Sisters of Silence

By Alox, in Deathwatch

Dodskrigaren said:

See, your saying I said they exist in the 41st milleum according to cannon, something I never said. Just said they could. Theres /no/ cannon either way to resolve the issue, at which point, the arguement that they exist, or that they don't, is a matter of opinion and personal taste. Chill a little and dial it back man.

Again, you're mistating the argument. The existing canon contains absolutely no mention of the Sisters, especially in areas where they would be logically employed. There is no canon support for them existing in the 41st Millenium.

Two sidenotes:

1) Deathwatch is at the printers! Rejoice! I command it!

2) The Sisters origins are curious. The secular Empire that the Emperor was forging would not have created them. Only female Untouchables? Sworn to silence when they're working with others to harvest and manage psykers or provide anti-psyker battlefield support? That's not the rational way to go about things. It seems more likely that they were some kind of pre-Imperial monastic order that was incorporated into the larger fabric of the Imperium. That would be an interesting story to tell.

I think this horse died some time ago, and maybe it's time we stopped flogging it so hard. The argument, such as it is, is like an athiest and an agnostic arguing about the non-existence of God.

Like Dodskrigaren, I haven't argued or asserted that the Sisters of Silence absolutely exist in the 41st millennium, merely that they might. We currently have no way of knowing one way or the other.

To travel slightly further away from the original topic of this post, I am curious about what (if any) militant arm the Adeptus Astra Telepathica might maintain the the 41st millennium. How do they keep the psyker tithe in line?.

Any ideas?

Actually we do know a fair amount about how the Adepta Astra Telepathicus manages the psyker tithe. First, it's important to remember that in most cases its already collected. That's one of the obligations of the Imperial Commander. So we're not talking about overpowering them, we're talking about managing prisoners. Dealing with rogue psykers is of course the Inquisition's buisness and they canonically have a close relationship with the Adepta Astra Telepathicus.

Null warded dungeon areas have been clearly established and obviously make the psykers much easier to handle. One storage facility automatically flooded the area with nerve gas if the null field failed for any reason. Big scary guys in full body armour, shock staves, and other weapons have also shown up. It's likely that they're trained/conditioned/equipped with anti-psyker mental techniques and gear to minimize their vulnerability. There's also the psykers who are part of the Adepta. You add that together and you've got a pretty good space dungeon and guard force for your very dangerous bunch of prisoners.

Cynical Cat said:

Here's the thing with the lack of information: the burden of proof is on the side asserting that something exists. My claims about invisible flying elephants existing slighty out of phase with our material universe do not exist on equal footing with the contrary argument that there are no such thing. By saying such elephants exist I making a positive claim and must support it. We do know:

1) that Untouchables are very, very rare

2) The Inquisition and the Officio Assassinorum both use them and both organizations didn't exist in their current, Untouchable using forms during the Heresy era.

3) There are no post Heresy references to the Sisters.

Now a GM can do whatever the hell he wants. You can run a 40K game where the Tau rule half the galaxy, there are female space marines, and the Emperor has walked off the Golden Throne if you want to. There's nothing wrong with running a game where the Sisters of Silence still exist and serve the Astra Telepathicus or are a secret Inquisition order.

At the end of the day its your game, your universe.