Noble Houses

Each realm opens with its succession law and its ruling house, whose descent is drawn as a tree, with a line of three dots where the chronicles skip generations. Then come the great houses, clans or families. Each entry gives the seat, the arms, the words (the house's saying), the head and heir in 1146, wealth and power, friends and feuds, a dated history, the hooks (what hangs over the house now), and which way it is going. Arms mean different things in different realms. Aldmere, Caelvenne and Castavar paint them on shields and banners. Tharax cuts a plain mark into the bronze of a shield and paints nothing. Zarvand flies devices on banners, Kaishon's great families use seal devices, and each Hrodvald clan has a beast carved on its post in the Vuvud Hall and painted on its shields.

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Succession law

The crown goes to the king's eldest son. When there is no clear heir, the Moot chooses, as it did in 352 when Hethgrul II died childless and two cousins claimed the crown. A lord's fief passes whole to his eldest son, or to his eldest daughter if he has no son, and the younger children are owed a portion in goods or coin. A widow keeps a third of her husband's land for her life. A traitor's lands go back to the crown. By custom, not law, no Aldmere king is truly king until he has walked the seven arches of the Seven-Arched Bridge alone at dawn and the bridge has stayed silent. Every king has done it. Prince Hethbael has not.

The ruling house: Tulvard

text Hethbael, King of Vareth ═══ Sildith, Queen of Wessary (married 151) │ └── Hethmed Tulvard, first King of Aldmere, 178 │ ⋮ (the chronicles skip generations) │ ├── Hethgrul II, died 352 without an heir │ The Moot chose between two cousins of the house (unnamed); the line runs on through the chosen one ⋮ ├── Hethwur IV, signed the Charter of Hearths, 641 ⋮ ├── Princess Glaidith Tulvard ═══ Prince Tilaud diol Valcroix of Caelvenne (the Marriage of the Lake, 672) ⋮ ├── Hethminth III, won the Lords' War, 822–829 ⋮ ├── Hethlarn I, stabbed on the Moot floor, 996, and survived ⋮ (a Hethlarn II is implied by the numeral; the chronicles give no dates) │ └── (a king, unnamed, died of a fever, 1121) │ └── Hethlarn III "the Steady", born c. 1094, crowned 1121, the 31st Tulvard monarch │ └── Prince Hethbael, born c. 1122, crown prince

• Seat: the Crown Keep on Moot Rise, Hethlend (hethlend); the Crownlands (the-crownlands).
• Arms: the royal arms. Seven small flames stand in a row across the top of the shield, red on gold. Below them a gray stone bridge of seven arches crosses a blue river. A crown sits above the shield, and oak sprigs grow up either side.
• Words: Hearth, Law, Harvest.
• Head: King Hethlarn Tulvard III (52). He takes a week over every decision, and no one can name a bad one.
• Heir: Prince Hethbael (24), who has called his father weak and Caelvenne a leech, in the Moot.
• Wealth and power: The crown holds the Crownlands, the Chancery and its mint, the tolls of the six crown roads, the chain toll at Hethlend, and the 8,000 Crown Wardens. Against that, it owes the Vaides 850,000 leusores on the Compact debt of 511 and owes Farisel 2,100,000, and it pays about 139,000 leusores a year in interest.
• Allies and feuds: The crown is bound to Caelvenne by the Grain Compact and to Tharax by the Bridge Treaty of 1052. The Westmarch serves it and does not love it. The Crownmen and the Southdowns stand behind the crown; the Mootmen stand behind the law.
• History: The tree gives the dated kings. The old tale says the timber bridge groaned under every pretender and went silent under Hethmed Tulvard in 178. Hethminth III won the Lords' War only with Tharaxi mercenaries paid in Caelvennois gold. Hethlarn III came into two generations of debt to Farisel in 1121, and in 1146 his son asked him, before the full Moot, why Aldmere still pays interest on a loan made in 511.
• Hooks: Someone paid the Chancery's archivists in leusores to copy the Vareth marriage rolls of the 600s, and those rolls hold the Marriage of the Lake. A Cherüsh letter offering alliance and a marriage is on its way to the prince, not the king. If the king falls ill, the Moot, the prince, the Chancellor and the Duke will each make ready in secret.
• Direction: STABLE, under strain.

Durift of the Westmarch

• Seat: Durtisir (durtisir), the fortress where the roads meet before the climb to Venei's Throat; the Westmarch (the-westmarch).
• Arms: On green, a black thorn branch bent into a ring with its points turned outward.
• Words: The Pass Is Kept.
• Head: Duke Minthor Durift (47), warden of the western passes, with a Hrodvald axe-scar from mouth to ear, taken at Thalmirn in 1127.
• Heir: The chronicles name none. By Aldmere law the duchy goes whole to his eldest son, or his eldest daughter if he has no son.
• Wealth and power: Durift is the richest lord in Aldmere. By the Bridge Treaty the Westmarch keeps a third of the tolls of the Stair and Venei's Throat to garrison them, and the Duke keeps nearer half. His courts judge his own toll-men, and his toll-men are never found guilty.
• Allies and feuds: The Duke is cousin to Grerik Coldbrook of the Vargate Clans. He is loyal to Aldmere, not to the Tulvards. The Westmarch has distrusted Hethlend since the Lords' War.
• History:
• 822–829 — Duke Yornbael Durift leads the Westmarch lords against King Hethminth III over the Moot's right to tax them. The Durifts keep their duchy, and the Moot keeps its taxes.
• 996 — A Westmarch baron stabs Hethlarn I in the Moot hall. No weapon has been allowed there since.
• 1052 — The Bridge Treaty gives the Westmarch the Stair and Venei's Throat to hold, and it grows rich on their tolls.
• 1127 — Minthor takes his scar at the Hrodvald raid on Thalmirn.
• Hooks: A Qaflan captain is waiting in Hethlend to complain that the Duke's toll-men took three times the crown's rate at Venei's Throat and killed a driver. The Duke would make a fine king. That is the trouble.
• Direction: RISING.

Ownirel

• Seat: The Chancery on Moot Rise, Hethlend (hethlend). The house holds no land.
• Arms: On white, a gray ash tree with its roots showing and a black quill laid across the trunk.
• Words: To the Mark.
• Head: Lord Chancellor Tuvith Ownirel (61), keeper of the treasury for twenty-two years.
• Heir: None. She has no family, and the house ends with her.
• Wealth and power: The house has no money of its own, and more power than any house in Aldmere but the crown's. The Chancellor keeps the kingdom's books, the Moot's rolls and every shire's tax rolls, and she knows which lords cheat on their taxes.
• Allies and feuds: She is the patron saint of the Mootmen, though she would never say so. She quietly agrees with the Clearance, and she thinks it would bankrupt the kingdom.
• History: Tuvith Ownirel took the Chancery about 1124.
• Hooks: When the Valcroix claim to Vareth reaches the Moot, she will have three days to find the paper that answers it. On the night of his question she showed the prince the real ledger.
• Direction: STABLE for as long as she lives, and then VANISHED.

Coldbrook of the Vargate

• Seat: The Vargate Clans' country in the eastern foothills of the northern Spine (vargate-clans-country).
• Arms: Split down the middle, green on the left and gray on the right, with a white stream running down the line between.
• Words: Both Sides of the Ridge.
• Head: Grerik Coldbrook, chieftain of the three Vargate Clans, about 6,000 people.
• Heir: Not named. The Coldbrooks choose among their kin in the Hrodvald way.
• Wealth and power: The clans sell timber and take a toll of half a mark on every wagon that passes the Vargate. The Coldbrooks raid nobody and toll everybody.
• Allies and feuds: The Coldbrooks are no lords of Aldmere, but marriage binds them to it. Grerik is Duke Durift's cousin and Thuba Nugag's brother-in-law. The clans marry their daughters into the Northmere lords and Clan Nugag, and they and the Dunmorrow are the three corners of the northern Spine's trade.
• Hooks: A Coldbrook rider goes up to Ironjaw Hold every month. Nobody knows whether he carries word for Kruman or about him.
• Direction: STABLE.

