House Bellamois

**House Bellamois** is a major faction in **The Firmament**.

## Brief overview

House Bellamois is a major house located in Daggerfall. The faction is currently quartered in their seven floor manor, which is located on the northern wing of the city. They are old, dating back to the Second Era. The founder is Achielic Bellamois, who had started the faction in 2E 894 and the current High Lord is Bryce Bellamois. They are a very diverse bunch, consisting of both blood and non-blood related members. Their rich history makes a name for themselves, both in influence and power. Their symbol is a tribal looking Eagle, which can be seen on the flag. The flag is a White flag with a red stripe on the top and the bottom, and in the center is the eagle. As of now, they are currently still active, stablizing after the recent events that had occured. They are influenced by the man known as The Dreamwalker.

## History

### Early history

In the late Second era, a man of the name Achielic Bellamois was of a long line of powerful mages and warriors. His bloodline, the Bellamois
family, bore weight in the city of Daggerfall, where ages before that they had been living. Achielic had been the only living man of the oldest generation of the bloodline. He continued to spread their influence. When he gained enough economic wealth, he had ordered the construction of the manor on the northern wing of Daggerfall. When the construction was finished, Achielic had begun to organize the base of the formation of the Great House.

Many began to envy their success, and with envy comes jealousy. They began to accumulate various enemies, the king eventually becoming wary as well due to their large amount of influence. He was slowly losing his grasp on the city, and once he was paranoid enough, ordered that House Bellamois be disbanded. After refusal, the king was forced to take action, but citizens quickly took house Bellamois's side. Guards were ordered to kill citizens, but after an uprising, had successfully infiltrated the palace, killing the king. Many were arrested, but the uprisings weren't what Achielic wanted.

The House began to gain a rather sinister reputation amongst many of the cities and other factions within the province. Achielic's doings weren't necessarily beneficial towards the House's pre-existing notoriety, as they had began to spread to places such as Camlorn, and eventually Wayrest once it was founded. Feuds also began to start inside of the House's own members, causing various problems. Once they had eventually reached Achielic, he attempted to calm the heat, but the fires began to grow. When things became violent and murders began to occur within the household, Achielic had begun to take measures to keep them under control. Citizens tried to leave, but were stopped by guard forces, assuring matters would be alright. With House Bellamois beginning to tighten their grip around the city as a result of the feud, the occupants of Daggerfall tried to leave once more. This time, anyone who tried to leave were slaughtered.

The chaos inside the city eventually began to drive Achielic mad, causing him to eventually kill off his children which started the feud, before taking his own life, leaving House Bellamois without a proper leader.

### The Third Era - Current time

During the beginning to late Third Era, the Bellamois' went relatively quiet. The damage the anarchy within the household was slowly being repaired, and in result, had placed a new house master, Myron Bellamois. He proved to be a powerful, yet respectful leader. He began to pick the Great House up off of it's feet, the previous occurances of the house soon becoming forgotten. It began to prosper, soon setting up alliances with the other houses. They still were despised by a few, but proved to be merely nuissances, until a double agent had brought news to them. An ally had been in the act of espionage, posing as a servant to gain knowledge on their current resources and status. This angered Myron, and once tentions grew, they had eventually waged war on eachother.

The war was kept rather discreet, with Myron sending agents to deal with matters himself. Much tension had built betweent the two noble houses, and once they had finally decided to finish it on the battlefield. It had painted the Daenia woods (now currently Tulun Forest), where it had taken place, red with blood. The battle lasted nearly a week, both sides suffering heavy casualties. House Bellamois's opponent had finally surrendered, giving up all profit ties and resources to their new leaders. Myron had used any profit to help reconstruct the house after another rough period of conflict within their walls. Myron was seen as a hero to the people of Daggerfall, after finding more plots of destruction within their destroyed opponent's walls. They had again begun to prosper, going quiet for the next several centuries.

In the year of 4E 201, a new, brutal, ruler had risen to power. The next heir of the name Cesaire had taken leadership after his father, Blaine Bellamois, had passed from sickness. The man and his wife had other ideals in mind for their inherited wealth and name, such as taking the province over for theirselves. After building up enough confidence from the king within a year, he had slaughtered him infront of the citizens. He then raised his secret army and sent them out against any opposers inside Daggerfall. Once he had supposedly died, Jaquelle had taken over the army. They had sacked Whiterun, Camlorn, and Northpoint in the span of merely a few months. Massacres followed the capturing of the cities, causing chaos. That was, until Cesaire and Jaquelle's youngest son, Bryce, as well as Cesaire's brother Alexandre, had came back to take revenge. After many months of strife within the house, the two men had successfully liberated the house, at the cost of Alexandre's life. With him gone, Bryce had taken leadership of it, already beginning to stabilize it once more.

