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The Imperium isn't exactly big on change. The Adepta Sororitas are a perfect example of stagnation, given that even after thousands of years they still follow the same teachings they had back in the San Leor Temple.

For Tzeentch, I'd rather look at the politics. Canonesses often get drawn into power games between various Imperial adepta and factions of the Ministorum, having to struggle between their ideals and what would be best for "their" Sisterhood. A lot of temptation, to be sure. Many Canonesses may wish to be able to wield the kind of influence that may enable her to shape Imperial politics in a way that she deems best for mankind as a whole.

There are good reasons for every Chaos god. Doesn't change anything about my belief that Slaanesh still offers the best ones, though. The Sororitas' extreme devotion and faith may just tend to cancel out the other three.

If Khorne would be so easy, it wouldn't take abduction by a bunch of CSM to have a single Sister fall to Chaos. They're exposed to violence almost daily, so that doesn't seem to be sufficient.

Suppose the World Eaters would have captured Miriael - how could they have corrupted her? Giving her a weapon and hope she goes into a frenzy whilst she kills half of them?

Melissia wrote:Tzeentch instills hope and a desire to change the system because it is harming the faithful, because it is inefficient, because it is losing a war, etc. In success their minds become more open to other changes, which leads to Tzeentch. In failure they despair, which if not rectified leads to Nurgle.

I think Khorne is most likely. A progression like thus: "Seek battle, seek victory, seek to spill the blood of the enemies of the Emperor. Become the best warrior possible in His name, and destroy all those in your path. Set a fire to your enemies, litter the ground with their fiery corpses, and put their still-burning skulls on pikes as a warning to future heretics, to tell all the world of what will happen to them should they also betray. Blood for the Emperor, skulls for the Golden Throne! Death on the battlefield in service to the Skull Thro... I mean Golden Throne is the best reward! ... why are you looking at me like that?"

While I don't agree with your assesment of Tzeentchian corruption (there's a little too much "free-thought" and "questioning of authority" inherant in that path) I do think your Khornate corruption path was rather more elegant than my own. Thanks for your response.

In other news, I find this whole thread particularly interesting because my gf is looking to possibly start a SoB army. She knows next to nothing about the fluff (I'm working on it...) but likes the look of them (women in combat who don't dress like whores?! )... however, she was taken aback by their codex name... "Witch Hunters". Y'see, she actually is a practising witch (in the contemporary sense, not the classical sense... or the 40K sense) so that balloon didn't go over well with her. She very well might want to, erm... Chaos-ify her army as a protest or something. I don't think she'll go Slaanesh, though. At any rate, it might not be an issue if the SoB get the same kind of name change that the Grey Knights got ie: Codex Daemon Hunters becoming Codex Grey Knights. If the new army book is called "Codex Sisters of Battle" then all should be well.

Suidhills: tell her that in the lore, "witch" doesn't refer to wicca but to people with psychic powers. So you can have her think of it as "psychic-hunter" instead. Wicca as a variation of the Imperial Cult would likely be accepted in the Imperium, Emperor knows that there's plenty of weirder practices in canon anyway!

Lynata wrote:If Khorne would be so easy, it wouldn't take abduction by a bunch of CSM to have a single Sister fall to Chaos. They're exposed to violence almost daily, so that doesn't seem to be sufficient.

Because of discipline, faith, training, and prayer.

I SAY DO IT!!! ITLL BE EPIC!!!!!


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then i can recruit from you for part of my legion lol

Lynata wrote:There are good reasons for every Chaos god. Doesn't change anything about my belief that Slaanesh still offers the best ones, though. The Sororitas' extreme devotion and faith may just tend to cancel out the other three.

Wait, why the other three and not Slaanesh? That doesn't make sense. There's a kind of assumption in this statement that there's an underlying desire to succumb to depravity and excess but not to despair, deceit, or lust for killing, do you not think?

Yes, it stinks of sexism and/or sexual fantasy to me.

Melissia wrote:Suidhills: tell her that in the lore, "witch" doesn't refer to wicca but to people with psychic powers. So you can have her think of it as "psychic-hunter" instead. Wicca as a variation of the Imperial Cult would likely be accepted in the Imperium, Emperor knows that there's plenty of weirder practices in canon anyway!

That's a very good idea, actually! I was about to post that the SoB will indeed revert to their original name (at least for the WD 'dex), but that they will likely continue to hunt witches (meaning psykers) and that this will likely be mentioned a lot in their fluff.

However, it's indeed just a name thing. If I understand wicca correctly, that could very well be an accepted practice in the Imperium. Many less developed worlds have their healers working with weird tinctures made from local plants and animals - and the Imperial Creed can take a lot of strange forms. If it's fine that the Emperor is worshipped as "the eye in the sky" or "the great lion who roams the plains", it shouldn't be hard to invent a similar connection for a wicca-themed cult. Perhaps that'd even be closer to the truth than the most commonly preached dogma, considering that the Emperor was called a shaman once.

Melissia wrote:Because of discipline, faith, training, and prayer.

Exactly.

htj wrote:Wait, why the other three and not Slaanesh? That doesn't make sense. There's a kind of assumption in this statement that there's an underlying desire to succumb to depravity and excess but not to despair, deceit, or lust for killing, do you not think?

