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Alright folks, time for me to throw my hat in the ring in full. Here is the Sisterhood I've been holding onto now for about . . . four years, apparently. Wow, I've been at this for a while. As always with my DIYs, I have a tendency to do some very bare-bones creations, names, colors, and a very short snippet, create a whole host of them (at some point last year I counted just over a couple hundred, with about 2/3s B&C appropriate), and then with aching slowness go about developing them to the point of being worthy of being posted. Often, a huge amount of their character and history are completely unknown to me until I take the time and just try to increase the word count. I always like to think about how the ideas first originated, as it goes to show just how far I've come in this whole business. The Order of the Perpetual Sorrows originated as a Sisterhood based off of an old Facebook group I was a part of, the Green Randoms. I would jokingly create an in-universe clan around it (this was a D&D group), called the Verdant Variables. For some reason that I no longer recall, I took that as the base for a Sisterhood, which was originally called the Viridian Valkyries, had a convent on Fenris itself, and yes, it was that bad, shut up. Their color scheme has been unchanged since then, but as you'll be able to see from here on out, they really don't have anything else left from that time. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I'll continue working on it, but C&C on what I have so far would be appreciated. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OHAehTs9PrQ/UmP3bTH-hvI/AAAAAAAAaP0/Fgf4zLo3r3w/s400/city-saint.jpg “Defilement comes through the sons of Man Born Divine, through Cain refleshed. She will lift the silver veil from her face, and from her eyes shall flow the tears of the silenced into perpetuity, to wash the corrupt in a flood of condemnation.” Order Name The Order of the Perpetual Sorrows Home Planet Bathkol, a temperate shrineworld of Sector Aexynder, Subsector Raphestus Founder Viridiana Serif, Our Weeping Lady. Born 248.M38, Martyred 412.M38 Notable Sisters Yohanna Candidus, Palatine-Commander of the Serifi, Purifier of the Sunderers It is no surprise that the Order of the Perpetual Sorrows would endear themselves to their founder and her ways. As the first Canoness named herself of the Seraphim, and favored their use alongside armour contingents, so too did those who followed her. There is a strong leaning in the Sisterhood towards the Seraphim squads, leading towards an imbalanced organization. It became necessary to subdivide the Seraphim, to single out the exceptional and the experienced. These veteran Seraphim congregate in the Chapel of the Serifi, for which they view Viridiana Serif as its patron saint and from whom they are named. These women can often be seen at the forefront of every major battle of the Sisterhood, their skills and fervor lending them an unrivaled edge. Though the Serifi are considered a Commandery according to the Order's organizational structure, they exist far higher in their hierarchy. The Palatine-Commander often holds a position of honor in the Sisterhood, her voice as heeded and respected as any preceptory mistress. Only when the entire Order is mobilized for war do the Serifi stand united outside of their Chapel, as their Commandery are most often spread across the Order and its various conflicts. History Communion with the God-Emperor, a most sacred practice, has guided the devoted for millennia. Though often difficult to interpret, the lives of millions are turned to the task of extrapolation. One such interpretation called for the founding of one of the Lesser Orders Militant. Viridiana Serif, a Canoness Preceptor of the Order of the Argent Shroud, was granted the honor of separating her convent from the Order. Taking with her the relic tome Luctus Aeternia, and naming the Order after the prophetic glimpse that saw to its creation, Lady Serif, now Canoness Superior of the Order of the Perpetual Sorrows, retained the convent upon the shrineworld Bathkol where the Preceptory was based, expanding it to accommodate the increased potential of a full Order. Within a century, the Sisterhood had gained incredible renown in the local Sector as a fast-acting militant order, striking with overwhelming force at the earliest signs of heresy. The zeal with which they met the secretive cults of Sector Aexynder caught the attention of Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus, and quickly they would take advantage of the fiery Sisters in their own investigations. In time, they were seen by the Inquisition as a powerful tool in this Sector and its surrounding regions, with many Inquisitors even petitioning the Sisterhood for permanent detachments to follow them across the Imperium's greater expanse. With their harsh intolerance for