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Depends on the god really. A player in my game selected an inquisitor of Desna. If you read Desna, there isn't really a reason she would have an inquisitor that I can see, shes just a little too relaxed and carefree for that. What I did do was decide that since she is the god of travelers, her inquisitor would punish those who harmed travelers. Also, hunting down and killing any creatures that negatively impact people's dreams, like night hags, etc.
Other gods, like Gorum, Iomedae, etc are much easier to figure out, since they are more militaristic.
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Likely varies by the individual and region as well.
In Nidal, Desnan inquisitors do a lot of vigilante work to protect the people, especially Desna worshippers who have to keep their faith secret. This could extend to taking out officials getting too close to their identities, keeping tabs on folks likely to rat out the Desnans to the authorities(which they may try to remedy with diplomacy before force), smuggling refugees out of the country, smuggling missionaries into the country...
Zon-Kuthon inquisitors in Nidal could be about hunting down Desnans(and anyone else, particularly Shelynites) that are attempting to subvert their power structure(these may be remedied by conversion, willing or forced, before death). They probably also hunt down secret Desnans as well. They probably keep tabs on officials within the church to make sure power dynamics are respected, that everyone remembers their place, etc...
Sarenraen inquisitors in Qadira are probably quite busy considering the rampant corruption there. Always on the hunt for church officials in bed with the slave trade, and likely keeping an eye on the more jingoistic members that are pushing for war with Taldor.
In Taldor, Sarenraen inquisitors probably find themselves in a similar position as Desnans in Nidal. They're there mostly to ensure the safety of their goddess' flock.
Gorum inquisitors? Probably generally hunt for boastful warriors and war heroes that don't actually have anything to brag about. Followed by public beatdowns, most likely. They may do the same with those who would use un-Gorum-y tactics in battle, such as disease warfare.
Inquistors of abbadar make good pirate hunters.
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Asmodeus - root out heresy, demon worshippers, worshippers of Aroden who haven't 'moved on' and / or clergy of faiths that are secretly interfering with Asmodean business in Cheliax, Molthune, Korvosa, Sargava, etc. Possibly also 'correcting' any followers of Diabolistic faiths that are getting a little too interested in Mammon or Mephistopheles, etc. and not getting the 'big picture' that Asmodeus is the one they should be focusing on. Ditto anyone attempting to 'get out of' or find a loophole in an infernal contract.
Abadar - bandits, brigands and pirates threaten trade and commerce, and that's as close to 'heresy' as it gets to the god of trade and commerce, but the worst sorts of betrayers are those who counterfeit coins, undermine faith in national credit / mints, and / or rob vaults (particularly Abadar-run banking institutions, or knock over the medieval version of 'money-trucks' running from bank to mint to countinghouse, etc.).
Calistria - any offense against a priestess or temple of Calistria is gonna be answered by some quality vengeance, and Inquisitors will likely be at the forefront of the investigation and the apprehension and the 'vengeancing.' Offenses against women in general, and not always Calistrian women, but other prominent and admired women, may be 'avenged' whether the woman wants it or not...
Desna - people who oppress the Varisian wanderers in various lands (including Varisia itself) would earn the ire of the rare Desnan Inquisitor. Sometimes the unlikeliest people can turn out to be pretty fierce at avenging wrongs done to their people (see; Nazis fleeing to South America), and the culture that inspired the Varisians are known for carrying grudges to devastating conclusions. (Roma curses are nothing if not imaginative.)
I could go on for the other 16 gods, but they pretty much write themselves. Gorum hates cowards and deserters and people who prevent honest battle through various other tactics (poisoning the food stores of a battle-group, killing them all and preventing the glorious bloody battle and test of strength and fitness to survive that would have followed). Gozreh hates defilers of the natural world. Iomedae hates dishonorable and craven sorts whose acts cause suffering to others. Shelynite Inquisitors might investigate the destroyer of an ancient piece of artwork, burning of a beautiful building, or the disfigurement of a noble by a jealous rival.
