Noble Houses of Haven's Garden
May 18, 2021 23:10:11 GMT -5
Post by Fate's End on May 18, 2021 23:10:11 GMT -5
Haven’s Garden, despite being a largely agricultural planet with little in the way of anything resembling a Hive City, has a political landscape that rivals some of the most cutthroat planets of even Segmentum Solar. Governorship in particular is a sought-after title for many, and while it has been held for the last several centuries by the same family (the now defunct House of Coranari) . . . changing times have brought its ownership back into question.
There are many hundreds of houses of note upon the planet, but in reality most of these are small players, never to rise above being small cogs fueling the larger houses. The Governor had a council of advisors (or in this case, vultures waiting for him to slip and make a mistake). This Council of Lords is made up of seven houses; and while there is some small jockeying of position amongst its members, five of them are set in relative stone.
House Vaya:
The Vaya’s are largely the most intact of the families that make up the Council of Lords, having retained almost all of their holdings during the Coward’s Dash, as they wisely weren’t involved in the mass fleeing of the world. House Vaya is known for its hold over the planet’s banks, and for being the first to cooperate with the Guard overall. Currently it is led by Lady Trishalynn Vaya, a wizened and fearful matriarch who rules over her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren with an iron fist.
It was said not a deal went down across the Haven system that didn’t have a Vaya hand involved in some fashion. While rumors of their storied and entirely too-violent past do sometimes make the rounds, careful application of money and power ensure that they remain stories forevermore.
House Kastiff:
The scions of House Kastiff are traders and bookkeepers for the most part. Their holdings are now in question with the onset of war due to the fact that most of their business was in helping other families move their goods offworld. Their assets were largely made up of logistical and shipping offices in the Space port, to which they no longer have access. Most of their family itself is intact due to their shipping connections, at least. With only a few minor cousins and bastards fleeing during the Coward’s Dash.
They are currently led by Andrus Kastiff, a bulky bear of a man who spouts eloquence about the beauty of Imperial Trade and the common good whilst ensuring his own coffers grow as others’ shrink.
House Tarkov:
It is whispered that the Tarkov motto was “We Bleed Others to Bleed the Earth''. A cynical reference to their brutal control of the mining companies of the world. (In truth, their motto is a much more mundane “There is wealth in the ground” but that doesn’t sound nearly as vile). Their riches were in the earth; it was true. But the family fled their mountain estates after the execution of the Garrisons nearby due to suspected Genestealer infestation. Fortunately for the Tarkov’s, they fled with the last full shipment of precious metals from the mines, and thus were allowed to enter the capital of Harvest during the Rages.
Now they occupy the abandoned estates of another house that was wiped out during the Coward’s Dash, and are attempting to ingratiate themselves to whoever and whatever will get them something like the power they once controlled.
It should be noted that Tarkov is unique amongst the families for not having an actual head of household. But instead relying on their own internal and extremely complicated board of members (made up of various members of the family) to come to decisions. This gives them a glacially slow response to most sudden changes of circumstances, but does ensure that when Tarkov moves, all of Tarkov moves at once.
House Monvi:
This house was given charge of the city of Progress as reward for their many and pious acts of faith in service to the Imperium. Regularly sending members of their family to serve amongst both the Priesthoods of the Mechanicus as well as the Ministorum. Of course, with the eruption of hostilities on Haven’s Garden and the expulsion of their powerbase from Progress, house Monvi is now attempting to consolidate their holdings by capitalizing on their connections to the Ministorum in particular.
What’s left of their family can be regularly seen attending services and helping with the most menial of tasks as “penance” for their loss of Progress, whilst behind the scenes they offer sizable donations of whatever they can to ensure that when the Guard looks to their few remaining pieces of property in Harvest, the Ministorum claims the properties are holy and must not be sullied by warfare.
So far, the quid pro quo has worked in their favor, and their mostly shattered powerbase is slowly reconstituting itself within the confines of the capitol. At the moment, however, there is no clear “leader” of the house. Which hampers their efforts to make a play for the Governor’s seat, to say the least.
House Hetvella:
The Hetvella’s of Plenty, they were called. A powerful house which ruled most of the city of Plenty, specializing in procurement of goods for the other houses. Their power came from their connections and the fact that, generally speaking, everyone liked them; especially as it was whispered Hetvella could get you any and everything you desired, if the coin was good.
Obviously with Plenty in the hands of the T’au, this has damaged the House’s reputation, though not as much as one might think. Their networks are still surprisingly intact, and while they are not overly fond of the Guard (they’d much prefer diplomacy is used in regards to Plenty, rather than violence) they put on a polite face and mostly try to stay out of the Guard’s way. There is little business to be done with the Guard, at least when it concerns the Hetvella’s.
