Naval Protocal

By graver2, in Dark Heresy

What would be the Navy's response to finding a civilian warp ship which had been allegedly attacked by Eldar pirates (Dark Eldar, but I don't think most Imperial organizations really make much distinction between the two) where all but one or two crewmen (who tell the tail and thus alert the Navy that it was Eldar that had done the deed) were slaughtered or missing?

If the Navy personnel take a closer look and find the shrines aboard the ship desecrated in a most appalling manner with evidence of them being used as torture and slaughter chambers and twisting runes that makes the mind hurt carved into the defaced saints that once watched over the temples, would their response change from what it previously was? If so, what would their new response be?

Would they keep the men who survived alive or would they execute them?

No matter the Navy's response, would the Inquisition be alerted and, if so, how would the Navy go about doing such?

Thanks for any answers to this bit of gray area I have suddenly found my self stumbling into with my groups most recent case.

I'd say it depends on what kind of mood the local Admiral is in, and how zealous he or she is.

One might "rally the fleet and hunt some xenos and pay them back in full!"

Another one might go: "Meh, we're overworked as it is patrolling these borders. If some eldar go on introducing a full scale invasion we'll be there, but invading and desecrating ONE measly vessel hardly warrants our attention."

That gives me another avenue to explore that i hadn't thought of... insidious.

Another question, though. In either case, would it be protocol to destroy such a priceless and sacred thing as a warp ship for the desecrations that were wrought on it or would it be more in line to have it re-sanctified and, if the latter, would the ad-mech be solely responsible for the reclamation and re-sanctification or would Imperial authorities also get involved especially considering the possible xenos and warp taint that might exist?

Sorry for these questions, but this is one area I'm not all that certain about and I can see it going several different ways but not too sure which would be the more common.

Graver said:

That gives me another avenue to explore that i hadn't thought of... insidious.

Well thank you! It's always nice to hear that one is able to inspire new avenues of exploration in others. happy.gif

Graver said:

Another question, though. In either case, would it be protocol to destroy such a priceless and sacred thing as a warp ship for the desecrations that were wrought on it or would it be more in line to have it re-sanctified and, if the latter, would the ad-mech be solely responsible for the reclamation and re-sanctification or would Imperial authorities also get involved especially considering the possible xenos and warp taint that might exist?

Sorry for these questions, but this is one area I'm not all that certain about and I can see it going several different ways but not too sure which would be the more common.

Hmm. Well if an Inquisitor finds out you might never know what he or she would order to be done with such a vessel. While the Imperial Navy would certainly destroy a vessel that had fallen into enemy hands, they would probably be more reluctant to destroy it of it had only been boarded and desecrated in the manner you describe.

If it were me I'd say that they would request the aid of a Magos from the Adeptus Mechanicus to determine exactly how angered the machine spirit has been because of the desecrations and "****" the vessel has gone through.

I guess they would think of it as putting a **** victim through counseling and psychological evaluation. If the Techpriests determine that the Machine Spirit has gone irrevocably mad with rage they might order it to be destroyed (as one would put a rabid dog to sleep), if they think it can be soothed and finally at ease once more they'll likely see to it that it is flown back to port under supervision to be cleaned out and refit. Most likely to the shipyards where it was built.

In my view, the Imperium show great sentiments to valuable pieces of techology like starships. gran_risa.gif

Most likely the people, and ship would be quarantined until the Inquisition could question the people and the investigate the ship. The people might very well be put out of their misery as being corrupt. The ship would be cleansed by both the admech, and imperial priests. In various sources the Imperium has reclaimed ships from hulks, orks, and chaos. A ship is just far too much in the way of resources.

Thanks again, Varnias for the input! That helps settle some things in my head. I wasn't quite sure where the line between "PURGE IT!" and "We can rebuild it" would lie. That gives me the perspective, and another set of eyes, that i needed.

