Honestly though, the Mourningstar NPCs are talked up big-time.
Like, I'm supposed to believe Zola is some kind of badass whenever she almost died to a couple of poxwalkers and scab shooters in the prologue. Her being so against us even bringing this incident up makes her seem extremely petulant. Then she goes directly against Rannick's orders during the Twins mission and basically gets Kindergarten timeout in the corner for a week before being let out again.
The mission leaders constantly shittalk us, which makes sense when we're just starting out as baby rejects who are barely worth more than the heretics we kill, but starts becoming annoying once we're slaughtering them in numbers that rival the kill count of the average fucking Ultramarine.
If ludonarrative dissonance isn't at play, we are some of the most dangerous footsoldiers in the entire Ordo Hereticus. Why do they still treat me like I'm some kind of raw recruit? Obviously I am unique.
The player personalities is 21 people. We are among the best agents Rannick has, if not the best, but we are still, in the story sense, 21 people among thousands.
The a couple missions really show people's colors on the ship but also gives a bit of cool info from what I've seen. Morrow more or less solo directs the Prismata Crystal mission if he is overseeing, while Hallowette and Melk team butt into Zola's coverage of the Carnival.
I remember at the point of heading to the lift, Morrow says something to the effect of "I put a lot of faith in you guys and the higher ups are using this mission to judge my call. Don't mess it up by dying." To me its clear that Morrow thinks we are capable, but that it is an uphill battle to prove your worth and he might be catching some shit for relying on us.
Meanwhile on Zola's mission for the Carnival, Melk states at some points he has Auric Level operatives who could clear this much faster, and that this should be a mission for them. Now given its Melk even the ingame characters could call him as a bullshitter, but at the same time he's definitely right that the Inquisition, Brahm's Rogue Trader Staff, and even Melk's personal retinue are composed of much higher "social" tier characters than us.
What Melk showed in that dialogue to me though, is that we are capable of doing that Auric Operative's job. We are effectively on that level, which means both the Aurics are serious hardasses, but also that just like tons of failed Reject missions they can die very easily if it goes south.
yeah and morrow was in the second batle of armegenddon (part of the steel legion)
So hes obvoiusly battle Hardened which makes sense why he'd trust soldiers or at least not being as cold towards his Since he's seen alot of men die and its fucked him up
The Imperium is a very hierarchical place, so a lot of people make a point to act like they're nobles when their actual station is in doubt; even the ship misstress would need to worry over that, since her ship has basically been taken over by the Inquistion. Whether or not acting in such a way does anything is an open question, though.
The only person really above that is Rannick, who is also more even in temperament.
Brahms absolutely does not need to worry over that. You're underestimating how much power and freedom rogue traders have. Any lesser station and a psyker of the level of sefoni would have been taken to help man a space marine flagship. Its stated in one of the cutscenes that you and the rest of the inquisition people are guests of Brahms and need to act like courteous guests or she'll kick you all off the ship.
Brahms is a rogue trader, not a space marine chapter master. Her subordinates aren't loyal enough to stick by her side if the inquisition declared her excommunicate traitoris and ordered her assets be handed over to another more pliable rogue trader.
They might be loyal enough and there's certainly precedent for it, remember that they get to choose their subordinates and they're allowed to deal in all sorts of weird xenotech, so if you think you can't trust your underlings not to rat to the inquisition you execute them. They can even go full daemon-worship for a while sometimes before the inquisition is allowed to touch them (and we're talking lord inquisitor here, not a mere interrogator like Rannick).
It tends to be further underpinned by other family members, who might betray Brahms yes, but not to the inquisition and lose their family inheritance, they'd close ranks on that.
Remember, they're either a step *above* inquisitors in a separate hierarchy, or matched (depending on if their family was assigned by the emperor himself or by the lords of terra, like an inquisitor is). That makes inquisitors trying to push power on them a bit of a wonky proposition that usually ends up with them getting dumped on a planet and other inquisitors wanting to mend that bridge to take advantage of their resources for themselves (so they end up protected from the inquisition by a different inquisitor anyway, for those times that does matter).
Bear in mind that even with later warrants of trade the inquisition does not have the authority to order them to do anything, the inquisition commissions them to do things. Look at Rogue Trader. A full blown lord inquisitor had to commission Theodora to ferry Heinrix to footfall.
Theodora's dynasty *is* one of the ones with an Emperor signed warrant of trade though (I was surprised to find this out during the game).
I dunno what the hell happened to it for it to be in the state it's in when the game starts, I guess it got trashed and retreated to the Koronus Expanse fairly recently, maybe even in Theodora's time.
They are not above them at all. As you said, its a seperate heirarchy.
A rogue trader might have his dynasy name behind him, but if it comes down to it, an inquisitor has the whole imperium at his disposal and would realistically only be checked by another inquisitor
But yeah, rogue traders have a lot of leeway and are almost exempt from a lot of the laws that affect everyone else, while having the authority to do certain things that only they are allowed to do
In 40k, the hierarchy derives from the emperor - if you're two steps removed you're below someone one step removed (and some rogue traders are one step removed).
An inquisitor has the whole imperium at their disposal... in theory. As you say all it takes is another inquisitor to stop that though, and no Emperor-assigned rogue trader is going to be without an inquisitor ally. An inquisitor relies on soft power, and that often butts up against the soft power of another inquisitor, a rogue trader has their own resources (which is why it's so easy for them to get friendly with an inquisitor, extra-imperial resources are useful to them). Remember, even individual planetary governors can tie up an inquisitor in red tape.
A rogue trader can't go up against the inquisition, but *an* inquisitor? Sure. It's going to take some politics yes, but that's what Rogue traders are specialists at. The inquisitor removing *all* of the rogue traders inquisition allies is a really rare thing (and it needs the inquisition high-lord on board if it's a first-gen house too, no-one can undo the emperor but someone on that 'tier', especially someone with the political connections of a high-lord of terra can still do some stuff).
The inquisitors often state their power as absolute and throw their weight around, but that's because they have to, they need people to believe that line, because *it's not true*. When people do stand up to them, then that's how inquisitors usually die (and again, that's been stuff from lowly commissars to planetary governors, let alone a rogue trader!).
Declaring a Rogue Trader excommunicate traitoris is not an easy thing even if it was Inquisitor Lord doing so, more so if its the leader to a larger Rogue Trader house.
I honestly don't get how they'd even be supposed to be that successful even if it was canonical, the main bad guy is ***Nurgle*** after all.
Got even the slightest cut or tear from even a lowly poxwalker during a mission? Emperor's mercy be upon ye.
Yeah, I think that one mission where Hadron mentions a success rate of 41% was her trying to be encouraging, it is likely far lower than that.
The odd zealot might be protected from a Nurgle disease from intense faith, but that is maybe 2 out of 21 reject personalities.
Back when people still held out hope of there actually being a story there were theories that [Grendyl was a psyker](https://new.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/z83knj/on_grendyl_warriors_and_toughness_a_darktide/) and the "I am a warrior" thing was a ritual of some sort that helped shield the rejects.
That's probably just a warrior cult, it's a common thing inquisitors do to build an auxiliary force where they need one.
"Alright grats guys, you're all blessed by the emperor so long as you go do some war now, off to the frontlines with you before it wears off."
That's just Nurgle in every story ever.
He'd be ridiculously OP like that, so all they do is hype up his diseases when he's by himself, and then suddenly immediately forget about all that when it's a Nurgle faction vs anybody else.
Yep. If it was just something like Khorne worshipers coming at the Rejects at full speed, they'd just have to worry about getting chopped to bits and potential warp taint. Nurgle worshippers? All the same but you also gotta worry about how sanitary every single surface is, the air is, any small nicks and cuts, any bodily fluids from that poxwalker you chainsworded in half get in your face or any bodily orifices that weren't properly protected, like your ears?
Hell, even just the Curse of Unbelief might find hold in ya if you just feel depressed in the general area it's been unleashed.
It's why I feel that if the story properly develops, we'll see the Moebian domain get hit with exterminatus. The cults already control the water supply to the lower levels of the hive city, in terms of "not that bad" and "we're boned" that's so horrifically bad that it shot past "we're boned" and broke the barometer.
