You know, I actually feel a little sad for asking this, sort of feel like Matt Ward, or some such, just looking for another way to make the Adepta Soroitas look bad, but, while I don't actually want to, the Battle Sisters were one of my favorite armies, at the turn of the millennium, I sort of need ONE in my story.

One of the nice things about an active RPG is that the players will take the time to fill out some of the most important characters form me, while I build little blurps for lesser souls that still make other things work, but when I'm writing, it's all on me. So here I find myself needing a little help. On my ship, I want to flesh out, at least to some degree, the "major players" aboard, and I'm working on the Exalted Wyrm's "primary" Missionary. Thing is, I want her to be cool, and a decent beast in combat, sort of a bit snowflake, because this is me we are talking about, so I decided to have her be trained by the Adepta Sororitas. Problem: having a Battle Sister aboard ship, especially this ship, could be iffy to impossible, so I decided to have her be one of those aspirants who couldn't hack it, in the end. After that, she ran with the Red Consecrators for a time, and got picked up by the goofy-ship. She's a bit more individual-caring than the average AdSor (works for AdMech, why not this?), which is a running theme among Qel-Drake's band.

I know at one point, people here had a number of conversations regarding the Adepta Sororitas, and someone even posted a link, or copy/paste, of a story where this one Sister-to-be was in training, and couldn't do it all, in the end, but I can't find it, and might not need something as stark as "Corianna couldn't bring herself to summarily execute all of the assembled men, women, and children, on grounds of potential taint and heresy." How else might a Battle Sister wash out, in the end? I sort of like how she might see the ship, and its antics, as a test of her continuing faith, which was weakened in her prior failure, and an opportunity to minster to the crew, a crew that her Captain actively tries to care about, while they travel to the worst parts of the Expanse, and possibly beyond, could be cool, and serving with Qel-Drake can be its own basket of headaches, depending on whom you are.

So, what could've happened to Corianna to get her out, but not shot, and still in good condition to bolter-and-chainsword for her Captain, when not seeing to the spiritual needs of his ship?

The helm displays gave her an epileptic fit ( kinda like those warnings on older anime) and since she was not a high enough rank to walk around bare headed she couldn't cut it?

fear of fire?

got caught in a cardinal act with another person?

Someone else lied about something, she took the fall.

Got caught looking at forebidden knowledge but was a very promising student.

Received an injury that made her unqualifiable.

Questioned her faith in the Emporer at the wrong time in front of the wrong person.

Etc etc.

Sole survivor of a battle that went horribly wrong, maybe even her minor order wiped out entirely. She has it in her head that she "can't" return to the rest of the sororitas. Gets rescued by a rogue trader.

I don't imagine a former Sororitas would want to wear emblems of her old order.

Nice knowing you Venkelos...Once Lynata hears you're going after the sisters... Jus' kidding!

Here's my two cents:

Silly:

• Something slightly heretical like refering to the Emperor as "The Big E".
• Closing your eyes every time you shoot a bolter.
• Swooning of those handsome Flesh Tearer bad boys.
• Constant bragging about being the sole survivor of Sanctuary 101.
• Being Slaanesh in disguise. (Why not purged? Slaanesh is that good!)

Serious:

• Got caught up in some lodge or cult (Sisterhood of Alpharia) and getting kicked out rather than purged.
• Being bad at combat and not getting better at it.
• Taking pity on mutants. (Especially if they are polution based: It's not their fault they got twisted.)
• Pyrophobia. A bit of a handicap if every other sister goes on about fire and carries a flamer.
• Said or did something that pissed of a higher ranking ecclesiarchy member.

That actually made think: Do adepta sororita have the equivalent of a Techpriest?

I know the ecclesiarchy isn't to happy about the whole Machine God thing, but there could be some overlap?

