Editing Witch Hunters (section)

== In Warhammer Fantasy ==
[[Category:The Empire]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

After Sigmar himself defeated the bone daddy [[Nagash]], he appointed Wolfgart Von Krieger ([[Awesome|his best friend <3]]) to create an organization known as the Order of the Silver Hammer, a precursor organization which would then become the '''Holy Order of the Templars of Sigmar''' under Emperor Magnus the Pious' reign.

Witch hunters are the agents of the Sigmarite church who specialize in hunting down necromancers, chaos cultists, [[beastmen]], probably orc shamans and any other sorcerer who practices [[Warhammer_Magic|any magics proscribed by the Colleges of Magic]] (which ironically means the wizards have huge power over them as the wizards decide what counts as witchcraft, and they don't really need the Witch Hunters help if one of their own has fallen since each order could've just sent a Master Vigilant to hunt their fallen kin). They are just about as ruthless and bad news as their 40k version which they also share the same fashion sense by wearing pimping pilgrim hats and are equipped with the best shiny pistols available in the Empire. The witch hunter's other job besides killing the wyrds and sorcerers is to also spread propaganda among the Empire's province, and it is important since most of the citizens in the Empire lives in rural towns far from the city. Without many modern inventions like phones, internet and other fast travel vehicles meaning their ignorance is most often suspect to chaos, and the forest near their town may containing lots of evil things like heretics or monsters like beastmens hiding there. Witch Hunters or Warrior Priests that sometimes passes by would make sure they could cleanse the place off any heresy they could find, then crucify and display their dead heretic prey in the town center to serve as a grim reminder for the locals. The locals were also forced to cooperate the hunter in hunting down the heretics, and they will also be judged if one of them is found guilty for assisted the said heretics, or being one of them.

Sadly, even a secretive organization such as this that's supposed to know any deviant cult still refuses to acknowledge that the [[Skaven]] exist [[The End Times|until the shit hit the floor]]. Though it could be argued that this is to ensure that there are no panic attacks among the populace, it still doesn't stop witch hunters like [[Vermintide|Victor Saltzpyre]] from being shunned in the order for being obsessed with some mythical ratmen creature that walks on two leg. However, the said Witch Hunter can still be promoted to be a captain, but only in desperate times.

According to [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] in the section about Rat Catcher career, Humans were aware of the Skaven and were also aware of their spying and assassination to any humans who spread rumors about the Skaven that persons' of aforementioned profession had developed a habit to not straight up admitting their existence, but calling them rats that are "too big" or "too clever" instead. The Witch Hunters other than Saltzpyre were probably in the same shoe just so they don't have to get stabbed by a Gutter Runner in their sleep. However, now that Saltzpyre has began his ratmen killing crusade, it is highly likely that his antic has endangered his entire order to be either straight up assassinated or drowned in vermintide very soon.

Notable examples include Wolfgart Von Krieger, [[Sigmar|Sigmar's]] [[Awesome|own best friend]] (The capital of Ostland Wolfenburg is named after him), [[Vermintide|Victor Saltzpyre]], the single most Witch-Huntery Witch-Hunter in the entire realm of Witch-Huntery, and Mathias Thulmann, the single deadliest individual who has the biggest balls of steel in the entire order (as well as being the most humane and competent one, which is surprising in case of the first one).

Fun Fact: [[Archaon|Archaon the Everchosen]] used to be a witch hunter under his birth name, Diederick Castner in the older lore. Whats more was that he might even be one of the greatest servant of Sigmar, yet he was turned to Chaos because of the cruel fate the dark gods has planned for him (especially since [[Be'lakor]] made it extra sure by pulling some time reality fuckery scheme).

As a wonderful irony, the Witch Hunter's Handbook actually implies decent reasons for hunting things like fortunetellers and healers. Basically, both are charlatans whose guidance causes more harm than good. Like claiming putting a certain flower in a hat will cure insanity and drunkenness. Hint: it doesn't. Logically, people who believe this and try it and release the "cured" nutters just cause madmen to cause more harm before they can be captured again. Holding the "healer" who caused the mess responsible for it is totally justified. The same for fortunetellers who feed crap to wishful thinkers and end up damaging or ruining lives because of it or just scamming people (which happens a lot from the meddling of real-life fortunetellers "give me your life's savings and I'll 'purify it' for you and your problems will go away") The callous mass-burnings and such are implied to be genuinely necessary due to Chaos corruption or the like and the witch hunters allow the public to think the hunters go around murdering innocents and accept the hatred for it to keep them blissfully ignorant of the true threats constantly assailing the Empire in secret. Until a hunter ends up insane due to all the horrible things he's had to do crushing him with guilt and the mind-breaking things he's seen and fought finally becoming too much. Then it often becomes his turn at the stake.

Also noteworthy is that the introduction to the handbook explains that the author is probably insane and so the methods of hunting are not to be taken at face value or as solid fact. So how much of what is in the book is how the witch hunters actually operate and how much of it is the ramblings of a paranoid madman obsessed with the belief that ''everyone'' is a heretic even if they're innocent is up to the real-life reader to determine. Probably everything given how incredibly "you're guilty especially if you're innocent" the book tends to be.

Be warned, the only official model you can buy these guys in is [[Finecast|Failcast]], and his model is both incredibly prone to bubbles (Oh Boy) and includes a sword which is always bent beyond usability in the casting process. (Double oh Boy.)

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