Yvaine Sybilla and the Sororitas Psykana
By author Redcoat777
The Eleventh Primarch: Yvaine Sybilla
Name:
Yvaine Sybilla, the Emperor's Librarian.
Appearance:
Raven-haired, alabaster skinned, green witch-eyed, Yvaine is a picture of what one might expect from a psyker of a Feudal World, harkening back to the days of old Terra and its superstitions over what lurked in the cold and the dark. If a Primarch is post-human, then Yvaine is also something more than just post-human. Her frame and build are seemingly shaped in a different fashion, only slightly so, a tapering to her ears, a slenderness of fingers, a stance that seems more Aeldari than human.
Yvaine wears her raven hair in a chignon bun most of the time, often with a single flower threaded through, with ornate hairnets for more social occasions, yhough she is not averse to it falling down, whether free or in a ponytail beyond her shoulders. The Eleventh Primarch is youthful of face, with near elfin ears, kind wild-green eyes and a small smile often gracing her lips. Her bearing is straight-backed, with firmness of limbs. She is more scholar than warrior in physique and stature, and pale of palette given to her preference for the recesses of the library than the training field.
In battle, she wears her midnight-black armour, white face-plated helm and red lenses wielding a black force rod in one hand and a sword in the other. She is almost indistinguishable from her daughters in this regard, though she is distinguishable from her daughters owing to her height, a little over nine feet tall.
When she discards her helm and armour, Yvaine opts for plain, though rich, robes as befits a Primarch, typically finished with some jewellery such as bracelets, and now and again a silver circlet beset with emeralds. A constant feature for Yvaine is a silver torc, one of the few relics she allows herself from her childhood.
Talents and Personality:
A psyker through and through, Yvaine studies the Warp through the lenses of a scientist, refusing to engage with the more mystic arts despite the training of her youth leaving her with the undeniable knowledge that, within the abyss, something gazes back. This has made her a close confidante of the Emperor, often being sent on missions alongside her daughters to recover some artefact or other, and either destroy or retrieve it.
And though a psyker, and a strong and well trained one at that, Yvaine is not without knowledge of war or its exertions. She has sparred with the Emperor, with Constantin Valdor and her siblings. Her skills are, whilst lacking compared to a number of the others, certainly not something to be dismissed out of hand. She favours the longsword and by the direction of the Emperor was gifted one by Lord Ozymandias Solarian during her return to Terra following her finding by the Emperor. This blade she still wields today, and will practise at least once a day when she can.
Nonetheless, haunted by the knowledge she bears, Yvaine is a quiet soul by herself, given to reflection and a desire to be kind, caring and compassionate. As such, she is given to diplomacy and carefully laid plans. She is a scholar of the psychic arts, a scientist of the deeper mysteries, but always firmly against excess and the idea of progress for the sake of progress. To Yvaine, advances must have meaning, they must have worth that contributes to the good of the whole and the individual.
For the most part, when not at war or giving alms, Yvaine is often found reading or studying some paper or other. A pensive soul, Yvaine is certainly no recluse, but can find no greater comfort than when in the library. This often leads her to Terra, wandering the various libraries of the Imperial Palace, searching for some work or another, or carefully cataloguing and entering newly found works into its recesses.
Homeworld:
Bretonnia, a world of chivalry and honour and of mysticism and superstition. Circled by three moons and orbiting a Warp-star, Bretonnia is a Feudal World. A world that wallows in madness, its landscapes dotted with the Eyrie-Towers of the old pre-Imperial witch covens and hillocks crowned with crumbling castles. Desolate moors and primordial forests, dark mountains and hidden terrors, Bretonnia is a world of magic and mystery, where beast-folk and hedge-psykers linger in the shadows. Where the skies shift and shiver in the cold shadows of the flickering Warp-star that caresses the world in a nebulous grasp. A world where many secrets await discovery, if they can be brought to the light.
