Opinions on House Membership

[Khaelic]

Hello to you!

For about a year now, I've been trying to make a very large and complicated network of Houses for a campaign setting; however, I am limited by the Houses I've seen in popular fiction / science-fiction / fantasy. (I.E. House Stark [Song of Ice and Fire,] House Redoran [Morrowind; Skyrim,] and the Orzhov Syndicate [MAGIC: The Gathering.])

So, I'd like to hear about your favourite organisation / guild / house and how to gain membership and their organisation structure.

Thanks in advance!

[sktarq]

First off: What role do Houses play in your world? Are they landowners? Nobles? Only nobles? Merchant houses? The old political guard at the dawn of a new age?

Second: Era? System? Feel and Themes? Cultural notes/mores inspirations?

Third: Limited to pop-fic sources because you want to be or because you are drawing a blank?

[Aedilred]

Hmm, well I'm not quite sure what you're after, but historically houses were effectively just sovereign families. If a branch of the family became particularly large or powerful they might become recognised as a house themselves, and some particularly large houses spawned a number of cadet houses of their own - for instance the Robertian family of France (house of Robert) later gave rise to the Capetians, Angevins, Valois, Burgundians, Bourbons, Orleanists and a whole load of Italian and Spanish Bourbon families). Each of these might have their own heraldry and insignia, or not.

The way to gain membership of such a house would have been to be born into it, or depending how accepting they were, marry into it. Some societies might also have practised adoption (as the Romans did). Some families would place restrictions on who could be married in order to produce legitimate descendants, and illegitimate or morganatic unions wouldn't produce legitimate members of the house (although they might go on to found a house of their own, as with the house of Beaufort). The house would likely have a large number of retainers and servants, some of whom might well serve the same family for generations, although maybe not - that would likely depend on the shape of society as a whole. They wouldn't be members of the house so much as in service to the house, though. In some countries they might wear the heraldry of the house they served, but perhaps not - in some places at some times it was illegal to bear arms that weren't yours, so instead they might have worn a livery badge or some other device to indicate their allegiance.

Later non-familial organisations then went on to mimic the structure and forms of the noble houses, often retaining a paternalistic element and to symbolically become a member of the family in order to join.

I would imagine, however, that, depending on the rough time and shape of society, most houses will have a roughly similar organisation - you might have a division in a quasi-early-modern environment between powerful non-noble organisations like guilds on the one hand and old-fashioned noble/royal houses on the other. Exactly what that's going to look like is up to you as the writer/creator, I'd have thought.

Going back to one of my earlier mentions, although in terms of "allegiance" I'm more of a Yorkist, I do find the Beauforts interesting. Originally they were illegitimate children of John of Gaunt, but were later legitimised as a house separate from the main Plantagenet line. If you've read ASoIaF you might recall Cat's complaint to Robb when he was thinking of making Jon his heir that it would found a rival dynasty to his inheritance, yet the Beauforts were hyper-loyal to their Lancastrian cousins, with the male side of the dnyasty extinguishing itself fighting on the battlefield to retain or reinstate a Lancastrian succession. (Ultimately, after the final extinction of the legitimate Lancastrians, a Beaufort female-line descendant picked up the claim and took the throne himself).

[MrConsideration]

Have you ever heard of the Catalan Grand Company? They were a medieval power once described as a 'crusading nomadic pirate republic' - a sort of opportunistic mercenary fraternity with a reasonably egalitarian structure who offered their services as fighters and then ended up seizing much of modern-day Greece for themselves. To join up, you just had to be able to fight. To rise, you had to be devious. For a fantasy campaign world, they could represent the mercenaries who lucked out and somehow ended up the rulers of an unstable realm. They can run the gamut from picaresque folk-heroes sticking it up the traditional, cultivated nobility or as completely opportunistic betray-you-in-a-heartbeat upstarts using 'the good fight' as an opportunity to nick everything not nailed down. Players can join the 'house' whilst not being born noble and become influential in a powerful faction.

There are also monastic organisations like the Templars or the Teutonic Knights who could function as 'Houses', where membership was based on religious faith. These functions as large-scale land-owners (and rulers) yet had a diverse international presence. Additionally, conspiracies abound about such organisations because of the wealth and claims of piety so you could have such conspiracies be true in your campaign.