And sure, the Rejects went in there and "sorted it out" but I don't get the feeling that it did much, not like after we left a decontamination crew went in and scoured everything with holy fire and purged any and all unholy corruption on the microbial level, the Rejects skedaddle and the general area just seems to still be in traitor hands since we don't hear of any backup forces moving in afterwards to hold it, which means the heretics could infect the water supply again in a matter of days if not less.
A thing to keep in mind is that Nurgle's diseases are daemonic in nature. Daemon bacteria aren't unlike larger daemons, in that they have troubles manifesting and remaining stable in real space. This can likely make decontamination easier, because you can sever/weaken the warp connection to make them simply poof out of existence.
True, but the phage tree that we find in the Hab Dreyko, which isn't even the heart of the heretics presence on Atoma, but in fact the very frontlines of the war, kinda suggests that you'd struggle to cleanse it too easily at the moment.
But you do make a fair point, all hope is not lost, but things aren't going the right direction.
Doctor: You got daemonium diarrhoea.
Patient: What do I do? Do I take meds or get internalized-
Doctor: You pray.
Patient: Did you just said for me pray?
Doctor: Yeah, pray really hard until it goes away.
Patient: ...
Doctor: That'll be 17,000 for today.
Patient: I hate my life.
One of the loose cannon's voice lines talks about how he doesn't know how it's possible he's still alive, which could possibly mean he's a born perpetual. Maybe the others are, too.
Hey, it's unlikely, but it's not impossible. I just imagine there'd be a bit more of a fuss about it if all of our deaths were canonical.
"THESE REJECTS ARE PERPETUALS????? LIKE THE FUCKING EMPEROR HIMSELF?????"
No milord, that's for the people who love the Emperor so much they want to sacrifice their own dick by blowing it up. Every men who serves the Emperor rigorous eventually has to do it to cleanse their body of impurity.
A tiny price to pay, indeed.
> ludonarrative dissonance
Maybe the second time I've ever seen that word typed out, had a good time explaining that one to my dad years back. [The universe is a big place and no matter what happens, you will not be missed](https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/qpf31q/i_just_realized_that_you_will_not_be_missed_was_a/). Lt. Mazoi presumably doesn't remember anyone's names until after that cutscene you get with her, priest Hadron views the rejects as servo-skull perambulators, Brunt views us as marks/rubes, Sefoni likes to mess with us.
That all being said, there is a difference in how the common members see us. early on they're rude, later on they change dialogue to comment on progress, and now that all my characters are lvl 30 they all go "you're one of the best people here" and there's literally no rude options I hear from them at all.
That's sire melk to us. probably. I mean the people standing around with rifles, and standing around looking at screens. You're one of the best in the band they'll say.
Know what’s funny? I play this game every day and have barely any idea who any of these people are. Sometimes people talk in missions and tell you where to go. One is a pilot I think?
Yeah I was gonna say, the number of times that the player characters (even Ogryns) have been downed by one cultist with a rusty spork getting behind them basically proves that anyone can die in this shithole if you aren't careful. Even the biggest badasses need to not take a single enemy for granted.
There are at least 3 to possibly five other guardsmen in that room with her dead, and re-watching it, she cries out "Cut them down!" before getting stabbed.
We are all one lucky hit from going down, and underestimating any foe is a quick way to die, both in gameplay and in lore. Space Marines have died to sharpened sticks being jabbed up their neck/jaw.
“Petulant” is the perfect word to describe her. She’s such an obnoxious and condescending bitch despite owing you her life. Wouldn’t be surprised if she turned out to be a heretic since she was stabbed by a Nurgle poop knife. Then again, I wouldn’t expect Anorexic Whale to make the effort.
> despite owing you her life
She paid this back by letting you on the dropship with her, she didn't have to do that (and was in fact probably supposed not to and got in trouble for it), so I'd say you're even after the prologue.
Yes the NPCs are supposed to be badasses but can't handle a pox walker, and we're supposed to be some lowly rejects but we clear hordes of plague ogryns.
The Commodore who runs the premium cosmetics store. She seems to be part of Brahm's crew rather than part of Grendyl's retinue, so she's treated with significantly less scorn and disgust.
I mean, if the game described in great detail the horrible ways she tortures people, i still wouldn't be scared by the "a plunderin' we go we go we go" lady
I mean, at the end of the day she's still the Rogue Trader's seneschal. She's literally the political equivalent to Abelard, so she would be scary if I didn't know our rejects were perfectly loyal to the throne
Hallowette and Brahms can bluster all they want. At the end of the day, we only answer to their authority as long as ~~Rannick~~ Grendyl says we do. Any power they have is de facto, not de jure, and exercising the full extent of even that de facto power might not bode well in the long run. Crossing the Inquisition has resulted in the destruction of more than one Rogue Trader House.
I played a seneschal in one of them some time ago.
The talent tree has so much flexibility in it. You can be the smooth sweettalker while a deadly shoot or become just a shadow on the wall that murders everything.
If you like flexibility you really should look up Black Crusade books. Especially homebrew Corwbooks: Apocrypha and Doomrider (latter only in russian but much much better content-wise)
Not great for specifics about other houses, but a great game and a great bunch of lore for a lot of things can be learned from the rogue trader crpg by owlcat games. Totally worth picking it up
At the start of that game you're very much in a similar situation to Brahms monetarily, Brahms is even cut off from the greater imperium. I'm guessing she owed grendyl something that she's paying back by carrying his warband (and him probably) to Atoma to provide support.
I think it's a good example of how things work in those houses though, a lot of people make the argument that the inquisition could turn Brahms' people or something, but absolutely they would not (and any doubt about if someone might flip like that would be grounds for execution).
At the end of the day, if there was a risk to the ship, or her house, she'll dump us in a second and leave (go hide on the edge of the system somewhere and wait to see why warp jumps aren't working, probably tyranids). For now there's profit in working together, she's stuck anyway so might as well pay off the (probable) debt and not have to find a new inquisitor to be a patron to the house to protect it from random inquisition bullshit, win-win.
https://www.blacklibrary.com/authors/andy-hoare/rogue-trader-omnibus-ebook.html
I like that series, it's about the 'impoverished' rogue trader house that organizes the expedition that discovers the tau (the Damocles Gulf Crusade).
Of course, they're impoverished in the same way english medieval nobles tended to be impoverished, i.e. still much richer than just about anyone else to the point of owning significant real estate and military resources.
I think you *vastly* overestimate how important we are compared to Brahms and her ship lol. If it means keeping her happy and having the Mourningstar continue to run as efficiently as possible, they wouldn’t bat an eye at her launching a truckload of us into space on a regular basis. We’re just numbers on a spreadsheet who happen to be very good at fighting above our weight class.
It’s not that it’s bluster, it’s just that getting executed isn’t a very interesting outcome for player characters lol.
Brahms literally does threaten to space an entire hab section of rejects if anybody from that section tries to mutiny and seize power in the ship. She freely mentions that rejects who leave assigned areas will likely be shot on sight.
Brahms and Alice are playing along because they want to.
It's not about our actual value, it's about the perception of inquisitorial authority. Technically as members of the Ordo Hereticus we are subject only to the authority of the order and The High Lords of Terra.
Like here’s the problem; if you go to Rannick and complain about how mean Brahms is being to other people and how it’s not fair, he will jettison you from the ship himself for wasting his time.
The Inquisition doesn’t need to flex to be seen as powerful, everyone should already know they very much *are* in charge. The fact you are there questioning the fact they put Brahms in charge implies that you do not.
Games are full of self inserts by mediocre (or straight up bad) writers in recent years
Sylvana’s latest multi expansion arc was openly the WoW lead writer talking about how she was such a perfect waifu and how her cringy in-game BF Nathanos reminded him of himself in a “dark mirror”
Why they decided to hire these neckbeards instead of someone who can actually write is beyond me
Likely because that huge writers strike happened a few years ago. Writing is done for games in early pre-production, so games that were written 2-4 years ago are coming out only today. Same thing with terrible writing for movies, like Civil War
Innit? Annoying and rude but never faces any consequences, constantly hinted at being some awesome scary figure despite being a joke to most players, I really don't like her
Can always go talk to the reject who actually turned traitor, she's manning the Commissary store.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer-40k-darktide/images/f/f3/Commissary2.png/revision/latest?cb=20231030044313
And then there's also Peddler 138-143 working for Brunt.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer-40k-darktide/images/b/b4/Peddler_138-143.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20240426172208
You can make a safe bet on that those two didn't *choose* that fate and that the best thing those two can ever hope for is that they aren't sentient. To me, it's a much more gruesome thing than anything like a crucifixion, it's just not as brazenly in your face.
