Adeptus Ridiculous - ARBITES DEEP DIVE | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousThe Adeptus Arbites are the police force of the Adeptus Terra, devoted to enforcing Imperial law throughout the entire Imperium. Utterly dedicated and without mercy, the Arbites are feared throughout the galaxy, for they are the agents of a harsh law, where failure and incompetence are crimes, and the only punishment is death. Arbites are empowered to act as judge, jury and executioner – citizens have no rights, and only members of the Priesthood of Terra or the Inquisition could claim anything so elaborate as a trial.Support the show

everyone to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous Podcast. My name is DK. Diamantis. Look, Bricky is back. But we'll get into that in just a second. If you enjoy today's episode and you maybe want to support the podcast, head over to patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous, where you can get access to the bloopers, uh, Discord. Uh, the $15 tier gets you access to all of our posters in whatever digital format we're using, but it's very crispy, whatever it is. You should go there. Patreon.com slash adeptus ridiculous. Ricky back for a full on episode, not talking about your wondrous adventures in the UK and you're just spicy take on Greg's. How's it going? The only thing spicy in the UK was the curry I had, nothing spicy at Greg's one bit.

But I am back. I'm back for the lore stuff. We're doing the things for doing this stuff. You can buy merch at orchidate.com in the description. Check it out, all the good things. But real quick, there's a new page. Patreon thing going on here. Shai is doing a cool new

Doudant as she will be collaborating with Possum to produce a series of short comedic little videos on various Warhammer-related topics that are fun but have too little lore to make into full episodes. The first one is already out. It's on various orc flyers

and you can watch it on our Patreon page. The videos will be a Patreon exclusive for now, but after we create enough of them, there probably be like a big compilation and release it publicly. But if you don't want to wait, you can go ahead and check out the little new series now. And our Discord, it's two bucks for Patreon if you want to check them out. Two dollars, Patreon.com slash that to ridiculous. You know the place. Mr. D.K., we have a topical

episode today. Hmm. It's a... Topical episode. It's a little, it's a little topical. It was not intentionally done this way, but it's a little topical. The timing is, uh, is humorous. We'll say the least. The timing is humorous. Would you like your mystery quote? Yes. At fear of getting it horribly wrong. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. All right. To serve the emperor, to protect his domains, to judge and stand guard over his subjects, to carry the emperor's law to all worlds under his blessed protection, to pursue and punish those who trespassed against his word. Oh boy. Oh boy. When you said this was topical, you weren't just whistling Dixie, brother.

Whistling. Whistling Dixie? Yeah. Okay, that's granted, that's an old one, but, you know, that's all right. But this, this, okay, so this, this sounds, a part of me genuinely wants to say Arbides, because this, that feels like a very like, we are the law of the Imperium across the galaxy. and there's like a ton of Arbidi's stuff coming out this month for like Dark Tide and Rogue Trader. But I feel like we've done several Arbides episodes already and I just, I don't, I don't know.

Nah, you're, no, you're right. It's Arbides. Okay. I was going to go with Arbides anyway, but okay, cool, cool. Yeah, yeah, buddy, don't you worry. I mean, we did, we did do an episode of the Arbiz prior. Don't get me wrong. But there's a little bit more to the Arbis going.

going on with this episode and I'm back and therefore it must be a new episode. Um, also, also, yes, the hell divers are adding like a sort of Arbidi's style look as well. You're getting yourself a little bit of a, of a judge type thing in hell divers, which is quite humorous as well. Uh, and, uh, and yeah, you know, it's what, what a time. Let's, let's, let's talk about the police. Yeah, let's talk about the galactic police. Yes, yes. This is a perfect time for all of this. Totally planned, I swear. Yeah.

So the episode title was Double Jeopardy with the Adeptus Arbides. At the moment, you know, there's a lot of new Arbidi stuff being added to various Warhammer games, new class in Dark Time, new D.L.C. and Rogue Trader. And there's also the war bond in Hell Divers, too, which is very funny. The timing is all quite humorous. obviously many people are familiar with the Arbides as the Judge Dread lookalike cops. But there's a decent amount to them that's kind of interesting. So we're kind of kind of kind of roll through that.

All right. I only just loaded up Dark Tide and Rogue Trader for like the first time in a while. Like a week ago, Darktide is still real fun. And I am quite hype for that Arbides update. Yeah, I'm excited for the Arbis update too. I don't play Dark Tide a ton, but I do enjoy it when I do. And I'm moving my way through Rogue Trader at the moment. But a little bit of a meta history for you, my man.

So before we get into the actual in-universe lore, it's kind of fun to learn a little bit about how this came about in games workshop type stuff. So the judge dread kind of character, the faux version. of it actually predates Warhammer 40K in general. Now, as we have discussed before, there's the connection between the 2000 AD comics, and Warhammer is pretty paramount there. But way back in the early 80s,

there were a bunch of tabletop games that were kind of vying for the top made by a bunch of various companies. A lot of this goes back to One Doom. His name is Brian Ansel. This was in 1978, So about 300 years ago. Oh, it feels that way.

