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I have a question regarding the sisters of silence. I don't have the books so far and get most of my information on the background from the wiki. There I read that at the end of the great crusade, the SoS numbered in the tens of thousands (they give the Horus Heresy book seven, pgs. 123–131 as source). I also read, that they were cast out of the Adeptus Terra after the heresy but I found nothing so far that would indicate, that they suffered great losses or prosecution afterwards.
Furthermore while blanks are rather rare (I read "one out of a whole planet in a human generation"), taking into account the ~ 1 million imperial worlds, this would still leave up to 40.000 blanks born every year, so in theory enough to replenish losses due to aging and accidents.

Is there any account how many are left in the 42nd millenium and are not fully occupied with (wo)manning the black ships? Would it be "normal" to see Squads of SoS fighting alongside imperial Forces against psykers or are they so rare that one would only risk them in battle if the stakes are as high as Terra or Cadia?


The reason is, that I'm thinking about including a squad or two in my army because I like the model, they are not very expensive points wise and the psychic abomination rule sounds interesting. But I would really like to stay fluff consistent and it would be odd that 5-10 SoS would accompany a normal guard regiment, if they are rare as diamonds.

GW's been pretty vague about their numbers. proably for just that reason

Hmm.. Then besides an actual number, how is it in the novels? Is it "normal" to see a SoS squad on a valuable battlefield or do you only see them outside their black ships and sanctuaries when the sh'' really hits the fan?

As far as I can remember, they've been a neglected resource since the heresy. It's suggested there's a few thousand left, but they're in the process of rebuilding. It's rare for them to be used in combat, especially if there's no psykers or daemons involved.

Bobby G has a few hang around with him because he obviously sees use in them while fighting daemons and the Death Guard.

In Watchers of the Throne, a combined force of Custodes and Sisters attack a salvaged cadian pylon. There were 10 Custodes and about 50 Sisters; if I remember correctly. This might indicate some sort of normal ratio of available (non-black ship bound) Sisters to Custodes. So if there are 10,000 Custodes then there would be about 50,000 Sisters.

After all, the actions of Custodes and Sisters have mirrored each other for the past 12,000 years. Reaching a peak at the end of the Crusade, suffering 90%+ casualties in the war in the webway, going into hiding for 10,000 years, and now being redeployed.

Since there are about 1 million Space Marine, yes, I would say Sisters are very rare. But keep in mind that Sisters man the Black Ships and are deployed from them to hunt down Psykers, so there are probably quite a few more on those, and they operate mostly independently of the rest of the Sisterhood.

As far as fighting alongside a guard army for fluffy reasons goes -you sure don't take them to be competitive (SoS Mini Codex pls, GW)- It makes perfect sense to have elite reinforcements of any type assisting guard, even one-trick ponies like SoS. The chance of two showing up is even rarer.

Depends.

If your counting rarity, yes there recruitment is not going to be like say the sisters of battle who require just loyal, for human females.

However with the advanced anti aging and rejuvenate drugs, and there perceived value and difficulty to replace them there's incentive to provide the best medical and support to those that do pass and are recruited.

The original remaining force at start of the guliman crusade was fairly small but they had been nigh exiled for thousands of years. However the custodies still seemed to have there old gear sat in stockpile and ready to roll out. So there logistics seems not be entirely lacking.

There HQ was lost, or in ruins and being revuilt. They at end of one book had taken over a quickly vacated and not so comfortable inquisition HQ. Kinda symbolic how they got exiled. But with guliman taking over. They got propper support again.

After a century to rebuild. Definitely rare, and many already are assigned to hard to retask duties like black ships and the regular witch hunting work that you always need to keep the today up going.

So all in all. Definitely rare Vs the other adaptus but not impossiblly rare, and there probably a small to fair task force ready to go Terra should they be needed in garrison. Like wise at other really important locations.