The infamous Rogue Trader Erasmus Haarlock, who initiated the Haarlock Purges in the Calixis Sector before his disappearance.
Erasmus Haarlock was a Rogue Trader and the leading scion of the infamous House Haarlock in the Calixis Sector. After the death of his wife and daughter to the fractious infighting of other heirs of the house who sought to claim its Warrant of Trade for their own, Erasmus proceeded to hunt down and kill every other known member of the dynasty in a series of massacres known as the "Haarlock Purges" in the Calixis Sector. He then bent all of his wealth and knowledge towards the enactment of a ghastly ritual intended to restore his wife and daughter to life, but disappeared without trace before the great work could begin.
The Haarlock legacy, including the dynasty's great wealth and Warrant of Trade, are now locked in a continuing legal dispute on Eramus' former Calixian homeworld of Quaddis.
History[]
Haarlock Purges[]
Erasmus Haarlock was a Rogue Trader and master of the vast power of the ancient and infamous Haarlock dynasty on the world of Quaddis located in the Calixis Sector. House Haarlock is an ancient Rogue Trader lineage, far predating the establishment of the Calixis Sector in the 39th Millennium, which it helped to found. For thousands of standard years, the Haarlock Warrant of Trade gave the Haarlocks license to travel far beyond the the borders of the Imperium and to bring death and war to anything they deemed a threat to Mankind's dominant place in the cosmos.
Over their Terran centuries of conquest, they put whole worlds to the sword and plundered the tombs of xenos races passed to dust. They acquired terrible secrets and amassed dark lore, weapons, and trinkets enough to found a dozen empires of their own and condemn them in the eyes of the Imperium a thousand times over if it were not for the legal protection afforded by the Warrant of Trade and the secrecy with which they guarded their affairs within the Imperium.
Ever a fractious line, the Haarlocks were prone to betrayal and internecine warfare. Erasmus Haarlock lost his beloved wife and only daughter to one such vicious internecine war between the members of the Haarlock dynasty as they fought for the inheritance of the Haarlock Warrant of Trade.
There is one thing that Erasmus Haarlock desired after the death of his wife and daughter; to undo what happened, return them both to life, and return to the life that he led before they were slain. Haarlock was willing to pursue any means to this end. He later hunted down and killed every member of his family and their families, friends, allies, and associates during what has become known in the Calixis Sector as the "Haarlock Purges."
After slaughtering his blood kin, Erasmus unified the dark lore that his line had amassed over the millennia, and willed them to a single purpose, a terrifying project that spanned a dozen worlds and brought into play arts and sciences forbidden since elder days. Then, at the height of his labours with all in preparation but for the final piece of the puzzle, Erasmus Haarlock vanished. The last of his line, several standard centuries later, he is now presumed deceased.
The huge wealth of his house is locked in legal dispute in the Courts of Solomon, named for Erasmus' ancestor Solomon Haarlock, on his former homeworld of Quaddis. Though some whisper that scions of House Haarlock may still exist, they have proven reticent to come forward to claim the great prize of Haarlock's legacy.
See Also[]
Sources[]
- Rogue Trader: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 362