TEXT: Oh, To Be An Inquisitor
  By Ben Hulston
  The Inquisitor Induction Pack
  Welcome, Inquisitor-to-be, to the Inquisitor induction pack. In here you will find bags of information on your future career 
  and the kinds of exciting tasks you get to engage in. Please find the standard issue power armour, power weapons and  
  bolt weapons with this hand book. 
  Please keep in mind, as a full seal wielding member of His Most Holy Ordos, that you have a fair amount of responsibility, 
  so try not to make too much of a mess. Hopefully though, you’ll be one of those bright souls promoted to Inquisitor by 
  your dying master, a renegade prodigal psyker, a son out for revenge after the death of his father, or even a Jedi who has 
  lost his way into this universe!
  No set recruitment policies…
  Okay, so we know that there isn’t a set induction for all 
  Inquisitors that must be followed in order to become a 
  member of the Most Holy Ordos. So why does it seem that 
  there  are  an  extraordinary  number  of  Inquisitors  who 
  appear to have come from the same background, similar 
  circumstances  and  have  all  gained  their  seals  through 
  what appears to be a fairly standard recruitment and a 
  training period that lasted all of five minutes with a sword?
  It’s  a common theme I hope to tackle by providing an 
  overview of the worst Inquisitor archetypes and blowing 
  them apart in this article. 
  The  next  article  will detail my own “Inquisitor Induction 
  Pack”, with a brief set of notes on how to harness that 
  creative  energy  and  compress  it  down  into  54mm  of 
  Inquisitor goodness.
  Archetypal Misery
  Following on from here will be a few differing sections on 
  the archetypes I find genuinely banal, irritating or down-
  right stupid and, with a little wordplay, reason and a bit of 
  common sense, I hope to also state why I find them banal, 
  irritating and down-right stupid.
  Youthful Protégés
  - Projections of the player
  A young rough, tear away, rebel without a cause ganger 
  who is out for himself; a young second-in-line aristocrat 
  who lives by his sword and has misspent his youth fighting, 
  hunting, practising with blade and bow; the prodigal son of 
  an Inquisitor, born of good stock, a ready-made leader in 
  waiting (more on the specifics of this later…); the young 
  prodigious psyker with awesome powers – who all end up 
  banishing a daemon as an Inquisitor (who, apparently, is 
  not doing his job…) watches from the shadows, and ends 
  up recruiting the young boy as his acolyte and heir.
  To understand the root of this, I believe we must look to the 
  players themselves. As a general rule, Inquisitor players 
  tend  to  be  younger  males  who  enjoy  a  good  flight  of 
  fantasy, and this method of recruitment is nothing more 
  than a symptom of that. 
  The problem is that there is a fundamental conflict with the 
  canon published background and there are problems with 
  the practicalities of sending what is essentially still a child 
  into a combat situation.
  Banishing a daemon is not an easy affair – they will not 
  smile meekly at any psyker and slink off softly into the 
  Warp to lick their wounds, and physical combat is not going 
  to be a simple tap on the side of the head with a sword and 
  a swift kick up the rear to send the daemon packing back 
  into the aethyr. 
  Remember, these are manifestations of a God, made by 
  pure energy and bound together with an implacable will. 
  They are terrible to behold, bringers of death, incarnations 
  of the most horrible of human emotions.
  Dark Magenta is an unofficial fanzine and is not endorsed by Games Workshop Group Plc in anyway. Text and layouts are © Dark Magenta and its proprietor. Artwork and characters are the property of 
  their respective owners. No part of this magazine should be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the Editor-in-Chief. Dark Magenta is a non-profit-making organization and with the 
  aim of promoting the Inquisitor game, products and hobby.
  
  Page 2 of 4
  Also  consider  that  a  child,  even  a  teenager,  will  be 
  considerably  less  physically,  mentally,  and  emotionally 
  resilient that a battle hardened veteran of many a war, a 
  blood crazed sociopath, or even an adult cultist with a 
  grudge. Many youths are given stats that seem to almost 
  completely ignore the age of the character.
  Further, it must be stated that combat is a horrendously 
  brief, horribly final process which will be bloody, unnerving, 
  and mentally distressing.
  Can you imagine what effect combat situations would have 
  on a child, no matter how you dress it up in handwavium, 
  adrenaline, bravery, determination, motivation or any other 
  motive? Is there really a solid grounding for this to be the 
  reality of any situation in the given background on which 
  Inquisitor is based?
  In  my  opinion,  from  both  a  canon  and  a  human 
  perspective, there’s not going to be much ground for this 
  happening. 
  - Why youths do not make good acolytes
  The next point is that a youth just simply wouldn’t make a 
  good acolyte to have out in the field. All that boundless 
  energy and enthusiasm could perhaps be useful, but would 
  it be useful in tense negotiations with a cautious third party, 
  where experience, tact, and the skills of the diplomat are 
  far more valuable? Would the youth be of any value when 
  descending into a deadly pit of a cult, bound to be filled 
  with traps, ambushes and the like?
