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I know the galaxy is a vast place, but given the nature of their jobs, I don't think it's far-fetched that former classmates from the Schola Progenium sometimes have an unexpected class reunion during a military campaign or investigation. Or, less coincidentally, that they make an effort to keep in touch just in case they need a contact in another faction.

"Oh hey, Alec! Looking sharp in that beret. Throne, if you're the reinforcements, the war must be going even worse than they tell me."
"Ha ha! Well, thanks for holding things down long enough for us to swoop in and steal the glory, Severine. Say, that scar's new..."
"Long story. I'll tell you over an amasec if we survive the next push."
"Right... Work first, then play. You haven't changed. How are things on the ground? Your canoness was tight-lipped. You know how it is... left hand, right hand..."
"Casualties are still manageable, but we've run into logistical issues. Low on promethium, fresh out of hunter-killers. I'm looking for a workaround. I managed to get a hold of my ex... Val, remember? She finally inherited her dad's warrant of trade. Unfortunately she's in the Eastern Fringe right now, dealing with some T'au nonsense."
"Shame. Well, in my experience, shipping delays are usually just some bureaucratic snag. Hey, remember ol' Rennie? Last I heard, he was pretty high up in the Administratum. I'm sure he can fast-track it or knows someone who can. Even back in the day, he was already a master at twisting the process into pretzels to get us out of trouble."
"Oh, I wouldn't know. I wasn't the one always getting in trouble!"

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As with most things he 40K it will depend. Cain does a decent job of portraying the Scola as a kind of boarding school with live fire exercises, and all the associated old boys network that goes with it. Those that get squirrelled away as inquisitorial stormtroopers probably don’t come to reunions…

Definitely depends.

There is an Old Boys’ Network, but not the way we think of it.

Cain certainly recognised Beije from his school days, and doesn’t think much of him.

But outside of kind of vaguely knowing someone, there’s no advantage presented.

Part of that is ensuring any graduate isn’t posted anywhere they might have familial tie type things. That only risks a sentimental risk to efficiency.

 Flinty wrote:
As with most things he 40K it will depend. Cain does a decent job of portraying the Scola as a kind of boarding school with live fire exercises, and all the associated old boys network that goes with it. Those that get squirrelled away as inquisitorial stormtroopers probably don’t come to reunions…

Commisar Guant's descriptions of the Scholam are more along the stricter depiction (with a few deviations from the 'traditional' form[1]), but he also has a lot of 'old boys network' going on with former classmates as well. so i'd say that yes those individuals who go through specific parts of the scholam do remember each other and keep in touch to some degree. presumably it would depend a lot on where you got assigned and whether you actually liked your classmates much.



([1] Guant's experience doesn't seem to involve the mindwiping that many depictions include.. but it is possible that because he came through a scholam that used such things less, or perhaps since he was from a higher social class background he was spared the more extreme forms of the brainwashing. Cain's own descriptions of his time there don't mention such either, but it possible that they hide the fact they wipe student's memories from them. certainly cain's inability to remember his own origins beyond vague memories of living in a hivecity suggests he got at least a partial identity wipe. his students in "cians last stand" don't get subjected to such,but they're also near to graduation, and presumably such treatment would have been something done much earlier after they were brought into the scholam.. possibly before they were even sent to cain's commisar school.)

To be fair, everyone in the Schola is an orphan. Cain might not remember his childhood due to trauma.

The mind-wipe part also came with the Tempestus Scion codex, if memory serves, which was written long after Cain and Gaunt's books. The Schola wasn't really detailed before that, as far as I know, outside of ''School for orphans of War Heroes (sometimes, there were mention of adults getting sent there for Stormtrooper training) where Stormtroopers, Sororitas Initiates and Commissars are train, they got Drill-Aboots and that's it'' it never was really detailed.

