Dragonlords of Viss/House Creation

According to rank, each House is given the following amount of House Points:

Rank	Initial pts
Imperial	100
Great	40
Lesser	16

Those House Points must be used to acquire:

Settlements

Unless stated otherwise, each Hold can be assumed to be filled with villages (200 people or so). Larger settlements can be acquired thus:

Settlement	Cost
Village (up to 500 people)	0 pts
Town (500 - 2,000 people)	2 pts
Small City (2,000 - 5,000 people)	5 pts
City (5,000 - 10,000 pople)	10 pts
Large City (10,000 - 50,000 people)	15 pts
Huge City (50,000 - 100,000 people)	20 pts

Examples

Imperial House: The Imperial Capital, Viss, is a hugae city with around 80,000 people sitting at the mouth of Dragon Isle. Cost = 20 pts

House Velayre: Tidings, with a population of 3,500 people, is the largest settlement of the Brass Islands. Cost = 5 pts

Fortifications

A House that spends no points on a fortification can be assumed to live on a fortified hall instead, those can't hold a garrison inside but may hold the Members of a House.

Fortification	Cost
Hall (no garrison)	0 pts
Tower (up to 250)	2 pts
Small Castle (up to 500)	5 pts
Castle (up to 1,000)	10 pts
Large Castle (up to 2,000)	15 pts
Superior Castle (up to 4,000)	20 pts

Examples

Imperial House: The Palace of Viss is a superior castle, holding a garrison of up to 4,000 troops. Cost = 20 pts.

House Velayre: The Seat of House Velayre is High Tide, a castle with garrison for 2,000 sitting at the isle of Elderbrass. They also have a smaller tower that holds 500 soldiers. Cost = 12 pts.

Troops

1,000 soldiers cost 1 pt. Troops are assumed to be a mix of infantry, cavalry, and archers, with siege engineers and auxiliaries as appropriate.

A fleet of 20 ships costs 1 pt. Large enough to transport 1,000 soldiers across seas and wide rivers.

Examples

Imperial House: The Imperial House has the following troops:

14,000 soldiers, the so-called Thirteen Legions and the Imperial Guard (14 pts)
14 fleets, used to carry them (14 pts)

Cost = 28 pts

House Velayre: House Velayre has the following troops:

4,000 soldiers (4 pts)
4 fleets (4 pts)

Cost = 8 pts

Dragons

Each dragon costs 4 points and in war is worth as much as 2,000 soldiers. Dragons have roughly the same strength regardless of size, the larger ones being stronger and with a thicker leather, the smaller ones being faster and of hotter breath.

Dragons have no forelegs, only hind-legs and a pair of wings. They can't speak but seem to have innate knowledge of the Visserine language through which they can be requested to act, they can refuse such requests and a few will never heed them.

Examples

Imperial House: The Imperial House has 5 dragons:

Dark Plague
Red Fury
Sunfire the Golden
Starlight the Silver
Jade Queen

Cost = 20 pts

House Velayre: House Velayre has a single dragon, called Sealord. Cost = 4 pts.

Vassals

It costs a Great House 2 pts for each Lesser House sworn to it. Lesser Houses may not raise their troops against Houses of the Great under threat of Imperial retaliation.

Wealth

Each House Point is worth 1,000 Golden Crowns in-game. House Points and Golden Crowns (popularly known as crowns) can be converted freely back and forth at the rate of 1:1,000.

Examples

Imperial House: Having used 88 out of 100 pts, the Imperial House has a wealth of 12 pts left to spend. When used in-game, those correspond to a wealth of 12,000 crowns.

House Velayre: Having used 29 out of 40 pts, House Velayre has a wealth of 11 pts left to spend. When used in-game, those correspond to a wealth of 11,000 crowns.

Other

Note: None of those things below need to be set at House Creation, you can expand on them throughout play, but writing a paragraph or two helps others to better know your House and gives them something to work with. You're free to add anything else you think might be missing from your House.

Honorific

Houses that make use of a Ruling Head can make use of a honorific, to go along with one's titles.

Examples

Imperial House: The honorific of the Imperial House, used by its Ruling Head, is Dragon of Viss.

House Velayre: The honorific of House Velayre, used by its Council Face, is Lady, or Lord, of the Tides.

Lands

The lands ruled by your House have their defining characteristics set by you. Features of note such as forests, mountains, lakes, swamps, ruins, monuments, etc, are defined by the players.

Examples

Imperial House: The Hold of the Imperial House, Dragon Isle, is the ancestral home of the Imperial people and the cradle of dragons according to lore. A small round island sitting in the middle of the Azure Sea and crowned by Sunfire Peak, an active volcano that erupts around one time every ten years or so. The recurrent lava flows going through the island makes for a very fertile soil which, alongside heavy trade on the ports of Viss, feeds the large number of people that live there. Viss is the largest settlement and home to 80,000 people but close to 800,000 live on the island. The dragons of the Imperial House are kept at the Dragonmount, down a meandering path some distance outside the city walls. No wild dragons remain on the isle.

House Velayre: The Brass Islands is a small archipelago southeast of Dragon Isle. Known for its unpredictable tides and crags that have seen countless ships sink over the centuries, it has four islands of note, the largest of which is called Elderbrass, where House Velayre holds court. Several mining villages dot the landscape but large areas remain uninhabited. They trade primarily in metals (iron, zinc, copper), fish, and marble. Points of interest are Graveyard Bay and the Silverbat Caves, lining the southern crags of Elderbrass and home to the creatures of same name. A few wild dragons still roam the islands but the exact location of their lairs is unknown.

