This might seem a little bit obvious, but stay with me; its another of my projections into the governance of the Imperium of man:
In a galaxy full of aliens, within which Deamons from the warp can materialize, there would seem to be a clear reason d’etre for the Ordo Xenos (hunting for and protecting the Imperium from, aliens) and the Ordo Malleus (protecting the Imperium from the denizens of the warp).
In a galaxy full of aliens, within which Deamons from the warp can materialize, there would seem to be a clear reason d’etre for the Ordo Xenos (hunting for and protecting the Imperium from, aliens) and the Ordo Malleus (protecting the Imperium from the denizens of the warp).
Implicit in
protecting the Imperium from the denizens of the warp would seem to be the
suppression of such conditions as might lead to warp incursions. Unregulated psyker activity being the prime
cause (as demonstrated in the case of Vraks).
But the Ordo Malleus does not do
this. They are there to deal with
incursions that already underway.
So someone
has to keep an eye out for nascent psykers, as a preventative measure,
hopefully. And to suppress the
activities of unsanctioned psykers when
necessary. This is the link in to the
Imperial Creed - this is where the ‘Heresy’ comes into the Ordo Hereticus; the
Creedo Imperialis is a vehicle for the
governance of a star spanning empire that places defined limits on psychic
activity in a galactic empire held together by psychic activity within which
the greatest threat is psychic activity.
We are told
that the Inquisition’s Black Ships regularly transport thousands to feed the
Corpse God of the Empire. Setting aside
the mechanics of this, as the Black Ships come to a planet, it stands to reason
that the empire would (should) be able to load the unsanctioned aboard in good
order. Which means that planetary
authorities must have a way of apprehending them.
Muscle for any
related activities could come from the Adeptus Arbites, Imperial Guard or even,
in extremis, the gentle Adeptus Sororitas.
Or perhaps the Black Templars.
But these instruments, be they skilled discrete Arbites snatch squads or
the ever so slightly more obvious interventions of the Sisters or Templars, all
need direction.
Now, I would
not be one to show any disrespect to the Adeptus Sororitas or the Black
Templars. Not me, no sir. But their talents in relation to the
activities of the Ordo Hereticus are more or less in a similar vein to those of
the Grey Knights – when an outbreak has occurred and what it needed is a purge,
either of Deamons from this reality in the case of the Grey Knights, or a group
or groups of individuals violating the Creedo Imperialis in the case of the
Sisters and/or Templars. This may need
some direction at the outset, but once unleashed they will only stop when they
themselves are satisfied with the results.
Which will make those directing them either very cautious or gung ho,
depending on circumstances.
The majority
of Ordo Hereticus operatives on the majority of worlds are almost certainly
Interrogators with a small staff who undertake surveillance and detective
work. They might have a specialized
resource on hand to conduct their arrests, be they secret abductions or arrests
by ‘plain clothes’ operatives or louder events. Or they might rely on sequestering
assistance on a case by case basis. A
team will make an assessment for each arrest; it is entirely probable that most
of those apprehended are only just beginning to manifest their psyker powers. As such, the team may well feel that they are
able to make their arrest themselves.
Of course,
what makes it easier for these teams is working in a Police State like
environment, with a large secret police and a community where individuals are
predisposed to denouncing one another.
In such a situation, the watcher teams are likely to be embedded with
the other enforcing authorities.
Of course,
given the length of time that might elapse between visits by actual
Inquisitors, the team, whilst remaining focussed on their task, might not view
itself as a part of the Ordo Hereticus, but might organisationally see itself
as a part of whatever local arrangements are in place. An example of this is the Cadian Interior
Guard; themselves organised like the Imperial Guard, with Shock Troops and
Kasarkin, controlled by rosetted Inquisitors who nonetheless are unlikely to
ever do anything else than oversee the Interior Guard. In the
same vein, in some areas the Ordo itself may not recognise this function as a
part of their work, seeing it as a purely local matter; nonetheless, it remains
an activity that needs to happen in order to comply with the Codex Imperialis.
Regardless,
the Ordo Hereticus or local authorities will have as many of these teams as
they think they can get away with, given that the teams have to resource this
from somewhere. So on a sparsely
populated argiworld, there might be one team, possibly based near the starport. On a Hive World, there might be multiple
teams in each Hive, possibly with overlapping jurisdictions, perhaps on trade
or filial lines.
So the
majority of the Ordo Hereticus, in terms of their manpower, has to be the
watcher teams on (in so far as is reasonably practicable) every world of the
Imperium. How does this sit with the Ordo
Hereticus’ actual Inquisitors ? Those
who opposed Hector Rex in conclave, those who deal with and call on the
militant arm of the Ecclesiasty ? In
part then, in the absence of any other mechanism, they must be there to manage
the watcher teams, to represent the watcher teams to other bodies, to use their
Inquisitorial Mandate and hopefully assist the watcher teams keep a lid on the
emergence of psykers.
"...the fool questions our right to take those lives, the wise man knows we have no right to let them live." |
Returning briefly
to the Creedo Imperialis; the Creedo
Imperialis has to cover such parts of the Imperium as both govern and pose a
threat of some kind. This is why the
Ordo Hereticus needs to be aware of the activities and intentions of both on
those who govern (through the activities of its rosetted Inquisitors) and the
governed (through the watcher teams).
The only way to maintain adequate focus is to have this two tier
organisation.
The ranking
inquisitors also maintain their watching brief over the activities of the
Ecclesiasty, the Adeptus Sororitas and other bodies (Arbities, Astartes or
Guard) who cross their path; the specialist skills of the watcher teams who
detect emerging psykers are not well placed to provide checks or balances to
the escalating power of ambitious Cardinals, Canonesses or Chapter Librarians. It
needs to be full status Inquisitors who take on the role of policing the higher
functions of the Administratum in all its forms.
The other
two major Ordos are clearly there to be called upon in the event that one’s
path is crossed is by aliens or deamons, the Ordo Hereticus on the other hand,
are the Empire of man’s big brother – it is implicit in their mandate that they
are watching everyone, all the time.
She is watching you |
Pictures robbed from the internet without permission.
In my pursuit of Guard fluff, I often end up skipping over the more obvious parts of the Imperium and take the vanilla fluff for granted, without really challenging it or thinking it through in detail. This is good stuff, thanks for sharing.
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