Inquisition - Of Radicals and Puritans: The Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition, to give its formal title, is a massive organisation that is, by its very nature, forced to interpret the divine will of the Emperor regardless of the particular ordo an agent of the Inquisition might be a member of.Such interpretations vary within and without the Ordos Majoris and this leads to certain divisions. Such divisions are referred to as "factions," highly political in nature and comprised of those individuals that share a common belief system regardless of the purpose and supposed desired methodology of the Inquisition, be it to combat the heretic, witch, Daemon or alien.While such factions are multitudinous and subject to variation both broad and infinitesimal, there are certain popular strands of belief that outweigh and enjoy dominance over others. It is from these credos that the political lattice of the Inquisition is formed and defined.Discord between ordos, or between conclaves, is extremely rare, for each has its own clearly defined areas of interest. However, the same cannot be said for Inquisitors within a particular ordo. The most frequent causes of disagreement centre around the methods used to combat the ordo's enemies. Some Inquisitors believe that the enemy can only be fought with their own weapons, such as by employing sorcery against Daemons. For others, such compromises of the tenets of the Imperial Creed are anathema, inviting corruption of the ordo's work for questionable gain.Such disagreements are often presented as a conflict between "Radical" and "Puritan" philosophies, but the truth is much more complex. The distinction between the two positions is not absolute, but relative, formed solely around the observer's subjective opinions. Few Inquisitors consider themselves either Radical or Puritan, though they are swift to label others as such.A member of the Ordo Malleus might be quick to decry a colleague as Radical for using forbidden Chaos lore to bind a Daemon to their will, little recognising that others of their ordo consider them just as dangerous for daring to consult a tome of blasphemous lore, even though they have no intention of employing the knowledge contained within.For some members of the Ordo Xenos, even learning an alien language is considered dangerous, whilst others think nothing of hiring regiments of xenos mercenaries to fight their wars. In the Inquisition, truth is often relative.The nature of the Inquisition means that there can be no appeal to a higher power when an Inquisitor believes that one of their fellows has strayed irrevocably from the proper path. Perhaps, if enough evidence can be gathered, it can be presented before a conclave, and a judgement of Excommunicate Traitoris be sought. More commonly, an Inquisitor is left to take matters into their own hands. Given the shaded distinctions between needless and necessary evils, few Inquisitors willingly involve themselves in a quarrel between their fellows.Every disagreement has the prospect of sowing division throughout the Inquisition, and it is better for all if these matters can be kept at the level of a personal quarrel. Most of the time, such disagreements burn themselves out or are superseded by genuine threats, but sometimes they descend into outright conflict between the two Inquisitors and their various Acolytes and agents.The ideological struggle between Radical and Puritan is not a battle between right and wrong, for such facile definitions seldom apply to an Inquisitor's work. Radical methods can serve as the salvation for millions, just as the close-mindedness of Puritans can doom them. Alas, there is no way to see the outcome until it has occurred.An Inquisitor can read from the tome of Chaos sorcery called the Grimoire Malefact, and can use its knowledge to close a Warp rift, but in so doing they risk opening their soul to Chaos, and becoming the very thing they most fear. Those of a Puritan mindset insist such risks are reckless and unnecessary, and would seek other methods to close the Warp rift, even if the delay doomed a dozen worlds. In this case, the Radical methodology would appear to be the correct one. But what if, by opening their mind to the Warp, the reader of the Grimoire Malefact is later possessed by a Daemon who wreaks more damage than the rift ever would have?It is little wonder that most Inquisitors cleave to a single certainty of belief, for to doubt one's actions is to be cast adrift on a sea of possibility, frozen to inaction for fear of charting the wrong course.