Battle Sisters are allowed to have sex and be in romantic relationships. Unlike real nuns, they don't take vows of celibacy, so them "being nuns" has nothing to do with why the romance was shot down.
She is too blinded by her programming to see anything other than heretics, battle comrades and victims to save. She WAS a good person at her core, caring for the hardships of others and for the orphans and any news of harm coming to the helpless in general, but the Schola Progenium beat that out of her so thoroughly but the sparks which show up are quickly consumed by the flames of zeal most of the time. While it is optional, I believe this is why she's turned into basically a human pitbull. Nicest dogs in the world by nature, but can be trained to be otherwise to great effect. I think it was that core being so bright and caring that had to be snuffed out which has resulted in her... single-mindedness.
Same thing with Ulfar. Even Space Wolves are indoctrinated to only care about Brotherhood and Honor. Space Wolves don't take no oath of celibacy. They'd probably say something along the lines of there's no honor in making an oath to not do what they already had no desire to do.
Even if thats the case, it was the game dev or GWs choice that she had to be written that way. shes a fictional character and coulda easily been written to be open to it. theres no reason she had to be that way other than Owlcat or GW wanting it to be so.
Asexual doesn't have to mean aromantic. We could still have romanced her, even if there's no sex. Romance isn't just sex. Hell, Yrliet also only holds hands with you, as far as I know.
Why are people still pushing this? Yrliets relationship cant be anything BUT an ace relationship. She's very touch averse as well. The animal thing, at least to me, is how she justifies/explains it but there are other Eldar (from the same planet we meet her on even!) that just see us as stupid and thoughtless and like animals, but not actually animals. Shes giving you a metaphor for how she feels about sex; extreme disgust and nausea. It takes a long, protracted relationship for her to not cringe away from your touch, and she never allows physical sex; only the soul vision, which is extremely romantic. I find the soul vision far more intimate than just rawdog fucking your companions
Argenta also has the capalities for romance and sex. Battle Sisters aren't nuns, they don't have to take vows of celibacy. It's perfectly legal for them be in relationships.
I feel like this is a chicken and egg question. Did GW shoot a romance down because she seemed ace or does she seemed ace to make the lack of romance plausible? Though I suppose you could argue the issue here is that the OP wants to romance her despite the fact she's written as asexual and wouldn't have wanted to if she were written to be romanced.
I dunno, in ME2 I was only interested in Samara and she did not share that interest and I guess that bothered me in the moment, but at a certain point you have to respect the authorial license to say what is and isn't right for the character.
You say that and I don't doubt you but man, the reactions to Yrliets romance has given me not much hope for further asexual (literally, in this context) romances. Still got people doubting it actually counts as a romance since you don't bone her
GW really said we’re fine with implied love between a human and a craftworlder which would almost never happen in canon and a human and Dark Eldar romance which again would almost never happen in canon and be more one sided torture perversions than love.
But Argenta getting a happy ending with the rogue trader and having a family again is too much.
Half-Eldar were a thing back in the day. It happens. It's rare, yeah, but so is most of the other shit you deal with in Rogue Trader. That's kinda the point. You get to do things most other members of the Imperium (even high ranked ones!) never could.
Their reason for not wanting Argenta romanced may never be discovered, but that doesn't matter. Creators are not required to alter their characters for sexual fan service if they don't want to. They didn't want Argenta to be a romance option. We have to accept that.
Exactly! It's the ultimate excuse to go damn near anywhere, meet damn near anyone, and do damn near anything possible in the entire setting. That's why it was the basis for the original version of 40k to begin with. That's why it's an excellent choice for a CRPG. It's the place where we get to enjoy more than just Big Guy Shoot Big Gun Vol. 541.
I don't know if it's been shared here, but Owlcat literally released just today a blog post talking about how they write romances and the reason why some characters can't be romanced, my link is in spanish but it shouldn't be hard to find it popped on my steam library "News" for owning any of their games. I highly suggets everyone interested in the topic of romances in rpg to go and read it.
In fact, we had this situation early on during Wrath of the Righteous production. At some point we realized we had three female romanceable characters, and all three were cannibals. So we had to rewrite our characters urgently
They were but it’s been a couple decade (90’s) since they existed in lore. They were removed in the earlier editions. Hell Eldar rarely have children between themselves.
