How many Sisters of Battle are there?

[Panzerkopf]

Fluff-wise, how many SOBs exist in the galaxy?

[Chengar Qordath]

I don't recall there being any solid figures on the numbers of sisters. At a guess, I would put there numbers well below those of the guard, but significantly higher than the Space Marines.

[Judanas]

I don't recall there being any solid figures on the numbers of sisters. At a guess, I would put there numbers well below those of the guard, but significantly higher than the Space Marines.

 

That, unfortunetly, is about all there is, numbers wise.

 

I'd say, as a rough guess, that there are...10 SOB for every space marine...maybe a few more...and for every SOB there are 50 guardsmen. Just guessing though.

[Panzerkopf]

I actually do remember seeing a solid number someplace, like in the 2nd ed. codex.

[andrewm9]

There are only like 6 major Orders of Battle Sisters with somewhere between 5 to 6 thousands Battle Sisters to an Order and many more in training. With minor Orders and what not there are probably a lot less Battle Sisters than Space Marines. If we are talking just Sisters with all of the major Orders then the Adepta Sororitas likely has far more members then Marines across the Galaxy.

[the jeske]

didnt durning the 13th crusade lose more then 20k sisters from OoOML ? some of the convents are huge a lot bigger then sm chapters and durning the crusade macharius made sob had whole armies the size of IG regiments.

[embalancer]

short answer is there are more sisters than space marines and less than Guards. Most likely there are probably upward of 10,000,000 but it depends if you want to know just the chamber militant branches or are you including the diagolos and hospitaler orders aswell

[Panzerkopf]

I only need to know the militant orders. I'm trying to write an order of battle for my homegrown order and I want to make sure there's a reasonable number of Sisters in the OOB.

[hs5ias]

Going by the 2ed Codex, which has not been superceded, there are some 20-30,000 battle sisters in the 6 main orders. These orders are said to comprise the majority of battle sisters. In turn the battle sisters are said to comprise the majority of the sororitas. So in total there may be less than 100,000 sororitas. An order minoris could have as few as 200 battle sisters, as that is enough to warrant a canoness. Unless you have a really, really large army though fielding even an entire order minoris is not going to be feasible so you don't have to worry about it from a tabletop point of view.

 

In 40K though numbers mean nothing. Everything works by plot. There are enough of whoever are the heroes of the story to win, but only just. Wild and ludicrous exaggeration of numbers is the conventional way people depict brave deeds and great victories. A few heroes must triumph over vast hordes. In the real world numerical superiority is crucial.

[Verythrax Draconis]

Yeah, I always got the impression that the SoBs number were very limited. They mention basically only the Ophelia planet, and the main orders. And SoBs are somewhat exclusive, since:

 

- They work fo Ecclesiarchy, so I doubt any other Imperial organization would allow them to have such a sizable force;

- They work for =I=, and =I= don't have own forces as more sizable than the WHOLE contingent of SMs;

- DoW (and the fluff somewhere, I believe) mentions that seeing a SoB is indeed a rare sight - even for SMs - cause if they are there, something much uglier than usual is happening - like seeing DW or GKs in action.

 

I always saw the SoBs as something like a chapter, in context. They exist only there, in a couple of planets only, but can be anywhere the Ecclesiarchy or the =I= needs them. In fact, I believe that =I= must use them much more than the Ecclesiarchy. A matter of heresy as big to involving them would be an =I= affair already, and the Ecclesiarchy already have ALL the arbites to do police work on day-by-day heresy prosecutions.

 

PS: of course, they number can vary a LOT at times, since they don't have the same restrictions in size as SMs, and they are supposedly more fragile - but their recruit influx is much bigger than the astartes.

 

I agree with the above poster, but dunno if it counts the non-militant orders - that are vastly more numerous than the SoBs themselves.

[Sister Rosette Soulknyt]

To my knowledge the only reason the SoB are rare sight is that they are not on every planet, only main positions of the Ecclesiarchy, shrine worlds, and places of nobility. Most likey small Convents also placed around a hundreds of worlds.

 

But in a universe of billions of planets they would be very rare, nearly as rare as a SM would be.

As for numbers well each of the main six militant orders would have Sisters in the number of 100,000+ each or more. Why compare the size of the Convent of Terra. Its huge, KM's in length, height, and width. It takes up a continent. Is one of the largets places on earth other than the Emperors palace, and some other organisations.

 

Just remember that they are not limited by numbers, no other organisation can tell them what to do, and they ONLY answer to the Ecclesiarchy...period, No to the Inquisition, No to the IG, No to the SM's or anyone else for that matter.

 

Under Thor's rulling no army of man will be under there control so thats why there all female. And they bring Faith, and a army of the finally trained and armoured forces in the universe for the Ecclesiarchy to protect the Faithful.

