40K - THE INQUISITION OF MANKIND [1] Part One | Warhammer 40,000 Lore/History

[Music] I am returned and today we will discuss the somewhat misunderstood Inquisition of the Imperium of man one of the most powerful organizations that exists within humanity's Empire of the Imperium in the darkened far future the Inquisition's foundation was formed at the end of the period known as the heresy under the orders of the Emperor of man instructing one of his very closest aides Malka door the siege light to locate the most pure and devout members of the Imperium who displayed not only an absolute commitment to the Imperium and its ideals but also individuals who were of a naturally inquisitive nature at its most fundamental level the Inquisition is something of a feudal organism that is to say it exists largely outside the default structure and chain of command of integrated Imperial organizations and is therefore outside of most ordinary levels of authority this means that in essence it stands free from any oversight by the wider Imperium and answers only to the ranking members within its own orders this quite obviously was initially designed to prevent any contamination or restrictions by outside forces but has over millennia as the Inquisition has slowly become more fractured actually created far more severe problems as its own internal system of oversight is pretty difficult to measure and that ready is probably the best way to frame it the broad spectrum of members that form the Inquisition are permanently tasked with a range of objectives including but not limited to investigating any and all leads that could create situations posing a high risk or threat to the Imperium and which if left unchecked could potentially cause destabilizing situations to the standard order of things seeking out those members of the Imperium which do not conform to the assumed order and are therefore considered dangerous maintaining the status quo of the Imperium upper echelon fighting the wide-ranging enemies of humanity and then destroying them where they are found however they're most commonly unknown focus is on investigating the ways by which the emperor of man could be returned to humanity but we'll get into that later of course they're most known focus is on eradicating any contamination or incursion by the forces of chaos in this important role they will often collaborate with this specialist of starties known as the grey knights and the emperor's holy sorority us who also overlap with the Imperium is ecclesia key making the serratus adept in this role as they carry with them the light of the emperor we will probably be looking at them also very soon as we pass by the end of millennium 41 and into the age of the Ultima founding a new leader for the Imperium the Inquisition itself in the modern age has shifted greatly since its inception yet the Inquisition remains a mysterious and greatly feared branch of the Imperium individual inquisitors may sometimes go for large portions of their career entirely unseen locked in concentrated specific investigations in dark corners of the Imperium while others will bank on the fear of their reputation and utilize a very deliberately visible security force to intimidate and secure objectives backed up by their near to unconstrained powers if an Inquisitor is seen by ordinary members of society it is always certainly because they either do not care or that being seen was their deliberate intention although inquisitors are well known for some dramatic events it is in fact more usual that they will remain in the shadows and will instead conduct investigations by means of a team of assistants an entourage of acolytes it may only reveal themselves to bring down the most merciless consequences to those in their line of sight bringing their missions to a sharp conclusion although to be clear many inquisitors will undoubtedly be active in their investigations and can also very much participate in larger battles I often think of their role being more of that of the master to their acolyte apprentices they are more akin to a judge who will determine the final fate of those who are brought to their intentions because while they are master investigators few carry their ability to rule in judgment over others at almost any level of authority and this is their most powerful role as decision makers deciders of events that may define systems galactic sectors and even millennia to decisions it is this role of deciding the fate of billions with a word that surely far eclipses any minor day-to-day choices they may make about other individual Imperial governors xenos or heretics while it may not always seem apparent inquisitors broadly speaking see things in a far wider contextual perspective the most of a senior figures within the Imperium and this is because they're taught very early on that it is critical to understand the value of things from a far grander perspective than just the worth of the individual because to an Inquisitor an individual's personal sacrifice while undoubtedly tragic and this can be even more painful if it were one of their own entourage it still stands in the wider scale as being relatively meaningless this is to be fair understandable when their highest overarching objective remains the lasting survival and endurance of humanity so for many within the Inquisition that approach many problems using an ends justifying a means perspective which as we know has on more than one occasion led to some fairly drastic consequences most notably an ongoing campaign of exterminators that obliterated countless populated human worlds by Inquisitor Krypton who considered that in the scale of the gothic Imperium a string of planets being turned into ash was wholly acceptable but it was later judged not to be the case and he was excommunicated by his fellow inquisitors but it stands as a powerful example of the perspective inquisitors are capable of seeing things from and that is to say they are willing to annihilate entire human planets for a broader victory billions of souls this along with many other more specific issues what making quiz it is an absolutely terrifying faction within the Imperium while many will use carefully considered in well reasoned judgment others will be invested in largely academic or even philosophical matters but there are also a broad quantity of inquisitors who are either willfully excessive in their use of horrific violence against both humans and aliens all those who quite literally accept their need to use the corrupting tools of chaos to achieve objectives that they see as being necessary and considering themselves thereby as Martis if it were not clear by now I will explain it very simply inquisitors do not fit one stereotypical mold they are in fact a complex faction within the Imperium and while some are yes harrowing executioner's who walk an extremely thin line between being actual enemies of the Imperium others are highly skilled at investigation and genuinely do critical work in protecting the Imperium from its worst threats and from its own internal corruption issues inquisitors form a very broad spectrum of different factions and ideologies and cannot be summarized in one grotesque caricature as a destroyer of worlds yet in saying this for the worlds and citizenry of the Imperium inquisitors are not usually seen as an especially positive thing this is of course debatable because if said Inquisitor were to stop they say demonic incursion from subsequently consuming an entire hive city or preventing some rogue psycho from twisting all of those mortal citizens on a world into doing his bidding as has literally happened in one instance then they might not be seen so unfavorably on the other hand if they decree a whole section of a hive city to be purged with fire it's understandable why they might not be seen as especially constructive inquisitors you see may choose to enact actions designed to prevent potential contaminations or dis stabilizing conflicts from spiraling out of control but their solutions can objectively end up causing more damage than the initial problem itself although again this is likely pretty subjective inquisitors after all see things as we explained in a wider perspective which doesn't help the perception of them as being disconnected emotionless power-mad destroyers of human spirit understanding the behavior and role of inquisitors though means as a result many planets will do all that they can to avoid the focused attentions of an Inquisitor as their leadership will know that it will almost inevitably invite an acute or prolonged period of investigation for a world and there are few situations where that will not lead to some trouble want to mention for its citizens traitors and even potentially disrupt or lead to the execution of some within its ruling hierarchy inquisitors broad disconnected outlook coupled with an often so this execution of action has given rise to the perception of them as being Rufus individuals who will mete out terrifying acts of capital punishment against citizens sentient aliens or even demanding exterminators against entire worlds and it is rightly deserved for some inquisitors however as we will learn it is also a caricature in relation to how many inquisitors actually operate the always quick to declare heretic Inquisitor is truly a highly simplistic and overtly extreme representation that makes little to no effort to understand the far more interesting constantly shifting layered ideologies and factions which exist behind this cartoonish facade so if inquisitors are not simply all heretics seeking all the time what is it that inquisitors are in fact all about [Music] as the Imperium continues to fill the grocery bloated strain it must bear it carries both the gargantuan weight of its vast organisations coupled with an impossibly complex bureaucracy the Inquisition stands unfettered by such considerations and is instead free to operate wherever and however it sees fit with an open remit to combat threats to mankind the Inquisition operates outside of other Imperial organizations though it maintains absolute authority over them in practice the Inquisition must be more political than its mandate allows though their power derives from the Emperor even the Inquisition must exercise cautious judgment for it also relies on the other parts of the Imperium for its subsequent resources so while it's undoubtedly true that inquisitors have the authority and power to carry out such judgment most of the time inquisitors dedicate a significant amount of their time toward philosophical considerations and investigation they'll seek out specific individuals follow up leads commit to years if not decades of academic research combined with their travel around the Imperium hoping to uncover further leads or reveal dark schemes as we've seen with inquisitors like Inquisitor eisenhorn but as with many things in the Imperium it can regularly be the case that by the time an Inquisitor hears of a suspicious cult and gang or disruptive character they may have been operating time and it's only when their activities have become embedded within the daily goings-on of a hive city or galactic sector do they begin to come to the surface then this is complicated by the fact that merely tracking down a sole individual whilst important would likely not be sufficient in and of itself and so they'll