Palatine - Notable Palatines: Erika Luminas - Erika Luminas is a palatine of the Order of Our Martyred Lady. She's a ferociously zealous  and experienced war leader. Her dedication to the God-Emperor and to her order's sainted martyr, Saint Katherine, manifests as fearlessness that many outside her order have mistaken for recklessness. Her sisters, who devotedly follow her curt battle cant and inspiring sermons in the deafening fog of war, know better. Luminas is possessed of a selfless dedication to service and an instinctive willingness to do whatever is necessary to enact the Emperor's will. In countless Wars of Faith, Luminas has turned apparent defeat into crushing victory, courageously storming enemy firepoints and assaulting the foe's elite warriors. Luminas inspires those battle-sisters who survive to fervent acts of bravery, seeking any way to be by her side. In desperate last stands, the hands of the Emperor are believed by some to shield them, rewarding their faith with divine guidance. The palatine has led successful, though bloody, strikes against a host of enemies, yet none fill her with more rage than desecrators of the holy. When a sorcerous plague unleashed by the forces of the Death Guard began to ravage War Zone Metalica in the Charadon Sector during the Era Indomitus, Palatine Luminas and her forces were sent on a vital task to aid the Imperium. They were charged with finding the bones of an Imperial Saint, Saint Jheraldine, which would bolster a protective ward around the sector's most vital Imperial cities. Their search led them to the metropolis of Purity City on the Shrine World of Martyr's Rest, which unfortunately had just been turned into a deadly arena by Drukhari led by the Succubus Lelith Hesperax. This was because the Succubus intended to use Purity City as a battleground to prove once and for all that she was the best gladiator in Commorragh. Luminas' forces clashed with the Drukhari as the Adepta Sororitas searched the city for the saint's bones in what became known as the Battle of Martyr's Rest.Zoraya Matriana - Palatine Zoraya Matriana is the senior ranking sister of the preceptory of the Order of the Sanctified Shield. Although numbering only a thousand sisters widow, a curious twist of fate meant the vast majority of her order were present in the Gilead System at the opening of the Great Rift, and they wield influence far in excess of their numbers. When the ageing Canoness Athenasia died shortly after the eruption of the Cicatrix Maledictum, Palatine Zoraya assumed overall command of her order, though she refused to declare herself canoness until she could make contact with the Abbess Sanctorum to have her position formally ratified. The ranks of the Holy Ossuary have swollen with numerous sisters of other orders. With the war for Balthazar now well underway, Palatine Zoraya has assumed overall command of the war zone, with the full support of the local Ecclesiarchy. Some senior sisters, most notably Sister Dogmata Valatia Rimesk, have spoken out against her command, considering it inappropriate that a relatively young palatine of a minor order should assume authority of other, more senior sisters from the Ordos Majoris, but for now Zoraya's hold on power remains firm. Like the rest of her order, Palatine Zoraya wears armour the colour of bleached bone, with crimson vestments lined in gold. Her Sabbat Pattern helm is crowned with a filigree circlet of golden leaves; she carries a Godwyn-De'az Pattern Boltgun, while an exquisitely-crafted power sword hangs at her right hip. Burn scars cover the majority of her face and shaven scalp, and a red augmetic glows in place of her left eye. She wears her battle-scars proudly as a mark of the God-Emperor's salvation. She is a compelling and charismatic speaker, and a figure of tremendous inspiration to the majority of the sisters under her command.