The Inquisition
Pitch black carriages with silver wheels and silver dormants on their horses, and they gallop down the cobblestones, and they begin to put barriers up. You recognize this at least as you've heard to be a canton quarantine.
Overview
The Inquisition is the internal enforcement arm of the Regime — the body that hunts magic users, suppresses heresy against the God-King, and removes from the population anyone the Regime has decided does not belong. Where the Garrison guards the walls, the Inquisition guards the covenant.
They are recognizable. They wear dark greatcoats with a silver raven on each lapel. They ride pitch-black carriages with silver wheels and silver dormants on the horses. They move at all hours. Wickward, on a rainy night, has lazy garrison patrols. The Inquisition does not have lazy patrols.
The Inquisition is also widely known to be silent. People they take do not return. People who know people they have taken learn quickly not to ask. The state does not say the Inquisition has come for X. The state says X failed to report. The placards in the public stockades say the rest.
Canton Quarantine
The Inquisition has the legal authority to seal an entire canton when it judges that a threat to the covenant has occurred within it. The protocol — first witnessed by the party at the end of Session 01 — involves:
- A column of carriages enters from every approach simultaneously.
- Barriers and chains are set up at every gate and main road.
- The canton is cordoned. Nothing in. Nothing out.
- Within twenty-four hours, the canton is no longer officially a canton.
What happens after step 4 is not publicly documented. What is known is that no canton that has gone through quarantine appears on official maps thereafter, and no one who was inside one when it was sealed has ever been quoted in a Regime publication on the subject.
Notable Encounters
Session 01 — Heron Quarantine
Carriages enter Heron the same night the party delivers Maret and Sable to Orvin's safehouse. Barriers go up around the entire canton. The party is still inside Orvin's home as it happens.
The Night Valdren's Family Was Taken
Twelve years before the start of the campaign, Inquisitors in the same dark greatcoats with silver ravens dragged Ilivarra, Phaerun, and Zibrisa out of their home on Millbrook Lane. Twelve-year-old Valdren fought one of them, bloodied an Inquisitor's nose, and was knocked unconscious by a rifle butt. He has spent every day since trying to find out where they were taken.
Notable Members
(Unknown by name. The Inquisition does not give its operatives names that are made public.)
Goals
- Enforce the magic ban.
- Identify and remove threats to the covenant.
- Carry out canton quarantines.
- Make the existence of "questioned people" disappear from the historical record.
Relationships
- The Regime — Operates under the God-King's direct authority.
- The Garrison — Parallel arm. The Inquisition outranks the Garrison in practice.
- The Resistance — Primary target.
- House Ashworth — Officially tolerated. Quietly watched.
Symbol
A silver raven, wings spread, eyes empty. Worn as a brooch on the left lapel of each Inquisitor's coat. Flashes in lamp light. Reflected the night Ilivarra was taken. Reflected the night Heron was sealed.
Status
Active. Empowered. Mobile.