Hello.
Speaker AIt's the TTP field manual.
Speaker AIt's the Final Days Advent calendar.
Speaker AIt's Joshy, as always.
Speaker AI'm joined by Johnny.
Speaker AHello, Johnny.
Speaker BHello.
Speaker AThis episode, if I'm not mistaken, should come out on the classic 25th of December.
Speaker AMerry Christmas to everybody.
Speaker BIn which time zone?
Speaker AAustralian.
Speaker AAustralian.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AWe wanted to have a very fun character for this particular day, so I have chosen the Heretic Saint, Efriel Stern.
Speaker ADo you have any idea.
Speaker ADo you have any idea who Efreal Stern is, Jonny?
Speaker BNot a clue.
Speaker BNot a clue.
Speaker AEfriel Stern is an Adepta Sororitas character, but she holds many titles.
Speaker AAmong them does include Heretic Saint.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker ASo you can sort of see that she doesn't quite fit into that narrative.
Speaker BHeretic Saint.
Speaker AHeretic Saint.
Speaker AIt will make sense by the end of this episode.
Speaker BAll right, let's do this then.
Speaker AEfriel Stern is a very controversial character.
Speaker AShe's controversial within the actual setting, if you couldn't tell already.
Speaker ABut she's also controversial sort of outside the fiction as well, because her story almost entirely exists within a three issue graphic novel that was originally released in 1999 with its first issue named the Screaming Cage.
Speaker AThree years later we had issue two.
Speaker AThree years later, the third issue.
Speaker ASo three issues across six years, and every single issue changed writers who each sort of applied their own spin to the narrative without too much consideration of what came before.
Speaker AAnd so it's a very kind of disjointed, unreliable narrator, pretty over the top storyline, and then the character was left mostly untouched for like 20 years.
Speaker AIRL.
Speaker BThat sounds terrible.
Speaker AKinda.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BOh man.
Speaker BJust three years between issues and different writers.
Speaker BThat sounds like a really messy affair.
Speaker AAbsolutely.
Speaker ABut it also, to its credit, was in that era of real wacky warhammer.
Speaker ASo it does sort of work as its own thing, but then through the lens of like the current era, it's pretty wacky.
Speaker AEspecially when you consider that despite being a Sororitas in the comic, Ephrael was kind of a rebel.
Speaker AShe was a bit of like the action hero, not too serious, a bit of a flippant attitude.
Speaker AA bit.
Speaker AA lot of like the one liner esque behavior.
Speaker AYou know, a chaos person would threaten her and she'll just be like, yeah, puck her up, you know, just not very Sororitas as we know it.
Speaker ABut what do we know about her?
Speaker AWhere she grew up was just, you know, every other kind of day.
Speaker AScola Progenum, you know, where various Imperium citizens are essentially raised in boarding school.
Speaker AAnd then depending on what they seem to show, you know, specialty in, they go towards whether it's sororitas, the Commissar, the guard, you know, wherever.
Speaker BRaised from birth to serve the Imperium.
Speaker AYeah, basically.
Speaker AAnd she was accepted after completing a few different, you know, trials into the Order of Our Martyred Lady.
Speaker AShe, you know, passed her exams, went to the convents of the Sororitas, and was, yeah, accepted into the Order of Our Martyred lady, which is the biggest and most well known order.
Speaker AIt's the black armor with the red capes.
Speaker AThey're the poster scheme of the Sororitas.
Speaker AAnd it kind of seems very fitting for Ephrael that she is amongst the Martyred Lady Order.
Speaker AIt is the largest order and they were founded way back in the day in reverence of Saint Catherine the Shield maiden of the Sororitas.
Speaker AActual founding woman, Alicia Dominica.
Speaker ABut eventually Catherine would die.
Speaker AAnd you see, ever since that moment, all the various conflicts the Martyred lady go through really just galvanizes all the girls further.
Speaker AThey've been in the War of Armageddon, few other big ones, and they just get really galvanized into this culture of martyrdom to the point where some even see their willingness to die for the Emperor as a death wish.
Speaker AAnd the.
Speaker AThe Order actually gets a lot of living saints besides St.
Speaker ACatherine because of this feverish martyrdom and reverence of their leaders.
Speaker ASaint Celestine is from this Order.
