# Sisters of Battle organization of units.



## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

Any information or content of a positive nature that I can provide is better spent elsewhere.


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

This is from Lexicanium

"The entire Order participated in the Therrix Suppression in 085.M41, at the time numbering 12 Battle Sister squads, 6 Retributor squads, 4 Dominion squads, 3 Celestian squads, and 1 Repentia squad. Additional support during the suppression was provided to the Sisters by a delegation of the Adeptus Ministorum. The Sisters were instrumental in scouring the hive of all heretics."

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Order_of_the_Bloody_Rose


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## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

Awesome, thank you so much. I see on there they describe Orders as having Companies, so that leads me to believe an Order would be a Battalion or Brigade equivalent. 

What I'm curious about is say, would you have "Retributor Fireteam Bravo of the 2nd Platoon, 13th Company, Order of the Purple Nurple"?

Ahh just found this, cool beans 



> Order - Led by the head Canoness called the Canoness Superior who runs the entire Order.
> Preceptory - An subsidiary convent or a large tactical detatchment with up to 1,000 Sisters led by a Canoness Preceptor.
> Commandery - Normally smaller convents or detachments of militant Sisters with up to 200 Sisters, led by a Canoness Commander.
> Mission - The smallest organisation of Sisters, consisting of a few units and can be lead by a Canoness or the lesser Palatine.


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

No it would be more like -ahem-

The Pious Battle Sister Squad Euphenigia of the Most Blessed Order of the Purple Nurple in the Sight of His Exalted Holiness'

From what I have read in regards of GK's and 'da Sisters ("Hammer and Anvil" top read) it seems that the squads get a name of the Sister Superior and then that is it. There doesn't seem to be a pl/Co/Bn/Bde/Div Hierarchy, which for an old digger is bloody annoying.

I'd do an Order of Battle "tree" but make it actual names rather than the ol' Alpha, Bravo etc


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## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

> The entire Order participated in the Therrix Suppression in 085.M41, at the time numbering 12 Battle Sister squads, 6 Retributor squads, 4 Dominion squads, 3 Celestian squads, and 1 Repentia squad. Additional support during the suppression was provided to the Sisters by a delegation of the Adeptus Ministorum. The Sisters were instrumental in scouring the hive of all heretics.4


I find this really interesting because it means the entire *Order of the Bloody Rose* is only about 300 Sisters large, if all squads were at max size and including motor pool etc. I was under the impression that an Order would have at least 1000+ since a Preceptory is around 1000.


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## Zion (May 31, 2011)

Arcane said:


> I find this really interesting because it means the entire *Order of the Bloody Rose* is only about 300 Sisters large, if all squads were at max size and including motor pool etc. I was under the impression that an Order would have at least 1000.


The whole "number of Sisters" thing has had me scratching my head for a while. If there are enough Sisters to have ATLEAST one at every Shrine, every church and every loyal Imperial World (not counting orders like the Famolus who have one in _just about_ every influential family in the ENTIRE Imperium) there should be a LOT more Sisters than we see accounted for.

I'm chalking it up the Ecclesiarchy being more vague and misdirecting than the Black Templars over the amount of military might they control.


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## joebauerek (May 14, 2010)

As with the orders of the sisters of battle there seems to be a large number of them not only the larger more famous ones are known about. Its just like space marines we know some of the big ones (ultrasmurfs, raven guard, space wolves etc) and some mid level chapters (flesh tearers, novamarines, etc) and we know theres probobly dozens if not hundreds we dont know about so its possible that theres many orders of the sisters that are unknown plus the fact not every sister is a militant battle sister as shown by the sisters of battle in the Blood Ravens trilogy (carnt remember the exact name) and helsreach.

As for stucture in the books helsreach and one of the grey knights books they seem to be much like the iron snakes in the fact that they have squad names and then are just selected by whom ever is in charge when there neededfor a task.


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## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

The new fluff changes everything. It states that the Covents on Ophelia VII and Tera only number in the tens of thousands, and that there are Ordos Minoris throughout the Imperium but implies that they are generally smaller in size than the Covents.


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## Zion (May 31, 2011)

Arcane said:


> The new fluff changes everything. It states that the Covents on Ophelia VII and Tera only number in the tens of thousands, and that there are Ordos Minoris throughout the Imperium but implies that they are generally smaller in size than the Covents.


My only guess is the official count only applies to the big orders, and the smaller ones are the ones guarding churches and shrines all over the Imperium. Counting in that there are a few key colors that the Sisters wear it wouldn't be to unlikely to assume that most minor orers initially wear the colors of their parent order until such time that they establish their own history, which in turn inspires any changes they make.

The only reasoning behind this of course is that mosr of the big Orders adopted their colors and names in honor of something or someone. Minor Orders doing the same wouldn't be too unthinkable, right?

Plus this lets us have a more reasonable number of Sisters in the Imperium.


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## Lux (Apr 17, 2010)

There was a time in the fluff when SOB were hailed as so powerful, a single deployment of them on mars was able to handle three (or was it two?) space marine chapters in addition to the mechanicum.

They originally were promoted as Space Marine killers in the past.


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## Shattertheirsky (May 26, 2012)

Lux said:


> There was a time in the fluff when SOB were hailed as so powerful, a single deployment of them on mars was able to handle three (or was it two?) space marine chapters in addition to the mechanicum.
> 
> They originally were promoted as Space Marine killers in the past.


Can you remember what book this is in? There's hardly any decent SOB fluff around


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## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

Found a ton of info on this topic so I am going to post it for anyone else looking for it. I have started creating my own Order based on this, hopefully when the new codex comes out (if ever) they don't completely change everything. 

Source

Edited info into original post. It's going to take some time to sort it all out and I may need some help if anyone is willing. In particular I do not believe many of the ranks listed are actually "Orders Militant and may instead of ranks from the other non-military orders of the Adeptus Sororitas, which leads me to believe that one may be an Adeptus Sororitas without actualy being a "Sister of Battle".


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

Good find mate, I like the silver armoured Sisters


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## Zion (May 31, 2011)

You are correct Arcane, not every Sororitas is a Sister of Battle. The Adeptus Sororitas is the name of the overall organization, much like Adeptus Arbites describes ALL Arbites regardless of position, rank or role.

The Militant Orders are called Sisters of Battle but all Sisters (militant or not) are Adeptus Sororitas. Kind of like how Marines are Astartes regardless of what they do, or where they work.

If that comparison makes sense.


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## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

Makes perfect sense, that's what I suspected. So some of the ranks above would not fit into actual Sisters of Battle but would be other non-militant orders. Will have to sort them.


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