If thats the case you could say she was kicked out for worshiping the Emperor more in the form of the Omnissiah, than as "Him on Earth"

Hmm, I'm not sure, I suppose. I'm looking for something to reflect more that she cares about people, where her Order, and the Imperium, as a whole, couldn't care less about people if they were actively handing them to Chaos, the DE, or the Tyranids; they care about HUMANITY, and fight to see that the race survives to see tomorrow, but whole worlds can burn, and whole groups can die, because they saw something they apparently shouldn't have, and no one bats an eyelash. Human life is the cheapest resource in the cosmos, and once you've convinced yourself that any exposure to "heresy" might be too much for most people, or even a world can be sacked if it stops a system, or a sector from falling, and you "did the right thing", wiping out whole communities is easy. There will always be more. Just kill them, before they infect their neighbors, who we'll kill next week, anyway, because whatever was the source of the heresy came back.

As for Corianna, I'm sort of surprised at myself. A Rogue Trader is one of those few people who could afford to shell out for a suit of power armor, maybe even a jetpack, and then I'd have that Seraphim I always wanted , but she CHOOSES not to don power armor, maybe so as not to insult the Order she wasn't good enough to join. As for her weapons, the bolter and chainsword are just what she feels best with, whether they view it as wrong for her to use them, or not (they don't see her, anyway; there aren't that many Sisters in the Expanse, fighting Tau), so she has elected not to weaken her combat-effectiveness, and keeps using them. Both are common enough weapons, in their own ways, especially with an RT signing the forms. I also like it better than the typical image of the robed Missionary with the Eviscerator, and a flamer in there, somewhere. She rounds it out with good carapace armor, and she might keep a rosarius, I don't know, yet.

As a character, she's the ship's Confessor, more or less, charged with their spiritual well-being. When Aedan found her, and asked for her service, he noted her red hair, "like blood. You will be as the life-blood of my ship, keeping everyone in the Emperor's grace", something like that. It's going to be even better as, after putting up with what all goes on the ship, she'll learn of the stuff between the Captain and the Eldar, and have to decide if its worth turning him in, and destroying all the good he does/has done, in his own way, for this one great heresy.

Graves: If Lynata comes for me, so be it. In my way, I'm actually trying NOT to walk on the Sisters, so I feel pretty good. As for your thoughts, I think I actually like that mutant one. The Imperium "reveres" Humanity, but makes plenty of it live in squalor, refuse, and other unsafe environs. Whether through incident, evolution, or outside meddling, they viciously purge all who are "different", in the one most varied race there already is, many of which THEY made, yet Navigators, Psykers, and those Astartes guys are tolerated, some even beatified, for doing things they can only do for being different, and in ways that others are killed over. Since she sees the value of His Angels of Death, and the Imperium couldn't live without astropaths, some other pykers, and Navigators, that must mean that some of the other mutants were okay, too; the Imperium was only too ponderous and blind to see, or care. Thank you, I am now much happier about what i will be writing. Good day, Robin!

I hate snowflakes with a passion that makes them melt in my presence. Just the same I carry a flamer to speed them on their way to an afterlife in the great evaporated beyond. So I hope after you spend this time on said NPC a fellow player comes along and roasts your snowflake with appropriate disregard for invested time. That said, does said sister need to have been a battle sister? I understand there are some medicae cults, though they don't necessarily go forth unarmed. I seem to remember an Ultramarine novel that had a retired sister of battle *** hive doctor that retrieved a holy bolt pistol to attempt the dispatch of a Lictor. I don't think she survived the encounter, but the point is still the same. Dan Abnett likes to paint his stories full of snowflakes, too, I guess.

I hate snowflakes with a passion that makes them melt in my presence. Just the same I carry a flamer to speed them on their way to an afterlife in the great evaporated beyond. So I hope after you spend this time on said NPC a fellow player comes along and roasts your snowflake with appropriate disregard for invested time. That said, does said sister need to have been a battle sister? I understand there are some medicae cults, though they don't necessarily go forth unarmed. I seem to remember an Ultramarine novel that had a retired sister of battle *** hive doctor that retrieved a holy bolt pistol to attempt the dispatch of a Lictor. I don't think she survived the encounter, but the point is still the same. Dan Abnett likes to paint his stories full of snowflakes, too, I guess.

