Saint Interlude
The Abhuman 'Karak' was well appointed, Hermina had to say that at least as she walked slowly through the halls, leaning heavily on her staff and her attendants.
Her joints ached, they always did now, and especially so in the dank halls of the Dwarven city.
The place stunk, not of corpses anymore or goblin muck, that had been cleared by the Noviates. No, it stank of old death, this great palace in the mountain was a tomb, and even now Sisters were seeking the depths to erect defenses against further Greenskins.
It was amusing, even after all these years, Hermina thought, that the Astartes still refused to investigate the natives of Mallus. They'd continued to lump Goblins in with the Orks. It was foolish, for the in the years on the planet the Missonia had learned that Goblins had a certain cruelty absent from their cousins. Some aspect of fearsome intelligence and low cunning.
But then again, the Celestial Lions couldn't be everywhere…
"This will do." Hermina said, looking about. They stood in the largest hall, the ceiling vaulted, though many of the arches were cracked and here and there she saw piles of stone which had fallen.
At one end of the great chamber the Sisters were tearing down monuments to the Bad Moon, the local goblin deity. At the other end construction servitors were already bearing away chunks of rock along with work gangs and other Sisters assigned to menial duties due to some infraction.
"It is late." Olga said, the Cannoness of the new Order was stark beside Hermina. Her rune axe glowed in the dark, her plate glinted, for she rarely went without it in these days, even when in the fortress itself. "I'll find you a chamber."
Hermina nodded, "No food. Water only."
"My lady…"
"No." Hermina repeated. They were always trying to get her to eat.
She walked slowly after the others. Olga could see to the fortress after all. Hermina had studied warfare during her training but she had no great skill for it.
The visions gnawed at her.
The champion, the lawkeeper, the healer…
Olga's guards led her to a small chamber a level down. The stairs were difficult on her knees and she groaned as they reached the bottom. The Celestians Olga had assigned to her looked between them, but they knew better than to offer help.
Tomorrow, Hermina would inspect the first shipments of munitions from the Metallican Procurators. They'd been assured of power armour, the first new supply in years, and finally they'd be able to put away the mix of runic equipment, locally produced steel armour and Munitorum-grade flak plate that they'd been forced to adopt previously.
There'd been a desire to be better than the Astartes. The Space Marines had to downgrade their armour as well, but at least theirs were still power armour, rather than the ridiculous array of equipment the Sisters had over the last twenty years of so. Hermina suspected they'd be receiving old Astartes equipment, or parts of it at least. After all, a servo or a muscle fibre would work for a Sister's armour just as it did for an Astartes.
In truth, the whole affair was rather strange, and to an extent verged on heresy. Yet, The Missonia Galaxia had to deal with such problems regularly, and Hermina and Olga had become comfortable enough with it. In the early years it had been difficult, there had been a year cut off, aboard the missionary vessel stuck in orbit. Two of her bodyguards had died against the mutant crew, and even after they were saved and brought down, the mission had become complicated. First Medes, where Hermina's faith had banished a daemon, then the rule of that kingdom for many years afterward, travelling as emissary and state-maker about the Old World, but also seeing the Mission wither.
Olga's charge had been worse. At first the Astartes had dumped a seemingly random array of young women and children on the Sisters, apparently not knowing what to do with them. The women themselves had been confused, disappointed that their ritual purpose as sacrifices or brides had been so callously discarded, but they had become Brides of the Emperor. Olga took them, trained them, established the first convent of the Soroitas in the mountains at the World's Edge. The Order had grown, first dozens, then hundreds, and deep in the mountains they'd turned to planning.
It was not enough to leave the Astartes to rule Mallus. The world was too important for that. Hermina had known that early on, after all, a world that could resist the summoning of Greater Daemons? A world with at least two active Warp Gates? A world with clear signs of tampering by elder races and more recently by others like the Eldar? No, the Lions could bumble about with their bolters, it was up to the Mission and the Order to see the Compliance through.
But beginnings were a fragile time, oh so fragile… The Astartes were trying to smother the Mission. Slowly, quietly, indeed it was unlikely them, impressively so. Through their Shadow-Administratum, through their assumption of diplomatic duties they were completely unsuited for, through wilful ignorance, the Lions had slowly broken down the Mission, kept Hermina in Medes so she couldn't easily travel about on her duties, and presumably hoped that Olga and the others would just die off on their own.
But it hadn't worked. The Mission had spread across Mallus now, made connections with the native cults, began to influence them, and now they had a military force. Three thousands now, and thousands more would follow, Brides of the Emperor, hidden in a new Order, their loyalties to the Mission, not the heretics who called themselves the 'Masters of Mallus', who called a daemon their own Chapter Master.
Many a time the steps toward her own heresies had caused Hermia to doubt, and many times she'd felt herself nearing a precipice. With Olga's help they'd assembled quantities of 'enchanted' items, of rune weapons and armour, they'd made secret embassies to the Abhumans and humans of Mallus both. Those were heresies, necessary ones, but they laid heavy on her heart.
But then, in that time of trouble and uncertainty, the Saints had come.
Hermina didn't truly recognise them at first. She'd gone so long without the comfort and stillness of the convent, but she'd felt it in her heart, she'd felt the purity of faith.
The first was the warrior. Garbed in gold, a beautiful woman with a spear and shield. She stood before the foe, her weapon bright.
The second was the lawkeeper, blind and stark, she bore a sword and brought order where the first destroyed.
The third was the healer, who bore salves and bound wounds, she made the world right.
Their whispers and kindness brought Hermina back to faith. The spear, the sword, the salve, these truly were the tools of the Soroitas, whether the Ordos Militant, or the other duties of the wider Ministorum such as Hermina's own Missonia Galaxia. By the intercession of the saints Hermina's faith was renewed, and her purpose clear. Through their instruction, the Confessor had put plans in motion, and through their guidance her aged body was made strong once again.
