PDH’s first group is ready for prime time!
Ordo Scriptorum
The main task of the Ordo Scriptorum is to find errors and failures within Adeptus Administratum and Adeptus Astra Telepathica. The Ordo examines and investigates the communications and record keeping of the Imperium. Since its inception it has branched out and subsumed the roles and responsibilities of Ordo Scriptus, preserving the official historical records of the Imperium too. The Ordo Scriptorum maintains and scrutinises the record keeping of the entire Imperium from the present and going back to its inception, prior to the Horus Heresy and the Great Crusade. For millennia the Ordo Scriptorum has been based solely on Terra but factions within it have begun moving resources off the Throne World; they feel a presence in Sectors throughout the wider Imperium would reduce the error rate and the time it takes to discover and rectify mistakes. Plus being able to proportionate blame in person is seen as a good deterrent to scribes of the Adeptus Administatum.
Some find is surprising how well armed and militant Ordo Scriptorum Inquisitors can be. But the Ordo Scriptorm often finds itself acting within the remit of the Ordo Hereticus upon bureaucults and the fallen within the Adeptus Administratum. Plus the philosophical wars with the Ordo Scriptorum mean that its members are often required to bear arms for protection.
The current head of the Ordo Scriptorum is Inquisitor Lord Ker-slate, though it is rumoured he will soon be stepping down and handing the mantle to Inquisitor Heyward, whose principles have seen the expansion of the Ordo Scriptorum outside of Terra.
| The subjugation of the Ordo Scriptus
Through politicking and intestine wars, within the Inquisition, the Ordo Scriptus orchestrated its own subjugation by the Ordo Scriptorum. The few members of the Ordo Scriptus realised that it needed a larger power base to support its ideals and holy task of preserving the official history of the Imperium. They also decided that their work and that of the Ordo Scriptorum often paralleled each other when delving though official documentation. The Ordo Scriptus were also liable to be destroyed by the warring Ordos of Originatus and Redactus. Through years of manipulation and assassination the Ordo Scriptus destroyed the Ordo Originatus and Redactus; though the shadow of these two organisations now hangs in the dark recesses of the Ordo Scriptorum, and other Ordos, as radical factions. For the moderate Inquisitors understand that there is a fine line between what should be kept and what should be lost when it comes to the sordid history of the Inquisition. |
IRON SLEET 
Glorious! Pick of the bunch for me is the woman based on a high elf. It’s such an unexpected choice for a base model and works brilliantly.
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I have been messing with her since she came out. She had been really difficult due to the fineness of her scale. I had pretty much given up until I found the bionic claw arm and the head.
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Busy busy man – so productive peter at such a busy tyme – the lady is also mi favourite and that face will be painted perfectly I know – another group with a strong dynamic of intent …….. The background is particularly cool ……
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I am now in the lull before the storm. I plan on painting these guys dark.
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Wonderful conversions here – I love how the use of bionics transforms the base model so completely… that ex-Black Ark Fleetmaster is the standout mini for me, but they really are all lovely 🙂
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Cheers Alex. Though I think it was Bruticus that deserves credit for the inspiring the Black Ark Fleetmaster. Though I think our renditions are different enough.
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Another fantastic group, your models really are something else!
I love all the different styles of clothing and armour.
My favourite is probably the bodyguard, he looks so out of place with the blatant eccentricities of the rest of the group; He’s got a job to do and he’s going to do it. The bionics on the lady are awesome too.
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Thanks Remnante. The bodyguard’s title is actually “research assistant”. It is his job to guide the group through the bowels of Terra. I am glad he has the vibe of “He’s got a job to do and he’s going to do it.”
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Brilliant as always. Really inspiring.
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Thank you
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Fabulous! They hang together so well, lots of wonderful details. I particularly love the phrase “bureaucults and the fallen within the Adeptus Administratum”. Sounds very ‘Brazil’.
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Credit where credits due. Bureaucults are an idea that came from Robey Jenkins’ article “In the Shadow of the Throne” from Dark Magenta Issue One. A wonderful piece on using Terra as a background for an Inquisitor Campaign. I’m sure the Administratum was based on Brazil in the first place.
