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"We are concerned with the future. The victory of mankind depends on those who lead and those who serve. That responsibility is ours; that future is ours to bring to pass."

— Abbot Bernar Skrayling, Maccabeus Quintus Schola Progenium
Drill Abbot

A Drill Abbot of the Schola Progenium.

The Schola Progenium is one of the many divisions of the Adeptus Ministorum, the state church of the Imperium of Man. It is responsible for the upbringing, education and training of orphans, predominantly those of officers and nobles who have died in the service of the Imperium, often those who once served in the Astra Militarum or Imperial Navy.

These children are known as the Progena, and most of them will end up serving the Ministorum or in other branches of the Adeptus Terra. Others will go on to become military leaders and special forces troops within the Imperial Guard or Imperial Navy such as elite Tempestus Scions or iron-willed Imperial commissars.

Some may take office in a planetary government, the Administratum, the Ecclesiarchy, the Adeptus Arbites or even become Acolytes of the Inquisition on the path to assuming the duties of a full Inquisitor.

Many girls of the Progena are destined for one of the Orders of the Adepta Sororitas.

Those Progena who display psychic aptitude are often killed outright or used to meet the Emperor's levy of psykers if they are found to be lacking in willpower, but may sometimes be handed over for service with the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, or, in rare cases, receive further training as Sanctioned Psyker Acolytes of the Inquisition.

History

"Death is not failure. For even death can bring glory. Fear is not failure, for fear can be conquered. The only known failure is to ignore orders, for even a slight hesitation in following them brings an ignoble end."

Liber Progenium, Volume I

The Schola Progenium takes children who were orphaned when their parents perished in the service of the Emperor of Mankind, from daughters of Imperial Guard officers killed on the battlefield, to sons of Imperial administrators lost in the far reaches of space, and trains them to become the backbone of Imperial society as servants of the various branches of the Adeptus Terra.

Those who pass through the Schola Progenium are called Progena, and they receive an education like no other. The fundamental cornerstone of life in the Schola Progenium is harsh discipline. From the day they first don their grey garb, the Progena learn that the God-Emperor has no use for infirmity of purpose or weakness, and pain is merely an illusion of an untrained mind.

Swift correction, prayer, fasting and contemplation are the tools by which a mind of rigid purpose and faith is formed, and the cornerstone of the Schola's teaching. A Progena's education moves through predetermined phases, beginning with literacy and the basic theology of the Imperial Creed, and progressing on through history, politics, the contemplation of Imperial saints, rhetoric and leadership skills.

The curriculum does not stop at honing the intellect either as all Progena are trained in physical endurance and skill at arms by the infamous Drill Abbots. The Drill Abbots are hardened Imperial military veterans and have usually spent half their lives in Imperial military service before being ordained as Ministorum Priests. Stern, stoic, unforgiving and relentless, the lessons imparted by the Drill Abbots will stay with Progena for their entire lives.

During the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium, most of the Schola Progenium were corrupted and rife with slavery and depravity. Orphans were used as slave labour in factories and mines making goods for the Ecclesiarchy. Particularly promising individuals were sold to Imperial Commanders as slaves and servants, and the most attractive became concubines for Imperial nobles.

The most physically adept were sent to be trained as Frateris Templars or Brides of the Emperor, swelling the corrupt and tyrannical High Lord Goge Vandire's armies with the best recruits. The habitats themselves became associated with licentious practices, and their money was put to questionable ends.

In direct contrast, each habitat now maintains a strict separation between the two genders and contact between them is restricted purely to religious ceremonies. Only with this purity can the Progena hope to be elevated to a position within the Emperor's domain.

As they mature, the Progena are groomed for the place they shall take in the service of the Imperium. Many are taken into the Ecclesiarchy, Administratum or some other division of the Adeptus Terra, while others of martial leanings find their place in the officer cadres of the Imperial armed forces, among the special operations regiments of the Militarum Tempestus or as an Arbitor of the Adeptus Arbites.

