The Holy Ordos

By Elias Holt, in Dark Heresy Gamemasters

Alright, posting this here for the sake of not being a foul sorceror and resurrecting ancient threads, I thought I'd make a new topic for this:

I figure there's more than a few fan-made Ordos and since I feel there's not enough official ones, I thought I'd make a topic for the unofficial ones. If you have any ideas for Ordos, please post them here (in the order of the name of the Ordo followed by what it's specialized for).

Let's start with the official Ordos first (the three major ones are obvious, but I'm posting them anyway for the sake of posting them):

Ordo Hereticus- Investigates and disposes of the threat of heretics, traitors, mutants, renegades, etc. Militant arm: Adepta Sororitas.

Ordo Malleus- Investigates and destroys Daemons and their followers. Militant arm: Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter.

Ordo Xenos- Investigates and destroys Xenos and Xenos-worshippers. Militant arm: Death Watch Space Marine levies.

Ordo Sicarius- Manages and monitors the Officio Assassinorum, originally designed to expose corrupted parties within the Officio and punish them.

Ordo Chronos- The now-defunct Ordo intended to monitor and deal with time paradoxes caused by warp-travel.

Ordo Sepulturum- An Ordo designed to investigate and eliminate plagues such as the Zombie Plague and the Obliterator Virus.

Ordo Hydra- A radical sub-faction of the Illuminati which contains many Inquisitors. It has the goal of enslaving all of mankind through turning it into a 'hivemind' controlled by the Ordo Hydra.

Ordo Obsuletus- An Ordo dedicated to acquiring knowledge of the mysteries such as the Legion of the Damned and the supposed reappearances of Lord Varlak, a rogue psyker, after he rose to power on the world of Korsk-II and led it to secede, subsequently being burned at the stake.

Fan-made Ordos (Username of creator is added in parentheses):

Ordo Abdictus - A Inquisitorial ordo dedicated to code-breaking, oversight of some intelligence operations and finally oversight over some of the media of the Imperium, such as communications between planets and ensuring the starships orbiting them are not infiltrated or compromised etc. (Frothe-08)

Ordo Toxicum - Inquisitorial ordos dedicated to the study, manufacture and cures to the myriad of posionous substances, toxins and chemicals of the Imperium, including the various chemical weapons used by the Imperium. (Frothe-08)

Ordo Prognosticatum - Technically an offshoot of the Ordo Hereticus, the Ordo Prognosticatum is dedicated to finding, cataloging, and/or suppressing the visions and portents as foretold by the numerous mystics, psykers, and prophets, sanctioned or otherwise, across the Segmentum Obscurus. Due to its odd natural ability to draw in Inquisitors, the Calixian sector holds the largest concentration of this otherwise small Ordo. Some Inquisitors catalog and attempt to link together the prophecies they find in order to search for a common thread indicating what they believe may be a dire threat to the Imperium, where others merely brutally suppress the prophets and their followers. (Myself)

Ordo Militum- An Ordo designed with the purpose of monitoring and managing the various military forces of the Imperium, including the Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy, and possibly the PDF. The Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Psykana, and Adepta Sororitas are not included as these would mainly be handled by the Ordo Hereticus. (Unknown)

There was also the Ordo Hydra from the Inquisition War trilogy - an Inquisitorial faction supposedly attempting to "infect" the Imperial populace throughout the galaxy with a psychic band that transforms the Imperium into a hivemind.

Lynata said:

There was also the Ordo Hydra from the Inquisition War trilogy - an Inquisitorial faction supposedly attempting to "infect" the Imperial populace throughout the galaxy with a psychic band that transforms the Imperium into a hivemind.

I remember that, I haven't read the series but know about the Ordo Hydra. I wasn't sure if I should add it since it was technically a radical faction of the Illuminati with some members in the Inquisition.

Edited in.

I use some made up ones myself - keep in mind it made sense to me, so it might not make us much sense to other people. These two are Ordo Minoris.

Ordo Abdictus - A inquisitorial ordos dedicated to code-breaking, oversight of some intelligeance operations and finally oversight over some of the media of the Imperium, such as communications between planets and the starships orbiting them are not infiltrated or compromised etc.

Ordo Toxicum - Inquisitorial ordos dedicated to the study, manufacture and cures to the myriad of posionous substances, toxins and chemicals of the Imperium, including the various chemical weapons used by the Imperium.

Frothe-08 said:

Ordo Abdictus - A inquisitorial ordos dedicated to code-breaking, oversight of some intelligeance operations and finally oversight over some of the media of the Imperium, such as communications between planets and the starships orbiting them are not infiltrated or compromised etc.

Ordo Toxicum - Inquisitorial ordos dedicated to the study, manufacture and cures to the myriad of posionous substances, toxins and chemicals of the Imperium, including the various chemical weapons used by the Imperium.

