Editing Lineage:House Lineages


[[Image:Medievalbridal.jpg]]

=Introduction=

The following is a listing of major Houses in the US.  The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but does present the most powerful and influential Houses.

Individual Houses will be described using the following format:

Name of House

Positive Stereotype:  This is a stereotypical member of the House as seen in the most positive light.  This is often the stereotype that House members have of themselves.

Negative Stereotype: This is a stereotypical member of the House as seen in the most negative light.  The is the stereotype most likely to be invoked by people prejudiced against the House.

Symbol:  Every House has a variety of symbols associated with it.  This entry lists the most popular and widely-known symbol of the group, familiar to every mage.

Signature Spell:  This is a spell or spells to which the House’s magical techniques have proved particularly well-suited.   The entry first lists the spell under its name in GURPS Magic.  The entry then lists in quotation marks, the name that the group gives to their version of the spell.  Other groups of magi are quite well aware of the existence of each House’s signature spells, including the name they use for it.  Signature spells are cast at +3 to skill.  It is not normally possible to master a signature spell without training as an apprentice of the corresponding House.

Magical Style:  Every House of Magi understand and perform magic in their own idiosyncratic way.  The elements of their magical traditions lie in their history; a group that came to magical prominence in medieval France may have a medieval French flavor to their magic, using concepts, techniques and symbolism associated with that time and place.  Attempts to detect or cast Counterspell on another mage’s magic receive a bonus if they share similar magical styles.  The bonus ranges from +3 for a complete match of listed elements (“Ancient Roman” and “Ancient Roman”, “Saxon English with Celtic influences” and “Saxon English with Celtic influences”), +2 for the same fundamentals and a single element of separation (“Medieval English” and “Medieval French”, “Medieval English” and “Medieval English with Irish influences”), and +1 for the same fundamental and two degrees of separation (“Ancient Roman with Persian influences” and “Ancient Roman with Gallic influences”).  Magical styles rooted in cultures with different religions are not close enough to obtain this bonus unless the GM rules otherwise.  Similarly, the gulf between ancient, medieval and modern magical styles is too great to allow any matches between them.

Introduction to the House.

A brief history of the House.

Mortal Politics:  Every House has a unique viewpoint on mortal politics, depending on their particular best interests and cultural baggage.  The predominant view does not represent the opinion of every member of the House.

Cost:  This is the cost in character points to play a mage of the House.  It is comprised of the costs of all the required Advantages, Skills and Spells.

Advantages:  These are the Advantages that a character must have in order to be a mage of the House.

Skills:  These are the skills that a character must be trained in in order to be a mage of the House.  Apprentice training is an arduous procedure and mundane skills are usually regarded as being more fundamental to the mage’s education than magical ones.

Spells:  These are the spells that a character must be trained in in order to be a mage of the House.  Every House takes the issue of basic magical training very seriously and the traditional progression of spells is almost never altered.

Relations

The Houses:  In this entry, short comments are presented by a typical member of the House, regarding each of the other Houses.

The Rebellion:  In this entry, short comments are presented by a typical member of the House, regarding each Order of the Rebellion.

=House of Anjou=

[[Image:Broomflower.jpg]]

Positive Stereotype:  Chivalrous warrior.

Negative Stereotype:  Violent destroyer.

Symbol:  Broom flower.

Signature Spell:  Permanent Madness.  “Oubliette”.

Magical Style:  French medieval.	

The House of Anjou is the oldest surviving House with a claim to the English throne, and on those grounds regard themselves as the rightful holders of the power now wielded on the world stage by the House of Stuart.  Though the Anjou’s medieval glory days are long past, they hold on as a formidable faction through courage, will and ingenuity, working towards the day when they will dominate the English speaking world and beyond.  Their fierce independence and proud defiance of the other English Houses has left them politically isolated and their romanticism has led them to adapt less well to the modern world than many of their rivals.  However, their tenacity is legendary as is their talent for violence, political or personal as the case may be.  Anjou possessions include the Hewlett-Packard corporation.  The House is heavily invested in the oil industry, especially American and French corporations.  Apprentices are expected to be able to handle themselves both in high society and in combat.  The Anjou have a reputation for their hot tempers and bloody actions and madness ran in the line long before they became famous for their magery.  Magical training is focused on the study of madness, due to fears that the Anjou have a tendency to degenerate into insanity.

The House of Anjou originated in the Anjou region of France in the 10th century.  Ambitious, they allied with the Roman House of Flavii to oppose the power of the French Houses Blois and Capet.  This only pushed Blois and Capet to ally with the Roman House of Julii, almost leading to Anjou’s destruction.  The House of Anjou only survived the purges by staging a brilliant takeover of the English throne in the 12th century, ousting the Capet puppet Harold Godwinson and making alliance with the native House of Wessex to keep the English Julii in line.  Once established in Britain, the Anjou allied with their old enemies the Julii and annihilated the House of Wessex.

The House of Anjou was so successful in establishing its power in England that internal rivalries began to be more important than external ones, leading to two breakaway Houses, Lancaster and York, each of which managed to wrest the throne in turn.  The rivalry for the crown between Anjou, Lancaster and York lasted until the upstart House of Stuart, taking advantage of the weakness that the three Houses were showing after so many years of conflict, took decisive control of the monarchy in the 17th century.  Anjou remained neutral in the English Civil War that same century, only too willing to see the House of Stuart overthrown.

The House of Anjou was among the first European Houses to establish a serious presence in North America, dreaming of building a new kingdom to replace that which they had lost.  Eager to make use of the abundance of land in the new world, they involved themselves heavily in agriculture, particularly cotton, tobacco and vineyards.  They openly supported the revolutionaries in the American Revolution, hoping to replace the Stuarts as the premier power on the North American continent.  However, they lost much of the political capital they had gained with American mages when they backed the South in the American Civil War, not wanting abolition to interfere with their rich plantations.  Anjou became further estranged from other mages in the U.S. when they remained neutral in the two world wars, hoping that German pressure on England would result in the final fall of the House of Stuart, leaving a power vacuum that they could exploit.  On the other hand, they were enthusiastic supporters of, and actively involved in, the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, desiring new territories.  The House of Anjou has been dreaming of fiefdoms in the Middle East since the first crusade and were also firm supporters of western intervention in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.  They hope to see the state of Israel fall to the Palestinians so that they can more easily conquer it for their own use.

Mortal Politics:  The US needs to get tough in the middle east.  The resistance there could be crushed tomorrow if the government had the stomach to do it.  The oil would be nice, but the real treasure is ancient knowledge and that is the greatest treasure there is.  Israel has served its purpose as a beach-head and needs to be replaced with a nation we can take more direct control of.  After all, status is power and there is no greater status symbol than holding Jerusalem.  The government should do more to help agriculture, both the small farmers and the agricultural corporations.  It should also offer better incentives to the oil mining industry.

Cost:  16 points.

Advantages:  Language (French, Broken).

Disadvantages:  The Hunger.  The Anjou crave to consume human flesh and blood, an addiction that Richard the Lionhearted is said to have brought back from the crusades with him.  They suffer from the Draining disadvantage, losing 2 HP at midnight if they do not consume either.  Flesh to eat is the greatest pleasure, but blood will suffice.  (5 points).

Perk:  Flowers of the Anjou.  Flowers are a common element in Anjou magic.  Any Anjou who casts a spell on a flower does so at +2, +3 if the flower is a broom.

Skills:  Drive (Automobile), Guns (Rifle), History (English, Medieval), Karate, Riding (Horse), Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Tactics.

Spells:
Body Control:  Clumsiness, Grace, Itch, Spasm.
Mind Control:  Foolishness, Forgetfulness, Madness, Permanent Madness.
Movement:  Great Haste, Haste.

Relations

The Houses

House of Cain:  A true warrior kills to make conquest, or to defend what is his.  A mage of Cain kills because he loves murder.

House of Capet:  Our oldest enemies and rivals.  It was they who ordered our extermination, forcing us to flee France for England.  The war between us may be long, but in the end, only one of us can be left standing.

House of Carolus:  They are lost in a fantasy world of past glories, but they hate the Capet as we do and that makes them our friends.

House of Flavii:  The Roman necromancers helped us to conquer England and survive the Capet extermination.  If we are to rise to power in the United States, we will need the advice of the Flavii again.

House of Hapsburg:  Only the House of Hapsburg is strong enough to stand against the House of Stuart.  We must make alliance with them.

House of Julii:  Generals and kings a thousand years before our House was born, what they don’t know about power isn’t worth knowing.

House of Lancaster:  Spawn of our House, they are the ungrateful child who betrayed us for power and stole the crown of England from us.  They have become so lost in their own lies that they have gone mad.

Order of Lilith:  Those who serve no-one shall be prey to all.

House of Medici:  The bankers have no honor, but we need them and their credit.  If we succeed in our ambitions, we can repay them on our own terms.

House of Romanov:  The princes and princesses of old Russia are down on their luck, but they are gifted mages and they fight hard and dirty.  If you can put up with their wounded pride, they can make useful, even loyal, allies.

House of Stuart:  The usurpers who hold the wealth and power that belongs to us by right.  The House of Stuart reigns as first among the Houses, taking first pick of whatever is taxed from the mortals.

House of Trastámara:  They may be bad at making themselves loved but they are oh so very good at making themselves feared.  Everyone respects them, even if few will admit it.

House of Ummayad:  The mages of the east are wise and have always had a thing or two to teach us, but making them talk is neither easy nor safe.  Don’t assume that they are weaklings just because they are skulkers.

House of Warwick:  Who would have thought that the little illusionists of Warwick would last so long?  They have enough cunning and duplicy to be a useful tool or a dangerous one.

House of York:  Twin of Lancaster, they spawned from us and then betrayed us.  Now they infect the armies of the world to keep illigitimate governments in power.  Their corruption makes them feral.

The Revolution

Order of Boudicca:  What are the peasants complaining about now?  It may be necessary to crush them every now and again.

Order of Copernicus:  Don’t underestimate the scientists’ contribution to battle.  Their studies have some very practical and deadly applications.

Order of Darwin:  More scientists!  These animal mages haven’t learned to fight yet, but they will.  Then they are going to be interesting.

Order of Eve:  They are an old, old order and have seen a great deal.  Cowardly they may be but they are also deceptive and cunning.  Keep an eye on them.

Order of Jesus:  Surely they are just looking to be put to death by calling themselves that.

Order of Judas:  The bastards turned the Houses of York and Lancaster against us and cost us Britain and the empire that was to come.

Order of Siddhartha:  As if we didn’t have enough trouble with religion, they had to import Buddhist mysticism.

Order of Solon:  The eternal political malcontents, all complaints and no understanding of the real world.  There’s nothing wrong with them that a good hanging wouldn’t cure.

Order of Spartacus:  The proud, unruly warriors love to fight and die and they do it so very well.  They cause trouble, but they give such a great show before they are squashed.

Order of Thales:  The philosophers are too lost in their theories to see anything of the real world.  Their very uselessness makes owning one a status symbol.

Order of Utnapishtim:  Dirty, violent, dim-witted and without honor.  They love the wilderness because they are no better than animals.

=House of Cain=

[[Image:Ehcrow.jpg]]

Positive Stereotype:  Reliable realist.

Negative Stereotype:  Brutish murderer.

Symbol:  Crow.

Signature Spell:  Shapeshift (Cat or Crow).  “Walk into the Wilderness”.  The mage may use the same spell to take either form.

Magical Style:  Mesopotamian, an amalgam of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian elements.