For now, though, looking down from the great space needle, a relic of the Golden Age of Technology, the Sororitas Psykana rule the world. The dark skies crisscrossed by the plasmic contrails of travelling shuttlecraft as the Sisterhood of Psykers train recruits and marshal auxiliaries. The sisterhood view the world with a mix of distrust and compassion. It is a strange world that sends alien feelings crawling under their skin, and yet it is home to them.
Psychic potential:
A psyker through and through, Yvaine is one of the leading psykers of the Primarchs. Raised by an Aeldari seer, Yvaine has since cast off those trappings in favour of the more rational and constrained path that the Emperor advises for his children. Yvaine has gone on to lead the establishment of the Libararius sects within a number of Legions for those siblings that believe in the usage of psykers, though not along the lines that some of the other Legions have chosen.
In terms of her powers, Yvaine focuses on forgoing the mystical in favour of the rational, that which can be explained and controlled. This has led Yvaine to be an incredibly talented psyker in the realms of the officially sanctioned "Psychic Disciplines": Biomancy, Divination, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy. Under the tutelage of the Emperor, Yvaine seeks to constrain and rationalise the Immaterium, to turn into science what is considered an art.
Background:
If Yvaine was to describe her early years, she would say that she was lost and then found. And there is clear truth in this. Yvaine was, whether by design or accident, well and truly lost from the sight and senses of the Emperor: a result of Bretonnia's Warp-star which drowned out Yvaine's own psychic signal by its own twisted light to all other psykers within and without Bretonnia.
Except for one.
Casting their gaze above the mists and trees that cloaked their island home, a hidden castle cloaked in fog rising up from the dark lake and forests that isolated it from the world beyond, an Aeldari witch gazed up from the top of her tall tower, an eyrie wreathed in shadows, and saw a falling star, that fell and fell until at last, it crashed into the lake. Descending her tower, the Aeldari witch, Lileath, called the pod from the depths of the lake, and opening it, found the squealing babe within it, and thought it a final gift from her now-dead gods.
Naming her Yvaine, the grief-stricken lady of the lake took the child to her breast and nursed her as mother would to daughter, intent on raising the child as her own, just as she would have raised the daughter that she lost in the events of the Aeldari Fall.
So the years went by, Yvaine was raised alone except for her mother. A princess in a castle, kept from the world around her. As the years passed, as Yvaine grew and grew, so too did her curiosity about the world beyond her island castle. What was beyond her walls? Beyond the fleur de lys that covered the island and dipped to drink from the black depths of the lake. The waves that lapped at the shore of the island beckoning her with their receding, tempting her in their drawing back, to come with them and through the mist and fog to the world beyond.
And yet she was a loyal daughter. Though she dreamt often of another world and a golden figure murmuring hopes and dreams to her, she stayed beside her mother. She stayed and learnt. From her mother, she learnt of the history of the Aeldari, of the Empyrean that pushed and pulled at her will, of how to brew potions and blend poultices, of how to sing and soothe the wraithbone around them. Until one day, when something changed, when someone arrived.
Iseult de Ascalot had been running for a full day. Alone outside of her home of Ascalot, she had fled a roving pack of reavers that attempted to capture her outside of Ascalot castle. Such scenes are not uncommon in Bretonnia. Chevauchees are often launched by disaffected knights and squires who cast off their mantles of chivalry in favour of plunder and pillaging. Iseult had run into the wild woods she was forbidden to enter in search of sanctuary, and when reaching the shores of a mist-covered lake with the braying hounds at her heels, had chosen to swim rather than sink. For she thought she saw something within the mist, for she was a seer herself, and in doing so, broke the spell surrounding Averlorn.
Swimming to the far shore, Iseult emerged shivering onto the banks of the island, to be greeted by a vision of an angel. Yvaine was quick to wrap the shivering maiden in a cloak, before casting her eyes out at the oncoming reavers, who were wading into the water where Iseult had swum, hell-bent with burning blood on plunder and pillage against the castle that unveiled itself before their hungering eyes. Unsure of how to meet this threat, Yvaine turned and led Iseult into the castle of Averlorn, to find her mother and safety.
