Gregor Eisenhorn

Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn is a fictional character in the science-fantasy game Inquisitor by Games Workshop. He was one of the original characters created for the Inquisitor game, with a short biography, illustrations of the character, rules, and a sculpted miniature. Eisenhorn subsequently became the protagonist in a trilogy of novels entitled the Eisenhorn Trilogy written by Dan Abnett.

Originally a rigidly puritanical member of the Imperial Inquisition (specifically Ordos Xenos), the height of Eisenhorn's early career was the hunting and destruction of the renegade Inquisitor Quixos. At first disgusted by Quixos and his dabbling with demons, Eisenhorn appears to miss the irony when he later makes a pact with the demon Cherubael.

By the end of the trilogy, Eisenhorn is at least eight hundred years old, an age not unheard of. 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. (Nota bene: It also relies on the assumption that Eisenhorn is still alive by the time of the 13th Black Crusade.)

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.

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.

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, who at that point was 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 psychic energy, which effectively blocks out all psykers in the 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 Naval Security and assisted by the newly founded 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, a sudden disturbance occurs 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 pursuing the Glaws, 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 Glaws from acquiring an ancient tome of Chaos lore 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. 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 was found kneeling nearby, near a pillar of stone. Heldane informs Eisenhorn that Dazzo used his prodigious psychic powers to compose a 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 lower 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 psychic null repels Molitor and 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".)

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.

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 judgement. 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 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 deamonhost to kill everyone. A battle ensued, which ended with Lyko being killed by Cherubael who then disappeared with the psyker.

Eisenhorn was then lead to Cadia due to the investigative work of Godwyn Fischig, who got word of a Cherubael sighting. On Cadia they then found a connection between the demonhost and a long forgotten Inquisitor named Quixos. But the team ran into another daemonhost called Prophaniti, and endeavoured to subdue it. But their efforts were derailed when Inquisitor Osma of the Ordos Malleus arrived and arrested Eisenhorn for consorting with a daemonhost, and despite the plea of everyone around him he was locked up awaiting trial. After three months of interrogation, with the help of Fischig’s clever thinking, he is broken out and goes on the run. He is declared Heretic and Extremis Diabolus by the Inquisition, but it does not dampen his resolve.

Struggling with his agents, to lay hidden, he then makes it to Cinchare, Eisenhorn is looking for Gerrad Bure, a tech priest he befriended a while ago, and on the world the miners appear friendly, although are corrupted, and Eisenhorn, Medea and Aemos are forced to flee to the undeground tunnels where they meet Bure. After being reunited, they are attacked by a chaos creature, and hordes of miners. Eisenhorn searches to find the source of the corruption and finds the Lith, a rock corrupted by Chaos, which is destroying the minds of the miners.

Characters

Gregor Eisenhorn

The protagonist.

Alizebeth Bequin

A girl found working during a case on the planet of Hubris, Bequin was inducted into Eisenhorn's retinue mainly because she is a Pariah, or Untouchable. Untouchables cause feelings of uneasiness at best in normal people (which tends to mean that Untouchables live generally unhappy lives), but for Psykers, this effect is far more pronounced. The discomfort extends even up to a physical level.

During the course of the trilogy, Eisenhorn gradually finds himself falling in love with Bequin, which presented a dark 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.

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 that Eisenhorn is able to go to her side and confess his feelings for her.

Uber Aemos

Eisenhorn's old friend, and savant. Aemos contracted a meme-virus at an early age, which forces him to remember everything he witnesses to the smallest detail, and to never end his thorough search for knowledge. Near the end of Hereticus, Aemos dies after binding Cherubael to the lifeless body of Fischig. His last words are "Most perturbatory."

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.

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.

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.
• Thorpe, Gavin. "Inquisitor Rulebook" (PDF). Games Workshop. Retrieved 2006-08-15.