1296

## Getting to Know You

The House of Stonehearth began in Baldur’s Gate, early 1296 DR . Two people, Arwyn and Sovan, profoundly eclectic in their own ways, fell deeply in love. Neither had siblings nor cousins, but both had a wide circle of friends and enemies sparked by their own iconoclastic ways.

The four people behind them each brought their own significant history, with just a little complementary overlap among otherwise wildly diverse portfolios. The families came together like four tributaries flowing into one raging river.

* **The Bridal Side (Arwyn Greathearth)**
	+ *Marian Greathearth:* native of Baldur’s Gate and stalwart member of the Merchant's League. A patriar (noble) of the city-state, her family was a member of the merchant aristocracy. She was sole heir of the House Greathearth and her business acumen had quadrupled the House wardrobe. While thoroughly human, there was a rumor of dwarven blood somewhere in the family line and given her prominent features, it was quite possible.
	+ *Jack Merrywine:* A former cleric-priest of Sune who fell from grace and became a sorcerer. His own connections to the Church and faith of Sune remained strong, leading to a gradual resurgence of his divine casting ability. By then, he was steeped in the instinctive magic of arcane sorcery and the forces came together a rare syncronicity. His bombastic charisma alone made him a celebrity activist in The Gate.
* **The Groom Side (Sovan Stone)**
	+ *Veerei Oghmason:* philosopher-scholar and agent provocateur from Candlekeep. An academic and born troublemaker, Veerei had been a member of the Candlekeep Calculators, a society of logicians whose "thought experiments" were found offensive to various clergies – to the point, she was forced to leave Candlekeep under controversy. She'd emigrated to Baldur's Gate, opened a Scribe business and promptly started causing trouble again.
	+ *Rugnald Stone:* Expatriate and former soldier of Cormyr, became a scribe of the Edificant Library. A former footsoldier who proved to be an expert tactician rose the Cormyr ranks. Becoming an officer, his strategies began to rewrite the battleplans before politics quashed the better plan in place of the expedient plant. He resigned his commission in protest and retired to the Edificant Library as a war scholar, where he studied martial history throughout Toril and advised noble houses on tactics and strategy. A commission to captain a patriar guard lured him to Baldur's Gate where he established a new level of professional conduct for military contractors in the city. In the process, he was recognized as minor patriar (aristocracy, knight equivalent) himself.

## The Ceremony Was a Grand Affair...

House Greathearth made this union into a massive celebration. At the moment, Arwyn was designated heir – but was so sought after that she rejected suitors out of habit. That somebody cracked the ice was considered somewhat miraculous.

Sovan Stone was a soldier-scholar in his father's footsteps, but had arcane leanings of his own as he dabbled in the study of wizardry. His father had mixed emotions given the mundane-magical split that he'd dealt with in Cormyr, but was pulling strings to send his son east to study. The sudden "Arwyn" development mostly ensured that his son would stay nearby rather than return to Cormyr.

The vows took place with the requisite pomp and circumstance, but it was the celebration after that most remembered (though memories got very hazy in there). With a bacchanalia lasting nearly a week, there was legendary revelry and debauchery.

## Coming Together

The fusion of Greathearth and Stone created a kind of family dynamic rarely seen. The decision was made to recast this as the birth of a new family: House Stonehearth. The parents pooled their resources and talents under the banner of their married children.

Greathearth already had a major business base in Baldur’s Gate: the Greathearth Merchant Company was among the top three merchants in the city. Oghmason’s scribe trade was rolled into the Company, but it was her her keen natural philosophy – the term that would later come to be known as "science" – that was a natural complement to Greathearth's logistics. It was this first diversification that marked the re-chartering of the family enterprise as the Stonehearth Merchant Company (SMC).

Marian now leaned on Veerei for advice on capital investments – and they headed in directions unseen on the Sword Coast. The halo of the House, knew the children of this bond might just change the world.

Now under the From Oghmason’s Candlekeep Calculators days, House Stonehearth applied the Naturalist Method to every little corner of the family business. This brought new focus and efficiency to things folk rarely thought about. Hired managers were trained in Predicate logic, SMART objectives and Root Cause Analysis (rare concepts outside of Candlekeep). In a year, they weren't just outsmarting the competition at every turn, they'd already surged from third largest merchant to first…

## The House Stonehearth Executive

The House "merge" was rare: usually, it was one house absorbed by the other. While Greathearth definitely had the weight for commercial success, the the iconoclastic and military history of Stone had an incomparable gravitas. By the time Arwyn and Sovan tied the houses together, it was definitely a relationship of equals.

This set the tone not just for the relationship, but for the overall House leadership. Arwyn was nominally the lead, when she wasn't splitting time between motherhood and executive guidance of the SMC. Sovan tended the martial protection of the business end, when he wasn't splitting time to fatherhood.

Between the actual parental time taken, it also meant that the House also leaned on the elders for stretches, both individually and as the collective for leadership and guidance. Overall, though, Arwyn was considered the House leader, and generally the representative to the rest of the Baldurian Patriars (nobles).

After this generational merger, the next to the take the leadership of the House (Valene, daughter and first-born of Arwyn and Sovan), would be a clearer heir and leader. That said, even when Valene was elevated to the role of House Patriar, the House elders still lent a great deal of guidance and wielded a great deal of power.

## Timeline Exploration

* Go back to the Primal Magic timeline...
* Check out 1296 in the Forgotten Realms original timeline...