The Earls of Wromthalm

• Seat: The Earl's Hall above the Darthir, Wromthalm (wromthalm).
• Arms: On blue, a brown otter holding a silver eel, above a small gold bell.
• Words: Ring for the Boats.
• Head: The Earl of Wromthalm, an earl of the crown, who governs with the town's elected reeve.
• Heir: Not named.
• Wealth and power: The earl's town lives on linen, smoked mere eel, otter pelts and the Caelvenne road. The crown's Toll House stands in his town, and Aldmere's debt to Farisel is pledged on its tolls, so the earl sits beside the one building in Aldmere that Solvaine watches hardest.
• Allies and feuds: The earl's town faces Caelvenne more than Hethlend, and many of its families have a cousin in Claupiose.
• Hooks: The earl has locked the Wromthalm fishermen's carved black stone in his hall, and three courts want it.
• Direction: RISING.

The Earls of Thalmirn

• Seat: Thalmirn (thalmirn), chief town of the Northmere (the-northmere).
• Arms: Gold over green in two level bands, with a black dike-wall across the middle and a reed standing on either side.
• Words: Dry Land, Hard Won.
• Head: The Earl of Thalmirn, a lakeshore earl of the crown and first among the Northmere lords.
• Heir: Not named.
• Wealth and power: The earls grow wheat on new ground. Thalmirn's new dikes are draining the Northmere marshes, and the Marsh Reeds with them, and every acre drained is the earl's.
• Allies and feuds: The Northmere lords marry the daughters of Clan Nugag and the Vargate Clans. Some of Aldmere's Sun-Turners live on their lands.
• History:
• 1089–1127 — A generation of Hrodvald raids empties the northern shires.
• 1127 — The raid on Thalmirn. Duke Durift takes his scar here and Kruman Ironjaw loses an eye. At last the crown fortifies Lulstat and the Northmere.
• Hooks: A Northmere house with a Nugag bride now has kin on both sides of any war between Selra and Kruman. The Marsh Reeds have never paid a tax, and the dikes will make them pay in land.
• Direction: RISING.

Kewith of Ownvos

• Seat: Ownvos (ownvos), in the heart of the Southdowns (the-southdowns).
• Arms: On green, a white hare leaping over an unstrung yew bow.
• Words: Loose Together.
• Head: Gunras the Hare-Lord, a lean gray lord of sixty who still shoots at the straw hare on Bow-day.
• Heir: His eldest daughter, since he has no son.
• Wealth and power: The house lives on sheep and yew. The Kewiths are the first lords of the downs, and the village archery guilds bring their longbowmen to the crown's levy under the Kewith banner.
• Allies and feuds: The Kewiths are Crownmen to the bone: the king should rule and the Moot advise. They dislike the Marchers and like Prince Hethbael, who has not yet claimed them.
• Hooks: Dunt Wrunvos's company, lent to Caelvenne under the Grain Compact, marches from Kewith land to Larvir.
• Direction: STABLE.

Aldmere's nobility is STABLE, under strain. The crown stands on the Moot and the Chancery, not on its lords, and the one lord strong enough to challenge it, Durift, has no reason to while the tolls flow.

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Succession law

Tharax has two kings at all times, one from each royal line, and both lines claim descent from the realm's founders. When a king dies, the Thirty choose his successor from the grown men of his own line. The Skekar can arrest a king, and have: Phospor Deneskid died in their prison in 741. Phymon land passes from mother to daughter, which is why the women own most of Tharax. A son inherits his father's spear, shield and seat in the mess-hall, and nothing else. A Bound family passes with the land it works. Tharax has no lords. It has households instead, and their weight comes from the land their women hold and the halls their men fill.

The ruling lines: Deneskid and Sastorid

text The founders of Tharax (unnamed; both lines claim them) │ ├── THE DENESKID LINE (the north house) │ ⋮ │ ├── Tothakhor Deneskid, king; held the Gap three days, 212 │ ⋮ │ ├── Phospor Deneskid, king; arrested by the Skekar, died in prison, 741 │ ⋮ │ └── Kenithor Deneskid, born c. 1102, king 1130 │ └── THE SASTORID LINE (the south house) ⋮ ├── Drimor Sastorid, king; killed in his tent by a Bound servant, 520 ⋮ └── Lekakor Sastorid, born c. 1108, king 1130 │ └── Krirtys Sastorid, born c. 1129, Anvil-branded

The chronicles name only five kings of the two lines. Kenithor and Lekakor took their thrones within a year of each other, in 1130.

Deneskid

• Seat: The Eagle Hall in Denekt (denekt) and the north house of the Two Houses in Tharxa (tharxa); the Deneskid Heights (deneskid-heights).
• Arms: A single eagle feather cut upright into the bronze face of the shield, just under the rim. Denesk is the Tharaxi word for eagle.
• Words: Three Days More.
• Head: King Kenithor Deneskid (44), the best field commander alive, with a dent in his left forearm where a Castavari bolt broke it at Faashab-Talodin.
• Heir: None named. The Thirty will choose among the grown men of the line.
• Wealth and power: The line holds the Deneskid Side of Tharxa, the old households of Denekt, the Temple of Kharnoth, which Denekt's old men call theirs, and the loyalty of most of the army.
• Allies and feuds: Kenithor is the heart of the Old Anvil, and tired of it. He is an Iron-Breaker who signed the Iron Contract himself, because Tharax needed the gold. The line has been the Sastorids' rival since 1108.
• History:
• 212 — Tothakhor Deneskid holds the Tharaxi Gap for three days against 40,000. His feather hangs in the Eagle Hall.
• 741 — The Skekar arrest King Phospor for taking Caelvennois gold. In the Eagle Hall's row of feathers there is a gap where his would be.
• 1108 — The Reforms split the Thirty, and the rivalry with the Sastorids begins.
• 1131 — Kenithor signs the Iron Contract.
• Hooks: Prince Faasheer's agents have offered Kenithor Faashab-Talodin if he will close the pass to Durkaad's friends. Kenithor's feather is not yet in the Eagle Hall.
• Direction: FADING.

Sastorid

• Seat: Sastorra (sastorra) and the south house in Tharxa (tharxa); the Sastorid Crags (sastorid-crags).
• Arms: A spear laid level, point to the right, cut into the bronze under the rim. Sastor is the Tharaxi word for spear.
• Words: The Point Goes First.
• Head: King Lekakor Sastorid (38), a middling soldier and a brilliant hand at council, who sleeps four hours a night.
• Heir: None named. Krirtys is his only named child, and the law gives the throne to the line's grown men.
• Wealth and power: The line holds the Sastorid Side of Tharxa, newer and poorer in stone, and the southern crags that face both Castavar and Zarvand. For three centuries Sastorra has looked across at the Zarvani fortress of Faashab-Talodin, built on its own ground.
• Allies and feuds: Lekakor leads the Wide Anvil and the younger Phymun. He is an Iron-Breaker who wants out of the Contract, and he will use the Tyrthas for his own ends.
• History:
• 520 — King Drimor Sastorid is killed in his tent by a Bound servant in the Second Bound Rising. No Bound servant has carried a knife in Tharxa since.
• After 1108 — Sastorid women begin renting lower rooms to Outdweller families. The Deneskid Side calls it a scandal.
• 1131 — Lekakor loses the vote on the Iron Contract by two.
• 1145 — He proposes that Tharax leave the Contract when it ends in 1147. The vote is put off.
• Hooks: A Caelvennois envoy has offered Lekakor double the Contract's gold to garrison the Tsanha fords. Krirtys wants to stand in the line.
• Direction: RISING.

