Alicia Dominica and the Golden Throne Room

[Callidus]

In the Age of Apostasy, Alicia Dominica is granted an audience with the Emperor by the Adeptus Custodes and is changed forever, executing High Lord Valdire and creating the Adeptus Sororitas. What took place in the throne room?

[Veteran Sergeant]

It's never been said. Chances are she was overcome by the awesomeness of the Emprah's psychic presence.

[A.T.]

Alicia was the leader of the brides/daughters of the empror but six other sisters entered the throne room with her (Katherine,Silvana, Lucia, Mina and Arabella), and were told not to speak - so i'm guessing it was a somewhat one-sided conversation.

The Sororitas were created at the instruction of Sebastian Thor, though Alicia did oversee the founding of the new covenants.

[Easy E]

What happens in the Golden Throne Room stays in the Golden Throne Room.

[TheDungen]

can the emperor speak in his current state? wouldnt that solve alot of the problems the imperium is having like say the thorian inquisition.

[Xisor]

According to The Inquisition War, TheDungen, yes: he can. He is, however, not what most people would consider... sane.

According to pretty much every bit of 40k ever published:

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that he may never truly die.Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will.

I suppose that's a no. I'd be very keen to see some stories based on the Age of Apostasy, a Goge Vandire series or even an Alicia Dominica set of stories. Mighty interesting time, I'd wager.

[Theocracity]

Dominica: "Behold! We stand in the holy Emperor of Mankind's presence. Hark! He speaks for the first time in thousands of years!"

Emperor: "b...b...bir...b"

Dominica: "What does he say? What blessings or wisdom does he impart to us?"

Emperor: "buh buh buh bird bird bird, the bird is the word buh buh buh bird bird bird oh the bird is the word...."

Dominica: "...let us never speak of this to anyone."

Edit: On a less flippant note, I entirely agree with Xisor. I like things that flesh out the past 10,000 years, and the Age of Apostasy is a particularly rich time.

[A.T.]

I suppose that's a no. I'd be very keen to see some stories based on the Age of Apostasy, a Goge Vandire series or even an Alicia Dominica set of stories. Mighty interesting time, I'd wager.

The 2nd edition Sisters of Battle codex has 9 pages of material on the age of apostasy and a 4 page short story about one of the many secondary heresies that occured at the same time (including the invasion of Fenris no less) but little else that i'm aware of, save for the eventual fates of the those 6 sisters.

The last two Sisters of Battle books have been an Inquisition book (which stripped out most of the ecclesiarchal stuff) and a WD codex (which stripped out most of everything) - there simply hasn't been much drive for GW to produce new material regarding the age of apostasy and the church's background, it's a footnote for other imperial forces.

[Damien 1427]

I suppose that's a no. I'd be very keen to see some stories based on the Age of Apostasy, a Goge Vandire series or even an Alicia Dominica set of stories. Mighty interesting time, I'd wager.

Much like the Horus Heresy and the Macharian Crusade, I'd like to see a Forge World campaign book (or series of books) about the Age of Apostasy. For me, things like that show we don't really need to advance the timeline of the setting. What's already happened is far more interesting to explore.

[All Cing Eye]

I'd be very keen to see some stories based on the Age of Apostasy, a Goge Vandire series or even an Alicia Dominica set of stories. Mighty interesting time, I'd wager.

I imagine BL will be doing a series on it sometime, with the HH series their first foray into historical 40K they are now expanding on that with the Macharian Crusdade trilogy. It's only a matter of time, I suspect, before they cover other significant events from the history of 40K.

I for one cannot wait.

[Eumerin]

In the Age of Apostasy, Alicia Dominica is granted an audience with the Emperor by the Adeptus Custodes and is changed forever, executing High Lord Valdire and creating the Adeptus Sororitas. What took place in the throne room?

Nine months later, there were half a dozen simultaneous "blessed events".

You mean the name "Brides of the Emperor" didn't tip you off?

:P

[A Shadow]

Considering how damned devoted they were to Vandire they would have needed to see something pretty remarkable to switch allegiance so quickly. Psychic visions?

[Askil the Undecided]

Well in Inquisition war the big E stops time (some trick eh?) and has a rambling insane chat with Jaq Draco.

Who's to say he didn't do something similar with Alicia Doimica? Of course this begs the question why he didn't tell them to destroy the Ecclesiarchy rather than protect it considering his hatred of the shackles of dogma and superstition and what they'd do if the being they revered spoke heresy but considering his precarious mental state any communication he made was probably more of a concise denounciation of Vandire that a lengthy chat on matters ecumenical.

i.e.
Big E :"Dominica, kill Vandire, he's a traitorous bastard."

Sisters: "Oh my... well... you. Of course my lord."

Rather than

Big E: "Domincia, what the hell is going on? Church? Really? I don't want any of this crap, don't you people keep written histories? It's really quite simle. Rule 1: No Gods, Rule 2: No AI, Rule 3: No Xenos seriously guys, how hard is that."

Sisters: "The Emperor's a heretic! kill him!"