The House of Cain claims to have been founded by the Biblical Cain, the first murderer.  Nobody is certain how old they really are, although they have certainly been in existence since ancient times.  According to their account, Cain rebelled against the authority of God, declaring that he and his kin would make their own way in the world, submitting to none and ruled by nobody but themselves.  Their independence has made them truly at home nowhere, but their ability to endure and survive is beyond question.  While they do not make alliances as a House, individuals are often sought after as troubleshooters or mercenaries, due to a reputation for taking decisive action.  They are particularly admired as assassins, their folkloric connection to killing having taken on mystical significance.  Contrary to some stereotypes, the mages of this House do not exist to kill.  They exist to survive, to live by their own rules, and to seek whatever they want out of life without being hindered by others.  Apprentices are drilled in basic survival skills, including extensive combat training.

Mortal Politics:  Mages of the House of Cain have a wide variety of political views and no attempt is made to enforce political orthodoxy.  An unusual number are Libertarians.  Many just don’t care about politics at all.

Cost:  0 points.

Disadvantages:  Mark of Cain (25 points).  Something about mages of this House bothers people.  Reaction rolls towards them are at -3.  This doesn’t mean that nobody likes them and enjoys their company, but making friends is a slow process and it isn’t going to happen with someone who judges by first impressions.  They also frighten animals as per the Frightens Animals disadvantage.  It is said that God Himself cursed Cain with the mark.

Skills:  Climbing, First Aid, Guns (Handgun), Guns (Rifle), History (Ancient Middle East), Karate, Stealth (2 points), Streetwise, Survival (Any), Symbol Drawing (Ancient Middle East), Theology (Christian).

Spells:
Animal:  Beast-Rouser, Beast-Soother, Shapeshift (Cat) / Shapeshift (Crow) (See “Walk into the Wilderness” above.
Body Control:  Itch, Spasm, Pain, Stun.
Communication and Empathy:  Sense Emotion, Sense Foes, Persuasion.
Mind Control:  Foolishness, Daze, Mental Stun.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  They have hearts like lions and nobody is ever safe around a lion.

House of Capet:  Their obsession with shadows is disturbing.  What are they turning into?

House of Carolus:  They aren’t just planning a pagan revival.  They are planning to build an army of the unblooded.

House of Flavii:  Who else could plot for millennia without our knowing the intended end-game?

House of Hapsburg:  They are tightening their grasp on Europe.  What’s the next step?

House of Julii:  Sophisticated pirates, with a veneer of respectability and bloody hands.

House of Lancaster:  Lancaster has been working with the nations of the far east.  Are they thinking of defecting?

Order of Lilith:  Petty thieves and proud of it.

House of Medici:  They are spreading their power in the second and especially third world.  What sort of future are they predicting?

House of Romanov:  The leaders aren’t so stupid as to really think they can restore the Russian monarchy.  So what is the real plan?

House of Stuart:  They understand both force and diplomacy.  No wonder they have risen to the top.

House of Trastámara:  When your only tool is a sword, everyone looks like your enemy.  Now they are too feared and hated to be safe.

House of Ummayad:  A thousand years of sulking and they still haven’t learned wisdom.

House of Warwick:  They are consumate killers.  You will never see the blow coming.

House of York:  They are wolves underneath, loyal to the pack but with no sense of right and wrong.  The murder because it is their nature.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  They aren’t sure what they want but they want it now.

Order of Copernicus:  They have the guts to speak the truth, even when people don’t like it.

Order of Darwin:  Nobody knows what they are really up to.  They don’t just study, they make plans.

Order of Eve:  They don’t have the courage to take action and are smug about it

Order of Jesus:  A man who got himself crucified to death is a poor role model.

Order of Judas:  They are reviled, but sometimes there is good reason to have a little blood on your hands.

Order of Siddhartha:  Your dream-world is just about to end.

Order of Solon:  They are true idealists and would probably make better leaders than any of the great House.

Order of Spartacus:  The Rebellion wouldn’t last two seconds without the infantry.

Order of Thales:  They have done no harm as far as I know.  If fact, they have never done anything as far as I know.

Order of Utnapishtim:  They are necessary.  A world in balance needs doctors as well as soldiers.

=House of Capet=

[[Image:Fleurdelis27386lg.gif]]

Positive Stereotype:  Noble leader from a proud line.

Negative Stereotype:  Sickly degenerate necromancer.

Symbol:  Fleur-de-lis.

Signature Spell:  Animate Shadow.  “Calling up the Shadows”.

Magical Style:  Medieval French.

The House of Capet have owned most of Europe at one time or another, as well as quite a few other countries.  They seized the French throne from the House of Carolus in the 10th century, with help from the Julii and the branch of Carolus holding the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.  Capet held the French monarchy, under various names including “Bourbon”, until the revolution, almost a thousand years later.  They also held Constantinople in the 13th century, Portugal in the 12th to 19th centuries, and Spain from the 19th century to the present day, as well as holding a wide variety of other European titles.

The House of Capet had a strong interest in the Americas as early as the 16th century, when it set up stations in the Carribean and along the east coast of North and South America.  Capet soon established themselves in North America wherever French settlement took them, particularly in Canada, Louisiana and Missouri.  They sided with France in the French-Indian war which caused them to lose a lot of power and territory in the Americas to the Houses of Stuart and Hapsburg, resulting in a feud that lasts to this day.  They were firm supporters of the American Revolution and took great delight in breaking Stuart power in the Americas, if only for a time.  On the other hand, they strongly opposed the French Revolution, rightly predicting that it would sweep them out of power in France.  They sided with the South in the American Civil War, not wishing their powerbases in Louisiana and Missouri to be disrupted, and sided with the Allies in the two world wars in order to liberate France.  In general, they are suspicious of the American government, viewing it as a tool of the Hapsburgs and the English Houses.  They saw American imperial ambitions in the wars in Korea and Vietnam and see imperial ambitions in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq today.  Capet possessions include Ford Motor and Viacom.

Mortal Politics:  The United States is chaotic and corrupt.  It needs a strong, centralized administration and less state power.  The US needs to get out of the middle east right away.  The wars are just a way for the old English Houses to build a greater empire, getting even more money and power while the American people do the dying and foot the bill.  

Cost:  5 points.

Advantages:  Language (French, Broken)

Perk:  Capet Blood.  A mage of the House of Capet is at +2 to the Savoir-Faire skill.  The House has a particular reputation for its use of enchanted cloaks, often with the power to hide the user from sight or to transform them into an animal.  Any roll to enchant a cloak is at +1.

Disadvantage:  The Delicacy.  Mages of the House of Capet suffer from a condition of the flesh that makes it dry and brittle.  They look perfectly normal, but are very susceptible to injuries.  They have the disadvantage Fragile (Brittle, Combustible) (20 points).  Other Houses assume that it is the byproduct of centuries of horrific Capet necromancy.

Skills:  Administration, Conniseur (Any), History (Medieval French), History (Modern French), Occultism, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Thaumatology.

Spells:
Body Control:  Climbing, Debility.
Healing:  Lend Energy, Recover Energy.
Light and Darkness:  Continual Light, Darkness, Light, Shape Darkness. 
Necromancy:  Animate Shadow, Animation, Death Vision, Materialize, Skull Spirit, Summon Spirit.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  We should have destroyed these vipers when we had the chance, before they fled to Saxon England.  We won’t make the same mistake again.

House of Cain:  They are only safe to have around if they are in your employ.  After all, they are always in someone’s employ.

House of Carolus:  Their ancient lineage makes them romantic, but they are ignorant, simplistic thugs under the shining armor.

House of Flavii:  All puppet-strings lead ultimately to the Flavii.

House of Hapsburg:  In the end, ultimate power will go to them, or to the Stuarts, or to us, and the Hapsburgs know it.

House of Julii:  The Romans infest the world, making wars and manipulating the peasants for their own ends.

House of Lancaster:  If it weren’t for them and their industrial horrors, we, and not the Stuarts, would stand as the greatest House.

Order of Lilith:  The witches have move than a touch of Hell about them.

House of Medici:  The financiers are one of the few great Houses to actually serve a useful function.

House of Romanov:  Waiting in the wings, they could provide a useful counterbalance to Stuart one day should the need arise.

House of Stuart:  In the end, ultimate power will go to them, or to the Hapsburgs, or to us, and they don’t even know it.

House of Trastámara:  Their reputation for terror can make them useful allies.

House of Ummayad:  The secret they hide so closely is that they worship Heaven.  A terrible secret indeed.

House of Warwick:  They are too much a part of the system for us to take power without employing their services.  Fortunately, they are always interested in deals.

House of York:  It is the violence of York that has allowed the House of Stuart to exclipse us.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  The hate the English Houses even more than we do and that makes them useful.

Order of Copernicus:  They are a destabilizing influence.

Order of Darwin:  They hate Heaven with a passion, but it only leads them to make trouble.

Order of Eve:  They are useful assets, too undisciplined to tame but idealistic enough to manipulate.

Order of Jesus:  As long as they recognize our temporal power, I don’t care what their religion is.

Order of Judas:  Could anything be more obvious than that we must beware them?

Order of Siddhartha:  Their strange cult keeps them out of politics.  I hope it spreads.

Order of Solon:  These jealous populists seek to destroy anyone great.

Order of Spartacus:  It is this unruly mob that gives the Rebellion its strength.

Order of Thales:  They teach others to question things they should simply accept, causing unrest.

Order of Utnapishtim:  Worms, barely worth noticing.  They’ve spent ten thousand years or more skulking in swamps.

=House of Carolus=

[[Image:Swordandscepter.jpg]]

Positive Stereotype:  Glorious and courageous prince.

Negative Stereotype:  Ruthless opportunist.

Symbol:  Sword and scepter.

Signature Spell:  Lightning.  “Sword of the King’s Justice”

Magical Style:  Ancient Roman, with pagan French influences.

It was the House of Carolus that united Europe through military conquest and led it out of the Dark Ages and into the medieval world.  They spread order, education and Christianity, hoping to seize religious authority from other Houses.  Arguably, it was the power of the Carolus that prevented the House of Umayyad from fulfilling its ambition of taking Europe.  The empire of the Carolus was brief, but so glorious in their own eyes that they have never gotten over the loss of it.  Ambitious and daring, even in the face of overwhelming odds, they still seek to take back their rightful place as rulers of the western world.  Carolus has begun experimenting with the idea of using neo-paganism as a counter to Christianity, so as to seize religious authority for themselves.  Many of them are practicing pagans, though few have a genuine faith.  Carolus possessions include the Sony Corporation.  They have a controlling interest in J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The House of Carolus first came to prominence when it seized the Frankish throne with Julii help in the 8th century, overthrowing and annihilating the House of Merovingus.  The Carolus were in turn eventually overthrown in France by the House of Capet in the 10th century and in most of Germany by the House of Hapsburg in the 13th.  The Carolus never forgot the scope of the kingdom they once held and have long dreamed of uniting all of Europe, especially France and Germany.  Their main political concern in the last thousand years or so has been to keep the peace between France and Germany, a task at which they have failed spectacularly.  Despite their reduced status, the Carolus remain powerful in the United Nations and in the administration of the European Economic Community.  They have taken a great interest in spiritualism and neo-paganism all over the world, looking for rebels with a glorified view of the past to recruit or manipulate.  It is this interest, along with a desire to keep an eye on the Capet, that led them to North America after World War I, and now they can be found anywhere, particularly in areas with many people of French or German descent.  

Mortal Politics:  The US needs to get out of the middle east.  Holding territory that far away just isn’t practical.  It makes much more sense to build your power base at home.  The United States government needs to spend more money to improve public health, public education and public transport.  To do otherwise is just to squander human and environmental assets.  The US government must stop favoring Christianity over other religions.  This includes removing “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Cost:  Being a mage of the House of Carolus is a disadvantage worth 1 point.