Gonamik

• Seat: A Phymon house in Tharxa (tharxa).
• Arms: A small round shield inside the rim of a larger one, cut in the bronze. Gonam is the Tharaxi word for shield.
• Words: Watch, and Say Nothing.
• Head: Skekir Sirtys Gonamik (58), senior skekir, head of the Tyrthas, and the name of the year 1146.
• Heir: The chronicles name no daughter, and her three sons died as soldiers. Who holds the Gonamik land after her is an open question.
• Wealth and power: She commands the Tyrthas, which knows the name of every Bound headman in the Lowfields. Her name stands on the recent Year Posts more often than any name in living memory.
• Allies and feuds: She is the iron of the Old Anvil. She is the widow of a king's brother, and the chronicles do not say which line he was of. Both lines would like to claim her, and she has let neither.
• History:
• Childhood — A fall in the Kokekt mines leaves her with a limp.
• c. 1135 — She takes charge of the Tyrthas, and she has held it eleven years, longer than any skekir is meant to hold anything.
• Hooks: The Bound tell a tale called Gonam's Fox about the Tyrthas, and they hear her house's name in it. She is counting heads for the Contract vote.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

The Eagle Kin of Denekt

• Seat: The Upper Town of Denekt (denekt).
• Arms: None painted. Each house keeps an eagle feather over its inner door.
• Words: Under the Feathers.
• Head: No single head. The eldest women of the Upper Town speak for the families.
• Heir: By the mother-to-daughter law, each house's terraces pass to its daughters.
• Wealth and power: The families hold the best terraces for a day's walk around Denekt, and the pride of families who claim kinship with the Deneskid line.
• Allies and feuds: The families are split. Some in the Eagle Hall want the old families to stand behind Kenithor against Lekakor on the Contract vote, and some want them to stand behind no one.
• Hooks: Their Bound can see the Stair, where freedom lies a few days' climb away, and each year some of them go.
• Direction: FADING.

Tryner of the Lowfields

• Seat: The terraces around Lowfields town (lowfields), in the Lowfields province (the-lowfields).
• Arms: A barley ear cut into the edge of the household's tally-boards. Tryner is the Tharaxi word for grain.
• Words: Count the Sheaves.
• Head: Kirrar the Landholder, a Phymon woman of about fifty who holds more Lowfields terrace than any other household.
• Heir: Her eldest daughter.
• Wealth and power: The household holds barley terraces and several hundred Bound families who pass with the land. The Tryner terraces send barley to a dozen mess-halls.
• Allies and feuds: The household is Old Anvil. The Tryner women are among the quiet defenders of the Contract's gold, because they count it.
• History:
• 520 — The Bound of the Lowfields kill three hundred Phymun in one night. The Tryner women remember which houses burned.
• 938 — "The quiet year." Two thousand Bound are put to death on land the Tryner household still holds.
• Hooks: Tandox the Bound has men on the Tryner terraces, one trusted man at a time, and Kirrar has not seen it.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

The Barsmiths

• Seat: The Bar Forge in the Smoke Yards of Tharxa (tharxa).
• Arms: Outdwellers bear no arms. The family's mark is the forge's stamp, a bar scored in ten.
• Words: None of their own. The Smoke Yards say iron is honest.
• Head: Dunox the Barsmith, the Outdweller master of the Bar Forge, the only place in Tharax where iron bars may be cast.
• Heir: His eldest son. His second son is in the Anvil under the Reforms of 1108.
• Wealth and power: The Barsmiths make Tharax's money and may not use it as a citizen does.
• Allies and feuds: The family stands with the Wide Anvil. If Outdwellers' sons ever become Phymun in numbers, this family will be among the first to own land as well as a forge.
• Hooks: Dunox's son is one of the two young Phymun sent into the high woods after a Karzhan bear, and only one will come back.
• Direction: RISING.

Tharax's households are CONTESTED. The two lines have been rivals in council only since 1108. The Contract vote in 1147 will decide which of them leads.

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Succession law

The Conclave of Nine Houses elects the prince from among its families, and no house holds the seat by right. The Valcroix have held it most often. Headship of a great house goes to whichever member the house chooses, and Farisel was founded by a widow and has been led by widows. A commoner leaves his goods by a testament written in daylight, shared among sons and daughters alike unless it says otherwise. A debt passes to the debtor's heirs and, in the great families, to the house itself. A marriage among the houses is a contract, sealed at the Mirror Vow, where the house's secret mirror-name, its ètinvime, is spoken aloud. Claupiose houses do not marry Ienvaune houses.

The ruling house: Valcroix

text Fezaud diol Valcroix, elected first Prince of Caelvenne, 294 │ ⋮ ├── Roltien diol Valcroix, prince; stabbed at dawn prayers, 603 ⋮ ├── Tilaud diol Valcroix, prince ═══ Princess Glaidith Tulvard of Aldmere (the Marriage of the Lake, 672) ⋮ ├── Lourien diol Valcroix, born c. 1085, elected prince 1132 │ └── (a brother or sister of Lourien, unnamed) │ └── Rorelle diol Valcroix, born c. 1118 ═══ Dobarmo IV deso Grarañe, King of Castavar (1135) │ └── two sons, unnamed

• Seat: The Fiajane on the Prince's Isle, Solvaine (solvaine); the Solvaine Isles (the-solvaine-isles).
• Arms: On deep blue, a white Solvaine water-lily, open, floating on a line of silver water. The same lily stands under the Radiant Iévaine on the realm's arms, ringed by nine stars for the Nine Houses.
• Words: Chosen, Never Crowned.
• Head: Prince Lourien diol Valcroix (61), who wears one gold ring shaped like a lily and no other jewelry.
• Heir: None by right. The next prince will be elected.
• Wealth and power: The house holds the prince's seat, the Lilies, the Fiajane's dining hall, and a niece on the throne of Castavar.
• Allies and feuds: Lourien is the Concord's perfect servant. The Lilyists, a small party of Valcroix clients, want the prince made hereditary. Lourien has never encouraged them and never discouraged them.
• History: The Peace of the Nine made Fezaud prince in 294. A priest in the pay of the House of Aijal stabbed Prince Roltien at dawn prayers in 603. Lourien was elected at 47 in 1132 and made the Gilded Pact in 1135.
• Hooks: A Valcroix keeper of pedigrees has found that the Marriage of the Lake may give the Valcroix a better claim to Vareth's throne than the Tulvards have. The pigeons from Grarañe have stopped coming. The Fiajane's kitchens have ordered seven courses for seven ambassadors.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

Farisel

• Seat: The Kettle House in the Counting Isles, Solvaine (solvaine); the villa town of Ionjale Farisel (ionjale-farisel).
• Arms: On rose-red, a plain copper kettle with one gold coin above it.
• Words: To the Kettle.
• Head: Bevele Bansine Farisel (49), who announces herself with rose perfume, and who has cut off Castavar's credit.
• Heir: Chosen by the house. She has four children, none named in the chronicles.
• Wealth and power: Farisel is the largest lender in the One Land. It holds Aldmere's 2,100,000 leusores, Castavar's 4,800,000, Clan Stormbrand's 40,000, and about 3,000,000 owed by four of the Nine Houses. Tevon of the Yards, senior captain of the lake navy's Yards at Solvaine, is a Farisel cousin.
• Allies and feuds: Farisel lives by the Ledgerites' creed in practice. Tésvol is bound to Farisel by marriage and debt. Every borrower resents her.
• History:
• 903 — The glass-merchant's widow Vailine Farisel founds the house by lending to Aldmere's crown when the older houses refuse. She lends her first kettle of coins at one in ten. The chronicles do not give the year Farisel took a door in the Pogna.
• 1068 — Farisel buys the failed House of Tésvol's debts, and Tésvol marries into it.
• 1135 — Farisel takes over Castavar's whole silver debt on new terms, in the week of the Gilded Pact.
• Hooks: A Kettle House clerk has died, and his private ledger is missing. A Farisel factor is on the Fur Trail to collect from Selra. Bansine's late husband was a Gatekeeper of the Drowned Court.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

Tésvol

• Seat: The First Sieran on the Furnace Isles, Solvaine (solvaine).
• Arms: On black, a round bronze mirror throwing six gold rays to the right.
• Words: Faster Than a Rider.
• Head: Not named. The house's best-known member is Sierelle Tésvol.
• Heir: Chosen by the house.
• Wealth and power: The house keeps its seat among the Nine only by marriage to Farisel. It also has the mirror towers, which are worth more than its bank ever was.
• Allies and feuds: The house is tied to Farisel. Sierelle is the Bench's unlikely darling, and the Concord finds that charming.
• History:
• 788 — Sierine Tésvol builds the first mirror tower line across the lake.
• 1068 — The Solvaine Bank Panic. Tésvol fails after lending to a Castavari silver venture, and survives among the Nine only by marrying into Farisel.
• Hooks: Someone has lent the cathedral's poor-fund at interest to a Tésvol, and that loan is keeping the family from ruin. Kaishon's ambassador and a Farisel cousin have each taken Sierelle to lunch three times this month.
• Direction: RISING, on mirrors instead of money.

