Saul Quintus

Ministorum Preacher, Devoted Redemptionist, and Torchbearer

32

Saul was born on the holy Shrine World of Sentinel, raised amongst pilgrims and devotees of Saint Drusus, the patron saint of the Calixis Sector. From a young age, Saul displayed an intense interest in the teachings of the Imperial Faith, And by the time he was old enough to read and write, he was a fanatic in the making, devouring sermons with unrestrained intellectual fervor, and memorizing litanies and prayers the way most children would memorize nursery rhymes. Where many of his peers spent their days engaged in sporting matches or other such games, Saul spent his time conversing with and learning from the itinerant preachers that came and went on their pilgrimages to the world. Indeed, from such a young age, it was clear that the boy's future was with the Ecclesiarchy.

By the time he had reached age 16, Saul was already a well-known orator amongst the uninitiated citizens of Sentinel, preaching with a fire and conviction that turned many a grudging, despondent soul into a devout believer of the God Emperor's glory once more. He had become a well-established figure of the local Ministorum, a pillar of piety and strength in the ranks of the Emperor's flock, undaunted by doubt and devoid of any signs of heretical thought. Still, for all the passion he was able to stir up in the citizenry of the Shrine World, he was certain he could make a greater difference for the God-Emperor's cause.

It was in this way that Saul decided to become a Torchbearer, one of the Ecclesiarchy missionaries who spent their lives bringing the heathen worlds scattered throughout the neighboring Koronus Expanse back to the fold of the Imperium, and the light of the God-Emperor. At age 20, he departed Sentinel for the unknown regions beyond Port Wander, to act as a beacon to the unenlightened. For ten years, Saul was alone (excluding the occasional Rogue Trader visit) on the world of Parg, cut off from the Imperium and surrounded by kingdoms of feuding, barbaric warlords. Though it was difficult to establish a foothold of the faith, Saul managed to do just that through judicious use of his hand flamer, the fiery wrath he was able to call down upon the unfaithful serving as proof of the God-Emperor's might. In this way, he managed to convert the majority of the population to a fittingly violent variation of the Imperial Faith, allowing the natives to interpret the Emperor as a pillar of strength and fury, able to smite them with mere thoughts should they ever doubt his power.

His work in the Expanse was not as unnoticed as he thought it might be. Ten years into his grueling and thankless mission, he found himself visited by a political agent of the Imperium unlike the standard Rogue Traders. Indeed, it was an agent of the Inquisition, rather taken by Saul's unwavering belief in the God-Emperor, and ruthless pursuit of those who would doubt him. Before he knew it, a garrison of Ministorum priests was placed on Parg, and he was taken to be inducted into the position of Inquisitorial Acolyte, to fight the enemy Within as fervently as he fought the enemy Without.