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I also just re-read the Ecclesiarchy section of the BRB and noticed it refers to "many thousands" of Cardinals, whose jurisdictions vary in size but "can be as large as an entire star system."

(They also call a cardinal's territory a "diocese." Dammit, GW, it's bishops that have dioceses.)

Two amusing implications:
1) If every Cardinal has even one Battle Sister as a bodyguard (and to blow his head off if he turns heretic), let alone a squad, that's a lot of Sisters right there.
2) If a system contains multiple dioceses, each with its own Cardinal, but all getting security from one Minor Order Militant, the Canoness may be the highest ranking Ecclesiarchical official in the system. "No, Your Grace," she said with a cold smile, "you need to listen to me."

Hmm, Litanies of Faith.

This relic only seems to work in one direction - if a Priest is carrying it and joins a unit, does that unit then benefit from the Relic? If the unit had the relic and the Priest joined it, the Priest would gain the benefit, but not sure if the situation is reversed.

SisterSydney wrote:If every Cardinal has even one Battle Sister as a bodyguard (and to blow his head off if he turns heretic), let alone a squad, that's a lot of Sisters right there

Yes - if. The Codex does make it sound like a temporary assignment rather than a permanent one, though:
"The Adepta Sororitas also provides the protectors of the Ecclesiarchy's priesthood, and they are tasked with affording them any security and military support that may be required. At the behest of the Ministorum's priesthood, the Sisters of Battle are called upon to escort hierarchs through war zones, eliminate heretical leaders or launch surgical strikes to recover long-lost relics and artefacts from enemy hands."

Also:
"The Battle Sisters may be dispatched to deal with a troublesome cardinal who has lost his way, either through their mere presence and the threat it implies, or in more serious cases by forcibly and permanently removing them from power."
-> They would not have to be dispatched if they were always already there.

Besides, why else would the Battle Conclave have Crusaders as bodyguards, rather than Battle Sisters?

Interesting - overall value of my SoB army has fallen by a narrow margin, even after upgrading all the Sister Superiors to veterans whenever possible and adding some relics.

It's a bit of a shame, actually. They could have used that book to come up with a Calixis-specific Minor Order, but instead they literally piled troops from almost every single Major Order onto the sector as if it'd be Ophelia itself.

Yeah, I did, for my games. Order of the Argent Blade (not related to Argent Shroud). Black PA with silver trim. Symbol is a silver sword superimposed over an aquila with upswept wings.

And, yeah, now that I have seen the BoM, and all the other FFG books, versions of the Sisters in actual gameplay, I don't like their version very much. I have someone in my game group who is basically trying to *be* a Sister on a world that doesn't have them, using Elite Advances to buy Faith Powers and Fate Points, now that they're Ascended, having earned Pure Faith as a Cleric. The character is, basically, built to be an SoB without actually being the class. And, yes, they are magic spell dispensers. I really am not terribly keen on how it plays out.

Lynata has outfluffed me once again on numbers of Sisters. I stand corrected.

And then there's my other error I caught myself:

 SisterSydney wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
I guess Priests weren't selling well enough or something, since now we pretty much have to fill our army with dirty old men for our Sisters to be even near as effective as they used to be!

Priestesses. I don't recall any fluff saying the Ecclesiarchy is men-only...

Apparently I was WRONG!

Just downloaded the book (it popped at 11pm Eastern) and saw

“Male Progena may become Commissars or soldiers in the Imperial Guard, petty officers in the Imperial Navy or enter the priesthood of the Adeptus Ministorum. Female Progena may well be entered into the Adepta Sororitas. Progena of both sexes may be recruited into the Inquisition or even the Officio Assassinorum."

That strongly implies there are no female priests -- or Commissars for that matter. (Sorry, Raege).

Of course, it also implies no female Progena join the Imperial Guard or Navy, but those two organizations don't recruit exclusively or even primarily from the Scholae as the Commissariat and the Sisterhood do, so that doesn't contradict the female Guard and Navy officers that show up in various sources.

Now, it's entirely possible that the Ministorum recruits clergy who aren't Progena -- in fact given its size it would probably have to -- but it's hard to imagine them thinking a non-Progena female was worthy to join when Progena ones aren't.