They founded a company known as Citadel Miniatures, thanks to the funding from the currently rapid expanding company of Games Workshop. And the creation of Citadel Ministers was really important to what GW was doing. So they were publishing RPGs left and right after obtaining the distribution rights to Dungeons of Dragons in 78. And so they needed to be able to produce a whole bunch of products to align with their, you know, tabletop and stuff. Sure.

So at the time, a lot of these minis were actually interchangeable between games because, believe it or not, GW actually wanted you to have fewer miniatures to play with back then. Shocking? I said, yep, what a concept. What, that's not the GW, I know. What a concept. I could use a little fuel myself. We could all use a little.

Change. Well, at the time, a lot of these, at the time, a lot of the, a lot of the, a lot of the minis back then, oh, sorry, the, the rule sets back then designed by Brian Ansel was known as slang called laser burn. Oh. Yeah, if that isn't peak 80s, I don't know what is. That was in 1980. And it was designed as a legally distinct 2000 AD judges. Then they were known as the Sentinels. And this was from the rule book, Laser Burn, Forces of the Imperium.

That's a hell of a paint job on that little mini, though. Like, obviously, very dated mini, but wow, what a paint job. Like, he's even got the little blue reflector on the dread visor. That's a hell of a, that's a hell of a paint job on what looks like a very not great mini. No, it is not a particularly fantastic miniature as a concept. But it does go along with their color scheme because they used to have blue armor for the most part. And they were very much like street warriors, you know, for the most. They've got the funny chin, which I love.

The funny chin. You know what I'm talking. The Stallone chin. You know what I mean. Yep. Yep. The very rounded, muscular. Yeah.

So from there, laser burn had a lot of other legally distinct characters with other facets besides just, just, Judge Dredd from the time. Brian Ansel got together with Rick Priestley, the co-creator of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, along with Richard Halliwell. And the two of them, Ansel and Priestley, were far more interested in pursuing the sci-fi adventures. And so eventually,

GW got the license to publish a Judge Dread role-playing game in 85, which was a little bit tricky because they had to keep pumping out mini after mini for all the different games. And the expectation that everyone would buy a new set of miniatures for each game was a bit hard to swallow. So eventually, on the release of Rogue Trader, Rick Priestley specifically said in the early days, Citadel made figures from lots of current role-playing games as well as Lord the Rings and 2000 AD under license.

Part of the design brief was that we had to have rules in Rogue Trader that enabled people to use all of their collections. So it was like this mixture of everything at the time. It's so different from like now where it's like oh buy the new minis, buy the new minis. There's new rules. Buy the new mini. We need you to have every mini possible. And now they're just like, well, come on, guys. We want them to be interchangeable. You can't have too many minis.

As time went on, there was a bunch, like a bunch, a bunch of left over 2000 AD minis and a big expansion. And with the Rogue Trader game on their heels, they needed a way to, you know, get usage out of them somehow. So that kind of had a bit of an adjustment. Like, okay, I got all this extra stuff, got all these extra things. Now we're going to move on over and bring them to Warhammer, which is kind of how you originally got your arbitrators, judges, and the general Arbides. Also, look at that goddamn image. Wow. That is, that is indeed, if you need an art style that just perfectly encapsulates the 80s right there. I also, I love the fact that like even this British company made it damn clear like,

these are American police. Here's the. I was about to say the belt buckle with the big eagle and the stars and stripes. With the, do you feel lucky punk linny's wood type stuff? Absolute, absolute hilarity. They knew what they were doing for sure. But that's kind of where things moved on over. So in a sense, it was Judge Dredd-related miniatures and cops from laser burn with a surplus amount that eventually was folded over into Rogue Trader when that game became a thing.

So it's a time. It is a time. It is, it is a time. I knew a little bit about that. I didn't know every little detail, but I knew that Judge Dred and the minis sort of started with GW and. and all that stuff. So it's good to get the finer details, though. It's fun to learn a little bit about,

I feel like people, when you learn a little bit more about the old and school days of GW, you take it a little less seriously, which is what I think is a good thing. Because you see how these things came about, and you're just like, ah, how goofy. And it's fun to kind of look at the old stuff. Yeah.

But anywho, so back in the training history and the whole law stuff, unlike the more direct rule of the judges that you would find in Judge Drem, the Arbides exists kind of like a looming presence, like on a day-to-day type thing. Obviously, it varies depending on world. If there's like a backwater planet, you may have your precinct fortress slash courthouse,

but on a hive city, no doubt you'll have a hell of a lot more Arbides out there. Yeah, for sure, because there's so much more people, there's so much more need for order. you're going to, a hive city is going to need a lot of RB. And even on a hive world or a hive city, like, you know, like, it's crazy. I always forget just how big a hive city is and that there are hive worlds that are just hive cities. I mean, there aren't even enough Arbides to deal with all that nonsense.

No, absolutely. I mean, there certainly is, but like, holy hell, there's a lot of stuff going on. That's a lot of them. Now, of course, the Arbidi being cops or like police officers in a way is a bit is yes, but not the full story. They very much act much more like FBI or an Interpol presence. If anything, the French gendarmerie is a fairly apt comparison of all things considered, as the appearance of an arbitrator is a lot less likely of you encountering a police officer and more likely of you encountering a very highly specialized police officer.