even minor deviations of the Imperial Creed, the Sisters of the Order of the Perpetual Sorrows can be seen participating in wars of faith in every corner of the Imperium. Beliefs The Sisters of Perpetual Sorrow record with careful precision the heretical crimes committed against Him on Earth within the tactical log Luctus Aeternia. To the Sisters, these crimes should never be forgotten, lest they be repeated, and are often invoked during sermons. It is, however, of note that what this Sisterhood condemns as heretical is, perhaps, more conservative than the greater Ecclesiarchy's general approach to the differing faiths in the God-Emperor. To the Sisters of Bathkol, the God-Emperor is the All, born whole from the holiness of Terra's children. To these Sisters, worship of the God-Emperor in any other aspect is condemnable. They see totemic representations of the God-Emperor as debasement before false idols. While they are willing to curb their indignation and bile for otherwise loyal Imperial domains, these beliefs made them willing participants in retributive campaigns based upon ideological conflicts, particularly when involving the contrary beliefs of a Space Marine Chapter. These beliefs have spread beyond the Sisterhood, in no small part because of their charismatic prominence on Bathkol and beyond. On a few worlds, their particular outlook on Space Marines have taken rather well. On Hathmose it is most understandable, the planet's denizens having long memories into their past, when renegade Space Marines would raid their stores with clockwork precision and brutality before being run off by a detachment of Loyalist Space Marines of the Flesh Tearers Chapter. For the embittered Hathmosians, they could not distinguish between savior and ravager. The Sisterhood, however, has not taken kindly to a particular sentiment among those they have so influenced. With the focus the Order has on the Seraphim squads, especially the often more ornate Serifi, there are those among the masses who look up to these women that see them as the God-Emperor's true angels. Indeed, the Order has become increasingly frustrated with what they see as false idolatry, loudly and at times even violently denouncing it. Significant Battle Dragon's Fall – M39: Like many Space Marine Chapters based out of feral death worlds, the Sunderers had a unique, contradictory view of the Emperor. While ostensibly holding to the improper belief system of the Adeptus Astartes, that of the God-Emperor as “just a man,” the further uncivilized beliefs of their own recruitment stock pervaded and corrupted the Chapter. This has occurred among those who would call Him on Earth their grandsire since time immemorial, when the God-Emperor, in an unfathomable act of wisdom and compassion, allowed for the continued existence of the Space Wolves Chapter. The Sunderers, inheritors of the White Scars Chapter, another barbaric lineage not unlike those of the Wolves or the Salamanders, had for several thousand years looked to the feathered, saurian mega-fauna of their home world as symbolically representative of the God-Emperor's power and ferocity. Even before their corruption by the powers beyond, the Sisters of Perpetual Sorrow would have proclaimed them damned in moments. With the Imperium fully seeking to unleash judgment upon the Sunderers, the Order gladly lent the taskforce its entire strength. This proved fortuitous to the forces of the God-Emperor, as it was one of the Order's Commanderies that successfully disrupted a ritual centered upon the Chapter's former High Reclusiarch, a ritual that surely would have turned the tide of battle and necessitated the call for other, more terrible allies. http://i.imgur.com/q9lV8YL.jpg

This is my submission for the Liber Challenge Part 1. [click the pages to see full-sized versions (two pages are side-by-side - they're formatted for landscape printing)] This article as seen in the Adepta Sororitas forum is the "finished" version while the topic here in Liber Astartes is for comments, critique, and revisions (I can see a few areas where I can tighten things up and I'm certain that other hobbyists will see things that I don't see). You can see a text version of this article below in case it's easier on your browsing style (whether you'd prefer text or you're on a mobile device that isn't very image-friendly). You can also see my design notes below in case that provides any insight into what I'm working towards with this article. Cheers!

[click the pages to see full-sized versions (two pages are side-by-side - they're formatted for landscape printing)] This is my submission for the Liber Challenge Part 1. The version seen here is "finished." That's not quite true because I'm open to making revisions, but what you see above is the current presentation of the article. If you'd like to provide suggestions for revisions, I'm working on those in the Liber Astartes forum.

