Pontius Glaw was a son of House Glaw on Gudrun who fell to Chaos, died for it, and came back twice, once as a crystal and once as a machine. He’s one of the most personal enemies Gregor Eisenhorn ever made, and their long, strange relationship shapes a big chunk of the Eisenhorn novels.
Early life and fall to Chaos
Pontius was born around 993.M40, the seventh son of Lord Oberon Glaw. In a house where power and money went to the elder brothers, the seventh son got scraps. He filled the gap with gambling, drink, and worse, and he grew fat on it even though he was sharp, well educated, and genuinely charming.
His pre-Chaos years weren’t innocent, either. He made good money buying pit slaves and staging exhibitions that were famous for how cruel they were. So when people say he only turned to Chaos later, they’re leaving out that he was already comfortable with brutality.
Pontius himself said it happened in 019.M41, when he was twenty-six. He bought a bestial pit slave named Aaa, and Aaa gave him its most prized possession, a golden torc. The moment he put it on, it corrupted him. He called it a revelation, a way of seeing past the flat, grey universe the Ecclesiarchy preached.
After that he led a Chaos cult that tore through the Helican sector until the Inquisition noticed. Inquisitor Absolom Angevin hunted him down and executed him, and House Glaw helped, mostly to be seen publicly distancing itself from the family heretic. A young Commodus Voke was part of Angevin’s retinue on that hunt.
The Pontius, and the fall of House Glaw
Two centuries later, Eisenhorn started pulling at a thread. He’d heard a heretic named Murdin Eyclone on Hubris mention something called ‘the Pontius’, and the trail led back to Gudrun. What he found was that the Pontius wasn’t a person or a relic in the usual sense. It was a crystal holding Pontius’s living essence.
House Glaw had promised to bring him back in exchange for the Chaotic knowledge he’d hoarded. They weren’t just tolerating a black sheep, they were up to their necks in the same corruption, working with Emperor’s Children Chaos Space Marines to get the Necroteuch from the saruthi. They figured that kind of power would put them beyond the Inquisition’s reach.
Eisenhorn worked the case undercover as a wealthy grain merchant named Farchaval, with the meeting arranged through the Regal Bonded Merchant Guild of Sinesias. House Glaw was one of the original Twenty-Six Venerables, the first noble houses founded on Gudrun after colonization, and that prestige made them hard to touch. It didn’t save them.
When the Glaws captured Eisenhorn, his pilot Midas Betancore got word to Voke. That was all the excuse the puritan needed. He brought in the Imperial Guard and Navy and all but wiped House Glaw out, leaving the estate in ruins. Lord Oberon fled to the saruthi world KCX-1288 with the renegade Captain Estrum and his small fleet, and died there when loyal Guardsmen on Estrum’s ships turned on the Glaw forces.
- House Glaw was one of Gudrun’s original Twenty-Six Venerables.
- Eisenhorn posed as the grain merchant Farchaval through Guild Sinesias.
- Voke’s purge destroyed the estate; Lord Oberon died at KCX-1288.
The Cinchare bargain
Eisenhorn kept the crystal instead of handing it to the Ordo Hereticus for destruction. He knew that was the correct move, and he didn’t make it, telling himself Pontius’s knowledge might be useful someday. His savant Uber Aemos pointed out that the device itself probably belonged to the Adeptus Mechanicus, who’d likely had it stolen from them, and that it was priceless archeotech.
Eisenhorn hid it with an old friend, Magos Geard Bure, on Cinchare. Decades later he came back with a proposition. Bure would build Pontius a mechanical body to inhabit, and in return Pontius would tell Eisenhorn everything he knew about daemonhosts. Eisenhorn needed that badly, because the radical Inquisitor Quixos had Cherubael and Prophaniti in his corner and Eisenhorn was outclassed.
