ADEPTA SORORITAS / SISTERS OF BATTLE Lore Primer! Warhammer 40k Faction Lore & Origins

hi gang in Warhammer 40 000 the adapter sororities or the sisters of battle are one of the most elite Armed Forces at the disposal of the Imperium or more particularly at the disposal of its Church a Galaxy spanning Army of devout battle nuns marching under the banners of the god Emperor and filled with holy purpose The Sisterhood is one of the most recognizable symbols of Imperial power but this was never meant to be because they owe their existence to a loophole in a law designed to stop the church from ever holding so much power again [Music] so in 40K the adapter sororities or sisters of battle are the Armed Forces of the adeptus minostorm the organization that maintains and controls the state religion of the Imperium the worship of the god Emperor its Bishops and Cardinals can call on the services of thousands upon thousands of highly trained and lavishly equipped Warriors clad in ornate power armor and wielding the Holy Trinity of the bolt gun the flamer and the melter their righteous armies marched to war with the absolute certainty that they're doing the work of the god Emperor whether Prosecuting a war of Faith against systems that have turned apostate to the worship of chaos serving as honor guards for sacred artifacts purging the Heretics and unbelievers rooted out by witch-hunting inquisitors or serving alongside the armies of the Astra militarum or the Space Marines as they Shore up the defenses of the empire him against innumerable threats like those Space Marines The Sisters of the adapter are seen as almost Angelic figures by Imperial citizens the holiest symbols of their God Emperor are ones that are far more likely to be encountered by the general population as one of their remits is to guard the cathedrals and shrines present on every Imperial World despite the lack of genetic engineering that characterizes the Space Marines the sisters are still one of the most elite fighting forces that the imperium's disposal marching forth under holy icons and Loud hailers bellowing hymnals ornate repressor and emulator tanks disgorging battle sisters who've spent their entire lives training to purge the enemies of the emperor and the fuel for all this is Faith a fanatical religious devotion and righteous seal that manifests itself on the battlefield in holy Miracles or in the vaunted figures of living Saints the Willing martyrdom of their Leaders inuring The Souls of the battle sisters against the horrors of the warp and this is all despite the fact that the church isn't meant to have any armed forces at all the imperium's history is littered with corrupt and power hungry priests and apostate Cardinals Wars of faith that were prosecuted for political ends as much as as a defense against the dark Forces one too many corrupt ecclesiasts and frivolous religious Crusades saw the ecclesiarchy banned from maintaining any military but despite that the adapter sororities has grown to be one of the most recognizable symbols of the Imperium a huge Army an elite and imposing representation of the power of the holy church and how that happened was as much a legal loophole as a necessity the history of the sisters of battle starts relatively recently in 40K terms anyway many of the institutions that make up the Imperium from the Armed Forces of the Space Marines or the ashimilatarum to the more secret organizations like the Inquisition Trace their founding back to either the emperor's great Crusade stayed in the 31st Millennium or the reorganization of the Imperium that followed it but The Sisterhood was formed 5 000 years later at the start of the 36th Millennium during a period known to imperial history as the age of apostasy one of the less expected results of the Horus heresy was the popularization and then establishment of an official Imperial religion the Imperium of the emperor was secular the great Crusade intended as a way of stamping out religious belief that might fuel the powers of chaos and the emperor insisted he was a powerful man not a God but with his internment in The Golden Throne after suffering mortal wounds at the hands of Horus the betrayer numerous Cults sprang up that revered him as one as a god Emperor one the Temple of the Savior Emperor grew in influence so much that eventually with two-thirds of the Imperium unofficially following it it was formally recognized as the official state religion of the Imperium in the 32nd Millennium in the 3 000 years that followed this new adeptus minostorum or ecclesiarchy would grow in power its leader the ecclesiarc became one of the high Lords Of Terror and it constructed Cathedrals and shrines on every world of humanity imposing its own series of tithes to pay for them as the state religion exerted a massive amount of control over the lives of Imperial citizens any deviation from its doctrines would see the perpetrators executed as Heretics and over time it even started to operate its own armed forces the lavishly equipped armies and fleets of the frateris Templer prosecuted Wars of Faith against planets who resisted the word of the god Emperor or whose beliefs in him deviated too far from its own Orthodoxy by the end of the 35th Millennium the