Where are the female priests?

[Karthak]

A random thought just occurred to me. Where are all the female priests? One could say the candidates all go to the Sororitas (unlikely, since the Ministorum doesn't just recruit from the Schola Progenium), but there was six thousand years of Imperial history before the Decree Passive. Where are the women? As far as I'm aware, the Imperial Creed doesn't discriminate on gender or sex. I can't recall any mention of female preachers, cardinals, ecclesiarchs etc etc.

 

[Ficinus]

As far as models go, I just convert my own female priests from either a dialogus or a mix of Cawdor and Escher miniatures.

 

As far as lore goes, I'm not familiar with anything saying the Ecclesiarchy is male only or anything saying women can be priests/cardinals/etc. It could just be a relic of a time when writers just instinctively put male characters in those roles. How many recent stories have featured priests/cardinals? Also, the same question could sort of be asked about Imperial Guard commanders and commissars, though there it's more a balance issue than a total lack of female colonels or commissars.

[Mossback]

I took the Necromunda character, Mad Donna, and made Sister Madonna as a priest. She has a chainsword and a Las pistol, so she seemed a perfect fit.

[Atrus]

I got the Papess model from Raging Heroes.

[Spacefrisian]

http://whfb.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/thumb/0/0b/Staff_Damsel.jpg/300px-Staff_Damsel.jpg

Thats an option.

 

And Raging Heroes has a lot of female priest like models if you cannot find the above GW model on ebay or something, its in the Fantasy> Sisters of the Orphanage section.

 

https://www.ragingheroes.com/collections/sisters-fantasy-soto-f

[Ficinus]

If you're willing to look for old models, the Sisters of Sigmar could also work for female priests.

[Beaky Brigade]

I think it's just a failure of imagination rather than discrimination on the part of anyone. Senior 40k Ecclesiarchy members are nearly always portrayed as corpulent, corrupt and scheming and Abrahamic religion (which the Imperial Creed is clearly inspired from) has thousands of years of examples to draw from on such individuals who are male, these religions themselves remaining very male dominated and naturally patriarchal to this day, and it's easy to focus on these aspects when writing satirically.

 

It would be an interesting exercise to imagine a female character in such a position. How do you portray their similar failings without just being a copy of the male 'Cardinal Tubbious' archetype? It's too easy just to make them the only good cardinal or saintly reformer!

 

Remember also that the ordination of women in such religions in the real world is relatively new phenomenon (in the grand scheme of things, my own Grandmother was part of the first generation of C of E priests in the UK in the 1990s), and it's something the effects of which won't be fully understood as soon as other types of job role being opened to women.

 

I think the 'Enforcer' series which is set on a Ecclesiarchy dominated world has some female priests but they are just a background to the story.

 

Generally the only relatable 'heroes' of the Ecclesiarchy (aside from the SoB) seem to be the low level warrior preachers, and saints, and there is definitely room for more of the former in the background and on the tabletop.

 

Pious Vorne from Blackstone Fortress is an example of a female missionary, but most of the idle speculation before release was whether she was some type of SoB, and until GW does more work defining the wider role of women in the Ecclesiarchy through background and miniatures that's going to be many people's first reaction to such characters. However it doesn't seem like the new waves of female miniatures will be stopping any time soon as they seem to be selling well and have popular support from most of the community.

 

Despite faith being portrayed as the main weapon of the SoB clearly the strongest and most athletic women would become battle sisters (as opposed to the non combat roles) so I think there is a place for the meeker but equally fervent women to serve as priests, and that could be an interesting trait. Day dreaming of such glory while the dull reality is replacing a million incense sticks in their holders.

 

One of the things GW has mentioned a lot is creating more characters that are not either the 'warrior or wizard' role, but fulfilling a support function, and we can see this with the recent GSC cults release, perhaps the SoB redo will give us some new Ecclesiarchy characters, though I do strongly feel with potentially limited resources they should do the SoB justice before focusing on the wider Ecclesiarchy.

[Beams]

I think it's just a failure of imagination rather than discrimination on the part of anyone. Senior 40k Ecclesiarchy members are nearly always portrayed as corpulent, corrupt and scheming and Abrahamic religion (which the Imperial Creed is clearly inspired from) has thousands of years of examples to draw from on such individuals who are male, these religions themselves remaining very male dominated and naturally patriarchal to this day, and it's easy to focus on these aspects when writing satirically.