need to carry out further diligent inquiries often using an entire team of investigators and aides who will collectively attempt to get to the root of the problem and certainly these investigations made them result in severe methodologies and consequences that we so often hear about that characterize inquisitors but those are the end of the process it's not all the work that has come before what is critical in understanding why an Inquisitor holds so much power is in understanding that every single Inquisitor represents the collective Inquisition when they speak they speak for all in theory anyway and so they will the massive power of the entire organisation behind them the word of an Inquisitor is absolute and beyond reproach except by other inquisitors so joining the ranks of these most powerful individuals for the men and women of the Inquisition are amongst some of the most vigorously tested intensively trained and motivated individuals that are produced by humanity they demand the greatest respect but for more reasons than simply their personal abilities and achievements because as we know inquisitors wield some of the most far-reaching powers given to individuals within the Imperium coupled with also an unrelenting determination to purge its enemies wherever they may be found this is but one reason why inquisitors are greatly feared within the Imperium to avoid the monolithic slow processes that are the bane of other impure organisations and any number of annihilated worlds the Inquisition is organized at only a most fundamental level and this is so that a singular Inquisitor can demand anything of any world or servant of the Emperor be they a pleb citizen through to even those at the highest levels accept that in reality high level demands do not commonly occur because as much as the Inquisition understands its power it all so understands that certain things have to be handled carefully this is of course goes both ways in the other groups like the military or the estar T's will handle inquisitors with guarded caution yet also understand that they are a very important asset and will generally where necessary or asked aid them it'll depends as per usual on the context of any given situation as with all aspects of the Inquisition the matter of recruitment is not centralized and the power to invest others into its ranks lies with the inquisitors themselves some do not recruit at all and will spend decades in the pursuit of their enemies dedicating themselves to their duties within their own lifetime others will feel it is one of their burdens to bring about the next generation of inquisitors to carry forward the battle that they must wage many inquisitors especially those who believe in the Emperor's grand plan can leave such matters to chance or perhaps fate picking a suitable candidate or candidates from amongst those individuals whose past they may just come across whereas other inquisitors are more rigorous in their pursuit of an apprentice committing a proportion of that time seeking out suitable candidates perhaps from amongst the ranks of other Imperial organizations there are no consistent criteria of age or physical condition required to be suitable for investiture into the inquisition proof of intelligence and loyalty are the key requisites and often these aspects of a person's character cannot be properly judged until later in life should a human youth stone their teenage years demonstrate exceptional ability they may be considered for recruitment but unlike their starties this is not common practice for the inquisition on the whole inquisitors will take note of individuals that are free-thinking possessed of willpower and determination and unflinching principles not something easy to find in the Imperium you might think but if they do find a suitable person they will then become part of that inquisitors retinue perhaps serving in a more minor capacity or the Inquisitor continues their ongoing evaluation those that prove they're worth working with the Inquisitor will then be taken into their masters or mistresses greater confidence over several years the apprentice will learn what they can are the inquisitors knowledge and in time will take on more and more duties some inquisitors refer to these semi qualified individuals as interrogators though they're also known as novitiates near fights or a probate sirs such individuals may undertake missions on their own or control operations in concert with the Inquisitor but they're still subordinate until their master or mistress fully invests them it normally requires the consent of three inquisitors or an Inquisitor Lord to pass on the full powers of an Inquisitor then grant an inquisitorial seal so inquisitors cannot do this just on their own though there have been occasions where this has not been necessary or an immediate situation has dictated that the apprentice take on full inquisitorial responsibilities immediately this is likely if an Inquisitor were to be suddenly killed then their apprentice will inherit their Inquisitor or seal and may fulfill the role of an Inquisitor but this is subject to repeal by another Inquisitor interrogators may pass from one Inquisitor to another this fate and necessity dictates it is in this period that the ideals of the Inquisitor passed on and spread and through this generational growth the factions and institutions that make up the Inquisition are propagated across the centuries and indeed millennia as well as their ideological outlook the student will also learn what their tutor knows of the internal workings of the Inquisition well that is to say those facts which the Inquisitor feels is right and proper it is an important tradition amongst inquisitors that each of them earns the knowledge that is theirs as well as the respect of their peers such wisdom cannot be freely given or taken without effort for it devalues the knowledge itself inquisitors are also far from being a clearly defined benefit to the Imperium often they have as readily created devastating situations for Humanity as much as they seek to protect it and lay out careful preparations for its future so it is highly debatable just how beneficial the Inquisition actually is on many levels they do an essential and important task that few other groups could handle on the other side of the coin they have a habit of dealing with things in a fairly extreme way often to suit their own agenda which likely no one's signed off on of course with all of that sent to your ordinary citizen one Inquisitor may look just like another in their common uniform of black and red adorned with inquisitorial and imperial embellishments there is a more diverse even fractured ideological side to the Inquisition and this goes beyond the basic structures we understand them to maintain in the Ordos eNOS heretic as' and malleus they also split into two core schools of thought known as the Puritan and the radical even then this is not the end of the matter nor is it so clear-cut the nature of philosophical perspective within the Inquisition is complex and brings a new understanding to what it means to be an Inquisitor for the Inquisition to your common plebs citizen it's just a scary figure who can kill with the word a person who you would be a Ford to cross and who wields immense power in all respects but this representation is very simplistic and is very much just the most commonly observable view of what we consider an Inquisitor to be inquisitors can operate entirely independently but much more regularly they have the assistance of a retinue these aides are often referred to as generally acolytes henchmen or agents and they world considerable power in their own right because while not being full inquisitors for some of their ranks they are to all extents inquisitors in waiting this is a relatively straightforward aspect of an Inquisitor general operation because they are in essence simply assistants who will have specific roles and skills it's not much more to it than that and they can originate from really any Imperial citizen anywhere in the galaxy also within each category of assistant however they can have either one role or multiple roles acolytes for example can have anything like eight or more specific roles and variations or as a demon host on arc a fledgling fits that specific role and nothing more a base acolyte is simply known as such an is very much a low-level servant but still considered an agent of the inquisition a proven acolyte is someone who has completed multiple missions and brought up to an extra level of trust and operates more independently a trusted acolyte is again the next up with more responsibilities and may work remotely for some time in say gathering information or preparing operations a throne agent is the next grade and they are a highly trusted member of an inquisitorial group as well having the power that comes with a prime is a lead acolyte of a war band a leggett investigator is usually assigned the important but tedious task of sifting through mountains of detail be that questioning under duress hundreds sometimes thousands of suspects or plowing through deep piles of documentation some inquisitors will invest in legate's and dispatch them on investigations simply disturb what may be lurking beneath the mud using them as literal and open bait to draw heresy and dark forces out into the open an explicator is the next step and they are the first true grade of an Inquisitor in waiting they will at this first grade to learn what it means to be an Inquisitor which means essentially learning the tools of the trade or some might say the tools of torture to pass this grade they must both be technically capable and it goes without saying mentally strong only those who excel will continue to serve their mentors the next grade is an interrogator and this description is fairly self-explanatory however if they please their mentoring Inquisitor enough with their service they may be granted to carry what is called an inquisition or rosette this rosette is more than just a token symbol of achievement or the value of its composition each bears the inquisitional symbol and is also a sophisticated means of identification keyed to an individual Inquisitor this makes obvious sense because without such a token it would be very easy for traitors to impersonate an Inquisitor which could create of course all manner of trouble so creating a fake or to say fool a rosette is no easy feat to achieve because it utilizes a complex system of bio recognition and DNA scanning technology it would be very rare for lowly acolytes to be granted a copy of their masters rosette usually it's only given to demonstrate an inquisitors great trust on the part of their aide and as such it should rightfully be a very rare occurrence it would be extremely unusual for an acolyte below the grade of interrogator to be granted such a powerful honor not to mention also being very likely dangerous then lastly we have those who have risen to the ranks of high interrogator any acolyte at this stage has all but assumed the rank of a true Inquisitor and they will likely be operating essentially as such but still under the respective authority and guidance of their who will by now have spent many years working together and knowing all there is about the Inquisition than the horrors facing humanity the reason they were not yet granted the position