v22TTC said:

Crossfire, Legacy and Blind are definitely worth reading (Matt Farrer writes few novels for Black Library, but at least these three I read are awesome and neccesery for every 40k fan)

I don´t know about any Arbites cruiser pics on the internet, but IIRC in BFG they were modelled (rule, fluff and model-wise) to the image of Adeptus Astartes strike cruisers, I´ll try to find more. By the way, one of the first BFG artwork was look from the interior of the Imperial ship, where ratings are policed by Arbites-looking guy with shock staff...

I faced some of these issues in the first DH game I ever ran, where I had an Arbites character who essentially felt sure on his reading of 40K fluff that he had authority over anyone, and could even act against Inquisitors if necessary. I took the line advocated by many here already: in theory the Arbites as an organisation have almost limitless authority, but in practice you get big jurisdictional disputes almost anywhere they involve themselves (just remember every cop series you've ever seen where the FBI turn up and try and take over the case - sure they've got the authority to do it, but it pisses everyone off and the local cops will always put together an appeal that the case doesn't fit the criteria and will offer a lot of passive aggression (subtle non-cooperation, non-sharing of information, giving work for the case a low priority etc)). And given that likely the Arbites character is not part of the local precinct and is comparatively low ranking, it won't be long before the local Arbites Magistrate hauls him in to ask what he's doing causing a big stink with the local Magistratum. And I may be going against some canonical fluff here but I can't see the Arbites successfully acting against any Imperial military figure or commandeering Imperial military resources (PDF stuff would be different) without having a major run-in with the Commissariat, who would in almost all cases be assumed to have jurisdiction. I mean even in a practical on the ground situation, the Commissar is part of a recognised chain of command. An Arbites officer isn't. Who are the grunts in the trench going to listen to? The Arbites officer, who may arguably have some authority but will certainly disappear once his case is finished without a second thought for the troops who backed him over their recognised chain of command, or the Commissar, who they will without a shadow of a doubt face summary court martial and execution for failing to obey when the dust settles?

RevMark said:

You have valid points, but I also like to see Arbitrators as something like police internal affairs (or FBIs equivalent). This isn't just about federal versus state (or Imperial versus planetary) authority, Arbites duty is to investigate and judicate crimes against the imperium within the Adeptus Terra, The Imperial Guards/Navy, etc. Even members of the commisariat may be corrupted or in violation of Imperial Law, although unless an Arbitrator is stationed somewhere near a peacetime unit they probably will not interfere with the militairy forces or commisariat.

But ultimately the power of persuasion, knowledge of Imperial Law (and rights), and personal connections matters at least as much as a mere symbol of the Arbites. Which also makes the game more interesting for us all.

from france

really don't know what to think about the fbi as the arbites. just remenber that not all of us are american or live in a country with federal enforcer. i would apreciate another example. in advance thanks.

Magos Militant Jacob said:

warpdancer said:

Codex: Necrons. However it doesnt explicitly state that the Dragon IS the Machine God. It is only an unsubstantiated theory at best. Some heretical members of the AdMech believe it, the rest don't. And since it is a theoloical matter its hard to judge which side is right. Compare it to real world Christians and Muslims. One side say that Jesus is the saviour of all mankind, the other only believes Jesus to be a famous religious person, but that Muhammed is the divine "top dog" so to speak...

the 8 spider said:

Hmm, I'll try to explain but keep in mind that its is in serious macro-terms here. The Inquisition sort of serves like a military and religious Intelligence Agency (Almost like the american CIA), so their concern stretches over every aspect of Imperial society, both civilian, military and beyond. The Inquisition also has free reigns in everything they do and they dont have to explain their actions to anyone. The Arbites on the other hand enforce Imperial Law (and they have to follow it as well, in that sense they dont have the same "free reign" like Inquisitors do), you could compare the Arbites to the Internal Affairs division of a real world police agency, but their responsibilities stretch over all Imperial society instead of just in-house of the local police. Except the Adeptus Mechanicus and the military. The AdMech is a nation in its own right so most of their Adepts would have an something similar to diplomatic immunity , even if Arbites certainly have the right to detain a member of the AdMech if he or she is clearly breaking Imperial Law, although they dont have the same rights to judge him or her. The military and navy is enforced by commissariat provosts (sort of like real world MP's), so the Arbites normally dont hold sway over Guardsmen either (which is no comfort because the guardsmen have to answer to the Commissariat instead which is probably far more harsh than the Arbites).

However you should bear in mind that the CIA and the FBI are pretty useful comparisons if you want to understand the differences between Inquisiton and Arbites and how they work and what responsibilities they ahve and so forth. So you would probably learn more if you looked up CIA and FBI on wikipedia or something.

I hate to necro a thread, but it seemed better to pose this question here than start a new one.

While all of the posts in this thread have been incredibly informative, I still have a question that remains unanswered. At what point does the Adeptus Arbites hand a case over to the Inquisition? Say an investigation starts simple and leads to the discovery a massive heretic or xenos conspiracy. Does the lead investigator call in the hammer of the Arbites or do they alert the Inquisition and get the heck out of the way? Technically, heresy and/or fraternizing with xenos is against Imperial law and would fittingly fall under Arbite jurisdiction.

Given the bloated bureaucracy of the Imperium, I'd have to say it's going to vary from planet to planet and system to system. But I'm also inclined to believe that there would be a basic guideline for interaction between both factions.

There doesn't seem to be a point where the Arbites step back and just hand a case over to the Holy Ordos. If they uncover something that they think goes beyond their jurisdiction or hit a point where they think they're in over their heads, they probably would "call in a consult," and work with an Inquisitor, but they're not just going to give the case to the Inquisitor and wash their hands of it.

Often, an Inquisitorial investigation will run into an ongoing Arbites investigation, in which case the Inquisitor's authority takes precedence, but a smart Inquisitor will use the Arbites rather than locking them out. If nothing else, letting the Arbites do the arrests and fill out the paperwork while the Inquisitor just interrogates the lead heretic for the next step in the chain saves time and improves efficiency.

Since this thread is back up, I have a question. It seems to be an agreement here that the Arbites have very limited power (or very limited summary power) over the Adeptus Terra, and quite a lot over the common Imperial citizen. I always thought it was the other way around: Arbites have no authority regarding local laws, and thus no power over common citizens save their interactions with the Adepti (if a ganger murders a guilder, they don't care, but if that same ganger murders an Administratum functionary, they get involved); and while members of the Ecclesiarchy, Adeptus Mechanicus, or Inquisition get a trial, nobody else is guaranteed one, as the Arbites are the police force and military arm of the Adeptus Terra. They might get one out of political necessity, but generally an Administratum scrivener or whatnot the Arbites determine is guilty of sedition or heresy or mucking with the tithe, gets arrested, hauled down to the precinct house, interrogated, and executed. Sure, if the Judge or Marshall finds that it's a false arrest, the Arbite in question is in trouble, but that's an internal matter and not played out in public.

Tyraxus said:

I'm of a similar thought. The average peon of the Empire isn't likely to draw as much attention from the Arbites. Sure, they might steal a crate or two of supplies from the Imperial tithe (and eventually meet an Arbitrator), but it's the Adept that 'loses' an entire shipment of lasguns that happened to be found in the hands of heretical cultists that is going to get bagged and tagged before he can say, "Praise the Emperor?".