Collaborative Adepta Sororitas Creation Project

[Commissar Molotov]

As part of the Liber Unity Project, this thread exists so that the community can create a new Sisters of Battle Minor Order. We will need to consider why they were founded, what they're like and what separates them from their fellow Sisters. 

 

(Post to be updated) 

 

 

I look forward to your participation! 

 

 

Mol. 

[Servant of Dante]

Right, I'm here, thanks for the PM

 

I'll try and put some thought into this tomorrow. I've had a color scheme floating around for a year or so now that needs to be used, along with some preliminary ideas

 

Edit: and do you mean specifically a minor Order Militant (I was assuming so, but a non-militant order could be fun too, definitely more of a challenge though)?

[Conn Eremon]

I like the idea of a non-militant order, could be fun. The main point of a DIY, with exceptions, is to provide backstory to your tabletop army. Since tabletop Sisters of Battle are of the Order Militant, this could be the opportunity to do something different.

[Commissar Molotov]

For the purposes of this project I was actually looking at an Order Militant. I'm interested in people going through the Liver process with them. Is it really just a different colour scheme? What else can be done?

[Servant of Dante]

Edit: this turned into a bit of a wall of text, I really don’t want to scare anyone away from helping with this, I just have devoted . . . more thought than most, to what a Sisters Order looks like. I’ll take a back seat to others if it’ll get more people involved!

 

Well, I have a pretty restricted view of how much Orders Militant differ from one another. To me, the biggest challenge is not *how* they differ, but *why* they differ. All Sisters are trained on either Ophelia or Terra. You have to come up with some way for your order to be different enough, or some event in their past that justifies them being a seperate Order, rather than just another Commandery of the Order of Our Martyred Lady or whatever. You also have to make sure that whatever doctrinal differences you put in make sense in the lense that the Order does not train its own recruits. The Sisters it gets are young, yes, but they have had a full Novitiate at the Convent Prioris or Sanctorum, and their Canoness does answer to the Prioress of their associated major Convent, and technically to the Canoness Superior of whichever major order they’re descended from.

 

It’s like if all Space marines from every chapter went through their scout years together, and then every successor chapter master was answerable to the chapter master of their progenitor chapter (to some degree, there’s some wiggle room I’d think, but you can’t just go off the grid, you’d stop getting recruits from Ophelia/Terra, and then you’re not much of an Order :P ).

 

To be honest, my Order started off with more differences than I could justify. It took a lot of toning back and explaining to justify their existence even to myself :D but what was perhaps the most fun was describing the world their Convent was on and how they interacted with it. I think that’s a good place to go once you’ve figured out how the Order is different and why.

 

The other thing I love doing is nani g characters from the Order’s present and history, for my Order it was ones tied to the Order’s founding or its current leadership mostly. The fluff for each one wasn’t extensive, just a couple sentence description and then any mentions they had in the core fluff for the Order.

 

One other consideration is that the paint guides for Sisters have described them ALL as using the same pallet of red white and black, though many Sisters armies in WD have diverged from this. I personally would like to stick to the orthodox pallet :D I even have a scheme, like I said before. There’s a lot you can do with just those colors and some metallic hilight colors.

 

A non-militant Order would have more wiggle room due to less established fluff, but I would be very worried about keeping them feeling like Sisters. Even the non-militant orders technically answer to one Prioress or the other (though that point might be arguable, I’m extrapolating a *bit* but not too much). We’d have to decide if we’re doing a Hospitaller, Diologus, Famulous, Sabine or Pronatus Order of course :D I’m open to anything, though typeset this post has gotten me excited to do an Order Militant.

 

One last note is that my article for the Order of the Glorius Reprisal is the only I’ve ever written, and it was based on Grand Master Belial’s guidelines for Legends of Angels 2016 (was that what it was called?) and even after all my reworking it was only about 4-5k words. Or maybe less, I might be mid-remembering :P

[Commissar Molotov]

Thanks for your input! 

 

I really like the idea of being able to talk about notable martyrs in the Order's history. Perhaps another consideration could be if the Order is based around a particular geographical area, it might have picked up some oddities or quirks? 

 

I look forward to seeing your ideas!

[Servant of Dante]

That would be another way to go at it. My computer has decided to conk out on me, so I’ll be posting from mobile. Regardless, I’ve got AN idea based on something I had been thinking about some months ago, I’ll try and post up something to that effect soon. Then we can decide if that sounds interesting or if we want to look into the geographical thing. I had a lot of fun writing about the local customs on Delmarus :D

[Commissar Molotov]

Any feedback would be gratefully appreciated! In the main Liber Unity Project thread I've posted an idea for the overall narrative, which is based around a cathedral-world of the Ecclesiarchy. As such, I really want to ensure that the Sisters in the narrative get a great deal of attention. 

[Doctor Perils]

Running off your suggestion in the main thread, perhaps it might be a good idea to think of the shrine world they protect, as it could provide inspiration for the sororitas order.

