Faith in the God-Emperor is a tangible force in the 41st Millennium, as loyal citizens invoke the Master of Mankind to protect them from the aliens, mutants, and heretics that claw at their doors. Across countless worlds zealous preachers carry the torch of the Imperial Creed to trillions of mortal souls, but when the pious come under attack, the horrors of the archenemy are met by a force of divine avengers who safeguard the Imperium with faith and fire.
They are the Adepta Sororitas, a martial sisterhood of elite warriors armed and armoured with their devotion to the God-Emperor as much as their weapons and battle plate. Their furious charges ring with a beatific chorus, hearts swelling with spiritual fire, and few are the foes who can stand firm in the face of their overwhelming devotion. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these ardent defenders of the faith.
New to the world of Warhammer 40,000? This quick-fire primer will get you up to speed on the pious warriors of the Adepta Sororitas – who they are, how they look, and the way they play on the tabletop.
Thousands of years before the present day in Warhammer 40,000, the Imperium was rocked by a coup that left the Administratum and Ecclesiarchy under the control of an insane and megalomaniacal demagogue – Goge Vandire. While consolidating control over the Imperium, he discovered an all-female cult that worshipped the Emperor through purity of spirit and strength of arms above all else, and relocated them to Terra to serve as his personal bodyguards.
The cult – known as the Brides of the Emperor – defended Vandire from an uprising that joined many branches of the Imperium together against their mad leader. It is believed that, to convince Vandire's bodyguard of his treachery, a single Custodian led their leader Alicia Dominica and her five most trusted sisters into the heart of the Imperial Palace to the Emperor's Golden Throne. None know what transpired, but upon leaving the Golden Throne’s presence, Alicia Dominica strode into Vandire’s throne room and beheaded him without hesitation.
As the turmoil of the Age of Apostasy began to recede, the Adepta Sororitas was reformed from this group to defend the Imperium’s holy sites and wage wars of faith against heretics. Though the Ecclesiarchy are no longer permitted to maintain a standing army, the nominally independent Adepta Sororitas are a convenient workaround that enjoy close ties with the servants of the Imperial Creed.
In the years that followed, six Orders coalesced around the teachings of Alicia Dominica and her five companions, becoming the Orders Majoris that comprise the bulk of Adepta Sororitas forces. They can often be found accompanying Imperial expeditions of all sizes, from humble processions of pilgrims to the mighty Indomitus Crusade fleets, where their obsessive dedication to the God-Emperor inspires both awe and fear in their allies – for the fury of a sister in the face of their enemies is a terrible thing to behold.
With the rise of their new Abbess Sanctorum, Morvenn Vahl, the Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas are reinvigorated – bringing light to the dark corners of the galaxy with fire and fervour.
While they wear power armour and wield boltguns like the Space Marines, the Adepta Sororitas are not genetically enhanced super soldiers – rather, they are flesh-and-blood humans like most citizens, empowered by their ironclad faith in the Emperor to perform deific miracles and endure the harshest horrors the galaxy can muster.
The most renowned of their heroes are warriors belonging to the Orders Militant, yet the Sisters of non-militant Orders are no less pious in their adherence to the Imperial Creed, or any less courageous in their willingness to face death in the course of duty. The Orders Hospitaller tend to the wounded on blood-drenched battlefields, often under heavy fire and in horrifying conditions, while those of the Orders Pronatus hunt and safeguard the many irreplaceable relics scattered throughout the God-Emperor’s domain.
The intense training and rigid discipline required to wear the mantle of a Battle Sister puts them among the finest human soldiers in the galaxy, able to match Space Marines in feats of marksmanship while standing firm in the face of abject terror. Though their aggressive ways of war that favour close-ranged weaponry and bloody close combat invariably lead to significant attrition in their ranks, there is never a shortage of exceptional candidates from the Schola Progenium – an elite military academy catering to the orphaned offspring of the Imperium’s finest.
On the tabletop, the Adepta Sororitas sit squarely between the uncountable masses of the Astra Militarum and the elites of the Adeptus Astartes. They can field more bodies encased in power armour than any other faction, however, and match this hardiness with an intense focus on short-ranged firepower through the Holy Trinity of bolt, flame, and melta weapons.
They are an extremely versatile force with powerful armoured vehicles based on the venerable Rhino chassis, which range from simple but effective tanks to giant mobile pipe organs that launch barrages of missiles with each crescendo. These well-ordered soldiers are not the only forces at their command – legions of penitents who have committed crimes against the Imperial Creed can earn retribution for their sins on the battlefield, howling in shame and agony as they flail with whip-like limbs or crush heretics underfoot in clanking mechanised war engines.
Greatest of all are the champions who lead the Battle Sisters in war, in whom the Emperor’s power manifests as true miracles. Some angelic figures – such as the Living Saint Celestine – can even return from death itself, such is their faith in the God-Emperor, while others heal mortal wounds and banish the denizens of the warp with righteous outpourings of divine fervour.
