Islumbine
The Islumbine is a white flower[1c], that is native to Hagia and it is the heraldic emblem of Saint Sabbat.[1a]
Description
The flower grows in patches, that contain broad green leaves and tough, woody vines with stiff and crunchy bark. The Islumbines also gives off a clean astringent scent.[1c]
History
During the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, Saint Sabbat was reborn and later took part in the fighting on Urdesh. When she entered the besieged city of Ghereppan, some of its population wished to celebrate her arrival by wearing the Islumbine. However since the flower is not native to Urdesh, they instead made do with garlands of fresh Salt-weed. These were then passed to Ghereppan's youngest, oldest and sickest members of the city, to try and bring the Saint's blessings to them[1c]. During that time, the Iron Snakes Captain Priad served as a bodyguard to Saint Sabbat and saw an old mural of a Islumbine. It had been made in the Saint's honour and was striking, but also crudely done. However moments later, it drastically changed after the Saint began praying in the room the mural was in. To Priad's amazement, the mural had grown in size and was now skillfully rendered with details and glowed with color.[1a]
Shortly afterwards, reports began to spread that Islumbine flowers were growing in patches throughout Ghereppan's nearby lands. No one could explain how this could be, as Urdesh's ecosystem was not suitable for the Islumbine to grow in. It would later seem as if Saint Sabbat was somehow responsible, after a Sons of Sek Wirewolf became entangled within a Islumbine patch. Despite being strong enough to knock a Space Marine of his feet, the Daemonic Wirewolf could not free itself. This allowed the Iron Snakes Sergeant Xander, of Damocles Squad, to easily destroy the Daemon. When he then grabbed a branch of the Islumbine patch, however, it easily broke off in his hands. After seeing this, Xander could not understand how the Wirewolf was unable to free itself and began to throw the branch away. He suddenly decided not to, though, and instead placed the Islumbine branch in a top socket of his Power Armour's reactor pack. The socket normally held a banner-stave, during the Iron Snakes ceremonies, and caused the branch's Islumbines to frame the Sergeant's helmet like a wreath. Xander immediately felt better having the branch near him, though, he could not explain why[1c]. When Saint Sabbat later fought a group of Chaos Space Marines, she began casting a glow of green light. Xander was among the Iron Snakes fighting besides her, and the Saint's presence seemed to cause his Islumbines to begin glowing with a light of their own.[1d]
