Ordo Theoreticus

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The Ordo Theoreticus is a minor Ordo of the Inquisition. Despite their relatively small size within the Inquisition, it has perhaps one of the most broadly defined mandates of any branch of the Inquisition--seeking answers to the unsolved mysteries of the galaxy. Despite being so small that almost the entire Ordo can be housed in a single Escort ship, their vast network of contacts and informants gives them at least some level of influence throughout the entirety of the Imperium and beyond.

Jurisdiction
The Ordo Theoreticus is dedicated to uncovering every unsolved mystery in the galaxy. Whether it's something as grand as the nature of the Warp, or as specific as whether it was a Guardsman or a Custodes that Horus slew to while fighting the Emperor, the Ordo Theoreticus seeks answers at all costs, no matter how dangerous the question may be. In a galaxy with constant incursions from a realm of literal unreality, where the details of the past are obscured by thousands of years of informational entropy and propaganda, and where witnesses to uncomfortable truths are regularly executed on the spot, this is a daunting task to say the least.

Complicating this further is the fact that just about every other branch of the Inquisition is actively trying to suppress the very knowledge the Ordo Theoreticus is seeking. The Ordo Hereticus in particular tends to be their most common obsticle, often in the form of Lord Inquisitor Remleiz's former companion, Inquisitor Vulpar. Despite this, and despite their willingness to exploit the many heretical secrets they have uncovered, the Ordo Theoreticus is every bit as devoted to the Emperor and the Imperium as any other branch of the Inquisition, regardless of the suspicions of their peers.

Origins
While investigating a matter for the Ordo Hereticus on the forge world of Voss Prime, Inquisitor Darrow found a relatively young Magos Remleiz delivering a "sermon" that primarily consisted of crackpot conspiracy theories. While his acolyte, Vulpar, thought he was nothing more than a blasphemer and a madman, Darrow found his unconventional thinking impressive and recruited him as an acolyte... along with his Vorax Automata.

Five years later the trio found themselves on the world of Qutas Prime, where they discovered the Cult of the Nine Silver Eyes, a Chaos cult dedicated to Tzeentch. The cult managed to capture Inquisitor Darrow, and began enacting a ritual that would summon nine Lords of Change into realspace to bring untold devastation to the material realm. It was only by the combined efforts of Remleiz and Vulpar that Darrow was saved, the ritual was stopped, and the cultists were wiped out. In recognition of their skill and ingenuity (and with a healthy dose of gratitude,) Darrow promoted them both to fully fledged Inquisitors. While Vulpar went on to join the Ordo Hereticus in her master's footsteps, Remleiz had far grander ambitions. He traveled to the Inquisition's fortress on Terra itself and petitioned to found a new Ordo, one that would seek out answers to the innumerable unsolved mysteries of the galaxy. Whether it was out of genuine agreement or simply a desire to keep the insatiably curious young Inquisitor occupied with a seemingly insurmountable task is unknown, but in either case his request was granted. Remleiz was promoted to the rank of Lord Inquisitor, and became the founding member of the Ordo Theoreticus.

Military Forces
As a small Ordo even by Ordo Minoris standards, they do not have the resources to bring a fully fledged Chamber Militant to bear. As such, officially they have only their dedicated force of Tempestus Scions, as all Inquisition Ordos do. That said, there are several factions both inside and outside the Imperium that are willing to come to the Ordo's aid when needed, with reasons varying from bregrudging debt to fanatical devotion, and everything in between, and those are just the ones willing to publicly declare it. While this nebulous network of alliances lacks the certainty of swift retribution supplied by the Adepta Sororitas or the Deathwatch, the inability of potential enemies to properly gauge the consequences of crossing the Ordo Theoreticus more than makes up for this when intimidation is needed.

