The House

### Key Members

Eric HouseWillem Reid (former) Karim Nakad (former) Leopold Miller (former) Solid Willem

**The House** was a former private military company founded by Eric House and renowned soldier Willem Reid in 1988 which would undergo many transformations until finally evolving into one of America's most infamous and destructive organized crime syndicates.

Initially the result of a shared vision of a better world between Eric and Willem after their time in the CIA. The House would become a large private military company before fading into obscurity on account of the two's eventual bitterly rivalry.

Yet within the shadows and through the use of the restaurant chain Asaka Suhi as a front, The House was able to grow and transform itself into an influential crime syndicate. But eventually, with the rise of Solid Willem as it's "new" figure head, the organization's was able to return into the limelight and instigate the Red Revolution.

## History

### Origins

After leaving the CIA in 1988, Eric and Willem formed The House to provide military force to anyone who needed it, regardless of nation or ideology. As such, The House specialized in providing a full range of military services, including combat, logistics, training, weapons, outfitting, and R&D. In addition, The House was designed to merge the small footprint and exceptional performance of special forces groups with the full military might of a full regular army, as a means to fully break free of nation-states. To avoid enemy intelligence services like the CIA, The House did not initially establish a permanent base, often choosing to relocate their forces as required.

As a result of their many operations and exploits, the organization would continue to expand until they were finally able to settle down and establish an official base of operations. Additionally Willem's reputation as "the Legendary Soldier" would also grow until he become a military icon.

### Military Decline

However, underneath their successful and professional demeanor, tensions began to develop between Willem and Eric primarily surrounding the future of The House and the development of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, worldwide governments began to put pressure on the organization as governments became more and more concerned surrounding The House's growth and ambitions. Such concerns were also shared with Willem and following the discovery of the Les Enfants Terribles project, Willem would finally leave The House in 1996 resulting in beginning of Eric and Willem's rivalry.

Eric continued to command over The House now under constant governmental surveillance and scrutiny while also attempting to cover up his fallout with the icon of his organization. In spite of that, Willem would come to establish a similar private military force named Shen Yun in 1997 with a man named Ahab to rival The House.

### Rhode Island Incident

With so many threats to The House, Eric was cornered. Governments were becoming more intrusive and his Willem facade began to break given the slow growth of Shen Yun. It seemed inevitable that the world would learn of Willem's departure. However on March 16 1999, Eric would orchestrate a covert attack on Shen Yun which resulted in the destruction of their operating base and Willem being sent into a 8 year coma.

The attack was framed by Eric to look like a "reckless accident of a barbaric group of mercenaries". Not only did this attack eliminate Willem from the picture, it also caused governments to focus on Shen Yun as The House slipped away into the shadows to reform and abandon it's military services as a presumed act of good faith.

### 8 Year Gap

The world assumed that Willem had met a tragic death while visiting the Shen Yun operating base, but as a member of The House, solidifying his status as a legend. In reality, Willem was in a 8 year coma and received strictly confidential medical treatment secretly funded by Eric. Karim Nakad would serve as Willem's caretaker and mole, constantly reporting to The House.

Meanwhile, Eric would reinvent himself as the proprietor of a successful restaurant chain named Asaka Sushi, which was merely a front for The House's gradual transformation into a organized crime syndicate. Now away from the public eye following the Rhode Island Incident, The House embarked on various illegal activities such as extortion, smuggling, counterfeiting, blackmailing, loansharking and contract killing. Additionally, The House would come face to face with many other crime families but thanks to its effective management and military background, it was able to overthrow its rivals and climb the ranks of the organized crime hierarchy while continuing to remain undetected by the law.

### Resumption

Willem fully awakened from his deep coma on November 25, 2007 only to learn of The House's new identity. On this same day Eric met with Leopold Miller who would later come to be a pivotal member of The House's operations. Miller was subsequently hired to watch over Karim, who began to sow skepticism within Eric following his many years looking over Willem.

Not long after his awakening, Willem would for the first time in almost a decade come face to face with his once close friend, Eric. However, Willem's attempt at revenge would swiftly be stopped by Miller, who was shockingly able to match his combat abilities for a short period of time. Willem and Eric's encounter would end in a long overdue conversation until Willem was forced but allowed to flee the scene, living to fight another day.

On January 22, 2008 the Les Enfants Terribles project was finally revealed as Solid, Liquid and Venom were sent into action despite still being quite young. The brothers were ordered to capture Willem, who would eventually escape thanks to Ahab's sacrifice. However, on the next day, Solid would ultimately execute his "father" without hesitation, proving himself as one who is capable to carry Willem's legacy as "the legendary soldier" while finally putting an end between Eric and Willem's long rivalry.

