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Inquisition
Inquisition
The Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition, simply the Inquisition is a secret organization that exists outside the standard administrative hierarchy of the Imperium.
The Inquisition acts as the secret police force of the Imperium, hunting down any and all of the myriad threats to the stability of the God-Emperor's realm, from the corruption caused by the forces of Chaos, Heretics, mutants and rebels, to assaults from vicious alien species.
The Inquisition is divided into three major orders many other minor ones, each dedicated to confronting a very specific threat to the continued survival of the Imperium and Humanity.
Ordos Majoris
There are three major ordos devoted to combating threats to the Imperium from within, without, and beyond.
- - Ordo Malleus - This Ordo and their Chamber Militant, the Space Marines of the Grey Knights, seek to confront and defeat the forces of Chaos and the other threats from beyond wherever they assault Imperial space.
- - Ordo Xenos - This Ordo and its Chamber Militant, the Space Marines of the Deathwatch, defend the Imperium from the myriad alien threats that lie outside its borders.
- - Ordo Hereticus - This Ordo and its Chamber Militant, the pious battle-sisters of the Adepta Sororitas Orders Militant, seek to combat all of the very Human threats to the Imperium that lie within its own organizations or on its own worlds.
Ordos Minoris
Whilst the three great ordos of the Ordo Majoris are perhaps the best known and established, there are a number of smaller ordos charged with guardianship of particular aspects of the Imperium. These minor Ordos are significantly smaller than the main three, and are often formed to combat specific, rather than broad, threats to the Imperium.
- - Ordo Chronos - This mysterious and incredibly obscure Ordo was formed to investigate the potential ramifications of time travel through the Warp, particularly the potential for deliberate manipulation of this phenomenon.
- Ordo Hydra - This Ordo was an extremist offshoot of the secret society known as the Illuminati that was dedicated to the use of certain extreme measures to destroy the existence of Chaos in the universe once and for all. It was composed mainly, but not entirely, of Illuminati who are also Inquisitors, some of whom occupied extremely high ranks within the Inquisition.
- 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.
- Ordo Militum - This Ordo has the duty of monitoring the Imperium's military bodies, such as the Imperial Army, the Imperial Navy, the Commissariat, the Sanctioned Psykers of the Imperius Psychera, the Legiones Astartes, and -- together with the Ordo Hereticus -- the Adepta Sororitas.
- Ordo Obsuletus - The Ordo Obsuletus' task is to monitor and validate unexplained phenomena and miracles said to have occurred across the Imperium.
- Ordo Originatus - This Ordo is dedicated to unravelling ten millennia of myths, exaggerations and lies. This is a difficult task, raised to impossibility due to the opposing work of the Ordo Redactus.
- Ordo Redactus - This Ordo focuses their efforts into deliberately obscuring the past, lest the enemies of Mankind discover some advantage through knowledge of the Inquisition's beginnings.
- Ordo Scriptorum - Known also as the "Unsleeping Eye," the Ordo Scriptorum is based on Terra itself; dedicated to the examination and investigation of records and communiqués.
- Ordo Sepulturum - This Ordo is one of the smallest and newest of the Ordos Minoris. Their focus is to eradicate and prevent the emergence of the Plague Zombies, Poxwalkers and the Nurgle-spawned Zombie Plague. They often work alongside the Medicae Imperialis.
- Ordo Sicarius - This Ordo is tasked with investigating, moderating and controlling the Officio Assassinorum. No Imperial Assassin may be deployed without the majority approval of the High Lords of Terra. This is, of course, immensely impractical, and quite often, an Inquisitor of the Ordo Sicarius will sanction the Officio Assassinorum under the guise of an edict from Terra.
- Ordo Maledictum - This Ordo was created during the Era Indomitus. Initially created to seek any means by which the Great Rift might be driven back or even closed altogether, it is now tasked with preventing and dealing with any warp drifts occured in Imperial space.
The Inquisition maintains a number of fortresses throughout the galaxy, both secret and known to the inhabitants of the Imperium. The Inquisitorial Storm Troopers have the duty to protect and provide security to these fortresses and the Inquisitorial Black Ships, they can also be called upon to assist an Inquisitor on active assignment.
They are recruited from the Schola Progenium as well as certain families with a tradition of service to the Inquisition. Their training is equal to the Storm Troopers of the Imperial Army, albeit lacking the rapid insertion and infiltration skills, as they are not expected to undertake such types of missions. Furthermore, they undergo rigorous purity and incorruptibility tests prior to their induction, making them preferable for use in Ordo Malleus and Ordo Hereticus forces when the number of Grey Knights and Battle Sisters may be insufficient.
Inquisitorial Storm Troopers also have more choices of armament than their Imperial Army counterparts; they can utilize a Rhino instead of a Chimera as transport, and a squad's Veteran Sergeant can choose items from the Daemonhunter and Witch Hunter armories. A powerful counter-assault combination often involves a Storm Trooper squad, whose Veteran Sergeant is armed with a Thunder Hammer, being transported into battle within a heavily armoured Rhino.