of full Inquisitor may simply be a matter of an inquisitors personal preferences maybe they're waiting for that one small thing that they wanted to see appear before they feel everything is rightfully clicked before they're granted a position of a full Inquisitor of the Imperium now all of that of course is merely many the ranking as we said usually for acolytes we then also have the inquisitorial associates themselves and the various different roles that they play and it would be too much to get into each role specifically as they have varying depths of their own background to speak of so just in short we have furcy the adapter sororities who should be fairly known by most as the sisters of battle this is the all-female militant wing of the ecclesia key and they have some crossover with the inquisition and so can be thought of as their associates dependent on their specific outlook of course then we have the archive flagellants not really associates they are the nightmarish weaponized slaves heretics put to work by process of conversion into drone like flailing Horrors who will inevitably perish in battle flashing themselves to pieces against some miscellaneous foe next you also have the assassins who have various temples to their specific focus the most common while the ever saw Khalid s calexis and Vin de Kerr there are also others less well-known like the venom and Vanus not forgetting of course the death cult assassins who are more likely seem to be physically accompanying an Inquisitor than those of the other temples the next discipline of Inquisitor assistants are known as Jergens as horrifying as that name might sound they're basically medics of a sort and are usually quite ordinary human beings or as ordinary as you may come by within the Imperium on active service anyway the only caveat is that they will usually happily employ their expert knowledge of anatomy in the act of gaining knowledge through torture as they might through hearing those wounded in firefights so then on entirely blameless of some slightly questionable activities next are inquisitional cultists and they are pretty much as they sound although their origin is obviously not one of the heretic they're more like fanatical religious sects in worshiping the emperor again they have myriad cults dotted all across the Imperium some more disturbing than others and also again dependent on the outlook of an Inquisitor they could very likely be seen as either a loyalist or a heretic in their own right a demon host is very much an entity only to be seen in the presence of a radical Inquisitor it is essentially a restrained and trapped demon who the Inquisitor may converse with or on rare occasions allow them to use their powers to achieve some goal this is very much in line with the radical outlook of the ends justifying the means the next assistant for inquisitors are Desperados despite having something of a silly title they are akin basically to mercenary bounty hunters and not to be underestimated at all interestingly though they can even have previously been criminals and although exhibiting highly questionable actions their skills are often seen as outweighing any moral or ethical actions they may have formally committed in the eyes of an Inquisitor although again this is probably very much dependent on the outlook of the specific Inquisitor however the role of desperados in the fact that some of these can be criminals who are potentially committed horrible crimes within say a hive city the fact that inquisitors look pastor should highlight that inquisitors are not really like the police authority or Security Authority before the Imperium as a whole they look in a wider sense in its it goes much deeper a more philosophical more ideological in terms of what inquisitors are about than just this guy is bad this guy's good it's much more complicated and then we have sitting somewhat within this category of assistant those that are known as cult stalkers these are usually recruited by the Alberti's possibly at the discretion of an Inquisitor where necessary and it basically infiltrators who will learn more about these shadowy cults and again their criminal background will actually help lend them credibility in infiltrating these groups next we have what are called familiars and these are things like the cherubim servos skulls cyber eagles that accompanied inquisitors they're basically all those various slabber netiq adaptions of living things to aid in Inquisitor in one way or another the cherubim are more like servitors these are the kind of baby like sort of things that you see floating around with wings almost like cherubs but they're obviously far more disgusting than that but these are not captured human babies they're actually usually vat grown and strangely they began to appear about two millennia after the heresy while they are serve it alike in the sense that they will obey the will of their masters via mind impulse unit and without this they are not much more than just strange frightened instinctive drones they usually will also have some obvious element of religious symbolism in them being kind of pure and untainted as opposed to servitors who usually failed humans who have been condemned and are serving a punishment servo skulls are of course the very recognizable floating beeping skulls which will generally perform all manner of administrative tasks although they can be used for anything from medical operation to military recon inquisitors often use them as scouting units or for recording various details of investigation interestingly unlike servitors servo skulls are usually made from the skulls of highly devout worshippers of the emperor it's seen in fact as being a very high honor for yourself to serve beyond death and continue in whatever means possible to aid the Emperor and the Imperium serving as a servo skull cyber eagles are a curious and fairly more straightforward one in carrying out simple tasks of relaying information they're basically an artificial construct they're generally used for recon observation even combat however many familiars can also boost the psychic power of an Inquisitor be that in telepathic ability general awareness to threats or psychic amplifiers for offensive purposes her offence or her offence are unfortunately designated a title that is also shared with the nightmarish Titanic by organisms of the xenos to knit but they are at a base level devout religious followers of the ecclesia are key however obviously this is not all that they bring to the table they have very specific roles like drill abbot forsaken priest and exorcist they need not necessarily have entirely religious background drill Abbot's for example are often surviving members of the Imperial Guard who for obvious reasons that tribute this to the Emperor they school students of the scroll of Virginia which are specialist schools you by the ecclesia key to train upcoming officers and officials the drill Abbot's are known for their combat skills and extreme discipline and as such they make equally good members foreign inquisitors retinue exorcists also go by the title of banasur for what should be obvious reasons forsaken priests are part of a faction known as ablation is that we'll come to later they basically still believe in the righteousness of the Emperor and the Imperium but that the only way to achieve this is to allow oneself to become damned and they of course what is known as within the inquisition radicals mutants are a strange choice to accompany Inquisitor as you might think that those genetically wounded by millenia of conflict with all manner of chemical or irradiating weaponry age of strife or just poor conditions of living should make mutants prime targets for extermination by inquisitors in a more modern age of the Imperium they are seen as those who have somehow deviated spiritually and have been punished as a consequence so mutants a sadly victims of the horrifying conditions of the 41st millennium and their only crime of existing is usually twisted by those who seek to frame it as evidence that will further validate their religious beliefs about the Emperor or the ecclesia key it is quite tragic the mutants often simply long for the ordinary human life even as bleak as that can be but instead they must exist as a permanent underclass living in usually appalling squalor however for an Inquisitor this can have its advantages as mutants a lot only all but invisible to your ordinary human not literally of course but they will actively be dismissed or assumed to be seeking food or shelter purely for their own interests and having no wider agenda or needs so mutants therefore make excellent agents for an Inquisitor who may want someone to wander into a sector or overhear conversations without arousing suspicion for the mutant they will undoubtedly serve with loyalty because a chance for redemption and reward comes very rarely to those condemned to a life of pain and suffering psychos are another regular aid for inquisitors who after all are usually psychos themselves and this again shouldn't be a great surprise considering the tasks inquisitors are generally involved in and these can obviously vary empower an ability but as with all psychos important thing to remember is they can simply be loyal associates you form a strong bond as part of an inquisitorial retinue they may shield will help to amplify the Inquisitor or have their own powerful unique abilities like exceptional telepathy but psychos also segue into those who are related to this skill in the form of water known as penitence now inquisitorial penitence are not the same as those used by the sororities in their penitent machines penitence for an inquisitorial retinue they usually rogue psychos who have been captured and put through a process of brutal interrogation and during this inevitably harrowing process should they not simply die a rogue psycho may come to understand the gravity of their crime and beg to continue serving the Emperor having realized the true nature of things they'll continue to and humbly serve the Inquisitor and may even have gained some highly specialized insights based on their former unsanctioned heretical activities however for these kind of psyche is to have a cordial relationship with their Inquisitor is actually not that common in fact more common a rogue psycho will end up becoming what is known as a bound penitent or penitent which they have essentially failed to repent and instead will be chained and accompany the Inquisitor whilst being anointed with various oils and psychic wards and the reason for all this is that they essentially become a psychic a lightning rod their role is to have any psychic attack directed towards an Inquisitor jump into them and dissipate through their body of course this could also very much damage them horribly even to the point of death but that's basically entirely the point penitence can be what is also known as blanks these are nulls or priors they are basically a polar opposite to a psycho their mere presence with a psycho creates discomfort and pain and can even nullify psychic abilities their presence can be extremely uncomfortable for some inquisitors but sometimes this can be worth the benefit of them as an invaluable tool a curious although not technically official aid of water known as reclamators and I'll take a moment to expand on these characters