Cayden's Inquisitors are hard at work seeking out whoever came up with the idea of 'light beer,' since that person is due some righteous punishment for their heresy...
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The inquisitor is a very interesting and flexible class.
I have a 9th level PFS inquisitor of Iomedae. My basic character concept was that he was a Marshal, someone dispatched to hunt down those who evade the law. I named him after the sherif in the Brother Cadfael murder mystery series....Hugh Berenger.
I had another idea i was kicking around....
An order of Inquisitors in Cheliax dedicated to the over throw of house thrune, deposing Asmodeus, and putting Iomedae in place as the patron Deity of Cheliax. They would like to be paladins, but circumstances prohibit it....since they need to survive in the wilderness and use stealth to get by, they are "inquisitors".
I am sure lots of other ideas can be thought up.
We need a comprehensive guide on such things
I would like to see Companions on these types of things
And of course, Desna's inquisitors would hunt down worshippers of Lamashtu and oppose the machinations of followers of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods.
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So stealing that second idea. Nice.The inquisitor is a very interesting and flexible class.
I have a 9th level PFS inquisitor of Iomedae. My basic character concept was that he was a Marshal, someone dispatched to hunt down those who evade the law. I named him after the sherif in the Brother Cadfael murder mystery series....Hugh Berenger.
I had another idea i was kicking around....
An order of Inquisitors in Cheliax dedicated to the over throw of house thrune, deposing Asmodeus, and putting Iomedae in place as the patron Deity of Cheliax. They would like to be paladins, but circumstances prohibit it....since they need to survive in the wilderness and use stealth to get by, they are "inquisitors".I am sure lots of other ideas can be thought up.
you are welcome to it. Enjoy.
Basically I ignored the name of the class- Inquisitor- and i looked at what the class could do, and i realized they would probably make excellent guerilla fighters. I also thought that if you are part of an rebel movement in Cheliax, who would employ all sorts of draconain and fiendish methods to bring these bandits and malcontents to "justice", you would probobly have to occasionally do some drastic things in the name of the cause...hence inquisitor.I think there are lots of ideas for inquisitors....beyond the basic "inquisitor" and the Van Helsing monster hunter concepts.
Lets take an "inquisitor of Lamashtu" what on earth would a chaotic godess, the mother of monsters care about docterine? but ill bet the inquistor class makes a great "hunter " class that would proboly fit in nicely with rangers and barbarians.
Perhasp an idea for Cayden Caylen and Desna might be, someone who uncovers prominent slave merchants, and feeds the information to the Andorans, to give them targets to hit.
there are many more ideas.
Hmm... I could easily imagine an inquisitor of Milani as some guerilla freedom fighter; while I admit that I have difficulties seeing the concept of a few other ones.
Groetus, anyone?
Shamira?
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Groetus' followers are as prone to being unfairly (or, in some cases, quite fairly....) maligned or oppressed as anyone elses, and an Inquisitor of the faith could go around defending or freeing (or avenging) those who suffer at the hands of intolerant folk, who fail to notice that Groetus is no more evil than Gozreh or Pharasma. As disasters and momentous changes are their stock in trade, they might find themselves drawn to protect those moments of great and tumultuous change (such as a natural disaster or the death of a king), and find themselves naturally opposed to those who would put out the fire, or quest to find a cure to save the ailing monarch, and thereby stymie the natural and required change that will come after the forest is burned or the king is buried.
