Editing Setting:Cloudburst/Dead Houses (section)

===Rogue Trader House Jiax===

The fate of House Jiax is an object lesson, to be sure.  What is unsure is precisely what that lesson is.  Jiax, once a wealthy and prosperous house of explorers and traders, was eviscerated and crushed in five days by a force of Inquisitorial and Officio Assassinorum personnel on a scale more traditionally reserved for those who emulate Horus.

Once, Jiax was the name of a house of hereditary Rogue Traders and explorers who made the region of space between the trailing edge of the Sector and the border of the Oldlight Exo-zone their home.  There, they looted ruins, charted Warp routes, skirmished with pirates, and generally expanded the borders of the Imperium as Rogue Traders are wont to do.  Over time, they accumulated enough wealth to become de facto nobles on the planet Celeste, and even extended some of their ordinary trade routes into the nearby Drumnos Sector.

Then their world ended.  The only hint of trouble that came in advance was that all of their Astropaths simply resigned on the same day, leaving the House abruptly unable to call for help or coordinate their efforts.  The next morning, while the House was still desperately wondering what in the world had just happened, a fleet of Inquisitorial and Officio Assassinorum ships appeared in orbit over the House manor on Celeste.  While the government of the planet flew into a terrified panic, dark arrowheads of Inquisitorial ships descended on the world, carrying shiploads of dead-faced men and grim combat servitors, who landed all around the Jiax residence compound.  Two hours later, the facility was a smoking ruin, and the Inquisitorial vessels departed with no more explanation than they had provided upon arrival.  For the next five days, Jiax ships and holdings around the Sector similarly disappeared or exploded.  The members of their House that had escaped the initial Inquisitorial purge threw themselves on the mercy of their allies and friends in the Imperial peerage, but those friends wisely turned their backs on the House as the Imperial government mercilessly slaughtered them.

One week after the beginning of the purge, it concluded, with the few remaining Jiax assets turned over to the Sector Government, which then liquidated them.  Even centuries later, there is no explanation forthcoming from any party involved to explain the Inquisition’s motives.  Those few who even know it happened can only suppose that the heads of the House must have invoked dread treason indeed, to merit the simultaneous attention of the Inquisition and Officio Assassinorum, which could only act in concert as they did against Jiax with the express instruction of the Senate of the High Lords.