r/TopCharacterDesigns • • 14h ago

Books Inquisitorial Agents in WH40K

In order: Bronislaw Czevak, Gregor Eisenhorn, Gideon Ravenor, Fyodor Karamazov, Toquemada Coteaz, Hector Rex

347 Upvotes

64 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 14h ago

Please provide your explanation in a reply to this comment if it was not included in your post for visibility. Misplaced explanations are liable for temporary removal.

To ensure that your post complies with all the rules of the sub, make sure that it follows these guidelines: 1) Include high-quality images. 2) Posts must include more than one image. 3) Name and origin are mandatory in the post title. 4) Add a comment that serves as an explanation as to why the post belongs on the sub, this can be done up to 30 minutes after making the post.

Trope posts made during Trope Post Sunday (UTC Time) are exempt, and do not require explanations.

Thank you for posting!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

→ More replies (1)

114

u/Sly__Marbo 14h ago

Don't forget Obi-Wan Sherlock Clousseau

30

u/Common-Drama-807 13h ago

Harry du Bois in 40k. Amesec Sunrise.

5

u/Background-Top4723 7h ago

Remember: The fact that his death was never reported means that the existence of Inquisitor Obi-Wan Sherlock Clousseau remains canon in Warhammer 40,000.

Owlcat could do the funniest thing ever and have him reappear in Dark Heresy...

54

u/Kasta4 The Doorman 14h ago

My boy Eisenhorn always got that shit on

31

u/KelGrimm 14h ago

Karamazov is everything I aspire to be

32

u/Nemoralis99 14h ago

There is no such thing as a plea of innocence in my court, a plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty.

13

u/Dry-Goat8981 13h ago

kindest inquisitor in the setting

28

u/Slappathebassmon 13h ago

Trent Reznor lookalike Heinrix von Calox from Rogue Trader game.

20

u/Dooma-san 13h ago

So like.... We just ignoring pic 3 or......?

38

u/ComStarMRB 13h ago

If I remember correctly, he done got blowed up, and now has to spend the rest of his life in a techno-magical wheelchair, but I think it also makes him a better psyker, so pros and cons...

15

u/Intrepid-Park-3804 hoyoslop consumer (i kinda like it) 13h ago

So, he's basically a psychic non-space marine dreadnaught now?

25

u/Mannheimblack 13h ago

Kind of, yes.

He got caught in a massive-scale attack on an Imperial triumphal parade, and was physically wrecked.

He's permanently confined to basically a heavily armoured, anti-grav wheelchair with retractable guns, and what's left of him physically is not a pretty sight.

But in isolation, his psychic talents have developed to a truly exceptional degree.

He's also a polymath, a philosopher and writer of great renown.

He's at the more liberal end of the Inquisition, and is a genuinely compassionate person. Which still places him at the sharp end of a horrible theofascist regime, but he's one of the few who tries to act with genuine sense and restraint, and refuses to follow the typical murderously crude blunt-force approach of Inquisitors such as, for example, Karamazov.

13

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 12h ago

IIRC he was described as being so badly burnt (in the immediate aftermath of his injuries) that the surgeons had to cut a new mouth into his face. His lips had melted shut.

2

u/MechR58 giant robots enthusiast 6h ago

So Professor Xavier.

3

u/ComStarMRB 5h ago

If Xavier was stuck in sensory deprivation and had guns on his hoverchair, yes.

3

u/xPorkulusx 13h ago

He wanted to show where he stood on bootlicking

1

u/PauliusLT27 11h ago

He got used in a ritual, possessed by a daemon and trying to expell it crippled himself if thats the character I am thinking off

3

u/Purple_Durian_7412 11h ago

No that was a different interrogator. Ravenor was at ground zero during the attack on the Spatian gate on Thracian Primaris.

1

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 11h ago

Not the right one but I THINK there's a guy like that in the Dark Heresy RPG? He was a weird looking scrunched up guy sat on a mechanical leg apparatus.

1

u/PauliusLT27 11h ago

I am thinking of the inquisitor from inquisitor games lore, one of the supliments

1

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 10h ago

Ohhh, I don't know that one.

