The sigil of the Adeptus Arbites
The Hall of Judgement is the great edifice that serves as the Imperial headquarters of the Adeptus Arbites on Terra. The Hall of Judgement is an unusually modest structure compared to the headquarters of most of the other components of the Adeptus Terra located in the teeming world-city of the Throneworld.
A hardened fortress, the interior of the Hall of Judgement extends through many subterranean levels. It is an extremely well-defended citadel, protected by anti-aircraft cannons, automated gun turrets, gunship launch bays, and legions of Arbites Gun Servitors.
The Hall of Judgement is the home of the Adeptus Arbites' Book of Judgement, the complete record of the Lex Imperialis, Imperial law. The Book of Judgement has been painstakingly collected, annotated and collated over millennia and embodies every decree ever passed by the Emperor Himself or the High Lords of Terra.
In fact, the Book of Judgement has long-since grown beyond the confines of a single tome, no matter how large, and comprises countless records, books, and legal decrees.
The most ancient articles are written on crumbling parchments, enscribed in unknown Human tongues by the nameless functionaries of a forgotten age. However, every solar day new volumes of parchment, data-records, and encoded holoscript are added to the Book of Judgement, and interred within the reinforced confines of the Hall of Judgement. Shelves of tomes rise hundreds of metres towards the vaulted ceilings above canyons of marble and iron.
Over the ages, the Hall of Judgement has been expanded and extended many times, so that it is now an entire complex covering many acres, with kilometres of corridors, levels, and rooms.
Scholars, scribes, and law lords pace the time-worn marble floors, while above their heads, on the narrow gantries and ladders that cover the shelf stacks like a spider's web, crawl legal assistants and low-ranking functionaries, searching through the detritus of judgement for solar weeks and months at a time to find just a single reference.
Every Adeptus Arbites Judge, at some point in their career, attempts a pilgrimage to the Hall of Judgement on Terra, there to study the full intricacies of Imperial law. Many spend long standard years there, for the most heinous, subtle, or far-reaching crimes often require a lengthy process of research to pass judgement.
The Hall of Judgement is a place around which rumours and legends swirl, particularly among the population of Terra's packed hive cities. Some claim that its deepest cells hold mad Heretics kept alive from a bygone age. Others claim that the Emperor Himself appears in mirrors held within the Hall to deliver His verdict on the accused who disappear within its cavernous corridors.
Sources[]
- Codex Imperialis (2nd Edition), pg. 34
- Dark Heresy: Book of Judgement (RPG), pg. 9
- Vaults of Terra: The Hollow Mountain (Novel) by Chris Wraight, Ch. 7