An accessible primer into Warhammer's Eisenhorn
This is a better entry point than XENOS.
Earlier this year I read my second WH40k novel, XENOS, which is the start of the Eisenhorn trilogy. I’ve heard people describe the Eisenhorn character as Warhammer’s James Bond. He’s an Inquisitor, so it’s his job to go around the Imperium and find stuff that breaks the divine laws or whatever, and set it right.
XENOS had a lot of worldbuilding under it that I didn’t quite understand. To make matters worse, the audio quality is low, and plays at a lower volume than normal. I missed a fair amount of it while I was working. Thus I bought the paperback omnibus of all the Eisenhorn stories, which includes the core trilogy, some short stories, and a follow-up volume.
The first story in chronological order is REGIA OCCULTA, Latin for “hidden way.” I thought it meant “hidden kingdom” but it seems like the root word reg has a few different meanings. In it, Eisenhorn is checking out a case on a backwater planet, and when he’s done, he has to wait to leave due to a naturally occurring series of electrical storms. While he’s waiting, the local police find the third in a strange series of murders wherein the victims all have their left ears chopped off.
Eisenhorn investigates. We see him use some of his magic/powers/whatever to contact the soul of a recent murdered whore. He gets just enough information from her to understand what happened—there’s a local bridge that’s mirrored in the (underworld, for lack of a better term) and demons/orcs/baddies are using it to enter the Imperium. Due to evil rites and stuff, they have to kill people and chop off their left ear power the hidden way.
It results in Eisenhorn destroying both the physical and the hidden bridge, then leaving the planet behind, safer than it was.
Cool. Quick and easy. I picked up some new terms and got a better grip on what can happen in this world. Ready for the next one.