Line #4 Literature/TheInquisitorCycle


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/59689179_2170747763004549_3921253395482017792_n.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:250:Translation: ''Me, an Inquisitor. Servant of God.'']]
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4	A Polish book series written by Jacek Piekara revolving around the adventures of Mordimer Madderdin, a [[ChurchMilitant Inquisitor of the Holy Office]]. In this universe, UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} took a radical turn where Jesus Christ didn't die for our sins, but became a ruthless warlord that conquered the Roman Empire by force and since then, the world has been ruled by the Inquisitors. Mordimer is a rookie Inquisitor that just acquired his license to operate, considers himself a man of faith, a servant of God and a hammer of witches. Soon he becomes involved in political intrigue, conflict with the forces of darkness and the enemies of the Empire.
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6	A game based on the first book ''The Inquisitor'' is being developed by Polish developer The Dust.
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8	!!This book series contains examples of the following tropes:
9	* NinetiesAntiHero: A particularly nasty case, since Mordimer is barely qualified to be called even an "anti hero". The protagonist of the series is a remorseless inquisitor of a particularly corrupt version of the Catholic Church. His job involves brutality and excessive violence just to keep things in order, while he never shows any signs of developing consciousness of what horrible things he is doing for a living - and in fact, he enjoys them a great deal, with "job well done" feeling each time he closes the case. Anything that gets caught in a crossfire of his chase after heretics and witches is just their problem, not his. And yet, he's the protagonist of the series and compared with things and people he's facing on routine basis, a definitely good guy and next best thing to a heroic figure.
10	* AHandfulForAnEye: Mordimer's arsenal includes a supply of toxic powder to throw into his enemies' eyes.
11	* AlternateHistory: In this timeline, Jesus did not die on the cross, but rather conquered Rome by force and slaughtered every Jew in Judea, becoming known as "The Butcher of Nazareth". All surviving Jews found refuge in either Persia or China. Islam never comes into existence because Muhammad is killed by a random Christian desert patrol. As a direct result, the Persian Empire never falls and remains an enemy to the Romans.
12	* AntiMagicalFaction: The Inquisitorium, and more broadly the entire Church are supposed to be this. Theoretically there is no black and white magic for them, healing an inquisitor is punished as severely as consorting with demons. [[spoiler: As time goes on, however, it turns out that this is fiction - the Inquisitorium practices magic in secret, many of the most powerful Inquisitors are former sorcerers. Common criminals are burned at the stakes instead of real witches, and instead of books of magic - forgeries. Adding to the irony, inquisitors also practice magic that even in the most magical-friendly setting would be considered evil, such as demon summoning or necromancy. ]]
13	* BurnTheWitch: Witches are routinely hunted down and executed by the Inquisitors.
14	* CharacterDevelopment: With a twist. The whole saga is written as Madderdin's gradual realisation that he's living in a CrapsackWorld, serving evil people for an utterly corrupted faith that makes him do horrible things in the name of it... and him ''embracing it'' in informed fashion, rather than start to develop a counsciousness or scrupules or running on blind faith alone.
15	* ChurchMilitant: The main character and his organization unsurprisingly, but this universe's version of Christianity is a lot more militaristic as a religion teaching it's followers to be without mercy.
16	* CreepyTwins: Two of Mordimer's companions are a pair of crossbow-wielding bandit brothers with a taste for [[ILoveTheDead necrophilia]].
17	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Mordimer's mother was a witch that wanted to gain immense power from a dark magical tome and he became orphaned after she was arrested by the Inquisitors. One of them, Arnold Löwefell, takes him under his wing and raise him to become a Inquisitor himself.
18	* DarkFantasy: For starters, the cycle is set InAWorld where Jesus rather than dying for anyone's sins, descended from the cross, butchered all of Jerusalem and then proceed to conquer Roman Empire. Christianity is all about ''no'' mercy whatsoever, while being run by one of the bleakest {{Corrupt Church}}es ever described. Then there is heavily hinted issue of DemonicInvaders and eventual [[spoiler: CosmicHorrorReveal]]. Plus just the general CrapsackWorld nature of the setting.
19	* DarkMessiah: ''Jesus Christ himself''. Rather than dying on the cross for anyone's sins, he ''came down'' and proceed to first wipe out ''all'' the Jews in Judea who didn't follow him, then conquered the Roman Empire. [[spoiler: For a while it was implied that Jesus ''did'' die on the cross and what followed was just PeoplePuppets by the demonic powers, but that got ultimately ret-coned and simply ignored in the following books]].
