Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Musings: What makes an Inquisitor

No Miracles, just Men.

Migsula, over at the excellent blog Iron Sleet, just wrote a fascinating post musing on the thought process behind building an effective Inquisitor retinue.  In it, he puts words to some concepts that I have tackled and explored while creating models for Inq28, but never consciously put down in writing.  He argues that the key to creating an evocative and effective retinue depends largely on the hierarchy in the group and the contrast in this stratification between the Inquisitor and their lowly henchmen.  The Inquisitor is the radiant sun around which the other members orbit.  These Humble Human Henchman (thanks for coining the term Migs!) that surround the Inquisitor serve to anchor the group in reality; they are humans that we can relate to, and not Saints, Space Marines, or Alpha class psykers.  To emphasize the importance of this contrast, Migsula asked “how interesting would a group of equally and similarly powerful individuals be?”  And while I think he anticipated the answer to be a resounding “Not very,” my first thought was the opposite.



Creating stark contrast between characters within a retinue to emphasize the various individuals’ roles and hierarchy is certainly a common thread with Inquisitors, particularly those that Games Workshop creates.  I think this strategy, however, tends to describe only a certain class of inquisitors, powerful Grand Masters, with swarms of underlings, or self important “desk” inquisitors that rarely do any field work.  These are the Torquemada Coteaz’s and Fyodor Karamazovs’, known across the galaxy for being ruthless and uncompromising to the point of caricature.  While these inquisitors can be really evocative and neat, this style can often lead to bland characters, with none of the moral greyness that make them interesting.

In the past, GW has made a number of inquisitors into trite caricatures of people.
But not all inquisitors are so self-important. Some surround themselves with like-minded and skilled individuals.  These are the sort of inquisitors Dan Abnett tends to write about (ie Eisenhorn).  They are not gods, but simple humans with conviction and intelligence.  I think Abnett described this concept best in one of his Gaunt’s Ghost novels with the phrase:  No miracles, just men.  The Imperium will be saved from the blood and tears of ordinary men, not godly beings.  This is something that is easier for us to relate to, and I think it helps us resonate so strongly with characters like Eisenhorn and his allies.

What excites me about inquisitors are things like this.  A steadfast individual facing a cosmic horror capable of ending civilizations not with a meltagun or thunderhammer, but with a 12 gauge shotgun.

This dichotomy that I am speaking of was something that we tried to explore with our Invitational entry.  This is still very much a work in progress, however, as we are continuing to work on models for each inquisitor.  Lucanus Molnár, in his blazen red power armor, is more the first type of Inquisitor, bombastic with his beliefs; he surrounds himself with a hoard of mechanicum underlings and only a few that he might call equals.  The second, Anton Soljic, is more the Eisenhorn equivalent, a more conservative, practical man.  He is not larger-than-life, and he works with a small cadre of highly trained specialists that he trusts with his life.

Lucanus Molnár: Ordo Machinum

Anton Soljic: Ordo Xenos

Since the end of the Invitational, we have working on additional models for both inquisitors.   Expect to see a new member of Soljic's retinue in a week or two!

I think both of these archetypes, one defined by contrast and superhuman status, and the other defined by a more relatable humanity and mortality,  allow for the 40k universe to be so rich and enjoyable.  However, I am most interested in exploring the second, and care less about plasma pistols and power armor, and more about autopistols and flak jackets.  The Inquisition as a faceless organization walking amongst us unnoticed, using their unlimited authority in subtle ways, is far more thought provoking than them flaunting their rosette and calling for Exterminatus.

-Eric Wier

12 comments:

  1. Interesting reading Eric. I agree that by far the most interesting Inquisitors are those with human foibles, eccentricities and who work to their own personal agendas in performing their task. Otherwise they might as well just be more space marines. Nice miniatures by the way - with all this talk of Specialist Games returning, I'd dearly love them to do an Inq32 boxed game - living in hope!

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    1. Yes! The dream is alive! Specialist Games coming back could mean big and exciting things for Inquisitor, and there is nothing I would like more.

      And as you said, without personal agendas and human flaws, we would just have more space marines, and as much as I love them, we already have more then enough Astartes!

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  2. I agree with Migs to an extent. From an artistic level I think it is key to have contrast amongst characters but like all art this depends on the viewers perspective. Appearance and Archetype are two very different things to judge a character much less a miniature by. I believe modelling wise any archetype can have sufficient contrast to make a retinue appealing. With that said, my goal with my current project is to prove this with a group consisting of only Astartes. In our niche of this hobby it can be difficult to find a balance as many of us view this not just as a hobby but as a form of art and rightly so I might add.

