The Fair Trader
A rogue trader born into debt slavery, she spent her mortal life working to reform the economic practices of her home sector. Leveraging her wealth and prenatural skill at finding mutually beneficial deals, instead of directly challenge the status quo she slowly reshaped the economy of the entire sector to render the old practices non profitable, seeking to slowly strangle those who where profiting from such practices.
While she met with much early success, in time she came to the attention of the powers behind the exploitation of her sector, and was branded a criminal. In desperation, she turned first to bribry, then to pirates, and then finally, to the Ruinous Powers, with whom she tried to forge a deal that would save her life's work while still leaving her the owner of her soul. While it is noteworthy that she came remarkably close to success, ultimately the daemon she bargained with betrayed her, driving her into the waiting arms of Zahak*.
While the Fair Trader appears simply as a merchant stained with ink, it is unclear if this is her actual body or merely an avatar, for the creature seems to inhabit her vessels in a manner similar to how most daemon ships are possessed. Her human form acts as a captain, but rarely if ever leaves the ship, though it is unclear what the limitations exist for her ability to disembark. Her insistence on conducting vacations from aboard either her vessel or one of its small craft likely hint at the nature of these constraints.
The Fair Trader's ship-self seems more akin to smaller demon engines such as defilers that act as shells than typical possession based demonships. In effect, this means they have the outer hull of a mundane warship wrapped around a much larger Warp-borne vessel. While the inner vessel seems able to rearrange its components, it seems limited to devices that have actually been installed. Exactly how much space would fit within the interior of the vessel is unclear, but the Fair Trader has shown cargo capacity at least on par with a mass conveyor. Much like any other demon engine destroying the shell merely banishes the demon within, leaving them trapped in the warp until another hull can be created. Between the direct blessings of her god, and her vessels warp based nature, its speed in the warp is near unmatched, easily able to outpace all but the swiftest of chaos vessels.
Unlike more traditional daemonships the Fair trader requires a crew, a role filled by voidsmen referred to as the Grail Guard. Well trained and equipped with potent technology these mortals act as the ships mortal hands, running the outer hull and performing tasks that need a personal presence. In times of danger, they can also act as infantry. Where they hail from is not known, but it is suspected that the Fair Trader is based out of a world dedicated to the worship of either herself or her god. Some have suspected the excellent discipline of the grail guard may be the result of boons granted to their officers, but they are a secretive enough group that there is no concrete evidence one way or the other.
Over the centuries the Fair Trader has plied the warp lines in everything from a frigate to a grand cruiser, moving between ships as her fortunes rise and fall. In the lead up to the collapse of the imperium, she worked long and hard to form economic ties that could hold worlds together, a task she saw some middling success with. A number of the more successful remnants can trace their formation back to ties forced by the Fair Trader, however so can many Abomination dominions. Since the death of the Emperor she has done what she can to strengthen the trade networks of what powers remain pure, lining her pockets while strengthening what bastions of sanity she can. She has also on many occasions guided refugee fleets to safety. As a result of these habits, more than a few worlds in pure policies will turn a blind eye to her activities, assuming her ships unusual abilities are the result of xenotech rather than the far darker truth.
As a more dangerous trade, inquisition records indicate that she has been known to work with servants of Ugruer to purchase dark relics, with a specific emphasis on acquiring artifacts containing bound daemons such as daemon weapons, as well as hunting down and seizing sites known to hold bound demons. In the context of what we know about the Blackened these practices become far less concerning.**
Aside from her personal efforts of building trade empires she often acts as the hands of her lord and ferrying goods and forces through realspace. Transporting retrieval teams, delivering goods promised by another Blackened as part of a bargain, or transporting her daemonic peers as they go about their business in exchange for favors. In recent years she has had little time for her own efforts, as Zahak has used her services as a courier and source of economic aid as a major tool in integrating some of the smaller religious gods into her alliance. A number of single-world gods owe much of their recent prosperity to a load of goods and knowledge delivered by the Fair Trader.
* A more in depth accounting is en route from the
Empire of Ashes.
** Assuming she devours them promptly. She moves around enough the thought of something getting it's hooks into her crew is a concerning one, a daemon could spread its influence quite widely indeed by piggybacking on her trade routes.
