Editing Houses editing

'''THE NOBLE HOUSES OF CHAOS'''
=='''Great Houses of Chaos'''==
Great Houses are those houses by dint of history, legacy, intrigue or bloodshed have achieved a ''Royal'' status.  They are members of the Great Council, they have powerful and often widespread cadet branches, some of which are mighty in their own right. They are considered eligible to assume the throne of the Swayvill, the High Lord of Chaos. 
==='''ASHOKA'''===
Specialists in medicine and pharmacology*; very good at shapeshifting, good at healing and diagnostic magic. Allegedly Ashokaways has vast plantations of medicinal plants.

*Colors : White and gold
*House Look : Pale skin, blonde hair, bright gold eyes. Tall and slender, with long surgeons fingers.
*Head : Duchess Gaynor
*Heir : Lord Landval
*Attitude Before Patternfall : Isolationist

==='''BARRABAN'''===
Scholars, with a huge library*

*Colors : Orange and Brown
*House Look : Dark skinned with red-orange hair and dark eyes.
*Head : Duchess Yvalina
*Heir : Lady Lantina
*Attitude Before Patternfall : Pro-Amber-a Pro-Amber stance before Patternfall means they were opposed to the '''''Party for War'''''
The interior of BarrabanWays is very library-like, with many bookcases and framed ancient manuscripts and so on. Sound is very quiet and muffled there. Their actual libraries are staffed by librarian-demons which will research books for people, seeming to multiply until there are as many as are required for the task at hand. There are locked sections of the House Barraban libraries too, largely in the historical sections.

==='''CARYX'''===
A large house 

Shapeshifting and living item creation specialists*. At odds with the magic-item creating Sawall.

Members usually advanced shapeshifter and mages. All have advanced shapeshifting to some extent.
*Colours : Green and Black
*House Look : Black skin, African features, curly black hair, green eyes.
*Head : Nominally Duchess Velana (it is rumoured that all the other members of the house are her Blood creatures); the Head of House is really a vast mass of shapeshifted flesh filling millions of cubic metres. It is vast, ancient and intelligent with huge psyche and endurance, but effectively immobile. It uses blood creatures as remote units (such as Duchess Velana).
*Heir : Lord Quallar, a noted scholar and researcher into shapeshifting, who is behind the plot in 'Comes in the End Despondency and Madness' (he is something of an absent-minded professor type, who ignores the rules when he feels like it).
*Notables : Leotus, who was involved in the plot of the same game and Quallar's front man, but who doesn't excel at anything.

*Attitude Before Patternfall : Anti-Amber
*They make Fire Angels.
*They have a tithe of prisoners; it is known they are used to create living weapons, but not how.

Using non-intrinsic or shapeshifted weapons is considered by them a sign of weakness and/or incompetence, especially in a House member.

Caryxways has a number of 'levels'.

The most important is a cyberpunk/high magic metropolis, a city of towers and the like (see the 'Wicked City' Anime), used as their main research and development area. Others include:

A post-apocalypse version of the above, used as a testing ground.

Fortress Manasa - a vast fortress in the shape of a white stone lotus, on a peak above a cryogenic sea and below a burning sky. It is their administrative centre, and where they meet outsiders.

A series of cubical steel rooms with nothing outside, linked in more than three spatial dimensions - their ultra-secret labs.
A vast tree floating in a zero-G void of air.

Infinite gardens and mazes with some very weird stuff inside.

==='''CHANICUT'''===
Politicians, negotiators and diplomats; rivals of House Minobee; oppose House Sawall

Medium sized house
*Colours : Red and grey
*House Look : Tall and slender with pale grey skin, violet eyes and red hair.
*Head : Prince Tubble
*Heir : Lady Derris
*Notables : Lord Elam Chanicut, a middle ranking diplomat who brings the PCs into the plot in 'Comes in the End Despondency and Madness'. Lord Akash, who is holding the negotiations with the Amberites in the same game.
*Attitude Before Patternfall : Pro-Amber
*Some members of this House have the Spirit/Power Molding part of Advanced Shapeshifting, as this is useful in negotiations, and also in Mimicking people to learn about them.

==='''GALLOWGLASS'''===
Way builders. Very neutral, and highly trusted. They do not give out information on what they have built. They know how to get into Caryxways, but will not give out this information. They enforce their own neutrality very rigorously.

Large house

*Colours : Blue and grey
*House Look : Light brown skin, blue or grey eyes.
*Head : Duke Hendrik
*Heir : Lord Karostlin
*Attitude Before Patternfall : Neutral
*The jailers of Chaos. They built Fortress Gantu as an inescapable prison Way containing everything from luxury cells to oubliettes. It is administered by them under the orders of the Crown. They use shapeshift-inhibiting drugs as a matter of course, though these are not always effective against advanced shapeshifters; if they do not work, the inmate in put into a hermetically sealed very clean cell with no rats or suchlike which they could use. They may be put into haunted cells where the ghosts or whatever prevent the inmate from sleeping. Some cells are cubes into which the shapeshifter prisoners are forced. Some cells are too small to stand, or lie in. Brutality is commonly used.