adeptus ministorum was one of the two most wealthy and Powerful branches of Imperial governance maintaining power bases on terror and on its principal Cardinal world of Ophelia 7 running its own warfleets and armies and locked in a political power struggle with its own only real rival of any size the adeptus administratum the Imperial bureaucracy in the early 36th Millennium warp travel was disrupted as warp storms began to increase in frequency isolating and cutting off whole systems from Imperial control which was weakened itself due to the infighting between its two most powerful institutions as human populations turned to bloodthirsty witch hunts to try and appease their God Emperor and end the warp storms the balance of power started to shift towards the ecclesiarchy and into this stepped goge van Dyer the 361st high lord of the administratum a ruthless and ambitious man who was a great opponent of the church shortly after being elected to highlord he took advantage of the weakness of the then ecclesiarch paulus III and led a military coup executing him as a traitor and assuming the Dual role of high lord of the administratum and ecclesiarc purging anyone in the ministerum who disagreed with him this this was the start of Van Dyer's reign of blood effectively in control of the imperium's government and much of its armed forces the administratum ultimately controls the astral militarum vandya was revealed as a paranoid megalomaniac a bloodthirsty Tyrant convinced he was in possession of holy messages from the emperor himself many Imperial institutions started to distance themselves from him as he launched Fleet after Fleet on suppression campaigns the second a warp route reopened armies of frateris Templar and astrum militarum troops would fall on world after world whole planets were subject to exterminatus at his whim but it was around this point that his agents became aware of a little-known sect on the Primitive world of San Leo known as the daughters of the emperor the daughters of the emperor were an all-female Cult of warrior Aesthetics devoted to Inner Purity studying the ancient Arts of War for their entire lives they were small maybe only 500 strong but van Dyer was intrigued and arranged an official ecclesiarical visit to the planet where initially barred entry from their Temple he used a concealed conversion field to convince the order that he had the Divine protection of the emperor himself with the daughters of the emperor in awe of him he elevated their sect to the position of ecclesiarchal bodyguard and relocated them to Terror where they became his personal Army renamed the brides of the emperor they were re-equipped with the best weapons and armor supplied by the forges of Mars in return for Van Dyer's graceful tolerance of the mechanicus's religious differences and trained by officers from Elite Imperial Guard regiments they became a symbol of Van Dyer's Reign and accompanied him everywhere serving not only as bodyguards assassins and executioners but also as companions entertainers and Physicians to the Ecclesia within his palaces with the warp storms showing no signs of Disappearing this bloody and corrupt regime continued for another 7 20 years Millions burning in the fires of Van Dyer's paranoia until reports started filtering in of a rebellion in the far away segmentum obscurus on dimmer a young preacher called Sebastian Thor had thrown a priest from his pulpit and spoken out against the evils of Van Dyer's Reign so convincing was he so obviously touched by the emperor that he'd already convinced a small army to his cause and was making his way slowly towards Terror the high Lords put together a colossal Armada to impose his forces but as they set out from the solar system they were destroyed by a warp storm that became known as the storm of the emperor's wrath Sebastian Thor's Army only grew as he made his way through the Galaxy factions isolated by Van Dyer like the mechanicus and the Space Marine chapters threw their weight behind him and things came to a head in an eventual Siege of the Imperial Palace the stalemate ground on for months the walls defended by those Imperial Guard loyal to Van Dyer the frateris Templer and the bride AIDS of the emperor until at last the adeptus custodies of the inner Palace intervened they appeared to the leader of the brides Alicia Dominica and her five trusted Companions and led them through the most secret corridors of the palace complex until they were brought into the presence of the emperor himself the first mortal humans in six Millennia to commune with him what is said is unknown but after the audience Dominica Furious rejected the name Brides of the emperor marched directly into van Dyer's throne room and cut the head from his shoulders Sebastian Thor would eventually become ecclesiarc and sweeping changes were enacted on the adeptus ministorum to prevent future corruption one of these was the formation of a second official holy Synod to govern the ministorum the Synod Minister on Ophelia 7 would balance out the power of the Holy Synod on terror and another was the formation of the Odo hereticus of the Inquisition formed as much to root out heresy within the ministorum as within its flock but one one of the biggest restrictions