Yes because every npc needs to be an exact clone of everybody else right?

We can't possibly have a Salamander SM who dislikes civilians, because as we all know Salamanders are all about protecting the innoscents. You say snowflake, I say interesting character.

Well the Sisters of Battle aren't actually Space Marines so isn't it possible to just have had her aged out of active service?

She could be too old for front line service but too zealous to accept that she needs to stop/slow down. That way she can join a Rogue Trader's vessel (possibly even one that needs extra ministration) and preach to those who need it most.

That way she doesn't have to such a snowflake (apart from the fact that she survived long enough to become old) but she might just be politically savvy enough to know she has to pick her battles. That way there can be conflicts with her and the Rogue Trader without her just declaring the whole vessel needs to be cleansed by fire.

Honestly just look at her as a Red Consecrator Missionary who left on her own Crusade from Loretta. She could still be a beast in combat yet, you aren't looking at a full BOS

• Accused of Heresy by a Monodominant Lord-Inquisitor, spends a number of comics running around but ultimately cleared of the Heresy but nolonger welcome within the Sisterhood.

The classic =D

• Temple Tendency sabotage of her career? they hate Sisters like it's their job.

Calixian Synod isnt 100% pure after all.

• Chosen from the Schola Progenium by the Sisterhood, amidst training was uplifted into Inquisitor service, and we all know thats 100% safe.

I love the Sisterhood and look to them often in my stories where it makes sense.

I hate snowflakes with a passion that makes them melt in my presence. Just the same I carry a flamer to speed them on their way to an afterlife in the great evaporated beyond. So I hope after you spend this time on said NPC a fellow player comes along and roasts your snowflake with appropriate disregard for invested time. That said, does said sister need to have been a battle sister? I understand there are some medicae cults, though they don't necessarily go forth unarmed. I seem to remember an Ultramarine novel that had a retired sister of battle *** hive doctor that retrieved a holy bolt pistol to attempt the dispatch of a Lictor. I don't think she survived the encounter, but the point is still the same. Dan Abnett likes to paint his stories full of snowflakes, too, I guess.

Yes because every npc needs to be an exact clone of everybody else right?

We can't possibly have a Salamander SM who dislikes civilians, because as we all know Salamanders are all about protecting the innoscents. You say snowflake, I say interesting character.

Ever played a game with 50 player-characters in a single session? How about 100? I have. And guess what? Almost every single one of those players wants to deviate from the stereotype. Makes you wonder how the stereotype ever came to exist. When I started playing such games I watched more than I played. I observed to see if there were patterns. I noticed who the good roleplayers were and who weren't good roleplayers. How did I derived that evaluation?

At the end of each game session all the participants would vote to see who got the bonus roleplaying XPs for that session. Want to guess who nearly always got the bonuses? It was the people playing the stereotypes. Wanna take a guess why? They were good roleplayers who played a role very well. That they were stereotypical didn't lessen their enjoyment of the game a wit and added to the enjoyment of others in the game. And given 50-100 people voting that belonged to a dozen different cliques it wasn't just a popularity contest, nor were there conspiracies involved. It was an honest group consensus about quality roleplay.

Deviating from the norm isn't interesting in and of itself. And it isn't creative, because anyone can do it. Often people don't want to play what they choose. They just pick something that's close, or they pick based on some perceived advantage, or maybe they just want that cool ability. Tremere anyone? Then they wheedle away at the GM for their desired deviation. Often, that's a character flaw that they don't want. They want the coolness, but not at the given price. So Robin, it's not about interesting characters. Creative and intelligent people can very well draw up a stereotypical character that is both interesting and still fits in the mold. I've seen it in too many games to believe otherwise.

Now that said, and your defensiveness aside, I did make a recommendation. I wasn't entirely negative. I even made an attempt at humor. That's doing pretty good for me. I could have gone full-body curmudgeon. That's my usual style and I don't apologize for it. You should see what it's like in the real world. Venkelos often walks the line of cheese and he/she knows it, starting many posts with a semi-apology. I accept that semi-apology at face value, poke a bit of fun, and try to give a helpful rationale. I happen to think that my proferred rationale is worth the price of a poke or two.

