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Hello,

I'm working on a scenario for a 40K game and I wanted to do a little lead-in narrative for the players.

I was wondering if anyone has read anything about Sororitas having their own interrogators/torturers within their organization, or if they request the services of a member of the inquisition. Seems like they they have the autonomy to go ahead with their own 'questioning', plus part of their job is to checking on citizens for mutation, deviance, etc. and wouldn't always have an Inquisitor or acolyte handy.

I thought I'd read somewhere that the Order Hospitaller would serve in that capacity, but I can't find anything that says that as of yet.

Thanks!

The Sisters are not, specifically, an investigative body. They do assist and work with bodies like the Inquisition or the Adeptus Arbites in operations that may include investigations and interrogations, but it's not really until a War of Faith gets going, or purging a cult from an Imperial Hive City or similar action, that the Sisterhood would be in a position to apprehend and interrogate suspected heretics.

After all... there's just not that many Sisters.

The bit about the Hospitallers is referencing their care for the sick and injured, and how they seem the kindest and gentlest of the Sisters... until one of their patients is revealed to be a mutant or a heretic.

Yes Hospitallars can serve as torturers. The WD codex notes that their tools are also used as instruments of torture.

Also, the 4E rulebook mentions that Ophelia VII has rather expansive underground dungeons where "heretics are made to repent their sins, subject to such methods of soul-cleansing as Arco-flagellation, death-masking, soul-scouring and the Trial of Castigation."

I'd suspect that this is more of a priestly thing, however, and that the Adepta Sororitas would normally hand over captives (if they make any) to the clergy whose day-to-day activities include judging the Imperial populace and administering penitence (see 2E Codex:SoB page 38).

In theory, however ... the Sisters are constantly torturing themselves, why should they have trouble torturing others? Surely, a Mistress of Repentance could take care of a non-Sororitas sinner just as much as she cares for the spiritual sanctity of her own Order's members - and a Sister Hospitaller could make sure the subject does not pass out into the respite of unconsciousness (or, if her character is staunch enough, assist by using more "refined" methods).

I thought only the Dark Angels could get Chaos heretics to truly repent?

What exactly would make the DA special in that regard?

I think you may be referring to the Fallen Dark Angels, which are reportedly very hard to break. Surely, most people would have trouble finding and pressing that small spot between "not breaking" and "dying". Even the Dark Angel Interrogator-Chaplains do not succeed with every captive due to this, but they might have some advantage in being better accustomed to dealing with a Marine's unique physiology (which would surely make most forms of interrogation more difficult).

That was their original purpose in the Rogue Trader fluff. Galactic Internal Affairs. Probably why nobody likes them on the Allies Chart, lol. They investigated everyone else for heresy and stuff.

Obviously that role has changed slightly, but various pieces of fluff have shown them being all investigativey and interrogatey by turns.

I imagine being all bitchy and trying to break the will of heretics and traitors would come naturally for them.

Thank you for the replies. The little description of the Sororitas in the back of the old RT book has stuck with me

 Troike wrote:
Yes Hospitallars can serve as torturers. The WD codex notes that their tools are also used as instruments of torture.

True, though I also recall that they might get carried away and kill the prisoner for being a heretic before getting everything out of him.

Spetulhu wrote:

 Troike wrote:
Yes Hospitallars can serve as torturers. The WD codex notes that their tools are also used as instruments of torture.

True, though I also recall that they might get carried away and kill the prisoner for being a heretic before getting everything out of him.

Yes, Though bear in mind, that comes from a Dark Heresy book, and those apparently have a few issues in meshing with GW fluff.

Personally, I don't really like the Dark Heresy description of Hospitillars. They're professionals with extensive medical knowledge, you'd think that they'd be able to keep their zeal in check, if only temporarily, to follow the orders of their superiors.

Zeal is its own excuse.

Keeping zeal in check is... exactly the opposite of why you're a zealot in the first place.

 Psienesis wrote:
Zeal is its own excuse.

Keeping zeal in check is... exactly the opposite of why you're a zealot in the first place.

And disobeying your superior who ordered you to interrogate someone is just fine and dandy?

They are zealots, but they are not undisiplined rabble.

Else the Inquisitors would not appreciate their skills in this area as much, I reckon.

They are religious zealots, their zeal can mean they are a bit overly keen on putting out heretics when they deem the time has come and the heretic has little else to say. That has more to do with them wanting the heretics quickly to be put out and they are more use to care, not merely torture.

Also the Sisters Hospitalliers are first and foremost medics, not torturers, that's just their useful third ability as they are SOB second and could do damage as torturers third.

Actually, they are first and foremost Sororitas, secondarily doctors, which makes them skilled torturers. That is why heretics and mutants in their care don't last long. Item#1 on that list overrides item #2.

As to their investigation abilities, I have no doubt that Dialogous and Famulous might be very skilled at such tasks, in their own ways, but I don't see there being enough Sisters, of any kind, to rival, say, the Arbites or the Inquisition on the galactic stage, which are the other two major investigative bodies. They might serve as a "local police" investigative unit on a Shrine World or similar locale, or investigate crimes enacted against the Church, or on its grounds, but I don't think you'll find large numbers of Sisters tracking down well-hidden cults or the like.

I rather imagine they will either go scorched-earth or wait until Ordo Hereticus calls them in for the purgation.

Psienesis wrote:That is why heretics and mutants in their care don't last long.

Says a book from an RPG that wants to tell me Sisters are space magicians that shoot lasers out of their eyes and use "civilian" bolters.

I prefer the Codex fluff on the subject.

Psienesis wrote:[...] but I don't think you'll find large numbers of Sisters tracking down well-hidden cults or the like.

This, however, I agree with. Hunting down well-hidden cults is Inquisition and Arbites business. Occasionally, said Inquisitor may have a Hospitaller in their retinue.
Imho, ecclesiarchal torture, meaning castigation of the populace in an attempt to purge sins, is something I actually see the normal clergy being more active in - as is hinted by that rulebook fluff piece about the dungeons of Ophelia VII. They might even have their own lay servant specialists for these jobs, though they'd probably act in a much more crude manner than the educated Hospitallers. "Another Inquisition", so to say, closer to the medieval original, just operating under a different name and using less refined methods for less critical jobs. You don't need a doctor just to have someone scream their soul out, after all, and in these cases the Ecclesiarchy wouldn't be after the truth - only a confession, if at all.