Inquisitor
General
- Classification
- Demon (Sapient)
- Faction/Affiliation
- Burning Legion, Independent
- Homeworld
- Twisting Nether
- Area(s)
- Various
Inquisitors, or Inquisitor Demons, were towering, eyeless demons that were native to the Twisting Nether. They were characterized by their intense, feverish pursuit of knowledge, which consumed all their waking desires.
History
Very little was known about the origin and history of inquisitor demons as they did not seem to have an explicit homeworld and instead spread out across the Twisting Nether in organized groups called Inquisitions. However, unlike other demons, there was always a set number of inquisitors: no new inquisitors could be born, but neither could they be destroyed, even if they were killed within their native home of the Twisting Nether.
This unique ability, along with their feverish pursuit of knowledge, made them a prime target of the Burning Legion, and a not-insignificant percentage of their population was swept up into the Burning Crusade due to the opportunity to acquire knowledge beyond their own means.
Description
Inquisitor demons were towering, but slender, demons that hovered several feet off the ground when they moved. Their faces were skull-like, but they did not even possess sockets for eyes and instead their skulls sloped up from their fanged mouths to large, twisting horns. They had large, sharp clawed hands, and were normally dressed in ornate and flowing robes. While it was rare for inquisitor demons to be seen without their adornments, beneath the fabric, inquisitors did not have legs, but instead their torso terminated into a skeletal, whip-like protrusion that resembled an extended spine.
Inquisitors were almost always accompanied by one or more free-floating demonic eyes, which they used both to see and channel their magical abilities. Without the use of these eyes, the inquisitors were functionally blind.
All inquisitor demons had a feverish thirst for knowledge and information, and their entire goal was to acquire as much of it as possible. The means through which they did so varied greatly, though their unique abilities made torture and coercion particularly effective. The power of an inquisitor was directly linked to the amount of knowledge they had acquired, thus the most powerful of their people had vast stores of information at their fingertips.
Abilities
Inquisitor demons were naturally gifted practitioners of fel magics, and through their acquisition of knowledge their skill could grow to great lengths. However, their most iconic trait was the presence of their various servitor eyes, through which they were able to see effortlessly. These eyes were not a natural extension of the inquisitor, but were instead plucked from the skulls of mortals and enchanted through an extensive ritual that turned them into an extension of the inquisitor demon's senses. The mortal had to be left alive until the ritual was complete—which could take several hours—thus it could be interrupted if the "donor" was slain before completion, leaving the eye inert.
The servitor eyes of an inquisitor would "burn out" over time. The eyes of weaker mortals had a much shorter lifespan than those of powerful magical acumen, and this lifespan was also directly proportional to the power they could offer the inquisitor. Thus, inquisitors frequently agonized over what to do with their most powerful eyes, as consuming them could offer them power, but at the expense of longer-lasting insurance. Inquisitors could also consume any of their servitor eyes in order to grant them the truth of up to five pieces of information known by the mortal the eye was claimed from, though the eye was destroyed in the process. Mortals making pacts with inquisitor demons in exchange for power was not unheard of, though the cost was typically sacrificing one of their eyes to become one of the inquisitor's servitors—and all the information they knew was then at the demon's fingertips.
Like other demons, inquisitors slain outside the Twisting Nether reformed within the chaotic plane after some time, at which point they could continue their work. However, unlike their demonic brethren, inquisitor demons slain within the Twisting Nether were not permanently killed. Instead, one of two things could happen. An inquisitor could sacrifice their connection to the rest of their servitor eyes and immediately respawn at the location of a singular chosen eye, which remained intact. This process allowed the inquisitor to preserve some of the knowledge and power they had collected, though it was never all of it. The amount of eyes sacrificed was directly proportional to the knowledge maintained, thus fewer eyes meant less knowledge preserved, and a weaker inquisitor.
If there was only one or no eyes remaining when an inquisitor was slain, their body was destroyed and they would, in time, reform in a random location in the Twisting Nether. However, they were completely blind and with wiped memories when they reformed. The only information they retained after such a destruction was the basics of their abilities and an understanding of their being. Any other information needed to be acquired again.
The only way to truly stop an inquisitor demon was to bind or imprison them, though even this process, ultimately, simply was a delay in their activities.
Organization
Groups of inquisitor demons were organized into sects known as Inquisitions, which normally universally pursued a specific type of knowledge. An inquisitor's rank within an inquisition was based on the amount of knowledge they had acquired, though regardless of what rank they possessed, if they were destroyed in the Nether and lost their memories, they were reverted to the lowest rank of whatever inquisition they chose to ally themselves to.
The strongest members of an inquisition were known as high inquisitors, and they generally worked together as a council in order to direct their brethren towards new sources of knowledge.
However, some inquisitor demons preferred to work along, and instead operated as solitary agents across the Nether.
Known
Named
Statblocks
| Warcraft Creature Types |
|---|
| Aberration • Beast • Celestial • Construct • Demon • Dragonkin • Elemental • Fey • Giant • Humanoid • Monstrosity • Ooze • Plant • Undead |
| Demonic Creatures | |
|---|---|
| Sapient | Annihilan • Antaen • Aranasi (Spider Demon) • Asura • Darkglare • Ered'ruin • Felsworn (Fel Orc • Felblood Elf) • Flamekin • Imp Mother (Imp) • Inquisitor • Jailer • Man'ari (Brute • Doommaiden • Wrathguard) • Mo'arg (Brute • Fel Lord • Felguard • Gan'arg) • Overfiend • Nathrezim (Tothrezim) • Sayaad • Satyr • Terrorfiend • Wyrmtongue |
| Non-Sapient | Bilescourge • Darkhound • Felbat • Felbeast • Felhound (Charhound • Felstalker • Gloomhound • Xhillag) • Felsaber • Helboar • Infernal (Abyssal) • Nightmare • Ur'zul • Vilefiend |