Disadvantages:  Ritual of the Blood.  Mages of the House of Carolus have an overwhelming compunction to periodically “bleed” themselves.  This involves cutting themselves and losing copious amounts of blood, leaving them in a helpless euphoric condition similar to a heroin high for 5d6 -HT hours, minimum 2.  The wounds never scar and the mage recovers completely at the end of the high, though often with a hangover.  Rumor has it that they are driven to revel in their own gore out of self-love.  In mechanical terms this is Addiction (Bleeding.  Cheap, Incapacitating, Totally Addictive.  Withdrawal begins after three days, not every day) (20 points).

Skills:  Current Affairs (Modern Paganism), Folklore (Germanic), History (Medieval Europe), Occultism, Riding (Horse), Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Theology (Pagan West-European).

Spells:
Air:  Air Vision, Create Air, Earth to Air, Lightning, Purify Air, Shape Air, Windstorm.
Earth:  Seek Earth, Seek Pass, Shape Earth.
Meta:  Counterspell.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  We may be able to tempt them with dreams of a more glorious age that we once shared.

House of Cain:  The epitome of deadliness without nobility or glory.

House of Capet:  In alliance with Hapsburg, they took our throne and brought to an end the most glorious kingdom Europe has ever seen.

House of Flavii:  They make wise advisors, but it is power over you that they want.

House of Hapsburg:  They, with their Capet allies, stole our magnificent kingdom from us.

House of Julii:  They lost the courage to be kings, so they became kingmakers.  Degenerate, but shrewd and influential.

House of Lancaster:  The bigger they build their technological nightmares, the more that the mortals will seek solace in our dreams.

Order of Lilith:  They stopped being relevant about eight thousand years ago.

House of Medici:  What kind of a mage has so little pride that they content themselves with business.

House of Romanov:  Our curses are strangely similar and it is said that our fates are strangely connected.

House of Stuart:  They have lost the majesty and mystique of kings, turning themselves into mere businessmen.

House of Trastámara:  Without honour, without glory.

House of Ummayad:  They are old enemies of ours.  When they wanted all of Europe, we denied it to them.  Niether side has forgotten.

House of Warwick:  They are too wrapped up in their British alliances to truly be friends to us.  If only Warrick could be won over, the whole British power bloc would collapse.

House of York:  Military might without glory.  They have forgotten how to be warriors and have become mere soldiers.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  They have a healthy sense of loyalty to the glorious past.

Order of Copernicus:  They have no idea what they are looking for, so they never find it.
Order of Darwin:  They love change for the sake of change and that might make them useful to us.

Order of Eve:  Sniveling weaklings but they serve a purpose.

Order of Jesus:  The last thing we need is another cult to compete with.

Order of Judas:  They are destructive enough, but difficult to aim at the right target.

Order of Siddhartha:  Even total religious faith does not give them courage to fight.

Order of Solon:  Let them rock the boat.  A reordering of the great powers could only be to our advantage.

Order of Spartacus:  If only they learned to fight for something instead of against everything, they would be truly formidable.

Order of Thales:  They stand for nothing and are no good for anyone.

Order of Utnapishtim: They prove that you haven’t lost until you give up.

=House of Flavii=

Positive Stereotype:  Wise counselor.

Negative Stereotype:  Ambitious liar and degenerate necromancer.

Symbol:  Open scroll.

Signature Spell:  Command Spirit (Ghost).  “Enslave the Dead”

Magical Style:  Ancient Roman.

One of the most ancient great Houses in the world, the House of Flavii dates back to the earliest days of Rome.  They long ago abandoned the insecurity of direct rule in favor of mentoring, advising, and generally making themselves indispensable cogs in the administration for whichever upstart Houses happen to be ruling at the time.  They cultivate their reputation for experience and wisdom, playing the elder statesman and wise sage.  The Flavii do their best to manipulate events behind the scenes, showing a patience and a feel for long-term strategy that has allowed them to survive for thousands of years.  For most the middle ages their most important power-bases were in the middle-east and many Flavii living in the U.S. have middle-eastern facial features.  Apprentices are trained to handle themselves in political and business negotiation.  Magical training focuses on necromancy, as a means to knowing useful secrets.

The House of Flavii was one of three great ancient Roman Houses who overthrew the House of Romulus and established the Roman republic in the 6th century BC.  The rocky alliance between Julii, Claudii and Flavii lasted until the first century BC, when Flavii plans to turn the republic into an empire were supported by the Julii but opposed by the Claudii, who felt that royal monopolies might strangle its wealth.  The Claudii were duly exterminated and a Roman Empire was established.  The remaining two Houses fell to fighting each other for ultimate power, Julii with particular influence over the armies and people and Flavii with particular influence over the nobility and senate.  Neither side could achieve a final victory and in the 3rd century, the empire was split between them with the House of Julii getting the west, ruled from Rome, and the House of Flavii getting the east, ruled from Constantinople.

At first, the Flavii fared better in the east than the Julii did in the west, ruling directly over the Byzantine Empire and doing mutually-profitable business with eastern mages.  Swimming with the flow of cultural change and changing puppets freely, the Flavii transformed their Christian Byzantine Empire into a Muslim Ottoman empire, holding off Hapsburgs, Romanovs and other challengers.  When the Julii fell out with the House of Stuart in the 17th century, the House of Flavii were quick to capitalize on the power vacuum in Britain, eagerly offering their services as advisors and forging ties with the Stuarts that stand to this day.

Mortal Politics:  High taxation is a good thing because the people don’t know how to spend their money wisely.  The US needs to get out of the middle east.  It is a war we cannot win and the longer it drags, the less conservative America is going to get.  We would be better off fixing problems at home.

Cost:  22 points.

Disadvantages:  The Fury.  Mages of the House of Flavii have been disturbing the dead for so long that their very aura revolts dead spirits.  Reaction rolls from any undead creature will be at -3.  (10 points)

Skills:  Administration, Diplomacy, History (Modern USA), History (Roman Empire), Literature (Classical), Occultism, Politics, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Classical), Thanatology, Thaumatology.

Spells:
Communication and Empathy:  Compel Truth, Sense Emotion, Sense Foes, Truthsayer.
Healing:  Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Minor Healing.
Mind Control:  Fear, Foolishness, Forgetfulness, Permanent Forgetfulness.
Necromantic:  Bind Spirit (Ghost), Command Spirit (Ghost), Death Vision, Sense Spirit, Soul Jar, Steal Energy, Steal Vitality, Summon Spirit, Turn Spirit.

Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  They have a talent for war and a taste for it.  Their violent nature makes them easy to tempt but hard to control.

House of Cain:  You can cut useful deals with them, but never make the mistake of thinking that you own one.

House of Capet:  The blood of the Capet is strong and as long as they survive, they will be a force to be reckoned with.

House of Carolus:  They have more sway in the European Union than people recognize, leading them to be underestimated.

House of Hapsburg:  They are consolidating their power in Europe.  Whatever they are doing, we must be a part of it.

House of Julii:  In the end, the battle for the world has always been between them and us.

House of Lancaster:  Brilliant yet foolish.  They are almost single-handedly responsible for the industrial revolution, yet let the House of Stuart rise to power on its back.

Order of Lilith:  They are often powerfully individually, but are nothing as an order.

House of Medici:  They have made themselves far too useful for anyone to destroy.  A brilliant move.

House of Romanov:  They refused to head us, thinking themselves wise and paid the price.  Time has yet to show if they have learned humility.

House of Stuart:  The dominant House, for now.  They need us as advisors and must never be permitted to forget it.

House of Trastámara:  Cruelty is a fine tool, but when it is your only tool you will never get anywhere.

House of Ummayad:  More subtle and thoughtful than their western rivals, they could make very useful leaders if only they could be convinced to participate in world affairs.

House of Warwick:  Oh, what worthy adversaries!  They want to be us and have been dedicated students.

House of York:  They can be obedient servants but make tough opponents.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  Courage without forethought is suicide.

Order of Copernicus:  One day soon space will become territory and then, we will need them.

Order of Darwin:  The study humanity at the most fundamental possible level, making them invaluable tools.

Order of Eve:  Quiet, thoughtful anarchists are the most dangerous kind in peacetime.

Order of Jesus:  They annoy the Medici and anything that distracts the Medici is good.

Order of Judas:  How useful they are to blame.

Order of Siddhartha:  They are very thoughtful and I wish I knew what they are thinking.

Order of Solon:  When the people, with no training in statecraft, take over the state, they always destroy it.

Order of Spartacus:  They cannot stand to see one human being master another and so they must be crushed for the universal good.

Order of Thales:  Good company.  Talking to them expands the mind and sharpens the wits.

Order of Utnapishtim:  Too weak to face life, too incurious to care.


=House of Hapsburg=

Positive Stereotype:  Skillful organizer.

Negative Stereotype:  Robber baron.

Symbol:  Red lion.

Signature Spells:  Create Servant and Shapeshift (Hawk). Known as “Slave” and “Hawk” respectively.

Magical Style:  A mixture of Ancient Roman and pagan Germanic.

The Hapsburgs are the richest and most powerful House in Europe.  Based out of Germany and Austria, they run a massive economic empire and have interests all over the world.  They see themselves as equals of the Stuarts and openly compete with them for control.  The Stuarts do not appreciate the challenge to their dominance and would like to teach the Hapsburgs a lesson.  Hapsburg possessions include General Electric, Bertelsmann, and Walt Disney Company.

From small beginnings in Swabia, the House of Hapsburg gained control of Austria in the 13th century and ruled the Holy Roman Empire from the 13th to the 19th centuries.  Over this time they have also ruled the low countries, Spain and Portugal.  Spain and Portugal were lost to the Capets in the 19th century and the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 by Napoleon, a puppet of the House of Carolus.  However, the Hapsburgs held onto Austria and Hungary in an unofficial capacity until the early 20th century, and remain the most powerful House in central Europe to this day.

Hapsburg policy in the New World was to allow the House of Trastámara to find and conquer native populations, then move in as liberators of suffering peoples who had been alienated by Trastámara cruelty.  The plan worked up to a point, asTrastámara states were overthrown in South America, the Caribbean and elsewhere in the 18th and early 19th centuries, but native mages had no intention of replacing Trastámara overlords with Hapsburg overlords.  Instead the Hapsburgs had to settle for being advisors, traders and mercenaries where they had hoped to be kings.

In North America, the abundance of space led the Hapsburgs to invest in land and in the construction industry, fighting with Lancaster in the 19th century for control over the railroads.  They supported the revolutionaries in the American Revolution, out of a desire to weaken Stuart, and with the Union in the American Civil War, believing that the Union’s use of rail would inevitably bring them victory.  They supported Germany in World War I, while their House held sway over the German government, but supported the Allies in World War II, after they had lost power over Germany to Nazis.  They opposed the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq on the grounds that these should have been UN operations rather than US ones.  

Mortal Politics:  The US needs to pull out of the middle east.  The mission might have worked if it had been organized by the UN, but the bull-headed American government just doesn’t have the political finesse to pull it off.  Taxes need to be lowered to allow business to flourish.  Social services need to be cut so that people can learn to stand on their own two feet again.

Cost:  18 points.

Disadvantage:  The Hapsburg Gene.  The Hapsburgs have a strange ancestral ineptitude with information technology.  They are at -2 to use, fix or otherwise mess with computers, radios and any other information technology devices, and are -4 for skill use on the internet.  A Hapsburg may never learn to type, and is forever foredoomed to use the hunt-and-peck method with a keyboard.  At the GMs discretion, this should make some tasks take much longer than normal – Instant Messaging with a Hapsburg is maddening, waiting for one to write a program seems eternal.  (15 points)

Skills:  Accounting, Administration, Diplomacy, Geography (World), Occultism, Politics, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Thaumatology.

