Roboute Guilliman
Was born on the world of Maccrage, a technologically advanced planet that was in many ways in decline. There were struggles between the great nations of Maccrage and with the surrounding planets of the system. Even worse was widespread corruption, extremes of poverty, and exploitation of division for the betterment of the planet's elites.
Guilliman was the son of a high ranking bureaucrat within the government, Konor Guilliman, and was given access to the best education that money could buy. Even as a small child, Guilliman was brilliant and excelled in all of his studies, graduating from the equivalent of a university at the age of 12 and mastering advanced degrees in law and political science. Even more than having intelligence, Roboute had a deep and abiding moral character, a concern for the well being of others and for the advancement of society. Even as a child he became as well known for his kindest as for his intellect, protecting children from bullies, helping people in need, and joining causes to improve the lives of others.
Even more useful to Roboute in his persist of virtue was his charisma. He had no trouble making friends and advicating his convictions to others. Even as a young boy, he could put and end to bullying not merely by protecting the victims physically, but by convincing the bullies of the wrongness of their actions. With any task that Roboute set his mind towards, he soon had dozens of supporters. By the time he had become a young man, everyone was convinced that the young Roboute would some day become a great leader.
He grew up handsome and strong, a tall fit man with brown hair and eyes, tanned skin, and a friendly demeanor. Roboute did indeed pursue politics and used both his intelligence and social skills to quickly rise to planetary prominence. Roboute had many difficulties though, because he truly sought to bring peace and prosperity to the people of his world and so many of the corrupt and powerful rulers of Maccrage profited from the suffering of others. Roboute found himself the victim of slanderous lies from the press, lawsuits from major corporations that he undermined the influence of, and even assassination attempts.
Despite it all, Roboute gradually rose in power until he had become planetary governor. As leader of his planet, Roboute put into place numerous reforms. He expanded the rights of the citizens, granting them freedom of speech and protecting their rights, he ended persecution if mutants and other unpopular minirities, he helped to end ethnic and national divisions the undermined planetary unity. Furthermore, he was able to reduce corruption and help build up infrastructure to eliminate poverty, to increase medical care, and raise the standards of living of nearly everyone across the planet. While there were a few stumbling blocks along the way, Roboute Gulliman overcame them all to build a prosperous utopia.
Even those corrupt plutocrats of Maccrage who had spent decades oppressing the people of Maccrage and who had fought against Roboute Gulliman in his meteoric climb to prominence soon found that they would do better to join him than to oppose him. All but the the most evil and embittered of his enemies grew to understand Guilliman as a man of great virtue and grew to respect him, becoming better people through his example.
Guilliman was a student of philosophy in school and loved the intersection between politics and philosophy. Drawing on both ancient and contemporary sources, Guilliman wrote in gat depth about the ideal state and its responsibility to the people. His books became best sellers not only on Maccrage but across the system as he became an acclaimed reformer and thinker.
While on Maccrage, Roboute Guilliman could have become a god emperor in his win right with his great popularity, he did not desire such worship nor did he want so much power placed into the hands of a single man. Roboute favored a system with a representative democracy, not a nation where a king could rule with his personality cult. He made additional reforms that allowed for a democratic system on Maccrage where the people could have fair representation without larger groups undermining the rights of smaller groups. Even with this system in place, he accomplished most of his goals not through the authority of his position, but by building coalitions with other elected leaders.
When other planets in the star system and even other nearby systems saw the events of Maccrage, many wanted to emulate Roboute Gulliman and his system of reformed, Many too even wanted to join with them in a larger alliance of planets. Unfortunately, some feared that the growing power of Maccrage and Guilliman would undermine their own power and so went to war with Maccrage.
For the next decade intense wars wracked Maccrage as an alliance of planets sought to kill Guilliman and end his system that threatened their power. During this time, the once peaceful Guilliman was forced to turn his intellect to military matters. As with all things, Guilliman excelled in militar strategy and he inacted a number of reforms to best utilize solders and resources. He made sure that his armies were well equipped and that the lives of his soldiers would not be thrown away needlessly, he crate systems where the most skilled officers would rise to the top based on their ability rather than wealth or nepotism. He also made sure that defeated enemies were treated fairly and compassionately, that civilians or civilian infrastructure wasn't needlessly damaged, and that warfare didn't cause any more suffering than it had to. It was during this time that the precursor of the Ultramarines were invented.
Eventually, Maccrage and its allies had defeated all of their enemies and many other planets were absorbed into a single unified political body that came to be called Ultramar. Entrance into this alliance was completely voluntary and those planets whose populations wished to be excluded were allowed to be without punishment or pressure placed upon them. In time though, virtually all surrounding worlds sought membership as the prosperity of Maccrage, as well as the kindness shown to former enemies, won their hearts and minds.
