Holy Inquisition
The Holy Inquisition is an order of fanatics with outposts throughout The Empire, who have taken it upon themselves to kill illegal sorcerers, cultists and cursed creatures. It is renowned for its skill at interrogation and torture.1
Origins
After the civil war of the early Fourth Age, the presence of the Chain Wardens of the Order of Chain in the realm was much diminished, and it can be said that the dangers they once held back grew. The Inquisition was founded to fill that need.2
Contrary to popular belief, it does not belong to the High Church. In its early years the clergy criticised it for the shadow it might cast over their authority. A shared ideology soon won it the protection and blessing of the priests of Alarath, but the two still keep a deliberate distance, because the Inquisition's harsh methods do not suit the Church's image.1
Ranks
A new member is called a zealot. These men and women, often thought mad, give their lives to the order to wash away their sins or out of fanatical belief. They are said to count dying in the Inquisition's name and killing heretics as acts of worship, and many see their lives as a penance.13
Those who prove talented, intelligent and willing earn the title witch hunter and receive a silver-tipped rapier and sacred tools. Rarer still is the witch hunter captain, or simply hunter captain, a rank won by merit rather than years. At the top stand old and wise grand masters, each commanding all the witch hunters of a province: there are six of them, one for each province and one for missions outside the Empire, all held equal.13
Users of arcane magic can never join, since they are held to be open to the forces of evil. Those who work miracles are openly accepted, as chosen by the gods.1
The Magnus Malus
The Inquisition never relies on one person's judgement. It trusts a book compiled by one of its founders, Wolger Voss: the Magnus Malus. Every witch hunter carries it and every captain knows it by heart. Its verdicts are carried out without question and with absolute certainty; even if a baron has committed a capital sin, the witch hunter sent after him will not hesitate for a moment to slay the traitor.4
Among the books of the realm, the Magnus Maleficarum is listed as an anonymous religious work that serves the Inquisition as a codebook. It records the punishments meted out through history, and witch hunters use it as a reference when passing judgement.5
Methods
Witch hunters treat even innocent-seeming witnesses who try to help them with great suspicion. They are known to imprison such people for a while, force them to talk, and sometimes even eliminate them to stop information from spreading. Whenever a major event touches the Inquisition or the Church, mass accusations and interrogations are widespread.8
Witch hunters follow what they call the doctrine of the lamb: they sacrifice the sick lamb to save the herd. When survivors of a massacre by a herald of Blaspheus in Bluelands reached the nearest witch hunter outpost, the hunters opened their gates to them, but the doctrine bound them to stop the news from spreading. Esther of the Bluelands escaped that fate and left her life as a citizen of the Empire behind.9
The Inquisition is inclined to execute every venereth on sight, seeing their markings as signs of witchcraft or corruption in the blood, and the families of venereth who fall into its hands may find themselves in serious trouble as well.10 In rare cases, noble children with strong magical gifts have even been bribed into the bard colleges to avoid trouble with the Inquisition.11
Deeds and relations
Witch hunters marched with Emperor Conrad II into the underdark during the Dauntless Crusade to face the drow sorcerers.2 When Emperor Falkred let the Archon Academy open training towers across the realm, the Inquisition protested.12
The agents of the Grey Owl, the Empire's secret service, are feared by every high-ranking member of the Empire, even by the Inquisition.13 The mercenary company of The Scarlet Spears has strong ties with the witch hunters; Justinian Volkh, who means to carry on his family's legacy as witch hunters, joined it believing it the best company for someone like him.14
Notes
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 40
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 15
- ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, p. 236
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, pp. 40-41
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 49
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 41
- ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 157
- ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, p. 54
- ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 55
- ↑BookBook of Dead, p. 14
- ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, p. 21
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 39
- ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, p. 52
- ↑BookMercenary Compendium, p. 87
Sources
This article draws on:
Images in this article
Art by Muhammet Feyyaz. Shadow Over Vansreik (Bad Badger Games, 2024), p. 7.
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