The finest Progena are recruited into the most specialised of the Imperium's elites, such as the Commissariat or Adepta Sororitas, and a very few of the most talented are inducted directly into the Inquisition.

Tempestus Scions

Elite warriors of the Militarum Tempestus defend an Imperial world against the Imperium's foes

Exceptionally skilled warriors descended from the very finest of the Imperium's noble bloodlines, both Tempestus Scions and commissars obey and enforce the will of their superiors with merciless efficiency. The Imperium of Man holds a million worlds and takes its tithe of military personnel from every single culture within its bounds.

Despite this nearly inconceivable scale, the commands issued by the many Imperial authorities must be followed unflinchingly in order for the Imperium to endure; hesitation would result in the swift collapse of the Emperor's realm.

Tempestus Scions and commissars are indoctrinated in the Imperial Creed from youth, serving no culture but that of loyalty and the swift execution of their duties. It is they who possess the tenacity and resolve to undertake the toughest missions. It is they who get the job done.

Tempestus Scions are disciplined, elite special operations soldiers who fight without question or hesitation until their orders are fulfilled. Commissars are harsh yet inspiring leaders who ensure that every military objective is achieved -- no matter the cost. Without the iron-willed resolution of both, the Imperium would be severely weakened in its darkest hour.

Heroes and Legends

As well as being the elite wing of the Astra Militarum, the Ordo Tempestus is the training ground for the Imperium's finest martial operatives outside of the legendary Adeptus Astartes. It works alongside the Schola Progenium, whose facilities are governed by the Ecclesiarchy, to provide key Imperial institutions with the best recruits the galaxy can provide.

The Schola Progenium takes a constant influx of war orphans from the embattled worlds of the Imperium of Man. These young individuals are officially known as Progena Novum. Mindscaped, schooled and trained to an almost inhuman degree, those who pass their Trials of Compliance and make it past Selection Day are then split off to serve in the different organs of the Imperial hierarchy.

The majority of these cadets are assigned to the Schola Tempestus, where they complete the gruelling training necessary to become Tempestus Scions. The death rate amongst each standard year group of recruits is high, for the Schola Tempestus is as merciless as it is efficient.

After three standard years of intense physical and mental conditioning, those who survive their training are assigned to a Scions regiment and join the Militarum Tempestus in earnest. From that point on they are issued with the very best of equipment and resources the arsenals of the Ordo Tempestus can provide. In return they are expected to give their lives in the service of the Imperium and to obey the orders of their superiors without question, no matter the horrors that confront them.

Only those Progena with the strongest minds and most unshakeable resolve are given the chance to join the Officio Prefectus. Assuming they can prove themselves able to put aside such ephemeral concerns as Humanity and compassion, come Selection Day these prospective commissars are assigned to the Schola Prefectus. There they spend several standard years learning the finer points of the Imperial Creed, the Tactica Imperium, and even sections of the Codex Astartes.

Once each of their spheres of knowledge is complete, they will be given the uniform and authority of a full member of the Officio Prefectus. Entrusted with a Bolt Pistol, the holy instrument of authority and vengeance presented to all of their brethren, and frequently given a Power Sword for close-quarters fighting, the commissar is ready to instill discipline and strike the fear of the Emperor into all those within the Ordo Tempestus and without.

Female Progena cadets who show both physical aptitude and a burning faith in the Emperor will be sent to the Adepta Sororitas via one of the bodies that govern their ancient orders -- the Convent Sanctorum or the Convent Prioris. It is there that the sisters-in-training learn the secrets of the mechanical wonder that is power armour and how to wield the holy trinity of Bolter, Flamer and Melta.

Males who take the creed of the Emperor into their heart and evince an almost supernatural degree of faith will instead be requisitioned by the Adeptus Ministorum. Some of these find themselves seconded to Astra Militarum regiments, much like their commissar contemporaries, whilst others bolster the Adepta Sororitas, go back into the Schola Progenium as Drill Abbots, or even lead armies of the faithful in their own right among the Frateris Militia or as Crusaders.