I think you misunderstood me. What I meant is that every Chaos god would have something that could be applied to a Sororitas. Tzeentch for political power games, Khorne for the violence and the war against unbelievers, even Nurgle for a Hospitaller fighting to save a planet's population before everyone dies of a terrible plague.

None of this - including the lure of Slaanesh - would have an effect on the day-to-day operations of the Sororitas, as is obvious when we look at the number of Sisters who have been corrupted in the past couple millennia. Yet one of them, Miriael Sabathiel, did fall - to Slaanesh. What I'm saying is that the other Chaos Gods would be unable to provide sufficient "attractivity" to a Sororitas, because they are already exposed to their respective domains daily.

I didn't mean to suggest some sort of "underlying desire" - though now that you say it, there's a certain point about that as well. Perhaps not a desire but a weakness, for the biological requirements that would make a Sister feel good about certain things (and no, I'm not just referring to sex) are still present*, even though the means to deliver them are suppressed. This is why I was describing it as a "missing immunization" earlier, for I would say that inherently it is human to want to feel good. Their discipline and lifestyle of deprivation makes them remain uncorrupted, but Miriael did neither have the support of her Sisters nor the chance to avoid whatever the Emperor's Children subjected her to.

(*: excluding the possibility that they were altered via some form of medical treatment, but that doesn't seem very likely at least for taste and smell)

Alternatively, we could of course just as well turn to excessive pain as an explanation, though I maintain that this would put a lot more Sororitas at risk of corruption, given that it is part of their daily life. That they don't fall in droves could only be explained by convent life regulating them and Repentias not having a very long lifespan anyways. "Choose your poison".

Well, yeah I will explain that to her when I next chat with her about the game. I'm pretty sure she knows that already (on some level) and is just trolling me a little IRL.

The best explanation is that the author of that fluff bit was just trying to titilate readers, kinda like how comic book artists keep drawing their girls with bigger and bigger tits.

But is it pleasure you are saying is removed from their life, Lynata? I would argue that pleasure is present in SoB's lives, and that they take it in, amongst other things, worshiping the Emperor.

Melissia wrote:The best explanation is that the author of that fluff bit was just trying to titilate readers, kinda like how comic book artists keep drawing their girls with bigger and bigger tits.

Wait, do you mean the bit with the pen? The bit where it specifically states there are no penintant whippings and sexy nonsense? Surely that's anti-titillation?

htj wrote:But is it pleasure you are saying is removed from their life, Lynata? I would argue that pleasure is present in SoB's lives, and that they take it in, amongst other things, worshiping the Emperor.

And you'd be right in saying so! That they might even take pleasure in pain was my other theory, after all.

I'm just not sure that this pleasure can completely replace the ritually avoided sensation of, say, a delicious feast of cakes. Or, yes, that dreaded sexual ecstasy that despite being horribly cliché remains a part of every human's existence. I understand why one may want to argue it away, but it remains a viable explanation. Please don't kill the messenger for pointing it out, Melissia!

I also just remembered that Miriael mentioned singing Daemon Princes in the short story Abnett wrote about her ... maybe it was a daemon's song that corrupted her? Days of being subjected to a voice so unnatural but so beautiful that it finally brought her to tears. Option #3, and quite slaaneshi as well. And it'd come with the twist that singing is also an important part of a Sororitas' daily life ...

You don't need to make the Sisters of Battle into Slaneeshi cultists for your fantasies...

Service to the Emperor is much sexier.

Good thing, we know that only one sister was corrupted by Chaos so far. And an army consisting of only one model is not very competitive usually.

Concerning the original question: Maybe your girlfriend might have a look at Dark Eldar: Lots of females with spikes and leather and a background allowing them to be naughty

Kroothawk wrote:Good thing, we know that only one sister was corrupted by Chaos so far. And an army consisting of only one model is not very competitive usually.

Depends on the model.

"Hi there, I'm fielding Magnus the Red, Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons and Master of the Planet of Sorcerors as my 10,000 point Apocalypse army. What are you bringing?"

"I'll be playing the part of an Imperiator Titan. I'm considered Truescale."

I'd say the SoB are plenty grimdark enough. They recruit orphans and put them to work. They wage wars of religion for the Imperial Cult. Storming rebel cities, executing surrendered unbelievers with flamers and gathering up for prayers among mountains of dead smoldering bodies is nothing odd. And as an old SoB General myself there's also the idea that you have to sacrifice a certain amount of sisters to get anything done.

An army of Sisters could be very nasty when built around the idea of going the extra mile for the Emperor, entirely without any Chaos at all.

Spetulhu wrote:I'd say the SoB are plenty grimdark enough. They recruit orphans and put them to work. They wage wars of religion for the Imperial Cult. Storming rebel cities, executing surrendered unbelievers with flamers and gathering up for prayers among mountains of dead smoldering bodies is nothing odd. And as an old SoB General myself there's also the idea that you have to sacrifice a certain amount of sisters to get anything done.

An army of Sisters could be very nasty when built around the idea of going the extra mile for the Emperor, entirely without any Chaos at all.

