A good topic for a bit of a fluff group-think.

Firstly, do Inquisitors ever retire? I mean, considering Gideon Ravenor, I can't imagine injury is an issue, and if you go crazy, you either get a bolt in the brain or get sent to some fun Inquisitorial Asylum or something. But can an Inquisitor just...retire? I can't imagine them getting bored or whatever, but at some point could an Inquisitor voluntarily settle down? Most would WANT to do it their whole lives, but could an Inquisitor theoretically stop? I know no precedent for this, but it's an interesting question.

Second, a question about the lady-folk. If the Ciaphas Cain and Eisenhorn books are anything to go by, Inquisitors get their sexy-time. I expect that Inquisitors, being educated and smart individuals, are likely to employ such measures as The Emperor Protects brand condoms or whatever, but accidents happen, lets be honest. So what happens if a female Inquisitor gets pregnant? Does she have Inquisitorial Maternity leave? What happens to the child? Would it be possible for an Inquisitor to raise their own child (a difficult task, but not impossible for someone as capable and with the resources of an Inquisitor), or would it be automatically sent away to the Scholam, regardless of the Inquisitor's wishes? Or possibly, could it be both to some degree? The Inquisitor visits her child as they live at the Scholam?

Obviously, the Inquisition is VERY flexible and variant, so I'm mostly fishing for possibilities, but establishing potential norms is also good.

The reason I ask this is because I am thinking of, when I run A Stony Sleeep, having it be implied that Quist and Inquisitor Vincent are lovers, humanizing the otherwise very professional and cold Inquisitor, and thought it would be extremely interesting to throw in a pregnancy, presenting something happening to someone important to the Kill Team that is entirely out of their ability to effect or understand, but will nonetheless have some bearing on them, and really help characterize the people around them outside of their professional life. It would be a particularly alien experience for the Space Marines to see something of an Inquisitor outside their duty.

Anyway, discuss: GOGOGOGOGOGOGO

I believe children of inquisitors, captains, soldiers ect. are considered "orphans" and sent to the schola progenium. Though the Progenium has the record of whos whos child, to keep an eye on problems.

Tunnelhckrat said:

"Don't make me call your daddy, boy!"

Captain Ventris said:

Captain Ventris said:

First off as a matter of personal recommendation unless your PC's have interacted with Quist A LOT I would avoid having her have any romantic affiliations at all. To just tag the settings (as in Deathwatch) highlighted high power female NPC be tagged with a romantic subplot and a baby plot just seems cliche and tacky. IMO

I would image inquisitors can and do retire, but I see it sort of like movie spies or politicians, you might be retired but your never really out, for one thing you just know too much, but an Inquisitor who just doesn't feel they can do the job anymore isn't going to be very effective, so I can't see them being forced. By the same token even a "retired" inquisitor is a vast storehouse of knowledge and experience so I doubt their just killed. Plus when individuals of that power level start to resent their power level you've got problems.

Secondly I would imagine what happens to the inquisitors baby whether the parent is male or female is entirely up to them, after all inquisitors are pretty much laws unto themselves. They might keep the child relatively close by, they might send them to a schola, or they might have them be raised by relatives or powerful noble allies. Just using other very busy traveling people as a model much of the actual immediate child rearing is going to be someone else's task, that's just how it's always been for people of that calliber.

While a good portion are sent to the Schola, not all of them are. In Gaunt's Ghosts children, though rare (only two are named), are kept with the unit, while in an older White Dwarf there was an overview of a retired IG regiment, and it was mentioned that the children that the regiment had brought with them when they retired.

I would believe that the parent's, or at the very least a regimental commander, would make the call as to if the child stays or goes. And unless a conclave has a standing order, the same would go for an Inquisitor. Most would likely send their child away, if just to protect him/her/it/them, but perhaps not all.

As for retirement... Well, I doubt you get t become an Inquisitor unless you are a tiny bit work obsessed, but on the flip side, if an inquisitor did decide to call it quits, who would tell them no?

lurkeroutthere said:

I agree almost totally with what you said except for this. In a game cliche isn't always bad. And I for one think it would be interesting to see how warrior demi-gods deal with something that they are genetically and hormonally programed to ignore, namely someone having a child.

lurkeroutthere said:

Hopefully I can avoid Quist being the ONLY powerful female character (after all, Hezika Carmillus is the big boss, Quist is just another Inquisitor, albeit an important one), and I'm actually considering having Syndalla from Final Sanction reassigned to another Inquisitor due to the death of Kalistradi. In general, I try mixing up the genders of characters to give the real sense that gender rarely matters in 40k.

