The Pilgrym: Order of the Crimson Hour

Vivere est Pati.

As we continued to expand the Church of the Red Athenæum, we decided that it should really have its own fighting force.  We decided that we wanted to have this military organization mimic the Sisters of Battle.  After some brainstorming, we devised the Order of the Crimson Hour.

Order of the Crimson Hour

The Order of the Crimson Hour is the military organization of the Red Athenæum, modeled after the Ecclesiarchy’s Adepta Sororitas, where only females make up its ranks (as per the Passive Decree; 0001288/M36).  Designed to root out heretics and keep order under the Steps, the Order has always remained detached and impartial to the shifting in power within the Church itself.  As such, while the Church has become increasingly more fanatical over the decades, particularly with the rise of cardinal Aseneth Levedescu, the Order has remained constant in their beliefs and practices.  Despite increasing pressure from the congregation to “embrace the Emperor’s suffering” by inflicting more holy wounds, they staunchly maintain only the severing of a hand to join the Church (which is allowed a bionic replacement, to maintain the Order’s fighting efficiency), and the removal of the larynx to join the Order (words are an unnecessary luxury; His Will is the only guiding light they need).

The Order has a very particular preference in weapons, favoring simple, functional ones that inflict the maximum amount of pain possible.  In this fashion, they are initially trained exclusively in the art of knife fighting.  A dying art in most circles due to the aggressive toll of personal injury required to become skilled, it fits perfectly with the Church’s ethos of pain.  After mastering bladework, they are instructed in the use of firearms, favoring the messy spectacle of the 12 gauge shotgun and the brutal impact trauma of .45-70 Government solid slug bullets.  Furthermore, both of these rounds are relatively simple to reload, an important facet of their firearm selection, because they pride themselves in loading each cartridge by hand, blessing every step.

I did quite a bit of work creating a shotgun that was sized appropriately. 

After a week or two of work, I think that I largely finished the first two members of the Order of the Crimson Hour.  I wanted them to have simple and functional armor, since power armor is not something easy to come by or maintain.  Therefore, like with Roland, their bodies are made from Death Korp Engineers.  Their helmets were created from the top half of a Skitarii vanguard head, with the bottom half from a female Dark Eldar model (a wych and a hellion).  I wanted only the top part of their heads to be covered, giving them a pseudo Judge Dredd look. The vanguard helmets look a lot like the Sisters of Battle helmets too, which fits since their organization is modeled after them.

I used green stuff to sculpt little parchments and seals to their armor.

Also like Roland, their legs are made from plastic fanatic legs.  To make the arms look like an extension of the robed legs, I trimmed off the cuffs on the sleeves and remodeled them with greenstuff.  Members of the Order remove a hand and their larynx as part of their initiation. To reflect this, I gave both of the models bionic hands, one made from a claw from the Mechanicum Destroyers, the other from a Wrack arm (I fashioned to to look a little like Imperator Furiosa’s prosthetic).  As a keepsake, and reminder of this sacrifice, both carry the bones of their hand along with them.  To emphasize this, I added a skeletal hand to each of their belts.  I used Brian Nelson’s plastic skeleton hands as a base, and with a little trimming and green stuff made them look like complete hands.

Although a little difficult to see, she has the bones of her hand fastened to her belt.

As mentioned in the background, I decided I wanted the Order’s favored weapon to be the shotgun, perfect for maximizing the pain they inflict on their enemies.  Although the Elysian drop troops have some neat shotguns, they were bigger than what I wanted.  To remedy this, I ended up combining parts from the Elysian and the Death Korp engineer shotguns to make the final guns. Special attention was taken to create the port at the bottom of each weapon to load new shotgun shells in the tube under the barrel.

She is the first mutant I created for the Church, although subtle, notice her pointed teeth (Dark Eldar Hellion).

Samael Urkston and the Order of the Crimson Hour.

Having largely finished the first two members of the Order, I am considering making a third.  She would likely be a Sister Superior or Canoness for the Order.  I have not decided if I will just create her to look like the other two sisters, or if I will try to experiment with giving her heavier armor, more mimicking the battle plate worn by the true Adepta Sororitas.  My first thought for creating such a model would be to base her off of a Forge World Solar Auxilia Veletaris models, due to their bulky segmented armor.  I am hesitant to buy one of the squads simply to get a single model, however, particularly when I do not know what the scale is like…  We will see…

- Adam Wier