I don't know. I'd be kind of bizarre walking down the street and seeing someone in like SWAT gear, you know? Yeah, agreed. Wait, who's Jean-Damoree? The French gendarie. I believe the Jean-Damey are like specialized police force, like military police. Oh, okay. It's a French military police.

Got you. Okay. Yes. I don't think it's like the GIG. I, maybe it's the, uh, because I, well, maybe it is the GIG. I thought the GIGN were like special forces, but I don't know the difference currently. So I don't know enough about French military stuff. All I know is that, and this is for the deep cut, is that the GIGN had the best opening round soundtrack in all of Call of Duty Mono Warfare 3 from 2011.

That is the most bricky thing I think I've heard all day. It's only 9 a.m. Yeah, true. It's still early in the day, but I don't think I'm going to hear anything more bricky-coded than, guys. Guys, how about this thing from Ka? Hey, hey, hey, that, me saying that right now is huge nudes for dudes born in 1994. Maybe, yeah, fair. And the unemployed.

But anyway, so back in the early 40K settings, you would often hear the phrase Arbidi's thrown around to describe basically anything, like a planetary officer or an actual judge. But to make it kind of consistent, it's pretty easy to come to the conclusion. that Arbides and Arbitrator are basically the same phrase as cops and officers. It's all the usual kind of thing. You assume that they're all kind of similar. Yeah.

I've always kind of assumed that Arbides, arbitrator, they're the big police force. Yeah, the Arbides is the force, the arbitrator is the individual. Yeah. Yep. So despite not being like involved with the general day-to-day of imperial citizens,

their image is still very much out there. Like the image of the police officer is still very much known into the populace. And of course, you know, a regular run-of-the-mill police officer, your classic cop would be known as a local planetary enforcer. That's an enforcer, you know?

The enforcer is like, the thing that the possum used, I can't use this reference, Possum. D.K. doesn't know SpongeBob. This is true. I don't. This is purely for me. Well, I'm okay. I might.

If it's a popular meme, like if it's like a handsome squid word. The Alaskan Bullworm? I know the Alaskan Bullworm. Do you know the Alaskan Bullworm? I have seen clips of the Alaskan Bullworm. I don't remember everything about it, but I remember, what is it? Don't Sally and SpongeBob ride this big thing and nobody believes that the Alaskan Bullworm exists or something, but it does

and something. He actually knows it. Holy crap. I'm shocked. It's a popular one. It's a popular SpongeBob meme. I mean, yeah, but it's not as popular as like the main memes, but I'm, it's, no, you know what?

I'm going to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Um, yes. So imagine the Alaskan bull worm is the arbitrator and the enforcer is the tongue of the Alaskan bull worm. Like, and the enforcer is your, you know, it's planetary governance. along with the PDF, the planetary defense force, whereas the RRBD is the arbitrator is like the main man. Yeah. He's the boy.

That is a reference for this. Yep. That is. Yeah. That's one way to make it happen. Sure. You know, you have your local police and then you got the feds and the feds and the feds and the arbitrators. Yes.

Yes. Yes. They are. Oh, boy. Is it topical? Yeah, you know, sometimes the feds will come in to solve a problem. Problem. Yeah, problems.

But, of course, anything that, so like with most things in 40K. So as you know, law, quote unquote, on an imperial world is whatever keeps the tith moving? Yep. As long as the tithe keep coming in, that's all that matters to the Imperium. Whatever keeps shipments moving, that kind of whole thing. And so, obviously, the rights and ruling of the enforcers is to keep things steady, and the Arbides make sure that continues. This, of course, or anything that offsets this will trigger a response from the Arbides, and that response can vary. So say you have a corrupt planetary governor, and their presence results in the work stoppage and a riot.

The Arbides will respond to this in a two-pronged method. First, they will assist in stopping the riot and get things back into order, and then, if the enforcers on the planet prove to be insufficient, they will then go directly to the governor and make them clean up the place in the first place. Any form of activation of the Arbides on a planet is a means for a thorough investigation in the inner workings of the planetary governor

because it shows a degree of incompetence that it borders on illegal. Yeah, when you started, I was like, wait, the first thing they do is they just stop the riot. They don't look at the cause of the riot. And it's like, okay. As long as the Arbides, if an Arbides has to show up, it's like, okay, we'll quell the riot and then we're going to find out why this riot happened, Mr. Planetary Governor.

Yes, that's the big part is like, hey, we're going to bring it back to regular ruling and the huge type of thing. And then they're going to murder whoever was dumb enough to let this whole thing happen. So let's say, for example, that the governor, sorry, let's say for example, let's say for example, that the government is rapidly overthrown by an opposing politician who takes up the mantle as the new governor, the Arbides would most likely activate, but only to make sure the new governor keeps things in check and doesn't offset the flow of goods and soldiers to the Imperium. Like, for example, let's say that this politician killed and overthrew an opposing politician that ran

the world. If said opposing politician was a dumbass, and caused a bunch of problems and the tithe and everything, the Arbides probably will, like, make sure that things are in check of this new guy is doing his job right. And if he is, they'll probably let him keep his job. Wow, that's kind of wild.

