“Of course, my dear, I bow to your greater knowledge of the particular inclinations of your charge, but I wonder at your naiveté in expressing the view that these will affect our programme in the slightest. Margrave Honorious de Caul will marry the Lady Elissiabetta von Draag, and they will bear children who will serve our divine calling. Their own views are immaterial. There is no more to be said on the matter.”
-Coded correspondence between Sisters of the Order Famulous, Calixis Sector 766.M40
The Order Famulous are chamberlains and advisors to royalty throughout the Imperium. While they have traditionally held the official status of a mere ear whisperer, it is commonly known that the Sisterhood holds a lot of sway on the worlds where they advise. Where the Sisters Famulous have worked over the last several millennia, tithes have been maintained or increased, trade has improved, and in general the population has fared better than on other worlds. With such clear evidence of the benefits they bring, it is no wonder that the Sisters Famulous are in high demand among noble families throughout the Imperium.
Novice sisters who show a strong set of communication skills and a distinct ability to stay calm under pressure are often drafted into the Orders Famulous. Unlike most other Orders in the Sisterhood, Sororitas in this non-militant role are trained in critical thinking, etiquette, and trade on top of their devotional studies and service. As they learn, they are sent to noble houses and trade consortiums to help guide the nobility. From the noble’s point of view, the Sister’s role is to help their house. For the Sisterhood, their efforts are intended to influence a noble’s decisions so that his work will help the Imperium as well as his house. Whether they help broker trade agreements or ensure a strong marriage union between two families, the Sisters Famulous are often found at the side of the decision makers, offering counsel to keep them honest and prosperous.
Famulous in the Calixis Sector[]
The sisters of the Order Famulous are a ubiquitous feature of the households of many noble families of the Imperium. These black clad Daughters of the Emperor glide silently through the great manses of the wealthiest and most influential houses, acting ostensibly as maidservants and chatelaines. Those sisters who serve in the Calixis Sector are no exception. They usually commence their service whilst yet young women, acting as nurses to the newborn infants of the nobility. They ensure the physical and spiritual development of their charges, quietly coding lifelong devotion and supplication to the Imperial Creed into the very souls of the future masters of humanity.
Every noble in the Calixis sector has servants, advisors, sisters, or sages to guide his decisions. Lesser nobles may hire scholars or sages, but the elite trust their business dealings to no one else other than sisters of the Orders Famulous. Canoness Goneril has offered the services of her Order to every major noble family in the sector as well as many other lesser nobles and mercantile houses. Very few have refused their services when offered, as it is a sign of future prosperity. One notable exception is the recent decline in numbers at the Lucid Palace. Within the last thirty years, the number of advisors from the Sisterhood serving Sector Governor Hax and his immediate subordinates has dropped by a third. While her sisters have always been politely refused, Goneril has found the emerging trend very disturbing.
Virtually all the members of House Krin have a Sister Famulous at hand when negotiating and handling trade, prompting other trading families, such as the Cestelle Alliance, to do the same. Thus far, no Sororitas sisters have been seen with members of the DeVayne Incorporation nor with the Machenko Dynasty, though the aides for those merchant entities have been no less skilled. The discussions between DeVayne and House Krin in 813.M41 regarding the purchase rights of generations of Sepheris Secundus’ serfs was said to be almost hostile in tone as the advisors almost broke protocol to speak directly to each other.
As the Calixian nobles under their care mature, they continue to influence and observe them, whispering words in their ears behind the scenes as they comb their hair or dress them for a masked ball. They guide their protégés towards advantageous marital unions or even certain discreet liaisons. They gradually increase their sway over the house they serve over the decades, acting as nurses to the next generation of Calixian nobility, and corresponding endlessly with other Sisters of their order. They match-make on behalf of the most powerful individuals in the sector, creating a network of influential families. They broker arrangements between the houses, quelling vendettas and feuds.
They are also tremendous diarists, maintaining meticulous histories of the families they serve, setting out the personality traits, physical characteristics, spiritual development and genetic purity of every member of the family in obsessive detail. By the time a sister of the Calixian Order Famulous reaches her dotage, she shall often be one of the most influential and powerful figures in a subsector, a secret manipulator who controls whole worlds to ensure that they obey the will of the Ecclesiarchy.
Those Calixian nobles who blossom under the Orders Famulous are an unusual breed, marked at once by all the typical ruthless overconfidence of the Imperial nobility, yet retaining a deep reverence for the Creed Imperialis not often found among their class. They are a fecund group, less prone to the vicious vendettas of the nobles than most. Their children often display peculiar oddities: high intelligence, brooding natures, messianic mental instabilities or uncanny insight. They often rise to high positions within the Ministorum as Cardinals or Confessors.
What is not commonly known is that the Orders Famulous serve the Imperium in another way. They keep extensive records of the bloodlines and mercantile dealings of virtually every noble family in the Calixis sector. Combined with the records of the Orders Hospitaller and Dialogous, Sisters Famulous have access to an exhaustive history of the noble families in this area of space. Their knowledge has made them very valuable to Ordo Hereticus Inquisitors, particularly those of a Thorian persuasion, as tracing the bloodlines of well-known heretics has often uncovered leads on much larger conspiracies.
While the Sisters Famulous try to stay above the machinations of the political arenas, they have been occasionally known to mediate disputes and moderate councils. Legatine Christal, from the Abbey of the Dawn, is often away from her Iocanthos fortress and has been spotted in recent years re-establishing a mission on Malfi and arranging a marriage between Friedrich Krin of House Krin and Josi Cestelle of the Cestelle Alliance on Scintilla. It is rumored that the Legatine even officiated at the actual ceremony and blessed the union on behalf of the Order.
