Uriel Ventris

Captain Uriel Ventris is the young Captain of the Fourth Company of the Ultramarines Chapter of Space Marines and the main protagonist of the Black Library's Ultramarines series of novels.

Background
Captain Uriel Ventris was born on a subterranean mining world called Calth and chose to become an Ultramarines Neophyte when he came of age. He earned his way into the ranks of the Ultramarines through his bravery and devotion to the ideals of the Ultramarines' Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, though some, like his fellow Ultramarine Sergeant Learchus, questioned Uriel's committment to the Codex Astartes because his distant ancestor, Lucian Ventris, had been a Hero of the Ultramarines.

Personality
Uriel Ventris is a flexible military commander who due to the efforts of his mentor, Captain Idaeus, learned to think outside the confines of the Codex Astartes, the masterpiece of Roboute Guilliman and the manual of war that most Space Marine Chapters base their tactics, strategy and organization upon. Ventris appears to be a tenacious and honorable Space Marine who genuinely cares about the well-being of the average Imperial citizen. A notable example of this can be found when he saved Pavul, a member of the Erebus Defence Legion, during the Battle of Tarsis Ultra, after he had previously had his life saved by this particular soldier.

History
Uriel Ventris became Captain of the Fourth Company of the Ultramarines Chapter, once one of the twenty original Space Marine Legions of the First Founding, when its former captain, Idaeus, sacrificed himself during the Battle of Thracia, in a desperate last-ditch attempt to stop a Night Lords Chaos Marine offensive. Despite his initial disquiet at Idaeus' unorthodox methods, Ventris saw merit in them, and in time would become just as unconventional as his mentor.

Pavonis
Uriel's first mission was to Pavonis, a deeply troubled Imperial industrial world on the Eastern Fringes of the Imperium of Man. He was tasked with escorting an Adept of the Administratum, Ario Barzano, who was later revealed to be an Inquisitor in disguise, and ensuring his safety as the Adept attempted to restore order to an increasingly troubled and incompetent planetary government led by Governor Mykola Shonai. The troubles came from both humans and xenos alike. The Church of Ancient Ways, a secret and heretical organization, had plagued the planet by planting bombs in the world's manufactorums. In addition, a series of raids by the Dark Eldar had been on-going for six years. Ventris successfully handled both problems, defeating a civil insurrection by disgruntled Pavonis nobles and crushing the Dark Eldar and their human collaborator in the tomb of the C'tan known as the Nightbringer. Unfortunately for all the intelligent races of the galaxy, the Nightbringer escaped into the cosmos.

Tarsis Ultra
Ventris' next task was the defence of Tarsis Ultra, a world threatened by a splinter Tyranid Hive Fleet. In order to boost the strength of this system, Captain Ventris secured the aid of a company of Mortifactors, a Successor Chapter of the Ultramarines that was formed during the Second Founding. Despite the best efforts of the Ultramarines, the Mortifactors and Inquisitor Kryptmann of the Ordo Xenos, the outlying worlds of the system were lost and Tarsis Ultra itself almost overrun by the Tyranid swarms. Only the destruction of the Hive Fleet's controlling Norn Queen at the hands of Ventris and a Deathwatch kill-team saved the planet from destruction. But in destroying the Norn Queen, Ventris had deserted his men, and upon returning to Macragge, a furious Sergeant Learchus reported this breach of the Codex Astartes to the Chapter's leaders.

Medrengard
Ventris was spared the expected execution for his breach of Ultramarine values and instead given a Death Oath by Marneus Calgar: he and his faithful companion Sergeant Pasanius Lysane were to seek out "a place of dark iron" where twisted reflections of the Space Marines were being wrought. Shortly after departing Macragge, Ventris' starship was attacked by Warp entities directed by a daemon imprisoned inside a daemonengine called the Omphalos Daemonium. This resembled a huge, grotesque steam locomotive, which could travel between the Warp and realspace. The two Space Marines were seized and taken deep within the Eye of Terror on Medrengard, the Daemon World that was the home of the Iron Warriors Traitor Marines. The pair soon linked up with a band of renegade Space Marines and two surviving former Imperial Guardsmen, who were escaped slaves of the Iron Warriors. They became a self-styled guerilla band, engaging in hit-and-run attacks against the Iron Warriors. Ventris, Pasanius and the band of guerillas were eventually captured by Warsmith Honsou of the Iron Warriors, and after defying him, Ventris was "implanted" in the womb of a Daemonculaba. This combination of twisted technology with a daemonic form was a mechanism intended to accelerate the development of Chaos-twisted Space Marine clones in the labs under Honsou's fortress who were intended to refill the ranks of the Iron Warriors Legion. These were also the mutated creatures that Uriel and Pasanius had been tasked with destroying in the first place. At the same time, Honsou was under siege by rival Iron Hands Warsmiths for refusing to hand over their share of untainted Space Marine gene-stock taken after the invasion of an Imperial facility on Hydra Cordatus. As the fighting raged, Ventris and Pasanius managed to get free and succeeded in destroying Honsou's labs and his fortress, although in order for this to happen they had to release a captive Khornate Daemon Prince. The Khornate Daemon Prince then annihilated the rival daemon it had previously imprisoned in the Omphalos Daemonium, destroyed Honsou's fortress and minions, and attacked Honsou's rivals, driving them away. Later, Uriel, Pasanius, and a group of the so-called Unfleshed, mutant rejects of the Iron Warriors' experiments to make Space Marines, escaped from the Eye of Terror on the Omphalos Daemonium.

