Sisters of Silence: Cadres, Colour Schemes and Fluff?

[Doctor Perils]

So, with the advent of our new Ladies in Plastic, I was wondering how much fluff we know about the different Cadres - names, colour schemes, prominent figures, history, fighting styles, and so on and so forth.

Thread featuring current SoS official artwork.

From Lexicanum, I found the following:

• Storm Dagger - Amandera Krendel - Seem to wear golden armour, with red aquilae
• White Talon
• Brazen Sabre
• Iron Lynx (Prosecutor squad) - Dark grey armour, spikes - use enhanced dog/rats/weird beasties on leashes
• Raven's Claw (Assault squad) - Dark grey armour, massive spiked pauldrons, parchment tabards - massive two handed axes
• Extraction squad - Melaena Verdthand - leader: red armour and brown leather cloak, others: dark grey armour and leather cloaks - leader: power fist, laspistol (?), others: heavy flamethrowers
• Raptor squad (also called Raptor Guard) - Janetia Krole (leader of the SoS) - gold-ish armour, white pteruges, aquilifer back-banners

From wikia:

cadres: Frost Lynx, Ice Leopard, Iron Lynx, Raptor, White Falcons

squad types: Vigilator, Prosecutor, Excrutiatus, Prosecutor, Witchseeker

• Ice Serpents Witchseeker Squad - golden armour

From these, or from other sources, does anybody know of any more information concerning some of the cadres? Do you already have plans for your own DIY cadres? Do you have any colour schemes to go with them?

For the moment, I'm thinking I'll try my hand at some white - it's a colour I've never painted before, and I've already got grey marines, and the Custodes will have to be gold anyway.

From what I have seen in the artwork, we have:

• Prosecutors: "line sisters", the mainstay of a SoS force. Equipped with boltguns and regular Sister armour;
• Vigilators: these are to the Prosecutors what the Despoilers are to Tactical Marines. Equipped with power swords, bolt pistols, and regular Sisters armour. Looks like some of them have two-handed swords and hand flamers.
• Seekers: these are the chem-/gene-enhanced canine handlers. Equipped with what seems like lighter/more padded armour and the aforementioned dogs. Seem to have some sort of pistol (anti-psyker?) and prod sticks. These are the ones who are set loose to track down their quarry once the perimeter is secured by the Prosecutors and Vigilators.
• Witchseekers: these don't seem to be the same as the Seekers due to their differing equipment. These have regular Sister armour, hand flamers, and one-handed power swords. Accompany the Seekers and burn away any resistance encountered?
• Extraction: the picture makes them look like the retinue of a proto-Inquisitrix. Judging by the rebreather masks they have, I'd say whatever is in those cannisters is not just promethium. Chem weapons perhaps? And judging by both the name of the squad and the squad designation, I'd say these women extract information from their prey, sort of like proto-Interrogators, and accompany their mistress on the battle field acting as a bodyguard.
• Assault: Self-explanatory, I think. Equipped with heavier, bulkier armour, and massive two-handed axes (so much win! ). Where the fight is the thickest, you find these badass women.
• Heavy Support: Again, rather self-explanatory. In the example we have, they're armed with flamers but I'm assuming they have access to other weapons, such as melta, plasma, and perhaps volkite weaponry? They also seem to be the only ones with the integral helms, as Thorn pointed out.

That's it from concerning the different squads. I've got more on my mind regarding other aspects of the SoS but I'll post that later on.

[Sol_Invictus]

This has always been the quintessential look for them in my mind so I'd love to do some in this scheme. Love the fur cloaks. :)

 

http://www.lowbird.com/data/images/2011/01/wh40k-emperor.jpg

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

My justification for including them in my army is the Black Ships - there were vessels carrying the Sisters of Silence all over the Galaxy, as they collected & processed Psykers. Some of them will have been cut off from Terra by the Warp storms across the Galaxy, and they will probably have encountered Loyalists & Traitors.

 

My plan is to have them in an army including a Knight Errant, the idea being that he was sent to marshal Loyalist forces to a number of important conflicts which could impact the result of the war, and the Sisters took up with him on his mission.

 

How this relates to my Iron Hands? He's the one who asks them to get to Tallarn

[Corswain]

I'm kinda hoping FW might do some upgrade sprues for a few unique Cadres. That'd be cool. I'm probably not going to drift too far from GW's scheme on this one but I will have a look through Collected Visions to see if anything jumps out at me.

[Doctor Perils]

With Dosjetka's thread for sister artwork,

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/326841-the-artwork-of-the-silent-sisterhood/?p=4532091&do=findComment&comment=4532091

 

We can probably start figuring out more of how the sisters of silence work.

 

From what I gather, there are three common squad types - prosecutors, vigilators and (witch) seekers. These are armed respectively with bolters, pistols and swords, and pistols and cybermastiffs (or something of the sort). Looking at the artwork for the iron lynx, I wouldn't be surprised if they have been mislabeled by gw.

 

Next, there are some less common squad types: extraction, assault and heavy support. The extraction squad has heavy flamers and rather light armour, the assault squad have large two handed weapons and very heavy looking armour, and the heavy support look like they have flamers and integral helmets (the only ones that do)

 

 

Now it could be interesting to try and see what purpose these squads fill - and also, why there are so many different types. Also, is each cadre a single squad; do they all have a fixed number and composition of squads and would these be mixed (like battle companies) or uniform (reserve companies); or are they just formed organically in heterogeneous sizes and composition?

