Drow Houses

Fuckin, I ain't givin a shit right now

## Central Drowlords

Dul-Sansiska: Main Family, Former Banking Clan, The ones who started the modern interpretation of what the Drow are meant to stand for. In short, they went from a minor Knight's House to the rulers of the former Drow Coalition during the run of the First Demon War due to Dul-Sansiska the Shield Maiden's aggressive overpowering of the systems of power and asserting herself as a dictator for the good of Terros. This all being said, her children, those surviving at the time of her death, were persecuted, but thanks to the alliance struck between what remained of Lorka, Xenovich, Martal, and Divankul, they overtook the ruling government and Dul-Sansiska forcibly defunded much of the ruling nobility and exiled their families from Mok-Surial, resulting in many deaths in the last years of the First Demon War and any survivors having to be absorbed into other Coalition members.

When the dust cleared, Dul-Sansiska was unfathomably rich and set about rewarding loyalists with their own Houses instating the current makeup of noble houses. The only surviving Households of the previous era were Martal, Lorka, and Xenovich for their work in aiding the coup. As such, they became the backbone of the government in the region and were each given equal footing. However, over time, many of their responsibilities and command structures became more and more under the Dul-Sansiska umbrella due to each house having married into Dul-Sansiska and succumbing to financial atrophy due to the main house taking care of many expenses that came with reconstruction.

Due to the favorable conditions, the House found itself in, and because they were happy to join Jason Blackthorne's crusade to expunge what was left of the Demons out of Terros, they became one of the founding members of a rebuilt Everglow City. This brought with it even greater political power that they then used to integrate their western neighbors under their umbrella, and then began working over the Easterners until they relented, forming the Drow Alliance.

Thanks to a deal struck with Jarvis Blackthorne between himself and Volia Dul-Sansiska, the realm was effectively split in two financially speaking, while nobility still had their coffers to themselves, the public did not. An explosion of economic growth due to the previous era's policies of reconstruction led to many being able to escape the peasantry and ascend to new types of classes in record numbers. That, and the fact that there were so little amounts of peasantry left in the wake of the war it had been necessary for society to begin a march of advancement. All of that meant there was a lot more coinage floating around, and the two most powerful Households in the world were going to capitalize on it and use it to seek greater and greater influences with both the common people as well as the burgeoning new aristocracy and all the nobility, old and new, that remained.

House Dul-Sansiska would fully give up control over the Maiden' Shield Trust in 1017, and it would begin the process of being absorbed fully into the Blackthorne Monarchy's own economic system. This was seen as a landmark moment to the wider political sphere that at least some of the dark elves were making progressive changes for the better, and influenced a notable uptick in migration to Mok-Surial. As of now, the House has investments into many areas since they were still very independently wealthy, and tend to be drivers of certain industrial sectors they're fans of, namely sea and air transportation. They own their own, heavily modified airship.

House Lorka: Branch Family, Gravekeepers, Aligned to Dul-Sansiska via Exarnkul Dul-Sansiska's marriage to insert Lorka Matriarch. When Exarnkul was lost and the matriarch went missing with their child in fear of political reprisals, the House was consumed by the elites of Mok-Surial and folded into their dealings, before being liberated by Divankul and Volia, and reintegrated into the clan. They continue the upkeep and religious customs of the drow death rites and are subsidized by Dul-Sansiska as they operate at a loss.

House Xenovich: Branch Family, Fuckin NERDS (Engineering College), Aligned to Dul-Sansiska via Divankul Dul-Sansiska's marriage to their Matriarch Maelith Xenovich. These goddamn nerds, with their advanced intellects and their monopolization of Magitek an shit! NEEEEEERDS! In reality, Xenovich are the ones who run the Engineering College and are the holders of the most advanced knowledge in the region, they are super wealthy and protected because they are under the personal guard of the patriarch, Divankul. They're reclusive and weird, but they were ruled by Maelith, when she wasn't busy being a bounty hunter, or else administrated over by Maelith's sister as the children of Maelith were busy administrating elsewhere.

