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So in the latest Cain Book I'm reading (10 I think), Vail's retinue crosses paths with the investigation of a different inquisitor, of the Malleus Ordos. Vail being Xenos.

I understand both sides, but it kinda makes me stop and wonder why the inquisition doesn't have a rank system. Just off Ordos alone. Like, Malleus/Hereticus should outrank Xenos at the crossroads of who gets to lead the investigation, because a Daemonic invasion is far worse and bigger threat than a Xenos invasion, right? I lump Malleus and Hereticus together, because it's basically the same. One is finding daemons, one is finding witches who are trying to summon daemons (?).

Shouldn't Vail step aside here and let the inquisitor trying to stop daemons being summoned drive the show?

I'm not super well versed in the stupidity of the political aspects involved in the Inquisition, but the entire idea of it feels like a cruel joke. "What if we gave the administratum guns and the ability to shoot people who used poor grammar and didn't learn their words more betterer. (Founding statement of the Gramaticus Ordos)

I get the Inquisition is a parody of the failure of IOM to be efficient at doing the right thing ever, but just from a lore side, it seems odd that there isn't a tiered system. Surely the guys who have the backing of the GK should tell the guys with the Death Watch what to do.

Like, Malleus/Hereticus should outrank Xenos at the crossroads of who gets to lead the investigation, because a Daemonic invasion is far worse and bigger threat than a Xenos invasion, right?

No, both come in different shapes and sizes.

And there is a degree of rank involved with the Inquisition - we see this crop up in the Eisenhorn series of novels, for example.

A Lord Inquisitor out-ranks an Inquisitor, and there is a degree of seniority at work within those broad ranks as well.

The three tentpole Ordos are see as equals, however - and just because you're an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, it doesn't mean you won't deal with Chaos or Heretics if you need to, it just isn't your speciality.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
I lump Malleus and Hereticus together, because it's basically the same. One is finding daemons, one is finding witches who are trying to summon daemons (?).

The Ordo Hereticus deals with mutants, witches, treason, and heresy. This of course is very broad and very vague, which frankly is how the Hereticus likes it.
You are correct in that there is a lot of crossover between the various branches, but that's part of the unwieldy insanity that is the Inquisition.
Does a Cult with the iconography of a being with 4 arms fall under the Hereticus because it's heresy, the Xenos because it's vaguely Genestealer, or the Malleus because it could be a Daemon?

When it comes to operational authority, then it's clout and rank. If both Inquisitors are the same rank, whoever has the most experience or political power will take charge, or in rare cases might even defer to the expert.

Like the Commissarist, outside of formal rank like Lord/Lady Commissarr/Inquisitor, it’s usually decided amongst immediate peers by Length of Service.

But, among the Ordos? Their exact specialisation can help determine the pecking order. But it is largely informal and “gentleman’s agreements”. And that depends on how sane each Inquisitor is.

Where my memory is sketchy is whether say, an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor can declare an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Excommunicate Traitoris, or if that can only be done by one’s own Ordo.

And the fun bit about the Cain series is that they can play a bit fast and loose about inter- and intra-Ordos rivalry. Every inquisitor will be certain that their investigation is so much better run and important than any other inquisitor they come across, especially those dullards in [xenos/hereticus/malleus delete as appropriate].

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Where my memory is sketchy is whether say, an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor can declare an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Excommunicate Traitoris, or if that can only be done by one’s own Ordo.

my understanding is that it's mostly a question of who survives to make the report. If the xenos inquisitor wins, hes kinda correct by default, as its his word agianst theirs, and their dead and not saying anything.

the powers of Inquisition are broad and ill-defined, which as Gert notes, is kinda how they like it. I Imagine the pecking order all really comes down to personalities, experience and reputation, and the exact nature of the threat being investigated.

bear in mind, full Inquisitors are extremely rare people, on the order of one in a trillion. They likely only number in the tens of thousands, and must operate over a million worlds. they likely don't run into each other that much in the field.

They might come across each other more than you might think as they will be chasing similar leads, and sharing information through the various conclave.

I think it's more of a kind of "this is my beat" type of situation. In all the original Eisenhorn trilogy, he's looking into traders in Xenos artefacts- but then Psykers are involved (so it'd be a Hereticus problem) and then he finds out there's Daemonic warp-stuff afoot (Malleus- almost like the books follow a pattern!). He's still investigating his original case and while it may be pertinent to ask another Inquisitor of those ordos for help, the way he operates undercover most of the times- it wouldn't serve him well.
As for official inquiries, I believe you have to be overseen by 3 older/ experienced Inquisitors but not sure if it's from one of each Ordos Majoris. (Going off Ravenor and not remembering the minutiae here).
There's also the "time and place" authority. In an extreme example, if an Inquisitor DEMANDED the Cadian captain of a ship turn right back around into the exploding planet just so he can get a fragment of a Blackstone pylon, the minimum that'd happen would be "Get the hell off my bridge!".

In theory, by the letter of the law, any Inquisitor, even the freshest newly minted Inquisitor, is answerable to no one except the Emperor. In theory they can commandeer the fleets of an entire Segmentum and demand the arrest of all the High Lords. In theory a single Inquisitor commands enough power to crash the Imperium or take it over completely.

In practice, anyone trying to do so is going to find they get denounced by other Inquisitors and other similarly powerful peers of the Imperium as either insane or corrupt, and then be disappeared or have a lethal accident. In practice, an Inquisitor is still going to need to "work the system" and use some political skill and finesse to get things done.

There's something else to keep in mind. Inquisitors aren't alike as far as outlook toward their targets goes. The difference between a conservative and a radical inquisitor can be huge, and it's not uncommon for two inquisitors to have wildly different views about what is acceptable. If the junior inquisitor has an Aeldari in his or her retinue, while the senior inquisitor tends to shoot the alien on sight, there's going to be some friction in the field.

And most inquisitorial "alliances" are going to have this sort of friction on at least one item of mutual concern.

Between that, and the fact that most inquisitors are probably headstrong individuals who aren't used to having to work under someone else's direction, two inquisitors who happen to end up chasing the same target are more likely to have a loose agreement of assistance as opposed to a formal organizational structure. And that goes double if one or both of the inquisitors is a radical who wants to "repurpose" a particularly dangerous artifact held by the target, for the good of the Imperium.

While there is definitely seniority in the Inquisition, there isn't strictly speaking any sort of ranking system. A newly minted Inquisitor has the same authority as one who has served for centuries. At least on paper. And this is of course on purpose. Inquisitors are supposed to be the ultimate authority, answerable to only the Emperor and their fellow Inquisitors.

Lord Inquisitor is more of an honorific that is used among the Inquisition itself to denote Inquisitors of esteemed experience or ability. But if push comes to shove it doesn't mean anything by itself.

This means the relationship between Inquisitors is 100% political and who can schmooze with who, and conflict is inevitable.

Likewise, the more reasonable Inquisitors will defer to those who have more experience in specific areas associated with their Ordo. But they are not required to. Ordos are also not just the big 3. There are smaller local Ordos which Inquisitors will also belong to, and these are the more relevant Ordos for day to day operations. These Ordos also don't necessarily have specialties, you could have Inquisitors in the same local Ordo who belong to different major Ordos.

I suspect this is also generally not a problem most of the time. There are so few Inquisitors that the chance of them running into each other is highly unlikely.

A point to consider is that there may be relatively few actual inquisitors, but their networks can grow to be huge. All those field agents who have borrowed authority will End up bouncing off each other much more often.