Oh, and by the way, your example was not very typical. That Salamanders are gregarious is one of their advantages. People rarely ever give up an advantage when going atypical. They'd rather surrender a disadvantage, and the OP more than hinted at that. You used a tactic referred to as spurious logic to gain the upper hand in an argument you knew was wrong. Spurious logic is based on a false premise. I will not accept your sophist counterpoint unanswered. Take that.

Oh boy, you're not gonna like my Ex-World Eater Tzeentchian sorcerer are you?

What about a DE that wants to be a Harlequin, and survives on making other beings laugh instead of torturing them to death?

However, another problem would be Corianna also being supposed to care a lot for people, which sounds like another no-no for a Sister of Battle. These girls are raised from infancy in state-run schools, where Drill Abbots with large truncheon beat discipline and humility into the little kids until they're sufficiently brainwashed. What's more, the Sisters of Battle look explicitly for candidates with a martial mindset. Given how the Sororitas are involved in anything from gunning down heretics, to dragging off entire families of mutants, to hunting down renegade Astartes, to even invading (or rather trying to invade ) daemonworlds, they just don't have any use for someone who would hesitate in tough situations.

These are but suggestions, mind you. Generally, I am of the opinion that it's better to write something completely new if you don't like something that already exists, which is also why I've got a huge bias against movie remakes. However, in the end it is your game, so the representation of the Adepta Sororitas is entirely up to you. I'll just want to stress that the way you describe the order will ultimately affect their theme and spirit as well, and if you make them less hardcore when it comes to how they'd deal with potential drop-outs, or if these drop-outs would even happen in the first place, then they are obviously also less hardcore overall.

tl;dr: it comes down to how you think of them, and how you'd prefer the SoB to be.

That actually made think: Do adepta sororita have the equivalent of a Techpriest?

From WD #269:

"The Adepta Sororitas and Adeptus Arbites in particular have a number of Rhinos, and they maintain a body of those sanctified and pure of heart to care for them. Years of training go towards achieving this respected position. Aspirants must learn how to divine the runes of engineering, memorise the liturgy of maintenance and constantly study the routine of service. It is a position of great honour to care for these vehicles and those that are carried into battle within one of these armoured transports are mindful of the spirits that inhabit the mechanical functions and blessed bolts that make up each one."

It makes sense if you consider how the Ecclesiarchy and the AdMech care about independence from one another, and the Arbites similarly cannot afford to get turned into puppets by some Mechanicus Magos having their vehicle pools sabotaged. The AdMech still controls most of the supply lines, but at least resistance against a possible coup would not come to a dead end immediately .

We can't possibly have a Salamander SM who dislikes civilians, because as we all know Salamanders are all about protecting the innoscents.

Although that's just the popular fan-version of the Salamanders. The original source has the Salamanders being all about getting their own villages to lord over , rather than altruistically caring for the people. More Grimdark that way, too.

Well the Sisters of Battle aren't actually Space Marines so isn't it possible to just have had her aged out of active service?

Going by GW's Liber Sororitas, Battle Sisters do not actually retire but simply switch to less demanding duties, such as being transferred into one of the non-militant orders. Space Marines also have a biological lifespan of "only" 2-3 times that of a normal man, and certainly, ranking Sororitas can get that old with rejuvenation treatments, which at least Canoness Carmina had access to, as per the Armageddon 3 event/campaign.

But again, this is just what studio sources tell us, and "no canon" means it is basically just a suggestion.

Accused of Heresy by a Monodominant Lord-Inquisitor, spends a number of comics running around but ultimately cleared of the Heresy but nolonger welcome within the Sisterhood.

lol, I see what you did there!

