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One suspects a more wily Inquisitor would review the warrant of trade, and catch the Rogue Trader on some clause or other.

After all, wider ranging powers do not equate to absolute carte blanche.

I guess the greatest power of the Inquisition is the populace in the know (Rogue Traders, Planetary Governors and those of similar political standing) just don’t know what they’ll get.

The concepts of Puritan, Radical etc are largely concepts solely of concern to the Inquisition itself.

So, let’s say you’re a Planetary Governor. Things are going relatively well. You’re meeting your tithe, and keeping your planet as secure as it can be - even handling Xenos and Pirate raids quite admirably.

Yet, as the galaxy’s sense of humour is wont to do? Something comes up. Perhaps you discover Xenos artefacts (origin irrelevant here).

Being good and loyal to the Throne, you make your discovery known to The Proper Authorities. So far, so good. You’ve not done anything particularly wrong, and have taken entirely defensible steps.

Then The Inquisition arrives. Ordo Xenos, naturally.

The Inquisitor examines the find, and orders you to hand over what you’ve got so far. But you’re to continue exploring and stockpiling. They or their representative will be in touch in due course to handle the rest of the Xenos Artefacts.

Huzzah! You just survived your first visit from an Inquisitor. Good news all round, pass the Amasec by the Left Hand Side.

You continue to be diligent, following not just the letter of the order, but it’s spirit as well.

In due course, The Inquisitor’s representative pays you a visit. Pleased as punch with your absolute compliance, you proudly show them your ordered stores of Xenos artefacts.

Dealing in forbidden Xenos artefacts? Storing them in His warehouses? Heretic. Vile blasphemer. Why did you not destroy them on discovery? They are unclean. Corrupt. And now? So. Are. You. And everyone involved in this shameless activity.

There’s no defence. You should’ve known the other person was a fraud, a fake and a heretic. Asking you to hand over and dig out more Xenos artefacts. It’s the gibbet for you and yours - if you’re lucky.

The utter randomness is something that I hate about the Inquisition and I much prefer when they're portrayed as powerful but with more defined limits to that power. People can say all they want that there's no chain of command in the Imperium but there absolutely is.
Emperor > High Lords > Sector Gov > System Gov > Planetary Gov > Guard, Navy, Arbites. Astartes almost always operate outside of the chain of command and fight where they deem it necessary but will usually not command Imperial crusades. Of course, exceptions exist such as with the Astartes Praesus who guard the Eye of Terror and the Adeptus Vaelarii who guard Elara's Veil almost exclusively operate within these regions.
Sororitas tend to guard holy worlds or go on holy crusades and fall under the command of whoever leads said crusade.
With the Guard, ranks are still ranks and a Cadian captain would not command a Catachan colonel. They would only likely take command of PDF forces.
An Inquisitor often usually works the same way as they have their own ranks within the ordos. An Ordo Malleus Inquisitor would likely command a Grey Knight strike force but not a Sororitas Priory or Deathwatch Kill Team.
Inquisitors are, by and large, additions to an army rather than commanders

Planetary governors have authority over PDF, but most definitely not guard, navy or arbites.

The arbites are, in fact, often there to watch the lord-governor as much as anyone else and PDF are explicitly banned from warp-capable vessels like the navy.

All three have their own sector-level command structure in parallel to the administration.

Indeed.

The Hierarchy is labyrinthine. This is further confused by local ranks and titles, especially when we consider outside of your own sphere of influence, you won’t have much contact with anyone outside of your solar system.

Knight Worlds are also partially autonomous. Some owe fealty to Mars and the Mechanicus, others to the wider Imperium. Their forces are also inherently the nobility. So exactly who calls the shots on a collective action (say, on Armageddon) is a matter for literal debate. One Court might have more Knights, but the next might have a longer lineage. Who takes precedence?

And again, outside of the Inquisition, no other Imperial Force can dictate their strategy, deployment etc.

Some might listen to the Mechanicus as overseers. Some might listen to the Ecclesiarchy. Others might stick rigidly to their autonomy.

It’s also worth remembering and bear in mind this is all a two way street. An Imperial Governor or Guard High General type is not obliged to listen to a Chapter Master. Granted it’s usually a good idea due to their centuries of hard won wisdom - but they can still him to get stuffed if they so wish. And beyond withdrawing their forces due to the insult, there’s really nothing even a Chapter Master can do about it.