 

I must admit I've had a small idea about a cardinal world of the ecclesiarchy on the back-burner: essentially the world would be split between to orders of the ecclesiarchy, one that prones poverty and humility, and the other that lives a life of luxury - traditionally the luxurious and powerful order has held the see, but recently, through secret dealings with the ecclesiarch, the poor order has taken over, and has started surreptitiously purging the other one, just as it is melting down works of religious art to fund possible wars of faith. Obviously the rich order is trying to take control back... I would suggest that both orders are actually both following precepts of the ecclesiarchy, and not make one a secret chaos or genestealer cult.

[TheOneTrueZon]

Take that Cathedral world and push it into the front fines of the Great Rift. Bereft of support, all factions are clinging to survival while parts of the planet fall to demonic & Chaos Space Marine incursion.

 

The Sisters of Battle find themselves at war with their own Ecclesiarchy allies, now intermingled with corruption seeping in from all manner of chaotic interdiction. Their faith tested as it was upon their founding, seeking the light of the Emperor whilst plunged into darkness.

[WAR]

Looking at the 8th edition map what if the lesser Order militant was stationed on Dimmamar as its protectors. It was the home World of Sebastian Thor and helped end the Reign of Vandire. 

 

A few years ago when I created my lesser Order I choose to go with a classic nun scheme of grey, white and black. Red was used on some places. But I think it is weird that most of the Orders use the black and red color scheme. 

[Servant of Dante]

It wouldn’t necessarily fit what I had in mind (or actually, maybe it would) but Dimmamar would be quite an interesting place to set the Order.

 

In brief, my idea was that this order (name pending, I’ll pdobably decelop this idea at some point whether or not we use it here) split from the Order of the Valorous Heart. VH tends to be “that order that feels super guilty about the Reign of Blood.” Personally, I love that motif, and I love the martyrdom/flagellation/other selfless stuff themes in the Sisters, especially paired with the normal fanatical Puritan mindset 40K likes :P This Order would essentially have been formed out of Sisters that decided that remembering and repenting for the Reign of Blood, as well as monitoring the rest of the Ministorum is the Sororitas’ singular duty, and dedicated themselves to that. The baseline would be the themes I mentioned for the VH turned up to 11, but with a focus on the spiritual and on witch hunting, rather than galactic war campaigns. In this context, Dimmamar would actually make sense, it’s the birthplace of the man who set the record straight and guided the Sororitas back into the Emperor’s light *wipes a single tear* :P

 

Though the idea of a world divided on matters of faith without being out-and-out heretics would be interesting, kinda reminecent of the struggle for dominance among the various Emperor cults in the wake of the Horus Heresy. The Dimmamar idea would preclude that, I think . . . or maybe not. We’d have to decide if that’s too much.

 

Sorry since I’m on mobile I’ve not been able to embed the image properly, but here’s the color scheme I had in mind. It’s very orthodox in its pallet, while, I think, doing something different. Notice the distinct lack of gold except on the chaplet, this is meant to serve as a reminder that it is the worship of the Emperor that is pure, not necessarily the Sororitas themselves. Expect lots of internal scrutiny in the order. Perhaps they even have a problem with being a bit too harsh on new Sisters

 

Edit: forgot to actually include the link :D http://bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/gallery/album_12132/gallery_83651_12132_3299.jpg

 

Oh I should note that as per the fluff for Sister Anestasia (from GW’s now defunct site for the Inquisitor specialist game), since it’s the only source that mentions this, Sisters all go through their Novitiate on Terra or Ophelia, then take their vows on Terra (there might be room to say those trained on Ophelia finish their vows there, idk) then a Sister Superor of their newly assigned order comes and takes them away. So the Sisters are not actually trained by their order till they’ve already had all their basic training and are full Sisters. In my mind it wouldn’t be far fetched to say that Sisters are assigned to Orders that fit their temperament, which would help explain why this order continues to act the way it does, the recruits it gets would be generally predisposed to their way of thinking, and the Sisters Superior there can beat them into shape I’m sure, their minds have been indoctrinated since birth practically.

 

Anyway, just some random thoughts on my part. I’m sorry for being so slow on this, my computer really is broken :P

[Servant of Dante]

Oh, and on naming conventions, all the Major Orders Militant are named

 

The Order of [article] [adjective] [noun]

 

now, all but The Order of Our Martyred Lady use “the” As the article, and even they were renamed from The Order of the Fiery Heart when Saint Katherine was martyred. But it’s an example of how it doesn’t have to be “the”

 

In the non-Militant Orders, there are several (The Order of the Key and The Order of the Gate off the top of my head) that don’t use an adjective. I personally like using an adjective, especially with a minor order, since it lets you make either it or the noun a rather generic one without the order name being indistinguishable from a GW Order, but if we had a suitably significant noun, we could forgo the adjective.

[Servant of Dante]

Oh I just noticed what Molotov said about a cathedral world. I guess I’d be concerned about doing anything too radical with a world that already has a lot of canon importance like Dimmamar, but of course even if the Order is based on Dimmamar the project can take place elsewhere, they aren’t necessarily confined to a single world.

[Commissar Molotov]

I'm going to exercise a little bit of an executive decision and say that I don't think we should create our own DIY Order that operates from Dimmamar. It's going to be one of the most important worlds in the Ecclesiarchy, and if we are trying to show off the best of the Liber, I'm not sure it suits us to exploit the fluff to that degree. 