Errant Knight: In my own lame defense, this is a story character, like for a book, as opposed to a character who must stand in an RPG, outshining the NPCs, but not each other, or seeming just three flavors of Neapolitan cheese. I mostly ask because the story should read a bit like what would happen in a game, and many people here are good at writing, and even critiquing, story choices. Many characters in a story are rather their own variety of snowflake, and the story builds around it, without needing to find a way past their loaded dice, their epic rolling skill, or their "wait, your ________ skill roll is a _____!?!?!" The story would weigh out her, or anyone else's screen time, and the level of their achievement. Having one not-quite-a-Sister seems no worse than being in an area like Calixis/Koronus, where they have two separate, costly, and possibly equally futile wars, in spitting distance, plus an Ork Waagh! AND the building forces of Karrad Vall nearby, and they can still give a Rogue Trader a whole battalion of Guardsmen (if you have the equipment for that), and just watch them leave, probably never to be seen again, when your ship gets Navis Primered. Humorously, in the grand scheme of Qel-Drake's retinue, I thought Corianna was, for the most part, the least snowflake of the set; a bolter-and-chainsword wielding militant missionary; she tried to be a Sister, and failed at it, so she went on to try something else. She's not even old enough to have fought through the six wars needed to get to ridiculous numbers in things. Oh well.

As for the Tremere, that IS what I play, I do confess, but whenever I "build a snowflake", if you will, that I actually intend to try and play, I have always managed to come up with some ridiculous limitations built into my character; every GM I've played under but one was pleased as punch to not have to come up with some BS, to balance my BS, and I am NOT nice to myself, in these cases. I've played WoT, and wanted to be a male channeler, because I play Wizards, and I don't enjoy being a female character; it isn't a skill I possess. That meant NO magic, in a magic/fantasy game, or a limiter, so I had to fake being something else, and hide my powers, or the party would probably hang me. I've been a Noble in hiding, too, in D&D. Some were less fair, I won't bore you, but the other players weren't being "mundane", or "typical", either. For a build, I assume Corianna is going to just be a Missionary, who happens to have a decent rating in guns and swords, and uses them, rather than the typical two-handed sword, or the dumb flame-thrower. Meh, now I'm tired from typing, so I think I'll go crash, and be rested for work, tonight. Still glad everyone cared enough to share their opinions. Thanks all.

I recall it being said that in Rogue Trader, when your group is not ridiculously flashy and exaggerated, you're doing something wrong. Just like in Deathwatch, where the very rules of the game will nudge any campaign towards a popcorn action movie experience with suspended realism.

Don't worry, we all have different gameplay styles and preferences, which is probably why we have different core rulebooks for the different games to begin with! At the end of the day, the most important thing is that your group is having fun. And for what it's worth, I've seen faaaaaar bigger "Special Snowflakes" in official novels .

Oh, I almost forgot:

I know at one point, people here had a number of conversations regarding the Adepta Sororitas, and someone even posted a link, or copy/paste, of a story where this one Sister-to-be was in training, and couldn't do it all, in the end, but I can't find it [...]

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/95030-elite-specialist-regiments/?p=929448

(scroll down a bit to the huuuge quote)

I've seen Adepta Sororita turn up quite often as a character people wish to play in Rouge Trader, maybe it is time to make a supplement for them, the Sororitas should not be outside of the scope for Rouge Trader, at least not if the group has good relations with the Ecclesiarchy.

For the OP. Why is it iffy to have a battle sister on the ship? If the ship is borderline heretical she could be assigned as a bodyguard to a missionary since that may very well be needed and if not they could simply have aided the church or a Sororita order in a previous (pre-campaign) event and been given the honor of having her serve on the ship. The Ecclesiarchy are not just lofty and zealous, they are also political, manipulative and with vast resources. While some priests would hold the Sororitas as supremely blessed and beyond flaw many others would see them just as another resource they can use for the Emperor and the betterment of mankind. The best use for such a resource could very well be to offer her away as an honorary warrior in exchange for the aid of a voidship.

There really shouldn't be much trouble for having a sororita sister join a Rouge Trader ship, it can easily be done by her order asking it.

