Hi!

Does the Adepta Sororitas background convert the daemon world's corruption to insanity?

I would personally say no, since as far as I'm thinking, she got that before she became a Sis, but my player begs to differ, citing the line in the Daemon World's description "Occasionally, along with lost relics and new insights, survivors are found with sanity and souls intact."

Since I like my rules clean, I would love to have an opinion about an FFG member here, but I also welcome any thoughts on the matter.

While I'm not an official, I would have to lean towards the former; that comes from being born and growing up there, which is probably before one joined the Sororitas unless they've started building convents on Daemon Worlds.

Not to mention, I don't think the Sororitas would actually recruit from a Daemon World...

Ruleswise I lean toward the latter but both can make sense depending on your point of view.

Basically as the GM it's your call, although it might be worth thinking about whether denying your player is necessary in the scheme of things (I.E. will it make a difference to the game for the better vs is it worth disrupting the player's concept of their character for).

I would personally say no, since as far as I'm thinking, she got that before she became a Sis, but my player begs to differ, citing the line in the Daemon World's description "Occasionally, along with lost relics and new insights, survivors are found with sanity and souls intact."

Since I like my rules clean, I would love to have an opinion about an FFG member here, but I also welcome any thoughts on the matter.

Well, fluff is fluff and crunch is crunch. Corruption is not an on/off switch where people turn into daemons upon receiving their 1st CP, and 1d10+5 isn't that much in the grand scheme of things.

Also, isn't your player pretty much undermining their own argument when they're talking about "intact sanity" yet simultaneously lobby for converting Corruption into Insanity?

I suppose one viable interpretation would be that the character actually starts Corrupted, but has their CP turned into Insanity as part of the training they receive, a bit like the exorcism that was mentioned as a way for veteran player characters to get rid of Corruption in DH1. I'm not sure if this is still a thing in DH2, but it would be a valid comparison.

Not to mention, I don't think the Sororitas would actually recruit from a Daemon World...

I'm very much inclined to agree, though I could imagine a Special Snowflake background where the Sisters treat her like some sort of Living Saint because a Sororitas expedition rescued her from a Daemon World when she was still a teen, and all investigations into her nature did not reveal any sort of daemonic taint -- in fact, her genetics and soul were found to be unusually pure, which was then taken as both the reason for her to be able to resist the forces of Chaos, as well as further fueled her legend as a gift from the Emperor, akin to the Space Marine Primarchs that were scattered to the most inhospitable worlds aeons ago.

Thus, she was regarded as special and sacred, someone that Chaos has tried to hide away, and thus someone who must be important for Mankind's destiny. Now having reached adulthood, she is anointed with the hallowed armour of her order and ready to face her fate as a weapon against the Ruinous Powers that stole her from her true parents when she was still young and vulnerable...

*cringe*

I'm sorry. But hey, I could actually see something like this getting printed in the Black Library.

Going by Games Workshop's own material, the Adepta Sororitas accept only female graduates of the Schola Progena that, in addition to fulfilling a range of stringent requirements in terms of physical and psychological condition, have been "raised from infancy" (actual codex quote) at that facility.

Codex material is just one of many valid interpretations of the world of Wh40k, but if the player is a fan of the Sisterhood as it was originally written by the studio, maybe it'd be nice for them to know this? It pretty much boils down to what idea of the Sororitas this player has in their mind, meaning whether it was formed based primarily on the official publications, or just on the general concept ("nuns with guns"), with most of the details fleshed out by the player's own creativity.

That is remarkably... Cliched. My poor brain. Though, I'd have her saved as an infant, with her parents bringing her to the Sisters for saving and then spending their lives to let the Sisters escape or something. Only way to make it worse at that point would be if they sent the baby to another planet with a rocket-ship to save it from the world falling to Daemons. Her name? Kal-Ella.

Regardless, I'd still have anyone from a Daemon World automatically get that Corruption before any other twists/turns occur.

Home Worlds don't necessarily *have* to be where they were born and raised, right? It doesn't even necessarily represent their life *before* their career started. Penal world for example, could be used for a 40 year old who was sent to the prison moon Gullack VIIX when he was 20, for unwittingly getting caught up in a governor's tithe fraud as a young Adept (he would probably have to be used as a bookie to keep his background, though). Highborn is just someone who's lived a rich and privileged life. They are all just templates--if your character is a waste nomad on the polluted polar regions of Hive World Drullex, taking Death World or Feral World instead of Hive World would make sense.
So I could see a "Demon World" character as someone who spent a defining portion of their life on a demon world, not necessarily their whole life.

Maybe a young Sister Joan was on her first posting after graduating from the Schola, eager to help the tumultuous feudal world of Stughorf III put it's differences aside and embrace the Imperium, when a mass cabal of witches plunged the world into the warp. She spent the next decade fighting for her life and the dwindling local parish yadda yadda yadda. In this scenario it makes sense to swap corruption for insanity because she was already a young Sister.
Again it doesn't even need to be a literal "world" too, I thought a cool "home world" backstory would be a character who's ship's Gellar Fields flickered just a little too long and got lost to the warp. Maybe an Arbite on a prison barge, or maybe a Telepathica blunt on a Black Ship!