Lalos

• Seat: A counting-house in the Counting Isles and a villa at Ienvaune (solvaine, ienvaune).
• Arms: On gold, a blue dome with a white sun-disc rising behind it.
• Words: The Dawn Repays.
• Head: Not named. Its best-known son is Cardinal Fezaud Lalos (66), prelate of the Sun Cathedral.
• Heir: Chosen by the house.
• Wealth and power: Cardinals and cathedral priests come from the Nine Houses, and the Lalos have given the Church its loudest voice. Through its cardinal the house takes bribes from the other eight, and through him it feeds the Bells too.
• Allies and feuds: The house stands with the Concord. Rislo Litoto's Berrode wants the cardinal burned.
• Hooks: The cardinal fought Prince Lourien for three years to keep the poor-fund from being lent at interest, and his own priest has lent it.
• Direction: STABLE.

Aijal

• Seat: None. The house lives on only as spies, and its master works from the Quiet Office, which by law has no address (solvaine).
• Arms: Struck from the Pogna in 603. Roltien Aijal bears no arms, and keeps a small painting of the bell-tower in his study instead. Aijal is the Caelvennois word for cipher.
• Words: None spoken since 603.
• Head: Roltien Aijal (44), master of the Quiet Office, last heir of the house.
• Heir: None.
• Wealth and power: The house has no money and no islands, but it has agents in every court on the continent, Tharxa included.
• Allies and feuds: Roltien is loyal to Caelvenne, and to the prince for as long as the prince is loyal to Caelvenne.
• History:
• 603 — A priest in the pay of the House of Aijal stabs Prince Roltien diol Valcroix. The Conclave hangs the Aijal patriarch and two of his sons from the cathedral bell-tower. The old wives say the bricked tenth door of the Pogna was Aijal's; the Bench says it is theirs.
• Hooks: The taverns still sing the bell-tower song, and it is bad luck to hum it near an Aijal. Three of his agents in Grarañe have gone quiet this year.
• Direction: STABLE, and ending with him.

Flurdel of Claupiose

• Seat: Claupiose (claupiose), where the Conclave rules through the houses that hold the city's wards.
• Arms: On red, a white mulberry leaf crossed with a purple sprig of lavender.
• Words: The Color Holds.
• Head: Bevele Claline, a widow in her fifties who holds the harbor wards of Claupiose.
• Heir: Chosen by the house. Her younger son is the bridegroom offered below.
• Wealth and power: Flurdel is a lesser house, not one of the Nine. It holds the Rèvascare and the Silk Lofts as wards and takes ward dues from the dye-houses.
• Allies and feuds: The house is Claupiose's pride. The Flurdel keep the Pitch Stair stone clean. Claupiose calls it a memorial, and Ienvaune calls it a boast.
• History:
• 271 — Claupiose's galleys burn Ienvaune's harbor. The Flurdel claim an ancestor loaded the pitch.
• Hooks: A match has been offered between a Flurdel son and a Teuvaun daughter, the first between the two cities since 271, and somebody has chipped the Pitch Stair stone.
• Direction: RISING.

Teuvaun of Ienvaune

• Seat: Ienvaune (ienvaune).
• Arms: On pale gold, a green vine branch with white grapes above a small silver nightingale.
• Words: Sweet After Bitter.
• Head: Lenvén the Vintner, head of the house, whose white wine goes to every table of the Nine.
• Heir: Chosen by the house.
• Wealth and power: Teuvaun is a lesser house, and host to the Nine every summer when the midges drive them out of Solvaine. Its bakeries make the pastries that sweeten Aldmere's Lord Chancellor.
• Allies and feuds: Ienvaune's grudge against Claupiose is 875 years old. Lenvén wants the match anyway, because the Wromthalm road runs through Claupiose.
• History:
• 271 — Two thousand die when Claupiose fires Ienvaune's harbor.
• Hooks: If the Flurdel match goes ahead, it will be the first Mirror Vow between the two cities in 875 years.
• Direction: STABLE.

The other houses of the Nine. Farisel, Valcroix, Tésvol and Lalos are four of the Nine. The other five are old banking and merchant families the chronicles do not name. Four of the Nine owe Farisel about 3,000,000 leusores among them. Each keeps a counting-house in the Counting Isles, holds islands as wards and has a door in the Pogna.

Caelvenne's houses are CONTESTED. They have never been richer. Their largest debtor has been cut off, and their army leaves when the Iron Contract lapses in 1147.

---

Succession law

The crown passes in the male line. Castavar remembers that Lasdara ended in 301 when its male line died out. A Grandee's lands pass whole to his eldest son, and younger sons go to the church or the knightly orders. Commoners divide their land among their sons and give their daughters dowries. The Berrode does not undo a marriage; a church court may part a couple, but neither may marry again. The church has decided who rules before now. The Rislo holds a veto over matters of faith, and in 983 Rislo Gronrovo imprisoned King Janedo IV and ruled through the king's twelve-year-old son for eleven years.

The ruling house: Grarañe

text The Twin Crowns of Castavar and Lasdara (before the Reckoning) │ ├── THE LINE OF LASDARA, junior crown; male line ended 301, the kingdom absorbed │ └── HOUSE GRARAÑE ⋮ ├── Clislo II, killed by a thrown spear at the Battle of the Gap, 212 ⋮ ├── Llelilo the Pious, died of thirst on the First Crusade, 701 ⋮ ├── Mairo II, captured at the Salt Pans, 868; ransomed for his weight in silver ⋮ ├── Janedo IV, imprisoned by Rislo Gronrovo, 983 │ └── (his son, unnamed, twelve in 983, through whom the Rislo ruled eleven years) ⋮ └── Randuo V, died 1138 │ └── Dobarmo IV, born c. 1111, crowned 1138 ═══ Rorelle diol Valcroix (1135) │ └── two sons, unnamed; the elder is heir

The Rislon of the chronicles: Cravio of Grarañe, the first, 655; Pueco, 866; Gronrovo, 983; Litoto, in office in 1146.

• Seat: The Palace of the Orange Courts, Grarañe (grarane); the Royal Demesne (royal-demesne-of-grarane).
• Arms: The realm's arms are House Grarañe's quartered with the Berrode: a crown, the cathedral-fortress, the ring of the White Thorn and the ocean fleet, with two lances for supporters. The house's own arms are the first quarter: a gold crown standing on a white cliff above a blue river. Grarañe is the Castavari word for cliff.
• Words: IENO SEMODO · IENA ELLABA, "One God, one crown."
• Head: King Dobarmo IV deso Grarañe (35), who wears a glove over his burned right palm and takes it off to pray.
• Heir: The elder of his two sons by Queen Rorelle, a boy of no more than ten.
• Wealth and power: The crown holds the Royal Demesne, the Royal Mint and its royal fifth of the Grandees' silver, the tuna, which is the crown's alone, and the navy. Against that it owes Farisel 4,800,000 leusores, half its income goes in interest, and the Grandees voted no grant in 1146.
• Allies and feuds: The crown is bound to Caelvenne by the Gilded Pact. The Rislo sits at the king's right hand. The Crownmen of Grarañe name Dobarmo their head, and he has never led them.
• History: Within a generation of Fojo's Hearing in 312 the kings took up the Solitary God and outlawed the older gods. The city says Mairo II's ransom in 868 was weighed on the Royal Mint's great scale. Dobarmo IV was crowned at 27 in 1138, and the Third Crusade burned at Faashab-Talodin the next year.
• Hooks: Brother Talvo has a file on the queen that he has not yet opened. At the last service on Fojiga the king left his glove off all the way to the palace. The coming year will settle who rules Castavar, the crown or the cliff.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

The Line of Lasdara (vanished)

• Seat: The old Lasdara country, now the Berrode's southern diocese (lasdara-country).
• Arms: On gold, a green olive tree with a black bull lying beneath it. The palace hangs this banner beside Castavar's on the fourth Accord Day.
• Words: Lost.
• Head: None since 301.
• History:
• 301 — The male line dies out. The name lives on only in the church's southern diocese.
• Hooks: The olive and the bull on the old banner are two of the gods the Grove of Lasdara still keeps, and the Office of Truth has noticed who looks longest at the banner on Twin Crowns' Day.
• Direction: VANISHED, though the Grove villages may become a people of their own if Castavar breaks.

