[SPOILERS] Why is the Martyr described as a fortress-monastery?

[Dux Aquila]

It's an Inquisition ship, and a research vessel at that.
Sure, it's got Caius Thorn aboard, but I don't get the impression that the Martyr belongs to the Stormwatchers Chapter.

[ATII]

It belongs to Grand Inquisitor Uther Tiberius, as he is dead, no one own the ship right now.

The ship is a crusier so it is powerful like a fortress. I think it is considered as a monastery because it was used as a monastery (like a private chapel ... er ... for this size, a private cathedral) and probably still classified as a monastery. Afterall, there are always a place for mass prayer for every ship, but obviously we all know that was only a disguise as few would question what the Grand Inquisitor was doing in his own monastery.

It is also a way to illustrate how powerful he was to be able to turn a cruiser into a monastery and secretly modified it into something else.

[Tacitus]

^That makes sense, but a cruiser does seem a little small for a fortress monastery. Moreover, like the OP, I usually thought that fortress monasteries were associated with the Adeptus Astartes, and that they were usually at least a battle barge... but I may be wrong about this.

I guess it can be considered a "fortress monastery" in the sense that it is a mobile base of operations for the Grand Inquisitor.

[Dux Aquila]

Fortress-monastery is a term EXCLUSIVELY associated with the headquarters of space marine Chapters.

I did find some in-game info indicating that the Martyr was abandoned a long time ago. The Inquisition "only" came into possession of it some 5000 years ago.

Before that, and before it was abandoned, it may have served as the fortress-monastery of a fleet-based Chapter. That's my headcanon so far, at least.

[Vrakos Anthrakir]

Originally posted by Dux Aquila:

Fortress-monastery is a term EXCLUSIVELY associated with the headquarters of space marine Chapters.

I did find some in-game info indicating that the Martyr was abandoned a long time ago. The Inquisition "only" came into possession of it some 5000 years ago.

Before that, and before it was abandoned, it may have served as the fortress-monastery of a fleet-based Chapter. That's my headcanon so far, at least.

it's not nearly big enough to be considered a fortress monastery though.

[Brother PaciFist]

The word Fortress Monastery is not correct as description of the vessel Martyr. The Martyr is a battleship or a battlecruiser class imperial warship.

Fortress Monasteries are closely related to space marine chapters. e.g. Space wolves have The Fang on planet bound on Fenris.

The Imperial Fists have the Fortress Monastery The Phalanx, a colossal warp capable gigantic space fortress, big enough to serve as carrier and resupply depot for a whole sector fleet.

The Dark Angels have a space based F.M. The Rock.

The Blood Ravens have a battle barque as F.M.

So a fortress monastery is a Headquarter to a space marine chapter.

In the story of Martyr it is explained that the space marine chapter Storm Ravens were closely allied to the master of the Martyr, the Lord Inquisitor Uther Tiberius. The Martyr was a secret inquisition vessel, but is not big enough to serve as a Fortress Monastery for a space marine chapter. The relation of the Storm ravens is not explained in the story. You could argue that the Martyr was the Storm Ravens F.M but that is not explicitely told. It would be a rather puny space marine fortress, the only space marines you find are one dead storm raven and your crew member Caius Thorn. Even smaller space marine chapters have huge logistical needs to fullfill their duties. But this is never explained in the story.

This leads to the conclusion that the phrase Fortres monastery was misused by the author of the story.

Or the storm ravens were a really small space marine chapter bound to Uther Tiberius himself. He must have been really powerful to use a space marine chapter as personal body guards for his rather heretical pet projects. Like breeding super psykers. Really unrealistic, if you think about it. Space marines are rather proud guys that do not like to be commanded by mortal humans. And their loyalty is to the emperor, humanity and their recruitment worlds not a person. To have your own pet space marine chapter plus Fortress monastery at your disposal would be very strange even for an inquisitor.

And the Martyr stopped being a Fortress monastery when it was overrun by chaos forces. It would be a fallen fortress or a chaos fortress but not a fortress monastery anymore.

Have fun.

[Dux Aquila]

The Martyr actually looks like some kind of heavily modified Gothic-class cruiser. This would make it ~5000 meters long.

At the end of the day, unless the devs tell us what they were thinking, there's no way we'll know for sure why they decided to call the Martyr a fortress-monastery.

I think Brother PaciFist might have a point about someone on the writing team messing up though. Guess it just never got fixed.