House

The noble houses of Hökaland are similar to noble families in Medieval Europe and applies a bastard feudalism. Each of the greater houses manage a Kingdom, similar in some ways to city-states. The houses are warring, intermarrying and scheming for power. These houses see themselves as more than just nobility, they are royalty!

In reality, the one thing that keeps a relative peace and balance in the power struggles is the mandate of the Family Register, which has be come the authority on to the law among houses. In a sense the only organisation involved with "international law".

As factions go, Houses are both factions in terms of their own name as well as which other houses they are associated with.

List of Houses

Governor Houses

• Menthells (Rickard Menthell IV) (old, most powerful, warring and scheming)
• Haldeans (Hald Haldean VII) (old, powerful, administrative, runs university)*
• Artipellins (Nicholla Artipellin I (f)) (old artistry, seafaring, tolerant, popular among people)*
• Wynys (Lynsev Wyny V, the Broad) (very old, quality warriors, war academy)
• Edmyrs (Gerey Edmyr III) (old, seafaring, trading, monetarily rich)

* Not connected to Capitoleum directly

Other Important Houses

• Asmeagan (Hanna Asmeagan I (f)) (young, forestry, lumber, pelts, horn, troll problems)
• Balder (Byldu Balder I) (young, fierce warriors, small land)
• Brave (Kenneth Brave III) (old, fiercly defending, lost much, armed peasants)
• Eagle-Eye (Dick Eagle-Eye I) (young, mining, forestry, fierce, troll problems)
• Farlun (Shemen Farlun I (f)) (ancient, peaceful, forestry, fierce, guerilla, troll problems)
• Goldhelm (Thenry Goldhelm VII) (ancient, trade, rich, fighters, fishing)
• Hwett (Nimrod Hwett I) (young, fighters, fierce)
• Nihthelm (Freldan Nihthelm VIII) (AKA: "Midnight") (ancient, trade, fight, rumours of werewolfs)
• Oakshield (Brunn Handfast I) (young, farmers, independent, protective, semi-democratic)
• Pineshield (Rake Pineshield IX "Stronghand") (very old, trade, tolls, minor: mining, forestry, fishing)
• Selwen (Hendig Selwen I) (old, fishing, trade, is split by Menthell, dependent)
• Tally (Eldig Tally I (f)) (young, originating king had great reputation, lost much since)
• Temmin (Marcus Temmin I) (young, very aggressive, currently in conflict)
• Vasj (Harkan Vicious of Vasj) (ancient, violent, unpredictable, hold grudges)
• Wyrd (Panido Wyrd IV) (ancient, nature, druids, magic, "forest crazy", not lost land in 150 years)

Types of Houses

There is really just one type of House, but the House's power vary greatly as does their granted status. A House can either swear fealty to another, more powerful, house or have others swear fealty to them. The more powerful of the houses then becomes royalty, with all the advantages and disadvantages of this status.

There is some debate where the lines go between some warlord and a noble Lord, but, fortunately, the Family Register is there for all types of eventualities, as well as for weddings and inheritance rights, etc.

With this in mind, there are different groups of Houses, like the Governors, consisting on the five Houses currently in control of Capitoleum's vast riches. There is also the Court of Houses, which is a larger court where all Houses which are considered Kingdoms socialise. The Court of Houses supports the Stripes and the road safety, but the main support of the road comes from the Road Houses. The Court mainly functions as neutral ground for inter-house communications, especially at times of conflict between houses.

Outside of this main circle of Houses, there are also the Court of Houses Participants, which are basically all other houses of varying sizes in the lands. These are allowed to participate at gatherings in the Court of Houses and to mingle, but they don't have a voice in the chamber.

Beyond the Realms there is of course also nobility, part of their own cultural rules, and not really related to this part of the world.

Rising to nobility

An interesting difference between the system in the Midrealms and neighbouring realms (the Northrealms and Southrealms) is the culture and heraldic rule set that grew out of wars a long time ago. The more or less independent Family Register keeps track of lineages and rights, but because how it came about, it also opens up for low-ranking people to rise to nobility through noble actions (armed ones). Current houses then have to weigh the possibility of ignoring these rules, but since their house also started with glorious combat, it would invalidate their own claim to power, which may lead to internal uprising or others ganging up on them.

So in a world of conflict, many things hinge on this mutual trust/distrust, and is not dissimilar to non-physical (or even some physical) currency exchange of the modern world.