Ulmist Inquisition

The three branches of the Ulmist Inquisition trace their origins to Malitain, a mysterious, cult-infested city from the same world as @Barovia. These inquisitors employ varied psionic powers to stamp out evil, but their zeal and willingness to peer into others' minds mean that many fear them just as much as the villains they oppose. Cells of the Ulmist Inquisition might be found within any domain and often ally with the Church of Ezra while opposing the Priests of Osybus. Ulmist inquisitors might ally with characters against evil, but they are just as likely to see corruption within adventurers' souls. These inquisitors are @Inquisitor of the Mind Fires, @Inquisitor of the Swords, and @Inquisitor of the Tomes.

"Evil lurks everywhere. With our minds, we will unearth it, we will plumb its depths, and we will annihilate it." With those words, the psychically gifted priest Ulmed founded the Ulmist Inquisition, an order of psionic inquisitors that seeks to discover the wickedness hiding in people's souls.

In the days before Count @Strahd von Zarovich became the first @Vampire, Vampire Form, @Strahd von Zarovich thundered across the lands with Ulmed. Their mission was clear: to destroy the infernal powers that had corrupted the world and to ensure that those powers never rose again. @Strahd von Zarovich, Ulmed, and their companions hunted @Fiends, @Undead, @Aberrations, and other supernatural threats and were tireless foes of cults like the Priests of Osybus. When @Strahd von Zarovich fell into darkness, Ulmed was heartbroken at his friend's transformation and changed the inquisition's mission. Instead of focusing on hunting monsters, it would also hunt the seeds of evil that can corrupt a person.

Ulmed and his friends Cosima, Ansel, and Tristian organized the inquisition into three orders, with each one specializing in a type of psionic power. The Order of Cosima harnessed the Mind Fire—their name for the fire of thought that blazes within each person's mind. They used that power to read thoughts, reshape memories, and dominate the recalcitrant. The inquisitors in the Order of Ansel subjected themselves to harsh asceticism in an effort to use psionic energy to empower their own bodies. They succeeded and became the martial arm of the inquisition, represented by a sword. Finally, the Order of Tristian endeavored to use intellect to alter the environment through telekinetic force, and the order's members became the inquisition's scholars, represented by a tome.

Today the inquisition rules the city of Malitain, a vast city-state to the north of @Barovia's original site, and the inquisition sends its members throughout the multiverse, seeking to thwart the work of malevolent cults, otherworldly horrors, and the malice of mortals. The zeal of the inquisitors in this work has caused them to be a source of terror in many communities, where folk fear that an overzealous inquisitor might be as great a monster as the @Fiends the inquisitors originally hunted.