As for Lamashtu, she's easy. The Mother of Monsters will send her Inquisitors to protect her monstrous children. Slayers of chimera and manticores and even lowly goblins or craven gnolls, are murderers of her beloved babies, and she will seek revenge. She also is the mother of the deformed and the mad, and will seek to protect those who would be hidden away from society (because their deformity or madness is an embarassment to their parents or culture or whatever), and Lamashtan Inquisitors might find themselves deadly and implacable foes of midwives who would terminate a pregnancy that seems likely to give birth to a malformed or mixed-racial sport. Such a birth would be a blessed event, to the Lamashtan faithful, and if it is discovered that the woman does not intent to carry the 'blessed child' to term (or that her family will arrange for it to be terminated, or done away with after birth), Inquisitors of Lamashtu might kidnap her away, so that she (or her family) cannot interfere with the will of the Mother of Monsters. Half-dragons, half-fiends, tieflings, etc. may well find themselves only alive through the protection of Lamashtan Inquisitors, who see their mixed-births as holy things, and will happily kill their human parents to ensure that the 'special children' are not slain. Raids on asylums, where inconvenient people are shut away so that they do not embarass their noble or wealthy families, would be another Lamashtan task, to rescue those 'blessed' with madness, who will be kept as oracles, their ramblings and babblings interpreted by adepts and priests of the Mother of Madness, who see their affliction as a sign of closeness to the Mother's counsel.
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And of course, Desna's inquisitors would hunt down worshippers of Lamashtu and oppose the machinations of followers of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods.
This of course begs the question: Are their inquisitors of the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods. I know the answer is yes, but it still just freaks me a little to think that their's an aboleth somewhere who's an Inquisitor of Cthulhu or one the Ruby Princes loyal bodyguards who's actually an Inquistor of old Nyarly.
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Interesting note, one of my players is running a human Inquisitor of Cayden Caylean and I was wondering how it should go about being done.
So far, that comment about crucifying the makers of light beer is pretty accurate ;). Now though, so far, he and his Cleric of Cayden (another PC, a female halfing) travel the world spreading good times and seeking their fortunes and fighting back those who prevent the havings of good times, all with the help of his pack mule Pepe >:D
On the Lovecraftian note...
I read this short compilation of Lovecraftian comics, can't remember what it's called now, where a man wanders into this strange town filled with dark and alien looking people, makes his way to their Temple and responds in terror for his soul when they try and bring him into their awful faith. as only a right man would do, he cast down the idol of their strange, crucified man-god and began slaughtering the evil congregation to preserve their souls and his, for the glory of the true faith...fhtagn...
I would expect you would want to read into any given Old One before you made an inquistor of it - but then again, maybe not. They'll be batshit crazy, though perhaps hyperintelligent and will probably have their own take on an individual old one.
Hastur would have some interesting inquisitors, as would Y'Golonac (not mentioned in PF), and Mordiggian, the Charnal God (read: the Charnel God, by Clark Ashton Smith) - especially the latter, Mordiggian is the god-thing worshipped by a death cult of what seem to be Ghouls and that story describes it pretty well. Mordiggians inquistors would spend their time doing funerary rights, guarding the temples, hunting down necromancers and undead, and punishing those who would defile the undead or would keep Mordiggian from his right.
But what is the "function/objectives" of the Spanish Inquisition!
But what is the "function/objectives" of the Spanish Inquisition!
Bah! The link is broken!
Faiths of Purity made it out like Desna and Cayden don't have Inquisitors. Which, of course, is a huge disservice to the class and the deity and I am still grumpy about that. Apparently the author was under the assumption that Inquisitors cannot be chaotic good and/or fun-loving. Which, of course, is wrong.
Faiths of Purity made it out like Desna and Cayden don't have Inquisitors. Which, of course, is a huge disservice to the class and the deity and I am still grumpy about that. Apparently the author was under the assumption that Inquisitors cannot be chaotic good and/or fun-loving. Which, of course, is wrong.
Agreed! While Faiths of Purity does state that inquisitors are "too focused", the book never outright says that Caydenites can't be inquisitors.