Now that is of course all a result of Guilliman’s reformations, the idea being making it as difficult as possible for another event on the scale of the Heresy happening ever again. Why the emphasis on the word scale? With anything the size of the Imperium, civil strife and outright rebellion is pretty much inevitable.

But with each different wing enjoying its own relative levels of autonomy, such things are contained as best they can be. If a Regiment goes rogue, they’re more likely to be stuck planetside, as they’ve no authority over the Navy.

This is why the Inquisition not being particularly unified can be viewed as very much a good thing. It helps it self regulate. Extremists of any stripe are monitored by their contemporaries. Everyone is watching everyone else for signs of heresy and betrayal.

Yes it absolutely impacts overall efficiency - but without it, Guilliman’s reforms would be for nought, as it would hand too much power to the Inquisiton.

 Gert wrote:
The utter randomness is something that I hate about the Inquisition and I much prefer when they're portrayed as powerful but with more defined limits to that power. People can say all they want that there's no chain of command in the Imperium but there absolutely is.
Emperor > High Lords > Sector Gov > System Gov > Planetary Gov > Guard, Navy, Arbites. Astartes almost always operate outside of the chain of command and fight where they deem it necessary but will usually not command Imperial crusades. Of course, exceptions exist such as with the Astartes Praesus who guard the Eye of Terror and the Adeptus Vaelarii who guard Elara's Veil almost exclusively operate within these regions.
Sororitas tend to guard holy worlds or go on holy crusades and fall under the command of whoever leads said crusade.
With the Guard, ranks are still ranks and a Cadian captain would not command a Catachan colonel. They would only likely take command of PDF forces.
An Inquisitor often usually works the same way as they have their own ranks within the ordos. An Ordo Malleus Inquisitor would likely command a Grey Knight strike force but not a Sororitas Priory or Deathwatch Kill Team.
Inquisitors are, by and large, additions to an army rather than commanders

This is going a little off topic, however this is in general not actually correct in terms of functionality.

There isn't even parity in the high lords of Terra with some of the roles vastly underpowered in terms of ability to influence and scope of it, you can argue that Dante as the now lord regent of the northern imperium is already more powerful than many of the high lords bar the most powerful (Administratum, Ecclesiarch, Fabricator-General of Mars, Master of the Astronomican off the top of my head). This level of power disparity despite title becomes even further distorted the more you go down the 'official' chain of command, the point that you could strongly argue that certain planetary governors of certain planets (Ryza forge world for example - though it may be more prudent to suggest the head of the mechanicum for that forge world is the most powerful person, not the governor) probably in theory have more power than some sector governors. In terms of what they can demand may not be on parr, but what they can turn down and request potentially is or even more powerful in such a circumstance.

Power is extremely fluid in the imperium, the nature of the bureaucracy that it is does not allow for formal and conditioned power by one person to be maintained and the power ebbs and flows, sometimes without the person realising it.

The Inquisition is second only to the Emperor himself in terms of legal authority. The Custodes are likewise answerable only to the Emperor himself and the only organisation within the Imperium not subject to the Inquisition's power.

Everyone else, including the Astartes, are subject to Inquisitorial authority. If a wet behind the ears Inquisitor straight out of Inquisitor school turned up at the Rock and announced he was requisitioning the Dark Angels chapter and asked them to show him all their records he would be within the bounds of his authority and the Dark Angels would be obligated to comply by the laws of the Imperium.

The difficulty here is that power is ultimately illusionary - it resides wherever other people think it resides. The Imperium is basically a feudal system of organisations each with their own competing, interests and power bases headed by people who are used to wielding power themselves and who won't be all that pleased at some random Inquisitor making demands of them because "mah authority". Think Game of Thrones levels of rivalry and interconnecting webs of loyalty and fealty.

The likelyhood of someone refusing an Inquisitors authority depends on how much they have to hide and how much power they themselves hold. If they don't like the Inquisitors demands they could try anything from creative compliance (intentionally misinterpreting orders, partial obedience, time wasting etc.), obfuscation, having them killed or just plain saying "No. What are you going to do about it?". In the above example the Dark Angels, if they are feeling merciful, could just politely say they'd love to help but their forces are scattered all over the Imperium fighting wars so the Inquisitor's demand is simply physically impossible and then bury him in pointless paperwork listing receipts for bolter rounds and invoices for fresh gothic robes. If they aren't in a good mood that day they can just show him to the nearest airlock and claim his ship got lost in the warp.