The Grandees of Puesdro

• Seat: The Silverhead Mines (silverhead-mines), with town houses in Puesdro (puesdro), whose business their stewards run under the crown's governor.
• Arms: On blue, a silver mountain with three black mine-mouths.
• Words: Silver Answers.
• Head: The Grandee of Puesdro, first among the mine-holding Grandees.
• Heir: His eldest son, by law.
• Wealth and power: The Silverhead Mines yield about sixty tons of silver a year, and their Grandees pay the crown a fifth in ingots. The Upland Shepherds pay them a sheep in ten.
• Allies and feuds: The house is the heart of the Old Jevarrie. Rislo Litoto has proposed seizing the mines "for God" to pay for the Fourth Crusade, and the house is looking for friends among the Crownmen. The Gap Wardens say half their number are bastards of the silver country's masesben.
• History:
• 752 — Silver is found above Puesdro.
• 1068 — A Castavari silver venture collapses and takes the House of Tésvol with it.
• Hooks: Binto the Weigher has been summoned to the Rislo three times with the mint's full accounts.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

The Grandees of Tinoda

• Seat: The almond orchards around Tinoda (tinoda), with town houses inside its walls. The city itself is the crown's, under a royal governor.
• Arms: On red, a white almond branch in blossom crossed with a lance.
• Words: We Face the Flame.
• Head: The Grandee of Tinoda, first of the orchard Grandees.
• Heir: His eldest son.
• Wealth and power: The house lives on almond orchards and a share of the road through Cluvedo and Daalher, where Castavari silver and wine go into Zarvand.
• Allies and feuds: The house is Ecclesiast by habit. Every crusade marches through or past its land, and it has buried more sons than any house in Castavar.
• History:
• 699–701 — The First Crusade dies in the Sunmaw beyond its border.
• 1139 — Its knights ride with the Third Crusade.
• Hooks: Zarrit the Money-Changer in Mazbaaran has changed more Castavari silver this year than in five, much of it by the Tinoda road.
• Direction: FADING.

The Grandees of Sonvera

• Seat: The rice marshes and salt lagoons of Sonvera province (sonvera-province), with a town house in Sonvera (sonvera), which the crown rules through a governor.
• Arms: Blue and white waves, with a pink flamingo standing on one leg.
• Words: The Sea Keeps Count.
• Head: The Grandee of Sonvera.
• Heir: His eldest son.
• Wealth and power: The house holds Sonvera rice, salt lagoons, and a coast that faces the Shattered Isles across open water.
• Allies and feuds: The house is Vinvelon: Castavar is a sea power, not a desert one. It hates the Salt Brotherhood in public and buys its prizes back in private.
• History:
• 410–415 — The Salt Wars destroy Vexara, off Sonvera's coast.
• Hooks: Lonre of the Long Reach, a Brotherhood captain, is Sonvera-born, and the Grandee's household knows her mother.
• Direction: RISING.

Quedalgo of the Llovo March

• Seat: The Llovo March (llovo-march), with the Craucan stud (the-craucan).
• Arms: On gold, a green cork oak with its trunk stripped red, and a black bull lying beneath it. Quedalgo is the Castavari word for ox.
• Words: Nine Years to the Bark.
• Head: Vaugenco the Bull-Lord, Grandee of the March, a big, pious man of about sixty who has never missed a bull-run.
• Heir: His eldest son.
• Wealth and power: The house lives on cork, black Llovo bulls, cork-hill hams, and the Craucan's destriers. A trained destrier is sold only with a Grandee's letter, and in the March the letter is Quedalgo's.
• Allies and feuds: The house is Old Jevarrie. Half the villages on Quedalgo land keep the Grove at night, and Vaugenco has chosen not to know.
• History:
• 312 — The older gods are outlawed. The March's bull-runs live on under a church calendar.
• Hooks: When the bull-run in a Quedalgo town kills the bishop's nephew and the crowd cheers, the Office of Truth demands the runs be banned, and Vaugenco demands they go on.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

Tirago

• Seat: A tower near the fort of Corendrosa (corendrosa), in the Royal Demesne.
• Arms: On gray, a white hawthorn sprig above a square gray stone.
• Words: Stand Like Stone.
• Head: The Grand Master's elder brother (unnamed), head of a masesben family of the Demesne. Its best-known son is Grand Master Arsoso Tirago of the White Thorn (53), a younger son who went to the orders, as younger sons do.
• Heir: The elder brother's eldest son.
• Wealth and power: The family has little land and great honor. The Grand Master commands the Order of the White Thorn.
• Allies and feuds: The Grand Master is an Ecclesiast by duty, and he calls the Office of Truth cowards with candles.
• History:
• 1139 — Arsoso Tirago fights in the Third Crusade and buries most of his friends in the Sunmaw.
• Hooks: A Dunmorrow wagon under guard carried plate armor and a note into the White Thorn's chapter house.
• Direction: STABLE.

Castavar's nobility is CONTESTED. The Grandees are richer than their king, the church wants their mines, and the Old Jevarrie may find it has a spine after all.

---

Succession law

The throne passes by survival, as it has since the Poisoning of 398. Any son of the Khaasar may claim it, and whichever prince Rahaash Kelongaad the Elder crowns in the fire-hall will be Khaasar. A Zarvani prince must kill a mesa lion before he can inherit anything. Among everyone else, sons and daughters both inherit, the sons the larger share, by a will sworn before a fire. The Jaarzebeem are the Khaasar's governors and hold their meemakhoot at his word. In practice a Jaarzeb's son usually follows him, and the families of the great meemakhoot have come to behave like kings, since they keep half the land fifth they gather.

The ruling house: Salestaad

text The Sarvani Khaasareem (before 183) │ └── Salestaad the Builder, Khaasar; completes the fire-temple and renames the realm, 183 ⋮ ├── Hussaad II, deposed by his Jaarzebeem, 336 ⋮ ├── Kasaadeer III, poisoned at a feast, 398 │ ├── three sons, poisoned with him, 398 │ └── Avisteer I, the surviving son; burns Feshfaan, 398 ⋮ ├── Zhinraad the Learned, founds the House of Learning, 681 ⋮ ├── Talodeer the Magnificent, plants Faashab-Talodin, 840; pays the Hizkari gold, 851 ⋮ └── Avisteer II, dies of a fall from a horse, 1061 ├── two sons, who kill each other within the month, 1061 └── Zhaasheer IV, reigns about forty years, 1061 to c. 1101 │ └── Avisteer III, born c. 1079, Khaasar 1102 │ ├── Faasheer, born c. 1105, eldest, commander of the Unfading ├── (second son, unnamed) ├── (third son, unnamed) ├── Durkaad, born c. 1113, fourth son, governor of Feshfaan └── (fifth, sixth and seventh sons, unnamed)