20	* DungAges: There are only two things that Madderdin absolutely hates about the world around it: it's dirty and it stinks. Befitting DarkFantasy, this trope is exaggerated to almost comical proportions.
21	* DungeonBypass: Appears in one story - the team descends into haunted ruins, and after facing several deadly traps decides to use one of the twins' powers to create a shortcut - the effort is cripplingly painful and takes him out of commission for the rest of the story.
22	* EvilGloating: Cornelius, [[spoiler: the alchemist]] from ''Sowers of Dread''. He's so full of himself and his discovery, the fact he got captured by Inquisition only makes him giddy. After all, he finally has a chance to boast about his achievements to someone with enough brain power to appriciate them.
23	* FallenAngel: Notably, they are a separate thing from the legions of Hell and barred entrance, but not welcomed back in Heaven, either.
24	* FirstPersonSmartass: The stories tend to be narrated by Mordimer himself, who isn't above snark or going on lemony tangents.
25	* FracturedFairyTale: ''Orphans'' is blatantly ''Literature/HanselAndGretel'', gone grimdark. [[spoiler: The titular orphans are in fact two demonic beings that are AlwaysChaoticEvil and use the innocent {{Empty Shell}}s of the lost children [[PeoplePuppets as their hosts]], while the witch was doing her very best - and succeeding - in containing them and then dispelling them away. Mordimer first allows her to finish her job, then gets patched by her after barely making it alive himself... and then sentences her to the death on a stake for being a witch]].
26	* HaveYouSeenMyGod: After finishing His conquest, Jesus ascended into heaven and left Saint Peter in charge of the Roman Empire and never has been seen since.
27	* HolyIsNotSafe: Let's put it this way - you ''don't'' want to meet your guardian angel, not to mention look at it.
28	* JesusWasWayCool: Subverted; Rather than dying for humanity's sins Jesus became a brutal warlord, conquered the Roman Empire and turned Christianity into a ReligionOfEvil.
29	* KungFuJesus: Jesus in this setting gave up on the forgiveness aspect and things went downhill from there.
30	* MeaningfulName: Grim Reaper[[note]]It's a single word in Polish[[/note]], one of Mordimer's henchmen was introduced as a prisoner starved almost to death by his captors. While he recovered his health, and is a decent warrior, he remained unsettlingly thin.
31	* NoManShouldHaveThisPower: [[spoiler: When encountering an alchemist capable of producing genuine SuperSerum and witnessing first-hand what it can do, Mordimer takes action. In a rare case of [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness thinking straight, rather than following religious zeal]], he promptly orders to kill all the witnesses and the alchemist, burns the recipe without looking and then puts the whole lab ablaze, too]]. He ends up surprising himself with this decision, too.
32	* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: One cursed ruin is guarded by a set of riddles. Mordimer takes them in stride, commenting on how this sort of thing is a part of his training.
33	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: First of all, as far as anyone is concerned, they don't exist, and people pretending to be one are just lunatics (think ''Film/VampiresKiss''), trying few different folk and myth takes at once for good measure of their insanity. [[spoiler: Then it turns out they are real and are ''nothing'' like any of those myths assumed. They are vaguelly related with the figure of Christ himself, are ageless, ''extremely'' rare and can't recall their past prior to "awakening" as a vampire. They don't really need blood for survival, but it taste like nothing else, and short from their immortality and SuperStrength, everything else is just like normal human - up to having regular, human children. Holy symbols, despite their omnipotence in-universe, don't affect them, either. So all the benefits, none of the drawbacks of usual vampire fare]]. This encounter is one of first clues that there is something very, ''very'' weird going in the whole setting, as Madderdin has no answer to it and is left puzzled for years to come about it.
34	* OrphanedSeries: Narrowly averted. Piekara is infamous for never finishing his series and the Cycle was no exception, ending up suspended without further notice. Twice.
35	** Technically speaking, the series ''did'' got orphaned, ''twice''. First, the ongoing plot was suspended and prequel got created instead. Then the prequel got suspended without real resolution, to be replaced with different continuity following different character.
36	* PeoplePuppets: The standard result of demonic possession and not a big deal, at least from the point of view of the Inquisition. But it gets nasty when TransformationOfThePossessed kicks in, because instead of giving them bruises or making them ugly, it goes for OneWingedAngel form instead - and the host is dead ''and'' condemned to Hell by that point.
