Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

==  Lady Celestine ==

In this timeline, Celestine is a distant descendant of Sanguinius whose genes lined up in just the right way that she got the wings and psyker powers of her great^3000 grandfather, since there are no Imperial Saints in this timeline. The wings and the psychic powers seem to go together, seeing Sanguinius needed to bend reality slightly in order to fly with his wings.

Celestine was born on Ophelia VII, a Katholian theocracy world. Even if Lady Celestine had not become famous by her later actions, she still would have gone down in the history books in some small way for causing the Ophelia VII mutation scare. Ophelia VII was a Katholian theocracy world, which took pride in having one of the lowest mutation rates in the entire Imperium. So when a baby with wings was born to two completely normal parents, this naturally raised concerns of Chaos corruption, possibly signs of cultists poisoning the well in preparation for invasion. On most other planets, Celestine would have immediately been labelled a mutant and left to die. But Ophelia VII was proud of its low mutation rate, and immediately sent the infant off for testing to get to the bottom of this potential corruption problem. To everyone’s surprise, the tests came back negative. Despite the infant being born with bird wings, there was no sign of taint from the Ruinous Powers.

Celestine had a rather humble childhood out in the rural areas of Ophelia VII, albeit one without a lot of social interaction due to her condition. Celestine’s family were mainly pigeon farmers, and Celestine spent a lot of her childhood mucking out bird poop. That lasted up until she was about twelve or thirteen.

Then the visions came.

Some were good. Some were mundane. Some were horrible. And some came true. Having visions of the future isn’t exactly a novel trait in the Imperium. In a galaxy of quadrillions, there are many who can see some, ranging from the most skilled Eldar farseer. But the visions plus the wings was enough to get the whole “descendant of Sanguinius” train rolling. Sanguinius was never considered a holy figure in Katholianism due to him never actually having been Katholian but like all people in the Imperium the citizens of Ophelia VII hold his name high due to him having been a genuinely good person who died saving the human species.

But Celestine is Katholian to the bone and marrow and she is almost certainly the only unquestionably legitimate heir to Sanguinius. This combined with traditional iconography and angelic depictions makes her a perfect banner holder, there is no need for a recruitment drive in the Ophelia sector, if anything now there is need to restrict the recruitment so as not to deprive man power from vital industries.

That was years ago. Celestine is a grown woman now (20s to 30s, old enough to have seen combat but young enough to have not received rejuvenants). Celestine is lot like Jeanne D’Arc, only one who instead of being burned at the stake had to become hard in order to survive the horrors of the galaxy. Nobledark or not, this is still the Warhammer 40k universe. Orks don’t care if your banna wavva refuses to pick up a weapon to defend themselves. Celestine has killed multiple times, and is haunted by the fact that so many good men and women have died because of her words. She knows how important it is for her to remain a symbol of hope to the people of Ophelia VII and the Katholians, but quite frankly it’s draining.

Celestine honestly doesn’t care that much about the whole “descendant of Sanguinius” thing, never publicly pushing the claim beyond saying "probably, how many other winged humans have there been?". Sanguinius lived so many years ago that the number of people who can claim descent from him could probably fill a solar system. The same thing is true with Guilliman, Vulkan, or Khan. And although she’s a hardcore Katholian Sanguinius isn’t really seen as a prophet in that religion. What she does care about is that it gets people to listen to her, and if people do that then maybe she can prevent the horrible things she sees in her visions from coming to pass.

However, at the same time she is concerned about the expectations other people are starting to have of her. Sanguinius was one of the greatest heroes the Imperium ever had, and people are starting to expect Celestine to live up to that legacy. Celestine is increasingly concerned that she can't live up to the expectations people are placing on her (especially since she probably only knows the sanitized history of Sanguinius rather than what the primarch was really like), and it's starting to weigh on her.

Celestine doesn't carry the name Baal, given that she was not a member of the nobility her family records don't go back much further than her great grandparents.

Celestine’s skills and psychic strength don’t seem as potent as Sanguinius, but then again Sanguinius was a Mark III S Astartes who lived for hundreds of years. It’s possible that Celestine’s level of psychic development is what Sanguinius would have been if he were her age and hadn’t been augmented at age 17 (or so). There are some differences between Celestine and Sanguinius besides gender and geneseed. Sanguinius' wings were pure white, making him look like an archangel. Celestine's are white with black tips like some seabirds, still a very clean, regal look but one that makes her look more like an earthly figure than the larger than life demigod Sanguinius (and fitting with the theme of Celestine not sure if she can live up to the hype).

And, of course, not everyone trusts Celestine. Some Inquisitors are suspicious of the events on Ophelia VII, pointing out that not all Warp corruption is Chaos-derived.

As for Celestine her life has taken a turn that she did not want. She wanted to be a farmer like her parents or maybe become a nun. Now regardless of her desires or intent she is a mid-scale political focus. She knows that she will receive rejuvenant treatments to extend her usefulness to the Imperium as long as possible, she will not be permitted to become a nun, she will have to take a husband to preserve the line of Sanguinius (probably one of noble stock, though not if she has any say in it and the burgeoning relationship with her squire) and she will spend the rest of her long life shipped from one war front to another bolstering moral.