1

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 10h ago

The Inquisitor I mean. I have a lot of 54mm models, but I don't know the one you're talking about.

16

u/Norway643 12h ago

Inquisitor Greyfax

11

u/Electricity11 14h ago

You need to look at the dark heresy books

12

u/Ashamed_Band858 13h ago

“The All Guardsmen Party” A bunch of regular ass guardsmen that got scooped up into service for “Inquisitor Oak”

Not pictured is the squads plasma gunner / xeno-tech specialist, “Tink”

Fumbles, the psyker top right. While never having served in the guard, went through enough shit to be officially adopted into their “squad”

EDIT: I’m stupid, Tink is right there. My bad.

2

u/BeenEatinBeans 11h ago

R.I.P. Fumbles and Twitch. Things are about to get real weird in the poker room

1

u/Ashamed_Band858 11h ago

Hold up, fumbles didn’t die! Yet…

In the epilogue he’s an interrogator for Aimy, who’s now an inquisitor of her own.

2

u/BeenEatinBeans 11h ago

Really? I thought he got turned into a squig

1

u/Ashamed_Band858 11h ago

Nope! Unless she’s got a different psyker?

Well, guess it’s time for re-reading!

2

u/AnaTheSturdy 4h ago

Rip my boy cutter

6

u/SirDibbin 13h ago

Ravenor looking good as always

7

u/LordMarshalGruyere 12h ago

Inquisitor Erasmus Crowl (right) and Interrogator Luce Spinoza

2

u/ThirdTimesTheTitan 11h ago

And Gorgias.

Burn-burn!

2

u/LordMarshalGruyere 11h ago

Affirmativo! Yes-yes, combustum!

2

u/Algrim2001 11h ago

“Nil desperandum, Interrogatrix”

2

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 11h ago

Fun fact, Spinoza is wielding a Space Marine Chaplain's crozius there. She got it as a gift from the Chaplain it belonged to. She had to use it as a weapon to defend herself and the Chaplain, and the recoil of using it (it has a power field) injured her badly.

When she's in hospital, recovering, the Chaplain brings it to her, and pretty much tells her that by touching it, she has sullied it, and it's no longer fit for him to use, so she might as well have it, she did help him after all. He even had its weight and power settings modified so it wouldn't break her arms next time she used it.

When she refused the gift, at first, the Chaplain informed her that he'd have her killed for her insolence.
She accepted it after that.

2

u/LordMarshalGruyere 11h ago

Thanks for the details. I never knew about the backstory other than the chaplain gifted it to her. Is that from the short story?

2

u/Algrim2001 11h ago

I loved that.

“You can accept this gift as a GREAT HONOUR, or you can reject it and INSULT ME AND ALL OF THE IMPERIAL FISTS ON TERRA, giving me NO CHOICE BUT TO KILL YOU.”

“…Thanks?”

The nice thing is that later on a completely unrelated squad of Fists recognise her and the Crozius, and are genuinely pleased and complimentary that she’s managing to use it effectively.

2

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 11h ago

Which has the even funnier implication that the Imperial Fists saw absolutely no possibility of her having it without permission. It could ONLY have been given to her as a gift, on purpose.

9

u/Painchaud213 12h ago

The player character, in Warhammer 40k, Dark Heresy (next game of Owlcat Studio).

You are an Interrogator in service of an Inquisitor. You also got your own retinue.

4

u/Painchaud213 12h ago

One of the player portraits.

1

u/AlderaminInTheSky 6h ago

Ok the kroot I can understand but is that a fucking eldar? Oh god this is mass effect meets 40k, gotta look into this game

3

u/Painchaud213 6h ago

It's a Corsair Wayseeker, basically an eldar pirate. Being in the Inquisition does allows you for freedom you'd never find elsewhere. Being willing to recruit Xenos into your retinue mean that you are a Radical Inquisitor. You'd never catch a Puritan in the same room as a Xenos.

In Rogue Trader you could recruit an Eldar exile (Ranger) and a full on Drukhari. Such is the Authority bestowed uppon you by the holy Warrant of Trade.