 

That's not to say, however, that the world couldn't be near Dimmamar. It could, for example, be the brightest star in their planet's sky, visible by the naked eye, a sort of "North Star" that guides them and focuses them as a beacon. 

[Servant of Dante]

So, I keep meaning to write about the actual founding of the Order (I've come up with the name Order of the Weeping Heart to go with my theme, if that's ok with people, if anyone is even reading this ) but since that keeps not happening, I pulled together what I'd written on what in the Emperor's Perky Pectorals the Ministorum did in the wake of the Great Rift. From here I want to flesh out the ideas I have for the Weeping Heart's founding and how they end up on . . . whatever planet they're on. It'll need a name but that's something for the project at large to decide since it's relevant to all the warbands/regiments/chapters we're doing too. This might be more detail than you were looking for for this project, Molotov, but this is the kind of thing that I both wanted to think about and felt I needed to establish before working on the Order's fluff.

 

Ah, and you'll notice we have several names pending. One Ebon Chalice Canoness Preceptor, on Weeping Heart Canoness, and one Cardinal.

 

Hidden Content

THE COUNCIL OF TEARS

 

As the various branches of Imperium governance began to pick up the pieces in the wake of the Great Rift, Dimmamar emerged as the de-facto head of both the Adeptus Ministorum at large, and the Adepta Sororitas. Its historical significance as the birthplace of Saint Sebastian Thor, significant administrative facilities and the relative stability of the surrounding space—attributed by some to proximity to the Storm of the Emperor’s Wrath—made it an obvious center of power. The planet was also home to a large Preceptory of the Order of the Ebon Chalice, led by the venerable Canoness Preceptor [name pending]. Still, Cardinals from across the Segmentum vied for power behind the scenes in the void left by Terra’s disappearance behind the Cixtrix Maladictum.

 

The struggle for dominance came to a head during a conference at Saint Thor’s Basilica, built on a group of islands locally known as the Saints Tears. With hundreds of Cardinals and Deacons from across the Segmentum in attendance, [name also pending], Cardinal of Dimmamar, proposed the official establishment of his Diocese as the head of the Ministorum in the Imperium Nihilus, and nominated himself as its Ecclesiarch. The Cardinal had forged an extensive network of allies among the Frateris Clergy through his adept management and outer piety, though some said that a web of favors, bribes and coercion had played a far greater role. Regardless, his measure seemed certain to gain the council’s support. However, just as a consensus was reached, Canoness [WH Canoness Name] stormed to the front of the front of the Cathedral Hall and faced down the preening Cardinal. Her impromptu sermon was nonetheless recorded by an attendant scribe:

 

“Apostate! Blasphemer! I will not stand by while you elevate yourself beyond your station. Do you suggest that Holy Terra is no more? Do you not have faith that the Emperor awaits our reunion with His Imperium and His church? To seek to name yourself Ecclesiarch as soon as you think yourself out of His sight is hubris beyond imagination. I denounce you, and name you a heretic and a traitor, [Cardinal, no title].”

 

Canoness [EC Canoness] was close behind [WH Canoness], and separated her from the Cardinal before she drew her weapon. Her subsequent address was posted outside every church in contact with Dimmamar:

 

“This council edges ever closer to open heresy. Ecclesiarch Decius XXIII leads the Adeptus Ministorum from Holy Terra, and you have no grounds to assume that this has changed. Elevating one of your number to the position of Ecclesiarch would be outright rebellion against the Imperial Cult itself. Your present course of action is unacceptable. Your present state of mind is unacceptable. You will back down from this proposal or you will be dealt with by the Sororitas. However, the Sisterhood recognizes the need for a central power to act as proxy for Holy Terra and Ophelia VII until direct contact is reestablished. Thus, I propose the creation of a temporary Synod on Dimmamar to minister the faith of those on this side of the Cicatrix Maledictum. Of course the Adepta Sororitas has no authority to create such a Synod, but we will uphold the sanctity of the Ecclesiarchy and of Holy Terra itself. It would be wise of you to do the same.”

 

Canoness [EC Canoness] was able to dissuade Canoness [WH Canoness] from outright executing [Cardinal name], but he was publically flogged by the Ebon Chalice’s Mistress of Repentance on Dimmamar and forced to abdicate his position in disgrace. After much debate, under the watchful eyes of the two Canonesses, the council concluded that a Synod should be created on Dimmamar, with authority over all Adeptus Ministorum operations that it could contact in the Imperium Nihilus, and would be dissolved if and when reliable communications with Terra, and thereby the Ecclesiarch and the Holy Synod, could be reestablished. In the same manner as the Synod Ministra on Ophelia VII, this Synod would consist of Cardinals serving Diocese on and around Dimmamar. The council officially recognized the new Synod’s subservience to both the Holy Synod and the Synod Ministra, and dubbed it the Synod Ministra Temporalis, thereby granting its constituent Cardinals the title of Cardinal Astral Ministra Temporalis.