I'm having a great time playing an inquisitor of Cayden in a friend's Carrion Crown campaign. I really play up his role as a monster hunter and protector of the weak. He's come to Ustalav to help free the common folk from the tyranny of their undead & monster-infested land. He's very roguish and charming in his outlook and actions as well. He's lightly armored, has lot's of ranks in Acrobatics (ouch! not a class skill!), and is pretty decent with his rapier and repeating crossbow. He's a son of a brewer and knows a lot about wine and ale, but he really doesn't drink that much (unless it's free). He's constantly claiming that Caydenites aren't the drunken fools that most folks make them out to be, blaming such talk on stereotyping and a few "bad apples."
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So, my Inquisitor of Calistira is a Half-Orc orphan from Riddleport. She wasn't some courtesan or hooker on the street, but a bouncer, a tough one for a few of the local establishments. She made friends with this Elf, whom was a dancer and part time prostitute at the club she worked at. The two lived together and tried to support each other so they could move out of the city and find a better life.
Sadly, the Elf was killed one night on her way home after working a late shift. My character, after finding out, goes into a terrible sadness, followed by a rage she never felt before. Finding her friends necklace to the goddess, she was inspired to get revenge and do justice upon the murderer.
Going to the Calistrians, she asks for their aid to give her information to find and kill the murderer. Obliging her, they performed a small ritual that revealed faint aura of the goddess on her and revealed the location of the killer, wasting in a jail cell. With determination and using whatever charm she could muster, she manages to stab the life out of him in his cell while waves euphoric and intoxicating energy went through her.
Upon return, the Calistrians took her in and granted her a place in the temple as a guardian, whom beats up anyone being harsh on the girls and guys on the street corner, and doing the more darker business of the temple.
She'd start off more conservative in look, more focused on the revenge aspect and slightly not caring much for the church itself, thinking them to be over sexed kooks. But, as time went on taking up more and more the aspects of the deity's domains. Also, she doesn't know that the person that killed her friend and whom she killed was her father.
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Isn't ones inquisition key to what your function is? Inquisitor with the Conversion Inquisition, doesn't matter who their god is, their job is to knock on doors, hand out flyers, convince and cajole the heretics to join their religion. On a grander scheme coaxing leaders and nations to adopt their deity at a national level and sway the population over to them.
If your inquisition is heresy, then you run around policing your own, this one is more god dependent, but for Pharsma, killing necromancers, and necromantic clerics.
if you go more if the domain route I think you need to identify your purpose more clearly, but in general inquisitors are more the militant arm of the churches, more dogmatic and zealous than any others (even clerics.)
Personally I think it is more helpful to think of the inquistor as being from the church rather than the god. Churches are imperfect and often stray from a gods intentions (Cult of the dawnflower etc)
With this in mind inquisitors of some "difficult" gods become easier to rationalise.
Except for the Calsitrain Inquisitors. Working as intended.
I have an inquisitor of Calistria who has tried to combine both aspects of the goddess by setting herself up as a 'protector' of the girls (and boys) who work the streets. She hunts down clients who rob them, or are rough, as well as traffickers, abusive pimps and brothel-keepers etc.
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I've played an Inquisitor of Shelyn who hunts art thieves, counterfeiters, and propaganda artists.
I keep tooling around an idea of an Inquisitor of Brigh whose aim is to steal (and more importantly, publicize!) spellbooks, lab notes, research data, technology, and any other knowledge being squirreled away instead of shared. (Alternatively, to go with the 'freedom fighter' theme others mention, one who fights for Intelligent Constructs' rights...)
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I have inquisitors of 3 deities in PFS, which is odd, since I only have 2 inquisitor PCs.
Julian Lightfoot is an inquisitor of Pharasma, who joined the Pathfinder Society to search for and destroy all undead in the ancient sites and hidden graves that Pathfinders tend to explore.
He's actually an inquisitor of Norgorber, in his role as god of secrets, whose goal in life is to find out all the world's secrets. To Galnorag's point, he has the Knowledge (Memory) domain, since it's useful in coaxing information out of people. He's a skill monkey, mostly focused on bluffing and knowledge skills, though he's not terrible as an archer in combat.