### Golden Age

Following the death of Willem, The House remained in the shadows and entered it's golden age which would span over the next 4 years. With Solid being the only "successful" product of Les Enfants Terrible, he would quickly become a key member of The House alongside Miller and Karim. The three continued to aid The House's expansions through it's various illegal activities, in preparation for it's eventual resurgence. As for Solid's brothers, Venom had actually escaped The House's control early on but was closely monitored throughout the years while Liquid was detained by The House as a result of his insubordination, in order to be tested on.

Now with Solid by his side, Eric began working towards his endgame by spreading small rumors of Willem's survival in preparation for his eventual "reappearance". Additionally, rival syndicates would come to learn of Willem's legacy resulting in the exponential growth of The House's influence inside the criminal underworld.

### Apostasy Incident

Nearing the end of the golden age, Miller would become more and more disheartened with The House and Eric's operations. After countless traumatic missions and no longer being his purposeless and lost younger self, Miller's morality began to kick in. Similarly, Karim's resignation started to become expected in a more upfront way as a result of his constant disagreements with Eric and more recent "eldritch" experiments and projects.

Noticing these instances of disloyalty, Eric became paranoid and confrontational towards Karim and Miller as he did not want history to repeat itself. This would culminate on June 28, 2012 when Karim freed Liquid and betrayed The House, causing mass destruction and anarchy. Once more Eric was cornered, as it became apparent that The House and Les Enfants Terrible were going to be exposed to the world. Miller was consequently sent to clean up the situation and after simply negotiating with Karim, he had averted Eric's fears. However, after returning from this mission, Miller would quietly resign from The House.

### Providence

The House was once again forced to rebuild as a result of Karim's devastating betrayal and Miller's resignation but despite that, Eric would be obsessively fixated on achieving his endgame and world vision. Meanwhile, Karim would re-establish Shen Yun while manipulating Liquid into joining him to take down their shared enemy. Shen Yun would slowly amass it's own following which evidently, greatly angered Eric.

In order for Eric's plans to continue both rogue Willem clones needed to be eliminated to maintain his reputation. Venom was quickly located *and finally eliminated* by Solid. However, to deal with Liquid, Eric would severe his relationship with Karim by allowing him to learn the truth of Karim's role behind his existence, expecting Karim to be forced to kill Liquid. In spite of Eric's plans, Liquid would instead be the one to survive having brutally murdered Karim in an act of pure savagery.

### Red Revolution

Having assumed Liquid had been killed and that Shen Yun had been considerably weakened, Eric finally proceeded with his plan. The House made it's reappearance and Solid was finally revealed, restoring Willem's legacy and instantly becoming a beacon of hope amidst a broken world, controlled by crime syndicates. On October 31, 2013 Eric turned against the crime underworld and the Red Revolution would take place as thousands of new followers were amassed in the name of Willem.

Once Eric learned of Liquid's survival, Solid was covertly sent to eliminate him. However, after Liquid was killed, his body was later taken over by Karim resulting in Liquid Karim who subsequently took over Shen Yun's rebellion operations.

Unaware of Liquid Karim's existence, Eric and Solid would continue their revolution eventually wiping out many major crime syndicates and establishing a sort of new world order with The House at its center. With the world coming to idolize Willem and support The House, Eric's initial vision had become a reality.

## Destruction

Shen Yen quickly became the only remaining source rebellion against The House as a result of Liquid Karim's Genome Soldiers. This seemingly endless conflict would cause the world to become a hellscape as The House became more and more tyrannical in response to Shen Yun's unrelenting perseverance.

On February 28, 2014, the war would finally come to an end as Miller returned while being mysteriously tasked to "set things right" despite his lung cancer, in what would be known as the Sundowner Incident. In order to fulfill his task, Miller willingly became a carrier of Karim's forgotten KA-19 retrovirus, which was specifically engineered to only target the genomes of Willem Reid. The virus would begin to be spread, as Miller re-acquainted himself with Liquid Karim to discuss Shen Yun's final assault on The House.

Miller understood that the only member of The House that the virus would not work on was Eric. Therefore, as the final battle between Shen Yun and The House began, Miller was required to personally assassinate him. Following one last quiet conversation in which Miller explained his intentions and the virus, Eric had for the first time ever, simply accepted his defeat and died along with the world he had built.

Following the death of Eric, Shen Yun's victory became apparent. However, shortly after the battle had ended, symptoms of the virus started to become visible as Liquid Karim along with his Genome Soldiers would eventually die. Yet Miller would make sure of Liquid Karim's demise by shooting him point blank in the head.

In a final act of loyalty to The House, a sick and frail Solid would make a final appearance and challenge Miller to a final duel. Despite both men being incredibly weak as a result of their respective illnesses, the two would still fight until Solid was eventually spent. In either an act of kindness or cruelty, Miller decided to spare Solid, leaving him to slowly die from the virus.

Understanding his death was necessary to prevent the KA-19 virus from spreading by mutating and having achieved some semblance of redemption, Miller peacefully died from his lung cancer the next day as the last key member of The House, finally bringing an end to it all.