The Conclave

The Ordos Majoris - Hobby, Painting and Modelling => The Dark Millennium => Topic started by: seaglen on March 30, 2011, 11:40:18 PM

Title: sisters of silence....
Post by: seaglen on March 30, 2011, 11:40:18 PM
hello all.
just found this place and am very impressed. love the inquisitor game.
been posting on other tabletop forums for a bit now, and am excited to find a pure inquisitor one available.

quick question regarding the sisters of silence, those freaky blanks with the pariah gene that the emporor utilises and servants and anti-warp tools.....
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MyljhaZ1TLQ/0.jpg)

how do they affect Him??? does he lose his awesome psychic pressence if he is surrounded by these blanks?
is he just too powerful for them to dampen?

any thought would be appreciated....
seaglen.
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: DapperAnarchist on March 30, 2011, 11:46:14 PM
Well, they're pictured next to each other in the Visions of Heresy, but do they appear in the same room at any point in the HH series itself? Perhaps he communicates via proxies... and yeah, he probably is powerful enough to handle a Pariah. He might be weaker, but still able to twist most psykers inside out with a twitch...
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: seaglen on March 30, 2011, 11:58:10 PM
yeah they were my thoughts. ive seen that picture, and he seems fine. however, even magnus was blinded by them at Nikea right?
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Dolnikan on March 31, 2011, 10:49:00 AM
I would expect that they would dampen his powers to near nothingness, they are full pariahs after all. If they can totally blind Magnus the Emperor should be affected somehow. He however has more than just his psychic presence, he also has enormous charisma and more physical power.
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: MarcoSkoll on March 31, 2011, 02:57:57 PM
Quote from: Dolnikan on March 31, 2011, 10:49:00 AMIf they can totally blind Magnus the Emperor should be affected somehow.
That assumes Magnus was even in the same league as the Emperor. The Primarchs were formidable, but the Emperor's soul was an amalgamation of many thousands of powerful psykers (or shamans, as they were then called).

However good the Primarchs were, they just weren't going to be his equal.
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: GAZKUL on March 31, 2011, 05:05:45 PM
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on March 31, 2011, 02:57:57 PM


However good the Primarchs were, they just weren't going to be his equal.

yet one of them managed to trick and technically kill him......
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Stormgrad on March 31, 2011, 05:12:09 PM
Horus wasnt just a primarch tho he had the backing of the chaos gods so a primarch with a daemons rage
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: MarcoSkoll on March 31, 2011, 05:33:23 PM
Quote from: GAZKUL on March 31, 2011, 05:05:45 PMyet one of them managed to trick and technically kill him......
Trick... maybe. He did manage to keep his coup from the Emperor, but the second half is less true.

Horus only killed the Emperor because the Emperor didn't want to kill Horus.

The Emperor didn't believe that Horus was irredeemable, so the fight was more from a perspective of "hold Horus off, try and talk him out of it". However, at the point that the Emperor realised that Horus was a lost cause and let loose lethally, it was over in the blink of an eye - the Emperor's psychic blast killing Horus almost instantly, obliterating his soul. And that was when Horus was supported by all the Chaos Gods and at the height of his power!

If the Emperor had just walked in there, looking to kill Horus, then it would've been a royal grade smack-down.
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Dolnikan on March 31, 2011, 07:18:23 PM
I meant that Magnus was an incredibly potent psyker, he was after all meant to take the Emperor's place on the golden throne. It stands to reason that a sister of silence would at the very least have some effect on Him. I think that is happens a lot that the Emperor's abilities are overrated, of course he was tremendously powerful but if His abilities made Him as godlike as he is often said to be he would never have required the aid of Horus when he was being choked by an ork, he could simply have blasted it into oblivion.
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Ynek on April 01, 2011, 01:05:29 AM
Quote from: Dolnikan on March 31, 2011, 07:18:23 PM
If His abilities made Him as godlike as he is often said to be he would never have required the aid of Horus when he was being choked by an ork, he could simply have blasted it into oblivion.

Meh, it's the same reason why batman sometimes lets Robin 'save' him from thugs or spiders in the bath that he's more than capable of dispatching himself....
He wants to make Robin feel like he matters.

