House Raix

House Raix

Ancient, proud and formal; clings to (their view of) the Empire's traditions and formalities and ritual. A shell of a House, with no (or no known) economic or military might to bring to bear and no holdings or posts worthy of note; nonetheless, commands an unusually high degree of respect among other houses.

Players

• baf
• Fang
• Duchess

House Skills

• Diplomacy: Good
• Exploration: Average
• Industry: Average
• Military: Bad
• Research: Average
• Trade: Good

Proposal:

• Diplomacy: Good
• Exploration: Average
• Industry: Average
• Military: Average
• Research: Bad
• Trade: Good

To tie in more with the resistant to change/stubborn bastards idea.

House Aspects

(Two things of note about the House that can be used to benefit/penalize character actions wrt that house -- this could be unusual talents possessed by the members, a particular House ethos, some standard-issue piece of equipment, etc)

Some possibilities:

• Sense of Superiority: Their manner is so self-assured and/or condescending that everyone tends to overestimate them, which can be either good or bad, depending on context.
• Centuries of Meticulously Thorough Records: Obvious implications for historical research.
• Know Where All the Bodies are Buried: The longer a House exists, the more guilty secrets it has that House Raix found out about somehow.
• Resistant to Change: Members are unaffected by nearly all forms of mind-altering technology, propaganda, and reasoned argument.

House Background

(More about the House, history, governance, name of home planet or planets, any special assets, etc)

Characters of Interest

(list characters in the house, players or non-players. players should have a more complete skillset listed, but you don't have to decide now who is who. it would be useful to know the names of important/significant people in the house even if they aren't present on the colony -- eg, the head of the house)

Luis Vandrahan Orlock, Baron Plasmordis: Holds the official post of Chief Blackmailer. This is an honored position within the House, and vital for maintaining its status and keeping its rivals at bay, but it bears so much responsibility for so little reward that it is not much sought-after. Orlock himself is something of a prodigy in the field, capable of keeping thousands of relationships in his head and discerning exactly what revelations to whom would be the most feared. A frequent sight around the Senate chambers, in his ubiquitous slouch hat and black gloves, he is generally on good terms with those he does business with, who recognize him as just part of the grand game of politics. Most of his intelligence-gathering in the field is done by freelancers -- in better times, the Chief Blackmailer would have a permanent staff -- but he has been known to take control of important investigations personally.

Edward Forman Graves, Master of Protocol: Graves personally trained all of the House's more prominent members in etiquette and ritual, often in grueling all-day drills. Consequently, the inner circle still regards him primarily as their stern, disciplinarian teacher who won't put up with any nonsense and is impossible to fool. This possibly makes him the most powerful person in the House, but he shows no interest in exercising this power for anything other than maintaining proper protocol, which he openly regards as more important than the House's continuing survival. Very aged, he has been in this position long enough that no one alive can remember else ever holding it. Rumored to be an android.

Sir the General Gordon Hyperion "Hype" Branstone: Being the leader of the House Raix Expeditionary Forces is like being on the Oberlin College football team: you almost never get anywhere near a victory, and on the rare occasions when you manage an upset, no one around you cares. Nonetheless, Sir the General Branstone dreams of glory, and of restoring House Raix to its proper place as the spearhead of an aggressively expanding Empire. He's currently overseeing the defenses of the new colony, a task that would probably be better left to someone who doesn't ardently desire war.

The Colony

• What sort of planet is the colony on and what is its name, what's the terrain like, what resources are found on the planet
• What does the colony do (ie, why is there a colony here?) Was it for resource-gathering (farming, mining, etc), industry, military training, or what? ('Research' and 'tourism' are probably stylistically bad choices, so I wouldn't pick those as the primary thing)
• What nearby planets might be of interest?