Ibram Gaunt

Overview

Ibram Gaunt is the colonel-commissar who leads the Tanith First and Only, the Ghosts, in Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series. He is unusually compassionate for a commissar and earned the name the People's Hero.

He fights with a power sword, the Sword of Heironymo Sondar, and a bolt pistol. His Ghosts are scouts and infiltrators, masters of stealth and marksmanship. His compassion for his troops has made him a beloved leader, and his career has seen him rise from colonel-commissar to higher command. Ibram Gaunt, the People's Hero, commands the Tanith First and Only, better known as Gaunt's Ghosts. He served on the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and rose from colonel-commissar to Lord Militant and then First Lord Executor Militant under Warmaster Macaroth. His regiment's survival on Tanith was the start of Dan Abnett's long-running series.

Origins

Born on Manzipor, the son of an officer of the Jantine Patricians who died in battle, he was raised in the Schola Progenium under the patronage of Warmaster Slaydo.

Gaunt was raised at the Schola Progenium believing his father had simply died a hero fighting Orks; the true circumstances were hidden from him for years. As a cadet-commissar he served under Commissar-General Delane Oktar of the Hyrkan regiments, and received full rank on Oktar's deathbed after Orks poisoned the old officer on Gylatus Decimus. He went on to become a political favourite of Warmaster Slaydo, who on his own deathbed gave Gaunt the rare joint rank of colonel-commissar.

Dan Abnett's First and Only tells his backstory in flashbacks. He was born on Manzipor, the son of a Jantine Patricians officer killed by Orks, and was sent to the Schola Progenium on Ignatius Cardinal, where he met Vaynom Blenner. As a cadet with the Hyrkan regiments under Commissar Delane Oktar, he learned from a captured psyker on Darendara that his 'uncle', General Aldo Dercius, had abandoned his father to die. When Oktar was poisoned on Gylatus Decimus, Gaunt was made a full commissar at his deathbed. His first act was to execute Dercius with his chainsword, and Dercius nearly gutted him in return. Slaydo later made him swear a blood oath to protect Saint Sabbat and, as he died on Balhaut, granted Gaunt's regiment the Right of Settlement, a claim to the first world it conquered.

Key events

1. Avenged his father's death by confronting Aldo Dercius.
2. Served with the 8th Hyrkans and played a key part at Balhaut during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.
3. When Tanith fell to a surprise Chaos attack, he evacuated its newly founded regiment and created the Tanith First and Only.
4. Led the Ghosts through campaign after campaign of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.
5. Led the Ghosts through the siege of Vervunhive on Verghast, gaining many Verghastite recruits.
6. Led a small team behind enemy lines on the Chaos-held world Gereon.

The early novels show the regiment taking shape. Gaunt thought little of the Tanith until Blackshard, where the sniper Larkin named them Gaunt's Ghosts. On Voltemand, General Noches Sturm deliberately shelled them, starting a long feud. In Necropolis, Sturm fled Vervunhive. When he raised the pistol he had been given to shoot himself and aimed it at Gaunt, Gaunt cut off his hand. In Honour Guard, Gaunt protected Saint Sabbat's remains on Hagia. In Sabbat Martyr, Colm Corbec died defending the reborn Saint on Herodor. Gaunt led a near-suicidal team to Gereon to make sure Sturm died, then spent about eighteen months stranded there training the resistance, with the Untill partisan Eszrah ap Niht bound to him as a guide and servant.

In Only in Death, the Blood Pact captured him at Hinzerhaus on Jago. He cut the ropes of his captors' descent, apparently killing them and himself, but he survived the fall, was captured again, tortured and blinded. Mkoll and Eszrah rescued him, Curth saved his life and he received augmetic eyes. After Salvation's Reach, his ship was lost in the warp and returned ten years later to find him posthumously made Lord Militant. In The Warmaster he refused to join the plot against Macaroth and negotiated the Warmaster's return to the front. He became First Lord Executor, and in The Anarch Mkoll killed Anakwanar Sek. Gaunt then handed the First and Only to Rawne while keeping it under his direct command.

Battles & campaigns

• Tanith: He saved the First Regiment as its world was destroyed.
• Necropolis: He fought in the defence of Vervunhive, where the Ghosts gained Verghastite recruits.
• Sabbat Worlds Crusade: He fought across the Sabbat Worlds, culminating in the Anarch campaign.

Personality

Compassionate, principled and stubborn, he leads by example rather than by execution.

He is compassionate and principled, valuing his soldiers' lives over glory. He is stubborn and willing to defy superiors to protect his troops. His sense of honour and justice make him an unusual commissar.

Weapons & Vehicles

Power SwordMelee Weapon

A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…

Bolter & Bolt RifleRanged Weapon

The signature .75-calibre rocket-propelled mass-reactive firearm of the Adeptus Astartes, firing self-propelled explosive bolts that de…

ChainswordMelee Weapon

The brutal motorised tooth-bladed sword carried by Space Marines, Imperial Guard officers and Chaos renegades, chewing through armour a…

LasgunRanged Weapon

The rugged, ubiquitous directed-energy laser rifle of the Astra Militarum—modest on its own, but capable of felling any foe in the gala…

Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.

Connections

Characters (2)

• 
  Ciaphas Cain parallel · Astra Militarum

  Both are famed Commissar heroes of Black Library fiction; no in-story meeting is recorded.

• 
  Sebastian Yarrick parallel · Astra Militarum

  Both are celebrated Commissars; no in-story meeting is recorded.

Factions

• Astra Militarum primary faction

Also in this faction

Arcadian LeontusUrsarkar E. Creed

Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.

Legacy

Gaunt commands the Tanith First and Only, a regiment without a homeworld. His story is one of loss, loyalty and the struggle to keep faith in a war that never ends. He is a Commissar who leads by trust rather than fear, and his Ghosts are proof that the Astra Militarum can earn devotion as well as obedience. Through the long-running Sabbat Worlds series, Gaunt has become the most familiar face of the Astra Militarum in Black Library fiction. The Ghosts' saga is one of the most beloved Black Library series.

Appearances & sources

• Gaunt's Ghosts series (Dan Abnett), starting with First and Only
• Necropolis and The Victory duology
• Codex: Astra Militarum background