Hrud
The Hrud, (also spelt H'rud)[33] also known as the Temporaferrox[24b] or to the Eldar as Those Who Evade the Crone[30] and by the scientific name Troglydium hrudii[1]) are a mysterious xenos race. Described with terms such as chronomantic[23a] and chronophagic,[26b] they have the ability to manipulate the flow of time through both technological and biological means.[27]
Contents
History
The Imperium first encountered the Hrud during the Great Crusade.[8a] The earliest Imperial reports labeled them as the 'nocturnal warriors of Hrud', however Xenologist Janus Draik describes the Imperial records as being unclear on whether Hrud was intended as the name of their homeworld or the name of their species.[27] Some describe them as a nocturnal species.[32]
Timeline of known Hrud encounters
In 999.M30, the Iron Warriors were tasked with the Sak'trada Deeps Campaign to cleanse and secure the Sak'trada Deeps from Hrud warrens.[24a]
In 980.M35, a major Hrud war against the Imperium took place known as the Hrud Rising. The infestations led to the Dark Angels Chapter being deployed against them, but after clearing two of the designated three sectors they withdrew for their own mysterious reasons.[19]
In 101.M40, a Hrud migration forced an Ork Freeboota Klan from the Edge Void to desperately send their forces at the world of Haakonath where they engaged the Star Phantoms Chapter. The Space Marine forces fought against the Ork attackers and eliminated them thus believing that they had achieved a victory in the defence of their homeworld. However, the Hrud threat began to manifest with a vast temporal-warp rift that was surging into the star system from the outer void. At its vanguard came the massive Hrud migration force that were trapped within the rifts event horizon. Despite putting up a valiant defence, the Star Phantoms were fighting a lost cause. Every misshapen Hrud struck down after coalescing from the shadows was replaced by another dozen, distorting space with their very presence. The presence of the Hrud had notable impacts on Haakonath. The Astartes were forced to evacuate their homeworld, and they remain one of only a handful of Chapters who survived a full-scale Hrud migration alone.[8b]
In M41, Hrud overran the shrine world of Damhal, attracted by the rich veins of crystallised time held in the planet's stasis-crypts. Regiments of Mordian Iron Guard along with Sons of Medusa were dispatched. However, both were overcome by the Hrud's entropic fields. Two Deathwatch Watch Companies from Keep Extremis attacked the Hrud next and were led into battle by eight Deathwatch Dreadnoughts. It was these ancients who lead the final strike upon the Hrud's world warren and endured the accelerated ageing affects of the Hrud's entropic fields long enough to kill their leaders and collapse their tunnels. All eight of the Dreadnoughts were killed - recovered rusted with their biological remains inside reduced to nothing but dust.[26a]
The Battle of Tavalar occurred from 592-602 M41 where a Hrud infestation was combatted by Imperial Guard on Tavalar. The Kashann Xeno Riders played a pivotal role in defeating the xenos.[33]
A notable engagement with the Hrud came in 783.M41 during the Infestation of Ursula Spinal. The agri-world became subject to a migration. It quickly became infested with its plantations of hydro-crops turning to dust and its defenders ageing fifty years over the span of a few months due to the Hrud's innate entropic fields. To combat the threat, six regiments of Valhallan Ice Warriors made planetfall in order to purge the colony from the infestation. However, a full half of the regiments suffered premature ageing due to contact with the Hrud and were declared unfit for further duty.[7]
In 0.257.790.M41, a Hrud managed to infest the Emperor Class Battleship Paternus Gloriem. Indentured crewman Selebor Mathias managed to knock it unconscious, whereupon he was interrogated by the Inquisition with the specimen taken for study.[1]
In 844.M41[20], the Cinchare Hrud Infestation led to engagements with the 39th Cadian of the Imperial Guard on Cinchare [9a] This conflict saw the Hrud engage the 1st Company of the Dark Hands Chapter.[12]
Between 938-985.M41, Commander Ursarkar E. Creed is known to have fought a Hrud migration.[9b]
In M42, during the Fourth Tyrannic War the Hrud are known to be one of the many xenos species caught in the invasion, and either fought against or fled from the advancing Tyranids.[23b] Hrud DNA has yet to integrate with a hive fleet.[30]
Six Craftworlds and four Harlequin Grand Masques came to the defense of Those Who Evade the Crone within the Laevenir Archipelago as Hive Fleet Ouroboros threatened to consume them.[30] This battle continues as War Zone Laevenir.