    Character wise, I think the key to Odyssey-esque characters is the need for an equally daunting setting. In the case of Astartes specifically ramping this scale higher to give them a sense of mortality which they usually lack can lead to very over the top God of War style themes. I have a reputation within our gaming group of being a brutal GM for such things but I truly believe everything should be scaled against the character on an even level of some sort. With Black Crusade each character in my group could easily annihilate an entire regiment of men without breaking a sweat, so why place characters like this against such enemies? I don't mean to come off topic but INQ28 is what made me look into the gray areas of 40k in the first place, to try to flesh out things barely mentioned or ideas not fully explained. My answer to these kind of characters is to make them more of legends or myths than actual flesh and blood. This direction has lead to my group battling numerous lesser known gods in a very much Odyssey inspired crusade amongst the warp, where every mission they know could be their last.

    One of the aspects I love most about 40k is the dismally bleak atmosphere. There is only war; every aspect of life is a struggle, with over the top characters this must be balanced. I much prefer the Inquisitor retinue that cannot be singled out within a crowd as their realistic sense of mortality is always more relate-able, but I think there is a place for over the top characters. It's just typically not INQ28 in my mind anyway.

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    1. You make a particularly cogent point, stressing the importance of perspective and setting. Without a foe or adversary that is equal to, or above the characters in question, it is often not really worth exploring. Otherwise, it does not strain them and stretch them to a breaking point, which can unveil interesting grey areas in morality and belief. Your Black Crusade campaign sounds wonderful, wresting back the concept of a space marine back from GW and the current 7th edition 40k where they are bland, unimpressive warriors which are only average. You seem to be trying to capture the essence of what makes a Space Marine, the mythical warrior-god status that I feel most of us have in the back of our minds, something that has been nurtured through artwork and stories since we began this hobby.

      But you are right, over-the-top or more grounded, each has a place and allows different elements to be creatively explored!

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    2. Most of what I had to add was covered by Odie on Migs' post so glad my rantings weren't too off base. Thank you for the kind words, you summed up my goal quite well. Real life has dealt quite a blow to my hobby time but I am desperately trying to fix that. I hope to add a lot more to this subject as well as a few Minor Gods I've created on my own blog soon. Keep up the great content we need more discussions out there like this one and the one that inspired it.

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    3. I would love to hear more about some of those minor gods and stuff you have been exploring via Black Crusade! Thanks for all the comments, such discussion is what makes the hobby and the community so great! Everyone approaches the hobby slightly differently, and brings something different to it, which is a constant source of inspiration.

      These discussions have really excited me to get back to working more with Inq28 again!

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  3. Agree with you Eric, there is more under these heavens than a single type of inquisitor. Indeed they should range from "detective with a rosette" to "I am Trogdor the world burner". The former is likely to have a team of near peers, or even those superior in skill/training/ability, while the later will at least appear as the shinning god that GW often shows as a battlefield inquisitor.

    I have mentioned before, that I think that the medium level of inquisitor might have the more interesting retinue, because they are individually powerful enough to have their own presence on the battlefield, but might still need to bring along interesting characters in the way that a class alpha psyker lord in power armor might not. (and the detective type would need to rely on a SWAT team to accomplish much in combat)

    In my own (slow) inquisitor project, I am trying to cover all of the different types, and also have a conservative/radical for each of the three Ordos. It is a bit daunting to say the least, and I think that the scope of the project is part of the reason it is taking me so long (probably also has to do with the fact that my workbench of figures seems to keep adding more)

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    1. Yeah, I agree that the "medium" level inquisitor tends of offer more narrative freedom, and has greater opportunity for an interesting retinue. Your post on the subject was a very good read. Your task of creating a series of inquisitors to fit all of these types sounds great, but as you suggest is extremely daunting! It will allow you to explore all manner of elements present in 40k, including many that are often overlooked, when GW tends to favor "power armored burninators (I liked this description you used!)."

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  4. Great couple of articles from you and Migs :)

    I guess for me on an overall basis it's the exploration of all kinds of archetypes that appeals the most. That and scaling everything down. Especially now as 40k is so bonkers as it is :)

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed the post! It is great trying to distill all the grim and crazy aspect of the 40k universe into such small models, and no where are you afforded as much freedom as you are when dealing with Inquisitors!

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  5. Great post, I have been slowly working on an INQ28 group and started with the retinue instead of the inquisitor. Abnett did a masterful job of taking Eisenhorn from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. The hardest part of his fall for me was watching his followers die because of their devotion to him. When I started I thought perhaps the best way to figure out who the inquisitor is and what motivates him/her would be to build the followers and let their story be a part of what makes the inquisitor into the person they are. Maybe I'm putting too much into it but for me an INQ group is far removed from what 40K typically is because they are individuals and not just "the space marine w the plasma gun"

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    1. I do not think you are putting too much into it. The fact that Inquisitor is not "space marine with plasma gun" is what I love about it. It is about exploring people, and their motivations. And how they cope with terrible situations. I think your idea of building the inquisitor around the retinue is a good idea. Abnett certainly emphasized that to an extent in that each of his group was a cornerstone of his ideals. They started to slip away, however, and everyone suffered from it. This inner tension was a large part of why it was so compelling I think.

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