Has any Sister ever left the order?

[thade]

Subject says it all. I've never heard of this happening...but has it?

 

Has a Sister ever left her Order willingly? Honorable discharge? Retirement? Exile? Turned traitor? (I'm pretty sure that I've heard one or two examples of that last style, but I fail to remember now.) Let's discount death...although, I'm not convinced dying is a way to leave the Order. Also, Sisters that go Repentia...they are still in the Order, no?

[Brother Ambroz]

There are a few examples in the Ciaphas Cain series IIRC. There is a Sororitas teacher at the scholam Cain teaches/taught at. In the same series (might be the same book, been awhile since I read it), a chaos psyker somehow converts a couple or a squad with his voice. After the psyker dies though the sisters are released from his hold and end up killing themselves (so they aren't really real "traitors").

[*Furyou Miko]

Ephrael Stern, debatably. She was declared a Traitor by the Inquisition, but she never turned from the Emperor's light or betrayed her oaths and the Order of the Martyred Lady actively helped her escape from the Inquisitor who was chasing her. She held her faith so strongly even after her exile that Ahriman couldn't get into her head when he tried to torture the location of the Pariah out of her so he could find the Black Library.

 

Repentia are still members of their Order, that's the whole point of Repentiation - You give up everything to remain within the Order, because the alternative is death.

 

Miriael Sabathiel is the only Sister who has officially turned traitor. She devoted herself to Slaanesh after being corrupted by a daemon weapon, I believe, although I'm not sure where the latter part of that information comes from (the codex only states that "only a single Sister has fallen in the entirety of its history: Miriael Sabbathiel. She serves the Lord of Pleasures as one of his most powerful and deadly warriors.")

 

It is known for Sororitas to join Inquisitors as part of their retinue, and as TG said they are often stationed to watch over or teach as Schola institutes. However, since the Schola Progenium is run by the Ecclesiarchy, it's doubtful that she actually left her Order to do so, and I doubt that any Sister who joins with an Inquisitor is going to renounce her oaths either.

 

Lastly, the Orders Famulous operate completely differently, with normally only one or two Sisters operating together at any given time. They don't leave their order to do so, but do leave their convent, often for years at a time.

[Beachymike123]

i'm sure that there are traitor sisters (Miriael Sabathiel being the most famous example)although there are probably more in the history of the soroitas. repentia i think are still sort of members of their order but have committed a crime to their order and are therefore attempting to atone for their sins and may (very loosely used here) just be let back into the order as full sisters. i would also imagine there are times when a sister has willingly left their order to undertake a pilgrimage or quest if it deemed necessary for the order's survival or safety, but i honestly am just conjecting there. hopefully Miko will be able to offer better instances. she's like a sororitas encyclopedia.

 

edit: ninja'd my miko herself

[*Furyou Miko]

lol, Lein, we cross-posted. Also, I'm flattered.

 

I don't think that carrying out religious duties such as pilgrimage would necessarily involve literally leaving the Order, but that depends on how you define it. I would say that to leave an Order, you would have to renounce your vows, in which case no. No Sister leaves the order, because renouncing your vows is heresy and thade said he wasn't going to count dying as leaving.

[MrSocks]

Pretty sure in one of the stories in the Grey Knight Omnibus it say that no sister has ever turned from the emperor

[Fredegar Kadere]

In a couple of the Fantasy Flight Game roleplay books and add-ons they make mention of high-ranking Sororitas becoming Inquisitors. If memory serves right in the same passages they mention them becoming Rogue Traders and Planetary Governors as well. While in theory that means they leave their Order and join the new organization, but it could just be seen as a leave of absence until such a time that they are called back to their Order. Either way they do their all to serve the God-Emperor first and formost.

[thade]

Aye, death seems to be cheating to me. :)

 

I'd forgotten all about Orders Famulous, which the Lexicanum reminded me were diplomats and other non-military personnel. I didn't realize they were lone operatives, but that makes sense. I also didn't realize that they're apparently used mostly by the Thorians, which is @____@

 

Becoming an Inquisitor is interesting; that's actually a part of my (now buried under months of other threads) GK fluff, a SIster being taken on as a new Inquisitor. Would that necessarily involve breaking ties/vows with her Order? Naturally it would break her free of the authority of her former masters (the Inquisition answers to the Emperor, period) but I don't see her breaking ties. If nothing else, her former order could prove a valuable asset.

 

Renouncing vows is something else I'm not clear on; what are the vows that a Sister takes (beyond chastity, loyalty, and general Imperial Cult adherence) and what of them would she need to break to effectively be an Inquisitor?

[*Furyou Miko]

The vows the Sisters take haven't been listed anywhere, sadly (which is why so many people decide that chastity isn't one of them so they can write nun porn ><).

 

Based on what seems reasonable, though, she'd have to renounce fealty to the Ecclesiarch, the Canoness and the Order because an Inquisitor cannot serve two masters. Other than that, though, there's no reason she couldn't keep her "be a good Emperor Botherer" vows. She might have to relax her "purge the heretic" vows a little in order to allow for interrogations, but Miriya (never a good example of a battle sister, admittedly) doesn't comment on it contravening her vows, only her mission, when she follows a cult leader back to his base instead of bringing him in.

 

A Sister who joined the Inquisition would almost certainly be a Monodominant or other hard-line Puritan, though. I don't see them joining any of the softer cults like Amalathian, at least not until she's stepped onto the radical path (which would be a LOT later than most Inquisitors).

 

Famulous are usually assigned individually to noble houses that the Ecclesiarchy wants to guide or keep an eye on, so they're a mix of diplomat and spy. :D kind of epic, really.

 

I remembered after making that post that there's also the Sisters Sabine, who are even more independent than the Famulous. They're only mentioned once, I think (WD293, page 55, says Lexicanum);

 

Orders Sabine - The Sisters of the Orders Sabine accompany the Missionarius Galaxia on missions to rediscover new worlds. The Sisters specialise in infiltrating primitive societies and introduce elements of the Imperial Creed to the natives.

 

I don't imagine the Sisterhood appreciating losing one of their own to the Inquisition. Despite what the fluff says about them maintaining a close alliance, I imagine that there are also a lot of jurisdictional conflicts between individuals (say, this Canoness doesn't personally like that Inquisitor or vice versa, so they fight over the hunt instead of working together easily). Regular Sisters might look down on the Sister who left to become an Inquisitor because they see her as abandoning her duty to play hero.