House Thelaris

House Thelaris Heraldry

House Thelaris is a family of Drow nobility hailing from Cheliax. Primarily dealing in achemy, they were well
known for their potent poisons, often advertised to be strong enough that "even a bullette would balk." While this is far from the case, their poisons were by far some of the strongest in the lands, competing with many of the greatest poison makers throughout history, but not innately superior to them. Their boasts were not groundless, however, and importantly due to ready access to supplies and talent in extractions, they were capable of extracting and creating these poisons with incredible alacrity, mass-producing them at an alarming rate, making them a prime producer for many assassin families throughout Golarion.

Within the past ten years, however, the family entered many hardships, before eventually being nearly overtaken. The new head of the family, Melissa Thelaris- a young half-blood between a Drow and a Wood Elf- has moved to Absalom with the interest in using the family's alchemical genius for better purposes, and dimming the horrific reputation the household held. She receives much disdain for the household's dark past, but due to her typically gentle nature and nurturing exterior, she has been making much headway in cleaning the reputation up. Nowadays, Thelaris is the face of a coffee and Tea distribution chain, using significantly more humane tactics to grow and distribute their product, and opening coffee houses to distribute them. The creations of poisons have been all but banned within the family by Melissa after her parents died, however given the family's previous engagements, most people are hesitant at best to believe that this is a true turn from their dark past.

## Slavery and Success

Akin to many drow, one of the major reasons behind the successes of the old Thelaris household was their use of slave labor, genetic manipulation, and cutthroat business tactics. While it is unknown how many slaves the Thelaris household put to use in the cultivation and importation of their poisons, the numbers were high. Slaves that did their work poorly were often used to test the poisons by the master alchemists of the household, theory crafting new mixtures and their potency- being brought to the edge of death, and brought back again. As a result of this, there are many people- especially in places such as Andoran- where their family name is reviled: Even the mention of Thelaris is despised.

Use of fleshwarping is often both a part of their work with slaves, and a part of their business tactics. Often, after taking out competition in the field, house Thelaris would get to work finding better uses for their old competition, either as poison crafters using their previous talents for the family, or as guards and labor. Regardless, the household would take over the opponents' places of work almost entirely, destroying what they could not use. A key component for the family was that they would grow by taking all that was good about those they beat, and twist them to their own nefarious ends.

## Fall from Grace

Ardenia Thelaris- once a strong leader- began making backdoor deals and selling out the family at various turns for personal profit. She indulged in many vices, and gradually the power of the family began to wane. Other companies began taking out their manufacturing groups, and destroyed them from both inside and out. Eventually, with all remaining drow children who were working in these facilities dieing off, on her deathbed Ardenia was forced to name Melissa the new matriarch of the household. The disgraced noble, having been chased off at a young age due to her moral compunctions from spending large amounts of time working outside of the family and sneaking off, had been living in Absalom at the time. With her rise as matriarch, she began dismantling what remained of the poison empire, and regrowing it into what it is today.

This lead to a splintering of the household. Many did not agree with the changes Melissa made, and pulled away, either joining up with other poisoners in Golarion- primarily continuing to work in their origin of Cheliax- or rallying under her other remaining sibling, a male drow named Marklax. The power he wielded, being a male drow and as such not as well respected, however, was minimal, and it became clear that the Thelaris household was out of the poison industry for good.

## New Beginnings

With their new head in Absalom, the Thelaris company began working on coffees and teas, improving the effectiveness and marketing their own brand of coffee- Thelaris Coffee, a brand of coffee grown and raised to be one of the most powerful coffees in the world. With this, and the ready selling of more popular brands of coffee, shipping Mwangi Jungle Style and Kahve, the family started to grow in popularity in the merchant and trade business. While she didn't prove to be as personable as many of her drow ancestors, and sometimes struggled during business meets, Melissa proved to be highly intelligent, setting up better trade routes and making the business flourish.

Now, with distributors in many countries, and a particularly flourishing trade in Katapesh where Coffee is an essential part of society, the company is beginning to regrow their roots. Constant research and development is put into creating more and more luxurious, potent, and healthy coffee with the intention of eventually developing a cup of coffee so potent, so rich, "even a bullette would balk."