The new Inquisition codex a hot topic right now, and the creation of a new Ordos for the book sounded exciting. Well, a very diligent reader sent in this information is really no longer available from the man himself who created the Ordos Chronos. This is a rare set of writing that digs into the thoughts behind the creation of these alternate Ordos.
James, a huge thanks to you for sending this in to me, as I am sure like myself there are lots of readers that are interested in it.
via James in an email sent in for Faeit 212
The Ordos was created for a Dark Heresy supplement by Andy Hoare. It was short background text only, no rules or equipment, etc.
Anyway, the reason I'm emailing is that a while after the supplement was published, Andy blogged about the Ordo Chronos and why he'd created it.
Here is the article and writing by Andy Hoare about the Ordos Chronos
via Andy Hoare from his own blog back in 2011 (which is no longer accessible)
Friday, 25 February 2011Existential cogitations on the Inquisitorial Ordos
Scanning the interwebs recently I came upon a discussion on a minor piece of background (sand-boxed to the Fantasy Flight Games setting) relating to an arm of the Inquisition that I myself am responsible for creating, and it was interesting to see people’s reactions to it and their theories as to just why it was created. The discussion reminded me of my own chain of thought during the writing of the piece in question, so I thought I’d write a blog entry on the subject.
The arm of the Inquisition in question is the Ordo Chronos, and it first appeared in the Dark Heresy: Ascension supplement. It came into existence not as a random whimsy or any desire to introduce a Time Lord-like archetype into Warhammer 40,000, but, initially at least, as a response to a design challenge. When we wrote Ascension, Games Workshop’s Manager of Intellectual Property, Alan Merrett, provided us with an overview of the current standing of the Inquisition. Alan’s document was thorough and presented a guide for writers working on any subject relating to the Inquisition, ensuring we all knew which themes were worth pursuing and which weren’t. One piece of wisdom addressed the question of Inquisitorial Ordos, stating that there are three which we really care about and should focus on, but that others do exist, if only for a short time or specific place.
This got me thinking, because I’ve always felt that the three Ordos cover between them every single threat to the Imperium we could possibly imagine. What enemy of Mankind couldn’t be encompassed within the mandate of the Ordo Hereticus (the Enemy Within), the Ordo Xenos (the Enemy Without) or the Ordo Melleus (the Enemy Beyond)?
In the past, both writers and players have invented other Ordos, but to be honest, they’ve never really ringed true to me. We’ve had the Ordo Sicarius, established to look out for and deal with rogue assassins, but wouldn’t that be a job for the Ordo Hereticus? We’ve had other Ordos described as dealing with all sorts of other things, including Plague Zombies, which to me would fall under the remit of the Ordo Malleus, being products of Chaos. To me, the three main Ordos exist to combat truly existential threats to the Imperium and to Mankind, and so any new ones we invent should do so too, and be clearly delineated.
So what existential threats might exist beyond the three already covered by the main Ordos? I could think of two, and I’m quite sure others will be able to come up with more. The first is the notion of time distortion, a phenomenon already seeded into the Warhammer 40,000 oeuvre via the hazards of miscalculated warp jumps. That’s why I created the Ordo Chronos – not as some huge, fanfared plot device, but as a nice little example of the sort of threat that should, in my view, merit an Ordo all its own.
To return to the discussions I was reading about the Ordo Chronos, some people did seem to view them as one-dimensional, 40k Time Lords. That’s not the case at all, as after all, existing to combat the effects of time distortion doesn’t mean they bring it about. However, as Inquisitors they would be just as subject to factionalism as their peers. Perhaps Puritan Ordo Chronos Inquisitors (‘Time Hunters’?) ruthlessly hunt down anyone who has fallen prey of a mistimed warp jump, just in case anything happens to alter the Imperium’s fate. Equally, perhaps Radical Time Hunters seek to utilise heretical technologies, and consider changing the course of history a valid way of keeping the Imperium alive? Just imagine the wars that these two factions could be fighting without the rest of the Imperium ever even knowing about it!
Sounds cool to me, so as a hobbyist, I want to know what these guys might look like. Perhaps they’re a bit steam punkish, with cog emblems, huge mechanical goggles, idiosyncratic technologies and eccentric costumes? Maybe the Radicals are accompanied by all sorts of riff raff washed up by the tides of space-time? I can certainly picture a little ‘Victorian sci-fi’ here, but maybe that’s just me!
What of the other existential threat then? Well, this one is a little vague, but Stewart Brand once said something along the lines that ‘information wants to be free’, and in the Imperium, the ultimate oppressive state, that would make it pretty dangerous. Dangerous enough to warrant an entire Ordo to keep it under control? Maybe! Who do you think it is that goes around deleting files in the Imperium’s archives? They don’t just get corrupted, they get wiped, from everywhere, and that’s some undertaking! I have a tongue in cheek name for these guys – the Ordo Redactor – and I imagine them as grey-suited, blank-faced agents who ensure information is kept under control. Maybe the Puritans believe in hiding the truth away, deleting it even, so that it never escapes. Perhaps the Radicals believe it better to hide it in plain sight, as many conspiracy theorists believe actually happens today?
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the relevance of the Ordos and the existential threats they combat. Hopefully this whimsical diatribe also reveals something of my thinking too (though maybe not!) I’d be very interested in hearing if anyone else can think of some more