But never fear! I can still justify female models in those priest slots. Death Cult Assassins are (all? Almost all?) female, and who better to lead the Sororitas screaming into battle than a veteran Death Cultist who is considered a priestess by her cult and (grudgingly) recognized as equivalent-to-ordained by the Ministorum?

Alternatively, you can just say these are Sisters from some militant or even non-militant order with leadership skills (and perhaps de facto ordination) that lets them count-as Priests. But ordained DCA are funnier.

 Casbyness wrote:
Does anyone know where the rules for the Relics are?

Oh, and I'm ignoring the AoF nerf and using AoFs each turn. I think it's ridiculous to have the Acts nerfed twice over like this, making them only once-per-battle and also require a LD test has taken them from the army's key unique trait to completely trivial.

Or you could roll with it and play by the rules.

How many times did you use (successfully) each act each game? Did you take a simulacrum? Because now you have two. Save the nerf cries until you've read through it all the way.

SisterSydney wrote:Lynata has outfluffed me once again on numbers of Sisters. I stand corrected.

Well, it's still pretty much conjecture, so it's not like you were "wrong"!
In a way, I suppose that is the one advantage of GW's "loose canon" approach - we can all see it the way we want. I'd still prefer more consistency and solid details, but it's not like I don't see the other side of the coin.

SisterSydney wrote:And then there's my other error I caught myself:
“Male Progena may become Commissars or soldiers in the Imperial Guard, petty officers in the Imperial Navy or enter the priesthood of the Adeptus Ministorum. Female Progena may well be entered into the Adepta Sororitas. Progena of both sexes may be recruited into the Inquisition or even the Officio Assassinorum."

That strongly implies there are no female priests -- or Commissars for that matter. (Sorry, Raege).

Well, GW did sell this miniature though:
She was a GamesDay exclusive.

I would say that the sentence you quoted could perhaps be more about averages and standards, but still leave room for exceptions? The thing is that all these organisations are looking for related skillsets - fanatical loyalty, zeal and military skill. And .. let's face it, whilst some girls will be able to match the requirements, this will be a smaller percentage than the male progena. And since the Sisterhood gets first dibs (or so I assume, the Schola being an Ecclesiarchy facility), the Commissariat, Guard, Navy and Arbites will merely get the scraps. And even the priesthood will look for a certain martial mindset - the Ministorum is a Warrior Church, after all, so the span between someone fit for the Sisterhood (including the Non-Militant Orders), and someone not fit for military service at all (or rather: better employed in another capacity), might be comparatively small.

SisterSydney wrote:But never fear! I can still justify female models in those priest slots. Death Cult Assassins are (all? Almost all?) female, and who better to lead the Sororitas screaming into battle than a veteran Death Cultist who is considered a priestess by her cult and (grudgingly) recognized as equivalent-to-ordained by the Ministorum?

That would be a clever solution, too! Could fluff it as a local thing, perhaps? A sort of special relationship between the convent and a local sect that occasionally lets them work together, similar to how they sometimes work alongside Frateris Militia.

SisterSydney wrote:Alternatively, you can just say these are Sisters from some militant or even non-militant order with leadership skills (and perhaps de facto ordination) that lets them count-as Priests.

Exactly! You did see my post with the Whoopie Goldberg picture, right?

 SisterSydney wrote:
Lynata has outfluffed me once again on numbers of Sisters. I stand corrected.

And then there's my other error I caught myself:

 SisterSydney wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
I guess Priests weren't selling well enough or something, since now we pretty much have to fill our army with dirty old men for our Sisters to be even near as effective as they used to be!

Priestesses. I don't recall any fluff saying the Ecclesiarchy is men-only...

Apparently I was WRONG!

Just downloaded the book (it popped at 11pm Eastern) and saw

“Male Progena may become Commissars or soldiers in the Imperial Guard, petty officers in the Imperial Navy or enter the priesthood of the Adeptus Ministorum. Female Progena may well be entered into the Adepta Sororitas. Progena of both sexes may be recruited into the Inquisition or even the Officio Assassinorum."

That strongly implies there are no female priests -- or Commissars for that matter. (Sorry, Raege).

Of course, it also implies no female Progena join the Imperial Guard or Navy, but those two organizations don't recruit exclusively or even primarily from the Scholae as the Commissariat and the Sisterhood do, so that doesn't contradict the female Guard and Navy officers that show up in various sources.