because they are unusually a designation of tech priests which as you'll likely agree is somewhat surprising but reclamators are tasked with redeeming war minerals from old and damaged systems to scavenge parts and are tasked with the essentially endless cycle of minor repairs needed to keep a ship flying or hives infrastructure from collapsing under its own weight although they will have an army of workers below them to do menial and extremely dangerous operations by necessity a reclamators skills will regularly begin to stray into a higher understanding of machinery and technology than most within the mechanicus and certainly in the Imperium and so this can lead them to focus their worship of the Machine God in a fragmentary and superstitious manner marking them apart from others once they stray away from the eyes and monitoring of others down in the dark depths of a hive city or a cruiser who knows what they're getting up to uncovering or conversing about and this is when you start destroying into dangerous territory where reclamators may find some technology that they may even sell on to disreputable rogue traders or it's even been said to criminal gangs all of this and more draws the attention of inquisitors either to supervise utilize their various skills and unethical attributes or to persecute them rogue traders can also be an associate of inquisitors but as I have extensively discussed in my rogue trader video they may also work with and form a long-term ongoing association with an Inquisitor the road which a rogue trader could play in assisting is almost without limitation from practical transport no questions asked about cargo information about their travels their contacts their leads the list goes on and on and again if you want to watch my rogue trader video will give you an overall better impression about what they are all about so then we come to a very curious individual who is known to assist inquisitors and these unknown as sages they are to all intense human computers they originated by usually being scholars or record keepers basically administrative members who become more than slightly obsessed with their daily tasks for some this lens spirals out of control into a kind of administrative psychosis where they become ever more obsessive about uncovering every single detail of information they become addicted to it and reliant on a satisfaction that it gives them up about uncovering detail they'll show no outward sign of a problem but for those who know the signs leaving one of these characters without a processing task can quickly deteriorate them into a similar state of withdraw as deprived of a more physical drug but for an Inquisitor these sages are very valuable as they can basically be tossed into an archive and just left to get on with it their extreme diligence means that while they're unlikely to miss any details and uncover lost knowledge that's vital it also raises the possibility of them inadvertently sharing these secrets with others because usually they're not going to be in a stable state of mind to consider the wider context of their actions or who they're talking to so consequently many sages serving inquisitors are permanently gagged or more unpleasantly and unfortunately more commonly their vocal ability is in fact surgically removed this leaves them only able to communicate when given the tools to scroll vast reams of scratchy inked texts eventually these sages or OTO savants will either collapse from mental exhaustion unable to satisfy their ever all-consuming need for information processing or the arguably lucky few can be consigned to one of the impure administer autumns ancient data repositories these absolutely vast archives can span entire planets and for the sage they are now left to just all intents and purposes an ocean of information to collate limitless because although this is not the case literally they will succumb to death long before they can process even a fraction of the information stored seekers are another category of security force so to no surprise they usually originate from the Arbor teas and in this they are usually either known as arbitrators or enforcers sometimes judges or what is known as the mortage who essentially sanctioned killers seekers overall will do the work of apprehension for Inquisitor somebody needs to be brought before them hopefully alive this is the kind of task suited for a seeker they're essentially muscle for an inquisitorial retinue experienced in dealing with the criminal elements and violent areas of a hive city dragging away suspects for preliminary interrogation to ascertain if they're worth the higher members of it inquisitors retinue spending their valuable time on and then of course we have Space Marines now if necessary an Inquisitor can and will call near starties although this will very much likely be those known as the Death Watch or the gray knight can i summarize the Death Watch in a paragraph no but they are in essence is eNOS specialists and operate in much smaller teams than standard space mines they're also drawn from all chapters so a single kill team may be comprised of multiple Marines each from a different chapter background and I could go into a lot more detail obviously but that would be a very wild tangent now also Tech priests beyond the reclamators may work in association with an Inquisitor although it may be that the tech priest is somewhat more supervising the Inquisitor or vice versa both will likely have an agenda that is not completely revealed to the other and it's a bonding of necessity usually rather than of choice tech priests bring highly specialized knowledge as do inquisitors it is a good example of the highly compartmentalized nature of the Imperium and the limitations suffered by humanity in its age of technological stagnation and fear of those beyond the mechanicus having access to such information lastly for inquisitorial assistance we have the generically title warriors now who do you think would befit such a fairly straightforward designation it is of course it basically encompasses the wide-ranging human fighters of the Imperial Guard from stormtroopers to regular Guardsmen veterans feral warriors servitors even penal legions and Inquisitor can never have enough disposable firepower but although you probably wouldn't say it to their face in the eyes of an Inquisitor few are more disposable than human warriors in the grand view of things by which all inquisitors with their overarching collective goals perceive the galaxy by in the vast Galactic Empire the Imperium certain representatives are more common than others Space Marines for as widely shown as they are actually are an extremely small group of individuals in the vast scheme of things the vast majority of Imperial citizens will never even come close to laying eyes upon an ass starties let alone interact with one the Imperial Guard on the other hand are almost everywhere inquisitors are significantly fewer in fact miniscule by comparison to these other groups and for that reason summing visitors may never encounter other inquisitors they may not even encounter other high-ranking officials of the Imperium for years decades even centuries but one reason I want to speak to this before we cover the various orders of the Inquisition is because while the Ordos are essentially the roles and objective focus for inquisitors they are additionally grouped by belonging to various factions which constitute what the philosophical outlook is of an Inquisitor and when they find themselves aligning toward one way or the other they're more likely to seek out those of similar factions or at least more inclined to help those roughly aligned to their way of thinking but how they doesn't in quiz to find themselves aligning with different factions moreover how do these ideological factions form in the first place well as I was saying inquisitors may find themselves very isolated in the galaxy encountering events and enemies or revealing technology that raises far more questions than it gives answers and some questions may shatter and shaken inquisitors beliefs to their very core these periods of isolation can lead to some twisting established thinking and sometimes alive confrontations will occur they some inquisitors may enjoy a lonely vigil against the darkness that surrounds humanity most will at some point meet other inquisitors either during the course of their duties or at specially convened conclaves and the Conclave is simply a meeting between two or more inquisitors for a brief period of time essentially a meeting and here they'll discuss ideas compare notes and shared generally their outlook towards situations and events in their life some more significant meetings are referred to as high conclaves and is said to have lasted for weeks but it should be underlined that such meetings are not common these meetings usually will be designated as having a specific agenda and perhaps for example some sector-wide issue like Xena's plague or outbreaks of heresy the inquisitors want to compare information to orchestrate a more unified approach or they may be factional meaning a discussion related to their philosophical beliefs with the like-minded inquisitors now given the nature of communication and travel gathering together even a half a dozen specific individuals in a single place at a certain time requires most conclaves to be restricted in their sphere of influence to a few hundred light-years it must be planned in hi conclaves that deal with the most grave matters brought to the attention the Inquisition can be convened on smaller timescales if required as Astro paths send out urgent missives to inquisitors across a wider area but high conclaves are sometimes an ongoing affair that may see several dozen inquisitors answer the call or told though perhaps less than half of them will be present on any given day as they arrive or depart as the tides of the warp allow with the exception of the high conclaves which must be held on one of the inquisition fortress worlds placed strategically across the Imperium conclaves can be convened just about anywhere secrecy necessitates that they be conducted somewhere that is secure and more experienced inquisitors may well retain or acquire estates libraries or bases where such conclaves can be held other critical reasons for Conclave to be convened are for example the adjudication between two inquisitors as we know inquisitors hold power above all beyond the Emperor himself and their fellow inquisitors thus it is required that for an Inquisitor to be brought to trial a fellow Inquisitor must act as a prosecutor in these situations an Inquisitor Lord will convene the Conclave often with the accused being in absentia and a panel of three or more inquisitors will hear the case to be answered any such Conclave may find an Inquisitor as being negligent incompetent or worse and the most severe sentence that could be given is that of treitz Royce excommunicate a Inquisitor is found to be a heretic and is to be hunted down at all costs it has been known for in because it is to declare another Inquisitor traitor without recourse to a Conclave as may be necessary to prevent say a deviant from escaping or when the physical conflict is imminent in such cases a Conclave of Inquiry will be held after the events have unfolded and sometimes such conclaves do not occur