A new old player

[Sume]

In case you did not know. The new paints are slightly different in color then the previous range. For most people I am sure you will not notice a difference. If you are really picky the army painter shades match the old washes.

[thade]

Here's the "conversion chart"; rough approximations but most seem pretty close. YMMV. <3

[WarriorFish]

Indeed, but when it comes to hair colours difference is a good thing between models as it's more realistic :D

 

I couldn't find the original topic that did this (I think it might be too old for the search function?) but yes, it's just a matter of how much wash you use. It's so simple you'll probably have done it to half your army by the time I get the opportunity to post up a picture of it :cuss

 

I recommend you get Ceramite White as well as that can cover any accidental painting you make while painting the rest of the model as well as provide a consistent base colour. I wish I had it before but I'm making great use of it on my DE as it lets me wash and drybrush their armour without having to worry too much about the hair.

 

Speaking of which I also use the same method for flesh. I wanted a very light skin tone for my DE and white with a Reikland Flesh wash is brilliant. I'll be using it on my Sisters too.

[Lucky Tiger]

I hope you will all post photos of your work. It will help to inspire the rest of us. Thanks for all of the information.

[WarriorFish]

As promised a picture of blonde hair. I couldn't find any models to hand so I just painted one of the DE I'm working on at the moment :D

So if you can excuse the terrible photo quality (my phone is over 3 years old now...) and the xenos taint:

Ok so I'm not great at taking pictures either... but you should be able to get the gist of it. No idea what happened to the Sister I tried it on first though, maybe she's on a pilgrimage to Nottingham.

As an aside when I finally get a new mobile I'll be sure to get one with a spiffing camera on it so I can stop making my models look worse than they actually are :o

[*Furyou Miko]

>> Or you could just pick up a decent digital camera instead of trying to load up everything onto one device that ends up doing none of those things well.

 

*Is really, really picky about cameras*

[Lucky Tiger]

I'm taking a little more time to fill in the fluff for the Order of the Pale Mask, and trying to keep true to the timeline I set out at the beginning, I need to know how long normal humans live in the 41st millennium. I know Space marines can live for hundreds of years, but I need to judge the active lifespan for a Sister, assuming that they don't fall in battle.

 

Thanks for the help.

[WarriorFish]

Humans in the 41st Millennium live about the same as us in that it depends greatly on their lot in life. A tribal World won't lend itself to long lifespans for example. There are life extensions you can get but they are for the wealthy so are only really available to nobles.

 

I'm not aware of anything to indicate Sisters getting rejuv treatment but if they did it would likely only be available to the highest ranks and certainly not the common soldier. Their views on whether such a thing is pure and acceptable is probably another matter.

 

Sisters are a fighting force with a penchant for martyrdom but I think this is cancelled out so to speak by their martial prowess so for fluff purposes I don't see any issues. I'm sure there are plenty of older veteran Sisters knocking around dishing out grizzled wisdom to the fresh faces.

 

 

Maybe there's a bit of fluff or a part in a story somewhere that someone knows of that can provide an explicit age to an older Sister?

[thade]

They still get really good healthcare (compared to civilians/the peasantry), cybernetic implants, etc. I asked this very question recently and the answer was "probably 130 or so" but the more weight/rank a Sister carries, the more resources she'd have at her disposal, so rejuv treatments aren't out of the question for ranking Sisters.

[Lucky Tiger]

Thanks for the input. This will let me martyr my first Cannoness Superior on the battle field against hive fleet Kracken instead of retirement. Now she can be a true inspiration to the Order.

[WarriorFish]

As long as her demise is suitably heroic! Retirement would be too boring for a Sister anyway ;)

[Lucky Tiger]

Don't worry it will be heroic I named her Herose (hero-see).

 

By the way, I have started painting. I am nearly done with a test model of a red scorpion marine visible elsewhere on chains word and bolter, that gave me the confidence to start a Sister. Here is the WIP below. I figure I'll be able to finish two figures a month. So, once 12 edition comes along I'll be able to play again.

 

http://www.cmgds.com/40K/SoB1.JPG

 

http://www.cmgds.com/40K/SoB2.JPG

[*Furyou Miko]

...# You named your Sister Superior Heresy?!

[thade]

Furyou makes a good point, haha. Is the name an intentional or accidental faux pas?

[Lucky Tiger]

My Cannoness Superior doesn't get a Name? I thought they all had names. The original six, the other famous sisters the ones from the books? Where did I miss something. I don't want to be a heretic.

[*Furyou Miko]

You said she was called Herose. That's phonetically very similar to Heresy.

 

Girls don't give up their names when they become Sisters, but that's just... a very bad choice of name.

[thade]

Just to be clear, giving a model a name is awesome and we support that. That particular name sounds like "Heresy" which is literally everything that the Sisters stand against. If somebody called a Sister "Heresy" the Sister would kill them on the spot.

 

To be clear, heresy means "contrary to the beliefs of the Imperial Cult". Chaos Space Marines and human renegades of any kind are deemed "heretics". It's beyond offensive. It's one step shy of opening fire.