Now, it's entirely possible that the Ministorum recruits clergy who aren't Progena -- in fact given its size it would probably have to -- but it's hard to imagine them thinking a non-Progena female was worthy to join when Progena ones aren't.

But never fear! I can still justify female models in those priest slots. Death Cult Assassins are (all? Almost all?) female, and who better to lead the Sororitas screaming into battle than a veteran Death Cultist who is considered a priestess by her cult and (grudgingly) recognized as equivalent-to-ordained by the Ministorum?

Alternatively, you can just say these are Sisters from some militant or even non-militant order with leadership skills (and perhaps de facto ordination) that lets them count-as Priests. But ordained DCA are funnier.

I have two Priests in my army that are Order Famulous members used for "count as" Priests. Sigvald also makes a nice base for better looking priests (see my Gallery for a couple of examples).

 SisterSydney wrote:
Apparently I was WRONG!

Just downloaded the book (it popped at 11pm Eastern) and saw

“Male Progena may become Commissars or soldiers in the Imperial Guard, petty officers in the Imperial Navy or enter the priesthood of the Adeptus Ministorum. Female Progena may well be entered into the Adepta Sororitas. Progena of both sexes may be recruited into the Inquisition or even the Officio Assassinorum."

That strongly implies there are no female priests -- or Commissars for that matter. (Sorry, Raege).

Of course, it also implies no female Progena join the Imperial Guard or Navy, but those two organizations don't recruit exclusively or even primarily from the Scholae as the Commissariat and the Sisterhood do, so that doesn't contradict the female Guard and Navy officers that show up in various sources.

That is stupid. For the Adeptus Astartes, it means one less way in which a candidate might be physically incompatible with the gene mods necessary to turn them into a Space Marine. For the Adepta Sororitas, it means paying lip service to the wording of the Decree Passive, letting the High Lords of Terra concede that Thor was right without admitting that it wasn't their plan all along. For anything else, the Imperium should not care. Black or white, man or woman, gay or straight, as long as you're not a mutant and your allegiance lies with the Emperor, you should be welcome.

Ok, so.

I need to make some better repentia models, novice models & female priest / hymn singer models.

Right.

Well, nobody ever said this hobby meant to be easy.

 AlexHolker wrote:

That is stupid. For the Adeptus Astartes, it means one less way in which a candidate might be physically incompatible with the gene mods necessary to turn them into a Space Marine. For the Adepta Sororitas, it means paying lip service to the wording of the Decree Passive, letting the High Lords of Terra concede that Thor was right without admitting that it wasn't their plan all along. For anything else, the Imperium should not care. Black or white, man or woman, gay or straight, as long as you're not a mutant and your allegiance lies with the Emperor, you should be welcome.

Black or white, gay or straight, man or woman, as long as you're willing to lead an aesthetic lifestyle of denial and purity - according to the 2e C:SoB, sin comes in many forms: drinking, gambling, lying, cheating, profanity, lechery, fornication (especially thinking about fornication).

So, you can be gay, as long as you never act on it. So really, they're indirectly condemning the gays. The only reason this doesn't bring out a surge of righteous anger in me is because they also condemn the straights in the same breath, and as we all know, Slaanesh is a thing.

_____________________________________

Anyway, my priests are probably going to be a mix of Sabines and Pronatus. The only issue with this is that Priests can't wear power armour. ><

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:

That is stupid. For the Adeptus Astartes, it means one less way in which a candidate might be physically incompatible with the gene mods necessary to turn them into a Space Marine. For the Adepta Sororitas, it means paying lip service to the wording of the Decree Passive, letting the High Lords of Terra concede that Thor was right without admitting that it wasn't their plan all along. For anything else, the Imperium should not care. Black or white, man or woman, gay or straight, as long as you're not a mutant and your allegiance lies with the Emperor, you should be welcome.

Black or white, gay or straight, man or woman, as long as you're willing to lead an aesthetic lifestyle of denial and purity - according to the 2e C:SoB, sin comes in many forms: drinking, gambling, lying, cheating, profanity, lechery, fornication (especially thinking about fornication).

Which is why they wear corsets, lip stick, and tight fitting powered armor

That is probably due to sexual repression though. I mean, if I was like that, I would probably end up wearing lip stick, a corset, high heels and go around setting people on fire as well. It would be like Dr.Frankenfurter crossed with the Punisher

Some interesting fluff.