within the lifetime of the accused or the accuser they must make their judgment based on whatever evidence remains but given the flexible mission of the Inquisition and the individuals that make up its ranks such trial conclaves are limited in the punishments they can meet out on the guilty party one cannot simply stop being an Inquisitor and so sensors and other threats actually carry little weight most often the guilty party may be subject to further examination in itself not a pleasant experience and this is usually enough to provide an Inquisitor with a new incentive to re-examine their priorities and their agenda any Conclave has the power to Commission what is known as a cabal in order to investigate a particular matter as with many things in the Inquisition the line between what constitutes a cabal and a Conclave a lot is specially clear particularly in areas where there are few inquisitors a Conclave there tends to be a meeting of inquisitors over a short period of simply sharing information and then based off of that it could determine the need for a cabal which is essentially like a task force charged with the prosecution of a particularly sensitive concern that may have arisen from that cabal so unlike conclaves do not necessarily have a predetermined endpoint and so this can lead to them being despised as being kind of secretive societies that can ultimately then be a cause of creating unnecessary in a factions fragmentation within a Conclave however they have been shown to be also highly effective in combining and focusing activities of various inquisitors on a particular scheme so cabal's have often achieved pretty noteworthy successes lastly then you have cells or splinter cells these are essentially small temporary fragmented cooperations between inquisitors a cell will often be formed to confront a particular problem a demonic manifestation for example when this sort of threat will be occurs and Inquisitor may call upon his or her old cell to confront this new Menace in this way a cell may lie dormant for years or even decades before the cell is sent out and inquisitors gather again in order to maintain security or dependent on the situation to maintain cover agents for one Inquisitor in a Cell may not know who else their master is working with an Inquisitor will not necessarily know who are the agents of his allies and who are either bystanders or even enemies to overcome this problem the cell will often agree on a symbol or set of symbols with which to identify themselves and those operating for them this can be as subtle as say a particular type of stitching used on the hem of robes and coats or it can be something more open such as the wearing of a particular style of ring brooch but these means inquisitors can identify and cooperate with their allies without fear of betraying themselves or their comrades and a cell does not consist solely of inquisitors but also their agents but this varies from their immediate comrades that accompany them to distant contacts to provide other forms of support or information when cooperating as part of a Cell an Inquisitor may pass on certain details of their informants and allies to other members of the cell though it is an unspoken tradition that where possible an Inquisitor only deals with his own aides and confidants and this absolutely necessary so within the Inquisition as many of you will know that are held three core operational distinctions or Ordos that exist for inquisitors and I covered this quite fully in my eisenhorn video but for the sake of being comprehensive for this video here's how it breaks down the auto xenos are the alien hunters the extermination of that which is not mankind and when we say exterminate it means total obliteration the order heretic us deal with you guessed it heretics however heretic can describe a variety of crimes usually not exclusively those who have been tainted by chaos can also include mutants rogues psychos those who defile the holy orders of the Emperor and just about also anything that comes to mind for an Inquisitor on any given day and finally you have the inquisitors of the order malleus may specialize in the knowledge and destruction of the nightmarish demons who bleed out of the parallel void space known as the warp where only chaos exists and all of humanity's worth traits are psychically poured into it saturating it with unimaginable horrors now there is of course more detail to each of these but in essence that is what they're all about but I will say some small details that are particularly noteworthy in the case of for example the Ordos eNOS they will also not only exterminate the alien but also carefully catalog and record their discoveries like I've said inquisitors can be very investigative and archive and record-keeping as well as the more combative side so the Ordos eNOS will often pass on specimens to the biologists for autopsy and for us to discover more about the alien not for interest of course only to learn how he might more efficiently kill them in the future for the Ordos eNOS they have their own dedicated military support to call upon these are the Death Watch for starties composed entirely of veteran Space Marines seconded from the greatest chapters in the galaxy and the Death Watch are trained and equipped to repel the alien tide that threatens to overwhelm humanity and are an invaluable tool for any Inquisitor seeking to vanquish the xenos threatened indeed some inquisitors will have very significant ongoing relationships with the Death Watch others may just call upon them as and when necessary within the Ordo heretic as' also pay close attention not only to the heretic within humanity they also keep a careful eye upon the ecclesia key that may be surprising but they focus on the ecclesia key as it is the religious cult of the emperor which now saturates all worlds of humanity the inquisitors of the heretic as' keep a watch upon the ever zealous ecclesia key so as to ensure they do not get ideas above their station that could become problematic because this usually means dampening down Wars of faith or any of those within its ranks who declare themselves with too much power as this has been a continual problem within the Imperium is with any extreme of faith sometimes those high-ranking officials can abuse the trust of their followers so as to adopt their delusion of choice the rheticus also those who monitor the are Bertie's their starties and sororities although it is notable that the serratus also as we said a technically part of the ecclesia key this is commonly misunderstood because they also simultaneously operate under the banner of the inquisition there's a very strange situation of overlap they actually operate similarly to the Death Watch with the Ordo Xena the sororities are the militant wing under the banner of the or doha rheticus but they also work for the ecclesia key so usually they're called forth when a battle must be waged which demands absolute purity of spirit this is ready their specialty and then lastly you have the audio malleus who fight against the nightmarish horrors of the war the true demon fighters the most noteworthy aspect of the malleus is that their militant wing are the gray night to start ease and qui tollis II that shall be all that's required to say about them so then lastly I would just make brief mention of something that I've said before but it's important because it confuses many and that is that just because an Inquisitor is aligned primarily with a specific Auto it does not mean that they are singularly restricted to this path for example an Aldo heretic is Inquisitor might start out investigating a report about a heretical cult only to discover that it was in fact having xenos related origins now at that point they could continue on and deal with it themselves or maybe if they felt it necessary they may call upon a fellow Inquisitor that specializes within that area this can obviously be played out in various combinations but the important point being that just because you belong to one order does not mean that you're restricted to that one area of investigation or action you may just be directing more towards missions and tasks which involve that discipline because you're more experienced with it it's much more about individuals dealing with situations that they're best suited to but this doesn't mean that they're prohibited from addressing other situations as well or those already thought of best as being more like a field of study than a designated specialist unit I'll also say that the Inquisition operate quite similarly to the grey knights in the often they will hide in the shadows and cover their tracks by either suppression of witnesses destruction of all records or seizure of evidence in extreme cases they may resort to like the grey knights straight-up mind wipes or even execution if all else fails however unlike the grey knights the inquisition will also use fear as a weapon in the population some factions of the Inquisition will even count on their presence and the fear that comes with it for all to see and create waves of purging to occur within a population prior to their arrival in fact sometimes the mere mention of an inquisition party traveling to a world is enough to spark fear driving purges we're neighbors turn against one another and vigilantes become suddenly common in an all-out effort to be seen as doing their duty and displaying themselves as true servants for the Imperium than the emperor this is always the case within the Inquisition this kind of internalized disorder is seen by other factions as being entirely damaging and very counterproductive especially if it weakens the status quo and risks later reprisals but make no mistake little of anything is outside the control of an Inquisitor indeed entire sections of Imperial bureaucracy have been known to simply disappear for presumably some unforgivable infraction now as is often the case with the Imperium many smaller groups and fragmented elements exist beyond the well established norms we see throughout its sprawling organization the Inquisition is no exception in any number of small groups have defined themselves as minor Ordos except that these can amount to barely more than a few individuals with a shared goal some though considerably large and have more embedded roles and there were certainly more than I can care to fully list here so this is not a definitive list today as some have fairly menial roles like the auto Astra tasked with stellar cartography but of the more interesting minor Ordos and in no specific order let's study these firstly one of the most recent to appear is known as the Ordo maledicte 'm and they have risen during the indominus era and seek to close the great rift that has torn the galaxy asunder good luck with that I guess the audio Sicarius were established during the Age of apostasy a time of great disruption and dangerous internal war for the Imperium this also led to the rise of the thorium's but we'll come to those in the next video the Sicarius is assigned the unenviable task of policing Imperial assassins and the assassin Oram ever since this period in the 36th millennium assassins could technically only be deployed under the total authority of the high loads of terror and now Primark government however this is for obvious reasons absurdly impractical and so this occurs basically