[Paladin] Inquisitor help

[Zak Arntson]

I'm working on the required Attributes for Inquisitor characters, and I was hoping to get some help from y'all.

Here's the rundown: There's three major orders of Inquisitor, each with its own specialty. If you choose an order you must give one predetermined Divinus (Light) and one Nefarius (Dark) Attribute to your character. I'm having trouble coming up with 'em all.

Ordo Cantus is the choir/preacher order, with the Arm of the Axe.
Divinus Attribute: Inspire, possibly. I'm still not sure.
Nefarius Attribute: Incite

Ordo Caudex is the scholarly order, with the Arm of the Sword.
Divinus Attribute: Enlighten or Educate (probably Enlighten).
Nefarius Attribute: Deceit (or some other form of twisting education).

Ordo Malleus is the militant order, with the Arm of the Hammer.
Divinus Attribute: Completely unsure. Struggling on this one.
Nefarius Attribute: Violence

So now I throw it out to everyone. Ideas? Thoughts?

[Bob McNamee]

for the War order....

how about...

Lead or Rally... for Light

Rout or Rampage... for Dark

Bob McNamee

[wyrdlyng]

I'm working on the required Attributes for Inquisitor characters, and I was hoping to get some help from y'all.

First question, aren't attributes supposed to be Nouns?

Ordo Cantus is the choir/preacher order, with the Arm of the Axe.
Divinus Attribute: Inspire, possibly. I'm still not sure.
Nefarius Attribute: Incite

Ordo Caudex is the scholarly order, with the Arm of the Sword.
Divinus Attribute: Enlighten or Educate (probably Enlighten).
Nefarius Attribute: Deceit (or some other form of twisting education).

Ordo Malleus is the militant order, with the Arm of the Hammer.
Divinus Attribute: Completely unsure. Struggling on this one.
Nefarius Attribute: Violence

For Cantus, Divine: Oration, Inspiration, Faith. For Nefarius: Zealot, Fanaticism, Indifferent, Apostasy, Heresy.

For Caudex, Divinus: Education, Enlightenment, Teacher. For Nefarius: Pedant, Heresy, Pedagogue, Impiety.

For Malleus, Divinus: Faith, Duty, Conviction, Hope. For Nefarius: Rage, Fury, Wrath, Frenzy.

I tapped into some of my 40k lore for appropriate items. I hope that I understood your question correctly and this helps.

[Zak Arntson]

Thanks for the replies! I've decided on the final Attributes that reflect the light and dark sides of each Order.

Cantus, in keeping with their ability to lead the flock, for good or ill: Inspiration and Zealotry.

Caudex, because their scholarship often distances them from the flock: Education and Superiority.

Malleus, due to their warlike and dutiful nature: Conviction and Violence.

(I don't think they're supposed to be nouns, explicitly, but I do think nouns look best)

[Mike Holmes]

How about Fanaticism instead of Zealotry? Just a bit more accessible. And how about Bravery instead of Conviction? Seems more combat oriented. And thus Bravery turned to violence becomes Vainglory.

Obscurity would be cool for Caudex.

In each case I'm thinking like the seven deadly sins which are all extensions and perversions of seven virtues. Thus Pride taken to the extreme becomes Vanity. Hence my Baravery idea. I like your Inspiration taken too far becomes Zealotry. But Education doesn't lead to Superiority (any more than any source of pride does). It would seem to lead to that distance, but for a reason other than pride. Hence my Obscurity idea. The Caudex take education to the point where they go beyond profundity, and nobody gets what they are saying anymore.

Just an idea or three. You don't have to go with the seven sins concept; I just thought it was a cool way of looking at things.

Mike

[Zak Arntson]

[edited to remove a weird sentence fragment]

I do have the seven sins. Avoiding the seven sins is the single Minor Law for the Paladins. I'm wary to translate them directly into Attributes since it would mean that using a Dark Attribute directly breaks a Law.

I prefer Zealotry, in light of Inquisitor's feel. I'm trading some accessibility for flavor. Bravery's good (and has more gusto than Conviction).

I like Obscurity, but is there a word with a more evil bent? For now I'm going to stick with Obscurity.

Okay, I'll stop hiding it. Here's the url for my tentative Inquisitor supplement. We'll see if it turns into an online (read: free) release or something bigger, like a commercial pdf. There's not much, but hey, it's free and unplaytested.

http://www.harlekin-maus.com/paladin/inquisitor.html

[Bob McNamee]

Misdirection?
Suppression?

