W&G.RogueTraderWiki JeanAllister

Back to Main

His Grace, the Eminent Jean-Allister Reinhardt ap Banain, 299th Marquis d’Menkaure, 121st Since the Fall

Bearing

Jean-Allister is a tall, thin man with quick reflexes and sharp eyes. He cuts a foreboding rather than impressive figure as his eyes seem to stare past those he looks upon as if he sees something just behind them. When he’s in one of his moods many people swear they too can see the ghosts of his dynasty lurking there at the edge of seeing as well. He is richly but simply dressed in modified versions of the naval uniforms he became accustomed to before inheriting the Banain Warrant and its peculiar doom.

At all times he carries the ancient sword and pistol carried by all the Banains before him ever since the Fall on Menkaure. Despite their fine craftsmanship and great antiquity they hold none of the grandeur one would expect from such relics. The spirits of the ancestral arms are as defeated as their master, capable of no more than common rage no matter the care of the tech-priests that attend them nor the prayers and sacred inscriptions embossed in their hilts along with a strange casting of a bird with enormous wings. On the sword the wings form the quillions, on the pistol they are swept forward to cradle the barrel. Around his neck a similar bird hangs from a pendant. Jean-Allister frequently complains of its weight yet he never removes it.

Demeanor

Melancholy, distant, haunted, withdrawn, depressed. All good terms to describe the Captain when he’s been left to himself on a long voyage, but when danger rears or a chance to turn a profit is sighted he becomes an entirely different man. Confident, outgoing, vibrant become his watchwords. He leaps into action, even going so far as to lead from the cockpit of his Lightning fighter when given half a chance.

A former military man he believes in strict, some whisper cruel, discipline and that each man should attend to his duties in the manner into which he was born. He suffers no mixing of the classes and tolerates no fraternization between officer and crew.

Biography

Born to great wealth in the more civilized reaches of the sector, Jean-Allister became accustomed to power, privilege and the ennui that always seemed to accompany them. He spent his childhood getting into trouble at his servant’s expense and to his father’s chagrin. His adolescence was more of the same, despite his education he spent more time in his cups than his books and he continued to be a stunning disappointment. As a young man his father tried to mold a true gentleman out of him and put his hobby of racing fighter craft through the streets to better use. At 17 years he was sent away to join the Imperial Navy as a Lightning pilot. A young hotshot before the service he didn’t find anything about a pilot’s life much to his liking. He was surrounded by men and women as good or better than he at the controls and there was no shortage of officers with an interest in his time. It was difficult getting used to taking orders from officers of lower standing than his own but the lash was not spared n his pampered flesh and he soon began to admire the discipline.

He rose to prominence and quickly became wing commander, while he was neither the best pilot, nor a preeminent bombardier he was clever and a natural leader once he took to the chain of command. He lead hundreds of sorties in those years against all manner of targets. Enemy ships, stations, ground attacks, escort runs, he lead them all and maintained an impressive 60% casualty rate. He had never been happier or felt more pride in himself. The tedium of nobility fell away, he was an Officer and a gentleman and he had no need to participate in the petty games of the civilian aristocrats. He married and had children, four sons and a daughter, and received a prestigious appointment aboard the Emperor-class Battleship Merciful Envoy as its wing commander. It meant more paperwork and more time spent on logistics but that just made the times he could get back in the cockpit so much sweeter.

But then his life was ruined with a letter from his granduncle Mortimer. He had been chosen to bear the Writ as the 299th Marquis d’Menkaure. He couldn’t believe it, surely there was a mistake. He had served with distinction, a source of great honor to his lineage, why should they choose to waste him so? He would learn years later that his own actions as a youth had damned him, for it was misspent youth and of course poor luck that determined who would become Rogue Trader when the last one had to go on his Pilgrimage.

His first duty as Holder was to attend his father’s funeral. By tradition he had shot himself with the very pistol Jean-Allister carries with him always, and on his 78th year, when the last emerald falls out of the Great Glass and the final gilded skull clicks into place he will return to his home and present the arms to his mother should she still live and she will then kill herself with the pistol as well before it is placed in the hand of the next Bearer of the Banain Warrant by the Patriarch.

That feels like many lifetimes ago to him now. Once again Jean-Allister is a civilian nobleman, bereft of purpose at times, ever aware of the doom that awaits him. He is moody, his heart heavy with his duties, and he sometimes vanishes for days into the Hall of Ancestors to pace among the dusty, shrived statuary listening to the ghosts of his ancestors. Each time he finds himself before the Great Glass, oblivious to the monks as they carry out their ancient vigil until he eventually wanders back or some pressing business forces Maximillian to insist he attend to his affairs. Regardless of the reason, when he emerges from that place he is a typhoon of a man, his renewed vigor carrying him onward.

Affiliated NPCs

Family

• Wife, Her Esteemed Ladyship Marquees Framboise Marie, a society girl who never grew accustomed to life aboard ship. She often insists her husband accept invitations to the best galas and try not to look mopey at them when they get the chance to disembark on a civilized world.
• First son, Jean-Peter Valkos ap Banain, Vicomte d’Gizare. Named for his father and grandfather he is much like his father was at his age. That is to say, of dubious moral character but considerable ability to get someone else in trouble for it.
• Second son, Luc Renard ap Banain. A promising junior officer in the Imperial Navy aboard the Gothic-class Cruiser Forceful Penance, He is currently on campaign. He, Framboise, and Jean-Allister exchange frequent letters. He is the only one of Jean-Allister’s children to have married.
• Third Son, Louis Wolfgang ap Banain. Sickly since birth he has no stomach for the lavish lifestyle that is his birthright. He spends most of his time buried in a book and while it does little for his social life it has introduced his father to many noted scholars and piqued his interest in esotera.
• Daughter, Isabelle Katarina. Still a teenager but already a stunning beauty, her father is very proud of her and dotes on her constantly. She is very much his daughter though and causes no end of trouble that Jean-Allister seems to pay no heed but it drives her mother up the walls. Framboise does not approve of her keeping company with the ladies (and she uses the word with disdain) among her husband’s crew. Jean-Allister sees nothing wrong with it, if indeed he’s even noticed.
• Mother, Her Grace Lucita Zapella Corinne, Countess duMaer. The only person allowed to use informal address with the Lord-Captain. She once called him ‘Allie’ in front of the bridge crew and the silence was deafening. The Captain didn’t even chastise her.

Attendants

• Devotees
  • Valet: Maximillian Stewert
  • Clerk: Sahlia Teller
  • Secretary: Tam Davenport
  • Flunkie: Harding Frillen, esquire
• Ogryn Yeoman
  • Mr. Pikkens