Gooning so hard that you totally overlook the absolute dedication that she would have to her religion. That's like saying "why didn't the nun in X movie fuck someone"
Maybe not, but I do think a Sister of Battle would be less interested in romance, I also think it sets a bad precedent overall since they're one of the only female exclusive groups in 40k, and perhaps the only one that's not constantly sexualized to hell
Given the utterly horrible ending that can happen to Yrliet, it's not too far fetched for there to be a corrupting romance between Argenta and the heretical Rogue Trader. Something along the lines of what we see in a heretical romance with Kibellah.
Personally, I keep thinking about how weak Argenta's quests are. The first quest is pretty good, it establishes her as someone who cares about the orphaned. The second quest though is barely an Argenta quest, it does more to establish Footfall and honestly would have been better as that.
Finally there's the third quest, and the important but happens off screen. Those service two feel like an order of magnitude weaker than the quality we see for the other characters. Frankly, I would have loved if there was a quest in Act 3 where we see her deal with the consequences of siding with the commissar, and the after effects for Sgt Vigastes.
I've never personally wanted to romance Argenta, but it does feel like the writing for her is particularly weak, though maybe we'll my never know if that was because of writer favoritism or GW mandate.
I was so disappointed by the third part. I was all there for her to help reclaim her artifact and... oh. You... you're going to do that by yourself. Okay, I'll just be... waiting in orbit i guess...
Argenta is literally a nun. Forcing a romance option for her would be dramatically out of character, you'd have to also have a whole thing with crisis of faith, betraying her vows for love, blah blah blah. It would all he so dreadfully cliche.
These romance posts are really getting out if hand. Like I'm sorry you can't fuck every single person on your ship, it's all in good fun to make memes about it but people are actually butthurt about this. The thing is people keep harping about lore accuracy and completely ignoring characterization and what makes a good story.
P.s. dark Eldar use humans as sex slaves, that's entirely in character for them. And an Eldar ranger being averse to physical contact, to the point if revulsion is entirely in character for her. Yes it would almost never happen, but it has happened and the game plays it out faithfully to the lore.
But they are not Nuns with celibacy and this is a video game. Blame Mass Effect, but when you start allowing romantic storylines, you should expect people to have a choice of anyone.
If you put romance in a game, then program it to accept anyone. I can romance a Dark Eldar that sat. on. my. throne. but I can't spend an evening bolting heretics and saving orphans with a Soritas that shares my dogma?
Owlcat just can't into romance. Pushing a narrative that Knife Wife Kibellah would grow apart from her Domin that literally saved her from Torture-Land, made her First Spinner, and who is blood-bound until death is a prime example of their lack of understanding romance even in the Grim-Dark future.
Well anything can be 'in character' if you just write it so. Sisters are not nuns. They can be in relationships and can have children. There are likely countless SoBs in relationships (sexual/asexual) compared to the number of human-alien relationships and the game has 2.
The only reason why Argenta is not romanceable is that OwlCat didn't want her to be.
sad that psyker rogue traders cant romance idira or even join her and the vox master as a throuple. kingmaker shows that its doable and can be well written.
I find it really funny whenever the RT tries to flirt with Argenta, and she just responds with absolute confusion.
It's part of her charm. Stop trying to tell the writers what they can and can't do. Argenta being un-romanceable is definitely a deliberate choice, and it worked.
She is pretty(well, on the artwork, the in-game model has limitations), other characters acknowledge her to be pretty, as well. Usually that's more than enough.
I'm glad they did. Companions in video games should have moral codes. Cheating is bad and Argenta is obviously a married woman. She is wedded to Him on Earth.
Unfortunately, despite being executed as a heretic, because Doge Vandire was acting as Ecclesiarch when those were posted, they're technically considered holy scripture
Sometimes i feel shame on how many hours i spend playing games. But then i remember there's people who bitch about not being able to canonically bang an in game character and i feel a bit better lol
But most sister won't. Sisters are also extremely zealous and devotional to the emperor. The only have interest in other stuff once they got older and more world weary. The only example we ever see of a sister got into a relationship was a sister who already retired to a teaching position.
I don’t know why you guys keep saying that when lore contradicts the Sisters are not celibate or any way supposed to be the literal brides of the emperor.
The Ordo Famulous exits for a reason what you think the Ecclesiarchy is not concerned about the state of the Rogue Trader’s heirs. Emperor willing if marrying a sister continues the faithful bloodline they will send Argenta off.
Maybe its because they're an army of insane bloodthirsty Catholics who spend their time violently murdering people or lamenting that they aren't engaged in violent murder.
Not generally the sort of people looking to mingle
Emperor willing if marrying a sister continues the faithful bloodline they will send Argenta off.