But where is safety against the reckless hatred of men? It is nowhere to be found, for though Lileath fought to protect her daughter, unprepared as she was, Lileath fell to the reavers, though none of them lived to tell their tale of Averlorn because of her sacrifice. With her home burning and her mother dead, all Yvaine could do was bury her mother, take her soulstone as a necklace to her breast, and leave Averlorn. It was Iseult who suggested her home of Ascalot to the Primarch, who agreed, bereft of any other option to take.
Upon arriving at Ascalot, Yvaine would be greeted with a small keep manned by old men and boys, a result of the constant wars and chevauchees of Bretonnia. With tearful eyes of joy did Lord Ascalot thank Yvaine for returning his only daughter to him, and bade her to ask any boon of him if it was in his power to grant it. And looking around at the assembled faces, at the rusting arms and armour and fluttering tattered banners, Yvaine asked to become a knight. Lord Ascalot was silent, for such a thing was not unheard of, a knight, a dame-chevalier. But only in myths and legends of a time long gone, and yet, looking upon this figure that towered above him so with a fired purpose in her eyes, he felt compelled, nay, honoured, to grant such a boon.
For the next year, Yvaine would learn a new art, that of war. She would learn how to wield the blade, how to saddle horses and clean stables, how to stand as part of and against a shield wall. And at the end of this year, with her prodigious skill clear for all to see, Yvaine was sent to gain glory for Ascalot by completing a quest for her liege-lord. This she did, by ridding the Aquitanian Road of the so-called "Green Knight", a brigand in green whose "Headsman's game" was to behead those who crossed him if they would not pay a toll. And with the head of the green knight, she returned to Ascalot covered in glory. Only one test remained, a kneeling vigil in the dark of the chapel, to be taken after a full day fasting and to last from dusk until dawn.
And yet, on the eve of her triumph, Yvaine could only feel uneasy. A whispering was rising on the wind, a storm was stirring even as all around her feasted and praised her name. Only Iseult, her oft companion felt it too, and both could do naught but quietly speak to the other of their unease, telling each other to be wary for a reason that lurked beyond sight but not sense. Departing into the chapel, Yvaine took to a knee before the chapel reliquary, a shrine to the Catherick three-folded god, and set about her vigil. Though she was right to be uneasy, for as she knelt, as the rest of the castle slept and as Iseult looked down at the chapel from her candlelit window, the skies above Bretonnia began to churn and burn, and a maiden and her knight felt the Warp push and pull, and then tear.
Red skies. Red skies and ashen clouds. Air shimmering and shattering as material collided and cavorted with immaterial. For just beyond the horizon of their castle by the woods, in Aquitainia, in a city of superstition and fear, witches were burning. A witch-hunter's sacrifice to his own dark god, a bloody pyre to bring forth the ruin of Aquitainia and set him up as king over the blood and skulls of the old order. Summoned forth, from the burning throats of screaming witches emerged a dragon, sang into existence by pain and fury. And laughing, the dragon took wing and set about wreathing Aquitainia in Warpfire. In mere minutes Aquitainia had burned to the ground, stone castles and all, and the dragon set about the next target it could see, a lonely keep with a single candlelit window, drawn to it alike a moth to a flame.
In this time, Yvaine had not been idle, she and Iseult had sensed this calamity, and each had found each other and tried to rouse the castle from its slumber. It was not enough, for what can mere men do against a daemon in the night except hope and pray to find a chink in its armour? This they did not find, they died afire even as Yvaine wrapped a warding cloak around those closest to her to protect them from the flames. And though strong, Yvaine was not skilled, and this creature of the Warp had lived a thousand lives before her, and wrapping its claws around the cloak, made to break the castle and everything within.
Cracking open the keep, the dragon dove within, laughing as it faced Yvaine, a challenger worthy of its attention. A challenger who fought to protect those beside her, whose needs split her powers and attention between fighting this beast and upholding her vow to shepherd the weak from harm. And even though a Primarch, skilled as she was, she had only ever slain one being, ever truly fought one being, and only one weaker than her. The dragon had fought untold battles, it had won and lost, and it had cunning to match its claws. And by the end of the night, out of a hundred companions, only Iseult remained and Yvaine stood, shaking and burned, bloodied and bruised. And raising its head, the dragon made to breathe one last great blow of Warpfire to incinerate Yvaine.
