The Order of the Sacred Rose
(A collection of gathered and mostly copied informations + House Rules)
Heretics crave the cleansing fire of absolution. They need not fear, for we shall deliver it to them.
– Canoness Josmane of the Order of the Sacred Rose
Founder: Ecclesiarch Deacis VI
Honoured Saint: Arabella
Convent: Convent Prioris (Terra)
Founding: 38th Millenium
The Order of the Sacred Rose is one of the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, or the Sisters of Battle, founded in honour of Saint Arabella by the Ecclesiarch Deacis VI in the middle of the 38th Millennium at the same time as the Order of the Bloody Rose was Founded. The Order is based on Terra in the Convent Prioris.
In the wake of the mad High Lord Goge Vandire’s downfall in the 36th Millennium, which ended his tyrannical Reign of Blood, Sebastian Thor was declared Ecclesiarch, and instituted sweeping reforms to the Ecclesiarchy. The High Lords of Terrawere fearful of a repetition of the Reign of Blood. and so the “Decree Passive” was passed, forbidding the Ecclesiarchy from maintaining “men under arms.” Alicia Dominica, at Thor’s order formally founded the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, which adhered to the letter, if nor the spirit of the decree in that all its warriors were female. Following Thor’s Reformation, the newly founded Adepta Sororitas were split between the Convent Prioris on Holy Terra and the Convent Sanctorum on Ophelia VII. Both of these Convents are massive fortresses housing tens of thousands of Sisters. Those sisters still residing at San Leorwere transported to the new convents, and the foundations of the non-militant orders are laid. In time, the Orders Militant grew into larger and more powerful organisations and Sebastian Thor’s successor, Ecclesiarch Alexis XXII, decreed that the two Convents each be divided into two Orders Militant. In mid M38, Ecclesiarch Deacis VI created two more Orders Militant, the Order of the Bloody Rose in honour of Saint Mina and the Order of the Sacred Rose, founded in memory of Saint Arabella, based at the Convents Sanctorum and Prioris respectively.
Like the Order of the Bloody Rose, the Order of the Sacred Rose was not established during the existence of its patron saint — Arabella. In her lifetime, Arabella earned the honorific of “Liberator” and many Battle Sisters, especially Retributors, are known to pray to her spirit for liberation from doubt and rash action when a cool, logical head is required. Of all Dominica’s bodyguards, Arabella was known as a particularly disciplined, even-tempered Sister. However, behind her serenity lay the determination of a resolute warrior, and her symbol was thus a white rose, held aloft in a mailed gauntlet. The white armoured Sisters of the Sacred Rose embody these same virtues, facing down alien hordes and Warp-spawned monsters with bolters calmly levelled where lesser warriors would panic and falter.
Order Colours
The colours of the Sisters of the Sacred Rose’s vestments and Power Armour is white with contrasting black vestments. The linings of their cloaks are red as are their weapons.
Order Badge
The badge of the Order of the Sacred Rose is a simple white rose.
The Order in Battle
The following rules are based on informations about the new codex of November 2019. The Flamewing Seraphim are just a house-rul addition.
Rules
Orders Convictions – Devote Serenity: Overwatch on a 5+ and never lose more than 1 model on a failed LD test. Additionally, whenever you use a miracle dice for an act of faith, roll a D6. On a 5+, gain a miracle dice.
Warlord Trait – Light of the Emperor: When you perform an Act of Faith with this Warlord, do not roll for the Devote Serenity Conviction. You automatically gain a Miracle Dice.
Relics – Light of St. Agnatha: Replaces a Brazier of Holy Fire. -1 to Leadership of Daemons within 6″. Does the same thing as the Brazier- once when firing Overwatch may roll a dice and on a 2+ it does D3 mortal wounds to target unit, D6 to Daemons- except this one you can discard a Miracle Dice to keep it lit and able to be used again.
Stratagems – The Emperor’s Judgement (1 CP): Pick a unit that is firing Overwatch. Unmodified hit roll of 6+ for a Bolt weapon gets an additional hit.
New Unit – Flamewing Seraphim [Elite]
In the Order of the Sacred Rose, elite Seraphims are formed into squadrons called Flamewings. They are renowned throughout the Order of the Sacred Rose for their agile grace and never losing their accuracy while moving on the field of battle. If the need arises they can be requisitioned into serving in a Canoness’ personal retinue.