Quote from: MarcoSkoll on March 31, 2011, 05:33:23 PM
However, at the point that the Emperor realised that Horus was a lost cause and let loose lethally, it was over in the blink of an eye - the Emperor's psychic blast killing Horus almost instantly, obliterating his soul. And that was when Horus was supported by all the Chaos Gods and at the height of his power!
At least, that's what history remembers.... Whether it's true, or simply a lie to make the Imperium's populace feel safe(r) from the threat of the Chaos Gods is another matter. EYHBTIAL, after all....

Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: mattausten86 on April 14, 2011, 06:03:12 PM
At least, that's what history remembers.... Whether it's true, or simply a lie to make the Imperium's populace feel safe(r) from the threat of the Chaos Gods is another matter. EYHBTIAL, after all....


The majority of the imperium arent even aware of the horus heresy...................
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Ynek on April 14, 2011, 08:46:57 PM
Quote from: mattausten86 on April 14, 2011, 06:03:12 PM
The majority of the imperium arent even aware of the horus heresy...................

Oh, I think they are all aware of it in some way, but in the same way that humans are aware of the war in heaven in the modern day. (And I don't mean the C'tan war of ascendancy against the Old ones. I'm talking about the war in which Lucifer refused to bow before man, and rallied 1/3 of God's angels in a rebellion which eventually saw him and his followers cast down out of heaven. Lucifer knew that humans were evil, flawed, murderous and dangerous creatures, and refused to aknowledge them as his superiors. After his banishment from heaven, this resentment became all the more bitter, and he took to collecting the souls of the wicked, mostly to prove a point. Perhaps he believes that if he collects enough of them, he'll be able to convince God of his claims that humanity is dangerous, and be permitted entrance back into Heaven.)

They'd get the stories of the Horus Heresy drilled into their heads from a young age, but they'd just be like stories to them. Stories to underline the strength of the Emperor, and outline the dangers of the ruinous powers. Of course, they probably don't realise that the ruinous powers are real, in much the same way that most modern humans don't really think that Satan is waiting for them in the shadows between 12 midnight and 3am. (Also known as the witching hours.)
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Dolnikan on April 14, 2011, 09:22:22 PM
It really depends on the source, some say that the citizens do know while others say that even the slightest mention of chaos is enough for a death sentence. I think that the average citizen would know nothing about the heresy, and if they know only that the emperor was betrayed by one of his divine sons, almost noone would know about the powers of chaos.
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Ulgavitch on April 14, 2011, 11:11:45 PM
QuoteIt really depends on the source, some say that the citizens do know while others say that even the slightest mention of chaos is enough for a death sentence. I think that the average citizen would know nothing about the heresy, and if they know only that the emperor was betrayed by one of his divine sons, almost noone would know about the powers of chaos.

Beg to differ, seriously beg to differ.

The Imperial Cult is based upon the Emperor as divine. The Emperor is divine because he has 'ascended' to the Golden throne. He ascended because he was betrayed, and now watches over all of humanity.

However, the Emperor must be worshiped because he protects. He protects from Chaos, or daemons. I think daemons lusting after the souls of men would make the people cling to him further. After all, the Emperor has to protect, so protects 'your' immortal soul from ... something.   

They might not know any of it was true, but they would still know that something out there is which will get them if they don't worship hard enough. It would be a 'daemon' or 'the devil' or something threatening. So they would know in a general sense.

Nothing specific though. That's saved for the Inquisitions - the lucky fellows ;-)

=][= U
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Dolnikan on April 15, 2011, 08:12:03 AM
It seems to me that the knowledge about chaos is seen as dangerous, after all, its harder to worship something if you don't know it exists at all. The imperial cult would talk in vague terms about witchcraft, mutants, xenos and heretics but never anything too close to the truth.
The Emperor is worshipped because He is indeed divine and betrayed by His own son, He however already was divine even before ascending to the golden throne. He protects the immortal souls of His faithfull from eternally drifting in the darkness by welcoming them to His side.
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Necris on May 04, 2011, 11:23:59 AM
I'd like to point out that at Nikea the Emperor was pumping out a psychic beacon of pure power (mobile astronomican) to guide his sons to him

Also Magnus has a psychic vision while at Nikea

All in the presence of Sisters of Silence


And onto the faith

The Emperor was the master of mankind he had 20 holy sons but half of those sons were corrupted by chaos and turn on their father, Horus the Emperor's most prized son led these traitors against their father laying siege to holy Terra, the Emperor and Horus battled against one another where the Emperor was mortally wounded before slaying the traitor. In the Emperor's wounded state he was interred into the golden throne where he ascended to guard all of humanity from the threat of chaos.