 

Here: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Heresy#Imperial_Terms

 

:)

[Lucky Tiger]

Ah I see now. I was pronouncing in more of a French way - my pronunciation guide was bad it should have been heroz. I'll try another. Thanks for setting me straight.

[*Furyou Miko]

Now, Heroz is pretty awesome for a Battle Sister, it a little masculine (but then, so are the sculpts faces ;))

[thade]

Ah I see now. I was pronouncing in more of a French way - my pronunciation guide was bad it should have been heroz. I'll try another. Thanks for setting me straight.

haha you're fine; I apologize if I overstepped my bounds a bit. Just don't want you walking in to a club and saying something roughly equivalent to "Yea, my loyalist marines team up with these Nurgle Deathguard guys all the time!" <3 That is, of course, unless that's your true intention.

 

(I'm about to get a tiny bit preachy. Brace yourself.)

 

Everybody has his or her own take on the fluff...there's fluff they like and fluff they don't (and fluff they love and fluff they hate) so it's really each player's prerogative to take or leave whatever bits they like...and, of course, to add their own, make their own story. That's what's truly cool about this game, in my opinion.

 

Sometimes the things you take, leave, or make up will not jive with someone else's take on the fluff (their own combination of what they take, leave, make up)...it happens. Typically in a good gaming group you'll find players try to find ways to mesh their versions of the fluff together to form a larger story and help facilitate narrative campaigns and events for everybody's armies.

 

When I personally try to add something of my own design to the fluff of my army, I do everything I can to make sure it's not too large a departure from what's already accepted. Some things are basically accepted by everybody...that whether the Emperor is dead, alive, or something between, he was the guy in charge of the Imperium and is now the figurehead used to control it; that the Space Marines are by-and-large a violent, by-any-means-necessary force that's relatively small (with few exceptions); that science and engineering have been abandoned for religious dogma and ritual; etc. One of the things we all accept is that Heretics and the Imperium are at odds. The Imperium takes a *very* hard stance on this: you are either with them or they do everything in their power to destroy you.

 

Sisters are the pinnacle of this righteous attitude: they exist purely to enforce the Imperium's dogma (or, more accurately, to enforce the whims and desires of the Ecclesiarchy) so heresy - even the thought that it exists at all - enrages them. The word itself is like bile and acid on their tongues. ;)

 

I don't see a Sister taking that willingly as her name; nor do I see any Sisters around her accepting her should she do so.

 

I spend a lot of time asking questions about this stuff on this site here :) and I spend a lot of time on the Lexicanum reading articles to learn. Because I'm a huge nerd and I love this stuff.

 

All that said, don't let me stop you. <3 If you and your gaming group are cool with the name, rock on.

[Lucky Tiger]

No harm done. I really was thinking of the name as being closer to Hero than Heresy. So a simple Hero it is (like in Much ado About Nothing) either way she died heroically battling one of Kracken's tenticles.

[WarriorFish]

Maybe "tendril" is more apt rather than tentacle... don't want to attract the Slaaneshi types :( Jokes aside there's a little too much preach on the B&C from time to time but I think this makes sense and was articulated nicely so I don't think such a lengthy explanation is necessary.

 

Why not call her "Hera"? One character shy of hero and 40k appropriate and of course nobody could ever confuse it for a male name :)

[*Furyou Miko]

... Why would you name a Sister of Battle after a goddess whose main defining trait is that her husband cheats on her a lot?

[thade]

Furyou, I lol'd.

 

I like Hera as a name, actually. I also like Heroz/Heirohz/Heros.

[Lucky Tiger]

Ok, I stuck with Hero, this would reduce confusion. I wrote up her story, putting some more flesh on the bones of the Sisters of the Pale Mask.

 

Here it is (a bit long):

 

Cannoness Superior Hero

 

The Palatine to who command of the remains of the precept which was dispatched to the Sedgemore system, was named Hero.

 

She was inducted into the order of the Valorous Heard at a relatively late age (15 years old), but having already been a zealous worshiper of the imperial cult was deemed to be faithful enough to join the order. She took to the teachings of the convent quickly excelling at combat as well as memorizing the litanies, but where she truly stood out was as a leader. From the day she walked through the convent doors she took the younger postulants under her wing, helping them with their studies, leading them in extra combat drills and correcting any deviation from imperial dogma. She rose through the ranks quickly, leading her first battle squad at age 19, by 25 she had moved up the ranks and gained experience leading her sisters against all manners of imperial foes within and without, attaining the rank of Palatine.