Page 28
Click to access DARK_MAGENTA_ISSUE1.pdf
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The Ordo Scriptorum… ipsa scientia potestas est and none knowe that better than the Holie Inquisition… the darke millenniumme is an age of utter ignorance where I imagine only the Adepts of Terra are literate… but manie are the truthes that must be unmade for the good of the faithfulle…
The name ‘Ker-slate’ at once suggests ‘wiping the slate clean’, removing any trace of past wrongdoing for the good of the Imperium…
The Administratum, immense, corrupt, decaying, byzantine and incompetent, wars are lost, yet the imperium is so vast, a million million men will replace a thousand million fallen… generations of hereditary monk-clerks livinge in an increasingly decayed cloister-office, clearing a space of desk with a shove of the hand from centuries of broken quill nibs, scraps, filth and dust, shuddering and rubbing pale augmeticised hands over a flickering light-globe and spattered with filthy water from a thousand leaks, poring over long obsolete forms, piles of completed work simply left to moulder as the very purpose of the department has been forgotten… Bureaucults… what a phrase. I am trying to speculate on their nature… how the taint could find itself in the Administratum.
The history of the Ordo Scriptorum, the deliberate submission of the Ordo Scriptus and the clandestine destruction of the Ordos Redactus and Origjnatus made for fascinating reading… I imagine the Redactus faction wish to destroy the entire history of the Inquisition and Imperium… Ignorance is Strength. Thus it is, thus it was, thus it will always be… The Originatus, far more dangerous… to find the origin of the Inquisition and Imperium… many a squalid schism, an uncomfortable fact that ought to stay buried. (I believe the Inquisition, rather than being founded at the Emperor’s express command, was actually founded after a desperate meeting between the Ascensionists as I shall call them, Promeus and Moriana… i.e. none predicted the ascent of the Emperor to the Throne…
The vicious politics and byzantine nature of the Inquisition… The Ordo Scriptorum now both attempts to keep the administratum functioning by removing the worst corruption and record and decipher the ‘true’ history of the Imperium… every trace of corruption, weakness, frailty must burn for the scandal it would give to the faithfulle.
Where to begin with such an excellent set of models?
Inquisitor Inson has a thin, hard face, hardened I imagine by long yeares of poring and grubbing in filthy decaying librariummes, interrogations… fearing for his life within the Inquisitionne itself. A face, hardened, too, in the knowledge that the ends justify the means… the parade of Terra, the endless obsequys of the carrion god, though sung by lechers and cheats, though the pilgrymmes are robbed and their bodies mutilated for organs, must go on, this man and that man’s crimes must be hidden, ad maiorem dei gloriamme…. for holie relics, for the greater glory of god… His chest is bare and covered with stitches… the relic-augmetics of the priestehoode of mars, designed to sustain his failing forme? Either that, or as one can see a sleeve, his undershirt is crudely repaired… The collar is the bone of some long forgotten creature inset with a vox device… yet another relic, worn daily, but long forgotten. His cloak of snakeskin suggests both splendour and a degree of deceit, intrigue… all necessary skilles in the inquisition… the hood too. The high supple leather boot too suggests a degree of splendour… but of course all filthy, decaying, dusty, greasie, this is the carrion millenniumme and the charnel-worlde. The bionic limb will be an ancient forgotten relic installed by ritual… agonisingly painful, now a low-level paine… The back carries a sort of rebreather type apparatus, perhaps if he needs to descend into the foetid stale incense fug and rotten air of long-forgotten vaults…
Yet his chaplet and the seal of the Inquisition suggest a piousse man… or a man who finds it profitable to appear pious. Of course, the Imperium sees no difficulty in both piety and politicking and lies if they are necessary for the good of the faithefulle and the greater glorie of the emperor…
The Ladie Acolyte, as I think of her, reminds me very strongly of manie of thistle’s ladies… an odd mix of elegance and decay, slightly unnaturally thin… the long cloak and assured pose. the fine knightlie armour now filthy, rusty, pockmarked… it’s possible to see in the long skirts of laminate armour a visual similarity to Inquisitor Inson’s reptile-skin cloak on a slightly less elaborate form… she belongs to the same world of pietie, deceit, pious deceit, sordid grubbing, concealement and murder where one must be ‘cunning as serpents’ but pious as doves. It’s interesting as a composition decision that she, too, has a heavy relic-augmetic, installed amidst much chanting and repetition of barely remembered actions. She carries a pistol, shotgun and knife… weapons for a clandestine war, for an assassination, for plotting and scheming ad maiorem dei gloriamme.
