[ZMB]

I have a fledgling guard force to build up and I am thinking of modeling and painting them up to be Adeptus Arbites. I will be including my Sisters arm and am trying to think of what reasons the Adeptus Arbites would have to join forces with the Adeptus Sororitas. I only have a limited knowledge when it comes to the Adeptus Arbites so any info might help.

 

[rafis117]

They're like the KGB crossed with 1984. That said, they are still a reasonably useful police force, and tend to be the first line when a planet is invaded. They also may double as customs agents, or so I've been told.

I'm actually sort of embarrassed about how little I know about the luckless 40k-cops-with-riot-shields-and-shotties.


EDIT: The Adeptus Arbites also includes the legal officials for enforcing the laws of Terra, however outdated, oppressive, or irrational they may be. You are probably less interested in that. The ones that the =I= would deal with are essentially Arbites troops that have been recruited from their home planet and are now "enforcers" - Beat-Cops Without Borders.

 

[ze_poodle]

The Arbites are essentially the Imperium's interplanetary insurance policy. See, individual planetary governors get a lot of leeway in terms of what they can do on their own planet. So long as the Imperium gets its tithe, it doesn't concern itself too much with planetary politics. So planetary governors can range from monarchs to presidents to despots to senates, depending on whatever works. The Imperium won't get involved in government on such a small scale. To enforce his will, the planetary governor is given a Planetary Defence Force (PDF) roughly on par with guardsmen.

But the Imperium does draw a line. If a planetary governor skirts with heresy or rebellion, by rejecting elements of the Imperial cult, interfering with the Navy or with neighbouring planets, or by defaulting on the Tithe, the Arbites step in.

Arbites precincts are autonomous, in that they don't fall under the governor's jurisdiction. The governor cannot tell the Arbites what to do. Additionally, the Arbites have clearance levels superseded only by the Inquisition; they can demand access to any resources the governor can, and some that he can't. There are several dozen Arbites precincts on any populated world, and even lightly populated feudal or feral planets may have a detachment stationed in orbit. They're composed entirely of offworlders and given significantly better training, equipment and supplies than the PDF. Because of this, they're frequently used as an elite police force, like SWAT, to quell riots or wipe out criminal cartels and cults. They often work alongside Inquisitors. Since they're autonomous, they just as often target corrupt elements of the government as well as the underhive classes. They exist specifically to limit the planetary governor's power and to discourage him from thoughts of independence.

If an Arbites precinct drops off the radar, pretty soon the other Arbites come running to investigate, and if they find anything amiss then the Inquisition shows up with the Navy and the Guard and maybe some Space Marines. If a planetary governor goes rogue, the very first people on the scene are the local Arbites kill-teams.

If you've ever read a Judge Dredd comic, they're a lot like that, but with robot dogs.

 

[kevin vanrooyen]

So you wish to learn about the Adeptus Arbites do you?

Adeptus Arbites - Lexicanum

The Emperor Protects

 

[ZMB]

A round of applause to you all. A little bit learned on my behalf, but I suppose there is little to learn about the Adeptus Arbites. Are there any reasons that one can think to as to why they would join forces with the Inquisition to fight say Tau or Chaos or perhaps Eldar? I suppose it could just be that the a Sister detachment is close at hand, but that does not sound all that fun.

 

[rafis117]

The Arbites often serve with the Inquisitors - in fact, they are usually the Inquisitor's local attaché, as they are practically a subordinate of the Inquisition and are a very effective military force (give their total lack of augments).

 

[omegoku]

Sisters are out to slay the xenos, and what better way than to join forces with the local arbites and the attending Inquisitor?

 

[ze_poodle]

A round of applause to you all. A little bit learned on my behalf, but I suppose there is little to learn about the Adeptus Arbites. Are there any reasons that one can think to as to why they would join forces with the Inquisition to fight say Tau or Chaos or perhaps Eldar? I suppose it could just be that the a Sister detachment is close at hand, but that does not sound all that fun.

