Type none Organization
Changes since version 1
…one, sworn to one, or just want to know whose ring you're kissing, here are some lore drops:
## House Vesalius
Vesalius has run Mythos[Mythos](mythos) - bioengineering, splicing, cyberware, medicine - as long as the guild has existed. They rule through a strange arrangement: three living incarnations of the…it is not so rare that House Rook adopts commoners who display their values formally into their House.
## House Drepane
The executives of Symphony[Symphony](symphony) - or gods, as they call themselves - are very much real. While they mostly reside in the digital world, they appear where they…and nod along at the sermons. For most, that's the whole of it.
Not for House Kadesh, the truest believers in the city. If Sepulchre[Sepulchre](sepulchre) is the body of the faith, Kadesh considers itself the blood. A Kadesh is easily recognized on sight because they literally wear their faith…
Line by line
…
You don't have to play a noble to interact with the Great Houses. They employ guards, stewards, doctors, pilots, spies and servants. They meddle in pretty much everything. But if you want to be part of one, sworn to one, or just want to know whose ring you're kissing, here are some lore drops:
## House Vesalius
- Vesalius has run Mythos - bioengineering, splicing, cyberware, medicine - as long as the guild has existed. They rule through a strange arrangement: three living incarnations of the same genestock at once. A child is tutored into the seat, an adult holds the seat, and an elder advises the seat. When the elder dies, the cycle moves up one.
+ Vesalius has run [Mythos](mythos) - bioengineering, splicing, cyberware, medicine - as long as the guild has existed. They rule through a strange arrangement: three living incarnations of the same genestock at once. A child is tutored into the seat, an adult holds the seat, and an elder advises the seat. When the elder dies, the cycle moves up one.
Members of House Vesalius tend to be ancient - though many don't look it - bioengineered to be gorgeous, and unfailingly polite. They also tend to be composed and cold in a clinical way; they are interested in people either as specimens or based on how useful they might be to the House, rather than the person themselves. Vesalius don't fear age, pain or death - they've conquered those, in their eyes.
…
Most Rooks end up as officers of the Lictorate (the everyday guardsmen) or serve as Dragoons (the elite division of the guardsmen). They put value on honor and earning one's worth: and it is not so rare that House Rook adopts commoners who display their values formally into their House.
## House Drepane
- The executives of Symphony - or gods, as they call themselves - are very much real. While they mostly reside in the digital world, they appear where they please. Each have their own distinct department; Apollo runs the broadcasts, Aphrodite the fashion and pleasure lines, Ares the violence and so on.
+ The executives of [Symphony](symphony) - or gods, as they call themselves - are very much real. While they mostly reside in the digital world, they appear where they please. Each have their own distinct department; Apollo runs the broadcasts, Aphrodite the fashion and pleasure lines, Ares the violence and so on.
Drepane is the House that serves them and has ever since the pantheon has come to be. Borderline heretical in their worship of the pantheon, they're the most fanatical of the bunch when it comes to serving these digital beings: and have also fully bought into the delusion. Their halls look straight out of the Odyssey, and they keep dead arts alive: theatre, rhetoric, verse, philosophy in a city that wouldn't need it otherwise. Their symposia are famous, and every children born to Drepane is raised to be worthy of at least one god's attention.
…
## House Kadesh
Everyone in Deshret is, on paper, faithful. They tithe, they wear their seals, they pray and nod along at the sermons. For most, that's the whole of it.
- Not for House Kadesh, the truest believers in the city. If Sepulchre is the body of the faith, Kadesh considers itself the blood. A Kadesh is easily recognized on sight because they literally wear their faith on their flesh. The seals other people may prefer to ink or tattoo are carved onto Kadesh skin. Every act of devotion is marked from brands to ritual scars cut deep. When a Kadesh splinters, it is tradition to grab their athame and carve every single inch of it back onto their flawless skin, painstakingly over hours, during the first day of their rebirth - and these marks only increase in number the longer a Kadesh remains alive, the imperfect lines piling up. It's for that reason the oldest members of House Kadesh tend to be grotesque, scarred beings that resemble something that was once human but not so much anymore.
+ Not for House Kadesh, the truest believers in the city. If [Sepulchre](sepulchre) is the body of the faith, Kadesh considers itself the blood. A Kadesh is easily recognized on sight because they literally wear their faith on their flesh. The seals other people may prefer to ink or tattoo are carved onto Kadesh skin. Every act of devotion is marked from brands to ritual scars cut deep. When a Kadesh splinters, it is tradition to grab their athame and carve every single inch of it back onto their flawless skin, painstakingly over hours, during the first day of their rebirth - and these marks only increase in number the longer a Kadesh remains alive, the imperfect lines piling up. It's for that reason the oldest members of House Kadesh tend to be grotesque, scarred beings that resemble something that was once human but not so much anymore.
Kadesh have historically served Sepulchre, as clergy and inquisitors both. They fast where others feast. They walk unarmored and unarmed in the worst parts of the city to preach. They are the crusaders, the flagellants. Also likely masochists and sadists, obsessed with pain and suffering for their beliefs. Yet, in a city like Deshret, being part of a House this devout certainly has its perks.
This is the current version.