• Seat: The Khaasar's Palace, Mazbaaran (mazbaaran); Royal Mazbaaran (royal-mazbaaran), which has no Jaarzeb.
• Arms: The seal of the Khaasareem: the Eternal Flame in a fire-bowl within the eight-pointed star of the Talodin, gold on blue. It is carved over the door of the Keep of Talodeer.
• Words: Truth Is the First Flame.
• Head: Khaasar Avisteer III (67), poet and star-watcher, who has perhaps a year.
• Heir: Whoever survives. Faasheer holds the Citadel and the Unfading; Durkaad holds Feshfaan and the love of the cities.
• Wealth and power: The house commands about 2,400,000 leusores a year, the Spice Way tolls, the Khaasar's stud, whose horses are never sold, and the House of Learning. Zarvand owes nothing abroad.
• Allies and feuds: The house wages the endless holy war with Castavar, and its princes are split between the Citadel party and the Garden. The Twelve Tents, several governors who would like the Jaarzebeem to choose the Khaasar, are the Grand Vizier's nightmare.
• History: The Jaarzebeem deposed Hussaad II in 336 for "losing the favor of the Flame." Since the Poisoning of 398 every new Khaasar is shown the sealed Shut Hall on the day he takes the throne. In 1145 Faasheer took the Unfading and Durkaad was sent to Feshfaan.
• Hooks: The Khaasar's last poem will be read to all seven sons at once. Faasheer's agents want Kelongaad to declare that the Flame favors the eldest. Rumor holds that Faasheer killed his first brother at twenty-six; the chronicles still count seven princes.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

The Jaarzebeem of Kebidaan

• Seat: Kebidaan (kebidaan), in the meemakh of Kebidaan (meemakh-of-kebidaan).
• Arms: On green, a pistachio tree over a blue water channel.
• Words: The Orchard Remembers.
• Head: The present Jaarzeb of Kebidaan, who keeps the Shadowed faith himself.
• Heir: His son, if the Khaasar who survives allows it.
• Wealth and power: The house holds pistachio orchards and the western road through Daalher to Castavar. The Shadowed's two-fire temples are strongest in its meemakh.
• Allies and feuds: The house stands with the Garden, behind Durkaad. Prince Faasheer has promised the Rahaasheem he will burn the Shadowed temples when he is crowned.
• History:
• 330–338 — Half of Kebidaan starves or flees in the Long Drought. The house remembers that the Jaarzebeem deposed a Khaasar for it.
• Hooks: If Faasheer sends a column to burn the temples, the Jaarzeb will shut his gates and send to Durkaad for help.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

The Jaarzebeem of Shorooq

• Seat: Vonteen-Shorooq (vonteen-shorooq), in the meemakh of Shorooq (meemakh-of-shorooq), beside the Khaasar's summer palace.
• Arms: On white, a red lance laid across a gray salt pan.
• Words: Salt Does Not Rot.
• Head: The Jaarzeb of Shorooq.
• Heir: His son.
• Wealth and power: The house lives on salt, which is money in the deep desert, and on brine-shrimp red for the dyers.
• Allies and feuds: Shorooq is one of the southern meemakhoot, and so it stands with the Citadel.
• History:
• 866–868 — The Second Crusade holds Vonteen-Shorooq for two years, until the cataphracts charge across the Salt Pans at dawn.
• Hooks: If the Talodin keeps falling, Lake Shorooq goes to salt first, and the Jaarzeb will back whichever prince promises him water.
• Direction: FADING.

The Jaarzebeem of Baamarsh

• Seat: Baamarsh (baamarsh), in the meemakh of Baamarsh (meemakh-of-baamarsh).
• Arms: On black, a bronze siphon breathing orange fire over blue waves.
• Words: Fire on the Water.
• Head: The Jaarzeb of Baamarsh.
• Heir: His son.
• Wealth and power: The house holds the port, the road to the Hizkari's naphtha, the spice-forts on the Nhal, and the fire-boats under Tolaarz of the Fire-Boats.
• Allies and feuds: The house stands with the Citadel. The Baamarsh Converts, walled in their own quarter and kept alive by Castavari gold, are a feud with the Rahaasheem that will end in a massacre.
• History:
• 690 — The Zarvani burn a Castavari missionary ship here.
• 866 — The Second Crusade takes the city and holds it until 868.
• Hooks: A Castavari envoy passed through Baamarsh on his way to the Cinder Teeth.
• Direction: RISING.

The Jaarzebeem of Feshfaan (extinct)

• Seat: Feshfaan (feshfaan), in the meemakh of Feshfaan (meemakh-of-feshfaan).
• Arms: Once a saffron crocus. The banner burned with the city.
• Head: None. Since 1145 the meemakh is governed by Prince Durkaad.
• History:
• 398 — Avisteer I blames the Jaarzeb of Feshfaan for his father's poisoning and burns the city. Zarvand's merciless succession dates from that fire.
• 1145 — Durkaad is sent to govern Feshfaan, out of the way.
• Hooks: Feshfaan is where Faasheer's Unfading would have to come to arrest his brother.
• Direction: RISING under its prince.

The Tomb-Watchers

• Seat: The Tomb of the First Khaasar, in the desert north of Mazbaaran (tomb-of-the-first-khaasar).
• Arms: A plain black tent-cloth with the Khaasareem's star in white.
• Words: We Have Not Left.
• Head: The eldest watcher.
• Heir: The eldest after him.
• Wealth and power: They have nothing but a grain train from the Tomb Gate each month. About three hundred of them claim descent from the first Khaasar's bodyguard.
• Allies and feuds: The Khaasareem feed them. Prince Faasheer has said he will stop.
• Hooks: If the grain stops, three hundred of the oldest blood in Zarvand will walk into Mazbaaran for the first time in nine centuries.
• Direction: FADING.

Zarvand's great houses are CONTESTED. The throne passes by survival, and every Jaarzeb is deciding which prince will survive.

---

Succession law

The Jade Throne belongs to the Tokrai. The imperial succession law is kept in the Law Wing at Tsenkin. The Measured hold that it bars women from the throne. Princess Seitotai copied it twice in the Page Hall, and the old copyist who keeps the Page Ledger says her two copies differ by one character. The right to rule comes from the Mandate of Merit, and an emperor who rules badly can be put off the throne; the ministers deposed Tokrai Koimu in 725. Below the throne, land and goods are divided equally among sons, and daughters receive dowries. Office is never inherited, because it must be won by examination. Kaishon's great families are therefore families that pass examinations, and a family that stops passing them stops being great.

The ruling house: Tokrai

text Dezau Kokdau, Emperor; conquers the Three Thrones, 248 (the line before the Tokrai; see Dezau) ⋮ (the chronicles do not say how the throne passed to the Tokrai) │ Tokrai Meksi, Emperor; begins the Long Rampart, 341 (the dynasty dates from him) ⋮ ├── Tokrai Tegoi, Emperor; dies six days after walking the finished Rampart, 488 ⋮ ├── Tokrai Koimu, Emperor; deposed under the Mandate of Merit, 725; dies copying at Tsenkin ⋮ └── (an emperor, unnamed, died 1099) │ └── Tokrai Shaiku, born c. 1075, Emperor 1099 ═══ his principal consort (unnamed) │ ├── (sons, none surviving) └── Princess Tokrai Seitotai, born 1117

• Seat: The Palace of Measured Harmony, Kokrin (palace-of-measured-harmony, kokrin); the Imperial Heartland (imperial-heartland).
• Arms: The Great Seal of the Jade Throne: the Tsenkin peaks above the Long Rampart, the disc of reason, and the four measures in the corners. The Tokrai's own device is the disc alone, red within a square seal border. Tòkrài is the Kaishoni word for sun.
• Words: Order, Merit, Reason.
• Head: Emperor Tokrai Shaiku (71), dying of an illness his physicians will not name.
• Heir: Disputed. Princess Seitotai (29) is his only surviving child. The Measured have named no male heir, and the ministries have not said which man of the Tokrai clan they would put forward.
• Wealth and power: The throne rules a realm of fourteen million souls, about 9,000,000 leusores a year, and an army of 400,000. In 1146 the ministries hold all of it, not the emperor.
• Allies and feuds: Seitotai has the Meritists, and she has courted General Dezau for six years. Grand Chancellor Makok will not let a woman hold the throne, and has said so in words that were written down.
• History: In 1139 Seitotai placed third in the examinations under a false name, and the ministers burned her paper. In 1143 the emperor withdrew and Makok took the seals of state. In 1146 the emperor gave his daughter his seal, and the ministers took it back "for safekeeping."
• Hooks: There may be two seals of the Jade Throne, and a seal-cutter has vanished. A fire in the Law Wing would destroy the succession law.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

