Factions

Select a faction to explore their territory and history

House Thorne

House Thorne has ruled the northern mountains for longer than anyone can properly trace, holding court from the fortress of Stonereach since long before the lowland kingdoms kept written records. The winters up there are brutal, and the Thornes are shaped by them: hardworking, plainspoken, and slow to trust, but fiercely loyal once they do. Their province runs deep with iron and gold ore, mined for generations, and it’s given the family a quiet wealth that never shows in how they carry themselves. They value strength of character over wealth or charm, and outsiders who mistake their bluntness for simplicity usually learn better the hard way. Stonereach reflects the family perfectly, built not for comfort but to endure, standing through centuries the same way House Thorne always has.

House Ilvarian

House Ilvarian rules the islands of the west from their stronghold at Seacliffe. Surrounded by water, they built their power through trade, and it’s their ships and ports that keep the kingdom’s navy running, with naval bases spread across the realm under their control. That control rubs plenty of lords the wrong way, since anything touching the water eventually answers to Seacliffe. There’s a running joke that no shipment reaches shore without an Ilvarian getting a cut of it, and it’s not far from true. Their trading partnership with House Rennick has made both houses rich, and left the rest of the kingdom a little uneasy about how much of the sea they control between them.

The Warrendale conquest has hit Seacliffe harder than anyone else in the kingdom. Ilvarian is the only house that ever built a real relationship with the Aljenos, and for generations the river delta port has carried nearly all of Ilvarian’s trade. Now that the Aljenos are under occupation and the delta sits in the middle of an active conflict, getting ships through that port has turned into a mess.

House Stroud

House Stroud rules a small mountain province built around a single city, Maven, and everyone in the kingdom agrees the place is a little strange, just not in a way anyone can quite explain. The people there are fiercely proud of their city and fiercely loyal to the Strouds. Most who grow up in Maven never leave, and it’s easy to see why: the province is nearly self sufficient, with fertile land and enough variety in crops and resources that it rarely needs anything from beyond its own borders. Rather than ruling alone, the Strouds govern alongside the people, relying on a council of ten citizens that rotates regularly to help make decisions for the province. They stay out of the kingdom’s larger politics almost entirely, content to keep Maven running well and leave the rest of the realm to its own business.

House Rennick

House Rennick rules from Lyondell, a city so large and wealthy it actually outshines Highthrone itself, making it the biggest in the realm despite not being the seat of the king. Sitting on the richest farmland in the kingdom, the Rennicks have turned that advantage into real power, expanding their territory aggressively and playing the political game harder than any other house. Their army is already formidable on its own, and paired with House Ilvarian’s navy, it makes them a force few lords want to cross. They’ve also married into several noble families over the years, weaving themselves into half the kingdom’s bloodlines and making it that much harder for anyone to move against them without consequence. Officially they answer to the crown, but in practice, House Rennick is easily the most powerful family in the realm not sitting on the throne.

House Vantrell

House Vantrell rules a large stretch of territory from Karthkeep, home to the largest church in the kingdom and the beating heart of the faith of Karth. The Vantrells aren’t just nobility, they’re the religious backbone of the realm, and the eldest of the family has long held a seat on the King’s council as high priest. Their influence runs through every corner of the kingdom thanks to a vast network of priests loyal to Karth, and by extension, loyal to Karthkeep. That reach earns them deep respect, but it also breeds suspicion. Whispers of infighting within the church have grown louder in recent years, and more than a few lords quietly wonder if all those priests are truly serving Karth, or simply reporting back to the Vantrells.

House Wrey

House Wrey rules Vipermark, a province with a dark history as a kingdom of slavers before it was crushed and folded into the realm by King Reginold the First. Loyal to the crown ever since, at least on paper, the Wreys have never quite let go of their old ways, and Vipermark has a reputation for staying right on the edge of the law without ever fully crossing it. The city itself draws smugglers and criminals like moths to a flame, largely because House Wrey looks the other way more often than not. It’s the kind of place where everyone’s working an angle, and no one asks too many questions. Loosely tied to the Wreys is a scattered fleet of pirates and smugglers, not under their command, but never far from their reach either. That shipping activity is a constant thorn in House Ilvarian’s side, though plenty of lords across the kingdom quietly enjoy watching it happen, if only because it keeps Seacliffe’s power from going unchecked.

House Aggon

House Aggon rules Aggonhold and the small stretch of land around it, a family famous for one thing above all else: sheer stubbornness. When King Reginold the First swept through unifying the realm, the first Aggons dug in and refused to yield, holding their ground so fiercely that Reginold eventually just let them keep it rather than fight for it. Aggonhold itself explains a lot of that stubbornness. Perched on a mountain island connected only by a thin land bridge, it’s nearly impossible to breach, which may be part of why the Aggons have never felt the need to expand or chase more power. The house has stayed content within its small borders ever since, and the towns under their rule reflect that same unbothered calm. Life in Aggon lands is simple and peaceful, with little interest in the kingdom’s larger games and even less in changing what’s always worked.

House Warrendale

House Warrendale governs Vahantii, a land only recently brought under the crown after King Reginold the Third conquered it from the Aljenos, a hardnosed people of raiders and desert folk who built their lives around the central delta and its scattered oases. Before Vahantii, House Warrendale was already one of the kingdom’s wealthier and more successful noble houses, based in Highthrone itself and backed by a large private army, which made them the obvious choice when the crown needed someone to hold what had just been won. It hasn’t gone smoothly. The Aljenos are fiercely patriotic and anything but willing subjects, forcing the Warrendales to keep the same army that conquered the land stationed there just to maintain control. Vahantii is less a peacefully governed province than an occupied one, held together by force rather than loyalty. The occupation has also put the Warrendales at odds with House Ilvarian, who built their trade on a friendly relationship with the Aljenos and now see that arrangement collapsing under the strain of the war, souring what was once a workable relationship between the two houses.

The Bone Collector

The Bone Collector leads a growing band of self-declared freedom fighters who’ve become one of the biggest threats to the crown’s authority in the realm. Their cause runs deeper than banditry: they reject the throne, but more than that, they reject Karth, believing the church is little more than a tool the wealthy use to control and drain the poor while dressing it up as faith. The Bone Collector earned the name after pulling off one of the boldest thefts in the kingdom’s history, stealing the Body of Karth, a sacred skeletal relic, right out of Karthkeep itself. By all accounts, the Bone Collector is magnetic, the kind of leader people follow not out of fear but conviction, which only makes the movement more dangerous. Operating out of the mountains, the gang is nearly impossible to root out, and the bounty on the Bone Collector’s head has grown steadily as a result. Officially, they’re enemies of the crown. Unofficially, there are quiet rumors that a few lords have found it useful to align with the bandits, using them to chip away at rivals or quietly grow their own influence from the shadows.

HighThrone (NPC only)

Highthrone stands apart from every province in the realm, a seat of power that belongs to no house and answers to no lord, much like a capital carved out purely to govern. It’s a massive, bustling city, one of the biggest trade hubs in the kingdom, where merchants, officials, and petitioners from every corner of the realm come to do business with the crown. Government runs deep here, and every house, no matter how powerful, ultimately answers to Highthrone, and more importantly, pays their taxes to it. At the center of it all sits King Reginold Thane the Third, ruling with the guidance of his King’s Council, a group of advisors drawn from the realm’s most influential houses and institutions, there to help steer the kingdom, even if the final word always rests with the king himself.