莫文·瓦尔

MORVENN VAHL

修女会至圣总院长

ABBESS SANCTORUM OF THE ADEPTA SORORITAS

莫文·瓦尔——新晋至圣总院长，是修女会的精神和军事领袖。凭借她永不妥协的命令和侵略如火般的虔诚，武装修会的强大力量被释放出来以净化世界。瓦尔从不甘居后方指挥，瓦尔总是投入到圣战最前线的厮杀中。

 

Spiritual and military leadership of the Adepta Sororitas is vested in Morvenn Vahl, the recently elevated Abbess Sanctorum.By her uncompromising command is the might of the Orders Militant unleashed to Scour worlds clean with the fire of her aggressive piety.Vahl does not direct such crusades from afar, but plunges into battle at the forefront of the fight.

 

莫文·瓦尔以清脆而严厉的语气下达指令，她年轻的面容总是展现出坚如磐石的决心。她对帝皇（神皇）和帝国的忠诚毋庸置疑，她被修女会全员视作精神和军事的榜样。

 

Morvenn Vahl issues her directives in clipped and severe tones, her young features always set in an expression of stern resolve. Her strident devotion to the God-Emperor and the defence of the Imperium is beyond question, and she is the beacon to which the entire Sisterhood looks as their spiritual and martial exemplar.

 

首先且最重要的是，瓦尔是一位斗士，她是最优秀的前线指挥官与战斗专家。然而她不能止步于此，因为一支跨越整个银河的武装等待着她的命令，人类的信仰需由她来守护。与其说这些是荣誉的象征，更像是千钧重担。这位圣多米尼卡的继承者将至圣总院长的位置视作至高无上的责任与使命，一个需要坚忍克己，坚定奉献，虚怀若谷的职位。

 

Vahl is a warrior, first and foremost. She is a superlative front line commander and expert combatant. However, she must be more than just this, for a galaxy-spanning force awaits her every order, and the guardianship of the faith of Mankind is in her hands. These are heavy burdens to bear, Rather than a mark of honour, the heirs to Saint Dominica consider the the position of Abbess to be the highest of duties and responsibilities – one to be borne with stoicism, rigid devotion and humble acceptance.

 

在大裂隙将帝国一分为二的大灾难中，前任修道院院长的飞船在从奥菲利亚七号到神圣泰拉的途中失踪。这一令人心痛的消息在修会中传播地十分缓慢，在这动荡的银河中，在不断蔓延的疯狂面前，每一个命令和任务都是如此遥远而独立。直到黑暗开始褪去，事故方才为人所知。人们比以往任何时候都需要一个偶像楷模，国教呼吁各修道院提名推荐总院长的候选人。

 

The former Abbess’ ship was declared lost en route from Ophelia VII to Holy Terra, during the anarchic cataclysm when the Great Rift split the Imperium. News of this dire(terrible) loss was achingly slow to reach the wider Adepta Sororitas, for amidst such galactic unrest, every Order and far-flung Mission was on its own, maintaining their isolated devotion in the face of encroaching madness. Only as the darkness began to recede was the terrible loss uncovered. The need for an icon of leadership was greater than ever, and the Ecclesiarchy appealed to the Convents Sanctorum and Prioris to submit their candidate for Abbess.

 

在所有候选人之中，瓦尔是最年轻的一个。作为一位积极进取而无私的银色寿衣洁天使队长，她在面对猛烈攻击时的贡献为她赢得了小队的认同。泰拉上国教复杂派系的眼中，这样一个年轻而缺乏政治经验的修女应该是易于操纵的。教会期望通过她的天真对修女会内部运行和制度施加更大的影响，他们想要一个名义上的，可任由他们揉捏的傀儡。然而他们得到的是一个直率而坚定的战士。

 

Amongst those considered, Vahl was by far the youngest. She was an aggressive and selfless Celestian Superior of the Order of the Argent Shroud, whose dedication in the face of monstrous onslaughts had earned her the approval of her sombre Order. The complex factions within the Ecclesiarchal Palace on Terra believed that so young and politically inexperienced a Sister might be more easily manoeuvred. Her expected naivete would be a gateway for the Ecclesiarchy to exert more influence into the Sisters’ operations and internal hierarchies than convention dictated. What many with Ecclesiarch’s ear wanted was a ceremonial and malleable figurehead. What they got was a forthright and iron-willed warrior.

 

教会代表团抵达时，莫文·瓦尔正在雷斯卡德征战。牧师们用耀眼的典礼和繁复的仪式传达来自国教的宣言。

 

Morvenn Vahl was on campaign in the Reskard Purgation when the Ecclesiarchy’s delegation arrived. The priests delivered the Ministorum’s declaration with ostentatious ceremony and layered ritual.

 

伤痕累累，血迹斑斑，她的银甲崩出缺口，被硝烟熏黑，洁天使队长寂静无声，不带丝毫感情地听完精心设计的任命仪式，就好像那只是一个普普通通的邀请。

 

Scarred and bold-stained – her silverarmour chipped and fire-blackened – Celestian Superior Vahl listened in absolute silence and without emotion to the elaborate ceremony of appointment, couched in terms of mere invitation. 

