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See Title. From the books, it's an extremely rare vow of a sister to willingly join the Repentia squads, of her own will, to atone for a perceived failing or sin. Most of the time it's compulsory right?



Has a Sister ever been granted Atonement while still alive, and been brought back to her sisters as a full Sister, or is it a literal death sentence.

Not talking statistical likelihood, but lore. Has it ever happened. Obviously it CAN happen, because if one popped wings out of her butt and flew off to the Eye of Terror and killed Angron, she'd bloody well be made a saint.

So does the lore ever show this happening?

Pretty regularly I believe. Saint Celestine was a repentia.

One of the protagonists of the Bloody Rose novels was formally a Repentia, who kept her eviscerator when she went back to being a Superior IIRC.

Bad example on what would unrepent Killing something that pops up seconds later isn't particularly "you are forgiven!" moment.

But yeah it's possible. Not common(charging into toughest combats with zero armour is not giving good odds to survive long enough to gain pardon...) but possible.

Yeah, meant Abby, not Angry. My bad.

tneva82 wrote:
Bad example on what would unrepent Killing something that pops up seconds later isn't particularly "you are forgiven!" moment.

But yeah it's possible. Not common(charging into toughest combats with zero armour is not giving good odds to survive long enough to gain pardon...) but possible.

I was thinking it was essentially a sentence of death by firing squad with the added benefit of taking a few for the team. The forgiveness would come with death.

I think in the vast majority of cases that would be true, but its a big galaxy, and its possible to see how conditions could arise occasionally to enable redemption to be observed without dying.

Would a sister still be a Repentia then, or would they regain the Title of Battle Sister? Any act of repentence great enough for atonement and survival is basically a Miracle level event. Wow you just beat Perturabo in an Arm Wrestling Contest, YOU ARE RESTORED!

Was listening to some lore commentary (failed to bookmark the video...), but they mentioned that (I assume from their perspective) one of the reasons for introducing the Judiciar ....was potentially to handle the increasing mutations with the Astartes.

Citing two companies of Astartes loyalists that had to be purged in one of the books.

I'll try to find it.


*Edit: I just realized I'm in the wrong topic.... heh

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
Would a sister still be a Repentia then, or would they regain the Title of Battle Sister? Any act of repentence great enough for atonement and survival is basically a Miracle level event. Wow you just beat Perturabo in an Arm Wrestling Contest, YOU ARE RESTORED!

I really don't think it would be this cartoonishly grandiose to atone, I suspect it is more grounded, like "successfully purged the heretics of Hab Sector Theta with no further transgressions of faith". Still a difficult task when charging in unarmoured, but hardly saintly miracle stuff.

I would think they would go back to whatever their previous role/rank was prior to their punishment.

 Haighus wrote:

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
Would a sister still be a Repentia then, or would they regain the Title of Battle Sister? Any act of repentence great enough for atonement and survival is basically a Miracle level event. Wow you just beat Perturabo in an Arm Wrestling Contest, YOU ARE RESTORED!

I really don't think it would be this cartoonishly grandiose to atone, I suspect it is more grounded, like "successfully purged the heretics of Hab Sector Theta with no further transgressions of faith". Still a difficult task when charging in unarmoured, but hardly saintly miracle stuff.

I would think they would go back to whatever their previous role/rank was prior to their punishment.

I think there's a lot of variables to that.

Heck just how long it takes them to atone would influence their suitability at returning to their former role. If you've been using close combat weapons and nothing but for perhaps decades, you might not be as good a heavy weapon ranged warrior as you once were.

Similar for command roles you can't just jump from being basically almost the bottom of the ranking to the higher, upper ranks instantly. Even without social and structural elements, just the massive shift in situation and such can take time to overcome.


I would expect them to be re-assessed and reassigned based on their suitability at the end of their Penance. Now a former high ranking officer who atones might well find that they can fast-track back up; or they might find that they are blocked by those above. There's loads of variables there too.
Do you really trust HER? The one who fell and only just atoned recently? Who could fall again? Perhaps we should send her to the fringes where she's no risk to us and keep her as just a battle sister, one of the rank and file. etc...



I think there's a lot of variables here that likely makes it very hard to say for certain outside of the fact that each situation is likely a little bit unique and requires evaluation.