This is the common knowledge paraphrased of course, people know of chaos it is the evil that threatens everything, people don't know the details but they know the basics which is Chaos bad Emperor good.


Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Caralinus on May 06, 2011, 05:55:15 PM
As already mentioned it depends on the source, with many writers these days making it seem as if everyone knows about Chaos, in a vauge way of nothing else. When you look back at Codex: Chaos where the survivors of the 1st War for Armageddon were sterilsed and shipped off to work camps far away from the hives and the planet was repopulated with colonists who never saw or heard about the surviving population or about the war.

Not knowing about Chaos at all is better I would say, if everyone knows it makes it common and boring, having it as a secret lovecraftian nightmare makes it much more lethal and dangerous. With everyone knwoing about it it makes Chaos Cultists seem like your average aetheist emo. *yawn*...
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: Ynek on May 06, 2011, 07:35:10 PM
Quote from: Kallidor on May 06, 2011, 05:55:15 PM
Not knowing about Chaos at all is better I would say, if everyone knows it makes it common and boring, having it as a secret lovecraftian nightmare makes it much more lethal and dangerous. With everyone knwoing about it it makes Chaos Cultists seem like your average aetheist emo. *yawn*...

I always preferred the idea that Chaos is known about, but in a fairly diluted and inaccurate way. That way, their appearance on the streets of planet X is more of a "holy crap. The dark minions of chaos are real? I thought it was just something that the priests told us to keep us in line!" moment, or more likely a moment where what they see is so far-flung from the Ecclesiarchy's cautionary tales and warnings that the citizens never even make the connection.

But let's face it. Chaos isn't exactly subtle in it's machinations. From screaming, frothing-mouthed mutant berzerkers that want to make as big a mess out of your corpse as possible to minions who spread filth and vileness wherever they walk. It's not as if you can keep such things a complete secret very easily. In fact, trying to hide and deny the existence of chaos cultists, chaos marines and chaos daemons entirely would probably divert a disproportionate amount of resources that should really be spent fighting them. (Oh no! It's a khorne berzerker! Quick! someone throw a blanket over it so that nobody sees! Then play really loud music so nobody hears! Then launch a massive propaganda campaign to deny it was ever here! Then with whatever resources are left, we'll try to kill it.)

For the "nobody knows they exist" type villains, the necrons and the C'tan fit the bill a lot better. In fact, prior to the release of the current (and apparently, soon to be replaced,) necron codex, the Imperium's only official evidence of the Necron's existence was something like two frames of vid-footage taken from a security servitor that was recovered from a sororitas convent which was purged by the 'crons.

Not to mention that the information in the Necron codex is much more than the Imperium actually knows about them. Things like the War In Heaven, the Great Betrayal etc. are stories that even the Eldar only have a very crude and comparatively inaccurate understanding of.
Title: Re: sisters of silence....
Post by: DapperAnarchist on May 06, 2011, 09:09:32 PM
The biggest nasties would resemble Lucifer in the beliefs of the Church Militant - an eternal and everpresent threat to life and liberty. So most people would know of the names Abbadon, Horus, Kharn, etc, though many not of their origins. The exact origins of the Chaos Marines might be covered up, claiming that they are fakes in some way. However, the Daemons (Skarbrand, The Changeling, etc, and the minor Daemons) would be considered secret knowledge, much like the Ars Goetica were, as they are, at least in theory, open to the appeals of normal humans. No renegade governor would be able to control or summon Abbadon, Kharn, or Arhiman, but they could control a minor Daemon, or summon a major one. The purge of Armageddon wasn't necessarily to prevent the spread of knowledge, but of Chaotic corruption. 

Least that's my position.