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I am working on building out a minor order of the Adepta Soroitas and was looking for any input on background lore around the Ecclesiarchy's presence on Mars.

I am getting into the lore around the Adepta Sororitas and when choosing a painting Scheme for my Canones model I decided to go with an industrial silver armor with red robes - very similar to the Mechanicus faction vibe. I liked the idea of basing this around a minor order headquartered on Mars that looks after, or polices, the relationship between the Cult Mechanicus and the Imperial Cult by rooting out heresy and reinforcing imperial truth among tech-priests and Mars culture. I guess what I'm looking for is any input behind that concept, knowledge around the Ecclesiarchy's current standing on Mars, etc. Is there be any sort of precedent for the Ecclesiarchy to maintain a small force of battle sisters on the red planet in case direct action against heretical forces is needed?

Appreciate any discussion! Cheers.

I think it would be very unlikely for SoB to have any say regarding heresy within the Martian cult, especially on Mars of all places, due to the nature of how the Mechanicus' separate religious dogma to that of the Imperial Cult is tolerated due to their monopoly on technology in the Imperium and how some pay lip service to the Emperor as the avatar of the Omnissiah. Any form of tech-heresy is usually handled in-house by the Mechanicus.

What you could do is have your minor order of Adeptus Sororitas to have been placed under the command of an Inquisitor that is under the Ordo Machinum, which is the policing agency within the Inquisition that deals with Mechanicus when they find STC's and ensure basically quality assurance for whatever is implemented into the Imperial war machine. That way it's less to do with policing the Imperial Cult on Mars and more being involved with the politics of the Mechanicus withholding secrets or dealing with specific Magos who border the line of tech-heresy.

 Grimskul wrote:
What you could do is have your minor order of Adeptus Sororitas to have been placed under the command of an Inquisitor that is under the Ordo Machinum, which is the policing agency within the Inquisition that deals with Mechanicus when they find STC's and ensure basically quality assurance for whatever is implemented into the Imperial war machine. That way it's less to do with policing the Imperial Cult on Mars and more being involved with the politics of the Mechanicus withholding secrets or dealing with specific Magos who border the line of tech-heresy.

Oh I love that idea, really appreciate the input!

Since the Cult Mechanicus is a recognised sect of the Ecclesiarchy, the only priests on Mars are techpriests.
However, there is nothing to stop you from having an order of sororitas dedicated to the omnissiah. Many astartes chapters and guard regiments have close ties to the admech why not the sisters?

 Gert wrote:
Many astartes chapters and guard regiments have close ties to the admech why not the sisters?

That'd be an interesting thing to see. The sisters are incredibly suspicious of anything that looks slightly heretic and usually they don't get along well with the mechanicus. But it's always possible that one order came to worship the Emperor as the Omnissiah.

 Gert wrote:
Since the Cult Mechanicus is a recognised sect of the Ecclesiarchy, the only priests on Mars are techpriests.
However, there is nothing to stop you from having an order of sororitas dedicated to the omnissiah. Many astartes chapters and guard regiments have close ties to the admech why not the sisters?

The Cult Mechanicus is not that entwined with the Ecclesiarchy. Plenty of members of the Ecclesiarchy would purge the tech priests as heretics if they had the political clout. Since basically all the Sororitas orders are headquartered on Terra or Ophelia, there's not really room for that kind of deviance, I'd think.

The Imperial Cult is as varied as the people who practice it. Sects are often dedicated to aspects of the Emperor or one of his Saints. Likewise so are the Sisters dedicated. Some marines worship the Emperor as a god, most don't and simply see him as their creator in a scientific or paternal sense. If a convent was founded on a forgeworld it could easily believe the Cult Mechanicus beliefs rather than those of the Imperial Cult. 40k is a big setting anything can happen.

The Cult Mechanicus is considered to be more a sister religion to the Ecclesiarchy. It is considered part of the Imperial Cult, but is not responsible to the Ecclesiarch. Both branches have equal standing in High Lords of Terra, both The Ecclesiarch of the Adeptus Ministorum and The Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus are both members of the High Lords of Terra.

They are two sides of the same coin as far as the the imperium is concerned.

Some are more fervent than others, but both believe BiggiE(tm) to be a god(albeit diff versions) and will purge those that think otherwise.

But on Mars itself, more likely than not.

Cybernetic Sisters sounds like a cool idea.

It seems to me that the 40K galaxy is big enough for almost any deviation from standard to exist SOMEWHERE. I say, tech-sisters sounds awesome, and go for it!

You might well have a Sororitas delegation on forge worlds.

High end imperial technology - by which I mean bolters, power armour, force fields (rosarius), and similar stuff, is generally manufactured by the Mechanicus.

Which means someone needs to be on the forge world to agree the terms of supply, oversee testing and formally accept the stuff on behalf of whatever Sororitas order it's destined for.

Having a minor order based in some ecclesiarchy 'embassy' on a forge world seems like an efficient way to do this, and, as noted, it also provides the Ordo Machinum with a ready-made force if needed.