And if the Inquisitor doesn't like it... what exactly is he going to do? His fellow Inquisitors would likely have kittens when they found out what he tried to pull and send him to some backwater where he couldn't do any more harm. And it isn't like they could stop the Dark Angels supply of munitions or something - major chapters have their own worlds and mobile fleets and probably manufacture everything they need for precisely this reason. Taking the ultimate sanction and declaring the chapter excommunicate traitoris would involve starting a major civil war and ultimately the only military force capable of bringing an astartes chapter to heel is other astartes chapters - all of whom would want an extremely compelling reason to make war on their own battle brothers.

So whilst an Inquisitor theoretically has the authority on paper to order around Space Marines in practice that power only exists in reality to the extent that the Inquisitor can get others to enforce their authority. The Astartes know this. Which is why any sensible Inquisitor knows it is better to make requests unless they have the backing and balls to do something about it if they get told to feth off.

Also lets not forget the Navigators Guild. They hold considerable influence and power in that they are essential for ships to travel through the dark of space. Whilst they seem to be a little more passive than some other groups, I'm sure that within their noble houses there are still power struggles and even an Inquisitor requires their services and good will to navigate the black of space.

Whilst they might not refuse the Inquisition, they might not give you their best or might not reveal some faster pathways through space if you happen to get on their wrong side.


It's another example of a group who, on paper and legally, might only have limited power, but through the service they provide they maintain a high level of real influence and power.

 Overread wrote:
Also lets not forget the Navigators Guild. They hold considerable influence and power in that they are essential for ships to travel through the dark of space. Whilst they seem to be a little more passive than some other groups, I'm sure that within their noble houses there are still power struggles and even an Inquisitor requires their services and good will to navigate the black of space.

Whilst they might not refuse the Inquisition, they might not give you their best or might not reveal some faster pathways through space if you happen to get on their wrong side.


It's another example of a group who, on paper and legally, might only have limited power, but through the service they provide they maintain a high level of real influence and power.

That's just the effect of 40K works more focusing more on clearly martial organizations. Commerce related ones get only passing mention in many GW works, and Navigator focused pieces are in the minority.
That said though, the sheer amount of interstellar shipping necessary to keep the Imperium functioning means most of the run of the mill shipping out there is probably going to be Chartist shipping. That is, bulk shipping going through the same routes and relying on charts and calculated jumps rather than having a Navigator.

Anyway, the kind of passive resistance or slow walking of assistance is the same method other non-combat organizations might react to outrageous Inquisitor demands. That is why Inquisitors have individuals in their retinue with the skills or contacts to expedite such mundane stuff as greasing the bureaucracy.

Still need a Navigator for Warp Travel, whether established route or not.

And that means dealing with the Guild, who wield absolute power in that one area.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Still need a Navigator for Warp Travel, whether established route or not.

And that means dealing with the Guild, who wield absolute power in that one area.

Actually, you don't. You need a Navigator if you want to travel far and fast or off established charts. That is often the case when it comes to fiction protagonists. Chartist captains are those captains that ply well worn routes based on navigation charts and calculated jumps. That is how humanity did it before Navigators. It's possible but slower than Navigator assisted warp travel. For bulk freighters going to the same combination of systems for generations on end along stable routes, you don't need a Navigator.

Calculated jumps are shorter distance and they have to come out back to realspace, check their position, and then jump again. It's analogous to classical ships of antiquity hugging coastlines and stopping each night on land, as opposed to Age of Exploration ships going out into the deep open ocean. I am not making this up. Check the Rogue Trader RPG or BFG:

It is possible for a ship to make short warp jumps of about four to five light-years with a certain degree of accuracy. However, over longer distances it is necessary to steer through the warp itself.

p.85, BFG rulebook

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Still need a Navigator for Warp Travel, whether established route or not.

And that means dealing with the Guild, who wield absolute power in that one area.

Or you're left dealing with an unsanctioned one! Which means risking dabbling in those more at risk or even already, corrupted by the powers of Chaos.

Iracundus wrote:

Calculated jumps are shorter distance and they have to come out back to realspace, check their position, and then jump again. It's analogous to classical ships of antiquity hugging coastlines and stopping each night on land, as opposed to Age of Exploration ships going out into the deep open ocean. I am not making this up. Check the Rogue Trader RPG or BFG:

Unless it has been changed that is also how the Tau navigate.

Possible is not the same as safe or advisable.

A Navigator can see the tides of the warp, and guide via the Astranomicon.