With the previous leader Cesaire, Bryce had made it his goal to kill the man who had exploited the House's powers and abilities to get what he wanted through greed. Within the Deamwalker's layer, he was destroyed, causing the Dreamwalker to be permanently removed from the Bellamois bloodline, whilst being able to keep any powers granted to him by it.

Later on, Bryce had decided to rid the Thalmor for good, seeing how they had fallen quiet. He officially ended the war with House Lionheart and made an alliance with them. With them allied, they war the Thalmor. To have a greater advantage, however, Bryce had decided to reform the Daggerfall Covenant, allying the Orcs and Redguards, and to an extent, the Nords. All shared common interests in destroying the Elves, and with the overwhelming support from the citizens of Daggerfall, they decided to put their words into action. House Lionheart and House Bellamois combine forces to form the official Second Daggerfall Covenant. They soon created the alliance after their alliances with the Redguards and Orcs had been approved

## Special ranks (Most to least influential)

### **The High Lord/Lady**

The High Lord/Lady of the House typically tends to be the head of the household. He/she controlls any political affairs with any other houses or with the other cities, coordinates any military belonging to them, and organizes any events or ongoing occurances within the extent of their power. To gain this rank, it is inherited through blood. If there are no heirs left, any sibling will need to battle one another through combat. The victor takes the seat as the High Lord/Lady. It is mandatory that the inheriter is blood related to the Bellamois family, unless there is no other option but to hand the position to an unblooded member. The decendant of the victor is the heir for the seat of the Head of Household. Or, if there are ever identical twins, they would need to battle as well. They are also said to be under the most influence from the Dreamwalker.

#### **Known High Lords/Ladys**

Bryce

Cesaire

Blaine

Myron

Achielic

Blacen

### **The Blooded**

Members who are part of the blooded are biological members of the House. Bastard children are not considered a part of this rank, as the requirements are strict. The members must NOT be exiled or jailed, as it brings shame to the family name. With that, they cannot have previously been imprisoned. Any blooded members who have done any of the previous felonies, they are typically disowned, or exiled. They recieve moderate influence from the Dreamwalker, and are more prone to be insane, as the Blooded tend to be weaker than the High Lord or Lady. The Blooded have the chance to claim the seat of the High Lord/Lady, but that is rare.

### **The Knighted**

The Knighted tend to be great friends or spouses of anyone in the family, or unofficial members (not blood related). They are either great friends of the High Lord or Lady, or they have done great deeds for the house to have achieved the rank. It is very difficult to earn this rank. The deeds must exceed the Lord/Lady's expectation, while doing something to benefit them in any way, so long that it isn't negative. They are given a seal, as well as immunity from major crimes, unless it is against the house, similar to thaneship.

### **The Lowly**

The Lowly tend to be the servants and maids working for the house. They are to serve the High Lord and/or Lady without question. Any disobediant staff witll be dismissed. They are given their own quarters throughout the manor, though the rooms tend to be small. The lowly are not biologically related, and most are hired by the current leader of the House. They cannot battle to become the High Lord or Lady, as they lack requirements and influence throughout the household.

### **The Exiled**

The Exiled are a special group of members who had been disowned by the family and removed from the household. They typically end up in this rank due to a crime commited against the house or humanity in general. They are major crimes, one being murder of a fellow house member (unless it is in fair combat), a citizen, or simply someone of high power in the city or province. Another is stealing something of high importance, and another in general, is any organized crime. They are stripped of any title they may have, such as Knighted or Blooded. If they are ranked as the Head of Household, the blooded will need to agree on a best suited action, whether it be to overpower them, or to simply execute them.

**Known Exiled members**

Cesaire

Lucano Adonato

## Current members

* Bryce Bellamois
* Agrias Bellamois
* Luciana Bellamois

## Previous members of note

* Alexandre (deceased)

* Jaquelle (deceased)

* Myron (deceased)

* Blacen (deceased)

* Achielic (deceased)
* Cesaire (deceased)
* Lucano Adonato (deceased)

## Unique traits

The decendants of the House Bellamois generally have these traits-

* Silver eyes

* A lust for blood

* An enhanced magical ability

* High amounts of intelligence

* Mental unstability- This varies as to how much the Dreamwalker had previously influenced the individual of Bellamois blood.
* Unique powers
* Enhanced speech ability