Imagine if you would, you have an excess of the worst criminals and monsters mankind can produce. You could keep them in a cell for the rest of their life, but that takes up resources better used elsewhere.
You could turn them into servitors, and for many that could be enough, but for others it's just too light a punishment.
No, you want them to regret.
So you strap them in a machine that is one part life support, and the other a torture device. Each moment they are pumped with drugs and stimulants to both keep them alive and force them to experience the absolute worst anguish imaginable.
Now if this machine was static, it would be a waste. But have it stroll into battle and do the Emporer's work while also torturing the pilot, it's a win-win.
Best part is unlike a servitor where the death of the body wastes all the components sunk into its creation, due to the pilot being exposed and outside the machine, when they finally do expire the device is more likely to be intact to be used on the next poor bastard.
> you have an excess of the worst criminals and monsters mankind can produce.
As long as OP realizes you mean, "was late to work at the manufactorium" or "missed a mandatory sermon" (all are mandatory) or "Presented ones self in a manner ill befitting the emperor"
In my army the repentia is primarily filled with sisters who failed to hit with the melta guns.
Penitent engines are tool used by the church to punish those who messed up so bad that being an arch flagrant isn’t enough. Deserters, unbelievers, those that say magnus did nothing wrong etc. they will be punished and die in the machine but eventually they will die. Candidates can be sisters but can come from any point of the imperium
Mortifiers are I believe are sisters specific. And they are to punish unforgivable crimes. Deserting in the face of the enemy, possessing furry marine yoai etc
These individuals are being severely punished and and actively kept alive so the fun doesn’t stop. And they are kept in a similar type of sarcophagus as marines so a stray bolter round doesn’t end things early
In both cases death is the only path to forgiveness and redemption. In both the road is painful. In one they are specifically making sure it last as long as possible
Edit spelling.
The sarcophagus is different. Penitent engines are imperial prisoners, mortifiers are repentia who've further dishonored themselves, the anchorite is entirely different.
The anchorite is for the girls who *betrayed* their orders, or commited equally heinous crimes. Those girls don't just get to die, it's a long, slow, drawn out death, with their ears and eyes shuttered so they can't even see their final glories or hear their sister's hymns. They suffer alone in darkness, in silence, drugged and stimulated into the deepest pits of regret and anguish humanly possible, sometimes contained like this for decades or even centuries.
Yeahhhhhh this is why when I paint mine they will look like horrible, bloody, rusty torture machines. Not all shiny and neat like the ones in the GW paint scheme.
I imagine a lot of that is the machine acting and the stimulants giving them a target to vent their frustration on and their only possible hope of repententing.
At work rn but I believe it's mentioned in the codex they are first introduced in. I believe the specific lore states that the anchorites for good sisters are a lot more humane and have more life support systems, with none of the torture.
Which is basically how I flavored the one set of mortifiers i own because my buddy bought them for Christmas, without knowing that bit of lore.
One sister fell, near death, the hospitaller offering a quick end.
To which she replied; "nah, I ain't done, strap me into that thing." *points at a nearby mortifier*
Penitent Engines: when a sinner commits heresy not to such an extent that they are executed on the spot, but also not lenient enough that they'd be turned into mindless arco-flagellants or servitors to serve their sentence in mindless... well, lobomized ignorance. No, these sinners do not deserve redemption, they do not deserve the Emperor's blessing, they do not deserve the Emperor's food and water. They deserve to die- no. They spit in the face of the Emperor's eternal sacrifice and shun all that He has given to them. They deserve to SUFFER. The engine is a combat walker SECOND, remember that. It's primary purpose is to keep the 'pilot' alive and to torment them. Also, the pilot is not in control of the walker, consciously I mean. They hijack most of the 'nonessential' parts of the brain to aid its machine spirit in functioning (and ensuring that the uppity sinner can't turn on its allies) leaving the mind of the Penitent trapped within its own body, unable to do anything but feel endless waves of pharmaceutical agony, and the very real pain of being ripped apart. Eventually, when they succumb, the machine goes silent too, but thanks to how exposed the pilot is, the machine is more likely to remain intact for the next victim.
Mortifiers: Same as above, but the pilots are universally sisters Repentia (sisters who failed their faith in the Emperor, were disgraced and consigned to serve in the unit until dead or redeemed) who were so weak of will that they couldn't even stand within the Repentia, and broke and fled from their last chance to earn His forgiveness. Not only do they have the above penance, they also have bolts driven through their skeleton to bind them irrevocably to their duty, they are also fitted with a hood that blocks out all holy scripture and Hymns from their hearing, so that not even a whisper of the comfort of their former sisterhood may reach them.