Seiro

• Seat: The Seiro House in the Seal Quarter, Kokrin (kokrin).
• Device: A gray square seal-stone with a mark in each corner. Seirosui is the Kaishoni word for a seal of office.
• Words: The Seal Is Kept.
• Head: Grand Chancellor Seiro Makok (63), ninth Seiro to hold the seals of state.
• Heir: None who has passed the examinations. The next place in the row of brushes in the house's outer hall is empty.
• Wealth and power: The family has run the ministries for six centuries. Makok is too proud to steal.
• Allies and feuds: The Seiro lead the Measured, the ministries and the archive-city of Tsenkin. Makok has never forgiven Seitotai for making him burn her paper.
• History:
• 588–596 — Grand Chancellor Seiro Ketsan persuades the emperor to take up the Doctrine of Ordered Reason. Ten thousand monks are put to death or driven out.
• 1143 — Makok takes the seals.
• Hooks: Makok must choose an heir from outside the family. One candidate is a nephew who cheated on his examination, and Makok has shielded him for twenty years. Rúbêsèn Twelve-Times sold that nephew the essay.
• Direction: FADING.

Dezau

• Seat: The Long Rampart and its Rampart March (rampart-march); the family's old country is the north, where the Hall of the First Measure at Tsenkin (tsenkin) keeps Dezau Kokdau's rope.
• Device: A knotted measuring rope coiled in a ring, black on buff.
• Words: One Pace Is Enough.
• Head: General Dezau Honmyan (48), commander of the Long Rampart for twenty-six years.
• Heir: Not named.
• Wealth and power: Honmyan has two hundred thousand men who will follow him. He has never once thought of using them for anything but the wall, and he is thinking of it now.
• Allies and feuds: The Rampart party is his, against his will. He is loyal to the Dominion, not the Chancellor, and he is the Princess's sword if she draws it. He respects Sarsak Tolmar.
• History:
• 248 — Dezau Kokdau of the northern throne conquers the other two Thrones and founds the Dominion. The Doctrine says he measured his father's field with a rope and found the landlord had cheated by one pace.
• Hooks: Tavern talk in the Tribute Yards says Honmyan descends from Emperor Dezau Kokdau, whose line reigned before the Tokrai. No careful minister wants it looked into. The door of the Hall of the First Measure has not been opened in fifty years. Ínasôn Goat-Hand, who runs the archive's servants, heard from her grandmother that the rope rotted away, and she has told no one.
• Direction: RISING.

Tsehei

• Seat: The Southern Reach (southern-reach), where the family's magistrate sits at Hyunei (hyunei).
• Device: A silver ingot on dark green. Tsèhèi is the Kaishoni word for silver.
• Words: Silver Is Patient.
• Head: Magistrate Tsehei Kaukai (39), who takes a tenth of everything and keeps the roads good.
• Heir: Not named. Office is not inherited, and his sons must pass the examinations.
• Wealth and power: The magistrate has turned fifteen years of mahogany and pepper into jade.
• Allies and feuds: Kaukai stands with the Loosened Reins. He is terrified of the Tzalan, of an audit, and of his wife.
• History:
• 1019 — A temple-keeper named Tsehei Yotoke leads the Reasoned Rebellion. His head hangs over Kokrin's Talking Gate for a year, and every roadside shrine in the Reach holds a small clay head in his memory.
• c. 1131 — Kaukai takes the Southern Reach.
• Hooks: The Reach's peasants say the magistrate and the rebel share more than a name. A brilliant peasant girl has sat the provincial examination under her brother's name, and Kaukai must decide what to do.
• Direction: RISING, until the audit.

Gyonba

• Seat: The counting-houses of Chaiyo (chaiyo), with a branch in Rókshái, Kokrin.
• Device: A junk's sail over three waves, blue on white.
• Words: The Tide Pays Both Ways.
• Head: The eldest of the Gyonba counting-house.
• Heir: A Gyonba son who has passed the examinations, for the family keeps one in the ministries every generation.
• Wealth and power: The Gyonba live on rice broking, the Chaiyo tuna and money in the Long Market. They are the richest merchant family of the coast, and they must still step aside for any magistrate.
• Allies and feuds: The family backs the Open Gate. The Gyonba would rather trade with Sarsak Tolmar than pay him.
• History:
• 971–975 — Kaishon begins paying the Cherüsh tribute, and Chaiyo's merchants begin arguing against it.
• Hooks: The Salt Brotherhood's Long Reach crew trades at Chaiyo more often than Kokrin knows, and the Gyonba buy what it brings.
• Direction: RISING.

Kaishon's great families are CONTESTED. The Seiro have run out of sons who pass, the Dezau hold the wall, and the throne may pass to a woman the law may or may not allow.

---

Succession law

The Hrodvald have no dynasty. A clan's stelest is chosen by its reldith, most often from the old stelest's kin, which is why Kruman Ironjaw's want of a living son is a crisis for his clan. In time of war or famine the Vuvud elects a Hearthking to lead all the clans. The title is never inherited, and on the Speaking Mound any stelest may challenge the Hearthking to single combat under the Old Way. Children inherit equally, and whoever keeps the hearth keeps the longhouse. Every longhouse sets a stone from the clan's first longhouse into its hearth. When a clan splits, its Hearth-Stone is broken, and the halves are enemies until the stone is set back together.