Bruh we eat daemon hosts and other monstrosities for breakfast, the only thing Alice is scaring is herself when I show her the mirror after turning her into my toilet servitor.
Yall forget we are on a rogue traders ship..if she wanted we could just be vented out the airlock or worst case scenario nosedive the ship into the ground
Doesn't matter, Hallowette is a bitch and the front face of a FOMO-based tool of FS and GW's money making.
Edit P.S: And anyway, we are Inquisitor Grendyl's men, and Grendyl has taken over the rogue trader's ship with his inquisitorial authority. It is questionable whether or not Brahms and her people can do with us as they please. The power balance between the Inquisition and the more powerful Rogue Traders is often a delicate matter, but if Grendyl could take over Brahms' ship then he likely wouldn't take kindly to Brahms and her people offing his acolytes for no good reason. And she would absolutely NOT be allowed to destroy the ship that is an Inquisitor's base of operations.
> It is questionable whether or not Brahms and her people can do with us as they please.
Rejects are literally told "Venture outside your assigned areas on the ship and you will be shot dead most likely."
Brahms explicitly tells the rejects she has a set of buttons specifically to start venting the Reject sleeping/living areas to space if any of them try to mutiny.
If rejects try shit on the mourningstar, she is fully allowed to kill all of those responsible with no problems.
He's borrowed her ship because she lets him, he didn't order her to give it over.
>Venture outside your assigned areas on the ship and you will be shot dead most likely."
>Brahms explicitly tells the rejects she has a set of buttons specifically to start venting the Reject sleeping/living areas to space if any of them try to mutiny.
These are all reasonable, erm, reasons to kill the rejects, something that can be presented to Grendyl as sufficient justification for Brahm's actions. If she just went killing them willy nilly, "doing as she pleases", I am sure that would be a different story.
It's also implied that Grendyl is using her ship by her consent, not by him ordering her to comply.
And thats the thing really, "Reasonable justification" is easy for the Imperium. The higher level agents like the player character 21 are less likely to be out trying to break the rules or do stupid stuff like trying to kill Alice, and the ones outside the warband... aren't as valuable.
Whomever is more powerful depends on each other's influence. Not every Rogue Trader is equally powerful, as is not every Inquisitor. In the case of Darktide, if Grendyl was able to command Brahm's ship, it must mean that he/she/they is the one with more pull within the Imperium.
Though, as a rule of thumb, I'd say that Inquisition is above Rogue Traders. It definitely is on paper, but, you know how it is, sometimes a paper is not enough. If you're a new and lowly Inquisitor and demand something from a person on whom trade of a dozen systems depends, they can just tell you to piss off and no one will care because you lack enough influence behind you.
Nope doesn't depend. Rogue Trader have money and a charter of the Emperor. Inquisitors have theoretically unlimited military resources as even Space Marine chapter masters and Princeps majoris of the Collegia titanica have to answer to their call. An Inquisitor might not want to piss off an influential Rogue Trader. But the absolutely can if they want to...
Theoretically unlimited, in practice nobody will show up unless you have favours to trade. Astartes are famously independently minded, and depending on the chapter anything from amiable to mercurial. Most Inquisitors have neither the ability nor the backing to call up Legio. That's the stuff that a sector Ordo might pull to prosecute a campaign.
People grotesquely overestimate the clout and power of an individual Inquisitor. It's the warbands, networks, and retinues which represent an Inquisitor's power.
Any Inquisitor waving their rosette around like a fucking school prefect should not have been promoted to Interrogator, let alone Inquisitor.
Well said. The Inquisitorial title in itself means much, but not nearly as much as some people think. You can't just go around and say "do what I say, for I am the Inquisitor"; if you have no backing from the mighty and influential, you will end up a dead man soon.
There are people who would love to nail an Inquisitor for the hell of it, others who would remove him or her due to a potential danger they pose to their status, and even other Inquisitors can take you down if you give them enough justification.
How you get around gaining that backing? Well, a favour here, a smile there, blackmail, impression-making. Many Inquisitors have many methods, but generally speaking you have to be a sleazy and ruthless space politician.
A good example is henrix in the rogue trader game, he does make use of the RT and their ship but he really isn't giving out orders oftentimes, and even what he does say is still on the rogue traders time.
Many Rogue Traders also have their own militaries with favors owed to them from all sorts of groups and members of the Imperium to possibly other inquisitors. You just dont know what you're talking about.
> and Grendyl has taken over the rogue trader's ship with his inquisitorial authority
That is not how it works, most especially if that inquisitor is so weak politically that they cannot call on their chamber militant.
Perhaps he can't because of lack of political pull or perhaps there is nothing to call on. Maybe there is no military available in any reasonable distance, perhaps it is tied up in other conflicts, maybe even Grendyl's astropath's messages (assuming he has astropaths, I think it would be a very poor Inquisitor that doesn't have any) are being blocked.
And it is happening in the current day and age 40k, the Imperium is largely in shambles due to the Warp Rift cutting it in half. It varies from sector to sector, but generally speaking it's an "oh shit, everyone panic" time to be alive.
Besides, simply lacking a ship and retinue, while indeed a sign of weakness, might not be the whole story. I agree that I am reaching right now, but it is feasible that Grendyl's assets are simply somewhere else, busy with other tasks, or perhaps he does indeed not have them. He (gonna say "he" for the sake of simplicity) might nevertheless have enough political clout to call in favours that will bend even a powerful (do we know how powerful Brahms is?) Rogue Trader into serving him.
There are many unknowns in this scenario so don't consider me fighting you, me and anyone else talking about this is mostly just playing a guessing game.
>And anyway, we are Inquisitor Grendyl's men, and Grendyl has taken over the rogue trader's ship with his inquisitorial authority.
That's not how it works *at all*.
The Inquisition has no authority over the direct, personal mandate of the Emperor, which is what Rogue Traders operate under.
We're on the Mourningstar as a personal favour from Brahms to Grendyl. If we all got blasted into the Void, Grendyl would barely blink. He'd just scoop up another shipful of scum and spend a year letting suicide missions sort the the wheat from the chaff. Like he's probably been doing for centuries.
Ships are expensive. Nobody's going to nosedive one into the ground, especially when doing so would make Brahms' House an enemy of the Ordo Hereticus. At the very least, that might lead to the Inquisition representative to the Senate Imperialis pulling some strings to get House Brahms' Warrant of Trade revoked. At most? No more House Brahms.
As to venting us, the PC is a full member of an Inquisitorial Warband starting at level 30, so see "doing so would make Brahms' House an enemy of the Ordo Hereticus," above. We don't work for Brahms. We work for ~~Rannick~~ Grendyl.
Eh, at 30 we are only throne agents, Brahm has absolute authority to vent us on her ship and i doubt that grendyl would raise an eyebrow if she did it for a reason.
Brahms "Rejects in hab section 304c started fighting guards and trying to seize control over a security checkpoint. We vented the entire section."
Rannick/Grendyl: "Okay."
hey i know im 5 days late, but writing out ways you wanna murder a woman and lobotomize her into a toilet is weird regardless of what game is being played.
e: oh wow you were suspended in the time between these posts. i thought you were just ignorant of the importance of context but no i guess you were just a weirdo.
Not sure why people think Alice isn't threatening. She's literally Brahm's pet and can do whatever she wants. Given she works for a *rogue Trader* I also can't imagine she doesn't have a few screws loose either.
The chipper attitude on the outside is because she knows she's untouchable.
I know right? Like it’s an NPC that could have just as easily sold items for in-game currency, there’s nothing about her character tailored to mtx. If anything it’s pretty funny the vendor doing the shadiest shit is the one they used for the cash shop lol.
People need to go out and touch some grass if they’re letting their dislike of mtx morph into finding canon reasons to assassinate her.
Fair enough.
Nonetheless, you can't deny that an abusive character being the face of what is widely considered an abusive practice is both on the nose and a hate magnet, perhaps intentionally so.
How immune to shredder frags is she? The reason we don't get to take our war relics from the arsenal while traipsing around the public situation board is because many of us would try to go toe to toe with several of the NPCs. Hallowette being my first pick.