He used his Pharasman cover to join the Pathfinder Society. He wants to find out all the world's secrets, and the Society tends to unearth ancient secrets regularly, so he wants in on that. His ultimate goal is to find out who the Decemvirate are, though he has no intention of ever sharing that information with anyone. Thus, the Society's divinations to sense traitors don't ping on him, since he has no intention of ever actually betraying them, even though he wasn't honest about why he joined.
My second inquisitor may actually be weirder than that, since she's powered by a goddess who doesn't pay attention to Golarion any more, and doesn't really have a church or many other worshipers.
Adrianna is an archaeologist who happens to be big, tough, and good in a fight. She picked up a deinonychus egg and raised it from a hatchling to be her guard "dog", because she knew that tomb raiding in a world of undead monsters could sometimes be rough.
While exploring ancient Osirioni ruins, she came across artifacts related to the gods of ancient Osirion whose influence is almost gone on Golarion. Holding an old holy symbol of Isis, she wondered out loud, "Oh Mighty Isis, whatever happened to you and your family? Why did you leave our world, and let other gods replace you?"
Much to her surprise, the goddess actually answered.
With a flash of light and crack of thunder, Adrianna was knocked to the floor. When she awoke, she found herself imbued with the divine powers of a sacred huntmaster inquisitor, with her deinonychus as her companion animal. She spent several days praying to Isis, trying to discern what the goddess wanted from her, but received no further guidance. She decided that her new quest in life would be to uncover the true answers to the questions she'd asked Isis that night, while upholding the good and noble principles the goddess held dear.
Mostly, I just wanted to play a hunter or sacred huntmaster, and wanted to come up with something weird and creative for her back story and personality. Coming up with a tie to a Golarion deity that's rarely seen seemed like an interesting way to do that.
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Inquisitors are easy.
Here come the Core 20 because I have nothing better to do today:
Abadar- Hunt counterfeiters, hunt bandits, hunt down Norgorberite cells in areas you want your capitalist civic utopia to thrive. In many ways, an Abadarite Inquisitor would have a lot of responsibilities that seem secular to modern western readers.
Asmodeus- Easy. Sniff out potential slave insurrections, hunt down Bellflower Network operations, ferret out heresy in Cheliax, put down schismatics within the church... Lawful Evil is an easy fit for Inquisitions.
Calistria- A church that actually makes revenge a devotional act is going to have plenty of cutthroat internal politics to juggle. In addition, since all Calistrian services are available for hire, they probably do a lot of mercenary intimidation, revenge, and spying (since blackmail is a quite effective form of both avenging oneself and preventing revenge from being taken)
Cayden Cailean- My least favorite core deity by leaps and bounds, but: See what the Asmodean Inquisitors are getting up to? Someone needs to be working against them from the other side. While the name "Inquisitor" can lead one down certain avenues, Caydenites would be more likely to use their talents to oppose oppressive sorts.
Desna- Anything Caydenites do, these guys can get up to as well. In addition, Desna has her tiff with Ghlaunder requiring that certain of her congregations get checked on to make sure they're not actually venerating ol' skeeter-face. Add to that a policy of what is essentially holy war with the faiths of Lamashtu and Zon-Kuthon, and you have plenty on a Desnan Inquisitor's plate. In addition, as others have mentioned, Desnans in Nidal need a lot of counter-secret police protection. Desna's faith is one of the easiest Chaotic religions to give Inquisitors a full slate of work, in my opinion.
Erastil- From the easiest Chaotic to the hardest Lawful... I can see Erastilian Inquisitors serving as local watchmen of a sort, checking on people whose farms are on the edge of a community, hunting down monsters that lair nearby- most of what I can see an Erastil-worshipping Inquisitor doing is solidly in Ranger territory. They probably also sometimes serve as Judge and jury in rural community disputes.
Gorum- A church all about warfare and open combat...I think they mostly concern themselves with making sure people are worshipping Gorum and not, say, Szuriel.I can also see Gorumite Inquisitors making sure no dirty tricks are being used prior to an honorable combat,and that those who cheat in martial contests are found out.
