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 Scrabb wrote:
Your curiosity is heresy.

Codex leaves no room for doubt.

 RaptorusRex wrote:

 Scrabb wrote:
Your curiosity is heresy.

Codex leaves no room for doubt.

You cannot touch the warp and emerge unscathed

Chaos, being so unpredictable as it is, must be taken with extreme caution. That gets directly translated to kill anyone that may be tainted in an Inquisitor's mind.

 Great White wrote:

 RaptorusRex wrote:

 Scrabb wrote:
Your curiosity is heresy.

Codex leaves no room for doubt.

You cannot touch the warp and emerge unscathed

unless your name is captain Titus!

Woof, thanks for the replies, guys. I am indeed learning a thing.

Sorry I wrote it in such a way, but I was not meaning to question whether the inquisition is feeling totes fine with massacring guardsmen wholesale. I was more meaning to ask if this is regular practise.
Also whilst lives are cheap, fuel, weapons and training aren't. Putting a couple months into a regiment and then wiping clean each time seems fair inefficient.

And then as I said, there's openly mentioning taint in other "sources" such as the Primer, Gaunt's Ghosts books, etc:

Poly Ranger wrote:This side of the canon always gets me. How on earth did they run the sabbat worlds crusade (in which billions of guardsmen are fully aware of chaos), or for that matter ANY other crusade or campaign that deals with chaos? It makes absolutely no sense lore wise.

Ashiraya wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
(You will, of course, be executed as cheaply as possible. Lasgun batteries can be recharged for a trivial cost. Bolter rounds are more valuable than your life.)

Then why don't Commissars use laspistols?

Fluffy Commissars and officers do. Same reason that Hellpistols are used: Because of the heat, the resulting execution is less... splashy... Laundry is expensive.
I guess you don't really want to go and get changed every time someone invites you dinner, 'cause you've got guardsman pasted all over your front... I mean you'd never get out anywhere nice at that rate. Someone gives you the stink-eye your over the terrible parking job you just did? Gotta go change your shirt, again.

Commissars: Keeping detergent and laundry firms in business.

In all seriousness (hah), they do. Just not on the table (any more).

It is indeed a regular practice. Why kill all of the guards in a regiment if not all the time. Think about it like this: regiment X is exposed to chaos. They get to live, good for them. They are slowly over driven by curiosity they try to learn more of chaos. They then allow themselves to be possessed and/or summon a daemon incursion. This invasion then causes countless regiments to be sent in to fight of the tide of daemons, and die in the process.

Would it have been better to kill the one regiment than letting that happen?

Why kill all of the guards in a regiment if not all the time.

Because there are canon examples of IG fighting chaos and not being executed after the battle. The fate of guardsmen (and other non-marine forces) probably depends heavily on who is in charge of the battle and how valuable the guardsmen are. A pragmatic inquisitor might decide that DKoK are so rabidly loyal that chaos exposure isn't much to worry about (as happened after Vraks), a Cadian unit might be considered too valuable to lose, etc. On the other hand a regiment of generic conscripts with no special value is a lot more expendable as long as you kill them without damaging their valuable weapons and equipment (which will be cleaned and given to the next batch of conscripts).

Now, people are going a little overboard here. For every Karamazov and other nutjob Monodominants, there is also an Amberly Vail, Ravnor, or Eisenhorn who will merely screen for infection and then execute tainted individuals. And most of the time, merely hearing names or fighting Chaos is not enough to warrant execution; it's when Traitor Primarchs show up, or other issues, that the Inquisition starts taking an interest. Hell, most citizens seem to know of Chaos, although not by that name, and through the preaching of the Church about the heretical masses trying to murder you and flay your face off if you don't REPENT!

Now, the average citizen won't know more than "Th Enemy are those who don't acknowledge the Emperor. This makes them monstrosities and twists their forms, body and mind. I should report them or murder them in a bloody fury and THEN report them, whichever is more expedient". Any more knowledge than that makes you dangerous both to the narrative of the Ecclesiarchy and the Imperium , which is why knowledge of Chaos Space Marines, Traitor Primarchs, or information on the denizens of the Warp's true nature is vigorously suppressed.

2BlackJack1 wrote:
It is indeed a regular practice. Why kill all of the guards in a regiment if not all the time.

Well, I asked because with my limited understanding, the Inquisition aren't exactly lauded for their consistency in application of fair-handed justice.
Also 'cause I've been given one named example of them doing this, and then found a couple where they don't. So that's a little confusing.

Guess this comes down to the universe being really freaking big, and within that, infinitely variable.

I really don't have a horse in this race for it to go either way, perhaps the topic title should be viewed as instruction. (:

Yeah, sorry about being so broad. There are some Inquisitors that won't execute everyone at the first sight of daemons and chaos space marines and such. I just wanted to emphasize how it is very plausible for an Inquisitor to do mass executions. Inquisitors vary between themselves, some might use daemon weaponry to fight off chaos, while others see any and all use if daemon related tools as heresy.

A summary of a part of the wiki talking about this:

There is a warp storm, and there are two options to end it.
A) Evacuate nearby planets and fend off whatever is coming out of the storm. This option will lead to planet's being lost, along with lives.

B) Use the power of the warp to close the storm, ending it much sooner. The problem with this choice is if the Inquisitor is possessed by exposing himself to the warp to use its power. This possessed Inquisitor then does more damage to the Imperium than the warp storm would have ever done.

It all comes down to their perspective of it, I guess.