I was thinking their relationship would be HINTED at loosely (and since players are hardly looking for such things in a game of Deathwatch, they might not notice it at all), but not confirmed for a long time, allowing the players to look back later and go "Oooooh", so it actually won't be relevant for a long while. It will likely first appear that they are simply good friends, and pregnancies (if I go with the idea at all) conveniently take a few months to show up noticeably in some cases, so there's plenty of time to get to know her before that "Oooooh" moment. Obviously, this will entail modifying how long Vincent has been missing.

I definitely intend on making her a very regular character, and in no way want to detract from the fact that she is very intelligent, capable, powerful, and skilled. But honestly, I'm kind of secretly a romantic myself, so I really enjoy tragedy plots like this. This would be pure roleplaying material as well, it's not like she's gonna get a -5 BS because she's wondering how her baby's doing

I would rule retirement out. An Inquisitor may back down a bit, settle down and all, but he'll still work. I can imagine changing the main approach from hands on to a more layered system in which the inquisitor sits on a huge web of cells, allies and supporters. This way he can limit the danger to him (and the workload) but still serve the imperium.

Concerning a pregnancy I would say it depends on the individual inquisitor. After all they are the most powerful and individualistic humans in the galaxy (astartes, mutants and psykers do not count). Some would never have kids (chem geld anyone?), some would send theirs to the schola and some would raise them like normal parents. After all not every inquisitor skulks through the shadows, some have ships, compounds etc. I could even imagine inquisitors raising their kids to be inquisitors (or at least pretty skilled interrogators). And forget about the conclave, if an inquisitor hasn't done anything heinous the conclave shouldn't interfere.

As for maternity leave, I can see several options.

1: Continue kicking ass while pregnant. 40k land is just the kind of place where you can lead men and have sword duels with a bump. You might want to bring along a combat-midwife from the Adepta Sororitas and take cover behind something during the actual delivery, but there is no need to otherwise let it slow you down.

2: Have the foetus surgically removed and placed in either a servator-surrogate or a large, baroque steam powered techno-womb covered in skulls which then carries it to term. Ideally this should follow you around carried by suspensors as you go about the business of the Inquisition.

I concur with the aluminumwolf 100%! Nuthin' kicks a$$ like a pregnant inquisitor!! Fighin' off orks while a hospitaller is midwifing her? Awesome!!!

And the walking incubator from Hell? Priceless!! (make sure it's armed, brother!)

And I like the idear of humanizing Quist while confounding yer marines...("Why is the Inquisitor craving pickles dipped in ice cream, brother?")

You guys, you guys are just messed up....

Zappiel said:

And I like the idear of humanizing Quist while confounding yer marines...("Why is the Inquisitor craving pickles dipped in ice cream, brother?")

Ideally, it might not even occur to the players, no less their characters. As said, it will be subtle, material to come back to later when they know Quist better. She'll just start wearing a cloak or something at some point, maybe her pet Assassin or whoever else is in the know will act subtly different around her.

Being pregnant with the child of an Inquisitor that fell from grace, Quist might want to keep it on the down-low. She's already a bit of a radical so this sort of thing wouldn't help, and even for an Inquisitor, it's pretty darn cold to abort your own kid to save face (since it's not like she lacks the resources to raise it or anything).

Thaaat's a potential idea. Is the child or mother judged for the sins of the father?

So yeah, thanks a lot for the opinions on all this, guys. Raising your own Interrogator definitely sounds like a rockin' idea.

When u reach inquisitor level in most cases u are above 50-70 years old, as 99% of proven throne agents are given live extending drugs. Most inquisitors have some psyker abilities, most contacted different form of mutants, xeno or even deamons and may be considered tainted, most have so fu**** mind and personality after years of constant fight with worst elements of galaxy that thing like "parenthood" are not encouraged. In case of female inquisitors pregnancy is like... bad joke, in case of male inquisitors its more like "fire and forget".

And i hope that i dont need to teach/remind all undearaged members of this forum that women ovaries have finite number of egs witch most are gone by age 45. So 250 year old geriatric hag in body of 20 year old babe in power armour should have "chem geld" by many, many reasons.

