The Seven Founding Houses
Seven bloodlines. Eight centuries. One Commonwealth.
House Vaughan
No family is more closely bound to the origins of the Commonwealth than the House of Vaughan. Tradition holds that Aldric Vaughan set the first foundation stone of the Citadel of Elpson on the Feast of Saint Aurelius in 1142, and that the charter of the city was witnessed beneath the Vaughan banner.
House Vassiliev
The Vassilievs arrived from the eastern marches in the 1150s as captains of a mercenary company and were granted lands along the Kremnitz Pass in return for its defence. They have remained the martial backbone of the Commonwealth ever since.
House D’Aurelian
Merchant princes of the Mediterranean, the D’Aurelians built their fortune on the salt and silk routes before turning to the business of lending to kings. Their counting house on the Meridian has operated without interruption since 1394.
House Dragomir
Scholars, archivists and — it is widely assumed — spies. The Dragomirs came north from the Balkan coast as tutors to the Vaughan household and have since presided over the Royal College of Elpson for longer than any other family.
House Bellacourt
Much of what visitors admire in Elpson City was commissioned, designed or restored by a Bellacourt. The family's architects raised the Cathedral of Saint Aurelius, the Opera House and the colonnades of the Crown Quarter.
House Orsini-Vale
Formed by the union of the Adriatic Orsini and the highland Vales in 1246, the house holds the largest landed estate in the Commonwealth. Its coal, then hydroelectric, then solar holdings have powered Elpson's industry for two centuries.
House Kazarov
The youngest of the Seven, admitted at the Concord of 1260. Astronomers and clockmakers in the middle ages, the Kazarovs now lead the Commonwealth's technology sector and the Directorate of Science.