Speaker AEphrael Stern is from this Order.
Speaker ASo you can kind of see what we might be getting into today.
Speaker BI will have faith in your interpretation.
Speaker AThank you.
Speaker ASo some of our other episodes have been a bit of a who they are, what they've done here and there and what they're about and what they're going to do.
Speaker ABut Efriel Stern doesn't really have that.
Speaker AShe only has her comic book series and then like a couple of Fluffy mentions in recent years, that isn't much of anything.
Speaker ASo I'm essentially going to give you story time.
Speaker AWe're going to go through part one, two and three of her saga.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AAll right, so in part one, we have Ephrael Stern.
Speaker AShe quickly rises through the ranks of the Order of Our Martyred Lady.
Speaker AShe's pretty adept.
Speaker AShe's the Lieutenant Tidus of the Sisters of Battle here.
Speaker AShe gets to the sergeant, like, rank of Prioris.
Speaker AShe is part of the Seraphim, which is the Stormtroopers, the dual wielding jump troops of the Sororitas.
Speaker BThey have sick wings.
Speaker AThey do have sick wings.
Speaker AAnd her and about 12,000 sisters would be sent to the world of Parnus.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ANow, on Parnus, a sect of the Ordo Pronatus, which is a Sisters civilian order, they are like relic keepers, artifact custodians.
Speaker AThey, you know, go around and collect things and fix things and bring it back to the Imperium.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AOne of these Autopronatus sects were presumed lost on the world of Parnas.
Speaker ANow, for whatever reason, of the 12,000 sisters that went to this world, only Ephrael survived whatever it was that happened on this planet.
Speaker AAnd she returned with such limited sanity that she was actually held in a dungeon of her convent world for about four years under suspicion of particular heresy or Chaos tape.
Speaker ABecause how was she the only survivor?
Speaker BThat's a very good question.
Speaker AYeah, right.
Speaker AFour years pass, and she manages to survive an assassination attempt by a sister possessed by Slaanesh while in prison.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker AThere was an Inquisitor as well, that heard of this.
Speaker AThe Inquisitor was named Silas Hand.
Speaker ASylas investigated Stern and found no Chaos taint.
Speaker AEven after the assassination attempt and actually himself reinstated her back into the Sororitas.
Speaker AShe went back to the Seraphim order.
Speaker ABut pretty quickly the pair would decide to work together and they would return with a few more sisters, with some of the Inquisitors, you know, own helpers as well, back to the world of Parnas to understand what had occurred four years prior.
Speaker BSo she doesn't remember?
Speaker AShe does not remember.
Speaker BAh, that messed up.
Speaker AThat messed up.
Speaker ASo what happened four years ago is unknown.
Speaker ANow, when they are nearing the planet, it turns out several of the bridge crew were also possessed by Slaanesh.
Speaker AThis led to a bit of a sabotage of the ship's systems, but it wasn't until the, you know, the party, Ephrael Sylas, couple of their other friend, those managed to actually make planetfall.
Speaker ADid the flagship actually get destroyed?
Speaker ABlown up in low orbit from whatever mutiny was occurring on board between the possessed members of the ship and the Loyalists.
Speaker ABut the ship blew up, stranding them on this planet.
Speaker ANow, upon the planet, they found something that would become known as the Screaming Cage.
Speaker BThat's a terrible sounding place to be.
Speaker AWhat do you think the Screaming Cage is, Johnny?
Speaker BSome sort of torture device?
Speaker AYeah, in a sense.
Speaker AThe Screaming Cage.
Speaker ANow, do you remember that.
Speaker AThat missing Auto Pronatus I mentioned?
Speaker BYes.
Speaker ASo there was about 700 sisters in that ordo.
Speaker AThey were now the Screaming Cage.
Speaker BNot a torture device on Parnas.
Speaker AAt the Screaming Cage, which turned out to be a flesh construct of 700 or so fused together Sisters, they explained that they sought to study Slaanesh and also a specific Keeper of Secrets who would then be responsible for their physical binding.
Speaker ANow, they came at it from a bit of a scholarly point of view.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AThey wanted to understand Slaanesh so they could help fight Slaanesh.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker ABut what ended up happening was that the Keeper of Secrets found them and and quite literally fused them together.
Speaker BSlaanesh didn't like what they were trying to do.
