Where is mentioned that RT are above the law and how far exactly does such immunity allow them to go before they can be reined in?

As far as I can tell it's as much as the plot dictates.

From what I can tell its based on what exactly their charter says, and who gave it to their family that dictates all of that.

An open-ended charter handed out by the Emperor himself is a lot more powerful then a restricted charter handed out by the High-Lords.

Though I'd presume that their carte blanche only truly functions outside of Imperium holdings. It wouldn't be as if they could up and decide to start raiding catalogued worlds or selling Tau energy weapons to the Separatists on Protasia just 'cause they felt like it, charter or no charter.

Rogue Traders are retired high lords, lord inquisitors, etc. Major powerhouses of the imperium. They are allowed to do pretty much what they want, trade for xeno tech, etc because it is assumed to be in the interests of the imperium. In BFG they could even have xeno ships AND imperial navy ships in their fleets.

At least that is the way it used to be.

llsoth whats your sources? I for one cannot recognize the way you perceive Rogue Traders

llsoth said:

All of them? That seems unlikely to me...

BFG?

Stop telling me the fething post is too bloody short.

I think we're running into the age-old difference between rogue traders (which would include smaller vessels and scoundrel-like captains) and Rogue Traders (bearers of Imperial mandates).

...and even the latter would have quite a bit of variety, I suspect, as some of their charters would allow more lattitude than others.

BFG= Battle Fleet Gothic

BFG was/is the space combat game that GW put out.

Smirnov said:

This is how they were described in the original game. Also remember that many a RT has a charter that has been in their family for gernerations.

Yes BFG is indeed Battle Fleet Gothic. My sources are Battle Fleet Gothic and the original Rogue Trader game.

While they were not ALL retired high lords they were all people of great importance in the imperium (IE the etc I used).

Schoon is correct in his assesment. Rogue Traders (with mandates) could command a fleet of ships, their standard (though it varied) command ship was a cruiser class vessel. They even had detachments of beekies (what you would call space marines) for guards.

There are also rogue traders (lower case), these are your hon solo characters (before he became a general). In other words smugglers.

Guys, check out the new Role Playing Games section of the forums (not rpgs). That's all I'm saying, but it looks cool, and I'm looking forward to more info...

EDIT: Looks like they moved Rogue Traders to the right section.

Actually, I think the number of Rogue Traders who are retired Inquisitors, High Lords, and what have you are the minority, not majority. Most Rogue Traders seem to be the descendants of said important individuals who receive the Charter by right of blood and not deed.

Take, for instance, the Calixis' Sector's most infamous Rogue Trader, Erasmus Haarlock. From what I know, Erasmus received the Haarlock Charter not based on what he has done with his life but, instead, because he was born a Haarlock. It was Mordercai Haarlock, just a free captain, who was first granted the Charter by Sabastian Thor for his assistance fighting the apostate fleets in the 36th millennium. The Charter has since been handed down through the many generations of Haarlocks until it finally ended up with Erasmus... and then he went and slaughtered all the others bearing the Haarlock name. He's just one example but it would seem that most Rogue Traders that I've read about are simply living off of the successes of their ancestors who did the amazing thing that granted them the Charter.

This could also be why it's quite easy to confuse Rogue Traders and rogue traders. After all, there can be 50 or so generations between the current holder of the Charter and the one who was actually granted it. That's a really big gap between what ever noble deed, political power, or moral fortitude the charter was granted for and what the current holder is like ;-)

IIsolth is right, they were all very important people in the Imperium when they got their charters, which were rewards for outstanding service to the Emperor. A common man was very unlikely to get a charter simply because a) he wouldn't stand out and b) because he couldn't afford it to be honest.

So in order to get a charter you needed to get the eye of those with the authority to issue them, namely the Emperor and/or the High Lords.

Once though they were given, they couldn't be taken away, so the current holder of an charter issued by the Emperor himself before being enthroned could be a scumbag opportunist (kind of like Haarlock I would imagine.).

