Owlcat Games‘ quarterly update for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy is out, and it confirms two characters who will make any player familiar with 40K lore do a double-take. An aeldari corsair and a sanctioned psyker are the latest companions to join the game’s roster — and both are unusual allies for an Inquisitor even by the grimdark standards of the 41st millennium.
Laarthyr: An Alien Ally in the Inquisition
The first new companion, Laarthyr Cairnareth, is described as an aeldari corsair — a piratical space elf, to use the blunter shorthand. Whether players recruit or eliminate him depends on how diplomatically they handle the encounter, which itself is a noteworthy choice in a setting where most Inquisitors’ default attitude towards xenos is “shoot first.”
Laarthyr’s value as a companion comes from his psychic abilities and, more practically, his knowledge of the Webway — the labyrinthine tunnels used by the aeldari to travel through Warpspace without exposure to the dangers of the immaterium. For a squad operating in the kind of environments Dark Heresy seems to be building, that is a considerable tactical asset.
His inclusion continues what feels like a deliberate pattern in Owlcat’s Warhammer RPGs. In their previous 40K game, Rogue Trader, the party included an unsanctioned psyker named Idira — herself a controversial figure by Imperium standards. Dark Heresy appears to be similarly interested in companions who complicate the player’s moral framework rather than simply reinforcing it.
Saro: The Psyker Who Survived
The second companion, Saro, is a sanctioned psyker — and the word “sanctioned” carries serious weight in 40K. Psykers, individuals born with the ability to draw on the power of the warp, are among the most dangerous humans in the Imperium. Many are executed. Those who survive sanctioning are put to work.
“Their lives are usually short, and their existence is wretched, but their abilities, tempered by sanctioned rituals and an iron will, become a mighty force in the eternal struggle to defend the Imperium.” — Owlcat Games on sanctioned psykers
Saro stands in deliberate contrast to Idira from Rogue Trader. Where Idira was unsanctioned and consequently a walking liability (and constant source of party friction), Saro has been fully broken in by the Inquisition. According to RPGSite’s write-up of his reveal, Saro’s combat role centres on pyromancy: firestorms and incineration. The catch is that using these abilities too aggressively creates disturbances in the Empyrean, potentially attracting warp creatures during combat encounters.
What Else the Quarterly Update Covered
Beyond the companion reveals, the update brings daemonhosts into the enemy roster. Anyone who has encountered these in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will understand why that is significant — daemonhosts are essentially unkillable unless the right conditions are met, and their presence fundamentally changes how an encounter plays out.
From the beta data: Most popular player character class so far — Noble Officer from a Hive World. Most popular allied faction — the Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests. Most-purchased item — the melta charge, because, in Owlcat’s words, “someone clearly likes big kabooms.”
Community-voted customisation options have also been added to character creation, a nod to the feedback Owlcat has been gathering from its closed beta — which is currently available to anyone who purchased a Founder’s pack. The game releases on PC (Steam, GOG and Epic) and consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S), though no release window has been announced.
For players who want to get acquainted with Owlcat’s approach to Warhammer before Dark Heresy arrives, Rogue Trader remains the studio’s previous 40K CRPG and a solid foundation for understanding what the studio is going for: dense, lore-heavy, and uncompromising in its mechanics.
The steady flow of beta updates suggests Owlcat is making confident progress. Whether Dark Heresy lands in 2026 or slips into 2027 is still unclear, but the game’s companion roster — now numbering at least ten characters in the beta — is beginning to sketch out the kind of party dynamics that Owlcat fans will recognise. Mixing an aeldari corsair with a sanctioned psyker, a Catachan soldier, and an ogryn does not exactly scream Inquisitorial orthodoxy. But then again, the 41st millennium rarely rewards those who colour within the lines.