"My lady, I'll fetch a heat unit-"
"No." Hermina replied. The cold was good for the soul, and Hermina didn't intend to stop her fast for anyone. Cold and hunger, it reminded her of her childhood and it was good.
Tomorrow she would review the Sisters in array, tour the fortress. But tonight she had work to do.
The Celestians found a table and stood quickly and Hermina brought out her quill and began to write. She'd been working on the text for years, and the cover would be beautiful indeed.
While Olga and her squad had been members of the Order of the Bloody Rose, Mallus needed an Order of it's own, and the Saints had shown Hermina the way. The Mallusian Sisters would be the Daughters of Elyra, the Order of the Bloody Veil. Elyra had supposedly been a saint during the Horus Heresy who's faith in the early cult of the Emperor had shielded her sector from the Ruinstorm summoned by the traitors in their war.
In the new Order, Elyra had been reimagined as a martial warrior. A Lady of Swords, and the cover of the book depicted her as one of the Adeptus Soroitas, garbed in rich red plate and bearing a golden sword. She wept, tears of blood running down perfect cheeks, and the influence of the Order of the Bloody Rose was plain.
This book would be Hermina's legacy. First to teach the Order their duties in the centuries to follow, to educate them on the structure of the Ministorum and wider Imperium, to make them sure in their purpose and confident in their inevitable victory.
Second it would show the revelations Hermina had received, the pure words and rituals the Saints had taught her in their visitations. They would be a powerful talisman for the Order in future years.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, the treatise would serve as a warning and secret directive, known only to the most senior of the Order, hidden in coded prayers and cyphers. The Celestial Lions and their daemon master must fall. Whether in one year or a thousands, Mallus must be pure and the entire Chapter had to be destroyed. Even if the daemon Amra himself were banished, the Chapter was impure, the psychic mutation running rampant through them. The Order and the Ministorum would grow within the Mallusian bureacracy, evading the works of the Arch-Factor and his Claws. That their loyalty was absolute was necessary, or at least that it was perceived so, and Hermia had laid plans to ensure the true alleigance of the Sororitas wouldn't be discovered.
Hermina wrote long into the night. Her pen scrawled across the pages and the little shaker of salts and sacred herbs had to be refilled twice to keep the pages dry. In the end though, it was done, and Hermina sat back on her knees, taking up her rosary. She lit a single candle and knelt in prayer, a smile on her face. She was content, for the first time in many years.
The Celestant bodyguards didn't disturb her, they never did when she prayed. But when she stopped moving they thought she slept, as she sometimes did, even as she knelt in prayer. Olga came the next day, the Cannoness herself bearing a tray of food to try and tempt the Lady into eating. The tray clattered to the floor when Hermina didn't respond, and not even the beatific expression on her face was enough to stop the sorrow of the Sisters.
With all honour they bore the Lady to a burial chamber, her hair shift, her rosary and her pen would become relics of the Order, while her shawl would be bound to the battle-standard of the Sisters and borne into the fray in later years. Most important though was the book itself. Olga read it first, she had worked long with Lady Hermina and she knew much of the contents already, but as soon as she finished Olga dreamed of the Saints too, except this time they were four.
The Warrior, the Lawkeeper, the Healer yes. But another figure joined them, a smiling old woman, her back bent by long labour, her form withered by fasting and struggle. She would be Saint Hermina, her attribute the book she carried and the Word she bore, and her Mission would guide the Order for many years.
Lady Hermina, ruler of Medes and head of the Missionia Galaxia, dies!
Relic gained: The Revelations of Saint Hermina - A treatise penned by Lady Hermina in the twilight years of her life, to inspire the Soroitas to greater feats of heroism. The text speaks of the virtues of the Ministorum, and the revelations Hermina received from the three saints who visited her. Through this text and the subsequent testimony of certain Sisters, Hermina is now acclaimed as a Saint of the Imperium, and the patron of Mallus and the Order of the Bloody Veil in particular.
Gained the Order of the Bloody Veil, the Mallusian force of Adeptus Soroitas, headquatered in the mountains of the Vaults, and self-sufficient in equipment and munitions, the sponsors of the newly reorganised orders of the Ministorum beneath the aegis of the Chapter.
Gained 2000 Sisters of Battle, armed with power armour and bolters. The Soroitas are less capable in battle than the Space Marines, and lack many specialists capacities, but they still easily surpass even the best of the Chapter's other mortal servants in valour and faith.
Ministorum assets are reorganised into:
- The Order of the Bloody Veil, also known as the Daughters of Elyra, are a Mallusian Ordo Militant Convent of Adeptus Soroitas based in the mountains of the Vaults. The Order sponsor and direct all other Ministorum groups and assets on Mallus.
- The Keepers of the Book, the Order's elite Celestants charged to protect the Order's relics and senior officers. The Keepers also bear a number of Mallusian magical items with various protective effects, including ruinc equipment.
- 400 Sisters armed with traditional Soroitas equipment including power armour and bolters.
- 1500 Noviates, armed with poorer quality equipment, but rapidly being reformed as munition stores increase.
- Limited vehicles and support units.
- The Missionia Galaxia, a force of translators, missionaries, medicae and other staff to study, engage with, and convert the population of Mallus.
- The Frateris Militia, irregular formations of male warriors and pilgrims, the Frateris skirt the Decree Passive that the Ministorum will maintain no 'men under arms', but due to their irregular nature are tolerated. The Frateris tend to congregate around major Ministorum temples, and are particularly prevelant in Medes. The Militia possess relatively poor quality equipment, due to their status as an irregular force.
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