To join the Adeptus Ministorum is an honour beyond measure; from amongst their ranks, the most devout leaders of the Imperium are born. Individuals of a more scholarly bent, as well as those whose minds are suited for the grinding tedium of clerical and logistical roles, will instead spend the rest of their lives in the Adeptus Terra. Each trained adept has not only an exceptional mind, but also a solid grasp of the military arts due to his time in the Schola Progenium.

On those rare occasions that insurrection breaks out in a dataslave compound or pedanticum complex, the prospective troublemakers may find themselves choking on their own heretical pamphlets or with their brains dashed out by the bookish but unexpectedly violent overseer they had previously thought of as easy prey.

The most secretive of all the organisations that recruit their agents from the Schola Progenium is the Emperor's Holy Inquisition. Powerful beyond measure, the Inquisition takes only those who excel physically, mentally and spiritually. Though these prodigies join the ranks as Acolytes under the province of a more senior Inquisitor, the canniest and most capable of their number will become Inquisitors in their own right.

Theirs is the right to change the course of history, to send entire battlegroups of the Astra Militarum and Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes into the fires of war, and even to consign fully populated planets to oblivion should they deem it necessary.

All who graduate from the Schola Progenium join a group of exceptional individuals who impose the Imperium's will on a hostile and uncaring galaxy. Their influence is spread across the stars, guiding the lesser orders of Mankind by the will of the High Lords of Terra themselves. By the skills and disciplines of those taken from their families and reforged in the fires of adversity, the realm of Mankind will stand or fall.

Forging a Killer

Tempestus Scions and commissars are remorseless and efficient killers, but these warriors are not born that way. They are forged within the Schola Progeniums -- harsh training camps based on long-established Imperial worlds. It is these ancient facilities that are responsible for taking the orphaned offspring of the best the Imperium has to offer and transforming them into ruthless soldiers.

Imperium Structure & Organisation

Chart depicting the structure and organisation of the various organisations of the Imperium of Man.

The Schola Progenium is designed to homogenise, break and rebuild the orphaned sons and daughters of the Imperial elite. It transforms them from frightened children into loyal warriors ready to fight and die in the name of the Emperor, or into fearsome, iron-fisted authoritarians who keep the wheels of the Adeptus Terra in motion.

In the aftermaths of the many atrocities so common in the 41st Millennium, any newly created orphans who are of aristocratic blood are brought to the attention of the nearest Officio Prefectus officials, who are tasked with dealing with the aftershocks of a battle and salvaging anything still useful to the Imperium. Many a Commissar has marched through the corpse-strewn walkways of a Planetary Governor's palace to discover a forlorn son or daughter who has been hiding -- safe, but alone -- in some underground bunker. The Commissar, having come from a similar background, will ensure that such a child does not go to waste. Quickly and efficiently, he assigns the new-made orphan to a starship bound for the nearest Schola Progenium.

It is even whispered that, when it is in the Imperium's best interests, the Officio Prefectus may "steal" a prospective new recruit. Sometimes a child -- whose parents are still alive -- may be judged to have shown remarkable qualities, and their presence on a backwater world may be considered an inefficient use of those skills when they could be put to better effect in an Imperial facility. The rumour has it that a Commissar will ensure that such resources are allocated more efficiently, even if the protesting parents have to be removed from the equation in order to do so.

Children arrive at the vast Schola Progeniums at a range of ages. Some come when they are as young as six Terran years, while others are as old as twelve. Most inductees are orphaned in large groups following a single planetary disaster, though occasionally individuals are thrown into larger groups if it is convenient. New recruits undergo a series of mental and physical examinations, but this is solely for the benefit of the facility. Should the cadet have been gleaned from a planet on the wrong end of a plague or spiritual rebellion, then the last thing the Drill Abbots would want is for that same corruption to break out within a confined, isolated complex and savage its young inmates.

