House Nellens

House Nellens may be the black sheep of the Scarlet Dynasty, but its standing is much stronger among the Realm’s lower classes than its better-pedigreed peers.
It’s invested in a wide array of businesses owned by patricians and peasant merchants, and its prominent position in the Thousand Scales affords scions opportunities to trade political favors.
Nellens scions treat their patricians as closer to equals than other Dynasts, allowing them social liberties unacceptable to other houses, who see such patricians as haughty and presumptuous.
Peasants residing in chap ter one history and l ife i n the realm Nellens holdings generally regard the house approvingly, thanks to favorable tax policies and investment in businesses catering to wealthy peasants as well as patricians.
Peasants in other houses’ holdings are of two minds about House Nellens, welcoming their willingness to deal with the common folk, but nonetheless absorbing the other houses’ stigma against the weak-blooded Nellens.
Nellens holds fewer satrapies than other houses, preferring to invest in businesses on the Blessed Isle and in the Threshold rather than satrapial leases and garrisons. And its overseas interests aren’t limited to its own satrapies.
Nellens ministers in the Foreign Office monitor the tributes collected by other houses; when a satrapy is asked to pay a debilitating sum, a charismatic Nellens scion might appear offering financial assistance, cultivating the house’s overseas influence.
While House Nellens’ financial position is currently stable, should civil war wrack the Isle, its small businesses will suffer more than larger concerns. Other houses assign sizable garrisons to individual high-profit operations.
Nellens’ enterprises are too small and, other than in Juche, too thinly spread to guard them all.
However, the house’s close involvement with patrician and peasant business partners means that an attack on its finances might turn the Blessed Isle’s populace against the house responsible.
Nellens is cashing in favors for favorable loan terms from un-Exalted bankers and merchants, and divesting minor assets at a loss.
These funds are reinvested in a few profitable, better-defended ventures: garrisoned mines, Guild caravans, independent maritime consortiums, River Province enterprises.
The house also contracts with House Mnemon to fortify its cities. But these overt expenditures alert rivals to Nellens’ economic strength.

Parent Organization

The Great Houses