The Great Houses

Part noble dynasty, part inter-stellar corporation, the Great Houses of Sol are the primary stewards of economic power in UNISET territory. Membership in a great house is a sought-after prize for many skilled professionals, however by far the most common way to achieve house membership is to be the son or daughter of an existing member.

Though membership in a Great House confers no legal benefit to a person, the Houses take care of their own. A member to any great house can expect to be treated to the best UNISET has to offer in terms of medical care, legal representation, gene therapy and even access to rare luxuries such as natural-grown meats and vegetable products. This relationship between house and member creates an effective nobility with even the lowest ranking members of a Great House living comfortable, safe and luxurious lives compared to an average member of the public.

Most but not all of the Great Houses descend from multinational corporations founded in the 20th and 21st centuries of ancient earth and they typically keep fastidious records validating their lineage. The distinction between a great house and lesser house is subjective and typically a matter of public perception. As a result most houses, great or lesser, are obsessed with furhtering their reputation and will go to extreme lengths to protect it in the face of scandal. Simultaneously, rivalries between certain houses justify extremely cost-intensive propaganda campaigns and even outright sabotage, which in turn creates a chaotic and unstable heirachy between the houses.

## The Great Houses and UNISET

Though the great houses are economically powerful they exist at the discretion of UNISET itself. Every year, the great houses offer enormous tithes to UNISET. Most houses provide thier tithes in the form of industrial products e.g. a house may pay its annual tithes by constructing or maintaining government facilities, governmental transport ships or even producing armaments for the UNISET space fleet. Through the combined efforts of all great houses, the UNISET government body remains firmly entrenched as the pre-eminent power in human-occupied space.

## Noteable Great Houses

### The First House

The first Great House rose to prominence in the early 21st century on old-earth, hundreds of years before the advent of Kamimaru technology and the era of human galactic expansion. Its true name has been lost to time and due to the continuing evolution of language, it would likely be incomprehensible to the average citizen, unless they happened to have a degree in ancient English. It is understood to refer to a variety of now extinct fruit which was popular and ubiquitous in that era. The First House was known for manufacturing communication technology for the private and industrial sector, and was thought to be the legacy of a singular charismatic leader whos name rougly translates to Steve 'industry'. The extent to which this leader is a mythological creation of the First House themselves remains unknown and is frequently debated by historians. Most members of every Great House knows the history of the First House, and it is common to find House members whos greatest aspiration is to live up to the legacy of the First House and its leader, Steve Industry.

### The Bridgeworks Group

Formerly the wealthiest of the great houses, the Bridgeworks group rose to prominence before the era of galactic expansion specialising in large scale building projects on old Earth and eventually Mars. The Bridgeworks group was responsible for the creation of the first 5 city domes on Mars during the 2100s. Following the Martian colonization, Bridgeworks subdivided itself into 3 departments: Bridgeworks, specialising in terrestrial infrastructure projects such as city domes and industrial transport solutions, Kestrel, responsible for the creation of military space craft, and Nebula responsible for designing and manufacturing machinery for mining and industry on the red planet. Through this trio of industrial specialisations, the Bridgeworks group was able to maintain a stranglehold over most aspects of the colonisation effort of the solar system for nearly 2 centuries.

In 2403 Bridgeworks group unveiled a 4th subsidiary house: Wayfarer, an extremely secretive skunk-works focusing on the development of industrial and military drone technology. The unveiling of Wayfarer heralded the beginning of the end for the Bridgeworks group's glory days, and by the time of the Star Eater initiative, political rivalries between the 4 subsidiary houses caused the dissolution of the Bridgeworks Group as each of the subsidiaries cut ties with one another to pursue their own individual destinies.

Following the dissolution, Bridgeworks carried on as an independent house remaining focussed on its specialty of terrestrial infrastructure and logistics. Though it has never again approached the glory of its former years, Bridgeworks remains a stable and well respected name in the ranks of the great houses to this day.

### Wayfarer

Wayfarer rose to prominence in the early 2400's as a newly formed skunk-works of the Bridgeworks group making autonomous drones, mostly for use in industrial applications. They were also famous for their combat robot line, eschewing the popular bipedal body-plan which was prominent at that time in favour of low-slung wheeled robots. Wayfarer were an early adopter of Kamimaru technology and by the time of the Star Eater intiative, they had almost fully pivoted to the manufacture of Kamimaru drives and interstellar spacecraft. Wayfarers pivot was not without consequence however, and the assumption of this new role within the Bridgeworks group ultimately lead to the dissolution of the group as a whole due to political rivalries between the subsidiaries and the immense wealth that the manufacture of Kamimaru technology brought to Wayfarer. Of the former members of the Bridgeworks group, Wayfarer has remained consistently the most powerful and respected in the centuries since the dissolution, though Phoenix (formerly Kestrel) remains a bitter rival and frequently seeks to sabotage Wayfarer in any way they can.