House Martal: Branch Family, Knights Academy, Aligned to Dul-Sansiska via Volia Dul-Sansiska's marriage to Avonkul Martal. Formerly part of the Main House before the coup to have Volia and Divankul killed and assume command. Relegated to Branch status and shunned by surviving members, after the losses incurred in the Second Demon War, their standing improved as the survivors took on the issue of rebuilding the loss of knights incurred. when this proved insufficient and the drow finally began to lose their appetite for war with such huge losses of their people, Martal was shifted into working closely with Queen Talia's military professionals, and the Knight's Academy was transformed into the Rosethorne Officer's Academy as a play on the emblematic Pink Rose of the Martals and the namesake of Blackthorne.

As of 1086, Rosethorne remains in full operation now training Blackjacket officers, Martal has never recovered from its Branch status.

House Iro-Paras: Minor Family, Smithing, This house is somewhat reclusive, wishing to be left alone to perform their duties, of which they do so highly, and have many a trained smith under their tutelage that they can either send out back into the world or keep for more steel production for the Drow. They are famous enough in smithing circles that many upstarts come to learn, and many of them are broken by the insane work these artisans put into each and every piece they work, many a prideful child has been broken into dust by the weight of the drow's perfectionism and only the truly serious can handle it. Those who master drow smithing are well-regarded and highly sought after, as though High Elven steel is paramount, Drow Steel does the job just fine.

Iro-Paras has three smaller families that specialize in certain smithing works to allow the main house to better allocate work.

House Onar, House Luma, and House Korl. Onar handles all agricultural orders, Luma does construction equipment, and Korl deals strictly in precious metal applications. Weaponry remains the mainstay of what Paras deals in primarily, with the more mundane items going to their lower vassals in order to not clog up the system, promising enough smiths from the lower houses may apprentice with the main house but it's usually only authorized if requested by Paras, leaving many a promising soul to remain where they are.

House Kothore: Minor Family, Something Else

House Maizen: Minor Family, Agriculture, House Maizen has holdings both outside and within Maiden's Shield, they use these lands to create hearty cash crops such as tobacco and flax for linens, while also supplying Mok-Surial with large amounts of stable cereal crops. They were too weak to compete with other houses in other areas and thus relinquished large amounts of strategic lands in order to gain more and more swaths of land in the fertile areas near the Maiden's Shield. They have had a history of having a massively disproportionate amount of serfs to landlords but usually were able to keep any discontent suppressed fairly easily, by 1086 they have hired mostly Kyn to replace their former serfs and the Kyn tend to work harder and longer for comparatively similar wages, without need for suppression and thus allowing House Maizen to focus on other areas, such as developing more lands to increase profits.

House Zehin: Minor Family, Gunpowder, an offshoot when Al-Zehin abandoned the Dul-Sansiska after the death of his wife. In exchange for not being executed for leaving the remaining siblings to be captured by their government, this House of mostly nomadic mountain walkers was tasked with producing explosives and gunpowder. They are the second largest elven producer outside of Nagari, and though the House was fairly well decimated in the Second Demon War, production continues like it always has in the foothills of the eastern ranges. Now more vital than ever.

House Adsiks: Minor Family, Merchants and Shipping, Maritime coastal sorts who once settled along the shores of the sorrows and plied their trade bout within and without. Now they command Del-Sumir and are more powerful than they could have ever imagined. Adsiks are no nones, straight-talking merchants and sailing types, they helm every vessel in their fleet, and they personally work as merchants in every specialty, they're pragmatic souls who like to do the work themselves rather than leave it up to anyone else. The only exception is the head of House, who has to stay behind and coordinate her large family and their army of capable workers in this massive undertaking of managing a large swath of the sea-born trade that makes its way into the region.

House Lotus: Minor Family, Mining, House Lotus has owned and operated mining operations far from their lands and holdings for centuries, because it was easier to be an expeditionary force and stay clear of the infighting, than try to square up and take form any potential rivals. They are some of the most cowardly and devious plotters of the elves and used plenty of manipulation and doublespeak to keep themselves in a position of secured power for years. Rather than fight for gold and silver, or compete with the iron that Iro-Paras could get up in their rich veins, Lotus went for low hanging fruits: Coal, lapis lazuli, cinnabar, cobalt, copper, tin, and precious gems such as emeralds, sapphires, and rubies. Things nobody wanted to fight over when there were much more valuable resources to plunder, these were also usually harder to gain access to outside of copper and coal, and thus seemed unprofitable unless one put a lot of energy and time into the work.