Only for a gleaming sword to cut through the air and rend its head from its body. And stepping into the air behind the blade, emerged a figure clad in bronze armour, with a cloak of red and a thundering eagle upon his shoulder.
For beyond the veil of night around Bretonnia, help had arrived.
Thus was Yvaine reunited with the Imperium, saved from death by the blade and subconscious psykery of Ozymandias Solarian. Their first meeting was brief, the castle collapsing around them, Ozymandias grabbed his wounded cogenitor and Iseult, instinctively recognising her as his brethren, and initiated emergency transport back to his flagship, extending his shield around them all to protect them from a furiously howling Warp.
The firstborn's entrance to the system was fortuitous, a result of a momentary side-glance that had drawn his senses to a flickering star at the edge of his vision. For a week onboard, Yvaine recuperated whilst Ozymandias scoured Bretonnia, uplifting from damnation those who his cogenitor and companion saw in their dreams and visions, and disintegrating those they did not. And then, with Yvaine ready to finally leave her world behind, leaving the task of Compliance to a force of the Sisters of Silence and a full march of the Thunder Warriors, Ozymandias dispersed the I Legion back to their duties, and made for Terra with his flagship, a new cogenitor and a crop of recruits for her ailing Legion.
The changes wrought to Yvaine by her ordeal left the Primarch much a shell of herself, but through the oversight of her cogenitor and the presence of her companion Iseult, her mind was soothed, the scars and burns cleaned, bandaged and then healed. Debriefed by her brother, Yvaine reflected on her childhood and the horrible realisations that came to her now.
And so it was the Eleventh Primarch, once lost, now was found.
The XI Legion: the Sororitas Psykana
Name:
The Sororitas Psykana / the Sisterhood of Psykers.
Insignia and Appearance:
The Sororitas Psykana wear the insignia of a golden fleur-de-lys on a background of crimson, the fleur de lys being the flower around which Yvaine spent her youth, and whose properties she knows well and uses to instil stability into the gene-seed of her Legion.
The armour they wear is pure black, save for their Sallet class helmets which are adorned with pure white faceplates. Surcoats of red are also worn, at least by full battle sisters, the bestowal of a surcoat being part of the ceremonial initiation for a novitiate to full sisterhood, an affirmation of loyalty to the Emperor above all else, for red is his colour as master of mankind and the Mechanicum both. Thus as the Custodes, Anathema Psykana and Thunder Warriors are bestowed cloaks of red, so too do the Sororitas Psykana declare their devotion to him. Sororitas Psykana typically wield force weaponry, halberds, staves, falchions, axes, swords, maces, hammers and, in a notable case, a force bow.
The exception to this are the Hospitallers, who wear pure white armour with red faceplates, the inquisitors, who wear pure black armour and surcoats, and the Palatinate, who wear silver armour with their personal coat of arms upon their esutcheon (a small shield between their cuirass and shoulderplate), eyes gleaming in blue light and forms wreathed in psychic fury, seeking out the enemies of the Imperium and smiting them from existence.
Gene-seed Status:
The gene-seed of the Sororitas Psykana is an unstable one. While the personal attention of the Emperor was given to purifying the gene-seed following Yvaine's return for a time, the gene-seed remains an impure one in the eyes of the Magos Biologis.
Most mutations have seemingly been reduced from deathly to debilitating or minor. During implementation some sisters will end up missing their Betcher's Glands and sus-an-membrane, others will develop albinism owing to a defective melanchromic organ. Extra fingers are not uncommon, nor are the development of feathers, scales, fangs and talons.
In the worst cases, some initiates will devolve into gibbering wrecks, monstrous abominations that can only be given the gift of the Emperor's peace. Each one takes a heavy toll on the souls of Yvaine and her Legion. Each one is a reminder of how far they have come, and how much they can lose.