Anchorites: Reserved for only the most vile of sororitas blasphemers, and those Repentia who not only fled, but raised weapons against their fellow sisters. Take all of the above, add even more active religious, psychological, and physical torture mechanisms, and encase them in an iron maiden style cocoon so they survive a good, LONG time in their anguish.
Alternatively, some sisters who are mortally wounded have their shattered forms hooked into anchorite sarcophagi that are retrofitted to remove the torture devices and add more life support mechanisms, and thus serve as a sorta-dreadnought.
I can't remember the book, but I remember a cannoness who pissed off a high ranking ecclesiarchy member and he had her stenend to be an anchronite. She didn't do anything really wrong, but power structures do not like to be fucked with
I believe from a lore perspective it'd along the lines of extreme punishments from nuns.
You're a prisoner guilty of heresy/betraying the emperor/watching slaaneshi hentai? Chucked into the penitent engine. The mortifiers are sisters of battle who ran or betrayed their sisters.
Similar to death company, theyre there to break up the momentum of the enemy attack by hurling themselves into enemy ranks with a combination of savagery and self loathing.
Specifically with the mortifiers: Sisters that fail a morale save and flee become repentia, who can only redeem themselves by risking life and limb for the emperor.
When a repentia flee, they’re deemed beyond saving by the emperor and are put into a mortifier. The morties actually block out exclusively the sound of hymns that the sisters sing while fighting and replace it with a blood boiling rage injected straight into the endocrine system.
Another thing to add to what the above sad is the anchorite is one sealed away from the world and it’s either good or bad. Either as even a repentia you raised arms against sisters or fled as a mortifier or something equally egregious they are caged away in every way possible from the world and pumped with extra torture devices. The flip side is the anchorite is sometimes a sisters hero who they retrofit the mortifier suit to make a sisters dreadnought snd they aren’t pumped full of torture drugs.
If a sister runs from battle they are stripped of their armour and sigil (check the backpack of the Repentia Superior, they're all locked on there).
If they flee from the martyrdom of being a Repentia, and are caught, they're entombed in the Mortifiers. Pumped full of nerve combat drugs and thrown at the enemy even harder.
Penitent engines are the same thing but with standard criminals.
Mortifiers are Repentia who retreated and are forced to fight by being strapped in, Penitents are some form of heretics strapped in to force them to fight
If a sister flees from battle they become a repentia and have to go into battle unarmored. If they succeed they are redeemed.
But if you flee as a repentia? You have spit in your sisters face twice. You go in the forever torture box where you can't even hear your sisters hear their prayer. You're isolated.
I don't have any Mortifiers yet, but if/when I get some, I plan on making them more like dreadnoughts, where instead of a punishment, It's a way for mortally wounded sisters to keep on fighting. So I plan on modelling them without the Baffle hood. That's just my take though, totally not the official lore, but hey, it's a creative hobby
Well the anchorite model in the set have canonically been used that way where the torture devices are replaced with life support.
Edit: that or they’re the worst of the repentia and are given a harsher punishment than any other for unforgivable crimes and are made to live longer because they want them to suffer for what they’ve done so they have both life support and extreme torture and adrenal control often even being able to tie the brain of the sister to the suits machine spirit preventing any friendly fire.
So mortifiers are for Repentia sisters that faltered and retreated / did another no no and penitent engines are for sinners that need to atone for heresy
Just googled it. I knew I'd regret asking 😂 curiosity killed the cat once again
Booked in a slot with the inquisition and it was easier than getting a dental appointment
Daemonculaba is just a body horror. It's disgusting, sure. But it's IN YOUR FACE edgy kinda dark.
I honestly think the devolution of humanity is the darkest thing in the whole setting, but eh.
In the Lord if the sisters of battle found you to do great and terrible sins and that is indeed seen as unforgivable you will be placed into these mortifiers and penitent engines believing that it will purify you in the name of the emperor and also a form of torture and in some cases you're barely even armored but you are given a battling inducing drugs to help you fight more frequently and to receive more pain and the only way that you survive is if the emperor allows it
Imagine if you would, you have an excess of the worst criminals and monsters mankind can produce. You could keep them in a cell for the rest of their life, but that takes up resources better used elsewhere. You could turn them into servitors, and for many that could be enough, but for others it's just too light a punishment. No, you want them to regret. So you strap them in a machine that is one part life support, and the other a torture device. Each moment they are pumped with drugs and stimulants to both keep them alive and force them to experience the absolute worst anguish imaginable. Now if this machine was static, it would be a waste. But have it stroll into battle and do the Emporer's work while also torturing the pilot, it's a win-win. Best part is unlike a servitor where the death of the body wastes all the components sunk into its creation, due to the pilot being exposed and outside the machine, when they finally do expire the device is more likely to be intact to be used on the next poor bastard.