Speaker AExactly.
Speaker AAnd four years prior, when Ephrael and the 12,000 Something sisters arrived on Parnas, that Keeper of Secrets had actually influenced the weaker willed sisters of the overall force that Stone was part of.
Speaker AAnd when they had arrived, the weaker willed sisters had turned on the Loyalist sisters and they all fought each other to the death.
Speaker ATo the man, to the woman.
Speaker ABut it was the Screaming Cage who actually resurrected Ephrael and helped her to escape.
Speaker ABecause that's 700 people who have begun to understand the Warp.
Speaker AThey've got a bit of a faith based power already.
Speaker AAnd because they were sort of 700 people become one, they had a bit more of a psychic power, they had a bit more knowledge, and they were able to telepathically resurrect Ephrael from death and essentially forced her to flee the battlefield.
Speaker AThere's a lot of this idea that Efriel was predestined to have this unique power and do good stuff, and this is really the first indication that she is meant to always be something a little bit more.
Speaker ABecause when learning about all this, that Keeper of Secrets returned and.
Speaker AAnd ambushed alongside some of the surviving Heretic sisters, Sylas, Ephrael and their small force.
Speaker ATogether they fought off the demon and the surviving sisters that were corrupted.
Speaker AAnd Sylas would actually take his force and chase them into the Warp when they were on the back foot, leaving Ephrael alone with the Screaming Cage, who would psychically impart their collected knowledge regarding Slaanesh as well as their collected psychic power.
Speaker AAre you with me so far?
Speaker BSo the Screaming Cage has some sort of sentience still.
Speaker BThey're not just like completely bat crazy.
Speaker AThey're not a screaming mound of flesh.
Speaker AThey're just 700 voices all smushed to one.
Speaker BBut they've taken the time to study enough of the Warp and the entity known as Slaanesh.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BAnd now they just like uploaded that all straight into her brain, basically.
Speaker AIn the comic, I think they drew the Screaming Cage as this sort of sphere of flesh with a bunch of faces popping out of it.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker ABut prior to that, they were all individual scholars and researchers.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ASo when they were smushed together, instead of going too crazy, they managed to salvage themselves and try and do something good with what had happened to them, which was amp up, Ephrael.
Speaker BThat's a lot of power and knowledge to suddenly be imparted upon one brain.
Speaker AOh, yes.
Speaker AEel kind of has a problem with losing her memory and then gaining it back because she just has so much in there.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker ABut that was part one of Ephriel's.
Speaker BStory, and then we had to wait three years.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AWhat do you think of.
Speaker AOf her story so far?
Speaker BIt sounds like a pretty cool little graphic novel.
Speaker AIt is very cool in the sense that so much happens.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker APart two is when things go crazy, and then part three is kind of like the denouement, like the taper out.
Speaker BAll right, well, let's get into part two.
Speaker APart two, which I believe was called the Lord of Damnation.
Speaker BOh, what a name.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker AThis is when a lot of, like, people and things start happening and appearing.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker ANow, part two picks up months later, still on the world of Parnas.
Speaker AEfriel's still there, and what she has done with her spare time was actually write a compendium of knowledge that she had inherited, the knowledge to sort of oppose and understand Slaanesh, which she would name the Codex Stern.
Speaker ANow, because months prior, the ship that she and the Inquisitor that ran into the warp arrived upon blew up.
Speaker AA separate Imperial Voidcraft eventually came to investigate what happened.
Speaker AYeah, pretty standard stuff.
Speaker BJust keep sending people into the abyss.
Speaker AKeep sending people to partners.
Speaker AIt'll go great.
Speaker BYeah, right.
Speaker BOh, my God.
Speaker AThe Voidcraft arrived to the planet to investigate the previously destroyed craft.
Speaker AThey managed to actually, you know, rescue Ephrael from the planet.
Speaker AAnd it was a pretty standard crusading fleet on board.
Speaker AYou had a cardinal, you had.
Speaker AYou had space Marines of the Black Templars, couple of inquisitors, etc.
Speaker ABut as this ship made its way to a planet, Ephrael was given a vision from her old Inquisitor friend, Sylas Hand, who chased big demon into the warp.
Speaker ASylas warned her that the craft was yet another trap of demonic possession.
