Inquisition 7E, 40k
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//-->You accuse me of being a madman. What right have you to judge what is sane and what isnot?I have fought with the shadows on the edge of your vision.I have seen the faces that laugh at you in your nightmares.I have smelt the foetid breath that issues from the mouth of hell itself.I have heard the silent voices that make your spine tingle with dread.I have entered the realms between worlds where there is no time or place.I have clashed with creatures the sight of which would sear your soul to the core.I have bested horrors that chill with a gaze and tempt unreasoning terror.I have faced death eye to eye and blade to blade.I have stared into the eyes of insanity and met their all-consuming stare.I have done all this for you; for your protection and the guarantee of a future for Mankind.And yet you accuse me of being a madman, you who have never had your sanity tested sosorely.What right have you to call me heretic and blasphemer, who have not heard the whisper ofdark gods in your ear?You are weak. Vulnerable. Human in your frailty. I am strong, and yet still you judge me.And yet you still judge me for my sins, you who art most sinful to the heart?Only the insane have strength enough to prosper; only those that prosper truly judge whatis sane.The Imperium stands on the brink of destruction. Surrounded on all sides byunknowable threats, and tempted to ruin by the lure of forbidden knowledge,Mankind is but one mistake away from extermination. This fate is averted onlythrough the unsleeping vigilance of the Inquisition, steadfast agents who shieldMankind from the terrors of the stars, and the unthinking traitors within itsmidst.The Inquisition is the most powerful organisation of the Imperium’s many branches. Itsagents, the Inquisitors, command fear and respect in equal measure. They are creatures ofmyth as much of flesh and blood, relentless beings who descend from on high to passjudgement upon the mutant, the traitor and the heretic. It is a rare citizen who does not dreaddrawing an Inquisitor’s steely gaze, who does not experience the starkest terror in his or herpresence. Every Imperial citizen, from the poorest of underhive scum to the highest andwealthiest of nobles, has heard the tales of death and destruction, of the all-seeing eye thatcondemns or absolves with impunity. Those who have crossed an Inquisitor’s path andsurvived to tell of it are seldom eager to invite his attention again.Inquisitors are as varied in appearance and manner as the myriad threats they face. Theyrange in age from fiery young zealots to hoary old veterans who have fought in the darknessfor centuries. Some wear ostentatious robes and symbols of their allegiance, whilst othersshun the trappings of status. Inquisitors commonly carry a wide range of weapons andwargear, so as to be prepared for any threat they might face. Some Inquisitors use outlandishweaponry, taken from defeated foes: exotic hardware, alien guns and Daemon-possessedweapons.Inquisitors themselves care little for morality, and nothing at all for the Imperium’s manylaws and procedures, except when they choose to make use of them. They are the Emperor’sleft hand as the Adeptus Terra is his right, and stand in judgement over all the Imperium’sorganisations. Indeed, an Inquisitor is apart from the rest of Mankind in every way thatmatters. By ancient tradition, his authority comes directly from the Emperor himself; there isno hierarchy to which he must answer, and he is beholden only to his fellows. More than this,a bearer of the Inquisitorial Seal can requisition any servant in the Imperium to assist in hismission, from the lowliest of clerks to entire Space Marine Chapters and Imperial Navybattlefleets.Survival is the only goal for which Inquisitors strive; not personal survival, for they, morethan any, understand that one life is meaningless when set upon the galactic scale. AnInquisitor labours for nothing less than the endurance of Mankind. This is a cold-heartedpragmatism, so unyielding and fervid that it eclipses the faith of even the most devout of theEcclesiarchy’s adepts. The Inquisitor is an arbiter of absolute truth. In his or her eyes,tradition is irrelevant, decades of blameless existence count for nothing, and ignorancematters not one whit. The deeds of the hour are the Inquisitor’s obsession, and theconsequences spiralling from the most seemingly insignificant acts his burden.Though learned, Inquisitors do not possess some all-encompassing store of knowledge andcertainty, for even the furthest-travelled and most experienced of their number hold but afraction of the Emperor’s wisdom. Though there are many thousands of Inquisitors scatteredacross the Imperium, such are the threats arrayed against Mankind that ten times theirnumber could not hope to achieve lasting victory, or even meaningful respite. Daemonsclamour beyond the Emperor’s light, waiting for the hour in which the darkness drowns all.Aliens crowd close, subverting and destroying whole worlds. And all the while, the wilful, thefoolish, the misguided and the arrogant within Humanity’s own ranks unknowingly worktowards their own destruction. All of these threats must be opposed and contained, bywhatever means are necessary, and only Inquisitors have the breadth of vision and authorityto do so. Where a planetary governor or military commander might perceive only aninsurrection to be crushed, an Inquisitor will recognise the heresy of which that rebellion isbut a symptom. He will have the contacts and resources to root out alien conspiracies,bureaucratic corruption and the gene-seed deviances festering within hitherto blamelessSpace Marine Chapters.If perspicacious enough, an Inquisitor will be able to detect incipient disaster throughanalysis or instinct, excising the cancer before it takes root, whether in person or through thescalpel of the Officio Assassinorum. Too often, however, his efforts are expended on acataclysm already begun, one which can only be ended by the sledgehammer of the ImperialGuard or the horror of Exterminatus. There are no lengths to which an Inquisitor will not goin pursuit of his duty, no sanction too extreme. He knows that it is better for a billionblameless souls to perish alongside a single guilty fugitive, if it ensures the threat is ended.Most Inquisitors grieve for the murder they wreak in survival’s cause; they mourn everydeath, and forge on only through the knowledge that the act served a greater purpose. Othershave become so emotionally cauterised that they give the matter no more thought than theywould when sweeping the pieces from a gaming board. Yet there are occasionally acts ofmercy to balance those of murder. Inquisitors are not blind to the possibility of redemption.Virtue in the present can sometimes outweigh the evils of the past, though such reprieves arerare indeed.Lesser men might believe that the means matter more than the end, but those who bear theInquisitorial Seal know better. Perhaps in another time – another place – the men andwomen of the Inquisition would be considered as monstrous as the threats they oppose, butto judge them as such is to wilfully overlook a brutal truth: morality and compassion areluxuries that the Imperium can ill afford. Steeped in atrocity though they may be, Inquisitorsare the heroes their times require.HISTORY OF THE INQUISITIONIt should come as no surprise that the Inquisition’s past is shrouded in secrecy.Even the Inquisitors themselves have only the haziest of understandings as to howtheir organisation was founded, and must rely on hundreds of disparate andcontradictory legends for guidance. Indeed, there is a branch of the Inquisitionitself – the Ordo Originatus – dedicated to unravelling ten millennia of myths,exaggerations and lies. This is a difficult task, raised to impossibility due to theopposing work of the Ordo Redactus, who focus their own efforts into deliberatelyobscuring the past, lest the enemies of Mankind discover some advantage throughknowledge of the Inquisition’s beginnings.What almost all the legends agree on, however, is that the Inquisition was foundedby Malcador the Sigilite at the Emperor’s instruction. As the story goes, in the finaldays of the Horus Heresy, Malcador brought four men and women before theEmperor, individuals of unblemished loyalty, determination and strength of mind,who would serve him well in the years to come. Beyond that one fact, the legendsdiverge, ascribing numerous identities to each of the four – some ludicrous, manycredible and all utterly unprovable.Though it is widely known that the Inquisition exists, its deeds are all butimpossible to trace. Records are sealed, restricted or simply destroyed. Witnessesare silenced, suffer telepathic mind-wipe or are slain out of hand. Yet the signs arethere for those who know how to look for them. Many Imperial scholars believe
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