Iron Gauntlet 2024: The Sisters of Saint Katherine's Aegis

[ThePenitentOne]

I, ThePenitentOne, on behalf of the Sisters of Saint Katherine's Aegis take up your Challenges. I vow, before my brothers and sisters of the B&C to complete Challenge I and submit it to the Liber before the deadline. I vow to support my fellow challengers to the best of my ability. May the Emperor curse me if I fail.

 

Premise:

 

The Sister's of Saint Katherine's Aegis live in a system on the Western Fringe of Pacificus that was liberated by Saint Katherine in the Wars of Faith that followed the execution of the heretic Vandire, and subsequently hidden from the fleet of Cardinal Bucharis after Katherine's flagship destroyed a relay station that marked the warp corridor leading to the system.

 

The Sisters of Saint Katherine's Aegis have been isolated from the Imperium since the Plague of Unbelief. They would describe themselves as the Order of the Fiery Heart; they do not know that their matron saint has been martyred, and they pray to the Emperor for her return.

 

This force will be a mission, though a fairly large one. The are headquartered in Aegis City, the capital of the sparsely populated agriworld Orison's Wake, Several members of the mission are stationed at smaller chapels, scattered throughout the grain-junction settlements that are spread across two continents.  I don't know that I will get the whole mission painted over the course of the event, but I'm good for at least a Kill Team when the time comes.

 

Evolution:

 

This is a Crusade force, and their timeline begins with transmissions from the 7th Blackstone Fortress, which means the Sisters of Saint Katherine's Aegis will be discovered by the Imperium over the course of the campaign. 

 

[twopounder]

Its good to see Sisters get a vow. Speaking of which, have you though of adding specific vows for the mission or some nuance they have for being isolated from the wider Ecclesiarchy?

[ThePenitentOne]

This mission is part of a campaign I've been trying to document since 8th edition, and it's based on an experience that actually happened during an Apocalypse game back in 2008.

 

I was still using the Hunter's dex, and the game required each of the six players to define an objective. Knowing that Saint Katherine had been Alicia Dominica's shield bearer, I chose to define the objective as a Praesidium Protectiva, and Sister Superior Jahalla Athebraxis captured the objective, and was subsequently promoted to Palatine.

 

Fast forward to the Sisters update in 8th ed... And the magnificent release of the Triumph of Saint Katherine.

 

Seeing that Praesidium Protectiva displayed as the sacred relic of the Order, I felt validated, and like I had somehow contributed to the Lore. (I have a similar story about the Kelermorph, but that's a different thread).

 

Anyway, yes: this Order is FULL of stuff that makes them unique... As they consider themselves to be the Order of the Fiery Heart, and they assume their Matron Saint is still alive, they have not yet developed their penchant (and rules) for Martyrdom. Rather, they are known for their indomitable and impetuous nature, which manifests as improved Leadership, morale and surprise tactics.

 

Now, what's awkward about that, is that the paint scheme of Fiery Heart differs from OoOML, who changed their livery after their massacre at Armageddon, which the Sisters of SKA also don't know about. I don't want to paint them one colour and have to change them, so I'm writing the colour change into their recent history; Jahalla, Keeper of the Praesidium, has had visions that prophesy a reunion with the Imperium and the larger Order. These visions include neither the Martyrdom of Katherine, nor the Massacre at Armageddon, nor the renaming of the Order... But they do predict the livery, and the Sisters of SKA, seeing her as Katherine's chosen, follow her lead in adapting her livery in preparation to join the larger order once more.

 

Also:

 

The world on which the Chapel of Saint Katherine's Aegis resides (Orison's Wake) is about to have trouble with both a Genestealer Cult and a Cult of Slaanesh. This required us to add civillians who can be corrupted by either cult, if not properly defended by both the Sisters of SKA and the garrison of Guardsmen assigned to the planet. In the beginning, these cults are mere kill teams, and they must use stealth to grow- attacking the Noble Houses rather than actual military forces. If they are discovered, the Sisters and Guard will hunt them down.

 

Now Orison's Wake is an Agriworld, so the nobility are known as the Thresher Houses. I've created six of them, and I've assigned each of them one of the traits attributed to planets in the GSC's Crusade content. So:

 

Bannerjee = Industry

Tavinder = Community

Kronar = Religion

Jendaro = Military

Syrinx = Resources

Mercer = Politics

 

(Side note: there are two Canadian jokes hidden in those names- Syrinx are named for a song by Canadian rock power trio Rush, and Mercer are named for one of Canada's most famed Maritime pundits, Rick Mercer)

 

So how does this relate to the Sisters of SKA?

 

Well, they are pretty tight with House Kronar. Many of the sisters are actually members of the House, though not Jahalla herself. Furthermore, the Death Cult Assassins that affiliate with the Sisters of SKA are known as the Cult of the Grainmaiden, and they are exclusively women of House Kronar... Though this secret is unknown to any but the Cult of the Grainmaiden themselves.

