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Raised at the Schola Progenium facility at Antigone's Harbour, Rosetta
Anastasia was singled out by the Order Famulous as a potential recruit
for the Adepta Sororitas at the age of twelve years. The agents of the
Sisterhood were impressed by her pious spirit, which, matched with her
latent fighting skills, made her ideal material for the battle sisters
of the Orders Militant.
During her period as a Novice, Anastasia was
indoctrinated into the ancient beliefs and traditions of the
Sisterhood. She learned that the Sororitas had been founded during a
distant and tumultuous period in the Imperium's long history, which was
brought to an end by the actions of Saint Dominica. She learned of the
Greater Orders and their Founding Saints, each of whom was a loyal
follower of Dominica, who had then gone on to found the greatest of the
Orders Militant, the Order of the Ebon Chalice. She learned of the
Lesser Orders Militant, each of which was a daughter-house of one of
the Greater Orders. She learned that central to the Sisterhood's
doctrine is the knowledge that Mankind stands at a critical juncture in
history, and that only through the salvation offered by the Emperor can
Humanity prevail against the horrors of the galaxy, and Man's own
self-destructive nature. Only through total commitment to the Emperor,
can the Adepta Sororitas hold the forces of disorder at bay, and this
can only be achieved by submitting oneself wholly; mind, body and soul
to the tenets of the Imperial Creed.
At the age of seventeen, Anastasia stood with
five hundred of her fellow Novices and took the Oaths of Adherence in
the Ecclesiarchal Palace on Terra. The Ecclesiarch himself blessed the
assembled Novices in a ceremony that lasted throughout the night, and
culminated at dawn with a superior from each of the Orders Militant
stepping forward to lead each of the girls off to don the armour of
their new Order for the very first time. It was a superior of the Order
of the Ermine Mantle that stood before her, and Sister Anastasia left
at her side, taking leave of Terra for Subiaco Diablo, the Hive world
near the Cadian Gate called home by her new order.
The Convent of the Order of the Ermine Mantle
is set at the apex of the tallest spire of Hive Siana, the capital of
Subiaco Diablo. Being so close to the Eye of Terror, the Hive world had
more than its share of cultists and recidivists spreading the seeds of
heresy and corruption within its teeming populace. The Sisters of the
Ermine Mantle were engaged in a never-ending struggle against these
elements, and so Sister Anastasia saw action within weeks of arriving
at her new convent. For the next four years, Anastasia fought at the
forefront of the war against Chaos, but it was obvious to all that the
forces of the Ruinous Powers were gaining in numbers and fanaticism
with each passing month. This state of affairs greatly troubled the
young Sister, and she undertook increasingly long prayer-vigils upon
the cold stone floor of the convent's inner sanctum, seeking the
Emperor's guidance and strength to act against those who sought to drag
Humanity down into the pits of ruin of their own making.
In the closing months of the 41st Millennium,
matters came to a head. Abaddon the Despoiler, the Arch Heretic united
the servants of Chaos and unleashed his Thirteenth Black Crusade. The
Hordes of Chaos erupted from the Eye of Terror, smashing into the
defences of the Cadian Gate. Upon a hundred worlds, the unseen agents
of the Ruinous Powers revealed themselves, sowing discord and confusion
amongst the beleaguered defenders at a time when only total unity would
see Mankind prevail. The first sign of the invasion came when a plague,
the likes of which had never been seen before, swept the sectors
surrounding the Gate. The over-populated hives of Subiaco Diablo were
soon reduced to charnel houses of disease and corruption, doomsday
cults roaming the streets proclaiming the end times for those who did
not put their faith wholly in the blessed God-Emperor of Mankind. The
cults preached that only those pure in every respect could hope to
resist the Plague of Unbelief, as it became known, and set about the
purging by flame and bullet of any they believed impure.
Soon a fate far worse than death at the hands
of the plague visited itself upon the unfortunates of Subiaco Diablo.
Those who had succumbed to the contagion rose once again, in the form
of hideously decayed zombies, their recently dead flesh sloughing from
their shuffling forms as they fell upon the survivors.
Throughout the plague, the Sisters of the
Ermine Mantle remained unaffected, not one of the Sisters being
afflicted by it. None that is, except for Sister Anastasia.