Lord Inquisitor Remleiz
It is often said that genius and madness are two sides of the same coin. Which side of it Lord Inquisitor Remleiz is on largely depends on who you ask. As both the Ordo Theoreticus's creator and its only current Lord Inquisitor, Remleiz wields virtually unchecked authority over the Ordo's actions. Fortunately for the Ordo, his voracious appetite for knowledge keeps him far too busy to abuse this power over his subordinates. Despite unprecedented popularity within his own Ordo, the rest of the Inquisiton often treats him with suspicion at best and outright hostility at worst. However, these suspicions are largely unfounded. What appears from the outside to be recklessness on his part is merely his more thorough understanding of how the galaxy works, and how far the boundaries truly can be pushed safely. At least, most of the time....

Inquisitor Tuplov
Born on a planet held by Slaaneshi forces for over a decade, Tuplov's world was reclaimed in the name of the Emperor by the Knights of Saint Beaucard when she was just a little under 10 years old. While most of the population had to be purged for corruption, the Marine that was about the purge young Tuplov took pity on her and instead smuggled her into their Chapter's serf population. When she reached adulthood, however, she began to manifest psychic power, and could not remain among the Chapter serfs safely. Rather than turning her over to the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, the Marine that saved her reached out to Lord Inquisitor Remleiz, offering him a chance to study a mortal born and raised among deep Chaos corruption in exchange for granting her political protection from the Ordo Hereticus. Remleiz agreed and took her in, first as a test subject, then eventually as an Acolyte, where she served the Ordo Theoreitcus well. Eventually, Remleiz found potentially damning evidence about the true origins of the Knights of Saint Beaucard and thier parent Chapter. To exploit her connection to them, Tuplov was promoted to Inquisitor and deployed to reintegrate herself into their Chapter's culture while quietly investigating these possibilities.

Inquisitor Algrim Whitefang
(To be added later by User: Algrim Whitefang)

Acolyte Naerina
When the world of B'yusa attempted to secede from the Imperium, it was ironically an unsanctioned psyker who led the loyalist forces in a guerilla campaign against their rebellious planetary government. While her loyalists were few and relatively ill-equipped, Naerina's untrained yet powerful telepathic abilities allowed her underground resistance an overwhelming advantage in coordination and military intelligence. Thanks to her efforts, the Sons of the Night Space Marine Chapter faced virtually no resistance when they arrived to restore Imperial control. While the Astartes were forced by Imperial law to take Naerina into custody as a witch, her laudible actions during the rebellion were enough to convince them to turn her in to the nearest Inquisition representative rather than immediately execute her. In a stroke of luck, the nearest Inquisitor just happened to be Lord Inquisitor Remleiz, who had arrived on B'yusa to acquire rare artefacts. Impressed by Naerina's knowledge, resourcefulness, and psychic talents, he agreed to take her on as an acolyte. By his Inquisitorial authority, Acolyte Naerina is now officially a sanctioned psyker on paper, though the Ordo Theoreticus as a whole has gone to great lengths to ensure that said paper is only seen by those who absolutely must know of her abilities. Unfortunately, this secrecy surrounding her psychic powers has had some unforseen consequences....

Acolyte Pierrot Yeti
Acolyte Yeti was once a particularly infamous Magos Biologis of the Adeptus Mechanicus. His appreciation for art (most of which was salacious) would have been enough to make him an outcast, but many of his beliefs (and some of his practices) came dangerously close to crossing the line into outright heresy. This caught the attention of several heretical cults that sought to recruit him, allowing him to develop a level of trust from them without actually joining their ranks. Fortunately for Magos Yeti, Inquisitor Victoria of the Ordo Hereticus saw this as an opportunity rather than a threat, and recruited him to assist her in bringing down a particularly massive Slaaneshi cult. With his foot in the door with the Inquisition, he offered his services to the Ordo Theoreticus, which Lord Inquisitor Remleiz gladly accepted. The arrangement is a perfect fit for both--Pierrot gives Remleiz inside access to various heretical cult networks, while Remleiz gives Pierrot the freedom he craves... as well as an audience for his pornoslates.

"The Mauler"
This is Remleiz's Vorax. There are many like it, but this one is his.