 

I dont think, in my opinon, when you take into to the account of smaller Militant Orders, the true scale of numbers, they could have anywhere from 50 SoB to a few thousand as well. So in the scope of things it isnt surprising to think that if you were to martial every SoB from every convent then yes you could easily expect a army close to a 10,000,000 SoB. The main six Ordo Militants have besides there main convent, dozens to a few hundred smaller convents all over the galaxy, each with a few dozen to thousands again.

So take into the other newer Ordo Militants that have been created since, one can never really put a scope on true size in numbers.

If by fluff and GW there are a 1000 SM chapters, so that means a 1,000,000 SM's as well (1000 SM per chapter).

IG would by fluff number in the Billions across the galaxy, as we know they can lose millions in any battle field of war.

So yes in the end, you have more than SM's, but ofcourse yes less than IG.

[Verythrax Draconis]

No to the Inquisition,

 

EVERYBODY answers to the Inquisition :angry:

 

I don't plan to start that already know debate about SoB/=I= here, but the only institution that not answers the =I= is the Emperor Himself. Even a High Lord of Terra can be left in their hands, if by a power play between themselves another Lord wants to use them as a tool to destroy him.

 

I personally think that we have much less militant SoBs than a million, or even 10. About the convent at Terra, remember that the Sororitas cover a much bigger array of institutions than the militant convents in the galaxy.

 

- they train and supply several sisters hospitaliers to basically ever IG regiment out there, and several other institutions, and relief actions as well, even keeping complete hospitals full of them in almost every developed imperial planet, maybe even in all continents, states, major cities, etc (they must be vastly more numerous than the battle sisters - think red cross + malta, galaxyfold);

- they supply sisters dialogus to the whole galaxy, AdMech and =I= included (they don't deal only with xenos babblings), but old texts and archives, local dialects as well. You can found them in almost every Administratum archives and libraries, and all imperial ships;

- and several other minor service orders not published yet -_-

 

As for battle sisters, I prefer to see them as something very exclusive - PA is rare, expensive and old. It's usually only spent on astartes and inquisitor lords. For them to spent such resource with a more low-profile (in a sense) group, this group must be highly trained and selected, and their maintenance must be absurdly costly, so I don't think that they must have that much battle sisters running around.

[Chengar Qordath]

When discussing the relative rarity of Sisters of Battle in the Imperium, one should always keep the sheer scale of the Imperium in mind. The Imperium consists of millions of inhabited worlds and presumably contains a human population in the quadrillions. Assuming there are ten million Sisters of Battle and one million Imperium planets with an appreciable human population, that still means that, even if one assumes that all the Sororitas convents are at the bare minimum of 200 sisters, there would only be Sororitas on 5% of the Imperium's worlds. When one subtracts the major orders on Terra and Ophelia, and takes into account that lots of the other orders are much larger, that 5% figure drops down even further.

 

Out of that tiny percentage of planets that play host to the Sisters of Battle, the convent is just one tiny part of a very huge planet. The great majority of the planet's inhabitants would live nowhere near the Sororitas convent. Further, Sisters of Battle don't generally go out to mingle amongst the people of the Imperium; most of the time they're out their convent, they're fully armed and armored and on their way to go kill something. In other words, even with the ten million figure, only a tiny percentage of Imperial Worlds have a Sororitas convent on them, and only a tiny percentage of the people on any of those given worlds would actually ever see a Sister of Battle in the flesh.

[hs5ias]

I think we're wandering a bit off the conventional canon, insofar as 40K has one, here. The Imperium has a million worlds, this has been stated in numerous places. The numbers given for the sororitas in the 2ed codex make it clear that the sisters number less than 100,000, all types and orders combined, and that a majority of those are battle sisters.

 

Of course if there are only about 50,000 battle sisters for a million worlds that is going to be one sister per 20 worlds. A sector of 200 worlds would average a squad's worth. I think this is yet another example of the futility of trying to apply hard numbers to the 40K background. For any story or background you want just stick in as many sisters as you like, quite regardless of what proportion of the total force they would make up. All the 40K writers do exactly that. In the background for the 3rd War for Armageddon event some years back the sisters were present in such numbers that they were able to form the main strike forces in several major operations in various locations. Considering the scale of the operations they were engaged in a large proportion of all the battle sisters in the Imperium must have been sent to Armageddon if we go by the 50,000 figure.

 

In 40K it is a well-established practice that gigantic wars and epic campaigns with enormous casualties can be successfully fought out by the equivalent of a few battalions of elite troops, and at most a handful of divisions worth of more regular troops. The Third War for Armageddon apparently saw at its height 1.5 million Guardsmen engaged, or somewhat less than half the forces Germany invaded the USSR with. Total forces used by all sides on Armageddon totted up to about 10% of the total involved in WWII.

[Chengar Qordath]

I think we're wandering a bit off the conventional canon, insofar as 40K has one, here. The Imperium has a million worlds, this has been stated in numerous places. The numbers given for the sororitas in the 2ed codex make it clear that the sisters number less than 100,000, all types and orders combined, and that a majority of those are battle sisters.

