House Balor

*By the serpent that twines around the golden tower, by the crimson beam that streams from Balor’s Eye, by the blood that runs like fire through my veins, I pledge my heart, mind, and body to the will of House Balor. Let the challenge that marks my body as different from all others serve as a constant reminder of my birth and my destiny. May I suffer the agony of a thousand flames if I betray my house. This I swear, by the blood and the eye, before the Dreaming itself.*

**Pronounced:** BAY-lor

**Court:** Unseelie

**Nicknames:** Blooded, Monsters (vulgar)

If the sidhe were born of dreams of power and beauty, then House Balor traces its roots to dreams of the terrible wrath that power could unleash. Ruthless generals, savage warriors, and relentless hunters, the Blooded emulate their legendary namesake, Balor of the Baleful Eye, in demonstrating why mortals once feared the fae as gods…and might again one day. House Balor may not be the subtlest house, but what it lacks in nuance it more than makes up for in brute strength and vicious cunning.

Relations between the Blooded and members of the Seelie houses are strained at best; even putting aside their fearsome reputation, the house’s Fomorian blood makes their Seelie counterparts deeply uneasy. For their part, the Balor see politics as a necessary evil, and tend to play the game defensively, slowly taking and fortifying territory rather than flitting about from court to court. As a result, the house holds a surprising amount of territory, especially for one that is often absent from the whirl of court events.

Despite their aggressive reputation, Balor are not mindless brutes, nor are they always quick to turn to violence — any action taken is always a means to an end, not simply an end in itself. There are bullies and sadists in their ranks, to be sure, but they do not tend to rise far as their enjoyment of pain is too personal and self-interested to be of much use to the house in general. Likewise, the Blooded tend to seek out mortal occupations where their direct manner and propensity for action serves them well, and if they get to bloody their knuckles occasionally, too, well that’s just a bonus.

Balor is home to the fewest Seelie of any Unseelie house, as the traditionally-minded Blooded view Seelie concepts like love and honor as weaknesses to be exploited rather than virtues to be celebrated. Members discovered to be Seelie find themselves challenged or even assaulted by their fellow members at every turn. For what it’s worth, however, those that can weather such constant abuse are some of the toughest individuals of any house; they might even win a measure of grudging respect from their peers for their fortitude, if not their affiliation.

## House Boon

The Blooded’s willingness to accept even the most unpleasant tasks without complaint is made manifest in their house boon, along with one of the prime reasons they are so widely feared by other fae. While touching cold iron causes a Balor mild discomfort, she does not lose Glamour from handling it, nor from being struck by it. Members even have a slim chance to soak damage from cold iron sources (difficulty 10). However, cold iron still inflicts aggravated damage on the Blooded, and death by cold iron destroys a Balor’s soul the same as any other changeling.

## House Flaw

All members of House Balor are marked by sinister deformities, and wear them proudly. Balor fae tend toward freakish traits such as forked tongues, glowing eyes, over-long limbs, scales or fur instead of hair, and other markedly unnatural characteristics. A Blooded’s deformity might be temporarily concealed, but can never be permanently corrected, not even with magic. Sidhe of House Balor are born with these traits, displaying mortal versions of them even before their Chrysalis, while other fae who take titles in the house later on in life inevitably develop them as part of the Blooded’s secret initiation rites.

Despite appearances, these deformities never offer any mechanical advantages on their own, though they could perhaps be used to justify purchasing certain Merits (or Flaws). These deformities also carry over to the mortal seeming in a non-paranormal but still memorably unsettling form — instead of looking outright reptilian, a Balor with patches of lizard scales might appear to “merely” have a strange skin condition in his mortal guise. Investigators trying to track one of the Blooded receive a –2 on the difficulty of rolls related to witnesses remembering, describing, and identifying the noble unless the Balor took special pains to conceal his abnormality.

Due to their savage Fomorian blood, members of House Balor also have a maximum Willpower rating of 6. Kithain who take titles later on and have a higher Willpower rating find it reduced during their initiation into the house’s mysteries.

## Exile

While the specifics remain frustratingly vague, House Balor has no illusions about what likely led to their exile — they backed the losing side, and paid for it. Rather than scheme about ways to re-enter Arcadia, however, the Blooded have a different plan. They intend to conquer the Autumn World and thereby cut off its supply of Glamour to Arcadia. House Balor will not grovel and beg to be taken back; the Blooded will force Arcadia to its knees.

## Factions and Societies

* The Eyes of Balor, spies and assassins who use the house’s reputed lack of subtlety to their advantage.

* The Old Firm, members who coordinate jobs across a dozen different organized crime families and underworld syndicates.

* The Masters of the Dance, envoys and scholars who deal with various Prodigal allies.

* The Guardians of the Gates, trod-walkers and monster slayers who sometimes conspire with some of the more intelligent creatures they battle.

* The Riders of the Fell, brave (or foolhardy) risk-takers who seek to prove their worth through spectacular feats and harrowing battles.

* Scarlet Eye Solutions, a global private military contractor and security consulting firm with a fearsome reputation for getting results at all costs.

## Notable Members

High Lord Li-Tilli, raised among werewolves and a consummate strategist, though now whispered to be sliding into Bedlam, The Mercy of Balor, a scarred and fearsome troll who acts as a sanctioned executioner for the Blooded, Countess Anne Blackwell, charming hostess, criminal mastermind, and ruthless Ravager from the Old Firm, Lord Raghnall, leader of the Masters of the Dance and expert on matters Prodigal, Sir Garreth Petrov-Smythe, sluagh terrorizer and top agent of the Eyes of Balor, and Doctor Jacknife, crazed goblin weapon designer and “combat prosthetics” developer for Scarlet Eye Solutions.