Editing Saint Celestine

[[Image:Tze-kun-chin-saint-celestine.jpg|thumb|Right|350px|40k's answer to St. George (although in-canon this was the EMPRAH) and St. Michael the Archangel, but Rule 63'd.]]
{{topquote|Despair, and you give yourself to the shadows. Believe, truly believe in the Emperor of Mankind, and you shall walk in His light no matter how dark the path you tread.|Saint Celestine}}

A mysterious [[Living Saint]] with incredible power, '''Saint Celestine''' is strongly implied to be the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor's]] <s> equivalent of a</s> [[daemon prince]]. She is an angelic figure wreathed in light, best known for her ability to raise the faithful dead [[Troll|(including herself)]] back to life. She seems to be significantly older than she appears, as even [[Inquisitor Greyfax]] recognized her after being locked up [[Trazyn the Infinite|Trazyn's]] museum for a few centuries. However, [[Inquisition|the complete and utter lack of knowledge of her days as a Battle Sister]] make it nearly impossible to estimate how long she's been around. She's described as being incredibly inspirational, her personality having the perfect blend of strength, charisma, and charity. Even [[Belisarius Cawl]], a near-emotionless arch-magos, felt galvanized in her presence (and given how the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] views the [[Ecclesiarchy]], that's saying something).

==History==
Very little is known of her pre-Saint life, other than she was a [[Sisters Repentia|Repentia]] of the Order of Our Martyred Lady and participated in the Palatine Crusade. After being apparently killed in battle, her body was recovered by her sisters, who found her wounds miraculously healed. Believing this to be a sign of the Emperor's blessing, they placed her in charge of the Imperial forces for the next days attack. After the battle was an unequivocal success, she rapidly rose through the ranks, leading the Imperium to victory time and time again against the heretics, becoming a beacon of inspiration in the process. While the Imperial forces were massing to attack the sector capital, Celestine left the main force, making a pilgrimage to a crypt on the world of Sanctus Lys, which legend said had once been visited by Saint Katherine. 

On the dawn of the next day, she emerged from the crypt, wearing the Armor of Saint Katherine and wielding the fiery Ardent Blade. After this, she was officially declared a [[Living Saint]] and went on a heretic-roasting-rampage, first leading the Imperial forces to victory in the Palatine Crusade, and then onto several crusades and wars of faith after. While she had become an icon to Imperial forces everywhere, the [[Sisters of Battle]] held her in particularly high regard. This lasted until she got [[Exterminatus|nuked]] on Forrax by a [[Heresy|traitorous warmaster]]. After presumably burning him to a crisp, the Sisters of Battle were comforted by the fact that she was undoubtedly with the Emperor. 

[[Legion of the Damned|And that's when shit got weird.]] Sightings of Celestine began steadily increasing, typically arriving in battles when the forces of the Imperium were at their most desperate, and disappearing before the dust had settled. In particular, she seemed to have a thing for killing [[Daemon Prince|Daemon Princes]].

[[Image:Celestine Fall of Cadia.jpg|thumb|Right|350px|GTFO]]When the 13th Black Crusade hit full swing, Celestine swooped in with a small fleet of Sororitas ships that she'd rescued from the warp to wreck shit and pray to the Emperor (and she'd already said her prayers). After saving Kasr Kraf by [[Awesome|killing the daemon prince leading the chaos assault and throwing his body off the ramparts]], Celestine started doing what she did best and inspiring the hell out of the beleaguered Imperial forces along with her new Geminae Superia bodyguards (twin Canonesses she'd resurrected during the previous battle). All the while she was receiving prophetic dreams, which she believed were from the Emperor warning her of a future danger. During the Battle of the Elysion Fields, she went toe-to-toe with [[Abaddon]] himself, and although Cawl's pylon shenanigans robbed her of the Emperor's blessings, she still managed to hold her own long enough for Cawl and Greyfax to join in and force Abaddon to retreat into orbit.

Following the demise of Cadia, Celestine was the one who convinced Cawl and the [[Black Templars]] to head down to Klaisus, using her previously mentioned dreams as a guide. She then led the survivors to the webway portal and on to [[Ultramar]] to resurrect [[Roboute Guilliman]]. Following his resurrection, she played an important role ensuring his safe arrival to Terra alongside her two [[Belisarius Cawl|new]] [[Inquisitor Greyfax|pals]], even making amends with Greyfax before the Battle of Luna. After Guilliman's arrival on Terra, she went to minister to the people of Terra before departing once again to continue the fight against Chaos.