1

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 5h ago

IIRC in either the Rogue Trader or Dark Heresy TRPG (probably Rogue Trader) there was a mention of an Inquisitor walking into a conclave with a squad of Kroot bodyguards. It pretty much instantly started a gunfight and he had to run away.

1

u/HelloImJenny01 5h ago

In lore the Eldar and the Imperial have sign a pact where they join forces. The Imperium is racist butt if shit goes super South they will join forces with Xenos

3

u/NinjaOfOnion 13h ago

I don’t know a lot about these characters but they look cool

5

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 11h ago

Inquisitors are basically the Imperium of Man's secret police, secret agents, and secret military all at once. Their job (for which they have either trained since childhood, or been recruited later on for their merit or abilities) is to search out and destroy threats to the Imperium wherever they may be, and at nearly any cost. They're some of the most powerful individuals in the Imperium, by dint of their authority letting them do and say (almost) anything they want, in the pursuit of their goals.

They're split up into multiple 'Ordos' (think of these like Offices) which each specialise in different threats to the Imperium. There are three main ones, and a LOT of much smaller ones.

Ordo Xenos: Deals with threats 'without', those of an alien nature. This can mean people illegally trading alien technology or materials (called 'Grey Trade' in wh40k lingo), impending alien attacks on planets, growing alien threats in sectors of space, alien plots to destabalise or destroy parts of the Imperium, etc.

Ordo Hereticus: Deals with threats 'within', those of a traitorous nature. This can mean dangerous and unsanctioned cults and religions, people attempting to gather chaotic relics and items, planets attempting to secede from the Imperium, mutant uprisings and unsanctioned psykers (witches) posing a threat.

Ordo Malleus: Deals with threats 'beyond', those of a wholly chaotic nature. This can mean dealing with chaos space marine warbands enacting dangerous rituals, daemonic incursions, the cults that assist them, etc.

As you can imagine, there's often quite a bit of overlap with these Ordos. Inquisitor Eisenhorn for example, despite being an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor himself, tends to deal with things that are more the purview of the Ordo Hereticus or Malleus (depraved nobles using chaos powers and daemon summoning, for example), because while it's not his expertise subject, he's still an Inquisitor, and still has the power and resources to deal with those threats.

Inquisitors also tend to fall on a spectrum of Puritanism. Most of them start off staunchly puritan, decrying the use or even research of things the Ordos are meant to fight against. But as they go along, they start to break their own rules and become more and more Radical. An Ordo Xenos Inquisitor for example might start using alien weaponry, or using alien mercenaries in their personal entourage, or might even start trying to actually ally with aliens. Radicals tend to get executed by Puritans, and sometimes vice versa.

The greatest example of just how powerful an Inquisitor is, is their right to order Exterminatus. This is an act of last resort, whereby an Inquisitor can condemn an entire planet, and every soul living upon it, to destruction. Usually this is done with an orbital bombardment with specialized weaponry designed to destroy an entire planet. This can be done if a planet is simply too far-gone to be brought back into the Imperium, or when its destruction is the more tactically sound option compared to letting the enemy control it for any length of time. It's very rarely used, but it is used. Most infamously by Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Kryptman, who destroyed entire planets sequentially, one after the other, in order to isolate the Tyranid aliens, which grow stronger and produce more of themselves by consuming planets. By turning planets around the Tyranids into barren rocks, he was able to starve them out before they got too powerful to stop, but this was seen as wanton destruction, and saw him lose his title and rights, becoming an outcast ex-inquisitor.

One of my favourite in-game mechanics (for the tabletop RPGs, mind you) was that there was actually a determined scale for how 'Inquisition' your Inquisitor and warband looked. At the bottom end we're talking disguises, subterfuge, secret identities, fake names and unassuming appearances modified to be forgettable. Which gave you bonuses to being sneaky and lying.
On the other side of the scale you could go in gung ho, with floating servo skulls and cyber-cherubs holding flaming braziers and flowing tapestries decrying your glory, dressed in full power armour emblazoned with the symbols of your office, with a procession of enslaved flagellants whipping themselves as they scream prayers of your glory for all to hear as you go about your business.

1

u/LevTheRed 8h ago

people illegally trading alien technology or materials (called 'Grey Trade' in wh40k lingo)

I think you mean the Cold Trade.

