THE

INQUISITION
MEMENTO MORI WRITTEN BY JACK BIRD

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And there they stood, atop that hill, unwavering and steadfast. The mob converged on them, wielding all manner of weaponry. Their eyes were glazed, and in a fit of wild abandon. The victims were guilty of the crime of magery, a crime against the Faith, and one of the highest treacheries in all the land. They were heretics. The Inquisitor looked on, the corners of his mouth furled into a tight smile; eyes looking onward as the weary bunch of outcasts were overwhelmed by the hordes of violent peasants. There were no fireballs, no flashes of arcane power bending to a magus will, or any other evident signs of magic. The Inquisitor s word was all that was required of the bedazzled civility, and they would march onward, as if in a trance, to enact violent justice on anyone vile enough to carry the curse of magic in their veins. These are hard times, full of inequality, treachery, and political intrigue. These are times ruled by the word of the Faith, and the agenda of the highest Inquisitors. This is a crusade against heresy, the so called filthy, dangerous, horrid blight on the world. Seek no safety in fair trial, no honesty in the governing body, or humble understanding from the word of a passerby. Pour your unrelenting servitude to the Faith, and act blindly, for you will be rewarded. Or dare forsake the rite of tradition, and the safety of routine, for the tiniest glimmer of chance that things could, and should, be better. This is a time of change, a time of war, fought not on the battlefield, but in the hearts and minds of ordinary people like you and me. This is the Inquisition.
The Inquisition by Jack Bird is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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THE FAITH

CHAPTER I
DO YOU BELIEVE IN ME ? ASKED THE VOICE, BOOMING AND POWERFUL, BUT CALM AND COMPLACENT. I DO REPLIED AUGUST, WHOM FELT NO FEAR, NO CONFUSION . EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNO T SEE ME? ASKED HIM, THE VOICE. THOUGH I CANNOT SEE YOU, I BELIEVE IN YOU REPLIED AUGUST. DO YOU FOLLOW ME? ASKED HIM I FOLLOW YOU, ONLY YOU, LORD REPLIED AUGUST FOR HOW LONG WILL YOU FOLLOW ME? ASKED HIM FOR AS LONG AS THERE EXISTS TIME, I WILL FOLLOW YOU REPLIED AUGUST WILL YOUR PEOPLE FOLLOW ME? ASKED HIM MY PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW YOU REPLIED AUGUST. THEY WILL HEAR OF YOU IN THE CHURCHES . THEY WILL SPEAK OF YOU IN THE STREETS. THEY WILL THINK OF YOU IN THEIR MINDS , AND IN THEIR HEARTS, THEY WILL FOLLOW YOU FOR AS LONG AS THEY LIVE AND WHAT OF AFTER THEY LIVE? ASKED HIM AFTER THEY PASS, LORD, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO BELIEVE IN YOU. AFTER THEY PASS, THEY WILL BE WITH YOU, AND THEY WILL STILL FOLLOW YOU. WHAT OF THOSE WHO WILL NOT FOLLOW? ASKED HIM THOSE WHO WILL NOT FOLLOW WILL BE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR GUIDANCE, LORD, WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR GREATNESS , AND BE GUILTY OF THE GREATEST CRIME A MAN CAN BRING UPON HIMSE LF, LORD. TO NOT FOLLOW YOU WILL BRING THE UNENDING PAIN OF YOUR WRATH, LORD, AND THE PAIN WILL FOLLOW UNTO ALL WHO WOULD CONTINUE TO INDULGE IN THE TAINT OF LIFE WITHOUT YOU, LORD TO BE UNFAITHFUL IS TO FORSAKE YOUR WILL, LORD, AND THAT IS UNFORGIVABLE . -Codex of August, at the creation of man, and the meeting of Him, our Lord. The world of the Inquisition revolves around the existence of an autonomous religion called the Faith. The Faith s teachings are enforced by law, which is upheld by a force known as the Inquisition. Every man, woman and child whom exists in the world of the Inquisition knows of the Faith, and are expected to respect it and follow doctrine to the letter. The coveted teachings of the Faith are covered in a series of books, called a Codex. These Codices are kept under lock and key, and the knowledge of them is only dispensed through the teachings of the Inquisition, via a preacher. Each Codex tells the tale of a man (Known today as an Icon ) and his experiences facing the power of Him , the Lord. The Lord is the figure head of the Faith, and is described as an all knowing, all powerful deity that guides the people that believe in him to ultimate spiritual enlightenment and never ending happiness in the afterlife after a lifelong term of servitude in His name. The most famous of these Icons is August. August is believed to be the first mortal man created by the Lord, and was crowned king of the lands in His name, as long as he upholds the teachings of the Lord and convinces the civility to believe and follow the Lord. He is a sacred symbol amongst the Inquisition, and is regarded as the world s first Inquisitor. Daily sermons are given by a preacher appointed by an Inquisitor to dispense teachings from a Codex. A Codex is written in runes and must be translated by an Inquisitor before it can be taught at

