Order of the Silent Cathedral

The Order of the Silent Cathedral are a lesser Order of the Adepta Sororitas, located in the Gothic Sector. Since the end of the 12th Black Crusade, the Order has kept a baleful eye on the denizens of the Sector, bringing excessive force to bear in the persecution of suspected heresy. The disproportionate zeal in responding to the influence of Chaos that characterizes it, combined with their aloofness from common citizens and soldiers of the Imperial Guard, has led to a general distrust of the Order, and calls for greater Ministorum oversight.

Chapter History
The Order of the Silent Cathedral was founded by order of Cardinal Udrerak after the end of the Gothic War, circa 200 M41, from the remains of the Battle Sisters garrisoned on Savaven by the Order of the Valorous Heart. Unlike many other Orders, the Sisters of the Silent Cathedral are purposefully grandiose and prideful, looking down on those allies they consider less favoured by the Emperor's Light. Only their gleeful fierceness in battle has kept these diplomatic conflicts with other institutions from escalating.

Appearance
The armour of the Sisters of the Silent Cathedral is a point of pride for the Battle Sisters, since the ceramite is covered by finely worked marble and trimmed with gold. They bear a black cross on their left pauldron, their Order's emblem. Their weapons and the vestments they wear are pure white, with golden embroidery.

Many Sisters bear tokens of Faith and rosettes, which are uniformely carved from black marble.

Combat Doctrine
The Order of the Silent Cathedral is smaller than most, but their elitism leads to gruelling training that makes them highly competent, if arrogant, combatants. The Order therefore fields small units of specialists with vehicular support, opting to remain mobile in orther to inflict the greatest amount of damage before falling back. They will readily make use of their allies to take the brunt of enemy counter-attacks while they race to claim the more glorious engagements of the conflict, and will not hesitate to abandon those whose loyalty and Faith are suspect.

The Sisters of the Silent Cathedral make less use than usual of flamers and similar weapons, preferring the precision of the bolter shell and melta. Heavy weapons are also avoided by the Order, as their unwieldy nature conflicts with the lighting warfare they employ.

Battle Sisters
The bulk of the Order's fighting Sisters. Battle Sisters are normally deployed in squads of four Sisters led by a Sister Superior. Some are issued Storm Bolters to lay down as much fire on the move as possible while the others make use of their grenades, and the fireteam is assigned an Immolator as a support vehicle.

Dominions
Specialists within the Order, the Dominions are assigned the dangerous task of hunting down enemy armour. Issued melta guns and riding Immolators in squads of five Sisters, they push to the front of the battle line to assault enemy strongpoints.

Sheraphim
The Order's elite warriors. The Seraphim are given the best armour and weapons, as well as special training and accommodations. It is their duty and privilege to rain down fury on the enemy soft targets, hitting hard and fast before falling back to ready the next raid.

Angels in Darkness
Chosen from amongst the Seraphim, these black clad figures are the Order's executioners, hounding enemy commanders tirelessly. They are issued rare and special armaments, lethal weapons to bring swift death to the enemies of the Order. Outside of battle, they perform ceremonial duties.

Immolator
The Order of the Silent Cathedral does make an exception for flamers on its Immolators. These armoured vehicles crash through the battlefield at breakneck speed, spewing fire and death into the enemy lines, while the Sisters within shoot from within its ceramite plates.

Armaments
While the Order of the Silent Cathedral has access to most of the standard Sororitas equipment, they have implemented some alternative patterns amongst all of the Sisters.

Butcher Pattern Bolt Pistol
A variation of the Godwyn-De'az Bolt Pistol, the Butcher pattern has a higher rate of fire. Seraphim of the Order use this pattern exclusively, employing it both during battle when targeting enemy soft targets, and after, when executing any suspected heretics. Each brace of Bolt Pistols is lovingly cared for by its owner, and carefully modified over years of battle to better suit.

Echo Pattern Plasma Pistol
Uniquely produced by artisans within the Order, the Echo pattern is made custom for every Angel in Darkness Sister Superior, and buried with the warrior whenever she falls in combat. Powerful and durable weapons, they are used to execute enemy champions in and out of battle.

Order Culture
The Order of the Silent Cathedral stands apart from most other institutions, the pride and aloofness of the Sisters an unbridgeable gap. Acts of devotion and faith are performed constantly, and the Sisters work the marble into their armour as an artistic and meditative exercise. The Order's dogma includes the belief that Faith is Might and that, therefore, the weak are faithless, and undeserving of the Emperor's Grace.

Homeworld
The Order is based on the Dead World of Blanche, a planet covered in tall, arching buildings of white marble, on marble paved streets. The entirety of the world's land mass is covered in the massive structures, and completely devoid of any life. Two moons orbit the planet, a white one roughly four times larger than a black one.

The Convent is situated within an inmense Cathedral made of black marble, situated on the planet's equator, a hulking behemoth of a structure, looming over the white city sprawling away into the distance. Within the Cathedral the Sisters have established their cloister, their training grounds, and shuttle bays to fly into orbit. Within the giant building are also numerous paths downward into the planet, leading to underground mines and power generation facilities.

There is no record of what happened to the original inhabitants and architects of the world-spanning city, having been found abbandoned during the Great Crusade, and falling once more into obscurity in the ensuing chaos.

Recruitment
New Sisters arrive at the Convent from the nearby Scholas in the Sector, and are selected from those whose disdainful and haughty attitudes would jar within other Orders. Once inducted into the Order of the Silent Cathedral, however, the vicious discipline of the Sisters, and their rapacious attitude towards perceived weakness, force the inductees to quickly adapt to the traditions and way of life of the Order.

Saint Nina the Black
Nina Jacquemin was born a scarce decade before Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade was launched upon the Segmentum Obscurus. An orphan of a noble family in a Hive World, her birthright was stolen by a usurping uncle and she was sent away to the Schola Progenia. Bitter and resentful, her Faith in the Emperor was a cold certainty that His vengeance would fall heavily upon those who had wronged her. When her birthworld was destroyed by the Imperial Navy to stop the spread of chaotic corruption, she saw confirmation of her Faith, and felt favoured by the Emperor.

Her cold and uncompromising attitude led to her being assigned to the Order of the Silent Cathedral, where she received her advanced training while engaged in the fighting around the Cadian Gate. Her fierceness and fearlessness led to her quick ascension to the ranks of the Seraphim and, after that, led to her annointment as the youngest Angel in Darkness of the Order's history.

Not long after, as the Order was engaged in action on an Imperial World in the midst of rebellion, her squad was sent in to assassinate an Ascendant Champion of Chaos, but arrived too late, and encountered a newly empowered Daemon Prince. Lying broken on the ground, she was visited by a vision of the Emperor and raised, by His might, to fight once more. Her jump-pack transformed into wings, her pistol elongated into a burning sword, and she battled the Daemon in the skies over the conflict, as war raged on below.

Breaking the body of the Daemon, and banishing its soul to the Warp, she flew down to earth, where her flesh quickly turned to a marble-like stone. The Sisters of the Silent Cathedral buried her in a black marble sarcophagus inside their great Cathedral, there to lie until called for once more by the Emperor in times of great need.

Inquisitor Ukator Ghamsaral
Inquisitor Ghamsaral is a Monodominant Inquisitor of the Ordo Sanctorum. Tasked with overseeing a number of Orders in the Gothic Sector he has, on multiple occasions, turned a blind eye to some of the excessive displays of zeal from the Sisters of the Silent Cathedral. Ghamsaral's own preference for conflict as a method of separating the wheat from the chaff leads him to view the Order as a useful ally in his quest to create a stronger, more pious, humanity.