Cold Trade

"Of all the vices you Imp’ral possess, I find the one you call ‘greed’ most fascinating. That you would sell your secrets, betray your kin’blood, and even enslave your own race to us, and for what? Mere trinkets and toys—for the least of our crafts. Most amusing…"

- Master Vray, Fra’al Satrap

Contact with xenos races is strictly forbidden to the Imperial citizen, and the alien is abhorred and condemned from the Imperial pulpit with the same vociferous hatred as the witch, mutant, or daemon. For the Imperium, the alien exists only to be destroyed for the fundamental crime of contesting mankind’s dominance of the cosmos. After millennia of constant warfare and xenocides, most of the alien races that have survived contact with humanity have come to hate and fear the Imperium in turn or, like the Ork, have come to delight in the endless conflict. This is a somewhat simplistic picture, however. For within these broad generalizations hide numerous localised exceptions, dark dealings, and subtler realities, particularly in those regions at the very edge of the Imperium’s control—such as the Calixis Sector.

There are always those who through opportunism, avarice, or simple desperation will deal with the alien either for profit or survival’s sake. There is also a market for xenos artefacts, curiosities, lore, science, and even for dangerous xenocreatures amongst the Imperium’s powerful elite. The “Cold Trade,” as it is known in the Calixis Sector, deals with items and commodities such as these, and is mired in a grey area of Imperial law. Although there are numerous objects and artefacts that are outright illegal, there are a great many that are not, in part because the breadth and scale of the galaxy makes it simply impossible to categorise and ban every item, device, or object that may or may not have been made by nonhuman hands.

The waters of legality and control are further muddied by the fact that certain individuals and agencies have had their right to exploit xenos races, conduct commerce outside Imperial space, or profit from alien plunder enshrined in law since the Imperium’s founding. Foremost among these are the Rogue Traders, be they of great and ancient dynasties or the holders of lesser charters. In some cases, they have spent millennia questing beyond the borders of the Imperium. But they are not alone. The explorators of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Imperial Crusades, and innumerable lesser merchants, renegades, and frontier worlds all have had the potential for contact with the alien and are avenues by which alien plunder and alien devices can make their way onto the worlds and markets of the Imperium’s heartland.

The problem of unregulated trade in xeno-artefacts is particularly prevalent in the Calixis Sector, standing as it does on the edge of Imperial space. Before the sector’s founding, many of its inhabited worlds were once were home to alien occupation—a legacy which has left many secrets buried. Local laws vary widely on just what is and is not illegal to transport, import, and own, and a number of independent commercial vessels that ply the sector dabble in the Cold Trade to some degree, usually as an adjunct to their more regular activities.

The Cold Trade is further catered to by numerous merchants on wealthy worlds such as Scintilla and Malfi, serving the tastes of collectors among the nobility and mercantile elite. All of these traders claim legal provenance for their goods (the risk of doing otherwise is just too great, no matter how influential their clientele might be). In practice, it is only the extremely rich and powerful who can afford to own such items, and because of their status they are able to avoid being denounced as “xenophiles” and subjected to the suspicion and wrath of the masses indoctrinated to hate and fear the alien. Of course, it is in part the thrill of the forbidden and the excitement of risk that make such collections appealing to jaded guilders and dissolute nobles in the first place. This, however, is a dangerous game, and quite apart from the potential risk to body and soul inherent in the things they crave, even the most highborn noble walks a tightrope collecting xeno-artefacts. The closer to the forbidden their tastes err, the more they risk censure, criminal investigation, or, worse still, the attention of the Holy Ordos or even the Redemptionists’ flames should their activities draw notice.

Sample Xeno-Artefacts in the Calixis Sector
Within the Calixis Sector, reaction to xeno-artefacts will vary from location to location. An old piece of unearthed statuary that might go unremarked upon and used as a doorstop on a frontier world like Ganf Magna would be enough to have the possessor dragged to the pyre as a xenophile deviant on Maccabeus Quintus. As a result, those who trade in such items and those who wish to purchase them must be both circumspect and cautious. Quite apart from this grey market there exists a true black market in items classified as completely forbidden by Imperial law. Such illegal items often command vast sums, but the danger involved is equally high, carrying the death penalty for all involved and attracting the wrath of Imperial authorities.