Without that, you are at exceptionally high risk of things going hideously wrong. You’ve no failsafe, because you’ve no way of knowing if something is going wrong until it’s gone wrong (such as, in the most fortunate case translating back into the wrong area of Realspace. Even then, you’re probably buggered as your charts won’t necessarily let you re-plot your course, as you could end up anywhere, any when).

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Possible is not the same as safe or advisable.

A Navigator can see the tides of the warp, and guide via the Astranomicon.

Without that, you are at exceptionally high risk of things going hideously wrong. You’ve no failsafe, because you’ve no way of knowing if something is going wrong until it’s gone wrong (such as, in the most fortunate case translating back into the wrong area of Realspace. Even then, you’re probably buggered as your charts won’t necessarily let you re-plot your course, as you could end up anywhere, any when).

As my BFG quote shows, GW itself has said that short warp jumps are reasonably accurate and reliable. Go check Lexicanum on the Charist Captains. There is a huge amount of shipping that relies on this kind of travel, maybe even the majority of run of the mill short range shipping. The warp cannot be as dangerous as it is sometimes portrayed to be, because so many worlds in the Imperium are utterly dependent on imports of basic supplies to survive and yet they have survived for hundreds or thousands of years. Therefore shipping has to be at least somewhat safe and reliable enough to maintain these regular trade routes otherwise these worlds would have died out long ago.

GW just doesn't focus too much on this kind of mundane space trucker shipping (except when it goes wrong)

 Flinty wrote:
They can, but they need to write it down...

I can think of some hand gestures that might be useful ...

There's the odd bits of flavour text about Inquisitors having to tiptoe carefully around Space Marine Chapters, or in one instance, a Knight House. Usually when they make the mistake of trying to exert their authority when surrounded by the people they're trying to intimidate, with no backup.

The Space Wolves, in particular have told the entire Inquisition - and the Grey Knights along with them - to get lost after disagreeing with the Administratrum's handling of the aftermath of the first war for Armageddon. Luckily, they woke up Bjorn, who told everyone to pack it in and stop making so much noise. Even an Inquisitor is going to stop and listen to someone who met the Emperor in person.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
They can, but they need to write it down...

I can think of some hand gestures that might be useful ...

There's the odd bits of flavour text about Inquisitors having to tiptoe carefully around Space Marine Chapters, or in one instance, a Knight House. Usually when they make the mistake of trying to exert their authority when surrounded by the people they're trying to intimidate, with no backup.

The Space Wolves, in particular have told the entire Inquisition - and the Grey Knights along with them - to get lost after disagreeing with the Administratrum's handling of the aftermath of the first war for Armageddon. Luckily, they woke up Bjorn, who told everyone to pack it in and stop making so much noise. Even an Inquisitor is going to stop and listen to someone who met the Emperor in person.

The Space Wolves are simply made of Plot Armour - every edition gets more embaressing to read.

Considering that there are not a lot of old, ultra powerful Inquisitors, it might be inferred that a lot of young Inquisitors get killed.

I am fairly certain that some young overly ambitious Inquisitors get killed by attempting to boss around Generals, Admirals, Chapter Masters, Canoness's, etc.

I am sure that there is some degree of fratricide as well. A lot of the Peers of the Imperium would already have arrangements made for the use of each others resources. A conclave of Inquisitors would already have things in place for most of the big players in "their area."

Some rando Inquisitor from the East Edge of nowhere showing up expecting to boss around the Rogue Traders in the West Side is probably going to get disappeared when they get spaced, or the RT calls on the Inquisitors they know and ask "who is this dude? You didn't say you were going to borrow my ship."

Those Inquisitors might be like..."yeah, we got this. Drop him off over here" or if they are on the far Radical or far Puritan side of things, they might just be like "I don't care what you do."

Also, there is a lot of personal loyalty issues that have to be taken into account, Inquisitors might have a lot of power, but there are going to be some loyal retainers, family members, battle brothers, etc that are not going to let this rando "Inquisitor" show up and take charge of things.

-STS

Also worth remembering:

That an Inquisitor is very unlikely to be "young" - they may spend decades or even centuries learning their trade from their Inquisitor master. Many who are bold and foolish will perish in this time.

Inquisitors are rare.

Yeah, a very important distinction to make in the 40k world for people of certain power is looking young, and actually being young.

Rejuv treatments are powerful.

There’s a few limitations officially:

*Astartes chapter are not under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction. Though they are honour bound to aid an inquisitor. I think they are subjects to inquisitorial scrutiny though that is a debatable topic.

