Without competent living relatives, he became a ward of the state. Orphans are prime material for the Imperial Guard, the ranks of the Commissar in particular, or one of the many other militant orders within the great war machine of the Imperium. Had he been born on Magnamar or one of the hundreds of worlds gifted with a Space Marine monastery, such a gifted youngster might have become a recruit of the Adeptus Astartes.