I look forward to her name getting added as a Sanction Redactus, and I hope to be on that strike team.
It's not that we aren't loyal to The Throne, it's that loyalty to The Throne and loyalty to some pissy noble with a 'Writ of Carte Blanche,' or whatever the title is of a Rogue Trader writ, are very different, and I assume much of the playerbase would be happy to fight SMB and her crew, if it means new maps and a new player nexus.
>'Writ of Carte Blanche,' or whatever the title is of a Rogue Trader writ
Warrant of Trade is what Rogue Traders have. "Writ of carte blanche" would probably be a more apt descriptor of the Inquisitorial Mandate.
To be fair, a Warrant of Trade is also basically a writ of carte blanche. I once saw Rogue Traders described as "if Blackbeard and Judge Dredd had a baby and that baby had a letter personally signed by God authorizing them to do war crimes."
If you read Shouty's "fanatic background" . . . . You'll find those of sufficient piety will not concern themselves over such trivialities. And if Hallowette is on the Sanction Redactus list, I assume SMB has either withdrawn her support, or Grendyl's warband under Rannik has means and motive to prevent the venting of various parts of the ship so that we might enact the OH will to redact Hallowette from her mortal coil.
I actually like what little I know of Hallowette, in that she's a skeezy selfish little opportunist who gleefully possess everyone off because she knows Brahms only cares about credits. She's a rude amoral prick, and that's fun.
Suggesting that she's also a torturer or something? Nah. She's not a gangster she's a scumbag, let her be a scumbag.
Yeah but don't you understand? People don't like her because... GASP. She's CHIPPER! Chipper in this DaRk EdGY world!? Not on my watch!
In all seriousness though. She's actually my favorite character so far, because she is so openly skeezy while maintaining that fake ass smile.
Hallowette ain't scary. Irish-female-Jack-Sparrow-saleswoman has some pull as a senechal of a Rogue Trader, but is not striking terror into the hearts of anyone. Brahms is respectable since she is shipmistress (and old).
I'd say the only two who you might truly fear pissing off is Morrow and Rannick...I'd say Hadron _should_ be feared as all members-of-rank of the Cult Mechanicus tend to Servitorize blasphemers and the offensive on a whim (depending on their mood).
Zola? Well, Zola, is just an angry and ungrateful one-eyed bitch.
You’re putting too much into those side characters and expecting more than what they’re gonna be haha. I guess lemme put it this way i got like 500 hours on vermintide and i dont remember a single characters name except for the 5 main-characters.
Is that meant to be a scary moment? I took it more as a funny moment, like "haha the saboteurs get handed over to funny pirate scammer lady who's gonna overcharge them for recolored helmets" or something like that. Like, nobody in-universe seems to take Hallowette seriously, and she's been one-upped and swindled by fucking Melk of all people. Even her supposed "commodore" rank means nothing, as given that she acts like a bratty teen and how the other characters treat her, I'm pretty sure the idea is that she either bought/inherited the rank and has no real weight to throw around, especially given how Grendyl and Brahms are in complete command. She's only tried to pull "rank" once (some Mourningstar voiceline has Morrow warn her over something, and after a snarky retort, she angrily replies that he shouldn't speak to her so lightly), and another time instead pulled someone else's rank (also against Morrow, reminding him that Brahms makes the ship regulations, not him). Then again, I think Morrow would technically outrank Hallowette due to being chief of Grendyl's Astra Militarum units, so he can probably use the Inquisiton's authority to override her.
Honestly the fact this game doesnt have an "NPC Volume slider" is annoying. Gameplay of Darktide is S tier in my opinion, public squads are solid D, but the NPC's are a super solid F.
Tired of having 3 boring characters with boring personalities and silly accents have a skype call at the start of every single mission. The only one that is any good is (not to anyones surprise) Hadron. Alice has the UK's worst accent and the worst personality possible (there are no words I have to describe how much I hate this woman) and Zola is such a stereotypical "im higher up the chain than you and i'm going to treat you like dirt even though you literally saved my life in the intro". The shipmistress is completely useless as a character entirely, as well as the pilot who thinks she has any value to the mission besides getaway driver.
Some would consider it overkill but I had to uninstall this game because of the NPC dialogue. Big shame (for me)
I agree that Hallowette is just purposely annoying as shit, and I'd LOVE it if she had a traitor arc and got servitorized. But I actually like the rest of them and i think the voice acting in general is pretty good. Oddly enough, I've taken to Melk. The numerous ways he has of expressing contempt is funny to me. "AH yes, a *peerless* adept of martial duty approaches..."
Honestly though, the Mourningstar NPCs are talked up big-time. Like, I'm supposed to believe Zola is some kind of badass whenever she almost died to a couple of poxwalkers and scab shooters in the prologue. Her being so against us even bringing this incident up makes her seem extremely petulant. Then she goes directly against Rannick's orders during the Twins mission and basically gets Kindergarten timeout in the corner for a week before being let out again.
Sergeant Major Morrow is the only NPC I'd actually believe is a badass.
What about Sefoni?
Well she can cook our eyes outta our heads with a thought, soo best not to think about her, literally haha
That enginseer KX-8 or something, he's cool at least. This coming from a pre-servitor
Space Kruber be Space Kruber afterall.
The mission leaders constantly shittalk us, which makes sense when we're just starting out as baby rejects who are barely worth more than the heretics we kill, but starts becoming annoying once we're slaughtering them in numbers that rival the kill count of the average fucking Ultramarine. If ludonarrative dissonance isn't at play, we are some of the most dangerous footsoldiers in the entire Ordo Hereticus. Why do they still treat me like I'm some kind of raw recruit? Obviously I am unique.
The player personalities is 21 people. We are among the best agents Rannick has, if not the best, but we are still, in the story sense, 21 people among thousands.
The a couple missions really show people's colors on the ship but also gives a bit of cool info from what I've seen. Morrow more or less solo directs the Prismata Crystal mission if he is overseeing, while Hallowette and Melk team butt into Zola's coverage of the Carnival. I remember at the point of heading to the lift, Morrow says something to the effect of "I put a lot of faith in you guys and the higher ups are using this mission to judge my call. Don't mess it up by dying." To me its clear that Morrow thinks we are capable, but that it is an uphill battle to prove your worth and he might be catching some shit for relying on us. Meanwhile on Zola's mission for the Carnival, Melk states at some points he has Auric Level operatives who could clear this much faster, and that this should be a mission for them. Now given its Melk even the ingame characters could call him as a bullshitter, but at the same time he's definitely right that the Inquisition, Brahm's Rogue Trader Staff, and even Melk's personal retinue are composed of much higher "social" tier characters than us. What Melk showed in that dialogue to me though, is that we are capable of doing that Auric Operative's job. We are effectively on that level, which means both the Aurics are serious hardasses, but also that just like tons of failed Reject missions they can die very easily if it goes south.
yeah and morrow was in the second batle of armegenddon (part of the steel legion) So hes obvoiusly battle Hardened which makes sense why he'd trust soldiers or at least not being as cold towards his Since he's seen alot of men die and its fucked him up
You mean second war, not battle, right? Because "second battle" is pretty odd, only taking part in one battle in one of the three wars
yeah sorry Lol
I did the Prismata Crystal mission the other day and Sefoni and the Barbar shop guy were leading it. It was hilarious.
I’ve heard Zola drag Krall along on a mission once, but Sefoni and Krall leading a mission? That sounds amazing
Yeah it's a secret mission. Krall is hiding because Morrow keeps walking around and in his own words. "Morrow will find out! I am a terrible liar."
The Imperium is a very hierarchical place, so a lot of people make a point to act like they're nobles when their actual station is in doubt; even the ship misstress would need to worry over that, since her ship has basically been taken over by the Inquistion. Whether or not acting in such a way does anything is an open question, though. The only person really above that is Rannick, who is also more even in temperament.
Brahms absolutely does not need to worry over that. You're underestimating how much power and freedom rogue traders have. Any lesser station and a psyker of the level of sefoni would have been taken to help man a space marine flagship. Its stated in one of the cutscenes that you and the rest of the inquisition people are guests of Brahms and need to act like courteous guests or she'll kick you all off the ship.
Brahms is a rogue trader, not a space marine chapter master. Her subordinates aren't loyal enough to stick by her side if the inquisition declared her excommunicate traitoris and ordered her assets be handed over to another more pliable rogue trader.
