Ataulf Sachs

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Ataulf Sachs was the highest ranking Terran Genewright of the early Imperium. Widely considered to be the Emperor's right hand in the matters that concerned geneurgy, he was one of the founding fathers of the Adeptus Astartes project, although his feelings on the Space Marines could be described as sceptical at best. As one of the Emperor's closest associates, he was appointed to the High Council of Terra after the Scouring and left a profound mark on the young Imperium's culture. In particular, he is chiefly responsible for institutionalising the xenophobia and genetic purism that permeate the Imperium nowadays. In the famous formula "Burn the heretic, Kill the mutant, Purge the unclean," the part about killing mutants is widely attributed to Sachs. At his orders, internment camps were set up on many worlds populated by mutants that either corrected the population's genetic flaws via extensive eugenics, or, if the mutations were found to be too radical, exterminated the current population, freeing up space for genetically pure colonists from other Imperial worlds. Although his methods were highly controversial back in his day, he is universally revered in the Imperium of today for freeing it from the detestable abhumans. He was also the father of Wilmut Sachs, one of the first traitors amongst the Space Marines, but their relations were always extremely strained, and Ataulf repeatedly disowned his son even prior to the Heresy.

Life and career

Genewright-Bailiff

As was common with the orphans found by the Imperial forces during the Unification wars, Sachs received an offering to take military training to become an officer in the young Imperial Army, but he decided to decline it. His true passion lied with biology and geneurgy, so he asked for an apprenticeship with the Genewright guild instead, which he was granted. Already quite knowledgeable from his extensive reading in the House of Smiles, Sachs quickly became a star student and surpassed all of his teachers one by one. His colleagues kept guessing what drove the young man's insatiable curiosity, but none knew the true answer. His difficult youth gave Sachs a zealous hatred of mutants and abhumans of all kinds as well as a dream to one day correct all of the mutations and genetic flaws found in humans and make his race perfect. A bold aspiration, for sure, but young Ataulf worked hard to achieve it. Whenever the Imperial forces managed to recover ancient dataslates containing information on genetic engineering, he was the first to study them and try his new knowledge in practise. In several years, he rose up to become the Bailiff of his guild and Terra's foremost authority on geneurgy. Even the Emperor himself consulted with him on the matters concerning genetic engineering.

Inevitably, Sachs became one of the primary architects of the Adeptus Astartes project. He did not approve of his master's idea to create a race of genetically enhanced humans to help him conquer the Galaxy, as Sachs abhorred all deviations from the perfection of the human genome. But his loyalty was out of question, and he joined the Master of Mankind in his effort to make a perfect supersoldier. While the Emperor was certainly the main creative force behind the project and came up with most of the features, Sachs cleaned up after his liege, painstakingly searching for any defects and imperfections and removing them. It was largely thanks to his hard work that the Space Marines came out much more stable than the Thunder Warriors. Although he did not manage to weed out every single genetic flaw for every type of geneseed, he came close enough to make the Adeptus Astartes a reliable force that could sustain a centuries-long crusade.

Familiy life

At some point, Ataulf felt a natural longing for female affection. Instead of marrying a lady from the Imperial court, he sent his thralls to scan every nook and cranny of the Imperium for the most genetically pure female. They came back with a modest commoner woman from one of the Untarqtian Hives. Although she nearly worshipped her husband for giving her a life of luxury, he only really loved her chromosomes and was rather cold to her. Eventually, they conceived an heir who Ataulf named Wilmut after a xenophobic cult leader from the Age of Strife. He planned for Wilmut to take his place after his death and fulfil his dream of purifying Mankind, but the boy had something very different in mind. Where his father was obsessed with correcting genetic sequences and weeding out defects, Wilmut loved improvisation and experimentation. He saw the standard human genome as plain and boring and believed in his ability to improve on it. Such views angered Ataulf greatly, and the two quickly grew far apart.

Eventually, Ataulf gave up on his son, stopped homeschooling him and sent him off to a cadet school. This decision backfired spectacularly, as Wilmut was eventually selected to become one of the first Space Marines. Seeing his genetically perfect son turn voluntarily into a mutant left a profound scar on Ataulf's mind. He disowned the boy, tried twice more to conceive an heir, but only got two daughters. Eventually he decided to adopt an orphan carefully chosen by his thralls, but he could never really connect to a boy who didn't share his genes. His failed family life made Ataulf a very callous man, and he directed his frustration at fighting the remaining mutants of Terra.

Medical camps

His most famous creation are the so-called "medical camps". Although they were formally merely temporary internment camps for the mutants and beastmen, their true function was far more sinister. In these camps, the mutants were extensively studied and experimented on to reveal the sources of their mutation. Sachs didn't pull any punches on conducting cruel or dangerous experiments on the inmates if he saw that necessary. Some even say he derived sadistic pleasure from torturing mutants and tortured many of them to death in his laboratory purely for his perverted satisfaction, although this would be at odds with the Genewright's razor-sharp rational mindset. Once the source was identified, the camp personnel set about weeding the mutations out, either by cruel eugenic programs that were not unlike cattle breeding and often required the parents to copulate with their own offspring, or by direct medical intervention, extremely painful and with a low survival rate. But even these two options were preferable to the the dreaded third one. In those cases where the mutation was deemed too entrenched in the genome to be removed, all of the bearers of this mutation were mercilessly exterminated. The inhuman cruelty and barbarity of these camps, so unbefitting of the state that touted itself as the beacon of civilisation, drew wide criticism from many prominent Imperial leaders, but the Emperor himself decided to turn a blind eye to it. Sachs saw this as his liege's silent approval and began setting up medical camps on those worlds taken during the Great Crusade where the mutant population was most prominent. The human race became much more homogeneous thanks to his efforts, but at a dreadful price.

Later life and death

Sachs was obsessed with genetic purity to the point of lunacy. In any conversation, he surreptitiously scanned his interlocutor for subtle signs of mutation. He commonly judged people on the basis of their genetic purity, believing that only a pure body can house a pure soul. To him, defects in physical appearance reflected moral defects, and nothing could convince famously obdurate Sachs otherwise. Although he was one of the primary architects of the Adeptus Astartes project, he remained very sceptical about the Space Marines throughout his lifetime. Astartes were just another species of abhumans to him - useful for a time, but genetically imperfect and potentially dangerous nonetheless. When half of the Legiones Astartes betrayed the Emperor and threw in their lot with the Dark Gods, he was perhaps the only high-ranking official on Terra to remain perfectly calm. Although he was unsure what shape it would take, he always saw a great calamity involving the Space Marines coming, and the outbreak of the Heresy only calmed him down, if nothing else.

A major proponent of putting the remaining Thunder Warriors down after the Unification Wars, Sachs advocated the same fate for the Astartes after the Scouring. Yet his voice was drowned out by the other High Lords, who saw the necessity of the Space Marines for the protection of the Imperium. Deeply disappointed by the decision of the High Council, Sachs retired to his estate on Titan, fully convinced that a second Heresy was coming. He died shortly thereafter, most likely poisoned by his political opponents. The passing of Ataulf Sachs was bemoaned throughout the Imperium, especially by the Genewrights, who saw him as their spiritual liege. Statues of him were erected throughout the Galaxy, his aphorisms were included into Imperial Quotebooks and the Apothecaries began revering him as their founding father, unaware of the view he really held towards their kind.