House Voldr
House Voldr is one of the three Houses on the Triamic Council.
Structure
House Voldr is ruled by a council of 13 known as the Celestial Court.
Current Members of the Celestial Court
- Alexi
- Azael
- Dmitri
- Dominic
- Mica
- Nicolai
- Tiberiu
- (Ceremonially Empty Seat)
The Ceremonial Seat
If you ask any Voldr how many seats there on the Celestial Court, they will answer "thirteen." However, there are only ever twelve active members on the Court at any one time. This seat stands in for Balthazier's position, as his seat was vacated when he died at sea, and, according to House Voldr, no one has been worthy succeeding him since. Therefore, the thirteenth seat always sits empty.
The Network
The true base of House Voldr's power lies in their monopoly over the Imperial Psychic Network (or Network for short). The Network is an organization consisting of a specific set of officials appointed (by House Voldr) to every major court in the Empire. These Network officials are called Nodes, and each serves to pass communication on to any other Node in the Empire.
Officially, the Network is a valuable resource, able to notify all corners of the Empire of new laws or emergencies in a matter of hours instead of weeks. This makes them the most efficient communication system in the world, and is likely a large part of how the Empire is able to remain so stable despite its size.
Unofficially, a lot of information passes through Voldr hands, and there is much speculation over how much communicated in confidence actually remains confidential. Nodes have on occasion been caught selling secrets, and while House Voldr's official stance is that selling information is not allowed, it has not gone unnoticed that the people doing the catching are rarely, if ever, Voldr themselves.
A court Node is considered a coveted position among House Iambre, because with Nodal duties comes a fair amount of power, both political and interpersonal. Nodes control the information that passes in and out of their location and are privy to hundreds of secrets and sensitive pieces of information. Sure, part of taking a Nodal position is to agree to non-disclosure, but that hardly stops the Nodes from gossiping amongst themselves and levying the things they know for fun and profit. A Node can be, politically, quite a formidable ally... or a devastating enemy.
Physical Traits
Appearance
Voldrs are generally Valeans in appearance: small and slender of build, with black hair and high cheekbones.
Most distinctive about a Voldr is their eyes. Voldr irises shift colors according to their owner's moods. Each Voldr's spectrum is unique to them.
Magic
Voldrs are telepathic, able to communicate with anyone they are familiar with over long distances. As a secondary ability, they are able to proxy (experience the world through another's eyes) and to build constructions in others' minds, including mental blocks that disallow other psychics from reading a particular person's mind.
One psychic ability--Compulsion--is disallowed by the House. A Compulsion is a psychic construction that, once placed in another's mind, either consciously or unconsciously influences their actions. Compulsions have long been outlawed, and being caught laying a Compulsion will lead to swift punishment, including being kicked out of the House and forcibly blocked. However, this official stance does not preclude it from happening.
History
Voldrs arose to power as a class of seer-sorcerers in the Nebezni Empire. Following the Vastrei Incident, they fled west with other Nebezni into the Wight-owned Vale, where they took the lead in the absence of the Empire's former nobility.
From there, the Voldr-led Vale remained culturally isolationist and politically meddlesome-yet-noninterventionist. They were among the first of the Estana powers to establish spies in foreign courts, but rarely interfered in any wars that sprung up unless directly attacked.
When Primas the Great overtook the Sheyla Kingdom and established himself, Voldr agents at his right hand allowed the Vale to gain a foothold in the Empire... a foothold that was strengthened 70 years later, when Primas' primary line was assassinated and Voldr-born Laestre was put on the Triamic throne.
Culture
Voldrs are intellectualists, highly prizing knowledge, intelligence, and cunning. However, they also place deep value on individual bloodlines, integrating the accomplishments of their direct ancestors into their own personal identities, and in turn placing value on leaving accomplishments for their ancestors in turn.
When together, they are generally very proper and aware of social conventions. However, they are collectively ambitious and make a sport out of power plays and one-up-manship. For this reason, Voldrs are generally adept at communication through implication and reading between the lines.
Due to their construction and active involvement in the University of Obsidian, House Voldr has an ongoing dispute with the Kaelic Temple over who is the true knowledge authority in the Empire.
Voldr Pages
Voldrs commonly adhere to the practice of keeping a singular trusted page, manservant, or handmaiden. They will of course have other staff, but the Voldr page is the primary keeper of their most private affairs and primary point of contact with the rest of the household. Because of this, the Voldr typically blocks them, which allows the page to be telepathically unreadable by all other psychics excepting the person who blocked them.
Women
House Voldr is exclusively run by men. While the House does educate their women alongside men, they have no actual power. Most Voldr girls can expect to be married off to some friend of their father's by the time they're sixteen. It's generally an idle life from there on out, with child-rearing and salons until they grow old.
That said, House Voldr does hold to the idea of spheres: a man's duty is to society, and a woman's duty is to her household. For this reason, it is not uncommon for women to take subtler avenues of control through their husbands, lovers, and the other men in their lives. Social events are commonly hosted by women, and Voldr women are widely expected to create their own alliances and games separate from the "official" politics of men. Outside the House, Voldr women have something of a reputation for being subtle and manipulative... and it is a reputation that is not entirely unearned.
Hayden, Network Node of Ipse
Type
Geopolitical, Great house
Demonym
Voldr
Parent Organization
Location
Related Ethnicities
Balthazier is one of the most esteemed members of the House, revered for penning The Treatises Arcana
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