Undated
The Liber Historica Vangelia accounts that noisome Hrud warrens were amongst the aliens cleansed by the Imperium during the early stages of the Great Crusade.[5a]
At some point, the Hrud are known to had infested Mortenken's World. They were driven from the holy city by the hands of Daenyathos, a legendary philosopher soldier of the Soul Drinkers.[17]
The Ultramarines battled the Hrud in the Battle of Ortecha IX which saw Battle Brother Olfric perish. He would be avenged by his comrades that ate the heart of his killer.[3]
A number of Hrud were present on Es'Tau and were encountered by the Last Chancers when they infiltrated the Tau Empire as mercenaries.[2]
Farseer Eldrad Ulthran is known to have participated in the prevention of a Hrud infestation of Craftworld Saim-Hann which would have reduced the proud vessel to rotten mulch.[11]
The Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Helynna Valeria is known to have treated with Eldar, Ulumeathi, Draxians, Hrud and scores of other xenos species in order to expand humanity's stores of knowledge.[10]
Numerous Hrud infestations are known to have plagued the region of the Maelstrom.[5b]
At some point, Hrud infested the Delphic mines of Mordant Prime leading to the conflict known as the Plague of Delphic. The 303rd Mordant Acid Dogs engaged the aliens and managed to eliminate them but they suffered heavy losses in the process.[13]
Fabius Bile stumbled into a Hrud migration aboard his ship the Vesalius. One of his most prominent New Men at the time, a gland-hound named Igori, slew one of the Hrud single-handed and took its skull as a trophy.[34]
Biology
Imperial Xenologists disagree on the physical appearance of the Hrud, with reports varying wildly.[27] The Hrud are notoriously difficult to observe or examine. They possess entropic fields which distort space and time around them, confounding attempts to observe them. Furthermore, upon death their entropic fields rapidly age and liquefy their bodies - making detailing the creatures next to impossible.[24a]
They have been described as being taller than a human, with bulging eyes occupied entirely by black pupils, mandibles in the corners of their mouths, clawed hands, moist skin with no hair, with articulated armour closely fitted to their flexible limbs.[24c][24d][Conflicting sources]. The strange arms of the hrud are articulated like a spine. It is unclear whether these arms end in or are simply equipped with shovel-like digging claws. Unarmed attacks with their arms move in a similar manner to a lashing whip strike.[28]
They have also been depicted as being crouched, diminutive creatures swathed in rags, their faces obscured by hoods, and possessing rat-like tails.[4][18][Conflicting sources]
Making it even more difficult to see their true form, they habitually hide beneath ragged cloaks, made of a misshapen morass of decomposing filth.[1][24d]
A dissection of an adult specimen by Magos Biologis Sharle Darvus revealed that their skeleton comprises few supporting bones but instead consists of multiple interlinked vertebrae-like structures, meaning their neck, spine, fingers and long limbs are all prehensile and can bend in any direction. Their skull was revealed to consist of a semi-silicone resin, with the rest of their skeleton showing evidence of a silicone compound.[1]
Dissection evidence reveals their bodies consist of multiple layers of tissue. The outer layers appear necrotic or artificial, consisting of dead skin, artificially introduced waste products, moulds and other organic matter. It was proposed this may serve multiple purposes, such as providing abundant heat from bacterial composting, providing protection as tissue layers act as absorptive padding against trauma, and allowing the production of toxic waste products.[1]
Dissection evidence also reveals Hrud have large scales, silicate in nature, forming armour. These are coated in fungal, bacterial and unknown structures. The scales appear to channel any toxic waste produced from dermal decomposition in other parts of the body, acting as a poison reservoir. Organic tubules then connect these scales to a Hrud’s fingers, presumably allowing excretion of poisons through the fingers.[1]
The Hrud have four fingers with extreme dexterity. Their fingertips are the sole area of their body where their true dermis is exposed from underneath layers of decomposing matter.[1]
