Banner of the Order of the Bloody Rose
Order Colour Scheme of the Order of the Bloody Rose
The Order of the Bloody Rose is one of the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, or the Sisters of Battle, founded in honour of Saint Mina by the Ecclesiarch Deacis VI in the middle of the 38th Millennium. They are based on the Cardinal World of Ophelia VII within the Convent Sanctorum. The Order also operates a full Preceptory of Battle Sisters at the Shrine of the Seventeen Martyrs near the Hive World of Malfi in response to brewing religious conflicts in the Drusus Marches, a Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector located in the Segmentum Obscurus.
Order History
The Order of the Bloody Rose was not formally created until two and a half millennia after the founding of the Adepta Sororitas, and by this time, its patron saint, Mina, was long dead. Mina had been one of the five companions of Alicia Dominica, the founder and patron of the Adepta Sororitas, Mina was known as a dark and brooding sister, quick to anger and deadly in combat. In the late 36th Millennium, Mina was martyred at the hands of a sanguinary Chaos Cult, the agents of which are said to have ambushed her at prayer in a small shrine on Hydraphur. None of her sisters were present, but it is said that when they came upon her body the entire shrine was covered in the blood of her assailants, a score of at least twenty, which lay dead around her own blood-drained form. The Order of the Bloody Rose was not formally created until two and a half millennia after the founding of the first four orders, in the mid 38th Millennium, and by this time Mina was long dead. Her Order had existed as a small group of Sisters who provided a bodyguard for the Abbess of the Adepta Sororitas, and it was from this group that the new Order was formed. The symbol of Saint Mina is a red rose, with prominent thorns, representing her nature. Behind the rose are crossed two knife blades dripping in blood, symbolic of the circumstances of her martyrdom.
Notable Campaigns
- Therrix Suppression (085.M41) - The entire Order (over two dozen squads of Battle-Sisters) participated in the Therrix Suppression, the purging of the blasphemous Chaotic Cult Epicurean on the Hive World of Therrix. Additional support during the suppression was provided to the Sisters by a delegation of the Adeptus Ministorum. Led by Inquisitor Lord Scallen and Battle Group Purgator, the Imperial forces were also composed of three separate Space Marine Chapters (the Mentors, the Novamarines and the Subjugators) as well as a Regiment of the 808th Mordant Regiment of the Imperial Guard. The Sisters of the Order were instrumental in scouring the Hive World of all Heretics.
- The Defence of Dimmamar (858.M41) - Dimmamar, the birth world of the reforming Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor, came under attack from the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwé in 845.M41 without any warning or reason. Seraphim Superior Amelda of the Order of the Bloody Rose retaliated, leading her squad of Seraphim in a daring attack to slay the enemy commander, the Farseer Kauerith. The Seraphim's pistols blasted a bloody path through a score of black-clad Eldar before the Sisters were engulfed in a hurricane of psychic lightning. Though many of her companions fell, Amelda refused to yield and defiantly advanced through the eldritch storm, slaying the Eldar Farseer with a single Bolt round to the head.
- The Defence of Hive Superior (999.M41) - During the dark times of the 13th Black Crusade, the Order of the Bloody Rose sent forces to the long-ignored Trail of Saint Evisser, which had been increasingly troubled by Chaos-inspired uprisings and cultic activities linked to Ghargatuloth, the Prince of a Thousand Faces, a powerful daemon of the Chaos God known as Tzeentch. Following orders of Cardinal Recoba, the temporal and spiritual power on Vulkanis Ultor, the Sisters of Battle were deployed near Hive Superior, the world’s capital to man its outer defences on the shores of the great Lake Rapax. Unknowingly manipulated by one of Ghargatuloth’s agents, the renegade Inquisitor Gholic Ren-Sar Valinov, the Sisters of Battles fought against the Grey Knights despatched by the Ordo Malleus to stop Ghargatuloth’s rebirth. Only through the brave actions and misgivings of Canoness Ludmilla, the forces commander, did the Sisters of the Bloody Rose recognize that they were fighting loyal agents of the Emperor and serving the interests of Chaos. Joining forces with the Grey Knights, the Sisters battled the daemonic servitors of the powerful daemon, thus enabling Brother-Captain Tancred and Justicar Alaric to banish the reborn Ghargatuloth.