For a Sororita failing out if that is what you want it shouldn't be too hard to fix a good reason though physical are more fitting than mental. She would have grown up as a Sororita and would have been indoctrinated from birth, should she start to get unorthodox and their methods couldn't fix it she would more likely be executed than sent away. A physical flaw on the other hand that made her almost reach the perfection of a Sororita but not quite:

-Maybe she had a slight seeing problem and needed glasses, an imperfection that sent her packing. Later on while serving in holy wars her bad eye was replaced after a wound and her new bionic fixed the flaw. She is still not welcomed to her order though since the perfect human form has now been tarnished by machines.

-Maybe she was a bit worse of a fighter than the other sisters and though it wasn't by much she still didn't make the final cut, instead sent fighting amongst crusaders and pilgrims in a holy war.

-Maybe she had a speech impairment and while it really doesn't stop her from her duties it makes her imperfect and that alone was a deal breaker.

-Maybe she lost her leg in a catastrophic training exercise and while it could be replaced she was no-longer welcome when her human form was tarnished by machines.

The "Legends of the Expanse" fan supplement includes character creation rules for Sisters in Rogue Trader.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/130154-legends-of-the-expanse-rt-ascension/

There are plenty of reasons for a full Sister to be on board a RT vessel. Don't forget the minor orders, Famulous are advisors to nobility and everyone loves medics.

I've seen Adepta Sororita turn up quite often as a character people wish to play in Rouge Trader, maybe it is time to make a supplement for them, the Sororitas should not be outside of the scope for Rouge Trader, at least not if the group has good relations with the Ecclesiarchy.

The easiest justification would be a Ministorum-sanctioned Crusade, where the Rogue Trader is part or even the leader of an endeavour to (re-)conquer worlds for the Imperium. Think Columbus in 40k, with similar privileges and responsibilities. Apart from managing the newly claimed territories until a proper Governor (which may well turn out to be the RT him- or herself) can be installed by the Administratum, the players would also have to ensure that the Ecclesiarchy's Missionaries can do their job, and where the clergy goes, the Sororitas may follow -- if the endeavour is sufficiently important to justify the presence of such a valuable resource.

In my opinion , it should be highly unlikely if not impossible to have a Sister (or a Space Marine, for what it's worth) just "handed over" to an RT as if they were a commodity, but a sort of "detached duty" for an unspecified duration could be easily explained.

That being said, this isn't really what OP was asking about anyways.

I find it weird how many people are raised by the Schola Progenium (at least every Sister of Battle, Commissar, and Storm Trooper?), who should have no personality/humanity, whatsoever, and then they get to be the main character of a book, or something, and they have personality. Gaunt seems to care about his Ghosts, but he shouldn't. By that logic, no Commissar should be a "man of the soldiers", but just BLAM! anyone who can't cut it; he or she would have no empathy. I also don't know if I'm completely on board with the Schola raising them all, and them being so soulless (don't read Blank/Pariah). I can as easily imagine someone being orphaned at a young age, maybe after an Ork Waagh! trashed their home, and killed their family, and getting picked up by the Imperium, funneled into the programs to train assets. One supposes that could have been the IG, as much as anyone else, but if the Sisters are all raised by the heartless SP, I'm not sure how "so many" slip up, to become Repentia; the Storm Troopers/Tempestus Scions don't have a similar unit. Oh well, if i don't hammer it out, at least I won't cry too hard.

Well, one thing to remember is that the books are written by different authors -- some overlap should be expected, but sometimes, writers may just have different ideas about how something works. This gets especially obvious in the Cain novels, which clearly contradict several aspects of the Schola Progenium (I've just recently written an expensive post about that here ).

That's also why I've been saying that it really depends on where you look, and which interpretation you pick.

That being said, I have to object the notion that such characters would be absolutely devoid of personality. Note how I mentioned on the previous page that their personalities would just have a different and slimmer "range" of how they would develop and what would be tolerated. We can see this in the real world as well; just because someone is a fanatic who does not hesitate to kill does not automatically mean they have no humour, or favourite food/animal/story, or special aspirations, dreams and hopes. See various interviews with jihadi terrorists.