Nice to see that the Sisters are still purging the Astartes

None are immune – planetary governors, Imperial Guard commanders and even whole Space Marine Chapters have been declared heretic, and been exterminated as such by the Adepta Sororitas.

This seems to be imply there are alot more Sisters:

Every concentration of the Adeptus Ministorum’s power must be defended, and a force of Battle Sisters will be present to guard every shrine and fortress-cathedral in the Imperium, as well as the priceless sacred relics housed within them

I am personally going to ignore the bit about only males becoming Commissars

Noticed that they never mention the "Brides of the Emperor" title and the dancing and serving as Companions to Vandire has gone

Those quotes are actually nothing new - they were from WD #382 and the 6th edition core rulebook. And as such I'm still maintaining that nothing has changed regarding the numbers (we did talk a bit regarding this on the previous page).

As for the details regarding the Age of Apostasy you mentioned, I just take it as either saving space, or the author not remembering. Not all the fluff is copypasta, "just" about two thirds, and a lot of the texts seem cobbled together, scavenged from different sources.
As long as it's not explicitly retconned ...

That being said, I do find it strange how there's still not even a single word regarding the alliance with the Ordo Hereticus. I'm beginning to believe that GW may just want to erase this from history, but we would probably have to wait until the Inquisition skirmish game to be sure.

The Astartes purgign was more just glad it was stil there

Yeah I have now read that bit properly - and I agree about the difficulty of defining a Shrine......

I figured they were glossing over the less savory aspects of the Daughters / Brides during Vandires reign

It is strange about the Ordo Hereticus but then it does bring it back more to the Sisters being more of a stand alone and hence justifying the Codex more? I guess they want to keep Inquisition as a Grey Knights thing.

Sure, I have no problem with a shift in perception - which is what the 3E Witch Hunter Codex was - but I'm kind of sceptical about just retconning this relationship away entirely. Removing something is always more tricky than adding something, for with the latter you could easily say it was always part of it (which is how they explained the WH Codex). But to just cut out a fairly established (10 years!) role by ommission? Hmmh.

I dunno, I don't really have a problem with it per se, it's just that I am used to the studio material being relatively consistent, so I'm a bit annoyed when such a fairly important thing is just "written away", even if it's done only by not mentioning it ever again.
It probably has to do with the 3E Codex being how I first "met" the Sisters, so I grew up with the Chamber Militant role even though I always focused on the Sisters' church aspect and left away the Inquisition stuff as an interesting but ultimately optional aspect of the army.

As for the Grey Knights/Inquisition ... they still have the Deathwatch, too. Last featured in the Damnos scenario book, with this formation: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod2160206a
It's really just the Ordo Hereticus that kind of goes away empty-handed right now. But as I said, this may change with future products. We can only wait and see...

'Nother interesting fluff update I noticed was Seraphim Superiors being some of the most respected individuals in an Order. Makes sense, considering the high status of Seraphim themselves.

 Lynata wrote:
That section describes the Convent buildings in their current post-extension condition ("are massive fortresses housing tens of thousands of Sisters")

But immediately after that, it talks about the Orders growing larger and them splitting each of the Convents into two different Orders Militant respectively. So I assume it's meant for the past tense.

 Lynata wrote:
I still don't see the retcon. The 100 was the average, there was no upper limit aside from "not larger than the Major Orders".

Oh, actually the WD codex in fact said that 100 was the minimum, and did not even specify an average size. Just that "some" were only 100 strong. So it's not a retcon but additional detail, which is always nice.

Also, I think that 1000 strong Minor Orders is far more than expected. Under the numbers given for Major Orders in previous books, that's quite a large chunk of the Order splitting off.

 Lynata wrote:
That "only one has fallen" line was also never printed anywhere outside the short story.

I know, I was just wondering if a reference to her would be put in. But thankfully, it wasn't.

 Lynata wrote:
That being said, I actually like Miriael. It's fine to have exceptions, as long as they just remain special and don't become a running gag like it almost did for Sisters in Black Library stories.

Eh. I still don't like how they ignored the codex fluff in making her, it feels like they didn't do their research. Also I don't like how she fell to Slaanesh. To me, that just feel like the Chaos God than an SoB is least likely to fall to. Sisters live lives a life of denying self-indulgence and excess, after all. If it had to be one, then Khorne makes the most sense.

