Merchant Fleet
| Merchant Fleet | |
| Parent Agency | Imperial Fleet |
| Headquarters | Nexus Axiomatic, Terra |
| Leader | Speaker for the Chartist Captains Kania Dhanda |
| Armed Forces | Praeses Mercatura |
| Established | M30 |
The Merchant Fleets are one of the three components of the Imperial Fleet, along with the civil fleets and warfleets.
Contents
Overview
The Merchant Fleet is one of the oldest organizations in the Imperium, predating the Emperor's domain and dating back to the Dark Age of Technology itself when the original Merchant Charters were issued as part of Humanity's expansion into the Galaxy. Unlike most Imperial organizations which constantly attempt to police and control humanity's domain, the Merchant Fleet deals only in trade and as a result is supremely wealthy.[4] The combined merchant fleets compose almost 90% of all the interstellar spacecraft in the Imperium. Each fleet is based in one of the five Segmentae Majoris, and its administrative staff operate from the Segmentum Fortress. Although these fleet bases are huge ports equipped with docks, shipyards and repair facilities, their main function is to administer the fleets operating within their area. Only a small proportion of ships ever travel to the Segmentum Fortress where they are theoretically based.[1] The overall headquarters of the Merchant Fleet is located at the Nexus Axiomatic on Terra.[4a] Within the Nexus work the Magister Calculo Horarium which coordinate shipping travel across the Imperium.[4b]
Each merchant ship serves its fleet under an arrangement called a Merchant Charter.[2] Not all charters are the same — some confer more power and responsibility to the ship's captain than others — but all types take the form of a feudal oath sworn to the fleet authorities on behalf of the Emperor. A captain may not register his vessel with the fleet authorities until this oath has been sworn and a record of it entered at the Segmentum Fortress for that zone and on the Segmentum Fortress on Mars.[1]
Most merchant ships lack Navigators or Astropaths. Consequently, many take generations to fully complete their preset circuits, and often become home to communities of void born who never set foot on conventional worlds. These long circuits are often the only contact that the Imperium has with some of its more isolated worlds, and the Captains' reports can be the only method by which their existence is remembered. To the worlds that they visit, the arrival of the trading ships can become prophesied events of great spiritual significance.[10]
One of the positions in the Senatorum Imperialis is sometimes held by the Speaker for the Chartist Captains. Though an unassuming position, the Speaker is both tremendously wealthy and powerful, for it is they who can devastate entire Sector's simply by halting merchant trade. The Speaker commands the armed wing of the Merchant Fleet, the Praeses Mercatura.[4a]
Rogue Traders do not fall under the purview of the Merchant Fleet, making them one of the few shipping entities not under its grip.[4a]
Merchant Fleet Ships
- Armed Freighter[3]
- Vagabond Class Merchant Trader
- Universe Class Mass Conveyor
- Carrack Hauler
- Fast Clipper
- Orion Class Star Clipper[5]
- Galaxy Class Armed Freighter
- Tarask Class Merchantman[7]
- Goliath Class Forge Tender
- Heavy Transport
Known Merchant Houses
- Ios — Destroyed and expunged from all records.[9]
- Sansom & Sansom — millennia old Trading House[6]
Known Members
- Quynn Torl — Fleet Master[8]
See Also
Sources
- 1: White Dwarf 139 (UK), pg. 17
- 2: White Dwarf 140 (UK), pg. 50
- 3: Rogue Trader: Battlefleet Koronus, pgs. 29-30
- 4: Vaults of Terra: The Hollow Mountain (Novel)
- 5: Rogue Trader: Into the Storm pg.151
- 6: Farseer (Novel), Chapter Four
- 7: War Zone Nachmund: Rift War, pg. 31 - Forces of the Imperium
- 8: Necromunda: Book of the Outlands, pg. 87 - Battles in the Ash Wastes
- 9: Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter, pgs. 19–20
- 10: Dark Heresy Core Rulebook, pg. 254