Bob

[Mike Holmes]

Zak,

Looks good; when do we play?

Bob,

Oooh, those are very good.

Mike

[wyrdlyng]

After combing numerous dictionaries and thesauri(?) Suppression is the closest thing I could find.

[Mike Holmes]

Suppressoin works in the traditional opposition mode.  Education is spreading knowledge, suppression is preventing the spread of knowledge. But I like the extension mode rather than the opposition mode (this is waht I was getting at about the seven deadly sins; not to use the sins, but the principle). In which case if education is taken to mean spreading knowledge as in teaching (I thought it just meant knowledge, as in, "I have an education."), then the extension is Propaganda or Thought Control or something like that.

Mike

[Zak Arntson]

Well, I've got 'em all in stone except for Ordo Caudex's Nefarius attribute. I'm thinking:

Suppression
Misdirection
Sophistry
Deception

For now I'm going with Deception. It's vague enough to cover outright lies, miseducation, etc.

Feel free to check out what I've got online, now: http://www.harlekin-maus.com/paladin.

[Mike Holmes]

Deception's good. Education is dissemnating true information, Deception is spreading lies. Very cool. I'd play one. :-)

The rest of the game looks pretty ready to go.

Mike

[S.Lonergan]

There are also the orders

Xenos : Deals with yo alien scum needs

Hereticus : Deals wid yo blasphemourous bitches needs

Solarious : Worship yo sun...

And there are more..

[Zak Arntson]

S. Lonergarn,
Feel free to add orders as you like. Just remember, they ideally center around a way to bring faith, rather than an occupation.

Ordo Xeno would most likely be a small order who acts to make things right among alien converts (officially and publicly, the Sanctus Machina holds no aliens, but it doesn't keep aliens from converting or the possibility of an alien saint being secreted into the Machina). This would be an interesting Order because the weirdness of aliens would cause all sorts of miscommunication. Think of all the heresies aliens might be capable of, without even realizing they're going against the Church!

(aside: There's a great Stanislaw Lem story about aliens being converted to Christianity, and torturing the missionaries. They figured that since the Christian saints went through all these tortures, killing and maiming their priest would be an honorable act)

Ordo Hereticus is pretty much what all Inquisitors do, so I can't see it being a fitting order. All Inquisitors find and stamp out heretics.

Ordo Solarious would be heretical, if they worship the sun. Unless the group agrees that there is support for a kind of sun-worship in the Scripture. Look at Mary worship in the real world. Though I can't see how this would fit into the primary drive of the Inquisition.

[Mike Holmes]

Ordo Solarious would be heretical, if they worship the sun. Unless the group agrees that there is support for a kind of sun-worship in the Scripture. Look at Mary worship in the real world. Though I can't see how this would fit into the primary drive of the Inquisition.

Hmmm. Heresy. That leads to some interesting metaphysical questions. First are there heretical orders? If so, do they draw light Animus, or do they draw dark, and are just confused? Either would be interesting in it's implications.

Here are some notes on a couple of non-heretical orders that tend to lead to heresy (hence their lack of popularity or power in the hierarchy).

Ordo Nautum is the minor navigator order, with the Arm of the
Staff.
Divinus Attribute: Communication
Nefarius Attribute: Manipulation

This wordly order brings the Church's word to the far flug places of the Universe. Some find that, away from their leaders that they can slip into attracting converts through all sorts of bribery, seduction, etc.

Ordo Calibrex is the minor radically militant splinter of Ordo Malleus, with the Arm of the Powersuit.
Divinus Attribute: Conversion
Nefarius Attribute: Coercion

These guys wear powered armor, and use thier might to conquer the infidels. They are then supposed to allow the conquered to convert. They are sometimes a bit too Zealous in this, however, and find it all too easy to force conversions.

Ordo Populus is the minor order of Public Relations, with the Arm of the Warfan.
Divinus Attribute: Beauty
Nefarius Attribute: Seduction

Only the most charismatic of persons can aspire to this order. They become stars of the Church to an extent, their charge to give the word to the masses. They do so through their personal attractiveness. When the power that this gives them goes to their heads, they may forget their vows, and resort to crass methods to attract people to their own causes.

For Ordo Xeno (Arm of the Crook?) I'd use the following:
Divinus Attribute: Curiosity
Nefarius Attribute: Alien Heresy

"Ah, perhaps the Nebarian perspective is correct! If we eat our foes we will gain strength against their species!"

Mike