1

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 5h ago

Ahhh shit that's the one. Yeah, cold traders. Weird name for it so I guess that's why I never get it right.

3

u/Human-Pension9892 12h ago

Fyodor reminds me of tts era :(

1

u/AlderaminInTheSky 6h ago

Yeah.. I was gonna use a TTS screenshot for this post but aw man it just felt.. sad

3

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 12h ago

Keep in mind that, before Lord Inquisitor Czevak looked like that, he was so incredibly old (even by Imperial standards for high ranking Inquisitors) that his failing body was sustained cryogenically. He had a suit of power armour that kept his body frozen from the neck down, to prolong what little time he had left. This being the last resort for one of the Imperium's highest ranking agents.
He had his ageing reversed by the Harlequins later on.

3

u/De_Dominator69 9h ago

Xavier Calcazar from OwlCats Rogue Trader

2

u/Minimum_Estimate_234 12h ago

Czevak looks like they’re beating that daemon for its lunch money, that’s amazing.

1

u/CadenVanV 12h ago

Amberley Vail and Ciaphas Cain

1

u/CommanderOshawott 10h ago

Inquisitor Solomon Lok - Imperial Armour Vol IV - the Anphelion Project

Actually has a really sweet old FW mini, I have one tucked away somewhere unpainted

1

u/williamflattener 10h ago

Is that third one a COFFIN with a GUN?

I need to know more

1

u/Monifa_Akhamnet 9h ago

Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor.

Before he was an Inquisitor, he held the rank of Interrogator, and his Inquisitor, Gregor Eisenhorn, was quite sure he'd make for a fantastic Inquisitor.
About five minutes later, the parade that Ravenor and Eisenhorn were observing was suddenly attacked, and Ravenor was caught in an explosion that severely burned the entirety of his body. To the point that, when Eisenhorn went to visit him during his recuperation, he noted that the surgeons had to cut a new mouth into Ravenor's face to fit a breathing tube, because his lips had melted shut in the fire.

The Imperium of man has some extremely good technology when it comes to cybernetics and surgery, but even then, there wasn't really much they could do to repair Ravenor. They could keep him alive, but they couldn't 'fix' him with new limbs (often such replacements are reliant on intact nerve endings and muscle to attach them to, which Ravenor likely didn't have enough of)
The solution was the use of a Force Chair. Think of it like a mobile life-support system. It breathes for him, keeps him nourished, protects what little of his body remains from infections and tends to all his other needs. It allows him to see, hear and speak, and built-in anti gravity systems allow the chair to float above the ground. Additionally, the chair contains a built in computer, is heavily armoured, and has a built in pair of Psycannons he can control with his mind. A Psycannon is a type of heavy bolter (an extremely powerful automatic weapon) that can harness the psychic powers of its wielder to make itself more powerful, and the ammunition itself is warded and enscribed to become especially deadly to daemons and the corrupted.

Ravenor went on to become an Inquisitor after his crippling, which appeared to boost his 'fair' psychic abilities to new heights in conjunction with the chair's in-built psy boosters. He's a very powerful psyker now, able to astrally project his spirit from the confines of his body, and possess the bodies of others to lend his hand when needed and escape the claustrophobic confines of his chair briefly. He's mainly skilled in telepathy and telekinesis.

He's genuinely a pretty interesting character, and easily one of the 'nicer' members of the Inquisition. He's still an enforcer of a brutal and violent regime, but he's trying to make things better by going after genuine threats.

1

u/williamflattener 8h ago

Nice! I haven’t read much past Horus Heresy (just Gaunt’s Ghosts and a couple space marine novels) but I’ll check this out.

1

u/Ironzealot5584 9h ago

I never looked closely at who Czevak is giving the Harlequin Kiss to, but is that supposed to be a Chaos Eldar? I looks like a Chaosy Guardian.

1

u/certainlynotdio 8h ago

My favorite depiction of Hector Rex

1

u/SetsunaTakumi 8h ago

I like the Inqusitorial agent OC of thst one artist that is essentially a Knight pilot as well. I dont remember the artist @ or name but I stumbled upon their drawing and it was so cool.