While certain items could be of some value of course, they were not yet useful in high enough concerns to warrant any large amounts of significant wealth for House Lotus, then industrialization became the norm, and suddenly, so much of what the House was managing to mine was of vital importance, at least in terms of the metals and coal production. The other items were largely consistent with decorative uses or high end concerns, except for cinnabar which happened to be oxidized mercury and thus when refined, managed to make a large stockpile of the deadly element.

They acted fast, afraid that they'd get overtaken, they struck up partners and brokered deals, and became many time over profitable overnight, although that gravy train has since been roundly depleted as the pace of industry has sped by Lotus has attempted at finding newer sites, but many were already taken over and plundered. Lotus is currently in a declining stage, having burned hot and fast and realistically they may not survive much longer.

## Western Drowlords

House Arkon: Main Family, Mercenaries and Trade, Extinct

House Dargas: Major Family, Stoneworkers and Weapons Manufacturing,

House Quavass: Major Family, Horses,

House Erenai: Major Family, Lumber and Merchants,

House Korak: Minor Family, Hotsprings, House Korak is a lesser-known power in the region of Central Obscura, sitting within the Obscuran Foothills. They run therapeutic hot springs and thrive in terms of economic power due to their entire economy being based around tourism and the now inflating middle class. While technically a Western Drow power, they are not aligned with the nefarious dealings that occur with their neighbors and maintain a neutral therapeutic, and relaxing resort city.

House Xevis: Minor Family, Drug Production, House Xevis produced narcotics in the most Western stretches of the Marshlands, basically bordering Silkwood. Their production pales in comparison to what was once Pentaghast's operation, but they make up for it in sheer potency. Xevis narcotics fetch high premiums, and if one is not careful, will cause overdoses in non-elves/non-orcs who do not have the insane bodily protections afforded to these races. They help fund the Western Drow's war chest.

House Lero: Minor Family, Mercenaries, House Lero owns and operates the Deadlands Security Company, formerly the Dwarf Slayers. It operates out of West Aradia, bordering the famous Deadlands, they'll take anyone who wants to earn coin and kill people, they were mostly used in operations against the Dwarves, but during the Aradian Civil War they were used to greater effect inflicting inhumane terror attacks on Monarchy forces. Their leader of the time was killed and an attempt was made on their home, but they fought well and made it an untenable siege and wound up surviving. They are to this day, contracted in the use of kidnappings and terror strikes on civilian targets by an unknown entity.

House Devori: Minor Family, Mercenaries, House Devori is only slightly more moral than Lero, in that they don't use sexual assault and live skinnings to inflict fear into their enemies. That and they are used now mostly for contending with Spiders as they are typically hired for their skills as woodland fighters as half wood/half dark elves mostly and their company hires mostly hunters and woodsmen into their ranks. They were once used as shock troops in the Aradian Civil War but were beaten down by the superior forces of Reynis the Silkstrider and her contingents of deadly archers. Since then their contracts have mostly been dealing with the flare-ups of spiders, escorting caravans, and guarding harvesting operations wherever they crop up along the Silkwoods border.

Caradoc Rookwood has hired them since the lapse of Talia's rule, they make for effective guards for lumber companies, combined with other Spider-Killing Houses. They use much of these profits to help fund the Western Drow war effort with the Easterners. They have a hold in the Eastern Silkwood that they are fitting to become a lumber processing hub in partnership with some industrialists.

House Jossa: Minor Family, Smithing,

House Nerso: Minor Family, Agriculture

## Eastern Drowlords

House Avani: Royal Family, Textiles, Extinct, There was literally only Xankresh Avani, all his progenies are missing or dead. The dude figured since he was mostly immortal he'd keep it to himself. Avani made money in a myriad of ways, a lot through piracy, but he had a legitimate business practice in creating large amounts of textiles. Without keeping proper track of his heirs and family, there's a decent chance there are many unofficial branches of the family, but none who survived under Xankresh due to the almost curse like way they would die off.

House Suma: Minor Family, Gunpowder, settled on Suma Island off of Nagari, the entire purpose of this house is to oversee the production of large amounts of gunpowder, initially through the manufacturing of Black Powder, but with the discovery of nitroglycerin, their work became far more complicated, but the house has proven its usefulness to Caradoc as the nobility is more than happy to work its population into dust just as it had done for centuries before under the rule of Xankresh.

