Ordo Hereticus Radical Inqusitors

[mysterex]

It's fairly clear from the background what radical inquisitors for the malleus and xenos orders are like; they either hold on to one of the radical philosophies concerning chaos (e.g. Xanthites) or they use xenos items or assoicate with xenos respectively.

What I don't clearly understand, despite the section in codex witch hunters, is what defines a radical in the hereiticus aspect. Is it holding divergent views on where the Ecclesiarchy's powers start and end? Is it something as simple still holding to the crusade era Imperial Truth?

If someone can give me examples from the background I'd appreciate it.

[Nabterayl]

The defining quality of a radical is that he is willing to use any tool or power in pursuit of his chosen prey. A radical OM inquisitor is perfectly happy to use daemons to hunt daemons. A radical OX inquisitor is perfectly happy to use xenos weaponry, or even xenos mercenaries. For a radical OH inquisitor, witchery* is the most obvious example. A radical Hereticus inquisitor might use his psychic powers to violate the mind of a captive in order to extract from him the location of his co-cultists, or capture a rogue witch and then press him or her into service in the inquisitor's retinue. Some might brand an inquisitor as a radical simply for using psychic powers at all.

More generally, if you can imagine a heresy, a radical Hereticus inquisitor would find a way to use it against the enemies of the Imperium.

* "Witchery" does not have a good Imperium-wide definition. Some consider all psychic powers to be "witchery." Others draw a distinction between "psykers," sanctioned by the Emperor and properly trained and monitored, and "witches," who operate outside of Imperial control.

[Just_Me]

Well, do recall that technically the Hereticus isn't around to enforce the Ecclesiarchy's doctrine, they are meant to watchdog them as well as the rest of the Imperium for treachery and threats from within. While the other two great Ordos handle threats that originate from outside the Imperium EVERYTHING inside the Imperium not directly under the mandate of the other two is the responsibility of the Hereticus; most prominently rogue psykers, but actually everything "internal." The term "Witch-Hunters" is a colloquialism, and something of a misnomer, while rogue psykers have the greatest potential threat of all internal threats, they are neither the only such threat nor even most common one. They are supposed to guard against treachery in any form, with the aim that the Reign of Blood (or the Horus Heresy for that matter) never be repeated.

With this in mind I think you are right in supposing that the Xanthites are most commonly found among the OM, as it offers both the greatest exposure and the greatest opportunities. But as Nabterayl points out a radical OH Inquisitor might rampantly abuse their psychic powers (assuming they have them of course), and as psykers use a form of warp energy, it wouldn't be that big a leap for them to start to wonder what other useful tools might come from that source...

The way I see it the OH is a prime breeding ground for Recongregators (everything is corrupt, so tear everything down and start fresh) and Istaavians (social Darwinists on crack). Neither the OM nor the OX would likely be exposed to that sort of logic in the course of their work (maybe some of the OX would ascribe to a modified version of the Istaavians, broadened to include conflict with other species), so I suspect that while most Xanthites come from the OM, most of the followers of the Recongregator and Istaavian camps would come from the OH.

Of course, all of these philosophies can be extrapolated to each of the great Ordos mission statements if you really try, so there are almost certainly members of each camp from each major Ordos.

Another interesting point to consider are the more radical sub-factions of the Thorians described in the Thorian Source Material supplement for Inquisitor, some of whom give the Xanthites a run for their money, in fact Thorians and Horusians (uber-radical arm of the Xanthites) have a common ancestry and are actually different sides of the same coin. Many of these factions have very strong reason to associate themselves with the OH.

Actually, to my mind if anyone gets left out in the cold in terms of factionalism, it is my beloved Ordos Xenos, but then everyone thinks that about their "pet" faction. It is true that with a little twisting the basic philosophies of some of the existing models can be applied to them (just cross out every instance of the words "chaos" and "warp" in the Xanthites description and pencil in "xenos" and presto!), but the fact remains that most factionalism is seen in terms of their attitude towards the Warp. It is only recently in the Dark Heresy books that we have started to see some factionalism "tailored" for the OX, and even then only a couple of them.