Conflicts of interest

[Bertjammin]

How would you handle a situation where an Inquisitor is after a possible heretic who is also subject to a legal/judicial investigation? Who would take precedence? Especially if the parties handling the judicial enquiry (Reeves or a noble) fears that there may not be much left of the suspect to interview or seek restitution from after the Inquisitor has had a go at them....

[Angelman]

The simple answer here is, "whichever group on the ground has the strongest/most important backing will trump the other". Negotiation skills and local political leaning will weight in, but it is largely a matter of "my patron is bigger than yours". If the inquisitors can pull rank by having the planetary archbishop call up the law enforcer's captain, then the lawmen better back off. If the inquisitors have no such pull, then they better thread carefully lest the locals get fed up with their bullying... In the highly unlikely scenario that two conflicting forces can claim patronage right to the top of their faction's hierarchy, then the Patriarch would trump a Royal House Prince and even the Leaguemeister, but the Emperor would trump even the Patriarch. (Although no small-time law enforcement conflict would ever be brought so high - it depends on who you can call in to back you, and whether you're willing to bother them with the case at hand; patrons don't much like being bothered with trivial things...)

[Bertjammin]

Makes perfect sense and kind of what I expected, thanks.

It also makes it very possible that those who act first (i.e. a zealous Inquisitor apprehending a suspected heretic and taking them off for interrogation) get what they want while the sheriff/Reeves/judiciary are busy appealing their actions up the societal ladder. Essentially by the time their patron has applied pressure to their opposite number in the opposing group the remains of the suspect might be released in a body bag....

[Angelman]

That sounds true. If your patron can't pull his weight before the fact, s/he will probably not bother to later on. Sourting out the leftovers is not a job for the bigman!

[Leviathan of Maddoc]

There's a reason the Inquisition tours the known worlds in Missile Frigates. They definitely take precedence over any branch of civil law, they can disappear you even if you're law abiding. If the planetary authority has someone in custody they can be obstructionist, it takes time to authorize a missile strike from orbit against a populated city but eventually regardless of the outcome of the civil case the Inquisition will get their man.

[Angelman]

I strongly disagree with this view. Cowboy Inquisition action will quickly get the organization into trouble, which will lead to Urth Orthodox censure (possibly including a blockade of Pyre), contract termination with the guilds, and stop to all funding and logistical aid. Then the Inquisitors will sit in their Missile Frigates, friendless, hungry, with no access to specialists to maintain their gear and ship, and with a big outlaw-flag on their back – that is, unless the injured faction does not decide to blast them out of the sky in the first place.

[Leviathan of Maddoc]

The Inquisition is insulated from the power structure of the Orthodoxy to avoid political influence from either driving or hindering their actions. I may have been a little glib in how I describe the operations of the inquisition but I think a lot of the Known Worlds sees those big nasty Rack Frigates roll into orbit and they figure that if they try to stand up to these unchecked ideologues that missiles will fall from the sky even though there's no mention in the cannon of the Inquisition ever taking military action. I don't believe the inquisition has a lot of friends. I think they have a lot of ships that are barely held together by the few Engineers that will accept contracts with them. I think They have storage closets full of tech that needs to be repaired. I can't imagine any city administrator or even Cathedral Cannon is real happy to see the Inquisitor at their door, even if they're clearly not being targeted they will have to clean up the mess of a team of reckless objective-minded fanatics. I think the Church gladly funds the Inquisition even when they seem like an attack dog that never goes after the enemies that are convenient, because they keep the people devout and in line and they scare the crap out of anyone that would defy their sort of unreasonable dictates about technology and authority. I think that if the Inquisition ever came fully off the chain and had a capital engagement with a House Fleet or the Guild Fleet, that the Church Fleet may very well not support them, and that every time an Inquisitional Rack has a stand-off with a Decados Destroyer the fleet commander on the Destroyer is deciding if he wants to take that gamble, and almost every time he decides it's not worth the risk.

That said, I think 95% of the time, inquisitors accomplish their goals with no muscle at all. The terrifying reputation of the inquisition is much more effective than anything they could actually do with their limited numbers and resources. When you have nearly unchecked authority to abuse the rights of anyone, then anyone becomes very responsive to your casual requests and implied threats.

When I run an inquisitor, if you're connected to a severe church crime but you're honest with the interrogator and you don't flee the capture teams you come out pretty much unscathed, they detain you for a while and scare some of your associates asking around about you but you don't get locked up in a cell without a trail for years, you don't get tortured for information, you don't get horribly burned by the agents who are sent to round you up. Worst case scenario you're charged with your lesser involvement and face pretty punishments from the ecclesiastical court. The Inquisition is out to get results. If you're not an Antimonist or an Apostatic Heretic or a swarm of husks then you're not a result.

[Angelman]

Again, I disagree on the view of the Inquisition. The Inquisitors, and we're talking about the Avestite gang here (the Orthodox Inquisitors keep much closer to their mandate as ecclasiastical lawyers), the inquisitors must dance to the Urth Orthodox tune or else they'll be dead. Two or three times (I can't remember the exact number), the Patriarchal Fleet has blockaded Pyre to show the Avestites that they're serious about them playing nice, and the Temple Avesti like the other non-Orthodox sects exist at the mercy of the Urth Orthodoxy.

[Leviathan of Maddoc]

I agree that the church can pressure the Inquisition by threats to amend their charter or restrict them with military force in cases of extreme duress but I personally don't see the church holding that tight of a chain on the inquisition, otherwise they would cease to be an effective tool. If all it takes is a reasonably powerful Orthodoxy Clergyman to call of the Inquisition's dogs then how many nobles don't have a Bishop or Archbishop in their bloodline? I agree if the inquisition is sniffing around you're a lot better off in the company of a faction that will find out you've been snatched off the street and can have a Reeve Advocate knocking on the inquisitor's door within the hour, but that's not the same as being protected by them.

I'm am disagreeing with the image of the Avesti Gang. The inquisition is dominated by Avesti but their charter is designed to prevent them from being influenced by any sect, even the Orthodoxy. The inquisition's agenda is likely shaped by the dogma of the Avesti Sect because so many of them come from those teachings but Avesti politics aren't the inquisition's. In fact, from my point of view a Brother Battle Grandmaster would have more influence on inquisitional policy than an Avesti Archbishop, because of the Brother Battle's sect's more cohesive ability to influence the fewer individual Brother Battle Inquisitors.