 

随后，她想要秘密就此事进行一段时间祈祷的要求令与会的牧师，主教和高级教士们大为惊讶。瓦尔步入圣希尔瓦娜的圣地中进行了三天单独冥想，教士们则在外越发紧张焦虑地踱步。当她出现时，在场的人眼中，她的身形更加高大，眼神愈发锋利而不可捉摸——有些人甚至不由自主地后退。寥寥几语过后，瓦尔接受了任命。在推荐了她修女长位置的继任者之后，瓦尔迅速大步走向牧师们的轨道传送飞船。那些用了数天来计划礼拜和任命庆祝仪式的牧师们呆若木鸡，只有少数几个沉着冷静地跟上了她的脚步。

 

She then stunned the congregated bishops, prelates, hierarchs and confessors by quietly requesting a period of prayer on the matter. Vahl entered her Mission’s shrine to Saint Silvana and undertook a solitary meditation for three days, while increasingly nervous priests paced anxiously. When she emerged, she seemed to those present to walk taller, her eyes hard and unreadable to the clergy – some of whom involuntarily backed away from her. With a handful of words, Vahl accepted the appointment. She commended a successor to her Canoness before turning on her heel and striding swiftly for the priests’ orbital transfer ship. Having planned many days of worship and ceremony to mark the appointment, the gathered priests were aghast. Only a handful had the presence of mind to hasten in her wake.

 

在到达神圣泰拉短短数个月中，瓦尔就向那些试图操纵她的人证明了她是一个令人生畏的对手。于圣地接见高层时，她总是全副武装，以冷酷的凝视和生硬的口气使他们害怕，令他们不安。转移那些保证一切尽在掌握教士的注意力，她尽可能与更多修会建立私人联系。她努力让各个修会相信，至圣总院长再一次成为她们的指挥官。为了收集她们目前远征的实时战况和数据，瓦尔要求她们如实提供战地报告和战略部署策略，以确保她们的努力能击退来自大裂隙残暴的亵渎洪流。

 

In the months after her arrival upon Holy Terra, Vahl soon proved herself a dreaded opponent to those who sought to control her. She continued to wear full battle armour when receiving senior members of the Holy Synod, intimidating and unnerving them with her pitiless stare and brusque responses. Vahl threw herself into re-establishing personal contact with many Orders as possible, firmly deflecting any priests who tried to assure her that matters were already in hand. She sought to satisfy the Orders that the Abbess Sanctorum once more stood as their commander, absorbing data on their current crusades, demanding field reports and strategic dispositions, and ascertaining what they were doing to throw aback the flood of impious savagery that boiled out the Great Rift.

 

可以预见的是，年纪轻轻就被推上如此高位的瓦尔，一定在信仰和自信上有过犹疑动摇，然而一切隐藏在她心门之后的挣扎都将成为不可窥探的隐秘。至圣总院长不能容忍信仰的盔甲上有一丝裂缝。然而，当如此之多的修女姐妹在战斗中不断牺牲死亡时，瓦尔仍会对她眼中那些毫无作为的个人感到愤怒。即使罗伯特·基里曼将她晋升为泰拉高领主议会成员，她炽热的战斗热情也丝毫无减。

 

IT can be expected that Vahl, young as she was and propelled so suddenly to the rarefied heights of power, must have wrestled with questions of faith and self-confidence. Yet whatever struggles took place behind the doors of her mind remained private; not once did the new Abbess Sanctorum allow even a crack to show in the armour of her faith. It did become clear, however, that Vahl chafed at the reins of what she saw as personal inaction, when so many other Sisters of Battle were fighting and dying. Even when, upon the recommendation of Roboute Guilliman, Vahl was elevated to the status of High Lord of Terra, it did little to cool her ardour for battle.

 

因此当总院长宣布自己为远征Philosopher’s Belt诸多叛乱贸易世界的总指挥时，鲜有人感到惊讶。从那以后，在短暂的任期内，她亲自上阵数十次，领导各个修会主力纵横捭阖。比起鼓舞人心的布道和令人振奋的演讲，瓦尔总院长更愿意在战场上身先士卒以身作则，让为帝皇献身战斗的事迹替她自白。

 

Few within the Adepta Sororitas were surprised when the Abbess declared herself the commander of the Ecclesiarch’s crusade against the traitorous trade worlds of the Philosopher’s Belt. Since then, she has taken to the field in person dozens of times during her short tenure, leading forces of every Order Majoris. Not given to rousing sermons and uplifting oratory, Abbess Vahl instead leads by example on the battlefield, letting her deeds in service to the God-Emperor speak for her.

 

众多来自各个修会的高级修女交换意见，出色地成为了瓦尔指挥参谋的后盾，巧妙地将她从应付大量将军，行星总督，海军上将的工作中解放出来。莫文·瓦尔并不把自己视作帝皇的选择，而是一个必须在无数试图玷污帝国信条的邪恶势力之中保护它的防御装置。她对这个崇高职位的责任感意味着她不会鲁莽的将自己置身于一场没有胜机的战争。正如她之前修会所教导的那样，殉道只是对责任的解脱，而不是最好的践行。就像前任院长们一样，她明白至圣总院长的位置是一个沉重的负担——只有当最后一个亵渎者、变种人、异形和恶魔从这个世界消失以后，她才能功成身退，作为一名普通修女重归修会。

 

Numerous senior Sisters from several Orders Dialogus and Famulous complement Vahl’s command staff, deftly dealing with the slew of generals, planetary goverors, admirals and more that daily clamour for her attention. Morvenn Vahl does not see herself as the Emperor’s Chosen, but as an instrument of defence who must place herself between the Imperial Creed and the countless horrors that seek to defile it. Her sense of duty to this lofty position means she will never recklessly submit herself to an unwinnable war. Martyrdom, as her former Order taught, is a release from one’s duty, and not its ultimate expression. As all her predecessors understood, the position of Abbess Sanctorum is a burden that can be set aside only when the last heretic, mutant, xenos and deamon is expunged from existence. Only then might she step back into anonymity as a Sister of her Order.

翻译自战斗修女codex，希望小伙伴同好们喜欢~