House Toril: Minor Family, Shipwrights, Toril are a family of master shipwrights, whose population on the island of Toril is there to facilitate allowing the masters to do their work. The entire island is geared for maximum productivity, so long as they have steady supplies they will work from dawn to dusk, and possibly longer if you give them some light. Invested in heavily, they have earned the industrial sector back many times over in

House Neiva: Minor Family, Weapons Manufacturing, this house produces world-class gunsmiths and explosives experts due to the long-standing work they did for Xankresh Avani, combined with a dedicated population who can operate basic assembly line production, means that both high-class, bespoke options, and cheap mass-produced models can be manufactured with relative ease. This is a blast furnace of weaponry, and most of the island is an industrial sector.t

House Mabusa: Main Family, Monastic Caretakers, The clan does not offer its services outside of direct requests from fellow members, and then only for the purposes of anti-demon warfare. Instead, they live on Veroma, and are caretakers to the Sanctuary of the World. This is the biggest religious site in all of Terros and is a pilgrimage site for all non-demonic faiths, housing permanent members of each belief system and accommodating a moderate level of pilgrims. House Mabusa has four other branches to their family, and regards the entirety of themselves as a massive clan of people. They are generally unwilling to change.

House Ormana: Main Family, Shipwrights and Security, Ormana brides itself on top-of-the-line arctic vessels, capable of sailing through the frozen northern Sorrows better than any ship of a similar caliber. They also offer complete and total security against any and all threats in the Northern Sorrows free of charge with their devastating fleet of capable Obscuran Marines, though after the Second Demon War, their numbers were quite depleted and this service was retracted for a few decades.

House Kei-Zelus: Branch, Fish, Kei-Zelus lives on the central coastline of the Northern Wastes, running a fish farming operation that produces so much stockfish and other highly useful low-end fish products that they can ship it all across Terros due to their massive fish hatcheries. They employ a rather rugged staff of hard-working folks who don't mind the constant biting cold of the Arctic tundra, they ship such a large volume of fish that much of their holdings are just storehouses stocked full of frozen fish.

House Ava-Noria: Branch, Fish, this house operates far from civilization, on the 'empty' eastern side of the Wastes, on the very edge of the east there is a singular settlement. Noria only employs the best staff, anyone not up to the intensity of fishing for the exotic game that could very well end your life is unwelcome, it is a dangerous profession but these people are used to ancestral work. They hunt for porpi, squids, whales, sharks, giant sea serpents, and deadly magical beasts that live under the icy depths. They make solid profits selling it to Aradian nobility.

House Morvala: Royal Family, Tourism and Exotic Goods,

House Ren-Dorak: Minor Family, Military Training,

House Suramel: Minor Family, Agriculture,

House Karesh: Middle Kingdom's Royal House

House Notai: Main Family, Police, Notai has come a long way from its roots as assassins and spies, they are now the heads of the police force that holds the Northern Kingdom together, due to their years of experiences as spies and killers, those left in the family have troves of knowledge that helped establish the surveillance that the kingdom is under to protect its people.

House Ela-Morae: Minor Family, Mining, they steal from the Avamorian Dwarves mining operations, which they call management, but its the dwarves who do all the work and know everything, its simply that the Ela-Morae have the manpower and weapons to take as much as they can get away with before the dwarves revolt. they are not well liked and their system was shuttered once order was restored in the region by Drake's forces, and they were forced to actually manage and maintain mining infrastructure and act in good faith so Drake didn't have to keep putting down rebellions every half a decade. It has been kind of shite all things considered, but profitable still.

House Nil-Krisha: Minor Family, Heavy Industries, where as previously they were just largely about steel production in the region, the house exanded as the need for industrial power expanded and they became outright integral to the functions of the Northern Kingdom, their factories and production centers provide much of the weaponry and raw materials for infrastructure projects, they own about half of Avamor and are the richest family in the Northern Kingdom barring the Royals. They're ready to stirp mine all of Avamor if given the chance, progressive as they are, and held in check by the others and the fact that drake's general disdain for this kind of thing means that he'll only accept heavy industry up to the needs of his people and no more.