SoB recruitment

[glayvin34]

I've started painting up some Sororitas allies for my Space Marines, and I was planning on giving each sister a different hair and skin coloring. Then I started looking at the SoB squads on CMON, and most of the (non-helmeted) models all look the same with the same hair and skin coloring. From my reading of the fluff, there's not much mention of where each sister was recruited from, so I assumed I could give them whatever racial coloring I desired.

 

Not that I really care if someone at the game store is upset that I violated canon, I'll force them at knife point to let me use the models, but does it say anywhere why every sister has the same hair and skin coloring or is that just for effect? The white hair is kinda spooky, after all.

[Melissia]

The Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas first graduate from the Schola Progenium, who often uses orphans for its student IIRC. Sisters often look similar as a sign of unity however, similar hairstyle, similar tattoos and scarification, etc.

[Grand Master Tyrak]

Melissia Posted Today, 08:41 PM

The Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas first graduate from the Schola Progenium, who often uses orphans for its student IIRC.

 

It's almost exclusively orphans of Imperial soldiers, I believe. It's the same place that Storm Troopers and Commissars are trained.

[Melissia]

Well, I admit that i'm not fully up to snuff with the background behind the Schola Progenium. But still, almost entirelly orphans isn't too far off from what I said.

[jeffersonian000]

One reason for the mass similarity of Sisters and men of the Imperial Guard is due to the millennia of breeding on each world that reduces the available phenotypes to hardy few. Most Sisters are drawn from the populace, hence having predominately the same phenotype. We need to realize that in the 40k 'verse, humanity has been nearly destroyed on numerous occasions, with each reduction followed by a population boom derived from an ever smaller and small source of genetic material, while 10,000 years is only good for producing moderate mutation due to environmental conditions. As such, each world may have a specific phenotype that has different of the years from the Imperial standard of Terra, yet virtually all Imperial citizens should have roughly the same hue of buff skin tone with the same range of eye and hair coloration (given their geographical norm), due to each world being effectively a single global genetic pool to which the Empire of Man mixes on a regular basis by transshipping Imperial Guard units from their home world to other planets and leaving them there for extended periods of time. This would effectively make all Sisters close cousins from a genetic point of view, and may be the source of all the horrific mutations that creep up, due to the average set of parents being to closely related genetically that latent defects pop up.

 

Or GW is just lazy/reducing waste by sticking to the same moulds to keep back stock down.

 

SJ

[glayvin34]

One reason for the mass similarity of Sisters and men of the Imperial Guard is due to the millennia of breeding on each world that reduces the available phenotypes to hardy few. Most Sisters are drawn from the populace, hence having predominately the same phenotype. We need to realize that in the 40k 'verse, humanity has been nearly destroyed on numerous occasions, with each reduction followed by a population boom derived from an ever smaller and small source of genetic material, while 10,000 years is only good for producing moderate mutation due to environmental conditions. As such, each world may have a specific phenotype that has different of the years from the Imperial standard of Terra, yet virtually all Imperial citizens should have roughly the same hue of buff skin tone with the same range of eye and hair coloration (given their geographical norm), due to each world being effectively a single global genetic pool to which the Empire of Man mixes on a regular basis by transshipping Imperial Guard units from their home world to other planets and leaving them there for extended periods of time. This would effectively make all Sisters close cousins from a genetic point of view, and may be the source of all the horrific mutations that creep up, due to the average set of parents being to closely related genetically that latent defects pop up.

 

Or GW is just lazy/reducing waste by sticking to the same moulds to keep back stock down.

 

SJ

 

Does that mean that most Sisters in a given order come from the same planet?

[jeffersonian000]

It could. All the original Daughters of the Emperor came from one planet.

 

SJ

[Melissia]

Only because it was entirelly limietd to a single backwater shrine. The Adepta Sororitas is a galaxy-wide organization now.

[jeffersonian000]

Which goes to supporting the idea that most Sisters from the same world/order would look very similar in appearance.

 

SJ

[glayvin34]

Only because it was entirelly limietd to a single backwater shrine. The Adepta Sororitas is a galaxy-wide organization now.

 

So I guess that means I can mix in dark-skinned sisters ( :) ) and vary the hair color black to blond to grey to white.