The following is a sampling of such xeno-artefacts that form part of the Cold Trade, ranging from the merely exotic to the outright banned:

Xeno Art and Other Curiosities - Works of art and antiquities--statuary, trinkets, mosaic shards, graven tablets, broken devices, strange jewellery, and the like purporting to be of nonhuman origin--are perhaps the most common (and easily faked) staple of the Cold Trade. Most are simply sold under the banner of “made by unknown hands,” which is vague enough to pique interest but non-specific enough to not require proof. Others come with convoluted stories or dubious provenances to increase their potential value. However, the “real thing”—fragments of Eldar wraithbone, Moliochin Fire Hearts, or the disturbing chthonic idols unearthed from dead worlds in the Hazeroth Abyss—can fetch enormously high prices and carry dangers of their own.

Crimson Bestiaries - Xenos bestiaries, books purporting to detail and catalogue a variety of alien creatures, are commonplace in the libraries of the wealthy. Most contain little more than lurid illustrations and superficial descriptions of the more notable enemies of mankind and whatever local fauna is deemed appropriate. They range from the opinionated and often widely inaccurate works illuminated by Ecclesiarchy scribes to rarer works more grounded in reality and culled from scholastic learning, perhaps even from first-hand accounts. Of this latter kind, the Crimson Bestiaries (so called for their distinctive serpent skin bindings) produced by the Great Library of Fenksworld are highly regarded. The volumes skirt dangerously close to the edge of knowledge that Ordo Xenos will allow in the public domain.

Deluvial Tincture (Drug) - One of a number of supposedly alien elixirs promising everything from practical immortality to superhuman virility and sold by unscrupulous traders and hereteks, the so-called delulvial tincture is more dangerous than most. It contains proscribed ingredients including xenos retroviral suspensions believed by some Magos Biologis to be distilled from Eldar blood. The source of the drug is thought to lie somewhere in the Hazeroth Abyss, and it is rapidly gaining ground among those that can afford its dubious benefits.

Nightweave Silk - This silk is an opulent fabric woven from a crystalline material that shimmers with a spectrum of soft inner light when worn in twilight or darkness, producing almost hypnotic fascination in onlookers. Nightweave silk is valued for its effect, great beauty, and rarity by the high lords and ladies of the sector, and is sold only by traders who operate on the Halo Stars’ margins (who remain tight-lipped about its origins). Despite its favour in numerous courts, it is considered ill-omened by many void born, and some psykers claim to detect the faintest echo of suffering and something inhuman in the silk, likewise shunning it.

The Zamarkand Rose - Named after the legendary Rogue Trader bloodline of Zamarkand who brought this poisonous gift back to the Calixis Sector centuries ago, the rose is a fast growing tree that forms huge and intricate skeletal shapes as it matures. An exquisitely beautiful yet sinister thing, the Zamarkand rose blooms a deep crimson and midnight hue, and produces a gorgeous melancholic scent. Its biology is as much animal as vegetable, and it grows strongest when its roots are fed with blood and decay. Indeed, the merest scratch of its poisonous thorns is enough to kill an adult human. The rose is a forbidden xeno-species by direct order of the Lord Sector’s decree and has been so for 300 years, and with good reason; the crushed petals of the rose form a powerful hallucinogen capable of wreaking dreadful genetic damage to its imbiber. The Zamarkand rose remains a forbidden thing of dark legend to the Calixis elite, and upon occasion a particularly sadistic weapon of courtly intrigue.

Xeno Weapons - Of all the artefacts of alien origin, few are more sought after than xeno-weaponry, and in nearly all cases their possession is highly illegal. Some such weapons are highly desired for their unique destructive qualities, but often people want them simply for the pleasure of the forbidden. Some more radical of the Ordo Xenos agents also favour such strange and lethal devices to aid their work (turning the weapons of the alien against them), while on the dark frontier of the sector’s edge some desperate or corrupt humans will happily trade with xenos renegades for their potent weaponry regardless of its often heavy and macabre price.

Hrud Fusil - Little is known of the reclusive and dangerous race known as the Hrud other than that they dwell only in darkness and possess strange, warp-based technology which, it is said, allows them to walk between worlds and even corrupt the flow of time with their baleful presence. The fusil is one of a scant few Hrud artefacts that occasionally come up for sale and is always in high demand. It is a form of “plasma musket” that uses an unfathomable mechanism to phase a plasma bolt between realspace and the warp, bypassing its target’s defences. Though somewhat unpredictable, the weapon’s unique qualities make it useful for assassins and Inquisitorial agents alike.

