Are Silent Sisters physically augmented?

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

Ok, no point to start new thread. Can sister go rogue? Would it be fluffy to have some sisters in blackshields warband? I know they cannot fall to chaos but going "loyal in a less convencional way"?

 

I can see it happening since we already know that after the Horus Heresy a lot of the Sisters just basically gave up on the Imperium as they witnessed it turn into the theocratic and bureucratic mess it is these days. If a lot of Sisters can give up on the Imperium after it has fallen, I can see individual Sisters becoming disillusioned with the Imperium and the Emperor and striking out on their own even earlier.

[battle captain corpus]

Ok, no point to start new thread. Can sister go rogue? Would it be fluffy to have some sisters in blackshields warband? I know they cannot fall to chaos but going "loyal in a less convencional way"?

Whilst a very interesting concept, please begin a new thread/topic for sure! That way we can keep things nice and in order and it also helps other hobbyists/fraters search the right topics. :)

 

BCC

[Marshal Rohr]

The Imperium regularly uses a wide variety of genetic and physical augmentation on its military from basic auxilia to legionaries. There’s no reason to think a SoS can’t give a legionary a hard time without geneseed.

[b1soul]

I forget which book [FW Inferno or MoM?], but it was mentioned pretty clearly that Sisters are unaugmented and what makes them special is their null aura. This never made much sense to me as they essentially have to keep up and "choreograph" with allied Custodes in close combat. 

 

Just finished Watchers 2, and Aleya can definitely go toe-to-toe with Astartes (she did a bit of this previously in Watchers 1, but this time it's even more obvious). Maybe PA sheds some light? 

[Marshal Rohr]

Then Krole wouldn’t be two hundred.

[b1soul]

The likes of Tieron and Jek use rejuvenat. I'd be fine with describing them as unaugmented.

 

EDIT: ...which is to say, I don't think life extension therapies alone are typically equated with augmentation in 40K.

[Marshal Vespasian]

Rejuvenants seem to be 'normal medicine' for rich people in 40k, yes.

 

They apparently use their pariah aura as a wespon versus normal morrals as well so maybe thats what makes them seem so strong.

But jeah waving out of the way of laser bolts is pretty strong..

[Marshal Rohr]

Using gene therapy and restorative treatments to live longer is augmenting your biology. Using anything you’re not born with is an augmentation. A guardsmen with a bionic arm is augmented, that’s why they’re called cyberaugmetics. There’s artwork of a sister with lenses for eyes.

 

They are augmented. Most imperial soldiery is augmented. You’re trying to draw an arbitrary line between using geneseed, which stabilizes radical genetic augmentation, and just normal bio technological augmentation. There’s not point to that beyond the tabletop.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Marshal Rohr

[b1soul]

I'm drawing a line between (1) life extension and (2) strength/speed/durability augmentation enabling a woman to keep up with allied Custodes in close combat against Astartes. This thread is about the latter, but I did acknowledge the former.

 

You can use whatever terminology you prefer.

[Marshal Vespasian]

The likes of kor phaeron or luther are augmented to keep up with astartes. Thats clearly a difference to replacing an arm that was shot off.

[b1soul]

True, but I don't think the purpose of this thread is to examine the semantics of how broadly "augmented" should be defined.

 

To me, it's clear that Sisters are augmented differently from Astartes (duh) but enough so that they are able to go toe-to-toe against them in CC. Just odd that FW, GW, or BL haven't shed some light on the nature of their augmentations. On the contrary, I think "unaugmented" or some similar term or phrase has been used in some of the source material to describe the Sisters. Will try to find the quote and get back.

[Noserenda]

You probably arent going to get a definitive answer about the training regime of one of simultaneously most secretive and obscure Imperial institutions out there, but its pretty clear they have the best of everything at their disposal in 30k which i think is going to include some augmentation as various frater have said. I mean hell, i should wear glasses and have various things inserted in my mouth, technically im augmented  :D 

Sisters are peak Human, somewhere between Cap America and Black Widow which no doubt involves some shenanigans behind the scenes given how rare their defining characteristic is it seems hugely unlikely that they would be so... uniform genetically speaking speed/strength/height wise. A few of us were even convinced they were clones based on early art though they have decisively moved away from that at least with a vaguely official cover story of a planet of the null amazons, which the black books author (Who is likely a SoS herself) implies is fake from memory. Thats before moving on to the fact of their master being a big fan of that kind of thing ;) 

I should mention though that for every Aleya mashing through Astartes there are a couple of "line sisters" getting shot to pieces by Minotaurs or Black legion. This has always been a heroic setting where HQ slots are inexplicably fast and strong :P 

[jaxom]

Rejuvenants seem to be 'normal medicine' for rich people in 40k, yes.

 

They apparently use their pariah aura as a wespon versus normal morrals as well so maybe thats what makes them seem so strong.

But jeah waving out of the way of laser bolts is pretty strong..

 

Sisters are peak Human, somewhere between Cap America and Black Widow which no doubt involves some shenanigans behind the scenes given how rare their defining characteristic is it seems hugely unlikely that they would be so....

I should mention though that for every Aleya mashing through Astartes there are a couple of "line sisters" getting shot to pieces by Minotaurs or Black legion. This has always been a heroic setting where HQ slots are inexplicably fast and strong 

 

I think the non-powered superheroes are a good baseline for fictional expectations. Batwoman in power armour, as it were. From that lens, dodging bullets, taking down Bane (Astartes), etc is a more acceptable narrative. 

 

Using gene therapy and restorative treatments to live longer is augmenting your biology. Using anything you’re not born with is an augmentation. A guardsmen with a bionic arm is augmented, that’s why they’re called cyberaugmetics. There’s artwork of a sister with lenses for eyes.

 

They are augmented. Most imperial soldiery is augmented. You’re trying to draw an arbitrary line between using geneseed, which stabilizes radical genetic augmentation, and just normal bio technological augmentation. There’s not point to that beyond the tabletop.

Agreed, just like we might say any athlete who's dabbled in supplements is augmented. I think the salient point is that the Sisters of Silence are not noticeably augmented beyond what a normal human frame could handle without extensive cybernetics.

[Elzender]

I guess we could stablish another classification to avoid confusion, separating augmented humans from transhumans. Custodes and astartes would go on the latter category, as their creation process is a substantial rework of human biology and physiology, to the point where they can hardly be considered human. From what I've gathered in this topic and the few lore snippets I've read, it seems the Sisters would likely fall into the first category (not taking into account their shared null mutation). It is possible the lore stating they were unaugmented was more of a comparison with the astartes and custodes, meaning they do not undergo a complete transformation process that substantially alters their biology; they probably get genetic enhancements to increase their combat capabilities, but their overall physiology is still human. Probably they don't get any extra organs like astartes do (don't know about custodes, but considering they are described as almost "hand-crafted" by the Emperor, I'm guessing they are only "human-like" in outer appeareance). Edited April 27, 2020 by Elzender