was the decree passive the adeptus minostorum were barred from Raising men under arms and The Fleets and armies of the frateris Templar were disbanded but the minister room insisted on some sort of military force to protect its Shrine worlds and holdings and so Thor kept control of the only Army he legally could after the ban the daughters of the emperor the organization was officially renamed the orders militant of the adepta sororities and greatly expanded this flouting of the spirit of the decree passive didn't sit well with many of the high Lords and so a compromise was reached which saw the adapter also swear Oaths of loyalty to the new Ordo hereticus bound to serve as a chamber militant of the Inquisition against the adapters ministorum if need be by the end of the 36th Millennium the orders militant of the adepta sororities or sisters of battle as they were known were split into four orders each originally led by one of dominica's companions who stood in the presence of the emperor in in the convent prioress on terror where the order of the urban chalice originally led by Dominica herself and the Order of the Argent shroud led by sylvaner and at the convent sanctorum on Ophelia 7 where the order of the Fiery Heart led by Catherine and the Order of the valorous heart led by Lucia But as time went on and the power of the ecclesiarchy started to grow once again the orders continued to expand in the 38th Millennium two more orders militant were added the order of the bloody rose on Ophelia 7 and the Order of the Sacred rose on terror dedicated to Mina and Arabella the final two companions a numerous smaller orders minoris existed spread across the Galaxy and with their own liveries and minor doctrinal differences in addition many of the other duties of the daughters of the emperor have been preserved eventually organized into non-militant orders each of these specialized in a different holy service the order dialogues are specialists in Translation negotiation and Battlefield rhetoric translating ancient religious texts and studying the languages of newly discovered human worlds to bring them into the light of the emperor the order fabulous manipulate the Bloodlines of the noble families of the Imperium serving as advisors to planetary Governors and allowing the ecclesiarchy to maintain its position at the top of the Imperial hierarchy the order hospitaler provide indomitable Battlefield Medics not only to the militant orders of The Sisterhood but across the Imperium often finding service in the war bands of inquisitors or alongside Astra militarum regiments the orders Sabine infiltrate newly discovered worlds sowing the seeds of the Imperial Creed and Paving the way for Imperial missionaries and even smaller than that the order for nestris are the sacred order responsible for the holy task of maintaining the um stained glass windows in all the Imperial cathedrals broadly this structure has stayed the same all the way into the 41st Millennium with a few minor differences like the renaming of the order of the Fiery Heart to the order of our martyrd Lady after the loss of their leader Catherine the nominal head of the adapter sororities is the head of the adeptus minostorum the ecclesiarch but in practice command of the organization falls to the Abe sanctorum and from there the two prioresses of the Covenant prioris and the convent sanctorum the different orders being officially split between those two each orders led by a Canales who holds the title of Canon s Superior and if it's big enough is split into various preceptories of around a thousand battle sisters led by a Canon s preceptor generally the largest organizational unit deployed at any one time preceptories are further broken down into commandaries of around 200 sisters led by a Canon s Commander a common scale for the garrisons the orders maintain on sites of holy significance and below this is the mission the smallest organizational unit composed of a number of squads and dedicated to a specific objective and commanded by either a Palatine or a canonest depending on the task at hand below that come the squads of battle sisters themselves led by their sisters Superior grim and completely dedicated Warriors trained since childhood for life in the orders the adapter sororities almost exclusively recruit through the scholar proginium system a network of orphanages run by the ecclesiarchy for the children of Imperial servants that Supply trained recruits to many many Imperial organizations Life In The Scholar can be harsh the orphans broken down by drill Abbotts and rebuilt into model Imperial citizens educated and trained for the jobs they'll be assigned for the rest of their lives many are destined for the administratum as scribes or the ministorum itself but the most martial of the students might be earmarked out for military service as adeptus arbites or as the commissars and tempesta Scions of the astrum militarum or even for the most promising recruits advancement to the officio assassinorum those girls who display the mix of piety determination and physical prowess required are destined for The Sisterhood removed from the control of the drill habits and becoming novitious under the tutelage of a novitia superior from there