become the middle management for the assassin or however this presents obvious questions about their potential to abuse this quite powerful Authority but then probably anybody who might raise that question is going to end up being assassinated the audio Sepultura are another new minor audio to originate from the plague Wars and they exist to investigate a specific threat the zombie plague within the galaxy of the 41st millennium all those zombification and plague zombies also brain leaf a zombies in under hives have been known about for millennia it wasn't until the 13th Black Crusade that they posed enough of a threat to have a dedicated audio setup to address the threat the similarities though between resurrection of these zombie plagues and the operation of the golden throne has not passed by the inquisitorial Thorian faction who have taken a very close interest in these developments and again the reason for that will become clear later the audio origin artis is dedicated to unraveling 10 millennia of myths exaggeration and lies within the Imperium and even human history before that rajala see is sometimes how I am feeling conversely though the audio redactors continually looked to obscure all the details of the past thereby making the efforts of the order origin artists ultimately futile which is also how I sometimes feel they have rationalization for this is that they seek to prevent the enemies of humanity from learning some secret or aspect they could gain an advantage from understanding the Inquisition's earliest days and i think i just want to underscore the fact that as i have talked before about what we know and don't know about the Imperium and just the galaxy within the 41st millennium it's worth noting that there is actually a specific inquisitorial Ordo who are tasked simply with making everything really confusing covering things up spreading false truths so that you never get down to the real truth of the matter and I think that's something that's really worth keeping in mind I will make mention also of an almost by now certainly redundant Ordo known only as the eleventh and that's not really a name they just happened to be the 11th OTO and don't go by any other known title and once they focus their efforts on limiting the independence of the adapters as darties and quite rightly as well because I can think of some yellow Marines should really be taking a closer look at just off the top of my head in seriousness though they have really fallen off into obscurity because they came about kind of post heresy their original purpose in the aftermath of the heresy has long since become largely irrelevant because the breakup of the legions occurred this system of the estar T's chapters was implemented and what is known as the second founding so this event heavily limited the power of the authorities but thereby undermined the Ordos entire purpose for existing so as very doubtful to this day that any exist but you never know there may be some out there wandering the galaxy with a chip on their shoulder and to believe that the estar T's are way too powerful and too dangerous to exist again good luck with that the Otto Cronus or Chronos have you want to investigate the potential consequences of time travel specifically though warp travel this is long being a problematic issue for Humanity as the disparity between time in the warp and the material space has been known to cause all manner of issues call offs are also interested in specifically seeking those you might see the potential for deliberate manipulation of this phenomenon Chronos have also seemingly vanished from both record and presence in the Imperium there is no explanation for what happened or where they have disappeared to any number of wild theories have been speculated upon but with little evidence it's anybody's guess as to why they vanished the audio makanan keeper watch or as much of a watch as they can over the adapters mechanicus undoubtedly a full time affair because mechanicus love to acquire all manner of spurious technology scuttling back to their underground forges and uploading data to their vast library of information it's long been speculated that the mechanicus bored endless vaults of technology that they could potentially already have far more access to the STC schematics than they have allowed to be visibly seen in the Imperium in essence the mechanicus are believed by some to be hedging their bets in case the Imperium should one day turn against them not forgetting of course they also retain ownership of the Titans inquisitors of the order makanan will often accompany Kanaka s-- archaeological teams to distant world to physically observe and report upon just exactly what has been recovered they will regularly collaborate with the Ordos enos to again assess any alien technology that the adapters mechanicus seek to recover the Ordo militant does what it says on the tin it monitors the Imperium military bodies such as the Astro military Bureau Navy Imperial sanctions psychos adapt assess our teas and in close partnership with the or Doha rheticus also the sorority's it worth remembering that again the inquisition are not singularly concerned with necessarily chaos heretics but any manner of abuse or internal actions that can damage or undermine the effectiveness of imperial power and that could very much be those seeking power for powers sake at the expense of the security of the Imperium the audio script doram are still based on terror and its members are dedicated to the examination investigation of records and communicate within the Imperium nothing can be more greatly misjudged than the importance of its bureaucracy for all the war and heroics and miracles and horror the tedious emotionless bureaucracy is what the core of the Imperium is all about it struggles every single day under the weight of this burden and it's impossible to even know how many times of vital information have been lost misfiled or destroyed through simple human error the bureaucracy of the Imperium you see is like a vast machine of human servants who spend their whole lives every moment of every day checking administrative documents and you could readily imagine how one archivist or scribe who is tasked with checking thousands of orders and communications every day could at some time come across a single page in somewhere lost within the reams of information is vital information a fragment of knowledge but because it's been incorrectly filed or stamped wrongly those errors immediately invalidate its authenticity and so that information is never to be seen again this nightmarish frustration of such blinkered operative bureaucracy is what the script term order battle against they're only able to intercept a handful of these failures but even one can prove the difference between the life and death of billions moreover the presence of an Inquisitor can have an unsurprising motivation or effect upon an administrative scribes work thus ensuring that fewer errors will occur in the future of course on the more severe end of the scale should ascribe make a devastating error and incorrectly process a form that could doom billions by not delivering them with the support that they need the punishment for members of the administration can be understandably severe and permanent the order Hydra were an extremist element of what were once known as the Illuminati and that is a whole other fairly complex story but this group essentially held the goal of destroying chaos but by any means necessary this group of Illuminati were also referred to as a cabal Vica ball or an inquisitorial cabal they were defeated by the actions of the Inquisitor Draco who prevented them from unleashing a plot to unify humanity as a single hive mind this was intended to provide mankind with the ability to destroy the chaos gods once and for all but was more likely to result in the birth of a fifth major chaos God who would render the human race extinct and guarantee the final victory of chaos as I say though there is a lot more to the story but in essence this is the overview if you want to read about this by the way it did exist as an omnibus at one time but this appears no longer available individually it exists as three books of Draco Harlequin and chaos child and these are still available from the black library I believe there are five in total but these are the three most critical although obsolete us tend to encounter the entity known as zinc more than others as they often will reveal how a miraculous event is a genuine manifestation of the Emperor's will or some scheming plot of either xenos or chaotic deception figures such as the highly mythical Legion of the Damned and the reappearances of a certain Lord vorlick that I'll clarify further shortly the size and scope of obsolete as' is unknown and it's possible they don't even meet the requirements to be classified as an auto and a more possibly what's known as a Conclave but before we learn of Conclave that is explore for a moment the lost tale of Lord VAR Locke and an example of the mysterious events inquisitors have to deal with Corsica - was a typical backwater Imperial world the peasant population toils while a technocratic elite rules from a handful of cities thanks to its moderate strategic importance coupled with a recent rebellion which was immediately crushed cost - is garrisoned by several regiments of Imperial Guard within this guard force exists of rogues seikar by the name of Lord viola who reportedly began his career as corporal vorlick a private force of the Voss cartel during the 24th meridian war you'd be hard-pressed to find documentation of him all these events now they as all records have been long since purged and only those with the presence of mind to record any hard copies of documents from the aftermath could know anything related to what transpired so after the Voss cartel went bankrupt Valek fled from the city of Voss and joined an obscure cult of the emperor mortified when he returned from this bizarre time in the wilderness Valek began preaching wild Dogma to the citizens of course a surprising amount of the population were taken by his words despite them apparently being blatant heresy it appeared that he had developed the power to convince anyone with whom he spoke that his words were the solid-gold truth and should be obeyed without question which goes to demonstrate the danger sike has composed to the Imperium far beyond casting a tedious slight at every opportunity Valek had discovered no matter how outrageous or untruthful his words no one ever questioned him and so quickly he was able to abuse this to his benefit and convinced the commander's of the imperial troops that he was in fact their Savior and the Emperor and the estar T's were in fact the enemy his plot to reign over the world may have gone on for far longer but not for one Inquisitor Marcus who by chance happened to be on the world and quickly sending word to terror and ordering reinforcements of space wolves blood and dark angels and the ultra winds soon descended upon course - in coordination with the Inquisitor they quickly began an assault to crush this rebellion and destroy VALIC who was holed up in his command bunker dawn spilled through the bunkers vision slits to form parallel bars of light and dark across the rock Crete floor the tall cloaked figure paced back and forth through the patches