Spells:
Animal:  Shapeshift (Hawk).
Communication and Empathy:  Persuasion, Presence, Sense Emotion, Sense Foes.
Earth:  Create Earth, Earth to Stone, Seek Earth, Shape Earth.
Illusion and Creation:  Complex Illusion, Create Object, Create Servant, Create Warrior, Perfect Illusion, Simple Illusion.
Mind Control:  Bravery, Emotion Control, Fear, Foolishness, Loyalty, Lure, Weaken Will.
Sound:  Sound.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  They could be useful allies and soldiers in a war against the Stuarts, but they are too bloody-minded to see that their best interests lie with us.

House of Cain:  I suppose that once upon a time, mages were all brutish animals like these.

House of Capet:  A king in exile is no king at all.  They grow more feeble every day.

House of Carolus:  Their empire was rotten, so we took control.

House of Flavii:  Their temporal power is vastly underestimated.  From their capital in Istanbul, they hold sway over huge territories in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

House of Julii:  We are their rightful heirs to world history.  We shall become all that they ever were and the empire will never fall again.

House of Lancaster:  We must find a way to ally with them.  Their industrial might is the secret of the Stuart’s strength.

Order of Lilith:  They consort with vampires and always have done.  Only know what they have really been up to for all these centuries.

House of Medici:  Of late, they have forgotten who truly rules in Europe.  They must be taught their place.

House of Romanov:  Get with the times you fools!  The age of the royal tyrant is gone.  Long life the age of the tyrannical civil service.

House of Stuart:  For as long as the west can maintain control of the world, the final victory must either go to them or to us.

House of Trastámara:  They are incredibly useful.  Their cruelty makes us look so good by comparison.

House of Ummayad:  Either get over the loss of the caliphate and of Spain or die out.  Stop haunting.  It is annoying.

House of Warwick:  Expert propagandists and not above working for us if the price is right.

House of York:  We cannot compete with them militarily, and so we must triumph over the English Houses by other means.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  They hate the House of Stuart.  That’s enough for me to like them!

Order of Copernicus:  Useless.  The resources they find are too far away for us to use.

Order of Darwin:  They are planning to produce an agricultural revolution.  When they do, we must be ready to harness it.

Order of Eve:  Eternal malcontents, they make trouble for the sake of it.

Order of Jesus:  They are incomprehensible and anything incomprehensible is dangerous.

Order of Judas:  They are what all rebels are.  They are simply more honest about it.

Order of Siddhartha:  Just another spectacularly unsuccessful bid for religious power.

Order of Solon:  They are great at making plans, but they can never put them into practice.

Order of Spartacus:  Why do they pride themselves on their martial ability when they always lose in the end?

Order of Thales:  They aren’t really rebels.  They are just misfits who like to think they are rebels.

Order of Utnapishtim:  Surprisingly difficult to kill, it is less trouble just to leave them alone.


=House of Julii=

Positive Stereotype:  Upright councilor.

Negative Stereotype:  Ambitious liar, waiting to enslave the unwary with foul magics.

Symbol:  Red seashell.

Signature Spell:  Enslave.  “Chains of Enslavement”.

Magical Style:  Ancient Roman.

Powerful since the dawn of Rome, the Julii have had their hands in world politics for thousands of years.  Like their rivals, the Flavii, they long ago gave up ambitions of direct rule, preferring the long-term security of working behind the scenes to get what they want.  They have long offered their advice, on political and military matters alike, and have secured themselves positions wherever the wisdom of the ancients is sought.  Though they mix easily in high-society, they have also traditionally shown a deeper understanding of the rabble and the army than the Flavii and regard themselves as masters of realpolitik.  The entire House suffers from epilepsy and both deformity and madness are unusually common, even for a House.  Apprentices are trained in the science of politics and the art of persuasion, with enough combat training to allow them to understand the uses of violence.  Magical training focuses on mastery over the minds of others, on the grounds that this is where true power lies.

The House of Julii was one of three great ancient Roman Houses who overthrew the House of Romulus and established the Roman republic in the 6th century BC.  The rocky alliance between Julii, Claudii and Flavii lasted until the first century BC, when Flavii plans to turn the republic into an empire were supported by the Julii but opposed by the Claudii, who felt that royal monopolies might strangle its wealth.  The Claudii were duly exterminated and a Roman Empire was established.  The remaining two Houses fell to fighting each other for ultimate power, Julii with particular influence over the armies and people and Flavii with particular influence over the nobility and senate.  Neither side could achieve a final victory and in the 3rd century, the empire was split between them with the House of Julii getting the west, ruled from Rome, and the House of Flavii getting the east, ruled from Constantinople.

Weakened by centuries of fighting, the Julii could not stand up to the barbarians that hammered at their borders and the empire of the Julii was soon crushed.  Disavowing all claims to rule outside of Italy, the Julii sought power through alliance and intrigue.  They offered the barbarian mages of the west their knowledge of civilization and culture, serving as advisors and instructors.  At the same time, they infiltrated the armies, knowing well where ultimate power in a state lies.  They served in this capacity throughout the medieval period and the European Renaissance owed a great deal to Julii influence and nostalgia.

The Julii and the Stuarts fell out in the 17th century, when the military ties of the Julii lead them to side with the Roundheads in the English Civil War.  When the Stuart monarchy was restored under Charles II, the Stuarts conducted a purge of the Julii.  The two Houses remained at war until the 19th century when political challenges for the Stuarts and the increased military needs of the British Empire led to a reestablishment of Julii power.

Mortal Politics:  The government needs to keep taxes as high as they can and should be liberal with social services.  People are more grateful to you if you spend their own money on them than they are if you don’t take their money in the first place.  It makes them feel looked after.  The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were excellent, but the US doesn’t know how to make peace with a conquered peoples.  You can’t simply set them up as independent allies, because if they are independent, they will ally with whoever they want.  You have to take over and appoint your own ruler, answerable only to you.

Cost:  1 point.

Perk:  Line of Venus.  The Julii have long had a reputation as skilled seducers and manipulators of romantic feelings.  A Julii mage gets +1 to skill for any spell that increases romantic or sexual interest.

Disadvantage:  Epilepsy (30 points).  The House of Julii calls this “the falling sickness” and they have suffered from it since the early days of Rome.  Stories persist that some Julii make prophecy while suffering fits.

Quirk:  Stain of the Claudii.  A mage of the House of Julii cannot cast Healing spells, except those associated only with fatigue.

Skills:  Diplomacy, Gun (Pistol), History (Modern USA), History (Roman Empire), Karate, Leadership, Occultism, Politics, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Classical).

Spells:
Communication and Empathy:  Sense Emotion, Sense Foes, Mind-Reading, Mind-Sending, Persuasion, Presence, Telepathy, Truthsayer. 
Mind Control:  Bravery, Charm, Emotion Control, Enslave, Fear, Foolishness, Forgetfulness, Loyalty, Lure, Weaken Will.
Movement:  Haste, Quick March.

Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  Their passionate nature makes them unpredictable allies, but it is profitable to remain on good terms with them.

House of Cain:  Warriors like this are obsolete.  This is the age of the soldier.

House of Capet:  They owe us everything they had, of course.  They have outgrown their usefulness in the main, but are not quite worth abandoning yet.

House of Carolus:  For better or worse, we backed their enemies the Capet and it is too late to change horses how.

House of Flavii:  History for the last two thousand years is nothing but the story of our conflict with them for control of the world.

House of Hapsburg:  They have forgotten that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.  They are weak, rich and ripe for the picking.

House of Lancaster:  They are economically indispensable.

Order of Lilith:  It doesn’t matter how strong you think you are.  Without allies, you are powerless.

House of Medici:  The power, money and influence that they have belongs rightly to us, since it was founded in our state of Italy.  When the time is right, they must be called to account.

House of Romanov:  They need our support.  The price must be their commitment to drive the Flavii from eastern Europe.

House of Stuart:  They hold the reigns of power, at least officially.  We must be the power behind their throne and so we must make them see how indispensable we are.

House of Trastámara:  All the political nous of a sledgehammer, but fine enforcers.

House of Ummayad:  Their attempted conquest of Europe was merely a Flavii plot to take power from us, but we saw the hand of Flavii at work and countered it.

House of Warwick:  These upstarts are masters of the game, but they have no guts.

House of York:  They make good soldiers and we make good generals.  We are natural allies.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  Has there ever been a less effective, less successful resistance?  They are amusing.

Order of Copernicus:  Maybe with their help we could win a nuclear war or better yet, make people think that we could.

Order of Darwin:  Strange mages with very useful talents.

Order of Eve:  They make valuable servants, but they are always looking to turn the tables on you.

Order of Jesus:  There must be a way of controlling them and a political use for them.

Order of Judas:  Beware them!  But don’t be afraid to use them.

Order of Siddhartha:  Bah!  Too eastern to be useful in the west, too western to be useful in the east.

Order of Solon:  The will of the people is a very powerful tool if it can be channeled correctly.  This order is a resource waiting to be harvested.

Order of Spartacus:  These anarchists must be wiped out, but fortunately they are tough enough to be good practice.

Order of Thales:  They corrupt the minds of otherwise intelligent individuals like an infection.

Order of Utnapishtim:  Time and again, they must be put down, but they never learn.


=House of Lancaster=

Positive Stereotype:  Methodical realist and master of illusions.

Negative Stereotype:  Dangerous lunatic, lost in their own fantasy.

Symbol:  Red rose.

Signature Spell:  Independence.  “Breath of the Aelfe”

Magical Style:  Medieval English, with Anglo-Saxon influences.

The House of Lancaster is industry.  Almost everywhere where there are factories or manufacturing plants, Lancaster’s influence is felt.  They were the first to show the imagination to recognize and capitalize on the industrial revolution and have ridden it to great power and position.  They are known for both their capacity for reason and discipline and also for their creativity and ingenuity - it is theorized that their studies of illusion magics have helped them to develop both sides of their character.  Even for members of a great House, they have a reputation for going mad and losing touch with reality.  Lancaster possessions include the General Motors corporation.

Originally a splinter-House from the royal House of Anjou in the 14th century, the House of Lancaster became powerful enough to defeat both the House of Anjou and rival House of York and seize the English throne in the 15th.  However, they lost it to York again before the century was out and the crown remained contested between York and Lancaster until the eventual victory of the upstart House of Stuart over both of them in the 17th century.  Lancaster’s fortunes fell so far at this point that some predicted the House’s extinction.  However, it had the foresight to see the potential of mechanical manufacturing and rose to prominence again on the back of the industrial revolution, becoming perhaps the most powerful House in Britain by the end of the 19th century.

The House of Lancaster had little to do with the Americas until it came to build factories in the 19th century.  While it theoretically supported the House of Stuart in the revolutionary wars and practically supported the revolution as a means to reduce Stuart power, it lacked the presence in the Americas to make much of a difference.  By the time of the American Civil War, on the other hand, Lancaster was well established in the industrial North and worked hard to ensure that the war would result in a Northern victory.  They supported American entry into the two world wars, both because of their British ties and because they hoped for an increased government dependence on their factories.  For purely economic motives, they also supported the involvement of the US in other foreign wars, including the conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.  

Mortal Politics:  Whoever controls the oil controls the future.  Therefore, the US must conquer just as much territory in the middle east as it can.  If a technological solution to the insurgency must be employed, so be it.  We have too much taxation in this country and too many social programs.  While we do need nationalized healthcare to keep the work force operational, there is no need to throw so much money at education, the prison system and foreign aid.  We can also stop funding this useless war on drugs.

Cost:  5 points.

Disadvantages:  The Metal Allergy.  Mages of the House of Lancaster suffer from an aversion to iron that has only manifested within the last century.  Outsiders like to ominously point out folklore associates an aversion to iron the fae.  Lancaster mages have the disadvantages Revulsion (Iron) (10 points) and Weakness (Iron, 1d per 30 minutes) (5 points).