Currently led by Lord Mikael Hetvella, a thinish rake of a man with sharp eyes and a clever tongue. He in particular is whispered to be gunning for the seat of Governor, should the position become available.
House Greywalken (Currently serving as one of the Houses on the council):
The Greywalken are neither a long line nor a new and upstart. They fall practically in the middle being too young to be considered part of the old nobles but too old to be hot news. That said, the Greywalken have a large connection with the Military Training Distribution of Arms and Armor. On paper that would not seem profitable on a peaceful agri world such as Harvest, but that’s where the genius comes in. Where House Greywalken shined was the distribution of Arms and Armor to the other Noble Houses, usually through the means of special training and rigorous drills. Did the PDF need a clear and safe training area for Combat Practice? House Greywalken had their back. Another House need private security for an upcoming negotiation? Greywalken can train them. Forge World Anchorus sends the world a shipment of Lasguns, Greywalken trains boots how to use them.
But this does not end with the PDF. While the Sororitas have their own training regime, Greywalken has provided training campgrounds and targets and dummies for training.
As such the Family has close Relationship with the PDF and many of the high ranking members have some form of PDF service or another. This relationship has put them in a bit of a Rivalry with house Bella.
Of course like all houses, things have changed when Chaos Invaded. At first a “short war” was considered by the House to be quite profitable, so few were foolish enough to flee the planet during the Cowards’ Dash. That said, many of the ranking house members serving in the PDF are shamed due to The Abandonment. One such was the Heir of House Greywalken and he shortly disappeared thereafter. Worried, his Father and House Head, Took Command but he too disappeared during a battle and is listed MIA. His wife leads the House in his Stead as she tries to hold onto the slowly losing battle. As the Imperial Forces regain control, so does House Greywalken as they try to rebuild and win back their good graces by providing their military knowledge and whatever left over training and equipment they have to the guard.
((OOC: The Greywalken are the product of one of our writers, RedAuthor! As it stands the above is the current publicly available knowledge in regards to the house. Feel free to inquire for more details in regards to the family with the admin team or Redauthor if they agree to supply them.))
----
As it stands, the seat of the Governor has gone unfilled since his unfortunate demise during the Coward’s Dash. Officially this is due to the changing vagaries of warfare and the concern over giving the Imperium’s enemies a civilian target to assassinate. In truth, it’s due to the fact that under the command of Major Farkis the Guard forces of Harvest were more interested in protecting the city than seeing to a largely symbolic replacement of power and now, under the command of Colonel Everly, it’s incredibly hazy as to the lines of succession.
The Governor’s house Coranari is, ostensibly, dead to the last living descendant with no blood relatives to be found. The rules for a succession from outside the ruling family are centuries old and fragmentary at best, leaving no clear ruler amongst the rest of the Houses. Technically speaking, any of them, even the most minor of noble houses, has a chance to vie for the seat. As the current ruling body, the leading council of Imperial Military forces have instructed the houses that formed the Council of Lords to come up with a solution that doesn’t involve every petty noble trying to kill the rest in a Battle Royale, or get used to Military Rule for the foreseeable future.
Other Houses of Note:
The houses listed here are still populated, if barely in some cases. They have either served on the Council of Lords in the past, or otherwise play a significant role in the current political landscape.
House Eurydice:
The Eurydice’s were patrons of the arts and facilitators of agreements across the system. Their holdings are relatively minor in comparison to the larger Houses, yet from time to time they did fill a seat upon the Council of Lords due to their uncanny ability to be peacemakers in even the most inhospitable of inter-house disagreements.
Unfortunately for the house, its heads and indeed most of the family made the singularly fatal mistake of trying to leave the planet during the exodus that became known as the Coward’s Dash. They were summarily destroyed by the Guard and the Navy, leaving a pair of sisters to try and piece back together a life from the shattered remnants. Galen Eurydice is leader now of a house of two. Barely thirty years old and attempting to care for her mentally unstable sister whilst her holdings are confiscated or commandeered by the Guard.
House Bella:
House Bella had been a rising star in the last two centuries, fueled by an almost comical birthrate amongst its members as well as an incredible training regime intended to teach the scions of the house how to wage war. They had incredibly strong ties to both the PDF and Imperial Guard regiments across the Imperium with members of their family earning renown and glory (and incredibly violent deaths) across a hundred worlds.
The emphasis that must truly be placed upon this house, sadly, must be in that most of it was “had”. During the Abandonment, House Bella practically tore itself apart as the massive family almost literally fought itself to the death. When the dust had cleared, roughly seventy-five percent of the Bella’s were dead with the remainder standing in the wreckage of their once great training centers wondering where they had gone wrong. The few surviving members of the house have thrown themselves into the only thing they really know: warfare. Some serve with the still loyal PDF in whatever capacity they can whilst on the lookout to regain their honor and their once-held power while others throw their lot with the Ruinous Powers or seek a different path altogether.
