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As I am currently torn between selling my inquisitor or my sisters, and it ALWAYS come down to fluff, can someone (preferably a sisters player) give me the run down on the SoB. Yes, I own C:WH, but the amount of fluff is piddly, so I want to know how groups of them are formed/ named/ organized etc. Any info would be great.

In no particular order...

Codex: Sisters of Battle
Codex: Witch Hunters
Dark Heresy: Inquisitor's Handbook
Dark Heresy: Radical's Handbook
Dark Heresy: Ascension
Faith and Fire

What little other Sisters fluff there is, is often extremely unkind to Sisters, painting them as morons, incompetents, and exaggerating the martyrdom aspect so damn much that you wonder how any of them survive beyond a single battle. Therefor I tend to ignore them.


As for "how groups of them are formed/ named/ organized", we don't just don't know. The six Major Orders were named after symbols in the vision Alicia Dominica received from the Emperor when she was brought before the Golden Throne, but other than that, no damn clue.

Wait wait wait. I thought the inquisiton found the sisters on some back water planet, went "OH LOOK, good milita" and bang. Sisters of Battle. What is this "vision".

To explain, look up the Age of Apostasy fluff in the 40k Rulebook. Note that this fluff is extremely and hilariously incomplete. WARNING: WALL OF TEXT COMING! Furthermore, this is my own interpretation of events, but all of this is drawn from the official sources I listed, as well as the only White Dwarf magazine that actually had fluff for Sisters in it.

Goge Vandire, the current Ecclesiarch (IE, the leader of the Imperial Church-- the Ecclesiarchy) had found the Sisters on a backwater planet, and through trickery (they did not, at the time, know about the technology of the Rosarius) he convinced them he was blessed by the Emperor. He took these Daughters of the Emperor (as they were called back then) in as his own bodyguards, and renamed them the Brides of the Emperor.

Some time later, a preacher known as Sebastian Thor began to rally the Imperium against Goge Vandire, whom was extremely corrupt. Indeed, he is considered second only to Horus when it comes to having been able to tear the Imperium apart from within, and is despised almost universally by all the Imperium in "modern" times (IE M.41, six thousand years later)-- even the Marines hated him at the time, because he tried to command them around. But at the time, he had the High Lords of Terra under this thumb, and as the Ecclesiarch he had basically absolute power over most of the Imperium; his word was both law, and the words of the Emperor in most peoples' eyes.

Vandire sent assassins after Sebastian Thor, and then regiments of Frateris Templar (the former army of the Ecclesiarchy, an army of well-equipped priests and knights), and so on and so forth... but everyone he sent towards Thor was talked into actually JOINING Thor's entourage, and wherever Thor went, the rampant Warp Storms of the time calmed, and his party was sped along by calm currents as if the Emperor Himself was guarding him. Eventually, Vandire believed that Thor was a truly massive threat, and sent a very large force of Frateris Templar after him... but they were caught in a freak and very powerful warp storm, known now as the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath.

Eventually, Thor gathered the attention of some of the High Lords of Terra and the Adeptus Astartes, and they laid siege to Terra, eventually the palace of the Emperor. After months of siege, the Black Templars broke through, and the Daughters of the Emperor held them back in the cooridors of the Emperor's Palace for more months. Finally, the leader of the Adeptus Custodes convinced Alicia Dominica to come with him to the Emperor's throne, though what went on in there is not recorded.

Alicia Dominica stormed out towards Vandire's now practically abandoned command post (his forces had been deserting him save for the Brides of the Emperor), and pronounced his sentence:

You have committed the ultimate heresy. Not only have you turned your back on the Emperor and stepped from his light, you have profaned his name and almost destroyed everything he has striven to build. You have perverted and twisted the path he has laid for mankind to tread. As your own decrees have stated, there can be no mercy for such a criminal. I renounce your lordship, you walk in the darkness and cannot be allowed to live. Your sentence has been long overdue and now it is time for you to die.

His response was "I'm too busy.", and she struck him down with her power sword, splitting his rosarius (The same one he used to trick the Daughters of the Emperor with with) in half in the process.

Sebastian Thor became the new Ecclesiarch and was declared a Living Saint, and the Ecclesiarchy was prevented from having any "men at arms". The Daughters of the Emperor-- having cast aside the Brides of the Emperor, Vandire's name for them-- became the Adepta Sororitas, because of the obscure high gothic used in the command allowed for an all-female force by technicality. The egos of the High Lords of Terra were soothed by Thor and Dominica's assurances that the Sisters of Battle would regulate the Ecclesiarchy.