Skills:  Administration, Folklore (British), Musical Instrument, Occultism, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Thaumatology.

Spells:
Earth:  Create Earth, Earth to Stone, Seek Earth, Shape Earth.
Illusion and Creation:  Complex Illusion, Create Object, Illusion Disguise, Independence, Perfect Illusion, Simple Illusion.
Plant:  Identify Plant, Seek Plant.
Sound:  Sound.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  Bastards to the core and our eternal rivals, but we are too alike not to cooperate against strangers.

House of Cain:  Keep them around if necessary, but no longer.

House of Capet:  Hopelessly stuck in the past.  They couldn’t even recognize the importance of the steam engine.

House of Carolus:  They want to lead humanity backwards into the past.

House of Flavii:  Fear their treachery always but listen carefully to their advice.

House of Hapsburg:  They have made themselves economically indispensable, making it impossible for us to declare war on them.

House of Julii:  They were giants in their day, but they don’t have the subtlety to run a modern empire.

Order of Lilith:  Decentralized enough to hide, but too disorganized to ever amount to anything.

House of Medici:  We rely on their professionalism and they do not disappoint us.

House of Romanov:  They stopped adapting to the modern world.  Of course their power failed.  It will not rise again, it is too late for them.

House of Stuart:  They have come to rely on us.  We must work with them until the time comes to take back that power that has so long been contested between us.

House of Trastámara:  Politics is give and take, but giving goes against their every instinct.

House of Ummayad:  They do nothing and so are nothing.

House of Warwick:  Time and again they have betrayed us, but how could we stand without them?

House of York:  Enemies, allies, enemies against throughout the centuries.  Make use of them, but remember that they have always hated us.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  Too ineffective to be a real problem, there is something charmingly romantic about them.

Order of Copernicus:  The solar system is ripe for the plundering and these mages will help us do it.

Order of Darwin:  Perhaps they could help us to build a better humanity.

Order of Eve:  They care not what their cause is, as long as they are fighting the power.

Order of Jesus:  They side with the poor and against money, and we are money.

Order of Judas:  They love violence and do not care who their victim is.

Order of Siddhartha:  They make a virtue of laziness and try to corrupt others.

Order of Solon:  When the plebs take political power, the economy withers.

Order of Spartacus:  A force of blind, mindless destruction.

Order of Thales:  Two and half thousand years of no progress has not discouraged them at all.  Now that’s stupidity.

Order of Utnapishtim:  Worthless relics of a dead age.


=Order of Lilith=

Positive Stereotype:  Ultimate survivor.

Negative Stereotype:  Selfish asshole.

Symbol:  Flying mosquito.

Signature Spell:  Alertness.  “Wildsight”.

Magical Style:  Mesopotamian, an amalgam of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian elements.

The Order of Lilith is counted among The Houses, even though it is an Order whose members are not related by blood.  It has this position because it cares nothing for the Rebellion, regarding sympathy for other human beings as the height of foolishness.  Like the House of Cain, the Order of Lilith is an ancient institution that claims to date from the Biblical creation.  They say that Lilith was the first wife of Adam, made by God at the same time.  However, whereas Adam wished to serve God, Lilith wished to be her own ruler and fled into the wilderness.  Lilith was not a rebel, however.  She did not seek to overturn the old order for humanity, but sought only what was best for herself, making selfishness her cardinal virtue.  Unlike Cain, she never romanticized combat and taught her students that fighting only occurs where the intellect has already failed to achieve decisive victory.  Today, the order still holds up selfishness as the ideal.  They are the most anarchic and least organized of any of the Orders and Houses, disavowing even loyalty to one another.  Mages only take on apprentices because apprentices can be useful and they are famously willing to sacrifice these valuable assets if the situation calls for it.  Apprentice training focuses on helping the new mage to move smoothly through the social world, getting what they want from other people.  Magical training emphasizes never being taken by surprise.

Mortal Politics:  Mages of the Order of Lilith often observe politics, but they rarely take sides.  They are most likely to take interest in laws that will have a direct effect on them.

 Cost:  21.

Skills:  Escape, Fast-Talk, First-Aid, Judo, Savoir-Faire, Sex-Appeal, Shadowing, Streetwise, Survival (Any), Symbol Drawing (Ancient Middle East), Theology (Christian).

Spells:
Healing:  Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Minor Healing, Recover Energy.
Mind Control:  Alertness, Keen Hearing, Keen Vision, Rear Vision.
Necromantic:  Steal Energy, Steal Vitality.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  They have too much rage to get ahead in the world.  They just can’t handle cold-blooded calculation.

House of Cain:  If you need to kill others, then others rule your actions.  The House is more addicted to violence than they realize.

House of Capet:  They yearn to be respected and revered.  A fatal weakness.

House of Carolus:  America isn’t going Pagan, you dreamers.  You need a better plan.

House of Julii:  Their weakness is glory, if only in their own eyes.  It always has been.

House of Flavii:  Their education is profound and their plans are fathomless.  What a waste of time.  A mage is more than a bureaucrat, or should be.

House of Hapsburg:  Hapsburg wants to see the United States politically isolated.  It’s the only way to challenge the Stuarts.

House of Lancaster:  All they would have to do is ally with York to bring down the Stuarts and take over the English-speaking world.  They just hate York too much to do it.

House of Medici:  It may not be a pleasure to do business with them, but they are always interested in doing business.

House of Romanov:  They are lost in a fairytale world where they get to be monarchs of a Russian empire.

House of Stuart:  This young House made it to the top and is not lightly to be fucked with.  However, they made too many enemies along the way.

House of Trastámara:  They are deep thinkers but they are unobservant.  They alienate people without noticing.

House of Ummayad:  They remain an unknown and that makes them very dangerous.  We must know more about them.

House of Warwick:  The House of Warwick has ice-water in its veins and a cunning streak a mile wide, but their impatient ambition has led them to commit political suicide.  All the other English Houses would love to anihilate them and nobody else trusts them either.  Being known as masters of the political backstab has only left Warwick at the edge of a cliff with enemies all around.

House of York:  No endurance.  A few centuries and the fight for supremacy went out of them.  Now they have no ambition but to serve the Stuarts.  Don’t they know that controlling the army is controlling the world?

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  They emulate a loser and then act surprised when they always lose.

Order of Copernicus:  Their heads in the clouds, they see nothing.

Order of Darwin:  So much work just to tell us things about human nature that should be been obvious.

Order of Eve:  The ultimate fools, since the dawn of creation.  It doesn’t matter how much they are abused, they are always hungry for more.

Order of Jesus:  They want so baldy to be crucified and who are we to argue?

Order of Judas:  Don’t let the name fool you.  They are weak sentimental idealists like all the other rebels.

Order of Siddhartha:  They want nothingness and they shall have it.

Order of Solon:  Aw, everybody is to work for the common good are they?  How sweet.  Meanwhile, in the real world…

Order of Spartacus:  Rebelling against your own slavery shows guts, but do they remember what happened to Spartacus when he got idealistic and wanted to smash Rome?

Order of Thales:  They selflessly conduct work that makes no difference to anybody else.  Also, they are boring.

Order of Utnapishtim:  So lowly that they would serve even the animals before they served themselves.


=House of Medici=

Positive Stereotype:  Stylish businessperson.

Negative Stereotype:  Brutal gangster.

Symbol:  Crossed keys.

Signature Spell:  Mind-Reading.  “Bare the Soul”.	

Magical Style:  Medieval Italian, with Ancient Roman influences.

Bankers, financiers and traders, the House of Medici know that nothing is more powerful than money itself.  They have learned to administrate, control and manipulate markets with a skill that no other House can match and have made themselves such a part of the functioning of the world economy that nobody can afford to refuse to do business with them.  Medici possessions include Bank of America, Citigroup, and Vivendi Universal.

Rising to power in Florence in the 13th century, the Medici were and are wealthy bankers and traders.  Though they were eventually to force the Julii and Flavii to share governing power in Italy, Medici ambitions were generally focused on indirect control rather than direct political authority.  To this end, they took control of the Papacy and dominated the Mediterranean markets to the best of their ability, eventually spreading their mercantile empire all over Europe and North Africa.

Though patrons of Renaissance culture, the Medici love of stability and security has lead them to be conservative politically, fearing the disruption that change might bring.  They opposed the spread of the printing press, democratic revolutions, the abolition of slavery and female emancipation.  They have never been financially conservative, however, and have always been quick to find new ways of making money, whether by banking, trade, mercenary work or organized crime.  They sided with the monarchy during the English Civil War and sided with England during the American Revolution, currying much favor with the House of Stuart.  They supplied both sides during the American Civil War, simply following the money.  Most Medici sympathized with the Confederacy but remained neutral out of a desire not to alienate either side.  In the U.S., as in Italy, they opposed anarchism, communism and fascism.  They refused to do business with the Nazis, helped push the United States into the Second World War and worked hard to ensure Mussolini’s downfall.  Generally, though, the Medici have opposed the outbreak of wars due to their destabilizing effect.  The Medici have always been patrons of the arts and remain so to this day, sponsoring art and architecture not just in America and Europe, but around the world.  

Mortal Politics:  The United States needs to bring its troops home from foreign countries because they are only making things worse.  The US needs to find allies among the natives instead and support them into power.  Above all, the oil supply must not be endangered.  The US should reduce regulations on business, which only hurt the economy.  Taxes for businesses should be cut to help them compete.  However, not all government spending is bad.  For instance, the US needs to do a lot more to fund the arts.  We are a nation of philistines.

Cost:  23 points.

Perk:  Medici Understanding.  Well known for their medical abilities, any attempt by a Medici to cause or cure poison or disease is at +2 to skill.

Quirk:  Medici’s Heart.  A Medici is psychologically incapable of falling in love.  This does not prevent them from loving their own family or even loving as a friend, although they tend towards being cold and distant.

Skills:  Accounting, Alchemy, Chemistry,  Economics, Diplomacy, Occultism, Poisons, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Thaumatology, Theology (Christian).

Spells:
Communication and Empathy:  Control Person, Mind-Reading, Possession, Sense Emotion, Sense Foes, Soul-Rider, Truthsayer. 
Mind Control:  Foolishness, Forgetfulness, Mindlessness.
Necromantic:  Death Vision, Summon Spirit.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  They can make deadly mercenaries.  What they lack in subtlety, they make up for in rage.

House of Cain:  Professional to the core, their services are often useful.

House of Capet:  They have bad credit and few assets left to mortgage.

House of Carolus:  They are much richer than most mages think, with diversified assets around the world.

House of Flavii:  The Flavii have long had their eyes on the banks and international financial institutions.  That makes them our rivals and enemies.

House of Hapsburg:  They are rivals, but we cannot afford not to do business with them.

House of Julii:  Our presence in Italy has been a burr in their side for centuries and they have never forgiven us for taking the Catholic Church from them.

House of Lancaster:  They need us and we want their money.

Order of Lilith:  Their detachment can be impressive, but without family, they are weak and alone.

House of Romanov:  A resource that has barely been tapped.  They would do anything to rise to power once again.  Anything.

House of Stuart:  Revolution is bad for business and so, for as long as they do not interfere with the conduct of business, they will have our full support.

House of Trastámara:  They are surprisingly good at business.  They have little empathy, but they are never too squeamish to do what needs to be done.

House of Ummayad:  Even they must do business, but they have a great apprecaition for discretion.

House of Warwick:  They are natural friends of ours and we enjoy a good working relationship.

House of York:  They are always looking for a fight and will eventually destroy themselves in the process.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  They just hate anyone who has done better in life than they have.

Order of Copernicus:  Annoying, but who else will develop the satellite system properly?

Order of Darwin:  Full of ideas but without the sense to profit from them.  They are worth investing in.