There are many hundreds of houses of note upon the planet, but in reality most of these are small players, never to rise above being small cogs fueling the larger houses. The Governor had a council of advisors (or in this case, vultures waiting for him to slip and make a mistake). This Council of Lords is made up of seven houses; and while there is some small jockeying of position amongst its members, five of them are set in relative stone.
House Vaya:
The Vaya’s are largely the most intact of the families that make up the Council of Lords, having retained almost all of their holdings during the Coward’s Dash, as they wisely weren’t involved in the mass fleeing of the world. House Vaya is known for its hold over the planet’s banks, and for being the first to cooperate with the Guard overall. Currently it is led by Lady Trishalynn Vaya, a wizened and fearful matriarch who rules over her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren with an iron fist.
It was said not a deal went down across the Haven system that didn’t have a Vaya hand involved in some fashion. While rumors of their storied and entirely too-violent past do sometimes make the rounds, careful application of money and power ensure that they remain stories forevermore.
House Kastiff:
The scions of House Kastiff are traders and bookkeepers for the most part. Their holdings are now in question with the onset of war due to the fact that most of their business was in helping other families move their goods offworld. Their assets were largely made up of logistical and shipping offices in the Space port, to which they no longer have access. Most of their family itself is intact due to their shipping connections, at least. With only a few minor cousins and bastards fleeing during the Coward’s Dash.
They are currently led by Andrus Kastiff, a bulky bear of a man who spouts eloquence about the beauty of Imperial Trade and the common good whilst ensuring his own coffers grow as others’ shrink.
House Tarkov:
It is whispered that the Tarkov motto was “We Bleed Others to Bleed the Earth''. A cynical reference to their brutal control of the mining companies of the world. (In truth, their motto is a much more mundane “There is wealth in the ground” but that doesn’t sound nearly as vile). Their riches were in the earth; it was true. But the family fled their mountain estates after the execution of the Garrisons nearby due to suspected Genestealer infestation. Fortunately for the Tarkov’s, they fled with the last full shipment of precious metals from the mines, and thus were allowed to enter the capital of Harvest during the Rages.
Now they occupy the abandoned estates of another house that was wiped out during the Coward’s Dash, and are attempting to ingratiate themselves to whoever and whatever will get them something like the power they once controlled.
It should be noted that Tarkov is unique amongst the families for not having an actual head of household. But instead relying on their own internal and extremely complicated board of members (made up of various members of the family) to come to decisions. This gives them a glacially slow response to most sudden changes of circumstances, but does ensure that when Tarkov moves, all of Tarkov moves at once.
House Monvi:
This house was given charge of the city of Progress as reward for their many and pious acts of faith in service to the Imperium. Regularly sending members of their family to serve amongst both the Priesthoods of the Mechanicus as well as the Ministorum. Of course, with the eruption of hostilities on Haven’s Garden and the expulsion of their powerbase from Progress, house Monvi is now attempting to consolidate their holdings by capitalizing on their connections to the Ministorum in particular.
What’s left of their family can be regularly seen attending services and helping with the most menial of tasks as “penance” for their loss of Progress, whilst behind the scenes they offer sizable donations of whatever they can to ensure that when the Guard looks to their few remaining pieces of property in Harvest, the Ministorum claims the properties are holy and must not be sullied by warfare.
So far, the quid pro quo has worked in their favor, and their mostly shattered powerbase is slowly reconstituting itself within the confines of the capitol. At the moment, however, there is no clear “leader” of the house. Which hampers their efforts to make a play for the Governor’s seat, to say the least.
House Hetvella:
The Hetvella’s of Plenty, they were called. A powerful house which ruled most of the city of Plenty, specializing in procurement of goods for the other houses. Their power came from their connections and the fact that, generally speaking, everyone liked them; especially as it was whispered Hetvella could get you any and everything you desired, if the coin was good.
Obviously with Plenty in the hands of the T’au, this has damaged the House’s reputation, though not as much as one might think. Their networks are still surprisingly intact, and while they are not overly fond of the Guard (they’d much prefer diplomacy is used in regards to Plenty, rather than violence) they put on a polite face and mostly try to stay out of the Guard’s way. There is little business to be done with the Guard, at least when it concerns the Hetvella’s.
Currently led by Lord Mikael Hetvella, a thinish rake of a man with sharp eyes and a clever tongue. He in particular is whispered to be gunning for the seat of Governor, should the position become available.
