Inquisition (Warhammer 40k)



The Inquisition, formally called The Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition, is a secret organization that exists outside the standard administrative hierarchy of the Imperium of Man. The Inquisition acts as the secret police force of the Imperium, hunting down any and all of the myriad threats to the stability of the God-Emperor's realm, from the corruption caused by the Forces of Chaos, Heretics, mutants and rebels, to assaults from vicious alien species like the Tyranids, Orks or Drukhari.

The Inquisition's infamous sigil was derived from the personal heraldry of Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy and the second most powerful psyker in the Imperium of Man after the Emperor of Mankind Himself. It was Malcador who first created the secret organization that would later become the varied Ordos of the Inquisition at the start of the Heresy on the orders of the Emperor. The Master of Mankind had ordered the Sigillite to find a group of men and women of an "inquisitive nature" to search out the enemies of the Imperium, whether they lay within or without.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away, the Inquisition is formally abolished by the governmet of the Imperium of Man due to full secularization an the implementation of the Constitution of the Imperium of Man, thus it was replaced by the Imperium of Man National Police Department.