Order of the Gilded Blade Foundation Sister Poloma Castillion In 236.M41 the Order of the Argent Shroud spearheaded an Imperial reclamation campaign on the agri-world of Oldama Majoris. Whilst the holy sisters made swift progress in their assault on the capital city Iuga, stamping out heresy and inspiring hundreds to take up arms against the Emperor’s enemies, elsewhere the Imperial forces faltered. Disaster struck less than two weeks into the campaign when the 21st Harjinn Ghilmen regiment was massacred by a mob of heretics led by the reviled demagogue known as the Ash Priest. With the battle in Iuga intensifying and the Ash Priest’s force, now numbering close to twenty thousand, closing in from the rear, Canoness Commander Volenta ordered her second-in-command, Palatine Crusixis, to lead a small force of sisters into the dense Oldaman forests and continue the fight in the Emperor’s name. From the depths of the forest Palatine Crusixis launched numerous raids on heretic positions, massacring patrols and destroying supply posts. Nevertheless, as supplies dwindled and casualties mounted, the small force of sisters began to lose morale. The Ash Priest also needed to rekindle the heretical faith of his followers and began to burn the forest to the ground. The sisters retreated further and further, seeking to reach the edge of the fast-approaching wall of flames and loop back to outflank the heretics. It was then that they discovered a long-forgotten shrine to the Emperor. The walls were covered in tangled ivy, but were thick and defensible. The catacombs contained a treasure trove of swords, maces, flails and shields, archaic but usable. But the greatest treasure hung above the altar: a master-crafted power sword that shimmered with golden light. Palatine Crusixis declared that here that the sisters would make their last stand. The inferno washed over the shrine, incinerating the plant life and splintering the marble mosaics covering the outer walls. The sisters sheltered safe in the catacombs, singing hymns of praise to Him on Earth and sharpening their blades. When the flames had passed on the sisters emerged to defend the shrine from those who would despoil it. The battle was hard-fought, with the sisters relying almost entirely on the melee weapons they had uncovered and the heretics lacking heavy artillery to breach the walls of the shrine. After five hours of brutal combat the Ash Priest himself took to the field and was met by Palatine Crusixis. Although the arch-heretic was swollen with daemonic power, he was no match for the faithful sister and Crusixis decapitated him with one swipe of the golden sword. After this glorious victory the few surviving sisters swept across the land, their zeal burning brighter than ever. Those Oldamans who had remained faithful emerged from hiding to join the righteous crusade and, with their prophet slain, the heretics quickly capitulated. When Imperial reinforcements arrived two years later they found a world cleansed of heresy and eager to rejoin the Imperium of Man. Palatine Crusixis successfully petitioned the Covent Prioris to found a new commandery around the shrine they had discovered and two centuries later the Order of the Gilded Blade was formerly recognised as a Lesser Order Militant of the Adepta Sororitas. Present Day At the close of the forty-first millennia Oldama Majoris has been transformed from a backwater agri-world to the most popular shrine world in three sectors. Pilgrims touch down at the spaceport outside Iuga and travel into the city along a highway lined with adamantium statues of the primarchs and the saints. In Iuga the pilgrims visit the shrine that marks the spot where Canoness Commander Volenta fell, torn apart by a rapid mob of heretics, and leave a traditional offering of a drop of blood to commemorate the sisters of the Order of the Argent Shroud who sacrificed their lives to free Oldama Majoris. After a tour of the other holy sites and shrines in Iuga the pilgrims remove their shoes and walk barefoot through the forest to the Shrine of the Emperor Saviour, now a sprawling temple complex containing training and living facilities for the Order of the Gilded Blade. The pilgrims take mass at the altar and view the golden sword with which Palatine Crusixis slew the Ash Priest. The pilgrims are then invited to an audience with the Canoness Superior or her representative. They are questioned on their journey and any heretical or xenos activity they witnessed or heard reports of. If the pilgrim is judged to be faithful and reliable their information is acted upon, whether it be a report of an ork invasion of hive world or a rumour of a witch hidden in a cave in the most remote and unimportant world. The sisters of the Order of the Gilded Blade know that all heresy is dangerous if allow to fester, no matter how inconsequential it may appear. “The Imperium is run by men and women who dream of sectors and subsectors, fleets and armies, sieges, pitched battles and orbital strikes. I do not deny the importance of these things. But the people who live in the Imperium have smaller dreams. They dream of their families, their neighbours, their farm or manufactory. They do not comprehend the Black Crusade, the horde of xenos, the world-ending warp rift. Such things do not concern them because they are too vast, too far beyond imagination. The things they fear are smaller: the raider in the night, the mutant in the sewer, the witch