 Mr Morden wrote:
I figured they were glossing over the less savory aspects of the Daughters / Brides during Vandires reign

Possibly, but they didn't go into very much detail about Vandire's reign in general. I thought they were pretty brief about it, really.

If you were a Sister, would you want to go into detail about it??

My headcanon is that all the fluff is written by in-universe propagandists, and that many members of the organizations depicted would in fact find what's written about them exaggerated or outright embarrassing. I imagine that the Ultramarines in particular are mostly modest, average-Joe types who just cringe when someone starts spouting Ward's stuff at them.

This new codex edition is epic failure. Guess GW won't be getting a cent of my money on new sisters models.

For a modelling company, they sure are gak at selling their models.

Just a minor technicality here: It'd be hard for them to get money on new Sisters models when they haven't released any


But I don't think the new codex is all that bad.

 SisterSydney wrote:
If you were a Sister, would you want to go into detail about it??

Maybe not about the dodgier stuff, but the Reign of Blood in general would be fine (and a fine warning to future Sisters), and certianly the part about Vandire dying.

I wish they had the "I'm too busy to die!" quote in there. It really summed up what a nutter Vandire was.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
This new codex edition is epic failure.

Plenty of people disagree. Generally, a lot of strengths are being seen in it.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Guess GW won't be getting a cent of my money on new sisters models.

That's because they obviously don't have any models ready yet.

Tell me, would you prefer updated, buyable rules without new models, or outdated, awkward to obtain rules without new models?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lynata wrote:
Apparently Priests are more zealous than Sisters now that they can pull their act every single round? Meh.

Ah, but it's not an Act, just a special rule. All the Priests are doing is singing a bit to inspire themselves and their comrades, not pushing their bodies to near-impossible feats.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Black or white, gay or straight, man or woman, as long as you're willing to lead an aesthetic lifestyle of denial and purity - according to the 2e C:SoB, sin comes in many forms: drinking, gambling, lying, cheating, profanity, lechery, fornication (especially thinking about fornication).

So, you can be gay, as long as you never act on it. So really, they're indirectly condemning the gays. The only reason this doesn't bring out a surge of righteous anger in me is because they also condemn the straights in the same breath, and as we all know, Slaanesh is a thing.

Given that the Imperium is a product of the 25th millenium and that the Catholic church has been extinct for at least five thousand years before the creation of the Adepta Sororitas, I don't think an open-and-shut "sex outside of marriage is bad" stance makes sense. I'd prefer a de facto ban just because a Sister's schedule is too busy for romance.

 Troike wrote:

 Lynata wrote:
That being said, I actually like Miriael. It's fine to have exceptions, as long as they just remain special and don't become a running gag like it almost did for Sisters in Black Library stories.

Eh. I still don't like how they ignored the codex fluff in making her, it feels like they didn't do their research. Also I don't like how she fell to Slaanesh. To me, that just feel like the Chaos God than an SoB is least likely to fall to. Sisters live lives a life of denying slef-indulgence and excess, after all. If it had to be one, then Khorne makes the most sense.

I'd actually say Nurgle makes the least sense. Nurgle can only attack the Sisters at their strongest point - their trust in the Emperor - and that is why Nurgle would always fail.

Tzeentch would fail for the same reason - because if they wanted what Tzeentch could offer them, they would not have become Sisters in the first place.

Slaanesh makes sense for some cult of Sister-wannabes that got the wrong idea about sacrifice (like that story in the 3rd edition rulebook), admiring suffering for suffering's sake instead of doing great things with suffering as the price. To a Sister scarification would be an undesirable indulgence, but one of these cultists might see a Sister's scars as something to be emulated for its own sake and not merely the price paid to do great things.

But yes, if a Sister was ever going to fall to Chaos, it would be to Khorne. They share a hatred of psykers, and their methods are not dissimilar. If a Sister forgot why she was killing heretics and started killing heretics for killing's sake, that would be an opening for Khorne to exploit.

I love reading this list and laughing at players who think they'll actually get any love from GW.

In sincerity, I expect your codex to be almost exactly the same, with a ton of fluff, Saint Celestine normalized, and one other unit to become the "Must take" of your codex.