<--- Dalnor Surloc said this... wretched breakable quotes

Most likely the people, and ship would be quarantined until the Inquisition could question the people and the investigate the ship. The people might very well be put out of their misery as being corrupt. The ship would be cleansed by both the admech, and imperial priests. In various sources the Imperium has reclaimed ships from hulks, orks, and chaos. A ship is just far too much in the way of resources.

That begs the question which i haven't ever really seen the answer to: how would the Inquisition would find out about this. I'm not saying they wouldn't, but more to the point, in what way would they find out? Dose the Navy and other Imperial organizations have a regular means to contact the Inquisition about things that might be a bit over their head and, if so, how dose that report end up in the hands of one of those wandering embodiments of the Emperor's left hand who are so famously independent and well known to us for not really being the best of team players? Or is it simply up to individual Inquisitors to stumble across these things themselves or through their massive network of informants and acolytes?

Given the value and size of the crews of naval vessels and how important they are to the survival of the imperium it wouldn't suprise me to find out that every naval vessel larger than a destroyer had at least one spy passing information to the Inquisition on board.

DocIII said:

Given the value and size of the crews of naval vessels and how important they are to the survival of the imperium it wouldn't suprise me to find out that every naval vessel larger than a destroyer had at least one spy passing information to the Inquisition on board.

Excellent point. I've only ever figured out where the informants of the main 3 Inquisitors that my PC's have been in contact were and hadn't thought too far outside of their circles. I knew that news of tis event would eventually reach the Inquisition, but how long it took was something I wasn't too sure of. I also wasn't sure if tossing =][= informants on the naval ships involved would be too much, like no one could do anything without one of the =][='s many dysfunctional ears hearing about it so how dose heresy happen kind of thing. But that's a good point that I hadn't thought of.

Thanks guys. I ave a much better grasp on what would most likely happen in the given situation and I can get back to scribbling on my notes! Thanks a bunch!

In a lot of the fluff cruisers and the larger often had astropaths So I figure that even in the case of naval ships without astropaths they aren't generally more than a few days from a system with an astropath. Of course some captains will instead attempt to recover the ship, other inform a RT contact, and others simply destroy it.

Dalnor Surloc said:

In a lot of the fluff cruisers and the larger often had astropaths So I figure that even in the case of naval ships without astropaths they aren't generally more than a few days from a system with an astropath. Of course some captains will instead attempt to recover the ship, other inform a RT contact, and others simply destroy it.

Okay, so, where would the captain have the astropath send the message?

Graver said:

Dalnor Surloc said:

In a lot of the fluff cruisers and the larger often had astropaths So I figure that even in the case of naval ships without astropaths they aren't generally more than a few days from a system with an astropath. Of course some captains will instead attempt to recover the ship, other inform a RT contact, and others simply destroy it.

Okay, so, where would the captain have the astropath send the message?

In Abnett's various Inquisition novels there are known Inquisition bases on all major planets. The DH book notes (page 294) the Tricorn the Palace of the Inquisition on Scintilla which is the headquarters of the Calixian Conclave. So while a lot of the =][= flies under the radar they aren't hard get a hold of.

Dalnor Surloc said:

In Abnett's various Inquisition novels there are known Inquisition bases on all major planets. The DH book notes (page 294) the Tricorn the Palace of the Inquisition on Scintilla which is the headquarters of the Calixian Conclave. So while a lot of the =][= flies under the radar they aren't hard get a hold of.

Yes, I'm well aware of the Tricorn, but how dose sending an astropathic message there directed at no inquisitor in particular help? Is there a bulletin board where the various heresies are posted and bored Inquisitors drop by now and again and look into which ever strikes their fancy at the time leaving the more boring ones (or irrelevant to their outlook or goals) to get buried under piles of brightly colored memo paper?

That is one part of the background that I never really understood too well. I know it's basically a clubhouse for the Inquisitors in the Calixian Conclave, but, ultimately, ow would it help facilitate the taking down of heresies in a timely and expedient fashion? Or dose it even do tat. Would an astropatic message directed there take years to centuries to garner results if it's to noone's attention if at all?