==='''HELGRAM'''===
Specialists in the Logrus, and most expert pit-divers*

Medium sized house

Leaders of the pro-Amber faction and the plot with the redheads
*Colours : Black and silver
*House Look : Black skin with silver hair and eyes.
*Head : Duke Tamaril
*Heir : Lord Talithorn
*Attitude Before Patternfall : Pro-Amber

==='''HELIBORE'''===
Mercenary assassins, thieves and spies*. Neutral if not being paid.

Allegedly a small house

They have a special House power - they are 'Ghosts', who can, with concentration, walk through solid matter [This is an extra ability costing 10 points; the more 'real' the matter is (including items which have become part of an attackers personal reality), the harder it is to walk through and the more the 'ghost' can be hurt by it.]
*Colours : Red and Purple
*House Look : Average height, average looks, pale skinned. Dark purple-black hair, Scarlet eyes.
*Head : Duke Garek
*Heir : Lady Cathara
*Attitude Before Patternfall : Neutral

They are often called upon to 'deal with' defectors from houses, and are alleged to keep files on essentially everyone of any importance in Chaos and beyond. Of course, getting to see these files, if they exist, is another matter altogether...
House Helibore created by Iain Walker.

==='''HENDRAKE'''===
Military specialists*, who train the elite of Chaos, and often the nobles of other houses.

A large house

House of origin of the Hellmaids. [Female members of Hendrake only. An extra ability costing 10 points which gives is possessor one additional level of armour, always, and one additional level of damage causing ability, all the time. That is, with basic shapeshifting, the Hellmaid will be Resistant to Normal Weapons and have Extra Hard teeth and nails in Human form, while in Demon form they will be Resistant to Firearms and have Double Damage teeth, claws or whatever.]
*Colours : Black, white and grey
*House Look : Muscular or athletic builds, with pale skin and black, white or grey hair and grey eyes.
*Head : Duke Larsus, who is married to Duchess Belissa Minobee; he was killed by Julian at the battle of Kolvir so Duchess Belissa rules the House now.
*Heir : Princess Maylan
*Notables :
**Chinaway Hendrake, huge male with a red scaly, taloned demon form, feared, and has a collection of more than 200 of the skulls of his victims.
**Borel Hendrake, Master of Arms of the Ways of Hendrake; a feared but extremely honourable duellist.
**Princess Lintra, a Hellmaid with a rather schoolmistress-like attitude who was killed by Prince Benedict of Amber.
*Lady Jasra Mordau, maid companion of Lady Lintra (originally from the minor House Mordau) and then of Lady Dara.
*Lady Gilva (a Hellmaid)
*Princess Maylon Hendrake: A vicious creature, the main driving force for the creation of the [[Benedict/Hendrake breeding program]] after the death of Darnuthas rasaka afuras.  
*Lord Darnuthas rasaka afuras: Creator of the [[Benedict/Hendrake breeding program]] using embryos from the slain Princess Lintra.
*They fight wars off in shadow to keep in practice, and for payment of various kinds from other houses, when those houses cannot handle a situation.
Attitude Before Patternfall : Anti-Amber

==='''JESBY'''===
Specialists in the power of Trump; they do teach those of other houses, but not the Advanced techniques which are alleged to exist. At odds with Sawall. Have extensive holdings in shadow because of their mastery of the Trump, and known to do much exploration in shadow.

Small house

*Colours : Green and Gold
*House Look : Dark skinned with golden hair and green eyes
*Head : Prince Tmer, son of Rolovians
*Heir : Lady Eremina
*Attitude Before Patternfall : Pro-Amber
*They keep records on everyone they train which allows them to identify Trumps and the like made by their students and ex-students more easily.

==='''MINOBEE'''===
Politicians, negotiators and diplomats; rivals of House Chanicut
Medium sized house
Colours : Blue and Green
House Look : Royal blue hair, bright green eyes and pale grey skin
Head : Duke Avram at the time of 'Comes in the End Despondency and Madness'; Lady Sorenica in 'Dining on Ashes'.
Heir : Lady Evanjala at the time of 'Comes in the End Despondency and Madness'; Lady Galendrissil in 'Dining on Ashes'.
Attitude Before Patternfall : Anti-Amber/Isolationist
Some members of this House have the Spirit/Power Moulding part of Advanced Shapeshifting, as this is useful in negotiations, and also in Mimicking people to learn about them.