People

The people that inhabit your Hold can have their defining characteristics set by you. Things such as race, culture, religion, clothing, language, etc, can all be set (but don't have to). Apart from dragons, there is no magic known to exist but such tales may abound and people may believe them. All people are human and although uncommon variations can exist, things such as green-skin and pointed ears aren't known of. Whether the people of your Hold have changed their views to those of the Empire and acquired citizenship, or whether they still see Imperials as despicable and are enslaved, or anything in between, is up to you.

Examples

Note: the people described here are the Visserines and Imperials from Viss and Dragon Isle, neither your House nor the people in its lands need to follow the template described here.

Imperial House: The people of Dragon Isle started bonding with dragons ages ago and for close to 500 years have been using them to expand and conquer far away territories. Nowadays, many of the Great Houses have Visserine ancestry, those that don't were frequently local rulers who accepted the dragon's rule or peasants who sided with the Dragonlords and overthrew their own chiefs.

Originally they were dark-skinned and light-eyed, their skin going from tan to pitch-black and their eyes from honey to clear-blue, but heavy mixing has blurred the lines and it's no longer uncommon to find Visserines with dark eyes or light skins. The Dragonlords hold beliefs and customs that are alien to many of their subjects. Incest, child-love, and godlessness, among others, are a few of the habits that made them despised by other races.

When wearing clothes they dress in skimpy outfits, but often they use nothing more than scented oils to make their bodies glisten and ornaments such as bracelets, rings, necklaces, and tiaras, of colored gold, silk, and dragon leather. Orgies are common, as is being physically intimate with each other. Due to their customs, it's hard for Visserines to figure out who the father of their children is and descent was traditionally only recorded through the mothers, Visserine children raised by mothers of a different race were not regarded as equals. Over the past few decades this has started to change and now most Imperials see allegiance to the Empire and its customs as their most defining trait, no longer considering blood as the definition of their make. The Visserine race gave way to the Imperial people.

Adoptions of large numbers of foreign kids have become the norm and the wealthiest families of Viss can boast over a hundred on their on their manses, some taken from their own slaves and others brought in by ship, selected on the basis of intellect, behavior, and looks. Threatening to give unruly children away to be raised as slaves is a common way to rein in the unruly ones, although the threats are rarely followed through.

Usually, only grown slaves of at least 13 years are brought in from afar to work at the fields, shops, brothels, and ships. Slave children on Dragon Isle were born on the island and those of good behavior are frequently taken in early to be raised away from their parents as Imperials. Those of bad behavior are reined in with hot iron and dragon breath, lest their bad behavior turn into a rebellious seed later on. Small rebellions happen every now and then but are put down quickly.

Child Imperials may lose their status if shown not to observe Imperial beliefs and customs but a grown Imperial can only lose theirs by Imperial decree.

House Velayre: Great House Velayre was one of the original Houses of Viss and got rewarded for their services with rule over Brass soon after its conquest. The first territory to be conquered by the Empire, the people of Brass Islands have long considered themselves as Imperials and follow all of the Imperial customs, making up a good portion of the Legions. Granted Imperial citizenship centuries ago, they can't be made slaves after coming into adulthood.

Ruling, Inheritance, and Membership rules

The ruling, inheritance and membership arrangements of each House are a matter of their own concern. Each House decides, according to its own rules or customs, who will head it, how they will rule, and who will succeed them. Those matters may be kept secret from other Houses but unsolved disputes within the House must be decided by a mutually-agreed-upon third-party. If no such party can be found the Imperial House will arbitrate the dispute.

Examples

Imperial House: Slower to change, the Imperial House still uses the traditional mechanism of rule by single Head selected from Members of the House and elected at the Great Council. There are no heirs and membership to the House relies on being raised by the House from an early age.

House Velayre: House Velayre uses the newer Imperial custom of rule by House, without Heads nor individual inheritance. The honorific of the House is used by its Council Face who is the face of the House in Viss. Membership is adoption-based only, where any child raised by Members of the House becomes a Member of the House.

Council and Household positions

Council and Household positions: as the Ruling Head of the Imperial House heads the Great Council, so can other Ruling Heads lead Councils of their own, if they so wish, with attendance of their Household and vassals. As the Emperor calls on both the Great and Lesser to fill Household positions at the capital, so can the Great and Lesser open positions on their own Seats.

Note: Not all Houses use Councils and most of those that do would have a Council similar to that of the Imperial House, writing it all up isn't required. This is here as a reference so you know you can hold Councils during play, as you can hold Feasts, Tourneys, hunts, orgies, among any other events of your choosing. You can also use this section to indicate who represents your House at the Great Council or describe some of the Councillors of your House.

Examples

Imperial House: The Emperor heads the Great Council, used by him to get counsel from his Great. Important members of his Household also sit there:

Head Overseer: responsible for the Imperial Household and its servants and slaves. The Chief Servant and the Slavemasters report to her/him.
Head Commander: responsible for the troops and defenses of Dragon Isle. Commanders of the Legions and Admirals of the Fleets report to her/him. Must be a Member of the Imperial House.
Head Treasurer: responsible for the treasury and income of the Imperial House. The Chief Collectors and the Masters of the Mint report to her/him.
Head Inquisitor: responsible for the House of the Wise, which makes inquiries and researches into all topics. The Chief Librarians and the Master Inquisitors report to her/him.
Head Justiciar: responsible for settling disputes and ensuring contracts. The Magistrates and Arbitrators report to her/him.
Head Constable: responsible for maintaining the peace within Dragon Isle and quelling slave rebellions. The 1st Legion reports directly to her/him.

Other important positions don't have a voice at the Council but may hold some influence nonetheless:

Captain of the Imperial Guard
Castellan of the Palace
Cityhead of Viss
Dragonmaster
Stablemaster

House Velayre: The Lord of the Tides sits at the Great Council of Viss on behalf of House Velayre. The Council of Brass is used by the House to hear concerns and advice from their vassals and main Household.