Some time later, the Ordo Hereticus of the Emperor's Most Holy Inquisition was formed, and the two organizations-- the Adepta Sororitas and Ordo Hereticus, I mean-- formed a pact known as the Convocation of Nephilim, wherein they pledged to assist eachother because of their similar goals.

The novel "Grey Knight" by Ben Counter also features a Sororitas army (BTW in an army composition that many WH players use).
That said, the 2nd edition Codex Adepta Sororitas is the biggest and best source of Sororitas and Ecclesiarchy background.

Do you think there's a connection with the Sister's of Silence?

Nope. The Sisters of Silence were the militant arm of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica during the Horus Heresy, and were all Blanks at that. How they had so many Blanks together in one group I don't know, but we don't even know if the Sisters of Silence even exist in M.41. If they do, they are likely relegated to the Black Ships of the Inquisition.

Melissia wrote:Nope. The Sisters of Silence were the militant arm of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica during the Horus Heresy, and were all Blanks at that. How they had so many Blanks together in one group I don't know, but we don't even know if the Sisters of Silence even exist in M.41. If they do, they are likely relegated to the Black Ships of the Inquisition.

Adeptus Astra Telepathica= the Astropaths? They have a militant wing!? Man, everyone has their own army in the future.

They at least HAD one during the Horus heresy . Whether or not they do anymore, I don't know.

And furthermore, the Sisters of Silence were pretty badass-- every one of them was a Blank. Imagine an army of Eversor assassins, only better trained and more disciplined for actual combat rather than assassination.

Yes, well Inquisitor Eisenhorn built such a thing....but then it got blown up.

That makes the Sisters of Silence very ironic. The Astropaths are responsible for interstellar communication across the entire Imperium via physic power. Yet they employed an army of Blanks who can't talk.

Happygrunt wrote:Wait wait wait. I thought the inquisiton found the sisters on some back water planet, went "OH LOOK, good milita" and bang. Sisters of Battle. What is this "vision".

High Lord Goge Vandire did that actually... Not the Inquisition.

Valete,

JohnS

While he was a High Lord, his primary rank was Ecclesiarch, which during the Age of Apostasy was actually MORE powerful than the High Lords of Terra.

I thought it was becasue he managed to gain the Imperial guards seat too. The whole mixing of church and state leading to disaster thing.

AFAIK, the Ecclesiarch has always held, and still does hold, a permanent seat on the High Lords of Terra. But I wouldn't put such political maneuvering against him, he was a real bastard.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Adeptus Astra Telepathica= the Astropaths? They have a militant wing!? Man, everyone has their own army in the future.

They "manned" the Black Ships at that time. Being Blanks, they were immune to the psychic powers of their prisoners. They are featured in the Horus Heresy novel "Flight of the Eisenstein".
More info: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sisters_of_Silence

Then they definately still exist. The Black ships would definately still need an army of blanks

That's not for certain. In "Faith and Fire", Sororitas "man" a Black Ship and are attacked by psyker prisoners.
Also a lot of Sisters of Silence died during the Horus Heresy.

an army of Blanks who can't talk.

In the novel "A Thousand Sons" we learn that the Sisters of Silence are not actually silent. When gutted by a Thousand Sons marine they scream like anyone else (Page 503 if you're interested)

From what I understand, the Adepta Sororitas only man the Black Ships on a casual basis, filling in when there isn't enough Sisters of Silence to go around. Adepta Sororitas would probably the second best option to guard a ship full of psykers, all things considered.

In Dark Heresy there is vague nods towards the Sisters of Silence, the most notable being if your playing a psyker you can have a trait in which you are afraid of bald women due to your sanctioning process.
Sisters of Silence have always been presented as having shaved heads with a single ponytail at most.

As for how orders are formed and named, C: WH, p6 'Rise of Lesser Orders Militant' has this to say;

... and so over time became independent of the Orders that had founded them, establishing their own traditions, doctrines, livery and titles.

And that is it.

If you wish to make your own Order just choose one of the Six majors that they split from, think of a name and fluff to why that name and away you go.

So Its like making a marine chapter?

Not quite. Not all Orders are formed that way in M.41 I think . Some are, for example, formed specifically to defend certain worlds/systems/subsectors, or to propogate certain wars of faith/crusades, and so on. Still others are created specifically to serve the Inquisition in a particular deed (such as finding and recovering lost artefacts, or likely several orders of hte Sisters Dialogous).