 

At the same time, the members of the Sororitas in the Imperium Nihilus found themselves without a unified leader. The Order of the Ebon Chalice’s Preceptory on Dimmamar was already the largest concentration of Sisters of an Order Majoris in the Segmentum, so with her speech to the council and the solidification of Dimmamar as the center of Ministorum administration on its side of the Cicatrix Maledictum, Canoness [EC Canoness] easily claimed primacy. Her reputation as an adept and pious leader was to prove well deserved in the years that followed

 

Eschewing terminology born out of the aftermath of the 13th Black Crusade, the assembled Canonesses settled on the title of Canoness Obscurous for [EC Canoness], after the Segemntum encompassing most of the space in the Imperium Nihilus. Rather than an elected position from among Sisters of Militant and Non-Militant Orders, the post of Canoness Obscurus would remain with whoever held the post of Canoness Preceptor for the Order of the Ebon Chalice on Dimmamar. They would still be beholden to the Canoness Superior of their Order and the Prioress of the Convent Prioris—when contact could be made—but would have operational and administrative authority over all Orders, Militant or otherwise, in the Imperium Nihilus. It was hoped this unorthodox measure would maintain order and efficiency among the Sisterhood by providing a fixed center of power in the void left by loss of communication with the Convents Prioris and Sanctorum.

 

With a center of administration in place, the Sisters of the Orders Famulous surged into action, sending prospective Novices that they had been unable to deliver to either Terra or Ophelia, to Dimmamar to begin their Novitiate. As the holding of the Order of the Ebon Chaice’s Preceptory on Delmarus grew to accomadate the children, along with additional administratively staff and the headquarters of several Non-Militant Orders, it came to be known as the Convent Maghtas.

 

[mention the power boost WH received due to the proximity, perhaps in a new section]

 

note: like many bits of 40K and especially Ministorum fluff, the name Maghtas is chunked out from an actual religiously signifigant site. I don’t know more about the actual place than what I read on Wikipedia, but for clarity I took the name from the place name Al-Maghtas. I’ll say no more because of forum rules, but I think disclosing the real world connection is important

[Commissar Molotov]

My feeling is that you've potentially leapt into the classic DIY creator's trap: creating too much, too fast. Once you've dumped such a fully-formed concept on our laps, how can we critique it? How can we pull any loose thread without understanding how the whole piece goes together? 

 

The only thing I said was that Dimmamar could potentially be of some significance to our proposed order - but you've created a fully-fledged narrative including the Imperium Nihilus (but is the Liber campaign post-Gathering Storm? The timeline hasn't been detailed at all), locking all the other projects in geographically and chronologically. 

 

What input can other Liberites have in this concept? 

[Servant of Dante]

Oh, yeah I suppose I assumed the project was in the “present” of the setting. That’s something we need to discus I guess :P

 

As for this fluff, I agree I made something that’s not easy to critique. However, it’s really just background for the Ministorum side of things, and not especially relevant to our story. You’ll notice that the creation and evolution of the Order of the Weeping Heart is independent of this, so if people decide we want to set the campaign before the fall of Cadia I can just set this aside.

 

That being said, I also already have some pretty specific details of the Order’s founding thought out. I’ve not done this before so I’m not sure how to present it in a way that is “critiqueable”

 

As for geography, I again assumed you were ok with setting it near to Dimmamar. If people want to move in a different direction there, it might make what I posted above change a bit, but overall it is, again, independent.

 

But I do need to know where and when our story is before I can do much more. I had set the founding of the Order soon after the Abyssal Crusade since that tie in was too good to pass up, so I suppose that shouldn’t be an issue.

 

Edit: basically in terms of creating the Order, since no one else seems interested I’d just taken it upon myself to put it together. Which is admittedly a bit selfish of me. Again, I’m not sure how to present what I have in mind in a way that allows for input.

[Servant of Dante]

Ok, so after a good bit of agonizing over how to proceed, I’m thinking the best idea is to just solidify my ideas into some bullet points. From there we (meaning anyone who wants to help) can either tweak that or throw it out and do something else.

for ease of writing I’m writing everything is definite terms (“is,” “do,” etc) but remember these are just my suggestions.

Basic Attitude (specialization/peculiarities)
these are the things that define the Order, independent of any timeline or specific event. The same as whatever gimmick a chapter has going on. The difference is that the Sisters are largely homogeneous so any difference needs to be both restrained and justified, as much as possible. But I still want to have some fun with this

1 ) The Order’s name is the Order of the Weeping Heart (a play on both Valorous Heart and the order’s themes)

2 )
I made 2 color schemes for them, basically modifying the Valorous Heart scheme. Unlike the Balorous Heart, the robe linings would be black as well (as opposed to white) Personally I like the second scheme better.



3 ) The Order was founded out of the Order of the Valorous Heart. It’s a “successor chapter” of the VH, so to speak.

4 ) Their main focus in terms of Missions is to do deep screening of Imperium officials, especially Ministorum personal, looking for corruption/heresy/mutation and so on. For political reasons they probably can’t/don’t touch other Sororitas Orders but as Sister Sin teaches us (I’m refering to that piece of art from the Rogue Trader book), marines aren’t necessarily exempt

5 ) Their main “gimmick” is a penchant for self mortification and penance. The reasons for this are a bit more complicated than that: essentially they believe that the Soroitas as an organization bears guilt from the Reign of Blood that it can never fully repent for, therefore they feel they must mortify themselves to this extreme degree to even deserve to serve the Imperium. They’re a fringe group essentially.

