In addition to their role as witch-seekers and stern guardians of the tithe of the psyker-born, the Sisters of Silence also serve as remorseless executioners when the need arises, with the time-honoured method of beheading before immolation their preferred agency of final sanction. To this end they often carry unique, finely-wrought two-handed blades, forged to the same exacting standards of the ancient Charnabal sabres favoured for duelling among the Terran Courts. These Executioner Greatblades, or simply Execution Blades, are wonders of the swordsmith’s art, each perfectly weighted for the martial style of the wielder and edged in diamond-hard silica glass, making for a wickedly-sharp cutting edge. One schooled in their use can strike with the speed of a duellist combined with the killing might of a veteran executioner, and a skilled strike from one of these weapons can part the seals of the finest armour in battle just as easily as it parts the head from the shoulders of the condemned.
The voidsheen cloaks worn by Oblivion Knights are made from micro-vitrious mesh designed to diffract and absorb energy, and are particularly effective against diffuse attacks.
Similar in design to voidsheen cloaks, voidscale cloaks utilise a denser and more efficient vitrious mesh. The larger refractive scales it utilises are capable of deflecting far greater kinetic force and absorbing even the most destructive forms of radiation.
When a Sister-aspirant takes her final oaths of duty and says the last words she will ever utter aloud in her lifetime, she is given her panoply of war: the Vratine armour - literally 'the armour of the oath'. It is a subpattern of technologically advanced battle gear which shares design elements with both the power armour of the Legiones Astartes and the silicate-mesh of Selenite void-mail, though unlike either of those famed armours, it is not - at least without additional gearing - fully environmentally sealed or designed for extended operations. It does however provide formidable protection from ballistic impacts and directed energy weapons, and is tailored and forged uniquely to its intended wearer to allow for their complete freedom of movement and to augment their reaction speed.
- The Horus Heresy Book Seven: Inferno, Codex: Sisters of Silence 7th Edition, Liber Imperium