Admech/Knights and The Inquisition.

[I Legion]

I'm working on some back story for my WIP Knight army, and I'd like some feedback. 

To keep it quick and simple: My force portrays 4 Freeblade Knights who served with Solar Macharius in his crusade. Following his death, the 4 Knights sided with one of Macharius's generals who subsequently was declared heretic and was destroyed by the Minotaurs Chapter. Unwilling to support a heretic, but bound by their oaths of honor, the 4 Knights left their erstwhile master and sat out his destruction aboard their shared transport fleet. Following the conflict, the Knights swore to cleanse their honor by undertaking an everlasting penitent crusade. 

In recent years, the Quartet (as they're known) have been observed aiding Imperial Forces around the edges of the galaxy where Macharius's crusade ended. They strike without warning, their presence rarely detected before their guns strike down heretics. Their actions have recently drawn the attention of the Inquisition, for no Inquisitor would stomach the thought of a force so powerful operating without oversight. 

Now, this force could in no way survive a 1000 years of conflict without Admech support and provisioning. The Quartet is supported by the adepts of Forge World RaVoss, who themselves were sanctioned by the Mechanicum for supporting a heretical Macharian general and are seeking to atone for that lack of judgement. This arrangement is kept a closely guarded secret.

My questions arise in the interaction of curious Inquisition agents and the Adepts of the Forge World. Does the Inquisition have jurisdiction over the Adepts? Does the Mechanicum at large have an agency similar to the Inquisition who would also investigate this arrangement? Would they interact with the Inquisition?

[jeffersonian000]

From my readings on the 40k universe going back to Rogue Trader to today's Horus Heresy inspired retcon, I would have to say that the Inquisition do not police the Mechanium without invitation. Also, the Knight worlds do not recognize Imperial authority beyond trade agreements and mercenary contracts, due to the their culture placing their aristocracy at the same level as the High Lords of Terra. That said, nothing presented so far in your background fluff is implausible, and can very well have a place in the setting.

 

A person of an inquisitive nature could very well decide to follow up on rumors of a non-aligned quartet of Freelance Knights supporting Imperials without orders, without communication, and without support. Are they related the phantom Astartes sightings people have dubbed, "Legion of the Damned"? Or are they mercenaries or vigilantes marauding those that oppose the Imperium for some as yet undisclosed yet potentially nefarious purpose? Either way, someone is supplying the God-Machines with coin, and a right minded Inquistor would just have to know the why's and the how's so that these "Knights" can be better directed towards the Imperium's needs. Or the Inquisitor's needs, which amount to the same thing.

 

SJ

Edited February 2, 2015 by jeffersonian000

[I Legion]

Ah, good to know that I'm on the right track. 

Anything on the Mechanicum version of the Inquisition? Perhaps the Ordo Reductor? Or perhaps a random Adept or Magos selected to investigate?

[jeffersonian000]

The Mechanicum seem to have a "hive" culture, where everyone has a job to do, recruitment is at birth, promotion is through cronyism, and exceptional people are ground to dust. We know the Mechanium have there own police, however, it always read like they investigate issues from the top down, I.e., Fabricator notes production quotas are not bring met on a Forge World so he or she sends a manager to investigate, that manager takes an entourage with him or her into the manufacturing hive where the quotas aren't being met, meets with managers, sub-managers, foremen, sub-formen, team leads, individual workers, etc., until the problem is worked out and production quotas are met. This very much means that Graf and corruption play a major role, and any investigation will stop as soon as the goal is met. The Mechanicum treats its citizens as cogs in the Great Machine, necessary but replaceable, and are willing to kill millions of there own just the cover up incompetence.

 

While there are very few books written from the Mechanicum's point of very, the few that do exist paint a very specific picture of the inhumanity and neglect represented by the Mechanicum culture.

 

SJ

[Atia]

 

 

Perhaps the Ordo Reductor? 

the ordo reductor are siege specialists, it would be more something like the Lacyraemara (the ones who guard over the adsecularis)

[Demus Ragnok]

There's a minor ordo of the ][ that deals specifically with the the AdMech. The Ordo Mechanicum.

[I Legion]

Did yet more research and thinking. 

Can't imagine there'd be a ][ Ordo dedicated to investigating the Admech. It's simply too risky. That Ordo would never, ever get any support at all from any part of the Admech. Nor would anyone that helped them. The Admech's relationship with the Imperium just seems too tenuous for this to work. That and the insular nature of the Admech just screams "No way!"

I'm in line with Jeffersonian. It seems that only individual Magos and such would be tasked to investigate something like this.

Demus: got a source?

[Battybattybats]

In the Dark Heresy rpg

there is a group in at least the Calixis sector that game is set in that operate like the Inquisition called The Lords Dragon

In the short novel Knights of the Imperium by Graham McNeil

there is a special kind of Mechanicus agent called a Data Proctor who has very nasty abilities indeed and these clearly are agents who operate within the Mechanicus furthering the ends of those higher up.

[jeffersonian000]

In the Dark Heresy rpg

there is a group in at least the Calixis sector that game is set in that operate like the Inquisition called The Lords Dragon

 

In the short novel Knights of the Imperium by Graham McNeil

there is a special kind of Mechanicus agent called a Data Proctor who has very nasty abilities indeed and these clearly are agents who operate within the Mechanicus furthering the ends of those higher up.

Both examples point to an AdMech version of the Inquisition or Arbites, rather than a branch of the Inquisition.

 

SJ

[casb1965]

The does seem to be a section of the Inquisition called the Ordo Machinum.

 

• Ordo Machinum - Known as "The Judicators of the Forge", the Ordo Machinum scrutinise the Adeptus Mechanicus. Specifically, they are concerned with the reintegration of recovered STC variants into the Imperium's armies and the rare adoptions of alien technologies into established Mechanicum protocols. Inquisitors of the Ordo Machinum often accompany Adeptus Mechanicus archaeological teams to distant worlds, the better to see for themselves exactly what has been recovered. They often work in concert with the Ordo Xenos -– especially when the world in question has been under alien control or there is any suggestion of non-human origin for the technology the Adeptus Mechanicus seek to recover.
  

[Battybattybats]

 

In the Dark Heresy rpg

there is a group in at least the Calixis sector that game is set in that operate like the Inquisition called The Lords Dragon

 

In the short novel Knights of the Imperium by Graham McNeil

there is a special kind of Mechanicus agent called a Data Proctor who has very nasty abilities indeed and these clearly are agents who operate within the Mechanicus furthering the ends of those higher up.

Both examples point to an AdMech version of the Inquisition or Arbites, rather than a branch of the Inquisition.

 

SJ

 

Yes, because i was answering this question: "Does the Mechanicum at large have an agency similar to the Inquisition who would also investigate this arrangement?" and if they look into the Dark Heresy rpg especially if they get and read the Dark Heresy rpg The Lathe Worlds mechanicus supplement they'd get some of the answer to "Would they interact with the Inquisition?"

[Demus Ragnok]

Did yet more research and thinking.

 

Can't imagine there'd be a ][ Ordo dedicated to investigating the Admech. It's simply too risky. That Ordo would never, ever get any support at all from any part of the Admech. Nor would anyone that helped them. The Admech's relationship with the Imperium just seems too tenuous for this to work. That and the insular nature of the Admech just screams "No way!"

 

I'm in line with Jeffersonian. It seems that only individual Magos and such would be tasked to investigate something like this.

 

Demus: got a source?

Codex: Inquisition