  These are the roles of an Inquisitor and retainers, and a 
  halo  of  varied  and  wonderful other  roles.  From  a  field 
  perspective, some raw youth, full of beans but of little self-
  control, would be a liability in the field - regardless of how 
  we, as players, might wish to see a version of our youthful 
  selves rampaging through the Imperium.
  - Training, training, and the Inquisitor’s time
  Consider  next  whether  an  Inquisitor  is  truly  likely  to 
  personally train any youth he picks up from any hole. The 
  job of an Inquisitor is to be the final defence against the 
  enemy within, without and beyond – they are constantly 
  engaged in the battle for the Emperor’s soul.
  Is any Inquisitor worth his salt going to spend however 
  many years training a youth up to an acceptable standard 
  before he can take him out in the field, where his real 
  apprenticeship would begin?
  There are hordes of resources an Inquisitor can call upon, 
  without any trouble at all, that specialise in all kinds of 
  training.  Short  of  sending  an  acolyte  off  to  an  Officio 
  Assasinorum temple to be trained, the Imperium is the 
  Inquisitor’s  oyster.  He  can  send  his  acolyte  where  he 
  chooses, have them trained in whatever field is required, 
  by the best the Imperium can offer. 
  Why would said Inquisitor linger for months and years on 
  end  simply teaching one acolyte, no  matter how much 
  potential they may have, what they could learn elsewhere 
  and let the Inquisitor get on with their actual role?
  - Youth and the Inquisition
  So, where does youth come into the Inquisition?
  I think it’s important to understand the definition of youth in 
  the context of the 41st millennium and, more importantly, 
  the Inquisition. 
  The definition that I shall use as “youth”, related to the 
  Inquisition, is “a member of the Ordos, or a servant of a 
  member of the Ordos, who is relatively new to the role he 
  has been exposed to.” I believe this definition is a good 
  one as it is specific, but still leaves many options for the 
  player  to  explore.  A youthful  Inquisitor  may  have  had 
  twenty or more years experience previously in the various 
  roles behind his Inquistorial tutor. 
  These could have varied from being trained by an Imperial 
  Guard regiment on the rigors of survival, passed into the 
  Comissariat for leadership training, to the Eccesiarchy for 
  spiritual  enlightenment,  and  finally  seconded  into  the 
  Inquisitor’s staff, to learn the day to day work required of 
  an Inquisitor – administration, intelligence work, research, 
  negotiations  with  related  parties,  networking  and 
  communication with Inquisitorial allies; and all this before 
  he is turned loose as an acolyte! 
  This is before the formal apprenticeship in the context of 
  Inquisitor  games,  where  by  the  acolyte  is  exposed  to 
  conflict in the field. 
  Even  after,  say,  a  decade  or  even  two  of  this  field 
  exposure, the promoted acolyte who is privileged enough 
  to be promoted to Inquisitor can still be considered to be 
  “youthful”! In human years, they may be forty, fifty, or sixty 
  years  old,  but  given  the  rejuvenation  therapies  in  the 
  Imperium, this may be comparable to a young man of his 
  twenties, fresh out of university and stepping into his new 
  career. 
  Exceptional People
  - Talented vs Exceptional
  I think there’s also a problem that arises when creating 
  Inquisitor characters – the difference between people with 
  talent, and exceptional people. What do I mean by this?
  To  give  an  example  to  work  from  for  this  part  of  the 
  
  Page 3 of 4
  discourse – a professional footballer would be considered 
  to be talented. An example of an exceptional person would 
  be a triathlon-running, First-Class-degree-holding leader of 
  men who is liked by all, sharp as a razor and packed with 
  common sense to boot. And this is really where there must 
  be a distinction in the people recruited into the Inquisition 
  to specifically become an Inquisitor (assuming that such a 
  thing  happens,  as  many  player-created  character 
  backgrounds seem to imply).
  Talented people tend to be quite one-dimensional, focusing 
  on a single ability they excel at to the ignorance of other 
  skills,  and  all  too  often  this  will  show  through  in  the 
  construction  of  the  character.  Giant  weapon  skills  are 
  generally the order of the day, with arbitrary numbers in the 
  high 70s thrown into the mix with no real explanation as to 
  what they represent, how they contribute to the character, 
  or how this person has such statistics if they have simply 
  neglected everything else to train with 
  weapons all their lives.
