Gregor Eisenhorn
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Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn is a fictional character in for the science-fantasy game Inquisitor by Games Workshop. Eisenhorn was originally a character in the Eisenhorn trilogy of novels written by Dan Abnett. He was one of the original characters created for the Inquisitor game, each of which was accompanied by a short biography and description, illustrations of the character, a set of game statistics showing how that character made use of the game's rules, and a sculpted miniature figurine which was available for players to buy, assemble and paint.
The history outlined for Eisenhorn in that book described his early career as a rigidly puritanical member of the Imperial Inquisition, a ruthless and secretive organisation policing threats to the human Imperium in the setting shared by the Inquisitor and Warhammer 40,000 games. The height of Eisenhorn's career was the hunting and destruction of a renegade Inquisitor named Quixos, who had dabbled too much with daemons and "warpcraft" and been corrupted into heresy. Eisenhorn, the book went on to explain, was known to be drifting in such a direction himself as he grew older, with rumours that he had made pacts with a daemonic creature named Cherubael, and now in his elder years Eisenhorn was beginning to be regarded as a heretical threat himself.
Eisenhorn is an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, and follows the doctrine of the Amalathians (though because of his relationship with the daemon Cherubael, most Puritan Inquisitors would consider him a textbook example of the Xanthite faction).
At this time, chronologically, Eisenhorn is at least eight hundred years old, uncommon but not remarkable due to the advanced medical technology available to the upper classes within the Imperium. This relies on the first book happening in c.40,240AD and that Eisenhorn is forty-two. It also relies on the current chronology that implies that the thirteenth black crusade occurs during 40,999AD.[1]
Contents |
[edit] The Eisenhorn Omnibus
Dan Abnett tells the story of Gregor Eisenhorn's life through the first person in a series of three books (Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus) that have been subsequently released as an omnibus, called simply, Eisenhorn.
[edit] Early life
Gregor Eisenhorn was born 198. M41, on DeKere's World. Eisenhorn was mentored by the staunchly puritan Inquisitor Hapshant. It was here that Eisenhorn picked up the puritan views that he would hold in his early career. Titus Endor was another student of Hapshant, and it was here that Endor and Eisenhorn met and became friends. At the age of 24, he became a full Imperial Inquisitor. Before the events of Xenos, he is known to have employed Uber Aemos, a savant, Midas Betancore, a pilot, Lores Vibben, a soldier and Eamanda, an undercover operative.
[edit] Xenos
When the events of Xenos begin, Eisenhorn describes himself as being 42 standard years old; young by comparison to many inquisitors. He is a moderately powerful psyker, and has prowess with a blade. He describes himself as being a puritan, specifically an Amalathian. Eisenhorn is hunting a recidivist by the name of Murdin Eyclone on the frozen world of Hubris. Eisenhorn kills Eyeclone in the opening passages. Eisenhorn remains on Hubris in an attempt to trace Eyclone's employers. It is here that he meets both Godwin Fischig, then an officer in the local Adeptus Arbites, and Alizebeth Bequin, then a prostitute hired by the men Eisenhorn is chasing. Eisenhorn tells Bequin she is an Untouchable (a generator of negative pschic energy, i.e. she effectively blocks out all psykers in her immediate vicinity), and enlists her services. Bequin and Fischig both become essential members of Eisenhorn's entourage; Bequin for her psychic-blankness, and Fischig for his shrewd, hard-working, and dependable attitude.
Eisenhorn traces Eyclone's employment to House Glaw (a heretical house with ties to Slaanesh) of the planet Gudrun in the Helican Sub-Sector. He infiltrates the house one night after posing as a grain merchant and discovers the "The Pontius." It is the psychic consciousness of Pontius Glaw, a heretic servant of Chaos over 500 years old, trapped in an orb in one of the dungeons of House Glaw. Eisenhorn is knocked unconscious by the psychic force of the Pontius, and later awakens chained to a torture rack. He is subsequently tortured for information by a House Glaw servant, Gorgone Locke, who uses a nerve-penetrator device to render Eisenhorn's face permanently expressionless. Eisenhorn, Bequin, and Fischig are then placed in Roman-esque coliseum by Lord Glaw to be fed to a group of carnodons (evolved saber-toothed tigers). They escape via the attack, and ensuing chaos, of Pacification 505 - the purification of House Glaw by the 50th Gudrunites of the Imperial Guard, who had been alerted to their dire situation by Eisenhorn's pilot Midas Betancore.