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced and balanced games. The Adepta Sororitas approach these small-scale games with the same righteous fury as ever, smashing a devastating spearhead of close combat troops into enemy lines while the expert marksmanship of the Battle Sisters is employed to pick off priority targets.
The Sanctuary Guardians can change their approach significantly depending on where they deploy their Canoness – a powerful leader with support abilities that benefit both the Battle Sisters Squad and the Celestian Sacresants. You may wish to keep her with your firing line, boosting their resilience and allowing them to better hold objectives, or make use of her fighting skills at the front lines with her mace-swinging compatriots.
No matter which you choose, your mob of Arco-flagellants will stick to their playbook – running headlong into the most dangerous enemies on the battlefield and dragging them down under the sheer number of attacks their flails can make. They are death incarnate to lightly armoured opponents, and can even bring down heavier opponents like monsters and vehicles.
All you need to deploy the Sanctuary Guardians is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!
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Although the six Orders Majoris that comprise the bulk of the Adepta Sororitas have clearly defined colour schemes, like the sombre black and red of the Order of Our Martyred Lady, there also exist an uncounted number of lesser orders with a wide range of panoplies. This gives you complete freedom to paint your Battle Sisters however you like, and the smooth panels of their power armour are great for beginners while the intricate gothic details found on many of their units look fantastic with even the slightest attention.
To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across a wide variety of units, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints to give your Combat Patrol the raiment of the Order of Our Martyred Lady.
The abundance of cloth, metalwork, and exposed skin gives painters a broad skill set to base their future army around, with plenty of room to develop advanced techniques like glazing and highlighting on standout miniatures like the Canoness and Celestian Sacresants. This is a great way to build up skills before tackling some of the more extravagant miniatures in the Adepta Sororitas range, which feature detailed filigree, carved stone edifices, and even stained glass windows.
Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to go from an opportunist warband to an all-conquering invasion fleet, you might be wondering where you want to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: Adepta Sororitas – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 48 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all of the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
With a strong infantry base established by your Combat Patrol, a great next step is to add some armoured support to your battle lines. While you will be equally well-served by the long-range firepower of a Castigator battle tank or the short-range support of an Immolator, there is simply no more iconic vehicle in the Adepta Sororitas motor pool than the Exorcist – a mobile pipe organ missile launcher that blasts great swathes of the battlefield with high explosives and soaring hymnals.
Elite Battle Sisters have a wide range of equipment available, and you’ll never go wrong backing up the Celestian Sacresants with a formation of Paragon Warsuits – immensely powerful battle suits that allow the pilot to fight toe-to-toe with towering monsters and terrifying daemons. When a turn of speed is needed instead, Zephyrim launch through the air on great winged jump packs to engage distant enemies up close with lethal power swords.
The Abbess Sanctorum of the Adepta Sororitas – their highest office and one of the vaunted High Lords of Terra – is not one to sit idly behind a desk and manage affairs from afar, and she cuts a dominating figure on the battlefield in a unique gilded warsuit. Morvenn Vahl is a skilled fighter and charismatic leader, and there is no better commander to lead your army.
Saint Celestine is the most famous of the Living Saints and a direct conduit for the Emperor’s will – healing allies and immolating enemies with bursts of holy fire. She’s the perfect leader for a strike force of Zephyrim that descend from the clouds and strike at the heart of an opposing army, and should the enemy get lucky enough to fell her in combat, she simply returns to life and keeps on swinging.
The Triumph of Saint Katherine is an entirely unique miniature within Warhammer 40,000, acting as the beating heart of your army with loads of useful abilities that affect units nearby. It’s a powerful force multiplier for the rest of your Battle Sisters, and also a glorious centrepiece that will put your painting skills to the test.
The Adepta Sororitas are commonly seen in stories that feature the Imperium, and many epic tales have been written about their exploits. The chronicles of Augusta Santorus follow a Sister Superior of the Order of the Bloody Rose across many points of her illustrious career, and they’re a great way to ease into Battle Sister fiction through eight short stories collected in The Rose at War by Danie Ware.
The Triumph of Saint Katherine, also by Danie Ware, places the reader in the shoes of a novice Battle Sister granted the honour of fighting alongside the legendary procession, and dives into the conflicts between faith and personal history in the 41st Millennium. Like many novitiates, Sister Avra wants nothing more than to expunge the stain of shame from her soul through death in glorious combat, but she soon comes to learn that the Emperor has more than simple sacrifice in store for his congregation.
As a seemingly immortal manifestation of the Emperor’s wrath, Saint Celestine is lauded across the Imperium for her heroism and purity. But none save her know exactly what happens when she is struck down and reborn, and in Celestine: The Living Saint by Andy Clark, readers can finally look behind the veil and see just what horrors she must endure to prove herself worthy of life, time and time again.
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