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Would it be possible for an Inquisitor to have come up through the Schola Progenium and have been trained as a Commissar before being inducted into the Ordo Hereticus? I haven't really fleshed this out obviously but does it seem like a cool/interesting idea to anyone else? It would obviously be a Lord Inquisitor for all game purposes but it would be modeled in the style of a Commissar (Hat, Crimson Sash, Greatcoat).

The army list would be a regular IG list with OH Allies but the fluff would have them be Inducted Guard.

Also, what would be the style of address? In the Gaunts Ghosts series Gaunt is "Colonel-Commissar" and it seems to me that the most important part of that address is "Commissar" so I suppose it would be "Commissar-Inquisitor" since, cool as they are, Commissars are pretty well trumped by the big =I=.

I think if it happened, the address would just be "Inquisitor", since it's not really a military rank.

Or alternatively it could be either-or, but not both.

Or maybe I just like to play devil's advocate.

Commissar-Inquisitor and Inquisitor-Commissar both sound good, given Colonel-Commissar.

Sounds interesting. It's your story, I don't see why you couldn't do what you want with it.

Tacobake wrote:I think if it happened, the address would just be "Inquisitor", since it's not really a military rank.

Or alternatively it could be either-or, but not both.

Or maybe I just like to play devil's advocate.

Commissar-Inquisitor and Inquisitor-Commissar both sound good, given Colonel-Commissar.

Sounds interesting. It's your story, I don't see why you couldn't do what you want with it.

Has anyone heard of a reason why such a thing would be forbidden? Not to get all but I'm a bit of a strict constructionist when it comes to fluff (or I try to be) and I'd be hypocritical if I didn't look at my own ideas likewise. I can't imagine the Inquisition wouldn't want [doesn't already have] agents in the Departmento Munitorum and the Commissariat would be a natural place to find extreme loyalists.

To cover the mechanics of the conversion I was thinking a Commissar Yarrick with the Torquemada Coteaz =I= hammer (replace Power Klaw) and Gasmask (use Pig Iron head with Helmet replaced with Commissar hat) to fit the overall World War I aesthetic I'm going for with the army.

The only thing that might prevent this is the fact that candidates for inquisitors are found early and begin training while still young. I believe commissariats are treated very similarly. The biggest problem with being both an inquisitor and a commisar would be that as a youth you're either tracked for one or the other.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. In the grim darkness of the far future there are no double majors!

I think the biggest problem with being both a Commissar and an Inquisitor is the time constraints. These are both full time jobs, and by full time I mean "Every second of your life for the next century or three."

A Commissar is not simply a fiercly loyal 'Enforcement' officer or just some advisor to a commander, he is the Company's/Regiment's Morale Officer and Disciplinarian. 90% of the time, the periods where the regiment is actually not fighting, he is tasked with far more mundane tasks such as administering justice for wrong-deeds, settling disputes and arguements, maintaining discipline and order within the ranks, ensuring 'incidents' contrary to the code of conduct of a Guardsman do not occur and stifiling them when they do, and an over-all maintenance of the loyalty and diligence required of the fighting men of the Imperium.

Where in this time frame would a man find time to hunt witches and cults? An Inquisitor's work not only occupies all of his time, but the time of many others who serve as his retinue, their entire lives devoted to the hunt. Now of course he can root out heretics and rogue psykers within the ranks of his own, or even other Guard companies, but any Commissar is going to do that anyways, it's already part of the job description.

Now that's not to say a Commissar can't become an Inquisitor with time and circumstance, all it takes is for him to be recruited in the retinue of an existing inquisitor and off he goes! But should such a thing occur he would cease to be a Commissar in any official capacity. Commissar's are still technically subordinates, and are permanently attached to regiments and companies (for as long as their superiors deem fit).

And it would be perfectly feasible for such an Inquisitor, or really ANY Inquisitor, to use subterfuge or raw authority to infiltrate the ranks of an Imperial Guard Regiment as a Commissar.

But then again, neither Commissar nor Inquisitor can be an official 'commander' of an Imperial Guard force, going strictly by rank hierarchy and military organization. A commissar can hold a dual rank, such as Ibram Gaunt, or be appointed a commander in very rare and special circumstances, like Yarrick or Cain. And an Inquisitor can requisition forces or just assume control, but he's not their commander for all intents and purposes.

But hey, the Imperium is a big and weird place. Just about anything is possible, so run with it if you want. I personally love seeing Commissars rising above their station, no matter the form!

