Koronus Expanse
| Rogue Trader: Drake Dynasty | |
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| GM | |
| Adam | |
| Dynastic Power | |
| Character Level: 31,250 XP / Rank 8 | |
| Profit Factor: 43𝖕 | |
| Command Crew | |
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Lord-Captain Drake Navigator Primus Mordecai Arch-Millitant Winter Astropath Solarus High Factorum August | |
| House Drake Fleet | |
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Aurea Albion Hound of Albion • Abhorrent Fortuitous Purpose • Penance of Iocanthos | |
| Drake Trade Empire | |
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Damaris • Scintilla • Kulth Svard • Dross • Aurum Sepheris Secundus • Tennenberg Killian's Rest | |
| Drake Expeditions | |
| Open Missions | |
| Grand Endevours | |
| Personnel | |
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Magistrates • Retainers Militants Svard 1st • Stormtroopers House Drake Expeditionary Army | |
| Assets | |
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Materiel Aerospace Craft • Ground Vehicles | |
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Armoury Wargear • Relics and Artifacts | |
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Other Estate Secrets and Contacts • Awards and Honors | |
| The Galaxy | |
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Locations Calixis Sector Koronus Expanse • Periphery Subsector Personalities Peers of the Imperium Rival Rogue Traders | |
| Utilities | |
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Rogue Trader Timeline House Rules Guide and Lore |
Expanse Description
Port Wander
Port Wander is a void station on the uttermost edge of the Drusus Marches of the Calixis Sector, rightly regarded as the last bastion of the rule of the Emperor this side of the Koronus Expanse. A place of desperate hopes and vain dreams; Port Wander teems with a transitory population of traders, spies, merchant factors, pilgrims, and missionaries amongst which move Administratum functionaries and minions of the Mechanicus, all feeding on the riches that flow from the realms beyond the warp storms in the Koronus Expanse. All who travel into the Koronus Expanse share one common experience in that they pass Port Wander. Be they the pious bringing the Emperor's Light into the darkness beyond the Imperium or black-hearted monsters searching for the keys to forbidden dreams, many will stop in the last place where the rule of the Golden Throne keeps the horror and possibility of the unknown at bay.
The Maw
"It is a beast that swallows the apostate, the doubter, and all who ship with them. Better to slay the unfaithful than risk the dread Maw whilst such false wretches draw breath."
-Opening lines of the Voidfarer's Warning from the Drusian Play
The Koronus Passage is a stable but dangerous warp route that passes through the Great Warp Storms separating the Calixis Sector from the Koronus Expanse. The Koronus Passage was discovered by a Magos-Explorator of the Machine Cult in the distant past, lost for millennia, and found once more by the Rogue Trader Purity Lathimon at the very close of the 40th Millennium. The Passage links Port Wander and the Drusus Marches to the great star Furibundus and the void colony of Footfall-and beyond Footfall, the Koronus Expanse beckons.
Superstitious voidfarers call the route "The Maw" To their eyes the Maw is a beast made of warp storms, cunning and malicious, whose crushing gullet must be braved by those who seek to break through to the Koronus Expanse beyond. Many have died in trying, and traversing the Maw remains harrowing despite centuries of experience gathered by Navigators and Rogue Traders. Some say this ill-omened title came from the first to survive the crossing-and that they returned wild-eyed, at the edge of sanity, and few journeyed to the voids again.
Furibundus
"A lamp of fervour shines upon the white gale.
Not held by the greatest saint to mark the way,
But hung alone to banish enfolding shadows.
That beset the Emperor's true servant upon the fated path"
-Translated from the prophetic verses of Abenicus
The light of Furibundus marks the far side of the Great Warp Storms and the beginning of the Koronus Expanse. It is a huge and primal stellar mass, far brighter and more energetic than any star should be. Its fires rage so fiercely that the cataclysmic energies unleashed within cause vast bulges of burning plasma to distend Furibundus's form, writhing as though immense beasts fight within. The outer envelope constantly tears and ripples, throwing off huge flaming masses into the near voids. Furibundus is surrounded by shells of remnant gas expanding outward, each a remnant of the star's outermost layers.
