Inquisition

First Appearance and Context

The Inquisition is invoked by avout during Apert when weighing whether customs—such as footwear used while going extramuros—stretch the Cartasian Discipline. In the same opening period, two visitors who had earlier toured incognito were recognized as Inquisitors during rites; during Voco, they were seen in the Mynster and departed soon afterward.

Origins and Historical Notes

• The Inquisition was created in response to disastrous outcomes revealed during a Third Centennial opening at several maths. In the aftermath, hierarchs took on their modern forms, including Wardens Regulant empowered to inspect and impose discipline across all maths. These origins are cited to explain the Inquisition’s authority and scope.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Enforcement and guidance: Avout treat the Inquisition as the authority that investigates and penalizes departures from the Discipline.
• Deterrent in speech: Avout sometimes invoke the prospect of the Inquisition’s attention as a warning to peers when activities seem to skirt Discipline.
• Sanctions and remedies: Described by avout as able to place a concent on probation for up to a hundred years with a restricted basics diet; if standards do not improve, it may carry out a full clean‑out. It also has authority to remove and replace hierarchs.
• Appeals and the Book: Any sentence of The Book at Six or higher may be appealed first to the Primate and then to the Inquisition. Discredited or problematic writings—after their authors have been Thrown Back—are reviewed by the Inquisition and, when suitable, refined and folded into later editions of the Book.
• Branch and reporting: The Warden Regulant and her officers are technically part of the Inquisition and report to the Primate; in defined cases, the Inquisition can depose a Primate.
• Roving inspection: Inquisitors travel between concents to observe practice and keep standards uniform so that the Reconstitution remains valid. They may move among visitors incognito before revealing themselves in formal settings.
• Inquiry practices: Regulant officers may conduct formal interviews, produce shorthand transcripts, and retrieve writings from niches when initiating an inquiry.

Relationships

• Primate: Receives reports from the Inquisition; in defined cases the Inquisition has authority to depose the office‑holder.
• Warden Regulant: The inward‑facing disciplinary office within a math; its officers are treated as part of the Inquisition.
• Avout and concents: Communities inside the walls adjust practice with the Inquisition in mind and may host visiting Inquisitors who observe and inquire during openings.
• Reconstitution: Its oversight is cited as a means to maintain uniform practice so that the settlement after the Terrible Events remains in force.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Insignia and dress: Visiting Inquisitors have been seen in purple robes with distinctive hats during services, though they may tour incognito among visitors beforehand.
• Reputation and process: Described by avout as a routinized, bureaucratized process rather than a lurid tribunal; its officers can be familiar presences even when no specific case is afoot.
• Conveyance observed: In one instance, visiting Inquisitors departed the concent by aerocraft after formal rites.

Current Status/Location

Active and visible during the present opening. At Saunt Edhar, two visiting Inquisitors appeared during rites (including an aut of Voco) and have since departed; the inward‑facing watch of the Warden Regulant continues within the math. Recent activity has included formal interviews by Regulant staff and review of documents connected to ongoing concerns.