Speaker BOh, no.
Speaker AAnd she clued into that pretty quickly.
Speaker ASeveral of the marines were possessed, Several of the Inquisitors were possessed, but she actually managed to teleport.
Speaker AYou know, a lot of ships have teleportariums.
Speaker AShe managed to teleport to the surface of the world they were above, and she would, you know, flee the ship, but Inquisitorial agents on the planet itself were ready for anybody, because not only was this the Inquisitorial agents, but it was actually understood by the Inquisition that this ship was possessed.
Speaker AWhen Ephrael was fleeing the ship, the Grey Knights managed to actually board the ship and start going to town around about the time that Ephrael disembarked.
Speaker ABut on the planet itself, she was faced with Ordo Malleus Inquisitors who were very much on the idea of, hey, you're probably a possessed, and began to hunt her down across the planet.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BAll right.
Speaker ABut she managed to board in relative secrecy, a pilgrim ship, who then left the planet to go somewhere else.
Speaker ASo she was rescued by possessed, the Grey Knights boarded the possessed ship, Ephrael escaped the ship and an escaped Ordomalous.
Speaker BI see where she's getting the name heretic.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker ANow, do you think the story could take more of a turn for the worst?
Speaker BOh, there's always room for more when there's Slaanesh around.
Speaker AWhat do you think happened to this lovely, inconspicuous pilgrim ship?
Speaker BIt would have been gunned down leaving the planet.
Speaker AWell, people didn't realise that's the ship she was on.
Speaker ANo, the ship managed to get to the warp and would be captured by Dark Eldar.
Speaker BOh, no, not these guys.
Speaker AFor the purposes of the Homunculi.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker BThey're slaves now.
Speaker AEphrael would instead, however, be turned into an arena pit fighter, because she obviously looked like she could fight.
Speaker AThe Pilgrims did not.
Speaker BThey became meat for experimentation.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker AThere was a.
Speaker ADo you know how the Aeldari call humans monkey?
Speaker AAs this weird tongue in cheek illusion to monkey?
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AIt wasn't always monkey that they would say.
Speaker AIt used to be a different word.
Speaker AYou ready for this?
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BI am.
Speaker AKempan ze chimpanzee.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker AChempanze.
Speaker AA violent, primal creature that the Aeldari heroes of old managed to defeat once upon a time that humans seem to quite resemble.
Speaker BInteresting.
Speaker AAnd Efriel would be known as a pretty capable chempanzee.
Speaker AShe's got that fighting power of like 700 girls, you know?
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AAnd because she was pretty good at being a pit fighter, the Mandrakes would attempt to assassinate her.
Speaker BHey, I know those guys.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ASo the Mandrakes would attempt to assassinate her, but she would be saved by a harlequin.
Speaker AA harlequin by the name of Kaiganel or Keeganal Keegals.
Speaker AI don't know.
Speaker AI kept calling him Keegals in my brain, but I think his name is Kaiganyl.
Speaker BThere's a lot of Eldar running around in this story.
Speaker AOh, yes.
Speaker AKai Garnal is the model you would see partnered with her in the tabletop.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AKai Garnel is her bestie from now until forever.
Speaker ABut Kai Garnel would save her from the Mandrake, save her from the pit fighting, and Kaiganyl actually managed to save her Codex Stern, and then went to her side, basically escorted her out of Commorra into the webway.
Speaker ATheir destination was the Black Library.
Speaker BHey.
Speaker ABecause the Black Library would be the safest facility for the knowledge kept within.
Speaker BThe Codex Stern, where no one will ever find it.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AHowever, unfortunately, they encountered a trap within the webway.
Speaker AWho do you think designed it?
Speaker BProbably the Homunculi or Slanush himself.
Speaker BSloonoosh can't really get there.
Speaker AWho really wants to find the Black Library, Johnny?
Speaker AI'll give you a clue.
Speaker AIt's a Thousand Sun Guy.
Speaker BIs everyone in this story?
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BGood old Ahriman.
Speaker AGood old Ahriman?
Speaker AAhriman trapped Ephrael and Kagarnal in the webway, and Ahriman would torture both of them for information on how to access the Black Library.
Speaker AYou know, all Harlequins are based in there, so Qi Garnall should know.
