The Order of the Blazing Grace

[Grgobart]

Order Name: Order of the Blazing Grace

Its Banner, Icon and Colours:

History

History of Sector Gutanis
Sector Gutanis, on the border between Segmentum Tempestus and Ultima Segmentum, had been a site of major battles during both the Horus Heresy and the Age of Apostasy. In the Wars of Faith following the Reign of Blood, the Sector was thoroughly liberated. Those left to rebuild where the modest remains of the Sector's thinned out population, hardened by the long centuries of war. Who were joined in no small part by the various faithful dropouts of the Wars of Faith, left in awe, having witnessed the deeds of Thor's newly established Sisters of Battle, now leading said Wars of Faith. The two groups proved to be a good match, as rebuilding was fast and overly successful.
The Ecclesiarchy in particular profited from the sites, tales and artifacts, left by the Wars of Faith. Managing to create and maintain a deeply faithful society and also establishing Sector Gutanis as a popular choice of route for pilgrims to and from San Leor.

First permanent Presence of the Sisterhood
With growing repopulation though, malicious powers also managed to crawl into the Sector once more. Cult Helveticus, Worshippers of Tzeetch, were among the first and certainly the most disturbing. Determined to rid the Sector of this threat for good, the Ecclesiarchy sent Sisters of the - back then only recently renamed - Order of Our Martyred Lady, to exterminate them. A long and arduous endeavor, ill suited and frustrating to the fiery hearted Sisters. But a task they accomplished nonetheless, with ardent zeal and growing resilience against the cunning of their devious adversaries.
One Sister in particular, Palatine Claudia, showed great skill in tracing these elusive Cultists, unveiling their insidious schemes and hunting them down. She managed to find the leader of Cult Helveticus, a man named Tellius, and chased him to the Planet Suebia III, an Agri-World on the Sector's edge, which soon after vanished into Warp with the both them.
Though Cult Helveticus was taken care of, Sector Gutanis was still susceptible to similar threats and thus the Order of Our Martyred Lady established a Commandry there.

Founding of the Order of the Blazing Grace
Under the virtuous watch of the Sisters the Sector continued to thrive for another millennium. When having reached the point, where the effects of the Imperium's notorious bureaucracy and the inevitable bickering between Administratum, Ministorum and Mechanicum, had made further progress nearly impossible, the long lost Planet Suebia III was released from the Warp and brought with it a divine Miracle.
Although Claudia herself was dead, some Sisters that had accompanied her and quite a few crewmen from the ship that had brought her there, had survived. The stories they had to tell about Claudia's valiant acts, left little doubt about her imminent sanctification:

---
She had protected herself, her fellow Sisters and the crewmen from the horrors of the Warp, sheltered them from temptation and Madness and slew the mightiest of demons. At times losing her sanity, but never her Faith, she endured His divine test of her weakest of virtues: her patience.
...
In the end the Emperor benevolently granted her the chance to accomplish her duty and bring the long sought Cult Leader Tellius to justice. Mutated beyond recognition, more Demon than man, Tellius put up a fearsome fight, but blessed by the God Emperor himself, the elderly Claudia faithfully struck Tellius down. A few days later Claudia died peacefully in her sleep and the next morning Suebia III was freed from the Warp and all surrounding Warpstorms died down.

--- excerpt from the Tales of Saint Claudia

In need of enlarging the Sisters' presence in the Sector anyway, Cardinal Jubelius II initiated the creation of a Sororitas Order in her name. Its name was to be the Order of the Blazing Graze. Its first members, the Sisters of Order of Our Martyred Lady, whose presence in the Sector was committed to this new Order to form its base. Their acting Leader, Canoness Eleanora, was appointed the first Head Canoness of the Order of the Blazing Grace. Her adjutant was to be Claudia's second in command, now promoted, Palatine Tanja, who joined the Order as eagerly as the rest of Claudia's surviving fellow Sisters.

From then on
Saints Claudia's Shrine on Suebia III, erected in her honor, brought even more pilgrims to Sector Gutanis and her deeds rekindled the near forgotten spirit of the Gutanians from after the Reign of Blood. With this surge of stimulation and the paragon of the Sisters of the Order of the Blazing Grace, Sector Gutanis managed one last leap in development, bringing it to its height of significance within the Imperium.
But wealth and prosperity also attract the enemies of Mankind. Orks, Dark Eldar and as of lately also branches of Hive Fleet Leviathan plague Sector Gutanis. But the ever vigilant Adepta Sororitas of the Order of the Blazing Grace keep save the possessions of the Emperor and His holy Ecclesiarchy, they protect His faithful pilgrims and His loyal subjects and are steadily primed to smite the enemies of the Imperium.