5A ) Their Convent, outside the chapels, is incredibly plain and unadorned, intentionally uncomfortable furniture, spiky quills (remember that quote in the 3E main rulebook?) etc.

5B ) Their armour is modified to physically wound them (lightly) as it is worn. This works nicely into their beliefs, but would unfortunately mean they have to deal with blood loss just from overly long marches. I think this is a cool idea, but alternatively this could be shifted over into a flagellant ritual performed before each Deployment. On second thought that sounds really neat too

5C ) They don’t use Repentia. In their view every Sister is, essentially, already a Repentia. If you fail at being a Sister, you’re just entirely a failure. The Canoness simply orders executions rather than consigning Sisters to the Repentia. Added bonus: they get to hang the heads outside the Convent


Founding
this is where I’m really uncertain. I’m having a heck of a time explaining this many deviations from the norm with the result being “they got to be their own order” rather than just getting executed/censured or what have you.

1) The ideology of the Order came almost entirely from a single individual who, by the time she had risen to the rank of Canoness Preceptor within the Order of the Valorous Heart, had these radical views, which made her difficult for the Canoness Superior of the Order to work with.

1A ) I had the name Felicaene down for her (in my head it’s prononced something like “fill - iss - ayne” where “iss” is like hiss without the h and “ayne” is like cane without the c )

1B ) She was born a few decades (I had been thinking 5 or 6 but it could easily be less or even more) after the Abyssal Crusade and was trained with that fresh in the Ministorum’s memory

1C) she developed a . . . strong interest with the Reign of Blood and the Sisters role in it

1D ) much later in her career, after she’s risen to Canoness Preceptor and is leading hundreds of Sisters at a time from one war zone to another (note I consider that a lot because of the numbers I use for how many total Sisters there are) she almost dies. Could be a battle wound, could be a sickness we can decide later. In her near death state she had some sort of vision that causes her views to solidify into the extreme ideology the Order will come to exhibit.

2 ) Tensions between Felicaene and the Canoness Superior of VH continue to rise. Felicaene is influential and valuable enough as a Commander and advisor that she cannot be outright removed from duty. Eventually the Prioress steps in. This could be the Abbess as well, if we assume that there was one at this time. That’s another discussion. I think it would be reasonable.

3 ) here’s where things get really tricky, in my opinion. I’m thinking that the Prioress/Abbess (hereafter I’ll just say Prioress but remember either should be workable) hears both sides and decides that Felicaene and those who subscribe to her ideology, while they are not actually strictly in the wrong, are highly disruptive to the functioning of the VH. She tells the Canoness Superior and Felicaene that she is putting Felicaene and her followers into a new Order Minoris (conveniently stationed on a planet nice and far away from Ophelia and Terra). Thus the Order of the Weeping Heart is founded. She doesn’t tell either of them that her intention is to basically not supply new Sisters to the Order.

3B ) If possible, it would be good to come up with a reason a new Minor Order was needed, or at least some region that was unstable and the presence of a few hundred Sisters would shore it up (and it would need to be an instability the Prioress felt was passing, since she didn’t intend the order to be permenant).

3C ) There’s enough of them that the Prioress decides against executions and other punishment, especially since she doesn’t consider them especially in the wrong, per se. This is I think the trickiest bit to justify.

4 ) The Prioress passes away unexpectedly soon after. No foul play. This could be a battle wound (unlikely) or some bout of sickness or a freak accident or whatever.

5 ) The Prioress’s replacement, presumably elected from the Canonesses of all Orders (Militant or otherwise) under the banner of the Convent Prioress, does not know the Weeping Heart was intended to die off. She knows the VH Canoness Superior holds a good deal of animosity toward the Order, but she assumes it was her predecessor’s intention to foster this new Order, rather than just using it to dispose of a problem.

6 ) Nevertheless, the Weeping Heart does prove itself quite the redheaded stepchild, not working as smoothly with other Orders as might be expected. In the case of the Sisters, this means they functions reasonably smoothly with them, but were stubborn and a bit socially unpleasant, since they feel the other Sisters aren’t doing enough penance and whatnot

6B ) This one isn’t strictly about the founding, but it comes out of it. The Weeping Heart ends up receiving the new Sisters that fit its ideology most closely, since those that do not adapt to their way of thinking that are sent their way (remember all sisters are trained on Ophelia or Terra then assigned to an Order) tend to end up on the chopping block. On the other hand, many Prioresses have taken advantage of this to . . . dispose of those new Sisters that may have passed the requirements to be a Sister but are more unruly (relative to other Sisters) than is desired. They either get beaten into shape by the Weeping Heart, or they once again end up on the chopping block. Note that this last bit assumes that the Prioress or someone central at the Convent Sanctorum decides who gets which Sisters. That’s basically headcanon on my part and is therefore changeable.