in the forest. Some say such things are insignificant, too lowly to demand our attention. To this I say: where do we draw the line between the tolerable heresy and the intolerable? Did the Emperor give his life so the Imperium could be partially saved? How can the smallfolk of the Imperium stay faithful if the Emperor’s representatives abandon them in their hour of need, no matter how small that need may seem in the grand scheme of things? Left unchecked the raider will return emboldened, seeking larger bounties. The mutant will bind together with others of its kind and rise up to overthrow the lawful government and enslave those who rightfully persecuted it. The witch will attract the attentions of those beyond and cause a whole world to be put to the torch. Call our work insignificant if you will. We know that it is not.” - Canoness Tirista Gonrolo Combat Doctrine The Order of the Gilded Blade numbers around six hundred battle sisters, with over four hundred away on active duty at any given time. The Order’s remit means that its forces are often spread thin on over a dozen worlds, many deployments consisting of only one or two squads with little chance of reinforcement during the mission. This means that each sister is highly trained to operate in any combat role and with any weapon in the Order’s arsenal. The Order of the Gilded Blade is unafraid to use stealth and infiltration tactics against the enemies of the Emperor, believing it is unworthy to apply notions like ‘honourable combat’ to such scum. Indeed, with the sisters usually operating at a numerical disadvantage, such tactics are vital. In recent years, following heavy petitioning from pilgrims and planetary authorities, the Order of the Gilded Blade has established small waystations on several worlds along major pilgrimage routes. These serve as rest points for weary pilgrims and as garrisons for up to a hundred sisters. The waystations have proved a resounding success, allowing the sisters to carry out more missions on worlds far from Oldama Majoris. They are swiftly becoming pilgrimage points in their own right for those of poor means who struggle to get offworld. The War for the Soul of Hive Gharne – 892.M41 The sisters of the Order of the Gilded Blade first learned of the heresy growing in Hive Gharne from Quarant Ipsos, an elderly pilgrim who had sold everything he owned to fund his pilgrimage from Terentis VI to Oldama Majoris. He spoke of his grandson, kidnapped and forced to fight to the death in underground arenas. The local Arbites saw it as a way regulate the district’s population, but Quarant had learnt the holy words of the saints all his life and knew that blood-sport was a grave sin against the Emperor, depriving Him of men and women who owed Him their lives. The sisters recognised the need and despatched three squads to Terentis VI. It soon became clear that the arenas were merely a cover for a well-organised gang of blood cultists whose influence spread throughout the underworld of Hive Gharne. The sisters remained in the shadows at first, carrying out raids on minor drug dens, warehouses and blood-pits. Each strike was well planned and initiated with no survivors left to breathe word of their presence. The sisters also reached out to priests of the Adeptus Ministorum, requesting that they stir up their congregations to oppose the arena fights. With their operations under attack from an unknown foe and the faithful rising up against them, the blood cultists overplayed their hand. A tide of gangers, pit-fighters and death-seekers spilled on to the streets, massacring anyone in their path including each other. The Arbites were forced to respond, deploying en masse to fight the cultists. The sisters also revealed themselves, using intelligence extracted during their initial operations to locate and destroy the cult leaders. The heresy was eradicated within a week. Sister Superior Ysobil Romora first came to the Shrine of the Emperor Saviour as an orphan girl, six years old and born on pilgrimage. She told the tale of how the pilgrim ship she was travelling on was attacked by eldar corsairs and how her parents sacrificed their lives to lead the aliens away from her hiding place. Like many of the parentless girl-children who find their way to the Shrine Ysobil was inducted into the Order of the Gilded Blade as a novice. She was trained every day in faith and in battle, excelling in every field. When she finally attained the rank of battle sister on her sixteenth birthday it was widely seen as being several years late. Over the following years Sister Ysobil continued to excel. Her sharp eye and ferocious strength frequently saw her assigned as a Retributor heavy weapons specialist. It was her heavy bolter that cut down the ork mob on the steps of the Temple of the Primarchs on Laodiseah and her multi-melta that destroyed three traitor Leman Russ tanks on Drexus. In a brutal fight on Chennov Ysobil was forced to take command of the Order’s force after heavy casualties. After leading a heroic counter-attack on the rebel position that ended up winning the war, Ysobil was promoted to Sister Superior. Her final battle took place in the dark forests of Kapuchin III where she was torn limb-from-limb by a giant mutated monster. This grisly sight inspired her sisters to greater fury and they fought unceasingly over the next three years until the planet’s mutant infestation was finally cleansed. Sister Superior Ysobil Romora