WH40K Rogue Trader: Blood and Bolters, IC Thread: Chapter 1 Reclaiming What is Ours Options

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OOC Thread: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=33855

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A brief overview of House Vorhees
By Canderous Kalim

-May you never tire in your service to the emperor and your quest to expand his light and domain. - Arch Militant Drusus signed on the Vorhees Warrant

In my continuing study of the various Rogue Traders fair and foul who operate in the Koronos Expanse few dynasties have had such a checkered past as the Vorhees clan.

Early History:
The Vorhees Warrant was originally granted to Augustor Vorhees a contemporary and friend of Saint Drusus himself. Little is known of Augustor other than he was a Imperial Navy commander especially regarded for his piety and zeal. Granted the Warrant in 382.M39 after Drusus ascended to the rank of Arch Militant Augustor traveled to worlds in the wake and near area of the crusade turning them to the God Emperor's light and raising additional forces for the crusade. After the second death of Drusus he continued to settle and civilize many planets amongst the Calixis sector leaving exploration of the Koronos expanse to his successor generations.

More Recent History:
The Vorhees family continued to grow and prosper over two millennium. Although their methods of expanding their power base through interstellar trade and diplomacy in the Calixis sector raised scorn amongst those Rogue Traders who primarily engaged in operations on the far side of the maw they cultivated many important contacts and connections throughout the sector governments. Indeed many of the sector noble houses can trace lineage back to a Vorhees member who “went native” on one of their worlds.

The Decline:
The ascendancy of Agatha Vorhees to the command throne, replacing her ailing grandfather Cogliosto, was lauded by many as a sector as a positive change for the clan.. Agatha had spent almost 90 years in service to battlefleet Calixis eschewing her families political connections to rise through the ranks based on her own zeal. As such it was believed she would return the family to a more expansionist path.

Shortly after the Lady Agatha's assumption of command duties in 308.M41 her family drew the gaze of the Ordo Calixis branch of the Holy Inquisition. The details of what followed have never been clear but this much is known: The family survived the Ordo's attentions, which many Rogue Trader's do not, and her sister Aneska disapeared without a trace.

Lady Agatha launched herself into the expanse to recoup her families losses. While by all accounts she succeeded from a financial standpoint she continued to suffer family tragedies. Her eldest daughter and heir Margaret was turned over to the black ships after an unfortuante incident aboard her mother's flagship that cost the lives of the ship's navigator and his second. Only the presence of a third navigator traveling as a passenger and guest of the Lady saved the ship and crew. Her son Julius died defending Port Wander from the Ork Warboss Gulgrog in 422.M41. Perhaps even more tragically the ancestral ship Divine Inspiration was stricken in the battle and deemed unsalvagable though it lies within auspex range of Port Wander.
Lady Agatha has produced other possible heirs to her command throne since but it seems the flame of the family is ready to gutter and die at last, brought down by a change of fate, and perhaps a loss of faith. It seems they are one tragedy away from being swallowed up by the maw or imperial authorities.

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-Editors note. Sadly this was the last profile completed by scribe Kalim, shortly after he published this he was lost along with all hands aboard the chartist vessel Penitent Traveler. Sightings or involvement of the Vorhees flagship Unbridled Wrath were deemed unsubstantiated by the naval board of inquiry.