I was going to say that Inquisitors tend to be secretive, not exactly the kind of person you'd see featured in any inspirational works -- but on the other hand, there are some notable firebrand witch hunters who love going all out.

I'm still inclined to say it'd be easier to fake a dead Inquisitor still being alive simply by continuing correspondence, and acting like the Inquisitor has just become somewhat reclusive. But this is a matter of interpretation. It certainly does sound like a twisted and paranoid plot to me!

i'd think the inquisition occasionally sets up a notable inquisitor in a heroic light to create a positive, heroic image of the inquisitor for publuc consumption . Kind of creates an image of the inquisitor as a heroic champion defending humanity. Makes it easier to gloss over the tortured abd murdered innocents, the ruined lives, the destruction caused because some pompous ass was having a bad day and decided to vent his frustrations, nuked a hive on pure paranoia, etc.

Oh, I dunno -- what makes you think they'd want to gloss over that? The Inquisition's name is supposed to invoke fear; if you want heroes, that's what you have the Adeptus Astartes and various Ministorum saints for.

That being said, it depends on how you want to see the setting, too, so I'm really just voicing a preference.

The Inquisition makes heroes of the other Adeptus. That's what they have idiots like Caiphus Cain for.

They themselves keep themselves in a shroud of fear and secrecy, because it makes their job easier.

depends on the idividual inquisitor really:

Some act very covert, revealing themselves at the last moment, as a last resort, or not at all.

other inquisitors come in like Brain Blessed on crack, with full fanfare of storm troopers, cherubs, psyber eagles and other acolytes, dressed in gold plated artificer power armor, wielding a thunderhammer and go: "EVERYONE EXPECTS THE IMPERIAL INQUISITION! I'M HERE TO INTERROGATE INNOCENTS AND BURN HERETICS! AND I'M ALL OUT OF INNOCENTS!"

Yeah, but those inquisitors are always the one's with stuff to hide.

depends on the idividual inquisitor really:

Some act very covert, revealing themselves at the last moment, as a last resort, or not at all.

other inquisitors come in like Brain Blessed on crack, with full fanfare of storm troopers, cherubs, psyber eagles and other acolytes, dressed in gold plated artificer power armor, wielding a thunderhammer and go: "EVERYONE EXPECTS THE IMPERIAL INQUISITION! I'M HERE TO INTERROGATE INNOCENTS AND BURN HERETICS! AND I'M ALL OUT OF INNOCENTS!"

Brian Blessed. Hehe hehe. FLASH! AAA AAH! SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE! KING OF THE IMPODSIBLE!

Sorry, but you know that was his most famous role....

Long-term assignment of Callidus to an Inquisitor, on the other hand, seems fairly common. It makes sense that they're the assassin most often put on detached duty - they're by far the most useful in non-combat situations. We've seen three that I'm aware of:

I wouldn't say "common", considering that by Imperial Decree, every single assassination must be ratified by a 2/3 majority vote of the High Lords on Terra. Yes, the Inquisition can get around this, but even just ordering a single kill already constitutes a notable exception to standard procedure. As such, a permanent assignment and the accompanying kills sounds like something that only a senior Inquisitor Lord should really get away with.

Lesser Inquisitors can try anyways, but personally I'd see "hijacking" an Officio Assassinorum operative similar to requisitioning a Titan Legion, a Chapter of Space Marines or a Navy flotilla: it's okay if you do it for a specific mission, but if you want to keep them, you better have a very good reason and a lot of political clout in order to deal with criticism from your peers. Other Inquisitors will not take kindly upon such conceited habits by some rookie who thinks he owns half the Imperium now that he's got his rosette.

The examples in the novels I would attribute either to rare exceptions (a lot of crazy stuff can happen over the course of several millennia), or to the authors simply playing a little fast and loose with the setting. Let's not even talk about how the majority of instances a Callidus shows up in the novels, she's sleeping with the Inquisitor, giving you an idea of just why the authors may have decided on this gender and Temple rather than the alternatives, or why they felt they had to add an Assassin to their story in the first place.

If I remember correctly, Ian Watson's books in particular featured a couple other things that might raise eyebrows today. As much as I'd still recommend them, because frankly they were still a fun read!

The original Grand Master of assassins was ( spoilers) Malcador the Sigilite ( dan dan daaaaaan!!!)

Going by codex fluff, the original Grand Masters were six people called <drumroll> Callidus, Venenum, Culexus, Vindicare, Eversor and Vanus, who revealed themselves to the Emperor after already having supported his Great Crusade independently for some time.

All in all, I gotta say I'm with Magnus and venkelus on this one. The Assassins seem too rare a resource, and too focused on doing their job in their way. Many of them are quite clever in how to achieve their objective, but I think that still doesn't compare to the level of independence an Inquisitor is used to and employs. An Assassin lives for their Temple first and foremost (if their Grand Master orders it, they would kill an Inquisitor just like they'd kill a High Lord), and the Temple is going to expect their loaned operative to be returned to them.