The Hrud have been described as scuttling creatures,[26b] and have been observed to use three limbs for quicker movement, while carrying a weapon in their free hand.[24a]
They are noted as being a nocturnal race[6], and are known to be attracted to darkness similar to the Dark Eldar.[16] Dissection evidence suggests their eyes are adapted to a nocturnal and subterranean existence, displaying evidence of poor colour vision but extreme sensitivity to light. While they have an inferior smell compared to humans, evidence suggests they have superior hearing and balance.[1]
The female gender has a womb-like structure carried externally on a rudimentary tail.[1]
The Hrud have reported as having psyker shamans amongst their populations who perform techno-heretical Warpcraft.[31]
Ssaak
The most notable feature of the Hrud is their entropic fields known as Ssaak or "see mist".[1] These mysterious distortion fields surround every Hrud, not just their warriors,[24d] are biologically generated from the Hrud themselves[1], have been labelled as parasitic in function[26a], and alter the fabric of space-time with unpredictable effects.[24a]
The ssaak seem to serve multiple functions for the Hrud, including acting as a form of camouflage, ageing their surroundings and enfeebling their enemies, and providing a shield against attack. The ssaak bends light and time, making the Hrud appear as flickers of black at the heart of a column of shimmering air[24a] so that the Hrud can conceal themselves in darkness even while they’re in full light.[1] This ability makes the Hrud appear virtually invisible when stationary.[24a]
Other senses besides sight may be the most reliable for detecting a Hrud presence, as the ssaak appears to alter the composition of the atmosphere, thickening it with accelerated particular motion.[24a] Extreme temperature changes such as killing cold and unbearable heat are described as preceding the Hrud.[24d] While fighting the Hrud in the Sak'trada Deeps Campaign, the Iron Warriors noted that thermal vision was a more reliable method of detecting and targeting the Hrud, as the Hrud’s ssaak cause a massive heat bleed from their environment, although even in thermal vision, the Hrud were still found to be obscured by a thermal bloom of overclocked atomic activity.[24a] The bizzare time-dialatory effects have made the Hrud impossible for Farseers to track within their Skeins of Fate, earning them the name Those Who Evade the Crone in the Aeldari language.[30]
The ssaak have an extremely rapid ageing effect on the Hrud’s enemies. During the Sak'trada Deeps Campaign, when encountering the Hrud, the Iron Warrior Harrakis found the ceramite of his gauntlets pitting, as if left out in the elements for five thousand years. He fell down, as his disintegrating flesh poured from the rents opening up in his armour. His death was said to take place in less than a second.[24a] Fortreidon, another Iron Warrior who fought in the Sak'trada Deeps Campaign, found his armour underwent a century of decay in mere moments.[24a]
The ssaak also age the Hrud’s surroundings leading to objects such as crops turning to dust and Humans suffering from premature ageing.[7] The ageing effects are cumulative, growing stronger the more Hrud are in close proximity with one another.[24b] During mass migrations, the ssaak are capable of wreaking havoc on entire worlds just by the simple presence of the Hrud.[8b] During the Sak'trada Deeps Campaign, the Hrud were documented gathering in large numbers in natural watercourse tunnels which ran beneath an Iron Warriors fortress; this extended their combined ssaak to bathe the fortress in temporal radiation. The fortress rapidly aged and fell into disrepair, as if it had been left abandoned for long millennia. The Hrud then easily breached the worn, broken fortifications.[24d]
During their invasion of Haakoneth Hrud forces were able to conjure a temporal rift that slew many Star Phantoms with cruel angles of distortion and even blinded the Chapter Master Omadon Tiresias when a rogue time eddy speared through the bridge of his Battle Barge's Command Deck.[21]
The ssaak also act as a shield against attacks. Projectiles colliding with a ssaak will behave in unpredictable ways, often veering off course, accelerating to unbelievable speeds, detonating prematurely or coming apart in a rain of atoms.[24a]