Graver said:

Yes, I'm well aware of the Tricorn, but how dose sending an astropathic message there directed at no inquisitor in particular help? Is there a bulletin board where the various heresies are posted and bored Inquisitors by now and again and look into which ever strikes their fancy at the time leaving the more boring ones (or irrelevant to their outlook or goals) to get buried under piles of brightly colored memo paper?

That is one part of the background that I never really understood too well. I know it's basically a clubhouse for the Inquisitors in the Calixian Conclave, but, ultimately, ow would it help facilitate the taking down of heresies in a timely and expedient fashion? Or dose it even do tat. Would an astropatic message directed there take years to centuries to garner results if it's to noone's attention if at all?

Now im not sure where the headquarters of Battlefleet Calixis is located, but im going to take a wild leap and assume it is in orbit around Scintilla and it would be safe to assume that any vessel of the Imperial Navy operating in the Calixis sector would report their findings during patrols back to HQ. And it would also be safe to assume that any reports reaching Battlefleet Calixis HQ would also reach the Tricorn palace and also that many independent Inquisitor not wishing to intermingle with the Tricorn (for various reasons) to have their own spies in the Battlefleet Calixis HQ Astropath and communications centre.

So either the Inquisitor you want to have involved have either been sent by the Calixian conclave to investigate, or it is a rogue and/or covert Inquisitor who have intercepted the astropathic message and taken it upon himself/herself to investigate.

Im not really basing this on any concrete fluff right now, im just going with what would be reasonable and in spirit with the fluff. (the spirit in this instance being having a method of communications that would be tactically sound, since it is the job of any battlefleet to safeguard the sector from alien invasions)

Varnias Tybalt said:

Now im not sure where the headquarters of Battlefleet Calixis is located, but im going to take a wild leap and assume it is in orbit around Scintilla and it would be safe to assume that any vessel of the Imperial Navy operating in the Calixis sector would report their findings during patrols back to HQ. And it would also be safe to assume that any reports reaching Battlefleet Calixis HQ would also reach the Tricorn palace and also that many independent Inquisitor not wishing to intermingle with the Tricorn (for various reasons) to have their own spies in the Battlefleet Calixis HQ Astropath and communications centre.

So either the Inquisitor you want to have involved have either been sent by the Calixian conclave to investigate, or it is a rogue and/or covert Inquisitor who have intercepted the astropathic message and taken it upon himself/herself to investigate.

Im not really basing this on any concrete fluff right now, im just going with what would be reasonable and in spirit with the fluff. (the spirit in this instance being having a method of communications that would be tactically sound, since it is the job of any battlefleet to safeguard the sector from alien invasions)

Well, I've already gotten my questions answered and then some for the instance with the ship, the eldar pirates, naval response, and ow the =][= could learn of it. Now, however, a new line of inquiry as arisen, one that's been bumping around in the back of my head but never really coming to the forefront until now.

Do other Imperial Authorities contact the Inquisition to handle problems that seem a bit out of said Authorities league if there doesn't seem to be any other agency better equipped then the slightly overwhelmed Authority to deal with the situation?

If so, how the blazes do they get an Inquisitor or acolyte team out to take care of the matter in less time then if they had filed a standard A-4/7b.003 complaint with the administartum?

Would any agency or individual even ever want to contact the Inquisition for any reason at all? I mean, I know my sphincter clenches up real tight any time I see a cop on the road and I don't even speed and hadn't done anything wrong... and the law actually looks out for me most of the time which is a far cry from Imperial Law never mind the nutters who are above it.

In the grim dark future where giving the sign of the Aquila with the wrong infliction could get you burned by these guys, would you ever want to draw their attention for any reason (unless you're in good/debt with one of them anyway of course, but that makes you an informant and not just some guy)? I mean, just look at the most prolific and public Inquisitors in the Calixis Sector, and by Inquisitors, I mean the poster-boy for the Calixian Conclave, Witchfinder Rykuss. He's the public face of the Inquisition in the Calixis Sector; would any Imperial Authority (and by that I mean the individual in charge who would have to admit failure in being able to do something) want to contact him?

