A question about interrogation in the 41st Millenium

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**Kharn745**

BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

Yeah the Night Lords were the epitome of fear during the Great Crusade, whole worlds could be brought into compliance from hearing the Night Lords were coming. They regularly torture victims to prove points and inspire fear, I would assume they would be very very good at interrogating someone.

**BrotherOfBone**

Kharn745 wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

Yeah the Night Lords were the epitome of fear during the Great Crusade, whole worlds could be brought into compliance from hearing the Night Lords were coming. They regularly torture victims to prove points and inspire fear, I would assume they would be very very good at interrogating someone.

Yeah but I doubt the original VoTLW would have died off or vanished by now, considering they don't go into the Warp...

**Wyzilla**

BrotherOfBone wrote:
Kharn745 wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

Yeah the Night Lords were the epitome of fear during the Great Crusade, whole worlds could be brought into compliance from hearing the Night Lords were coming. They regularly torture victims to prove points and inspire fear, I would assume they would be very very good at interrogating someone.

Yeah but I doubt the original VoTLW would have died off or vanished by now, considering they don't go into the Warp...

What? The Night Lords are a heavily chaos Legion that are all in the Eye of Terror and launch terrorist raids and are home to most of the Raptor Cults. Hell, their current leader is even a Daemon Prince.

**BrotherOfBone**

Wyzilla wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
Kharn745 wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

Yeah the Night Lords were the epitome of fear during the Great Crusade, whole worlds could be brought into compliance from hearing the Night Lords were coming. They regularly torture victims to prove points and inspire fear, I would assume they would be very very good at interrogating someone.

Yeah but I doubt the original VoTLW would have died off or vanished by now, considering they don't go into the Warp...

What? The Night Lords are a heavily chaos Legion that are all in the Eye of Terror and launch terrorist raids and are home to most of the Raptor Cults. Hell, their current leader is even a Daemon Prince.

Could've sworn they were similar to the Alpha Legion and launched raids from realspace?

**SisterSydney**

BrotherOfBone wrote:
Psienesis wrote:
It's scary when you think about it. That Administratum Clerk you're hassling down at the Licensing Depot may just decide he's had enough of your gak and smash your skull to pulp with a stapler.

And you *know* the staplers in the Imperium are big, heavy and made out of solid adamantium with skulls all over them.

Covered in purity seals with their own built in gellar field, just for that extra bit of punch.
It's more of a mini rosarius than a stapler, stapling is a secondary thing it does, it's actually more of a combi-bolter type weapon, part rosarius part stapler.
It's good when the Chaplain has lots of paperwork to do...

Combi-stapler!

Although I suspect the Administratum doesn't get the Schola graduates who do best in combat skills, or in most things for that matter. Remember that the Inquisition, Adepta Sororitas, Commissariat, Arbites, and Stormtroopers seem to get first pick, and then anyone else with good combat skills can go for the Navy or regular Imperial Guard. In my own story about Progena who'd been picked for the Sororitas, I had their drill Superior describe their Administratum-bound classmates this way:

“Novice Ginevra,” Torres said, having to shout a little over the ever-harder rain, “what did they call you at Schola, when they learned you were accepted for the Sororitas?”

“Ma’am?”

“What did they call you?” Torres repeated. “You know who I mean. The pretty ones. The ones whose uniforms were always perfect. The ones with the family connections and the cushy Administratum job just waiting for them. The ones who snuck food on fast days, who whispered during chapel, who always lagged behind on field exercises, but never enough to get in trouble. What did they call you?”

Ginevra looked at the ground – rivulets of water running down her forehead – and muttered something inaudible.

“What did they call you?”

“Bolter – bolter bitch. Excuse me, ma’am.”

Personally I imagine the Sisters of Battle have a pretty low opinion of every Schola graduate who's not them, though:

SISTER KORIANDER: Hey Sister! What do you call a male Schola Progenium graduate who's too dumb for the Arbites, too cowardly for the Administratum, too mean for the clergy, and too emotionally dead for the Stormtroopers?
SISTER RAVEN: "Commissar."

Getting back on topic, sorta:

BrotherOfBone wrote:So I was just wondering how exactly interrogation or torture gets done in the 41st Millenium?
Is it all psyker based?
Are there machines which rip your thoughts out of your head?
What about Space Marines? They get your memories from eating your flesh
Are there ways to protect yourself from being interrogated, or a way to wipe your thoughts or is it all down to the trusty cyanide pill in your tooth?