The Order Sabine[]
The Order Sabine is a minor Order of the Adepta Sororitas in the Calixis sector, mostly populated from the ranks of the Order Famulous. It works hand in hand with the Missionarius Galaxia to prepare worlds long lost to the Imperium for re-integration. This Process can take generations as Sisters Famulous arrange royal marriages and act as court advisors. When the Missionarius Galaxia arrives on the world the leadership is primed to simply accept the coming of the Imperial Creed without struggle.
A Sister of the Order Sabine is effectively a Sister Famulous for game play purposes. With GM permission the character may exchange Scholastic Lore (Heraldry) for Survival.
Alternate Career Rank[]
To be a Sister Famulous means being exposed to the licentious ways of the nobility. Though the Sisters rarely step outside of their official duties, they still find it difficult to avoid noticing the depravity that entertains the upper social echelons. They know that they have been deemed strong enough to withstand the pressures of this duty and have studied to help those in need of their services. Unlike other Orders, they are likely to ask questions and listen first before smiting the unbeliever immediately They typically wear the armored robes of the Orders Non-militant, though these are often tailored to reflect local clothing as befitting their station and duty.
All Starting Skills, Talents, Gear and Wealth listed here totally replace the Adept Rank 1 starting Skills, Talents, Gear and Wealth.
Starting Rank: Rank 1 (Replaces Rank 1 Adept)
Starting Skills: Common Lore (Ecclesiarchy), Common Lore (Imperial Creed), Deceive, Literacy, Speak High Gothic, Speak Low Gothic, Performer (Singer), Scholastic Lore (Heraldry).
Starting Talents: Air of Authority, Basic Weapon Training (SP) or Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Pistol Training (SP), Flagellant.
Starting Gear: Shield Robes , Staff, Chaplet Ecclesiasticus, Ring of Suffrage, Rule of the Sororitas, Scoriada (flail used for self-mortification), Stub Revolver (and two reloads).
Requirements: WP 30, FEL 30
Starting Wealth: 120+3d10 Thrones
Monthly Income: Trading Classes
Restrictions: Characters with this alternate career rank may not purchase Psy Rating advances or any advance that allows use of psychic powers or sorcery.
Famulous Protégé Player Characters[]
You are the product of noble liaisons ordained and controlled long before your birth by the machinations of the Orders Famulous, the most secretive and mysterious of the orders of the Adepta Sororitas. You have always believed that you were born to achieve a certain destiny, and that this shall reveal itself to you in due course. You are marked by a strange mix of bloodlines and ancestry which has showed itself in strange ways in your nature.
Famulous Protégé Skills
You begin play with Literacy (Int), Speak Language (High Gothic) (Int) and Common Lore (Imperial Creed) (Int).
Famulous Protégé Traits
Those bred and raised by the Order Famulous are smooth, devout, well connected and often highly eccentric. You gain all of the following traits, which should be recorded on your character sheet.
Etiquette
Your tutors have trained you to act with the highest standards of decorum, the better to serve the Emperor.
Effect: You gain a +10 bonus on Charm, Deceive and Scrutiny Tests when dealing with high authority and in formal situations.
Famulous Network
You benefit from the contacts made by your wealthy lineage and the networking conducted on your behalf by the Order Famulous.
Effect: You begin play with the Peer (Ecclesiarchy) Talent, and in addition you also gain Peer (Administratum, Military or Noble), selecting one category to reflect your family’s powerbase.
Wealth
Whether through the actions of your ancestors or through the subtle guidance of your mysterious mentors, you possess tremendous wealth.
Effect: You being play with double the starting number of Thrones. You are also Nobility for the purposes of determining monthly income.
Mysterious Lineage
Without your knowledge, your bloodline has been scrutinized and manipulated for centuries by successive agents of the Order Famulous. The Order has controlled your ancestors behind the scenes for decades, leading them towards your birth. Perhaps you are the end result of their scheming, a tragic misstep, or simply another unknowing link in a chain that reaches back into the shadowed past and will continue far into the future.
Effect: Roll a D10 and consult table 2-7 and apply the effect to your character:
1-2
You are extremely intelligent, though you are prone to peculiar headaches and delusions. Increase your intelligence and insanity points by 1d10 (roll only once and apply the result to both).
3-4
The constant manipulation of your family's ancestry has rendered you a mule, much to the disappointment of the Ordo Famulous. You gain the Chem Geld talent.
5-6
You are a naturally gifted orator and dissembler but are unaccustomed to not being the centre of attention. You gain the Talented (Deceive) Talent and a -10 to all Concealment and Move Silent tests.
7-8
Your health has been affected by an ancient genetic defect, but the Sister Famulous nevertheless prepared you for your destiny. Lose 1 wound and -5 Toughness but begin play with Forbidden Lore (Daemonology, Heresy, Inquisition or Psykers).
9-0
You are astonishingly comely externally but at the cost of hidden imperfections. Increase your Fellowship and Corruption points by 1d10 (roll only once and apply the result to both).
Starting Wounds
You begin play with d5+8 Wounds.
Fate Points
Roll 1d10 to determine your starting Fate Points. On a 1-3, you begin with 1 Fate Point; on a 4-9, you begin with 2 Fate Points; on a 10 you begin with 3 Fate Points.