Speaker AFortunately, however, Ephrael's bolstered psychic might could resist his efforts long enough for the Grey Knights to once again show up, having been somehow keyed to Ahriman's location.
Speaker BOh, they're after him, not after her.
Speaker AYeah, so a separate Inquisitor in this story supposedly had.
Speaker ASupposedly had some kind of Aeldari contacts that.
Speaker AThat were like, hey, Grey Knights, we just got a scoop on Ahriman.
Speaker AHe's headed into the webway to find something.
Speaker AAnd so the Grey Knights went for Ahriman.
Speaker AAnd what happened was that the Grey Knights are part of Ordo Malleus Demon hunters who, in prior conflict, the Ordomalius marked Ephrael for capture, not kill.
Speaker ASo you ended up with this pretty difficult match because Ahriman was using Efriel as a meat shield.
Speaker AWas using this poor girl as a meat shield.
Speaker ALike, she's a bit drugged, she's a bit out of it.
Speaker AAnd the Grey Knights were like, nah, we can't kill her.
Speaker AWe need her.
Speaker AAnd so is this sort of back and forth, you know, dancing, dancing.
Speaker AKaiganal would have to flee, but Ephrael didn't want to be a puppet or, you know, an infamant for either side of this conflict, so she managed to actually steal Ahriman's dagger from his body and kill herself with it.
Speaker AShe drove his dagger right through her own heart and would die for the second time in her life.
Speaker ANow Ahriman, because he's a little shitter, would escape Qi.
Speaker AGarnel had fled and the Grey Knights would have no other choice but to flee the battle with her corpse.
Speaker BBasically empty handed.
Speaker ABasically empty handed.
Speaker ASo that's part two.
Speaker BSo hold on, where's the book?
Speaker AProbably with Kai Garnel.
Speaker BHarlequins always have a game plan and I hate it.
Speaker ASo this was part two.
Speaker AStern fled the Slaanesh possessed mob yet again.
Speaker AShe fled the Automalius, only to be captured by Dark Elder, made to fight in Commera, almost was assassinated by Mandrakes, saved by a rogue Harlequin.
Speaker AAnd then on their way to the Black Library, they get into a boxing match between Ahriman and the Grey Knights.
Speaker AAre you keeping up so far?
Speaker BYes.
Speaker AWhat do you think of part two?
Speaker BI feel like there's a lot of players in play right now and they kind of left it in a bit of a weird spot with the main character being dead and her friend run away.
Speaker AYeah, it's given me Big, late 1990s superhero comic book energy.
Speaker BYeah, I mean, it was then, wasn't it?
Speaker AWe have part three now.
Speaker AIt's a little bit of a denouement in comparison to part two.
Speaker AIt's not as intense, but there's some stuff.
Speaker ANow, the whole series was always titled Demonifuge, which is a made up term as far as I'm aware.
Speaker AThe third book is figuring out what the Demonifuge is.
Speaker ASo part three opens up with the Grey Knights being called to a world embattled by Nurgle demons and they would have to go there.
Speaker AThey still had Efriel Stern's corpse, but on the planet there was another sister's Ordo.
Speaker AThey're pretty widespread.
Speaker AThey're kind of everywhere.
Speaker AThey're similar in size, like halfway, I should say, between like Guard and Space Marines.
Speaker AThey're just chicks, but they're kind of everywhere.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker ASo they have a small auto that's pretty, you know, designed, healing the sick and wounded, which is a great place to be.
Speaker AA Nurgle world.
Speaker BI feel like that's a terrible place to be.
Speaker BYou'll never get on top of it.
Speaker AI imagine Nurgle would see that there is an Ordo made for healing the poor and sick and thought, yeah, this is a great place for an invasion.
Speaker ASo on this planet, Ephrael would actually be buried with military honors somehow.
Speaker BMilitary honours, yeah.
Speaker AThe Grey Knights just gave her body because what good is a body to the Ordo on the planet?
Speaker AThey buried her.
Speaker ADone.
Speaker ABut Kaigonal, naturally, was also on the planet and would frequent her grave like a little Watch Guardian.
Speaker ABut he would actually start to see someone or something tampering with her grave and would never be able to figure out what was doing it.
Speaker ANow that's where that story paused for a bit, because the perspective shifts a bit to another inquisitor named Fazil.