Name of its Founder

Cardinal Jubelius II in the name of Saint Claudia

Home planet

Cardinal World Thiudis

Notable Sisters

Canoness Eleanora (First Canoness)
Canoness Sophia Bellatrix (Current head Canoness)
Sister Superior Dominique (A Dominion Squad Leader, who once managed to destroy two tanks with her Combi-melter, during a single engagement)
Seraphim Superior Sylphia

Significant Battles joined

The Defence of Aachenos against the Word Bearers

The Shrine World of Aachenos, situated across the Borders of Gutanis in an adjacent Sector, was attacked by a large invasion force of the Word Bearers. The local Planetary Defense Forces were heavily outnumbered, by the swathes of Chaos Cultists the Chaos Space Marines had in tow and even the Sisters of the Ebon Chalice stationed there, saw no other choice but to fight a retreating battle, in order to buy time for reinforcements from the Imperium to arrive. No easy task as the forces of Chaos fought with eerie ferocity. The first wave of imperial aid, driven by the urgency of the situation arrived scattered and uncoordinated. The White Scars arrived first, but their landing force took heavy casualties breaking through the blockade of the Word Bearers. The highly mobile units that had survived took up the fight, but cut off from any supplies, they soon ran out of fuel and were consequently round up and eliminated. The Salamanders experienced similar difficulties, but some of them managed to escape extermination, by retreating into the deep underhives of Hive Galliorum. Of the Imperial Guard, only the forces from Attila managed to make planet-fall in significant numbers. Not suited for fighting in the Hive Cities, they harassed the enemy supply lines in between with great success.
The Order of the Blazing Grace, being Sororitas and thus normally not ones for rapid response, happened to have a Commandry worth of Sisters idle, which could be picked up without much of a detour, by Ships carrying regiments of the Pretorian Guard.
The Forces of the Imperium fought bravely and for a time it seemed the advance of Chaos could be ground to a halt, until the Minions of Chaos, with their Dark Rituals and unholy Ceremonies, opened Warp Rifts, which poured forth seemingly endless hordes of Demons. Faced with the mayhem they caused and the fact, that apart from the Sisters and the Astartes, only the most courageous of the imperial Guard could even bare to face these new opponents, hope of holding Achenos until further support arrived, had all but vanished. Even the mighty Grey Knights, guided to Aachenos by premonition and most capable in fighting demons, were obliberated ship and troops, albeit more due to the overwhelming number of Word Bearers and Cultists, than the Demons.
The remnants of the Planetary Defense Force, by now almost entirely made up of juveniles and elderly forced into service, fell apart completely. In the ensuing turmoil the already small force of the Blazing Grace was split. The larger part was forced to join the Attialan Rough Riders as they had to pull ever deeper into the most remote Mountain ranges outside the great Hives. A smaller part under the command of Celestian Superior Fiona meet up with Canoness Luise Amelie of the Ebon Chalice and helped bring whatever relics they could carry to safety. The general feeling of being abandoned by the Emperor, lay heavy on all the Sisters' Hearts, but how best to redeem themselves, from whatever failure they had to have committed, was a disputed matter. With Luise Amelie in charge, they further tried to keep the holy relics out of enemies' reach. But the hot-headed Fiona - hot-headed even among those who share her reverence to Saint Katherine - favored an all out charge against the Chaos forces, to seek out whatever destiny the Emperor had put aside for them, in glorious martyrdom. Their discussions went on for weeks, at times not even stopping when engaged in combat with the enemy and produced quotes, both Orders would cite for a long time to come.

---
Faith is not that easy a matter! You can't just charge blindly into the enemy and expect the Emperor to reward such pretentious recklessness with his favor. Neither can you just let yourself be killed voluntarily and claim such a cowardly act to be martyrdom.
Don't you think, it would have been a poor choice by our beloved God Emperor, to let us train our skills and learn the ways of war during our long time in the Schola Progenium and never intend to have of use it?
...
Martyrdom is not judged by how fast you die, but by how dearly you make the enemy pay for it.
...
The Emperor alone decides when and where faith is rewarded, not us. Try to arrogate his divine favor and you'll not only lose this life, but also your place by His side, beyond.
--- Canoness Luise Amelie to Celestian Superior Fiona

---

Whatever destiny the God Emperor has in store for us, you won't get Him to change it, by stalling.

...

How can you hide behind relics of the long dead, when there are enemies alive, within your reach?

--- Celestian Superior Fiona to Canoness Luise Amelie

---
It would seem the Emperor agrees with me. You can't just die now, there's still a lot you've got to answer for!
--- Celestian Superior Fiona to Canoness Luise Amelie, after just having saved her from a mortal blow to her head

