Cole

Cole is a trooper of the Tanith First-and-Only Imperial Guard regiment, serving under Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt in the Gaunt’s Ghosts chronicles.

The Tanith First-and-Only was raised on the forest world of Tanith and evacuated as Chaos forces overran the planet on the eve of the regiment’s departure for Imperial service. Because Tanith itself was destroyed in the course of that evacuation, the regiment could draw no further reinforcement from its homeworld, giving rise to its designation as the "First-and-Only". Cole is recorded among the regiment’s rank-and-file troopers who served through its subsequent campaigns across a succession of warzones, drawing on the fieldcraft, stealth and close-quarters skills for which Tanith-trained soldiers, including their traditional use of the long-knife, were known. Accounts place him among the ordinary infantrymen of Gaunt’s command rather than in a distinguished or command role, and later tradition within the chronicles associates him with the day-to-day soldiering and small-unit actions typical of the regiment’s scouts and line troopers.

Cole’s standing rests on his function as a representative figure of the Tanith First-and-Only’s enlisted ranks rather than on any singular feat attributed to him individually. As one of the surviving Tanith who continued to serve after the loss of their homeworld, he forms part of the broader body of troopers whose continued presence illustrates the regiment’s cohesion and endurance under Gaunt’s leadership.