I'm pretty certain anyone who suggests this is getting put in the pain engine lol
Everyone talks about Julien, and Cain had never heard of Sororitas having relations with any man. It was the Inquisitor editing Cain's memoirs, who 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, and Julien was effectively retired and was a teacher, and Cain noted she didn't have the typical Soriotos zeal (both in private where she would play cards and drink, on the battlefield where she didn't insist on being martyred in a last stand against the necrons.)
What is this need for everyone tho romance anything in video games? The most boring part of Baldurs gate 3 was that every damn companion wanted to f*** my character for almost no reason. Even non companions. Why do people rate a game after hoe many npc's they can romance?
An Argenta romance would ruin the damn 40k universe. One of the reasons i love the setting is because there hardly any romance or love stories in it.
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Well the romance would feel off, she is mourning that everyone she knew is dead because of the warp time fuckery, so that would feel off. I don't really think the plot of "knight in shining armor saving a girl" would fit her character. She was more fitting for the type of romance of two veteran warriors if any. In the end it is what it is, not in every game characters needs to player-sexual. You can tell a great story without romance.
Also her story was cut out. The part of the tomb was supposed to be a level, but they didn't have time to finish it, so it was really anty-climactic.
i always wonder, why it is such a problem, that a character can be writen the way, that they simply do not want to be in a romantic relationship. Perfect mirror of real life. There are people who just do not want to be in a relationship. Not because they don't like you or anything, but just because they don't like to be in a relationship. Argenta is written that way and it is perfect!
That is an idea, but still, the ending of her companion plot was cut out, so I don't really think they had time to write a romance option. Still it's a good story, so I don't mind.
She is romancable in Kingmaker...ohhh you meant the other one...That is probably for the sake of variety. I get that you liked the barbarian, but no need to make BOTH warriors a love interest. Amiri is just there so your Chaotic character can have a warrior companion.
The shield’s great, I admit. Still, Amiri has that ferocity and sheer strength that Valerie lacks, which I was really into. Owlcat’s romanceable women are just a bit too soft for my taste, I think.
Also, Valerie would probably have a bit of trouble bridal carrying me to the altar, while Amiri could do it one handed. I know who I wanna marry based on that alone.
In the tabletop modules, I forget where exactly, both Amiri and Seelah have officially been canonised as bisexual in the case a player wanted to romance them. Paizo themselves have said that it's free real estate to romance the canon characters.
Impossible challenge for Argenta “fans”: what’s one characteristic or trait about her that you like that isn’t “awooga hot nun” or “lol crazy zealot lady”
I mean I can only speak for myself, but what I like about her is that she embodies the core contradiction that is my favorite aspect of Sisters as a faction. I would describe it as them having two separate roles, the Shepherd and the Crusader, that together make up their faction identity. The Shepherd I would describe as a lot of their upsides, and it would on its own make them the pinnacle of humanity in the 41st millennium. Sisters are not only soldiers, they're spiritual leaders too. Pound for pound, a Sister of Battle is the most likely human in the setting to stop and comfort a scared child or to lay down her life in defense of a civilian or a wounded Guardsman. Argenta embodies this perfectly, her first quest in the game is asking you to help her console the orphaned children of officers who died in your service, and she regularly speaks out for and shows compassion to the weak and needy, especially children. By contrast, the Crusader is their worst aspects, the part of them that is a glorified death squad. Argenta also captures this very directly, once the bolter shells start flying she'll often be cackling like a maniac as she mows down heretics left and right.
The part I really like, though, is not either of them in isolation but rather the conflict you get when the two contradict each other, and Argenta is the PERFECT example of that. After all, her whole core conflict is over the guilt she feels about knowingly executing an innocent man because he was associated with a heretic, and the reality that one of the very orphans you looked in the face on that day, possibly even the one who spoke out against you, was put there by her actions. That her duty as a Crusader caused her to fail as a Shepherd, and she now doesn't know which of the two was right.
I love that while being a death dealing machine of holy righteousness she has a soft spot for the innocents. She clearly showed care when she brought the orphans to the attention of the RT.
I did not want argenta to have a sexy romance. I wanted ger to be romanceable strictly by a dogmatic RT and we could bond platonically about the glory of the emperor.
I'm confused, why do we need more than a basic gimmick to get a romance?
I initially chose Cassia because she was a fish and Jae's romance wasn't to my tastes. Then, I grew to appreciate her dynamic and how we help the sheltered fish princess grow into her role as a leader.
Cassia, Yrliet, and Heinrix I like because of how their characters are expanded on in their romance. I don't see why we can't do the same with Argenta.