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which gives Inquisitors the advantage of being able to select e actly what to teach and a se when to teach it.

The Faith

The Inquisition

Magus Exterminatus

The Orders of the Faith

The Guild of Preachers

The Eye of the Faithful

The Order of the Divine Fire

Above is an outline hierarchy of the governmental structure in the Inquisition. At the top lies the Faith, the religious doctrine dispensed through the teachings of a preacher. Directly below that lies the secretive dominion of Inquisitors that govern absolutely everything that happens in the world. The Inquisition branches off into two distinct categories the first of which governing the civility in general, be it peace keeping, collecting taxes, governing buildings, etc and the religious branch that enforces the law of the Faith. In this first section we will look into is the order of the civility branch, called the Civilia Administratum. The head of the Civilia Administratum is the Crimson Guard, which houses the elite of the elite that have either climbed their way up the ladder from a lowly reeve, or have bought their way into authority from nobility or having connections within the Inquisition. The Crimson Guard are mainly for administrative purposes, such as holding trials and choosing what areas of the city to fund. THE INQUISITION PAGE 4 OF 11

Civilia Administratum

The Crimson Guard

The Guard of the Civility

The Reeves

Below that is the Guard of the Civility, which is an honourable position within the Crimson Guard that is not about administration as much as it is about hands on law enforcement. Think of them as a kind of special weapons and tactics that deal with especially notorious trouble makers. They are also in charge of governing the prisons, and may do some work for the Orders of the Faith when more help is needed in catching lawbreakers in breach of the Faith. Below the Guard of the Civility are the lowly reeves. A reeve is essentially a city guard, a member of the Civilia Administratum that patrols the city and enforces law to the best of their ability. Should anything turn up worse than a burglar or a drunken thug, they report to the heavy handed Guard of the Civility. Over on the other side of the hierarchy is the Magus Exterminatus. This branch is tasked solely with the extermination of heresy, most importantly those who wield the power of magic (see page _). They are headed by the Orders of the Faith, which contains each of the Orders. An Order is a small army of pious soldiers that are headed by the command of a Chaplain, who then takes his orders directly from the Inquisition. Each of the Orders tends to be centred on a certain field of expertise, such as the Eye of the Faithful being exceptionally good at espionage and assassination.

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The Orders of the Faith The Orders of the Faith is the blanket term used to distinguish the army of the Inquisition as a whole. It is advertised as serving the will of the Faith. Pious and faithful members of the Faith, who are of able body and mind, will be recruited into the Orders of the Faith as a type of special police, acting on the orders of an Inquisitor to enforce their teachings by any means necessary. The Orders of the Faith tend to be good for routing out and exterminating Heretics, and are above members of the Crimson Guard, but below members of the Inquisition. There are many different subsections of the Orders of the Faith, called Orders, each of which bearing their own special uniform and colours, with their own stories of origin. This differentiation causes them to act as a kind of personal army to each individual Inquisitorial member of the Inquisition. The primary Orders of the Orders of the Faith are listed below: The Eye of the Faithful The Eye of the Faithful is arguably the oldest Order there is. They have a very long and violent history, records dating back to activity in even the August Codex. They are masters of stealth, and carry out the will of the Inquisition by more elusive means than other Orders.

