|
First of all I want to say that I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the whole lore but know bits and parts about things that interest me so that's why I wanted to ask your opinion and help about this and also I’m sure there are people here who created one or two homebrew chapters, orders or whatever for themselves so I would love some help and suggestions.
Where did it originate:
So this idea came out from a character that I'm preparing to play in the Dark Heresy 2e game. She is an Adepta Sororitas training to be SoB who developed psyker abilities (I know heresy) who is connected to both in general idea wise and lore wise to my favorite Warhammer character Ephrael Stern. I was thinking about her backstory and thought it would be cool that by the help of an older sister in Schola Progenium who protects her and helps keep her abilities secret, directs her to this mystery person who is bit of a hush hush legend among some sisters and a newly formed order who would look way more kindly towards her abilities. So that way my character’s purpose is going to be finding Ephrael Stern and joining this order that was born out of the people who support Stern and see her as a saint and humanity's most powerful weapon against its enemies instead of a heretic and a mutant. I also wanted to collect, paint and hopefully play with some Warhammer minis for a long time but unfortunately never happened yet though Adepta Sororitas was one of my top picks. So maybe I can finally buy a box of Battle Sisters Squad for a Kill Team and paint them as my homebrew order!
The Backstory:
Unfortunately I couldn't read the 2 Ephrael Stern comics because the physical copies are nowhere to be found but I did couple of wiki readings in general, about SoB and particularly about Stern so while I surely don't have all the knowledge about the character, I know couple of things probably not enough but the reason I'm writing here is to tap into your knowledge so…
Anyways from what I read the Stern's status is kind of complicated. Even though the first time she resurrected and gained her psyker powers they let her go because they couldn't find any corruption in her, now it says she is hunted by Inquisition because they see her as a heretic after her last death but also she is able to command big Sisters of Battle forces because they trust her and she shows them she is not a heretic by the way of using her holy powers against the enemies. This complication is actually both a good backdrop for me but also can be tricky to write if I want to stay true to the lore. So the order would be seeing these psychic abilities are not the same as witches nor even sanctioned psykers but like Stern herself believes bestowed upon the Emperor himself like their other abilities some dismissed as just luck. I mean if some random person got psychic powers that is dangerous and needs to be dealt with but if the Emperor's most beloved got them? That surely meant to be right?
The order is born out of the idea of Ephrael's powers but also because of psychic awakening and the rise of psykers in Imperium, the psykers who popped up among Adepta Sororitas increased as well. This gradually makes some of the sisters view themselves and other sisters with abilities as Ephrael, as a savior and powerful weapons against their enemies. Because of Stern most of the sisters in the order who possess these abilities are mostly focused on sanctic daemonology as well and while they don’t step away from hunting heretics and mutants, their main focus is daemon hunting and chaos related.
The order is like Astartes' Deathwatch, a mix of sisters coming from other orders to join the cause and take side with Stern. That's why it has very few newly joined sisters since among most of Schola Progenium and high ranking sisters the order is a disgrace and they rarely talk about it apart from some who are supporters. But their numbers are increasing while Stern’s legend grew and because of this I maybe give their paint and armor a little bit of Deathwatch touch like one of their shoulder pads having the symbol of their previous order and the other is this. Also maybe some simple color touches here and there that reflect their previous order.
Can Stern be the patron saint of this order? That I don't know for sure. Like what constitutes a patron saint? Depending on how you look at it Ephrael Stern can be considered as a Living Saint right? I mean she died 3 times and was resurrected. She is living saintx3. But yeah I’m sure some of you all have more knowledge on this subject. If not, maybe some homebrew character might be a patron saint or maybe just adopting Saint Katherine from Our Martyred Lady since the majority of the sisters in this order would be from that.
Overall this order while not liked by majority and even internally planned to getting rid of by Ecclesiarchy and/or Inquisition because of their radical nature, the influence Ephrael Stern over other sisters and her actions showing that she truly is a powerful weapon for Imperium and dedicated to Emperor prevents everyone taking an official action or even prevents them outright disowning the order.
The Name:
I first thought about "Dextera Domini Rex" as in The Right Hand of God-Emperor. I don't know if it’s the best translation to Latin since some words and meanings do not perfectly translate but this was the coolest sounding translation lol. And if I go with this name their symbol would be literally the Hand of God fresco in Sant Climent de Taüll just the hand is replaced by the armored hand of God-Emperor. But then I thought about how some would see this order as more radical and out of the ordinary even some say heretic and evil. So I remembered in western esotericism “left hand path” used to often perceived as selfish, related to black magick and evil but nowadays it’s understood way more as a path to break taboos and abandoning of set moralities while actually in the end the goal is the same as the “right path” just the destination is different. So “Sinistra Domini Rex” maybe would be way more fitting as in The Left Hand of God-Emperor. And the symbol would be just the same but flipped. Though in the lore some names in WH definitely use Latin, looking at both official and homebrew chapters and orders, they rarely named them in Latin. The names almost always consist of one adjective and a name. So maybe while their full name is in Latin the short English version can be like Order of The Left Hand. But I’m not sure if anyone has a more lore accurate name that fits the context, I would love to hear it.
The Colors:
This part will mostly be way more important when I actually get my hands on some minis but for now it's not a priority for me but my first thought was Purple cloak and gold armor and maybe black or white in details inspired by Ozymandias’s costume from Watchmen. Plus the shoulder pad details I talked about related to their previous orders. But I'm pretty open for suggestions.
And that’s it. Thank you for reading first of all and I would love to hear your opinions, suggestions and overall help. Thank you in advance.
|