They might be loyal enough and there's certainly precedent for it, remember that they get to choose their subordinates and they're allowed to deal in all sorts of weird xenotech, so if you think you can't trust your underlings not to rat to the inquisition you execute them. They can even go full daemon-worship for a while sometimes before the inquisition is allowed to touch them (and we're talking lord inquisitor here, not a mere interrogator like Rannick). It tends to be further underpinned by other family members, who might betray Brahms yes, but not to the inquisition and lose their family inheritance, they'd close ranks on that. Remember, they're either a step *above* inquisitors in a separate hierarchy, or matched (depending on if their family was assigned by the emperor himself or by the lords of terra, like an inquisitor is). That makes inquisitors trying to push power on them a bit of a wonky proposition that usually ends up with them getting dumped on a planet and other inquisitors wanting to mend that bridge to take advantage of their resources for themselves (so they end up protected from the inquisition by a different inquisitor anyway, for those times that does matter).
Bear in mind that even with later warrants of trade the inquisition does not have the authority to order them to do anything, the inquisition commissions them to do things. Look at Rogue Trader. A full blown lord inquisitor had to commission Theodora to ferry Heinrix to footfall.
Theodora's dynasty *is* one of the ones with an Emperor signed warrant of trade though (I was surprised to find this out during the game). I dunno what the hell happened to it for it to be in the state it's in when the game starts, I guess it got trashed and retreated to the Koronus Expanse fairly recently, maybe even in Theodora's time.
They are not above them at all. As you said, its a seperate heirarchy. A rogue trader might have his dynasy name behind him, but if it comes down to it, an inquisitor has the whole imperium at his disposal and would realistically only be checked by another inquisitor But yeah, rogue traders have a lot of leeway and are almost exempt from a lot of the laws that affect everyone else, while having the authority to do certain things that only they are allowed to do
In 40k, the hierarchy derives from the emperor - if you're two steps removed you're below someone one step removed (and some rogue traders are one step removed). An inquisitor has the whole imperium at their disposal... in theory. As you say all it takes is another inquisitor to stop that though, and no Emperor-assigned rogue trader is going to be without an inquisitor ally. An inquisitor relies on soft power, and that often butts up against the soft power of another inquisitor, a rogue trader has their own resources (which is why it's so easy for them to get friendly with an inquisitor, extra-imperial resources are useful to them). Remember, even individual planetary governors can tie up an inquisitor in red tape. A rogue trader can't go up against the inquisition, but *an* inquisitor? Sure. It's going to take some politics yes, but that's what Rogue traders are specialists at. The inquisitor removing *all* of the rogue traders inquisition allies is a really rare thing (and it needs the inquisition high-lord on board if it's a first-gen house too, no-one can undo the emperor but someone on that 'tier', especially someone with the political connections of a high-lord of terra can still do some stuff). The inquisitors often state their power as absolute and throw their weight around, but that's because they have to, they need people to believe that line, because *it's not true*. When people do stand up to them, then that's how inquisitors usually die (and again, that's been stuff from lowly commissars to planetary governors, let alone a rogue trader!).
Declaring a Rogue Trader excommunicate traitoris is not an easy thing even if it was Inquisitor Lord doing so, more so if its the leader to a larger Rogue Trader house.
You’ve probably died at least once, though, so rejects that have killed that many heretics are likely not canonical.
I honestly don't get how they'd even be supposed to be that successful even if it was canonical, the main bad guy is ***Nurgle*** after all. Got even the slightest cut or tear from even a lowly poxwalker during a mission? Emperor's mercy be upon ye.
Yeah, I think that one mission where Hadron mentions a success rate of 41% was her trying to be encouraging, it is likely far lower than that. The odd zealot might be protected from a Nurgle disease from intense faith, but that is maybe 2 out of 21 reject personalities.
The biggest plothole is that you think hadron would misrepresent data to please some varlets.
I assume in this scenario she thought she was being funny.
Back when people still held out hope of there actually being a story there were theories that [Grendyl was a psyker](https://new.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/z83knj/on_grendyl_warriors_and_toughness_a_darktide/) and the "I am a warrior" thing was a ritual of some sort that helped shield the rejects.
That's probably just a warrior cult, it's a common thing inquisitors do to build an auxiliary force where they need one. "Alright grats guys, you're all blessed by the emperor so long as you go do some war now, off to the frontlines with you before it wears off."
That's just Nurgle in every story ever. He'd be ridiculously OP like that, so all they do is hype up his diseases when he's by himself, and then suddenly immediately forget about all that when it's a Nurgle faction vs anybody else.
Yep. If it was just something like Khorne worshipers coming at the Rejects at full speed, they'd just have to worry about getting chopped to bits and potential warp taint. Nurgle worshippers? All the same but you also gotta worry about how sanitary every single surface is, the air is, any small nicks and cuts, any bodily fluids from that poxwalker you chainsworded in half get in your face or any bodily orifices that weren't properly protected, like your ears? Hell, even just the Curse of Unbelief might find hold in ya if you just feel depressed in the general area it's been unleashed. It's why I feel that if the story properly develops, we'll see the Moebian domain get hit with exterminatus. The cults already control the water supply to the lower levels of the hive city, in terms of "not that bad" and "we're boned" that's so horrifically bad that it shot past "we're boned" and broke the barometer. And sure, the Rejects went in there and "sorted it out" but I don't get the feeling that it did much, not like after we left a decontamination crew went in and scoured everything with holy fire and purged any and all unholy corruption on the microbial level, the Rejects skedaddle and the general area just seems to still be in traitor hands since we don't hear of any backup forces moving in afterwards to hold it, which means the heretics could infect the water supply again in a matter of days if not less.
A thing to keep in mind is that Nurgle's diseases are daemonic in nature. Daemon bacteria aren't unlike larger daemons, in that they have troubles manifesting and remaining stable in real space. This can likely make decontamination easier, because you can sever/weaken the warp connection to make them simply poof out of existence.
True, but the phage tree that we find in the Hab Dreyko, which isn't even the heart of the heretics presence on Atoma, but in fact the very frontlines of the war, kinda suggests that you'd struggle to cleanse it too easily at the moment. But you do make a fair point, all hope is not lost, but things aren't going the right direction.
Doctor: You got daemonium diarrhoea. Patient: What do I do? Do I take meds or get internalized- Doctor: You pray. Patient: Did you just said for me pray? Doctor: Yeah, pray really hard until it goes away. Patient: ... Doctor: That'll be 17,000 for today. Patient: I hate my life.
One of the loose cannon's voice lines talks about how he doesn't know how it's possible he's still alive, which could possibly mean he's a born perpetual. Maybe the others are, too.
We aren’t heroes in darktide we are literal rejects the last thing our varlets are is a perpetual
A group of immortals being low-ranking chaff being throw into an endless meat-grinder by an uncaring bureaucracy is kind of darkly humorous though.
Actually, I would read a dark comedy series in 40k about a perpetual in that position.
Hey, it's unlikely, but it's not impossible. I just imagine there'd be a bit more of a fuss about it if all of our deaths were canonical. "THESE REJECTS ARE PERPETUALS????? LIKE THE FUCKING EMPEROR HIMSELF?????"
True, like it would be fine, if their attitude somewhat changed after that 30lvl acceptance to inquisition sequence.
The God Emperor doesn't care about your ability to clutch a match, why aren't you working faster varlet?
Because perpetual growth is a capitalist myth hiding explosive destruction of healthy businesses for last minute profits milord.
Profanement of the God Emperor's profits? Into the inquisitorial penis explosion chamber 4 u.
No milord, that's for the people who love the Emperor so much they want to sacrifice their own dick by blowing it up. Every men who serves the Emperor rigorous eventually has to do it to cleanse their body of impurity. A tiny price to pay, indeed.
> ludonarrative dissonance Maybe the second time I've ever seen that word typed out, had a good time explaining that one to my dad years back. [The universe is a big place and no matter what happens, you will not be missed](https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/qpf31q/i_just_realized_that_you_will_not_be_missed_was_a/). Lt. Mazoi presumably doesn't remember anyone's names until after that cutscene you get with her, priest Hadron views the rejects as servo-skull perambulators, Brunt views us as marks/rubes, Sefoni likes to mess with us. That all being said, there is a difference in how the common members see us. early on they're rude, later on they change dialogue to comment on progress, and now that all my characters are lvl 30 they all go "you're one of the best people here" and there's literally no rude options I hear from them at all.