Here, from [shameless self-promotion]another of my stories[/shameless self-promotion], is my description of an Inquisitorial field interrogation team that has to go through thousands of suspects assembly-line style:

"Please don't kill me," the hooded man said again.

He had wet himself at some point and a yellow trickle dripped down his already filthy trousers. It was dark yellow -- he was dehydrated like everyone else who'd spent days waiting in Zone Charlie -- and blended indistinguishably with the other fluids soaking the now-reddish mud beneath the chair. Novice Granger, who like Ginevra had her visor down, still wrinkled her nose up in disgust. The grey-haired gunman muttered, "Gonna hafta move the chair again...."

"Please don't kill me, don't kill me..."

"Please don't tell me how to do my job," the Inquisitor said abstractedly as he flipped through the file. "I don't tell you how to do yours -- oh wait I do. Why were you involved in the cult, DeKalb?"

"I wasn't involved, your excellency, there's been some mistake...."

"Like everybody else we've detained, sure. Glau?"

The dark-haired, barefoot girl sitting next to the Inquisitor -- on the other side from the scribe -- looked up. She'd been resting her head on a pile of files and looked more than half-asleep. "Wha?"

"Him, Glau."

"Lying," she said, then put her head down again.

"'scuse me," the grey-haired gunman told Ginevra as he stepped over to the hooded man and smacked him with some kind of metallic rod. There was a nasty buzz and prisoner's muscles spasmed, his jaw clamped so tight he couldn't scream.

Tudyk made a check-mark on a scrap of paper. "DeKalb," he said without looking up, "why were you involved in the cult?"

**BrotherOfBone**

Okay, now that's just cool :3 ^^

**ds9lord**

I remember from the grey knights omnibus there was a part where they interrogated a rouge inquisitor. I can't remember all of it but at one point they had to use a mind reader and got the information. They then where planing to kill the inquisitor by pining him to a table and having a servitor with a bunch of blades and saws dismantle him so you that's all a know.

**slade the sniper**

BrotherOfBone wrote:
Psienesis wrote:
It's scary when you think about it. That Administratum Clerk you're hassling down at the Licensing Depot may just decide he's had enough of your gak and smash your skull to pulp with a stapler.

And you *know* the staplers in the Imperium are big, heavy and made out of solid adamantium with skulls all over them.

Covered in purity seals with their own built in gellar field, just for that extra bit of punch.
It's more of a mini rosarius than a stapler, stapling is a secondary thing it does, it's actually more of a combi-bolter type weapon, part rosarius part stapler.
It's good when the Chaplain has lots of paperwork to do...

THIS...ALL OF THIS is pure GOLD!

-STS

**Wyzilla**

BrotherOfBone wrote:
Wyzilla wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
Kharn745 wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

Yeah the Night Lords were the epitome of fear during the Great Crusade, whole worlds could be brought into compliance from hearing the Night Lords were coming. They regularly torture victims to prove points and inspire fear, I would assume they would be very very good at interrogating someone.

Yeah but I doubt the original VoTLW would have died off or vanished by now, considering they don't go into the Warp...

What? The Night Lords are a heavily chaos Legion that are all in the Eye of Terror and launch terrorist raids and are home to most of the Raptor Cults. Hell, their current leader is even a Daemon Prince.

Could've sworn they were similar to the Alpha Legion and launched raids from realspace?

No, not remotely. Besides some few warbands, they're now just warp predators and terrorists that enjoy any instance where they might feast upon fear- Raptor Cults, Sorcerers, Warp Talons, and the mutated are not uncommon at all. Again, they have a Daemon Prince.
(Although IIRC, so does the Alpha Legion, but they're scattered across the entire galaxy rather than adrift in the eye of terror.)

**paranoidhawklet**

BrotherOfBone wrote:
So I was just wondering how exactly interrogation or torture gets done in the 41st Millenium?
Is it all psyker based?
Are there machines which rip your thoughts out of your head?
What about Space Marines? They get your memories from eating your flesh
Are there ways to protect yourself from being interrogated, or a way to wipe your thoughts or is it all down to the trusty cyanide pill in your tooth?

Tau just ask nicely.