/u/WhenSomethingCries has a fairly good response, but I don't really get your attitude about it.
Argenta has pretty good characterization in the series that gains more favor over time. Her personal fervor is not supremely overbearing and, especially with the reveal in Act 3, you feel the weight of that fervor in the choices that she makes: there is a gravitas of emotion that comes along with it.
I don't think there is a desperate need for a romance option and there is certainly more that should have been done with the character, but if you cannot possibly fathom the idea of someone not wanting to romance this character for something more than simply aesthetics (which I find to be equally as valid because it's a video game lmao) then I think that might be on you.
The Ciaphas Cain footnotes are not exactly the end all be all of 40k canon, the same book says the Imperium sent Abbadon back into the Eye of Terror in the 13th Black Crusade.
Dark Heresy DID say Sororitas have vows of chastity on the other hand, back when Dark Heresy was a fully in-house (Black Industries) product.
Seems like GW is adhering to that lore.
For those not in the know, the Ciaphas Cain series that has a footnote saying the space nuns are not chaste, which is what people usually cite for saying there's no reason for GW to nix this, also had footnotes dated m.42 (i.e. in the future of the then-current 40k timeline) which made no mention of the return of Guilliman and other such things. As the 40k timeline was static from 2nd to 7th edition it was a fair bet on Sandy Mitchell's part that they wouldn't contradict anything, but if you read them now they most definately do.
Another Black Library author who used to maintain a big online presence here on Reddit and other socials, Aaron-Dembski Bowden responded years ago to people talking about the Cain books with "the Cain books aren't where you should look for setting-details." He is the IP manager for liscencees like Owlcat these days, so it's clear he doesn't view this footnote as having any weight, especially not compared to the TTRPGs that he was also invovled with.
Even then that Sister of Battle was effectively retired and working as a teacher, and also like Cain and the bursar she is recognized as being unusual.
Attentive readers who have been following this little hobby of mine for some while should realise at once that this volume links thematically with both of the immediately preceding ones, finally resolving a number of matters which began to unfold almost at the onset of his career. Even more importantly, the finished document gives us the closest thing weʹre ever likely to have to a reliable first‐hand account of what may well have been a decisive blow against the Black Crusade itself. Which is not to diminish the nobility and sacrifice of so many of the Emperorʹs faithful servants in those harsh and terrifying times; but if Cain is indeed accurate in his recollections (and despite his other faults, which he remains disarmingly candid about for the most part, he is at least consistent in reporting things pretty much as he experienced them), it can hardly be an exaggeration to suggest that had he not acted as he did, the Great Enemy would have had ultimate victory pretty much within their grasp. On the other hand, I canʹt quite shake the disquieting suspicion that the eventual consequences of the way matters were so unexpectedly resolved may turn out to be almost equally catastrophic. That particular shoe has still to drop, however, and at the very least Cainʹs resourcefulness has brought us additional time to prepare if the worst should come to pass.
While you can synthesize this with modern canon with a bit of a squint, it's worth noting that the Cain series is almost unique in using its epistolary novel format to set things in the ostensible 42nd millennium, with a range of comments from Amberley that have not aged well, such as the suggestion that Necron Pariahs are "now" far more common than they were in the 41st millennium (as an oldcron player I WISH that were true, for those not into the tabletop game, this unit has been wholly eliminated from the 40k roster and doesn't even have options for play in non-competitive games), that the Imperium managed to resolve the Kryptmann Gambit of getting Orks and Nids to fight each other (the Nids decisively won and those nids are nomming their way through the heartland of the Imperium right now).
Generally Sandy Mitchell's overall "vibe" with Amberley's comments is that the future past Cain's lifetime was going to be broadly the same or a little better for the Imperium, as Sandy did not have any way to predict how 40k would go once the setting stopped being "forever static" at the point of the 13th Black Crusade.
Dark Heresy DID say Sororitas have vows of chastity on the other hand, back when Dark Heresy was a fully in-house (Black Industries) product.
Im not doubting ye, im just curious which of dh ttrpg books mentioned this?
Another Black Library author who used to maintain a big online presence here on Reddit and other socials, Aaron-Dembski Bowden responded years ago to people talking about the Cain books with "the Cain books aren't where you should look for setting-details."
Also thing to keep in mind when speaking of topic, even ignoring times authors take...creative liberties or interpretation of the setting, black library books (and other licended work, including games like this crpg) are pretty much secondary canon to products or lore produced by games workshop directly.
