Frey said:

Finally Grand Moff Tarkin's past always intrigued me. If the Empire hasn't been around for that long, then was he once an officer loyal to the Old Republic? If so, was he always the hard-driving, militaristic, fear-will-keep-the-local-systems-in-line type of dude, or was he once a more humane man who got hardened and battered by the strife of the Clone Wars?

I imagine Tarkin was always a bastard, and the dog-eat-dogstar culture of the Empire finally let him climb the ranks, unhindered by his general bastardry.