Unit: Flamewing Seraphim Models per Unit: 5-10 Points per Model: 13
Notable wars of the Order
835.M41 – The War for Piety
The Shrine World of Piety rematerialised in realspace in 835.M41 after being swallowed by a massive Warp Storm two standard centuries earlier. The planet was, however, almost unrecognisable, having been transformed during its time in the Immaterium into a hideous Daemon World. Canoness Sariah of the Order of the Sacred Rose immediately lead a force of Battle-Sisters to the planet to retrieve artefacts from the Reliquary of Hope, one of the few Imperial sites on Piety to have withstood the corruption of Chaos. As the rest of her force established a perimeter around the reliquary, Sariah lead several squads of Sisters into the labyrinthine corridors beneath. For three solar days Canoness Sariah and her Battle-Sisters fought their way through daemon and mutant-haunted passageways; Bolters cut down scores of blood-hungry daemon-hounds and the Sisters’ Flamers purged vast swathes of bloated Plague Beasts. Only Sariah and two Celestians survived the horror to rejoin their order’s Battle Sisters on the surface, having recovered the left thighbone of Saint Dolan and three pages from an original copy of the Lexicon of Falsehoods from a stasis vault in the reliquary. The surviving Battle Sisters withdrew to orbit with their prizes just as a fleet of Grey Knights starships arrived and laid waste to the planet with Cyclonic Torpedoes, performing the merciful Exterminatus which put the world’s tortured inhabitants out of their misery and offered them the Emperor’s peace.
997.M41 – The Defence of Valedor
The Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan overruns the Ecclesiarchy world of Valedor in a matter of hours, slaughtering the entire population of pilgrims and Ministorum Adepts, as well as overwhelming a Battle Barge of the Iron Lords Chapter. A small force of Battle-Sisters from the Order of the Sacred Rose represents the only humans to bear witness to the event, having barely fought their way clear of the carnage.
Unknown.M41 – The Second Halo Schism
When the Arch Confessor Cornelius preached the War of Faith that saw the Demagogues of the Second Halo Schism burned on pyres twenty metres high, it was the female warriors of the Order of the Sacred Rose that broke the back of the Heretical cult’s fanatical defence of the Palace of Radiance.
Unknown.M41 – The War of Faith
Led by their Canoness Selena Agna, the Order helped lead an Imperial Crusade against xenos, Heretics and the Forces of Chaos within the Kaurava System. This Crusade brought them into brief conflict with other Imperial forces, including the Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter and the Imperial Guard’s 252nd Conservator Regiment. The Battle Sisters of the Order of the Sacred Rose were supported by the Living Saint Anais in the defence of the Order’s primary bastion in the Sama District, on the planet of Kaurava I.
Notable heroes of the Order
Saint Arabella
Saint Arabella is the patron of the Order of the Sacred Rose. Although this long-dead martyr never led her Order in battle, it was founded in her name. She was one of five companions of Alicia Dominica the patron and founder of the Adepta Sororitas. She was the last of the surviving six Sisters to enter the Emperor’s Throne Room when they were brought before him for a personal audience during the Reign of Blood in M36 by the Custodians. Arabella disappeared in late M36 shortly after the death of Sister Mina – her ultimate fate is unknown.
Canoness Magda Grace
Magda Grace was a Canoness of the Order of the Sacred Rose who had fought against the uncaring tides of the universe for eighty-three long years. From childhood she has held fast to the belief that the righteous have an inner strength, a core of iron within them that stands untarnished by the twisting tides of fate. Those near her find themselves unconsciously holding the same beliefs as Magda herself — that the Emperor protects, and whatever terrors the universe visits upon them, the faithful will die content. During the Cryptus Campaign against Hive Fleet Leviathan in 998.M41, upon the night world of Dessecran, Canoness Grace battled ceaselessly to contain the vanguard swarms that had infested the planet. She rallied the planetary defence force time and time again as they engaged in a series of desperate battles beneath the planet’s capital city, hunting down the Genestealers infesting the sewers even as the beasts hunted them in turn. When Magda eventually emerged triumphant from the undercity, she bore a livid gash across her eye and down her cheek — a parting gift from a Lictor that had hunter her night and day until she finally put a mass-reactive bolt into its bulbous head. Her Order was next stationed on Lysios to hunt down and exterminate the pagan giant-worshippers of the crawler hulks. When the Tyranids invaded, however, they quickly turned from persecutors to saviours. Under the leadership of Canoness Grace, they gave their lives freely to ensure the citizens of the algae-slicked planet had a chance to escape. During the battle on Lysios, Magda Grace herself was cut down on the threshold of salvation by the Lictor that had hounded her since her first encounter with the Tyranids upon Desseran.
Canoness Selena Agna
Selena Agna was the Canoness of the Order of the Sacred Rose. She personally led her Order in the defence of the Kaurava System during the large incursion of xenos and Heretic forces that assaulted that system’s worlds. Canoness Agna and her Sisters also fought against various Imperial forces durigng that unfortunate conflict, including the Blood Ravens Space MarinesChapter and the 252nd Conservator Regiment of the Imperial Guard, deeming the Imperial Guard Regiment as a threat for refusing to cede to her authority over all Imperial forces, and the Blood Ravens as corrupted, somehow responsible for the massive warp storms that engulfed the entire system. The Order attempted to purge the system of all xenos threats as well as those deemed as heretics.
The absence of faith is the mark of the weak.
The absence of faith is the mark of the heretic.
The absence of faith is the mark of damnation.
– Ephrael Stern: extract from “The Stern Codex”
Sisters of Saint Nora 