Then we have the trooper, his armour heavier and coarser, but stille, no doubt, a precious relic in the carrion-millennium, filthy, contrasting oddly with the rubberised mask and shotgunne. The quilted leg-pads, the very crudest sort of armour, still have a visual similarity with scales and tie him in with his masters in the secret warre… I wondered if he carried more fuel for Cerrius Orr but now I see there are tubes running to a rebreatherre… I wonder if they carry a chemical that makes him forget what he has seen, as so very few may be trusted with that knowledge.
Cerrius Orre got his own post from me which I’ve linked to:
https://ironsleet.com/2016/02/11/chief-redactor-cerrius-orr/
Then the two servitors, filthy, twisted, necrotic, skin sewn to fabric, metal clamped to bone, supporting a vast tome on his augmented back but with a knightlie shield… almost an allegory on how the mouldering imperium swarms in its decay with the toille of a million million twisted bodies and dwells in the splendour of the godde-menne of old. The second seems to be covered in scrolls, a hunched figure, teethe drawn, mouth cut open and a metal speaker sewn to the windpipe.
An excellent group.
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Hi PG
The head of the Ordo Scriptorum Lord Inquisitor Ker-Slate and is named after the current head of the civil service Bob Kerslate.
Thank you for your comments on the background. It was fun writing it. I just rewrote what I liked and disliked from the Codex Inquisition. I disliked some of the minor ordos that showed up in Codex Inquisition. This is due to some being better suited to the the realm of philosophies within the ordos rather than full blown entities…..hence the Subjugation of the Ordo Scriptus (that I liked) and the destruction of the Ordos Redactus and Originatus (not so much).
Inquisitor Inson – deceit and deception, hard faced – bang on.
You may find it interesting that the trooper is actually what the Ordo Scriptorum describe as a Research Assistant. It is his role to find routes through Terra’s mantle to find lost archives. Their individual background will be done for when they are painted.
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Excellent observation mr gray – must be the northern climes seepyngge in ……..
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Wow, great work PDH. As the others, I particularly like the woman. Aside from the phoenix guard, what other bitz went into her creation?
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Hey Lasgunpacker – Her head is from another model, no idea what, that was passed to me from Thistle. Her arm is from Mechanicum Scyllax Guardian-automata, shotgun from Renegade Militia, Rebreather from a Death Korp guardsman, Laspistol from an Elysian, =][= from a Grey Knight backpack and some Brass Etch. Think thats everything.
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I think a little bit of wee come out of me, those are so exciting.
They are some of the best inq28 style kitbashes I have ever seen.
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Riot – I am so glad I made you incontinent. Though I am hoping you didn’t mean it in a Bo Selecta kinda way.
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Fantastic stuff, Peter. I particularly like the research assistant with the shotgun. Love the combination of bits, and I’m always partial to models with gas masks or respirators.
The female model is wonderful as well and has a perfect stride. So much movement in that model – I just It stood out immediately, and I just love it. I wish GW/FW made more bionic bits like that arm. It is a really great choice for the model.
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Cheers SF. A pack of human sized bionics and heads would be amazing.
I am very pleased with the group so far, so much fun and such a great project to be involved in.
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Really great models as always! They make a great set with some nice subtle visual themes. Really like the repeating contrast of blocky, chunky bionics and weapons with more flowing elegant clothing and how the woman’s “scale” armor relates to the inquisitor’s actual scale cloak.
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I wish I’d thought of that! You are being too kind. The scale armour and scale cloak were not something that I’d considered. I just wanted models wearing cloaks. The ladies scale armour will be painted like glass, I remember in a Gaunts Ghost book a guard regiment wearing glass armour.
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PDH, these are FANTASTIC!
I would love to own these figures – the sinister Lord and the dedicated female character are simply superb!
I really love these models. I wish I had converted these models and was the one to paint them!
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Jakob this is the best compliment I have ever received about my miniatures. This has made my day 🙂
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Appreciate the Bob Kerslake and Jeremy Heywood reference. Heywood would be a terrifying inquisitor.
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I’m so behind. Loving the new crew. Glad to see that model finally got used as I remember discussing her when she came out. This is the sort of thing that gets me inspired to do stuff again.
Oh and I met Jeremy last week 🙂
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Oh and if only I had been planning a library scenario for years. These guys could definitely find things to do in Dalthus, especially now I’ve figured some book cases.
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