The Order of the Penitent Damned

[Lord_Ikka]

Hello all! Originally I planned on calling this thread "Ikka does Sisters", similar to how some other Frater have titled their threads and then thought about that for all of a half-second before changing it because, well, you know. Anyway, I'm subscribed to the Imperium mag (US) and the Sisters stuff has just started to come out. My initial thought was to simply sell them, as I already have multiple armies and didn't really want/need another project, but then that weird little hobby part of my brain couldn't shut off. I have a lot of Inquisition models (or random models I label Inquisition) and had the old 3rd ed Witchhunters codex back in the day- why don't I just fold in the Imperium Sisters into my Inquisition stuff? So my second plan was to just paint up the Imperium models (comprising the Sisters Combat Patrol without the Rhino) and be done with them. I even had a paint scheme in mind, as I had finished a group of Malleus gene-guards this month and like the ivory armor that I gave them, so no stress on the painting front. A nice, simple little diversion from my competition Necrons/Knights armies and my Primaris SM casual army.

 

Of course, the second plan was not to be. I received quite a few nice Xmas gifts of the hobby variety, pretty much incapsulating all of my current armies and projects (barring Knights). Tucked in there was the Cawdor Redemptionist box from Necromunda that I had put on my list as a last minute filler because I couldn't think of anything else, and I tend to grab Necromunda models as a hobby break for myself from my main armies. A great little box full of six religious wackos who will scream about the God-Emperor while trying to light you on fire and/or rip you apart with chain-weapons. Great sculpts with tons of character. What does this have to do with Sisters? Well, while I was happily putting together the first three Redemptionists, my thoughts turned to the Sisters Canoness I had just received from Imperium, probably because they are all crazy Emperor-botherers (according to Commissar Cain). Pulling up the SoB codex, I found the entries for the Missionary and Preacher- boom, I had just made a Missionary and a Preacher without thinking. I quickly grabbed the flamer-wielding Deacon and slapped a chainsword on his flamer to make another Preacher with a vindicator. This lead to my thoughts spiraling around about how the Redemptionist and Sisters would interact... which lead to a spate of Battlescribing, researching, and spending some eBay gift cards. 

 

So, I now have the contents of Imperium, plus a box each of the Battle Sisters squad, Repentia squad, and Novitiate squad now enroute to my house (or scheduled, for the next three months, in the case of Imperium). 1,000 points worth of Sisters and various Ecclesiarchy goons will soon be mine, with whom I will hopefully pound my friends to dust with for the God-Emperor in a Crusade campaign that I want to get going. This thread will chronicle the rise of the Order and possibly its battles, as I work out some background and start getting models made/painted.

 

Army theme- I'm going for more of a darker take on Sisters than the codex colors. I'd call it Blanchitsu if I wasn't so intimidated by that label and the great painters who already do that style. Subdued ivory/bone, worn leather, oxidized bronze, that sort of thing as far as colors go, but with a marble base effect that I've recently tried and enjoyed. Lots of use of washes, because that's liquid talent that I don't have naturally and don't particularly intend on acquiring (I'm a fast, but mediocre painter who doesn't really like to paint detail/put a ton of time in models, though I love having painted armies). 

Background- A work in progress at the moment. I tend to require an army name before I go into the nitty-gritty of head canon, so right now I'm working towards that. My initial ideas are to have the Order revolving around penance much more than most Orders, a "We are all damned" sort of thing. 

 

Feel free to chip in any thoughts or ideas, this is still very much a nebulous army in my head (as I have all of four models for it in my hands at the moment). 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Lord_Ikka

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

One way to make stuff look more 'grimdark' without drowning it in brown/black washes or Streaking Grime is to add black, white, or grey to the paint colors to de-saturate them. Or go with more realistic military colors that are less saturated than the war game colors in the first place, like the majority of the Vallejo Model Color (VMC) line.

 

As far as the oxidized bronze, I can't imagine a sister or a marine letting their equipment get to that state, and it takes a long time in the open environment for the bright blue/green oxidation to form. I know it's a super popular thing right now and a cheap way to get some bright contrast pop, but it feels so overdone. I've done a worn bronze on a number of my models before by mixing a dark brown 3:1 with a bronze paint, sometimes more if it's not dark enough, and then give it a light drybrush with bronze to highlight the raised areas and I love the way it looks.

[Lord_Ikka]

Good points. I haven't tried the oxidation with this scheme, so it wasn't set in stone. I'll try the darkened bronze first, it might be exactly what I want for a grim look.

[Lord_Ikka]

Found a name I like, inspired by an interesting faction in a book series that sort of works for my theme. Minor fluff to follow, still working it up. Managed to build a Canoness, so that was fun- these girls are quite a bit more delicate than I thought in terms of detail, so it will definitely be a good painting challenge to get them up to snuff!