Big E: "Ouch" *Expires*

Sisters: "Oh... Crap, back out slowly, nobody speaks of this... ever." (exit stage left)

[A.T.]

Considering how damned devoted they were to Vandire they would have needed to see something pretty remarkable to switch allegiance so quickly. Psychic visions?

They were devoted to the Emperor first and foremost, Vandire had simply convinced them that he was the Emperor's true champion by demonstrating that he was invulnerable to harm - using a conversion field generator.

All that was ever needed to turn the sisters was to know that he lied, but the Emperor's word was just about the only one that they would ever take over the Ecclesiarch.

[RBLFunk]

Well in Inquisition war the big E stops time (some trick eh?) and has a rambling insane chat with Jaq Draco.

Who's to say he didn't do something similar with Alicia Doimica? Of course this begs the question why he didn't tell them to destroy the Ecclesiarchy rather than protect it considering his hatred of the shackles of dogma and superstition and what they'd do if the being they revered spoke heresy but considering his precarious mental state any communication he made was probably more of a concise denounciation of Vandire that a lengthy chat on matters ecumenical.

I'm not certain but probably because Ian Watson's Inquisitor novel was published in 1990 and the Emperor = Dick Dawkins/Carl Sagan take wasn't introduced until Dan Abnett's Horus Rising in 2006. As far as I know.

[Askil the Undecided]

I'm not certain but probably because Ian Watson's Inquisitor novel was published in 1990 and the Emperor = Dick Dawkins/Carl Sagan take wasn't introduced until Dan Abnett's Horus Rising in 2006. As far as I know.

I was really angling toward the tendency for GW to retcon established events, then again as I often point out all changes in 40k are impositions of retroactive continuity being that the "present" is the end of M41.

[borithan]

Nine months later, there were half a dozen simultaneous "blessed events".

You mean the name "Brides of the Emperor" didn't tip you off?

:P

Ah, but they were named that by Goge Vandire. They had been (and I think they renamed themselves afterwards) the Daughters of the Emperor. Though it does suggest Mr Vandire may have had some use for them that went a bit beyond "utterly loyal bodygaurds."

[Grey Hunter 88]

There is no clear indication what was said or done inside the throne room during that moment, and I hope there never will be. Leave it up to each reader's individual interpretation.
Did the Emperor speak to them? Did he use some kind of psychic transference to illuminate them? Did they change their mind simply by looking at him in awe? Did the Custodes speak to them, and just use the Emperor as a devotional token to emphasize their point?
Heck, maybe they went in to see that Horus was in fact sitting atop the Golden Throne and decided to throw in their lot with Chaos then and there (I have seen the theory on the internet...)!

Though I must say that Fantasy Flight's "Blood of Martyrs" is an absolutely amazing resource on the Age of Apostasy and the Sororitas of all Orders. Not only that, but also the Age of Restoration, Thor, the different factions of the Church, its organization (Deacons vs Clerics for example) etc.
Anyone interested in Imperial Faith owes it to themselves to give it a read, and FFG's stuff is extremely inexpensive on sites like Amazon. Half the price of a GW hard-covers, and over twice the pages.

In our Dark Heresy campaign, we had two Sororitas in the cell (a hospitaller and a militant), and to add some variety, I had a palatine call them "fellow Brides of the Emperor". Little did I know that they had read more of the book than I did at the time, and this led to my girlfriend flipping out that this Sororita had to be some sort of secret, Vandire-worshipping heretic.

Suffice to say I had to quickly back down under the circumstances and ret-con my line to "daughters" of the Emperor.

Edit: To add, they began as Daughters of the Emperor. Vandire renamed them Brides, and they have subsequently renamed themselves back to daughters.

[El_Machinae]

It's honestly quite interesting that she then pursued the political (and military) empowerment of the Ecclesiarchy. Not only was the Ecclesiarchy not worth combating, but may even have needed a boost with regards to the rest of the Imperium

[Boreal]

According to The Inquisition War, TheDungen, yes: he can. He is, however, not what most people would consider... sane.

Jaq Drago (The 'Inquisitor' trilogy of books) met The Big E and did have a psychic conversation with him (while the Emp froze time around them, always impressed by that ) and it backs up what Xisor said. My copy of the book is buried away in a box as I'm moving house soon but Warhammer 40k wikki sys the following;

"After finding out the true nature of the Ordo Hydra and its plan to psychically enslave Mankind in the hope of using the concentrated psychic power of the entire race to destroy Chaos, he travelled to Terra with his associates, entered the Imperial Palace, and telepathically communed with the Emperor within the Sanctum Imperialis in the Imperial Palace where the Golden Throne lies. Draco informed the Emperor of the plot and asked him to take stops to prevent it from coming to fruition. The audience with the Emperor was an experience that left Draco both confused about the stability of the Emperor's mind within the Warp and doubtful that the Imperium would be able to weather the many threats to its existence."

So I reckon it's entirely possible that Alicia Dominica did have a conversation with the Emp (psychically) while he was in one of his more lucid moments and was subsequently blown away by his magnificence etc.