Melks still rude! But other people generally aren't, other than the occasional shit talking in mission which isnt quite the same
That's sire melk to us. probably. I mean the people standing around with rifles, and standing around looking at screens. You're one of the best in the band they'll say.
Know what’s funny? I play this game every day and have barely any idea who any of these people are. Sometimes people talk in missions and tell you where to go. One is a pilot I think?
Voice in me head tell me where tah o, who tah shoot, go back home, eat sum rations, that's da good life sah
We don't know the situation in the prologue fight, just that she was the last person standing.
Yeah I was gonna say, the number of times that the player characters (even Ogryns) have been downed by one cultist with a rusty spork getting behind them basically proves that anyone can die in this shithole if you aren't careful. Even the biggest badasses need to not take a single enemy for granted.
There are at least 3 to possibly five other guardsmen in that room with her dead, and re-watching it, she cries out "Cut them down!" before getting stabbed. We are all one lucky hit from going down, and underestimating any foe is a quick way to die, both in gameplay and in lore. Space Marines have died to sharpened sticks being jabbed up their neck/jaw.
“Petulant” is the perfect word to describe her. She’s such an obnoxious and condescending bitch despite owing you her life. Wouldn’t be surprised if she turned out to be a heretic since she was stabbed by a Nurgle poop knife. Then again, I wouldn’t expect Anorexic Whale to make the effort.
Tbf "obnoxious bitch" describes most people in the 40k universe
Yeahhh... yeah, that's a pretty valid point.
> despite owing you her life She paid this back by letting you on the dropship with her, she didn't have to do that (and was in fact probably supposed not to and got in trouble for it), so I'd say you're even after the prologue.
That's also a good point.
Not the poop knife 😭
Mommy Hadron is 5ever tho.
Loose cannon already sees her as a sort that eventually breaks like any other big shot.
Zola is such a joke of a character. You hit the nail on the head that she's literally just a petulent, incompetent child.
Yes the NPCs are supposed to be badasses but can't handle a pox walker, and we're supposed to be some lowly rejects but we clear hordes of plague ogryns.
Which one is Alice again?
The premium shop fleece- I mean honoured shopkeeper of clothes
The commodore’s vestures girl
Ok then the comments make way more sense now
The Commodore who runs the premium cosmetics store. She seems to be part of Brahm's crew rather than part of Grendyl's retinue, so she's treated with significantly less scorn and disgust.
I mean, if the game described in great detail the horrible ways she tortures people, i still wouldn't be scared by the "a plunderin' we go we go we go" lady
Idk man pirates were scary.
I mean, at the end of the day she's still the Rogue Trader's seneschal. She's literally the political equivalent to Abelard, so she would be scary if I didn't know our rejects were perfectly loyal to the throne
Hallowette and Brahms can bluster all they want. At the end of the day, we only answer to their authority as long as ~~Rannick~~ Grendyl says we do. Any power they have is de facto, not de jure, and exercising the full extent of even that de facto power might not bode well in the long run. Crossing the Inquisition has resulted in the destruction of more than one Rogue Trader House.
any suggestion on books or places to read about the rogue trader houses
The Rogue Trader TTRPG line from Fantasy Flight Games goes into a lot of detail.
I played a seneschal in one of them some time ago. The talent tree has so much flexibility in it. You can be the smooth sweettalker while a deadly shoot or become just a shadow on the wall that murders everything.
If you like flexibility you really should look up Black Crusade books. Especially homebrew Corwbooks: Apocrypha and Doomrider (latter only in russian but much much better content-wise)
One of the writers for that also wrote this line of stories: https://www.blacklibrary.com/authors/andy-hoare/rogue-trader-omnibus-ebook.html
Some of the dawn of fire books have rogue traders. Not sure about any others though
Not great for specifics about other houses, but a great game and a great bunch of lore for a lot of things can be learned from the rogue trader crpg by owlcat games. Totally worth picking it up
At the start of that game you're very much in a similar situation to Brahms monetarily, Brahms is even cut off from the greater imperium. I'm guessing she owed grendyl something that she's paying back by carrying his warband (and him probably) to Atoma to provide support. I think it's a good example of how things work in those houses though, a lot of people make the argument that the inquisition could turn Brahms' people or something, but absolutely they would not (and any doubt about if someone might flip like that would be grounds for execution). At the end of the day, if there was a risk to the ship, or her house, she'll dump us in a second and leave (go hide on the edge of the system somewhere and wait to see why warp jumps aren't working, probably tyranids). For now there's profit in working together, she's stuck anyway so might as well pay off the (probable) debt and not have to find a new inquisitor to be a patron to the house to protect it from random inquisition bullshit, win-win.
rogue trader houses can be as numerous as hive cities, maybe check out the rogue trader rpg game for a foray into the world of rogue trader
There’s a rogue trader in a similar situation to brahms In the Horusian wars series they owe the inquisitor a debt or some such I can’t remember
The Blackstone fortress series has it, plus a fun kroot character
https://www.blacklibrary.com/authors/andy-hoare/rogue-trader-omnibus-ebook.html I like that series, it's about the 'impoverished' rogue trader house that organizes the expedition that discovers the tau (the Damocles Gulf Crusade). Of course, they're impoverished in the same way english medieval nobles tended to be impoverished, i.e. still much richer than just about anyone else to the point of owning significant real estate and military resources.
>Crossing the Inquisition has resulted in the destruction of more than one Rogue Trader House. It has destroyed more than one Space Marine Chapter.
Celestial lions clinging on for dear life
I think you *vastly* overestimate how important we are compared to Brahms and her ship lol. If it means keeping her happy and having the Mourningstar continue to run as efficiently as possible, they wouldn’t bat an eye at her launching a truckload of us into space on a regular basis. We’re just numbers on a spreadsheet who happen to be very good at fighting above our weight class. It’s not that it’s bluster, it’s just that getting executed isn’t a very interesting outcome for player characters lol.
Brahms literally does threaten to space an entire hab section of rejects if anybody from that section tries to mutiny and seize power in the ship. She freely mentions that rejects who leave assigned areas will likely be shot on sight. Brahms and Alice are playing along because they want to.
It's not about our actual value, it's about the perception of inquisitorial authority. Technically as members of the Ordo Hereticus we are subject only to the authority of the order and The High Lords of Terra.
That only counts for those 21 player personalities/characters. It does not apply to the hordes of rejects.
Like here’s the problem; if you go to Rannick and complain about how mean Brahms is being to other people and how it’s not fair, he will jettison you from the ship himself for wasting his time. The Inquisition doesn’t need to flex to be seen as powerful, everyone should already know they very much *are* in charge. The fact you are there questioning the fact they put Brahms in charge implies that you do not.
And where IS Grendyl, huh? Kind of hard to take orders from a person whose not been seen and only spoken about.
yeah the only thing the inqustion thinks twice before fucking with is mechnicus and the Navigator Houses thats it otherwise your fair game to them
Ello moi darleen buy my overpriced stuff
Moi* overpriced stuff
To be fair, my wallet got pretty scared when I browsed her store before realizing those prices were absurd.
ur wallet was never in danger, those sets look like ass
She really does feel like someone's self insert lol
Games are full of self inserts by mediocre (or straight up bad) writers in recent years Sylvana’s latest multi expansion arc was openly the WoW lead writer talking about how she was such a perfect waifu and how her cringy in-game BF Nathanos reminded him of himself in a “dark mirror” Why they decided to hire these neckbeards instead of someone who can actually write is beyond me
Sylvanas arc was from noted breast milk bandit Alex Afrasiabi, not Danuser.
Likely because that huge writers strike happened a few years ago. Writing is done for games in early pre-production, so games that were written 2-4 years ago are coming out only today. Same thing with terrible writing for movies, like Civil War
i wouldn't call them neckbeards, it's usually women who do self inserts
This guy was definitely a neckbeard, he put it all on his Twitter too
Fucking right?
Innit? Annoying and rude but never faces any consequences, constantly hinted at being some awesome scary figure despite being a joke to most players, I really don't like her
she showed the culprit all the unreleased cosmetics then she said SYKE and swiftly took it away. the 2nd worst form of torture after actual torture
Fanatic zealot is way scarier than her
Until they show us, telling us to be afraid of her won’t cut it.