She later showed up on Tsadrekha to help against the Alpha Legion, but unfortunately [[Khârn]] sensed her and showed up too. He managed to get the charge on her [[Rip and Tear|(with predictable results)]] and apparently Celestine rolled a 1 on her resurrection roll (or the writer just needed a convenient excuse for her to exit the story) because she didn't come back to life for round 2. Considering that Celestine went toe-to-toe with Abaddon in Fall of Cadia without saintly powers and survived, it's safe to say that this was more of a failure on the part of the author than the character. Another thing to consider is that although the two should be fairly evenly matched in a fight, Khârn is a more popular character, and as one fan put it, "Plot Armor is powerful and good writing is rare."

It looks like she may be coming back (again) GW just put up some stuff about a book simply called 'Celestine' in their store. The first bit of the blurb for it says, and I quote. "Saint Celestine is a beacon to servants of the Imperium in the darkest of times, a hero who retums from death time and again to smite the Emperor's foes… but what happens when she dies? How does she return? Prepare to find out…" and some more about stuff like "One of the greatest mysteries of the Warhammer 40,000 universe is revealed, as Andy Clark delves into the trials and horrors Saint Celestine faces each time she is resurrected to fight for the Emperor once more.THE STORY With her mighty wings spread wide and Ardent Blade aflame, Saint Celestine is the living embodiment of the God-Emperor’s wrath. Her halo blazes like a star upon the smog wreathed, blood-soaked battlefields of the 41st millennium; its holy light leading the faithful to victory time and time again. As heretics and daemons tear at her flesh, she calls down fires of retribution from on high to smite the wicked and unrighteous. If she is to fall in battle, none should mourn as she is Celestine, the Living Saint, and death is her duty. Though it comes at a great cost. For each time she is slain, Saint Celestine finds herself trapped in a terrible realm of suffering and torment. There her faith in the God-Emperor will be put to the test so she may prove herself worthy of life once more." So this means we actually get to learn how exactly she pulls off her resurrection trick.

Basically she wakes up half naked in the warp and has to lierally find herself again, by piecing together her armour, scattered on a mountain [[Grimdark|made up of her own skeletons,]]  adding one every time she dies. Guided by the faint sensation of the Emperors light, she travels through the nightmarish realm, finding personified parts of herself, that also act as her Geminae Superia, punishes some daemons, [[Awesome|strikes a deal with the Emperor,]] offering her service time and time again for the safety of a small girl in the warp (maybe her innocence? Maybe a family member, perhaps even her own daughter?) only for the trio to be sent to a battlefield of Big E's choice to make a grand entrance there.

==On the Subject of Wings==
A problem that plagued Celestine and [[Fags of 4chan|sisterfags]] for years was the disparity between her model and her official artwork. Normally, when Games Workshop produces a new unit for a codex, they make the model first and then give it to an artist so that the picture matches the source material. This was not the case with Celestine, and the artist and modellers were working completely independently of each other. As a result, she had this awesome artwork portraying her as a magnificent angelic figure, and a miniature that had her floating with some cherubim holding her cape up. It even included an idiotic-looking mini-jump pack under the cloak. Thankfully, her new model does not have this issue.

==On The Tabletop==

{| class=wikitable
! || Power || Points || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Saint Celestine:''' || 8 || 160 || 12" || 2+ || 2+ || 3 || 3 || 6 || 6 || 9 || 2+/4++
|-
| '''Geminae Superia:''' || 2/model || 25/model || 12" || 3+ || 3+ || 3 || 3 || 2 || 3 || 9 || 3+/6++
|}

'''Keywords:''' Character, Infantry, Jump Pack, Fly

Before Chapter Approved 2018, Celestine was one of the best [[Distraction Carnifex]] units in the game, a nigh-unkillable juggernaut whose badass sword, free act of faith, and resurrection abilities made her a killing machine. In the grim darkness of Chapter Approved 2018 however, she's... okay. Her statline is mostly the same (minus a wound), and like before, she can resurrect with full health on a 2+. Offensively, Celestine is still a beast. Her sword is +4 Strength, -3 AP and 2 damage while also being a Heavy Flamer. With 6 attacks, she is sure to deal some damage. Instead of giving a free Act of Faith... she gets no replacement rule and GW just took away one of the best reasons to take her, especially now that Acts of Faith work differently. Saintly Blessings still increases nearby Shield of Faith saves by +1, which means Seraphim get a 4++ save, and still gives nearby Ministorum and Astra Militarum units a 6+ invulnerable save. On the downside, they inexplicably removed the Geminae Superia, making them their own unit. This might make ''some'' sense if they also did something to make the Geminae stand out on their own (they are [[Canoness|Canonesses]] after all), but they're functionally the same as they were when with Celestine; the only difference is that they can Look Out, Sir! for her on a 2+.