Gozreh- While ol' Goz-face is a fairly remote sort of entity, hunting down those who defile nature or who fall to the worship of demon lords like Cyth-V'sug is probably enough to keep them busy. Like Erastil, I see a lot of overlap with another character class's responsibilities, in this case Druids.
Iomedae- Plenty going on here. Monitoring the faith in places like Cheliax where corruption is everywhere, hunting Baphomet cultists, dealing with things like fanatical Mendevian witch-burners, policing the Mendevian Crusaders in general, helping the Glorious Reclamation get its people out of Cheliax ahead of the purges (on the sly, of course,and with plenty of griping about silly idealistic hotheads), and so forth.
Irori- Making sure the faithful aren't resorting to shortcuts and are actually perfecting themselves, adjudicating contests to make sure no one is cheating.
Lamashtu- Arbitrating disputes among the faithful, hunting down those who threaten the lairs of monstrous mothers, infiltrating and sabotaging the efforts of the faith's enemies, and of course stamping out any heresies among the congregation.
Nethys- Among the most chaotic of non-chaotic faiths, I see Inquisitors of Nethys as being extremely rare and essentially concerned with making sure those who would restrict or suppress magic are kept on notice.
Norgorber- A god with four primary aspects, an emphasis on secrets and dirty deeds, and no qualms about stooping to any action to get the job done? Inquisitors are potentially more common than actual Clerics, since they have the skillsets to practice their faith in secret,and to hunt down those who might find them out.
Pharasma- Inquisitors make superb hunters of undead and necromancers, and they're also in a position to hunt down the followers of Urgathoa and Zyphus... and Lamashtu. The goddess of death also has birth under her auspices, so Lamashtu's faithful are very much to be dealt with.
Rovagug- I see these guys (weirdly) as being very internally-focused, making sure the ideas of compassion and mercy don't take hold among their populations- and hunting down any outside agitators or charismatic heretics who might seek to propagate those ideas. They probably also do a bit of infiltration and sabotage of enemy communities, but on an ad hoc informal basis.
Sarenrae- I bet the Cult of the Dawnflower has a few of these guys on tap, and I'm equally sure the main body of the faith does as well, and that the two have a lot of shadowy conflicts from Taldor to Qadira to Katapesh.They also have to contend with the Dawnflower's enemies, like Rovagug and Lamashtu. The church also probably uses Inquisitors to keep tabs on the church's congregations making sure they're safe and not being led astray.
Shelyn- Making sure their congregations don't get infiltrated by Kuthites, Norgorberites, etc, and helping the faith do good works when under scrutiny of evil authorities (as in Cheliax) is probably the extent of a Shelynite Inquisitor's job. They're probably not tethered to a specific hierarchy within a given locality so that the local churches can maintain plausible deniability. They probably also have to keep an eye on one another, since they're likely the most oddball of Shelynites.
Torag- Given the traditionalist and hidebound nature of dwarven culture as we've seen it thus far, these guys area pretty easy fix. Droskar is a problem, and they probably also make sure that craftsmen are taking (and giving) proper credit for work being done. A master who claims a talented apprentice's work as his own is likely to get a visit from these guys.
Urgathoa- I see these guys as mostly counter-Pharasmin (and other rival faiths) operatives, but also dealing with troublesome or wavering members of their congregations who might jeopardize the faith's security by their actions.
Zon-Kuthon- Policing Nidal, protecting the faithful in lands where the church is outlawed, hunting down heretics. As I said with Asmodeus, Lawful Evil is dirt-easy to make work.
I would imagine a Inquisitor of any faith job is to protect their faith from all threat both internal and external.
Sure some might do more depending on the faith but I think the above would be the basic function.
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Irori- Making sure the faithful aren't resorting to shortcuts and are actually perfecting themselves, adjudicating contests to make sure no one is cheating.
