Inquisition (Telstein)

The Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition are a highly secretive paramilitary investigative body operating within the Imperial Telstein Sector, as in all space under the control of the God Emperor of Mankind. The Inquisition acts as a secret police force against threats too insidious or esoteric for Imperial Commanders or the conventional security forces of the Adeptae to defeat. Unlike many other Imperial bodies, the Inquisition is decentralised rather than rigidly hierarchical. Thoughtfulness, curiosity, analytical skill and creativity are all valued traits for the agents of the Inquisition - known as Inquisitors where in many other walks of life they can lead to trouble - even to a visit from an Inquisitor.

The decentralised nature of the Inquisition originates from the fact that each Inquisitor draws their authority directly from the Emperor himself, and that authority is notionally limitless. Each Inquisitor can requisition any force or assistance, require any information, judge any infraction, and pass any sanction in the pursuit of their mission. This immense authority and equally wide latitude in how to carry out their duties has resulted in the typical image of an Inquisitor being one of a capricious and merciless, roving executioner whose presence heralds death for the slightest of misdemeanors and apocalyptic destruction for the enemies of the Imperium and any who are remotely nearby to them. That is if one even believes they are real: so sensationally exaggerated is the image of the Inquisition in the minds of most of the Imperium's uninitiated masses, that many citizens believe them to be a bogeyman. In reality, however, the Inquisition has created its own internal bureaucracy and structure - though across the entire Imperium there were significant regional variations in administration - and the actions of its members are frequently scrutinised by their peers to guard against radicalism or treachery.

History

The origins of the Inquisition are lost to the sands of time - especially to the denizens of the Telstein sector who are separated from the most comprehensive archives of the Imperium as a result of the Starshift, to say nothing of the considerable effort expended by those agents of the Ordo Redactor who are pledged to keep the records of the Inquisition's founding lost forever. In the minds of almost all Telsteinians who believe that it exists, the Inquisition has existed for as long as the Imperium - an everpresent shield against the most insidious threats to mankind.

In actuality, the Inquisition was first founded during the climax of the great historical civil war known as the Horus Heresy which occurred when the Emperor's chief warmaster, Horus Lupercal, pledged himself to overthrow the Emperor and seize the Imperium in the name of Chaos. The Emperor commanded his foremost deputy to seek out "men of character, skill, and determination" who could be trusted to seek out and uproot those insidious moral threats to the Imperium which had claimed the loyalty of Horus and many of his brothers and subordinates. These first recruits - exceptional heroes with great skill of mind as well as body - went on to be the founding members of the organisation that would become the Inquisition. Whilst originally a single body of agents, over time its membership divided into innumerable disciplines, each specialising in researching, investigating, and combatting particular threats. Whilst arguably extant since the beginning, the Order of Demonhunters first formed with the creation of the Alienhunters after an immense Orkish invasion reached the orbit of Earth itself in M31. The Witchhunters were then formed in M36 following the great religious schism and civil war known as the Age of Apostasy.

Since the Starshift the Inquisition's role has been more important than ever. Having been dimensionally translocated to a universe whose fundamental rules differ from their own in countless subtle ways, great swathes of knowledge resulting from millennias of research into alien, psychic, and demonic phenomena have been rendered invalid at a stroke. Furthermore, the violent shock that the starshift caused to many irreplaceable technologies and to the fragile minds of many warp-attuned individuals resulted in a chaotic explosion of witches and cults, and demonic and alien incursions that the Sectatus was ill-prepared to face.

In the ensuing centuries the Ordos Telstein has worked flat-out, both in the shadows and taking centre-stage as part of the countless feuds and negotiations that saw the balance of power gradually stabilise in the Sector. The most recent, and pressing, threat to it and the Sector is believed by those few who are aware of its presence to be he Great Civilisation of the C'tan. This is due to the immense disparity in power between that other stellar empire and the Sectatus, and the Great Civilisation's seeming interest in interfering with the Sector. Unfortunately the secretive nature of the Inquisition, even amongst its own orders, means that countless Inquisitors and Throne Agents have been targeted and killed by the C'tani Influence Instrumentality under orders from the Ancestral Universe Special Interest Congress.

Organisation

Inquisitorial Orders

Inquisitors belong to at least one - usually two or more 'Orders' of the Inquisition. The first will be the Local Conclave which oversees the Inquisition's operations within a given area of the Imperium. This Local Conclave will usually administer most of the shared resources of the Inquisition - fortresses, research facilities and libraries, as well as militant forces, administrative adepts, psychoconditioned menial serfs and other officials. The organisation of the Local Conclave is also the predominant vehicle for holding Inquisitors in the area to account, and for giving them direction toward particular threats.