With such an unstable gene-seed, the Emperor attached a tribunal of Custodes and Sisters of Silence to oversee the gene-seed of the Sisterhood. All mutations are logged no matter how minor, and when the Emperor walked among the XI Legion, he was known to consult with their apothecaries and attempted to perfect their gene-seed. Eventually, a cure has been found, one drawn from an insight of Yvaine, a remembrance from her past, of her mother.
The fleur de lys was an Aeldari flower. It had a number of uses and properties in Aeldari medicinal practices, but the Emperor and Yvaine had not considered this avenue. After all, it was poisonous to humans in any consumable form, and baseline humans were where the Legion's ranks were drawn from. Except that they were not. The Legion's ranks were drawn from psykers, and a fleur de lys's healing properties only activated correctly for one who was psychically active themselves.
Furthermore, Yvaine realised that as her gene-seed had been shaped, if only ever so subtly, by her adoptive mother during her early years, such changes were encouraging mutation among new initiates. As such a drop of her own blood was required along with the Initiate's blood, to mix in with the nectar-wine of the fleur de lys.
Realising this, Yvaine retreated to Bretonnia, to her home and to Averlorn to put all her hopes into her mother's old potions laboratory. Utilising the potent nectar-wine of the fleur de lys drunk, mixed with a drop of the Primarch's blood and the water of the lake in a wraithbone grail, consumed during the implanting of the progenoids and guided by the steadying influence of a psychic choir, the genesis of a Sororitas Psykana became a stable process. Since this discovery, the entire process and rite has become a part of the Legion's tradition. It is a grail quest, in which initiates to the Sororitas Psykana traverse the perilous wilds of Bretonnia seeking Averlorn, clearing out the dark places of that world until they find Averlorn, the lady of the lake and the Sangreal within her hands.
Legionary Assets:
Unification Wars—5,000 Space Marines
Pre-Rangdan Xenocides—70,000 Space Marines
The XI Legion recruits from across the Imperium, though it bases its main efforts on Bretonnia and Terra. Of the latter, the Sisterhood sources recruits for their Legion via the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, and as a result the two have a close relationship with the other. Black Ships are often attached to XI Legion crusading fleets in this regard, for example.
The Legion's flagship is the Errant Questor, a Gloriana-class battleship, as is typical of any flagship for the Space Marine Legions.
The bodyguard unit of the Primarch are the Paladins lead by their Grandmistress, also referred to interchangeably as the Palatinae. The foremost among these warriors after the Grandmistress are the Twelve Peeresses: twelve warriors chosen for their peerless skill, peerless except to each other and thus surround the Primarch at all times. Beyond this number, all chapter and company champions are members of the Palatinae.
The Legion is served by a dedicated auxiliary force recruited from Bretonnia and beyond, known as the Auxilia Psykana and divided into two parts: the Warlocks and the Gendarmes.
Legion Organisation:
Organised according to the so-called "Principia Belicosa" that most Legions typically adopted prior to the founding of their Primarchs and subsequent reorganisations.
—A squad is of 10 Space Marines, led by a Sister-Sergeant.
—A company is of 100 Space Marines, led by a Sister-Captain.
—A chapter is of 1,000 Space Marines, led by a Sister-Chapter Master.
—A Host is of 5,000 Space Marines, led by a Sister-Prelate.
—A march is of 50,000 Space Marines, led by a Sister-Marchioness. This is the largest subdivision, under the full Legion.
Special units:
Warlocks—The fate of psykers across the Imperium is varied. Some will be inducted into the Great Choir of the Astronomican, others are shaped into Astropaths, while a precious few are raised into the ranks of the Legiones Astartes to serve as Librarians. And yet, more yet still remain. For each psyker, a task can be found, and for those with the strength to bear it, combat awaits.
These psykers, trained by the Scholastia Psykana, can become Warlocks. Psykers who have been trained and sanctioned to fight with their powers upon the frontlines of the Great Crusade, and the schism and the galaxy beyond.
The Sororitas Psykana make great usage of Warlocks, individual sisters sometimes detached from the Legion to lead a coven of Warlocks against some foe of the Imperium for whom a full team of Sororitas cannot be deployed for whatever reason.