Speaker AFazeel was a disciple of old mate Silas Hand, who chased Big Demon into the warp.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker ANow, Fazil has since been seeking his master's whereabouts.
Speaker ANaturally, the last known whereabouts of Sylas was with Ephrael Sturm, who has been marked by the Automalus for capture, not.
Speaker BKill, but is dead.
Speaker ANaturally, Fazil believes she's responsible and would seek revenge.
Speaker AHis search would lead him to the planet she was buried on.
Speaker ABut by the time he had got there, months had passed since her actual burial.
Speaker AAnd then when he went to investigate her tomb, he found it vacant.
Speaker ANow guardsmen and other militia on the world would begin to report a white dressed woman appearing across their toughest battlefields, healing and performing miracles.
Speaker APha Z would track her down.
Speaker AIt was indeed Ephrael, but she was quite confused and without much of her memories.
Speaker AKaganu would come to her side and he started to call her the Thrice Born.
Speaker ABecause she was born as a normal person, right?
Speaker AAs a baby?
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AShe was then resurrected on Parnas by the screaming Cage.
Speaker AAnd now she was resurrected once more.
Speaker ASomehow Nurgle.
Speaker AAnd so Thriceborn is one of her few titles.
Speaker AIt could be a nurgle thing, it could be her psychic empowerment, it could be the Emperor's will as a saintly figure.
Speaker AIt could be anything.
Speaker ANow Kaigonal would come to her side and attempt to escort her to safety.
Speaker ABut at this point, Fazil and his little band would catch up and pretty badly wound Kaganl.
Speaker AAround about this time, Fazil and his team would, however, be ambushed by nurgle demons, allowing Afriel and Kigarnal to escape across the world.
Speaker AAs they fled, her memories would, bit by bit, return to her, and the knowledge of the cage that she possessed would come to her, and she would begin to accept what she felt was a divine role, something that she would call herself, which was the Demonifuge.
Speaker ATo her understanding, this would be a weapon of light and a scourge of chaos.
Speaker AAnd this is what she believed her role to be in the universe.
Speaker ABut her extreme power only Made Fazil more suspicious of her.
Speaker AYeah, because witch hunters.
Speaker AAm I right?
Speaker BWitchcraft.
Speaker AA lot of the Ordo Malleus really hate witches.
Speaker AAnd anything that doesn't fit neatly into their little box is bad.
Speaker BRacists.
Speaker AThey're witch racists.
Speaker ALet's just say them all over again.
Speaker ANow Fazeel would actually deploy a Culexus assassin against her, which is the freaky one with the skull helmet and the antipsychic field.
Speaker BYeah, you're going up against a psyche.
Speaker BYou take the psycho guy, right?
Speaker AShe was so powerful that she actually managed to overload the null field generated by the Kalexis, the thing that turns off psychic power.
Speaker AShe was like.
Speaker AAnd then overloaded the Kalexis assassin and defeated it.
Speaker AHer psychic power was more powerful than his lack of psychic.
Speaker BThat doesn't seem very good.
Speaker ANope.
Speaker BHeresy.
Speaker AAfter defeating the Collector, she would actually spare Fazeel.
Speaker AShe would say that Sylas fell in battle against the great enemy and said, don't disrespect your master by being this big douche.
Speaker AAnd he's like, yeah, okay.
Speaker AAnd as soon as she left, Phyzir would basically not be convinced of her innocence within the matter and vowed in private to forever hunt her down.
Speaker AAnd since that day, a lot of Ordo Malleus would really share that opinion.
Speaker ANow, by this point, Eel's power had just unlocked to be so vast that she, unlike your boy Fabius, did not require a key to activate the Webway.
Speaker AShe could just.
Speaker ABoop.
Speaker AThere we go.
Speaker BThat seems pretty strong.
Speaker AIt's very strong.
Speaker AAnd considering that she has a Harley Quinn who should be very aware of the Webway, both her and Kagarnel ventured forth once again into the Webway in pursuit of the Black Library to safeguard her Codex.
Speaker AAnd that's really where the comic series left off.
Speaker AShe disappeared from law for about 20ish years in around the, you know, 8th, 9th, 10th edition campaigns.
Speaker AThere's been, like, name drops.
Speaker ALike, the heretic Saint was.
