Inquisitor Mendoza

Background

Father-Inquisitor Mendoza, the crusader of the Faith, the flame of the Lord punishing with His fire the wicked and the damned; the terror of those who harbors evil in their hearts; the nightmare of betrayers and impious souls; the soldier of God who is always righteous, for he bears Jesus Christ in his heart and his task is just and necessary; the champion of the HexaDome and of the Paradiso front; the grand defender of the Cross and of the Holy Church who has put his life on the line hundreds of times for all our sakes and has delivered the Sphere from the worst evils it has ever had to face—this is Mendoza, the Flame of Truth.

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Father-Inquisitor Mendoza, the crusader of our Faith, the flame of the Lord punishing with His fire the wicked and the damned; the terror of those who harbors evil in their hearts; the nightmare of betrayers and impious souls; the soldier of God who is always righteous, for he bears Jesus Christ in his heart and his task is just and necessary; the champion of the HexaDome and of the Paradiso front; the grand defender of the Cross and of the Holy Church who has put his life on the line hundreds of times for all our sakes and has delivered the Sphere from the worst evils it has ever had to face—this is Mendoza, the Flame of Truth.

It sounds good, doesn’t it? Of course it sounds good. This presentation is a masterpiece of marketing, a proper hook for the audience—and a huge bunch of lies. None of it is true, and if there’s one person who can attest to it, it’s me, because after all, I am Mendoza himself, or at least the aspect of him who does all the things he’s admired for.

No, I’m not the one who jumps into the HexaDome, nor am I the one granting interviews, signing T-shirts, filming holoproductions, or living under the spotlight and basking in fame and success. I’m just the one performing all his dangerous scenes, both in fiction and in real life. I’m his stunt double, the one who does all the heavy lifting and then steps aside so he can come to take all the credit. But hey, that’s the life of a stuntman! So please, don’t think that I’m complaining. I do my job, I get paid handsomely, and I have good insurance with a contract for Cube recovery and a guaranteed Resurrection within a five-year period. It’s a top-of-the-line, Platinum account, on a par with a C-level corporate exec. In return, I just have to risk my life in style to make him look good and to give you guys an adrenaline rush when you see him, and especially when you feel him. Yeah, because sensaproductions are key here. Holofilms are easy to shoot; you only need a budget big enough to virtually recreate any environment, location, or threat and make it indistinguishable from reality. But sensaproductions are a completely different matter. The audience is going to feel exactly what the actor feels, so you can’t simply recreate a cliff in post-production, you have to stand on top of it, with a megacrocodile waiting in the water with its jaws open, because the audience has to feel the pull of gravity, the wind on their faces, the impact when they hit the water, and the teeth of the beast tearing the clothes of the protagonist. And no producer wants to risk losing a superstar by shooting these scenes, let alone having the viewer feel the actor’s fear. You need a stuntman for that, someone who is capable of surviving shooting that scene and not feeling fear, someone like me. Yeah, I’m sure you’ve recognized that scene from Escape from Paradiso 2, and yes, it was me performing it. That day the Mendoza you know was on a promotional tour.

Anyway, I don’t want you to think that Father-Inquisitor Mendoza is a wuss either, far from it. You’ve already seen him in the HexaDome. He’s a tough guy who can actually fight with elegance and make it look spectacular, which is exactly the kind of show you need in Aristeia! Surely he could show up in the thick of the Paradiso front and successfully lead a charge to take a position, dodging enemy fire, and make it out alive despite having risked everything to be an inspiring example both to the troops and to all those watching him later on their comlog screens. It’s more than likely that he could do it, but we’ll never know, because no network executive will allow their golden goose to take such a risk, no matter how good this could be for the “Father-Inquisitor Mendoza” brand, for the network, and for the NeoVatican Church, which isone of the major shareholders. But a stunt double, that’s a totally different thing.

To tell you the truth, I don’t come cheap: I’ve been biomodified to be able to show off on screen, to improve my survival skills, and to look something like the Mendoza from the HexaDome. I can do everything the Aristeia! hero does, for far less money and far less investment risk, and that’s why they want me—and not for any other reason. Anyway, I’m not an actor. I was hired on account of my past as an Indigo Special Operator in the PanOceanian Military Complex, and because of my fearlessness when shooting dangerous scenes. This is the most important thing in a sensaproduction, because the audience must feel that boost of adrenaline blocking out anything else, and I’m really good at this, at never thinking of the consequences of what I’m doing. But acting is beyond me; it’s just not my thing. When I show up in public, I always have a Marketing and PR team from the network whispering in my ear exactly what I’m supposed to say, who I’m supposed to smile at, and what I’m supposed to do and how so that I look like the Father-Inquisitor Mendoza everyone knows. And if this line of communication is cut off for any reason, that’s when I start sweating and panicking in a way I never do when I’m in combat or shooting Mendoza’s absurdly dangerous scenes for the sensaproductions. Pure panic, I swear!

Fortunately, the network usually prevents this sort of situation. I’m sent to a spot in the front that has been prearranged with the High Command, I make my appearance at the right time, I thrash the bad guys, I blurt out a couple of promotional slogans, and I get away with the help of a corporate exfiltration team. Just as it’s said in Escape from Paradiso 3: “Father-Inquisitor Mendoza does not seek gratitude or some reward. He is a man on a God-given mission, and seeing it fulfilled is the only thing that can bring him satisfaction.”