Codex Adepta Sororitas 8th Edition wrote:It is possible for a Repentia to redeem herself through deeds of great bravery and butchery. In fact, some of the greatest and most faithful champions of the Sororitas were at one point Repentia, such as Celestine, the Living Saint. Those redeemed in this way are revered by their fellow Sisters, for through them the Savior Emperor is shown to shepherd his servants through their hour of weakness. Some Sisters even go so far as to submit themselves to becoming Repentia, citing their slightest shortcoming as reasons for penance.

So while not common, it is not unheard of for Repentia to redeem themselves. The most famous example is given, but I'm sure many others redeem themselves in less miraculous ways and either become revered Battle Sisters, with high promise of promotion to other roles, or return to their prior Order if not originally from the Order Militant.

Looks like this may be a book that could answer the question: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-CA/Champions-All-2019

There's a whole Crusade arc devoted to this; a unit of sisters can swear the vow; you replace them with Repentia. They have an Agenda which allows them to earn Redemption points. Once they have enough, they return as Celestians or Seraphim.

The rationale being that completing the vow and living to tell the tale is rare enough to merit recognition as an elite.

I know it's the background thread, but I've always maintained that BL is poor source for "fluff" and the stuff you find in the codices is usually more reliable.

I think the Codex is generally more "this lore applies to the generic state/ideal state for each faction" and "these are the massive/major plot themes/points for this faction".

Meanwhile BL books often dill down and show that whilst there's a status setup in the codex, reality of a galaxy breeds variety, adaptation, re-interpretation and unique situations that defy the normal.

PenitentJake wrote:
I know it's the background thread, but I've always maintained that BL is poor source for "fluff" and the stuff you find in the codices is usually more reliable.

This is 100% true. A lot more in the codices is written in a 3rd person omniscient perspective.

It seems far more unlikely that an entire unit would take a vow of Repentance, and then all manage to become redeemed at once, and then somehow either become elite Celestians (who no longer even exist) or get special Seraphim training; compared to a single sister takes the vow and subsequently gets redeemed...

Kinda like a BT crusade that fails and goes on a penance crusade.

Pretty sure there is a short story where a former Repentia is back to being a Sister of Battle.

The impression I've gotten is that most repentia are volunteers. They feel like they've failed in some way, that they are not worthy of the Emperor's Light, and they must repent for their unworthiness and inherent weakness.

Presumably the Mistress is there to guide and support her charges and to prevent them from falling into heresy.

But it would not be surprising that a Sister can stop being a repentia once she feels that she's worthy again, for whatever reason. It could be that she survived a battle that she shouldn't have, slew a might champion against the God-Emperor, or simply because she feels his Light once more.

Of course, there may be those who have been 'encouraged' to sign up who may require a bit more to be accepted back into the fray. But I think the whole point of repentia is that they can be accepted back. Otherwise, the Ecclesiarchy has other means of punishment waiting in the weeks like flagellation and penitent engines.

As for whether they're accepted back after their repentance, that probably depends. For a dogma to have this part baked in makes me think that the act of forgiveness and repentance is likely considered sacred to those that truly work for it. Though it is possible they might suffer demotion or stigma in other ways, such as relegated to serving at a shrine in a backwater or even being moved to an order like hospitallier or dialogus. I would imagine most are taken back with excitement and relief that a fellow Sister has found peace. Y'know, before they release the holy trinity of bolter, melta, and flamer on the alien, the mutant, and the heretic.

Shouldn't there be some examples of wrong-doing? I would think it depends on the crime, and if they were lucky enough to be sent to the hospitallers or dialogus then they'd be scrubbing floors and toliets.

 Adeptekon wrote:
Shouldn't there be some examples of wrong-doing? I would think it depends on the crime, and if they were lucky enough to be sent to the hospitallers or dialogus then they'd be scrubbing floors and toliets.

In one of the first Sisters of Battle novels, a squad gets put on a gak list for being on duty when a dangerous psyker managed to escape. The squad itself is tasked with finding and returning the psyker, but one of them feels they failed so badly, she volunteered to become repentia.

She didn't survive the novel (of course), but the implication was that she could have returned to her squad once she felt she was worthy again.

And there's nothing wrong with the dialogus or hospitaller orders. Dialogus covers everything from tutors to high ranking members of society to diplomats to the ecclesiarchal equivalent of enginseers. Hospitaller is pretty self explanatory. Sure, it probably wouldn't be a vacation, but convents had notoriously grueling hours and working conditions in real life.

I figure toilets and laundry would be a pretty desirable job in the Imperium. So seems right for voluntary penance.