Cadets are divided by age to form training groups that will ultimately -- in the case of the Militarum Tempestus -- form the basis of their full battle regiments, to maintain a sense of brotherhood. Group sizes can start off as large as several hundred at any one time, though those who would not make worthy servants of the Imperium are quickly weeded out, and are not seen again by their classmates.

Whereas the Astra Militarum is made up of soldiers from a huge number of different cultures, the Progena of the Schola Progenium are not permitted cultural variety. Though they may arrive there from different worlds, they are quickly recast in the same Imperial mould. As a result of this, they can be relied upon to put the orders of their superiors first and foremost before any local loyalties.

So that the Schola Progenium becomes their sole reality, cadets are taught to forget their old existence. They are stripped of their former clothing and of any belongings they may have brought with them. They are issued only with simple black uniforms and standardised equipment and training gear, which they are expected to wear and use throughout their training. Recruits are forced to abandon their birth names, and are instead provided with a new one chosen from a long list of legendary heroes of the Imperium. This is as much to remind them of the excellence to which they must aspire, as it is to remove their identity. One exception to these traditional processes is when siblings arrive -- they are not deprived of their familial connections, as these have been found to encourage greater competition as well as fostering stronger internal ties in the long term.

Such uniformity is easier to accept for very young students than it is for those who have spent longer in their parent cultures -- but mindscaping is always necessary to facilitate the commitment to the ways of the Schola Progenium. Sometimes, for habitual prejudices, this clarity of thought can be achieved by simple techniques, such as repetition of litanies for solar weeks on end. However, at some point every cadet is strapped down to an iron chair known as a Correction Throne. Needles are then inserted through the rear of the cadet's skull, and their heads are flooded with dirus, a neurochemical fluid that cleanses their synapses, wiping away old memories and paving the way for new information. It is an unfortunate, and little-discussed fact that the Imperium possesses ever-dwindling stocks of dirus, and it is increasingly being diluted with more dubious substances. While cadets endure such treatment, Auto-vox Servo-skulls relay righteous speeches, war cries or simply inspiring quotes from Ecclesiarchical texts to properly and irrevocably infuse them with the wonder of their new creed.

Sadly, even the Schola Progenium's mindscaping techniques are not infallible. Dreams and visions from previous existences will haunt some recruits for the rest of their lives. A Scion may never fully rid himself of the nightmarish visions that linger from his homeworld, or the trauma of the death of his parents. As with all such matters, the Schola Progenium's methodology goes unquestioned.

However, it is always a concern when a cadet shows too strong an unwillingness to properly conform. As reward for their independence, they are often released into the training grounds only to be hunted down by their former comrades. This serves as much to bond the remaining cadets as it does to punish individuality. If a cadet publicly disobeys orders, they will meet a spectacular and very public end, courtesy of a Drill Abbot's great hammer. What little remains of their spine is coiled within a glass box and mounted within the dormitory to serve as a warning to others. This is not at the extreme end of remedial punishments. In the Schola Progenium facility on Brellex, the products of one incident remain forever enshrined. Due to a faulty batch of mindscaping chemicals, a whole year group rose up against the dictates of their masters. The seething Abbot Prime ordered the Officio Prefectus to crush the rebellion. Whilst still alive, the mutinous cadets were meshed with mortar and used to line the schola's ferrocrete walls. To this day their bones jut out of long corridors, grasping for freedom, as a warning of the consequences of insubordination.

The Cadet Forge

Drill Abott

A stern Drill Abbot of a Schola Progenium trains prospective future Tempestus Scions

Schola Progenium training may be considered a drawn-out form of torture. Indeed, injured limbs or broken minds are hardly uncommon. Cadets undergo basic physical drills in heavy Carapace Armour, quickly tiring them out as they scale walls or squeeze under razor wire. A cuff from the Drill Abbot's gauntleted hand and the sight of his great hammer is usually enough to encourage a lethargic cadet to try harder.