 

It would be an interesting exercise to imagine a female character in such a position. How do you portray their similar failings without just being a copy of the male 'Cardinal Tubbious' archetype? It's too easy just to make them the only good cardinal or saintly reformer!

 

Remember also that the ordination of women in such religions in the real world is relatively new phenomenon (in the grand scheme of things, my own Grandmother was part of the first generation of C of E priests in the UK in the 1990s), and it's something the effects of which won't be fully understood as soon as other types of job role being opened to women.

 

I think the 'Enforcer' series which is set on a Ecclesiarchy dominated world has some female priests but they are just a background to the story.

 

Generally the only relatable 'heroes' of the Ecclesiarchy (aside from the SoB) seem to be the low level warrior preachers, and saints, and there is definitely room for more of the former in the background and on the tabletop.

 

Pious Vorne from Blackstone Fortress is an example of a female missionary, but most of the idle speculation before release was whether she was some type of SoB, and until GW does more work defining the wider role of women in the Ecclesiarchy through background and miniatures that's going to be many people's first reaction to such characters. However it doesn't seem like the new waves of female miniatures will be stopping any time soon as they seem to be selling well and have popular support from most of the community.

 

Despite faith being portrayed as the main weapon of the SoB clearly the strongest and most athletic women would become battle sisters (as opposed to the non combat roles) so I think there is a place for the meeker but equally fervent women to serve as priests, and that could be an interesting trait. Day dreaming of such glory while the dull reality is replacing a million incense sticks in their holders.

 

One of the things GW has mentioned a lot is creating more characters that are not either the 'warrior or wizard' role, but fulfilling a support function, and we can see this with the recent GSC cults release, perhaps the SoB redo will give us some new Ecclesiarchy characters, though I do strongly feel with potentially limited resources they should do the SoB justice before focusing on the wider Ecclesiarchy.

Remember, there's a lot of Nonbattle sister Adepta Sororitas. You have the Ordos Famulous, who are diplomats, the Ordos Pronatus who are mechanics/conservationists, the Ordos Dialogus who are linguists, and Ordos Hospitalier who are doctors and surgeons, all who see their task as a holy mission. You don't have to be an amazing athletic fighter to be an Adepta Sororitas, only to be a battle sister.

[Beaky Brigade]

Yes, I did mean battle sisters with a capital B (fighting arms) rather than the wider organisation. We're probably more likely to see elements of those in the new releases.

[Zhiv]

There is all female sect within the Ecclesiarchy  Which is sorta planet-of-the-hats ala GW, where the special thing about this sect is all of them being female. But without doubt some of them are priests and thus female priests do exist within the fluff.

 

Sisters of the Void - A benevolent all-female sect of the Ecclesiarchy, the Sisters of the Void travel the pilgrim paths and Warp routes of the Calixis Sector bringing comfort and aid to crewmen and pilgrims alike.

 

[Servant of Dante]

I just assume there are female priests but GW just forgets to make models or art of them, the same way they generally forget to make models or art of female Astra Militarum .

[RolandTHTG]

I think it's just a failure of imagination rather than discrimination on the part of anyone. Senior 40k Ecclesiarchy members are nearly always portrayed as corpulent, corrupt and scheming and Abrahamic religion (which the Imperial Creed is clearly inspired from) has thousands of years of examples to draw from on such individuals who are male, these religions themselves remaining very male dominated and naturally patriarchal to this day, and it's easy to focus on these aspects when writing satirically.

 

It would be an interesting exercise to imagine a female character in such a position. How do you portray their similar failings without just being a copy of the male 'Cardinal Tubbious' archetype? It's too easy just to make them the only good cardinal or saintly reformer!

 

Remember also that the ordination of women in such religions in the real world is relatively new phenomenon (in the grand scheme of things, my own Grandmother was part of the first generation of C of E priests in the UK in the 1990s), and it's something the effects of which won't be fully understood as soon as other types of job role being opened to women.

 

 

I think a good place to start would be with the papal Saeculum obscurum aka the pornocracy where a mother and daughter managed to get just about every one of their male relatives and/or lovers to be pope over a period of about 60 years. This included them occasionally deposing the pope that the other lady had gotten elected so their favorite would be on the chair. 