Fusils traded on the black market have been crudely modified to accept Imperial plasma cells. However, if a fusil’s mechanism becomes badly damaged it cannot be repaired by human hands.

Fra’al Glass Knife - The glass knife is a vicious hand weapon of xenos origin that has long been a staple of black market trade on the Halo Stars frontier. Glass knifes are jagged, dagger-like blades, seemingly crafted from a single piece of smoky crystal. Renowned for their strength, they are sharp enough to split ceremite. Glass knives maintain their sharpness by continually fracturing tiny shards from their cutting edges, and these splinters are infamous for working their way into wounds, causing agonising injuries. Smugglers’ lore among those that operate on the border of the Halo Stars attribute the blades to the legendary Fra’al, although many insist this is merely speculation. Accurate knowledge of the nomadic Fra’al is strictly prohibited by the Ordo Xenos, and aside from a few scattered stories, mankind remains blissfully ignorant of this merciless, highly psychic race.

Notable Variants of Cold Traders
Bonetrader - The Koronus Expanse is strewn with the bones of alien races long forgotten. For most Rogue Traders, these ruins are curiosities at best and grim reminders of a shadowed time before the Emperor’s light spilled through the Koronus Passage and into the Expanse at worst. Most Cold Traders make their living sorting through the debris of forgotten species and passing on the baubles they uncover to the bored nobility of the Calixis Sector in exchange for vast sums of money. Of course, sometimes the alien devices and artefacts that Cold Traders salvage have greater purposes and powers than one might guess, and thus have unforeseen consequences upon their buyers. The dread Halo Artefacts are such cursed objects, and many of the lost races of the Koronus Expanse left behind equally wicked machines in the most innocuous of packages. While certain nobles will pay a great deal for any object of alien manufacture, there are those within the Imperium, and some say beyond, who do not wish to see the most dangerous of these artefacts entering the Calixis Sector.

These cursed devices are the primary interest of so called Bonetraders, merchants, and grave-robbers who traffic specifically in psychically resonant objects left behind by careless or malicious precursors. For Bonetraders, psykers are an integral part of business. Only a psyker can be relied upon to separate valuable caches of buried artefacts from the detritus of dead empires scattered across the Koronus Expanse. However, as any successful trader knows, trust is a luxury, and a particularly expensive one at that when one is dealing with those touched by the Warp. A Bonetrader may need a psyker—or indeed, a great many psykers—to carry out his business, but he must also know how to handle the trouble that any given psyker could bring down upon him if he is not cautious. Beyond the usual perils of the Koronus Expanse, anyone who relies on taking psykers into potentially dangerous situations must be prepared to clean up the messes that follow.

Cold Trade Broker - here are many riches to be had on the frontiers of Imperial space. Vestiges of archeotech from ages past, holy relics from the crusades of mankind’s expansion and the artefacts of those beings who have lived among stars far longer than humanity. All these and more lie dormant, waiting for those who would seek them out. While there is profit to be made in trading all of these goods, it is the xenos artefacts that has enthralled thousands throughout the Koronus Expanse. The Cold Trade, as the black market trade of proscribed alien artefacts is known in the Expanse, is a thriving industry among the frontier outposts beyond the Maw.

The men and women who broker this trade are a vicious syndicate of criminals who know full well that their actions put them at odds with both the Ordo Xenos branch of the dreaded Inquisition and the xenos civilisations from whom they reap their merchandise. In order to avoid the full force of one threat or the other, most brokers favour a particular method. Some gather the relics of xenos civilisations long since collapsed under the weight of years, plundering the ruins of a vanished people and without reprisal from their long-dead guardians. Others, flaunting Imperial sanctions to an even greater extent than the majority of their type, interact directly with the xenos and trade for their goods, make alliances with them, and on rare occasions become accepted amongst them as much as any member of humanity can be. It is this sort of Cold Trade agent, keenly aware of their heresy, who draws the greatest attention from the Ordo Xenos. Still others take a more violent role in procuring their wares, actively seeking out alien victims, that they might strip their corpses of all valuable goods.