As the scrofulous hordes of decaying plague
zombies converged upon the convent, a shining beacon of purity amidst
the planet wide sea of filth, Sister Anastasia lay in her cell in the
grip of a pain-wracked fever. In moments of relative lucidity, she
regarded her face in the reflection of her polished armour, and saw
upon it the mark of corruption. And so, while her Sisters battled the
uncountable hordes at the walls of the convent, Sister Anastasia
scourged herself in an effort to draw out the poison she felt deep
within. Never in her life had she had any cause to doubt that the
Emperor was watching over her, but now she felt further from his grace
than if she had crossed the vast gulf between galaxies. Anastasia
endured her self-inflicted penitence and the ravaging fever for five
days and nights, refusing to allow any of her sisters to enter the cell
to aid her; so ashamed was she of her condition.
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On the fifth night, at the height of her fever, convulsing in spasms of
agony, Sister Anastasia beheld a vision. She saw the Eye of Terror as a
vast abscess upon the face of heaven. The Eye opened, and the sore
spilled its filth across the Imperium, a tidal wave of corruption
sweeping the Emperor's servants aside as they vainly attempted to hold
it back. The wave engulfed Cadia, then, world by world, every bastion
of the Emperor's armies all the way to Terra. As the mighty wave broke
upon the homeworld of Mankind, Anastasia awoke with a cry: her fever
had lifted and she felt suddenly cold as the sweat coating her skin
cooled in the chill night air.
Donning her armour, Sister Anastasia resolved
to stand beside her sisters in the battle against the plague zombies.
But as she left her cell, she realised how long she had endured her
fever, and that the convent had been decimated by five days of
incessant conflict. As she walked the empty corridors, she found
evidence of the terrible battle that had raged; bodies lay strewn all
about, those of her sisters and the attackers. At length, she came to
the central chapel, wherein she found the remnants of the Order of the
Ermine Mantle. Fully two thirds of the Order had fallen defending the
walls, and the surviving sisters had gathered to give thanks to the
Emperor that the enemy had been repulsed.
The knowledge that she had failed to stand by
her sisters struck Anastasia like a hammer blow. She sank to her knees
before them, tears filling her eyes as she strove to find the words to
plead their forgiveness. But the words were as ashes in her mouth.
Staggering to her feet, Anastasia invoked the
first verse of the Oath of the Penitent, the words leaving her mouth as
a choked whisper. The others gathered around her, and she realised that
no senior members of the order had survived the battle: only sisters
her own age remained.
As she spoke the words of the ceremony, one of
her sisters stepped forward. At the completion of each verse, an item
of Anastasia's armour was removed. Seals bearing the words of the oath
were attached about her person as another sister took a blade and
roughly shaved her hair. Soon, she stood ragged in fragments of her
former vestments, blood streaming from her scalp. Her sisters formally
turned their backs as she spoke the final verse of the rite.
Leaving the convent, Anastasia walked out into
the corpse-ridden ruins of Hive Siana, to seek her death, or her
redemption.
At first, all was still on the streets of the
hive, but as the sun began to sink, movements in the shadows caught
Anastasia's eye. Soon, a low moaning filled the air, and ragged forms
shambled from the ruins. The zombies were slow, and Anastasia easily
outran them, but found that no matter how far she fled they continued
to pursue her. Breathless and desperate, she came at length to the
shattered ruins of an Ecclesiarchy shrine, the blasted body of its
attendant priest draped over the altar where he had died defending it.
Determined to make her stand at the shrine,
Anastasia cast around for a weapon. Seeing that the priest still held a
sword in his dead grip, she reached for it as the first of the zombies
appeared at the broken gates of the shrine. As her hand touched the
hilt, Anastasia was wracked by a terrible seizure, her back arching as
she let out a dreadful scream. The ruins around her melted away, and
she stood upon a vast plain of shattered bones. Before her stood a man
in blood red armour, corruption radiating from him in palpable waves.
In his hand he bore a weapon that squirmed and writhed with a thirst
for the souls of the innocent. The man seemed unaware of Anastasia's
presence, and she realised she was experiencing another vision, though
unlike the one in her cell, this seemed to be pointing her towards a
specific goal. She knew that the vision was telling her that this man
was a source of great evil, and must be confronted if that evil was to
be thwarted and Anastasia's redemption secured.
Anastasia snapped out of her vision to be
confronted with a plague zombie reaching its filthy hands towards her.
Overcome by a holy rage, she lashed out with the sword, cleaving the
creature in two with one swing. Soon more of the foul creatures crowded
into the confines of the shrine, but Anastasia was an avenging angel,
her blade shining as she cut each plague zombie down.
And so, Sister Anastasia began her hunt for the
man revealed to her in her vision. Over the course of her quest, other
revelations came to her, each showing her the face of an individual
whose existence could not be allowed to continue. Anastasia knew that
in confronting each of these scions of evil and corruption she was
doing the Emperor's work, and with every battle, taking another step on
the road to her own absolution.
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