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Inquisitors


Custodian Athiair

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The known ranks are Explicator, then Interrogator, then full Inquisitor. Being given responsibility for a large sector of space, usually a sub-sector, will accompany/be responsible for promotion to Inquisitor Lord. Inquisitor Lords though are really just long-serving Inquisitors, its not an 'official' rank as such, just commonly used to denote seniority and additional responsibilities. So an Inquisitor in charge of a sub-sector, and therefore being the immediate boss of all other Inquisitors in the region, would be made a Lord to establish clear distance between them and the Inquisitors under them.

 

No idea how they are recruited. From reading Eisenhorn, it seems the precedent is that Inquisitors can pick up potential Explicators on their travels and then train them in the ways of the Inquisition, much like they pick up other henchmen. This can include known/convicted criminals, serving the Inquisition counts as repentance for crimes against the Imperium. Psychic Inquisitors I guess would be cherry-picked from the cargo of the Black Ships, if they were not found using the above method.

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They can be identified through any number of ways. Scola Progenium recruits, the black ships, bounty hunters, assasins, clergy... I would assume that some Inquisitors have kids at one point or another. Why not follow the family trade?

 

Clearly you haven't read the Eisenhorn or Ravenor trilogies. Based on those books, i would say that the chances of an inquisitor having any sort of family would be extremely remote.

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I'm not sure I would be that absolute Peredyne.

 

Eisenhorn tells the story of one but one Inquisitor in an Imperium of a million million worlds.

(2nd Edition it was a million million -- I'm not sure if the 5th ed rule book now puts it at one million.)

 

Surely the galaxy at large must allow for more than one way to be an Inquisitor. That is after all what defines that group of people within the Imperium -- that they are independent, free thinkers.

 

Think of other characters you see in the Eisenhorn Books, such as Inquisitor General Neve, posted to the Interior Guard on Cadia. She is not bouncing around from world to world. What's more, she identified her life as being very different from that of characters like Eisenhorn. Inquisitor Lord Rorken is another who comes to mind. Aside from the first book, he is often depicted as one who stays at the Inquisitorial Fortress filling a staff role, rather than being a field Inquisitor. To pick an extreme example, Inquisitor Lord Caetris had a retinue numbering in the hundreds. Surely it would not be impossible for a wife & kids to be packed around in that group.

 

To borrow from Star Trek: "infinite diversity in infinite combinations."

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The known ranks are Explicator, then Interrogator, then full Inquisitor. Being given responsibility for a large sector of space, usually a sub-sector, will accompany/be responsible for promotion to Inquisitor Lord. Inquisitor Lords though are really just long-serving Inquisitors, its not an 'official' rank as such, just commonly used to denote seniority and additional responsibilities. So an Inquisitor in charge of a sub-sector, and therefore being the immediate boss of all other Inquisitors in the region, would be made a Lord to establish clear distance between them and the Inquisitors under them.

 

Another point to make here, which GM Tyrak touched on, is that while there are these 4 known ranks, there are near-infinite gradations of power amongst Inquisitors (and Inquisitor Lords, presumably). Once you become a full Inquisitor, a large amount of your power and influence are dependent on Inquisitorial politics and power-plays, moreso than any kind of formal rank structure. Some Inquisitors are more 'plugged in' to their Ordos and the Inquisition as a whole than others - these almost certainly are going to 'outrank' a fellow Inquisitor who doesn't have powerful patrons or mentors. Time in grade probably has some impact on the informal Inquisitorial power structure as well, if for no other reason that the longer you've been around the more favors you've collected, the more blackmail material you'll have over your rivals (or your allies, or even your superiors!), the larger and more powerful your retinue and attached forces will have become, etc. A sorta-good example might be the British Navy during the Age of Sail - vastly simplifed, you'd have people of the same rank, but the Captain or Admiral or whatever that was related to more members of the peerage, or who had more battle honors, or who made rank first, or whatever, would have more pull than the less well-connected, and so on.

 

This would probably have a trickle-down effect as well: an Explicator or Interrogator working for a more powerful Inquisitor is going to draw more water than his or her fellows who work for a weaker Inquisitor.

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They can be identified through any number of ways. Scola Progenium recruits, the black ships, bounty hunters, assasins, clergy... I would assume that some Inquisitors have kids at one point or another. Why not follow the family trade?

 

Clearly you haven't read the Eisenhorn or Ravenor trilogies. Based on those books, i would say that the chances of an inquisitor having any sort of family would be extremely remote.

 

 

Clearly I currently own and have read those trilogies several times. Based on those books, I would say that Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor both maintained long-term relationships with females, and the chances of them starting families (or at least having kids) at one point could have been entirely possible.

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