Editing Setting:Cloudburst/People (section)

==Cardinal-Astra Drake, Chief of the Synod Cloudburst==
{{Topquote|Faith is a beautiful, lovely, perfect thing, and thus must be protected. It must be shepherded and guarded carefully, nurtured when underfed and glorified when natural. It must also look good. Faith that isn’t expressed properly is just… it doesn’t mean as much, you know?|Drake}}

The Archdiocese Cloudburst is exactly two people, and Cardinal Drake is in charge. Despite the population of Cloudburst Sector very rapidly creeping toward one hundred billion, somehow the Adeptus Ministorum has not yet seen fit to assign Cardinals to Thimble and Septiim. Until that happens, the Cardinal of Celeste is the de facto head of the entire Cloudburst Sector Ecclesiarchy.

True to his calling, Cardinal Drake is a leader of the faithful in the Sector and has been for centuries. He has benefitted from two juvenat treatments so far, but his DNA is now too degraded to accept another. Ever since he was a teenager in the slums of Civitavecchia, Drake felt the need to be in charge, and the need to direct and amplify the faith of others. Drake took to the Ministorum as soon as he was old enough, and followed the hierarchical path up through the ranks become the Cardinal of Celeste.

Drake embraced the trappings of office at once. Before he had even gained his present rank, Drake sank vast sums into beautifying several properties of the Ministorum, even those that had had significant investments already. There had already been a loud and costly trend towards expensive decoration and expression among the Celeste Ecclesiarchy, but Drake took it to new heights.

There are strong rules in place in the Ecclesiarchy about the pursuit of personal wealth. These date back to long before Drake, to the Age of Apostasy and the Reign of Blood and the Plague of Unbelief. Drake does not defy them, not in his mind. However, an impartial viewer would have some difficulty interpreting that claim as he does. The Ecclesiarchal protocols command Cardinals not to amass such personal wealth as Drake has spent, but Drake could point out his nearly-empty bank account and claim innocence. However, some parishioners have asked, is that a distinction without a difference? The Cathedral in which he lives is an extraordinarily beautiful, jewel-encrusted, heavily-guarded colossus, and he never leaves it. Does that qualify as having no personal wealth? He also has a ship of his own, with a Navigator he hired from Ecclesiarchal funds. Does that qualify as having no personal wealth?

To Drake, this is all distraction. In his mind, he does the work of the Emperor without hesitation or misstep. Even his critics admit that he does do an admirable job of inspiring the entire congregation of Cloudburst and Celeste. He bellows speeches and sermons about faith and deviance, about loyalty and heresy, and he does so with ironclad conviction and a strong voice despite his age.

However, off the pulpit, Drake is a terrible administrator. As a figurehead, he is capable, but when it comes to navigating the inter-office politics of the Ministorum, Drake is wholly inept. His aides and Deacons run nearly his entire establishment for him, while he imagines himself indispensable. More to the point, his age has grown past the limits of his juvenat treatments. He likely has only a few months to live, and has no idea save for a growing weariness when he rises from bed.

Drake is a friend to the Adeptus Sororitas inasmuch as they theoretically answer to him when outside their capacity as the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition Ordo Hereticus. However, Monica Lanbrie, the Canoness Superior of his home system, finds him distantly annoying, and she is more aware than most of his rising senility. The various measures that she and others have taken to remove him from most command positions have so far not tipped the man off to his predicament.

There are people far more vicious – or malevolent, depending on whom you ask – with their eyes on Drake. The Ordo Hereticus has so far tolerated his absurdly spendthrift lifestyle for the success it has brought the Cloudburst Ecclesiarchy in bringing in converts from beyond the Sector’s edge, but now it has reached a volume that is actually impeding the work they should be doing. The Ordo has not yet noticed his medical degradation, ironically because of the efforts of Lanbrie to hide it until he dies.

Drake has never been in a fight in his life, and does not carry a weapon or armor by habit.