The novel uses the workings of the Union army and the Inquisition to show how old systems suppress the individual, treating human beings as objects or weapons. As the examples of Sult’s treatment of Glokta and Ladisla’s treatment of his troops indicate, people in the highest echelons of power stop viewing those at the bottom of the pyramid as human. Sult reveals he sent Glokta to Dagoska only as a political stratagem, uncaring of the fact that Glokta engaged in many morally repugnant actions in the service of the Union, deepening his self-loathing. Ladisla does not pause to consider the lives of his soldiers when choosing glory due to his institutional privilege. Once power becomes an institution, it turns inward and harms the people under its control. The Inquisition shows this pattern with an especially cold clarity. In Dagoska, Glokta treats torture and blackmail as routine instruments of rule. His choices come not from personal cruelty but from a detached logic that treats bodies as tools for extracting information. When Glokta examines his predecessor’s approach and notes that it relied on “[b]rutality, for its own sake” (37), he replaces those methods with violence he deems more efficient. Inquisitor Lorsen, commandant of a penal colony, echoes the same logic when he defends the imprisonment of families by saying, “Perhaps it takes small crimes to prevent bigger ones” (113). He compares his job to emptying latrines, a comparison that reduces human beings to excreta.  

The Union military shows a different form of corruption built from petty rivalries and poor leadership. The feud between General Kroy and General Poulder, for instance, grows out of personal ambition rather than strategy. Lord Marshal Burr notes that these commanders treat the war as a route to “personal aggrandisement” (19), and he must plan around their ongoing hostility. Their antagonism resurfaces in the battle at Dunbrec, where their refusal to work together helps trigger a tactical collapse that kills scores of soldiers. Afterward, they argue over who deserves credit for the bloody outcome, revealing how far they have drifted from concern for their men. The army’s hierarchy supports this behavior by favoring rank and political ties while treating common soldiers as expendable.

Institutional power also works by exclusion and othering, especially of minoritized people. For instance, the Union calls the indigenous Dagoskans “primitives” (32) and treats them as inferior, making it easier to justify their exploitation. The Dagoskans, who are the indigenous people of their city, are confined to the cramped lower city and denied equal rights. Even West is made to feel like an outsider because of his commoner heritage, with the young man attempting to follow rules more rigidly to fit in. Thus, power controls the individual at every stage, pigeonholing them in categories.