Right, I think that’s all for now. Any thoughts? Even if it’s just a comment on whether this is a good way to present ideas, I’d appreciate it!

[Servant of Dante]

I may be getting ahead of myself, but before I made my previous post, I had started writing actual fluff. Fortunately I only got a paragraph of that done, so not much time wasted. However, I did spend a good chunk of time writing up this quote for Felicaene. I think it allows her to express her views (this would be after she has her near death experience) rather nicely. Is it too over the top though (I'm also not sure the first sentence is quite right).

 

          “The original incarnation of the Sororitas was co-opted by a heretic and reveled in heresy and debasement; only direct intervention by the God-Emperor Himself saw it returned to His light. As surely as this salvation condones the Adepta’s continued existence, so sure it is that this is not, and can never be, a vindication. We, who called ourselves the Daughters of the Emperor, were blinded by our own hand, and ate from the palm of an apostate. Thus, all present and future Sisters of our Orders must dedicate their lives to penance for what is passed—that which can never be repaid—and vigilance so that it may never come to pass again.

          “Yet within the last century the power of the Ecclesiarchy saw fully thirty Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes cast into the Eye of Terror by a warp-tainted demagogue to face certain doom and corruption. The power of the Adeptus Ministorum was once more wielded against the will of the Emperor, under the eye of the Sororitas. We must remember, lest our sight be again shrouded by hubris: we, among all of the Emperor’s servants, have wounded Him most deeply. We, among the all the Ministorum’s missionaries, were charged with looking for the rot within. For us, duty till death is insufficient. Only when we make our every service a bloody penance, every victory a mortal sacrifice, can we call ourselves fit to gaze up into His light.”

 

-Canoness Preceptor Felicaene’s Feast of Saint Lucia sermon, 462.M37

 

Things to note:

• I intended her to kinda gloss over the loss to the Astartes in the second paragraph, more just using the number of chapters as a way of measuring waste. Note that her main point is that this was done by a man of the Ministorum. This refers to the Abyssal Crusade.
• The first paragraph of course is talking about Vandire and the reign of blood (the Sisters were Vandire's personal guard and, among other things, killed the High Lords of Terra on his orders), culminating with Dominica and her 5 companions entering the Sanctum Imperialis and leading to the Thorian Reformation. Although Vandire did rename them Brides of the Emperor, the Sisters called themselves Daughters of the Emperor before he found them (and after the reformation too).
• When she says "all present and future Sisters of our Orders" she is quoting the beginning of a passage from the Rule of the Sororitas that dictates how various feastdays must be observed by the Sisters. The quote is found in the Liber Sororitas, White Dwarf 293UK.
• "Duty until death" is of course a parody of the line "only in death does duty end"

[Servant of Dante]

No one has any thoughts? I know this is a lot all at once.

 

If no one has anything to say, what’s the next step?

[Commissar Molotov]

No one has any thoughts? I know this is a lot all at once.

If no one has anything to say, what’s the next step?

Consider that you are at the razor's edge of fluff creation. The Sisters are a niche army, with relatively few devoted fans. You have in your own posts discussed some of the restricting factors that make creating a DIY Sisterhood difficult - the idea that there are numerical limits on the sisters, to say nothing of the doctrinal conformity potentially imposed upon them. You're then on a small sub-forum which branches off a small sub-forum at the bottom of the B+C.

To say nothing of the fact that not everyone on the B+C or the Liber's Unity Project can devote large amounts of time on a daily basis - this is not a project that will necessarily move fast at all!

I may be getting ahead of myself, but before I made my previous post, I had started writing actual fluff. Fortunately I only got a paragraph of that done, so not much time wasted. However, I did spend a good chunk of time writing up this quote for Felicaene. I think it allows her to express her views (this would be after she has her near death experience) rather nicely. Is it too over the top though (I'm also not sure the first sentence is quite right).

“The original incarnation of the Sororitas was co-opted by a heretic and reveled in heresy and debasement; only direct intervention by the God-Emperor Himself saw it returned to His light. As surely as this salvation condones the Adepta’s continued existence, so sure it is that this is not, and can never be, a vindication. We, who called ourselves the Daughters of the Emperor, were blinded by our own hand, and ate from the palm of an apostate. Thus, all present and future Sisters of our Orders must dedicate their lives to penance for what is passed—that which can never be repaid—and vigilance so that it may never come to pass again.

“Yet within the last century the power of the Ecclesiarchy saw fully thirty Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes cast into the Eye of Terror by a warp-tainted demagogue to face certain doom and corruption. The power of the Adeptus Ministorum was once more wielded against the will of the Emperor, under the eye of the Sororitas. We must remember, lest our sight be again shrouded by hubris: we, among all of the Emperor’s servants, have wounded Him most deeply. We, among the all the Ministorum’s missionaries, were charged with looking for the rot within. For us, duty till death is insufficient. Only when we make our every service a bloody penance, every victory a mortal sacrifice, can we call ourselves fit to gaze up into His light.”