The Hruds own artifacts and bodies seem to be immune from any ageing effects of their ssaak. However, when a Hrud dies its body will rapidly age and liquefy, presumably as it’s no longer protected from its own ssaak.[24a]
Society
The Hrud are a secretive race, often living in parallel with other races. In Imperial culture, rumours abound of secret societies beneath cities, beneath the engine-stacks of Imperial vessels and between the tiers of the most ancient hives. Such stories are often dismissed as tales of bogeymen meant to scare infants.[1]
The Hrud live in tunnel-cities, known as "Juuntak", often near the greatest centres of human population.[1] These subterranean tunnels stretch hundreds of kilometres through the rock of planets. Each chamber and tunnel of their warrens runs into the next, with doors rarely used. The walls of such tunnels have been described as glassily surfaced, seemingly impervious to the constant tremors that beset Hrud worlds.[24a] Within their warrens, known chambers built by the Hrud include worship chambers, family burrows, and archives.[1][24a][28]
They are a migratory race. A "Poh-ha" is a mass migration triggered by population growth. When the population of a single tribe reaches a particular level of saturation, a number of members schism by stowing away in the spaces of transports and Space Hulks to form new tribes in some distant place.[1] However, the Hrud also have migration ships of their own.[24e] The Hrud can also live a nomadic lifestyle, with entire nomadic nations having flourished in the areas between decks of Imperial vessels.[1]
They are a scavenger race, as exemplified by the Respectable Salvager's Nocturnal Consortium,[29] and experts at assembling a mongrel collection of weapons and devices from whatever resources they have at their disposal.[1]
They tend to be fiercely tribal, and ancestry and family-ties are all important to the Hrud. However, when groups split for a migration it is believed such groups rarely maintain contact, as they lack the means to do so. The Hrud are known to take other species such as Humans into their tribes where they're given the role of a "Zanhaad", a sort of slave-pet.[1] Genestealer Contagii are known to exist within Hrud communities.[15]
The Hrud are known to build archives. They have demonstrated an unparalleled fastidiousness in the field of record-keeping where they compile vast stores of historical, cultural and technical records.[1] These records are stored in their warrens within archive areas, which they treat as precious and will defend in battle against invaders.[24a] One of the items the Hrud will take on a migration is the "Raheed" or "Masstribe" which is the amassed knowledge of their tribe.[1]
Religion
According to the Hrud’s religion, their race were created by the Slah-haii who intended for them to bask in the sun and be fruitful, but were changed into a nocturnal scavenger race when their God Qah foresaw the dangers they would face.[1]
Hrud religion worships a benevolent pantheon of gods known as the Slah-haii or "most ancient" including Qah, as well as a horned hunter, a red-handed figure, a laughing jester, and a hammer-weilding artisan. Their gods entered into a war against the Yaam-khoh or "Mirror Devils" which saw all Slah-haii but Qah either slain, crippled or forced to flee.[1]
Their legends say that only a single member of the Slah-haii still exists known as Qah or "He Who Lingers". Around 500,000 years ago, Qah is said to have told the Hrud that he had other great works to attend to and disappeared. However, he said that he would return to reunite at the time of the "Raheed-skeh" which was the appointed time when the tribes would come together for a final battle against the Yaam-khoh.[1]
Inquisitor Maturin Ralei noted the similarity in the Hrud pantheon with other xenos species, including the Eldar.[1]
Technology
The Hrud are master scavengers, said to be able to assemble weapons and devices from whatever resources they have at their disposal.[1]