House Greywalken (Currently serving as one of the Houses on the council):
The Greywalken are neither a long line nor a new and upstart. They fall practically in the middle being too young to be considered part of the old nobles but too old to be hot news. That said, the Greywalken have a large connection with the Military Training Distribution of Arms and Armor. On paper that would not seem profitable on a peaceful agri world such as Harvest, but that’s where the genius comes in. Where House Greywalken shined was the distribution of Arms and Armor to the other Noble Houses, usually through the means of special training and rigorous drills. Did the PDF need a clear and safe training area for Combat Practice? House Greywalken had their back. Another House need private security for an upcoming negotiation? Greywalken can train them. Forge World Anchorus sends the world a shipment of Lasguns, Greywalken trains boots how to use them.
But this does not end with the PDF. While the Sororitas have their own training regime, Greywalken has provided training campgrounds and targets and dummies for training.
As such the Family has close Relationship with the PDF and many of the high ranking members have some form of PDF service or another. This relationship has put them in a bit of a Rivalry with house Bella.
Of course like all houses, things have changed when Chaos Invaded. At first a “short war” was considered by the House to be quite profitable, so few were foolish enough to flee the planet during the Cowards’ Dash. That said, many of the ranking house members serving in the PDF are shamed due to The Abandonment. One such was the Heir of House Greywalken and he shortly disappeared thereafter. Worried, his Father and House Head, Took Command but he too disappeared during a battle and is listed MIA. His wife leads the House in his Stead as she tries to hold onto the slowly losing battle. As the Imperial Forces regain control, so does House Greywalken as they try to rebuild and win back their good graces by providing their military knowledge and whatever left over training and equipment they have to the guard.
((OOC: The Greywalken are the product of one of our writers, RedAuthor! As it stands the above is the current publicly available knowledge in regards to the house. Feel free to inquire for more details in regards to the family with the admin team or Redauthor if they agree to supply them.))
----
As it stands, the seat of the Governor has gone unfilled since his unfortunate demise during the Coward’s Dash. Officially this is due to the changing vagaries of warfare and the concern over giving the Imperium’s enemies a civilian target to assassinate. In truth, it’s due to the fact that under the command of Major Farkis the Guard forces of Harvest were more interested in protecting the city than seeing to a largely symbolic replacement of power and now, under the command of Colonel Everly, it’s incredibly hazy as to the lines of succession.
The Governor’s house Coranari is, ostensibly, dead to the last living descendant with no blood relatives to be found. The rules for a succession from outside the ruling family are centuries old and fragmentary at best, leaving no clear ruler amongst the rest of the Houses. Technically speaking, any of them, even the most minor of noble houses, has a chance to vie for the seat. As the current ruling body, the leading council of Imperial Military forces have instructed the houses that formed the Council of Lords to come up with a solution that doesn’t involve every petty noble trying to kill the rest in a Battle Royale, or get used to Military Rule for the foreseeable future.
Other Houses of Note:
The houses listed here are still populated, if barely in some cases. They have either served on the Council of Lords in the past, or otherwise play a significant role in the current political landscape.
House Eurydice:
The Eurydice’s were patrons of the arts and facilitators of agreements across the system. Their holdings are relatively minor in comparison to the larger Houses, yet from time to time they did fill a seat upon the Council of Lords due to their uncanny ability to be peacemakers in even the most inhospitable of inter-house disagreements.
Unfortunately for the house, its heads and indeed most of the family made the singularly fatal mistake of trying to leave the planet during the exodus that became known as the Coward’s Dash. They were summarily destroyed by the Guard and the Navy, leaving a pair of sisters to try and piece back together a life from the shattered remnants. Galen Eurydice is leader now of a house of two. Barely thirty years old and attempting to care for her mentally unstable sister whilst her holdings are confiscated or commandeered by the Guard.
House Bella:
House Bella had been a rising star in the last two centuries, fueled by an almost comical birthrate amongst its members as well as an incredible training regime intended to teach the scions of the house how to wage war. They had incredibly strong ties to both the PDF and Imperial Guard regiments across the Imperium with members of their family earning renown and glory (and incredibly violent deaths) across a hundred worlds.
The emphasis that must truly be placed upon this house, sadly, must be in that most of it was “had”. During the Abandonment, House Bella practically tore itself apart as the massive family almost literally fought itself to the death. When the dust had cleared, roughly seventy-five percent of the Bella’s were dead with the remainder standing in the wreckage of their once great training centers wondering where they had gone wrong. The few surviving members of the house have thrown themselves into the only thing they really know: warfare. Some serve with the still loyal PDF in whatever capacity they can whilst on the lookout to regain their honor and their once-held power while others throw their lot with the Ruinous Powers or seek a different path altogether.