**SisterSydney**

Yes, the Ethereals come ask you so very, very, very nicely that you cannot refuse because the truth of the Greater Good becomes so obvious how could you not have seen it before and your entire planet joyfully welcomes the Tau Empire as liberators and starts wearing their hair in a single braid and watching anime and there is absolutely nothing suspicious about this sequence of events, nothing at all.

**salix_fatuus**

BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

I say go for it

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Wyzilla wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
Wyzilla wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
Kharn745 wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

Yeah the Night Lords were the epitome of fear during the Great Crusade, whole worlds could be brought into compliance from hearing the Night Lords were coming. They regularly torture victims to prove points and inspire fear, I would assume they would be very very good at interrogating someone.

Yeah but I doubt the original VoTLW would have died off or vanished by now, considering they don't go into the Warp...

What? The Night Lords are a heavily chaos Legion that are all in the Eye of Terror and launch terrorist raids and are home to most of the Raptor Cults. Hell, their current leader is even a Daemon Prince.

Could've sworn they were similar to the Alpha Legion and launched raids from realspace?

No, not remotely. Besides some few warbands, they're now just warp predators and terrorists that enjoy any instance where they might feast upon fear- Raptor Cults, Sorcerers, Warp Talons, and the mutated are not uncommon at all. Again, they have a Daemon Prince.
(Although IIRC, so does the Alpha Legion, but they're scattered across the entire galaxy rather than adrift in the eye of terror.)

The book series "Soul Hunter" feature Talos who has been around since the great crusade and he is mutation free along with most of his allies (some who got recruited around the same time as him).

**Furyou Miko**

Talos also states that it's only been about two hundred years subjective for him. >>

**Wyzilla**

salix_fatuus wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

I say go for it

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Wyzilla wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
Wyzilla wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
Kharn745 wrote:
BrotherOfBone wrote:
salix_fatuus wrote:
Nightlords have their methodes of torture aswell. They have some example in the Soul Hunter series one I recall being that they skin people alive making sure they don't die from the process then leaving them in agony until they die from infection, starvation or something else.
I would think they even use this as a form of interrogation.

I also heard about some Dark Angels capturing a DE Haemonculi and since he (or it) seem impervious to pain they locked him up in a chamber making him unable to feel anything and that finally made the haemonculi crack since the lack of sensation was to him, torture.

The Night Lord thing is awesome! Might have to paint up a skinned character....

Yeah the Night Lords were the epitome of fear during the Great Crusade, whole worlds could be brought into compliance from hearing the Night Lords were coming. They regularly torture victims to prove points and inspire fear, I would assume they would be very very good at interrogating someone.

Yeah but I doubt the original VoTLW would have died off or vanished by now, considering they don't go into the Warp...

What? The Night Lords are a heavily chaos Legion that are all in the Eye of Terror and launch terrorist raids and are home to most of the Raptor Cults. Hell, their current leader is even a Daemon Prince.

Could've sworn they were similar to the Alpha Legion and launched raids from realspace?

No, not remotely. Besides some few warbands, they're now just warp predators and terrorists that enjoy any instance where they might feast upon fear- Raptor Cults, Sorcerers, Warp Talons, and the mutated are not uncommon at all. Again, they have a Daemon Prince.
(Although IIRC, so does the Alpha Legion, but they're scattered across the entire galaxy rather than adrift in the eye of terror.)

The book series "Soul Hunter" feature Talos who has been around since the great crusade and he is mutation free along with most of his allies (some who got recruited around the same time as him).

Meanwhile their warband leader was possessed by a Daemon and the most powerful Warband is ripe with Chaos.

**Iron_Captain**

A typical Dark Angel 'interrogation':

"Oh, Brother Asmodai! Yes, spank me! I've been heretical!"
"Feel the Emperor's judgement, Azrael!"
"Oooh, yes! Purge me! Purge me!"

**MarsNZ**

AnomanderRake wrote:
he Dark Angels are the most competent interrogators in the setting.

This is highly dubious. How many fallen have died unrepentant? How many still are still at large 10,000 years later?

I'm reminded of a character from the HH series, a Thousand Sons sorceror, who in minutes is able to draw all the required information from a Word Bearer captive, leaving him a gibbering wreck. Prior to this the Ultramarines/Space Wolves had been interrogating him for days.

**The Grumpy Eldar**

The Ravenguard book of the Dark Angels has some interrogations and torture. Quite painfull.