their life becomes one of unceasing training and devotion their days a mixture of prayer and combat drill in fact for the women of The Sisterhood the line is blurred between the two for years they're schooled in armed and unarmed combat in tactics and in the many Unholy enemies they might have to face and alongside this the ability to recognize and steal themselves against the many moral threats hated by the Imperium those of the heretic and the apostate part of this training is deployment alongside the regular sisters as novitia squads with training versions of the weapons they'll later use as full battle sisters as their training progresses they'll be inducted in the use of blessed power armor and the drills required to make use of the Holy Trinity of sacred weapons The Balter melter and flamer the three weapons The Sisterhood consider expressions of The Emperor's Divine will and from there they'll will be assigned to an order initially into a battle sister Squad deployed into one of the many wars of Faith declared by the ministorum or across the Galaxy as garrisons for Shrine worlds or honor guards for holy relics though the orders of the adapter sororities are all nominally based on either Terror or Ophelia 7. in practice they each maintain their own parishes across the Galaxy and deploy their missions and commanderies outside these domains as and when the need arises the battle sisters assigned to these missions might be accompanied by auxiliary assets maintained by the order from the Templar battle fleets that transport them the only remnant of that organization still in existence or the confessors militant of the ministerum and their servants Crusader bodyguard or the insane Arco flagellants and penitent engines built from the bodies of Heretics as a punishment for some sin once they reach their location bands of frateris militia flock to their cause a barely organized rabble of the faithful eager to die by the side of the Holy sisters battle sisters who show initiative or tactical aptitude might be reassigned to support squads like the fast-moving Dominion squads or the heavily armed repressors and those that exhibit the greatest Faith or are blessed with visions of the emperor might be assigned to the Angelic seraphim or zephyrim serving not only as Airborne assault troops but also as the holy symbol of the emperor made manifest and if the sisters survive long enough they might earn promotion into the ranks of the celestians the veterans and Bodyguards of the order and from there into command ranks like the imagefas palatines or even cannonesses by comparison those battle sisters who fail in their Duty may be punished by the ceremonial stripping of their armor and War gear and reassignment to the repentia to seek atonement for their sins on the battlefield armed with a colossal eviscerator an armored only in filthy rags those repentia who achieve atonement are considered blessed but those who fall further and flee their enemies are punished even more severely wired into the permanent Agony of a mortar factor and engine and let loose on the front lines they're self-loathing and suffering powering the engine as it cuts through the enemy in a frenzy all this makes the sisters a battle Grim figures The Sisterhood does not preach or conduct missions it does not forgive Sinners leave that to the priests of them in astorum The Sisterhood exists as a tool of punishment for those already considered Guilty by the church a deployment of battle sisters may result in the relief of embattled Imperial forces their shining Faith stealing The Souls of the regular soldiery of the Imperium or it might equally result in whole cities burnt at the stake for minor religious crimes the sisters overseeing thousands of ritual burnings with an inhuman Detachment born of their own certainty and righteousness the sisters of battle are one of the biggest contradictions in the Imperium they exist as a legal loophole Runner muck a colossal military force dedicated to the protection and empowerment of one of the most corrupt arms of the Imperium specifically allowed to exist list because of a technicality in a lore designed to remove their power their religious Fanatics indoctrinated as children their Authority claimed in the name of a being whose main goal was to Stamp Out worship and Superstition who burned cities for the crime of worshiping him and their manifestations of faith and living Saints are psychic phenomena that in anyone else would get them burned at the stake as a witch and because of all these contradictions because of their own absolute certainty they're one of the most interesting factions in the Imperium and certainly one of the best illustrations of the hypocrisy corruption and mismanagement it's famed for thanks for watching [Music] and if you'd like to hear more Warhammer 40K lore there's a little box popping up there on the right and if you'd like to support the channel there's some affiliate links in the thing below as well as a link to the patreon see ya [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you

Channel: Arbitor Ian

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Id: RbNQZc0o5hI

Length: 20min 49sec (1249 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 19 2023