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The Inquisition

The Union's instrument of internal security, tasked with rooting out treachery and extracting confessions from those suspected of it. The Inquisition operates under the authority of the Arch Lector and employs Practical methods - torture, imprisonment, and the systematic destruction of suspects - justified by the necessity of protecting the state. Superior Sand dan Glokta is its most effective practitioner and its most self-aware one: he applies his methods with professional precision while remaining entirely clear-eyed about what he is doing and what it has cost him. The Inquisition is one of Abercrombie's central satirical targets - an institution that perpetuates itself through the fear it generates and the confessions it produces, regardless of their truth.

Members (6)

Character	Role
Sand dan Glokta A crippled Inquisitor who was once the most celebrated swordsman in the Union - winner of the Contest at eighteen, celebrated throughout Adua, the kind of young man who expects the world to keep giving him things. Then he was captured by the Gurkish, spent two years in their prisons, and came back unable to walk properly, unable to eat solid food, in constant pain, and in possession of a very clear understanding of what people will say under sufficient duress. He applies the same methods to his work for the Inquisition with a mixture of professional efficiency and caustic self-awareness that makes him one of the most compelling POV characters in fantasy. Glokta knows exactly what he is. He just can't see a way to be anything else.

Character

Role

Sand dan Glokta

A crippled Inquisitor who was once the most celebrated swordsman in the Union - winner of the Contest at eighteen, celebrated throughout Adua, the kind of young man who expects the world to keep giving him things. Then he was captured by the Gurkish, spent two years in their prisons, and came back unable to walk properly, unable to eat solid food, in constant pain, and in possession of a very clear understanding of what people will say under sufficient duress. He applies the same methods to his work for the Inquisition with a mixture of professional efficiency and caustic self-awareness that makes him one of the most compelling POV characters in fantasy. Glokta knows exactly what he is. He just can't see a way to be anything else.

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