But if he's, well, you're probably about to tell him but I'm assuming if he does not, they kill him and put in somebody that more than happily will keep the tithes rolling because that's what matters. That is always what matters. But, but, this is not always the case.

Some arbitrators will kind of have their interpretation can mix. For example, if you overthrow a planetary governor, you are in a sense removing an Imperium sanctioned planetary official, which could be deemed as treason. For sure. And so there is that. Generally, there is the classic situation of, I've, we always said so long as the tithe is flowing. So as we know, the law, when it comes to Warhammer is very pickle and matters the most so long as you're paying the imperium on taxes.

You can be the biggest dumbass on the planet and the most corrupt piece of shit. And so long as that tithe is moving, the cops will not bug you. How stalwart is an Arbides? Like, are they corruptible? Are they bribeable? Or are they just like, no, I'm sort of like a dread where it's like, I'm not corruptible, I'm the law, you cannot break me? I'm sure it's like the same kind of thing that you would imagine where they're better than your average person. They're definitely a lot more tough.

They're a lot more mentally strong. But they are still a regular person. and enough that can happen can happen. I'm sure there was a corrupt, bribed Arbides in a book somewhere in the library of the Black Library, right? Like, I'm sure there's stuff like that. But then I almost would imagine that it would, like,

then show that he was in lieu with chaos or something. And it's like, oh, no, he's actually been corrupted or something. Yeah. Like, I've got to believe at some point a planetary governor bribed or tainted an Arbides. to like side with him and be his like right hand man or something. I'm sure there was something that happened like that at some point. But I, but yes, if you were thinking, if you were thinking, damn, Arbidi seemed like they

would be really incorruptible. You'd be mostly right. Like, yeah, they're really tough. They're tough and strong and the usual. But, you know, never, never say never is a classic. Not impossibly so. No. Mostly.

Yeah. I mean, hell, even the sisters have like kind of fall in the chaos sometimes due to whatever warp shenanigans occur. but it's, you know, very rare. Oh, yeah. Much like all the other quote unquote adeptist organizations, you have two major groups in the Arbis. They have the arbitrators and you have the judges.

So the arbitrators are what you'd expect. Those are the military branch. They're the ones that do the most brutal physical work. They enforce the Lex Imperialis itself. They serve justice on their own and as they see fit by the Lex. But they are also the forces that are sent out at the behest of another individual. So if a civilian on a planet,

you know, you're walking down the street and you see an Arbides, you are most likely seeing an arbitrator. You are most likely seeing the dude in the dark tide trailer walking around and you probably, you won't really be shitting yourself, but you definitely would be like,

oh God, you know. You're standing up a little straighter. You don't want to make any mistakes. You're just like, hello officer, and just keep walking by. don't want their attention and yeah. Like there's a general, uh, human anxiety that occurs whenever like a police officer is near you,

either in the same restaurant or behind you waiting for a traffic light. Um, there's like, there's just a natural feeling that people will get, well, they just get like a little bit more tense. If one of the Arbides walk down the street, you'd probably definitely be thinking,

yeah, why is there like a fully armed FBI officer over here? Yeah. Like if you, if you saw like a cop, get out of a police car and then walking into your local coffee shop and he is in like

full SWAT gear, you definitely be like, what the hell? Something is going down. I need to get out of here. Yeah, so maybe I'm going to get coffee elsewhere. Holy. The other member is the judge and the judge is a higher ranking member

that deals a lot more with the deliverance of various sentences. The judge is much more higher profile issues, things like the planetary governor, for example, and normally the judge is the one who sends out arbitrators to deal with things. And of course, they tend to chill in the precinct for the most part. They're the police chief. Basically, yeah. Of course, way above that is the Grand Provost Marshall, which is the leader of the Arbides in general on the Hall of Judgment on Terra. They're a High Lord of Terror. There's

always that photo I go back to. The high lords of Terra. Oh, yeah. When we try and spot out which one is which? Yeah, I don't know if the Grand Provost Marshall is in that one. It might be the dude with the really funky looking, like headdress. I'm not 100% sure, but that is the classic. And, you know, that is the, you know, I'm sure they're in there somewhere.

Yeah, they got to be in there somewhere. Loved it. It's easy to find the custodian one, though. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's the easy one, no doubt. Yeah, gee, where could he be? Might be the, I don't know, the dude in bottom left probably is the Imperial Navy. Yeah, I was going to say the bottom left one looks very, it's either Arbides or the Navy, right? I think, I think it might be the dude in the center with the big pluff headdress or the guy directly underneath the custodian, yeah.

Yeah. The guy, Denise Ron Perlman might be the one because he looks pretty similar. So Ron Perlman. He's just Ron Perlman. It is. It really is. It's probably size accurate, Ron Perlman, because he is a big man. It is definitely not size accurate Ron Perlman.

