Editing Setting:Cloudburst/Rogue Traders (section)

====Rogue Trader House Demmelwaithe====
The vagaries and cruelties of the life of a Rogue Trader can catch up at the worst times, and House Demmelwaithe has experienced this like a kick in the jaw.  The House seems cursed.  Some on the Emissicius whisper that it actually is.  The House has been assaulted by pirates, fired upon by mistaken Adeptus Mechanicus Basilikon Astra warships, sabotaged by rivals, beset by plagues that took root in its life support systems, lost battles with Eldar, and even had prominent members of the family be arrested for overdosing in public.

All of the family’s misfortunes stem from one series of appallingly poor decisions by the House Warrant holder, Postla Demmelwaithe, not forty years ago.  Other members of the House are openly questioning if she is struck by a sort of madness, or perhaps has even gone Traitor.  There seems to be no logic or reason to her choices, and before much longer, the House will either fall apart or have to replace her.

Forty years ago, the House Demmelwaithe was waxing higher.  Its legitimate businesses were doing prosperous trade, its scrap businesses were churning recycled materials into circulation, its partnership with the Explorators was fruitful and amicable, and all seemed well.  Then, with no real explanation, Postla elected to collect much of the House fleet and turn it to a privateering mission from the Navy in the Oldlight Exo-zone.  The Navy contract was against some well-entrenched Ork Freebootaz that had begun assaulting Imperial exploration ships in the void, and although the pay meant the House would barely break even, the fleet dutifully packed up and set to flying.

This is where the story diverts heavily, depending on which person on the Emissicius one asks.  Some say the battle went perfectly, but the House fired on the Navy in the chaos of battle.  Others say the Orks tested some madness-inducing weapon on the House warships.  Some others say that the Adeptus Mechanicus shot down a House ship purely by accident.  The one thing all the tale-tellers agree upon is that an Eldar ship behind a holofield suddenly decloaked and fired on all parties involved, offering no quarter and no explanation.  The survivors of all three Imperial forces limped back to the Emissicius later, quarrelling bitterly the whole way.

Things went downhill from there.  There is no one record of all the misfortunes to befall the House, because so often there are few survivors of their calamities.  Some of the other Rogue Traders of the region are even becoming uneasy about the prospect of the House Demmelwaithe liquidating their assets soon, because of the concern of a curse spreading to other Houses.


Rogue Trader House Victoire
Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse; that’s the House Victoire way.  Sponsors of the production of luxury goods and fast aircars all over the Thimble hives, and general hedonists, House Victoire are wealthier than you and they love it.  The entire House, save a few of the more pious, younger scions, are concerned with the acquisition of wealth and its carefree expenditure.  They let nothing get in the way, whether that may be Imperial law or common sense.

The House was founded only four hundred years ago, and promptly catapulted to the ranks of the major Houses of the Cloudburst region thanks to their founder’s discovery of a massive, underground warehouse of truly ancient Golden Age goods on the planet AYRJ841, built under a Dark Age settlement of scarcely lesser value.  With the Mechanicus doing handsprings of joy, the House got stinking rich straightaway, and the decadence didn’t take long to settle in.  For those rare few on the high end of the Imperial wealth disparity, the opportunities to live the high life are infinite.

Appropriately, the House is based on Celeste, a Paradise World, and the heart of culture and government in Cloudburst Sector.  The House has as few duties as Imperial peers as they can manage, the more time to spend getting rich and spending money.

The Sector Administratum has no problem with this.  The House businesses are on the level and profitable, the House pays their taxes on time, and unlike certain older Houses, has never tried to levee troops from the populations of Cloudburst Sector worlds.  The extra income tax the Sector Administratum collects, and the occasional massive burst of spending the House undergoes, more than makes up for the occasional orgy cleanup or tanker truck joyride that an inebriated House scion might leave in their lubricated wake.

The Inquisition, on the other hand, is on the verge of declaring a crackdown on the House.  There are a hundred other things the Inquisition would rather do than swat down a riotous Rogue Trader House, like investigate the crash of the Predator or find the source of mutantcy on Crispin.  The prospect of assaulting or deeply investigating a very rich family of nobles is both daunting in its probable cost and a probable time sink.

However, the possibility of Slaaneshi corruption of the House must be accounted for.  The Inquisition has undertaken preliminary steps to investigate the possibility.  So far, this has taken the form of Inquisitorial spies infiltrating the crews of the House ships.  The Inquisition has also begun to investigate ties between the House and the firms that bank their money, searching for any sign that there may be financial links between the House and any known Slaaneshi infiltrators.