New BL Series

[ThePenitentOne]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/04/19/justin-d-hill-interview-uncover-the-blazing-passion-that-went-into-writing-pilgrims-of-fire/

 

So Justin D. Hill is writing a nvel called Pilgrims of Fire that about a sister from the Order of Our Martyred Lady who becomes a Repentia during a Crusade that traces the root of Saint Katherine's first war of faith.

 

We've also been told the novel will attend to the Sisters "Hangers-on" - the Penitent Engines and battle conclaves, the non-militant orders, etc.

 

Finally, we know that it's the first in a series, and that each novel will explore a different Order. 

 

So I'm tentatively looking forward to this- it's good to see Sisters get BL attention, particularly the Orders that don't get a lot of attention on the table. Saint Katherine's wars of faith are of particular interest to me, because I've used what little information is available about these as background for my campaign worlds. I'd love to learn more about the witch cult of Mnesttius... But as this traces the FIRST war of Faith, I doubt I'll get that from this book. I've wanted to create a Witch Cult of Mnestteus army using some of the Crusade tools and allied forces.

 

Now it's time to put on the cynicism hat:

 

I don't know Justin D Hill, so I don't have a sense of his style. I will say that in the interview, he refers to "Companies" of Sisters... Who, of course, are not organized in companies, but rather Commanderies. I am concerned that a dude who either does not know this, or has chosen to use the more common Marine structure as a shorthand, is in charge of writing the novel.

 

I'm also a lot less excited about getting a novel for each Order now that Orders don't mean anything in the game since traits are determined by detachment. I had a hard time reading this quote:

 

"Unlike Space Marines, there's no gene-seed uniting each sister to another in her order. The unifying link is the creed that each order follows, which comes through the rituals, rites, stories, prayers and legends that are passed down from one generation to the next."

 

It seems to me that none of this matters in any meaningful way in the game anymore- geneseed doesn't unite chapter members at all- all Marines who fight in a Gladius detachment are the same regardless of Geneseed, and all sisters who fight as a Penitent Legion are the same regardless of the shared rites, rituals, stories and prayers of their Order.

[sitnam]

I mean, Justin Hill had no say in what the rules designers did for subfactions rules. In the lore the differences are very much determined by creed, homeworld, geneseed, etc.

 

Im tepidly looking forward to this novel. I never finished Triumph of St. Katherine, and I'm tired of OoML novels.

[Montford]

I'd love to see the author who writes the Blood Rose stories write one depicting the Bloody Rose and Sacred Rose teaming up to fight some nasty Xenos threat. I can see the Superiors absolutely not seeing eye to eye on things, and the book should be titled The War of the Roses :)

[BluejayJunior]

Justin D. Hill is the author of the Minka Lesk novels. The Cadia Stands series. He's really good. I enjoy his work. Looking forward to see his take on Sisters. 

I think not getting excited because the Orders don't have their own rules (maybe, we don't know the full details yet) is an odd take. I can't see how that takes away anything from the books. Did the different orders have separate rules before 8th edition anyway? Seems odd that the rules for the game affect your enjoyment of the book, especially when it's as granular as that.