But this is just as far as my understanding based on GW's original writing goes -- there can certainly be different interpretations of the setting (such as some of the novels suggest), and in the end, all that matters is that only the players sharing one campaign setting have a common ground and agree on such details.

'K my bad, thats actually still the case, we actually meet them at the start of "Nemesis" it's just that Malcador is one of them. I guess he's the one who gives them their missions and they fight amongst themselves wich clade is gonna do it.

I also liked Eversor's (as in the man himself) plan to kill Horus: Send every single eversor assassin at the warmaster at the same time! Man that would have been awesome! (lots of bio explosions I would think) It would have been better than the plan they came up with in the novel.

Yeah, send all the culexus assassins, as cover for the one callidus who goes in quietly and gives horus a phase sword colostomy...

I also liked Eversor's (as in the man himself) plan to kill Horus: Send every single eversor assassin at the warmaster at the same time! Man that would have been awesome! (lots of bio explosions I would think) It would have been better than the plan they came up with in the novel.

Wait for a similar scene in the Beast Arises series; because the Beheading results in an astartes force trying to attack the Officio Assassinorium head-on - and meeting a hundred Eversor assassins coming the other way.

I also liked Eversor's (as in the man himself) plan to kill Horus: Send every single eversor assassin at the warmaster at the same time! Man that would have been awesome! (lots of bio explosions I would think) It would have been better than the plan they came up with in the novel.

Wait for a similar scene in the Beast Arises series; because the Beheading results in an astartes force trying to attack the Officio Assassinorium head-on - and meeting a hundred Eversor assassins coming the other way.

I'm starting to like this series...

I also liked Eversor's (as in the man himself) plan to kill Horus: Send every single eversor assassin at the warmaster at the same time! Man that would have been awesome! (lots of bio explosions I would think) It would have been better than the plan they came up with in the novel.

Wait for a similar scene in the Beast Arises series; because the Beheading results in an astartes force trying to attack the Officio Assassinorium head-on - and meeting a hundred Eversor assassins coming the other way.

I'm starting to like this series...

Yeah . . . this is one of those times where you say bye bye to the space marines.

Not all of them though, one marine survived. And he ended up going in and *BLAM*ing the traitorous Master of the Assassinorum.

Goes to show you just can't keep a good marine down.

Goes to show you just can't keep a good marine down.

You can certainly weed out the 99 other bad ones apparently.

There were only 100 marines fighting those Eversor's? ****... I did not know Black Library considers Assassin's to be that useless. Then again a Callidus Assassin lost in melee against Shadowsun and a Vindicare could be spotted from his vantage point by a generic Tau recon drone.

Guess all that training and gear really does go to waste sometimes. Another reminder that the Imperial Guard and Navy are the only real power the Imperium has.

In the end, as always, it all comes down to who is writing the story...

Might have to get a copy of this book, just to see an army of screaming Eversor Assassins going at it backed by their long range fire support Vindicares

Might have to get a copy of this book, just to see an army of screaming Eversor Assassins going at it backed by their long range fire support Vindicares

What Vindicares? It was only Eversors during that battle, none of the other temples was involved.

Might have to get a copy of this book, just to see an army of screaming Eversor Assassins going at it backed by their long range fire support Vindicares

What Vindicares? It was only Eversors during that battle, none of the other temples was involved.

Ahh, the quick summary I found somewhere online had the Vindicares sniping Marines as the Eversors closed in. Either way a Mass Army of Eversors Win

the traitorous Master of the Assassinorum.

Not precisely. One thing the Beast Arises series does make eminently clear is why Vangorich did/is going to do it (we haven't got to it yet in story). The other High Lords of Terra (with the exception of the Inquisitorial Representative) are corrupt as hell and, worse, they're inept. They lost dozens of warships, millions of people and

plus they came close to surrendering the homeworld and then had to lie to the populace about what they'd done to avoid a civil war.

Removing corrupt incompetents who are a threat to the Imperium is what the Officio Assassinorium is for....and I'd guess his actions were actually approved of (if not in any way sanctioned) by the Inquisitorial Representative.

The problem is that, instead of the high lords dying, and being replaced with a new, more competent (and suitably motivated!) set, the whole thing devolved into a civil war on terra. There are three chapters named as being part of the intervention - the Imperial Fists are the key one, as the fists were directly involved and Koorath, their chapter master, knew vangorich in person.

Also note that there isn't, so far as I know, a named size for the marines. the 100 number applies to the assassins.

There is an implied number for the size of the force who stopped the resulting civil war; Since the only marines other than the fists technically only allowed to go to terra are chapter masters as delegates to address the high lords (with a suitable honour guard), the Ultramarines Chapter Master assembled an 'honour guard' of fifty chapter masters and essentially turned up with an old-style astartes legion in tow, and said "stop messing around, NOW."