Varnias and Doc, you both speak of spies and contacts and, to an extent, that's how I've always assumed Inquisitors find the trouble that they love jumping in, but then there's Dalanor who mentions contacting the big =][='s home office as a matter of course and this contacting of the =][= comes up from time to time from other sources. Now that it's had the potential to appear in my game, I'm having some difficulty wrapping my brain around how exactly that would work. Any light shed on that subject would be great!

Graver said:

Well, I've already gotten my questions answered and then some for the instance with the ship, the eldar pirates, naval response, and ow the =][= could learn of it. Now, however, a new line of inquiry as arisen, one that's been bumping around in the back of my head but never really coming to the forefront until now.

Do other Imperial Authorities contact the Inquisition to handle problems that seem a bit out of said Authorities league if there doesn't seem to be any other agency better equipped then the slightly overwhelmed Authority to deal with the situation?

If so, how the blazes do they get an Inquisitor or acolyte team out to take care of the matter in less time then if they had filed a standard A-4/7b.003 complaint with the administartum?

Would any agency or individual even ever want to contact the Inquisition for any reason at all? I mean, I know my sphincter clenches up real tight any time I see a cop on the road and I don't even speed and hadn't done anything wrong... and the law actually looks out for me most of the time which is a far cry from Imperial Law never mind the nutters who are above it.

In the grim dark future where giving the sign of the Aquila with the wrong infliction could get you burned by these guys, would you ever want to draw their attention for any reason (unless you're in good/debt with one of them anyway of course, but that makes you an informant and not just some guy)? I mean, just look at the most prolific and public Inquisitors in the Calixis Sector, and by Inquisitors, I mean the poster-boy for the Calixian Conclave, Witchfinder Rykuss. He's the public face of the Inquisition in the Calixis Sector; would any Imperial Authority (and by that I mean the individual in charge who would have to admit failure in being able to do something) want to contact him?

Varnias and Doc, you both speak of spies and contacts and, to an extent, that's how I've always assumed Inquisitors find the trouble that they love jumping in, but then there's Dalanor who mentions contacting the big =][='s home office as a matter of course and this contacting of the =][= comes up from time to time from other sources. Now that it's had the potential to appear in my game, I'm having some difficulty wrapping my brain around how exactly that would work. Any light shed on that subject would be great!

I guess this would largely depend on the political state of any individual sector, and how well connected the local government is with the local Inquisitorial Conclave and it's Inquisitor Lords.

Some Inquisitor Lords and Grand Masters prefer to keep a low profile and utilize spies and conduct their business with an interventionist approach. Other Inquisitor Lords and Grand Masters might prefer to have the local authorities report directly to them and work with them on a regular basis.

But quite simply, it all bottles down to the political relationship between the local Ordos conclave and the rest of the sector authorities and exactly how paranoid the local Inquisitors are.

Having regular contact and reports from local authorities have it's pro's and con's. The pro's being a regular "news feed" on what's going on, and probably having an easier time to work with any other institution because they are used to it already. The con's being that if traitors and heretics manage to infiltrate these institutions the "news" might not only be severely inaccurate but even purposefully misleading, and the fact that most Inquisitors would have to deal with people personal amibitions to rise within the ranks and all trouble that might cause.

It could also be both at the same time, but due to political shifts and wavering trust the Inquisition can be more inclined to listen to the local government one decade, but being less inclined to listen the next decade (because of too many "civilian screw up's", recent heresy in local authorities, the sector becoming ravaged by war etc. etc.).

So my advise to you as a GM would be to establish just how much of a degree of trust there is between the Inquisition and the local Imperial authorities. What the political climate looks like, and then work from there.