 

The Grain Maiden is an Orison's Wake myth that predates the Chapel of SKA, and the arrival of the Sororitas in the Desdaemona system. When the Sororitas arrived, they pulled a Bene Gesserit trick and used the Myth of the Grain Maiden to appeal to the citizens, embracing the Grain Maiden as a Saint. There is an annual spring planting festival in Aegis City every year where a Thresher woman is chosen to channel the spirit of the Grain Maiden to bring bountiful crops- I'll be using one of the house Escher outland models to represent her, and she can be a counts-as Death Cult Assassin with other DCA's as Handmaidens. It's only a three day festival, and it only happens once a year, so it's rare.

 

Also:

 

I've used the rules from the 9th ed Tau Crusade book to generate all of the features of the Desdaemona System. Orison's Wake is the the second planet from the sun- it is small and sparsely populated. There is also a world that is the Political Centre of the system (Miranda Regent) and a Hive World (Desdaemona Prime). And interestingly enough, there are Sororitas on these planets too. The Sisters of SKA who are from Orison's Wake are close knit, and somewhat suspicious of off-world folk.... Even other Sisters.

 

This is true of Jahalla's Dominions; five are native Wakers, and that's who Jahalla rides with in the Immolator, because they've all known each other since they were children. The other half of the unit are from Desdaemona Prime, and they work more closely with the Ordo Hereticus than the rest of the Mission. As the Sisters of SKA begin to suspect cult activity, more reinforcements will arrive from Desdaemona Prime, and eventually the Hereticus will come too.

 

I'm about 500-700 words into the article for the first challenge; some of what I've written here will end up in the article, but other stuff is more closely connected to the campaign than it is the Sisters of SKA. I've created a club here on B&C, and the link is in my sig... But I haven't posted an update in ages. What I tried to do was have two separate pages in the club- one specifically for the Chronicles of SKA and one with more generic tools for campaign play. The article that's up in the generic forum is about the correspondences between the planets in the Tau, GSC and Tyranid 9th ed Crusade planet types. Each dex categorizes planets; the Tau assigns a Military and a Diplomatic rank plus a supply chain effect, the GSC assigns four of the six traits listed in my Thresher House table above and a control effect to each type, and the Tyranid dex assigns Biomass and Resistance ratings. But the trick is, each dex categorizes planets differently.... So without thinking of correspondences, you can't always give a planet rules from all three dexes. The article is designed to help people do that, so that Tau can be trying to bring a planet to the greater good at the same time as the GSC is growing their revolution to prepare it for the arrival of Tyranids.

 

A future article will be about making cities and settlements and dividing them into territories for map-based campaign play. The systems I'm using to do that are 8th ed's Urban Conquest combined with Ashes of Faith. Then I'm going to use the system in the article to generate the Settlements and the City on Orison's Wake. There are 8 Settlements consisting of 25 territories each, and only one city of 45 Territories. Each settlement is at a junction of four massive fields, meaning that each corner of a settlement belongs to a randomly determined Thresher House... And doubles are allowed, so some settlements are dominated by a House if they own more than one corner.

 

It's a big process, so I won't write all the details here. But how it relates to this post is that the size of the Mission will depend on how many Churches are generated. The Chapel of SKA itself is in Aegis City, and it's so massive that it occupies four territory slots. I do know that it is where the senior Canoness and the Senior Missionary reside; it is also the headquarters of an Order of Crusaders, and Penitent units are not permitted to darken its glory. By 9th ed standards, it would have been home to a brigade of at least 75 PL.

 

But I have no idea yet how many satellite shrines, chapels and churches exist in the Settlements yet. These are more likely to be randomly generated in Kronar territory, and there can be more than one in each territory. Each one holds at least a Kill Team; some are exclusively Ecclesiarchy, some are pure Sororitas and some are mixed; none support more than a 25 PL Patrol. So until I generate my territories, I don't know how big the Mission is.

 

What I do know is this: planet-wide, there is enough Ecclesiarchal infrastructure to support a Commandery, just not enough sisters. When the Chapel of SKA was built, Katherine herself was present to consecrate the monument and lead the first sermon. For a century, Orison's Wake was as much a shrine world as an agriworld, but when Katherine detonated the Mechanicus Relay Station to prevent the Desdaemona system from being discovered by the Crusade Fleet sent by Cardinal Bucharis, all of the convents in the system were cut off from fresh recruits, the force on Orison's Wake was allowed to dwindle to Mission level because the population of Desdaemona Prime had a greater need for Sisters to help maintain order.

 

Anyway, thanks for the interest. Sorry to spam so much all at once, but writing it out like this helps me figure out what's important enough to be included in the challenge article.