In the game: help great houses Also aristocracy nobility houses palatine houses pagos the nine houses minor houses bastards
The nine families who rule Deshret from the deepest floors, and how their titles and bastards work.
Nine families rule the deepest floors of the city. They sit the Pagos, the High Council, and they own the guilds in everything but name. Between them they have divided up most of what really matters in Deshret.
You do not have to play a noble to deal with the Great Houses. They employ guards, stewards, doctors, pilots, spies, and servants, and they meddle in pretty much everything. Below them are thousands of Minor Houses, scheming for scraps of influence and favour.
The Nine
House Vesalius runs Mythos: ancient, beautiful, and coldly polite. See help house vesalius.
House Rook leads the Lictorate and earns its place by service. See help house rook.
House Drepane serves Symphony's digital gods and lives for spectacle. See help house drepane.
House Varga breeds beasts in the city's greatest hunting ground. See help house varga.
House Valcora flies the city's largest air fleet. See help house valcora.
House Qamarat owns the crystals that power the city, and is the richest of them all. See help house qamarat.
House Morcant wears masks, and nobody knows its faces. See help house morcant.
House Amari grows real food in a living garden. See help house amari.
House Kadesh carves its faith into its own skin. See help house kadesh.
Titles
Most Houses use the same titles, though some have extras of their own:
Magnate: the head of the House.
Scion: the heir.
Kin: direct family, of any degree.
Sworn: servants, guards, and other sworn retainers.
Gender and sex play no part in inheritance.
Bastards
A child born out of wedlock to a House has no real rights or legal standing. Each House gives its bastards a surname that marks where they come from:
Vesalius: Vane
Qamarat: Sable
Rook: March
Morcant: Harrow
Drepane: Bell
Valcora: Gale
Varga: Wilder
Amari: Thorne
Kadesh: Creed
Read next: help guilds, help districts, and help law.
On the Agora: https://agora.underspire.net/t/great-houses/40