of illumination humming quietly to himself Guardsmen stood ramrod straight nearby obediently waiting for their orders one of their number lay at their feet crumpled in a heap the dark stained leaking from his head forming a pool across the floor it didn't pay to bring bad news to the attention of Lord VALIC the pacing figure stopped suddenly and swung around on his heel with the theatrical slowness aboard hi Brad forehead Sean above crew eyes and lips were twisted into a sickly smile it's still not here is it he said no sir the chorister voice of the guardsmen was deafening in the confined bunker VALIC winced before raising his bolt pistol and blowing a fist-sized hole in the nearest guardsmen the body collapsed and lord vorlick and our self declared or talked of course to resumed his pacing the guardsmen did not move a muscle they knew that their Lord was under a lot of pressure and that his acts of apparently random violence were always directed at cowards traitors shirkers and other scum after all he told them so himself nonetheless it was a source of considerable relief when they heard that thudding blades when approaching airlift VALIC stepped over to one of the vision slits aha he said almost to himself those space means when catch me now breakthrough or no breakthrough the long dark body of the lifter was visible now twin rotors hauling its ponderous bulk towards the landing pad it slowed and turned preparing to land just as beams of ruby light slammed down from above like the wrath of God the lifter expelled flames and thick black smoke before rolling over breaking into three pieces as it tumbled from the sky shattered pieces of lifter rattled off the bunker as a small mushroom cloud rose over the crash site Valek grimaced and put his head in his hands after a while he turned to address the assembled Guardsmen called which fire burning in his eyes you see what happens when you have filthy scumbag traitors in your ranks he paused to viciously kick one of the prone fighters with his elegant boots now we'll have to wait for the reinforcements the guardsmen all nodded glass early caught in the liquid harmonics of his voice like insects in honey get out there and man the guns make sure no Space Marines get in here the guardsmen doubled out of the chamber and moments later Valek heard engines starting up in the shouts of men preparing for battle he gazed through the slits to the north where a great plume of dust marked the approach of the Emperor's accurse it's Space Marines glancing back to the animated map on the far wall he could see his three columns of reinforcements also closing in the four groups on the map raced towards the complex in a deadly contest as he watched the first space win missiles landing nearby the bunkers shook and dust floated from the ceiling it was going to be a close call the battle did not progress well for vile acts Imperial puppets an immense tank battle ensued with all four Space Marine chapters descending upon vorlix in pure thanks sections who were supported by horseback Rough Riders in a personal guard of Agron after some initial success at continually aggressive assault by the starties doomed the renegade when things looked finally lost he attempted an escape but it was not long before VALIC would be finally incinerated by an incandescent superheated blast a multi melt of fire delivered by a swooping space wolves landspeeder yet strangely after this incident it was rumored that vorlick was once seen again on necro monday the third time on valor 21 but wouldn't you know it I've been unable to find any physical documentation to corroborate this it would appear that order obsolete Asst or just the wider Inquisition have removed all records of such events but there remains the possibility that these apparent later appearances suggest that vorlick was not killed on course but instead used his powerful psychic ability of persuasion to convince even the Astarte Zinn their minds that he had been destroyed when in fact he had escaped the critical point of this illustration is that for the Inquisition one single rogues psycho is able to not only bring a planet to the point of being completely lost but this single person also engineered a situation where massive resources had to be deployed to correct the situation and this is why whether they are simply a minor or doe or a major one within the inquisition their mission spans the entire galaxy a thankless unending task that requires continual emotionless diligence for - an Inquisitor every citizen is a potential enemy for Humanity and none should be overlooked now it is often said there's no real official hierarchy within the Inquisition or that it operates without this however this obviously cannot be completely true the shared nature of activities demands some level of ranking an organization this is not as clearly defined as you might observe in a military chain of command more based around reputation and title which yes is sort of a ranking system as I said it's similar to the nature of the inquisition itself it's vague it's not very clearly defined so seniority in and of itself can play just as much of a role as can respect of successful campaigns it's also undoubtedly highly dependent on the faction and inquisitive belongs to because one respected Inquisitor may be another's heretic despite how the inquisition is commonly represented there is a need for a higher tier Inquisitor to help maintain the integrity of the inquisition and to watch over the rest of the organization and the marshalling of resources so generally speaking you have your standard inquisitors then you have increased to Lourdes grandmasters master's and then the inquisitorial representative so first of all a representative of the Inquisition is fairly as it sounds a person who represents the Inquisition overall now this is actually a good example of how the Imperium does not represent one singular political system and this is often mistake people make when they talk about Inquisition and this is actually a good example of how the Imperium does not represent one singular political system but is in fact a mishmash of various outlooks and it's a fair question to ask what political structure is the Imperium but the truth is is very complicated it's not really one thing it's a mishmash it's a blending of different things and it's very dependent on where you are in the galaxy and what level you're at and all these kind of different things and this is a very good example of this because the inquisitorial representative is essentially elected by other Inquisitor lords basically they vote for who they want to be the representative except this representative is then assigned to what was formerly the High Lords of Terror although this obviously no longer exists because now we're but coloman has disbanded it having seen it as being stagnant and a bureaucratic shambles however just as you may have other senior figures like the fabricator general of Mars you'll continue by the way had a parliament you'll continue to have an inquisitorial representative but interestingly again similar to a democratic rule an inquisitorial representative may only serve for a limited term usually five ten years before stepping down to allow a new Inquisitor Lord to take that position this is an interesting aspect of authority and again it's a surprising detail that people may not usually associate with an organization such as the Inquisition which tends to be more kind of disconnected and as we said at the beginning kind of feudal in nature and that's really the most interesting thing when it comes to the Imperium actually is that it's kind of it's blending mishmash of things wherever it suits it's not really one thing it's much more gray part of the reason this whole process seems to be so smooth and this is kind of important is that the position itself holds a little more meaning beyond being a position of great honor because beyond that the representative serves essentially as more like a messenger for the inquisitional organization at large and this is another example of while technically yes the inquisition have unlimited authority only answerable to the emperor in reality this is not really how things play out it's more kind of a theoretical thing because if they were to say alienate any one or several of the other major organizations within the Imperium like say they're starties or the mechanicus this could be very catastrophic for the Inquisition and so they have to play a level of political tact and care that it's required on a day-to-day level your standard Inquisitor can execute as many nameless pleb citizens as they deem appropriate but things at senior levels are rarely so straightforward in essence the representative of the Inquisition being an Inquisitor Lord is basically just a mouthpiece for the all go overall and they're going to relay any major threats or upcoming events so that the Imperium can react an assign appropriate forces the times when inquisitorial representative has not been present within the senior governing body the Imperium though has often resulted in catastrophic consequences so whilst on the one hand they can kind of seem not that important on the other they can actually have a very significant role in preventing major disasters so what about these Inquisitor Lords are they quite simply just senior inquisitors well this happens as we mentioned by more reputation than anything else although influence undoubtedly plays a strong part as is ever the case it's more about who you know and not so much what you know becoming an Inquisitor lord only happens when other Inquisitor Lords invites you to take that role and this will only occur as we say after they are well established and proven dedicated servants of the Inquisition this position though is much more symbolic and a literal assignment of power because inquisitors young or old have technically the same ability to demand whatever they deem necessary whether you're a newly fledged Inquisitor or have been doing it for decades so becoming an Inquisitor the Lord much more about recognition and that lower less experienced inquisitors should likely bow to your judgment however this is not necessarily universally true as again the position is noteworthy more than being an actual rank that denotes any structural chain of command and again inquisitorial Grand Master's are similarly titled only as they have risen to a level of respect enough to command a sector or sub sector of Imperial territory so there is again some structure there but not too strictly an inquisitorial master again much the same it's assigned to a lord who has a strong presence in their auto as it exists within a sector or sub sector both of these ranks will have the ability to make what amounts to senior level decisions about activities but again these are not necessarily permanent positions they exist more as a means to facilitate organization more than being about permanent recognition of that position and as being an Inquisitor Lord so it's important to understand it's not at all the same as say being an Astarte chapter master or an imperial guard where these rolls are usually obviously not strictly permanent barring some terrible misjudgment these positions tend to exist until death but for Inquisitor Lourdes they may rise to what amounts to be a higher rank but only hold it for as long as it's