"Knowledge is power. Guard it well."

"An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unlocked."

"Ignorance is strength. The small mind is easily filled with faith."

Even the Inquisition watches its members for signs of heresy, and many a Radical Inquisitor has found himself judged as unworthy by his peers, sentenced to die on a pyre.

And then the people who had you burned might be called heretics themselves, for being so eager to kill one of their own, or some other reason. Pretty vicious cycle, if you ask me.

2BlackJack1 wrote:
Yeah, sorry about being so broad. There are some Inquisitors that won't execute everyone at the first sight of daemons and chaos space marines and such. I just wanted to emphasize how it is very plausible for an Inquisitor to do mass executions. Inquisitors vary between themselves, some might use daemon weaponry to fight off chaos, while others see any and all use if daemon related tools as heresy.

No need for apology, I think it speaks a lot of the diversity of source material that there's room for confusion.

 UristMcJudge wrote:
Now, people are going a little overboard here. For every Karamazov and other nutjob Monodominants, there is also an Amberly Vail, Ravnor, or Eisenhorn who will merely screen for infection and then execute tainted individuals. And most of the time, merely hearing names or fighting Chaos is not enough to warrant execution; it's when Traitor Primarchs show up, or other issues, that the Inquisition starts taking an interest. Hell, most citizens seem to know of Chaos, although not by that name, and through the preaching of the Church about the heretical masses trying to murder you and flay your face off if you don't REPENT!

Now, the average citizen won't know more than "Th Enemy are those who don't acknowledge the Emperor. This makes them monstrosities and twists their forms, body and mind. I should report them or murder them in a bloody fury and THEN report them, whichever is more expedient". Any more knowledge than that makes you dangerous both to the narrative of the Ecclesiarchy and the Imperium , which is why knowledge of Chaos Space Marines, Traitor Primarchs, or information on the denizens of the Warp's true nature is vigorously suppressed.

Eisenhorn was Ordo Xenos. It was only through his inquiry into the Cold Trade that he got involved with Chaotic elements. He would not be the Inquisitor to order the deaths of a bunch of Guardsmen for contact with Chaos, it's outside the realm of his expertise in most of his storyline. Currently? Well, currently, he's ultra-Radical, so would probably make them part of his retinue.

With regard to the execution of Guard regiments exposed to chaos, I think it also depends on the nature of the exposure. If a bunch of PDF conscripts are inadvertently exposed to spells or artifacts, or a cult is found within the ranks, everyone gets blammed. Cadians are raised and trained knowing they will go into open battle with Chaos, and most famous regiments have had run-ins with traitors at some point.

As the line goes "Cadia breeds cults like a pond breeds scum". I think the purple eyes of native-born Cadians is also considered to be caused by the planet's exposure and proximity to the Eye of Terror. Basically, every Cadian is a "mutant", though one that falls within the bounds of acceptable genetic deviation.

I think the other thing to keep in mind is that the Inquisition is not really much more than an association of individuals. There's no Standard Operating Procedures that Inquisitors follow - an Inquisitor's actions are entirely of his/her own judgement. That means you are going to get widely varying responses to a situation. Even amongst an Ordos there's no real uniformity, other than "I will fight the scourge of the Alien/Heretic/Demon/whatever so I will associate myself with the relevant Ordos".

Aye. It's in our nature to compare things to those we can readily understand and relate to though, and there is no such unstructured power in real life. A lot of opinions and facts about the Inquisition seem to be tempered by the need to relate to a definitive structure.

Some view 'em as futuristic Solomon Kane, some view them as Judge Dredd in space.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Is there a distinction between heresy and curiousity regarding heretical material, in the average (or even slightly above average) civilian? 

It depends. If it's done with Inquisitorial authorization, it's perfectly legal. Otherwise, no (if you get caught by the authorities).

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Is the act of independently learning about chaos, taint, etc. in the interest of recognising taint and how it functions, frowned upon? Dangerous?

No. All scientific data is withheld by the Inquisition.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I'm curious of how such activity viewed by different folks: Guard, general population, etc?

If you get caught you will propably get executed, or least incarcerated. Again, if you get caught by the authorities.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Is it even feasible for most folk to learn these things without going gak-the-bath crazy?

Most folk would be driven insane/paranoid (Hell, even watching daily news gets some people go over the edge).

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Is it possible for someone without formal training to research these things without endangering themselves regarding:
A) Inquisition?
B) Taint itself?

IDK if I understood correctly, but;
A) Inquisition is a public Imperial institute, therefore all (public) knowledge is, well, publicly usable.
B) I'd imagine there is some education/bulletins about identifying Warp Taint (depending on the planet of course), and how to report it to the authorities.

wrong thread

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Aye. It's in our nature to compare things to those we can readily understand and relate to though, and there is no such unstructured power in real life. A lot of opinions and facts about the Inquisition seem to be tempered by the need to relate to a definitive structure.

Some view 'em as futuristic Solomon Kane, some view them as Judge Dredd in space.

They're both, sorta (though the Arbiters are more the Judge Dredd, since... well, look at them. But, also, Judge Dredd enforces laws, he doesn't create them on the spot.)

The Inquisition is, basically, a hyped-up even-grimmer, even-darker version of the Spanish Inquisition, the Gestapo, the KGB, and all the most-terrifying of secret police forces in fact and fiction. They, literally, are above the law... save those laws their fellow Inquisitors can enforce. There is no systemic check or balance to the Inquisition, only the reality of the situation of the 41st millennium.