-Canoness Preceptor Felicaene’s Feast of Saint Lucia sermon, 462.M37

Things to note:

• I intended her to kinda gloss over the loss to the Astartes in the second paragraph, more just using the number of chapters as a way of measuring waste. Note that her main point is that this was done by a man of the Ministorum. This refers to the Abyssal Crusade.
• The first paragraph of course is talking about Vandire and the reign of blood (the Sisters were Vandire's personal guard and, among other things, killed the High Lords of Terra on his orders), culminating with Dominica and her 5 companions entering the Sanctum Imperialis and leading to the Thorian Reformation. Although Vandire did rename them Brides of the Emperor, the Sisters called themselves Daughters of the Emperor before he found them (and after the reformation too).
• When she says "all present and future Sisters of our Orders" she is quoting the beginning of a passage from the Rule of the Sororitas that dictates how various feastdays must be observed by the Sisters. The quote is found in the Liber Sororitas, White Dwarf 293UK.
• "Duty until death" is of course a parody of the line "only in death does duty end"

This text is interesting, though it's worth mentioning that Saint Basillus was worshipped in his lifetime for his actions, and it was only 800 years later that the Vorpal Swords were able to return and reclaim their honour, as well as disposing of the saint's relics into a nearby star. As such, Felicaene wouldn't be able to refer to him as a 'warp-tainted demagogue.'

With that said, I do think the idea of an Order that still shoulders the burden of guilt from the Age of Apostasy is an intriguing idea.

Ok, so after a good bit of agonizing over how to proceed, I’m thinking the best idea is to just solidify my ideas into some bullet points. From there we (meaning anyone who wants to help) can either tweak that or throw it out and do something else.

for ease of writing I’m writing everything is definite terms (“is,” “do,” etc) but remember these are just my suggestions.

Basic Attitude (specialization/peculiarities)

these are the things that define the Order, independent of any timeline or specific event. The same as whatever gimmick a chapter has going on. The difference is that the Sisters are largely homogeneous so any difference needs to be both restrained and justified, as much as possible. But I still want to have some fun with this

1 ) The Order’s name is the Order of the Weeping Heart (a play on both Valorous Heart and the order’s themes)

2 )

I made 2 color schemes for them, basically modifying the Valorous Heart scheme. Unlike the Balorous Heart, the robe linings would be black as well (as opposed to white) Personally I like the second scheme better.

3 ) The Order was founded out of the Order of the Valorous Heart. It’s a “successor chapter” of the VH, so to speak.

4 ) Their main focus in terms of Missions is to do deep screening of Imperium officials, especially Ministorum personal, looking for corruption/heresy/mutation and so on. For political reasons they probably can’t/don’t touch other Sororitas Orders but as Sister Sin teaches us (I’m refering to that piece of art from the Rogue Trader book), marines aren’t necessarily exempt

5 ) Their main “gimmick” is a penchant for self mortification and penance. The reasons for this are a bit more complicated than that: essentially they believe that the Soroitas as an organization bears guilt from the Reign of Blood that it can never fully repent for, therefore they feel they must mortify themselves to this extreme degree to even deserve to serve the Imperium. They’re a fringe group essentially.

5A ) Their Convent, outside the chapels, is incredibly plain and unadorned, intentionally uncomfortable furniture, spiky quills (remember that quote in the 3E main rulebook?) etc.

5B ) Their armour is modified to physically wound them (lightly) as it is worn. This works nicely into their beliefs, but would unfortunately mean they have to deal with blood loss just from overly long marches. I think this is a cool idea, but alternatively this could be shifted over into a flagellant ritual performed before each Deployment. On second thought that sounds really neat too

5C ) They don’t use Repentia. In their view every Sister is, essentially, already a Repentia. If you fail at being a Sister, you’re just entirely a failure. The Canoness simply orders executions rather than consigning Sisters to the Repentia. Added bonus: they get to hang the heads outside the Convent

Founding

this is where I’m really uncertain. I’m having a heck of a time explaining this many deviations from the norm with the result being “they got to be their own order” rather than just getting executed/censured or what have you.

1) The ideology of the Order came almost entirely from a single individual who, by the time she had risen to the rank of Canoness Preceptor within the Order of the Valorous Heart, had these radical views, which made her difficult for the Canoness Superior of the Order to work with.

1A ) I had the name Felicaene down for her (in my head it’s prononced something like “fill - iss - ayne” where “iss” is like hiss without the h and “ayne” is like cane without the c )

1B ) She was born a few decades (I had been thinking 5 or 6 but it could easily be less or even more) after the Abyssal Crusade and was trained with that fresh in the Ministorum’s memory

1C) she developed a . . . strong interest with the Reign of Blood and the Sisters role in it

1D ) much later in her career, after she’s risen to Canoness Preceptor and is leading hundreds of Sisters at a time from one war zone to another (note I consider that a lot because of the numbers I use for how many total Sisters there are) she almost dies. Could be a battle wound, could be a sickness we can decide later. In her near death state she had some sort of vision that causes her views to solidify into the extreme ideology the Order will come to exhibit.

2 ) Tensions between Felicaene and the Canoness Superior of VH continue to rise. Felicaene is influential and valuable enough as a Commander and advisor that she cannot be outright removed from duty. Eventually the Prioress steps in. This could be the Abbess as well, if we assume that there was one at this time. That’s another discussion. I think it would be reasonable.

