Rogue Trader - Passionate Intensity

This page is for the play-by post game of Rogue Trader - Passionate Intensity, run by Cthulhupunk.

Threads

Staging thread

Characters

Lord-Captain Myra Vasilyevitch

Character generation

Rank 4 (13,000 XP (8,500 that you actually spend))
For starting gear you can replace each of your starting weapons with any weapon of Very Rare or less rarity. You can also swap out any of your starting gear for equipment of equivalent rarity. You can also have as many common or lower level items as you like. Otherwise you can acquire stuff in-game, you're starting with a fairly generous PF of 60 so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Open season on the Origin path, jump around as much as you like and spend as much XP as you like.
Anything (alternate career ranks, psychic powers, etc.) from any Rogue Trader book is game, except the anti-psyker whatever from the Novis book. Fuck those guys. Stuff from other game lines is potentially doable but on a case-by-case basis.
Characteristics are rolled, but I'm just going to just look over in this direction and if people just reroll a million times until they have stats they like I'm helpless to stop them. You're not on the honor system, you're more on the pirate's code.
No Xenos.
Especially not the Kroot.
But especially not the Orks.

The Ship

The Audacity!

The Dynasty

House Vasilyevitch. It is a name to conjure with in Imperial space; one which carries with it a reputation that any well-versed Sister Famulous will only recount with a shudder. Its origins are murky, its history longer than that of some Sectors and smirched with suspicion. It is hypothesised by enemies of the House that the dynasty has only retained its power through copious blackmail material and threats. Such people often stop spreading such lies eventually, of course, one way or another; and the House remained one of the most glorious and powerful in Imperial annals.

Nevertheless the fortunes of House Vasilyevitch have declined over the last few centuries, its holdings lost piece by piece to war, misfortune, hostile takeover, market catastrophe, and in one memorable case Exterminatus. Myra, the thirteenth son of Kaspar Vasilyevitch, now stands as the heir apparent and holds the dynastic Warrant of Trade, a hallowed document stained with the blood of a million humans and an unknown number of xenos. Myra murdered his way to the top, of course, arranging the deaths of his twelve elder siblings over the course of as many years - an act that anywhere else would be a travesty but in Imperial politics was merely a distateful whisper behind fluttering Aquila fans.

Lord-Captain Vasilyevitch has vowed that his name will be remembered forever, his House a mark on Mankind that will never be washed away.

The Spinward Calyx Trading Company (PF: 30)

These are the chartist captains, bean counters and corrupt plutocrats who come in and handle the nuts and bolts of the various trade agreements and monopolies arranged by the House at the barrel of a Macrobattery. Originally based out of the Spinward section of the now-defunct Calyx Expanse, it has since expanded its area of operation to anywhere within a sector of the Calixis Sector (including the Koronus Expanse and the Scarus Sector).

These are the people who show up to make your life terrible in many subtle and insidious ways after the heroes of the dynasty have made it terrible in much more flashy and direct ways. While they're all fairly corrupt, petty and genuinely terrible humans beings the employees of the Spinward Calyx Trading Company are well compensated and protected by the House from prosecution for their crimes. Because of this they are surprisingly loyal for a band of cut-throats and liars. They know on which side their bread is buttered.

Although far more shares than are necessary for control (95%+) are always maintained by the House, and more than 80% owned by the Warrant Holder directly, giving a few shares of this company to a vassal house or other entity is an excellent way to ensure loyalty. Giving someone a percent of a percent of a percent of the trading contracts of House Vasilyevitch makes them very inclined to make concessions on the behalf of the House. For example the Inquisition was given the largest number of shares outside of the House itself, and ever since this generous gift scandals that could potentially ruin the House have had a ways of getting their whole planets depopulated.

The Spinward Calyx Trading Company only oversees the long-term trading contracts of House Vasilyevitch, and they could be cut loose at any moment. It's always nice to have one's finger on a button.

Sibellus Cephus Fine Cloths and Milliners Family (PF: 5)

The Sibellus Cephus Fine Cloths and Milliners Family is without question the most prestigious hatmaker and haberdasher in the Calixis Sector. They have supplied hats to every noble house that you could care to name, in a variety of styles more numerous than you can remember, and each one more outrageous than you can tolerate.

They're kind of snooty.

It's a small business in comparison to more industrial trading concerns, but three reasons keep it on the Vasilyevitch books. Indeed the House has held on tenaciously to the company, defending it against all takeovers - and even at times engaging in shadow war to discourage potential interference. The prestige of owning the company which hides the heads of a swathe of nobility is nothing to be ignored; the output of the company, though small, is a tremendous luxury with a thousandfold return on investment; and it is sometimes useful to know that you have servants who are going to be spending a lot of time at ear level to the ruling elite.

Sibellus Cephus Fine Cloths and Milliners Family have a gorgeous emporium in the spires of Hive Sibellus, and representation on every hive world worth the investment in the Calixis Sector. As part of the Vasilyevitch Dynasty they have benefited from the station of the House as much as the House has benefited from their hats and other outputs.

The Goldsmiths of Malfi (PF: 20)

The oldest and most powerful independent Banking House on Malfi. Acquired by the Dynasty for a song after the Guild of Goldsmiths turned out to be traitors to the Golden Throne and had to be gruesomely executed and their holdings liquidated at a secret auction.

House Vasilyevitch has a tendency to use the institution's liquid assets as their own personal piggy bank. This means it is in constant danger of becoming insolvent, and a single bank rush could cripple it.

The Vasilyevitch Hunting Fief (PF: 5)

One of the first fiefs granted on Quaddis and still one of the largest, the Vasilyevitch Hunting Fief is populated by the most deadly and taxidermy-friendly beasts from across the sector and is one of the finest private hunting grounds in the Calixis Sector. The fief is large enough that the deadly monsters only very occasionally escape into the neighboring pleasure fiefs to slaughter the inhabitants.

The Dynasty also owns several casinos and brothels in the capital city of Xicarph the revenue of which more than pays for the maintenance of the large family fief.

When the family is strapped for cash the grounds can be rented out to rich nobles, but this is seen as humiliating and avoided unless there are no other quick sources of cash or credit.

The Cursed Colony on Foulstone (PF: 0)

House Vasilyevich has been attempting to found a mining colony on Foulstone for generations, and the ghost colony remains abandoned there to this day. For some reason as-yet undetermined every attempt to found a colony on the adamantium-rich world ends in the mysterious and terrible deaths of all of the colonists.

Although this pattern has been repeated time and time again it's just so much cheaper to trick a new batch of colonists to have a go at Foulstone than it is to found a whole new colony, and so every time someone else takes possession of the Vasilyevitch Warrant they sacrifice a few hundred more souls to Foulstone.