PS. its battle in dark future where only war exist, not twilight in space.

Not only did you throw down numbers without citations, but your entire post was spectacularly condescending.

Captain Ventris said:

There's a quote in Ascension, p37, that sort of provides an example on this point:-

"Several times in the history of the Ordos Calixis, an Acolyte has found himself raised to the rank of Interrogator, and discerned throughout his subsequent career the hidden hand of an unknown patron. Such was the case for Interrogator Abigayle Cruz, who ascended to the rank of Inquisitor after a career as an Interrogator that lasted only three years. She subsequently discovered that the fathershe had believed long dead was in fact an Inquisitor Lord and that he had ensured her meteoric rise. Upon becoming an Inquisitor, her first act was to denounce her new-found sire for such blatant abuse of his position, and the two became sworn enemies."

So yes, in at least one example in the canon, male Inquisitors have been know to sire children. In my view, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and there's no reason why a female Inquisitor wouldn't want to do the same, assuming she is of childbearing age.

I would imagine a female Inquisitor would be like any other powerful career woman: perfectly capable of being both a mother and holdng down a high pressure job. While the specifics of this will vary from Inquisitor to Inquisitor, bear in mind that they have the power to requisition any resources they see fit in order to carry out their role. This would obviously involve the use of servants who can assist in raising the child and savants to educate it. I wouldn't necessarily assume that they are all dumped straight into the Schola Progenium, as an Inquisitor certainly will have the resources to educate their own child if they want to.

Lightbringer said:

Education Savants. Very Greek.

In the Dark Heresy novels the Inqusitor had a relationship with one of his Throne Agents. Eisenhorn was in love with Bequin but couldn't do anything about it.

Most Inquisitors retire as soon as their heart stops beating but I don't see a reason that they couldn't retire after a glorious career. Or being told to retire after a less than glorious one

As to pregnancy I think the final fate of the child would depend on the Inquisitor in question. Does he care about the child or consider it a burden to be passed on to the Schola?

Killbeggar said:

This was not due to self resraint or rules of any kind. He was a psyker and she was an untouchable.

I don't see retirement as a true option for an Inquisitor. Field work may become less of a priority towards the end of your career,but I think more and more you would be drawn into the politics and meet your end there, in some fashion.

Yeah, I could see moving over to more paper, less stabbing in operational emphasis, with agents in the field etc. as previously postulated.

ItsUncertainWho said:

I realized I should have added that immediately after hitting the publish button. Derp.

AluminiumWolf said:

I couldn't help laughing at the image that popped into my head.

The fetus is carried around in a giant techno-womb, fully armed and armoured, mowing down the enemies of the Inquisition....

*A squad of Guardsmen that get too close are massacred by heavy bolter fire*

"No, no, NO, little Reginald, you have to purge the foul Xenos abominations! Watch Mommy, sweetie."

*A dozen Orks scream as the Inquisitor treats them to a barrage of hot plasma*

"Now you try!"

*The techno-womb pauses, then turns its heavy bolter onto a horde of greenskins. The greenskins are cut into bloody ribbons*

"That's my boy! Mommy is so proud of you!"

Puts a whole new spin on "Bring Your Kid To Work Day!"

How much do you want to change the story? Quist hears of Vincent's disappearance "almost one year" after it happened? Also the ending would seem a bit strange if they were lovers. It was strange enough when they were just friends.

I'm in the camp that Inquisitors retire the moment their soul leaves the body forever (a heart can be replaced with a bionic) or he is so insane that his peers put him in chains into some dungeon where they monitor what he says in the hopes of getting some insight. Inquisitors know way too much to be allowed to hand in their Rosette and become normal citizens.

Concerning pregnancies Inquisitors are very independent. No one will ask if one vanishes for 9 months if she carried a child, infiltrated a Xenos cult or played cowboy and indian with a demon prince. How to bring up a child.... Well, that's a whole other story. I have made an Inquisitor/Rogue Trader with twins once. The issues that come to mind are:

1) If you give your child to the Schola it's an orphan. Inquisitor or not, the people there won't like it if one of the children still gets visits from its parents. That would mess up everything. Also:

2) Children are a weakness. Inquisitors have lots of enemies. And just death is usually a mercy in 40k. A child you drop off at the Schola or at some unsuspecting family who is willing to bring it up may be only as safe as the average imperial citizen. That's not much, but it somewhat reduces the risk that your child specifically will be the favourite toy of a Haemonculus, a sacrifice to Slaanesh or a Daemonhost a chaos cult sends to kill you.