[Melissia]

Which goes to supporting the idea that most Sisters from the same world/order would look very similar in appearance.

 

SJ

Unless the world itself is varied. Catatchan, for example, has people of all skin tones (I've seen black painted catatchan, pale painted, tanned painted, etc, in official GW material).

[Secondwind]

Real world nun's, monk's and priests sometimes wear similar robes / uniforms or have shaved their heads or gone through other rituals for religious reasons. I think the sisters of battle may do the same and dye their hair according to where they belong or their rank. I dont believe this is really documented fluff wise and it's more than safe to do whatever you want in this regard.

 

When I get around to making a sisters army I'd like to have each rank have a different hair colour.

(normal battle sisters black, celestians, black with a stripe, cannoness white, rest undecided ^^ characters will get a tattoo too!)

[Obliterator]

I'm putting my money on plain old 'cheap and lazy'...

 

Most people paint squads assembly style, so different colors would mean slower painting. GW selects colors that look the best on the minis to make 'em look more attractive. The white hair contrasts nicelly with the black armor and red robes, so every nun gets white hair. As for all looking the same: the Inquisitorial forces don't exactly have a lot of different models. I mean, there's like 5 PAGK and 7 Sisters (not counting special weapons), so in an army where you can easily have 30 standard sisters, you'll have 4-5 'clones' on average.

[Quasarcq]

Firstly I do believe the lack of variation in the model line is simply a sculpting issue.

 

However the re-occurrence of similar hair can be tied to both the disciple of military and religious organizations. Almost all (not all, but even then there may be, just different from what we may think) armies have uniform regulations. These regs include how hair is worn, male and female. If we look at it from a religious perspective hair is also controlled to both clergy and common parishioner, whether hair is worn long, cut short, worn in a bun or shaved. Hair is one of the most common body modifications in all societies with rules on how its worn and who wears certain styles (i.e. status, gender, prestige).

 

One thing I have notice just from the 3rd ed C:WH book is that it seems like only sister of Our Martyred Lady have the classic white hair. Most other orders are shown with darker hair colors. Again probably just someone trying to paint 50 some models easily. While hair style may be regulated, this may not mean hair color. If I ever have the time I will paint my battle sister's hair different colors. My Death Lilies are all unique including skin color.

 

One thing I will have to disagree on is the matter of phenotypes becoming limited in the 40k universe. One thing that 10,000 years of living among the stars would do would increase diversity. While yes genetic drift could seriously impact immediate populations, eliminating phenotypes, you also have a unique possibility of traveling populations bringing genes a world hasn't seen in hundreds of years. Gene flow on a macro time scale. You can thank the Order Famulous for that. The near infinite distribution of genes on hundreds of worlds means that in some way they should always exist and have the chance to mingle with other populations. And depending on if you are a gradualist or a punctualist, me I'm neither for mutations can have little impact or great impact on a time scale, again that's all a matter of perception too. I see adaptation happening both rapidly or slowly. But I also see adaptations as a product, not a process. There is no becoming something. Either a mutation is a benefit, a detriment or something in between. Only after a mutation survives can it be seen as a true adaptation.

 

Where were we, oh yes, hair...

I say model them however you wish. Or since there all metal it all going to be painting.

 

I was trying to find reference of adepta sororitas recruitment. I recall them being orphans, but I can't find mention in either the codex or my US WD 292. Perhaps in another issue? Anyway, while I see the main body being recruited by the orphanages ran by the sororitas I couldn't imagine them turning away any young girl who claims that it is her calling, from commoner to royalty.

[glayvin34]

One thing I will have to disagree on is the matter of phenotypes becoming limited in the 40k universe. One thing that 10,000 years of living among the stars would do would increase diversity. While yes genetic drift could seriously impact immediate populations, eliminating phenotypes, you also have a unique possibility of traveling populations bringing genes a world hasn't seen in hundreds of years. Gene flow on a macro time scale. You can thank the Order Famulous for that. The near infinite distribution of genes on hundreds of worlds means that in some way they should always exist and have the chance to mingle with other populations. And depending on if you are a gradualist or a punctualist, me I'm neither for mutations can have little impact or great impact on a time scale, again that's all a matter of perception too. I see adaptation happening both rapidly or slowly. But I also see adaptations as a product, not a process. There is no becoming something. Either a mutation is a benefit, a detriment or something in between. Only after a mutation survives can it be seen as a true adaptation.

