Julien
Sister Julien was a retired Celestian of the Order of the Bloody Rose[1j].
History
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This page contains spoilers for: | Cain's Last Stand (Novel) |
After several years of battle, Julien was assigned to the Schola Progenium on Perlia, overseeing Sororitas novitiates who had not yet committed themselves to a convent[1a]. Like the rest of the faculty, she was pulled out of retirement during the 13th Black Crusade, when a Chaos fleet led by Warmaster Varan invaded the planet.
She started training her novitiates in basic combat tactics, including counter-insurgency and urban warfare[1b]. She also suggested to retired Commissar Ciaphas Cain that he make a public appeal for the citizenry to volunteer for the PDF, which was already severely shorthanded as a result of excessive Guard tithes incurred by the Third Tyrannic War[1c]. Cain had doubts about whether Julien actually believed in his heroic reputation, but her instincts were shrewd: within days of his appeal, ordinary Perlians volunteered in droves[1d].
Julien, dressed in full power armour, led her initiates in defense of the Schola campus, and against Varan's forces in the final defense of the Mechanicus shrine in the Valley of Daemons[1f][1g][1h]. Before this final battle, she led a prayer to the Emperor. Cain, normally skeptical of the benefits of prayer, suggested that her words be transmitted to the entire base[1h]. Julien and most of her initiates survived the battle and were evacuated along with the other Imperial defenders[1i].
Personality
In his memoirs, the Cain Archive, Cain said that most Sororitas of his acquaintance were either tedious or terrifying, or both, as a result of their fanatic zeal. Julien, by contrast, was surprisingly good company, being an experienced tarot player, with an appreciation for a good vintage of amasec[1b].
Cain was also gratified that she was level-headed in combat; during the final battle, she was eager to combat the Necrons, remembering their butchery of the Sororitas convent on Sanctuary 101, but bowed to Cain's insistence that they could not make an effective stand against them, and evacuated her charges along with the other defenders[1i].
Cain was also stunned to discover that she was having a secret affair with Brasker, the Schola's Administratum bursar[1d]. To Cain, this was shocking on a number of levels: Cain himself always found Brasker to be rather boring company; in public, he and Julien never seemed to be more than amiable rivals[1a]; and last but not least, Cain had never heard of a Sororitas having relations with any man. Amberley Vail, editing Cain's memoirs, noted that Sororitas are not actually forbidden to have liaisons with men, it is simply that few of them ever have the time to pursue one.[1e]