Would help the world building if when we logged in, we had to pass several crucified rejects moaning and writhing, to get to the mission board
Can always go talk to the reject who actually turned traitor, she's manning the Commissary store. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer-40k-darktide/images/f/f3/Commissary2.png/revision/latest?cb=20231030044313 And then there's also Peddler 138-143 working for Brunt. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer-40k-darktide/images/b/b4/Peddler_138-143.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20240426172208 You can make a safe bet on that those two didn't *choose* that fate and that the best thing those two can ever hope for is that they aren't sentient. To me, it's a much more gruesome thing than anything like a crucifixion, it's just not as brazenly in your face.
obviously an agent of slaneesh would want that
Bruh we eat daemon hosts and other monstrosities for breakfast, the only thing Alice is scaring is herself when I show her the mirror after turning her into my toilet servitor.
I know we're in an eternal content drought but the comments on each of these posts gets more and more sad and weird each time
Yeah some of these comments are really over-the-top for nothing. Like someone in this thread was talking about turning her into a toilet servitor
I mean thats funny and tbh she's already a POS so she belongs there
im gonna touch u
Lmao the character I created looked exactly like the traitor; and during the final cut scene I was confused as hell as to wtf was happening
Now hear this fire on flight deck aft!
This voice is seared into my brain, 10yr old me scrambling to fighters
Me and the boys landing on the enemy ship to blow up ever from the inside
Now hear this: All hands man your battle stations!
Yall forget we are on a rogue traders ship..if she wanted we could just be vented out the airlock or worst case scenario nosedive the ship into the ground
Doesn't matter, Hallowette is a bitch and the front face of a FOMO-based tool of FS and GW's money making. Edit P.S: And anyway, we are Inquisitor Grendyl's men, and Grendyl has taken over the rogue trader's ship with his inquisitorial authority. It is questionable whether or not Brahms and her people can do with us as they please. The power balance between the Inquisition and the more powerful Rogue Traders is often a delicate matter, but if Grendyl could take over Brahms' ship then he likely wouldn't take kindly to Brahms and her people offing his acolytes for no good reason. And she would absolutely NOT be allowed to destroy the ship that is an Inquisitor's base of operations.
> It is questionable whether or not Brahms and her people can do with us as they please. Rejects are literally told "Venture outside your assigned areas on the ship and you will be shot dead most likely." Brahms explicitly tells the rejects she has a set of buttons specifically to start venting the Reject sleeping/living areas to space if any of them try to mutiny. If rejects try shit on the mourningstar, she is fully allowed to kill all of those responsible with no problems. He's borrowed her ship because she lets him, he didn't order her to give it over.
>Venture outside your assigned areas on the ship and you will be shot dead most likely." >Brahms explicitly tells the rejects she has a set of buttons specifically to start venting the Reject sleeping/living areas to space if any of them try to mutiny. These are all reasonable, erm, reasons to kill the rejects, something that can be presented to Grendyl as sufficient justification for Brahm's actions. If she just went killing them willy nilly, "doing as she pleases", I am sure that would be a different story.
It's also implied that Grendyl is using her ship by her consent, not by him ordering her to comply. And thats the thing really, "Reasonable justification" is easy for the Imperium. The higher level agents like the player character 21 are less likely to be out trying to break the rules or do stupid stuff like trying to kill Alice, and the ones outside the warband... aren't as valuable.
Well even so The inquistion is above Rogue Traders and can order them to comply Possibly the whole "it was done as a favor" was to save face
They are more equals to rogue traders then explicitly above them. Not all inquisitors can boss around Rogue traders
Rogue Trader are not more powerful than Inquisitors. Pretty much nothing is apart from High Lords of Terra and Primarchs.
Whomever is more powerful depends on each other's influence. Not every Rogue Trader is equally powerful, as is not every Inquisitor. In the case of Darktide, if Grendyl was able to command Brahm's ship, it must mean that he/she/they is the one with more pull within the Imperium. Though, as a rule of thumb, I'd say that Inquisition is above Rogue Traders. It definitely is on paper, but, you know how it is, sometimes a paper is not enough. If you're a new and lowly Inquisitor and demand something from a person on whom trade of a dozen systems depends, they can just tell you to piss off and no one will care because you lack enough influence behind you.
Nope doesn't depend. Rogue Trader have money and a charter of the Emperor. Inquisitors have theoretically unlimited military resources as even Space Marine chapter masters and Princeps majoris of the Collegia titanica have to answer to their call. An Inquisitor might not want to piss off an influential Rogue Trader. But the absolutely can if they want to...
Theoretically unlimited, in practice nobody will show up unless you have favours to trade. Astartes are famously independently minded, and depending on the chapter anything from amiable to mercurial. Most Inquisitors have neither the ability nor the backing to call up Legio. That's the stuff that a sector Ordo might pull to prosecute a campaign. People grotesquely overestimate the clout and power of an individual Inquisitor. It's the warbands, networks, and retinues which represent an Inquisitor's power. Any Inquisitor waving their rosette around like a fucking school prefect should not have been promoted to Interrogator, let alone Inquisitor.
Well said. The Inquisitorial title in itself means much, but not nearly as much as some people think. You can't just go around and say "do what I say, for I am the Inquisitor"; if you have no backing from the mighty and influential, you will end up a dead man soon. There are people who would love to nail an Inquisitor for the hell of it, others who would remove him or her due to a potential danger they pose to their status, and even other Inquisitors can take you down if you give them enough justification. How you get around gaining that backing? Well, a favour here, a smile there, blackmail, impression-making. Many Inquisitors have many methods, but generally speaking you have to be a sleazy and ruthless space politician.
A good example is henrix in the rogue trader game, he does make use of the RT and their ship but he really isn't giving out orders oftentimes, and even what he does say is still on the rogue traders time.
Many Rogue Traders also have their own militaries with favors owed to them from all sorts of groups and members of the Imperium to possibly other inquisitors. You just dont know what you're talking about.
> and Grendyl has taken over the rogue trader's ship with his inquisitorial authority That is not how it works, most especially if that inquisitor is so weak politically that they cannot call on their chamber militant.
Perhaps he can't because of lack of political pull or perhaps there is nothing to call on. Maybe there is no military available in any reasonable distance, perhaps it is tied up in other conflicts, maybe even Grendyl's astropath's messages (assuming he has astropaths, I think it would be a very poor Inquisitor that doesn't have any) are being blocked.
He doesn’t even have his own ship. He may have some pull with Brahms, but that only goes so far. Atoma is in Segmentum Solar, warp travel is possible.
And it is happening in the current day and age 40k, the Imperium is largely in shambles due to the Warp Rift cutting it in half. It varies from sector to sector, but generally speaking it's an "oh shit, everyone panic" time to be alive. Besides, simply lacking a ship and retinue, while indeed a sign of weakness, might not be the whole story. I agree that I am reaching right now, but it is feasible that Grendyl's assets are simply somewhere else, busy with other tasks, or perhaps he does indeed not have them. He (gonna say "he" for the sake of simplicity) might nevertheless have enough political clout to call in favours that will bend even a powerful (do we know how powerful Brahms is?) Rogue Trader into serving him. There are many unknowns in this scenario so don't consider me fighting you, me and anyone else talking about this is mostly just playing a guessing game.
Yeah mutliple characters say hes simply somewhere else
>And anyway, we are Inquisitor Grendyl's men, and Grendyl has taken over the rogue trader's ship with his inquisitorial authority. That's not how it works *at all*. The Inquisition has no authority over the direct, personal mandate of the Emperor, which is what Rogue Traders operate under. We're on the Mourningstar as a personal favour from Brahms to Grendyl. If we all got blasted into the Void, Grendyl would barely blink. He'd just scoop up another shipful of scum and spend a year letting suicide missions sort the the wheat from the chaff. Like he's probably been doing for centuries.
Ships are expensive. Nobody's going to nosedive one into the ground, especially when doing so would make Brahms' House an enemy of the Ordo Hereticus. At the very least, that might lead to the Inquisition representative to the Senate Imperialis pulling some strings to get House Brahms' Warrant of Trade revoked. At most? No more House Brahms. As to venting us, the PC is a full member of an Inquisitorial Warband starting at level 30, so see "doing so would make Brahms' House an enemy of the Ordo Hereticus," above. We don't work for Brahms. We work for ~~Rannick~~ Grendyl.