The Hearthkings, and Clan Stormbrand

```text HEARTHKINGS OF THE CHRONICLES (elected; no line of descent) Fevar Red-Axe ............ raids to Chomtholk, 283 Anoga Wolf-Mother ........ the first woman elected; leads the clans south to buy grain, 432 Mulrik Halfhand .......... killed by his own stelestuk in the Wolf Winter, 570 Farrun Icebrand .......... dies in a longship on Lake Farvig, 1041 Selra Stormbrand ......... elected 1144

CLAN STORMBRAND (Selra's mother, unnamed; died on the ice) │ └── Selra Stormbrand, born c. 1105; stelest of Clan Stormbrand; Hearthking 1144 raised by Statha the Far-Seer ```

• Seat: The Stormbrand Hall, Krasvuv (krasvuv); the clan land around the south shore of Lake Farvig (clan-stormbrand).
• Arms: The clan beast is a black raven holding a burning brand, on red. The Hearthking's standard is the realm's: the wolf of the Frostmarch under the bolt of Selthar, with the Ice Mother's ravens.
• Words: Feed Them First.
• Head: Hearthking Selra Stormbrand (41), with three blue bands on her left arm for three voyages beyond the ice.
• Heir: None. The reldith will choose the next stelest from her kin, and the Vuvud will choose the next Hearthking, if it chooses one at all.
• Wealth and power: The clan holds Krasvuv's Hinrell and the weigher's twentieth, the best longships on the lake, and the Vuvud. It owes Farisel 40,000 leusores for grain and has paid nothing this year.
• Allies and feuds: Selra leads the Hearth-Makers. She wants the Wolfmarch outlaws dead, and Golen No-Clan hates her for her own sake.
• History: Selra's longships raided Shanyo in 1138, the last great Hrodvald raid. She was elected in 1144, the first woman in a century, and built the Debt Barn with Farisel's grain loans in 1145.
• Hooks: Kruman will come back to the Vuvud this Barerk and challenge her. Farisel's factor will offer to take longships and crews instead of silver.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

Ironjaw

• Seat: Ironjaw Hold (ironjaw-hold), in the clan land west of Lake Farvig (clan-ironjaw).
• Arms: An open iron-gray jaw on white, the device of the split shield over the Thalmirn Gate. The clan beast on its post in the Vuvud Hall is a hound's head with an iron jaw.
• Words: The Door Is Open.
• Head: Stelest Kruman Ironjaw (55), one-eyed since Thalmirn.
• Heir: None. He has buried four sons and two wives, and his nephew is an outlaw.
• Wealth and power: The clan lives on the weighed gifts of every Fur Trail caravan, bog iron from the Red Bog, the best war hounds in the west, and a hall whose benches grow longer every winter the grain fails to reach a clan.
• Allies and feuds: Kruman leads the Old Way. Half the north agrees with him in its heart. His clan's post in the Vuvud Hall has worn a cloak since 1144.
• History:
• 1127 — Kruman loses an eye at Thalmirn and hangs his split shield over his gate.
• 1140 — He burns a Sun-Turner lamp-house on the Barerk coast.
• 1144 — He walks out of the Vuvud.
• Hooks: The stakes on the Stelis, one for each man he has killed in single combat, number twelve, though he has killed eleven. If he dies on the Speaking Mound, the Ironjaw have no heir.
• Direction: RISING.

Nugag

• Seat: Nugvek (nugvek), in the westernmost clan land against the Spine (clan-nugag).
• Arms: A white fox on dark blue.
• Words: Speak Once.
• Head: Thuba Nugag (34), who wears a bear-claw necklace she took herself.
• Heir: Chosen by the reldith from her kin.
• Wealth and power: The clan lives by trade, iron and marriage. The white Nugag fox pelt is worth its weight in silver in Solvaine, and Castavari ships reach the clan's western fjords in summer.
• Allies and feuds: Thuba leads the Silver Road. The Nugag marry their daughters into Aldmere's Northmere lords, and Thuba is Grerik Coldbrook's sister-in-law. She lost the Hearthking's seat to Selra by four votes and has been perfectly, ominously loyal ever since.
• History:
• 1089 — The Frost-Nugag branch of the far northwest dies in the Great Winter.
• 1144 — Thuba loses the election by four votes.
• Hooks: Half the clan follows the Deep Cold, and those Nugag Marches may split away and break the Hearth-Stone. Thuba is the only one in the north who could take the seat without a war.
• Direction: RISING.

Barerk

• Seat: Barmin (barmin), on the River Barerk (clan-barerk).
• Arms: A black whale over gray waves. Barerk is the Hrodvaldr word for whale.
• Words: One Whale, One Winter.
• Head: The stelest of Clan Barerk.
• Heir: Chosen by the reldith.
• Wealth and power: The clan holds a whaling coast and the only Hrodvald town large enough to be called a city. It takes one whale in five from the Barerk Whalers and cannot make them give more.
• Allies and feuds: Its shores hold both Salt-Sworn and Sun-Turners. The Whalers have begun electing their own Harpoon-Master.
• History:
• 763 — Barerk longships sack Shanyo. The survivors among its fishers flee north and become the Barerk Whalers, on Barerk's own coast.
• Hooks: Kruman burned a Sun-Turner lamp-house on the Barerk coast in 1140. The Sun-Turners are rebuilding it, and a Caelvennois grain ship is due the same week.
• Direction: STABLE.

Durtha

• Seat: Durvek (durvek), east of Lake Farvig (clan-durtha).
• Arms: A gray wolf running, on white. Durtha is the Hrodvaldr word for wolf.
• Words: Sing It True.
• Head: The stelest of Clan Durtha.
• Heir: Chosen by the reldith.
• Wealth and power: The clan lives on snow hares, furs and the road from Krasvuv to Barmin. Its most famous son is Sauld Durtha, "Sauld Half-Sung" (27), the hrind who sings Selra's sagas.
• Allies and feuds: Of the clan towns, Durvek lies nearest the Wolfmarch, and the outlaws raid it most.
• History:
• 877 — The Concord. Every Durtha outlaw since has gone to the taiga on its doorstep.
• Hooks: Sauld has sung the saga of Thalmirn anew, with Selra in Kruman's place. By old clan law a false hrind loses his tongue, and Kruman demands it.
• Direction: STABLE.

Fevur

• Seat: Fevstel (fevstel), on the border with Kaishon's Shanyo province (clan-fevur).
• Arms: A brown Fevur pony pawing at snow, under an axe laid level. Fevur is the Hrodvaldr word for axe.
• Words: Dig Under the Snow.
• Head: The stelest of Clan Fevur.
• Heir: Chosen by the reldith.
• Wealth and power: The clan breeds the small thick-coated Fevur pony and holds the road to Shanyo.
• Allies and feuds: Its coast keeps Sun-Turners, whose lamp is tended by a woman who inherits the task; the storm priests hate them. Fevstel watches the Barerk Whalers uneasily.
• History:
• 283 — The clan's hrinduk claim Hearthking Fevar Red-Axe as a Fevur. The other clans dispute it.
• Hooks: Selra has asked how many longships could reach Kaishon by the Farvig Outflow before the ice closes, and they would pass Fevur's coast.
• Direction: STABLE.

The Wolfmarch: No-Clan

• Seat: The Wolfmarch taiga between Durtha and the Grass Sea (the-wolfmarch).
• Arms: None. They have no Hearth-Stone.
• Head: Golen No-Clan, Kruman's nephew, chieftain of about a thousand Wolfmarch Outlaws.
• Wealth and power: They live on what they take from the clans that cast them out.
• Allies and feuds: They are every clan's enemy, and Selra's own. Kruman, quietly, wants them. Golen has eaten at his uncle's table under Kruman's own peace.
• History:
• 877 onward — Oath-breakers, outlaws and drolak-refusers are driven out to the taiga.
• Hooks: Wolfmarch men under false names want to build a longship on Icebrand's Slip.
• Direction: CONTESTED.

Hrodvald's clans are CONTESTED. One challenge on the Speaking Mound will decide whether the north is one people or goes back to being a field by a lake.

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The free peoples have few houses, but some lines matter.

• The Dunmorrow. Thane Grurn Harrowdeep (67) of Harrowdeep Hold (harrowdeep-hold) is first among nine Thanes and a descendant of the Underkings: Tunand Deepdelver, who proclaimed the Kingdom Under the Spine in 380, and Grarg the Proud, under whom it was broken in 555. He calls himself Underking when he is drunk. Tesk Deepsong's Restorers would take him at his word. CONTESTED.
• The Cherüsh Horde. Sarsak Tolmar (27), son of a minor Cherüsh chief, united the four factions in 1141 and camps at Tolmar-Buyor on the ruins of Tontanor (tolmar-buyor). His mother Ghorsan runs the Horde's herds, marriages and grudges. The only steppe dynasty before him, Shaghis the Gray's, ended in 502 when Shaghis's grandson was murdered by his own tribes. Sarsak has offered a marriage to Aldmere in a letter to Prince Hethbael. RISING.
• The Salt Brotherhood. The Captain-King or Captain-Queen is elected. Sormerva Vex (39) claims descent from the last Captain-King, drowned in 1004, and the Drowned Kings crew disputes which of them is Vexara's true heir. CONTESTED.
• The Hizkari. The Iron Matron (57) rules the Cinder Teeth from her hold (hold-of-the-iron-matron), and her son Hizikaad the Younger (30) knows every naphtha seep. RISING.
• The Qaflan. Mother Hamen (61) speaks for the Council of Wheels, the elders of twelve caravan clans, and she has cast out her own son, Zesose the Wheel. STABLE.

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CONTESTED. In 1146 the great houses of Aethorra are strained in every realm at once. Two thrones wait on a death, the Khaasar's and the Emperor's, and a third waits on a bridge that Aldmere's heir has not yet walked. Two more wait on a vote: the Thirty's on the Iron Contract and the Vuvud's on Selra. The oldest houses are running out. The Seiro have no son who passed, Aijal and Ownirel have no heirs at all, and the Eagle Kin's Bound are climbing the Stair. The houses that rise are rising on things other than blood. Durift has tolls, Tésvol has mirrors, the Dezau have the wall and the Barsmiths have a son in the Anvil, and Farisel's ledgers bind half the continent together. Whoever holds these houses in 1147 will hold Aethorra.