Order of Eve:  Their devotion to private charity is to be encouraged.  It distracts them from taking effective political action.

Order of Jesus:  There is only room for one church.  Our church.

Order of Judas:  They are too idealistic for us to put their talents to good use.

Order of Siddhartha:  They have no idea how to sell their religion, so they are of little consequence.

Order of Solon:  An “egalitarian leader” is a contradiction in terms.  They are just politicians like any other.

Order of Spartacus:  They are too unsophisticated to even see our hand at work, much less to strike at us.

Order of Thales:  They sometimes need to be silenced if people start to pay them attention, but that very rarely happens.

Order of Utnapishtim:  Their political neutrality makes them a good role model for others in the Rebellion.


=House of Romanov=

Positive Stereotype:  Noble survivor.

Negative Stereotype:  Obsolete dreamer and student of curses.

Symbol:  Double-headed eagle.

Signature Spell:  Weaken Blood.  “The Sickness on your Blood”

Magical Style:  Medieval Russian.

The House of Romanov is a House in exile.  They held the monarchy of Russia once but when the revolution came, they were thrown out of power and barely escaped with their lives.  The survivors are scattered around the world but are numerous enough and cunning enough to remain formidable.  They still dream of turning the clock back and taking power in a monarchical Russia.  As that dream drifts further away, and grow increasingly desperate.  Romanovs are known for taking gambles and aren’t much inclined to follow other people’s rules.  They are also known for their universal hemophilia.  The House of Romanov has a controlling interest in the American International Group.

The House of Romanov first became a major power when it seized the crown of Russia in the 16th century.  Romanov held the crown until overthrown by the Russian Revolution.  While it ruled, it suffered from incessant internal squabbling as well as periodic warfare with the House of Hapsburg to the West and the innumerable small independent Houses to the East.  After the revolution, Romanov went into exile, one step ahead of extinction.  Different branches of the House met with different fates.  Those who fled to the Hapsburgs, for instance, were turned over to their pursuers for execution, a betrayal the Romanovs have never forgotten.  Those who fled to North America did much better and it was from the US that they plotted the overthrow of the communist state and restoration of the Russian monarchy.  In the early years of Nazi rule in Germany, there was some Romanov support for the Nazis, on the grounds that they might weaken the Russian state.  However, the Romanov ultimately finally fought on the side of the Allies, not wishing to commit political suicide in the countries that had offered them refuge.  They declined to support the movement for democracy in Russia, preferring instead for their agents to try to sell the public on monarchy.  When Russian democracy came, the Romanovs tried to retake old territory, but were as unwelcome as ever and today are an underground House where they used to rule.

The Romanovs have worked hard in the United States to establish a new power base for themselves.  They have heavy investments in precious metals, jewelry, and artworks.  On the darker side, they have been heavily involved in organized crime, particularly drugs, prostitution and extortion.  This has brought them into frequently conflict with the Medici criminal organizations and there is a cold rivalry between the two Houses.

Mortal Politics:  If we cannot be the government, then the less power and control the government has, the better.  Taxes, social services and military spending should all be slashed to the bone and corporations should be barred from donating money to political parties.  The war in the middle east only takes money from taxes and gives it to politicians via fat contracts.

Cost:  Being a mage of the House of Romanov is a disadvantage worth 9 points.

Advantages:  Language (Russian, Broken)

Disadvantages:  Hemophilia (30 points).  The House calls this “the curse of thin blood” and say that it was laid on them when they exterminated the vampires of Russia.

Quirks:  Blood of the Hunter.  Mages of the House of Romanov cannot cast Healing spells except those that recover fatigue. Any spell cast on a horse is cast at +3 to skill.

Skills:  Fencing (Saber), Folklore (Russian), Guns (Rifle), History (Medieval Russia), Occultism, Riding (Horse), Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Slavic), Tracking.

Spells:
Healing:  Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Minor Healing.
Necromantic:  Steal Energy, Steal Vitality, Weaken Blood.
Water:  Create Water, Freeze, Purify Water, Seek Water, Shape Water.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  An enemy of the Stuarts must be a friend of ours.

House of Cain:  They are precise killers, but not particularly effective ones, destroying one life at a time and taking a long time to do it.

House of Capet:  We must help each other to restore monarchy to its rightful place in the world.

House of Carolus:  They could use their power base in Western Europe to help us regain Russia, but they must be convinced that it is their best interests.

House of Flavii:  Hatching plots without a Flavii advisor is like hunting without a gun.

House of Hapsburg:  They want Russia for themselves and oppose us at every turn.

House of Julii:  Firm of purpose and with courage like a lion.  They are formidable and always will be.

House of Lancaster:  They would be wonderful allies, but are lapdogs of the Stuarts.

Order of Lilith:  They stand for no-one and nothing.  Only the amusing fact that they take pride in this makes them bearable.

House of Medici:  They have always been to small-minded to see the profit in backing us.  We will not forget their neutrality.

House of Stuart:  Did the mighty ones so much as lift a finger to help us when we faced annihilation?  No, not they.  We shall never forget.

House of Trastámara:  They are strong and always endure, even when the world unites against them.

House of Ummayad:  Their will has been broken by defeat.  They are pathetic.

House of Warwick:  They would rather live safely as fawning flunkies than stand on their own two feet.

House of York:  Bulldogs of the Stuarts and the secret of their power.  If only we could steal them away.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  Misguided, but not without a sense of loyalty.

Order of Copernicus:  What the hell is so interesting up there?

Order of Darwin:  Humanity is more than a bag of chemicals.

Order of Eve:  Completely incomprehensible.  Watch them.

Order of Jesus:  They know many, many secrets and have powers that few guess.

Order of Judas:  Enemies of the law and agents of chaos.

Order of Siddhartha:  How mysterious!  They are worth watching.

Order of Solon:  They seek to destroy their betters.  They must be destroyed first.

Order of Spartacus:  Killing is all that they know and all that they understand.

Order of Thales:  How can they be so blind as to know that magic exists, yet keep themselves bound my logic?

Order of Utnapishtim:  Let their patience and persistence be a lesson to us.


=House of Stuart=

Positive Stereotype:  Principled statesman and leader on the world stage.

Negative Stereotype:  Pompous tyrant and oppressor.

Symbol:  Golden harp.

Signature Spell:  Detect Magic.  “Arcane Divination”

Magical Style:  Medieval French with Scottish influences.

The House of Stuart is the most powerful, richest, and most influential House of magi in the western world.  If any House can be said to rule, it is them.  Though they an old line, the Stuarts have thoroughly embraced the modern world.  They were among the first to shift their power-base from crowns and lands to politicians and corporations and they seek always to be on the cutting edge of changing times.  Their power has won them many enemies, however.  Even those they work with most closely, such as the other great English Houses, regard them with jealousy and yearn for a taste of their power.  The House of Stuart still holds the crown of England, a symbol of its power.  Stuart possessions include British Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Wal-Mart Stores, IBM, and News Corporation.

Originally from Brittany, the House of Stuart fled to Britain in the 11th century to escape extermination at the hands of the House of Capet.  They seized the crown of Scotland in the 14th century, having “crushed the witches” and consolidated their power so effectively that in the 17th century, aided by the House of Flavii, they were able to conquer England from the eternally squabbling Houses of Lancaster and York.  After they were briefly removed from power by the English Civil War, the House of Stuart became more accommodating towards the Houses it had conquered, retaining ultimate power but “respecting the ancient freedoms” of the great English Houses and relying on them for support and advice.  British colonization of the Americas was a Stuart project and members of the House were stationed in every significant North American settlement.  For many mages, the American Revolution was less about democracy or taxation than it was about breaking Stuart power over North America.  While the revolution failed to strip the Stuarts of their premier position in North America, it forced important political concessions, including an end to the Stuarts monopoly on running North American governments.  The Stuarts sided with the North in the American Civil War, not on ideological grounds, but because they wanted to disrupt the supply of cotton to Lancaster’s factories back in England.  They also sided strongly with the Allies in the two world wars, fearing the loss of their British Empire to the Nazis and Japanese.

Mortal Politics:  The government needs to loosen regulations binding corporations for the good of the economy.  Taxes need to be slashed to support economic growth.  The government also needs to do more to support Americas ailing primary industries, because no nation is secure if it cannot farm, mine and raise meat for itself.  The US was quite right to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.  It is only natural for strong states to take charge over weak ones.  However, the US needs to understand that democracy is the antithesis of security and that a strong dictator needs to be placed over these regions or they will always be in rebellion against the foreigner.

Cost:  12 points.

Disadvantages:  Ban of the Stuart.  Mages of the House of Stuart are psychologically unable to make use of any weapon other than a sword or knife, even if their life depends on it.  The Stuart’s shrug and say that such eccentricities are the mark of aristocracy.  Their enemies whisper that the House enchanted its own blood to make sure that a Stuart would never be a foot-soldier.  (10 points).

Skills:  Administration, Diplomacy, Economics, Fencing (Any), Law, Leadership, Occultism, Politics, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Thaumatology.

Spells:
Communication and Empathy:  Sense Life.
Earth:  Seek Earth.
Food:  Test Food.
Knowledge:  Detect Magic.
Light and Darkness:  Light.
Meta:  Counterspell.
Mind Control:  Keen Hearing.
Necromantic:  Death Vision.
Protection and Warning:  Shield.
Water:  Seek Water.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  They blame us for taking the English throne and think that our premier place in the world was stolen from them.  They will never be at peace with us and so we have no choice but to destroy them.

House of Cain:  They are an unnecessary complication of the political system.  Only a fool would rely on them instead of on their own agent.

House of Capet:  We won.  You lost.  Die now.

House of Carolus:  They are consolidating their power in Europe and must not be allowed to gain a foothold in the Americas.

House of Flavii:  Politics is a science with them, and betrayal is an art.

House of Hapsburg:  The want to take our place as supreme power.  They must be defeated or we will be.

House of Julii:  They infest the upper ranks of world’s armies.  But what is the cure?  It is better to have them as friends than enemies but watch them closely.

House of Lancaster:  They resent us, plot against us, seek to take our place, yet political circumstance makes them our right arm.  They cannot be dispensed with so they must be reigned in and controlled.

Order of Lilith:  So very ancient.  So very mysterious.  What would we have to do to pry their secrets from them?

House of Medici:  Too powerful in the international markets, too powerful in the Catholic Church, but too useful to destroy.

House of Romanov:  They are a wild card and a destabilizing influence.  Nobody knows what they are plotting to do, but they must be trying to change the status quo.

House of Trastámara:  They are disliked and it is socially dangerous to associate with them.

House of Ummayad:  Whatever are we going to do with them?  We can’t just leave them be to plot away at whatever they are plotting.

House of Warwick:  We must retain our propaganda department, but they can never be fully trusted.

House of York:  Political power depends ultimately on the use of force and it is they who supply the force that keeps us in power.  Oh, but they are jealous of our power and position.  A ruler is no more secure than the loyalty of the army.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  These terrorist scum are too good for hanging.

Order of Copernicus:  Much that they learn out of curiosity has very serious applications to aeronautics, missile systems and information technology.

Order of Darwin:  They make good doctors and everyone needs good doctors.

Order of Eve:  As long as they are allowed to pose and posture freely, they are happy and of little concern.

Order of Jesus:  They are trouble, but suppressing them would only encourage them.

Order of Judas:  They must be stamped out.  Regicide sets a bad example.

Order of Siddhartha:  They retreat from the world, which is ideal in a Rebel.

Order of Solon:  They make a lot of disturbing speeches, but in the end it is harmless venting of steam that might otherwise build up dangerously.

Order of Spartacus:  They demonstrate the importance of not squeezing your local human assets too hard too blatantly.

