The Bimell Set

Quite a fair bit of the aristocracy and nobility of Alerician countries are all familially related together through extensive arranged marriages, which has helped to reduce wars a teensy bit. The Bimell Set is mostly for the centuries-old families and such, but some newbies have arrived on the scene. CEOs of large corporations, guild chairmen and factory owners all rub shoulders with each other and generally form an old boys' network.

There was a fairly major war between some countries where the rulers of each country were actually really good friends. Despite this, public opinion demanded a conflict so the leaders reluctantly declared war. However, all the way through, they would often meet up in secret and have a stupid joke around, ignorant of the horrors of war going on around them. Think a HOI IV game. Is it secret or is it a much-wielded example of how pointless the Bimell Set is.

The Castled Isles is the major group of estates for the Bimell Set, a group of small islands smack in the middle of Lake Flore between Gravenia and Regoroa. Some even have walkways and bridges between them. Sure.

One good example is House Hoss who, for want of a better comparison, are a bit Slytherin-ish. They hail from Kohia, having the best quarters in the Ulsers Chimyodmi, and look vaguely Balkan/Turkish. Specialise in antiques dealing and smuggling, owning a majority of art galleries and museums across the continent. Famous members include (Mernicised versions) Thaddeus, Minella and Angine.

Probably one of the most influential families in the Eastern World, probably the entire world, has to be the Morrisseys, headed by patriarch and matriarch Marcus and Elsabeth. Also coming close are the heirs Hugh and Magrett Morrissey-Chittendon. Unfortunately, Hugh Chittendon doesn't really exist. His real name is James Turner and was just a regular scrub in Viscory before his fantastic personal demeanor and acting ability caught the attention of the early years of Psychedelia. He was persuaded to come to Acrefell where he was tidied up and thrust into the social elite. His entire family, the Chittendons, is fictionalised and many records were surreptitiously edited and agents taking deep cover roles as family members. Magrett took a liking to him and brought him into the Bimell Set. This was all achieved before Cesca was 25. Now Hugh influences the Morrisseys, who influence the Bimell Set, who influence the governments of the world, maybe.

The Bimell Set contains not only old power (some families hail back from the origins of the Set and are over a millenium old) but new money like Coscello and Whoch.

Whoch, headed by Danib Whoch, CEO and founder of Whoch Rail and Transportation Industries, has accrued vast sums of wealth and influence through controlling construction and the running of most railway enterprises on the continent, even making advances in the West.

Ilka Helvgard is the daughter of Crebir Helvgard; the Helvgards are the leading Bolscemenan family in the Bimell Set - they have considerable influence in the Sallodag royal court, obviously if they cared to do so, and are often considered more powerful than the royals themselves. Crebir is the patriarch and strictly adheres to the Bolscemenan traditions. Ilka I guess probably had something to do with the Harlot Darlings. Bella Limiz-gos.

Duke of Jercy has prosthetic claw arm after tragic hunting accident.

Crebir Helvgard + Bella Limiz-gos = Juna, Ilka, Raran, Tjemar

Hektar + Rita Homarg = Emelija, Rolfud

Madeline 'Maddy' Farroniggar is a Setter from Cerrio, one of the more powerful Augar States.

House Monmko. Monmko and Company Construction. Own a fair amount of property in Acrefell. Helvgards are landowners.

Jane Benollin has an Alice in Wonderland/Sister Snow vibe. A devote student of the Yvinndtese culture.

The Bimell Set is an ancient semi-official institution formed slowly from the growing relationships between the richest and most powerful people in the known world over decades and centuries. A question I have though is that how does the Set remain and not fall apart from faction-splitting and infighting? I suppose the best answer would be that many of the families in the Set, with a few exceptions, have remained members for hundreds of years and some of them for over a thousand. And I guess rich people prefer other rich people over the peasantry - satisfactory for marriage and everything. Despite infiltrations via morganatic marriage, the families have mainly married into each other and these ancient friendships and marriage ties have defused most crises. For example, soon after the Bradleyan schism, no Deliberatist Setter would dream of marrying a heretic. But time heals all wounds, especially quickly for the Set, so they have mostly transgressed political barriers. They are so rich, they don't give much of a shit for regular rules and goings on. Sure, a Dallanaist in the past would prefer a marriage of his son to someone of similar culture/religion but he wouldn't be totally repulsed by consideration of a tribalist. Set children aren't brought up with the same rules and knowledge of common nobility so they can pretty much do whatever they want. Hell, maybe it's even love marriages. Who knows? Well, this was in the past at least. With the rising tide of nationalism and ideology, combined with modern media, the Set is still holding strong but fissures and pressures are definitely forming.

Time to renew the Bimell Set. Of course, I do like my idea of the almighty international aristocracy sect but considering my expansive progress in Eastern politics and alliances, the Bimell Set as it was didn't make much sense. Apparently, it's been written in stone that the Bimell Set reached its modern state, more or less, by 1033 so it must have been around for centuries and centuries. All these people were intially attracted to each other because they all had extreme wealth and thus stayed in this 'club' for the rest of their lives - their children married other children, inherited abhorrent amounts of money and continued the tradition. And over the centuries, the Set has evolved its own completely disparate culture to the rest of the world. You'd think that a Gravenian Setter would be undying partriots who despised the northern heretics but they really just don't care. Set children aren't brought up with the same knowledge as other children so don't know anything other than to follow the example. For the typical Setter, most of the time is spent hosting extravagant parties and going on holiday to foreign estates whilst the money rolls in from outside. To them, the outside world, with all its politics and wars, is something that happens to everyone else, things that they pay other people to deal with. This carelessness is not cruelty as most people envision excessively wealthy people - they are mostly really nice but are just so absorbed and naive in their own way of doing things. For the most part, Setters belong to the Set rather than to their own country - the Castled Isles is a popular meeting spot and can hardly be called Gravenian and Regoroan at all. It's very hard to describe this culture as I have a very specific tenniah in my head which I just can't manage to accurately get down on paper. Disconnected, well-meaning, oblivious, flagrant. Nobody else really understands them so they tend to cling to each other for friendship and marriage. There are no rules against morganatic marriage; it has happened multiple times before with marriages between peasants and the most wealthy people on the planet, most recently between Magrett Morrissey and Hugh Chittendon, but Setters only get exposed to each other anyway. I would even hesitate to call them powerful because they have such little regard for the outside world and it has little effect on them. Sometimes, a major event does slip in, like the Bradleyan schism, but they quickly subside and heal over. Normal people rules don't apply to them - pre-marital sex all the way. However, the modern world is slowly breaking apart the order with the rise of nationalism and modern media, but they are still holding strong.