Before Eisenhorn can travel to Damask to seek out those who escaped Pacification 505, strange happenings begin in the Helican sub-sector (later known as the Helican Schism): there is a sudden rash of bombings on Thracian Primaris, the capital world, a passenger vessel bound for Hesperus is seized and destroyed, and a toxin decimates one of Messina's Hive-cities. Then, the battleship Ultima Victrix explodes at anchor in orbit. This results in a short period of time in which the hallowed Battlefleet Scarus wages war upon itself, and in the process, a 14-ship frigate group under the command of a certain Captain Estrum makes a system jump claiming pursuit. These diversionary tactics are used by the arch-enemy of mankind to divert the Imperium's attention from an imminent transaction. Still in pursuit of the Glaw's Eisenhorn travels through several worlds, eventually ending up on KCX-1288, a world with strange angles and a star entering supernova. On the inside of this planet, he stops the Glaw's gaining an aincient device called the Necroteuch from the aliens called the Saruthi. After a lengthy battle, ending with the wounding of Fishig, the deaths of Oberon Glaw and an Emperor's Child Chaos marine by the name of Mandragore, and the destruction of the Necroteuch. Eisenhorn finds out after his ordeals that Estrum is in league with the heretics (including House Glaw), and thus follows him on the Essene to a 56-Izar, a world populated by the Saruthi.
The Inquisition is then led to the Saruthi planet in hopes of stopping the heretics from obtaining the Saruthi copy of the Necroteuch, a heretical book of Chaos. The Inquisition has the backing of Battlefleet Scarus and the Deathwatch Chapter of the Space Marines. Moving through the jungle, Eisenhorn, after his Space Marine escort had killed another Chaos Space Marine, comes upon a battlefield in which Heldane is laying, injured badly. Dazzo is kneeling nearby, near a pillar of stone. Heldane informs Eisenhorn that Dazzo used his prodigious psychic powers to release the primer for the Necroteuch, which is the only way the Saruthi language will be decoded. Eisenhorn takes the primer and continues with Betancore and Bequin. Eisenhorn stumbles upon the Saruthi Necroteuch which is being held by Gorgone Locke and after a brief struggle with him and his men, Locke's bottom half of his torso is crushed by an alien pillar. Molitor then shows his true colours, and stops Eisenhorn from destroying the Necroteuch. However, Bequin moves in, and her untouchable force enables Eisenhorn to escape, with the primer, to the roof of the Saruthi edifice. He is confronted by Molitor, who Eisenhorn kills, but the final servant of Molitor reveals himself to be the blank-eyed man Eisenhorn had been dreaming of, a daemonhost named Cherubael. Eisenhorn decides to crush the primer beneath his boot, and is saved by his gun-cutter. He escapes before the Exterminatus, which Molitor had ordered, is enacted. (In Maleus and Hereticus this ordeal, is referred to as the "affair of the necroteuch".)
[edit] Missing in Action
Eisenhorn lost his left hand during an investigation on Sameter. This investigation had started with the discovery of bodies found murdered in a ritual manner, with their eyes plucked out, spine extracted, brain removed, and hands and tongue cut away. At first believing the killings to be of standard heretical nature, Eisenhorn approached the investigation as a purge of some chaotic cult. Soon, however, it was revealed that the culprits were ex-soldiers of the Imperial Guard. These former soldiers of the Ninth Sameter Infantry had been driven mad by the horrors they had faced in war, and were ritually killing regular citizens. The now-fanatical ex-riflemen thought they were serving the Golden Throne by killing anyone they thought was in any way related to the vile forces of Chaos. In their twisted minds, they could only see heretics in the guise of their fellow citizens. With squads of Adeptus Arbites, Eisenhorn managed to corner the fanatics in an abandoned and decaying building that they had converted into an Imperial temple. There, a firefight broke out and Eisenhorn lost his hand to an experienced former-sharpshooter. All of the remaining members of the Sameter Ninth were killed after fighting to the last man, serving the Emperor until death.