I was thinking he would be almost like a meta-Commissar, policing the Departmento Munitorum in general and the Commissariat in particular. This would probably fall under the Ordo Hereticus.

Probably the big catch would be "Why did the Commisar stop being a Commisar and join the big I?"
Perhaps his regiment was wiped out due to heretical actions of superiors who had started to fall to chaos, and the Commisar being one of the few survivors decided to throw in his lot with the Inquisitors investigating to help avenge them. In the process he proves good at the job and becomes one full time.
There are probably a few options either way, but as stated earlier, one probably can't be both simultaniously. Even though the general nature of their jobs is the same, the rooting out of bad behavior, the means and scope of what they do is vastly different, and so probably does not lend itself well to belonging to two institutions at the same time.

Wehrkind wrote:Probably the big catch would be "Why did the Commisar stop being a Commisar and join the big I?"
Perhaps his regiment was wiped out due to heretical actions of superiors who had started to fall to chaos, and the Commisar being one of the few survivors decided to throw in his lot with the Inquisitors investigating to help avenge them. In the process he proves good at the job and becomes one full time.
There are probably a few options either way, but as stated earlier, one probably can't be both simultaniously. Even though the general nature of their jobs is the same, the rooting out of bad behavior, the means and scope of what they do is vastly different, and so probably does not lend itself well to belonging to two institutions at the same time.

I like that. He could also develop pychic powers later in his life, possibly after being exposed to chaos.

He could have been a young commissar, and then carried on the field-promotion Inquisitorial duties for decades behind enemy lines. Or something similiar.

I don't really think it's a possibility. I don't mean to sound negative or shoot you down, but both paths require pretty much all your time. However, grim dark far future place is super big with "billions upon billions". Lets say the Commissar-Cadet faced off against a Chaos incursion, fought valiantly, soul wasn't corrupted, showed great signs of being a powerful tool against Chaos, etc... The problem is is that the Inquisition is above EVERYONE. The only people who don't kowtow to them is the Adeptus Custodes and the Adeptus Astartes (and possibly high-ranking priests in the Adeptus Mechanicus). So the title of Commissar would go away and he would become just a regular Inquisitor. As far as modeling goes he wouldn't have any of the old Commissar garb as he would again, be an Inquisitor. Sorry if this bursts your bubble, but it's just not something that seems viable. This in now way means you can't just say " all dat noise" and make whatever the hell you want.

Hey, he's an Inquisitor, he can wear whatever the 'eff he wants, who's going to stop him? To that effect, he can SAY he's whoever the 'eff he wants to be, and most people won't know otherwise, much less be able to prove it.

Hrm.. An overzealous Commissar turned extreme puritanical Inquisitor... this makes more sense than first imagined...

"Purge the Heretics!"
"Sir, there are no heretics here..."
"Produce your Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, trooper."
"Uh..."
"HERETIC!"
*bolter shot*

AlexCage wrote:
"Purge the Heretics!"
"Sir, there are no heretics here..."
"Produce your Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, trooper."
"Uh..."
"HERETIC!"
*bolter shot*

So true.

Yea, I could see a Commisar wearing his old badges of office after being an Inquisitor. In real life a lot of ex-military guys still like to wear BDUs and the like. Habits formed in the 'forces tend to stick with you a long time, even when a crotchety old man isn't threatening to put a tiny rocket through your head for not having your manuals

(As a note, the Departmento Munitorum Guide and Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer are excellent little books. A tad salty, but highly entertaining. Because remember, the Tau will sacrifice your babies to their dark gods!)

An inquisitor would wear a commisars uniform if he was trying to be covert. The inquisitor could either be investitgating the army itself, or using the army from the inside for his (or a superiors) end. It's like the scene in Hunt for the Red October, when the CIA agent puts on a navy uniform to not spook the crew of the ship he was on.

As for how an individual could be both, it seems unlikely, as the two positions are vocations more than jobs. I doubt very much anybody would object to an inquistitor "serving" as a Commissar for as long as they needed, however.

Wehrkind wrote:Yea, I could see a Commisar wearing his old badges of office after being an Inquisitor. In real life a lot of ex-military guys still like to wear BDUs and the like. Habits formed in the 'forces tend to stick with you a long time, even when a crotchety old man isn't threatening to put a tiny rocket through your head for not having your manuals

(As a note, the Departmento Munitorum Guide and Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer are excellent little books. A tad salty, but highly entertaining. Because remember, the Tau will sacrifice your babies to their dark gods!)

lol haw haw