The Deinonychus
The personal ship of Lord Inquisitor Remleiz, the Deinonychus is a heavily modified Claymore-class Corvette that serves as both personal dwelling and laboratory for the vast majority of the Ordo Theoreticus. Far smaller and less powerful than the ships normally "acquired" by Inquisitors as their personal vessels, the use of such a small, unassuming vessel allows Remleiz to avoid drawing excess attention during his investigations. Despite its modest size, its modifications make it far more dangerous than a standard Claymore would typically be. There are even unconfirmed reports of the ship utilizing restricted or banned technology, some of which may even be xenos in nature, though these rumors are unconfirmed.

Mysterious Elements on the Deinonychus
For an Ordo dedicated to uncovering lost knowledge and unraveling ancient mysteries, the ship housing the majority of the Ordo is oddly filled with mysterious figures and unexplained phenomenon. While some of it is contained, other portions have almost become integral to the ship's daily functioning.


 * The Text-To-Speech Device : Deep within the core of the Deinonychus's primary cogitator room is a large machine of unknown origin or function. As far as any can tell, all it does is convert written text into vocal speech, but with a voice and intonation pattern virtually indistinguishable from Acolyte Naerina's. Investigation into the nature of this device continues.


 * The Tomb World : Utilizing the Necrons' own spacial manipulation technology against them, Inquisitor Remleiz was able to contain an entire Necron tomb world of the Sacarelic Dynasty into a single, small storage room on the *Deinonychus*. He will regularly lead expeditions into this space to glean insight into these ancient xenos.


 * The Felinid Maid : By some unknown means, a single felinid by the name of "Felix" is able to keep the entire ship clean and organized, prepare meals for the entire crew, and assist in maintaining security and enforcing order throughout the entire ship by themselves. Neither Remleiz nor Felix is willing to divulge how this miracle-working abhuman came into the Lord Inquisitor's service.


 * The Daemon Holding Pen : This room once contained a creature formed when a daemon of Slaanesh that had been bound within the Omega Vault broke free, possessed a sister of the Adepta Sororitas, and was shortly thereafter bound by Lord Inquisitor Remleiz. Due to the rushed nature in which Remleiz bound the daemon within, the soul of the original host was likely still intact. The name and nature of this being had not yet been discovered before it managed to escape this containment cell. However, those who wander too close to this now-vacant cell say they occasionally hear the word "Ego" whispering in their minds.

Project: Homebrew
For most of the Inquisition, suppressing dangerous knowledge is the vast majority of their job. For the Ordo Theoreticus, this is the antithesis of their mission. In order to protect the knowledge of the Imperium from its own enforcers, the Ordo Theoreticus seeks to undertake the seemingly daunting task of creating a backup of all Imperial records, particularly those that other parts of the Inquisition would likely seek to suppress. To this end, Lord Inquisitor Remleiz has dispatched agents to nearly every Administratum facility and datavault in the galaxy to periodically send him files to add to the Ordo Theoreticus's archives. These agents disguise their transmissions as fictional fan-made stories, referred to as "homebrews" among the Remembrancers of old, to avoid Inquisitorial suspicion. These files are then stored in three different forms--Remleiz stores the original files in binary in an unknown location, Acolyte Naerina records and maintains the project's audio archive, and Inquisitor Algrim Whitefang manages the text version.

The Coming Dawn
Although Acolyte Naerina was now a legally sanctioned psyker once Remleiz recruited her, the two of them still wished to keep her telepathic abilities a secret as much as possible. While this arrangement comes with significant advantages, it made things much more difficult when trying to arrange for the psychic training Naerina had spent her entire life lacking. Eventually, thanks to Project: Homebrew, they were sent the files for the Order of the Coming Dawn, a Sororitas order that specializes in housing and training psykers. This gave Remleiz the idea of having her visit their convent, under the pretext of providing Inquisitorial oversight, to covertly observe their lessons and apply them to her own personal training. This plan to develop Naerina's mastery of telepathy proved far more effective than either of them had planned, however, when one of the psychic students fell victim to an army of Neverborn attempting to break through his mind into the material realm. In an attempt to buy themselves time to manifest, several of the Lords of Change leading the attack (suspected, though not confirmed, to be those the Cult of the Nine Silver Eyes were attempting to summon in Remleiz's youth) managed to use thier power to incapacitate the entire population of the planet with horrific visions and hallucinations. Naerina alone was able to not only resist the assault, but utilize her newfound training to bolster the student's mental defenses enough for him to regain control of his body and take his own life. Naerina departed shortly after, not wishing to remain and explain how she had achieved these feats to the Order. As they still believed her to not be a psyker, the Order of the Coming Dawn were left to instead assume that Naerina's actions were a miracle of the God-Emperor, and that she could have only performed such an astounding feat if she was a Living Saint. Her dismay over the news that she now has worshippers among the Adepta Sororitas has thus far distracted her from this incident's implications of just how powerful of a psyker she might be....