At best.

 felixander wrote:
In sincerity, I expect your codex to be almost exactly the same, with a ton of fluff, Saint Celestine normalized, and one other unit to become the "Must take" of your codex.

At best.

It's already out, and you're wrong. They've actually changed quite a bit. Overall, thing've improved. We got some more viable builds, and most units became more effective, with a few remaining about the same. The new AoF system especially got an overhaul. It isn't bad, being fully scaling and more reliable. Sure, Act are now only one-use, but there's a lot of tricks you can pull to improve that. Simulacrum gives you a second use of an Act, and Laud Hailers let you re-roll your leadership rolls for successful Acts. Celestine did get toned down a bit and is no longer completely unkillable, but she did get some nice buffs besides that.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Black or white, gay or straight, man or woman, as long as you're willing to lead an aesthetic lifestyle of denial and purity - according to the 2e C:SoB, sin comes in many forms: drinking, gambling, lying, cheating, profanity, lechery, fornication (especially thinking about fornication).

So, you can be gay, as long as you never act on it. So really, they're indirectly condemning the gays. The only reason this doesn't bring out a surge of righteous anger in me is because they also condemn the straights in the same breath, and as we all know, Slaanesh is a thing.

Given that the Imperium is a product of the 25th millenium and that the Catholic church has been extinct for at least five thousand years before the creation of the Adepta Sororitas, I don't think an open-and-shut "sex outside of marriage is bad" stance makes sense. I'd prefer a de facto ban just because a Sister's schedule is too busy for romance.

That's a direct quote from the old codex, lol.

In any case, the point about Slaanesh was more that banning fornication is really a pretty good idea.

The thing about Miriael is that she didn't fall to the carnal aspect of Slaanesh that everyone obsesses over. She fell to the same thing that Lucius fell to - the codex line states that she is "One of Slaanesh's greatest warriors" - not followers, not cultists, not whores... warriors.

I don't know the full story, but I would take that to mean that she showed excessive pride in her martial abilities and fell into the search for perfectionism. Which makes her Lucius the Eternal's rival, which would make a pretty awesome buddy movie.

What codex line talks about Miriael? I've heard from a few people that she doesn't appear in any codex.

I am absolutely 100% certain that there is a line in the 2e codex that states "Such is the purity and faith of the Sisters of Battle that in four thousand years since their inception, only a single Sister has fallen to chaos..." then the above line.

However, I can't even find the part of the 2e codex where it states that Sisters are Incorruptible right now, so...

Troike wrote:So I assume it's meant for the past tense.

Well, it's not written in past tense, though.

But as I said, it doesn't matter anyways because not every Sister in the Convent Prioris or Sanctorum is a Battle Sister. All that the new fluff implies here is that the number of Non-Militant Orders sharing the convent buildings is not enough to drive the total to "hundreds of thousands". This is indeed new (as the older books only talked about Battle Sisters) and, though assumed before, nice to see in written form.

Troike wrote:Oh, actually the WD codex in fact said that 100 was the minimum, and did not even specify an average size. Just that "some" were only 100 strong. So it's not a retcon but additional detail, which is always nice.

We were given an average once ... *rummages* ah, here:
"... as well as many lesser sisterhoods comprised of around a hundred or so Battle Sisters ..."
- 5E rulebook, Defenders of the Imperium

I thought it makes sense, considering the sizes of Mission (~50) and Commandery (up to 200) level forces given in the 3E Witch Hunter Codex. Commandery in particular was said to be "a term used to describe a smaller convent, perhaps little more than a shrine and a garrison of Battle Sisters cloistered together to defend it", whereas Preceptory (up to 1.000) was said to apply to larger convents "maintained by some, notably the Greater Orders", which does sound as if they'd be an exception for Minor ones.

So ... all of this is fluff we had before, it dates back right to the 3E Codex which had established Minor Orders as subsidiary convents in the first place.

Troike wrote:Also, I think that 1000 strong Minor Orders is far more than expected. Under the numbers given for Major Orders in previous books, that's quite a large chunk of the Order splitting off.