So Ordo Toxicum- would it also deal with alien substances? Like Tyranid poisons?

Edited in.

Found another one - the Ordo Obsuletus , apparently a small group of Inquisitors who focus on investigating strange phenomena and rumors such as the tales surrounding the appearances of the Legion of the Damned. The 40k playerbase has supposedly compared this Ordo's activities to the "X-Files" TV series.

PS: Adept a Sororitas - they're several distinctive organizations operating under common leadership. Just pointing it out because that's a rather common mistake, in part due to the habit of seeing most Imperial adepta use the "Adeptus" singular, and in part because they were localized wrongly in German. ;)

PPS: I like the idea about the Ordo Abdictus!

Thanks, I'd not heard about that one, I'll add it in with the others.

Also, thanks for the correction, I'll make sure to fix that in a moment.

I like the Abdictus, but not so sure about the Toxicum. Studying/refining/curing poisons sounds more like something the Adeptus Mechanicus (Magos Biologis),even something Hospitillar Sororitas would spend their time doing. I see the Inquisition reaping the benifits of others' study in this area, not using their own time & resources. Just an opinion, not looking for trouble. gui%C3%B1o.gif

Elias Holt said:

Alright, posting this here for the sake of not being a foul sorcerorresurrecting ancient threads, I thought I'd make a new topic for this:

I figure there's more than a few fan-made Ordossince I feel there's not enough official ones, I thought I'd make a topic for the unofficial ones. If you have any ideas for Ordos, please post them here (in the order of the name of the Ordo followed by what it's specialized for).

While I'm not contributing directly, I felt that this - a blog post by frequent 40kRP writer Andy Hoare on the subject of the Inquisitionits Ordos - might be interestingrelevant...

Bump:

Ordo Prognosticatum (No idea if that sounds Gothic enough):

Technically an offshoot of the Ordo Hereticus, the Ordo Prognosticatum is dedicated to finding, cataloging, and/or suppressing the visions and portents as foretold by the numerous mystics, psykers, and prophets, sanctioned or otherwise, across the Segmentum Obscurus. Due to its odd natural ability to draw in Inquisitors, the Calixian sector holds the largest concentration of this otherwise small Ordo. Some Inquisitors catalog and attempt to link together the prophecies they find in order to search for a common thread indicating what they believe may be a dire threat to the Imperium, where others merely brutally suppress the prophets and their followers.

Oh - just noticed something:

Elias Holt said:

Ordo Militum- An Ordo designed with the purpose of monitoring and managing the various military forces of the Imperium, including the Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy, Adeptus Astartes (though there are hints that a separate body manages the Astartes), the Commissariat, the Adeptus Psykana, and the Adepta Sororitas.
rumours

I believe this is important because this so-called "Ordo Militum" would encroach on the territory of the Ordo Hereticus, which is the true Inquisitorial Ordo dealing with internal heresy (see also Andy Hoare's opinion on the subject of Inquisitorial Ordos, as linked by N0-1_H3r3). In fact, the claim that this "Ordo Militum" would police the Psykana and the Sororitas does conflict with GW studio canon - the Psykana are held in check by the Ordo Hereticus, of which the Sororitas are the Chamber Militant, in turn acting as wardens on the Black Ships. Likewise, if there would be an Inquisitorial Ordo monitoring the Astartes, this would be the Hereticus as well, given that Purity Control has always been a task of the Sororitas and the whole idea of the Inquisition checking on and, if need be, fighting Marine Chapters is one of the mission themes in the WitchHunter Codex. This so-called "Ordo Militum" would break the entire idea about the Convocation of Nephilim, hence I suggest both re-wording that entry in the list (limiting it to the Guard and/or the Navy) and moving it to the fan-made section.

Alright, I'll edit that in a moment. I suppose that would make sense, as an offshoot of the Ordo Hereticus devoted to managing one of its duties.

Something has gone horribly wrong... I clicked edit on one of my previous posts to add a note to it, and it decided I wanted to create a new post quoting it (and I know, for a fact, I hit edit and not quote)... Deleting the quote commands, it's still putting this in quotes, and I can't seem to delete this so... Double post. Sorry about that.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Elias Holt said:

Alright, posting this here for the sake of not being a foul sorcerorresurrecting ancient threads, I thought I'd make a new topic for this:

I figure there's more than a few fan-made Ordossince I feel there's not enough official ones, I thought I'd make a topic for the unofficial ones. If you have any ideas for Ordos, please post them here (in the order of the name of the Ordo followed by what it's specialized for).

While I'm not contributing directly, I felt that this - a blog post by frequent 40kRP writer Andy Hoare on the subject of the Inquisitionits Ordos - might be interestingrelevant...

Thanks for providing that link. It was really informative and makes one really consider what kind of Orders to put in their game.