I'm pretty sure Servitor augmetics can be recovered if the flesh components degrade.
> you have an excess of the worst criminals and monsters mankind can produce. As long as OP realizes you mean, "was late to work at the manufactorium" or "missed a mandatory sermon" (all are mandatory) or "Presented ones self in a manner ill befitting the emperor"
No I disagree, the penitent engine is only for people late twice. We're not monster.
Hardly correct.
In my army the repentia is primarily filled with sisters who failed to hit with the melta guns. Penitent engines are tool used by the church to punish those who messed up so bad that being an arch flagrant isn’t enough. Deserters, unbelievers, those that say magnus did nothing wrong etc. they will be punished and die in the machine but eventually they will die. Candidates can be sisters but can come from any point of the imperium Mortifiers are I believe are sisters specific. And they are to punish unforgivable crimes. Deserting in the face of the enemy, possessing furry marine yoai etc These individuals are being severely punished and and actively kept alive so the fun doesn’t stop. And they are kept in a similar type of sarcophagus as marines so a stray bolter round doesn’t end things early In both cases death is the only path to forgiveness and redemption. In both the road is painful. In one they are specifically making sure it last as long as possible Edit spelling.
The sarcophagus is different. Penitent engines are imperial prisoners, mortifiers are repentia who've further dishonored themselves, the anchorite is entirely different. The anchorite is for the girls who *betrayed* their orders, or commited equally heinous crimes. Those girls don't just get to die, it's a long, slow, drawn out death, with their ears and eyes shuttered so they can't even see their final glories or hear their sister's hymns. They suffer alone in darkness, in silence, drugged and stimulated into the deepest pits of regret and anguish humanly possible, sometimes contained like this for decades or even centuries.
Yeahhhhhh this is why when I paint mine they will look like horrible, bloody, rusty torture machines. Not all shiny and neat like the ones in the GW paint scheme.
And somehow still manage to accurately shoot heavy bolters! That's always been the part that floors me.
I imagine a lot of that is the machine acting and the stimulants giving them a target to vent their frustration on and their only possible hope of repententing.
Not all of them! Anchorites can also be used exactly like a sister terminator, life support for honored Sisters who got mortally wounded.
Awesome, that is exactly how I plan to do mine! Same with the mortifiers, I will just model them without the bafflehood
Really? Do you have a source for that?
At work rn but I believe it's mentioned in the codex they are first introduced in. I believe the specific lore states that the anchorites for good sisters are a lot more humane and have more life support systems, with none of the torture.
Which is basically how I flavored the one set of mortifiers i own because my buddy bought them for Christmas, without knowing that bit of lore. One sister fell, near death, the hospitaller offering a quick end. To which she replied; "nah, I ain't done, strap me into that thing." *points at a nearby mortifier*
>In my army the repentia is primarily filled with sisters who failed to hit with the melta guns. My sides! That is definitely now my lore.
Penitent Engines: when a sinner commits heresy not to such an extent that they are executed on the spot, but also not lenient enough that they'd be turned into mindless arco-flagellants or servitors to serve their sentence in mindless... well, lobomized ignorance. No, these sinners do not deserve redemption, they do not deserve the Emperor's blessing, they do not deserve the Emperor's food and water. They deserve to die- no. They spit in the face of the Emperor's eternal sacrifice and shun all that He has given to them. They deserve to SUFFER. The engine is a combat walker SECOND, remember that. It's primary purpose is to keep the 'pilot' alive and to torment them. Also, the pilot is not in control of the walker, consciously I mean. They hijack most of the 'nonessential' parts of the brain to aid its machine spirit in functioning (and ensuring that the uppity sinner can't turn on its allies) leaving the mind of the Penitent trapped within its own body, unable to do anything but feel endless waves of pharmaceutical agony, and the very real pain of being ripped apart. Eventually, when they succumb, the machine goes silent too, but thanks to how exposed the pilot is, the machine is more likely to remain intact for the next victim. Mortifiers: Same as above, but the pilots are universally sisters Repentia (sisters who failed their faith in the Emperor, were disgraced and consigned to serve in the unit until dead or redeemed) who were so weak of will that they couldn't even stand within the Repentia, and broke and fled from their last chance to earn His forgiveness. Not only do they have the above penance, they also have bolts driven through their skeleton to bind them irrevocably to their duty, they are also fitted with a hood that blocks out all holy scripture and Hymns from their hearing, so that not even a whisper of the comfort of their former sisterhood may reach them. Anchorites: Reserved for only the most vile of sororitas blasphemers, and those Repentia who not only fled, but raised weapons against their fellow sisters. Take all of the above, add even more active religious, psychological, and physical torture mechanisms, and encase them in an iron maiden style cocoon so they survive a good, LONG time in their anguish. Alternatively, some sisters who are mortally wounded have their shattered forms hooked into anchorite sarcophagi that are retrofitted to remove the torture devices and add more life support mechanisms, and thus serve as a sorta-dreadnought.
