Honestly Soritas armor is a perfect lore bit. The Ecclesiarchy isn't allowed men-at-arms after a wee bit of massive civil war, but just so conveniently had a leftover all-female warrior cult that had just proven its unwavering devotion to the Imperial Cult, so everyone just shrugged and let the galaxy's most obvious loophole take effect just so long as they make it very clear that they're not men-at-arms.
That's the kind of disfunctional bureaucracy that the Imperium needs to bleed at all times.
They also circumvent that law by having small elite squads of crusaders but they sometimes lend them to inquisition as a bribe and of course huge armed formations of Frateris Militia where the excuse is that those are barely controlled lynch mobs whipped into murderous frenzy by preachers so they don't count as "men at arms" which is by the way perfect 40k excuse because lynching half of planetary population is preferrable to not lynching half of planetary population just because grimdark.
Honestly Soritas armor is a perfect lore bit. The Ecclesiarchy isn't allowed men-at-arms after a wee bit of massive civil war, but just so conveniently had a leftover all-female warrior cult that had just proven its unwavering devotion to the Imperial Cult, so everyone just shrugged and let the galaxy's most obvious loophole take effect just so long as they make it very clear that they're not men-at-arms.
That's the kind of disfunctional bureaucracy that the Imperium needs to bleed at all times.
They also circumvent that law by having small elite squads of crusaders but they sometimes lend them to inquisition as a bribe and of course huge armed formations of Frateris Militia where the excuse is that those are barely controlled lynch mobs whipped into murderous frenzy by preachers so they don't count as "men at arms" which is by the way perfect 40k excuse because lynching half of planetary population is preferrable to not lynching half of planetary population just because grimdark.