Since Irori is all about self-realization and improvement, his faith might be strongly opposed to any sort of regime that forbids a certain class of people from advancing themselves, either by restricting their movements or educational opportunities or whatever. A place that forbids a certain class of people to improve their minds or bodies, would be anathema to the Inquisitors of Irori, who would prefer that every person has the opportunity to strengthen both mind and body.
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Since Irori is all about self-realization and improvement, his faith might be strongly opposed to any sort of regime that forbids a certain class of people from advancing themselves, either by restricting their movements or educational opportunities or whatever. A place that forbids a certain class of people to improve their minds or bodies, would be anathema to the Inquisitors of Irori, who would prefer that every person has the opportunity to strengthen both mind and body.
On a similar note, I believe James Jacobs has stated that inquisitors of Shelyn would oppose government officials who persecute lovers, for instance by enforcing laws forbidding miscegenation or same-sex romantic activities.
My inquisitor of Cayden Cailean would laugh at the label of Inquisitor. In his mind, Cayden has favored him with the power to fight monsters and fight the good fight.
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One thing I've been forgetting to mention; Inner Sea Gods has some insights into this topic, and notes which inquisitor archetypes are especially appropriate for particular gods.
Unsurprisingly, infiltrators are typical of the churches of Asmodeus (to sabotage enemies of the faith) and Norgorber (presumably to corrupt other groups from within), and the church of Pharasma trains exorcists.
Iconoclasts are listed as an appropriate archetype for inquisitors of Rovagug, which makes some sense considering that their skill set is dedicated to breaking things.
Perhaps more oddly, sin eaters are apparently associated with Shelyn. The idea of consuming another's sins and thereby offering them a sort of forgiveness even after death seems like more of a Sarenite thing to me, but I'm sure the writer had some justification in mind.
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The word "inquisitors" is evocative, but somewhat misleading. The inquisitor is essentially the church/god's fixer and handy-man/woman/dwarf/etc. Where the clerics are the brute force (well, brute spellpower) approach, inquisitors go where a little bit more finesse is needed. Sometimes, their missions have little to do with how we would perceive the inquisition (whether the historical or the beloved 40K variety)
An Irorite inquisitor in Cheliax, for example, may work to preserve the true history of the realm (Irori is also the god of knowledge) and protect those who might be endangered by the suppressions of history. She may appear more as a scholar, dissident or even a socialite, but be an inquisitor in game terms.
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Likely varies by the individual and region as well.
In Nidal, Desnan inquisitors do a lot of vigilante work to protect the people, especially Desna worshippers who have to keep their faith secret. This could extend to taking out officials getting too close to their identities, keeping tabs on folks likely to rat out the Desnans to the authorities(which they may try to remedy with diplomacy before force), smuggling refugees out of the country, smuggling missionaries into the country...
Zon-Kuthon inquisitors in Nidal could be about hunting down Desnans(and anyone else, particularly Shelynites) that are attempting to subvert their power structure(these may be remedied by conversion, willing or forced, before death). They probably also hunt down secret Desnans as well. They probably keep tabs on officials within the church to make sure power dynamics are respected, that everyone remembers their place, etc...
Sarenraen inquisitors in Qadira are probably quite busy considering the rampant corruption there. Always on the hunt for church officials in bed with the slave trade, and likely keeping an eye on the more jingoistic members that are pushing for war with Taldor.
In Taldor, Sarenraen inquisitors probably find themselves in a similar position as Desnans in Nidal. They're there mostly to ensure the safety of their goddess' flock.
Gorum inquisitors? Probably generally hunt for boastful warriors and war heroes that don't actually have anything to brag about. Followed by public beatdowns, most likely. They may do the same with those who would use un-Gorum-y tactics in battle, such as disease warfare.
I also sort of saw Gorum's good Inquisitors as Monster Hunters and spy/assassin killers as those ways are less than ideal forms of warfare.