Some kind of mage's association is always useful, but maybe to spice it up yours functions like a Trade Union - it collectively bargains to keep magic profitable. Maybe it functions like the Sicilian Mafia, demanding absolute loyalty in return for the secrets of magic, and willing to go to any length to maintain the prominence of the Arcane Arts. Maybe it's just a group of like-minded gentleman dilettantes who spend as much time getting drunk and feasting as reading magic tomes.

[daremetoidareyo]

The freemasons is a great model to build on. A group of engineers who interface with aristocrats (who builds the castles...the engineers) who find that they share a common enemy in the church. These are enlightened freedom fighter/spies trying to subvert the power of the church. Not all nobles join the masons, and the ones that do, they do in secret. Its a great organization to use in a campaign as it is led by merchant class experts who 1.) have a mission statement, ideals, and not quite enough power, 2.) they have connections upwards and downwards on the class scale. (Beggar spies & unhappily politically married princesses who may do anything for a thrill) 3.) a huge, powerful enemy that recruits from the powerful and common alike but operates on "faith" so codes of conduct are likely to awry if not immoral or evil.

[BWR]

So basically any old organization? Do they need to be called 'Houses'? How about 'clan'? or 'Tradition'? Or 'Family'? Or 'Bloodline'?

Anyway, for starters read:
- Fading Suns (RPG)
- Ars Magica (RPG)
- Principalities of Glantri (for Mystara, BECMI D&D) (RPG)
- Legend of the Five Rings (Rokugan) (RPG)
- World of Darkness - any (RPG)
- Dragonstar (D&D setting, RPG)
- Tribe 8 (RPG)

[VoxRationis]

The thing with most things called "houses" is that you can't really get into them if you weren't in them to begin with. You can sign on as a servant or lower-ranked retainer, but you aren't so much a part of it as loyal to it in that case. You could marry in, but you'll probably end up getting skipped by inheritance and you might well be thought of as just the consort of whoever you married, easily forgotten in the practical scheme of things. You might get adopted in a Roman-style gens, but a lot of those adoptions were of blood relatives anyway—adoption of random strangers is a more modern thing.
I myself am very fond of the houses of A Song of Ice and Fire, though the purported age of the houses defies probability and genetics. I like how well-fleshed-out he made them.

[Zrak]

While you couldn't be a member of the central power structure of a house without being born into it, you could essentially be a member of the house as a social entity. For example, House Stark is centered around and ultimately controlled by the Stark family, but Jory Cassel is their captain of the guard.

The Houses in Morrowind are a little different, in that they're in some ways more akin to political parties than traditional houses. The lore says one is typically born into a House to a certain extent, but it's also clear that outsiders join Great Houses and, indeed, rise to greater prominence than those born into the house; birthright is clearly less relevant to Telvanni standing than arcane power.

I think, generally, the Morrowind model works better for a single-player game, or a gameworld that ultimately revolves around the PC. Most games of that model involve a certain logic of merit-based progress that fits more naturally with a more meritocratic organization. Regardless of the game style, structuring the house around its ideas gives players something to identify with beyond a name and some heraldry without the potentially unfortunate implications of conflating an ideology too closely with a bloodline. Houses in the Morrowind model are a nice alternative to the typical guild system with a little more valence.

I think, really, the best implementation of a house depends on the type of game you want to make. Houses more in line with the historical model would better fit a gritty game in which the players are bit players in a larger world, and in which the fact of house allegiance being mostly regional is intentionally muddled with the myth of a house ideology. In other words, a player will basically always know what they're getting with a member of house Redoran, to a certain extent, but the same isn't necessarily true for someone in the employ of House Stark.

[Rion]

In order to help explain the types of Houses I have run into, I'm going to use some terminology for this post that doesn't really exist outside of it. Some Houses that fit into what I call Dynasties are called clans in real life. This is because as a form of organisation that basically predates states as we know them, the various names (Houses, Clans, Tribes and Dynasties) are refer to many things, and real lige two different types of "Houses" from different cultures may both be called clans, while different "Houses" of the same type may be called Clans or Dynasties due to different cultures.

So, with that disclaimer, Houses can roughly be split into two types based on status: Clans and Dynasties.
While Gouses can also be split into three types depending on membership: Familial, Adoption and Fraternity.