The Imperial presence around Furibundus clusters in two locations: the stonework void-settlement of Footfall, and the Adeptus Mechanicus temple of Altar- Templum- Calixis-Ext- I 7. Footfall's ornate, tethered structures orbit at a sufficient distance from the star to be safe from the lethal ribbons of solar plasma, and for void-ships to operate with little impediment. Further inwards, close to the primal roar of Furibundus, there is a planet set in a frantic orbit and blasted to molten rock over and again by its proximity to the bloated star. The only way it can be seen is by the shadow it casts on the movement of plasma-ribbons. This is Altar-Templum-Calixis-Ext-17, and it is here that the Mechanicus hide a heavily shielded fortress-temple, within which Tech-Priests study the secrets of this furious star.
Winterscale's Realm
"It is a place of graves and grinning skulls. Its wealth is its curse on all who seek it, for who could not look upon such wealth and not think to spill his brother's blood to possess it all?"
-Vilius Hope, voidsman
Winterscale's Realm is one of the most explored and exploited regions, and one that has delivered both fabulous riches and early death for the unwary in equal measure. Winterscale's Realm is a region defined by the stars explored and charted by Sebastian Winterscale in the early centuries of the 41 st millennium. It is composed of a few coveted worlds sitting like islands amongst the darkness of the unknown. Rogue Traders have traversed the Realm's breadth a hundred times, but even so, its farther reaches and troubled warp regions remain unmapped. Though only a handful of worlds within Winterscale's Realm have been even partially explored, these have proven to be fat with riches and treasures. It has lured those whose goal is only wealth, and has become a battleground between rivals for its bounty. Gems, precious minerals, exotic death world beasts, xenos artefacts, and many more rarities have poured into select coffers of merchant cartels and noble backers in the Calix is Sector and beyond, thanks in no small part to the Winterscale Realm's tireless explorers.
The Thousand Charts
Winterscale's' Realm is named for the Rogue Trader Sebastian Winterscale who first explored and charted many of its stars. Those who venture into Winterscale's Realm do so in the main because of the legendary wealth it is said to harbour, but also because it is one of the most haphazardly charted regions of the Koronus Expanse. There are many Navigator clans who hold many more charts of Winterscale's Realm; most such records agree in part, though some are wildly divergent. The few points of agreement between these charts thus indicate the worlds, stars, and warp routes that are generally agreed to exist, at least insofar as the explorers of the Koronus Expanse are concerned. The other charts are considered to be flights of fantasy, and their navigational data to be nothing more than a vile trap to lure and destroy the foolhardy. Many believe that the reason for the profusion of misleading and contradictory charts of Winter scale's Realm is simply a by-product of several centuries of Rogue Trader activity. But a few whisper in the obscura dens of Port Wander that all such charts are true, and if combined using the correct cipher, they would reveal the true extent of Sebastian Winterscale's exploits and the hidden riches of his realm.
Blood and False Gold
The proximity of Winterscale's Realm to the Koronus Passage, the tales of its wealth, and the relative abundance of navigational charts-albeit of dubious accuracy-mean that explorers and merchant concerns and renegades are drawn to it, willing to fight for fortunes that might be no more than fancy. Winterscale's Realm is soaked in the blood of rival claimants to worlds and resources, and every glittering prize carried back into Calixis Sector has to be bought in death and slaughter from those others who would claim it. Weaker Rogue Traders, fearful of greater risks, may come to Winterscale's realm hoping to grow slowly wealthy from its resources while remaining close to the light of Imperial domains. Any who does not come armed and prepared for battle, however, is a fool who will not see the lights of Port Wander again. The graves of the naive, arrogant, and unlucky litter the stars of Winterscale's Realm and offer mute testament to this untamed cauldron of death and greed.