Okay, that's fair because the custodian is probably like 20 feet tall. But still, you get the idea. Yeah, he's some like nine foot tall crazy dude. Yeah. But yes, those are the main parts of the three. big things. The Arbides, well, I guess it'd be the enforcers, then the arbitrators, the judges, and of course, the

provost marshal. And I'm sure there's also like a lord judge or a high judge that like runs the whole precinct, but you know. Yeah, yeah. Before, of course, you go into the more fun branches of the arbitrators, specifically, there's also the difference of what the judges bring to the table. Because the arbitrators are

proficiency in the law and they're there to enforce the Lex, Imperialis, and the role and they also are considered for the role of judge. And the cold focus of a judge makes them pretty tough. So like the arbitrators, for example, have the judge dread aesthetic where the judges are a bit more dripped. They are known for wearing judge armor, which is kind of similar to the carapace armor that the arbitrator wears, but it's a lot more excessive. And because of their absolute authority, judges have the ability to requisition whatever equipment they want.

So you may notice that shy posted a judge up there and he's the do with the purple purple cape and all that fancy fancy stuff. He is dripped out to the nines. He is very dripped. Now, some like to wear their old carapace armor that's like battered and like blasted from decades ago as kind of like an intimidation factor. And some like something a lot more over the top, far more sparse. spectacle. You know, they love some really big stuff. And, uh, and that's the kind of thing that I, I enjoy, I enjoy seeing where it's like,

this is crazy, fancy bits. Yeah, that judge's gun is massive. Is that a shot? Is that a shotgun? I guess. It looks like it's got the pump on it. But God, that's huge. That's like bigger than like the upper half of him.

It's a very big gun. And also, yeah, the, the police in 40K love their shotgun. guns. I mean, I can't say I blame. Everybody loves a good pump action shotgun, especially in like popular fiction and like sci-fi. I love that pump shotguns, revolvers, and then shock malls and shields are the main weaponry of the Arbides. And I assume, I'm sure you'll get there, but got it, I'm sure the classic cyber mastiff is going to be talked about, right? We won't talk about actually about a law of the mastiff today. There's no real mention in this episode.

However, they will have a spotlight in a later episode, foreshadowing, foreshadowing, foreshadowing. Okay. It's just we were talking about like dark tide earlier. And I know that like the cybermastiff is is a big part of like the Arbides kit. So I wasn't sure if we were going to touch on it, but okay. I will, I will have your foreshadowing as a nice little meal to tide me over. Wonderful. Good.

soon. Now, obviously, those judges can be kind of as crazy as they might look. They might sometimes pass for an inquisitor when they're out in the open because they're so dripped. But obviously, due to their dedicated focus on the Lex and their studies, there is an even higher rank than the judge, which would be the magistrate. Magistrates are judges that are not only experts in sector law, but also have it committed to memory. So here's a quote. Of course we had justification to intervene. The Lex Calixis, volume 65 C, is clear on the matter.

Chapter 2076, subsection 776, paragraph 876, while they consider it as the warp time disjunction clause, clearly excuses the apparent lack of evidence and probable cause for action against the accused house. Oh, wow. That is a big word sound. And with stuff like that, it's like, man, who's going to argue that? Like, who else knows the code enough to be like, oh, no, you're wrong. That's not what that code says.

It's just like, okay, big guy in armor say, I do bad. And recited lines, I guess I bad. So. Yeah, if you have, if you have any more questions, direct them to Officer Bonebreaker over there with the shock mall. Wow. That dude. Oh, wow. Yeah.

That's the, that's the importance. there. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, sorry, non-lethal shock mall. My, my extreme mistake, my apologies. I'm sorry. I forgot the shockmoles are non-lethal weapons. But, um, yes. So magistrates are the masters of the law, but they're also master orators, making them essential in the court of law. They are utilized for only the most complex and convoluted cases, though despite their hyperfixation on the law, and almost like, like Mentat from Dune sense being very highly useful. They are also viewed within the Arbis with a bit of a sense of disdain and distrust.

A lot of the other RBs don't like the magistrates because they kind of have the whole the devil cites scripture for its own purposes type vibe. Yep. And obviously the flashy nature of them can be viewed as a bit of legal mockery. So a lot of you will dislike the magistrates because since imperialists, imperial law is a bunch of backwards horse shit, they can basically just choose any piece of the law and run it to their own means. Because of course they can.

Kind of like what I was saying before, which is like, well, I can't counter that. I don't know the law well enough. And they're literally just like, oh, yeah, I may have murdered an innocent citizen, but oh, look, here's a line in the thing that says it's okay for me to do that because I thought they were suss. And it's like, oh, that's. Don't like that. Very sussy.

Yeah. Pretty sussie, Baca. Now, the Arbides, of course, are trained in the scola progenium, you know, put the kids in the walls. We love it. Yep. And are obviously completely brainwashed to form the perfect analog for their duties. Their degree of training means that they are very difficult to corrupt, much like the Scola graded commissards, etc. but like we said again, not immune to it in any ways.

However, this comes a lot in the form of abstraction. Obstractionism, holy. Easy for you to say. No, it's not. It's not easy for me to say. Abstractionism is, in practice, making judgments based off of summaries and direct experiences you have had anecdotes. Think of a triangle, for example.

