Board Thread:Warhammer 40k Roleplay/@comment-2253300-20150713191926/@comment-2253300-20150713203704

Branden Van Haubark, High King of the Realm of Caladonia, Imperial Governor of the planet and commander of its vast resources, was pacing back and forth in his office. The Governor's moods had been dark as of late, for ever his mind was heavy with grave matters. The matter at hand was particularly grim from Van Haubark's view. Within a very short period of time his every action might be put under a microscope and judged, and if he was found wanting he could lose much.

"The Inquisition! Throne damn it! I knew the traitorous bastards wish to unseat me, but to go so far."

His contacts on Scinitilla had informed him of a request ot the Sector Governor to look into the affairs of the planet. That grated upon his nerves, but it was not nearly so disturbing as when he heard that the request had been forwarded to the Inquisition. Van Haubark knew the Inquisition by reputation, and he was well aware of the powers that they wielded. Whoever had sent that request had set wolves loose upon his beloved planet.

"It must have been one of those fools in Parliament! Clearly they are trying to decredit me and take power for themselves!"

Caladonia's Parliament was its ruling body, formed of representatives from nearly all of its noble families. At least it was in theory. Branden's grandfather had seen fit to strip it of nearly all of its official power. All the real power lay with the Van Haubark family now. The parliament had been maintained mostly to give the noble families the illusion that they had any say in matters of state, and to serve as a scapegoat for blame when things went wrong. Though Branden had long considered disbanding it entirely. He felt the instituion gave the other noble families funny ideas about their own importance. He wouldn't be surprised if one of those worms had been behind this.

"No. Perhaps it was Van Kesher. This is exactly the kind of move that ambitious fox might try to pull."

Branden oft suspect Roderick Van Kesher of trying to undermine him of late. The duke was the lord of Caladonia's moons, Dropheos and Kaliph, as well as a distant relative. The Van Keshers has always had a little too much power and autonomy for Branden's tastes, and their current patriarch was popular and wily. He cared not for that at all. It may very well be that Van Kesher was working with the Parliament to shame him. Regardless he was now going to be under scrutiny.

"Damn them! Damn them all! How could they claim that any of this is my fault?"

Branden had handled the situation as best as he could have by his reckoning. Had he not delegated all the correct tasks to the correct people? Had he acted swiftly when trouble reared its ugly head?

"Is it my fault that I am the only one that knows how to do my job?", he groaned. He went to his desk and puched the button from the Vox system. "Send in Janissary-General Nu", he said.

The man that walked in was tall, dark skinned and well built. Nu was the surpreme commander of Caladonia's military forces under Branden himself. By ancient tradition the Governor's chief general was a slave bound in service to house Van Haubark and raised to command his troops. That way the Governor didn't have to worry about some ambitious noble taking over the military and trying to usurp him. Nu had served Branden faithfully for a great number of years, but of recent he had lost favor with his master on account of the rebellion.

The rebellion started like most others. A group of peasants bemoaning their lack of status, and kicking up a fuss. Branden had seen a hundred like it, and had put them all down handily. However this one was different. Not only had it survived his attempts to crush it, it had managed to grow. The rebels had actually managed to gain ground. There were cells and agents of the rebels in various places around the world, but it was most prevalent on Lophos, Caladonia's Southern continent. Nearly the whole continent was swarming with rebels, and what territory they did not control they contested with great vigour. Branden had never faced a peasant rebellion that was so well organized and resourced. He suspectd that his political rivals likely had some hand in it.

The Governor recieved the latest reports from his Janissary-General, frowned over the latest information and dismissed him. He was very tempted to have Nu executed for his incompetence, but it would take time to train his replacement, and he certainly wouldn't hand control over his forces to one of the nobles. "Perhaps that's their angle", Branden thought.

Of course the scheming of his political adversaries and the rebellion had only been a few of his problems. The Custodians were a whole different ugly matter. The local sect of the Imperial Cult had recently lost its leader. It was a peaceful, natural death, but it had sent shockwaves through the Custodians of Sacred Form since then. Gastodon had always worked toward the middle grown, and tried to keep the infighting within his order to a minimum. With his death a power vaccum had been created, and a number of prominent members of the order stepped up to try and fill it. These candidates were each supported by a fair following amongst their peers, and had very different ideas regarding the future of the order. Battle lines between their supporters were slowly coming into view, and things were starting to get ugly. Nothing made Branden more nervous than when the local clergy started throwing the word heresy around. If things got too vicious the priesthood could draw the whole planet into further civil conflict, and that was the last thing he needed. Not with the Inquisition possibly on its way.

There were also the reports of mutants and monsters he had been hearing about, but he mostly dismissed those. The reports had mostly lead to nothing, likely a few peasants too deep in their cups imagining they saw things in the night. Despite that he was far from indolent with the reports. He had made sure to have his people investigate each new report. and whenever a true mutant had been found it was put to death. Caladonia did have a zero tolerance policy with mutants after all. Yet these dubious sightings had made the small folk nervous, and talks of curses, witchcraft and various other superstitions abound.

Now the Inquisition was coming, and it was almost more than he could take. Caladonia had been having difficulty paying its tithes for quite a while. This had resulted in the Administratum reducing its tithe grade. One would usually look favorably on having to give up fewer resources, but that was only the view of the uneducated. A world's importance within the Imperium was measured by its contributions, and those planets that could not pay greater tithes were deemed of less importance. Each new year had brought fresh insults to his honor. Merchant ships came more rarely, and when they did they brought less wealth. Even Caladonia's Imperial Guard garrison had been recalled to serve in the Spinward Front. Apparently Caladonia was no longer of enough importence to warrant Imperial Guard protection. Worst of all people seemed to blame him. Branden knew that his detractors would try to find a way to blame these new woes upon him, and sick the dogs of the Inquisition upon him. He just knew it. Well he was not going to let them.

He activated the Vox console once more. "Tell the Ministry of Revelation that I want them on high alert. They are to monitor the Star Port for any incoming offworlders, and have them review the ones that are already here. If there is even a hint of the Inquisition coming here I want to know about it immediately!"

The Ministry of Revelation was his secret police and intelligence service. It was ther charge to make sure that he knew whatever his enemies had in store, and that he was one step ahead. Like his general the leadership of the ministry was made up of ouathbound servants of House Van Haubark. They at least could be trusted.

He was determined that he would know when the Inquisition arrived, and when they did he would show them how well he had handled the situation. He would make sure that they found no fault with his service to the Emperor, and once he had cleared his good name he would punish those that tried to decredit him. They would regret crossing Branden Van Haubark!

OOC: Your first post should either be how your Inquisitor took notice of events on Caldonia, or the circumstance of their arrival. Have fun!