I have heard some discussion in recent days over what exactly caused the differences between our orders and the rest of the sisterhood, and to clear up this confusion I have decided to explain our orders history.

That will be today's lesson.

There are a few differences between our order and our fellow sisters' orders. The most important difference is our orders founding and history, as it is the cause of all our differences.

Back in the dark days following the holy god emperor's internment on the golden throne the faith began spreading rapidly. The only worlds resisting the spread were worlds with the mechanicus, and worlds under Nauvis's influence.

The mechanicus because of its already ironclad faith and Nauvis because the guardian saints had seen the less glamorous parts of the early faith.

Religious purges and mass killings of the innocent weren't common per say, but they did happen. The faith was not yet centralized and any man could proclaim himself a prophet to have his neighbors burned.

Charlatans and heretics were commonplace in those days, often rising to the position of priest or Deacon and collecting "tribute for the god emperor" with that same tribute instead going towards vanity and Enriching the priest's own pockets.

Such barbarism and chaos would not be allowed into any place Nauvis could reach. The emperor did not call for such acts, and so Nauvis would not commit them, or let them be committed on its grounds.

For centuries the worlds in the Nauvis sub sector watched as the worlds around them slowly succumbed to corruption and hedonism. Blood sacrifice and dark rituals to appease the emperor became commonplace. Lighter versions of the imperial cult began to filter into Nauvis space through trade routes, and recognizing that there would be a time a significant portion of their population would began to follow the imperial cult over the other faiths worshiping The Emperor, The Engineer sent out a decree from within the factory, saying a standardized Nauvis version had been made and would be disseminated to the people.

This is where the core tenets of our Religion were officially created, but it was not the origin of our order, that comes later. With the only recognized and supported faith in the Nauvis region being the one ordained by the engineer, it quickly spread and pushed out the other sects. The more civilized and kind cult focused not on providing to the church and paying a religious tithe to "the emperor" which was in reality just the churches ministers, instead it focused on uplifting your fellow man, the able helping the weak so that all may prosper rested better than all uplifting the already strong.

By fostering trust and kindness rather than mistrust and hate of those weaker than you tensions began to arise where our variant of the religion met with the faith of the wider imperium, our ministers were labeled heretics and killed or tortured until they converted.

Eventually this worsened as the wider faith was officially recognized as the ministorum, the efforts to crack down on all other unrecognized worship of the emperor became even more extreme. Other minor or major cults guilty of nothing but not paying a tithe to the ministorum and still being loyal followers of the emperor were killed or purged.

If we were not safely within Nauvis's sphere of influence we would have been wiped out like so many others. But even the protection of Nauvis was not enough to stop the attempts at wiping us out. Assassinations and revolts began to target influential members of our faith, ships would refuse to take anyone related to our faith and anyone who left Nauvis's protection was unlikely to return.

Those were not the most blatant of attacks though, on three separate occasions fleets of 'pilgrims' arrived and settled on worlds within the sector, and months after those fleets arrived a revolt primarily composed of those same pilgrims would rise up and try to purge members of the faith and to take the world in the ministorum's name.

These revolts obviously failed but it did show that the ministorum was not as loyal as they liked to pretend, and Nauvis retaliation soon followed. Assassins within Nauvis space were located by the astartes and purged, pilgrim fleets were broken up and settled across more worlds so a unified force could not form, and a religious police force was formed to monitor those faithful to the ministorum.

This back and forth continued for years, a war in shadow. Without a seat at the high lords table there was little The engineer's servants could do. A war against the ministorum would only weaken the imperium as a whole, and could not be won unless Nauvis managed to conquer every world the ministorum touched.

The ministorum would try many things to break Nauvis, some subtle like blocking trade and supplies, which only angered the mechanicus further and failed entirely as Nauvis's rogue traders and mechanicus fleets instead took to the task ordinary merchants once did. Only causing the ministorum to lose out on the profits they could have gained.

There was only one mistake that Nauvis made, and that was simply that they were too idle. Instead of venturing further and purging the corrupt they instead just defended themselves. Only retaliating on rare occasions and never taking proactive action.