You might think of a standard pyramid S triangle, but there are countless other variants of a triangle that fit the word triangle. They're all triangles, but they're all different. For the Arbides, especially the judges, this concept can start to manifest in their duties. They start doing a more absolutist approach to their cases and judgments for the sake of speed and truncation. Love the topicalness of this. These summary judgments are, in a sense, horrendous. retical. The Lex Imperialis is essentially the divine law of the God emperor himself, so straying from it and making your own assessments and judgments without its usage is dirtying the divine text and is an example of you ignoring the words of God, which can snowball into an even worse crime being vigilantism. So judges who fall victim to this believe that they are above the Lex itself, whether intentional or not, and are at a acting off of feeling versus due process, which, unfortunately, tends to be something more common

in the more seasoned and more dedicated judges who are trying to do right by the emperor as best as efficiently possible. However, this type of crime often means you are going to get a knock on your door by someone from the Ordo Hereticus, and that will not be a very pleasant dinner guest. No, no, but yeah, I mean, I can see how that would happen to, like, a judge, though. After you've seen so much, just 40K bullshit, you can see how you start just sort of like, oh, yeah, I'm just going to go by feel. Oh, this feels right. I've seen this before. Yeah. Yeah, it's a classic kind of, it's that kind of weird circular cycle that the Imperium loves to do, where anything that can be deemed as more efficient goes against the word of the emperor,

which goes against divinity, which is heresy. Yeah. So it's a lot. There are, of course, other types of arbitrators. Like they start off as troopers at the very, very rock bottom, which is the eager beaver of learning and adapting. Then, of course, they become enforcers after that. And once they are going full into the enforcers,

they can go into arbitrators. There's also subjugators, or sorry, subductors. And subductors are riot control, Arbides. I'm pretty sure there's actually Yeah, there's miniatures of subductors They're like Sword and Shock Mall and Riot Shield type dudes

God, that's such a rock star mini Yeah, it's I love though The Arbides miniatures. It looks so cool. Yeah, they really do. The next step up, of course, are regulators and investigators Regulators take the

underworld of a planet and enforce the law of the emperor in some of the more unregulated places and you can guess what an investigator does. I would guess they investigate things. Actually, no, it's a crocodile wearing a vest. Wow! Where's that mini? Damn, you're right. Where is that? They actually have that mini already. It's called a Zote.

Oh, no, not the Zotes. The Zotes are back. I was going to say, that sounds like an age of Sigmar mini. It sounds like a dope age of Sigma Mini. The Investigator? Yeah, the investigator. You and your dad jokes. It's funny.

It's a thing. It's funny. Go on. Anywho. So, obviously, the arbitrators, as we know, are the general guardians of law and order. Above them, there are also intelligentsers, which is the worst name I've ever heard, which is a spy master, obviously. There's also Justicars who are tasked to go toe to toe to with the more decadent upper crust nobility,

the Proctors, which lead the riot squads, and then there's, of course, the marshals, which are the highest rank behind the Lord Marshal. And obviously, between these dedicated ranks of the arbitrators, they have more stylized functions here and there. You know, obviously, prisoners don't really relax and have a very nice time at the courthouse before their trial. there's the chastainers

which are highly specialized in the quote unquote less lethal arts of arbitration and oversee every step of imprisonment including the direct handling of interrogation. Love that.

Yep, yep. Also, that is that art. That is an old school art of the marshal man. Wow. That is very old. That's a big old gun though.

That is, look at that. that drum. Good Lord. It's, uh, I mean, I love how tiny the handle is. Yeah, and how big everything else is. Yeah, it looks like it would, the, the front part would snap just right off the handle just by sheer weight. Yeah, forgot about this quote. Who can truly return to the grace of the God Emperor without the searing pain which accompanies having one sins revealed in his just light? This brand I have here is, but a small

thing by comparison, but the pain you feel should serve as sufficient representation. Now, shall we begin? Chastener Marcus Dan Turian. Lovely. Yeah, that's a, that's a quote. But hey, that perfectly

encapsulates what they're all about. Because, yeah, once you said they're experts in the non-lethal stuff, I was like, oh no, they tortured horribly, don't they? They torture horribly and they don't kill and they make you feel every little thing, don't they?

They love their torture. This is, this is, uh, the, the legal system. It's good stuff. Yeah. Good stuff, he said. Good stuff. Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, um, um, uh, but, uh, going forward from there, uh, speaking of detective workers, there's also detectives.

Also, that's right, that mini is there too. And he has the loudspeaker, which is the coolest. thing ever. I was about to say that is everything about that mini is just dope as hell. Giant shotgun, Judge Dredd aesthetic, really cool eagle plume, giant microphone eagle thing. Just wow. It's so funny that he just has that like floating up in the air like that. Yeah.

What are his rules exactly? I would this thing do. That'd be a kill team thing. It's just him screaming words at you, yelling, I am the Lex. Yeah, debuff enemies in range, buff allies in range. Gotta be something like that, right? It's got to be something. Some kind of debuff there.