**Archie The Death Rider**

I'd probably say the Imperial guard would call in the Inquistion, but members such as the Death Korps would probably be the worst

**Doctadeth**

The Dark Vengance mini-novella has a scene where the chaplain of the dark angels has his victim die on the table. He then smashes his Cronzius into the traitors chest, and activates it, essentially using a weapon as a defibulator. Getting the information from him. And DA also use their librarians to get the information.

**BrotherOfBone**

Iron_Captain wrote:
A typical Dark Angel 'interrogation':

"Oh, Brother Asmodai! Yes, spank me! I've been heretical!"
"Feel the Emperor's judgement, Azrael!"
"Oooh, yes! Purge me! Purge me!"

Sigged

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Doctadeth wrote:
The Dark Vengance mini-novella has a scene where the chaplain of the dark angels has his victim die on the table. He then smashes his Cronzius into the traitors chest, and activates it, essentially using a weapon as a defibulator. Getting the information from him. And DA also use their librarians to get the information.

I swear they use their Chaplains, Azmodai has a special knife thing that like, makes people witness a million gigavolts of pain or some jazz xD

**SisterSydney**

There's a big difference between interrogation to get actionable intelligence information and torture to break the victim & make them submit/confess -- where the truth of what they say is not particularly relevant. In real life, torture is usually (not always) the enemy of accurate intelligence gathering.

**BrotherOfBone**

SisterSydney wrote:
There's a big difference between interrogation to get actionable intelligence information and torture to break the victim & make them submit/confess -- where the truth of what they say is not particularly relevant. In real life, torture is usually (not always) the enemy of accurate intelligence gathering.

I imagine a confession is enough for any Imperial judge

**Ironclad Warlord**

"a plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time"

**SisterSydney**

BrotherOfBone wrote:
SisterSydney wrote:
There's a big difference between interrogation to get actionable intelligence information and torture to break the victim & make them submit/confess -- where the truth of what they say is not particularly relevant. In real life, torture is usually (not always) the enemy of accurate intelligence gathering.

I imagine a confession is enough for any Imperial judge

For a judge, yes. For an inquisitor, there's actually a decision to be made whether you just want to execute people and spread terror -- a valid Inquisitorial tactic, mind you -- or actually learn something. Fortunately, an Inquisitor often has access to a psyker to just rip the desired information out of the target's mind.

But if you're an Arbites investigator, Imperial Guard intelligence officer, etc. etc., you may really want to know the truth because your people's lives depend on it, and the odds are you do not have a psyker at your beck and call. Then it might be a good idea to sit down with the prisoner over a cup of coffee (after your colleagues have terrorized and starved him a little first, of course) and chat amiably about his family for a while. This is actually how one guy I know says he turned captured Viet Cong into informants and even defectors who fought for our side (e.g. the "Kit Carson scouts"). And it's not like the US felt overly compunctious about Vietnamese human rights during the war: being nice just worked better.

Not very grimdark, I know. But it'd be an awesome scene to have a prisoner quivering in his cell, flinching at the noise and light as the door is thrown open, going rigid when he realizes the Inquisitor -- and then being totally disarmed by the guy offering him a chair and tea and biscuits....

**Ironclad Warlord**

Torture is pretty state forward no matter what time where talking about. I group it into three groups, possible psychological damage, possible permanent physical damage, possible death. First you have torture "light" sleep deprivation, lack of food, getting physically abused but not to the point of broken bones a little shoving.

Then you have stuff that can actually have lasting harm, severe beatings, starvation, stress positions, electro shock.

Then you have things that will kill someone, burning, skinning, dismembering. I imagine that in 40k they skip the first stage altogether and are quick to move onto stage 3 if stage 2 doesn't work.

**Sturmtruppen**

I imagine for particulars in the Ordo Hereticus and Ecclesiarchy who employ repent, torture is used as a means much like it is for Oceania in Nineteen Eighty-Four: as a method to convert the heretic and prevent martyrdom for their cause.

EDIT: Also, I'm fully behind the idea of the Administratum being full of Combat Clerks.

**Vulgar**

Read the whole thread.

Can only remember - "Combi-Stapler".

**BrotherOfBone**

Vulgar wrote:
Read the whole thread.

Can only remember - "Combi-Stapler".

Not going to lie, that made me laugh too much