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STORM

CHAPTER II
AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD THE LORD PLANTED THE SEEDS OF LIFE, THE SOUL OF OUR WORLD. HE PUT INTO IT A PART OF HIS GREATNESS , ONLY A DROP OF HIS WILL AND FROM IT GREW THE FIRST MAN, AUGUST. THE LORD SPOKE TO AUGUST, AND COMMANDED THROUGH HIM THE CREATION O F ASTRANA, THE HOMELANDS. THOUGH THE PIOUS TEMPERANCE OF AUGUST FALTERED FOR A MERE MOMENT: THE LORD WHISPERED TO AUGUST THE COMING OF HERESY, THROUGH THE HANDS OF HIS KIN. AUGUST SOON FATHERED A DAUGHTER, AND THROUGH HIS PITY SOWED THE SEEDS OF DISCORD. LEANITH, THE FIRST HERETIC, TOOK OF THE GREATNESS OF OUR LORD IN THE LANDS OF STORM, WHERE SHE DARED SPREAD HIS GREATNESS UNTO THE PEOPLES. THESE PEOPLES WERE TAINTED WITH THE BLOOD THAT DEFIED THE WILL OF THE LORD. AUGUST, BETRAYED, BEGAN THE CRUSADE AGAINST THE HERESY OF LEANITH AT THE PLACE OF STORM. THOUGH ALAS, THE HERESY HAD SPREAD AND THE MAGUS TAINT HAD LEARNT TO EFFECTIVELY WIELD THEIR CURSE . THE COUNSILIA AD MAGUS TOOK OF THE GREATNESS OF THE EARTH, THE GREATNESS OF THE MIND, THE GREATNESS OF THE BLOOD, AND TURNED THEM INTO THE FOULNESS OF THE RITUALISTIC RITE, AND THE FOULNESS OF THE CORRUPTED SOUL. THROUGH RITUALISTIC SACRIFICE OF THEIR TAINTED BLOOD, THEY USED THE POWER OF THE LORD AGAINST HIS ALMIGHTY WILL, AND TRANSPORTED THE PLACE OF STORM TO A NEW PLACE OF CREATION . IT IS HERE THAT THE FILTH KNOWN AS THE MAGUS DRAW THEIR ILL GOTTEN POWER. -Codex of August, at the Heresy of Leanith at the place of Storm. The Codices exclaim that man is a product of the Lord s creation of Earth, and that the Earth, and man itself, is constructed of what mortals perceive as magic. A mortal known as the first Heretic, named Leanith, is the daughter of the Icon of August. Leanith did not so much forsake the will of the Lord himself, as the teachings of the Lord are dispensed via the Codices from the Inquisition, and believed that the Earth and the power within the mortals belonged to them (Believing that they are the gifts of the Lord), and that the Inquisition used tyrannical methods to bend the teachings of the Lord to conform the civility to their own agenda. The Release Leanith herself began her research into magic at the city of Storm, a place renowned for its almost unnatural and spontaneous weather. She believed that Storm was potent with magical energy, and after years of research found a way to harness the magic that was flowing through the sporadic storms that swept the city. This newly harnessed energy was impossible for any mortal to contain and the violent, chaotic nature of raw magic spread through the air and into everything it could touch. Young plants blossomed and grew at an exponential rate, covering the area in masses of foliage, whereas the weather itself radiated more fiercely than before; rain pounded the grounds whilst the light from the sun shone from every surface, eradicating all shadows. Even mortals were not spared from the surge of magic: the inhabitants of Storm were super charged with energy, their eyes gleamed with magical radiance, and their minds exploded with the relentless THE INQUISITION PAGE 7 OF 11