Salinas
However the daemonengine brought them to a troubled world called Salinas, and more specifically to a forbidden zone that reeked of death. Ventris and Pasanius were then confronted by the veteran Imperial Guard Regiment that ruled the planet as a gift of conquest, and the suspicious and ruthless Planetary Governor, the regiment's ex-commander. They requested help in reaching Macragge, but their astropathic transmission was intercepted by the Grey Knights, who were monitoring Salinas for other reasons. A squad of them arrived on the planet, arrested Ventris and Pasanius, and after grueling physical, mental and spiritual trials declared them untainted by their exposure to Chaos during the events on Medrengard. In the meantime, it was revealed that a powerful psyker had likely brought the Omphalos Daemonium to Salinas in order to use the Unfleshed as an instrument of revenge against the governor and his former regiment. The reason was vengeance for the regiment's murder of tens of thousands of civilians, the whole population of a town that was the birthplace of many leaders of a small-scale guerilla campaign. The campaign itself had been caused by the brutality and heavy-handedness of the Imperial Governor. This ravished town was the forbidden zone the Ultramarines had first found themselves in when they arrived on Salinas. After being possessed by the psyker, the Unfleshed went on a killing rampage, but they were eventually killed by Uriel, Pasanius, and the Grey Knights, who subsequently dropped off the Ultramarines at Macragge.

Return to Pavonis
Having successfully completed their Death Oath, Uriel and Pasanius were welcomed back to the homeworld of their Chapter but were subjected to interrogation and tests by the Chief Librarian to insure they had not been tainted by their time on the daemon world of Medrengard. After both Uriel and Pasanius were deemed free of taint, Uriel was reinstated as Captain of the Ultramarines' Fourth Company and given the opportunity to prove himself in the eyes of those who still doubted him by returning to the world of Pavonis and defending it from Tau invaders. Pasanius was not so fortunate, as he was demoted a rank and forced into one hundred days of isolation from the Chapter. This was for for hiding the regenerative abilities of his bionic arm, which he had gotten after the C'tan called the Nightbringer had scythed off his biological arm during the earlier mission on Pavonis. Apparently because of this, the bionic arm had become infused with the Necron's living metal substance called necrodermis. After one hundred days he was to be reinstated into the Fourth Company and rejoin his captain.

Ultramar
In the meantime, the Warsmith Honsou was consumed by hate for Ventris and the Ultramarines following the events on Medrengard and the destruction of his mutant Space Marine incubation experiments. He hatched a plan to annihilate the Ultramarines, and especially Uriel Ventris. As bait, he used a stolen Mechanicus virus to turn Tarsis Ultra, the world the Ultramarines had vowed to protect, into a Dead World. He had assembled a large invasion force, which apart from his Iron Warrior warband, included Chaos cultists, Traitor Marines and Guardsmen, Dark Eldar pirates, Kroot and other alien and human mercenaries, a Dark Mechanicus force led by traitor Magos Cycerin, and a multitude of criminals, psychopaths and killers. Honsou managed to find and board a star fort hidden for the previous 60 years in the depths of uncharted space in the Ultramar System, guarded by an Ultramarine contingent. He slaughtered the Ultramarine garrison and then freed the powerful daemon lord M'kar, secretly held captive at the fort. The daemon (previously the Dark Apostle Maloq Kartho of the Word Bearers who had originally attacked Ultramar during the Horus Heresy) was imprisoned by Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, with the help of the Inquisition. M'kar hated the Chapter and the Imperium of Man with a passion. Aligning with Honsou, the daemon donned a desecrated Ultramarine Terminator suit, turned the star fort into a Chaos abomination linked directly to the Warp, and called forth a huge daemon army to join in attacking the worlds of Ultramar.

Honsou had managed to acquire a clone of Uriel, known as the "Newborn", while Uriel was in the womb of the Daemonculaba. The Newborn was a psychic as well as physical clone of Uriel. As such, he had fragments of Uriel's knowledge, including some of the Ultramar defense protocols, which Honsou first used to attack the star fort, and then the Ultramar System. The whole Chapter rose in defense, aided by a Mechanicus contingent under Magos Locard, the warband of Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Suzaku, a squad of Raven Guard Marines, the mobilized Ultramar PDF regiments, and many civilians. The war raged on several Ultramar worlds, at least one of whom was destroyed. Finally Uriel confronted the Newborn (and Honsou), on Calth, his planet of birth. There Honsou had gone, at the request of M'kar, to the Tomb of Ventanus (a hero Ultramarine who was known as Calth's savior) to destroy Ventanus' sarcophagus and his wargear. Uriel killed the Newborn using a blade that was part of Ventanus wargear, and in the battle that followed Honsou's more numerous force was defeated thanks to the appearance of spectral guardians of the Tomb. However Honsou instead of escaping detonated the explosives the Iron Warriors had previously placed, collapsing the tomb. Uriel and some of his fellow warriors survived and headed to Talassar, an Ultramar world where M'kar and his daemon army were close to overrunning Chapter Master Calgar and his dwindling forces. Uriel and other friendly reinforcements arrived in the midst of a final battle. Ventris tossed the blade of Ventanus to Calgar as the Chapter Master was duelling with M'Kar, and Calgar used it to completely annihilate the daemon lord.

With the daemon army and Honsou's forces defeated, the Imperial forces engaged in mopping up operations, and within six months, the System was declared enemy-free. Ominously, although the ruins of the Tomb of Ventanus were searched thoroughly, Honsou's body was never recovered.