[edit] Malleus
This book took place ninety eight years after the incident concerning the Necroteuch. Eisenhorn was on Lethe Eleven chasing the accursed xenophile Beldame Sadia. He had with him a worthy band of agents under his employment, above those agents were Bequin and Gideon Ravenor, an interrogator by then. A battle ensued in the early passages which ended with the death of Sadia and also several of Eisenhorn's agents, most notably Arianrhod Esw Sweydyr, the wielder of Barbarisater. Eisenhorn himself also almost perished under the hands of Arnaut Tantalid (a member of the Adeptus Ministorum, he believes Eisenhorn to be a heretic). But the quick actions of Medea Betancore, the daughter of Midas stopped Tantalid. Midas at this point is long dead, having been killed by the heretic Fayde Thuring, who escaped judement. Eisenhorn was then summoned to Thracian Primaris for the celebration to Honour Warmaster Honorius and his victory in the Ophidian Campaign. But his summon was for more than the celebration, he finds this out from his friend Titus Endor and Lord Rorken. Cherubael had spared an inquisitor's life thinking it was him; this had gotten rumours flying about him being a heretic and he was under the watchful eyes of the Ordos Malleus.
A parade was organized during the celebration to honour the victory of the campaign. The parade consisted of all the different forces of the Imperium along with the prisoners from the campaign: it was attended by an incredible number of citizens. When Eisenhorn’s section reached the Spatian Gate, a monument to honour the late Admiral Lorpal Spatian, he felt compelled to stop, leaving Ravenor and the procession to move on. Fortunately that’s when disaster struck, eight Lightning fighters lost control and crashed into the crowd. Three more then proceeded to open fire into the crowd, and were taken out by other armaments in the parade. But the damage had already been done, the prisoners broke free and a shoot-out ensued between the captives and their captors. Amongst those released were psykers of level alpha and above. These psykers caused a lot of damage, especially one known as Esarhaddon who controlled hundreds of Imperial citizens as puppets, using them against the Imperium. He was incinerated in front of Eisenhorn by a plasma shot from Inquisitor Lyko… or so it seemed. In the ensuing aftermath, it became clear how much the attack had cost the Imperium, to Eisenhorn it came in the form of Ravenor. He was caught at the edge of the explosion of one of the Lightning fighters. He suffered 100% burns which made him paralysed, blind, deaf and mute. It can be argued now that if not for this incident Gideon Ravenor may not have become the force he later became, contributing vastly to Imperial Learning. But it was because of him Eisenhorn swore to find out who was the cause of this a tragedy.
Information then got to him attention that it was not actually Esarhaddon that was killed by Lyko. He tried to confront Lyko about this but he had already left that planet, this made Eisenhorn suspicious of him. He tracked his fellow Inquisitor to Eechan where he and his agents posed as a twist who wanted purchase a psyker. They were lead to the outskirts of the main town where they and other buyers had to bid for the psyker. Eisenhorn placed the highest bid almost immediately which shocked most of the bidders except one who revealed himself to be Cherubael. Lyko then revealed himself ordering the daemonhost to kill everyone. Eisenhorn loses his power sword by attacking Cherubael, breaks his wrist, and is knocked out. Upoing awakening a few minutes later, he sets after Lyko in a speeder, and in a processing plant, kills his henchmen and almost finds out who Lyko is working for, although Cherubael reappears, kills Lyko and escapes with Esharhaddon.
Eisenhorn then makes his way to Cadia, and with the help of Fishig and Inquistior Meve, tries to find out the purpose of the great pylons on Cadia, during which they find out that their enemy is in fact ex tainted inquisitor, Quixos.. During one of his check ups with his team, Eisenhorn is ambushed by a cult led by a daemonhost, who he believes to be Chrubael, but is in fact Prophanti, also under control by Cherubaels master, Quixos. After a long fight, Prophanti is forced to posess one of Eisenhorn's team, and flees. Eisenhorn is then captured by the inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus, led by Heldane, inquisitor Voke's greatest deciple.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Gregor Eisenhorn
The protagonist.
