House Arcticstar

House Arcticstar Family Seal

An ancient eladrin house with deep roots in the land lands of Nerath. Legends say that the house was already formed by the time the eladrin entered the natural plane from the feywilds. Unlike most of their kind, the ancestors to the house settled the frigid regions of the mountainous Nerath and the house has remained there ever since. This is largely the reason for its name in Commons. The house has a bitter rival in the form of the Drow House Pyrostar. The two had been rivals for as long as records on the two have been kept. House Arcticstar has many smaller fiefdoms throughout the mountains, with their castles rising above the snow like tiny mountains themselves. While the purer branches of the house hold the house's name as their own last names, the smaller branches often have different last names, being descended from Arcticstar ladies who married noblemen of less reputable houses.

## History

### Legendary History

The origins of House Arcticstar are said to lie in the split between the fey which occurred during the Dawn War. When it was found that the most prominent gods of the fey, Correllon and Sahanine, were on opposite sides during the Dawn War, the fey were split as well with half following Corellon and half following Sahanine. The Corellon-worshiping court became known as the Summer Court led by Queen Tiandra, while the Sahanine-worshiping became known as the Winter Court, led by the Prince of Frost. Even after the war ended, the two sides persisted, particularly with the Prince of Frost's wife being killed during the war.

The two courts were heavily centered on their religious affiliations, causing problems when a high noblewoman of the Winter Court, Cirno the Arctic Star, converted to worship of Corellon. Feeling ostracized for this decision by her fellow courtiers, it is said she decided to leave the Winter Court with her clan and travel to Tasyurai with a large number of Summer Court fey, all of whom would become the eladrin. Cirno is said to have maintained a friendship with her sister, Yukie the Antarctic Star, who is said to still grant pacts with worthy Arcticstar warlocks.

Once in Tasyurai, Cirno is said to have lead her clan in war on a drow faction leaving the Underdark through a portal in Vor Rukoth. Cirno is said to have used her powerful magic to seal the portal, cutting off the drows' means of escape and reinforcement, forcing them to retreat east to the Dragondown Coast. Serving as the border with one of their great rivals, Cirno's clan became a prominent family in the Eladrin Kindoms. It is said that Cirno was slain while killing the drow house's high priestess of Lolth, with her clan naming themselves in memory of her title, House Arcticstar. The drow house which she so long antagonized eventually became House Pyrostar.

### Recorded History

The house was originally one of the houses leading the Eladrin Kingdoms of the Nentir Veil. However, when the kingdoms declined Arcticstar Nobles retreated to their historical strongholds in the mountains and established a form of feudalism. With the house scattered and dis-unified, fighting soon broke out between lords and the highest members of the house met to make a solution. During the times of the Eladrin Kingdoms, the house's historic rivalry with House Pyrostar had dwindled, but the lords decided to reinvigorate it in order to direct the lords' aggression away from its own members.

There are currently seven major dukedoms held by Arcticstar Nobles, with five additional smaller dukedoms. Each dukedom contains four or five marquis, who further divide their land among counts, viscounts, barons and knights. Each of the major duke can call upon around a thousand knights to fight for them, plus many thousands of peasants.

House Arcticstar is known for their devotion to Corellon, with this being one of the reasons for their continued rivalry with the Lolth-worshiping House Pyrostar.

One such feifdom is held by the Kurimu household, situated in a fiefdom in the mountains near the region of Harken. This household, lead by Lord Shebingu and Lady Banira Kurimu, trace their ancestry to an Arcticstar lady generations before who had been married off to a noble of the Kurimu family. The two have seven children; Kohi, Wipudu, Sauru, Raitu, Hebbi, Chyokuratu, and Aisu. Shebingu focused most on his eldest son, Kohi, preparing him as a proper air to the fiefdom. Banira focused on raising her two eldest daughter, Wipudu and Sauru, to be proper brides and find husbands of higher rank, bringing honor and prestige to the family. This left the other children with little interaction with their parents. All of the children were born ten years apart, with the exception of Raitu and Hebbi, who are twins and so are ten years younger than Sauru and ten years older than Chyokuratu. Raitu and Hebbi were raised by nursemaids and tutors, but largely relied on each other for support and entertainment. Chyokuratu, with no twin, distant family members, and little comfort in her nursemaids and tutors, turned to religion for support. She became a devout worshiper of Corellon, mastering nearly every form of art, from poetry, to dance, to painting, even going so far as to study arcane magic and strategies of war. She was well known for being a prodigy in nearly every artistic field. When her younger brother Aisu was born, she knew that no one else would look after him, so she took it upon herself to do so, in some ways become more like a mother to him than Lady Banira was. She taught him her pious ways and tutored him in the artistic fields she so excelled in. While he did not excel in the arts as much as she did, he became proficient in many fields and still uses her teachings about the arcane arts in his journey and her teachings on the nature of war created the foundations for much of his combat skills.

## Trivia

* House Arcticstar is the only major faction The Party has not interacted with, along with the extension of the Kurimu family.
* House Arcticstar's name in Elven is "Hourai".
* The primary crop grown by House Arcticstar is a type of rice which can survive the harsh cold and grow on the mountainous terrain.