Military exercises with live ammunition are conducted in the harsh landscape surrounding a Schola Progenium or on nearby moons. Cadets are often expected to endure solar days in the wilderness with little food or instruction, and limited weaponry with which to combat whatever violent fauna roams the planet. Yet with each roaming day, cadets improve in their performance. Their speed and endurance increase, they scale walls previously thought impossible to overcome, and it becomes obvious to even a novice Drill Abbot that true warriors are being forged. It is a strong belief within the Schola Progenium that from the hottest of fires, the strongest bonds of brotherhood are born.

Whatever the technique, this tutelage serves to better divine what path a cadet is suited for, as well as preparing them for the brutalities of the 41st Millennium. Indeed, the training regimen within the Schola Progenium exists not just to create highly-skilled combatants. Amidst the trials and challenges, the Drill Abbot will constantly assess and reassess as to who will make an excellent Tempestus Scion, an excellent Commissar, or who would be better suited within the Adeptus Terra. However, some Scholas use more esoteric methods of selection. For example, the Abbot Prime of the Schola Progenium facility on Sanctus Omega is a known reader of the Emperor's Tarot, and uses the mystical cards to steer his judgement or decide upon a cadet's path. Technically, no one role is considered more prestigious than another, though Commissars are generally held to be the most redoubtable of the Schola's trainees. Each graduate has a highly specific role within the Imperium at large, and such skills need to be discerned well in advance of the Trials of Compliance -- the most important stage of a cadet's time at the Schola Progenium.

Trials of Compliance

Each Schola Progenium employs one or more challenges to separate those who will become Commissars from those who will join the Militarum Tempestus. These tests take diverse forms, but the primary purpose of all such Trials of Compliance is to highlight those cadets who are best committed to obeying orders in adversity, and test how they process those commands. Of course, a percentage of the supplicants fail in their allotted task -- many end up as equerries or thralls of the Schola Progenium. Some of these disappointments may work through their sentences as menials and eventually be permitted to join the regular Astra Militarum. Ever eager to prove their worth, these few may yet become Imperial soldiers in their own right.

For potential Tempestus Scions, Trials of Compliance may involve live-fire exercises in the Hallucinarium. In endless labyrinths, cadets are constantly exposed to strange visions and false suggestions. Yet the prospective initiates are expected to follow the correct orders without hesitation, no matter how strange those orders may be, and no matter how monstrous the entities they come up against. There are timed physical tests, too, such as scaling the grand facade of the facility whilst constantly chanting that particular Schola Progenium's motto. Should the candidate's incantations slip out of sync from the metronomic tempo of the Servo-skull hovering nearby, the cadet may soon have gunfire to contend with, in addition to the high walls.

For potential Commissars, the Trials of Compliance usually take even more esoteric forms. Without knowing it is a test, a cadet may be commanded to locate one of his closest colleagues -- a comrade with whom he has shared the trials and tribulations of the Schola Progenium over many years -- and shoot them through the head.

Such a callous execution order serves a dual purpose, as it proves that the Cadet Commissar can not only follow Imperial orders, but that he or she will have no problem killing stubborn officers when in the heat of battle. However, the Schola Progenium recognises the danger posed by a highly trained candidate who shows the promise of a Commissar, but who cannot follow such an order. Prospective Commissars who fail this trial will end up being victim to the same challenge issued to another candidate, or released as quarry for a group of potential Scions.

The few brave Adepts within the Adeptus Ministorum who suggest that all of this is a waste of good talent are reminded that these trials are essential to wean out the truly remorseless from those haunted by doubt. Besides, there are always thousands more orphans delivered into their hands each standard year -- such losses are hardly of import.

Selection Day

After successful cadets have survived their various Trials of Compliance, the Drill Abbots will allocate them their path in an event known as Selection Day. It is then that the truly hard challenges begin.

Selection Days in the Schola Progenium mark the point at which a cadet is assigned their destiny. Cavernous voidships descend into planetary orbit, ready to export Progena to their new roles. From dawn to dusk, amidst the slow incantation of ancient litanies and clouds of incense, cadets are divided according to their selected path.

