When does one Ordo trump another?

[minigun762]

Here is a scenario.

 

Say there is a Rogue Eldar Psyker who is corrupted by Chaos, which of the 3 branches of the Inquisition would ultimately be responsible for taking care of the situation.

Its a Xeno = Death Watch

Its a Psyker = Hereticus

Its influenced by Chaos = Malleus

 

So whats the answer?

No reason for the question other than I'm curious.

[Melissia]

Whichever one is present at the time.

 

 

 

Also, Ordo Hereticus deals with the corruption of chaos in general, while the ordo malleus deals specifically with daemons and/or stopping daemons from materializing in the first place.

[jakehunter52]

Seriously, I think that the example they give in the Dark Heresy book sets a good guideline. It talks about conclaves of inquisitors being formed to service local areas of Imperial space, regardless of Ordos or even if they have one. They then appoint (or assign) a leader who is most likely going to be an Inquisitor Lord, simply to avoid confusion of rank and also so they will have access to the deepest, darkest secrets should the need arise. However, from this point on it becomes a lot like frontier law, where the Lord is the county sheriff but he relies on his deputies to really maintain the fine order. Then, should a neighboring (or not) Inquisitor come along on his own witch hunt...well, then it comes down to how much the local enforcement likes him based on evidence, their own pending investigations but most importantly, prestige. Emperor-forbid someone as known as Eisenhorn comes to your sector and you tell him "no".

 

But to answer your question: All three.

 

The Malleus would beat him down with the hammer then

The Xenos would blow the head off with bolter

And the Hereticus would burn the body for good measure

[Plasma_Ken]

I can see the Inquisition's response being dependent on who is available at the time like Mellissia does. Other wise I see it as a 'scissor- rock- paper' situation. I think the Chaos and being a psyker aspects as more dangerous than being a xeno... are the Death Watch/ Ordo Xenos really prepared to deal with these things? I imagine the Chaos part of it is the most serious threat of the three so I propose the Ordo Malleus would be best equipped to deal with him.

 

Jakehunter has a point in that the local jurisdiction politics play into the situation as well; I hope for the sake of the citizens on the planets this guy is headed for the authorities are working together and not trying to set each other up for failure...

[Chengar Qordath]

There seems to be a fairly widespread misconception that Ordos only hunt the enemy they specialize in dealing with. While an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor specializes in dealing with alien influence and will usually be out actively looking for it, no Ordo Xenos Inquisitor is going to just ignore Daemons or Chaos Cults just because it's not their area. No Inquisitor is going to see any threat to the Imperium as somebody else's problem. Somebody else mentioned Eisenhorn; those of you familiar with the books featuring him will be aware that while he's a member of the Ordo Xenos he still deals with the forces of Chaos, cults, and other non-xeno threats to the Imperium.

 

Essentially, the Inquisitor that's on hand is the one who deals with the situation. However, an Inquisitor is much more likely to be out actively looking for whatever enemies they specialize in hunting than for other threats.

[Grand Master Tyrak]

There seems to be a fairly widespread misconception that Ordos only hunt the enemy they specialize in dealing with. While an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor specializes in dealing with alien influence and will usually be out actively looking for it, no Ordo Xenos Inquisitor is going to just ignore Daemons or Chaos Cults just because it's not their area. No Inquisitor is going to see any threat to the Imperium as somebody else's problem. Somebody else mentioned Eisenhorn; those of you familiar with the books featuring him will be aware that while he's a member of the Ordo Xenos he still deals with the forces of Chaos, cults, and other non-xeno threats to the Imperium.

 

Essentially, the Inquisitor that's on hand is the one who deals with the situation. However, an Inquisitor is much more likely to be out actively looking for whatever enemies they specialize in hunting than for other threats.

 

QFT. It's a bit like a Marine Chapter who specialise in dealing with a particular enemy. They aren't going to ignore everyone else, but they'll be especially effective against their preferred enemy.

[Okidus]

The second deathwatch book has some interesting fluff about the three branches and how they interact.

[Kaled100]

The second deathwatch book has some interesting fluff about the three branches and how they interact.

I haven't read those books (mainly because they generally get such poor reviews) - what do they say on the subject?

[River Black]

Also in the Eisenhorn Books there were several instances where a particular threat drew the attention off several Ordos at the same time. They even got together, shared knowledge, and pooled resources. There is no line in the sand so I guess the answer to your question would be... who ever got to him first.

[Melissia]

In the Ciaphas Cain books, Inquisitor Vail essentially references the other Ordos as if being in an Ordo is effectively a sign of what enemy you prefer to fight against, rather than what you have authority to fight against-- mind you, she also has fought against daemons and the corruption of chaos just as she has against Genestealer cults and Orks, and she is a member of the Ordo Xenos.

[Chengar Qordath]

As an aside, it also occurs to me that when investigating cult activity an Inquisitor wouldn't neccessarily know what kind of cult they're dealing with until fairly far along in the investigation. Until you've broken the cult open it's hard to tell if you're dealing with a Genestealer Cult (Xenos), traitors with odd ideas about Imperial Doctrine (Hereticus) or Chaos Cultist who are summoning up Daemons (Malleus). For a fluff example consider the first Ciaphas Cain book, where they're not sure what kind of cult they're dealing with until they actually run into full-grown Genestealers; Vail certainly wouldn't have just turned around and said "not my problem" if they turned out to be Chaos worshippers instead.

 

Like Melissa said, Ordo is more of an Inquisitor's preference/area of focus than any sort of limit to their authority.

[ripath]

I would agree that all ordos work together if they are there and have time. Now an interesting point would be when one inquisitor that is radical or of an opposed nature prevents another inquisitor from helping deal with a problem. Just because its been awhile since I've seen the radicals and puritans try to say that they have jurisdiction here.

[Vulcaren]

Probably a small strikeforce assembled if the threat is signifigant enough, such as daemons manifesting, and a signifigant force of human and xeno cultists becoming an army I say a force of SoBs (most likely being the backbone of such force) with a team of Grey Knights and Deathwatch forming the elite along with several thousand of IG and Stormtroopers.

[Chengar Qordath]

I would agree that all ordos work together if they are there and have time. Now an interesting point would be when one inquisitor that is radical or of an opposed nature prevents another inquisitor from helping deal with a problem. Just because its been awhile since I've seen the radicals and puritans try to say that they have jurisdiction here.

Presumably if the two Inquisitors can't cooperate or come to some other kind of arrangement a Radical and Puritan would just each pursue their own independent action. Of course, in that situation it's quite possible they'd end up putting as much effort into undermining each other as they did to actually performing their investigation.

[DFK!]

Everybody seems to be pretty much in agreement here that it's basically "whoever gets there first."

 

To elaborate on that, or further reinforce it, I'll point to the Eisenhorn fluff and point out that he was technically an Ordo Xenos inquisitor, but his main antagonist across all three books were chaos cultists and a daemon.

[jeffersonian000]

As has been pointed out, an Inquisitor is an Inquisitor first and foremost. Any Ordo an Inquisitor may follow is an area of study, with further areas of philosophy that cross-over Ordo boundaries.

 

SJ