifies the greatness of our race like no other place in the Galaxy. Pilgrims that come there from all around the Imperium are more than content to quietly wither away in its shining streets, realising the futility of ordinary life after having witnessed the marvels of the cradle of humanity. So magnificent is this planet that it almost appears absurd that human hands could have wrought a work of such grandeur. And yet, ten thousand years ago, Terra was very different from the Imperial capital we're all used to. It was a place of savagery and cruelty, of desolation and ruin, of anarchy and inquity. Where gilded palaces now stand, there stood enormous slave pens; where elegant cathedrals stretch their spires skyward, foetid petrol swamps were choking with industrial wreckage. Over this husk of a planet, countless petty warlords lorded, most of them little more than glorified gang leaders. However, some of these kingdoms were truly bizarre, such as Lusopolis, the birthplace of Ataulf Sachs. 

Mutations and congenital deformities were hardly uncommon on Terra during the Age of Strife: baleful emanations of the Warp exacerbated by heavy radiation and omnipresent pollution made monstrous births a common occurrence. In most places, such children were considered portents of ill fortune to come and exiled into the ruins, where they joined feral herds of demihumans like themselves. The citizens of other principalities viewed mutant infants as gifts from their primitive gods and groomed them to take on positions of authority when they grow up. However, one of these petty Terran polities was truly unique in that it was populated entirely by beastmen: the Gerontocracy of Lusopolis. Such a peculiar situation was caused chiefly by this citystate's isolation from the nearby human realms. Trapped in a deep valley surrounded by irradiated mountain ridges, the citizens of Lusopolis had no choice but to resort to inbreeding, and over the course of centuries their small gene pool was overwhelmed with mutations. Deformity quickly became the new norm, which only shows how relative the notion of normalcy truly is. 

However, as even healthy women sometimes give birth to deformed children, the beastwomen of Lusopolis sometimes brought perfectly healthy infants into this world. Ironically, these unfortunate souls were considered freaks and disgusting subhumans who had no place in the Gerontocracy. They weren't killed or exiled into the mountains like they would be in a savage society: in spite of its bestial-looking population, Lusopolis was a place of considerable refinement, only slightly seasoned by the heartlessness that is so characteristic of societies cherishing their civility. Instead, the healthy kids were taken away from their parents and taken to the House of Smiles - a prison-like freakshow where the beastmen came to gloat at healthy humans.

===The House of Smiles===

Ataulf Sachs was born into a patrician family that was anxiously anticipating an heir. Initially excited at the perspective of finally getting a son into the family, geront Etzel Sachs was profoundly disappointed when his wife brought him a perfectly healthy child. Although his spouse suggested to conceal the boy's lack of beastial features by having him wear a pair of fake horns, Ataulf refused to go along with this charade and ordered for Ataulf to be brought into the House of Smiles. The boy was brought up there together with other normal children, without any knowledge of his family. The scarce education that they received was only aimed at teaching the kids to act in a civilized manner to the amusement of the visitors, yet the teachers quickly noted the affinity for learning young Sachs displayed. Eventually they started bringing him old books and journals just to bet on how quickly the boy will finish reading them. Ataulf cared little what books he received, for all of them helped him to escape from the grim reality of his life as a sideshow freak; yet he especially enjoyed the manuals on ancient biology and genetics, considered utterly worthless in Lusopolis. As he saw the illustrations of men, women and their body organs, he slowly came to realize the simple fact that the beastmen successfully managed to forget: he was a normal human, they were the monsters.

His sad existence came to an abrupt end when he was in his early twenties. One day, terrible panic took over Lusopolis: the agitated citizens were running back and forth, not sure what to do. From overhearing fragments of conversations, Ataulf managed to deduce that the valley was attacked by a band of giant warriors wearing armour that even five men struggled to lift. Apparently, they were greatly weakened by the heavy dose of radiation they received when crossing the mountains and the city's militia managed to bring most of them down; yet some managed to escape and scatter throughout the valley. Always a quick thinker, Ataulf immediately realized that the general panic offered an excellent opportunity for him to escape from captivity. Taking his closest friends with him, he waited until the guards were sufficiently distracted and sneaked out from his prison. He knew the city map well enough from the journals he's read, so escaping from Lusopolis was a trivial task for him and his followers.

===Imperial invasion===

Admittedly, Ataulf had no clear plan of action once they've left the city, but the destiny smiled at him for the second time in one day: they barely walked a couple of miles away from Lusopolis when they came across a giant warrior wearing a suit of armour emblazoned with thunderbolts. The warrior was heavily wounded and clearly dying, yet he had enough strength left in him to talk to the young people. In a strange dialect, he explained that he was one of the Thunder Warriors sent by the Emperor of Mankind to reclaim Lusopolis, cleanse it from the beastmen and retrieve the valuable Dark Age artefacts contained within the city. Unfortunately, his squad failed to fulfil the objective, but at least the defenders of Lusopolis were also broken. Now all that remained was to call in reinforcements to finish what was started, but the only vox device capable of doing that belonged to the squad leader and was captured by the beastmen after his demise. Before closing his eyes for the last time, the warrior begged Ataulf and his friends to find and use the vox transmitter in the name of Mankind.

He didn't need to ask twice. Ataulf hated the beastmen with a passion, and now that he had a confirmation that they were a bad joke of nature, he was determined to help wipe their vile kin out. With a couple of grenades and a combat knife taken from the Thunder Warrior, the young people made their way back into the town. By hiding in dark back alleys and eavesdropping on the conversations, they soon found out that the armour of the defeated giants was being displayed on the main square. Once there, Ataulf threw a grenade into the crowd surrounding the armour suits from his hiding place and made a charge towards them in the ensuing confusion. He's never seen a vox device before, but the Thunder Warrior's description was accurate enough for him to spot it at the first sight. With the device clenched firmly in his fist, he rushed back into the dark alleys of Lusopolis, which eventually led him back out of the hated city.

All that remained was to activate the call for reinforcements, which Ataulf did with great pleasure. It was with grim contentment that he watched from afar how the Thunder Warriors turned Lusopolis into a pile of smouldering rubble. Once that was over with, large flying machines came from beyond the mountains and landed in front of the ruins, safe from the flak cannons that normally guarded the sky over the valley. A shining demigod in golden armour walked out from one of these machines, basking the debris of Lusopolis in his divine light. This was the first time Ataulf Sachs saw the Emperor of Mankind, and this encounter affected the young man profoundly. He was still standing in place looking at the Master of Mankind when he was approached by one of the officers in charge of the operation. He commended the young people on their quick and decisive actions and offered them a place amongst the Emperor's servants. Ataulf immediately agreed.