The Warlocks of the Imperium are typically deployed with a standard yellow greatcoat, with their primary discipline and according colour-designation displayed on the facings and hems of their greatcoat. Warlocks are divided also by a ranking system. The highest-ranking Warlock is the Grand Warlock, typically a representative for the Warlocks to the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. Then, going down from there, the ranks are Magister, Primaris, Sanctioned, Apprentice, and Novitiate.
Gendarmes—The uniform of the Gendarmes is feudal in appearance, though usually reinforced with carapace armour, or limited Power Armour for the wealthiest Gendarmes. Raised from the feudal nobility and gentry of Bretonnia, they take to the field typically appearing like the knights of old Terra. Albeit, now equipped with modern weaponry, though nonetheless still incredibly deadly from the lifetime of training each Gendarme undergoes to prepare them for their role as defenders of Bretonnia.
Expertise and Combat Doctrine:
The Sororitas Pskana primarily practise psychic warfare. The Legion specialises in fighting the Warp-wielding enemies of the Imperium. Fighting within and without the material and immaterial realms, the Sororitas Psykana are steadfast in their opposition to mysticism and the despotic.
The XI Legion has no necessarily set combat doctrine, and can be viewed as having a flexible approach towards any problems facing them, although any use of sorcery in this regard is strictly forbidden and punishable by public execution if found engaging in the practice.
Legion Weaknesses:
"Abhor the Witch."—Unknown.
As a psychic Legion, the Sororitas Psykana are distrusted by much of the Imperium at large, and as such, are often met with a reluctant response from many allies. Requests for aid by the Legion are often mysteriously "lost in transit" by those meant to receive them, or if acted on, sometimes done so in such a slovenly and slow way as to border on outright insubordination. Often the Legion has to fight its battles by itself, resulting in a higher amount of casualties than would have occurred if their requests were met in a timely fashion.
That they are psykers also serves as a double edged sword for the Legion, for when in control, a sister-psyker is a force to be reckoned with. When in control. For the perils of the Warp are many. A sister who overstretches herself can be driven insane, can lose her shape or even her life in a sudden burst of psychic energy that can consume lives around her as well. The Legion also must recruit psykers to replenish their ranks, resulting in a slim recruitment pool, battling with the demands of the Astropaths and the Astronomican in addition to other Legions for young female psykers for their own ranks.
And sent to battle against psychic enemies above all else, the Legion finds itself beset by issues of fighting a war unlike the other Legions, fighting to maintain their mental walls against psychic incursion in battle as well as fighting the war in the realspace. All of this leads to a Legion that finds itself increasingly exhausted, increasingly angry at the treatment it receives from the Imperium it fights to establish, and increasingly drawn to the alluring call of the Warp. For if their Primarch will not seize the full potential the Warp offers, there are sisters who would.
Beliefs and Practices:
As all sisters of the XI Legion are psykers, this has led to a closely knit Legion, wary of outsiders and proud of the duties they are entrusted with. Most take after the vein of their mother and Primarch in temperament and practice, fierce in battle and compassionate in peace.
For the XI Legion, their personal quarters onboard and planet-side are typically called cloisters, and are usually orientated around a central gathering space. These spaces are referred to as a quadrangle, or quad in shorthand.
Out of battle the Sororitas Psykana espouse a scholarly air to visitors, often encouraging Remembrancers to walk and study among them. Most sisters are keen readers, spending much time within the vast onboard libraries of the fleet. Education in all things is encouraged, and lectures and debates and suchlike are common across the Legion. Out of battle, the sisters can also often be found on newly Compliant worlds attending to the hospitals or reconstruction efforts.
Recruitment and Discipline:
Recruitment for the Legion is led by the preceptors, who source recruits from a range of areas, often in tandem with the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. Potential recruits are first tried as postulants. If successful, they are granted the rank of Initiate for the process of gene-seed implementation. Following implantation, the Initiates are then granted the rank of Novitiate and undergo trials to fit them into a subsection of the Legion, whether as Tactical Marines or Librarians for instance, and upon passing, are granted the rank of Battle-Sister and bestowed their surcoats.