My own fluff has the Order of the Sapphire Blade formed in order to guard a Power Sword STC, which is a rare and highly valuable artefact itself but is considered holy because the weapons it produces are themselves powerful artefacts. Thus they work with both the Guard and the Skitanii to defend the systems and the subsector in general (which is located to the galactic north of the Maelstrom).

Gah, this is confusing now.... so a Sister order could be made for any damn reason at all?

Think about it this way...


There's a quote in the Dark Heresy rulebook that says the following:

OF course this is a matter for the Ecclesiarchy. Why? Because it concerns the Imperium, of course.

Think about that for a moment. The Imperial Church is, on the vast majority of worlds, a rather pervading presence. And the Sisters are the Ecclesiarchy's power armored fist.

Melissia wrote:While he was a High Lord, his primary rank was Ecclesiarch, which during the Age of Apostasy was actually MORE powerful than the High Lords of Terra.

I don't believe that's quite correct. Vandire, if I recall correctly, was High Lord of Terra first and then became the Ecclesiarch as well when he had his predecessor murdered.

Valete,

JohnS

that last statement about sums it up. melissia is on point.

i would say if you want to work with a sister of battle army think of crusades of old in real history. they take up a certain cause, or place, or enemy and dedicate themselves to it as long as it fits within their religious beliefs. So examples of Sisters of battle orders would be dedicating to a particular planet due to its religious importance, or dedicating themselves to purging all forms of new age religions in their sector, or going after some great priest or chaos lord who has been stirring unfaithfulness throughout the sector. these are all examples, and you can look at real life for help, def at the christian crusades, but also at the Islam jehads (misspelled?) or any other religious group that declared some sort of holy war in order to regain or defeat a group (Jerusalem, or the splinter groups of Islam who rally against america saying it is a place of infidels and nonbelievers, are both examples of holy war, respectfully.)

So, I could have an SoB army dedicated to searching for the artifacts required to complete an ancient religious weapon? Or would that be more along the lines of a space marine?

Happygrunt wrote:So, I could have an SoB army dedicated to searching for the artifacts required to complete an ancient religious weapon? Or would that be more along the lines of a space marine?

Actually that's spot on. There was one example very similar to that in the fluff.

Melissia wrote:

Happygrunt wrote:So, I could have an SoB army dedicated to searching for the artifacts required to complete an ancient religious weapon? Or would that be more along the lines of a space marine?

Actually that's spot on. There was one example very similar to that in the fluff.

Really? Could you give me a source. I want to see who did this, as it might help me along with fluffyness. Now, how do successor groups get named? Do they pull names from a hat?

It was mentioned in C:WH IIRC, but if not, then probably C:SoB. I don't think there's such things as "successor groups" in the Sisters language, but that aside..

Often, it is based off of an important object-- say, an artefact . For example, the Ebon Chalice or Argent (IE, silver) Shroud seen in Alicia Dominica's vision when she met with the Emperor. Of course, one could also go with something like Order of the Golden Flame, or somesuch, as well.

There's not all that many Minor Orders named, mind you...

My Order is the Order of the Fiery Heart.

After the death of their leader, St. Katherine, the Order renamed themselves Order of Our Martyred Lady.

cue my fluff

On route to reinforce Katherine's battle-groups a commandery of Sisters, most having just been brought into the Sororitas as Battle Sisters, was lost to warp storms and mourned as dead.

Years later the transport left the warp and contact was restabilised.
To the Sisters it had been weeks, a month or two.

The news that Katherine was murdered years ago struck them hard.
Considering they were to be the relief force the 'what-if' of they could've averted the disaster happening made it all the harder on them.
However, they would not accept the Orders new title.

Canoness Commander Medici spoke at length to her superiors and fellow ranked Sisters before an agreement was reached and the Order was recognised as still the Order of the Fiery Heart.

In M41, they still fight on. They have no 'home' shrine located on any planet but are rather permanently on the move. An unending pilgrimage across the stars protected and housed by a 'disgraced' fleet and Admiral seconded to the Ecclesiarchy as a form of punishment for his previous lack of mettle.
Though they are ever directed towards battlegrounds that lay in the Ecclesiarchy or Imperium interest, they often take leave on the many shrine worlds to resupply and bring in new Sisters to keep their numbers strong.
---
And that is my armies fluff.