necessary and that usually is entirely undetermined periods of time so then we come to inquisitorial psychic mastery and their disciplines the latent strength and ability the range of a psychic usually measured on a standardized scale known as the assignment although other systems exist and this is a complex measuring system but to break it down more simply we can understand it as follows a standard range of psychic activity is measured by a 24 character scale that runs Bo Megha Sai Kai by epsilon tau Sigma Rho PI Omicron zai nu mu lambda Kappa iota theta ater zeta epsilon Delta Gamma Beta Alpha now within that baseline human mental activity is marked as being ro or pi pi is the limit of non active sentience designations of Omicron through to Kappa indicate residual activity that the subject under scrutiny is normally not aware of and which may pass unnoticed except under careful observations iota and upward indicates a manifest sight activity or ability the strength increasing exponentially with each designation and ratings of zeta and higher indicate a very powerful sight talent the top four ratings designate master level powers or talents of the kind found once in every billion humans the Inquisition constantly survey to locate identify and sequester any and all psychics and its intended to catch anyone with a higher rating of Omicron or above but in practice those of Kappa and higher they usually identified a rating of iota or above requires immediate inquisitorial response either being confinement or even mandatory execution below the baseline rating there of human Pi the grading runs into the region of the site in nert which refers to individuals whose minds are so blunt they're oblivious to psychic activity or even probe this runs again on a sliding scale and someone with an epsilon grade may only be affected by a very severe psychic power but remain otherwise inert Omega rating indicates a more extreme level of inert psychic status they are in fact say blunt as to be having a measurable anti sy effect these are ready the blanks the nulls whose very presence is painful to those with moderate to high psychic ability not only will they nullify them but they will cause some high levels of discomfort unease even pain on the other end of the scale it is possible to achieve a rating of alpha in what is known as the plus scale these are some of the most powerful and most dangerous individuals so for example alpha plus they are thankfully very rare because they represent extreme danger to not just the Imperium but the wider galaxy and usually the individual themself the plus designation can be applied to other levels too like beta and gamma but it is not believed to be applicable below Zeta it's generally believed that only xenos are capable of tolerating the power of alpha plus like for example tyrannies and humans are only able to survive at a level of beta plus and higher the sheer scale of channeling such psychic power robs them of their sanity and any human with alpha plus levels and nearly always completely insane but examples of alpha plus human cycles have been found and held captive by the Inquisition it's thought that for a being to occupy a level below Zeta plus they would actually theoretically no longer exist physically and in fact become a noncorporeal entity so while it is common it's not necessary for an Inquisitor to be a psycho in fact some of the Puritan branches of the Inquisition barely tolerates psychos if not actively hunting them down and that includes even fellow members of the Inquisition psychos have always been something of a double-edged sword because on the one hand they're very powerful individuals who can manifest and utilize wondrous abilities that defy or manifest logic on the other hand they can be unpredictable and worse directly interacting with the Worf untrained slackers can have their minds torn apart by the power of the wall or even allow themselves invert only to become a gateway to allow a pathway for the horrors contained within demons within those who are what are referred to as impurity sanctioned psyche as though there six main disciplines Bioman C is the ability to manipulate biological matter and energy at a cellular level telepathy is of course to do with manipulating and invading the minds of others it also enables telepaths like Astro paths to communicate between each other with just a thought of a great distance mastery of telepathy as a skill means that the psychic can even twist others perceptions and emotions altering their thoughts and actions through either a form of inception or simply restructuring of their memory this can turn a mortal enemy into a new ally and there's no need to drag hidden information from a captive if you can then turn them into an ally who will then just volunteer the information you seek without having to dig around in the maze of their mind is that you a very disturbing concept that you could approach as an enemy and then the psychic can actually distort your mind to the point where you're not really under any kind of duress you're simply now perceiving them as an ally and that concept is very strange psychos with what's referred to as telekinesis is an ability to manipulate the material verse this means bending the laws of physics or in case or in some cases even breaking them pyromancers are psychos who hold mastery over fire which seems somewhat simplistic compared to some of these other abilities psych has known as demonologists are those who have studied much about chaos and its forms and these psychos understand much about the processes between the material and immaterial and how that power can be channeled beyond that demonologists are able to use some of the powerful skills that inhabitants of the warp have learned this can include things like teleportation as they're able to open gateways to the warp and pass through it to reach their destination over short or even long distances and it should be no surprise this tends to be the discipline of more likely a radical Inquisitor as such intimate contact with the warp comes with great peril however it does give them powerful abilities like being able to banish warp entities back from whence they came as well lastly Theo so for me and this discipline focuses on the manipulation of the warp and how it interacts with the material based on a ritualistic control not simply war power and this is actually a very important discipline because what it can be used for is to either disrupt or seal breaks between the two spaces of the material and the immaterial as opposed to the ordinary concept of warp rituals where you imagine these focus purely on opening a breach into the warp space as carried out by say a chaotic cult or something like this the obvious use for the-- also for me by an Inquisitor is that when you may say locate a heretical cult who have been attempting to open a gateway it's all well and good if as an Inquisitor you can track down and locate a cult but if you're unable to seal that breach if you're unable to stop the entities coming out from that Nightmare Realm then just finding the instigators is going to be something that's irrelevant once demons are pouring out of that breach you're unable to do anything about it so whilst it might seem something of a defensive ability for an Inquisitor this is actually an incredibly important discipline and again something that's not especially widely considered now I want to conclude this first video about inquisitors in considering a final point of interest which remains true throughout the Imperium and that is to say that a great many events and truths within the Imperium are hazy and subject to interpretation at the best of times within the Inquisition many of their factional core beliefs and ideological differences when considered objectively rarely give us one definitive way of looking at something even within a faction one's heretic is another Savior the point being that as much as humanity views chaos as being abhorrent and disgusting those who serve chaos do not necessarily see themselves in that perspective as we will explore in part two radical inquisitors also do not necessarily see themselves as being radical in the negative framing the Puritans and loyalists would present them as in fact radical if you like heretic or inquisitors see themselves in entirely the opposite way are still benefiting the future of humanity radical Inquisitor will consider themselves to have awoken to the truth of things a reality that the majority simply choose not to see but they have managed to achieve by their strength of mind a strength which Puritan inquisitors either do not possess or fear to test radicals see themselves as being something akin to martyrs who understand the weight of their task that they must keep the courage to do what must be done and any cause to the contrary only further entrench their beliefs but this fight between Puritan and radical remains a permanently problematic issue within the Inquisition but regardless of whether they are Puritan or radical in regard to their philosophical outlook the inquisitorial view to achieve ones goals by any means necessary remains a constant and this unfortunately carries with it the devastating consequences for ordinary members of the Imperium yet of course depending on which side of the coin anyone Inquisitor is looking at those necessary means may vary wildly and the subsequent associated consequences Scaleform being simply inconvenient to permanently world ending now all of this today is barely scratching the surface of what it means to be an Inquisitor what we've looked at the fundamental mechanics of being an Inquisitor and it's very much the how and not the why so soon in part two which you'll be pleased to know is already while in progress and will follow on and I mean soon we will dig down into the ideologies of the inquisitors and this is where we will learn about what it truly means to serve is one of the most powerful forces in the Imperium will drill down on the ideologies of the Puritan and the radical and explore how the strangely fractured nature of the Inquisition came about in the first place most importantly though we'll consider which of these ideologies seems most probable and benefitting for the future of humanity and the Imperium by the finish of it you yourself can undoubtedly decide which faction you best align with those who seek complete annihilation of humanity's enemies all those seeking the growth and rebirth of humanity or other factions with far more disturbing and twisted agendas as always guys I will say thank you very much indeed for joining me today if you enjoyed this video please drop a like tell me what you think down below and I'll also quickly say I know this one has been a long time coming we're back on track and next time we will explore much more detail about the Inquisition see you next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Luetin09

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Keywords: Gaming, Discuss, Channel, Future, 40K, Warhammer 40K, Imperium, Humanity, Mankind, Doom, Fall, Space Marines, Heretic, Heresy, The Emperor of Man, Lore, History, Guide, Warhammer 40000, Warp, Immaterium, Rift, War, Slaughter, Horror, Nightmare, Tabletop, Inquisition, Inquisitor

Id: -W2VGNAIs3A

Length: 89min 28sec (5368 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 28 2020