==='''SAWALL'''===
Specialists in Magic, demonology and item creation*. At odds with Jesby. At odds with the Caryx. Known to explore through shadow for things of interest.
Medium sized house
Colours : Black and blue
House Look : Pale skinned, black hair and blue eyes
Head : Duke Gramble
Heir : Lord Mandor (who does not abide by the House Look)
Notables : Lord Despil, Lord Jurt
Attitude Before Patternfall : Anti-Amber
The entrance to SawallWays lies through the Maze of Art; all of the below is from 'Prince of Chaos':
"And so I came, again, into the Ways of Sawall. I had emerged from the red and yellow starburst design painted high upon the gateside wall of the front courtyard, descended the Invisible Stair, and peered for long moments down into the great central pit, with its view of black turbulence beyond the Rim. A falling star burned its way down the purple sky as I turned away, headed for the copper-chased door and the low Maze of Art beyond it.
"Within, I recalled the many times I had been lost in that maze as a child. The House of Sawall had been a serious collector of art for ages, and the collection was so vast that there were several ways into which one was cast into the maze itself, leading one through tunnels, a huge spiral, and what seemed an old train station before being shunted back to miss the next turn. I had been lost in it for days on one occasion, and was finally found crying before an assemblage of blue shoes nailed to a board. I walked it now, slowly, looking at old monstrosities, and some newer ones. There were also strikingly lovely pieces mixed in, such as the huge vase that looked as if it had been carved from a single fire opal, and a set of odd enamelled tablets from a distant shadow whose meaning and function no-one in the family could be found to recall. I had to stop and see both again, rather than shortcutting the gallery, the tablets being a particular favourite of mine."
"I delivered us into an eerie hall that had always been old Sawall's chief delight in the maze. It was a sculpture garden, with no outside light sources and small base lighting only about the huge pieces, making it several times darker than my favourite lounge. The floor was uneven - concave, convex, stepped, ridged - with concavity being the dominant curve. It was difficult to guess at its dimensions, for it seemed of different size and contour depending upon where one stood. Gramble, Lord Sawall, had caused it to be constructed without any plane surfaces - and I believe the job involved some unique shadowmastery.
"I stood beside what appeared to be a complicated rigging in the absence of a ship - that, or an elaborate musical instrument fit to be strummed by Titans - and the light turned the lines to silver, running like life from darkness to darkness within some half-seen frame. Other pieces jutted from walls and hung like stalactites. As I strolled, what had seemed walls became floor to me. The pieces that had seemed floored now jutted or depended. The room changed shape as I went, and a breeze blew through it, causing sighs, hums, buzzes, chimes." Space itself is folded there, making the hall much larger than it seems; one can wander through many times and see different displays each time; there may even be some internal movement too.
"Two turns later I came to a way to the main hall and decided I'd better take it. I popped through beside the massive fireplace - high flames braiding themselves within it - and turned slowly to survey the huge chamber, trying to seem as if I had been there a long while, waiting." ... There is a great staircase to one side of the fireplace, and a rose and green and gold-flecked pillar of ways set in a mirrored alcove across the room. One of the ways from it, accessed in an anticlockwise direction, is a beach of pure white sand in a luminous crystal grotto by the black water of an underground sea, with a domed ribbed interior, which has its own storms, and which is sailed by black-sailed ships.
They keep records on everyone who they train in magic, which allows their magical signature to be recognised later, if necessary.

==='''SWAYVIL'''===
The Royal House.  
The House Swayvil is a house and '''''Swayvil''''' is the title of the High Lord.  When one ascends to the throne he leaves his past house behind, in theory, and assumes leadership of House Swayvil.  In practice the new High Lord also brings a substantial number of his old house with him, often to the detriment of the previous house.  

Only some of them know the location of the Logrus and have control of it via Suhey Swayvil, the Master of the Logrus. This is why they are the Royal House. Assaying the Logrus is a privilege granted by the Crown to individuals, it is not a right. 
*Colours : Black, gold and purple
*House Look : Black hair and gold or purple eyes.
*Head : High Lord Swayvil. The High Lord is a strong and capable ruler with something of an eye for the ladies. In human form he is young, tall, slender, handsome and charismatic with glossy black hair, royal purple eyes and faintly golden skin, dressed in deep purple clothes with ornate black and gold embroidered decoration. His demon form is a majestic armored angel with a flaming sword and vast metallic-feathered wings, in gold with purple and black decoration. His avatar form is a fire elemental.
*Heir : Complicated.  In theory every prince of a Great House is in some degree an Heir to the throne.
 
Theoretically, the King is an absolute ruler. In reality he can only govern with the support of at least most of his nobles.