Follow-up questions would be how many sisters do you get in a cadre, and how many cadres would you get per blackship? Where would novitiates enter the battle muster? How are cadres differentiated if not by colour scheme?

 

In my opinion - which has no grounding whatsoever - each cadre is made up of a number of squads with heterogeneous structure. Each cadre is assigned to a single blackship, and they are expected to perform their duties independently. However, oblivion knights (who lead a cadre) seem to have a high degree of authority, leading me to believe they can choose how their cadre is composed.

Now, I believe I read somewhere that silent judges (like melaena verdthand) and their extraction squads are independent elements, not being a part of a cadre or a black ship, but perform a separate duty. Since it would demand resources to move a whole ship and cadre to take care of a single witch that has appeared in a distant place, I wouldn't be surprised to find that silent judges are dispatched to find rogue witches that are too powerful to be left while waiting for a blackship.

 

 

 

 

So, any more ideas from this? How are you planning on equipping your gals? I think I'm going to build one squad "out of the box" as vigilators (that seems to be the standard all-round squad) but for some others I'll try and get my hands on some skaven giant rats, attached with jewellers chain to another squad to create some seekers.

[Dosjetka]

From what I have seen in the artwork, we have:

• Prosecutors: "line sisters", the mainstay of a SoS force. Equipped with boltguns and regular Sister armour;
• Vigilators: these are to the Prosecutors what the Despoilers are to Tactical Marines. Equipped with power swords, bolt pistols, and regular Sisters armour. Looks like some of them have two-handed swords and hand flamers.
• Seekers: these are the chem-/gene-enhanced canine handlers. Equipped with what seems like lighter/more padded armour and the aforementioned dogs. Seem to have some sort of pistol (anti-psyker?) and prod sticks. These are the ones who are set loose to track down their quarry once the perimeter is secured by the Prosecutors and Vigilators.
• Witchseekers: these don't seem to be the same as the Seekers due to their differing equipment. These have regular Sister armour, hand flamers, and one-handed power swords. Accompany the Seekers and burn away any resistance encountered?
• Extraction: the picture makes them look like the retinue of a proto-Inquisitrix. Judging by the rebreather masks they have, I'd say whatever is in those cannisters is not just promethium. Chem weapons perhaps? And judging by both the name of the squad and the squad designation, I'd say these women extract information from their prey, sort of like proto-Interrogators, and accompany their mistress on the battle field acting as a bodyguard.
• Assault: Self-explanatory, I think. Equipped with heavier, bulkier armour, and massive two-handed axes (so much win! :D). Where the fight is the thickest, you find these badass women.
• Heavy Support: Again, rather self-explanatory. In the example we have, they're armed with flamers but I'm assuming they have access to other weapons, such as melta, plasma, and perhaps volkite weaponry? They also seem to be the only ones with the integral helms, as Thorn pointed out.

That's it from concerning the different squads. I've got more on my mind regarding other aspects of the SoS but I'll post that later on. :)

[MikhalLeNoir]

I am not sure but weren't their also blind sisters or those who swore an oath of silence and never talked? Want to make some bf 0 blind sisters^^

[Doctor Perils]

I am not sure but weren't their also blind sisters or those who swore an oath of silence and never talked? Want to make some bf 0 blind sisters^^

There's a reason they're called "Silent" Sisters - they all swore oaths of silence ;)

 

I don't know for the blind ones, though Excruciatii use ruby occular implants

[Legionary Pallas]

I am not sure but weren't their also blind sisters or those who swore an oath of silence and never talked? Want to make some bf 0 blind sisters^^

There's a reason they're called "Silent" Sisters - they all swore oaths of silence

I don't know for the blind ones, though Excruciatii use ruby occular implants

Not all of them, Initiates are allowed to speak and act as communicators or interpreters for those who don't know sign language.

[Doctor Perils]

Not all of them, Initiates are allowed to speak and act as communicators or interpreters for those who don't know sign language.

Yeah, but as novitiates they aren't full Sisters of Silence ;)

 

You're right to point out the imprecision though :)

[disease]

I am not completely convinced that the cadre names refer to chapters of SoS as opposed to just squad names for individual units. I have the art books and all the entries are expressed at squad level and then faction. For example:  Devastator Squad Halgrop, Death Guard

 

My point is, that these names might not necessarily have different colour markings or styles until confirmed in the new book / box

[Doctor Perils]

I am not completely convinced that the cadre names refer to chapters of SoS as opposed to just squad names for individual units. I have the art books and all the entries are expressed at squad level and then faction. For example:  Devastator Squad Halgrop, Death Guard

 

My point is, that these names might not necessarily have different colour markings or styles until confirmed in the new book / box

That's an interesting point.

 

Indeed, in the absence of much current fluff on the subject, we're stuck with conjecture. However, we can still try and figure out some stuff while we're waiting for our models ;)

[disease]

I've posted in the Artwork thread too, there is a special character, the Silent Judge....

 

(I cant wait to get those stim-hounds as models)