Datavore

Datavore is a cognitor-pattern data-engine recorded in the Eisenhorn accounts, used for archival research and cross-referencing. The name denotes a purpose-built information-processing construct rather than a living agent, and accounts differ as to whether it is best understood as a standalone cognitor, a servitor-housed archive, or an instrument tied to a tech-adjunct specialist working in support of an Inquisitorial investigation.

Within the Eisenhorn narrative, such data-engines are recorded as tools drawn upon during the course of Inquisitorial inquiries, where rapid cross-referencing of archival, heretical, and xenos-derived material is required to trace a line of investigation. Datavore is recorded in this function, assisting in the assimilation and retrieval of proscribed or otherwise restricted information rather than acting independently in the field. Later tradition holds that devices of this kind were maintained and consulted by members of an investigator’s retinue as part of the wider apparatus of research supporting the Inquisitor’s work, though the precise circumstances of Datavore’s construction and ownership are not consistently detailed.

Datavore’s standing rests on its role as an example of the archival and cognitive technology that underpins Inquisitorial investigation in the Eisenhorn material, illustrating the extent to which such inquiries depend on accumulated data and specialist information-retrieval tools alongside more direct methods of interrogation and pursuit. It is not recorded as a combatant or a figure of independent agency, and its significance is accordingly confined to this supporting, archival function.