Speaker AWas seen on this battlefield, you know?
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AThere's been a little audiobook that's come out that I actually started listening to earlier in the week, and it seems to be a little conflicting with the established canon.
Speaker AShe's very much like a stoic, you know, meditative individual.
Speaker AKiganel seems very aloof.
Speaker AIt doesn't really fit.
Speaker ABut what it does showcase is just how powerful she is.
Speaker AShe just.
Speaker AShe flies on command.
Speaker AShe creates like, lightning from her hands on command.
Speaker AShe.
Speaker AShe sees greater demons of Tzeentch and is like, guess what?
Speaker AI'M just gonna crack the earth apart and smother you with lava.
Speaker AShe's just insanely powerful, but the Inquisition hates her.
Speaker AChaos hates her.
Speaker AAeldari hate her.
Speaker AWell, some of them, like Drukhari, hate her.
Speaker AShe's just so powerful.
Speaker AAnd she's just this like, two, like, woman and her friend party fighting back against the darkness.
Speaker AShe thought the Imperium was done for when the Great Rift appeared and she was on the other side of it.
Speaker AAnd so she just kept going.
Speaker AShe's like, I'm gonna bring humanity together.
Speaker AI'm gonna save as many people as I can.
Speaker AAnd there's all these people that are like, yeah, but I hate you doing that.
Speaker AAnd that's her.
Speaker AThat's her whole story, my dude.
Speaker BSo she's a sister's character.
Speaker AShe's a sister's character.
Speaker AShe is a sororitas.
Speaker AShe looks like one, dresses like one, colored like one.
Speaker BBut she can't lead sisters.
Speaker ASo here's the thing.
Speaker AThere are several autos of the sisters that are, like, happy to see her come and help.
Speaker AThere's also some that are like, you don't really fit in our neat little box, babe.
Speaker ABut by the time anyone comes around to deal with her, she's already gone.
Speaker AShe's fled.
Speaker AShe's fled the battle.
Speaker AShe's off to the next conflict.
Speaker AShe's this psychic saintly entity, much like Celestine is, who just appears, saves a bunch of people, pieces out.
Speaker BInteresting.
Speaker AOkay, and unlike our other characters, we're not missing anything here.
Speaker AThat's literally all of her lore.
Speaker AThat's every single bit of it, with maybe a couple of names lost here and there, but that's it.
Speaker AThat's her whole, whole lore.
Speaker AShe's the Christmas miracle of the sororitas.
Speaker ASo I thought that would make for a neat little Christmas aligned episode.
Speaker BThat's cool.
Speaker AWhat do you think of Ephrael?
Speaker BShe's kind of a badass.
Speaker AShe's such a badass, but at the.
Speaker BSame time, I'm so confused by how everyone hates her just because she's strong, she doesn't fit, and everything she does, she's just like, I'm one of you guys.
Speaker BAnd they're like, but are you?
Speaker AYou know, she's like a demigod wearing the face of a Sister of Battle.
Speaker AShe has a Harley Quinn for a best friend.
Speaker AShe's escaped Ahriman.
Speaker AShe's escaped demons.
Speaker AShe's fought, you know, several Slaanesh possessed and survived.
Speaker AAnd she's fine.
Speaker AShe's been brushed up against so much bad stuff that people just can't believe she's all good, you know?
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAnd it doesn't help that she's running around with Xenos.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BWe know how the Imperium feel about Zenos.
Speaker BMy big issue is, like, what is the Harlequin's game plan?
Speaker BBecause everything I know about them, there's always a game plan.
Speaker AWell, Kagarnel only appears in Ephrael's story, and from what I can gather, Kagarnal is somewhat of an outcast from the Harlequins as a whole.
Speaker AHe's done something or he believes something that goes against what they want.
Speaker BIt goes against the story.
Speaker ASo he's sort of a rogue agent of the Harlequins.
Speaker BSo he's not a Harlequin, he's just an Aeldari.
Speaker AEssentially, he's a Harlequin outcast.
Speaker BInteresting.
Speaker ALike, he would have studied with the Harley Quinns.
Speaker AHe probably knows where the Black Library technically is.
Speaker AIt just takes a while to find.
Speaker BIt, especially when you're getting interrupted by Greynot.
Speaker AHe talks like one, he moves like one.