Notables : Lord Suhey, the Master of the Logrus; he is neutral on the Amber question. In human form he is a white-haired old man, somewhat stooped, who sometimes walks with the aid of a staff. He wears caftans in a variety of colors, particularly yellows and golds. His demon form is large and stooped with grey and red coloration, horned and half-scaled, with elliptically-pupilled eyes and large fangs. His avatar form appears to be of black lightning, almost as if it were an elemental made of the Logrus itself...
He has a vast book in which the details of everyone who has assayed the Logrus is recorded, including their specific Logrus signature, upon which he can be consulted.
Attitude Before Patternfall : Uncontrolled royalist.

==='''BARIMAN'''===
As might be guessed this house is the source of great contention.  The last Duke of Bariman was Dworkin.  When he created the Pattern of Amber he did so without resigning his House leadership.  Many in Chaos believe he should no longer be coniderd a Chaos Lord.  However, both Suhay and wayvil have put their foot down on the matter and it rest there to the day.  However, due to the line of Dworkin being so large and so prominent there are may in Chaos who believe that any one of the Line of Dworkin who can unseal the Duke's Chamber should be declared the Head of the Chaos branch of House Bariman.

*Colours : Green and white
*House Look : Dark or Black hair, pale to ruddy pink skin, brown eyes. 
*Head : Duke Dworkin Bariman.  
*Heir : Complicated.  Dworkin as creator of the pattern is considered a rebel against chaos.  However the heralds list him as Duke, his son Oberon as his heir, and Oberon's Son Fleece 3rd in line.  Oberon has been declared a foe of Swayvil at some ancient time, and Fleece, while long a resident of Chaos is currently a Lord of Mandalay.
 
Notables : 
*Prince Varkon; Dworkin's younger brother and considered by many in Chaos as the Head of the Chaos House Bariman.  However, he was unable to break the seal on the Duke's Chamber of Bariman Way and because of that withdrew from attempts to seize the house. 
*Prince Galaikin: Dworkin's Youngest Brother.  Intensly bitter about the Bariman Situation.  Hates Amberites with a bloody passion.  Once challanged Random to a Duel in Theldane but back down when Prince Benedict stood to serve as champion.  The slight is a btter one for him since it causes great mirth and mockery among Chadians at his expense.
*King Oberon of Amber:  It should not be forgotten that Oberon is Dworkin's first son, and heir to House Bariman.
*Fleece: Leader of the Hounds of [[Mandalay]] First son of Oberon.  Mentally an advanced canine intelligence.

''See '''[[Heirs and spares]]''' for the complete genealogy of the Jeweled Amber heirs of Dworkin Bariman.''

===Generalities of the Great Houses===
*All houses keep track of their own genealogy and heraldic status, though House Barraban also know a great deal about these matters.

*It is possible for a person to move from one house to another with sufficient justification; the precise nature of this justification varies from house to house and case to case, but can include marriage (these are often arranged) and defection...

=='''MINOR HOUSES OF CHAOS'''==
There are a vast uncountable number of minor houses in Chaos, still noble, but which generally do not excel at anything and which are usually allied with one of the major houses. A few of the minor houses excel at certain things which the major houses want or need (e.g. brewing or distilling). However, there are some houses which are classified as minor though they are as large as any of the major houses, which excel at trade and other 'common' things. This is a bone of contention... Thus Major House status is a very subjective thing.  Politics being what it is, in Chaos it is simply more so.  Often more direct. 

AMBLERASH
*Colours : Green and white
*House Look : Dark or Black hair, pale to ruddy pink skin, brown eyes. 
*Head : Duke Dworkin Bariman.  
*Heir : Complicated.  Dworkin as creator of the pattern is considered a rebel against chaos.  However the heralds list him as Duke, his son Oberon as his heir, and Oberon's Son Fleece 3rd in line.  Oberon has been declared a foe of Swayvil at some ancient time, and Fleece, while long a resident of Chaos is currently a Lord of Mandalay.
 
Notables : 

CANCORQ

DESADAL

FORTUN

KANE

KATHARN

KEMPIS

LANDOR - Entertainers and circus people. The entrance to their ways is a black gothic helter-skelter in a walled patch of ground on the outskirts of the Citadel of Chaos. In sliding down the helter-skelter on a coconut mat, one passes through a shadow veil halfway down, and enters the ways proper. They are known to have performing Fire Angels.

LORCA

MAHAN

MALEBRANCHE

MORDAU - Whose colours are lavender and blue. Members of this House are possessors of the Poison Kiss. [A power costing 5 points, this is the ability to secrete a powerful poison from the lips which gets into the target via the skin. This takes minimal effort, and has the effect of a nearly instant Cardiac Arrest spell with a slightly greater effect (that is, slightly greater Endurance needed to resist it).]

SEPHARIS - A house of dedicated and highly specialized angelic warriors.

STILLINGFLEET

THRYSAN

ULPIAN

WONKA