I do like when they let the Assassins actually look like they are good at what they are made to do; they don't send an Astartes to kill such problems, even one in stealth armor, with pimped out gear, though with the Astartes being the poster boys of the game, one does suppose they are obligated to win, at least most of the time. I also accept that, with the Tau being rather popular, they weren't about to have their entire cast of named characters get wiped out, even by the Officio's best, though still nameless, operatives. They might be willing to let Marneus Calgar, or Dante, maybe Logan Grimnar, do that, as they are, over the most space, probably the most loved/hated Space Marines, and they are named characters, but not some 100 point nobody, who might not even be that hard to kill, in the tabletop. Oh well, they did score one, and that's cool. Otherwise, at least I still know that the OA is awesome!

We might get a renegade Vindicare somewhere down the line in the HH novels. As (name withheld becuz of spoilers) made it onto the Vengefull Spirit, waiting to get a clear shot at Horus. By the time Horus appears he's become corrupted by being on a chaos ship for so long ("Tell me! Who is Samus?" that's not a good sign. ) and he ends up on Team chaos...

The follow-on to that has already been published in one of the Garro Audiobooks.

He gets sent back to terra, but interestingly was sent back with orders to take out Euphrati Keeler .

I believe it's in Vow of Faith.

The follow-on to that has already been published in one of the Garro Audiobooks.

He gets sent back to terra, but interestingly was sent back with orders to take out Euphrati Keeler .

I believe it's in Vow of Faith.

Didn't she start the whole " worshipping the emperor, and actually believing in him" thing? Guess the forces of chaos can't be to happy with that. Plus no use in sending him after the Emperor.

Didn't she start the whole " worshipping the emperor, and actually believing in him" thing?

'Start' it - no. But get it organised, and provide the nascent structure that's going to end up becoming the Terran Ecclesiarchy? Yes - at least we assume so (we still don't know what happens to it afterwards, but there are a lot of people, in a lot of places on terra, starting to sign on, up to and including a certain First Captain with anger management issues).

Plus no use in sending him after the Emperor

It might be, might not be. But Horus explicitely told Erebus "Stop doing that. I'm going to kill him, not the rest of you."

Didn't she start the whole " worshipping the emperor, and actually believing in him" thing?

'Start' it - no. But get it organised, and provide the nascent structure that's going to end up becoming the Terran Ecclesiarchy? Yes - at least we assume so (we still don't know what happens to it afterwards, but there are a lot of people, in a lot of places on terra, starting to sign on, up to and including a certain First Captain with anger management issues).

Hum . . . if that's the case we may have an issue here . . . or not?

Disclaimer, this is going to get silly (but I am sticking to GW material)

*remove large ornate scroll from somewhere, making the sign of the Aquila over it before opening*

*ahem*

A reading from the first book of Thorpe . . .

*looks at audience's confused faces* *sigh* More commonly known as Codex: Sisters of Battle, second edition.

Chapter 1, verses 13, 25-38, and 42

"Even before his internment in the Golden Throne, the Emperor was worshiped as a god by many members of the Imperium, especially on the more regressive planets rediscovered during the Great Crusade."

*traces finger down parchment . . . *

"Following the ultimate sacrifice of the Emperor, the Imperium was swept by a general upsurge in adoration and worship for him. Visionaries and prophets appeared on every world and cults following these divinely inspired individuals soon grew. There was no central organization, no control, and even on the same planet there could be hundreds of different denominations, each performing their worship in a different manner, every one of them interpreting the Emperor's will in a slightly different way.

"As is the way of such things, the stronger cults grew and prospered while the smaller, weaker ones faded away or where incorporated into the larger sects. Compromises of interpretation where found and slowly many cults became united. Although lots of worlds still had several different sects, other cults managed to spread beyond the surface of their planet, their servants traveling to other stars and worlds to spread their own version of the faith. The most successful of these was the Temple of the Savior Emperor"

*turns page, scanning audience to make sure they are attentive*

"The Temple of the Savior Emperor had a number of advantages over its theological rivals. For a start it was centered on Terra *sign of the Aquila*, the Imperial planet, the center point of the human race and the resting place of the Emperor himself. Secondly, its fanatical leader was originally a well-respected and highly decorated Imperial Guard officer who served in the defense of the Imperial Palace. He claimed he was sent instructions by the Emperor, who came to him in dreams and visions. His original name has long since passed from memory, but the officer renamed himself Fatidicus, which means 'Prophet' in one of the ancient Terran tongues. Fatidicus formed a massive following from the Imperial forces on Earth. From lowly scribes and clerks to Imperial Navy commanders and colonels of the Imperial Guard, the Temple of the Savior Emperor welcomed everybody."

*scans a few lines, mumbling to self*

"At the venerable age of 120, Fatidicus dies, but by now there were over a billion dedicated followers on Earth itself and countless servants throughout the Segmentum Solar."

*hrumph* *carefully closes and binds scroll*