Alkinoth (House)

The House Alkinoth coat of arms, featuring their crest in the top right and bottom left, and white swallowtails in the top left and bottom right.

## Faction Information

### Location

Maldoarvan Commonwealth

*If you are looking for the elven family that goes by the name Alkinoth and not the oligarch house, see Alkinoth (Family).*

**House Alkinoth** is an elven house that wields significant influence in the Maldoarvan Commonwealth, especially in the city of Scholar's Spire, until the year 802 3E. The house is extremely divided along spiritual lines; one side practices a strange, cult-like religion in attempts to gain their race's immortality back, while the other is much calmer and more scholarly. The former side of the house often causes more trouble than it's worth for the latter. Despite the Maldoarvan Commonwealth stripping nobility of all their power beyond titles, House Alkinoth still maintains a significant amount of political power through bribes and monetary influence, like many elven houses - simply changing from nobility to oligarchs.

## Wealth and Affluence

House Alkinoth is an extremely wealthy house, with a significant amount of generational wealth having built up. These monetary assets allow them to pay for a large standing private guard force, more akin to a small army than anything else, as well as purchase large swaths of property. Alkinoth infrastructure exists throughout much of the Commonwealth, with plantations, clever trading and for-profit universities making the family much of their money. Lords and ladies of the house enjoy very high social status in their society, especially among the island of Refuge and the city of Scholar's Spire, where many members of the house are high-ranking Strixhaven staff or politicians.

Many members of the Alkinoth house are trained in magical arts as well as combat with their family's signature blades, known for being able to cut much harder substances than they appear.

## Politics

House Alkinoth maintains a significant amount of power around the city of Scholar's Spire and many coastal Commonwealth port cities. They maintain many members of their house in political positions such as mayors, governors, and even the deans of campuses. It is not uncommon for the lords and ladies of the house to use their wealth to influence local elections and laws to be in their favor, typically to allow them to gain more wealth and power in a ever-expanding cycle to ensure that their influence grows.

The Alkinoths - particularly those aligned with the Lunar Crescent - are known to be quite hostile towards other houses. It is not uncommon for their private guard forces to come into conflict with those of other houses, or even with law enforcement.

## A House Divided

Despite outside appearances, House Alkinoth is deeply divided amongst itself. There are two distinct sides of the house, both with clearly separate goals - those of the Lunar Crescent, and the more relaxed members of the house. The members who align themselves with the Lunar Crescent worship a strange, cult-like religion, which claims its end goal is to reclaim elven immortality. This religion often dips itself into every facet of their life, and takes more than just spiritual steps for enlightenment - magic, espionage and even stranger arcane machinations are employed in order to reach their goals. However, much of the house disagrees with those who align themselves with the Lunar Crescent, seeing them as outcasts and overly hostile, fighting against the house's other goals and fearing that they will one day bring the house to its knees. Typically, the more political members of the house avoid the Lunar Crescent like the plague, whereas the less influential members seek power through the religious aspect of the house.