  Back stories rave about how gifted this 
  Inquisitor is with said sword, usually a 
  Katana or similar oriental derivative, and 
  how he has spent year after year honing 
  himself into a startlingly effective killing 
  machine with  said  sword. How can  it 
  then be stated that this master of the 
  blade is also startlingly intelligent and 
  an expert problem solver (Sg 70+), a 
  dead  eye  shot  (Bs  70+),  a  master 
  tactician  and  filled  with  charisma  (Ld 
  70+),  with  a  mind  made  of  steel 
  protected  from  protracted  psychic 
  assaults  (Wp  70+)  and  a  dash  of 
  absolute resolve in the face of even the 
  most  horrifying  abhorrence  from  the 
  Warp (Nv 70+) without some time on his 
  side?
  - Hard work
  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  exceptional 
  people  are  born  of  dedication, 
  discipline, application and hard work. Of 
  course,  some  talent  is  likely  to  come 
  into play – but this would never make up for the piles and 
  piles of hard work that must go into becoming exceptional. 
  And, after all, that is what an Inquisitor is - exceptional.
  There are some things an Inquisitorial apprentice will not 
  naturally  excel  at,  but  the  kind  of  mentality  they  have 
  means they will apply themselves  to  learning about  all 
  areas of an Inquisitor’s role. One cannot discount the sheer 
  volume  of  dedication  that  must  go  into  being  such  a 
  person. If we apply this to an Inquisitor, who by definition of 
  the role must be exceptional, then it follows logically that 
  surely the average age of those even promoted into the 
  position  of  Inquisitor  must  be  venerable  by  today’s 
  standards and certainly not much younger than 60.
  This is simply to ensure they have the requisite amount of 
  time to learn about all of the areas of the role, including 
  Imperial Law (while it may not apply to them, it would be 
  more than a slight benefit to at least be au fait with it), 
  Imperial  custom,  languages,  culture,  leadership  skills, 
  fitness,  some  technological  aptitude  and  a  dash  of 
  detective training, and presumably countless other fields 
  and schools of thought.
  Family Affairs
  The next unfortunate archetype I want to examine is that of 
  the family of Inquisitors. 
  Consider that an Inquisitor is going to be a stone hearted 
  killer of men. It goes without saying – it is part of the job 
  description.  They  would  be  aloof  and  inhuman  beyond 
  what we, with our 21st century understanding and morals, 
  could possibly comprehend. These are humans who rely 
  solely on their own personal sense of right and wrong for 
  their  actions;  they  are  essentially  only  accountable  to 
  themselves and have infinite resources at their disposal. 
  They can slaughter billions with a single word.
  This hardly seems to be the profile of a 
  family-orientated person. 
  This  doesn’t  necessarily  preclude 
  having a family, but consider next that if 
  someone, having seen the worst of the 
  horrors  that  the  galaxy  has  to  offer, 
  actually  had  a  child  that  they  truly 
  adored, would they want to place them 
  in the way of such horror? Rationally, 
  there isn’t much justification for having 
  Inquisitorial dynasties. Does the image 
  of  an  infant  happily  dancing  around 
  Daddy while he files his latest report on 
  the  absolutely  terrifying  Genestealer 
  infestation he has just put down really 
  seem all that feasible, even in the midst 
  of the insanity of the 40k universe?
  Inquisitorial Seals for All!
  The  next  grievance  I  have  with  the 
  “Inquisitor  Induction  Pack”  is  the 
  success rate with which Inquisitors have 
  at  picking  the  right  people  first  time 
  when  selecting  acolytes.  Almost 
  immediately,  an  acolyte  slots  into  the 
  role  of  Inquisitor  without  any  trouble 
  whatsoever, picks it up quickly and excels!
  Now, this is not to suggest that an Inquisitor would be a 
  bad judge of character; but my argument against this is 
  two-fold.
  Not everyone selected would be cut out for the Inquisition. 
  Some  wouldn’t  be  as  skilled  as  the  Inquisitor  would 
  necessarily have believed or been lead to believe, and 
  would fall in battle or simply be discarded. Others would 
  break under the pressure, the stress and the psychological 
  strain.  Others  may  simply  be  discarded  because  of  a 
  personality clash with the Inquisitor. My point is, it is very 
  rarely the case that the characters I see regularly will have 
  dragged themselves through the ranks, will have triumphed 
  and  failed,  which  in  itself  is  always  a  useful  learning 
  mechanism, will have seen friends and peers fail and/or 
  die, changed significantly in character since youth or even 
  backstabbed some of his fellow acolytes to reach his new 
  position as Inquisitor.
  
  Page 4 of 4
  My second point against this method of selection is similar 
  to a point I made previously; given an Inquisitor’s actual 
  role, would they ever engage in recruitment themselves? 
  Do we see the CEO of large corporations having direct 
  input into recruitment, apart from the delegation of such 
  decisions to people who are experts in recruitment? 