Home Worlds don't necessarily *have* to be where they were born and raised, right? It doesn't even necessarily represent their life *before* their career started.

That's a good point, or at least this is how I see it, too. One of the major advantages in DH2 is that it is a lot more "open", allowing players to re-interpret and utilize less detailed definitions for character creation to create exciting new combinations. In this case, an added benefit would be that some perks of Daemon World overlap nicely with what would fit for a Sororitas.

Of course, one possible issue with such interpretations is always just how defining such an event would be for the character, seeing as it essentially overrides a person's primary background ("born there and there, grew up learning this and that"). That being said, one could argue here that a more fitting Homeworld isn't even available, as for some reason the Schola Progenium (which would probably be some weird hybrid between Feudal World, Shrine World and Penal Colony, in terms of bonuses/traits) is not among the official rules.

Going by Games Workshop's own material, the Adepta Sororitas accept only female graduates of the Schola Progena that, in addition to fulfilling a range of stringent requirements in terms of physical and psychological condition, have been "raised from infancy" (actual codex quote) at that facility.

At the same time, maybe it was. Daemon World is not necessarily "ooga booga chaos" all the time, but merely "tainted" in some way. It's not beyond the possibility that a Militant order might put a preceptory of troops there - they place guards to protect shrine worlds, given their resistance to heresy and corruption, they'd also be the ideal people to set as guards over a place which was considered corrupted or corrupting, especially if it was - for whatever reason - important to the ecclesiarchy.

Imagine a theoretical holy shrineworld where [Redacted] had happened, resulting in the Inquisition turning up and grey-armoured astartes [Redacted], leaving the world in ashes aside from the burned but still standing ruins of a cathedral. The Inquisition declares the world prohibited, saying " no man loyal to the Emperor may set foot on this world " or some such prohibition. The world is still of immense spiritual importance to the Ecclesiarchy, and with their usual attention to the wording of the rules and their usual disregard for its intent, install a garrison of Sororitas veterans to watch over the sacred ruins (and occasionally carry out purges of the clearly heretical survivors ekeing out a living in the blasted remains of the world).

Uh, if folks are prohibited from a planet, that's called a Quarantine World. A Daemon World really is dealing with 'ooga booga Chaos' (as you put it) all the time. It's a planet that is suffused with the Warp. A planet can be quarantined for taint, but that's a long stretch from what a Daemon World is. Here's the relevant quote:

"A Daemon World is a planet twisted and corrupted by the power of Chaos and the Warp from being trapped in a prolonged Warp Rift. Entwining the impossibilities of the Warp and the reality of the physical realm, Daemon Worlds are not bound by the laws of physics, but by the whim of daemonic rulers and the emotions of mortals."

Yeah, that's how I remember the definition as well.

That being said, codex fluff mentions at least one Sororitas expedition to a Daemon World (in order to recover holy artifacts lost to the Great Enemy) -- and going by Newfish's interpretation of DH2 Homeworlds, "Daemon World" could reflect a character being a survivor from one such expedition.

It's a bit thin due to such expeditions usually being a rather short affair, and as such there being not much time in order to override one's actual upbringing in importance, but at the same time, who knows what sort of stuff can happen on a Daemon World? I could easily imagine survivors coming into contact with such a heavy degree of taint and mindf*ckery that it really messes them up, to a point where they'd be put into a Repentia squad or executed outright due to concerns over their sanity (and the other Sisters' safety) -- but hey, maybe that would be the perfect background for a Dark Heresy character, with an Inquisitor becoming aware of this expedition and deciding to recruit the character into their retinue, simultaneously saving her from death.

Oh sweet Emperor. I just realised this is Daemonifuge all over again.

There is also the possibility that there was an established covenant on a world that got sucked into the warp, when it came out it was a deamon world, except for a small area around the covenant where the Sororitas faith kept it pure?

As to the OPs question, all things equal I would have to go with no, the corruption is the price paid for getting that world's bonuses.

That is a neat idea, Smithium, but at that point if the area on the planet they're from is pure, I wouldn't call it a Daemon World upbringing.

True, but maybe they had to recruit new members to replenish the ranks?

Re: the original question, the technically correct approach would be to give the character Corruption points. The benefits from the character's home world are applied before a background is chosen, so she would not be a Sister when she gained Corruption.

However, converting the Corruption points to Insanity at character creation leads to better game play. The extra Corruption points are mechanically irrelevant over the course of the campaign, as the Sister character will never gain any more corruption. Starting with extra Insanity could have reprocussions for the character's development.

Just had a thought--apparently corruption points can be reduced in very very rare instances in game (I dont have the book at hand but I think one example was being visited by a living saint, and maybe a pilgramage?). Maybe the girl was born with some corruption, but the hard pure life of the Schola and the Sisterhood scoured her sole clean (and the extra-self loathing gave her the insanity points).