There’s no doubt my job is a dangerous one, an extremely dangerous one, because for maximum promotional impact, Mendoza must be seen in the thick of combat, performing tasks as heroic as they are inconceivable, just like in the HexaDome or in any of his Mayaproductions. That’s my job: to leap into danger head-on. You may think I’m crazy, but it’s actually not so big a deal. The network has assured me they will recover my Cube and bring me back in an upgraded Lhost so I can go back to work as soon as possible. There’s nothing to be afraid of… Though I must admit it worries me a little to know that I’m not the first one to fill this position, that there’ve been two others before me. “What happened to them?” I sometimes wonder. From what I could understand from certain remarks and insinuations, none of them quit to enjoy a peaceful retirement, which means that they died doing their job, which is to say my job, and both of them surely had Platinum Resurrection accounts too. So, if the network didn’t bring them back in a new Lhost, if they had to hire me, that means they couldn’t recover them because there was nothing left to recover… To be honest, it’s not a pleasant thought, but this is why they pay me such a high salary and all those hazard bonuses.

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At my signal, unleash hell

The cleansing fire walks with him as he roams the HexaDome. His enemies fear his scorching flames as much as his allies crave their comforting warmth.

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PADRE-INQUISIDOR MENDOZA | Leading role.

Juan Diaz Mendoza. Father-Inquisitor—what else could we possibly say about him that wasn’t already said in the trailer for the third installment of his biopic?

His legend was forged in flames on the most dangerous battlefields of the emerald hellscape, the ironically named planet, Paradiso. Nothing could be further from paradise than its jungles, teeming with the galaxy’s most aggressive alien races amassed by a maniacal Evolved Artificial Intelligence intent on exterminating humankind.

But, where anyone else would have given up, his unwavering faith kept him strong.

“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed am I who shepherd the weak through the valley of darkness, for I am the true keeper and protector. And I assure you that I will strike down with great vengeance and burning anger those who would attempt to destroy my brothers!”

Quote from the trailer for Mendoza. Escape from Paradiso 3.

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Mendoza. Sacred Flame of God A hunched figure walks away while he covers his face with his hand. A village on fire smolders in the background..

He contorts himself with every step, discarding of all the items that identify him as a warrior of God, until naked, he falls to his knees - crying and screaming at his maker.

- Why did you do it, Lord? Why did you force me to break all of your precepts? In this town, I have sinned more than all of its sinful inhabitants put together.

Tears, his own blood mixed with his victims’, draw macabre rivers down his naked body. They descending into his twitching and trembling hands closed in a fist around the nicked hilt of the sword, split in half, with a barely legible inscription.

But I still have one last sin left... and with this, Lord, consider me free from your service... With a rapid and resolute gesture, he sinks the weapon into the middle of his chest. He collapses with his face sinking in the ground covered with ash and bright embers.

He opens his eyes, but his mind is still in a gloomy underworld chained to the burning sword that once was his tool. A boney creature whips his back and scratches his skin methodically, tattooing inscriptions all over his squalid body. He has been there for so long that he can’t even remember when the penance first started.

After every visit, a sole question appears in his mind: "Do you want to return to the service of your true Lord?" The answer is always the same: at first he shouted: "NO!", and as time passed, that shout became a whisper. In the end, he could only deny it by shaking his head.

It happened over and over again, until his body was completely covered with intricate drawings of flames and powerful words. At last, the bony figure of his torturer finally spoke up.

"The work is done. Stop fighting, let yourself be consumed by the flames. Do you want to return to the service of your true Lord?"

-"Yes. YES!"

The fire of the sword grows and engulfs the penitent's consumed body to fill it with vitality. The fire snakes through his body and his thin hair catches fire in an unending flare. Flames sprout from the scars of his back, drawing an igneous silhouette that slowly transforms into huge wings of bright feathers.

He beats his powerful wings and he shouts one of the sentences written on his skin with renewed force.

"Deus Vult!"

The chains explode in incandescent splinters while he rises to the sky in a short, free flight. He lands close around his burning sword, yanking it free from the stone that acts as its sheath. The inscription flickers inside the flaming leaf: Flamma Veritatis.

The emaciated figure that was his only company for so long whispers as it fades away:

"Return to the service, Mendoza, Holy Flame of God. Fulfill the will of your true Lord."

Profile

N4

ISC: Padre-Inquisidor Mendoza			Character			Heavy Infantry
Fury: Not Imeptuous			Training: Regular			Back-Up: Cube
MOV	CC	BS	PH	WIP	ARM	BTS	W/STR	S
4-4	22	14	13	13	4	6	2	2
Skills and Equipment: Martial Arts L2, CC Attack(Continous Damage), BS Attack(Continous Damage), Berserk3), Dodge(+3), Dodge(+1"), Immunity(Shock), Mimetism(-6), Religious Troop

Loadout

Special Skills

Weapons and Equipment

Melee Weapons

Points

SWC

1

Forward Deployment(+8")

Heavy Shotgun, Grenades

Pistol, DA CC Weapon

55

0

2

Forward Deployment(+8")

MULTI Rifle(+1 Dam), Grenades

Pistol, DA CC Weapon

57

0

Note: Introduced in N4. No profile in N3 or previous editions.

Unit Logo

Infinity the Game

Aristeia the Game

Dossier

Current Miniatures

Infinity the Game

Aristeia the Game

Alternate Skins

Inquistor Mendoza "Sacred Flame of God"

The Mayafilms actor better known in the HexaDome as Padre-Inquisitor Mendoza is now represented as one of the many characters he has incarnated during his career: a fallen angel imbued in the sacred flames of his creator.

We create a totally different look for Mendoza while keeping the fire as a common identifying element.

Unboxed
Originally submitted by Cervantes3773

Out of Print Miniatures

None at this time.

Limited Edition

REF: PV58

Availability: Preorder bonus with the Military Orders Action Pack (2021) bundle, or available separately. Intended to be for Adepticon, but made generally available due to COVID19.