Sisters of Battle (Adeptus Sororitas)

The Battle Sisters make up the vast majority of each of the Orders Militant, gunning down heretic, xenos and traitor alike with their holy trinity of weaponry – bolter, melta and flamer. They are the foot soldiers of the Emperor, his sword of defiance and his shield indomitable. Beneath their thundering bolters countless aliens, mutants, traitors and heretics have met their doom. Wherever they advance across the battlefield the light of the Emperor spreads like a holy dawn, manifesting in miracles that see the bolts and blasts of the enemy turned impossibly aside or the foe consumed by the fires of righteous retribution. Onwards the Battle Sisters march, their exultant prayers ringing out all the more stridently at these breathtaking proofs of the Emperor’s manifest divinity, and with every squeeze of their triggers they despatch more of the unworthy abominations that dare stand against the Master of Mankind.

The Exorcist is a weapon uniquely representative of the ways in which the Adepta Sororitas pair shows of devotion to the Emperor with the castigation of his heretical enemies. It is a rolling shrine to the magnificence of the Master of Mankind, a breathtakingly ornate piece of craftsmanship that grinds into battle projecting inspirational hymnals to the Emperor’s glory. These carry across the field of battle and swell all good Imperial hearts with faith and pride. When entire squadrons of these vehicles advance in armoured spearheads, their combined symphonic emanations transform even the most mud-and-blood-drenched field of war into a veritable cathedrum. Beaten-down warriors feel fresh fire in their hearts as they hear the battle-canticles soar. Those outnumbered or stricken with fear find fresh courage and the strength to hold their ground and keep fighting. And then the Exorcists’ first rocket salvoes scream down into the enemy’s midst, and the entire face of the battle changes.

Junith Eruita sweeps into battle wreathed in holy fire and holding high the Mace of Castigation. Riding within the Pulpit of Saint Holline’s Basilica, she hovers across the battlefield upon thrumming waves of holy energy. The pulpit’s heavy flamers swivel seemingly of their own accord, seeking out the heretical and the faithless and immolating them without mercy. As the pyres blaze higher, the Canoness Superior’s voice rings out over their furious crackling, her every utterance as sharp and clear as the bells of Ophelia VII. No matter how outnumbered, how beaten down and bloodied they may be, every true Imperial servant who hears her words feels the fires of faith kindle anew in their breast. They surge back into the fight with a prayer on their lips and righteous hatred in their eyes. This is Eruita’s greatest gift from the Emperor, this undying flame of absolute belief that leaps to all those around her as though their souls were dry tinder and her words the blazing brand. In this inferno of faith have countless heretics, witches and aliens burned, and by its white heat have manifold Imperial victories been forged.