House Chorda
House Chorda also known as House Bastaal-Chorda[5] is a Rogue Trader House and is one of the most powerful to operate out of the Calixis Sector.[1a]
Contents
Known Members
- Esme Chorda - Led an alliance of Rogue Trader ships that aided in destroying the Space Hulk Cauldron of Savagery in 673.M40. The Imperium gifted House Chorda the freedom of the Drusus Marches Sub-sector in reward. Repealed a century later, but cemented Chorda as one of the Calixis Sector's most powerful Rogue Trader Houses.[1a]
- Alyxander Chorda - Patriarch of the house as of 326.M41. Founded the Mining World Chorda's Folly.[2]
- Hamish Chorda - Father of Aspyce. A charitable spendthrift and habitual philanderer with dozens of legitimate and illegitimate children on both sides of The Maw. Squandered the dynasty’s wealth. Decladed dead.[3a]
- Aspyce Chorda - Matriarch in 754.M41. Campaigns against the Chaos pirates of Iniquity from 754-761.M41. Later is part of the destructive Claimant Wars against Calligos Winterscale for the planet of Lucin's Breath.[1b] As of M42 she is missing, having never returned from a trip into the Expanse.[5]
- Incedia Chorda - The Lord Captain of the House as of M42. Also a Rogue Trader, she relentlessly hunts down pirates and brings rebelling colonies to repentance. She has the backing of the Drusians in the Koronus Expanse and Hieronymus Doloroso considers himself her personal confessor and guide.[5]
- Bastian Derama Chorda - As of M42 was the youngest cousin of Incedia. Was assassinated by Anver Gangers while on Footfall.[5]
Political Connections
- House Ortellius: A good reputation with this Navis Nobilite House.[4a]
- House Cassini: A bad reputation with this Navis Nobilite House after Aspyce slayed their best and brightest navigators during her succession purge.[4b]
Dynastic Interests
The Chorda Trade Dynasty remains a major player in the Koronus Expanse. Based largely in The Cauldron, where the location of its headquarters and shipyards remains unknown for security reasons, the Dynasty has interests in every major region, including quite a bit of Winterscale's Realm. The assets in the Expanse are only a fraction of the wealth of the Chorda Dynasty, whose homeworlds are in the Calixis sector, along with the bulk of their business and investments.[3b]
While the majority of their business is what most would consider legitimate, the Chordas have never been a family that would turn its nose up at a profitable business opportunity. Many assets are invested in numerous shady activities, mostly through proxy agents and front agencies, including large interests in the Cold Trade. Chorda is one of the more aggressive Cold Traders in the Expanse, and fully a third of her wealth is derived from this dangerous business. An army of well-paid scribes, researchers and historians, are employed to tirelessly pore over libraries full of old texts and star charts and constantly travelling the Expanse, searching for hints and leads on the next big xenos discovery. Certain highly-placed members of the Imperium are on her payroll as well, always happy to funnel information or postpone an investigation for a cut of the profits. Along with the vast amounts of gelt this has made her, with her constant research she has amassed quite possibly the most complete and comprehensive collection of star charts of the Koronus Expanse. These charts alone would be worth untold riches if they were ever released into circulation.[3b]
Dynastic Fleet
Chorda’s ships tend toward small, fast frigate and raider class hulls to haul smaller, higher-yield cargos. These are multi-role ships that can carry a respectable amount of cargo and can either fend off or run from serious trouble with equal skill. There are few capital ships in the service of the Chorda Dynasty—typically used to make a show of force or impress the impressionable.[3b]
Well-dressed crews and ornately detailed voidships engender comment, most of it envious, in every port from the Maw to Naduesh. Even underdeck voidmen are required to uphold an uncommonly rigorous grooming standard or face a hundred lashes.[3b]
Flagship
- Hull: Cruiser
- Class: Modified Ignis-Class Cruiser
- Dimensions: 5.1km long, 0.8km abeam at fins approx.
- Mass: 27.5 Megatonnes approx.
- Crew: 95,000 approx.
- Acceleration: 2.9g max sustainable
Initially laid down in M37 at the Ryza yards as Searing Light, Implacable Flame was the lead ship of her class, the experimental and failed Ignis Class Heavy Cruisers. Designed to carry devastating plasma weaponry in large broadside batteries, the Ignus class was to be a close-quarters ship that would operate in squadrons of battleship killers. Their powerful engines and thick armour would allow them to weather fire while they closed with larger prey, where concentrated plasma broadsides would cripple a target. While good in theory, the plasma drives could not provide power for the weapons while maintaining thrust under heavy armour. Eventually it was decided that the continued upkeep of the only Ignus vessel was too expensive and she was decommissioned and sold out of the service.[3c]
Over the next few millennia she saw service with numerous provincial navies and private shipping concerns. She even spent a few centuries as the flagship of a Corsair Clan. She was rebuilt so often that it’s thought her keel is the only part of the original ship remaining. Unwanted, unloved, and unnecessarily maligned, she bounced from owner to owner then disappeared from all records for at least a thousand years. Eventually, she turned up as a hulk in the Koronus Expanse at the Breaking Yards at SR-651. It was there in her pitiful state that this much-reduced ship was noticed by Lord-Captain Aspyce Chorda. Encouraged by one of her closest advisors, a representative of the Mechanicus, she purchased the sad hulk and returned her to the Drystan Construction Yards in the Calixis Sector for a lengthy and expensive overhaul.[3c]
Sources
- 1: Rogue Trader: Epoch Koronus:
- 2: Rogue Trader: Citadel of Skulls, pg. 17
- 3: Rogue Trader: Edge of the Abyss:
- 4: Rogue Trader: The Navis Primer:
- 5: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (Video Game) - Act 2 - Incedia Chorda at the Von Valancius Palace