If you want to raise your child yourself you better have lots and lots of power. And I don't mean the standard power that comes with a Rosette, but personal power. Otherwise the best you can do is limiting the connections that can be drawn between you and the child as much as possible.

Captain Ventris said:

Must...resist...Prisoner...references...

You are number 6!

In seriousness, given the vast quantity of forbidden, apocryphal and outright heretical lore stuffed into an Inquisitor's head, the chance of a Conclave presenting them with a gold timepiece, and not insanely paranoid curiosity and suspicion, is pretty much nil.

Mjoellnir said:

I'm shifting the time table so that he is missing for two months, and is not enough of a field-work Inquisitor to warrant such as cessation of contact. It will be something highly uncharacteristic of him to drop off the grid for more than a couple weeks, especially since Quist may know smoething of what he is doing, and therefore know when to be alarmed or at least wary at a lack of contact. Basically, the circumstances will all be appropriately shifted for the situation.

Yeah, I can't see them ever being let go, so much as transferring to desk work or at the veeeery least as a vast knowledge base.

1. I don't think an Inquisitor would visit so much as influence things from the shadows, if that, similar to the excerpt mentioned earlier.

2. Yeah, I could understand the Spiderman vibes, but at the same time, if the kid lives at Erioch under the tutelage of savants (this would require some string-pulling, of course, and the child would have a spectacularly isolated existence since they would not be permitted to leave except as part of a retinue, etc.), that would ensure much more protection. Or heck, she's an Inquisitor. Who says she won't have a bomb installed in the kid's head?

AluminiumWolf said:

Both options are cool but the 2nd seems by far the most 40k to me. Very cool and i can visualise the baroque yet windowed machine, i'd maybe add mechanical spider-legs to it and some weapon servo-skulls hooked into it.

And then you could have one corrupted by chaos, a dying foetus an imperial governer or the like wants to survive is saved.. by nurgle.

Just on the issue of retirement, I suspect an Inquisitor would operate a bit like fictional spymaster George Smiley in John Le Carre's novels.

SPOILERS FOR JOHN LE CARRE NOVELS!

Smiley is a senior spook, effectively number two to the head of the British Secret Service as of 1972. During that year, a disastrously blown operation forces him out and he retires. However, during 1973, his political masters receive information that there is a "mole" (long term infiltration agent) right at the top of the service, and Smiley covertly investigates, nominally from retirement.

He finds the mole, and steps in as caretaker head of the secret service during 1974. He goes back on the offensive against his old nemesis, the Russian spymaster Karla, and uncovers a major Russian operation to fund a red spy in Hong Kong. Smiley masterfully follows the money trail and discovers that Karla has a spy at the highest levels of the Communist Chinese government. Smiley forces the spy to run for cover, and arranges to bring him in as a British agent. However he is betrayed at the last minute by the CIA and his own staff, who abduct the agent, kill Smiley's own agent him, and force Smiley into retirment again.

Smiley then, again from retirement, is brought in in the late 70's to hush up the assassination of a superannuated retired spy. In doing so, he discovers that the old man had uncovered Karla's greatest secret: a schizophrenic daughter in a Swiss asylum. Smiley blackmails the Russian spymaster with this information, forcing him to defect to the West, ultimately acheiving a brilliant intelligence coup at the cost of his own moral standards.

Years later, in the early 1990s, a very elderly Smiley is brought in by one of his proteges to lecture the new recruits to spy school, and the reader is taken back through parts of Smiley's 50 year career at the top of his profession.

There are also hints in earlier books that Smiley had left the secret service for short periods (usually as a result of shock over the actions of others, or disgust at the methods he himself employs) but is always drawn back.

so... My point is that I suspect Inquisitors are like Smiley. Their work gets on top of them for a while, and they get out, perhaps retreating into academia, or obscurity, before an old case, or an old enemy drags them out again. This process, like with Smiley, probably goes on throughout an Inquisitor's entire life. Retirement probably IS an option to a degree, but the culture of the Imperium (endless service to the God Emperor) mitigates against it, and as Inquisitors are so driven and hardworking that they probably wouldn;t CHOOSE to retire for anything other than short periods.