Wayfarer were the lead manufacturers of Star Eater 2, the second interstellar craft launched as part of the Star Eater initiative with a mission to trial experimental Solar Capture technology; siphoning unreacted hydrogen gas directly from distant stars for use in fusion power generators.

### Phoenix (Formerly Kestrel)

Without the support of the Bridgeworks group after its dissolution, Kestrel underwent a dramatic and dire fall from grace. Competition from other houses as well as burgeoning smaller enterprises was extremely stiff in the early part of the Galactic Expansion Period. Kestrel found itself in a new market with little financial backing and behind the curve in terms of Kamimaru technology. For 50 years it languished, teetering on the brink of complete destruction. In 2534 the Kestrel group found a breakthrough in the release of their Phoenix 1 corvette. This Kamimaru-capable small attack craft was much larger than the competing Kamimaru capable attack craft of its era, requiring a crew compliment of 3 people, however it was a revalation in terms of military effectiveness. The popularity of the Phoenix 1 slingshotted the Kestrel group back into prominence and the entire house re-branded itself as 'Phoenix' to capitalise on the name recognition of their most successful project.

In the current century, Phoenix remains a staple name in UNISET warship production and they are most famously responsible for the bleeding-edge Firebird corvette, as well as being heavily involved in the development of the USF Veneration class capital ship.

### Nebula (Defunct)

The dissolution of the Bridgeworks Group was a blessing in disguise for Nebula at the turn of the 29th century. Having already held a near monopoly on industrial equipment for extra-terrestrial colonisation within the solarsystem, the Nebula group quickly capitalised on the emerging market for inter-stellar colonisation. In 2678, Bridgeworks and Nebula, having remained friendly through the dissolution and afterwards, merged back into a single house, retaining the former's name of 'Bridgeworks' for historical reasons. The name Nebula is still used internally within Bridgeworks to refer to the Mechanical Engineering Corps of the house, and the name lives on in various product lines of the corps such as the LV-1 Nebula piledriver.

### Endeavor Corporation

The Endeavour Corporation made its name executing government projects, constructing mostly public infrastructure and industrial transport networks on Earth before the advent of UNISET. As one of the oldest surviving organizations in human history, the Endeavour corporation is extremely well entrenched and is considered to be the strongest of all the great houses. Since the advent of Kamimaru Technology, the endeavour corporation has been the premier provider of orbital installations for burgeoning colonies including scientific survey platforms, checkpoint stations and orbital artillary. There are rumours, though as yet unsubstantiated, that the Endeavour corporation is constructing a free-floating space fortress deep in the UNISET/Lemais border zone.

### Waytu

Though a fairly new addition at only 74 years old, Waytu claims to have a lineage dating back all the way to the First House. Waytu are experts in artificial intelligence and industrial automation. They are responsible for the creation of every maintence arm in UNISET and FPA space. Waytu's proprietary AI techniques are a jealously guarded secret of the house, and are known to only a select handful of high-ranking Waytu members. Their mastery of artificial intelligence has allowed Waytu to accumulate wealth and power at an unprecedented rate since thier inception. Waytu's holdings are some of the best guarded in all of UNISET space and the house invests an incredible amount of resources and wealth into their bleeding-edge security forces.

### Musk Industries (defunct)

Named for a hero of industry in the 21st century of Old Earth, Musk Industries was the first corporation founded and headquartered on Mars in 2233. Over the following years, Musk Industries grew to be the most influential force in inter-planetary transport, logistics and space craft manufacture. The house was also responsible for a large portion of the terraforming projects taking place on the red planet. During the early years of interstellar expansion, Musk industries grew its influence and power enormously, ever hungry for colonisation prospects amongst the stars. This voracious attitude toward interstellar conquest was, however, a deadly flaw which lead to the houses destruction when Charles Lemais rebelled against UNISET to form the Lemasian Empire in 2671.

During the first successionary conflict, house members of Musk Industries fled in droves to the newly formed empire to avoid persecution in UNISET space, and those who remained disavowed their membership lest they be imprisoned for collusion with the traitor Lemais. By the end of the conflict, no members of the house remained in UNISET space.

Today if Musk Industries is remembered at all, it is remembered for the shame that was brought on it by Lemais. The descendents of former members tend to go to great lengths to hide their connection with the house.