*Rouge traders are not under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction. This is because the rouge trader charter specifically states that Inquisitors don’t have power over them. It’s a bit arbitrary though because there’s nothing that has the legal power to punish an inquisitor that would violate this and force rouge traders to work for them/be subject to scrutiny.

*Adeptus Mechanicus is a bit of a special case. Not sure if they are under Inquisitorial jurisdiction or not. Usually they take care of their own heretics with their own agents. Don’t think the Inquisition has power over them but I could be wrong.

*No idea about the knight houses. As far as I’m aware they are under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction.

*Custodes are not under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction. This is because their order comes directly from the Emperor.

*The high lords of terra are under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction.

Finally it should be noted that nothing actually has legal power over an inquisitor. So should an inquisitor step over its (very few) boundaries nothing can in theory punish them for it. Save another inquisitor with a good case. In theory is the operative word though since we’re talking about organizations with strong military assets.

 Nerak wrote:


*Rouge traders are not under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction. This is because the rouge trader charter specifically states that Inquisitors don’t have power over them. It’s a bit arbitrary though because there’s nothing that has the legal power to punish an inquisitor that would violate this and force rouge traders to work for them/be subject to scrutiny.

Debatable. Not because you're wrong in all cases but because 'rogue trader' is such a variable term. It depends on the terms of the Rogue Trader's warrant.

Most would be subject to Inquisitorial authority - at least within imperial space since "the authority of their warrant begins where the Imperium ends" a common quote and they're essentially a private citizen on an Imperial world. Since they're issues by a sector governor whose subject to Inquisitorial jurisdiction themself, so are the warrants they issue.

At the extreme other end, a VERY few others were hand-issued by the Emperor (e.g. the one in the the Calpurnia novel Legacy), and an Inquisitor explicitly says he doesn't have a right to interfere as a result.

 Nerak wrote:
There’s a few limitations officially:

*Astartes chapter are not under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction. Though they are honour bound to aid an inquisitor. I think they are subjects to inquisitorial scrutiny though that is a debatable topic.

*Rouge traders are not under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction. This is because the rouge trader charter specifically states that Inquisitors don’t have power over them. It’s a bit arbitrary though because there’s nothing that has the legal power to punish an inquisitor that would violate this and force rouge traders to work for them/be subject to scrutiny.

*Adeptus Mechanicus is a bit of a special case. Not sure if they are under Inquisitorial jurisdiction or not. Usually they take care of their own heretics with their own agents. Don’t think the Inquisition has power over them but I could be wrong.

*No idea about the knight houses. As far as I’m aware they are under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction.

*Custodes are not under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction. This is because their order comes directly from the Emperor.

*The high lords of terra are under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction.

Finally it should be noted that nothing actually has legal power over an inquisitor. So should an inquisitor step over its (very few) boundaries nothing can in theory punish them for it. Save another inquisitor with a good case. In theory is the operative word though since we’re talking about organizations with strong military assets.

Nope.

All those you list above apart for the Custodes are under the authority of the Inqusiiton - including (and given the danger they pose and their history of heresy most especially) the Astartes.

The only grey area is what happens if they refuse a command - be it described as such or is formulated as "request" - both sides know this and most of the time will play nice.

locarno24 wrote:

 Nerak wrote:


*Rouge traders are not under direct inquisitorial jurisdiction. This is because the rouge trader charter specifically states that Inquisitors don’t have power over them. It’s a bit arbitrary though because there’s nothing that has the legal power to punish an inquisitor that would violate this and force rouge traders to work for them/be subject to scrutiny.

Debatable. Not because you're wrong in all cases but because 'rogue trader' is such a variable term. It depends on the terms of the Rogue Trader's warrant.

Most would be subject to Inquisitorial authority - at least within imperial space since "the authority of their warrant begins where the Imperium ends" a common quote and they're essentially a private citizen on an Imperial world. Since they're issues by a sector governor whose subject to Inquisitorial jurisdiction themself, so are the warrants they issue.

At the extreme other end, a VERY few others were hand-issued by the Emperor (e.g. the one in the the Calpurnia novel Legacy), and an Inquisitor explicitly says he doesn't have a right to interfere as a result.

Yup.

Rogue Traders are very well covered in the aptly named Rogue Trader RPG which FFG used to do.