 Bobthehero wrote:
The mind-wipe part also came with the Tempestus Scion codex, if memory serves, which was written long after Cain and Gaunt's books. The Schola wasn't really detailed before that, as far as I know, outside of ''School for orphans of War Heroes (sometimes, there were mention of adults getting sent there for Stormtrooper training) where Stormtroopers, Sororitas Initiates and Commissars are train, they got Drill-Aboots and that's it'' it never was really detailed.

The mindwipe and "torture school" elements were indeed added in the Tempestus Scion codex and still is present. Reading the older Sisters of Battle books by James Swallow which predates the Tempestus Scion codex, you can see a little bit of the "forgotten childhood" elements. Neither of the main characters seem to have any recollection of their childhood.

Which could be the result of kids not being treated as kids.

Depending on how young one enters the Schola? It’s entirely possible they won’t remember their parents or homeworld, especially if they’d stayed home whilst the parents were on campaign,

From there, the relative brutality of the Schola may simply mean they never experienced childhood the way we did.

Salvation Corps (a very meh Stormtrooper novel), has the "your parents were heroes" card played on them as children and used to prod them to be better.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Salvation Corps (a very meh Stormtrooper novel), has the "your parents were heroes" card played on them as children and used to prod them to be better.

Salvation Corps was written before the Tempestus Scion rebrand and man was that book terrible, I ended up not being able to finish it, what a slog.

I enjoyed it, there's interesting stuff in there, for 40k's world building, chemical death world, various odd and esoteric tech, Genestealer Orks and the way the Orks can get real dangerous with teleporation, weapons we don't hear about because they're not in the TT anymore, stuff like that. Made for an enjoyable read on my end.

Regard the Salvation corps I like the book and re read it nearly last week. Nice dynamic action with cool stuff. Nothing extraordinary.
Regarding schola, it's looks like it very depends on exact schola(like everything in 40k) and see no problem some pals still in contact like Cain or Gaunt. Other not. Also commissars, troopers and SoB can be treated different. Like you don't want SoB and Scions to be free minded and whipped they're unnecessary memories and load all propaganda crap you need to be. And for commissars you don't need it.

Or it's just instructors/teachers drills over years that leave your mind blank.

I didn't know about the mind wipe thing, and frankly I'd rather ignore this piece of lore (or invoke Mad Doc Grotsnik's It Depends principle - some institutions do it, others don't). It's one of those grimdark aspects of 40k that can just get in the way of creating characters who are, you know, characterful... not just blank slates who exist only to serve the Emperor without question.

There's an older Dark Heresy sourcebook with rules for building a character raised in the Schola Progenium. You have to roll on a table to determine how your parents died, which grants you extra skills or abilities like Hatred (Heretics).

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I could have sworn I read somewhere the mind wipe thing doesn't always work, though, ''it depends'' also works, given it's 40k

Did the Schola exist pre-heresy?

It was formed just after Ullanor but didn't have anywhere near the power or structure it had post-Heresy when Guilliman reformed the Imperium.

-Guardsman- wrote:I didn't know about the mind wipe thing, and frankly I'd rather ignore this piece of lore (or invoke Mad Doc Grotsnik's It Depends principle - some institutions do it, others don't). It's one of those grimdark aspects of 40k that can just get in the way of creating characters who are, you know, characterful... not just blank slates who exist only to serve the Emperor without question.

There's an older Dark Heresy sourcebook with rules for building a character raised in the Schola Progenium. You have to roll on a table to determine how your parents died, which grants you extra skills or abilities like Hatred (Heretics).

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or mindwipes are mainly used for the Stormtroopers and similar 'grunt' programs, while the officer style programs (like the commisars) generally use a lighter touch in order to preserve the intelligence of their cadets. we know that a lot of imperial mind related technologies can have some strong drawbacks, so it might make sense to limit their use when not needed. Hypno-indoctrination for example can install whole combat skillsets into a recruit, but the results are less effective than someone trained conventionally. in the case of mindwipes, i suspect that the methods aren't exactly precise, so you'd not be able to erase specific memories, and given how brute force imperial technology often is ,i suspect the methods involved have a high chance of damaging a person's brain or erasing their entire personality and skills.