Liber Challenge: Order of the Perpetual Sorrows

[Conn Eremon]

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

Edited April 11, 2015 by Conn Eremon

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The fluff is okay. As for the colors, I think the sleeves and the skirt should be brighter, to stand out from the gray armor.

[Conn Eremon]

I'll do some mock-ups later today using different variations of viridian, see what stands out best.

[Naminé]

I like the colour scheme being subtle... looks classy :)

[Conn Eremon]

Thanks. After seeing Aquilanus' color scheme, which would be exactly what brightening my cloth would make them look like, so I decided against messing with it. I appreciate the vote in favor of that decision.

[Ace Debonair]

Casting my vote for not changing the colours at all, right now.
 
I'm sort of wondering how many volumes the Luctus Aerternia is up to if they keep adding fresh crimes against The Emperor.
 
There's just a couple of minor nitpicks for me to make, so no need to brace for bowling-ball level C&C:
 

To the Sisters of Bathkol, the God-Emperor is the All. Divine, born whole from the holiness of Terra's children.

There's an errant full stop between 'All' and 'Divine'.
 

While they are willing to curb their indignation and vile 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.

Indignation and vile?

I'm not sure that's the right word, although I could well be wrong.

Otherwise, I'd say so far so good.

[Conn Eremon]

The Luctus Aeternia would only hold those crimes where the Sisters are directly or indirectly involved, or occurs within or around their zones of influence. So a few volumes for every year? :D

 

The full stop is intentional, they are two separate, if poorly crafted, sentences. But I will rewrite it better later.

 

For the last . . . Well, the intention is to portray them as being straight-up typical Emperor-worshippers. They themselves hold no real deviation from the mainline creed. But while the Ecclesiarchy itself is well-known as being fully accepting of variances from this mainline, this Order is very much not. While they are willing to keep their intolerance from spilling out into violence as long as the believers are accepted by the Ecclesiarchy, they leap at the chance when that acceptance is withdrawn. And there are no Imperial groups more deviant than the Adeptus Astartes and Mechanicus. To these Sisters, the various Chapter Cults are just the worse, because these are beings with the blood of divinity running through their veins.

 

Basically, what I want is for people to read this article and think that it might have been this Order's Celestians that had assaulted the Sons of Malice. Maybe it was a Sister from this Order who shot that Rainbow Warrior (bring it, Aquilanus!). It has been a long time, and I am not sure how accurate it is or if it is still current lore, but I remember something about how Sisterhoods were often used in wars against renegade or deviant Space Marine Chapters. That's this Order's inspiration.

 

In light of that, does the phrasing work? Should I still reword it?

Edited March 26, 2015 by Conn Eremon

[TDF]

I think the problem is that 'vile' is an adjective and you're using it as a noun. Did you mean to say 'bile'?

[Conn Eremon]

Oh. Yeah that would be better.

[Jacinda]

Beliefs: [snip] 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 vile 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.

They probably have a few of these Liber Challenge Orders listed in the book, too

[Conn Eremon]

Well, barring C&C, I have added to it all I want to for this challenge. It's "complete," but I am sure there will always be more to add when inspiration strikes.

 

C&C welcome.