This is a bit of a kick in the teeth for our favorite <s>[[daemon prince]]</s> *BLAM* [[Living Saint|living saint]]. Separating Celestine from the Geminae ''drastically'' reduces her survivability. Not only does it effectively drop her wound count, but it can easily lead to situations where Celestine makes a charge, but the Geminae don't, or vice versa. In the former case, this makes Celestine much easier to kill, especially if she's fighting [[Assault Terminators|a unit that can actually cause her trouble]].  In the latter case, you get stuck with the Gemniae's dinky S3 power swords while the real melee heavyweight gets sidelined. All of this, combined with the fact that Celestine can't deep strike in this edition, encourages you to play much more cautiously with her. Whereas before she could reliably run around on her own, now it's a good idea to have some Seraphim rolling around with her to keep enemies from shooting her, and you have to be much more careful about charges now.

Pray to the Emperor that [[Games Workshop|GW]] realizes the error in their ways and repents before it is too late!

===7th Edition===
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Saint Celestine:''' || 200 || 7 || 7 || 3 || 3 || 5 || 7 || 5 || 10 || 2+\4++
|-
| '''Eleanor\Genevieve:''' || As Above || 5 || 4 || 3 || 3 || 2 || 4 || 2 || 10 || 3+\4++
|}

Celestine is arguably the best [[Distraction Carnifex]] in the entire game. Seriously, it's nigh-impossible to put her down. For starters, She's an Eternal Warrior with 5 wounds, a 2+ armor save, and a 4+ invulnerable save. In addition to that, she's got two 2-wound [[canoness]] bodyguards who have 3+ armor and share her invulnerable save. Should one or more of them die, one will automatically respawn at the beginning of each of Celestine's turns. On top of all that, assuming you actually manage to chew through 9 total wounds, she can resurrect with all wounds and res one of her bodyguards once per game with a successful leadership test. 

Alright, so she's functionally unkillable, her offensive capabilities can't be great, right? Nope, with a S5 AP3 Armorbane sword/heavy flamer and the ability to call orbital bombardment, she can be a murder-machine as well. Add her ability to buff nearby Imperial units and you have one of the best HQs in the game. And the best part? She's 200 points. For less than any of [[Dante|The]] [[Logan Grimnar|Big]] <s> [[Marneus Calgar|Three]] </s> [[Roboute Guilliman|Four]], you get a unit that is nearly unkillable, and packs a decent punch to boot. Bring her to battles and send her straight at the biggest, scariest enemy unit. Even if she doesn't beat it, she's all but guaranteed to keep it tied down for the entire game. Her main weaknesses are [[Deep Strike|deep strike]] mishaps, [[Assault Terminators|heavy assault troops]], and [[Lukas the Trickster|"remove with no saves allowed"]] weapons, so be even more wary of those than usual.

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
Image:Celestine 2e.jpg|Her old model
Image:Celestine 7e.jpg|Her shiny new model
Image:Celestine 7e Close-up.jpg
Image:Geminae Superia Close-up.jpg|The Geminae Superia
Image:Celestine Art Card.png|thumb|Right|350px|Now you fucked up
Image:Triumverate of the Imperium.png|Celestine with [[Belisarius Cawl|Cawl]] and [[Inquisitor Greyfax|Greyfax]] during the [[Black Crusade|13th Black Crusade]]
Image:Fall of Cadia End.png|After the fall of Cadia
Image:Saintmage.jpg|Back when she was a blonde
Image:Celestine Art 1.jpg|I summon my bird!
Image:Celestine Art 2.jpg
</gallery>
</center>

==External Links==
*[https://regimental-standard.com/2016/12/28/join-the-righteous/ Celestine in The Regimental Standard]
*[https://imgur.com/gallery/4gF5umC Celestine in cosplay] [[Awesome|(and actually done right)]]

{{Sororitas-Characters}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Sisters of Battle]]