Notable Sisters of the Bloody Rose
- Saint Mina - Saint Mina is the patron of the Order of the Blood 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. In mid-late M36, Saint Mina was martyred by a sanguinary cult whilst at prayer in a shrine on Hydraphur. When her body was found along with the shrine, she was surrounded by the corpses of twenty of her attackers - her body covered in their blood. Her personal symbol, the red rose, represents her strong character and her final death.
- Canoness St. Aspira - Saint Aspira, 18th Canoness of the Order of the Bloody Rose, who led her Sisters against the Heretic Denescura and liberated almost a hundred worlds from his power with only a thousand warriors. The Cloak of Saint Aspira, worn by the Canoness in life, remains a holy relic of the Order.
- Canoness Ludmilla - Ludmilla was the commanding officer of the powerful detachment of Sisters of Battle during the events of the Defence of Hive Superior during the 13th Black Crusade. Like other Imperial forces, Canoness Ludmilla had been purposefully misled by the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor turned traitor, Gholic Ren-Sar Valinov. The Canoness and her fellow sisters were duped into fighting the Grey Knights detachment, under the command of Justicar Alaric, that were sent to stop the rogue Inquisitor from summoning the Daemon Prince Ghargatuloth, the Herald of Tzeentch. Fortunately for the Grey Knights, Canoness Ludmilla had heard legends of the silver-clad warriors and recognised them as loyal servants of the Emperor that they were. Canoness Ludmilla led her fellow Battle-Sisters alongside the Grey Knights in an attempt to atone for her previous error by slaying the traitorous Valinov. Unfortunately, the rogue Inquisitor was protected by a Conversion Field, which absorbed Ludmilla’s shot, and the Canoness was slain in the subsequent hand-to-hand combat that followed.
Relics of the Order
- Cloak of Saint Aspira - Canoness Saint Aspira of the Order of the Bloody Rose led her Battle Sisters in a War of Faith that liberated nearly one hundred worlds from the grip of the blasphemous tyrant Denescura. At the inception of the war, Aspira was presented with a magnificent cloak blessed in the Ecclesiarchal Palaces of Terra. Whilst this in itself marked the cloak as a treasured relic, small shards of the Emperor’s own armour were woven into it to ward away the blows of the enemy, elevating it to a sacred garment of incomparable spiritual significance. St. Aspira wore the cloak throughout the War of Faith, striding into the fray heedless of her own safety, secure in her unwavering knowledge that the Emperor protects.
Order Appearance
Order Colours
The colours of the Order of the Bloody Rose's Sisters' vestments and Power Armour is primarily a bright blood red colour with black vestments on the outside and pure white inside. Their weapons are the same black as their vestments.
Order Badge
The badge of the Order of the Bloody Rose is a blood red rose.
Sources
- Apocalypse, pg. 123
- Codex: Adepta Sororitas (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 13, 15, 17-18, 74
- Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pp. 19, 35, 43
- Codex: Witch Hunters (3rd Edition), pp. 6-7
- Dark Heresy: Blood of Martyrs (RPG), pg. 76
- The Inquisition (Background Book), pg. 65
- White Dwarf Magazine 293 (UK), "Liber Sororitas - Matriarchs of the Sisterhood," by Andy Hoare, pg. 56
- Grey Knights (Novel) by Ben Counter, in The Grey Knights Omnibus, pg.198
Gallery
| Order of the Argent Shroud • Order of the Bloody Rose • Order of the Ebon Chalice • Order of Our Martyred Lady • Order of the Sacred Rose • Order of the Valorous Heart • Order of the Black Sepulchre |