Dynasties are extended families where every member is roughly equal in rank. By this I don't mean that member is equal within the dynasty (they are in fact often far from it), but that in relation to the outside world, all members are within the same class in the hierarchy. Where class refers to Nobility, Royalty, Warriors or whatever.
A royal dynasty consists of Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses (with some additional titles such as "Grand Duke" or "Grand Prince" for nations where the royal class is referred to by different names), for any Noble dynasty its members are all counts, Dukes, Barons or heirs to the same.

Clans consist of one or more (highly) extended families, where wide variations in rank is possible, but how far these variations of class stretch varies from culture to culture. So, in one culture a clan might incorporate everyone from lowly farmer to high King, while the clans of another culture only include from kings down to the warrior/knightly elite. However, a House which only includes Nobility and Royalty, is often rarely a clan, but rather a dynasty where the royalty more closely tied (and viewed as more equal to) the Nobility.

Familial means that membership of a House is determined by blood. Whether you keep your House upon marriage, or become a part of the House of you spouse varies from culture to culture, but the core remains the same. A Familial House is nothing more than a family where extended branched are judged by various rules. The only way in is birth, or in some cultures marriage. There is no other way.

Adoption means that the House is at its core an extended family in the same way a Familial House, but with the addition that membership can also be gained through adoption. A Familial House often regards its strength as inherent in its blood, or calls itself a "Bloodline", this is why the addition of adoption is so important. Unlike a normal family for whom adoption might be acceptable, due to the political influence often held by Houses, the acceptance of adoption is often the difference between two extremes, an exclusively pure (according to their knowledge) bloodline, or a House embracing political adoption of adults to strengthen the House. An adoption based house often sees people in their twenties adopted by people in their thirties (or even in their twenties as well), less for the same reason adoption is practiced by modern families, and more to ensure the strength of the House through outside candidates who have already proven their worth.

Fraternity means that there aren't any actual families involved, though the members might still see it as their House being their "Family". There are none who are born into a Fraternal House, though having parents within it might put one on the fast track for membership.

So, what are examples of the different Houses? House Stark is a Familial Royal Dynasty, while they can have bannermen and retainers, actual members are all either Rulers of the North, or their Heirs. House Karstark was an offshoot Familial Noble Dynasty, created when a member of House Stark was named Noble of a lesser estate than the entirety of the North.

Roman Patrician Houses (such as the Julii) were Adoption Noble Dynasties, while the Roman Imperial Houses were all Adoption Royal Dynasty.

Religious Military Orders (including the Night's Watch) are Fraternal Clans, states in themselves where members vary in rank from servants to the Grand Master.

Monastic Orders are mostly Fraternal Scholar Dynasties, the only people who are above in rank being the Heads of local Chapters of the House. The Irish Fienna are almost the same, being Fraternal Warrior Dynasties instead.

Hopefully this was of some help.

EDIT: Completely forgot, one example of how Clans and Dynasties can interact is House Capet of France. The Capet Dynasty can be viewed as a Familial Royal-Ducal Clan (even though I did mention that doesn't really count, but bear with me), with House Capet being a Familial Royal Dynasty and the Head branch of the Capet dynasty, while (originally, a lot of these later became Royal Dynasties after the previous one died out) the Houses of Valois, Orleans, Bourbon and Bourgogne were all originally Familial Noble Dynasties who weren't part of the House of Capet, but were part of the Capet Dynasty.

[Khaelic]

Thanks everyone for your responses! It's been very helpful!


First off: What role do Houses play in your world? Are they landowners? Nobles? Only nobles? Merchant houses? The old political guard at the dawn of a new age?

Second: Era? System? Feel and Themes? Cultural notes/mores inspirations?

Third: Limited to pop-fic sources because you want to be or because you are drawing a blank?

First: This question has an extraordinarily complicated answer because Houses in my world have several formats. Some have membership, some are birthright, some are simply guilds by any other name.

Second: My world is low-magic First-millienium-esque.

Third: I am drawing a blank and everything seems stale and pedestrian; nothing I come up with has panache that will capture the attention of my players.


Have you ever heard of the Catalan Grand Company?

I have not! And now I have! Thanks for the interesting addition to my reading :D

And just to clarify:
I'd like to hear about what YOU folks like in terms of guilds, organisations, and houses.
What gets you excited to play a game or setting? Why is that?
Are there any interesting quirks about that setting that you haven't seen before?

~Khael