Eisenhorn swore Pontius would never be released from imprisonment. Pontius agreed instantly anyway, just for the chance to have a body again. On his way out to face Quixos, Eisenhorn admitted something to himself that clearly bothered him. He’d enjoyed their conversations. And except for the whole allegiance-to-Chaos thing, Pontius was the sort of man he’d gladly have called a friend.
Final death
It didn’t hold. Pontius killed Magos Bure, escaped Cinchare, and went looking for a daemon weapon. A Daemon King named Yssarile was said to be buried with his barque, and Pontius wanted it. He also wanted the Malus Codicium, Quixos’s prized tome of Chaotic lore, which was the key to Yssarile’s vault.
His campaign against Eisenhorn’s people was savage. Most of the retinue was killed or taken out of action, and the Inquisition declared Eisenhorn Excommunicate Diabolus. Pontius was doing real damage, and he was doing it personally.
When they finally met in single combat, Eisenhorn was outmatched. The mechanical body was too strong. He was on the verge of dying when he pulled out the Codicium and started ripping pages out of it. It was enough of a distraction. Eisenhorn drove his force sword Barbarisater through the machine’s head, shattering the crystal inside, and that was the end of Pontius Glaw in 386.M41.
Aftermath and what’s left of the family
House Glaw was finished, but the name wasn’t quite gone. Alace Quatorze may be the last of the family. She was living in Queen Mab on Sancour around 450-480.M41, and after a fierce argument with Teke, ‘the Smiling One’, she fled into the City of Dust. She’s thought to be lost in there now.
So the family line that produced Pontius, and helped kill him the first time, may have ended in a city that eats people. It’s a fittingly grim close for a house that spent its prestige on Chaos and lost everything for it.
Why he matters
Pontius is more than a villain of the week. He’s the mirror Eisenhorn keeps getting forced to look into. Eisenhorn lies to himself about the crystal, makes a deal with a heretic, and enjoys the company. Pontius is charming, cultured, and completely damned, and Eisenhorn knows he could’ve been that too, minus the torc.
Their conversations are some of the best material in the Eisenhorn books. Pontius is smart enough to be good company and evil enough to remind you why that’s dangerous. When Eisenhorn finally kills him, it’s not a clean victory. It’s a man putting down something he half-liked because he has to.
Key facts
- Pontius Glaw was the seventh son of Lord Oberon Glaw of House Glaw on Gudrun, born around 993.M40.
- He claimed a golden torc from a pit slave named Aaa corrupted him in 019.M41 at age twenty-six.
- Inquisitor Absolom Angevin executed him with help from House Glaw itself.
- His essence survived in a crystal called ‘the Pontius’, which Eisenhorn hid with Magos Geard Bure on Cinchare.
- Eisenhorn traded Pontius a mechanical body for knowledge of daemonhosts, then killed him in 386.M41 with the force sword Barbarisater.
- Alace Quatorze may be the last of the family, last seen fleeing into the City of Dust on Sancour.
FAQ
Who was Pontius Glaw?
A noble of House Glaw on Gudrun, born around 993.M40 as the seventh son of Lord Oberon Glaw. He fell to Chaos, led a cult in the Helican sector, was executed by Inquisitor Absolom Angevin, and later returned as a crystal and then a machine.
What is ‘the Pontius’?
It’s a crystal holding Pontius’s living essence. House Glaw planned to resurrect him with it in exchange for his Chaotic knowledge, and Eisenhorn later hid it with Magos Geard Bure on Cinchare.
How did Pontius Glaw die?
He was executed by Inquisitor Angevin early on. His essence survived in the crystal, and Eisenhorn finally killed him in 386.M41 by driving the force sword Barbarisater through his mechanical body’s head and shattering the crystal.
What was the bargain on Cinchare?
Eisenhorn had Magos Bure build Pontius a mechanical body. In return, Pontius gave him information on daemonhosts, which Eisenhorn needed to fight the radical Inquisitor Quixos and his daemonhosts Cherubael and Prophaniti.