Just who are the Haarlock's? The adventure in Disciples of the Dark Gods features a villian named Haarlock, a rogue trader thought long dead. Now we are getting the Haarlock Trilogy, and the Haarlock's start to look like uber heretics with connections to many of the more far reaching organizations in Dark Heresy. Do they trade for money, or does the family pursue some sort of of agenda?

The Haarlocks are a long family line of Rogue Traders, with all the diversity, wealth and connections that entails.

There was actually a pretty good document on the Darkreign site I think that gives the timeline of the Calixis Sector, and it details some of the Haarlocks that have been involved in the sectors history. A good read if you haven't got it.

Salcor

We will soon find out more in the upcoming adventure series too.

The Haarlocks are, as mentioned above, a Rogue Trader family who are operating off of a charter that was given to Mordercai Haarlock in M6 by Sebastian Thor for his assistance in the War of Apostasy. Latter, around M39, one of Mordercai's descendants, Solomon Haarlock (for whom I believe Solomon is named after) discovered the Calyx Expanse and wrote home informing the Imperium that it was a dark and cursed region of space ripe for plunder. This struck off the Angivine Crusade which would carve the Calyx Expanse into the Calixis Sector.

During the Crusade, Sibylline Haarlock and one other Rogue Trader were the only ones who were able to assist the young General Dursus in rapid deployment of his troops while fighting the warp worshiping Yu'vath to prevent the newly formed Malfian subsection from collapsing and dooming the crusade.

Approximately 200 years latter, Easmus Haarlock set out on a murderous purging of his bloody kin leaving him the last Haarlock before he himself vanished.

For more interesting information, I would strongly recommend reading the official timeline of the Calixis Sector found HERE

And all this time I thought they were characters in an anime series. ::smirks::

As Graver pointed out, but something I think needs to be reinforced is that there is no Haarlock family anymore (at least in the Calxis sector). Supposedly they all died out a while ago, though there may be one or two left... depending.

They WERE Rogue Traders... very rich very powerful Rogue Traders who were very important in the formation of the Caixis Sector, but now officially they're all gone.

Now what exactly we're dealing with in the Calixis Sector is unknown, and unfortunatly my Inquisitor has not given me clearance to access any more information on the family then we've already been cleared to see, which Graver very nicely summerized for us.

Mark It Zero said:

Speaking of which, has anyone heard if this series follows on from the adventure in DOTDG?

You have to wonder if Erasmus Haarlock looked like a black sheep among a line of paragons of intergalatic commerce and exploration, or did whole line go rotten all the way back to Mordecai Haarlock? I speculated that Erasmus Haarlock held some connection to the Tyrant Star, but years pass between the disappearance of Erasmus Haarlock and the next appearance of the Tyrant Star. Perhaps Lord Inquisitor Zerbe is really Erasmus Haarlock, and the Tyrantine Cabal grew from an obssession with the Tyrant Star and desire to gain power in some way. That would make him a villian similar the scheming and patient Pontius Glaw from Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy.

After reading the adventure in DotDG , I started thinking about which of my players would least enjoy being the last of the Haarlock line. This is hinted at as a possibility in the adventure itself. I settled upon my somewhat laconic son, Jeffery. During the actual game, he was the only one that didn't bleed into the chalice. He isn't the smoothest talking, most dangerous or powerful member of Arcturus Rhynn's acolyte cell...and he will not enjoy the responsibility thrust upon him by his sudden Scion-ness.

Fun Stuff.

Anyhow, it's seriously affected the game. Out of Character, they want him alive when Rogue Trader is released. In character, they try to keep him alive because there are Malifian Bloodsworn out to kill the Scion, and finding that charter is pretty important.

I suspect that the Haarlock's Legacy series may have some help for those of us that chose a PC as the Scion. If not, I'll wing it.

Now it sounds like I need to take a closer look at the adventure in the back Disciples of the Dark Gods. Several powerful players would rip the Calixis Sector apart searching for the charter granted to Mordechai Haarlock, and several interesting skeletons could come out of the closet during this adventure trilogy. Part of me still hopes the Haarlock line bears some connection the Tyrant Star, but if I don't run the adventure collection, I can still draw a lot of inspiration from it.

Who says the tyrant star were not an eldar craft world, created/doomed/cursed/activated by the haarlock line maybe they found it when before the calaxy sectors, and tipped of that the sector was ripe for collonization only to protectect their prize the tyrant star.

i have tonnes of tyrant star theories.

After rereading the adventure in the back of Disciples of the Dark Gods, I've concluded that Erasmus is more a paragon of the Haarlock line than a black sheep. He eradicates his relatives to advance his claim on the inheritance of the Haarlock line, and Marr, the Inquisitor who sends the acolytes into the adventure, appears to have personal reasons for wanting information about Erasmus Haarlock. Perhaps Marr participated in the original investigation of Erasmus Haarlock's eradication of his relatives and disappearance. The story teller in me also speculates about possible encounters between Marr's agents and Haarlock's allies or backers.

If I ran the adventure in DoDG and then ran adventures leading out of the return of Erasmus Haarlock, I'd hint that Haarlock pursues something other than mere wealth. He's after a prize that would drive someone to go to almost any lengths.

This sounds a bit like the Pontius family from the Eisenhorn novels

Yes. There are definite parallels between the two - I hope that the new scenarios give us a clearer idea of exactly when the Haarlock family first delved into heresy - perhaps they were always compromised? You could see Erasmus Haarlock making a reappearance, like Pontius Glaw, perhaps enhanced with Warp laced technologies or given a new fleshy form if his previous body has been destroyed.

The mind boggles at what a massively powerful family, with a charter to pretty much do what they liked within the Calixis sector (every bit as influential in their own way as Saint Drusus) have been involved in over the centuries - the speculation revolving around Komus seems to be interesting, and the theories on who could secretly 'be' Haarlock are equally interesting too - the masked and sinister Zerbe would be a good bet, but maybe a little too apocalyptic, given his influence and power as head of the Tyrantine cabal.

It would be interesting if there is an area (maybe just a planet) of the Calixis sector secretly ceded to the Haarlock line in the original deal made with Angevin as the sector was brought into the Imperium - something that the rogue trader had found, but needed the backing of a vast military presence to hold, so tipping off Imperial forces to spark the crusade - I quite like the idea that the entire sector came into being because Haarlock wanted to get his hands on and control something so damningly twisted that even many members of his own family would not know what it was. The thought then that this corrupted the family even further - resulting in Erasmus' purge - would then make more sense.

Anyway - wittering aside - we will all no doubt make more connections between the scenario in Disciples and the new trilogy with little difficulty. I can only assume that the level of difficulty will be similar - so experienced acolytes only?