If memory serves, you bought your Warrant of Trade as part of character creation. The more you spend, the older the warrant (though this might be randomised? HBMC might be able to elucidate better).

Certainly my character had one which had been signed by The Emperor and The Fabricator General of Mars. Needless to say it was inherited, being a hereditary Warrant.

With both those signatures, I could be a complete arse to pretty much anyone I wanted. Even an Inquisitor was limited in what they could do me for. Trading with Xenos? Yeah, Emperor said that was cool. Mucking about with archaeotech? Yeah I’m allowed to that too.

Trick for me was not to push my luck. Long as I could prove my actions were reasonable and not reckless, I could do more or less as I pleased.

 Grimtuff wrote:
"My patience is limited, unlike my authority."- Gregor Eisenhorn.

Such a badass thing to say. Love Eisenhorn.

With both those signatures, I could be a complete arse to pretty much anyone I wanted. Even an Inquisitor was limited in what they could do me for. Trading with Xenos? Yeah, Emperor said that was cool. Mucking about with archaeotech? Yeah I’m allowed to that too.

Trick for me was not to push my luck. Long as I could prove my actions were reasonable and not reckless, I could do more or less as I pleased.

Trading with Xenos is stock and trade for a RT - although there are still proscribed Xenos species that even they may not trade with - as you say - you don't push your luck. Dabling with heretical artefacts or their like can still mean their downfall.

Antogonising an Inquisitor without a very good reason is very stupid. Plenty of RTs have been purged by the Inquisition - often aided by the RT rivals and they will have plenty of the latter inside and beyond their own family.

The same RT rpg also notes that RT expeditions are sometimes accompanied by Imperial forces (Including Marines or Sisters) who are "nominally" under the control of the RT but are mainly there to keep an eye of her or him. Inquisitors are known to travel with them to keep an eye on them on occassion.

Like everything in the WH40K lore, it depends on the story being told.

I need to re-read "Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah" -

beast_gts wrote:
I need to re-read "Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah" -

Spoiler:

IIRC an Inquisitor sneaks aboard an Imperator class titan, gets told to sod off by everyone he tries to deal with (except a low-level menial), and when they finally make it to the bridge they're executed by the command staff (but at least one of them was a Traitor).

I really hope the story reads better than that synopsis.

 Mr Morden wrote:
I really hope the story reads better than that synopsis.

It's an OK book - not amazing but OK. The Inquisitor is basically a sub-plot. It got a load of bad press / reviews at release because one of the AdMech characters uses gender-neutral pronouns.

Black Library wrote:Holy warbringer of the Legio Metalica, the Imperator Titan Casus Belli has routed armies and levelled cities over ten thousand years of service in the name of the Machine God. As war engulfs the Dark Imperium this mechanical god of battle arrives to destroy the renegade armies and tech-priests of Nicomedua. At the head of a battlegroup of Titans, Imperial Knights and skitarii, Casus Belli must defeat tainted war engines, Traitor Legionnares and armies of cultists. While apocalyptic battles rage across the planet, a no less deadly battle unfolds within the Titan itself, as Magos Exasus, leader of the Casus Belli’s Tech-guard, must find and defeat the enemy within before their insidious plans come to fruition.

Written by Gav Thorpe

beast_gts wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
I really hope the story reads better than that synopsis.

It's an OK book - not amazing but OK. The Inquisitor is basically a sub-plot. It got a load of bad press / reviews at release because one of the AdMech characters uses gender-neutral pronouns.

Black Library wrote:Holy warbringer of the Legio Metalica, the Imperator Titan Casus Belli has routed armies and levelled cities over ten thousand years of service in the name of the Machine God. As war engulfs the Dark Imperium this mechanical god of battle arrives to destroy the renegade armies and tech-priests of Nicomedua. At the head of a battlegroup of Titans, Imperial Knights and skitarii, Casus Belli must defeat tainted war engines, Traitor Legionnares and armies of cultists. While apocalyptic battles rage across the planet, a no less deadly battle unfolds within the Titan itself, as Magos Exasus, leader of the Casus Belli’s Tech-guard, must find and defeat the enemy within before their insidious plans come to fruition.

Written by Gav Thorpe

The whole gender neutral thing is about how messed up the ad mech are and how the character didn’t really view themselves as a biological being anymore. They had transcended the organic and didn’t see their gender as a factor. It wasn’t some woke thing, it was an example for steel over flesh. The books pretty good, some dodgy bits but pretty good, not titanicus good but ok.