The most common ranged weapon wielded by the Hrud is a Fusil, which is a form of musket that uses phasic plasma technology[14][24a] or warp-plasma.[32] The plasma energy projected by such a weapon is green in colouration[24a] and blinks in and out of existence, phasing between realspace and the warp,[14] able to materialise inside of its target in order to bypass armour and destroy its victim from within.[24a] According to Inquisitor Kryptman, fusils are a simple symbiosis between melta and plasma technology that are able to fire columns of fire hotter than a star.[3] Fusils remain one of the few scant artifacts of the Hrud that occasionally come up for sale in the Imperium and were also in high demand. Those weapons that find themselves on the black market are modified to accept Imperial plasma cells though if the mechanism itself is badly damaged then it cannot be repaired by human hands.[14]
During the Sak'trada Deeps Campaign, the Hrud were seen to use various forms of other weaponry that could distort space-time. The Hrud created focused temporal vortices which could rapidly age their targets, rotting them from the inside out.[24c] They also possessed cannons able to shunt targets thousandths of a second along their own time stream and out of synchronicity with the planet's motion, causing victims to become fused with objects around them.[24c] They deployed melee warriors who wielded weapons described as twin blades of light smoking with entropic dissolution. The Iron Warriors who attempted to block such blades saw their own weapons immediately age and disintegrate after contact, while those unfortunate enough to be stabbed by such blades exploded as their bodies forced themselves into impossible shapes. Some Iron Warriors stabbed by such blades were even witnessed to rapidly age backwards, causing their bodies to reject their Space Marine implants.[24c] The Hrud also deployed other mysterious warriors and weapons. These included odd, flexible-limbed walkers armed with bulbous cannons[24d], warriors in suits of scabrous living armour, and strange things that may have been machine or flesh or both.[24c]
Hrud make use of crystaline prisms to store and convey information, etched through unknown means with internal character-glyphs.[1]
The Hrud also possess the ability to bottle their Ssaak and even barter it with other races in various non-Imperial interstellar markets.[22]
Interstellar Travel
The Hrud appear to utilise multiple forms of interstellar travel including a strange, warp-based technology that allows them to walk between worlds,[14] and space ships including Migration Ships, weird agglomerations of plated fungal matter,[24e] and vessels possessing their own entropic fields, comparable to the ssaak and capable of distorting space-time, ageing their surroundings, and acting as a shield against attacks.[24e]
The Hrud have a method of travel described as focused spears of temporal energy that propel themselves through space-time. During the Sak'trada Deeps Campaign as Gugann crumbled and the Hrud evacuated the planet, repeated Hrud foray parties boarded the Imperial ships as stowaways, traveling through space and entering the craft through some unknown means that breached the ship’s walls undetected. Imperial forces formed hourly purgation teams, sweeping out-of-the-way corners of the decks for infestations.[24e]
Finally, a massive Hrud ship was witnessed erupting from Gugann as the Hrud evacuated the dying planet. The ship was described as the size of a continent, breaking free from the planet by using the substance of the world itself as fuel. As the giant vessel became space-bourne, the migration ships formed a formation around it resembling a hollow cube. Painfully bright arcs of light leapt from the migration ships and joined them to the giant vessel. A moment later, all the Hrud vessels blinked out of existence. In the fleet’s place was a temporal collapse as their departure tore a hole in space-time. The Iron Warriors ships caught in the temporal wave created by the collapse were hit by unpredictable time distortion, some aged a million years in a moment, others found their crews aged to dust in seconds, still others accelerated backwards at unimaginable speed until they vanished or disappeared into disassociated particles.[24e]
Trivia
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In the Necromunda Zone Mortalis Underhive Market set (released 2021) which included a gun rack with a musket very closely resembling the Hrud Fusil depicted in the 6th and 3rd Edition Rulebooks.[25]
Conflicting sources
Sources conflict on the exact appearance of the Hrud. What is known singularly is the Hrud like to wear cloaks.
The Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Rulebook (published 1998) was the first published image of a Hrud - depicted as a crouched, diminutive creature swathed in rags, and possessing a rat-like tail.[4] This appearance recurred in the Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition Rulebook (published 2012) which included an image of a cloaked Hrud with rifle and tail.[18]
Xenology (Background Book) (published 2006) contradicts this appearance, with a tail-less upright swamp-monster style creature with long, flexible limbs said to hide its true form under a ragged cloak of decomposing filth[1]. This appearance is corroborated in Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia (Novel) (published 2017) [24c]
Liber Xenologis (published 2021) incorporated this idea of conflicting sources into the in-universe lore, stating from an in-universe perspective that there are wildly varying Imperial reports on the Hrud's physical appearance, and displaying a redacted entry in place of a Hrud figure.[27]
A 'Nocturnal Warrior of Hrud' from the Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Rulebook[4]
A similar looking Nocturnal Warrior of Hrud (bottom left) from the Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition Rulebook[18]
Redacted Hrud in Liber Xenologis[27]
See also
Videos
Sources
- 1: Xenology (Background Book) pg. 77-86
- 2: Kill Team (Novel), pg. 194
- 3: Warriors of Ultramar (Novel), Chapters 1, 14, 16
- 4: Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Rulebook, pg. 116
- 5: Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex):
- 6: Inquisitor Rulebook, pg. 64
- 7: Planetstrike, pg. 54
- 8: Index Astartes I:
- 9: Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex):
- 10: Codex: Grey Knights (5th Edition), pg. 47
- 11: Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pg. 50
- 12: Imperial Armour Volume Two - Space Marines and Forces of the Inquisition, pgs. 30, 138, 150, 160
- 13: GW Spain (accessed 2007.03.11)
- 14: Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, pg. 74
- 15: Elucidium (Short Story)
- 16: White Dwarf 311 (UK), pg. 62
- 17: The Bleeding Chalice (Novel),
[Help] - 18: Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition Rulebook, pg. 199
- 19: Codex: Dark Angels (6th Edition), pg. 23
- 20: Imperial Armour Volume Two - Second Edition, pg. 21
- 21: Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, pgs. 135-136
- 22: Fabius Bile: Primogenitor (Novel), Part One, Chapter Eight
- 23: Leviathan (Box) Rulebook:
- 24: Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia (Novel):
- 25: Warhammer.com: Zone Mortalis Underhive Market (saved archive page, last accessed 8 January 2024)
- 26: Codex: Deathwatch (8th Edition):
- 27: Liber Xenologis, pg. 134 - Hrud
- 28: The Infinite and the Divine (Novel), Ch. 3
- 29: Warhammer Community: The Rumour Engine – 24th January 2023 (Posted on 24/01/2023) (Last accessed on 24/01/2023)
- 30: Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition Rulebook, pg. 161-162
- 31: Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook, pg. 257
- 32: Inquisitor: Conspiracies - The Cirian Legacy, pg. 65 Exotic Weapons
- 33: White Dwarf 292 (UK), pg. 109 - Chapter Approved: Creature Feature (see also Games Workshop: Creature Feature (saved archive page without images, dated 20 May 2007, last accessed 30 January 2025))
- 34: Fabius Bile: Clonelord (Novel), Chapter 7
Uncited
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- Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pg. 24
- Jan van Yastobaal, available for download here
- Warhammer 40,000: Compendium, pg. 153
- Inquisitor: The Thorians, pg. 26
- White Dwarf 311 (UK), pgs. 62–66 — Index Xenos Cruelty and Death: The Piratical Kabals of the Eldar
- White Dwarf 49 (2015) - Codex:Apocryfa Extra - The Hrud Rising