That being said, I would assume that if any suspicion of daemonic/warp taint is discovered then most officials would be under standing orders to contact the Inquisition as soon as possible and have them check it out. This because institutions like the Imperial Navy are expected to face and destroy aliens, and help assist in delivering troops to and bombing planets claimed to have been taken over by heretics. But if a situation smells of "fire and brimstone" the Ordo Malleus would have the final say what to do, and interaction with anything even remotely daemonic would probably warrant an incineratio in most cases. (we're talking about the kind of threat where you might actually have to execute the entire task force used to combat the very same threat as not to risk the spread of corruption)

So if it smells of aliens or heretics, the Inquisition would probably be interested, but it would also probably be considered the duty of most Imperial authorities to fight and cleanse such threats wherever they may arise (unless an Inquisitor says otherwise of course). But the warp can corrupt people who are merely observing the phenomena in question, therefore I'd assume that the Inquisition would like to be notified as soon as possible if there is a suspicion of warp taint. However, if it does happen, I'd also assume that Inquisitorial spies have already informed their masters of the instance in question. They are a kind of Imperial Intelligence Agency after all, and they would be quite useless if they didn't have more covert means of keeping themselves up to date with what's going on.

Do other Imperial Authorities contact the Inquisition to handle problems that seem a bit out of said Authorities league if there doesn't seem to be any other agency better equipped then the slightly overwhelmed Authority to deal with the situation?

They certainly do, though most will try to solve at least some problems on their own. But if you've got a chaos cult beyond the very first stages of "Hey, spraypainting 'The Emperor sucks and the Birdguy is sooo cool!' on hive walls will show them!"... well, investigating on your own about that may get you shot for your troubles when an inquisitor finds out about it.

If so, how the blazes do they get an Inquisitor or acolyte team out to take care of the matter in less time then if they had filed a standard A-4/7b.003 complaint with the administartum?

Send an astropathic message to one of the known inquisitorial bases like the Tricorn. Most Inquisitors will have someone (aka an adept) posted there to go through such sendings to find those that seem worth pursuing, depending on their urgency and specific interests of their master.

Would any agency or individual even ever want to contact the Inquisition for any reason at all? I mean, I know my sphincter clenches up real tight any time I see a cop on the road and I don't even speed and hadn't done anything wrong... and the law actually looks out for me most of the time which is a far cry from Imperial Law never mind the nutters who are above it.

In general, the feces really have to impact the ventilating unit before anyone thinks of calling an Inquisitor - but on the other hand side, you also don't want to call them too late because that could mean they hold you responsible for the whole mess, which would obviously be even worse.

As for the original problem: Yes, the Ordo Xenos will most likely be called upon, even if it's only for a "Situation as follows, will proceed with action X unless receiving instructions to the contrary". The Eldar are definitely rare and mysterious enough to merit inquisitorial attention in almost any case.
Regarding the ship... there needs to be a lot of desecration before a starship is dismantled. It may spend quite some time under the watchful eyes of the AdMech and possibly the Ecclesiarchy (the latter being mostly restricted to the desecrated shrines), but ships are generally too valuable to just throw them away. However, it might be decomissioned and sold off to merchants or Rogue Traders, if it's a Navy vessel.

Good points the both of you on the Malius front and other suitable supper f'ed-up situations where aid agency is damned if they do but probably more damned if they don't. So, what this basically boils down to is: if an Inquisitor's (any inquisitor, well except for the really nutty guy that likes building cogitators out of frogs' legs and cheese wheels) doesn't catch the problem first and it's a bit much for the arbiter's cult busters to handle or for the navy to engage properly, chances are, by the time the astralmessage reaches the Tricorn, gets handed off to their Adept for evaluation and initial threat assessing, then astraltelecomunicated to the Inquisitor or one of his Interrogators for them to organize an acolyte team to check it out or to check it out themselves, said threat's more then likely going to require a full on militaristic purging and a crazy loss of life. For the most part, this is avoided by the Inquisitor being kept appraised of situations as they develop through their spy networks.

