House V’neef

A fledgling by Dynastic standards, House V’neef was elevated to Great House status only 14 years ago. V’neef herself, just over six decades old, has but a bare handful of blood descendants.
The vast majority of V’neef scions are outcaste and patrician adoptees, disdained by bluebloods of the Dynasty’s ancient houses; many are still adapting to their change in fortunes.
Given the house’s small size, it holds a disproportionate number of prefectures and satrapies, though fewer than most other houses.
As many V’neef Dragon-Blooded are outcastes, foreign to each other and to their matriarch, the house has little cultural cohesion, except perhaps for mores inculcated by Pasiap’s Stair and the legions.
V’neef herself tries to remedy this by throwing endless galas and other social events to bring her adoptive brood together and instill familial ties, but ultimately the house still lacks the underlying cultural heritage found elsewhere in the Dynasty.
As such, beyond policies encouraged by the matriarch — fairness, generosity, rectitude — one cannot point to a specific V’neef way of doing things, nor of traditions common to the house’s holdings.
House V’neef profits greatly from its share of Merchant Fleet tribute, and sees substantial income from trade in wines, thoroughbred horses, alcohol, tobacco, and qat.
But expanding the Merchant Fleet and extending its Western holdings strains even its impressive resources, while the Fleet’s income dwindles as tribute falls off amid chaos and secession in the Threshold.
And as the house diverts its efforts away from protecting maritime commerce, mortal merchants suffer — and rightly blame V’neef for their suffering.
The house needs money to fund its Western campaign. Pirate-hunting yields plundered cargoes and captured ships, but raises tension between V’neef and Peleps.
Wherever the Imperial Navy and the Merchant Fleet collide, tempers run high.
Expanding further west into Peleps territory could trigger all-out war.
And V’neef expansion vexes other houses, though a Peleps empire seems more threatening while that house commands the Imperial Navy.
V’neef’s subjects still remember what things were like before the house’s advent.
It’s cultivated a good reputation in its prefectures and satrapies, taking care not to abuse the peasantry and patricians in its care.
But now that House V’neef raises taxes everywhere to prepare for incipient strife with rival houses, many recall former governors and prefects from other houses with fondness, making these provinces fertile ground for demagogues, rebels, and subversives.

Parent Organization

The Great Houses