Note: Their dependence on xenos vassals makes House Kesselbrood virulent opponents of genocidal mono-humanist ideologies and movements, a near-constant source of unrest, revolution and terrorist activity among the human populations of their domains.

The Nyrkin

Sentient insectoids native to Celestine V, the Nyrkin have a symbiotic relationship with the tarantalum fungus. The Nyrkin are believed to have been part of a hive mind in ages past, but some ancient catastrophe shattered their collective consciousness. The residual trauma makes the Nyrkin highly susceptible to collectivist politics and ideologies. It is a constant concern of House Kesselbrood and the wizards of the Subtle Voice to prop up the client monarchy that rules over the restive xenos, on whom all their wealth depends. For without the Nyrkin, tarantalum could not be properly farmed to create a reliable source of refined petrichor.

House Kesselbrood use Nyrkin warrior-forms as auxiliary troops. Nyrkin hyper-fecudity leaves the species constantly overpopulated and gives House Kesselbrood an endless supply of malnourished, poorly equipped, acid-spitting swarms of man-sized insects on the frontline. With training and proper equipment Nyrkin warriors make excellent medium infantry, and there are many elite regiments to be found in the Ducal Armies.



Gn'Mok
A warlike species nearly exterminated by the expanding human Empire, which glassed their home world, the fleeing, tattered remnants of the Gn'Mok were offered asylum by House Kesselbrood in exchange for their service in the Ducal military, where they have served as elite heavy infantry for centuries. The Gn'Mok are few in number, their race divided by 13 tribal 'Legions' settled in lands given them by House Kesselbrood.

The Gn'Mok excel as heavy infantry, especially in boarding actions, utilizing wrist mounted energy shields, radiation-hammers and power lances in combat. The Grand Ducal Guard is made up of these formidable xenos. It is no secret that the Gn'Mok long for a world of their own, though they remain loyal to House Kesselbrood, which has been careful not to alienate their elite praetorians ever since the brutal murder of Grand Duke Radagast Xenos-Hater.

Trogg
Reptilian natives of the fungal wilds of Xaxus Minor, many trogg have been 'domesticated' by their human overlords and are used as servants, serfs and auxiliary soldiers, where they excel as light infantry. 'Civilized' Introgg have become increasingly integrated into Duchy society, though they are at best third-class citizens.

Overview

Leading Figures and Ruling Body
The Star Chamber, an elected body of representatives that ostensibly runs the Concordat
The Circle, a small council of a select few Concorded who actually rule.
Ademnon, the First Concordat
Sendema, the Harbinger of Tomorrow
Castantius, the Sword of Talisan

Homeworld
Hard to say exactly, though the world Sanctuary is certainly their most prominent holding. However, The deep space station Concord Dawn serves as the Concordat's actual capital.

Primary Resource
Advanced cybernetics, a variety of high end technology

Armed Forces
The fleets and armies of the Concordat never settle for anything less than absolute bleeding edge technology, and have a propensity for applying excessively complex solutions to solve problems. This is best embodied by their take on railguns: Concordat designs for these tried and true weapons substitute metal slugs for streams of dense superheated ferrofluids. The improvements in performance are offset by the increased difficulty of building and maintaining such weapons. Shields, engines, weapons of all kinds, virtually any key systems; all operate on this premise. While Concordat ships have somewhat superior performance when compared to their ccounterparts, their excessive complexity means they are incredibly difficult to maintain, leaving the Concordat on somewhat poor footing to fight offensive campaigns, particularly long ones. Their ships' performance will inevitably degrade faster than others, meaning the Concordat must strike quickly and decisively, or settle for fighting a defensive war.

Another particularity of Concordat ships is their organic cores. At the heart of every Concordat ship is a cybernetically augmented human brain, very much awake and very much alive. Concordat ships are sentient by every definition of the word, with personalities as varied as one might expect. They actually hold ranks, though are generally restricted by necessity to the navy's astrogation line of service; a vacare Concordat's brain can not be wasted on calculating firing solutions when any Concordat brain could do that. Consequently, Concordat ships tend to be their own astrogation officers, serving as mere lieutenants on smaller ships, right up to rear admirals on flagships, responsible for coordinating the astrogation of entire fleets. This does make keeping track of personnel a trying task for the navy's administrators. A ship brain is just as elligible for promotion or transfer as a human counterpart; the brains can be transferred between ships with relative ease. However, one couldn't very well ask a ship brain to change its name every time it transferred ships, so Concordat ships are constantly renamed after the mind within them. The Concordat's population base provides them with enough Vacare that almost all ships are volunteers; conscripted ship brains are riddled with hardware overrides to ensure their loyalty.

Fleet tactics are complex to near the point of inefficiency. The idea of any one ship firing in isolation is apparently preposterous to the Concordat. All ships of any given force are tied together by sophisticated command nets to precisely co-ordinate offensive and defensive fire. No shot is ever wasted.

On the ground, Concordat heavy infantry is horrifying to behold. They are less soldiers and more brains in jars, mounted in deadly mechanical bodies. Despite this, the armies of the Concordat seem to rely almost excessively on combined arms. Any action is likely to be supported by armor, artillery, and air forces.

Imperial Assessment
Legatus,

An urgent change of policy is needed with regards to the enigmatic entity known as the Concordat. First, a brief backgrounder.

The Concordat exists in an odd legal grey zone. Officially, it is listed as an alternative religious organization, but in practice, it is almost a sovereign nation. Sanctuary, for example, is an Imperial world. Its citizens pay imperial taxes and enroll in the Imperial armed forces. It has an imperial governor. But make no mistake, that governor and those taxes only remain in place so long as they do not become burdensome on the Concordat.

The Concordat's stated objective is Transcendance. They wish to transfer-truly transfer, not copy-their minds to digital mediums and live eternally in a digital utopia. They are evidently well on their way, having developed incredible cybernetic implants of all kinds, everything from replacement limbs that are indistinguishable from flesh and blood counterparts to cortical network implants that let them speak to each other in their minds. Standing policy has been to leave the Concordat alone, as the technology they develop has many uses when exported to the rest of the Imperium, and they have historically been perfectly loyal Imperial subjects.

This policy must change. My spies have discovered data that suggests the Concordat has been conducting a military buildup for the better part of thirty years, completely undetected. Our evidence is circumstantial, I admit, but if it is correct, the Concordat we know is but a facade they permit us to see.

Fortunately, I have gained some insight onto the internal politics of the Concordat. If you are at all familiar with the Concordat, you are doubtlessly aware of the names Ademnon and Sendema. Ademnon was the first human ever implanted with the cortical network implant, and is therefore the first true Concordat. He also happens to be a decorated Imperial war hero. Sendema is a cyberneticist, apparently even more skilled than the Concordat's founder, Marcus Talisan, and she is widely expected to usher in the next wave of the Concordat's evolution. Evidently, the two have emerged as prominent political figures in the Star Chamber, and they are quite at odds with eachother, as are their followers.

I recognize our available forces are spread thin, and if the rumors we've heard about the magnitude of the Concordat's military power are true, a direct assault would be prohibitively costly, if not outright impossible. However, I believe Ademnon and Sendema's political feud can potentially be escalated into a military one. I do not have appropriately concrete evidence to prove the threat the Concordat may represent, but I implore you to allocate additional resources to my command. The fate of the Imperium may be in the balance.