Visant Le Gall
This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.
Visant Le Gall, b. c820.M30 (Llysfam Annuwiol), d. 918 (deep space), was one of the most successful Rogue Traders Militant of the Great Crusade. Thanks to his upbringing, he was an expert diplomat, fluent in most of the common human and xenos languages of the Galaxy with the notable exception of the Eldar tongue - though most would admit that he spoke that ancient language better than most men. Perhaps more surprisingly, given how late in life he took to the stars, Le Gall also had a gift for thinking three-dimensionally and planning the maneuvers of his craft, though he generally avoided battle where possible. And of course, he was a brilliant businessman and con artist, accumulating unthinkable riches through dealings both fair and foul.
Most who met the Captain found him charming and witty, with an exotic anecdote for every occasion. He was just as comfortable grunting to fur-clad primitives as he was in dealing with some of the most advanced peoples of the Milky Way. Le Gall became proud in his old age, but he was never vain and rarely stubborn. He lacked for moral character, and his only firm principle in life was the abhorrence of any principle. Nonetheless, he was not cruel and his crews generally considered him a fair and generous master.
Le Gall hailed from the Al-Sherar Sector, beginning life as a slave to the Amatteir race which had dominated that region of space. Even as a child he impressed his owners with his prodigy, and was given preferential treatment and some degree of education to make him useful as an officer's assistant. Le Gall also learnt the arts of corruption and vice while serving the Amatteir, but loyalty was a lesson that always eluded him. During the Al-Sherar Sector War, he organised a last-hour revolt among his peers, thereby winning some small goodwill with the conquering Fifth Legion and avoiding a sentence of hard labour for collaborating with the Xenos. Instead, his punishment was a Warrant of Trade signed by the Primarch Gaspard Lumey in 857.M30. Le Gall took the matter of departing Imperial space lightly, as he had no real history with human-ruled worlds.
At the helm of the Cruiser The Weatherman, Le Gall scouted ahead of the Great Crusade. He soon became notorious for defrauding credulous primitive peoples. A favourite routine was for Le Gall to impersonate a servant of "the Sky Gods" and take a tribute in return for assuring locals that their deities would soon arrive to usher in a new age. The unscrupulous Captain brushed aside any suggestion that such acts were criminal with the rejoinder that he only told people the truths that they could understand. There is perhaps some truth to this, as he was also responsible for bringing the Hive World Fischetti into compliance through diplomacy - and if the savvy Fischettians paid dearly for his services, they got good value by being spared a bloody conquest. Le Gall played a critical role in the Curis-4 Compliance by providing information to Fifth Legion and opening diplomatic channels with the Orvar Nation - a duty for which he was richly rewarded. Perhaps more nobly, Le Gall was first to sound the alarm when WAAAGH! Rok'Ed began to move towards Imperial space, providing the Fifth Legion with precious time to organise their response.
Like many of his forgotten peers, this famous Rogue Trader Militant died in space. However, Le Gall passed away peacefully in his bed aboard The Weatherman, leaving his ship and Warrant of Trade to his beloved granddaughter Helori. Visant Le Gall's immense successes laid the foundation for one of the Imperium's greatest Rogue Trader dynasties, and his example would inspire many ambitious souls to follow him into the great unknown.
Vessel
The famous cruiser The Weatherman was frequently retrofitted under Visant Le Gall's instructions. Unlike many Rogue Traders Militant, he was uninterested in giving his ship more powerful weapons and instead focused on the ship's speed and stability through the Warp. Access to Komra equipment allowed for The Weatherman to devote more of her tonnage to cargo while retaining a reasonable bite.
Entourage
A great many humans from far-flung worlds cycled through Le Gall's entourage. Whenever he discovered a relatively primitive people, the Rogue Trader preferred to abduct a local to train as an interpreter while The Weatherman explored new reaches of space. In the process, the would-be interpreter could be pumped for information on their homeworld. With the language barrier broken down and intelligence at his disposal, Le Gall could then return to the homeworld and acquire whatever riches were there for the taking - and, of course, pave the way for the Emperor's Great Crusade. A few of these hapless primitives became more permanent members of The Weatherman's company, most notably Dermer of VLG-x53.
Visant Le Gall was among the first Rogue Traders to traffic with the Komra, and definitely the first to employ Gelkzaft of that ancient race upon his vessel. Bringing Brymun Kenge and his clan aboard The Weatherman freed Le Gall from the supervision of the Cult Mechanicum.
Legacy
The Le Gall Rogue Trader Dynasty continued long after its founder. Visant's heir, Helori Le Gall, was a relatively obscure figure who did little to expand the family fortune before her untimely death in 931.M30. It was left to Helori's younger sister Blanche Le Gall to carry on the family business, which she did with aplomb. Under Blanche's heir, Visant II, the Le Gall Dynasty spent the bitter years of the Hektor Heresy operating at the extreme of Segmentum Pacificus. Visant II claimed that he never became aware of the civil war and simply carried on his business as usual until being apprehended by a Silver Cataphract patrol in the Scouring.