House Maith

House Maith was originally known as The Maith Clan, a small and rather unnoteworthy clan belonging to the Southern Isles.

It, like all Southern Isles Clans was formed by a Matriarch, Fola-Quade Maith, and her husband, the original Patriarch, Bradai-Quade Maith.  They took the island of Tonate, which, ironically, would prove to be the only island that stood against Bradai-Daran seventeen generations later.

The Maith Clan’s old sigil was a Lynx on Blue background.  The blue symbolized the waters around their domain, and their connection to the North.  Even back then, the Maith Clan had a way with words and having connections in strange places.  Many untrue rumors speculated that they were succubi, able to use their charms for their dark purposes.

Using their unique talent of speech, they solidified a strong alliance with one of the more influential sources of power, The Buáilte Clan.  The old Clan words were: “With a heavy hand.”  models after the advice they gave their superiors.  Blunt, to the point, but effective.  All was fine for multiple generations, until Fola-Fhealltóir Maith ended up killing Nathair-Farrel Buáilte over power disputes, shaming the Clan and stripping it of most of its power.  It was the first time two Clans had directly killed one another, not in an act of war.

Although most of it’s power was taken away from it, The Maith Clan still retained vast wealth it had built up advising and supporting the Buáiltes.  This was slowly spent by the countless generations of neglectful Patriarchs to follow, finally resulting in Byron Maith, who spent the last of the once great Clan’s final reserves.  But this wasn’t before he impregnated one of his servant girls, and she gave birth to Bradai-Daran Maith.

Bradai-Daran was sold into slavery at the early age of seven by Byron, in an attempt to stop his son’s rise to power and make him generally obsolete.   Being sold all at an early age, Bradai-Daran had no clue that his birthright was a small island and an even smaller fortune.  It wouldn’t prove to mean much though, because when he eventually lead a revolution to escape the mines, he sought to go North, to Ibethiel and eventually to Stormalong, a Kingdom in Feyshore.

There, he quickly rose to power as an underworld figure, and after several years time, eventually gained enough power to dethrone the leading royal power, and raid the treasury.  It was apparent that the newest Patriarch had gained one of the Maith Clan’s many talents, the ability to control others with their speech.  While some founder fought with blade or bow, Bradai-Daran, who became immortalized in history books as The Captain, was ruthless in both his speech and actions.   Once again, history repeated itself, with the House Maith once again making strong ties to both Azaria and to The Witherlands, strong and influential Kingdoms in the North.   With the newfound flowing wealth, power and an almost cult following, The Captain made his way back to the Southern Isles.  By this time, Byron Maith had long since abandoned his family, and sold the island to the Buáilte Clan.

For a while, he was content, but quickly realized why the Southern Isles could never become a truly menacing world power.  It was their stubbornness that kept then weak, and so he initiated a harsh assimilate or annihilate policy.  It was Tonate, his home island that prove to be the only opposition.  But if the Captain could topple an entire Kingdom, then a small and insignificant island wouldn’t prove to be too strenuous.  The battle took five hours, and that was only because it took four hours for their Clan Hall to burn down.

It it’s place, the Captain Built the Maith Mansion, the largest house in the Southern Half of the world.  No expense was spared, boasting a three mile garden, and six floors in full.   Now, House Maith has complete control over the now unified Southern Island Chain, and proves boasts a strong and ruthless navy.  This, plus their strong ties to pirates, is quickly making the Island Chain a trading powerhouse.  Their new words, created by the Captain, are: “Forthright with Foresight” to verbalise the House’s new ways of thinking, blunt but skillful and soft wording.  Their new sigil is a black poppy, to symbolism both the severity of betraying them, and their strong ties to the illegal sale of opium, one of the Southern Isle’s main exports.