Editing Order of the Valorous Heart (section)

==About the Order of the Valorous Heart==
The Order was founded by '''Saint Lucia''', ironically one of the more reasonable of Alicia Dominica's sisterhood, but was also one of the most penitent, and clearly the one most affected by getting to meet [[The God-Emperor of Mankind|Big E]] in person, and played her part in ending the [[Age of Apostasy|Reign of Blood]]. As a result, she was very guilty about the whole "Reign of Blood" thing, and when she was put in charge of an order of Sisters of Battle, she instituted an Order-wide feeling of guilt deep into the hearts of every single one of their Sisters, and went about going to worlds where the Imperial Faith was essentially non-existant, and violently reinstating it wherever possible. As per usual, Lucia met her end in an especially violent way, kidnapped by recidivists who tortured her and a bunch of innocent civilians and her own battle-sisters to the point of death, though her battles sisters never once made any noise to spare her from the already miserable pain she was going through. Though after getting one's eyes plucked out, one could argue pain's sort of relative. It was that martyring that sparked the Order to go on a Galaxy wide manhunt for the Recidivist cult who claimed she'd actually given up hope at one point and forced them to admit it was bullshit. After that it's unknown what happened, but given their proclivity for gritty, ruthless violence, you could can probably [[Anal circumference|figure out what happened next.]]

The Valorous Heart's beliefs are based in their deep institutional need for repentance; Saint Lucia herself believed that the Adeptus Sororitas alone held the guilt in letting [[Goge Vandire]] be a massive jackass to the entire Imperium in the Emprah's name, and that level of maniacal guilt and need to repent is clear across their combat and their belief system. They believe that numbing or attempting to run from pain is to deny faith the ability to ignore suffering, and as a result tend to bring less [[Sisters Hospitaller|Hospitaller]]s and use less pain-reduction stimms and numbing agents than most other Orders (though a minor hospitaller order is basically tied to their hip, so it's more that they refuse the help of other Valorous Heart sisters), to the point of refusing amputation even when it would be medically necessary. They believe that scars are reminders of the martyrdom of Lucia, and losing an eye brings you closer to understanding how she felt during her final hours. Oh, and in case you thought they got away from this when they aren't fighting, they basically torture each other by sticking their hands over open flames or dig chainsword teeth into their bodies while reciting prayers begging for the forgiveness of the sins of the Daughters of the Emperor, so as a result of ''all'' of that, these women look completely jacked up. Their institutionalized guilt means that they're intensely paranoid about the faith of those around them, leading an Order with a higher-than-normal amount of Sisters Repentia in their ranks, ready to go vent their problems with staying faithful with unusually brutal methods, even for Sisters. They even fight with the intent on getting hurt, as they try to cut the enemy off from supply lines and infrastructure, and basically force the enemy to fight these maniacal sisters one-on-one if they have to, and make themselves nearly impossible to move. They also tend to bring a shitload of [[Retributor Squad|Retributors]] with them to keep the enemy pinned into fighting the raging psycho-lesbians with chainswords or melta-weilding women screaming hymns at each other. While their methods and methodology are...well...insane, and maybe lightly chaos-tinted, it's clear that it is working, as numerous death worlds feature sanctified temple-fortresses dedicated to the order, and xenos and heretics over in Ultima Segmentum fear the jet black armor of the Valorous Heart.

In the 42nd Milennium, they got into the same trouble that a lot of Convents did, in that the Great Rift opened and [[Dark Eldar]] and Daemons and all that good stuff came pouring out of the rift and keeping them pinned into protracted assaults. They also lost a ton of their preceptories, but they do believe the Emprah watches them as they mow down their enemies, seeing the Dark Imperium being cut off from the Astronomican as just like when Lucia lost her eyes, and call this "The Hour of Abacination", and steel themselves through their holy BDSM to face whatever comes next.