Whilst the remit of an Inquisitor is universal and they must be able to turn their hand to combatting any enemy, the often niche and esoteric nature of their foes means that few Inquisitors can meaningfully become experts in all threats within the confines of a human lifetime. Therefore, in addition to the Local Conclave, all Inquisitors will belong to at least one of the many Disciplinary Orders indicating a specialism in understanding and combatting particular types of threats to the Imperium. There are three principal Disciplinary Orders dedicated to the largest threat-groups to the Imperium - the Alien, the Witch, mutant and heretic, and the Demon. The Orders Majoris of the Ordos Xenos, Ordos Hereticus, and Ordos Malleus each respectively specialise in those threats. Meanwhile there are a myriad of Orders Minoris which have more narrowly defined purviews, such as the Ordos Militarum that polices the Imperial Guard or the Ordos Scriptus which oversees the Librarium Terra on earth itself. It is not unheard of for Inquisitors to transition between Disciplinary Orders thoughout their careers - particularly if they give themselves and their life's work over to combatting a multidisciplinary threat like chaos-worshipping aliens.

In the Telstein Sector, the Local Conclave is known as the Ordos Telstein and its head is the Grand Master of the Ordos Telstein, currently Lord Inquisitor Maxilien Accalia of the Ordos Malleus. The Ordos Telstein has a number of Inquisitorial Fortresses known to outsiders, such as the notional headquarters of the Order on Telstein itself - though its members also have access to covert facilities and resources spread across the entire Sector. This ranges from dedicated fleet squadrons and Stormtrooper Regiments through to mobile laboratories and purgation units to analyse and dispose of defeated foes. This is on top of the personal resources of individual Inquisitors which can range from a personal entourage of a handful of ill-equipped novice agents through to veritable armies of overt and covert resources operating from countless facilities and furnished with the finest of arms and armour.

Each of the three Orders Majoris are represented in the governance of the Ordos Telstein by their respective Masters:

• Lord Inquisitor Sibylla Navale, Master of the Ordos Malleus in the Telstein Sector
• Lord Inquisitor Nelscinne Horatius Domina di Tonitrum, Master of the Ordos Xenos in the Telstein Sector
• Lord Inquisitor Isauricus, Master of the Ordos Hereticus in the Telstein Sector

In the Telstein Sector, the Grand Master is also assisted by the Vicariate Master of the Ordos Telstein, whose role is principally to act as the Grand Master's chief-of-staff. Presently Inquisitor Processus Sigilis of the Ordos Machinum, the Vicariate Master is principally concerned with the mundanity of managing the Local Conclave's resources, communications, and meetings. Whilst on paper this role presents little opportunity for leadership of other Inquisitors, its unparalleled access to sensitive information and the ear of the Grand Master means that it is a highly sought-after appointment for those seeking advancement within the Ordos Telstein.

Inquisitorial Ranks

The Inquisition holds a comparatively flat hierarchical structure wherein the purpose and legal basis of each individual cell is entirely reliant on the authority of the Inquisitor to whom they are pledged. Outside of the Inquisition the authority of any Inquisitor is largely equivalent - it is absolute, so long as it can be enforced. Within the Inquisition, all are either Inquisitors or Acolytes.

Inquisitors are those agents who have been fully inducted into the Order and who wield the authority of the Throne itself. There is no set criteria or process for recruitment into the orders, though any Inquisitor can elevate others to their station subject only to scrutiny and sanction from their peers. The vast majority of Inquisitors will remain at this rank for their entire career, though some will be further elevated to the position of Inquisitor Lord. This is largely an honorific promotion which formally codifies the influence, respect, and power afforded to the foremost members of the order after decades of inspired success against their foes. Masters of the Inquisition are those who have been elevated to a position of responsibility for their Ordos within the Sector, or who have been given multi-disciplinary responsibility for a significant portfolio of work within the Ordo. The Grandmaster is the seniormost Inquisitor within the Ordos Telstein and they exercise authority over all Inquisitors no matter their discipline. Elevation to Lordship or Mastership is ratified by the Grandmaster of the Ordos Telstein on consideration of an individual's suitability following suitable acclamation by their peers.

Inquisitors cannot carry out their work alone, so they invariably gather around themselves both immediate retinues and wider cells of Acolytes who work for them. These individuals are usually highly skilled and uniquely talented, often headhunted specifically for their post by the Inquisitor themselves. The functions carried out by Acolytes are myriad, ranging from technical specialists and researchers to warriors and even menial labourers. This means that the position of Acolyte can realistically cover the spectrum from an illiterate former dock-hand who now shifts cargo crates within an Inquisitorial Wayfortress all the way up to privileged and respected navigator of a Lord Inquisitor's personal Cruiser. Those who demonstrate aptitude, skill, and - most importantly - trustworthiness can be elevated to the rank of Throne Agent, which represents a more formal and permanent footing for an individual's position within the Inquisition. Such individuals will have regular personal contact with their Inquisitor even in the largest of cells, and will usually either be part of their master's personal retinue or will manage teams or departments of Acolytes carrying out more mundate operations that do not require their direct supervision. The foremost Agent in an Inquisitor's retinue is their Interrogator. By convention each Inquisitor only appoints a single Interrogator, though there is no requirement for one to do so. The Interrogator is their master's apprentice - considered an Inquisitor in training and tending to be destined for elevation to the Orders themselves.