 

Another source would be the history of the Medici family, especially Catherine and Marie and their roles in the french religious wars. 

[Marshal Rohr]

"Where are the female Priests?"

 

There are no female Priests, but Imperial Priestesses are everywhere. :P

[Petitioner's City]

There was a female bishop in a recent novel - either one of French's Covenant books or Robbie MacNiven's Carchodons book, I can't quite remember.

[Laughingman]

A good analogue would be the Hasslefree miniatures "Mother Morrigan" (keep in mind Hasslefree miniatures is NSFW)

[A.T.]

I just assume there are female priests but GW just forgets to make models or art of them, the same way they generally forget to make models or art of female Astra Militarum .

 

IIRC the last time GW made an ecclesiarchal model before the current set of boxed games was during the 1997 Sisters of Battle release - 11 male ecclesiarchy models, 21 sisters.

 

They did have a conversion example for a sister sabine (missionary) but it was very much a male/female split with female non-battle sister members of the ecclesiarchy being part of non-militant sororitas factions such as the (unreleased) famulous.

[Arkangilos]

I would have assumed it had to do with the fact that they represent the Emperor, and the Emperor being a man would mean that the representative would be a man, like the Catholic Church that it is based off of.

[Servant of Dante]

 

 

I just assume there are female priests but GW just forgets to make models or art of them, the same way they generally forget to make models or art of female Astra Militarum .

IIRC the last time GW made an ecclesiarchal model before the current set of boxed games was during the 1997 Sisters of Battle release - 11 male ecclesiarchy models, 21 sisters.

 

They did have a conversion example for a sister sabine (missionary) but it was very much a male/female split with female non-battle sister members of the ecclesiarchy being part of non-militant sororitas factions such as the (unreleased) famulous.

The exorcist, Repentia, and a few other models were released in 2004 to go along with Codex: Witch Hunters. I know what the models look like (all the priests are male) but that’s no better a reason to say there are no female priests than looking at the Imperial Guard models and saying there are no female commissars.

 

Edit: I’m not sure if that’s what you were trying to say, I apologize if I’ve misinterpreted your reply.

[taikishi]

They don't exist. Model-wise and maybe not even lore-wise.

 

Women priests are a relatively new thing IRL and the ecchlesiarchy seems to be based on the Roman Catholic Church from around the medieval period. That means any female "priests" would, in fact, be nuns. Battle Sisters and members of the non-militant orders.

 

That said, if you want to have models representing priestesses or non-militant Sisters using the priest rules, I would recommend Brettonian sorceress, Sisters of Sigmar, Baselians from Kings of War, or other female fantasy models. Especially since the first two have been oop for some time.

[Beams]

They don't exist. Model-wise and maybe not even lore-wise.

 

Women priests are a relatively new thing IRL and the ecchlesiarchy seems to be based on the Roman Catholic Church from around the medieval period. That means any female "priests" would, in fact, be nuns. Battle Sisters and members of the non-militant orders.

 

That said, if you want to have models representing priestesses or non-militant Sisters using the priest rules, I would recommend Brettonian sorceress, Sisters of Sigmar, Baselians from Kings of War, or other female fantasy models. Especially since the first two have been oop for some time.

I mean, priestesses have been around since e religion. If you specifically mean Christian priestesses, your more right, but their are still plenty of female preachers or spiritual leaders outside of the modern Catholic Church, and there were definitely female preachers during the 1970s when Warhammer started until now, so there's really no excuse for 40,000 AD to not have them, since Men and Women are relatively equal then, outside of Space Marines.

[Servant of Dante]

The Ecclesiarchy is based on the Catholic Church, yes, but that doesn’t mean that all of its rules are exactly the same. The point is, there is nothing in the fluff saying all priests are male, so one need not assume that there are only nuns, and not female priests. The Ecclesiarchy’s titles and structure are, in a similar way, riffing off of the structure of the Catholic Church, but are not the same (for example, the use of the title Cardinal for what we’d call a Bishop IRL), and while people could become nuns at most any point in their lives in medieval Europe, Sisters, the one nun-based organization we really know about, are solely raised by the Ministorum from infancy.

 

That’s not to say that a person can’t use Catholic rules and tradition to form their headcanon, but I would argue that it is just as valid for there to be female priests as not.

[robofish7591]

Didn't the witch hunter's codex have a converted priestess made out of a Brettonia model?