Mm-hmm. But moving from that, of course, there, with Possums, one of his favorite movies is a robocop. And they are happy to admit that there are robocops in the Arbides, sort of. There's something called the Verispex. which is essentially a tech marine of an adeptus Arbides, which are arbitrators that are trained by the tech priests of the Mechanicus in the lesser lore of the Omnisiah, but are not fully indoctrinated like a tech marine.

They're basically like a living, breathing forensic laboratory so they can analyze evidence quicker catalog things, very extreme purposes, that kind of stuff. Sounds pretty handy for the police force to have. Sure, sure. I mean, obviously very handy. It's, I mean, just having like the dude walk around there like a tech priest and just like, oh, scan, scan, scan, he did it. Yeah.

Also lovely that the picture shy has literally he's just investigating a hand. He is just looking at a hand, isn't he? And we're like, oh, very handy. I mean, very handy. I think this hand was the one that committed the crime. Yeah, exactly. Now obviously the general verispects and the tech priests are their own rather weird kind of combination. And there is a question that you might ask, which is what about like the admec?

Because there are admec Arbides. They have... Really? Yeah, they're called astinomia enforcers. Which are really weird. But they basically have the jurisdiction of dealing with four. forge worlds into planetary populations and having the enclaves and mechanics is to make sure it gets enforced. It's something else.

Wow. Did they have like cool drip or they just kind of look like ad mech? Because they're just dealing with like forge worlds and stuff like that. I mean, they're generally, they're much more admec-y. They deal with the forge worlds in general and they kind of make sure that the collegiate extremists, extremists, which is their version of the Lex, is kind of what they do to make sure that everything is, you know,

like, working well. But there's not some, like, cool mini that's, like, a nice mix of, like, oh, yeah, I've got Arbedes armor, but I've also got, like, mechadendrites and red robes or something. They just look like Admec. Oh, sorry. The collegiate extremist is actually a similar thing to an arbitrator,

not a different kind of the Lex. Oh, okay. My bad. But, I mean, yeah, they do most likely look like, a ad mech version of the police officer, but probably with a lot less of the usual judge dread aesthetics, a lot more of the,

the robocop type vibe. Yeah, yeah, okay, cool, cool, which is its own humorous thing. Because it makes sense. I mean, like,

the forge worlds operate on such an important efficiency requirements and the way admec is, like that is clearly an importance. Oh, yeah, you got to protect the forge worlds with everything you got.

You can't let a forge world fall. Right? Space Marine video games? Yeah. Right? Was it Space Marine One on a forge world? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why they didn't exterminate it?

Yeah, it was Grya. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That was Grya. That's correct. Yeah, yeah, great. Yeah. Right, there's Arbidi's admech character in Flesh and Steel that takes place,

same planet's bloodlines, and she mostly looks like a regular ad mech, but with more gun. I do love more gun. I do love more gun. But, of course, there are a couple other fancy. specialist. There's like Vox signifiers, which is one of them that kind of manage Vox relays. They're slate agents, which is a infiltration and sabotage group because the way their indoctrination works. And they're like full, full on blank slate total like sleep deprivation, starvation, dehydration, psychological torment, just hypnotherapy. It's a biological machine used

for infiltration. They are straight up like rewit. people. Yeah, that, that is one of the, that's a very 40K-pilled unit, for sure. Yeah. To, to quote a, to quote a slate agent directly. And who am I to be this year? Hmm? Perhaps a wealthy functionary and a dubious merchant guild? No?

Perhaps a pampered, ecclesiastic keeping watch for detestable heresy within a suspect sect. Still no? Eh? Well, then can I spend the majority of this mission indoors, at least? Another Imperial Guard unit? Front lines? Well, at least I won't remember any of it after retrieval. No, sir.

Happy to, sir. Just, like, just completely rewired mentally and always. Yeah, that's, um, don't, don't love that. Wouldn't want to be that. Don't love that concept. That sucks for them. I guess, I guess they don't know. Yeah, I don't know, uh, what's it called him regular police.

I have, well, oh, like a, like a, um, informant. Oh, you mean undercover. shy. Yeah, but undercover guys aren't really like indoctrinated like that, right? Like, yes. Um, the, uh, the, these guys are like total, like, these more like sleeper agents, if I'm being honest. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely sleeper agent. Yeah, undercover cops, they kind of know the risk they're getting into. They know all the stuff and, these guys just seem like they have been utterly brainwashed and broken to the point where they just go in and do anything, right? Yeah. Whereas, like,

Like an undercover cop is a regular police officer that goes on. I imagine an enforcer might do that every so often. But like more on the PDF side of things, right, like a crime ring, not, you know, the planetary governor's going crazy type deal. Of course, though, naturally, we do need to remember the most important part of all of the Lexiperialis and their bees, which is the Hall of Judgment. Mm-mm-mm-mm. So there's obviously precinct fortresses. or courthouses. They're placed in every single imperial world.

And obviously strategically, they're always placed within view of the planetary governor's residence. So they can serve as a reminder of the law at all times. Sometimes a planet is so distant from Terra and other imperial worlds. So the courthouse is the actual only connection that planet has to the Imperium as a whole. Because it's just so damn far away. Yeah.