By the time the next imperial reinforcements arrived all the Hives and major cities on Aachenos had been conquered by chaos. It was Inquisitor Roland, originally sent by the Ordo Malleus to investigate the disappearance of the Grey Knights, who decided to coordinate the imperial forces, after learning about the debacle of the first landings. The Navy Forces from Bakka, led the attack, engaging the Fleet of the Word Bearers and breaching their Blockade of Aachenos. Space Marines from the Salamanders and the Raven Guard made planet-fall and established landing sites for the remaining forces of the Imperium. Most numerous and carrying the most significant punch this time around, were the Tallarn Desert Raiders with their tank divisions, who set out in an relentless advance across the plains of Aachenos, allowing for surviving imperial forces and civilians alike to reconnect into the newly set up supply-lines and also managing to decisively hurt the redeploying Chaos Space Marines, with their daring hit-and-run strikes. In order to conclusive retake Aachenos though, first priority went to finding and stopping the Dark Rituals causing the Warp Rifts.
Upon spotting the descending loyalist Droppods of the Raven Guard nearby, Canoness Luise Amelie and her accompanying Sororitas set out to meet them, finally able to release their valuable relics and injured fellow Sisters to permanent safety, off this fiercely contested planet. Upon hearing the general objectives, Luise Amelie realized she had come by sites fitting the given description of the Rituals. One of these sites she could immediately translate into coordinates and relay to Inquisitor Roland. Another one of them, she knew, would require her guidance by sight on the ground to relocate. She convinced the usually more patient Raven Guard to assist her bold unprepared march on the Chaos Ritual site and just like at her relayed coordinates, they where rewarded with relatively unsuspecting Cultists. Still enough, to nominally cause more than just a threat to even the combined Sisters of her Ebon Chalice, Fiona's Blazing Grace and the accompanying Raven Guard Marines, Luise Amelie - more than pent up by her dispute with Fiona - unleashed a ferocious charge into the enemy, with the Raven Guard outflanking and leaving no route for escape. The Ritual Site was quickly obliterated and no Cultist left alive. Any dissent toward Luise Amelie, Fiona had still harbored, vanished upon witnessing her righteous rage and even drew words of genuine admiration, stating that even Saint Katherine herself would have been proud of her that day. After this, Fiona and Luise Amelie parted ways and joined their respective Orders' forces that had also landed by now.

The remaining Ritual sites unfortunately proved much more demanding in both time to find and effort to exterminate, as the enemy grew aware of the imperial plans and devoted more and more forces to their deference. The Bloodiest of these turned out to be the Ritual site on Mt. Barathrum. With the orbital battle far from decided, the besieging imperial forces ran into risk of being bombarded from orbit by the Word Bearers, but any attempt to haste their uphill advance towards the Ritual Site, defended by Chaos Space Marines, Cultists and Demons, had failed so far. The terrain not suited for vehicles, the Salamanders gathered what Teminators and Dreadnoughts they had left while the Sisters of Battle of the Order of the Blazing Grace requested whatever Penitent Engines and Acro-Flagglants the Ecclesiachy had provided them. But with no suitable transports for the Engines of their own, they ran late and Chaos ships moving into firing position, the hast-adverse Salamanders still decided to try alone and indeed managed to advance right up to the Ritual site. But being swarmed by enemies they got stuck, barely managing to survive and not able to halt the invidious Ritual. Disgusted by their allied Guardsman, cowering in fear of the imminent orbital strikes, the Sisters decided to follow and aid the Salamanders. What followed was unanimously seen as the Sisters' greatest Act of Faith of the whole Aachenos campaign. Not deciding to stop, even though their beginning advance coincided with the beginning orbital strikes on the imperial position, the Sisters marched unswervingly through the combined defensive and orbital fire towards the surrounded Salamanders. Annoyed and slightly unnerved by their sight, the commanding chaos lord of the Word Bearers ordered his ships to fire too near to his own allies. The resulting strikes caused heavy casualties to both the Sisters and the Salamanders, but the inflicted losses to the Chaos forces where even more cataclysmic. Burdened with many wounded and no way to safely cross the smoldering craters left before them by the orbital strikes, both the Sisters and Salamanders fought their way back to the imperial lines. Certainly having taken the brunt of the orbital bombardment - which had meanwhile stopped due to once again turning fortunes in orbit - the Guard there was in disarray and seemed no longer capable of upholding the siege. But witnessing the noble Sisters of Battle, who had set out amidst an orbital bombardment, returning, with the thought to be lost Salamanders in tow and their arrival marking the end of the shelling, proved inspiring to say the least. With their wounded provided for and the awaited Penitent Engines and Acro-Flagglants arriving, the Sisters set out again, despite how little of them were left in fighting condition, the remnants of the Imperial Guard following. The Defenders of Chaos, having lost many of their Chaos Space Marines and almost all their cultists, where left with mostly Demons. But unable to apply their usual mind tricking and fear inducing demeanor, against the mind- and fearless Tools of the Ecclesiarchy, they were less than effective and the Sisters were finally able to end the Dark Ritual on Mt. Barathrum.

The Word Bearers and their remaining Cultists - cut off from their Demon reinforcements and their Fleet driven away - still fought on for long months over every single Hive they had seized. With few designated city-fighting experts among the Imperial Guard regiments, the Sisters of Battle were heavily relied on to fill that role and managed to deliver. The Order of the Blazing Grace returned from Aachenos with considerable losses but those Veterans that did come back benefited the Order for decades to come.

The WAAAGH! of Warboss Shpineyanka

The Ousting of Governor Padgett on Gutenis Prime

Edit: forgot to add Founder and Homeworld!

Edit2: added the promised story of the Defense of Aachenos.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Grgobart

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The fluff is well written. The artwork is excellent.