It does fit with the fluff about Preceptories, though - they are said to be the Major Orders' largest formations, and up to 1k strong. The new Codex even mentions how a Preceptory can begin to develop an identity of its own when stationed away from its maternal Ordo Maioris for longer duration, including even subtle changes on their livery (remember the red stripes on the Argent Shroud robes in the other thread, where I said this wouldn't work? well it would now!). This is pretty much the first step to splitting off as a Minor Order.

Troike wrote:Eh. I still don't like how they ignored the codex fluff in making her, it feels like they didn't do their research. Also I don't like how she fell to Slaanesh. To me, that just feel like the Chaos God than an SoB is least likely to fall to. Sisters live lives a life of denying self-indulgence and excess, after all. If it had to be one, then Khorne makes the most sense.

It depends on how you think about absolutes in 40k, I guess. In my mind, just about anything could happen at least once.
As for Slaanesh - I think it fits. They are surrounded by violence all the time, accustomed to it, and focusing it in a specific manner. But excess? Whoah. That's like giving sweets to a child that grew up eating nothing but stale bread. Although ... actually, one could well argue that Sisters are prone to certain types of excess:

"Religious ecstasy is an altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria. Although the experience is usually brief in time, there are records of such experiences lasting several days or even more, and of recurring experiences of ecstasy during one's lifetime. Subjective perception of time, space and/or self may strongly change or disappear during ecstasy."
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_ecstasy

And technically, all it takes is a Repentia Mistress and/or her charges beginning to enjoy their role/s a little too much - all under the conviction that they are doing the Emperor's work. How's that for dipping into the smut section?

Troike wrote:Ah, but it's not an Act, just a special rule. All the Priests are doing is singing a bit to inspire themselves and their comrades, not pushing their bodies to near-impossible feats.

I think it's basically the same thing, really. What is an Act of Faith, if not inspiration that results in improved ability? I'm pretty sure the term "inspiration" was actually used in at least one source when describing AoF.

Furyou Miko wrote:However, I can't even find the part of the 2e codex where it states that Sisters are Incorruptible right now, so...

I know I've seen that line not in the 2E Codex, but in a White Dwarf that was released around the same time. I think you are mixing things up, Sister!

"The Battle Sisters of the Orders Militant have many strengths. They are recruited from the fastest, strongest and most adept individuals to be raised in the Schola Progenium. Their training is total, honed across the millennia to ensure that every Battle Sister is more than a match for almost any foe. Their weapons and armour are amongst the best the Adeptus Mechanicus can produce. These factors alone would make the Battle Sisters a mighty weapon in the Emperor's arsenal, but that is not all.
The Battle Sisters are utterly dedicated to the Emperor. Their one purpose is to strive for His honour and glory and to protect the Imperium from all threats. The faith of the Adepta Sororitas is unswerving, they are raised from birth to believe the Emperor is the only hope for humanity. Their pious, rigid way of life allows the Battle Sisters no room for pleasure; there is only prayer and war. There is nothing an enemy could offer them, they are impossible to bribe and totally incorruptible.
The Battle Sisters are one of the few bastions standing between humanity and extinction. The Sororitas must defeat alien dominance, rogue psykers, daemonic influence, heretics, blasphemers and apostates, or everything the Emperor has striven to build and protect will be lost."
- WD #211

Furyou Miko wrote:I don't know the full story, but I would take that to mean that she showed excessive pride in her martial abilities and fell into the search for perfectionism. Which makes her Lucius the Eternal's rival, which would make a pretty awesome buddy movie.

I don't think so - in the story, she was captured by the Emperor's Children and subjected to whatever-they-did for at least several weeks, if not months. Maybe even a Daemon Prince, if her story is any indication. I think at some point they just reached her breaking point, either by physical or psychic manipulation, but more probably a mixture of both. When she was seen next, she had switched. And she was rather creepy about it.
That doesn't make her any less of a warrior, though...

- excerpt from The Invitation, by Dan Abnett

... as I said, creepy, but kind of cool.

You have to understand that Miriael is no ordinary "trololol burn everything rape the women where's the cocaine" CSM ... she is a Warlord, a Champion of Slaanesh, and she has amassed an incredibly powerful host with which she wages her own little crusade in the Pyrus Reach, with a flotilla of ships, and a bodyguard of Daemonettes and EC Terminators to obey her every whim as her cult forces ravage one world after another.

Alas, I have failed. I will wear hair for the next four battle in penitence and sing the Praise Alicia nine times without rest.