| abstract | - Varro is a common enough name within the Ultima Segmentum and many of the heroes of the Ultramarines Chapter have borne it over the millennia. The parents of young Varro Tigurius could never have known the destiny of their quiet, respectful son, or that one day he would rise to become one of the most famous warriors in the galaxy. As they submitted their son to the marshals of induction, those ominous guardians who convey aspirants to the Fortress of Hera, they tearfully bade farewell to a stoic, but withdrawn child whose apparent awkwardness belied an enviable physical ability and a fearsome intellect. To the trained eye of the Chapter Librarians, who screen each and every aspirant, Varro Tigurius was obviously a psyker of rare potential, and so they kept a watchful eye as he flourished in each and every task set to him. Of particular interest to the Chaplains who oversaw the inductees, even at that early stage, was how Tigurius seemed prepared for the challenges set out, no matter how unusual. Epistolary Xephus surmised at the time that Tigurius was in some way cheating the drill sergeants and Chaplains. Forewarned of the Librarian's suspicions, the supervising Chaplain, one Ortan Cassius, then merely a junior Chaplain under the great Phaelan, tasked the aspirants with an unwinnable assignment. As the dozen other hopefuls struggled to load bolter rounds into weapons that had been prepared with stripped chambers and breaches milled fractionally too small, Tigurius calmly watched, weighing his choices. Eventually, he strode calmly to the waiting Cassius and, without fear in his eyes, looked upon the skull helm of the Chaplain and quietly told him that the challenge was impossible. Cassius, for his part seemed incensed. He bellowed at the recruit before him, his skull-faced battle helm augmenting the volume of his wrath till it reverberated off of the walls of the agoge with deafening force. In the face of such incandescent fury, almost any mortal would have quailed or fled. Not so Tigurius, who, prompted by the visions he had dreamed as he slept the night before knew just how to react. He simply knelt before the Chaplain until the apparent anger subsided. Then with a booming laugh, the Chaplain raised the aspirant to his feet. "You will do," he muttered, before striding from the room. Of course in this, as in many other matters, the young Tigurius proved unnaturally perceptive. Over time the battle-brothers of the Chapter Librarius ascertained the nature of Tigurius' rare talent. In addition to a prodigious psychic potential, they learned that Tigurius possessed the ability to foresee future events. This gift was exceptionally rare among the psykers of the Imperium and completely unprecedented within the ranks of the Ultramarines, and yet Tigurius was able to predict many future events, sometimes with such clarity that it was as if he had already witnessed them. The remainder of Tigurius' training served only to prove his natural ability to the Chapter. He fought with the skill of a natural warrior and his physical endurance was exceptional. On completion of his assessment, the Librarius welcomed the young Tigurius with open arms.
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