Warhammer: Beginning with Planetary Governors

Chapter 151 The Emperor's Blood Fingerprint
It is indeed a treasure more precious than a planet.

Even far beyond that.

If used properly, the value gained will be immeasurable.

Because the parchment in the center of the stone slab is the merchant's license, the proof of the merchant's identity and bloodline.

The Rogue Traders’ names contain the word “Shang” in their name, but they should never be simply understood as merchants.

At their core, Rogue Traders are conquerors, privateers, and explorers across the galaxy.

They love exploration, adventure and trading.

Discover new worlds for your empire while searching for ancient treasures, and become rich in the process.

Normally, only the highest authority in the Empire, such as the Inquisition or the Council of High Lords, is qualified to deal with Rogue Traders.

No other authority has the right to issue an arrest warrant or conduct a trial against Rogue Traders.

Therefore, the freedom and power they possess is incredibly great.

But the risks faced by wandering merchants are equally great.

After all, they are engaged in a high-risk gray industry and need to be prepared for the coming battle at any time.

Therefore, traveling merchants must have strong ships and powerful guns, as well as extraordinary courage and a little bit of luck.

Otherwise, it is easy to die without a burial place.

Of course, the most important thing is that you have a merchant license.

Or you could call it a privateering license.

This merchant license is the source of the Rogue Trader's freedom and the most precious treasure of their family.

As precious as their lives.

There are different levels of merchant licenses, and the higher the level, the greater the power.

From high lords to primarchs, merchant licenses signed by people of different ranks have different validity.

Of course, some of the merchant licenses signed by the primarchs are almost invalid.

For example, the license signed by Horus, the great traitor of the Empire.

There is a famous joke about traveling merchants:
"How dare you detain my goods?!
Damn, I have authorization! Listen carefully! I have! Authorization!
(Slowly takes out the license) Open your blind eyes and look carefully, this is the signature of the Primarch, a demigod!

Take a good look at who signed it, you will be scared to death! 'Lord of the Luna Wolves, Wolf God Horus Luperca...'

(The authorization letter is put away at the speed of light) You are right, sir, I was indeed engaged in illegal smuggling. I support your fair law enforcement actions 120%.

If you have nothing to do now, please allow me to take my leave first…” (sneaks up to the door)
……

Depending on the level of the license, the holder can sail and trade freely within and outside the empire.

Even establish your own dynasty.

The most valuable of these is the merchant license that was personally written and stamped with the emperor's blood ten thousand years ago.

Rogue traders who possess this sacred trading license are called Emperor Blood Traders.

What’s even more valuable is that the merchant license can be inherited.

Today, most of the Emperor Blood Merchants who are able to survive have become galaxy merchant dynasties composed of ancient and large families.

The family fortune accumulated over thousands and tens of thousands of years, plus the territory is far away from Holy Terra.

As long as they obey the emperor on the surface, they can be local emperors with extremely high autonomy in their own territories.

Therefore, they have a great influence in the Empire, and there are special seats for Rogue Traders in the Council of High Lords of Terra.

They are the few beings that the Empire allows to negotiate and do business with the aliens.

Even if we recruit a few aliens as crew members, no one will say anything.

For undeveloped or forgotten areas in the Milky Way, sending Rogue Traders to conduct preliminary exploration is one of the Empire's main means.

This leads to the Rogue Traders having a rather ambiguous attitude when coming into contact with aliens.

As an imperial force, they should destroy all aliens.

But as explorers and black market traders, they prefer to try to trade with the xenos.

This turned most of the Rogue Traders' ships into black market nodes for smuggling alien artifacts or technologies.

Of course, this is an illegal and taboo business, but the demand is huge.

The imperial nobles like to collect those rare alien objects, the rulers want powerful alien weapons, and the Mechanicus also wants to get some new things from the black market. This brings huge wealth to the wandering merchants.

The powerful obtained rare alien collections, the rulers obtained alien weapons to suppress unruly people, and the Mechanicus obtained new technology to slaughter aliens.

Everyone got a satisfactory result, it was a win-win situation!

Of course, such an attractive business is not without its covetousness.

However, given the influence of Rogue Traders within the Empire, and their relationship with important Navigator families as allies for generations.

Ordinary imperial forces could never afford to offend them.

From these we can see how hypocritical the Empire is and how powerful the Rogue Traders are.

Aren't they just the princes who only obey orders and not announcements?

Of course, whether you can become a prince depends on your own strength.

Now, what was in front of Ron was an ancient, extremely precious merchant license with the emperor's bloody fingerprint.

hiss~
Ron gasped.

This thing is the treasure he has always dreamed of.

With this merchant license, he can do many things openly.

More importantly, with the license, his ships could sail freely within and outside the empire.

You can freely obtain resources through exploration, black market trade and even plunder!
In an instant, many cool operations for developing territory appeared in his mind.

For example, create a hidden black market node in the network that connects to various places.

Sell ​​bananas or technological gadgets from the golden age, and discuss technology with those oil guys who come here to learn from you.

Of course, these will need to be worked out in the future.

Ron clenched his chin and stared at the trade license:
"Speaking of which, besides the precious power it confers, the drop of Emperor's blood on it is also quite valuable, right?"

That is the sacred blood that contains the Emperor's genes.

If, just if.

If I scrape a little bit off the top, it shouldn't invalidate the license, right?

He wanted the Biological Research Institute to study the Blood of the Emperor to see if they could come up with something useful.

For example, the Thunder Guards who possess the Emperor's genes?
This is a bit disloyal...

Bishop Donny must not know about this, otherwise he would probably go crazy on the spot.

The Imperial State Religion has an unparalleled worship of the Emperor, and its members are keen on collecting various holy relics related to the Emperor.

This license, containing the Blood of the Emperor, is the most sacred relic to the members of the Ecclesiarchy.

It is not allowed to be worshipped, and one must kowtow three times and bow nine times every day.

Some high-ranking members of the national religion would even try every possible means to seize the licenses of those impoverished imperial blood merchants.

And those chaotic forces seem to be very interested in the license.

As he was thinking, Ron suddenly remembered a crucial issue that he had overlooked.

High-level merchant licenses have a complex certification system that includes genetic testing.

It needs to be combined with the corresponding merchant family bloodline to be effective.

Even the machine souls of the ships of the Ronin Merchant family can only be activated by outstanding direct bloodlines.

You can't become a Rogue Trader just by seizing a trading license.

Those forces that seek to seize merchant licenses will take away the merchant family bloodlines along with the licenses.

Then they are controlled and their bloodlines are slowly replaced through marriage and other actions.

Of course, Ron didn't need to go to so much trouble.

He just needs to bless the bloodline of the merchant family.

However, now he only has a merchant license, and no one.

Ron had to find the bloodline of the merchant family named "Gowendi" on the license.

Wouldn't the fleet commander be stupid enough to seize the license and then kill everyone?
Or has the Govindi bloodline on the license been cut off?
This is trouble...

(End of this chapter)