+1 to that. Though I'd replace "sacrifice" with "martyr" and add a few more creepy things to the list.

squidhills wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:Good thing, we know that only one sister was corrupted by Chaos so far. And an army consisting of only one model is not very competitive usually.

Depends on the model.

"Hi there, I'm fielding Magnus the Red, Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons and Master of the Planet of Sorcerors as my 10,000 point Apocalypse army. What are you bringing?"

"I'll be playing the part of an Imperiator Titan. I'm considered Truescale."

"I bring Draigo."
"Okay, you win. Hey, what are you doing with my Magnus model??? Put away that knife!!!!!"

Lynata wrote:

Eumerin wrote:She's semi-retired

I'm not sure you can actually "retire" as a SoB.

Which is why I added the "semi-" in there. She's still a Sister, but she's not serving directly with other Sisters at this time, and is no longer doing what she spent her entire career doing. She's likely to remain in her current position until she's forced to leave due to health issues. At that point I imagine that she'll return to her convent and spend the rest of her days in quiet study and contemplation. And perhaps occasionally spend an evening chatting with the active leadership of her convent over a meal and quiet entertainment (not necessarily cards - something like chess might be more likely).

In short, she's probably not going to spend any more time doing what people normally think of when the phrase Adepta Sororitas is mentioned.


The rest of the faculty is all in the same position. For example, Cain's still a Commissar. But outside of exceptional circumstances (such as the ones in the novel) he's never going to serve in a campaign again.

She's not retired, she's just moved to a different mode of service applicable to her current skillset.

The Sisters of Battle need teachers after all. And the non-militant Sororitas need bodyguards or other assistants, and she can lways be trained in medicae or linguistics (even if it might take hypnotherapy).

Eumerin wrote:Which is why I added the "semi-" in there. She's still a Sister, but she's not serving directly with other Sisters at this time, and is no longer doing what she spent her entire career doing. She's likely to remain in her current position until she's forced to leave due to health issues. At that point I imagine that she'll return to her convent and spend the rest of her days in quiet study and contemplation. And perhaps occasionally spend an evening chatting with the active leadership of her convent over a meal and quiet entertainment (not necessarily cards - something like chess might be more likely). In short, she's probably not going to spend any more time doing what people normally think of when the phrase Adepta Sororitas is mentioned.

Ahh, gotcha. A position like that is quite likely indeed one of the most useful spots for a vet who isn't quite "too old" yet, as such a person would have a lot to teach the young progena and potential future novices.

I just still can't come to terms with how that character's behavior seems to be quite different from what GW wrote about the "strict and puritan lifestyle of the teachers" at the Schola, or how Sisters in general are "dedicated to a life of penitent worship and humble living" with "no room for pleasure".

Just some small criticism that should not be taken too seriously, for I'm focusing on fluff details alone and do not want to judge the actual quality of the writing or the basic plot elements. I'm just quite ... shall we say pedantic when it comes to SoB canon, for reasons already mentioned.

Humans are humans... go figure...

purplefood wrote:Humans are humans... go figure...

You just blew my mind.

Goddard wrote:

purplefood wrote:Humans are humans... go figure...

You just blew my mind.

I'm insightful like that.

Melissia wrote:Yes, it stinks of sexism and/or sexual fantasy to me.

There is something realy wrong with you.


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Kroothawk wrote:Good thing, we know that only one sister was corrupted by Chaos so far. And an army consisting of only one model is not very competitive usually.

Concerning the original question: Maybe your girlfriend might have a look at Dark Eldar: Lots of females with spikes and leather and a background allowing them to be naughty

We have the dex but shes not convinced, bloody women lol (runs and hides)

The Sisters fluff changed 3 times regarding this outcome...

Sisters of Battle 2'nd edition (1997): "Only 1 Sister has ever fall to Chaos"
Daemonfuge comic (1999) : "Several Sisters fall to Chaos corruption."
Witchhunters 3'rd edition codex (2003): "Only 1 Sister has ever fall to Chaos"
Cain's Last Stand: " entire Mission of Sisters were seen engaging Imperial forces with Chaos cultists, Cain is also confronted by two sisters under Daemon influence."

We have yet to see what will new Sisters codex tell us about this. But I am sticking to the codex entries, it is more reliable source of fluff.

Yeah, guess a 12 year old comic and a satirical novel override what is said in two Codices

We shall see what new codex have to say about that...
And we all know, the newer fluff overrides the old one...
( like Damnos incident ).

Brother Coa wrote:We shall see what new codex have to say about that...
And we all know, the newer fluff overrides the old one...
( like Damnos incident ).

Personally, I'm not keen to have fluff that I love overridden for an army that I've spent hours and a fortune over years collecting and painting. Hopefully, the new Codex will be true to the old Codex fluff.

ive seen groblins dressed as guard, ive seen orks modeled as dark angels, ive see a bloke turn skaven into a orks guard hybrid

mate if your wife wants chaotic sisters of battle, no body can stop her, after she buys the paint and the models id say she's legally obliged to do what she wants to them

Yea thats it, as I said just wanted to guage reaction lol.