37	* {{Prequel}}: What books 5-9 are. That despite book 4 ending up with a ''massive'' {{Cliffhanger}} and seemingly abandoning the format of "bunch of short stories with shared universe and characters published together".
38	* ReligionIsMagic:
39	** Despite the prevalence of dark sorcery, Christians are capable of wielding magical powers of their own by calling down to the heavens.
40	** Persia has its mages capable of PlayingWithFire drawing from their faith in UsefulNotes/{{Zoroastrianism}}.
41	* RichBoredom: Rich, but bored people have an uncanny tendency to get into occult in-universe. It's something of a running joke and a well-studied phenomena among the Inquisitors.
42	* RuleOfSymbolism: The Christian cross is slightly twisted as it's used to represent the cross being broken shortly after Jesus descended from it. Cover art goes as far as to depict each arm twisted in the same direction, like... [[PuttingOnTheReich well, you know]].
43	* StrictlyFormula: The short stories from the majority of the series follow a very strict format: it's MysteryFiction with a murder case to solve. The small handful of plots that break from this format instantly stand out in the crowd. Otherwise, OncePerEpisode:
44	** Mordimer will formally introduce himself in a narration (rather than dialogue), along with mentioning that he works for the bishop of Hez-Hezron.
45	** The Twins will be mentioned as stinking like sewer and/or their sexual preferences will be brought up.
46	** Mordimer will pray the mangled version of Lord's Prayer to get into a trance.
47	** A witch - if present - will be genuinely nice and most compassionate person in the story.
48	** Mordimer's guardian angel [[HolyIsNotSafe will accidently maim him by mere touch or standing too close]], then quickly cure him after realising it.
49	** Also, any bored rich will be evil, always.
50	* SuperSerum: [[spoiler: One gets developed by Cornelius, an alchemist behind the events of ''Sowers of Dread''. Once dosed with it, the subject gains SuperStrength, FeelNoPain and can easily [[IAmHumanitarian live off the dead]], all while being a docile thrall to the person giving orders. Better, once it wears out, it has withdrawal symptoms so severe, the subject will do ''anything'' for another dose]]. The alchemist only complain is that he still didn't managed to find a way for it to last longer than few days, as if it somehow made the potion any less potent.
51	* UngratefulBastard: With in-unverse Christianity preaching things like "no mercy" and "kill everyone less zealous than yourself", various characters end up killing or setting up people that helped them, perceiving them either as weak or simple sinners. Mordimer is routinely doing this himself, often to people who selflessly saved his own skin. And he ''doesn't'' get better about this.
52	* VirginSacrifice: On a few occasions. Once, Mordimer outright murders a bunch of women just so he could frame someone for this. Another time... well, you know how the main entry says in a few very dark cases the save-the-sacrificial-victim sex may be non-consensual? Yeah, it's one of these cases. (Surprisingly, it's not Mordimer who does the "saving": [[spoiler:the AntiVillain of the story somehow figured out the plan of the real baddie and did it as his last resort when all his previous efforts failed.]] One figures Mordie wouldn't care so much about the victim's life, anyway.)
53	* VomitingCop: Mordimer has few moments of this throughout the series. When [[SeenItAll he]] is puking, you know it's worse than usual.
54	* WritingAroundTrademarks: Anything regarding Jesus conquering the Roman Empire, unifying humanity, the corruption of the organisation set up by him and [[spoiler: his ultimate fate of [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport being in coma while fed blood of fallen angels]]]] only needs the names swapped and you've got ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and it's Imperium of Man backstory to the T. It's ''very'' blatant, more so given Piekara's life-long involvement in Polish tabletop RPG scene and being once a writer for one of the scene-defining magazines. On top of that, the whole series borrows left and right from ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Warhammer Fantasy]]'', which used to be '''the''' RPG game in Poland around the time when the cycle started.
55	** The series can also be described as an attempt to follow the path laid by [[Franchise/TheWitcher the Witcher series]]: a child-unfriendly saga about a highly competent, well-trained investigator dealing with supernatural and monstrous threats in a CrapsackWorld. The Inquisitor Cycle became its own thing by turning up the crapsack and child-unfriendliness to about 11, throwing in a big dose of ReligiousHorror, and making the protagonist technically a member of an organisation rather than a freelancer.

Context Literature / TheInquisitorCycle