 

I didn't want to go there, but I agree completely. There would only be a small available genepool if the planet was originally populated by a few (10 to 50) families and then left untouched for the entire 10,000 years. While there are quite a few such backwater planets in the Imperium, the other side of the small genepool coin would also be a small population, 10,000 years isn't much time for 10 to 50 families to populate an entire planet while also staying alive. So there would be very few individuals from such planets.

 

Otherwise, the planet was either colonized by a larger group with a larger genepool, or random individuals with random genes immigrated. While both of these situations would provide a genetic situation to give at least variance in hair color, and likely many other variances depending on the planet in question, there still would need to be some environmental pressure in order for the population to form distinct races that didn't all look like the amalgamation of the whole planetary genepool. These pressure wouldn't be hard to find in M41. We know that climate, in particular the degree of solar radiation, can both alter phenotypic skin color and geological genotype distribution of skin color, not to mention other traits like fat reserves or eye shape. I don't think much adaptation would take place via random mutation, 10,000 years isn't long enough, but light-skinned people will be more comfortable at extreme latitudes while the opposite would be true for someone predisposed to a higher degree of melanin expression. Or there could be a social effect on a Hive World where physical size, skin color or some other trait is seen as "better", this could lead to separate racial phenotypes within a thousand years or so- look up the Twa, Hutu and Tutsi for an example. Also, internal social pressures can cause a race to selectively target specific traits for breeding, making one genotype more prevalent than another.

 

All in all, it seems relatively unlikely that a WH40k planet has limited phenotypic variation because a) to have a small genepool would require a small founding population and hence a small extant population b ) in the presence of a diverse genepool and a well-populated planet, many expressed phenotypes would find their niche and thrive.

[jeffersonian000]

I was more going on the general homogenization of the human race due to all the setbacks from before the Age of Strife and that even during the Age of Strife warp travel still allowed for the galactic community to retain a more generalized look. Without direct genetic tampering (i.e., Squats), major mutations due to warp influence (i.e., Beastmen), or extreme environmental conditions (i.e., Ogryn, Ratlings) there is very little genetic drift that can occur over a 10,000 year period.

 

Be that as it may, I was just throwing out a thought.

 

SJ

[Commander Sasha]

The Beatles all styled themselves the same, and the Jets and The Sharks from West Side Story.

 

Only some very modern cultures consider individuality in appearance to be a good thing; throughout history gangs, clans, houses, armies and nations have homogenised their appearances to present a more impressive and disciplined front to the enemy.

 

Plus "If she's got a platinum bob, she's probably one of ours, don't shoot her" could prevent friendly fire...

[Grey Mage]

Well one thing to note is that many religious orders go out of their way to change their looks as a kind of "sacrifice". Giving up part of their individuality to show their devotion to their god/creed/faith/oaths/etc. The faces being all the same is probly because they were all done by one guy and the molds never been changed... but the rest of it, yeah it makes sense to me.

 

That being said I like the standard battle sisters face.... looks cute to me.

[Defiance]

That being said I like the standard battle sisters face.... looks cute to me.

 

 

;). Cute in the sense that a dog is so ugly its cute.

I hope dearly when they resculpt the sisters they give them a complete overhaul in the face department.

[Grey Mage]

*spreads hands* Sorry, just ask my girlfriend and shell tell you Im easy to please. I dont like some of the expressions I find on their faces, but the makeup of the face itself I think is pretty.

[Defiance]

NO worries i see where your coming from. I think as mentioned earlier that they just suffer from the one sculptor and designer problem. And the bobcuts probably dont help.

[ArmouredWing]

3 words folks. Joan of Arc.

 

A lot of the historical reference shows her with the SoB bob and there's more than a smattering of Joan throughout the SoB fluff (martyrdom anyone?).

 

Its a good look and it ties the whole army together.

 

As for tying the look into fluff? Knock yourself out, its all fair game. For my order of the armoured wing the squads don't have a uniform hair or skin colour, but squad leaders all have feathers in their hair/helms as a nod to the fleur de lys and to make them stand out as the vets. There's enough conformity in the model range as it is, so it does a lot to break it up a bit.