However, while all Inquisitors are ultimately the font of their own authority - subject only to the scrutiny and mass sanction of their peers, the authority of Acolytes, Throne Agents, and Interrogators exists only insofar as it represents an extension of their master's will - though few outside the Inquisition are truly aware of this, or would ever be willing to test it.

Military forces

When the resolution of a situation requires more coercive firepower than can be brought to bear by a lone Inquisitor, a cabal of their fellows, or a Warband of Acolytes formed from their collected retinues, the Inquisition has two choices. Its first option is to requisition the wider forces of the Imperium to do battle on its behalf - whether that be a team of Arbites, a squadron of naval vessels, or even whole armies and crusade forces should the need require it. Whilst this is often required when the insidous influence of a cult or infiltration erupts into a conflagration of open warfare that threatens to devour planets, systems or even the sector itself; requisitioned helpers invariably lack the specialist skills and equipment and often lack the strength of will and faith to effectively do battle with more esoteric threats. Commanders can be unwilling to fully commit themselves and their formations to missions they barely comprehend, to say nothing of the avoidably heavy casualties they will often sustain and the frequent requirement of executing or mindwiping survivors to protect them from the horrors they will have seen.

Where practicable, the preferred option will be to drawn upon the Chambers Militant of the Inquisition or one of their dedicated Inqisitorial Stormtrooper Regiments. The latter are formations seconded from the Departmento Munitorum's Militarum Tempestus, or other Astra Militarum formations, who inevitably find themselves drawn tighter and tighter into the workings of the Inquisition until that work is all they know. The Chamber Militants on the other hand are dedicated specialist military forces for each of the Ordos Majoris - though the strength of their presence in the Sectatus has varied and in some cases has diminished heavily and irreversibly since the Starshift.

Grey Knights

The Space Marines of the Grey Knights Chapter are the Chamber Militant of the Ordos Malleus. Secretive in the extreme, the Space Marine chapter was founded at the time of the Inquisition's formation by order of the EMperor himself with a singular purpose - to fight and destroy demons. Every brother of the chapter is a psyker of supreme strength and will, clad in purified and sanctified armour of the most advanced design and wielding weapons enhanced and charged with the psychic might of its wielder. Not only do the Grey Knights only answer to their own and to the Inquisitors of the Ordos Malleus, but it has always been that few outside that select group may be permitted to even know of their existence. Thus it is not uncommon for the first priority in the aftermath of a defeated demonic incursion to be the industrial-scale execution and mindcleansing of any and all who have been witness to what has happened. Naturally this breeds resentment, and on many occasions open conflict, with those who will have demonstrated utmost courage, skill, and moral purity in withstanding and overcoming whatever demonic onslaught the Grey Knights were called to combat.

Numbering roughly 1,000-strong across the entire galaxy, based in the Sol system, and lingering in any one place only long enough to defeat whatever threat was present, there are countless sectors in the Imperium which will not have seen a Grey Knight deployment for millennia, if ever. The records of the Sectatus Telstein on this subject are sealed to all outside the Ordos Malleus, but on a purely statistical level there is little chance that Grey Knight forces were present during and since the Starshift.

Deathwatch

The Space Marines of the Deathwatch are the Chamber Militant of the Ordos Xenos. Where the Grey Knights are formed as a single brotherhood akin to other Space Marine Chapters, the complement of the Deathwatch is constantly changing as it tithes chapters across the galaxy to be seconded to their fortresses according to its need for anything from a single raid to a century. Compared with the Grey Knights, the Deathwatch is vast and very decentralised in nature with Watchfortresses and Watchstations spread across the galaxy. Each of the former, lead by a Watch Commander whose rank as Watchmaster puts him on par with a Chapter Master, is a vast facility crewed by thousands of serfs and supporting the actions of hundreds of Astartes veterans in kill teams across a number of Imperial Sectors. Consisting almost entirely of veterans who bear the most advanced arms and armour in the Imperium, the Deathwatch is one of the most lethal forces available to Inquisitors - though it is constantly conducting operations of its own volition in response to information received from its own networks of technical and human intelligence sources.

Within the Telstein Sector, Watch Captain Teo Zuasus oversees the 4th Watch Company of Watch Fortress Ilorelia. Separated from the remainder of their brotherhood, Zuasus was granted status of Watch Commander by Master Horatius of the Ordos Xenos and tasked with constructing a self-sufficient permanent operation within the isolated Sector. Overseeing six understrength kill-teams and a small command staff, the Watch Captain not only has to contend with the punishingly high operationa tempo demanded by the Starshift but is also left to contend with a huge staffing problem as he has tens of Watchbrothers unable to return to their home chapters whilst being only able to recruit from the slim number of Astartes chapters who were in the Sector when it was translocated.

Sororitas Militant

Seconded Sisters of Battle from the Adepta Sororitas form the Chamber Militant of the Ordos Hereticus.