The world itself will, of course, dictate the size of the courthouse. Some will literally only require a singular courthouse. Some will be absolutely insane, full of like military bunkers and stuff. But of course, the fortress will have an extensive armory, holding cells. The only thing not found in the very small courthouses are the literal courts where a trial can be held on site. Those will either have to have someone move a prisoner off ruled for trial, but normally as kind of hold summary judgments and summary executions for the most part. Yeah, weird that they don't have just courts everywhere.

And you'd potentially have to move them off world to find a court. Sometimes the hall of judges don't have that. Sometimes the world is so backwater. It's not important. Sometimes they need to do so. Sometimes they get rid of them and they move them somewhere else because they don't like them. Ah. Classic.

There's always a little bit of that too. It is 40K. It is 40K. Of course, they also have the other usual things, interrogation rooms, medical facilities, astrapathic shrine, clearly. And of course, the courthouse can generally be a pretty big bastion in terms of a total uprising. They can reach out for assistance and time is the thing that is a luxury often. So very often, if there's ever something that's kind of crazy that happens on a planet and then by

a time reinforcement show up, sometimes the courthouse is the only thing still standing because it's meant to be a fortress to help deal with that problem. And of course, there's the Hall of Judgment. which we've talked about many of times, the insanely gigantic hall on Terra with every single law ever written forever. And it's just the funniest thing in the world. Every law ever written. You know, that's, it's,

it's, yeah, with new laws being added. New laws being added daily in which consulting the laws will most likely cause you to die of old age before that you are able to actually find out whether or not you are deemed guilty. Yeah, which makes it so screwy that they'll, um, those, those other ones will just, what were they?

That they'll just like, oh yeah, no, I know all the scriptures and all the lines and I'm going to use it to my benefit because you can't check. I'm telling you that's the way it is. Ha, ha, ha, too bad. So sad. If nothing else you're just going to rot in a prison cell while someone tries to figure it out. It's kind of, it's kind of fucked.

Yeah, it is, it is extremely fucked. It's, uh, it's extremely humorous. Funny, yes, absolutely. Yeah, you, you have the right, you have the right to confess. You have been accused in the emperor's name of the crime of piracy. You have the right to confess to your crime and seek absolutely for your sins. Please for leniency will not be heard. That is the most 40K thing I think I've heard in a while.

Just like, no, this isn't like you pleading for your life. This is you confessing. The end. Maybe the emperor forgives you. You're dying. The end. Bye by now. Crazy.

Yeah. It's absolute, absolute shenanigans. But it's funny. And that's what I think is the best. Grim dark and funny. Hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah. That's the good stuff.

Grim dark and funny. But, I mean, for the most part, that's a lot of the. Barbides. They are pretty cool, I won't lie, from their general drip and, like, ridiculous demeanor like most imperial things are cool because it's just cool to see it, like, because playing a zealots is fun, because it's fun, it's fun to, like, play the character who just says the worst stuff you've ever heard in your life and just be like, ah, I sure do love

the emperor. Blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam. And they're just so cool. Like the drip, the vibe. Everybody loves Judge Dredd. Everybody loves that vibe. Giant shotgun. Yes, please.

Really cool Riot Shield? Absolutely. Who doesn't want to be, who doesn't want to like play as an Arbides? No, absolutely not. So. But, like, it is absolutely one of those types of characters that just, if, if, the if the awesome voice lines of them screaming like i am the law is not enough for you the black and red and gold armor probably will be oh yeah absolutely yeah they are they are super fun plus it's

just kind of funny because like the amount i mean yeah you know there's there's certainly a lot of was it the the imperium obviously has a lot of its own satirical elements but this one feels it the one that's like the most on the nose it's just like so funny how much of like You know, centuries of, you know, authority and then the people and stuff and how much they can mess with that. Just the simple idea of like, yeah, they're going to die before you can read every law is so funny to me. It's just such a smoking duck gift classic moment. I am also very curious at some of the, like, I know we've mentioned the dark tight update, but a part of me is like, man, the voice lines that are Beatties is going to. get are going to be wild.

Like, you put the Arbides and that crazy psycher that's constantly telling people that the emperor is a fraud in the same room together. Oh, brother. That's, like, the Arbides character should have friendly fire. Oh, natural. I mean, that, that's required. That's a bit, that's required. I mean, I even in like the reveal trailer for him, you just hear him like screaming in

the background, like, die in the name of the Lex. And it's just, like, oh, Hell yeah. Also, the voice acting of Dark Tide is absolute peak, so I'm very excited about it. Oh, yeah, definitely. Definitely. But yeah, that's what I got for the Arbides today. Thank you, Possum, for putting together something so darn decent after my long time away.

It's been good to come back. Yeah, Possum is. Possum is kind of an all-star, right? Possum kind of do the thing with the good stuff, no doubt. Hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah. But that's all I got today. Is there anything you want to say before we leave?

we've gone this whole episode and not once said are beadies nuts and i just want to bring it back home uh one moment hold on okay can you say it for me are beaties nuts Oh.