power released by Leanith, whom herself received the forefront of the effects of magic. Her mind grew and grew, and she could soon see places that she had not seen before, and hear voices that were not her own. The restraints of time and space no longer counted for her. This event is forever known to the magus as the release , and is the story of origin for the race. This heretical act against the Inquisition and the Faith spurred the Crusade of Storm, led by the Icon of August himself. This was the first, last, and only time that the forces of the Inquisition met as one: The Orders of the Faith and the Inquisitors themselves rode into battle against the magus. The Counsilia Ad Magus At this point, the magus had gathered under the banner of Leanith, called the Counsilia Ad Magus. The crusade was short, and the might of the Inquisition threatened to completely eradicate the newly found race of the magus. In desperation, Leanith gathered the most potent members of the Counsilia Ad Magus she could find, and founded the ring of Seers. Using her own incredible psychic powers, alongside the abilities of those who had answered her call, she underwent a ritualistic sacrifice of her magical blood, whilst concentrating her psychic energies to transport the entire city of Storm to an entirely new realm of creation, in much the same way that the Lord created a realm to house the Earth. Many people, magus and mortal alike, died during the process of Storm s transportation, including August himself. It is currently unknown, though open to much speculation, what actually happened to Leanith and the Counsilia Ad Magus, but seers claim to be able to feel their presence still with their mental connections established to Storm. The Seers The race of the magus know that Storm still exists, for it is where they call to when they need to draw from its magical energies. The lifeline for the further existence of magic, and the ability for a magus to use magic, lies within the abilities of a special type of magus known as a seer. A seer is a magus who has found within themselves a fragment of the ability of Leanith herself, and can communicate via a mental frequency that they must establish with Storm. Before a newly established magus can use magic, they must seek a seer who has an established mental connection with Storm to sync their subconscious with the energies that flow through Storm. With this connection established, a magus can summon the required magical energy from Storm, and cast magic.

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The Inquisition controls and administrates the civility as per the word of the Faith, as it is written in the Codices, and the magus have the ability to transform, create and destroy through the energies of Storm. However, the one thing that neither magic nor the Inquisition can manipulate is the one true gift given to man by the Lord: Free will. Magic may be able to manipulate and transform things beyond the ability of any mortal, and the Inquisition may be able to try and convert a man to the Faith through the Codices, or torture them into submission, but neither will ever be able to truly control a person s free will. This is a vice as much as it is a virtue for both mortals and magus, and is the reason why they continue to fight each other in an endless war, and why the Lord will never intervene directly in the destiny of the human race. While a member of the Faith may be able to slay a heretical magus, or a magus may be able to destroy a tyrant of the Inquisition, neither will ever truly understand the others plight, and are motivated by pious faith, or blood driven vengeance unto their dying breath.

The Taint While the spread of magic created the race of the magus, it also spread to the wildlife and fauna. The Inquisition recognises this spread of mutation as the taint , and that everything infected by the spread of magic defiles the will of the Lord, and is guilty of heresy, including the magus. It is the duty of the Orders to exterminate heretics from existence, as is the will of the Lord as written in the Codices.
THE RITES

CHAPTER III
Magic When Leanith and the Counsilia Ad Magus transported Storm to the new realm, the energies of Storm were split into different sections, each pertaining to a specific area of manipulation of the magical energies, called the Rites. It is in these areas that the Seers connect the subconscious of a magus, and it is here that the magus draws the energies required for their magical practices. The Rites of the Body The magus Asdranum of the Counsilia Ad Magus honed his magical capabilities to transform and manipulate the very matter that made up his own body. It is in this area of magic that one can fashion their very being to their will using the Rites of the Body, be it transforming their limbs into blades, increasing their height, or toughening their skin to withstand attacks. The Rites of the Mind The legendary seer Leanith found that the restrictions of time and space no longer bound her. At the very centre of Storm, lie the energies that surround the body of Leanith, whose psychic ability is such that its presence is powerful enough to be felt through the barrier of realities, and serves as the anchoring point for a seer s psychic link to Storm. The Rites of the Mind is the basis for any budding seer, and grant the ability to see with the mind s eye into places that a mortal would not be able to, such as into the past or the future, or at advanced stages, into places that they are not presently residing. THE INQUISITION PAGE 9 OF 11