Now, on the Eldar and Naval encounters, they seem to be one of the more commonly encountered xenos species by the navy. Why would they need to be hand-held every time their's even the hint of their presence. The guard has protocols for engaging and dealing with them, I'm sure the navy dose as well. If they're involved, if only peripherally, it doesn't strike me as an initial fecal/fan situation to me, only if there's something different, out of the ordinary for such encounters where the "book" doesn't cover what's encountered, or it shows signs of being a piece of or the beginnings of something much larger. I can see Ordo Xenos Inquisitors maintaining quite a few spies and contacts aboard naval vessels so they'll hear about such encounters, and there'll be screening and debriefing protocols for the officers and crew when the ship returns to port to insure they haven't been corrupted by their encounter (and Inquisitorial agents will probably be involved on some level in these debriefings), but why would a captain or admiral call up the Inquisition every time the Eldar are encountered?

Further, as the Navymen are "laymen" when it comes to the Inquisition, I don't think they'd know an Ordo Xenos really exists and that there's a special branch of the big =][= which exists almost solely to hunt the xenos. They would more then likely lump all Inquisitors into one category, assume they all sat in their office in the Tricorn sharing tea while shuffling paperwork on witches, heretics, and xenos when not striking out to some planet to set up a Court of Judgment and start razing villages for not having enough guilty folks for their neighbors to turn in (they were hiding something!) ala, Witch Finder Rykehuss' MO. The ones who would know different would have had some close contact with an Inquisitor or three and, as such, is probably now in at least one of their spy/informant networks. As such, they would exist outside the scope of the normal laymen Naval officer who has yet to feel the Inquisitions claw in his shoulder and wouldn't contact the Tricorn in general if something comes up that they feel would be in their best interest to report, they would report it directly to their informant contact in the Inquisitors network of which they are a part of.

Thanks the both of you. Your replies have helped me clear up some of my fuzzy and foggy notions on a part of the Inquisition and Imperium's inner workings that I hadn't thought much about.

Also, the book Dark Adeptus by Ben Counter seems to imply at the beginning that many Astropaths are in fact Inquisitorial agents or at least associated closely enough that they send off messages alerting Inquisitorial sources of large events. That would make creating a spy network in the Imperial Navy a great deal easier as your agents would need access to an Astropath anyways to contact his superiors.

Good points the both of you on the Malius front and other suitable supper f'ed-up situations where aid agency is damned if they do but probably more damned if they don't. So, what this basically boils down to is: if an Inquisitor's (any inquisitor, well except for the really nutty guy that likes building cogitators out of frogs' legs and cheese wheels) doesn't catch the problem first and it's a bit much for the arbiter's cult busters to handle or for the navy to engage properly, chances are, by the time the astralmessage reaches the Tricorn, gets handed off to their Adept for evaluation and initial threat assessing, then astraltelecomunicated to the Inquisitor or one of his Interrogators for them to organize an acolyte team to check it out or to check it out themselves, said threat's more then likely going to require a full on militaristic purging and a crazy loss of life. For the most part, this is avoided by the Inquisitor being kept appraised of situations as they develop through their spy networks.

Depends on the distances involved. Thanks to RT, we now know the time astropathic communication takes... you can send a message somewhere in the same sector within 1D5 weeks, 1D5 hours if it's the same subsector. So the pure communication distances range somewhere between 2 hours and 10 weeks. As for the overhead time spent looking through the messages and assembling a team... I'm not sure it's that long. The Inquisition doesn't strike me as so bogged-down in bureaucracy like the Administratum.


Now, on the Eldar and Naval encounters, they seem to be one of the more commonly encountered xenos species by the navy. Why would they need to be hand-held every time their's even the hint of their presence. The guard has protocols for engaging and dealing with them, I'm sure the navy dose as well. If they're involved, if only peripherally, it doesn't strike me as an initial fecal/fan situation to me, only if there's something different, out of the ordinary for such encounters where the "book" doesn't cover what's encountered, or it shows signs of being a piece of or the beginnings of something much larger. I can see Ordo Xenos Inquisitors maintaining quite a few spies and contacts aboard naval vessels so they'll hear about such encounters, and there'll be screening and debriefing protocols for the officers and crew when the ship returns to port to insure they haven't been corrupted by their encounter (and Inquisitorial agents will probably be involved on some level in these debriefings), but why would a captain or admiral call up the Inquisition every time the Eldar are encountered?