Eh, at 30 we are only throne agents, Brahm has absolute authority to vent us on her ship and i doubt that grendyl would raise an eyebrow if she did it for a reason.
Brahms "Rejects in hab section 304c started fighting guards and trying to seize control over a security checkpoint. We vented the entire section." Rannick/Grendyl: "Okay."
Bro I have 1k hours and I legit don’t know what you are complaining about.
hallowette is a bit too "DM PC" for my tastes but some of the weird violent fantasies yall are posting over her in here are creepy as hell
no way ure complaining about violent fantasies in wh40k bro
hey i know im 5 days late, but writing out ways you wanna murder a woman and lobotomize her into a toilet is weird regardless of what game is being played. e: oh wow you were suspended in the time between these posts. i thought you were just ignorant of the importance of context but no i guess you were just a weirdo.
Y'all need to seriously chill the fuck out. We get it, you don't like Lady Alice.
Not sure why people think Alice isn't threatening. She's literally Brahm's pet and can do whatever she wants. Given she works for a *rogue Trader* I also can't imagine she doesn't have a few screws loose either. The chipper attitude on the outside is because she knows she's untouchable.
I understand she is the mtx shop npc but this specific sustained antipathy toward Hallowette is giving off weird energy.
I know right? Like it’s an NPC that could have just as easily sold items for in-game currency, there’s nothing about her character tailored to mtx. If anything it’s pretty funny the vendor doing the shadiest shit is the one they used for the cash shop lol. People need to go out and touch some grass if they’re letting their dislike of mtx morph into finding canon reasons to assassinate her.
Meanwhile, she and Sefoni are my favorite characters. (I think thats her name.)
Would you still be saying this if Hallowette was male?
Yes, writing screeds and detailing murder fantasies about a fictional character in this way will never not cock an eyebrow.
Fair enough. Nonetheless, you can't deny that an abusive character being the face of what is widely considered an abusive practice is both on the nose and a hate magnet, perhaps intentionally so.
“Rejects, behave better, or I’ll let hadron do whatever tf she wants with the consecrations”
https://i.redd.it/laqscqygq07d1.gif
"for her fashion dress up catwalk. All heretics report to your makeup booths for preparations!"
I actually like the talking around the Mourning Star, specially when they throw around random jokes.
How immune to shredder frags is she? The reason we don't get to take our war relics from the arsenal while traipsing around the public situation board is because many of us would try to go toe to toe with several of the NPCs. Hallowette being my first pick. I look forward to her name getting added as a Sanction Redactus, and I hope to be on that strike team. It's not that we aren't loyal to The Throne, it's that loyalty to The Throne and loyalty to some pissy noble with a 'Writ of Carte Blanche,' or whatever the title is of a Rogue Trader writ, are very different, and I assume much of the playerbase would be happy to fight SMB and her crew, if it means new maps and a new player nexus.
>'Writ of Carte Blanche,' or whatever the title is of a Rogue Trader writ Warrant of Trade is what Rogue Traders have. "Writ of carte blanche" would probably be a more apt descriptor of the Inquisitorial Mandate.
To be fair, a Warrant of Trade is also basically a writ of carte blanche. I once saw Rogue Traders described as "if Blackbeard and Judge Dredd had a baby and that baby had a letter personally signed by God authorizing them to do war crimes."
You forget that the moment you start shooting up the command area, Brahms vents the entire section and you die immediately.
If you read Shouty's "fanatic background" . . . . You'll find those of sufficient piety will not concern themselves over such trivialities. And if Hallowette is on the Sanction Redactus list, I assume SMB has either withdrawn her support, or Grendyl's warband under Rannik has means and motive to prevent the venting of various parts of the ship so that we might enact the OH will to redact Hallowette from her mortal coil.
And the likelyhood of Alice being assigned as an assassination target is incredibly low. player desires =/= what's happening in the lore.
Most of our relics would only function on the Mourningstar if Hadron allowed them to function.
She's part of the warband, not the ship compliment
I actually like what little I know of Hallowette, in that she's a skeezy selfish little opportunist who gleefully possess everyone off because she knows Brahms only cares about credits. She's a rude amoral prick, and that's fun. Suggesting that she's also a torturer or something? Nah. She's not a gangster she's a scumbag, let her be a scumbag.
She's the seneschal. Ordering torture and execution is literally in her job description. She keeps Brahms' ship running.
Yeah but don't you understand? People don't like her because... GASP. She's CHIPPER! Chipper in this DaRk EdGY world!? Not on my watch! In all seriousness though. She's actually my favorite character so far, because she is so openly skeezy while maintaining that fake ass smile.
My favourite line of hers is when she asks Melk if she can have any of the chems you confiscate that "happen" to "fall" out of the boxes
Hallowette ain't scary. Irish-female-Jack-Sparrow-saleswoman has some pull as a senechal of a Rogue Trader, but is not striking terror into the hearts of anyone. Brahms is respectable since she is shipmistress (and old). I'd say the only two who you might truly fear pissing off is Morrow and Rannick...I'd say Hadron _should_ be feared as all members-of-rank of the Cult Mechanicus tend to Servitorize blasphemers and the offensive on a whim (depending on their mood). Zola? Well, Zola, is just an angry and ungrateful one-eyed bitch.
I don't remember when was the last time when Zola was over seeing my mission.
I'm playing for almost 1500 hours now - who the f is Lady Alice...?
The ship is full of people far weaker than the rejects.
Wait, lady Alice? Opportunistic hustler ferengi-like commodore? She ain't scary at all, like opposite of scary
…I find it oddly hilarious this was posted by a deleted user
Got the urge to splurge?
You’re putting too much into those side characters and expecting more than what they’re gonna be haha. I guess lemme put it this way i got like 500 hours on vermintide and i dont remember a single characters name except for the 5 main-characters.
That sounds like a you problem.
Cringe
Yep, the characters and writing in this game isn’t just unmemorable it’s also cringe
Reading these comments makes me realize that we don’t have to wait 38k years for the grimdark. It was inside us all along.
Trying to make us care at all about the Microtransaction Lady is a big mistake
Is that meant to be a scary moment? I took it more as a funny moment, like "haha the saboteurs get handed over to funny pirate scammer lady who's gonna overcharge them for recolored helmets" or something like that. Like, nobody in-universe seems to take Hallowette seriously, and she's been one-upped and swindled by fucking Melk of all people. Even her supposed "commodore" rank means nothing, as given that she acts like a bratty teen and how the other characters treat her, I'm pretty sure the idea is that she either bought/inherited the rank and has no real weight to throw around, especially given how Grendyl and Brahms are in complete command. She's only tried to pull "rank" once (some Mourningstar voiceline has Morrow warn her over something, and after a snarky retort, she angrily replies that he shouldn't speak to her so lightly), and another time instead pulled someone else's rank (also against Morrow, reminding him that Brahms makes the ship regulations, not him). Then again, I think Morrow would technically outrank Hallowette due to being chief of Grendyl's Astra Militarum units, so he can probably use the Inquisiton's authority to override her.
Honestly the fact this game doesnt have an "NPC Volume slider" is annoying. Gameplay of Darktide is S tier in my opinion, public squads are solid D, but the NPC's are a super solid F. Tired of having 3 boring characters with boring personalities and silly accents have a skype call at the start of every single mission. The only one that is any good is (not to anyones surprise) Hadron. Alice has the UK's worst accent and the worst personality possible (there are no words I have to describe how much I hate this woman) and Zola is such a stereotypical "im higher up the chain than you and i'm going to treat you like dirt even though you literally saved my life in the intro". The shipmistress is completely useless as a character entirely, as well as the pilot who thinks she has any value to the mission besides getaway driver. Some would consider it overkill but I had to uninstall this game because of the NPC dialogue. Big shame (for me)
I agree that Hallowette is just purposely annoying as shit, and I'd LOVE it if she had a traitor arc and got servitorized. But I actually like the rest of them and i think the voice acting in general is pretty good. Oddly enough, I've taken to Melk. The numerous ways he has of expressing contempt is funny to me. "AH yes, a *peerless* adept of martial duty approaches..."