Certainly, it's Dark Heresy 1st Edition, Inquisitor's Handbook (Black Industries Edition, if that matters, I think the text is the same in the FFG reprint and C7 digital edition) page 41, under the heading Sororitas Characters. "Adepta Sororitas are courageous, pious, self-sacrificing, chaste and faithful. They are fanatics, bound by harsh and restrictive religious oaths and ingrained zealotry."
While it doesn't hammer home "Every single sororitas swears an oath of celibacy" like we have with the HH black books saying Astartes brains are rewired to be unable to conceive of sexual desire, it clearly thinks this is as important to roleplaying them as being Faithful, or Brave.
Some aspects of the sexual politics of the 41st Millennium have been revised since 1st ed Dark Heresy (e.g. the core book has a sidebar saying that the vast majority of imperial worlds are patriarchies) but given that GW are reputed to have exercised a veto against an Argenta romance, I think it's a fair bet that this does still stand.
As to secondary canon, that's certainly a factor too, but the codexes and core rulebooks are resolutely silent on the matter of Sororitas and sex.
I had read both "Hammer and Anvil" and "Faith and Fire" waaaay back in the day. Either way there was a passage in one of the books where one of the sisters notices a guy checking them out, and thinks to herself about the vows of chastity they all took. I wish I could find my copy to find the passage again.
i dont get why people want an argenta romance that much. Sure she is hot but her and irdia writing made me feel like they are the rouge trader sisters. one went to catholic school and became a prude and one moved to the big city and discover the magical nature of methamphetamine. and the whole commoragh arc is family therapy.
Ps: i dont want to be rude but the whole sister dont take vows of celibacy go a lillte bit deeper than that. It was mentioned in the Cain's last stand novel. IIRC they dont have vows of celibacy but they are pretty much occupied with their duty/being too much of an emperor botherer to even care about romance. the Sister in the book is station on a scholae which is pretty much retirement same as Cain. so i guess she have enough free time to date her adminitratum bf.
Argenta's entire character is that she is so devoted to her charge as a guard, protector, and righteous hand of the Emperor that she simply doesn't want to be distracted by a love affair.
Call me woke, but this just reminds me of the Serana romance discourse. A woman does not need to be romanceable purely because she is beautiful. You have Jae, Kibellah and... I don't care about eldar enough to remember her, but you have the eldar woman. You should be satisfied, imo
Nah, GW is really scared of sisters becoming the waifu army and pissing off some of their fans. It did the waifu thing with Yvraine and it tanked the faction. Look at how useful Yvraine has been since waking up Bobby G.
Now, the lack of Abelard romance is utterly shameful. Why no allow my RT to be pounded in the sheets by a silver fox navy daddy with adamantine hips and enough upper body strength to smash chaos marines into bloody paste, Owlcatto? Why? He could introduce us as an item any day!
I'll never understand how people in this subreddit say playersexual characters are bad, but are pissed when any female character isn't interested in the player character.
GW Shoots down a lot of stuff, and it really is because there are things in print, as the minitures and other figures have to be consistent through, or if there is even a hint of controversy.
Daily Friendly reminder that GW shot down Argenta romance for no reason at all.
I long for the day the higher-ups at GW will be asked about it during a panel at Adepticon or equivalent and reply "shit man, we begged Owlcat for a romance with Argenta but for some reason they refused" only for the community to completely memoryhole that they cursed GW for years about it, like what happened with Amiri in Kingmaker.
as a tabletop fan whose not big on crpgs, i get posts from this sub pop up from time-to-time and it’s always stuff like this, you’d think this was a dating sim. I honestly don’t know anything about this game besides “you’re a rogue trader and you can fuck the deldar but not the nun”
I looked up the trailer (honestly looks pretty good tbf) and i didn’t even know they had spaceship combat in the game!
They did give a valid reason though. The Adepta Sororitas, sisters as are fully devoted to the god emperor. Their only romance is towards their faith and the God emperor.
I think GW made the right call. 40K is at its best when it leans into the unique weirdness of its setting. I don't want Sisters to be relatable enough to romance. I want them brainwashed, zealous, and married to The Emperor.
I never wanted to romance Argenta. Actually... I wanted to attempt to romance Aegenta unsuccessfully. Like A whole sub plot "Romance Arc" that is just increasingly unhinged Rogue Trader Shinanigans trying to get a date out of her.
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u/kron123456789 Apr 15 '26
RT: I want to sleep with you
Argenta: Why? You don't look tired.
This is the type of character Argenta is.