Saruthi

The Saruthi are an alien race briefly encountered in the Eisenhorn trilogy of novels. In fact, their appearance is one of the rare occasions that Eisenhorn comes into direct conflict with an alien species, which is rather odd given that he's a member of the Ordo Xenos. Moving on...

Overview

The Saruthi are an ancient race, and prior to the rise of the Imperium they held a small empire of about forty worlds. Sometime after their first contact with humanity the Saruthi came into possession of the Necroteuch, a powerful reservoir of Chaos knowledge. The Saruthi saw the arcane knowledge contained within the Necroteuch as their means to fend off the much more powerful Imperium. While the Saruthi civilization did indeed survive (after a fashion), the Necroteuch extracted a horrific price. The artifact's corruption was so powerful that their souls, minds, and even their genetic code were irrevocably altered. A civil war also erupted, although it is unclear whether this was a Chaos-driven power struggle or whether some of the Saruthi finally realized that the price of using the Necroteuch was too high to pay. In the end, it mattered not; the Saruthi empire was drastically diminished. And while the Necroteuch had taught them how to bend reality itself, the remaining Saruthi were reduced to twisted, mutated, vile creatures. What remained of the Saruthi civilization survived in this manner until the end of the 41st millennium. In a final cruel twist of fate, it was their use of the Necroteuch (and by extension, their exposure to Chaos) that eventually drew the Imperial Inquisition's attention and led to their destruction.

Biology and Abilities

The Saruthi of the 41st millennium are grotesque beings. Humans encountering them for the first time are often psychologically shaken by their powerful, yet clearly unnatural form. The average Saruthi, if there is such a thing, is approximately two meters tall and twice as heavy as a male human. Their bodies are vaguely crustacean or arachnoid in appearance, with a flat, gray torso, a thick, boneless neck, and a rather oblate, eyeless head. Their five limbs are arranged around their bodies in an asymmetrical, seemingly random manner. They use human-like digits at the ends of these limbs to clutch silver walking stilts, which enhances their size even further. Even the manner in which the Saruthi walk is disturbing, because their limbs do not ambulate in any particular order.

When communicating with humans the Saruthi interlace their fingers to form an extremely unnerving representation of a human face, just like the creatures in every Guillermo Del Toro movie. They also possess an inherent ability to discharge powerful energy bolts. Fortunately, the Saruthi are still living creatures and are thus vulnerable to physical damage. They bleed a grey fluid when wounded.

The Saruthi lack any sense of sight or hearing. Instead they perceive the world through extremely developed senses of touch, smell and taste. Their exposure to the Necroteuch allows them to perceive and work with four-dimensional spaces called "tetrascapes." Being a four-dimensional construct a tetrascape possesses an unnatural and disorienting lack of symmetry that is very unpleasant for humans to experience. Since the Saruthi lack starships the tetrascapes serve as their manner of travelling between worlds, much like the Webway, although how they accomplish this feat is not understood.

The Saruthi were observed utilizing a lesser slave-race that vaguely resembled the Saruthi themselves. Whether these were the debased descendants of the losers in their civil war or were a different species entirely is not known.

Legacy

During the events of the Eisenhorn trilogy the Saruthi world of 56-Izar was invaded by an Inquisitorial task force in order to destroy the Saruthi's copy of the Necroteuch. After the artifact was destroyed the planet was subjected to Exterminatus. Following this event no further contact ever occurred between the Imperium and the Saruthi. Given their already diminished population and their adverse reaction to the destruction of the Necroteuch itself (insofar as it could be observed in the moments before their world was destroyed), it is likely that the Saruthi were completely annihilated.