In time, Roboute Guilliman stepped down from a official position of leadership and became merely a public figure, continuing to write about politics and philosophy as well as lend his intelligence to issues or science and sociology, he remained a beloved and highly influential public figure. It was during this time when the God Emperor of Mankind made his appearance.
It had taken many years for the Emperor to eventually make his way to Ultramar, as it was on the far side of the Galaxy from Terra. So Guilliman had many years to expand Ultramar and to improve the lives of the citizens there. When the Emperor finally made contact with Ultramar, he found one of the largest and most prosperous unified human polities in the galaxy. Ultramar had a thriving infrastructure with advanced technology, advanced medicine and long lifespans for every citizen, as well as a system of rights and protections for the citizens. Certain elements of this made the Emperor a bit wary, such as democratic elections or rights for mutants and practitioners of religions, but over all the Emperor was quite impressed by Roboute Guilliman's many accomplishments.
When the Emperor made contact with Ultramar, he told Roboute Guilliman of his true nature, a son of the Emperor, created by him to be a perfect warrior and general. Roboute was unsure about the idea of leading armies and conquering the galaxy for humanity, but when the Emperor explained to him some of the horrors that threatened humanity and how terrible the lives of some humans were, he was able to convince Roboute Guilliman to join with him and help make the same improvements to other planets in the Imperium as he did to the worlds within Ultramar.
Roboute put his skill and charisma to work for the Emperor, helping him to retake the galaxy for humanity. Guilliman was successful, though he often butted heads with the Emperor. Guilliman didn't like the harsh tactics that the Emperor encouraged, didn't like the persecution of aliens, didn't like stripping people of their rights, and also Roboute Guilliman didn't think that obedience was automatically owed to a ruler just because of the authority. This lead to the Emperor underutilizing Roboute's skills as the Emperor didn't fully trust him. Many of the other Primarchs, though, could see how talented Guilliman was and respected his leadership abilities and were able to coordinate their efforts with him to achieve greater victories.
Roboute's greatest rival among the Primarchs was Horus. Horus utterly despised Roboute for Roboute's competence and the respect he commanded from the other Primarchs. While Horus felt that he was unquestionably the most brilliant and talented military leader, most of the other Primarchs doubted this and many thought that it should have been Guilliman as Warmaster rather than Horus. Horus knew that some, both Primarchs and high ranking officers, believed Guillimanhh to be a better leader than him, and so this created in Horus a burning hatred for Guilliman and a desire to undermine his efforts. In fact, on a number of occasions, Horus did indeed sabotage Roboute Guilliman or his forces, making him fail when he might have otherwise been victorious. The Emperor, heeding the word of Horus above all others, believed that it was Guilliman's compassion and sentimentality which lead to his loses, not Horus' actions. Guilliman himself was soon able to discern that Horus was working against him and so never trusted Horus form that time on. In fact, when Horus finally declared war against the Emperor, Guilliman was better prepared than most and was able to mitigate the damage of several major sneak attacks on loyalist targets.
During the rebellion, Horus and the Emperor's criticism of Guilliman that he was too soft hearted did turn out to have some basis in fact. Horus was able to draw Guilliman into a trap by mass murdering a number of civilian populations, taunting Guilliman with those deaths and forcing him to make strategic errors in order to stop Horus and save innocent lives.
When Roboute Guilliman finally fell into the trap, Horus and the Sons of Horus attacked. Horus arranged was able to get what he had wanted for many years, the opportunity to personally slay Roboute Guilliman. Horus and Roboute entered into personal combat. Each while Roboute Guilliman was a man of superb physical prowess with amazing skill in combat, he was no match for Horus who had been genetically engineered to be physically superior to any human and who had decided far more of his time to close combat than the relatively peaceful Guilliman. Horus toyed with his victim, making Guilliman's death slow and humiliating before finally striking him dead.
The survivors among Roboute's personal bodyguards managed to save his body and take it back to Maccrage where they placed it in a highly advanced stasis field, hoping that one day they could return their leader to life. To this day, his body remains in stasis in the Guilliman Shrine on Maccrage. Many people believe that when the time is right, the stasis field can be lowered and Roboute Guilliman will return to life and will take up the Emperor's mantle as leader of mankind. Until that day, the people of Maccrage venerate Roboute Guilliman and strive to uphold his ideals that have been passed down in his righting so - making the system of Ultramar unique within the Imperium, a region that respects the freedoms and right to self determination of the people.