The Rites of the Heart Emotions are something that only a mortal can feel to such an extent that it manipulates their decisions. The magus Oscilles found a way to manipulate the magical energies to hypercharge his emotions to a point where they manifested into reality: Anger pulsated through his veins, turning his teeth to fangs and his eyes wild with blood lust. Fear heightened his reflexes to near super human levels, able to detect the flash of a blade or the whistle of an arrow flying through the air. The Rites of the Soul The innermost point of a human is their soul, and is the core of their being. Everything that a being does, regardless of magus or mortal, affects their soul. The magus Naofey harnessed the energies that make up the components of the soul, and found a way to create them to create new entities that can think for themselves, called spirits. The Rites of Creation The Lord created the Earth from a slither of his divine power, and the energies manifested into a physical form. This Rite describes the methods of creating physical entities from raw magical energy, allowing the magus to erect pillars of stone right from the ground, or command water to fall from the heavens in a relentless torrent.
THE ORACLES

CHAPTER IV
AND TO FIENNES HE WHISPERED THE SECRETS OF FAITHFUL AND DIVINE FURY, DIRECTED THROUGH THE DISCIPLINE TAUGHT BY HIM, OUR LORD. FOLLOW MY NAME, AND YOU SHALL BE REWARDED SPOKE THE LORD. SUBMIT TO MY WILL, AND THROUGH THE DISCIPLINE OF FAITH YOU WILL BE GIVEN THE POWER TO ACT IN YOUR LORD S NAME. -Codex of Fiennes, at the meeting of Him, our Lord, and the creation of the Discipline of Faith. When Storm was transported by the Counsilia Ad Magus, the Icon of August was transported with it. The untameable and chaotic nature of magical energy took grasp of his soul, and he too formed into a section of Storm. Although the Inquisition defines the magus as the pinnacle of heresy, they too manipulate magical energy to their own means, though conforming to rules written in their doctrine. It is written in the Codex of Fiennes that the Lord rewarded those who served his will with what they refer to as the Discipline of Faith. The warriors whom found themselves worthy of the Discipline were known as Oracles, and link their subconscious to the Icon of August, whom resides at his own section of Storm, though they believe that they are linking their minds to the Lord himself through the presence of the Icon of August, who is the Lord s chosen, and not through another section of Storm that they believe is tied to a heretic. The Icon of Fiennes, the first Oracle, banded together the Order of the Divine Fire, which contains the Oracles of the Inquisition. Soulwise, an Oracle is nearly no different from a magus, but is still considered a mortal because they were not born with magical blood in their veins.

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At the temples of Fiennes, the house of the Order of the Divine Fire, each new Oracle must undergo a ritual wherein they ingest the magical blood of a former Oracle from the chalice of Fiennes whilst an incantation from the Disciplines of the Faith are cast onto the person drinking it. This ritual infuses the magical properties of a magus blood into the mortal, and allows them to make a psychic connection to Storm, and in turn the resting place of the Icon of August, whereupon they can draw the energy required to cast spells pertaining to the Discipline of Faith. The Discipline of Faith It is written in the Codices that those who kneel to the will of the Lord will be rewarded in their faith. However, those who do not submit to the Faith do so at the behest of their very soul, and this Discipline is directed at dealing damage to those who commit acts of heresy against the Faith. The Oracles that draw from the Discipline of Faith use the power of the Icon of Augusts everlasting commitment to serving the Lord, which is of such intensity that it still resides in his area of Storm. The commitment to serving in the Lord s name lasts through both life and death, and although the Icon of August may be considered deceased, his soul remains bound to Storm, and as suc his h contract to serve the will of the Lord is still strong enough to be reached through the barrier that holds the realities of Earth and Storm apart, allowing Oracles to tie their subconscious to it.

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