Then I guess we see them differently. Certainly, the Eldar are relatively well-known to 40k players, but I'm not quite sure about their numbers in-game. How many craft-worlds are there? A hundred? A thousand? The eldar consider themselves a dying race and mostly rely on their psykers to keep them that way, avoiding confrontation unless the profit outweighs the risk. Their ships are generally more agile, less visible and faster than those of the Imperial Navy, which means that when the Imperials encounter Eldar and aren't instantly overwhelmed by them, it's because the Eldar let them. And that again means they have some plan in motion which makes taking risks with Eldar lives seem worthwhile to them. Sounds like something the -=I=- wants to know about.

Further, as the Navymen are "laymen" when it comes to the Inquisition, I don't think they'd know an Ordo Xenos really exists and that there's a special branch of the big =][= which exists almost solely to hunt the xenos. They would more then likely lump all Inquisitors into one category, assume they all sat in their office in the Tricorn sharing tea while shuffling paperwork on witches, heretics, and xenos when not striking out to some planet to set up a Court of Judgment and start razing villages for not having enough guilty folks for their neighbors to turn in (they were hiding something!) ala, Witch Finder Rykehuss' MO. The ones who would know different would have had some close contact with an Inquisitor or three and, as such, is probably now in at least one of their spy/informant networks. As such, they would exist outside the scope of the normal laymen Naval officer who has yet to feel the Inquisitions claw in his shoulder and wouldn't contact the Tricorn in general if something comes up that they feel would be in their best interest to report, they would report it directly to their informant contact in the Inquisitors network of which they are a part of.

I'd assume that captains would at least have some ideas about the Ordo Xenos, considering most of the really major threats encountered in space consist of, well, Xenos.

How catch the =I= wind of anything?

While there will for sure be some locations where honest citizens and/or the authority can report something, I do not believe that an organisations as distruting as THE INQUISITION will really on any authority to report back on anything.

Instead, I suspect them to have eyes and ears of themselves going through reports anywhere and everywhere... and have some "sleeping eyes" out themself. At least Ordo Hereticus should have an active control over the authorities instead of waiting for the government to blame itself of something.

Graver said:

Yes, I'm well aware of the Tricorn, but how dose sending an astropathic message there directed at no inquisitor in particular help? Is there a bulletin board where the various heresies are posted and bored Inquisitors by now and again and look into which ever strikes their fancy at the time leaving the more boring ones (or irrelevant to their outlook or goals) to get buried under piles of brightly colored memo paper?

The minions of the relevant Ordos's local Lord Inquisitor forward it to someone to deal with. The inquisition has internal structure and bureaucracy. It's no different to someone reporting revanchist bourgoise behaviour to the KGB.

Cifer said:

Then I guess we see them differently. Certainly, the Eldar are relatively well-known to 40k players, but I'm not quite sure about their numbers in-game. How many craft-worlds are there? A hundred? A thousand? The eldar consider themselves a dying race and mostly rely on their psykers to keep them that way, avoiding confrontation unless the profit outweighs the risk. Their ships are generally more agile, less visible and faster than those of the Imperial Navy, which means that when the Imperials encounter Eldar and aren't instantly overwhelmed by them, it's because the Eldar let them. And that again means they have some plan in motion which makes taking risks with Eldar lives seem worthwhile to them. Sounds like something the -=I=- wants to know about.

Actually an eldar craftworld passes through the Calixis sector once every hundred years or so (not exactly sure of the interval, but im sure about reading it in one of the sourcebooks), and Battlefleet Calixis have standing orders of getting out of the craftworld's way whenever it passes through.

So while the common man might be kept in the dark about the eldar presence in the Calixis sector, the Imperial Navy would surely have standardized protocol in how to act in regards to the eldar.