The Dark Heresy tabletop roleplaying game is founded on the premise that the players take the role of Inquisitorial henchmen, and one of the playable classes is indeed an Arbitrator. It is evidently very common for Arbites to work with the Inquisition, whether alone or as a military detachment.

 

[IofRaw]

My witch hunter army is also a union between the Arbites and the sisters; the reason I have them working together is the amount of penitent troops in the WH army list. Arcoflagellants, and penitent engines are essentially convicted criminals who have been given a chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Emperor. My Arcos and PE's were all arrested and incarcerated by the arbites.

Sisters repentia, to a lesser extent, are also penitent troops. They aren't necessarily criminals, but they have strayed from the path of the sororitas. My back story for my repentia is that they were sisters who helped take down a cult that the Arbites couldn't handle alone.

In the process of dealing with the cult, however, the sisters witnessed the summoning of a handful of daemonettes. After reporting the incident to their superiors in the Ordo Hereticus, they were examined by an Inquisitor. While he could find no outward evidence that they had been tainted, he determined that their knowledge could corrupt their holy sisters unless precautions were taken. He ordered them to take the role of the repentia and further, removed them from the commandery and placed them in the care of the Arbites.

So my Arbites oversee the arcoflagellants, penitent engines and even sisters repentia. Of course, the Arbites do work with several confessors and priests who minister to both the Arbites themselves and to the inmates incarcerated within the precinct fortress.

I came up with the background because I wanted all of my sisters units to be faithful, and I didn't think it was appropriate for these avatars of purity to fraternize with the penitent legions. The Arbites provided me with a mechanism to keep the bad girls (and boys) away from the good girls.

I know this has already been a huge post (sorry), but if you're interested here's a link to more of the background material on my army- particularly the division between Precinct Fortress 17 and the Commandery of St. Katherine's Aegis:

The Witch Hunters of Escutcheon III

Also, omegoku, you mention that the sisters are out to get the xenos- it's certainly true that they often protect humanity from invading alien forces, but as the chamber militant of the Ordo Hereticus, they're more concerned with heretics, mutants and witches than they are with aliens.

When the Inquisition attacks alien species, it's usually under the jurisdiction of the Ordo Xenos and their own chamber militant, the Deathwatch Space Marines. Unfortunately, gw chose not to give this Order of the Inquisition it's own codex.

However, if a human- say a government official or an officer in the Imperial Guard, or a representative of the Ecclesiarchy was found with alien technology, that might indicate membership in a cult... Heresy. Enter the Witch Hunters, and with them, the Sisters.

The Eldar race has been known to deal with certain humans for their own obscure purposes, and everyone knows that the Eldar race is ruled by witches. Any human who dealt with this enigmatic race would certainly be suspected of witch craft.

 

[omegoku]

I didn't mean that they only face off against xenos, but if an invading ork army appears on the planet hosting a sisters Shrine, you can be sure that they will be on the front with flamers lit!

Of course they spend more time flaming heretics and witches and rightly so.
I don't think Ordos Xenos would work as well,
Deathwatch fight in small kill teams, not detachments like the Sisters.
Then again, the grey knights were the same once..

 

[Dheorl]

Having a ordo xenos army could be fun. You could make them all stupidaly elite so you could have very small armys/units. Give them stuff like preferred enemy against EVERYTHING, and boosted forms on sternguard vet amunition.

This may not be at all like background, I;ve never looked into ordo xenos much, so possibly ignore this post.

 

[IofRaw]

True enough Omegoku. And Dheorl, I've only ever seen one article in a White Dwarf about the Xenos (not sure about which issue or which edition of the game it was written for) but they did get hellfire ammo- I was kinda ticked when GW made it a sternguard thing, because rule wise it was one of the things that made the Death Watch unique. Maybe this edition the Xenos will get a codex.

ZMB, if you wanted a bit more info on the Arbites, you could check out the homebrew codex here. I wasn't sure what I thought of it as a codex, but it does have a lot of information and ideas in it, although it doesn't talk a lot about allies.

 

[alvenom]

Also, for models you could use the Enforcers from Necromunda. Not ~quite~ Arbites but close enough, they work under them. GW's Necromunda rules .pdf has some background information and pictures.