Speaker AYou know, he's acrobatic, he's finesse, he's a shimmering blur on the battlefield.
Speaker AHe is, for all intents and purposes, a Harley Quinn, just not culturally.
Speaker BOkay, all right.
Speaker ABut that's Sephriel.
Speaker ADefinitely a bit of exposition dump for you, but that's really how I can only explain her to you.
Speaker BNo, that's fine.
Speaker BIt's an interesting character, and it just goes to show just how many interesting characters there are in this universe.
Speaker AI really can't wait for her to come back in a meaningful way.
Speaker ABut I'm not sure how that's going to actually occur.
Speaker ABut her book got re released as a 20th anniversary, and she got a model alongside her and Kagano as a two person character unit.
Speaker AThey are, I would say, very strong at 85 points.
Speaker AThey have very high movement at 8 inches.
Speaker AThey have both a 4up invulnerable save, so like half a chance to shrug damage.
Speaker AAnd they have a pretty sizable eight wounds between the two of them.
Speaker AYou could, you know, allocate damage to Kagano before Stern, so she's got a little meat shield that's pretty cool.
Speaker ATogether.
Speaker ANot only do they deep strike, but they have lone operative and they fight first.
Speaker BOh, that's terrifying.
Speaker ATheir melee profiles excel at precision attacking characters.
Speaker ABoth of them have precision keyworded weapons, so they go straight for the throat.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AAnd Ephrael's melee weapon named Sanctity even has an anti chaos 2up keyword.
Speaker ASo she's almost guaranteed to take down.
Speaker BChaos characters, which is absolutely terrifying to the guy who plays only Chaos, for sure.
Speaker ANow, they do have a couple of abilities.
Speaker APretty basic though.
Speaker ATheir appeals, really.
Speaker AIn their stat sheet, they can be targeted for free with heroic intervention.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AAnd in the shooting phase, Ephrael can pick a unit within 12 inches of her.
Speaker AIf they are Chaos, they do a battle shock test at minus two.
Speaker AAnd if they fail, they get dealt three mortal wounds.
Speaker BThat's really good.
Speaker AShe Palpatine Lightning strikes.
Speaker BBut only Chaos.
Speaker AOnly Chaos.
Speaker AShe's a fringe pick.
Speaker BShe's your tie in when you think Chaos is going to take the meta.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker AAnd I think even without the Chaos component, she and Kagano work really well in the boarding actions because of how just strong they are.
Speaker BWait, that boarding action's legal?
Speaker AYep.
Speaker BThat's pretty cool.
Speaker AI will likely take them for boarding actions as a leader.
Speaker BNah, that sounds terrible.
Speaker BWait, leader?
Speaker BThey're loan up.
Speaker AWell, not like Warlord.
Speaker BOh, okay.
Speaker BYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker AThey are quite strong for the size of boarding actions.
Speaker AA lot of Sisters characters are not.
Speaker BThat's pretty cool.
Speaker ABut that's Efriel Stern in her quite literal entirety.
Speaker AWhat you think?
Speaker BI think she's a pretty cool chick with one of the angriest face models I've seen in a while.
Speaker AYeah, right.
Speaker BSuch angry face.
Speaker BAnd Keeganal is a pretty cool looking dude just on his own.
Speaker AYeah, right.
Speaker AIt's actually, funnily enough, fun fact.
Speaker AKirganl is the only named Harley Quinn model model.
Speaker AOkay, yep, yep, there are Harlequin characters, but there's no Solandri Vale Walker.
Speaker AThere's no other person.
Speaker AIt's just Kirgan.
Speaker BDo not say that name to me.
Speaker AIt's just Kaganl as a character.
Speaker BAnd it's not even in the Aeldari Codex.
Speaker ANo, no.
Speaker ABut yeah, that's her.
Speaker AThat is Efriel Stern.
Speaker AThe Demonifuge, the Thriceborn, the Heretic Saint, the sister who seemed to have always been predestined for greatness.
Speaker AAnd now no one wants to be her friend except for a harlequin.
Speaker ANice, dude, Nice.
Speaker AWell, Jonny, I'll catch you and the listeners tomorrow for yet another of our little Final Day character vignettes.
Speaker BI look forward to it.
Speaker AStay tuned.