I´ve been thinking about the sisters of battle lately. Specifically how they would view working with a cell of acolytes and even an inquisitor. After all, such work often require a fair bit of both discretion and patience.

The sisters are most often viewed as fanatical firebrands as intolerant as the redemption. They are often portrayed as incapable of undercover investigation or the finer points of diplomacy. This line of thinking pidgeonholes them into to something I don´t think they are. Allow me to explain.

The sisters are one of the most fanatical forces in the Imperium and as such they will tolerate no heresy no matter how insignificant. However, this intolerance may take different forms depending on the sister in question. Whereas one sister may deem it sufficient to simply kick in the door and purge the most obvious heretics. Another may deem it neccesary to know the full extent of the heresy before commiting to overt action.

In my interpretation the sisters are above all commited to battling heresy. And they know (at least the higher ups) that heresy always goes deeper than one first expects. As such it would make sense that sisters are trained to put their fiery judgement on halt until an investigation is completed. It would be very bad for business if they failed to stamp out the roots of heresy just because they get impatient.

This view also makes it possible to portray different sisters, from the impatient firebrand to the more discrete investigator. Either sister is absolutely commited to purge but the methods they use would be different.

For the big I they would also fulfill different agendas. The more overt sisters are perfectly suited to public purgings while discrete sisters may be assigned to a cell of acolytes as a highly trained and absolutely loyal member. This acolyte sister would be of the more thoughtful variety and would be able to commit undercover investigations (as long as the cell doesn´t conduct any heresy of course).

So, what do you think? Is this interpretation reasonable?

Yes.

I always see Sisters in a Cell as that: one who is all about killing Heretics, but actually would like to kill it at it's source rather than greasing a few mooks. Of course, the question is, if the sister (or well, the player behind her) can/is willing to do small Heresy for the greater good.

Like proof of loyalty to get inside the chaos cult's inner cell, or secret base; How far are they willing to go to complete the mission? Get a 1d10 corruption points coupled with insanity? None at all? No limit?

Granted I suppose sisters can have that purifying thing done and loose corruption/ionsanity, more or less free of charge since hey, sisters are all about cleasing the soul with a touch of S&M

It really depends. Save for a some notable exceptions, every Sister is, in a way, "overt". They don't hide their faith, in fact they make a point about where they stand and what they think of you. This is likely the result of Schola Progenium upbringing, which even gives you a penalty when dealing with people who don't fit into the Sister's perspective of the world.

However, there are of course variations in tolerance, and these typically decide over which Sister may some day become a Canoness (and thus be forced to deal with Imperial politics and schemes which are often at odds with what young novices get taught) and who will remain a simple but dedicated warrior until the day they join the Emperor's side.

If you're talking covert operations, however, the Sisters Sabine are perhaps the one and only branch of the Sororitas able to hide their faith well enough. Zealotry is one of the most defining aspects of the Adepta Sororitas as well as a roleplaying challenge and one of the few potential drawbacks of this powerful career. I would deem it imperative that this is maintained in the play.

That said, if you want to read something about Sisters investigating, I greatly recommend the novel "Faith & Fire" from James Swallow:

http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/Faith-and-Fire.html

I see Sisters of Battle as the most stero-typical paladin (couldn't find a better word), full of vitue and incorruptable, willing to face the greatest odds for their faith and the Empourer. Going undercover, is a tricky thing, going incoginto not so difficult, inflitrating a Heretical Cult not going to happen, the book suggest that if you suggested such a thing to a Sister she would purge you happily. While all Sister's may not prescribe to the burn it first burn it second and when everything is dead burn it some more approach that is the most typical. Some may be far more subtle and sneaky, but their faith will not allow them do certain things.

This makes for a more narrow view than many players and does restrict their involvement in some activities but also help the Acolytes stick to a Puritan path, if you want your players to go Radical then don't have a sister in the group, she will or atleast should kill them. If however the rest of your players can convince, trick or otherwise get a sister to perform heretical acts, it would make for some great roleplaying when she finally comes to her senses.

Lastly just because the are at heart sisters are Empourer crazed Zealots, does not mean they don't know restraint, or self control. There a very few instants that a Sister doesn't know what she's doing. They maybe Zealots but they aren't madwomen. Others may see them as such, but if your from that kind of upbringing and faith and you see something that offends you and you can deal with it, you would.

This is one thing I think could have been even better explained had they gone into more detail about specific orders. For example you could say all space marines are zealous, but compare a Black Templar to an Ultra Marine and that zealotry takes differant shape. Sure UltraMarines are zealous to adhearance to the codex, but not so fanatical against witches that they do not allow librarians into thier chapter.

I do believe that an inquisitor that reqruits a sister into his/her cell doesen´t really aim to use that cell for deep infiltration of heretical sects. Since the sister would not do it and when she reports back to her superiors that inquisitor would be in trouble.

The sisters do, after all, not look lightly on anyone willing to betray their faith and act heretical.

What such a sister would accept however (I think), is to agree to delay the purging to gather additional evidence and investigate further.

All acolytes are a step above the usual plebs and are capable of free thinking and the taking of initiative. I see no reason why an acolyte-sister would be any different. The sister that is reqruited would be required to be able of discrete investigation.

And as Nimon says. Just as all space marines are not the same, sisters are not the same.

One thing that helped me alot in my DH campaign was a piece of fluff simply titled Inquisition. It is basicly a encyclopedia of all things Inquisition for 40k, this came out befor DH, and in it one of the things it mentions is that Inquisitors often choose Sister Repentia for their ranks because of their fearlessness and eagerness to repent for past transgressions, also because they have tasted corruption and are not black and white as some of their other sisters. I think though one could argue that being a repentia might make you see things even more black and white, but I do see where they are coming from with having tasted corruption before since sometimes it takes one to know one as they say.

Interesting about the repentia. It might also be easier to levy a repentia for regular acolyte work since they need to actively work on redeeming themselves. Whereas reqruiting an untainted sister would require more political manouvering.