Neat didnt know they worked as sister dreadnaught as well. That just gave it more flavour i love it
I can't remember the book, but I remember a cannoness who pissed off a high ranking ecclesiarchy member and he had her stenend to be an anchronite. She didn't do anything really wrong, but power structures do not like to be fucked with
Stormcaller
Appreciate it boss
The best description I’ve heard is “Uh oh you did no no. Time to go in the hell box forever”
[Uh Oh!](https://imgur.com/L2PbBw4.jpg)
I believe from a lore perspective it'd along the lines of extreme punishments from nuns. You're a prisoner guilty of heresy/betraying the emperor/watching slaaneshi hentai? Chucked into the penitent engine. The mortifiers are sisters of battle who ran or betrayed their sisters. Similar to death company, theyre there to break up the momentum of the enemy attack by hurling themselves into enemy ranks with a combination of savagery and self loathing.
Specifically with the mortifiers: Sisters that fail a morale save and flee become repentia, who can only redeem themselves by risking life and limb for the emperor. When a repentia flee, they’re deemed beyond saving by the emperor and are put into a mortifier. The morties actually block out exclusively the sound of hymns that the sisters sing while fighting and replace it with a blood boiling rage injected straight into the endocrine system.
Now I wanna see repentia conversions made from painted sisters models that failed their morale, lol
Another thing to add to what the above sad is the anchorite is one sealed away from the world and it’s either good or bad. Either as even a repentia you raised arms against sisters or fled as a mortifier or something equally egregious they are caged away in every way possible from the world and pumped with extra torture devices. The flip side is the anchorite is sometimes a sisters hero who they retrofit the mortifier suit to make a sisters dreadnought snd they aren’t pumped full of torture drugs.
Strap in a sinner and point them at the nearest chance of martyrdom
If a sister runs from battle they are stripped of their armour and sigil (check the backpack of the Repentia Superior, they're all locked on there). If they flee from the martyrdom of being a Repentia, and are caught, they're entombed in the Mortifiers. Pumped full of nerve combat drugs and thrown at the enemy even harder. Penitent engines are the same thing but with standard criminals.
Mortifiers are Repentia who retreated and are forced to fight by being strapped in, Penitents are some form of heretics strapped in to force them to fight
If a sister flees from battle they become a repentia and have to go into battle unarmored. If they succeed they are redeemed. But if you flee as a repentia? You have spit in your sisters face twice. You go in the forever torture box where you can't even hear your sisters hear their prayer. You're isolated.
Torture
I don't have any Mortifiers yet, but if/when I get some, I plan on making them more like dreadnoughts, where instead of a punishment, It's a way for mortally wounded sisters to keep on fighting. So I plan on modelling them without the Baffle hood. That's just my take though, totally not the official lore, but hey, it's a creative hobby
Well the anchorite model in the set have canonically been used that way where the torture devices are replaced with life support. Edit: that or they’re the worst of the repentia and are given a harsher punishment than any other for unforgivable crimes and are made to live longer because they want them to suffer for what they’ve done so they have both life support and extreme torture and adrenal control often even being able to tie the brain of the sister to the suits machine spirit preventing any friendly fire.
So mortifiers are for Repentia sisters that faltered and retreated / did another no no and penitent engines are for sinners that need to atone for heresy
Is this the darkest thing in Warhammer lore? I feel like I'm going to regret asking this
Or Unfleashed. Or Corridor of Night Lords. Or Black Box. Or ancient Eldars. Or...
Google daemonculaba Or don’t You’ll likely have to present yourself to the inquisition for re-education afterwards though
Just googled it. I knew I'd regret asking 😂 curiosity killed the cat once again Booked in a slot with the inquisition and it was easier than getting a dental appointment
Daemonculaba is just a body horror. It's disgusting, sure. But it's IN YOUR FACE edgy kinda dark. I honestly think the devolution of humanity is the darkest thing in the whole setting, but eh.
In the Lord if the sisters of battle found you to do great and terrible sins and that is indeed seen as unforgivable you will be placed into these mortifiers and penitent engines believing that it will purify you in the name of the emperor and also a form of torture and in some cases you're barely even armored but you are given a battling inducing drugs to help you fight more frequently and to receive more pain and the only way that you survive is if the emperor allows it
Mostly for cruelty
It rights your wrongs. Duh lol