 

ORDER NAME- The Order of the Penitent Damned
ORDER FOUNDING- 990.M41
ORDER MASTER- Canoness Superior Devinter Acacia
ORDER CONVENT- Convent Sanctorum
ORDER HOMEWORLD- Vorda Secundus
ORDER LIVERY- Aged ivory armour with darkened bronze trim, ashen grey robes
ORDER HERALDRY- None
ORDER HISTORY- 
A minor Order Militant deriving originally from the Order of the Argent Shroud, the Order of the Penitent Damned has a short, occluded history. Founded in the waning years before the Great Rift, what little is known of the order has been gleaned through battlefield campaigns and the rare interactions with their Ecclesiarchy masters. The Penitent Damned are an order devoted to self-punishment and eternal atonement. The Sisters obscure their faces with silver masks in all public appearances and like their Argent Shourd progenitors, speak sparingly. Solemn dirges and funerary hymns announce their presence on the battlefield, as waves of Repentia, arco-flagellants, and Penitent engines storm the enemy lines. With the lamenting melodies on their lips, the ivory-armoured and ash-cloaked Sisters purge heretics with bolter, flame, and blade.

[Lord_Ikka]

Vorda Secundus. Once a verdant agri-world filled with continent-wide swaths of grain, now a shrine and cemetery world. Tomb complexes as vast as hive cities spread along the planet’s crust, studded with crematoriums and temples-moritant that espouse the God-Emperor in his role of Death-Immortam. Rivers of human ashes flow between the tomb-cities; the once green plains are now covered with tombstones and memento mori to the great and the good of the Imperium.

 

It is here, in this world of death, stone, and burning flesh that is the home of the Order of the Penitent Damned; a cold marble bastion whispered as the Quiet Keep by the tomb-castellans and cremator-serfs. Larger than the Watch Citadel of the Adeptus Arbites and rising above the barren plains, the Quiet Keep houses thousands of Sororitas, bonded serfs, and Ecclesiarchy menials. The keep is near silent, the Sisters and their servants clad in silver chastisement-masks and vowed to speak only if absolutely necessary. For the Order of the Penitent Damned is one of dire atonement, of self-inflicted existential agony and the dim hope of the Emperor’s mercy upon death. The Sisters of the Pale Keep believe that they are all damned in the eyes of the God-Emperor and that nothing more than constant battle and eventual death against the Imperium’s foes will allow them to achieve a state of grace.

 

The keep’s thick gates are encrusted with skulls and bound in dark bronze, opening on vast, silent hinges to let out the hunting parties of Novitiates and Repentia. Squads of trainee Sororitas and those seeking greater penance seek out the dangers of Vorda Secundus. Arachnid bone-takers, rogue servitors, and cults of deranged, cannibalistic serfs are rife among the tomb-cities and snaking underground catacombs of the world. For these ferocious predators, their last moments come in a torrent of eerily sung lamentations and snarling chainblades gripped in hands covered in ashen cloaks and ivory armor.

 

Dominions

 

Battle Sisters squad

 

Sisters Novitiate

[Lord_Ikka]

The Ecclesiarchy sends those counted among is most fervent to the Quiet Keep on Vorda Secondus. Driven by zeal and furious faith, these preachers and priests inspire the Sisters to higher feats of devotion and self-recrimination. Fiery oratory, flagellation, and brutal acts of combat valor distinguish these priests and give their charges living proof of the God-Emperor’s will.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work on the Redemptionists, @Lord_Ikka.  

 

They were my first gang back in the day, and I've got something of a soft-spot for them these days  

[Lord_Ikka]

Thanks, I really enjoyed them- I still have three in the box that I'll be working on eventually. I might even get another box, as the bodies themselves are nice because of the robes.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Lord_Ikka

[Lord_Ikka]

Rarely the Sisters of the Order of the Penitent Damned will come upon fanatical members of a rare off-shoot of the Ecclesiarchy, the Church of the Emperor in Blessed Agony. These warrior-cults constantly clash with the cannibals of the catacombs and have formed a unique and deadly belief system that the Ministorum fosters when possible. The Order will take the cult members and give them to the priests, where two forms of training are applied. The first is akin to that of the Cardinal’s Crimson, creating bodyguards and martial wards for Ecclesiarchy priests and allied Inquisitors. Known as the Bone Guard, psychologically modified to be utterly loyal to the Ministorum, they are equipped with massive chainblades that rend opponents into pieces. Heretic skulls adorn their implanted armor, housing in-built repression shields that take deadly blows meant for their wards. The second use for the cultists is as infiltrators and assassins, suicidal killers injected with aggression stimms and pain suppressants to make them survive mortal wounds and still kill their targets. Forgoing any complex weaponry, these death cultists charge forward once they sight the enemy and engage in a flurry of blows with sawblades and bone-mauls. Their skins gleam with the grey-green of corpse flesh, coming from the fungus and bonemeal diets that they ate before being brought into the Ministorum. Their skin color, trophies, and utter fanaticism make them excellent tools for the priesthood to instill terror into heretics.