Discipline is enacted by the Inquisitors, who report in turn to the attached tribunal of Custodes and Sisters of Silence. Serious infarctions result in summons to the tribunal, who then hear the case of the accused, before settling on an appropriate punishment if found guilty.
Characters of Interest:
Iseult de Ascalot—Yvaine's human companion in Averlorn, Iseult serves as Yvaine's Handmaiden and is intensely close with the Primarch. She is the most loyal of all the Legion to Yvaine, her first friend beyond the walls of Averlon, handmaiden to her upon Terra and was rewarded for her steadfast loyalty by being uplifted as the first Bretonnian into the Legion via the Sangreal Ritual.
Holly Empousidae—Holly serves as First Marchioness of the Legion. Born on Callisto and a fiery soul, Holly is a pyromancer of prodigious skill, and is firm friends with her Primarch, often helping to bring Yvaine out from her dourer moods.
Lyonesse du Gisorieux—Chief Hospitaller of the Legion, cold and calculating one moment, compassionate and fretful the next. Lyonesse, Holly and Iseult form the main trio of advisers around Yvaine, and each regard each other as sisters in more than just their shared gene-seed.
Annis Mormolyce—Chief Inquisitor of the Legion. Annis is a fervently dogmatic soul, the oldest serving Space Marine of the XI Legion, a veteran of the reclamation of the Sol system. Annis tirelessly works hand-in-hand with the Custodes and Anathema Psykana to uphold the Emperor and Primarch's edicts against witchcraft.
Anja van Nijm—Grandmistress of the Palatinae. Gathered from the black ships, specifically from the tithe of the Gothic Sector, Anja found herself separated from her peers by her unerring skill and power early on, before eventually finding a place within the Palatinae, where she rose to the position of Grandmistress of the Palatinae.
Eugene de Montmercy—Chief Warlock of the Auxilia Psykana. A patient and dutiful soul, Eugene has served the Legion for nigh on a hundred years now, being born just after the Compliance of Bretonnia. Noted for his uncommon power, Eugene has served alongside the First March near all his life, extended by juvenat treatments and the typically eddying effects of psykery. As a skilled commander and trusted associate, Eugene has been gifted a greater degree of independence by the Legion than most sanctioned warlocks, a trust he is humbled by and duly returns with steadfast loyalty.
Battle-cry:
The Legion's battle-cries, besides "For the Emperor/ Imperium/ Primarch/ Legion!", are "Ours is the dawn!" or "Nightfall no more!" or "Be illuminated!"
Legionary History:
After the scattering of the Primarchs, the XI Legion, small even in those days, found itself bereft of a source of gene-seed, and prone to instability and mutations. A force of psykers, the Emperor restricted the Sororitas Psykana, as he named them, to facing psychic enemies and rooting out insurrection with their telepathic abilities.
Thus did the XI languish, rarely allowed on the field of battle, and given to a fragile state as their numbers regularly and violently contracted from psychic disunity. So it was that by the time they were reunited with their Primarch, the Sisterhood found itself numbering no more than 5,000 Space Marines.
Taking stock of her Legion, Yvaine wept before her daughters, and promised them that no more would they suffer the great losses that the mutations afflicted upon the Legion. Personally beseeching the Emperor for aid, the gene-seed of the Legion was re-examined and purified over a number of months. Now somewhat stabilised owing to Yvaine's presence enabling more stable stock to be produced, the Legion found its spirits rekindled and its numbers growing at a steady rate for the first time. The Legion was reorganised by Yvaine, its members retrained and kinship established between the sisters within the sisterhood and their Primarch.
Now reforged anew, the Sororitas Psykana took to the frontlines of the Great Crusade with considerable success. At first serving alongside the Thunder Warriors, another personal request by Yvaine to the Emperor and Ozymandias jointly, to help learn herself and her daughters in the way of true Legionary warfare. The Sororitas then took to the frontlines independently, and since then, have grown in size and reputation. Now, they stand side to side with their fellow Legions, shining across the stars, a beacon of hope to the downtrodden, and a promise of fire to their enemies.