[edit] Alizebeth Bequin
During the course of the trilogy, Eisenhorn gradually finds himself falling in love with Bequin, which presented a darkly humorous irony to their relationship; as Eisenhorn himself points out at one point, to be with an Untouchable would cause himself, a psyker, terrible pain (indeed, during one undercover operation where they portray a particularly lustful couple, Eisenhorn is simultaneously struck with the desire that comes with Bequin being physically close to him, and the terrible pain at her unconscious and uncontrollable psychic nulling abilities that assault his delicate psyker senses).
In a supremely tragic twist near the end of the series, Bequin is critically injured and is placed in stasis, deep in a coma. It is only when she is unconscious and unable to respond--and, ironically again, when her Untouchable abilities are no longer active--that Eisenhorn is able to go to her side and confess his feelings for her, even though he knows she cannot hear him.
[edit] Appearance
In his early life Gregor Eisenhorn is clean-shaven with dark eyes and even darker thick hair. He himself considers his physical appearance of little merit but his service to the God Emperor of Mankind paramount. His left hand is an organic replacement after he lost the original on Sameter. He has no facial expression as a result of nerve damage inflicted during torture by the heretic and rogue trader Gorgone Locke early on in the series. The skull on his rune staff, created by the late Tech Magos Geard Bure, is an exact duplicate of Eisenhorn's skull and carved from a sentient tele-empathic crystal called the Lith. At the end of the third book in the trilogy, Hereticus, Eisenhorn was wielding a Carthaen blade called Barbarisater. In the short story Thorn Wishes Talon, he was again seen with the blade during a meeting with his former pupil Ravenor on Malinter, where he destroyed a dreadnought with his blade.
[edit] Origins of the Character
To coincide with the release of the Inquisitor game the Black Library, part of Games Workshop's publishing arm, released a three-volume account of Eisenhorn's life written by successful author, Dan Abnett. Abnett had become interested in the idea of such a story after seeing early concept art from the Inquisitor game (in particular a piece named "Inquisitor Tannenberg" by the artist John Blanche) and went on to write what many regard as the Black Library's standout series.
The trilogy consisted of the books Xenos (Abnett, 2001a), Malleus (Abnett, 2001b) and Hereticus (Abnett, 2002). The books are named after the three major divisions of the Inquisition, the Ordo Xenos, the Ordo Malleus and the Ordo Hereticus, and the titles also played off the themes of the books themselves. There are also the short stories Missing in Action, which is set between Xenos and Malleus, and Backcloth for a Crown Additional, set between Malleus and Hereticus. The trilogy, written in first person, added much more depth to the character and his life, presenting his slide into corruption as a consequence not of simple moral decay but as the result of a cumulative series of choices, each of which looked harmless or justified at the time. The relationship with Cherubael is also ambiguous: Eisenhorn hates the daemon at their first encounter, but arguably hates him just as much by the end of the series – their "pact" is a far more complicated understanding than that.
The end of the Eisenhorn books was designed to bring the character to the point at which he is described in the Inquisitor rulebook, so that players can then create his further exploits for themselves if they wish. Although many readers have asked for more Eisenhorn stories, for the moment Abnett is continuing with a spinoff series about Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor, a crippled psychic genius who appeared as a secondary character in the Eisenhorn books. Ravenor does have some contact with Eisenhorn, however, in the short story Thorn Wishes Talon which is found as part of a collection in the book What Price Victory.
The trilogy has since been re-released as a single compendium volume (Abnett, 2004), complete with the three stories, two connecting short stories, and a foreword by the author.
[edit] Notes
- ^ It should be noted that, on many timelines and in the Daemonhunters Codex, Inquisitor Eisenhorn is stated to have declared Quixos Extremis Diabolus in 342. M35. This is incorrect. According to the novelization, Eisenhorn defeated Quixos in M41.
[edit] References
- Abnett, Dan (2001a). Xenos. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 0-7434-1169-2.
- Abnett, Dan (2001b). Malleus. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 1-84154-204-0.
- Abnett, Dan (2002). Hereticus. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 1-84154-236-9.
- Abnett, Dan (2004). Eisenhorn. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 1-84416-156-0.
