House Castaigne

“If an interplanetary crime lord happened to slip on his own blood in a stairwell after all his lieutenants withdrew their loyalty within an hour of a particularly damning leak—well, that’s terribly unfortunate. But I’m afraid we don’t comment on coincidence.”
— Fillep Castaigne, Head of House Castaigne, during a closed-door inquiry with the Solar Court of Mediation

A House Born of Duty, Not Glory

House Castaigne stands as one of the rare exceptions to the deeply ingrained meritocratic traditions of the Great Houses—elevated not for past deeds, but as a pragmatic incentive to take on a responsibility no other House desired. After the Croon invasion of Year 160, the Pan-Solar leadership determined that humanity required a long-term surveillance web for monitoring threats from deep space—alien or otherwise. This task was deemed too critical and too unglamorous to entrust to the revolving doors of bureaucracy. Major Louis Castaigne, hero of the Croon Campaign, was given the authority to found a Great House dedicated to the cause, much to the irritation of the existing nobility. By marrying into House Hawberk, minor allies of Haus des Drachen, Castaigne brokered legitimacy for his bloodline and built a protective alliance with one of the oldest martial houses. This alliance would shield the fledgling House while it established its legacy: the creation of the Lonely Islands, a vast chain of deep-space surveillance stations ranging from the furnace of Mercury’s orbit to the edge of the Kuiper Belt.

Watchers, Brokers, and Whisperers

The Lonely Islands began as pure observation posts—sensor-stacked bastions watching the void for approaching threats. But over time, House Castaigne’s remit expanded. Their unparalleled communications infrastructure attracted scientific interest, and then, quietly, the House began monitoring more than just the stars. Without formal announcement, Castaigne stations started collecting human cultural data, media feeds, and even encrypted private transmissions. In time, they became information brokers, masters of Memetics, and consultants in reputation management. Clients under siege by scandal—corporate titans, disgraced politicians, even minor Houses—could turn to Castaigne to reshape the narrative. Despite their formal alliance with Haus des Drachen, Castaigne does substantial business with the House of Helicon, whose algorithms rely on Castaigne’s streams to detect threats before they materialize. Their influence is quiet but extensive; entire campaigns, both commercial and military, have pivoted on well-timed nudges from the silver-and-gold sigil of the House that Listens.

Theories, Shadows, and Precision Violence

No Great House inspires more conspiracy theories than Castaigne. Their physical isolation, cryptic communications, and ties to scandal-plagued elites have made them the boogeymen of countless fringe theories. Some claim they collaborate with the Hellfire Cabal, despite frequent attacks by the terrorists on Lonely Island stations. Others accuse them of preparing the Solar System for betrayal—citing unknown entities supposedly hidden in the Oort Cloud, the Hyades Cluster, or the eerie binary star of Algol. While House Castaigne rarely engages directly in warfare, their House Guard consists of elite intelligence specialists capable of surgical action when required. Strikes attributed to them are fast, surgically targeted, and vanish before retaliation is possible. More often, their warfare is social: discrediting enemies, swaying the masses, or draining the power base of a foe through unseen influence. Their enemies are often crushed without ever realizing who struck the blow—just a whisper, a leak, and a shift in public sentiment. In Castaigne’s world, the stars don’t scream—they whisper.