The Quest for Knowledge
Even before becoming an Inquisitor, Remleiz has been wholey devoted to the Cult Mechanicus's tenet of the Quest for Knowledge. As a Lord Inquisitor of his own Ordo, his curiosity has virtually no checks against it. This made the infamous Omega Vault, a vast repository of knowledge guarded by the Deathwatch fortress of Erioch, too tempting to ignore forever. The biggest mystery within was the innermost vault, with a door sealed with hundreds of locks bearing identifiers from various human organizations, xenos species, and even the Ruinous Powers. None had ever managed to open the door... but none with access to the vast array of forbidden knowledge available to the Ordo Theoreticus had ever tried. When Remleiz successfully opened this door, it alarmed both his Deathwatch guardians and his old companion and harshest critic, Inquisitor Vulpar of the Ordo Hereticus. Vulpar demanded to accompany Remleiz as he examined the vault, while his Deathwatch escorts demanded to organize a kill-team in case something dangerous lied within. Remleiz flatly refused the former, but granted the latter... if only because it gave him a brief moment to explore the vault unsupervised while Vulpar made her way to him and the Deathwatch assembled their team. While alone, he began to investigate a strange stasis field that appeared to contain an unidentified Daemon of Slaanesh. It attempted to tempt him with his greatest desire--infinite knowledge--in exchange for freedom. Before he could give the creature a definitve answer, however, both Vulpar and the Deathwatch arrived and trained their weapons on both him and the stasis field. As Remleiz began to respond in kind, the containment field holding the daemon failed and attacked. It attempted to lash out at Vulpar, but one of her Sororitas jumped between them, taking the daemon into her body in Vulpar's place. It twisted the Sister's form into something more suitable to itself and began to slaughter everyone present one by one until Vulpar and Remleiz were the only ones left alive. Just before it could finish Vulpar off, Remleiz managed to bind the creature into a true Daemonhost. Vulpar attempted to arrest Remleiz for heresy as soon as the dust settled, but Remleiz managed to teleport away before she could apprehend him.

(This event is currently ongoing and will have updates once they are available.)

The Skaventide (AU)
As the only Imperial body to take the warnings of those who survived the Gonara Breach Incident seriously, the Ordo Theoreticus did what it could to prepare for the Skaven threat. Combing through their archives, Acolyte Naerina learned of a Nurgle-blessed artefact that could be used to absorb any disease into the wielder to turn them into a carrier. When the Skaven appeared, Naerina hired an old contact of hers, the ancient Questor Mechanicus Freeblade Zentos Alaricum, to use the artefact and stop the plague Clan Pestilens unleashed upon Segmentum Pacificus. Fortunately, she correctly theorized that his nearly entirely mechanical body would be enough to prevent him from suffering the effects of their Pestwalker Virus.

(End of AU portion)

Allies

 * Order of the Coming Dawn
 * Zentos Alaricum

Enemies

 * Ordo Hereticus
 * Inquisitor Vulpar

By the Ordo Theoreticus
"Arebant cognitio veritatis imperatoris"

- Motto of the Ordo Theoreticus, meaning "Truth and Knowledge are the Blades of The Emperor."

"Knowledge is power. The only true heresy is ignorance"

- Lord Inquisitor Remleiz