 

This is when the Order of the valorous heart led a crusade to return the worlds of Sedgemore to the light of the Emperor. While the Cannoness Preceptor led the sisters to assist the Guardsmen on Sedgemore Secundus, Hero remained serving under a Cannoness Commander on Sedgemore Prime. Over the course of the next 4 weeks she was involved in some of the worst fighting she had experienced to date. The foe, a genestealer cult, had levels of righteous zeal approaching that of the Sisters themselves. For every one cleansed two more took their place. The enemy was far more entrenched than had initially been thought. Fully 50% of the planet’s population were returned to the Emperior’s light, but during that time they lost contact with the fighting on Sedgemore Secundus. When they finally arrived on that planet they were greeted by horror and death, all the guards and all the Sisters were dead their flesh pale and hard to the touch almost like marble, some genetic disease had been unleashed on them which had destroyed their red blood cells and thickened their skin to a hard almost stone like texture. The force had been reduced to statues, there was but one survivor, Charlene, a Seraphim Superior who was found under a mound of dead cultists, she too was under the influence of the disease, but, though effected had somehow survived. The story she told was one of horror, but also of personal ascendancy. Through total faith in the Emperor, she had tapped in on something deep within her own soul and was protected. Hero realized that this was the work of the Emperor, and later with the support of the Ecclesiarch priests in the sector petitioned for living Sainthood for Charlene. Meanwhile Hero declared Sedgemore Secundus to be a holy site and it was transformed into the final resting place for all those who were killed fighting this war of faith.

 

Hero and the remains of her preceptory returned to Sedgemore Prime to solidify their foothold in the sector, with the help of the attached Guard troops established a fortress and then reported to Her Cannoness Superior back at the Convent Sanctorum. It was determined that she should continue to cleanse the system and take over as Cannoness of the remaining forces ensuring a permanent Ecclesiarchy presence in the region.

As the consummate leader she did just that. Overseeing the systematic purification of the system, she converted the hastily constructed fortress into a convent and requested and was provided with sisters from the Familous, Dialogous and Hospitallier Orders. The constant wars had ensured a continuous supply of new sisters. In time the ranks of the convent had swollen to 5000 sisters and was allowed to become a Order Minoris under the Name of the Sisters of the Pale Mask, in honor of all those who had perished on Secundus.

 

As a newly minted Cannoness Superior Hero had fought the cult back to Tharia a single moon of Sedgemore Prime, however, this moon was well fortified and also rich in energy and minerals, it was important for that it be taken intact. To make matters worse the cultists were building a weapon that would allow them to strike the planet with impunity. Fast and decisive action would be needed. Hero was able to negotiate with the Adeptus Astartes Red Scorpions Chapter Master for assistance and the combined forces were able to finally put an end to the cult after 50 years of fighting.

 

Over the next fifty years Sedgemore and the Sisters of the Pale Mask prospered, strengthening ties with the Scorpions and with the ruling families within the system. Her sisters provided defense against many Xenos and even one Chaos incursion, but the time was one of relative peace.

 

However, in 993.M41 Hive Fleet Kraken entered the Segmentum Tempestious. One small tendril of the incursion headed directly towards Sedgemore and was projected to make planet fall on the desert planet of Sedgemore Septum. Hero, now well advanced in age, but still able to fight led 3000 sisters, alongside two regiments of imperial guard and the full 5th company of Red Scorpions to protect the entire system. The Imperial navy was able to destroy innumerable casualties on Kraken in space, but still they came and tens of thousands got through. The battle lasted for months. Hero alongside the seemingly ageless Living Saint Charlene fought the Xenos across the face of the planet. In the final push the found themselves face to face with the Enemy Hive tyrant; if they could destroy it then they could finally clear the planet of these creatures. Hero and her squad of Celetians moved resolutely across the battle field, killing the lesser xenos in their path. Once they got within bolter range of the beast they opened fire and continued to advance, the Dialogous’s Laud hailer reciting a litany of destruction as they went. The creature howled it rage and defiance at the small creatures that dared to attack. At a thought aliens from around the battle field moved to intercept Hero and her guard. When the first swarm arrived a Celestian opened up with her heavy flamer and fried all but one which Hero easily dispatched. A second wave arrived and was intercepted by Charlene. Still hero marched on, she was now within range of using her combi-melta gun. She fired and wounded the Tyrant, but rather than fall he leapt at her. With the Clestians locked in combat against the lesser foes it was up to Hero to put a stop to this beast. Dropping her gun she pulled out her power maul and swung again and again at the beast, who matched her blow for blow. She chanted in rising tones gaining strength as she went, she could feel the warmth of the Emperor infuse her body making her limbs lighter and faster. Her Rosarious flashed continuously as it warded off blow after blow, her opponent was weakening and in his rage was making mistakes, all around them seemed to vanish, she knew each stroke brought her closer to victory and that the Emperor would see to it that this opponent would fall like so many had before it. It was then when she was so sure of victory that a single lector had evaded the others in her squad and struck her in the back, the wound, though not grievous distracted her blow, and that moment was all her foe needed, one quick strike and it pierced her chest with one of his vicious talons raising her up closer to his face he roared again at her preparing the death blow, in that last moment she shoved a crack grenade deep within the creatures mouth and then was torn in two. Immediately after, the head of the tyrant exploded in a shower of goo. The enemy all along the battle field stopped in confusion and were quickly destroyed.

 

Hero’s body was recovered by Charlene who returned it to the battle headquarters and then disappeared.

Hero was returned to Sedgemore Prime for funerary rights and then interred along with her sisters on Sedgemore Secundus. The order mourns their loss, but give thanks to the emperor that they were delivered from destruction at the hands of the Tyranids – this time.