A good many discover that they are to head into the ranks of the Adeptus Terra. Those young women who show not only fine military skills but strong signs of faith are prepared to journey to training convents of the Adepta Sororitas's Orders Militant, while others may join the Adeptus Arbites. The most talented warriors are chosen for the Militarum Tempestus and Officio Prefectus. Each group is assigned to a starship and consequently dispatched to the appropriate Schola Tempestus or Schola Prefectus for more advanced training in their chosen discipline.

Inquisitorial Tempestus Scions Training

The Schola Progenium exists to adopt children whose parents died in the Emperor's service and train them to become the bedrock of the Imperium's defence and governance. The Schola's graduates are scattered across Imperial society: the Ecclesiarchy, the Administratum, Adeptus Arbites, Commissariat, Adepta Sororitas, or even the Inquisition. However, for those who prove to be particularly martial and aggressive, the Schola reserves its most difficult and dangerous training. This is the instruction provided to the famous Astra Militarum and Inquisitorial Tempestus Scions. Storm Trooper training begins immediately after the Schola Progenium's primary educational course but does not supplant it. After all, potential Tempestus Scions are expected to be more than simply warriors. Each is expected to be well-schooled in basic education and Imperial lore and history, and unwaveringly loyal to the God-Emperor, something a Schola education works diligently to impart.

Although the vast majority of Storm Troopers are Progena, orphans trained at the Schola Progenium, at times a senior official of the Imperium (such as an Inquisitor) uses his authority to have an adult individual inducted into the Tempestus Scions training course of the Schola Progenium. In these situations, the Schola Progenium's Drill Abbots make no distinction between a barely-teenage new recruit and a grizzled Veteran with years of service, and any complaints those Veterans may have are quickly crushed under the weight of training. When (or if) those recruits emerge as full Storm Troopers, they are often removed from their squad and assigned to serve their patron Inquisitor as one of his Acolytes, instead.

To be selected to become a Tempestus Scion in this manner happens but rarely, usually after some act of outstanding courage and dedication. The candidate must show developed martial skills, a strong mind resistant to terror and panic, and a deep faith in the Imperial Creed. Naturally, the sponsoring Inquisitor has his own, often obscure, agenda for sponsoring an Acolyte into this training as well. Storm Troopers make excellent Throne Agents, often serving as an Inquisitor's bodyguard in extremely dangerous situations and they are highly valued for their martial training and military knowledge.

Often, such an unusual candidate is examined carefully by the Drill Abbot instructors before being declared fit to train with the Tempestus Scion Progena. Rigourous study with the Inquisition is also required for the candidate in order to acquire the same knowledge already learnt by the other Progena -- this often includes a deep understanding of the Tactica Imperialis, advanced stealth techniques, and a method to ensure basic and successful communion with the Machine Spirits of their special wargear, such as digital targeters and Grav-Chutes. In most cases, the "proper" Storm Trooper Progena never recognise the qualities of the outsider candidate, and prefer to remain aloof. The Inquisitorial candidate, after all, has entered the training from the sponsorship of a higher power, and many of the other Progena will doubt his own personal qualifications for such an honour.

Traditionally, the Drill Abbots stand apart from the social aspects of their charges, and provide the candidate with no more and no less instruction than that given to any other Progena. Many a grizzled Imperial Veteran may find his pride difficult to swallow when treated no differently than a raw and untested recruit by the Drill Abbots. However, swallow it they must if they are to complete their training and fulfil the expectations of their sponsor.

Should the candidate survive the gruelling regime of harsh training, he is now an Imperial Tempestus Scion. However, candidates sponsored by the Inquisition are not meant to join a proper Storm Trooper unit, nor to deploy with the Astra Militarum. Instead, these Storm Troopers, with their training complete, are taken by their sponsor to serve a higher purpose -- a permanent place on an Inquisitor's retinue of Acolytes and Throne Agents.

Drill Abbots

"No no no! By the Throne, boy, how many times? Depress the loading catch before removing the drum feed, not while removing the drum feed! You'll jam the weapon! (smack) Oh stop bawling, child. You're ten years old, you should have learned basic Autogun procedures by now. Fifty press ups and fifty Pax Imperiums. And certainly there will be no dinner."

