Courage may be taught as a child is taught to speak.

Although the Emperor commands overall authority in Fastheld, true day-today power on a local township level is wielded by the six Noble Houses: Kahar, Mikin, Lomasa, Zahir, Seamel and Nillu.

Each House has a fairly distinct personality and reputation.

House Kahar
House Kahar, which has produced a line of Emperors for more than six centuries, is the most revered of the Noble Houses. Kahars have a well-earned reputation for practicality, strategic thinking and a warrior spirit.

However, as blessed as House Kahar has been to lead the realm all this time, the males of the line are afflicted by a curse that started with Emperor Talus Kahar I, whose blood was tainted by the poison of a Wildling during the first war. As a result, all men in the Kahar line suffer from some kind of physical or mental defect at birth. These defects range from disfigurement to retardation. However, no Kahar males to date have been born bearing the Shadow's Touch.


House Mikin
House Mikin is probably the most feared of the Noble Houses, because of its reputation for zealously hunting down and dealing with Shadow-Touched aberrants. The Church of True Light historically drew many Mikins into its ranks, where they often served as clergy, healers or even Shadowscourges.

Common legend suggests that Mikins are so ruthless when it comes to magic that they kill their own wives if they give birth to Shadow-Touched progeny. Legend or not, it is certainly true that House Mikin seems to see more accidental deaths of mothers after childbirth than the other Houses.


House Zahir
House Zahir is perhaps the most universally reviled and hated of the Noble family lines. Known also as the House of Vipers and the Serpent Nest, House Zahir saw its reputation forever tarnished during the First Wildling War when Goram Zahir - an ambitious Nobleman who wanted Fastheld's throne - struck a personal alliance with the Wildlings and betrayed his own people along the shore of the Fastheld River, near where Aegisport stands today.

So, Zahirs are reputed to be sneaky, backstabbing weasels who may smile while planting envenomed kisses on unsuspecting lips.


House Lomasa
House Lomasa, known for its fierce loyalty to the Kahars, is probably the realm's most congenial bunch of Nobles. The Lomasas are generally good-natured, boisterous, high-spirited, and festive. Their galas, parties and tournaments are the stuff of legends throughout Fastheld.

The Lomasa temperament makes them easy to like among most Noble Houses, although their easygoing nature sometimes rubs more staid Nobles the wrong way. However, as gregarious and jovial as the Lomasas may be in general, they become most serious when their allies or the realm itself come under threat of attack.


House Nillu
House Nillu earned its wealth and commercial dominance in Fastheld through its pursuit of mining interests around the realm. Nillus are known as being stern, practical, and rather oblivious to the environment. They'll clear acres and acres of forest just to reach a single vein of ore. These Nobles sometimes have a reputation for getting tunnel vision when it comes to the world around them. They care little for the intrigues and ambitions of other Noble Houses, preferring to be left alone to their own devices.
 

House Seamel
House Seamel is probably the least influential of the Noble Houses, a family web consisting largely of farmers and horse breeders who really only came into increased prominence with the marriage of Freia Seamel to Talus Kahar XIV. This surge in power for the upstart House has earned some disdain from other Nobles, particularly House Zahir, but even some who fall under the wildcat banner of House Kahar.

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The Noble hierarchy is largely patriarchal. That is to say, men tend to run the show, although particularly willful women may demonstrate their own influence from time to time. Marriages among Nobles are often arranged by parents and rarely involve romantic love as a foundation. As the saying goes, "You learn to love." Of course, passionate dalliances with other individuals may occur, but are kept discreet lest a Noble be scandalized and bring shame on their House.

Few things are as dangerous for a Noble as scandal. While Zahir Nobles may actually relish the attention from a good scandal, their reputation is already significantly diminished. Nobles in the other Houses rely on their personal reputations almost as a form of currency in peddling influence and gaining power in the realm.

Scandal is definitely an easy way to squander that currency. In the most extreme cases, a Noble House may condemn one of its own to the Shadow District, stripping them of title, land and name, exiling them to the dumping ground where they go from
a life of luxury to peasantry.

A Noble's sense of worth is often driven by how their holdings compare to those of other Nobles. Many Nobles hold galas, tournaments, festivals and other events in their castle keeps and on their private estates to show off their wealth, improve their prestige and network with other Nobles in the hopes of furthering their own interests.

Many ambitious Nobles aspire to positions of importance and influence as advisers to the Emperor on the Imperial Council, a point of pride for the Houses. But other Nobles are perfectly content manipulating people within webs of private and public intrigue without being in a position of Imperial prominence.

By and large, the Noble Houses may experience interfamily tensions, but full-fledged conflicts are the exception rather than the rule. The Emperor is usually called upon to settle such disagreements before they can spiral that far.

However, Nobles don't take it for granted that they will never be attacked. So, besides the common coterie of vassals, handmaidens and manservants, it is generally accepted that each Noble House will maintain an Order of Knights dedicated to protecting the territory of their House and family, as well as a small town militia to ensure the Imperial Law is established and that chaos is firmly held in check under the watch of order.

In the event that Noble Houses declare war on one another, it ultimately falls on the Emperor to choose a side in the interest of ending the conflict and restoring order to the land. Once the Emperor makes his choice, the Watch are dispatched to help support the Noble House that's been granted legitimacy by the crown.

Such a choice is never easy, especially because the Watch consist not only of commoners but also of quite a few Nobles from every House. Those of the opposing House in the conflict would be discharged automatically from the Watch, and forced to fight against their comrades.

An inter-House war would be expensive, costing many Kahar Imperials to execute and, when it ended, to recover from. Property would be destroyed. Precious lives would be lost. So, the Emperor must do all he can to try to help quarrelling Houses reach a peaceful settlement before matters escalate into a full-blown military conflict.