Order of Thales:  The price of a thriving education system is that it fosters the occasional smug, self-indulgent, useless clique, like this.

Order of Utnapishtim:  They are proud of their lineage, but what have they done lately?


=House of Trastámara=

Positive Stereotype:  Amoral strategist.

Negative Stereotype:  Evil bastard.

Symbol:  Golden castle.

Signature Spell:  Agonize.  “The Infliction of Pain by Means of Direct Stimulation of the Nerves”

Magical Style:  Medieval Spanish.

Mages of the House of Trastámara are born with high intelligence but with low empathy for other human beings.  They can be very rational in pursuing their own self-interest but they have few moral boundaries.  Their lack of compassion has enabled them to do whatever needs to be done to get ahead, which has brought them temporal wealth and power.  On the other hand, they are feared and often hated, making few friends and many enemies.  While members of this House are not much trusted, they are often admired for their ruthlessness, dedication and courage.  Trastámara are heavily involved in brutal organized crime and are often employed by other mages looking for a fierce enforcer or single-minded researcher.  In the modern United States, there are more Trastámara in the Southern states than in the north.  Trastámara posessions include ChevronTexaco.

The House of Trastámara ruled Castile in the 14th-16th centuries, Navarre in the 15th century, and Aragon and Naples in the 15th-16th centuries.  They were the most influential House in Spain and Portugul until the coming of the Hapsburgs in the 16th century and continue to struggle with the Hapsburgs for power in the Iberian Peninsula to this day.  Their famous brutality has often made it easy for them to conquer territory, but their legendary cruelty has equally often alienated their powerbase, leading to revolt.

Having lost their supremacy in Spain, the House of Trastámara were among the first European Houses to seek to to exploit the new world.  They backed many Spanish and Portuguese exploratory and commercial ventures and involved themselves heavily in the slave trade and in Spanish and Portuguese colonisation.  For a time, they were the most common European mage to be found in South America and Southern North America and they dominated the continent apart from Mexica and Peru.  Trastámara diplomatic skills were hardly impressive, but the mages were ruthlesslsy effeciant and their cruelty helped them to rule through fear.  Understandably, the Trastámara’s famous lack of empathy led to frequent conflict with native mages, culminating, with Hapsburg aid, in a series of revolutions in the 18th and early 19th centuries that overthrew Trastámara power.  

In North America, the Trastámara struggled to side with winning teams, but didn’t always back the right side.  They did back the American Revolution, never dreaming that American democracy would last and with the intention of establishing feudal fiefdoms once the Americas had been snatched from Stuart hands.  They backed Mexico against the Anglo invaders, thinking that Mexico would win, and backed the Confederacy in the Civil War in an effort to keep their own slaves.  These were political mistakes that earned them increasing hostility in mage society.  The Trastámara remained neutral in World War I, which they felt was none of their business, but sided with the Allies in World War II, seeing the hand of their old enemy the Hapsburgs behind the fascists of Germany and Spain.  They have shown little interest in the mortal wars of the 20th and 21st century, although they frequently serve as mercenaries in magical conflicts.

Mortal Politics:  The US could pacify Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow if it wanted.  Every time they fuck around, bomb them until they stop.  Taxes need to be drastically lowered because I’m not responsible for other people’s well-being.

Cost:  14 points.

Advantages:  Trastámara Logic.  +1 IQ (20 points)

Disadvantages:  The Trastámara Demon.  The Trastámara are famous for their lack of pity.  The Trastámara themselves are proud of their lack of romanticism and ascribe it to good breeding.  Other Houses whisper that the Trastámara have become what they are because they have a patron Demon.  Mechanically, Trastámara have Low Empathy (-20) and Reputation (House of Trastámara) (8 points).  The brutal reputation of House of Trastámara mages will cause most other mages to react at -2 in most circumstances.  However, mages come with a variety of perspectives and there are plenty of them who have neutral or positive attitudes towards the Trastámara instead.  Furthermore, mages’ reactions may be significantly different if their situation makes them particularly desirous of having a brutal ally.

Skills:  First Aid, Guns (Rifle), Fencing (Any), History (Modern USA), Intimidation, Judo, Karate, Occultism, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Torture.

Spells:
Body Control:  Agonize, Itch, Spasm, Pain, Sensitize, Stun.
Healing:  Lend Energy, Lend Vitality.
Necromancy:  Death Vision, Summon Spirit, Zombie.

Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  We must fight with them for control of American agriculture.  If we lost that, we lose the last bastion of our power.

House of Cain:  They understand how to use force, but not its political implications.

House of Capet:  They would do anything to regain their lost power.  People like that can be very useful.

House of Carolus:  They hate the Hapsburgs, which makes them natural allies of ours.

House of Flavii:  They are always ready to do business, but read the fine print.

House of Hapsburg:  They took Spain from us and the Spanish empire that was to be.  This can never be forgiven. 

House of Julii:  They have never been afraid to do what has to be done to take power.

House of Lancaster:  More prudent minds know that when the oil runs out, their ride is over.

Order of Lilith:  I’m not surprised that they have lasted forever.  With so little ambition, there must have been little real danger.

House of Medici:  They never allow sentiment to cloud their business sense.

House of Romanov:  They will do whatever it takes to seize power.  We can work with people like that.

House of Stuart:  They wear such a mask of civility, but they got where they are today by being bigger bastards than everyone else.

House of Ummayad:  We should have destroyed them when we had the chance.  Now they would dearly like to destroy us for taking Spain from them.

House of Warwick:  Cowards, weaklings and liars, always hiding behind others.

House of York:  Strong, but too naturally subserviant to stand on their own.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  The Stuart’s failure to crush them shows how weak the once great House has become.

Order of Copernicus:  If anyone ever manages to find or place anything useful in space, we will take an interest then.

Order of Darwin:  Their insight into humanity is incredible.

Order of Eve:  They get kicked to the ground again and again but they never learn to fight back.

Order of Jesus:  The more they turn people’s minds from this world to the world beyond, the less we are resisted.

Order of Judas:  The weakness of the Rebellion is demonstrated by its toleration of these mages.

Order of Siddhartha:  They do nothing and so are nothing.

Order of Solon:  They see very clearly.  No wonder they try to destroy the House.

Order of Spartacus:  They demonstrate the importance of keeping your most bloodthirsty possessions on a tight leash.

Order of Thales:  Their perspective is absolutely unique, making them worth listening to.

Order of Utnapishtim:  They know much and say little.  Their information must be obtained somehow.


=House of Umayyad=

Positive Stereotype:  Knowledgeable sage.

Negative Stereotype:  Skulking coward.

Symbol:  Blue flame.

Signature Spell:  Mage Sight.  “Awakening the Spirit”.

Magical Style:  Medieval Arabic, with pagan Arabic influences.

Alchemists, scholars and sages, known for their reclusive ways, the House of Umayyad is the only great House from the middle east to establish a major presence in the west.  They participate little in politics as a House and generally try not to be drawn into the squabbles for power or over principle that so consume most of their fellow magi.  Usually, when they do gain attention, it is because they hold some secret that others desire, or have performed some magical experiment that has gotten out of hand.  However, the House does not insist that members recluse themselves from the world and if an Umayyad wishes to involve themselves in politics and adventure on an individual basis, that is up to them.

The House of Umayyad first appeared in Arabia, some time before the birth of the prophet Mohammed in the late 6th century.  At the time, the Umayyad were locked in a bitter struggle with their rival, the House of Hashim.  The Umayyad at first persecuted the new religion of Islam, fearing  that it was Heaven’s work, but soon came to see it as a tool to centralize religious authority in their own hands.  They successfully took control of the new Caliphate and moved their capital to Damascus in Syria. Under the Caliphate, they had frequent dealings with the Flavii, who had spread throughout the middle east.  While there was much cooperation between the two, there was also conflict, particularly over the Flavii-dominated Byzantine empire.  The Umayyad spread their power wide and all of Europe seemed in their grasp until they were checked there by the House of Carolus.  Umayyad domination in the east was not to last either and the Caliphate was overthrown in the 8th century by the alliance of the House of Hashim and their off-spring House, the House of Abyssid.

The House of Umayyad did not lose power everywhere, however, and one of the places it held onto was Spain, ruling from the city of Cordoba as late as the 13th century and holding to Granada as late as the 15th century, before finally being defeated by the ascendant House of Trastámara.  The Spanish Umayyad retired from organized politics, foreswearing temporal power in favor of magical research.  They remained in Spain, enduring Capet rulers, Hapsburg rulers, and others, intermarriage making them visually indistinguishable from the Spanish.  When the New World was opened up, many of them emigrated, especially to South America and southern North America.  Today, they are found throughout the US, quietly conducting their research as they have done for so many centuries.

Mortal Politics:  The House of Umayyad scoffs at the idea of mages taking politic stands.  Don’t mages have more important things to think about?

Cost:  10.

Disadvantages:  Agoraphobia (10 points).  Mages of the House call this “The Warning” and it is associated with feelings of being in danger.  What it is “a warning” against is known to few in the House, if anybody.  Rumors say that the Umayyad have offended Hell.

Skills:  Alchemy, Biology, Chemistry, History (Medieval European), History (Medieval Middle East), Mathematics, Physician, Symbol Drawing (Arabic), Thaumatology, Theology (Islam).

Spells:
Earth:  Create Earth, Earth to Stone, Seek Earth, Shape Earth.
Fire:  Create Fire, Ignite Fire.
Knowledge:  Detect Magic, Mage Sight.
Water:  Seek Water, Purify Water.

Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  The Anjou have a talent for making bloody comebacks.  You just never know when it is going to happen.

House of Cain:  Like us, they put aside worldly concerns to focus on higher matters, but their pride in the skills always distracts them.

House of Capet:  They lost their land in the French Revolution, but they landed on their feet.  You don’t need a country if you have money and they have money.

House of Carolus:  They have a pagan frenzy in their heart and paganism serves only Heaven and Hell.

House of Julii:  Every time a Julii looks at you, they are thinking about how to defeat you.

House of Flavii:  They are good to do business with.  They may not be honest, but at least they know what they are doing.

House of Hapsburg:  They want to rule the world but they haven’t got the guts.  The Stuart have them too scared.

House of Lancaster:  Lancaster may not always be kind, but it is they who keep the factories of the western world running.  They could rule the western world if they allied with York, but neither side will give up the medieval feud.

Order of Lilith:  Homeless outcasts.  They are an ancient and cruel joke inflicted by she who named them.

House of Medici:  They are capable of discretion and have few scruples.  Just keep in mind that they will always put their best interests first.

House of Romanov:  They were always backwards.  The age of horse-magic is over and they need some new tricks..

House of Stuart:  They are a bloated leach on world civilization, existing only to grow richer and more powerful.

House of Trastámara:  They defeated us and took our Caliphate by being more brutal than we were capable of imagining.  We will not lack in imagination in future.

House of Warwick:  They tell the world what to think, through media of every kind.  Yet they wouldn’t know an honest thought if they had one

House of York:  They keep order in the world.  They are the closest thing mage society has to a police force.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  How they love to stick their noses into other people’s governments, whether they understand them or not.

Order of Copernicus:  They understand a great deal about the universe.

Order of Darwin:  Their experiments are fantastic but they are not safe to have around.  They love to play god.

Order of Eve:  The world needs people minding their own business more than it needs these mages telling everyone how to live.

Order of Jesus:  You have no idea what kind of forces you are playing with.  Turn back before it is too late.

Order of Judas:  Someone has to be the scapegoat.  Fortunately, they are completely expendable.

Order of Siddhartha:  Don’t let the fact that they are mad make you think that they aren’t formidable.  They have stolen many secrets of value from the east.

Order of Solon:  Every fool has a plan to rule the world.  Have they noticed that nobody is listening to them?