3 ) here’s where things get really tricky, in my opinion. I’m thinking that the Prioress/Abbess (hereafter I’ll just say Prioress but remember either should be workable) hears both sides and decides that Felicaene and those who subscribe to her ideology, while they are not actually strictly in the wrong, are highly disruptive to the functioning of the VH. She tells the Canoness Superior and Felicaene that she is putting Felicaene and her followers into a new Order Minoris (conveniently stationed on a planet nice and far away from Ophelia and Terra). Thus the Order of the Weeping Heart is founded. She doesn’t tell either of them that her intention is to basically not supply new Sisters to the Order.

3B ) If possible, it would be good to come up with a reason a new Minor Order was needed, or at least some region that was unstable and the presence of a few hundred Sisters would shore it up (and it would need to be an instability the Prioress felt was passing, since she didn’t intend the order to be permenant).

3C ) There’s enough of them that the Prioress decides against executions and other punishment, especially since she doesn’t consider them especially in the wrong, per se. This is I think the trickiest bit to justify.

4 ) The Prioress passes away unexpectedly soon after. No foul play. This could be a battle wound (unlikely) or some bout of sickness or a freak accident or whatever.

5 ) The Prioress’s replacement, presumably elected from the Canonesses of all Orders (Militant or otherwise) under the banner of the Convent Prioress, does not know the Weeping Heart was intended to die off. She knows the VH Canoness Superior holds a good deal of animosity toward the Order, but she assumes it was her predecessor’s intention to foster this new Order, rather than just using it to dispose of a problem.

6 ) Nevertheless, the Weeping Heart does prove itself quite the redheaded stepchild, not working as smoothly with other Orders as might be expected. In the case of the Sisters, this means they functions reasonably smoothly with them, but were stubborn and a bit socially unpleasant, since they feel the other Sisters aren’t doing enough penance and whatnot

6B ) This one isn’t strictly about the founding, but it comes out of it. The Weeping Heart ends up receiving the new Sisters that fit its ideology most closely, since those that do not adapt to their way of thinking that are sent their way (remember all sisters are trained on Ophelia or Terra then assigned to an Order) tend to end up on the chopping block. On the other hand, many Prioresses have taken advantage of this to . . . dispose of those new Sisters that may have passed the requirements to be a Sister but are more unruly (relative to other Sisters) than is desired. They either get beaten into shape by the Weeping Heart, or they once again end up on the chopping block. Note that this last bit assumes that the Prioress or someone central at the Convent Sanctorum decides who gets which Sisters. That’s basically headcanon on my part and is therefore changeable.

Right, I think that’s all for now. Any thoughts? Even if it’s just a comment on whether this is a good way to present ideas, I’d appreciate it!

I think the idea of self-mutilation and self-flagellation has an existing precedent within the background of the Sororitas, and so it's safely something that we could expand upon and explore, looking at how they would function and how they would interact with the Ecclesiarchy on a wider basis. You mention their buildings being very plain and unadorned, which makes me think of various puritan groups - I wonder if they might consider the chapels and churches of the Ecclesiarchy as being rather idolatrous.

This, of course, perhaps gives rise to questions regarding how the group might be in their interactions with the Ecclesiarchy on our cardinal world. Are they there mostly for the protection of pilgrims? Are there doctrinal disagreements between how worship of the Emperor is observed?

[Servant of Dante]

Ah, thanks for pointing that out, the Warhammer wiki page said he was still alive when he was revealed as a chaos cultist. The date is entirely flexible, I want to set the founding of the Order just after Saint Bassilus is shown to be a Heretic. I’d have to change the “in the past century” like to “in the past millennium” or something :D

 

I think I had in mind that their Order’s chapel is the normal level of gold and so on, the plainness is supposed to be in the portions that they personally use. I wasn’t thinking that they had any problem with using gold and stained glass when it was in worshiping the Emperor. I mean, everyone knows the Emperor loves gold, just look at the Imperial Panace that he had built in his active lifetime :D

 

Also, I wasn’t thinking that they necessarily think all humans should live like they do, the idea is that they feel the Sororitas in particular have reason to do penance.

 

Like I mentioned, Their main interest would be screening Ministorum and other Imperium functionaries for chaos taint, mutation, or genestealer infestation. I imagine that since they’re on a shrine and/or Cardinal world they’d also work to protect some key points on the planet (but there are only a couple hundred of them).

[Servant of Dante]

Some additional thoughts:

 

The Valorous Heart is already the “overly penitent” Order, they have a lot more Repentia than other Orders. That’s why they are the “parent” Order of the Weeping Heart

 

Going around chastising Priests for having standard churches (ie ones with lots of gold) could be that one step too different that makes them unbelievable in the context of the Sororitas. Maybe.

[Servant of Dante]

So I more or less fell off the face of the board for a while, but I’m back and I want to move this forward. Looks like not much has happened in any of the collaborative DIYs but since this thread is mostly my ideas, and I’ve wanted to build on this ideas I presented here for a good year or so, I’m looking to move forward with this regardless.