  An Inquisitor could be considered in a similar way – would 
  it not make more sense to delegate this to a trusted aide or 
  advisor, perhaps someone the Inquisitor trusts to train their 
  acolytes? They will know what to look for in an acolyte and 
  be able to make good decisions. This would even allow the 
  whole process to be clandestine and anonymous, leaving 
  the Inquisition entirely out of the picture – surely a good 
  thing when you consider the Inquisition is supposed to be 
  all  but  a  rumour  to  the  vast  majority  of  the  Imperial 
  population.
  Luke, I am your… Inquisitorial Master
  The next point has been covered by other writers, so I shall 
  only gloss over this point. I believe there is a rather large 
  wealth of information, sources, and true character to the 
  40k  universe  in  itself,  such  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
  translate,  directly,  character  archetypes  or  even  actual 
  characters into the 40k universe from other sources.
  Additionally, this is almost always done excessively badly 
  with  Inquisitors  being  created  that  revolve  thematically 
  around the lead of the latest action film, a more classical 
  source, or characters from TV/books. The worst of these 
  actually name check the character, or include the signature 
  weapon / ability from the character almost entirely verbatim 
  with little thought to how it would translate directly into the 
  40k fictional universe.
  Now, not that derivative is something everyone can avoid, 
  but I truly believe there’s enough scope within the 40k 
  universe for so many things that are true, consistent and 
  individual to that fictional universe for players to not have 
  to plagiarise so terribly other sources.
  Acolytes = Death
  Also known as “the death-bed promotion”! 
  It  is  a  staple  favourite  of  character creation,  the  dying 
  master handing over his Inquisitorial seal to a doe-eyed, 
  sobbing  acolyte  who  swears  revenge  in  her  master’s 
  name…
  Now, to me, this just seems lazy and out of synch with the 
  concept of an Inquisitor. It seems much more likely that an 
  Inquisitor  will  have  planned  quite  meticulously  for  this 
  eventuality. Death is a huge threat in an occupation like 
  that of an Inquisitor, and not to plan for such an event 
  seems  awfully  inept.  This  is  before  we  consider  how 
  incredibly rash a death-bed promotion would actually be, 
  given that the Inquisitor would be making an incredibly 
  pressurised  decision  (“He’s  a  traditionalist,  believes 
  acolytes should only ever get their seal once a master is 
  on his death bed…”). 
  I would even go so far as to say that it would be such a 
  bad decision, it would likely lead to a cycle of death-bed 
  promotions between acolyte and master as they gradually 
  become more and more inept…
  Final Thoughts
  This article is only one gamer’s take on the commonly-
  seen character creation problems and pitfalls in Inquisitor. 
  This terrifying journey has highlighted the most heinous of 
  all  character  creation  crimes;  from  the  protégés  to  the 
  death-bed promotions, from Inquisitor Blade and his light 
  sabre  wielding  ilk  to  the  Inquisitorial Brady  bunch,  I’ve 
  attempted to show just why these archetypes are so very 
  wrong and, in particular, why they simply do not fit or are 
  not necessary in the 40k universe.
  That isn’t to say that those stereotypes and clichés don’t 
  have a place in character creation; but they must be used 
  in a smarter way. This article is meant to challenge those 
  horrific stereotypes, and ask players creating an Inquisitor 
  to  step  outside  of  those  norms  and  say,  “Who  is  my 
  Inquisitor? How can I create an exciting character that I will 
  enjoy gaming with, that represents all the great things in 
  the 40k universe, and that will make other players respect 
  the work I’ve done in creating him?”
  Next  time,  I  will  attempt  to  give  actual  guidance  -  as 
  opposed to my highly-opinionated rant – on how to create 
  something unique and beautifully-true to the 40k universe.
  Reading Further
  While  there  may  not  be  very  many  articles  left  online 
  regarding Inquisitor, one that does remain is Summoning 
  the  Muse,  which  looks  at  the  various  GW  background 
  resources  available  to  the  player  as  they  try  to  seek 
  inspiration for a new character. You can find it here.
  Beyond that, if you’re inclined to agree or disagree with 
  Ben’s opinion, why not get in touch and explain why? We’d 
  welcome  your  responses  to  the  usual  address  – 
  editor@darkmagenta.co.uk. 
  About the Author
  Mr Hulston is a disreputable miscreant, known for showing 
  up  at  Warhammer  World  at  the  Inquisitor  meets  and 
  making  everyone  feel  rather  uncomfortable  with  his 
  incoherent  babble  and  terrible  GMing  skills.  His  shady 
  alter-ego,  SlaaneshBen,  is  known  for  doing  rather  the 
  same thing online at The Conclave. 
  When not fighting the eternal battle for the Emperor’s Soul, 
  he leads a life in an alternate universe where he is a 
  trainee chartered accountant, IT consultant, and all round 
  nice guy.
  Models built and painted by Ruaridh Dall, known to the 
  Conclave as Van Helser.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Warhammer/40k/Inquisitor Skirmish/Articles/Oh To Be An Inquisitor (Part 1).pdf