— Drill Abbott Kross Vorgt
Drill Abott

An infamous Drill Abbot who serves in the Schola of the Calixis Sector

A Drill Abbot (or Drill Abbess) is a priest of the Adeptus Ministorum and a decorated veteran of the Imperium's wars who tirelessly works at converting the orphans of martyred Imperial servants into driven and dedicated fanatics in the service of the God-Emperor, prepared for the trials of Imperial life. The Drill Abbots are technically full Preachers of the Ecclesiarchy, but are excused from a Preacher's normal duties of ministering to the faithful in favour of a more specialised role in teaching the future leaders and special forces troops of the Imperium. This sacred duty is fulfilled through the focused application of devotional teachings, exercise and weapons training. Drill Abbots stalk the hallways of the Schola, striking the fear of the Emperor into the hearts of youths who one day shall have the power of life and death over millions. Even the most ruthless Inquisitor Lord may still, many standard centuries later, remember his time in the Schola Progenium with a mixture of fear and awe due to the work of these fearsome individuals.

Coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, most Drill Abbots have served at least half their lives in one branch or another of the Imperial military. They have seen first hand the enemies of the Imperium, and are anxious to impress upon their young charges the absolute necessity of faith in the Emperor and skill at arms. They are charismatic and inspiring, caring for their young charges in their own harsh way, and famed for their unbending stubborness and strength of will. They will seek to maintain their fighting edge throughout their lives, and remain fierce and skilled combatants and warriors. Many Drill Abbots forge lifelong bonds of mutual respect with Progena in their care, which can result in useful contacts years later with some of the most senior figures in the galaxy. Indeed, it is not unknown for Inquisitors to recruit their old tutors for their retinues of Acolytes, as a sign of the tremendous debt they owe for the gift of the light of the Emperor.

So harsh are many of the methods employed by Drill Abbots that many students fear for their lives. The more fearsome Drill Abbots have been known to employ branding, freezing cold and sleep deprivation to motivate their charges, which is the source of the understandable terror that some Progena feel. This fear is not typically necessary, however, as Drill Abbots wish to prepare their charges for service to the God-Emperor and it is well known that such service ends only in death. Regardless of their pasts, Drill Abbots are well-known for their uncompromising and stubborn natures. Coupled with their faith in the God-Emperor of Mankind they have considerable martial prowess and the respect of even the most seasoned Imperial Guardsman. A Drill Abbot has suffered and knows how to administer suffering in turn; they are not people to be trifled with.

Sources

  • Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 33
  • Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pp. 32, 46
  • Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pp. 41, 43
  • Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 1st Codex), pp. 6, 13
  • Codex: Imperial Guard (2nd Edition), pp. 20-21, 78, 84
  • Codex: Militarum Tempestus (6th Edition), pp. 3-31
  • Codex: Witch Hunters (3rd Edition), pg. 34
  • Dark Heresy: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 19, 50, 247, 260
  • Dark Heresy: Ascension (RPG), pp. 43, 86, 111, 165
  • Dark Heresy: Blood of Martyrs (RPG), pp. 17, 61, 68-69, 77
  • Dark Heresy: Book of Judgement (RPG), pp. 7, 16, 22, 54
  • Dark Heresy: The Inquisitor's Handbook (RPG), pp. 18, 40, 42
  • Only War: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 62, 86-87, 96-97, 373-374
  • Only War: Final Testament (RPG), pp. 136, 189
  • Warhammer 40,000 Compendium (1st Edition), pg. 151
  • Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (6th Edition), pg. 138
  • Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (3rd Edition), pg. 7
  • White Dwarf 115 (UK), "Commissar Training Squads"
  • Ciaphas Cain (Novel Series) by Sandy Mitchell
  • Gaunt's Ghosts (Novel Series) by Dan Abnett
  • Rebel Winter (Novel) by Steve Parker
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