A good recommendation is, I think, the SoB novel series by James Swallow (Faith & Fire, Hammer & Anvil). The books' main protagonist - Sister Superior Miriya - comes across as rather hotheaded, and she shares an intimate bond with the Sisters in her squad, which occasionally brings her into conflict with other officers of the Sisterhood who are more about obedience, sacrifice and following orders. Yet none of these displays comes across as conflicting with my image of the Sororitas. In fact, they are perfect examples of different aspects of SoB lifestyle, just that the different focuses of the individual characters can create tension.

The keyword is radicalisation. "Us versus Them" mentality. The Schola Progenium and by extension the Ecclesiarchy as a whole preaches unity and brotherhood, but also unbridled hatred against anyone who does not conform. You can be a good friend towards your people and still have no qualms about committing the most terrible acts against those outside your group. Unfortunately our real world history is full of examples of such behaviour. Just recently there was the 20th anniversary of the Srebenicza (sp?) massacre, and I recommend reading up on its specifics and testimony only if you have a very strong stomach. And these were ordinary soldiers and citizens, not brainwashed fanatics like the kids who went to one of Nazi Germany's "Napola" academies (which to this day I am convinced are a good inspiration for Schola Progenium lifestyle).

As such, a Commissar would inspire the Guardsmen because he or she was conditioned to see the soldiers as their brothers-in-arms. The second they display cowardice or opposition, however, they betray this bond and the Commissar's mind moves them from the "Us" into the "Them" category, and need to be made an example of in the interest of everyone that is "Us". This is not unrealistic, this is quite simply an example of the human potential for extremism. You could say that in a wicked way, the Commissar will feel absolutely convinced that they'd punish the wayward Guardsman in the interest of everyone else in the platoon, even if the other soldiers may not realist it at that point. Such is the burden of the Commissar, rather similar to an Inquisitor decreeing Exterminatus.

but if the Sisters are all raised by the heartless SP, I'm not sure how "so many" slip up, to become Repentia; the Storm Troopers/Tempestus Scions don't have a similar unit.

That's why I said "sins real or imagined" -- many may well have taken the Oath of Repentence because they are wracked by guilt over something that may seem ridiculous to others. This explains why some orders of the Adepta Sororitas have more Repentia than others even though they follow the exact same rules.

"The Sisters of the Order of the Valorous Heart believe they must atone for the unwitting sedition committed by the Daughters of the Emperor during Vandire’s Reign of Blood. The Order’s founding saint, Lucia, was the most penitent of Dominica’s companions, and her Battle Sisters strive to emulate her example – demanding expiation for the slightest perceived sin. As a result, a disproportionate number of its Battle Sisters exile themselves and seek redemption as a Sister Repentia. Lucia is often depicted holding the skull of the executed Lord Vandire – a reminder to never hearken the words of false prophets."

-- WD #293

See, this is actually a good example of different personalities in spite of the indoctrination!

Much like how no contemporary human's mind is made up at birth, personality is something subjected to constant change depending on the environment. This is why the convents are walled off and the Sisters strive for isolation - they are well aware that contact with outsiders can "taint" them. Still, any little bit of experience that differs in one Sister to another has a chance of shaping their mind in a different way. That the Schola and the Sororitas restrict this development to a greater degree than our modern society does not mean that there can be absolutely no differences at all.

The Sororitas also generally have more strict if not outright ridiculous rules to follow, starting with how many days a year they ought to feast. Of course, more rules also means more chances to transgress, and the more you transgress, the more likely you are to be turned Repentia:

What about a DE that wants to be a Harlequin, and survives on making other beings laugh instead of torturing them to death?

That's pretty close to canon. There ARE DE Harlequins, and other sources of sustenence are within the scope of the viable.

Ohh. Didn't know that. So a DE Drittz one of my players wanted to play was actually a possibility. Oopsy. Thanks for the info.