The engineer has always been a defender first, and while this was a great strength it was also a weakness that allowed the rot in the imperium to fester and there can be no greater example of this rot than Goge Vandire, the 'founder' of the sisters of battle and one of the greatest heretics to live.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The exact events that occurred to allow his rise to power and the events leading to his death are too many for this lecture, but they will be mentioned later. Needless to say, cruelty and barbarism of that scale finally forced The Engineer's legions into action, along with the Mechnicus and Adeptus Astartes. It was the engineer's own flagship that teleported Alicia Dominica to the Imperial Palace and to the custodians that would take her to the emperor.

Fleets of the engineers own drones comprised the bulk of the forces fighting against Goge vandire's forces and it was the first time in centuries either the flag ship or the engineer's drones had seen direct combat. Still they did not kill those that they fought, instead disabling the sisters weapons and armor before capturing them.

Even without Alicia Dominica returning and killing Goge Vandire it was only a matter of days before he would have fallen regardless. We had been granted a chance to redeem ourselves and we took it. The sisters who had been captured made up the first members of our new order, following those same tenants laid out centuries before and after decades of service they were finally granted recognition by the Engineer himself, power armor, ships, weaponry, training, and a grand cathedral on Nauvis itself. Inside of which resides our guiding light. A simple terminal unadorned that displays a list of tasks assigned by the engineer, from tasks as simple as establishing an orphanage on an agri world to grand crusades making up multiple fleets.

We are guided directly by him, and so we cannot truly go astray.

That's the how of our faith, so next must be the what of our faith. Rather than loose ideals to aspire too, like kindness, charity, and loyalty. Our faith is instead in our actions and convictions. Similar in execution to other faiths, yes, but fundamentally different.

You probably know of our more noteworthy duties, fighting the emperor's enemies and healing his sick and wounded. Something nearly every order of sisters does and admittedly our main tasks. There are always more enemies to purge and loyal subjects that need care and tending. But those are not all of our given duties.

The next sacred duty is something all from Nauvis are well suited towards, even more than base violence or healing. Construction and architecture. We build great cathedrals and temples, really they are more fortresses, on all of the worlds we have a permanent or lasting presence on, but that is not close to the extent of our work.

If a world is ravaged by a natural disaster or a war we will be sent to rebuild it, heal its people, and guide them in worship of the emperor. Grand projects spanning continents, cites housing billions in comfort and safety. All of these we build and make beautiful. Our orders Labyrinthine.

All sisters serve some time with the order Labyrinthine, so that we all know what it is like to create beauty, to learn more than destruction and purging. Eventually there will come a day when all the enemies are dead or broken, and we must know how to rebuild.

And cleaning up rubble and destroyed buildings is easier when you're wearing power armor.

A less populated order is the order Byzatine. They are responsible for supplying other members of the faith and other sisters, and they are in charge of sending relief supplies to worlds in need, and organizing how said supplies are distributed.

And killing anyone who thinks to steal from said supplies, but that's a given.

Yes it's one of the less popular orders, and it requires a particular temperament and eye for detail that not everyone has, but it is integral to the smooth running of every other order of sisters.

They are also responsible for routing out corruption, the mundane kind, from any world we have extensive dealings with, often working with the arbites.

The combat orders have already been touched upon, and calling them orders is likely misleading, as many orders serve within orders, sisters of the order of the iron rose might have members in the orders Labyrinthine, Byzantine, Bulwark, Or Balistraia for instance. It would be more accurate to say that each of the main four orders are a mix of mindsets and goals the particular sisters strive for, rather than true orders.

Orders Balistraia go out and actively prevent threats from arising, either through purging them, or by committing diplomacy. They maintain diplomatic outposts on eldar craft worlds, minor xeno's worlds, and many Tau border worlds.

They are the most proficient at killing the Xenos, yet they always strive to end any conflict without fighting.

They also scout out enemy forces and find new worlds, sometimes accompanying mechanicus exploration fleets.

Our orders Bulwark are the orders with the largest number of sisters pledged to it, and they work towards our most sacred goal, defending mankind and all its worlds. Yet without any of the other orders they would be nearly helpless to accomplish this task.

When one thinks of the Orders Of Nauvis, they will think of the Orders Bulwark. Whether it be their heroic stands against impossible odds or the magnificent fortresses they man, they are our most iconic members.

I will have you all meditate on this, I will be expecting a paper on all of this within the week. You will write what you have learned, and tell me the conclusions you have drawn from my lecture.