Rogue Traders also aren't trusted by the Inquisition. Only Rogue Traders really have continous access to items and knowledge that the Inquisition would rather bury in a very large space station, and Rogue Traders are known to go heretic quite often (though technically they're no worse then Radical Inquisition).

Now what I'm not sure about is the charters that could be traded. Apparently if I remember right, there were Rogue Trader Charters that could be sold and traded and weren't strictly hereditary, meaning if you found one of them technically you could become a Rogue Trader. How they differ from a hereditary charter though is beyond my knowledge.

As Graspar says, most ROGUE TRADERS are simply descendents of the original bearer of the charter, which pretty much prevents them being inquisitors and high lords. rogue traders on the other hand can be anyone (although a high lord or inquisitor would command authority regardless of a charter).

Some Charters are procured through gambling, theft etc. So an inquisitor that gets his hands on an original ROGUE TRADER charter would be one, but that's very uncommon (the very best charters are 10,000 years old signed by the Emperor himself and are guarded more closely than a virgin's chastity on Chastiy World).

Haarlock is what you would call your classic ROGUE TRADER, bearing a thousand year old charter handed down through his family.

Hellebore

I'll do you all one better - how many of you were aware that a few Adeptus Astartes have become Rogue Traders over the Imperium's long history?

TS Luikart said:

Heh, I wouldn't doubt it. In fact, it sounds like it should be familiar. I do half recall a case of an SM becoming an Inquisitor, but can't recall where I stumbled on that bazaar gem of madness.

For being so relatively few in comparisons to the Imperium at large, those crazy muscle-heads end up just about everywhere. It's getting to be where you can't get the morning paper anymore without stepping in one!

Graver said:

They're the rouge traders, kind of like the Avon lady on lots of steroids but with extra defined cheekbones from cosmetics.

Graver said:

I think it was from Flight of the Eisenhorn, weren't actually the beginning of the Inquisition?

Heh, I wouldn't doubt it. In fact, it sounds like it should be familiar. I do half recall a case of an SM becoming an Inquisitor, but can't recall where I stumbled on that bazaar gem of madness.

For being so relatively few in comparisons to the Imperium at large, those crazy muscle-heads end up just about everywhere. It's getting to be where you can't get the morning paper anymore without stepping in one!

Two of the three original Inquisators were marines (the founders of the 3 branches) one a Lunar Wolf, one a Deathgaurd.

Dagda said:

You're close, but the third "branch" Ordo Hereticus wasn't created until the Age of Apostacy, while Ordo Mallus and Ordo Xenos were created by the three originals.

Malcador the Sigilite was the High Lord of Terra who the Emperor himself entrusted to create what would become the Inquisition. Malcador approached the Death Guard Nathaniel Garro and the Luna Wolves Iacton Qruze and the Sister of Silence Amendera Kendel. ((at that information does come from the Flight of the Eisenhorn.))

Its quite possible that the so called "third" branch was just the Inquisitorial Representative, while the other two became the heads of their respective Ordos. My guessis that Nathaniel and Iacton became the Ordos while Amendera became the Inquisitorial Representative, explainin why both Mallus and Xenos have very close ties to the Space Marines.

Edit: Changed the wording to just say Luna Wolves instead of Sons of Horus (some say Luna Wolves) since as Letri says below in essence they're both the same thing, just way different.

Some sources most likely use Luna Wolves due to these being ones that fled from Horus' treachery and doubt that would keep the new name. Therefore, reverting to the original name of their legion makes sense.

Does this information come from the Horus Heresy books? I was fairly sure the inquisition started with four, two of which were Moriana and Promeus, as per Inquisitor and the Thorian sourcebook...

The inquisitor rulebook is a free download here from specialist games.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?community=&catId=cat1290321&categoryId=1100009&aId=4900004

It has its own version of the birth of the Inquisition. Different sources not giving the same information about the 40k universe. If you didn't know better you would think it happened ALL the time.

Oh wait...