Order of Spartacus:  Two thousand years of unsuccessful rioting and they still haven’t learned a damned thing.

Order of Thales:  Obsolete, hidebound and pig-headed, but they have been around for long enough to pick up all kinds of interesting secrets.

Order of Utnapishtim:  They have a deep understanding of nature, but they have made the mistake of becoming a part of it.  A human is something more than an animal or plant.


=House of Warwick=

Positive Reputation:  Brilliant king-maker and master of mind control.

Negative Reputation:  Back-stabbing conspirator and silver-tongued liar.

Symbol:  Green eagle.

Signature Spell:  Great Hallucination.  “The Incantation in Question, Which Shall go Unnamed”

Magical Style:  Medieval English.

Deal-makers, civil-servants, media-moguls, and lawyers, the House of Warwick have made other people’s confidence their power-base.  Following the lead of the Flavii and Julii, they abandoned ambitions of holding power directly centuries ago, preferring to work behind the scenes, advising, supporting and facilitating those in command.  Political strategists and skilled manipulators, they have made their services so invaluable that they are tolerated as allies, even though the House has a long history of changing sides suddenly to suit its advantage.  The Warwick’s are little trusted, but everyone respects their expertise.  Warrick is very active in the media industry and in internet-related industries.  They have pushing the US government to take more control over internet use.  Warrick possessions include AOL / Time Warner, AT&T, the Liberty Media Corporation and the Fox Broadcasting Company.

The House of Warwick first became prominent in England in the 11th century, when, after having betrayed a Flavii plot to the ruling House of Anjou, it became an Anjou ally.  Warwick used its position to enrich itself and rose from relatively humble beginnings to great power.  However, their loyalty was not lasting.  In the War of the Roses, they helped the House of Lancaster to overthrow the House of Anjou and then helped the House of York to overthrow the House of Lancaster, constantly increasing the power of their own position.  Warwick avoiding trying to take the crown itself, fearing a unified opposition, but did its best to prevent any other House from gaining too much power in the years to follow, siding at will with Anjou, Lancaster, York, or even Capet.  The strategy of division was successful, but weakened England to the point that the Scottish House of Stuart was capable of seizing power in the 17th century.  The Stuarts have proved eager to make use of Warwick’s political talents, but have also shown a keen appreciation of Warwick’s untrustworthy reputation.

Warwick stayed out of the first waves of immigration to North America, not taking a great deal of interest until cities appeared.  The House was already well established in printing and publishing by the time of the American Revolution and although they sided with the Stuarts in that conflict, they eagerly took advantage of the political opportunities opened up by the new American democracy, seizing whatever offices they could.  They steadily expanded their media empire, becoming newspaper magnates in the 19th century and radio, movie and television moguls in the 20th.

Mortal Politics:  The US needs to set up a Sunni state, a Shi’ite state and a Kurdish state, in the territory presently known as Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.  Each state should be ruled by a nationalist dictator who is an ally of the United States and benefits from US patronage.  The government needs to regulate corporations more closely, or the corporations, not the government, will be in charge.  High taxes are a good thing because well run state is going to make better use of money than the ignorant fool in the street.

Cost:  Being a mage of the House of Warwick is a disadvantage worth 5 points.

Disadvantages:  Eyes of evening.  Mages of the House of Warwick psychologically cannot tolerate bright lights, whether it is the light of a sunny day or a well-lit room.  They prefer gloomy conditions but can tolerate normal levels of lighting.  The Warwick say that they damaged their eyes centuries ago experimenting with light magic.  This is a Dread (Bright Lights) (30 points).  They also have the Reputation as liars among mages.  This is normally worth a -1 reaction penalty, although a bonus is possible if a sneaky bastard happens to be needed.  (4 points)

Skills:  Administration, Current Affairs (World News), Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Law, Occultism, Politics, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Thaumatology.

Spells:
Communication and Empathy:  Compel Lie, Sense Emotion, Sense Foes.
Illusion and Creation:  Complex Illusion, Perfect Illusion, Phantom, Simple Illusion.
Mind Control:  Emotion Control, Foolishness, Forgetfulness, Great Hallucination, Hallucination, Loyalty, Madness.
Movement:  Apportation, Haste, Hinder.
Sound:  Sound.

Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  They are often vulnerable to manipulation, but they are always brutal if they find you out.

House of Cain:  They have proven themselves useful on occasions.  Just don’t double-cross them lightly.

House of Capet:  They must be hatching all kinds of plots or they wouldn’t be so mysterious.

House of Carolus:  They are trying to gain control over the internet.  If they have that, they would have mastery over the world.

House of Flavii:  They practically invented modern administration.  It would seem prudent to purge the American government of them, but how would the government run without them?

House of Hapsburg:  It would be better for us if the Stuarts destroy them, but we can’t afford to get on the Hapsburg’s bad side in case they destroy the Stuarts instead.

House of Julii:  Their instinct for dishonesty is breathtaking and legendary.

House of Lancaster:  Just another part of the great corporate machine that keeps us all rich.

Order of Lilith:  They serve a useful purpose.  They make us look so principled in comparison.

House of Medici:  It pays to be on good terms with them.

House of Romanov:  They have learned to hide their hand.  Now they need to learn how to bluff.

House of Stuart:  They are kings, but Warrick is kingmaker.  We serve them, as long as they serve us.

House of Trastámara:  The perfect boogeymen.  If you want to scare someone, just speak their name.

House of Ummayad:  Their silence makes them a blank slate upon which we can write what we want should it be convenient.

House of York:  They have wanted to string us up by the neck for quite some centuries now, but they remain usefull tools.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  Once proud patriots, they have been corrupted by socialist propaganda.

Order of Copernicus:  They have had a hand in the development of every new media technology.

Order of Darwin:  They could be wonderfully convincing if only we could get them to say what we want.

Order of Eve:  They get respect and they are naïve.  What is not to love?

Order of Jesus:  Living proof that if you have no sense of PR, you will never hold any power.

Order of Judas:  People love to hate them and will believe any lie about them.

Order of Siddhartha:  Too intellectual to be understood, they are without influence.

Order of Solon:  They started to believe their own propaganda and lost all touch with reality.

Order of Spartacus:  Hysteria always plays into our hands.

Order of Thales:  Nobody can understand them, but that’s ok, since nobody cares what they think.

Order of Utnapishtim:  They are more animal than human being and that’s nothing to be proud of.


=House of York=

Positive Stereotype:  Soldier, entrepreneur, master of animal magic.

Negative Stereotype:  Warlike bully, lost to their own animal nature.

Symbol:  White rose.

Signature Spell:  (Shapeshift) Wolf.  “Putting On the Skin of the Wolf”.

Magical Style:  Medieval English, with Scandinavian influences.

The House of York dominates modern mining and the armies of the west.  Yorks have influential in the armies of the west since medieval times and have always been a powerful force in armies of the British Empire and the American military-industrial complex.  Indeed, they like to claim to be the backbone of western military force.  They have used their political power to obtain wealth in what they assumed to be its most solid form – mineral wealth.  It is a fair bet that wherever there is a mine run by an English-speaking corporation, York has a controlling interest in it.  Mages of the House of York all study animal magic on the grounds that only by understanding the animal within us can we truly understand the nature of war and conflict  Those closely involved in the mining industry often study Earth spells.

Originally a splinter-House from the House of Anjou in the 14th century, the House of York became powerful enough to contest the throne in the 15th century.  Though Anjou was dethroned, the crown went eventually to the rival House of Lancaster.  York refused to give up and seized the throne again before the century was out, but did not have the power to keep a firm grip on it and the monarchy remained contested between York and Lancaster until the eventual victory of the upstart House of Stuart over both of them in the 17th century.

York migration to the New World was largely driven by its business interests in cattle and mining and it has strongholds wherever these are or have been major industries.  While it officially supported England and the House of Stuart during the American Revolution, it is well known that it aided the revolutionaries, in a secret alliance with Anjou and Lancaster by which they hoped to take North America for themselves.  They sided with the North in the American Civil War in an effort to hurt the agrarian power-base of Anjou, Capet and Stuart, and sided with the Allies in the two world wars because they didn’t want to lose their holdings in the English-speaking world.  Heavily involved in the oil business, they have long urged American intervention in the middle east to secure supplies there and have been firm supporters of the wars in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.  York possessions include the Exxon Mobil and Enron corporations.

Mortal Politics:  Whatever the cost, the US must hold its territories in the middle east.  If the oil supply were to be disrupted, the world would grind to a halt.  The government needs to relax regulations on corporations, particularly environmental regulations.  Taxes need to be lowered in general and people need to learn to stand on their own two feet instead of relying on the government.

Cost:  9

Disadvantages:  “Voice of the Moon”.  Mages of the House of York suffer from Lunacy (10 points) and Nightmares (5 points).  Enemies say that there is a touch of insanity or lycanthropy in their blood.  The York say that it is merely a side-effect of understanding the natural order.  

Skills:  Administration, Folklore (British), Guns (Rifle), Judo, Karate, Leadership, Occultism, Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Survival (Any Wilderness), Tactics.

Animal:  Animal Control (Snake), Animal Control (Wolf), Beast Possession, Beast Soother, Possession, Rider Within, Savoir-Faire, Shapeshift (Wolf).
Communication and Empathy:  Sense Emotion, Sense Foes, Persuasion.
Movement:  Haste, Great Haste.


Relations

The Rebellion

The Houses

House of Anjou:  The senior branch of our family may be a little mad, but they are more than a little formidable.  We can’t afford not to work with them.  They would be too dangerous as enemies.

House of Cain:  They think they are mighty in battle.  That’s funny.

House of Capet:  We tried to keep them on the throne of France, but they weren’t strong enough to hold it.  We will not give them our support again.

House of Carolus:  They were powerful once, but their martial strength drained away long ago.

House of Flavii:  Greedy, lazy, effete, cowardly, ruthless and cunning.  They are leaches on western civilization.

House of Hapsburg:  They have failed to secure military support.  In their glory days, they would not have committed such a fatal error.

House of Julii:  They think of the armies of the west as their rightful territory and do not appreciate our presence.  Well we don’t appreciate theirs.

House of Lancaster:  They can never be forgiven for taking the crown of England from us, but they must not be fought too openly and we must join with them for mutual defense against outsiders.

Order of Lilith:  Foul, evil, vindictive things.  They consort with vampires and make an art of curses.

House of Medici:  Money is only power when people are willing to take it.  One of these days they are going to find out the hard way that the gun beats the checkbook.

House of Romanov:  They may have suffered defeat, but they know many secrets.  Only a fool would make a move in the east without consulting them.

House of Stuart:  They need a strong right arm and that is us, leaving us perfectly place when the time comes for succession.

House of Trastámara:  They have an extraordinary talent for psychological warfare.

House of Ummayad:  I hear that they consort with ghouls.  Such people are not healthy to have around.

House of Warwick:  They have betrayed their allies so many times, they have thrown away any chance of holding ultimate power.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  I respect them for fighting bravely, but it won’t stop me from killing them in battle.

Order of Copernicus:  Boring, they produce some interesting technologies.

Order of Darwin:  Provided with a bit of discipline, they can be valuable retainers.

Order of Eve:  Natural born prey.

Order of Jesus:  Fucked are the meek, for they shall have jack.

Order of Judas:  Tough little bastards, you have to give them that.

Order of Siddhartha:  “Peaceful” is just another word for “cowardly”.

Order of Solon:  The speak on behalf of the common people without understanding anything about them.

Order of Spartacus:  They have guts.  All they need is proper training and good leadership.

Order of Thales:  Eggheads have to be watched, otherwise they stop inventing useful technologies and start screwing around at random, like these fools.

Order of Utnapishtim:  Why don’t you just get it over with and die out already, instead slowly growing weaker and more pathetic every year?