 

Of course if there are only about 50,000 battle sisters for a million worlds that is going to be one sister per 20 worlds. A sector of 200 worlds would average a squad's worth. I think this is yet another example of the futility of trying to apply hard numbers to the 40K background. For any story or background you want just stick in as many sisters as you like, quite regardless of what proportion of the total force they would make up. All the 40K writers do exactly that. In the background for the 3rd War for Armageddon event some years back the sisters were present in such numbers that they were able to form the main strike forces in several major operations in various locations. Considering the scale of the operations they were engaged in a large proportion of all the battle sisters in the Imperium must have been sent to Armageddon if we go by the 50,000 figure.

 

In 40K it is a well-established practice that gigantic wars and epic campaigns with enormous casualties can be successfully fought out by the equivalent of a few battalions of elite troops, and at most a handful of divisions worth of more regular troops. The Third War for Armageddon apparently saw at its height 1.5 million Guardsmen engaged, or somewhat less than half the forces Germany invaded the USSR with. Total forces used by all sides on Armageddon totted up to about 10% of the total involved in WWII.

I have to agree that focusing too much on hard numbers just causes all kinds of problems with 40k. It does not help that half of the writers cranking our 40k stuff have a realistic appreciation for how massive the Imperium is and how insanely large the galaxy's population should be, while others do not. Sometimes millions of Guardsmen are needed to defend a single world (realistic) and other times a single company of Space Marines is enough to protect an entire subsector (not so realistic).

 

The Armageddon example you gave certainly demonstrates the problem; Armageddon is a hive world, and thus presumably has a population well into the billions, yet the massive, planet-wide war for survival was fought with ridiculously small forces. Realistically, Armageddon's civilian police and/or Planetary Defence Force would have had sufficient numbers to mop up a couple million Orks on their own.

[Branek Icefang]

No to the Inquisition,

 

EVERYBODY answers to the Inquisition ^_^

 

Space Wolves.

 

But back on topic, I'm of the whole "more than marines, less than guard" theory, although not likely very many more than marines.

[Judanas]

No to the Inquisition,

 

EVERYBODY answers to the Inquisition :lol:

 

Space Wolves

 

They WILL answer...give the inquisition time...no on beyond their manipulative powers, even it brute force didn't work.

 

The Sisters have the big advantage over the space marines that they work together better. While the various chapters of space marines can work together they frequently don't.

 

Sisters of Battle seem to have less issues there.

[Sister Rosette Soulknyt]

Where in the 2nd ed codex does it state they have less than you stated in numbers.

And please remember that in Vandires time the Daughters of the Emperor went from 500 Sisters to over 10,000 in a few short years and those 10,000 Sisters held off SM chapters, Mechanicus and IG and never lost the control of the Palace at all during the battle for the palace.

And that was over 4,000 years ago and they have split the Ordors in six Orders now each with probably that many each. Remember they unlike SM's are not limited by numbers, they dont have regiments, chapters, companies or anything regimental.

But as you say, i think in the scale of things there are going to be alot more than you think. Battle of Armeggedon they deployed 1000 SoB.

Now, i agree aside from Terra and Orphelia 7 being the two main Convents, there are probaly a thousand or so strewn over the galaxy. Being used for Hospitalars, Dialogus or Battle Sisters.

 

You have to assume, though ofcourse GW would never publish how many, thta there are alot more tan 100,000 SoB in the Galaxy.

[Branek Icefang]

No to the Inquisition,

 

EVERYBODY answers to the Inquisition ;)

 

Space Wolves

 

They WILL answer...give the inquisition time...no on beyond their manipulative powers, even it brute force didn't work.

 

The Sisters have the big advantage over the space marines that they work together better. While the various chapters of space marines can work together they frequently don't.

 

Sisters of Battle seem to have less issues there.

 

Space Marines work together better than the sisters do, they just don't need to.

 

If a company of Ultras and a company of Wolves are on a planet, unless you are a loyal God-Emperor fearing citizen of the Imperium, YOU GET THE HELL OFF THE PLANET!

 

Even Wolves and Dark Angels work well together, its just a matter of honour that stops them, space marines respect each other and no each others limitations. They work together perfectly hence the Deathwatch.

[Judanas]

Space Marines work together better than the sisters do, they just don't need to.

 

If a company of Ultras and a company of Wolves are on a planet, unless you are a loyal God-Emperor fearing citizen of the Imperium, YOU GET THE HELL OFF THE PLANET!

 

Even Wolves and Dark Angels work well together, its just a matter of honour that stops them, space marines respect each other and no each others limitations. They work together perfectly hence the Deathwatch.

 

I'd say that Orders of Sisters of battle work together better than chapters of Space Marines. While they do work together well in the deathwatch, Dark angels have a habit of running off after their traitors and abandoning thier allies, Wolves do not listen to the planning of others well and Flesh Tearers are a hairs breadth from getting themselves destroyed for thier bloodthirty habit of turning on thier allies and killing them to a man.

 

Ultramarine subchapters would work together but they are pretty much one army.

 

The Sisters lack the character 'quirks' that make the space marines work badly together.